THE Cassandra

I just won five free manga.

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:02:04 GMT

On suvudu.com.

I've been entering for a long time, and my number came up!

This is not sketchy in the least. I have not been spammed, or had my identity stolen. It's just a manga reviewer (Jason Thompson) getting rid of his enormous collection, five a day for a year.

If you hate manga, pass this on to someone who likes it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:48:16 GMT

Yep, that's all. I hope everyone had a good one, and ate enough food to get through the winter. :D

Write or die.

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:02:02 GMT

http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html

This is a tool that conditions you to write by subjecting you to nastiness (pop-ups, atonal buzz, your words disappearing) if you stop for too long.

Nano check-in

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:38:26 GMT

I went to the NaNoWriMo site to see if my account on the forums was still active. I typed in the same username (jamtachi) and password I use whenever I have to join a forum. No luck. I tried a couple variations with no result, then figured the forums must have reset some time since I'd last been there--it's been six years, after all.

I was blocked when I tried to create a new account, "This email address already has a login associated with it. Click here to reset your password."

Confused, I reset, then checked my email.

The me of 2003 liked to go by 'dazzler', apparently.

Other ppl who might be doing this: what's your name? If you can bear to be friends with a My Little Pony, we can be writing buddies!

Foreign Services link

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:17:36 GMT

Is here, Thomas. Enjoy tiny animated Hillary Clinton.

:P

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:05:01 GMT

Nobody on my friends list has posted anything in ages, so I'll break the silence.

Would you see this movie?

Do you want a thingy?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:51:27 GMT

This is a chain started by a friend of Thomas's, which I am extending to anyone reading so I can get some little crafty doodad from him.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations, so please read carefully:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. What you get is what you get.

2. What I create will be just for you, with love, or at least with gusto.

3. It'll be done this year.

4. I will not give you any clue what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something internetty. It may be weird or beautiful. It might or might not be edible.

5. I reserve the right to do something strange or quirky, but I promise not to embarrass you in public. I also reserve the right to do something fairly predictable and boring, but with, you know, thought and love.

6. In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note of your own and make five things for the first five to respond to your note.

This offer is null and void if I do not see you post your own note to pay this forward.

Have fun, kids.

Rossiu loses it,

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:23:21 GMT

Hey Thomas, look at this.

This is your fault.

(Sev wrote this, by the way.)

Mechanical Turk

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:42:05 GMT

If I hadn't done a web search and been curious enough to click on a random-looking link, I never would have heard about mechanical turk.

It's a way to connect unskilled labor with people who need it cheaply. The labor in question is stuff you can do from your computer, mostly with use of the internet.

For instance, one of the "HITS" (jobs) paying 3 or so cents was "Visit my blog. Leave a one-sentence comment."

Another HIT presented an array of tiny thumbnail pictures. "Select pictures that contain flowers of species x, y, or z."

A while back, someone requested drawings of a sheep facing left for two cents apiece. He received over ten thousand. He was an art student, and this became his project.

You can read more about it here: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2006/07/24/turks/index2.html

Avatar Predictions

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:37:47 GMT

After watching the rest of Avatar season 2 with Cari--and episode 1 of season 3, Sev and I got talking in the car. He was certain Uncle Iroh's days were numbered. I thought the writers would be too cool to kill off Iroh just to spur Zuko's character development. We ended up putting money on it.

Arriving back home, we each made several more

Severin:

Lord Ozai becomes "main villain," Azula is downplayed and develops sympathetic traits.

-or-

It will be revealed Ozai killed Zuko's mother--or Azula will make it appear so, so she can use Zuko to take out Ozai and assume the throne.

Little romance will develop aside from Aang/Katara's deepening relationship.

Iroh trains Aang in firebending.

"Return" of the air nomads(this idea fits with the "balance" theme. It's hard for the world to be at balance with an entire nation missing from its elemental canon).

My Predictions:

It will be revealed that Azula was directly responsible for her mother's death.

Zuko will have to intervene between Ozai and Iroh to save Iroh. (Sev thinks that Zuko will be given this choice, but he could be saved from making it by Aang showing up.)

Azula will be redeemed, rather than killed or driven mad.

Someone (besides Aang) will learn to bend a second element. Or a person from Nation A will learn to bend element B. (Sev and I have money on this one, too. I think this is a big problem with this world's logic, and they can't go on not addressing it.)

Zuko will attain inner harmony and be able to bend lightning.

Iroh will assume the fire nation throne. (Wishful thinking--he'd be a great leader, but he wouldn't want to.)

Katara and Sokka's dad is going to die.
(Severin thinks he'll lead an eleventh-hour rescue squad and pull our heroes' bacon out of the fire.)

Jet's dead as a doornail. (Severin and I disagree. He thinks the fact we never saw Jet die means he lived. I think it's clear he's dead at the end of season 2. I wanted to bet Severin that Jet was dead, but we couldn't decide the criteria for "proof." The way Severin put it, Jet is Schrodinger's cat until he either makes a reappearance or they visit his grave. If neither happens, the question will remain unresolved.)

For Thomas

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:02:50 GMT

Now Ness without the "dreds."

I got his shirt wrong in one of these.

Someone who knows Mikie...

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:20:02 GMT

make sure he knows about this.

What the hell IS this? It (almost) must be a parody.

Hey Thomas,

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:50:34 GMT

If you have the Garden State soundtrack, can I borrow it?

Thanks,
Cassandra

(I should probably use facebook for this stuff. Sorry.)

Back from New York

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:57:38 GMT

I feel about it like I felt about Tokyo. Didn't see enough. Need to go back. Need to take Severin.

The gameshow was fail, Marvel was fail, ten minutes at DC made up for it!!!

