Link roundup

1. "An undercover police officer 'chased himself round the streets' for 20 minutes after a CCTV operator mistook him for suspect." Via.

2. Mark Cuban's always a great interview. Some advice:

Never follow your dreams. Follow your effort. It’s not about what you can dream of. That’s easy. It’s about whether or not it’s important enough to you to do the work to be ready to be successful in that business.

3. Gawker on news of big government resignations in Romania:

The resignations come after some very unpopular budget cuts that were made to comply with IMF demands so that Romania could secure a loan and continue to pay government workers. The IMF is, of course, the International Monetary Fund, which is a fund with international money in it.

4. New Spider-Man promotional site. Via.

Medicine lollipop

When your child won't take his medicine, make a medicine lollipop. You can buy lollipop molds at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Christoph Niemann is going to give away art prints on Monday.

2. Secret Restaurant from the people behind Secret Cinema.

3. Win some Thundercats goods.

4. "How Darcie Chan Used Paid Reviews & Banner Ads to Make a Self Published Bestseller."

Link roundup

1. "Master of horror John Carpenter presents Blockhead’s Revenge — a 'gritty, sexy, scary' Peanuts reboot starring the cast of MTV’s Teen Wolf."

2. How to build a relationship with a blogger before asking for a review.

3. Grantland:

ex-Cleveland Brown and Minnesota Viking LeRoy Hoard — a physical, bruising former running back — famously (though perhaps apocryphally) described his running style as the antithesis of the space player: "If you need one yard, I'll get you three yards. If you need five yards, I'll get you three yards."

Link roundup

1. Tips for fighting bullies.

2. Smart Football:

I can think of really only one example of a guy whose arm now seems significantly stronger than it did earlier in his career as a college player and rookie, and that’s Tom Brady. And, well, Tom Brady is Tom Brady. But it does seem like this is generally true, at least at the higher levels once a quarterback is physically mature: There are almost no examples of guys whose arms went from “popgun” to bazooka through discipline and training, not matter how tall they are or how many weights they lift.

Also, Buddy Ryan's insidious defensive tactic.

3. Weird to see so much anticipation for new comics in the Watchmen universe - - the whole point of Watchmen is that the characters were just knockoffs of other characters. The genius of Moore and Gibbons is what made them special.

4. Lackluster review for the new Deus Ex downloadable content.

New rules of work posters

New rules of work posters on sale here. Via these sites.

How to become a super-duper successful blogger

Yesterday, BoingBoing posted an excerpt from a book called "Blogger's Boot Camp: Learning how to build, write, and run a successful blog," with the most insipid advice I've recently seen on blogging. The advice? 1. "You must write a minimum of 1,000 words a day," a rule the author justifies by mentioning a blogger who specializes in writing pithy sentence fragments and quoting other people's writing. And 2. "Always Be Posting. You will burn out. When this happens, take a break. Always take weekends off and limit your off-the-clock consumption of social media." Got that? Write 1,000 words every day, except when you don't, because you will almost certainly hate blogging.

Here's the real advice:

1. Create a time machine, go back in time 10+ years, start a blog, and update it every day. Through the power of longevity and the luck/foresight of being first you'll amass so many readers that you'll be able to make a living simply by posting a couple of daily links to the New Yorker.

2. Become famous for something. Even better, become famous and attractive. Then start a blog. Your fans will adore your every post no matter how banal.

3. Be a mom blogger (marketers adore mom bloggers, especially those who link to the words insurance or bank) and mix in product reviews with detailed discussions of your family's most private secrets. Especially the ones about sex. When you run out of your own secrets, betray your friends.

4. Figure out a way to become a pornographer. Deadspin's basically a sports-themed porn blog. In fact, the porn doesn't even have to be sports-related. Gawker writers spend their time coming up with clever excuses for posting photo galleries of busty children and up-skirt shots.

5. Convince people you're a guru on relationships, or career advancement, or marketing, or health. Hope they don't notice you spend your time telling other people what to do, instead of doing it yourself.

Bonus points if you have the energy, knowledge, and willingness to manipulate traffic sources like Google, Reddit, and Stumbleupon.

or

6. Write a regularly updated blog, on a topic people are interested in, filled with original content and funny insightful commentary.

Of course, if you can do that, you don't need anyone's advice. There's also no reason to burn out. Writing a blog, if it's right for you, is fun. You can read my genuine tips on writing a blog here.

Link roundup

1. Video from 1967 showing a baby gorilla frolicking in a bathtub.

2. A commenter at Gawker:

I hate to sound like a Republican here, because I'm a lifelong liberal Democrat, but...

You can't expect to get a liberal arts degree, move to New York, find a great job and a great 1-bedroom apartment, and have enough money left over to eat out once in awhile. You never could. My parents were artists in New York in the 50s and 60s and they were broke ALL THE TIME.

You don't need that new iPod. You don't need to eat out 4 times a week. You don't need a new car every 3 years. You don't need the fucking designer clothes. The true "middle class" people of a generation ago never lived like that.

You know how you rebuild the middle class? You stay in the community you grew up in. You and your smartest friends have to go to college, and then go back to your shit town with your shiny new degree and be what used to be called a "community leader." You have to get married, have kids, raise them with good manners, and encourage them to stay in the community and take over the family business.

Republicans and Democrats conned us all into believing that we could have it all, get any degree we wanted, go and live like the cast of "Friends."

Well fuck that, because its not true. Its a pernicious lie that both parties and the media foisted on us. Live frugally, find a partner, get involved in your community, start a family. Families and strong communities are the way out of poverty, Republicans got that much right.

