A couple of thoughts on the Sandra Day O'Connor retirement:

• Given that our government is likely to implode upon itself in the ensuing confirmation hearings, the Palo Alto Anarchists may wish to seize the opportunity. They may not be the best anarchists for the job, though: the 'anarchist spokesman' featured on the front page of the Palo Alto Daily News was pictured in North Face apparel.
• Tangent: The Wikipedia entry for 'Anarchism' notes that the neutrality of this article is disputed
• I don't think my concrete bunker will have enough room for all of you.
• O'Connor: "Open to persuasion." Bush: "Stay the course."
• One final thought: Sandra Day O'Connor, first female Supreme Court justice, who served nearly a quarter of a century, retires from the bench and the Washington Post can't seem to come up with a single female as a possible successor.

Update: to go with my final thought, a quote from a CNN article:

"Now, the White House has to reexamine its thinking because it faces a vacancy caused by the resignation of a moderate woman instead of a conservative man.

A short list of candidates distributed in the White House within the last week had not included the name of any women or minorities, the official said."

wombat posted about an entry about site loyalty, listing the software he uses in various categories and also discussing the loyalty inherent in that particular category. I was originally going to parallel his entry and list the software that I am currently using, but instead I turned this into an entry on how to take current Web services and increase site loyalty and value, with a main focus on how I believe that history is becoming the next big thing in Web services, along with three examples of how current services might evolve.

Site loyalty is ultimately determined by the value of the data that it stores and delivers. The sites that I use are the sites that have the highest value of data (e.g. Flickr, del.icio.us, Gmail, Chameleon/Bloglines), and recent trends in Web services have increased both the value of data and rate at which it can be acquired. Some examples:

• Tagging: Tagging layers data upon data. The addition of a tag to a photo adds categorization information to that photo and it also links that photo to other's that have the same tag, including photos taken by other people. Therefore, a single photo includes its own data, as well as the means for finding other photos of a similar quality and people with similar interests. Good tagging services have features to suggest and autocomplete tags, which increase the speed and amount of tagging.
• Search: The search space used to be a zero-switch-cost arena. Google conquered Altavista, and Microsoft and others were full of the belief that they could supplant Google with superior search technology. I think this current crop of competitors is wrong, mainly because the search engine space is now different. Both Google and Yahoo are adding in features that collect and store your data, making you more loyal to their service. They also have the ability to tie a single search box to the multiple sources of data that they are collecting. The latest is search history and 'personalized' search, which collect data without requiring any additional interaction. Add to that e-mail, desktop search, and blogs and the search box has a memory of where your data is and how you want it.

The most important data that I think that services will start collecting is history. I've already mentioned how Google and Yahoo are collecting search history, but there's also Amazon, which perhaps has been the leader in collecting and reguritating it's knowledge of your use of the service. Amazon's recommendation wizard, based on my purchase history, is one of the main reasons I continue to use the service. The current generation of social bookmarking services (Spurl, My Web 2.0) offer the ability to automatically save a version of the page you are bookmarking, creating your own miniature version of the Wayback Machine just in case that old bookmark gives you a 404 or the page is modified.

History hasn't taken over the Web yet, maybe because of privacy concerns, but here are three examples in three different categories of how I think the Web could evolve to use history:

1. RSS Aggregators: every RSS aggregator should keep track of every link that you click. Although I can always easily bookmark a link, there are far too many cases in which a page I read becomes important long after I've closed the browser window. A time-indexed, feed-indexed, searchable history of links I've clicked would be an invaluable tool for recovering that lost link.
2. Event organization/calendars: Event organization tools (e.g. evite) and online calendars view events as things that will occur, completely ignoring things that have occurred. One of my main reasons for sticking with Yahoo Calendar is that it has a detailed record of most of my major activities; it is a sparse journal of my life. Similarly, evite pages, which are the focus of attention prior to an event, are completely ignored after an event. Yet, the evite page has many things going for it: people that went to the event have the link, and it provides the means of contacting everyone who did attend the event. Many of the events I attend end with an exchange of e-mail addresses, followed by the exchanging of photos several days later. If the evite page faciliated this post-event process, it could become a record of events that you have attended, mixing the traits of social calendars with that of journals.
3. News sites: The New York Times requires you to login to view any article on its site. Therefore, it knows every article that you read. Imagine that the end of the year is coming up and the Times is putting out its "Year in Review" articles. In addition to these articles, they could offer loyal readers a "Personalized Year in Review," based on the articles that you clicked on and read. Every day of the year you would know what happened, as judged by your own interpretation of news-worthiness. Of course, there's no reason to limit this feature to an annual review.

