1602

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I’m not a huge comic book geek, but I do enjoy reading them from time to time. The only two series that have really ever caught my eye have been the original black-and-white issues of The Tick, and Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman series. The Sandman series prompted me to seek out more of Neil Gaiman’s writing, and he’s become one author that I tend to keep an eye out for. Understandable, then, that this information caught my eye today:

1602 is an 8-issue mini, set in a Marvel Universe in which, for reasons which will take a while to uncover, the whole Marvel Universe is starting to occur 500 years early: Sir Nicholas Fury is head of the Queen’s Intelligence, Dr Stephen Strange is her court physician (and magician), the Inquisition is torturing “witchbreed“, many of whom have taken sanctuary in England under the wing of Carlos Javier, and now a mysterious treasure — which may be a weapon of some kind — is being sent from Jerusalem to England by the last of the Templars. Something that may save the world, or destroy it, which has already attracted the attention of such people as Count Otto Von Doom (known as “The Handsome”)…[so] Nicholas Fury sends his top agent, a blind Irish ballad singer named Matthew Murdock, off to bring it back safely.

It’s a race against time in a world in which time is the enemy —

It’s not a What If or an Elseworlds. And it’s really fun…

— ‘1602’ author Neil Gaiman

Watching the bat

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Contribute to the Howard Dean presidential campaign!

I have to admit, this is really amazing — the Howard Dean campaign is posting the results of their fundrasing in near-realtime, with updates every half hour, as this is the last day for fundrasing for this quarter.

Last week their goal was to hit six million in contributions.

This weekend, after passing six million, they raised the goal, hoping to hit six and a half million by the end of today.

Around 12:15pm EST today, they broke the six and a half million mark, and raised the goal line on the bat to seven million. As of their last update, at 1:30pm EST, they’d raised \$253,604 today.

Let’s help them out.

Red wine

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Regardless of how Apple corporate wants to portray its products, the Mac isn’t a machine for the masses any more than red wine is the preferred beverage at baseball games. To be honest, the masses don’t have the capability to appreciate the elegance and depth of this platform.

— Derrick Story

(via The Book of FSCK)

Seattle Gay Pride Day 2003

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Had an absolute blast out and about today at the Pride Day festivities. Gorgeous weather for a parade day — partly cloudy, so it was alternating warm sun and shade to let us cool off — and all sorts of fun people to watch. Watched the parade along Broadway, then wandered around the festival area at Volunteer Park.

Lots of fun — tons of pictures can be found in the photo gallery. Enjoy!

Katharine Hepburn dies

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Katharine Hepburn, an icon of feminist strength and spirit who brought a chiseled beauty and patrician bearing to such films as “The Philadelphia Story” and “The African Queen,” died Sunday, her executor and town authorities said. She was 96.

Town authorities and the executor of Hepburn’s estate, Cynthia McFadden, said Hepburn died Sunday at 2:50 p.m. at her home in Old Saybrook. She had been in declining health in recent years.

During her 60-year career, she won a record four Academy Awards and was nominated 12 times, which stood as a record until Meryl Streep surpassed her nomination total in 2003. Her Oscars were for “Morning Glory,” 1933; “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” 1967; “A Lion in Winter,” 1968; and “On Golden Pond,” 1981.

Despite her success, Hepburn always felt she could have done more.

“I could have accomplished three times what I’ve accomplished,” she once said. “I haven’t realized my full potential. It’s disgusting.”

But, she said, “Life’s what’s important. Walking, houses, family. Birth and pain and joy — and then death. Acting’s just waiting for the custard pie. That’s all.”

A truly wonderful woman, who’ll definitely be missed.

(via Prairie)

Streaming update

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Just a quick note that I’ve updated my ‘About DJ Wüdi’ page to replace the download links for my mixes with streaming audio links instead. Everything’s still there, just less chance of running afoul of rabid copyright lawyers (on the exceedingly rare chance that they should decide to pay any attention to my little corner of the ‘net).

Manuals?

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Manuals? Have you actually purchased a Microsoft product in the last ten years? You don’t get any manuals. You get a “quick start” booklet and a cyanide capsule and that’s it.

— RatBastard, on /.

Glad I'm not a Republican

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This was a comment posted on Free Republic’s snarky announcement of the MoveOn primary results:

You have to realize that this was an INTERNET poll and therefore those who participated in it had to be able to read. So if you take away the illiterate vote, which comprises about 50% of the democratic base, you get these skewed results.

— P-Marlowe, on Free Republic.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

(indirectly via ‘Angry White Democrat’ in the comments to Daily Kos’ take on the results)