Category: All Posts

K3 Through the Looking Glass

In addition to their TV sitcom, the ladies of K3 in have a new stage musical coming up. It’s an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (perhaps inspired by the success of Tim Burton’s movie?).

http://youtu.be/PyZCUD7pAHw

With all of the injuries from the aerial acrobatics in the Spider-Man musical, one would hope that Karen, Kristel, and Josje wouldn’t be made to wear wires so they can fly above the stage, but they already did that in an earlier musical, when Kathleen was in the group.

[media id=230 width=512 height=308]

Johnston Flood

Lynn Johnston’s “modern classic” family comic strip, For Better Or For Worse (It’s not “For Better Or Worse”!), is in reprints, and the Boston Globe, which I still get as a newspaper, carries it. Since Lynn isn’t producing new daily strips, on her web site she writes comments about the old ones. Tuesday, she explained that she will soon be the age that Charles Schulz was when she met him. Lynn says that she’ll be speaking at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, and she mentions that she stays in touch with Jeannie Schulz. Jeannie can be heard in this recent audio interview. (And, no, I didn’t forget Monte Schulz’s birthday on February 1. I wished him well on Facebook.)

[audio:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Feb/Airtalk_CharlesSchulz.mp3|titles=KPCC: The Legacy of Charles Schulz]

Last September, Lynn did a video podcast interview. You’ll find it here in six parts.

Life in the shared lane

Network World, and IDG, its parent company, are around the corner from where I work. One of their columnists tells a tale of woe with his shared web hosting account on GoDaddy. (Having a shared account means you’re paying about $100/year to be on a computer with hundreds, or even thousands, of other web sites, usually on the same IP address.)

Dealing with the support people on the phone led the writer to a classic moment in technical support, where he says to the grunt on the other end of the line, “Let me get this straight. You want me to do something you didn’t understand, and you can’t tell me what it is, but you still expect me to do it?” That’s the thing about frontline support. One minute you’re talking to a newbie customer who’s easy to confuse and put off, and the next you’re confronted with a confident heavy-hitter who writes for a major tech publisher.

Damn ice dams

There’s nothing to be done about the ice dams on the roof. Everybody in this region with a house that’s not insulated perfectly underneath the roof has this problem. There’s water coming down along where the finished porch in back meets the house, and it was starting to get into my office in the basement, but it stopped after I stacked plywood boards on top of a long piece of 2×4 that’s leaning against the house. It seems to be helping direct the water away from the foundation. The only thing left to do is forget about it, with the help of Kahlua and chocolate milk.

Any Darn way to read Ayn Rand

Denro points out that comic book artist Joe Staton has illustrated a graphic novel adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem. I’ve read The Fountainhead, and every single page of Atlas Shrugged too (well, maybe I skipped a few in John Galt’s redundant 60-page diatribe), but I have never read Anthem. Amazon has it for only $8.44 — less than the Kindle version.

Joe’s a busy guy, because he’s taking over the art chores for the classic comic strip Dick Tracy, although I’m sure for Joe it won’t be a chore, but a labor of love. I’m loving the revamped look. Bring back the Moon Maid and the flying garbage cans!