This ranks as one of my all-time favorite readings. As it is difficult for one person to give a more praise than that to this collection of fantastical, philosophical, theological, and historical short stories, I will be brief and state that quotes are in the extended, though they inherently spoil the short stories, especially the stories that are less than a page.

My desktop still isn't at 100%, but most of my photo workflow is back online, which gives me a chance to post these photos from a Muir Woods hike we did over the 4th of July weekend. The parking lot was packed -- we ended up parking half a mile down the road, but once we got high enough up the trail is became fairly quiet once more, until we reached the Tourist Club with its beer garden and board games. The fog rolled in while we played Trivial Pursuit (rather difficult to answer questions from 1981), so I broke out my camera and snapped some shots.

Foggy Muir Woods photoset

Gmaps Pedometer: a great Google Maps hack that lets figure just how long that bike ride to work is and even send that route as a link to friends.

NumSum: for those simpler spreadsheets that don't need Excel (i.e. all of them).

Five Ingredient Recipes: when cooking for myself I try not to exceed three steps in my cooking process, which includes unwrapping the package to stick it in the microwave. Five ingredients implies at least five steps, but I may be willing to sacrifice.

Rapid Afterimage: this optical illusion still throws me.

I was disoriented this morning when parakkum told me of the attacks in London this morning. I had stayed up late last night finishing Gentlemen's Game, a Greg Rucka novel that starts off with a coordinated attack on the London Underground.

We live in era where the terrible attacks that our fiction writers imagine become reality. I hope that amidst today's attacks the good that we imagine comes to life as well.

I know that several of you reading this have strong ties to London, and my thoughts and feelings go out to you, the ones you care about, and the city you cherish.

Threadless has one of the best Internet business models I've ever seen, and it's fun!

Threadless sells t-shirts that are entirely managed through a community process:

1. Community submits designs
2. Community votes on best designs
3. Best designs become t-shirts
4. Community submits photos of themselves posing in t-shirt to post in catalog
5. T-shirts sell out
6. Visitors can request reprints of soldout shirts. If enough reprints are requested for a particular size, the shirt is reprinted.

As far as I can tell, this pretty much means that they can produce great t-shirts with little design overhead and very little inventory. They're guaranteed to sell a good supply of the initial stock, so their prices are competitive ($15, sometimes on sale for $10). The quality of the t-shirts is much higher than CafePress, and they even remove the annoying tag and silkscreen in the name of the t-shirt and washing instructions instead.

As for street cred, a Threadless t-shirt was responsible for the infamous New York Times goatse hack.

I've already got myself two Threadless t-shirts. There will be a lot more if the reprint requests go through:

Found this little animation on Waxy that pretty much describes what it's like whenever I have to use a particular, unnamed piece of software: animation

The furious pounding of the keyboard while the head tilts backwards, releasing an anguished scream, is completely accurate.

Team Uni's roster for Tour de Comic-Con:

• parakkum: Tour veteran. He's been doing this his whole life. If there were a comparable cyclist, it would be Viatcheslav Ekimov, who has finished all 13 of the Tour de Frances he has entered. There isn't a curve or a bend in the convention floor he doesn't know, and his knowledge of Tour history will keep the Team Uni in the right position for the right opportunities. He'll be looking to ride well for himself in the writer's competition, but he'll also using his veteran skills to help his teammates ride high in their classifications.
• kwc: This is his third year riding with Team Uni and he'll again be looking to collect the schwag points jersey. The need to avoid all knowledge of the Other Tour will put a burden on his fellow teammates to keep him protected. Last year's effort was ruined by an inopportune radio snippet, "..Armstrong in yellow..." This year's strategy will be to place a teammate between kwc and all newstands, TVs, and anyone wearing yellow. It's a 946 mile course, but hopefully he'll be able to finish this year's Tour without any mishaps.
• honeyfields: honeyfields possesses multiple skills that will be crucial in keeping the pace high in this year's Tour. Her uncanny knack of befriending fellow artists, even the geeky antisocial ones, should make it easy to get good sketches and her ability to find parking spaces quickly should shave off minutes from their overall time. She's a proven ally of kwc in the schwag points classification, so look for good performances there as well.
• jamesq: Tour rookie and designated penciler, he is Team Uni's Popovych. parakkum will be trying to help jn to ride into a good place overall in the artist portfolio review competition. His inking style is bold, the form is clean, he should do well in his debut.
• ln m: Tour gearhead and new member of Team Uni. His nose for sushi and complete collection of Apple-emblazoned gadgets should keep Team Uni in good spirits. His impressive collection of Asian cinema will also be important at the Kung-Fu Extravaganza.
• h.o.b.: He's a last-minute entry, a Tour veteran that's been away from the sport for several years. He and parakkum used to ride together and hopefully he can quickly come into form. With him and parakkum riding together again Team Uni should be unstoppable. He's a hometown boy, so he'll be looking to impress.
• dlf: Recently back from several years in Japan, he's another hometown boy who should return from foreign competition with an edge in the Tokyo Pop and other anime-related courses. As a veteran of the San Diego Comic-Con, he should be able to pull off an impressive run.
• nevertheres and tooches: They'll only be competing in a couple stages, which should make their efforts even more frenzied and impressive. The tooches will be arriving with the Tour bus which will hopefully provide Team Uni with some much needed rest.

