HSU IT Department

My gift has posted over at sshg_giftfest, and it is stellar. I don't know who the Mystery Author is (though I have a suspicion), but they've got a magic quill, whoever they are. Run, do not walk, to this delightful tale of a novel come to life and a bit of Christmas cheer which totally made my night :)

A Gifting of Book Wyrms

I wish I'd heard about this a week ago, because this makes me a week late getting started, but I want to participate in Mary Robinette Kowal's A Month of Letters. I love what she says about it: "When I write back, I find that I slow down and write differently than I do with an email. Email is all about the now. Letters are different, because whatever I write needs to be something that will be relevant a week later to the person to whom I am writing..."

To do this properly, I need 20-22 people to send things to, so if you want something -- a letter, a card, a postcard, a small marsupial with a stamp on its back, whatever -- please leave a comment and PM me with your address. I'd love to actually make my target of something every day in February. I have offline friends and family who can fill in the gaps, but I don't know if I can get to 22 without you, so help me out!

In other news, Marvel Comics has launched a site to send superhero geeks into a frenzy: a humungous comic books image archive spanning 75 years. And it comes with an API so clever codey type people can do neat things with it!

Ka-Pow! Marvel Opens Massive Comic Book Images Archive And API To Fans, Developers

The API -- which will include comic book artwork, character histories, creator insights, and expanded stories -- will grant members access to an expansive database of Marvel's library of 75 years of comics, including over 30,000 comics, 7,000 series, and 5,000 creators. This move gives developers the tools to create their own Marvel-based apps and digital offerings...

And for the francophiles in the audience, we have "Farting Angels and Ass-Slapping Aristocrats: A Web Archive Reveals the Weird Side of the French Revolution":

Shackles broke, kings fell, and heads rolled. The French Revolution was one of the most dramatic social explosions in history, and its aftershocks still ripple through Western culture 200 years later. And now, thanks to the French Revolution Digital Archive, any Francophiles with an Internet connection has access to over 14,000 newly released images from the bloodbath. Quel bonheur!

This one appears to be saying that teeter-totters are miraculous, but perhaps I'm misinterpreting...

Also OMG DID YOU SEE BIG BANG THEORY TONIGHT?? (Warning: Spoilers if you click through) First time ever a tv show has actually made me gasp :)

1) If you go to a movie at the mall at 2pm on Thanksgiving Day, there will be no one else in the entire theater. Even if the movie is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Which was made of awesome, by the way.

2) Surprisingly few people actually travel by train on the day after Thanksgiving, if my observation of Union Station in Chicago right now is anything to judge by. All the hordes of people must be flying. Or too comatose from yesterday's overdose of tryptophan to move.