3. Corpse hotel with refrigerated coffins in Japan. Via.

4. Portal is apparently a free download from Steam for the next few days.

Link roundup

1. Photos of Shaq and his tiny girlfriend, who was apparently on Flavor of Love.



2. "An employee of the Mark Twain House and Museum in West Hartford, Conn., has admitted in court to embezzling $1 million from the organization that maintains the author's historic home."



3. Penelope Trunk has a good take on negative blog comments.

Link roundup

1. Arguments against attending cooking school.

2. XKCD on media reports of hacking. Penny Arcade on the 3DS.

3. Diablo III will allow players to auction off virtual goods for real money. I wonder if that will be a major selling point, or just a feature that benefits gold farmers (The Old Republic looks nice, but if I can make money while I play...).

Link roundup

1. Want that cute guy to call you? Pick him up on a rickety bridge. Via.

2. New short story by Kelly Link. (I haven't read it yet, but I've liked everything else I've read of hers.) Via.

3. The winners of the inaugural Google Science Fair.

4. Always nice to be reminded that I'm not the only person who prefers email to Twitter and Facebook. (I love Google Reader, too.)

5. FYI, I'm continuing to experiment with Super Punch 2 at Tumblr and mostly post images there that I'm not also posting here.

Link roundup

1. Some interesting predictions about the future of the legal profession. Via.

2. Apple not only censors emails sent by Me.com users, but doesn't even tell the users that their emails have been blocked?

3. The keys to finding a job in Hollywood.

Link roundup

1. You didn't really buy that nonsense about how great the yakuza was for keeping order in Japan after the tsunami right? The nuclear power plants failed probably in no small part because they were dominated by the yakuza.

2. The latest incredibly raw personal story from Penelope Trunk - - the heart of the post is a really good message - - if you want a happy relationship, you have to be brave enough to tell you partner what's really bothering you.

3. The BBTS has new Marvel Universe preorders - -sets feature Tony Stark, Iceman, Absorbing Man, Astonishing Wolverine, Magneto, Ultron, Darkhawk, Sub-Mariner, X-23, Steve Rogers, and the Guardians of the Galaxy I posted earlier today.

Image roundup

Fennec fox.



Lightning strike.



Arctic fox and meal.



Soldier after battle.



Wisdom from Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake.




Wire sculpture.



Ferris wheel on a cold winter day.

Link roundup

1. Penelope Trunk explains how she's helping her teenage neighbors start a business:

I told myself I will send them lots of links so they learn about entrepreneurship. But the boys did not have computers. Further, they do not even get homework that involves computers because not all the kids in the local high school have computers at home. They do research for reports only from books in the library.

Then it occurred to me that they don’t read. They can read, they just don’t read.

“What was the last book you read?” I asked Zach.

He couldn’t remember. Then he remembered: “The Scarlet Letter, for school.”

“It sucked,” said Mitch.

I told the boys that entrepreneurs read. They have to read. The problem is that if you don’t read you don’t know where to start reading. I decided we’d have to start with reading about sex, to keep them interested. I gave them Dennis Cooper. They liked it. After a while I slipped in articles about entrepreneurship.

Much more at the link.

2. Not too surprising that the Dark Tower movie/tv series is starting to look DOA.

3. Beautiful pictures from Disney's maiden cruise to Alaska. And speaking of Disney, you can win passes to see the new Star Tours.

Link roundup

1. Another great storytelling lecture by Jim Shooter, utilizing a Fantastic Four story drawn by Jack Kirby.

2. The secret to Pixar's success? "Pixar seems to have realized that if you can get the dad to come to the movie and love the movie, the whole family will come. Maybe more than once. And they'll probably buy the DVD and the video game, too."

3. Gawker calls Jesse James "a voltron composed of every bad ex-boyfriend in the world."

Link roundup

1. "In honor of the new crime thriller video game L.A. Noire coming to Playstation®3 and Xbox360® on May 17, 2011, the Los Angeles Times and Rockstar Games present this special archive edition Crime Map detailing just a few of the fascinating and frightening crimes that made 1947 such a landmark year for LAPD detectives." Via.

2. From a longer article about design school, advice I wish I had when I was still in school:

Ask anybody that went to school what they thought of it, and you will get the same response. “It was ok, not great. But this one teacher changed made it all worth while.” It’s exactly that one or two teachers that you connect with that make the school experience “worth it”. When you find your mentor, go out of your way to take more classes with them. Ask them for guidance and have them critique your work HARD. Their advice will be more than worth the tuition.

3. Plastic Army Men with PTSD and various injuries. (Some might find these offensive.) Via these sites.

*Previously: Killzone Army Men.

Link roundup

1. Sounds like Reddit's screenwriting forum is a great place to learn and get critiqued.

2. Frank Frazetta was apparently a cover model for books in The Man From S.T.U.D. series, which you can find at eBay. (Specific titles include, "Rape is a No-No," and "The Solid Gold Screw.") Via.

3. An interesting dilemma -- what's more important: Does Obama honor his pre-election pledge and acknowledge the Armenian genocide? Or does he renege so that he can avoid infuriating Turkey and rely on Turkey's help in preventing current killings?

Link roundup

1. Calvin and Hobbes by Francesco Francavilla.

2. Penelope Trunk on how to turn your child into an entrepreneur.

3. "Wrightwood woman who drugged, painted horses as part of sales scam sentenced."

Link roundup

1. If you missed it, I announced a new art contest, and the prize is four t-shirts from Last Exit to Nowhere.

2. Amanda Hocking, the author who got a lot of attention last week for making good money selling ebooks of her novels talks about the years of work that have led to her success. Via.

3. Dustin Harbin has been posting one great (cheap) commission after another.

4. Another difficult contest with a great prize from Mike Allred.