Courtesy of Hogue, I now have this greasemonkey script to shield my eyes from inadvertent Tour revelations. I've pasted the code below for those who may find themselves in similar situations requiring selective news display.

As for real world news filters, Team Uni is doing a great job protecting me already. At dinner tonight parakkum told me to keep my eyes on my plate and not look up -- Stage 11 was on TV. The alarm was unnecessary as I'd seen Stage 11 this morning, but it shows that the team is on form today and ready to go.

// ==UserScript==
// @name No Tour
// @description pop up an alert on any page containing Tour de France info
// @include *
// ==/UserScript==

var badness = new Array(6);
badness[0] = 'armstrong';
badness[1] = 'tour de france';
badness[2] = 'cycling';
badness[3] = 'yellow jersey';
badness[4] = 'lance';
badness[5] = 'tdf';

function check() {
	var body = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].innerHTML.toLowerCase();
	for (var i = 0; i < badness.length; i++) {
		var index = body.indexOf(badness[i]);
		if (index > 0) {
			var temp = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].innerHTML;
			document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].innerHTML = '<div 

align="center"><h1>SHIELD YOUR EYES</h1></div>';
			alert("The goggles, they do nothing!");
			alert(badness[i]+" is mentioned on this page");
			document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].innerHTML = temp;
			return;
		}
	}
}

window.addEventListener('load', check, true);

Team Uni made it through the first climb up the escalator to the registration booth in record time. The entire field was moving at a much faster pace than last year, which bodes well for this year's Tour.

The prologue stage was a quick circuit around the convention floor. There were no talks, movies, or other entertainment to worry about, so Team Uni focused on schwag and sketch points, as well as the extremely dangerous CRAC (Credit Ruining Accoutremounts Classification).

• schwag: There weren't too many schwag points to be had on this stage. kwc attempted to go for bonus Lego Mini schwag that was hidden in a bag at the Star Wars booth, but they were too closely guarded. Now that they have been spotted, though, they should be easy takings in tomorrow's stage. The easiest schwag takings were dwarf mercenary DnD miniatures: parakkum and kwc both took two and ln m picked up another. No one on Team Uni plays DnD miniatures, but they have five dwarfs.

• sketch: kwc got two sketches from Michel Gagne, but it was a bad day for honeyfields and ln m, who both forgot their sketchbooks. honeyfields plans an early assault tomorrow on Sakai and Gagne to get back into contention.

• CRAC: The best showing for Team Uni today was in the CRAC. ln m and honeyfields tore through the Kinokuniya booth, purchasing two copies of the Art of Cowboy Bebop, as well as a Final Fantasy digital concepts book and a FLCL animation sketchbook. kwc added a set of Copic cool grey markers and Michel Gagne's Odd Numbers to the collection. Other teams spent a huge amount of time in line for mini Megatron statues and Han Solo busts, but Team Uni feels its nimble strategy focusing on more useful purchases will yield better results.

The nevertheres will be competing in all the stages contrary to earlier reports, which is a big boost to Team Uni morale. h.o.b. was spotted in the Viz booth but returned to his hotel room before this reporter could get comments.

Good news for Team Uni today. honeyfields started in the yellow t-shirt jersey after her superb efforts in the CRAC. She continued her efforts today, picking up a variety of comics, Gagne's Odd Numbers, and a limited-edition painted version of Scott Morse's Little Book of Horrors.

