Dusty Chalk

:drool: Not because the 'can of soda' reference makes me thirsty, but because that amount of power reserve makes me ...well, drool.

:eep:

rested and drank plenty of fluids

IQ rawx Me: Android Lust, The Human Animal (also "second-to-last thing I bought", along with a T-shirt -- couldn't bring myself to spend $90 on the Resonance set)

Only because I forgot -- he is on my list.

I'm actually not that voracious a comics reader as I used to be. Of those, I've only read Ex Machina -- which is good, but not as good as Fables or Sandman. I would say go with Preacher first, which is wonderful. Sin City is fabulous, although if you've seen the movie, you've seen a little over half the stories in them. Still, worth it for A Dame to Kill For. I tend to go by author: - Gaiman, of course -- just read everything by him. Even little oneshots like Creatures of the Night and Black Orchid are worth the price of entry. Total fanboy. - Bill Winningham -- definitely becoming a Bill Winningham fan. - Warren Ellis -- you mentioned Transmetropolitan -- hell yes, by all means, anything he touches... - Frank Miller -- a little too misogynist for my tastes, and the men are all a little too macho, but he plays to his strengths, so who am I to judge? Plus, sometimes it turns out quite fun, such as Dark Knight Returns, etc. - Garth Ennis -- yeah, I mix up Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis all the time...fortunately, they are both good, so...who cares? - Alan Moore -- a bit verbose, but necessary for what he does - Steve Niles -- lots of one-shots and short runs, but he comes from old school horror and short stories, so they're all good -- the entire 30 Days of Night run (lots of short stories, and the first book was so much better than the movie), Remains, and Wake the Dead stand out. He has a serious black comedy bent, so it's not as serious as Sandman, but still some very human stories. - Dave McKean -- anything illustrated by Dave McKean I find interesting -- Cages was hard to follow (you think?), but I'm such a fanboy, I didn't care - Ben Templesmith -- another illustrator and sometimes writer -- great stuff in Singularity and his entry into the Dead Space curriculum is eye-opening -- he does to comics what Hero did to movies. But another one that's less "literature" and more just plain worthwhile reading. Oh, and Joss Whedon -- I've been enjoying Angel Season Six and Buffy Season Eight quite a bit, but pretty much everything he touches is quite good (The Runaways, for example). But I was already a Joss Whedon fanboy before I started either of those, so if you're not, I have no idea how it'll come across to you. But if you do, start with Fray -- some of my favorite moments in comics are in that one.

Oh, here she is, Avarice:

Goddamnit, there's one missing. Which one is it? I presume "Vanity" is "Pride"? Then it would be "Greed" that's missing, no? Is there one for "being anal retentive"? How about "entropy"?

Sandman is great, but by all means, read Fables. There are a couple of endings to minor arcs that certainly are very satisfying. In fact, this last one was so grandiose, I thought it was the end to the series. And by no means read the Walking Dead -- that one is never intended to end. But it's very good.

Dude! That sucks!

Mankind is Obsolete

Android Lust w/Mankind Is Obsolete -- lead singer of mko is hawt; sound was awful, but could tell they were doing interesting things, so bought their CDs...AL -- couldn't hear the guitarist enough, other than that it was great. Crowd was too small, though -- you know it's bad when you make more noise than everyone else...combined. Bassist & drummer were groovy as hell, & the guitarist was a madman.

Cold sesame noodle

Preppies' sweater arms spin comically? This. I actually found it fairly easy to solve, mostly because I was scared that a spooky face was going to pop up and try to give me a heart attack. Also, there was something about the three-dimensionality that seemed to lift the path off the background, so it was easy for me to see if whole sections would go anywhere or not.

Congrats, and I agree with Jacob on the name.

Yeah, sorry, way too much interest in one word...sometimes I need to filter my mouth.

Actually, as can be seen in my post, I did understand what he meant to type, I just couldn't grasp the extent of the typo -- it was assumptuous of me to ask for a one-for-one correspondence on the number of letters, I realize that now in hindsight. I lollered.

I'm partial towards the Ryko series, myself, mostly because Bowie oversaw them himself, so even if one doesn't agree with the decisions, it is the intention of the artist. In fact, it was his idea (IIRC) to run the masters through a certain tape deck to get "that analog warmth" at the last second.

I'm figuring "asked", but have no idea how you got to one from the other, so am thinking maybe you meant something else entirely.

That's what she said (re: "missing the festivities").

Steve -- Really sorry to hear that, but -- if I can say this -- be glad that his suffering is at an end, and it wasn't long and drawn out (I know it may seem like it is now, but I hear stories of much longer). I know that was probably your biggest concern when you decided not to end it for him, so hopefully you'll see that the transition from a positive quality of life was a quick one...eventually. Hugs. Srsly.

I can relate. I don't dare have ice cream any more, not without my Dairy-Eze™.

Amazon. Pfff...I don't remember paying that much. You may want to check eBay -- I would check both "best of movies" and "k-pleasure(s)". Me: Guilt Machine, On This Perfect Day -- I have discovered my next obsession. Easily Arjen Anthony Lucassen's most accessible and least "wanky" project. It really behooves him to work with people (a) of this caliber, and ( who will hold him back from doing the same old thing as he's done everywhere else (except for The Human Equation -- easily his most cohesive work). I had my iPod on pseudo-album-random, and I thought at first it was some trip-hop thing until several minutes into the song when the electric guitars kicked in. It was kind of delightful. The guy has a voice. And range. Timbre like Freddie Mercury, sincerity like an award-winning actor, power like an icebreaker -- not just isolated instances, but sustain, as well. I listened to it twice in a row. And yeah, there's some instrumental sections, but it's never too long -- it works. Proggers, give it a listen.

xkcd is teh awsum. I just posted the flowchart one outside my office for my coworkers. I'm going to have to post that dependencies one next -- we have a compiler geek or two among us. And I need the nerd sniping one as a T-shirt. Not the whole comic, just the snipe itself. It's irresistible -- one of my co-workers actually started to solve it (and probably could have, but standard procedure dictates that he looks it up online to see if it's been solved yet, because he's really only interested in solving the as-yet-unsolved).

That's pretty fucked up...but isn't there a fairly easy solution to that (run it through a phono EQ)? Do you have any? I wouldn't mind hearing for myself. I'm not sure which ones I have (and I do have several).