• sketches: honeyfields, ln m, "Mega-Calves" neverthere, and kwc all picked up sketches today, including ones from Ted Naifeh, Mike Norton, Michel Gagne, 'Gabe', Ryan Claytor, and Ken Steacy. kwc also got four mini sketches in his copy of Flight #2 by some of the many contributors, including Kazu.

• schwag: kwc, honeyfields and ln m scored the coveted Lego mini schwag, taking three sets in an early morning attack. kwc attempted to score more points with later attacks, but was turned away. Team Uni scored five Adult Swim blank journals late in the day, so kwc will be wearing the green t-shirt for tomorrow's stage as he tries again to collect more Lego mini schwag.

parakkum went on an early breakaway to protect jamesq's spot in the DC and Disney artist portfolio reviews. Today was mostly jockeying for position in those classification: tomorrow will be the big day where jamesq will have to put the portfolio hammer down.

Team Uni morale continues to be high. A panel by Bruce Campbell kept everyone in stitches for an entire hour (a partial transcript of his remarks will be posted at a later date -- update: here are the notes). The full team of dlf, ylf, h.o.b., jamesqq, parakkum, ln m, honeyfields, kwc, "kitchen" neverthere, MC neverthere, and jay had dinner in the opulent backroom of Rama, ordering far more Thai food than could be called reasonable. Fun was had, though anytime h.o.b. mocked a Robert Jordan panel he attended, items on the table seemed to mysteriously fall over. The day ended with a meeting in the hotel to strategize for tomorrow's stage.

The Hollywood star power for Friday's stage has greatly increased from previous years. Warner Bros will be previewing Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire, V for Vendetta, The Fountain, and Corpse Bride, Disney will be previewing Cars and Chicken Little. The presence of Natalie Portman in the convention center will likely drive things into a frenzy that hitherto has not been seen on a Friday stage. Perhaps it will equal the madness seen for Sarah Michelle Gellar's appearance at last year's Saturday Stage. Team Uni will to ride carefully, perhaps going for some of the coveted Hollywood schwag, but they will have to avoid spending too much time in the long lines associated with these events.

Friday's stage was a ride through Hollywood: Goblet of Fire, V for Vendetta, The Fountain, Corpse Bridge, Battlestar Galactica, and Jim Henson's 50th Anniversary (thumbs up, down, up, up, up, up). The biggest challenge for Team Uni was conquering Hall H, a Hors Category hall holding over 6000 people. The line of people entering the hall stretched over half the length of the entire convention hall. The most painful Hall H challenge was listening to Natalie Portman during the V for Vendetta preview. Her only honest answer of the entire session was:

Q: How has your liberal arts education influenced your acting?
A: It made me good at not offending anyone and being very PC about my answers to 6000 people.

Portman could use some lessons on how to answer questions the Bruce Campbell way.

jamesq went on some breaks through the several portfolio reviews and stayed close to the top, but not as well as hoped. parakkum joined him for a final attack on Disney that netted the most positive results on the day, getting a business card from the editor and specific interest in Inhabit. Only one portflio review remains, a final sprint for Marvel on Saturday.

h.o.b. rode in support of neverthere, who has picked up an impressive collection of sketches that have to be seen to believe. neverthere commissioned a Grendel sketch on black paper that's darkly beautiful, and kwc commissioned a Yojimbo sketch from Scott Morse that will be framed as soon as he gets a chance.

kwc was disappointed with his performance in the schwag classification. The Lego Star Wars booth professed to be out of Lego Mini schwag and the Battlestar Galactica panel gave out no schwag, instead raffling off a chance for one person out of the one thousand plus people there to meet the cast. kwc did pick up a V for Vendetta mask that appears to have monetary value to some and will be sold at first opportunity, as well as some lightsaber letter openers, a Goblet of Fire mini poster, and some pins that are curious.

Team Uni is very tired after yesterday's ride, but they will have to dip into their energy reserves to survive today's hectic stage. Saturday is the day in which the convention floor is most packed with fans. Team Uni riders will have cut through crowds and lines all day in route to the final climb up to the Masquerade. The Masquerade is always good for a surprise or two, so let's hope that Team Uni is up to the task on this penultimate stage. They're heading off now for their daily Irish breakfast to build up as much energy as possible, with coffee and Guinness for kwc for that extra punch.

I'm back. It's 2am. I arrived home about 4 hours ago. Since then I've watched three of the four Tour de France stages I've missed. One more stage and I'll finally be able to take the media blinders down.

Our Internet connection in San Diego ran out Saturday evening soon after we got back to our hotel room. You may have to wait a day or two for the dramatic conclusion to Tour de Comic-Con.

I've just started Harry Potter 6 and I realize that I have very poor recollection of what occurred in Harry Potter 5. I remember parakkum's critique of the Harry Potter series, which is that after the second or third book he could no longer tell them apart.

I mentioned this to ao and she sent me this Spark Notes outline of HP5, which should help me get back up to speed before I continue further.

SparkNotes: Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

Every year Saturday's stage has a special classification: the Quick Draw competition (2004 Quick Draw). Although jamesq has entered this classification before in Pittsburgh, Team Uni decided to sit this one out and watch Sergio Aragones, Kyle Baker, Jeff Smith, and Scott Shaw duke it out. Like Armstrong, everyone knows that Sergio is The Boss, but all are there to compete and put up a good show.

kwc's points in the schwag competition from Friday's stage were recalculated after he successfully sold his V for Vendetta mask for $5. The judges put kwc back into the green t-shirt, and Team Uni solidified that position by picking up Bone toys, a Bone t-shirt, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! t-shirts, Avatar posters/t-shirt, and plenty of other goodies.

Team Uni cleaned house in the sketches classification, capitalizing on great sketches from the anthology booths, Flight and Sketchbook Sessions/Zowie, which both have many talented artists present. honeyfields was able to show off her own sketchbook, using her own sketches to keep her hold on the lead.

Another Saturday-only competition took place at the end of the stage: The Masquerade Ball. The long line of riders working their way towards this event stretched five riders wide and well over half the length of the convention center. Team Uni secured a good position in the climb to the Sails Pavilion and was rewarded with a good table near the projection screen. Sixty riders, none of them from Team Uni, competed in the actual classification. The notables were an amazing General Grevious costume, a fight/love scene between Nightcrawler and Lara Croft, and a Disney dance number It's a Disney World (to the tune of Aqua's Barbie Girl) with an Aladdin/MC Hammer interlude.

Comic-Con 2005 Quick Draw Panel
Host: Mark Evanier
Artists: Sergio Aragones, Scott Shaw, Kyle Baker, Jeff Smith

The Comic-Con Quick Draw panel is most consistently entertaining event at Comic-Con. It is dominated by Sergio Aragones, whose blazingly fast drawings, humor, and occassional inability to understand English are highlighted throughout, but Shaw/Baker/Smith are fun as well. I'm inclined to remember the 2004 Quick Draw Competition as being more fun, but that may be a trick of memory.

The Quick Draw Panel is, well, quick, so this year's blog-based summary is a two-person effort. Notes were taken by parakkum and the photos were taken by yours truly.

WARNING: this entry is very, very long, with many, many photos.

It was honeyfields who first pioneered the Comic-Con drafting technique, modelling it after the drafting technique used in road cycling. Both techniques attempt to conserve energy while maximizing your pace, but unlike road cycling, where drafting shields riders from the wind, indoors Comic-Con drafting shields riders from other people. The convention floor, especially on Saturday, is so crowded that your efforts to move to your next destination can quickly be brought to a halt by cross-traffic or people stopping to take photos of scantily clad women. A solo effort from aisle 400 to aisle 5000 can leave a rider unable to continue further and wastes valuable time.

Proper Comic-Con drafting technique requires getting in a line, with the person in front moving as quickly through the crowd as possible. If available, a strong poster tube can be held sideways by the lead rider to encourage other people to move aside; the poster tube can also be used as a blunt weapon. The other riders follow in the lead rider's wake -- it's important to stay very close and not let cross-traffic break your line. When the lead rider begins to slow from fatigue, the next rider in line moves to the front and continues the forward charge.

parakkum and I saw this costume walk by, we exchanged a laughing glance, and then chased down the three to ask to take a photo. As there was no other costume that caused me to run with my camera to snap a photo, I have to give this one top awards:

Technical costume: General Grievous

This costume was amazing to behold. The creator actually entered two elaborate costumes in the Masquerade, with this my favorite of the two. He designed the costume so that he is standing inside the cape, with the Grievous appendages in front of him for that skeletal look. You can kind of tell from the people in back that the costume is also very tall.

Like last year, Elvis Stormtrooper and Samurai Stormtrooper were present. I love those costumes, but as they're reruns I didn't snap any photos this time around.

The folks at the Flight booth were doing great sketches and, being an anthology, there were plenty of artists/authors to get sketches from. I most wanted to get a sketch from Kazu, who does the online comic Copper, as well as Johane Matte (Horus). I was one for two (Johane Matte was busy helping people out), and I also picked up sketches from Enrico Casarosa and Ronnie del Carmen.

Enrico Casarosa, Ronnie del Carmen, Kazu

Okay, that's a bit too hyperbolic, but I couldn't help but enjoy the latest issue Martin's Misdirection, and it's small press nature makes it difficult to obtain anywhere other than Comic-Con. h.o.b. and jay2 bought up a bunch of issues after reading my copy and read as their drive-home entertainment, which I will interpret as another vote of approval.

The most recently completed story arc has TiVo, dentistry, and Star Wars -- what isn't there for me to laugh at? ¹ You can judge for yourself as the strips are online. The story arc starts with the bottom panel of page 45, continues on page 46, and finishes with the top panel of page 47. I don't think some of the visual gags reproduce as well in the smaller, Web-based version, but oh well.

Related: MM sketch from Comic-Con 2004

¹ background: I come from a family of dentists. And I'm also a big dork.

The Drawing Board/Zowie/Sketchbook Sessions artists did some great sketches for me and honeyfields. I don't know the proper way to refer to them: they were promoting drawingboard.org, an artist's bulletin board they use, as well as selling Zowie 2, an anthology of "Tiki Terror"-themed stories and art. Sketchbook Sessions is an LA-based subgroup that meets regularly to draw.

It's a little difficult to draw a line between this group and the Flight folks as Guenoden, Matte and Kazu have done work in both Zowie and Flight. Kazu discussed the competitive nature of these anthologies during the Flight panel. They are both mediated by the Web, with some contributors as far away as Singapore, and the artists are able to view each other's work posted online. Individual pages for Flight are posted as they are completed, causing some artists to scrap their existing story idea or redo completed pages in an attempt to one-up each other.

I like how both groups have coupled Web-based community, local community, and community-produced physical product, with each layer serving to improve the others. These aren't Web comics anymore than photos posted to Flickr are Web photos, but whatever label you want to apply to this Web-enabled community process, it produces beautiful and creative works.

Sketches: Rodolphe Guenoden, Keith Holven, Shane Corn/maizekid, Ed Reynolds

I picked up a copy of Zowie 2 (compiled by Ed Reynolds) and honeyfields, ln m, and I all picked up some of Rodolphe Guenoden's sketchbooks. Ed Reynold's sketch below is one of two he drew of honeyfields as we sat there and chatted -- mine is the first, the second is captioned, "Why does this guy keep drawing me?" honeyfields showed some of them her own drawings while I eavesdropped and got sketches.

The Oni Booth is an annual stopping point for me at Comic-Con. Reading Queen and Country means that I'll know quite a few of the artists there, and this year I got to talk with Greg Rucka about how I read his novel about London Tube bombings the night before the real thing happened. While I was there I picked up Three Strikes, which has Hurtt's art in it, and The Tomb, which has Mitten's art in it. I look forward to reading them both when I finally catch up on my media frenzy.

Sketches: Christopher Mitten, Mike Norton, Brian Hurtt.

I'm especially pleased with Hurtt's sketch as it completes my Queen and Country Tara Chace sketch collection that I started last year. He was very nice about it and took a lot of time to give me a great sketch. Last year he had been the first artist to draw a sketch on a large QnC roster that each artist drew on and perhaps he was happy to go last in my sketchbook and have the opportunity to one-up everyone else instead ;) . Mitten's sketch technically goes with my Queen and Country collection, but his run doesn't include Tara Chace, so he drew Nick Poole instead.

Michel Gagne, Ted Naifeh, Stan Sakai

Attaboy, Gabe, and Team Uni's James Nguyen

Adrian Tomine

josh and I were discussing at lunch how your list of feeds can start to stagnate. You get a fixed list of blogs you read and you can go through periods where you stop exploring for new content. It's kind of like when you have TiVo and you stop watching as many new programs.

To counteract this, here's a list of feeds I've more recently started reading for my entertainment:

• information aesthetics weblog: tufte pr0n
• The Map Room: map pr0n
• 43 Folders: a blog for the OCD crowd, it's all about how you organize, especially those of us that like Moleskine notebooks.
• Shiny Shiny: a gadget blog for women, for when you need to find it in pink.