I stayed in a hostel for the first time. In the three days I was there, ten or so people rotated in and out of the seven other beds. I think I was the only one who'd been born in the US. There were two Swedish girls who lived up to the Swedish stereotype of being hot, and to the European stereotype of smoking lots. Like, smoking the cheapo stogies that come in a four pack and have plastic tips, just like my dad used to. There was a boy there who came from Tokyo, though (for some reason) I felt too shy to mention I'd been there.

The stereotype about New Yorkers being rude was soundly disproved by every New Yorker I met, from the scary subway man with broken-fence teeth and knit cap (who helped me find the train I needed to take to Columbia--unasked!) to the street vendor who opened his own wallet so he could give me a two-dollar bill as part of my change, to the lobby attendant at 1700 Broadway who did everything he could to help me get upstairs to see Mark Chiarello (including pep-talking me into calling the guy one...more...time.)

And the beggars in New York are so charismatic sometimes, it's hard to even think of them as beggars. A poet got on the train between one subway station and the next, and wove a rhythmic tale of his coke-addled mom and his absent dad. He handed copies to us listeners, sometimes trading them for dollars, before making a perfectly-timed exit.

Coming out of my shell

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:40:31 GMT

Yesterday, I said words to Scott Kurtz and Dave Kellett. They are two men who have the job I would describe as my dream job--they support themselves drawing webcomics. They do a webcomics-themed podcast I listen to often, and after they gave their lecture, I had their guidebook ready to sign.

I despair of ever being friends with artists I admire. I'm too self-conscious to say anything but the most formal words. Blah.

Today, though, I made two phone calls. One to a Marvel editor, one to a DC editor. I didn't manage to make a firm appointment with either, but they both told me to call when I got to town. I'm scrambling to get coloring samples together.

At this point, I would be quite content if I actually managed to see both editors face to face.

New York (WTF?)

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:37:40 GMT

Due to a strange chain of events, I'm going to New York for a few days later in October.

My grandpa is an avid watcher of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and has been wanting me to audition for a while now. I finally figured out how to get tickets to a taping(you audition afterward), and received a confirmation email. So I'm flying from Savannah to New York on October 22, on his generosity.

Considering what a long shot it is to be selected for a game show, I'm going to bomb Marvel and DC with colorist submissions while I'm in town.

Then again, competition is probably at least as fierce for a job with either of these publishers as it is for Millionaire. :P DC in particular is wary of unsolicited submissions.

But I'd kick myself later if I didn't give it a shot! The only downside is I'll be by myself.

Question

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:11:16 GMT

When we were in sixth grade, my English class was broken into groups and asked to imagine a scenario.

It's known that very soon, the entire human population will be wiped out, except for twenty people of reproductive age and in good health, and five leaders. You may pick one person from each of five professions (artist, lawyer, systems analyst, etc) to act as a leader.

The 'leader' needn't necessarily be a leader (like a CEO, a politician) but merely someone who the survivors would find useful (like a doctor.) If we wanted, we could make all five different types of doctors, or different types of clergy, or birthday clowns or whatever.

I don't remember what types of people my group chose, but these are the five I'd choose today.

1. Doctor (probably a GP, knows how to set a broken bone, give an injection, diagnose common illnesses.)
2. Farmer (or "agriculturalist")
3. Engineer (the type who knows how to fix an engine, not necessarily the type that oversees factory efficiency, builds bridges, designs airplanes, etc)
4. Hunter/marksman
5. Musician

I'm not sure about 5. Talk me out of it? If I could replace 5 with "communicator" I would, but what kind of a profession is that? I guess what I need is a D & D style bard to round out the party. :P

4 is also iffy. You point the gun at the animal and shoot until it falls over, right? Then you cut it into pieces and cook them, right? Doesn't sound that hard.

Hey Thomas,

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 04:57:39 GMT

I randomly was thinking of poor Jamie, and I made a thing. I didn't remember how it went, so the note is random scribbles.

Book about Anthrax

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:33:27 GMT

I finished reading a book about the anthrax vaccine recently. It's good. Anyone want to borrow it?

It begins...

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:07:21 GMT

So begins chapter 1 of my comic, Scrulouse. I'm afraid it won't be as funny as the crack comic right away: as a matter of fact, it starts with a funeral. That said, it will be entertaining, enlightening, and embedded with chocolate chips.

More Ivins

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:59:43 GMT

The yahoo article eventually stabilized into a much more coherent, objective thing--stripping away most of the outrageous innuendo and hearsay that characterized its earlier versions.

The changes were so blatant and so many, I wonder if the AP writers responsible for the story were even doing anything wrong by changing it. Maybe the internet just made it possible to read their evolving rough drafts.

Still, it's a strange experience to have the news change on you, though it's not a new phenomenon on the internet. Most often you hear about someone retracting a blog or forum post that sparked drama, because people who linked to the original are howling about finding a dead link or a rewritten opinion. You'd hope professional writers would be more, well, professional.

I've been following Ivins still, though there haven't been many new developments. No credible motive, still. No explanation on how he managed to produce and aerosolize so much anthrax without anyone noticing. No explanation for how he managed to fool his friends and coworkers for so long. Still, they supposedly have traced the anthrax samples from the 2001 letters back to batches that Ivins worked with. All other new developments have centered around Jean Duley, a counselor who has given the only testimony so far of Ivin's homicidal and obsessive tendencies. The counselor herself remains mostly mysterious. Salon.com has had some interesting stuff about the case the past few days.

But I'm weaning myself off all this for now, because the next three days are ironman time for me! Gonna draw lots of comics before this weekend.

Bruce Ivins

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:48:17 GMT

The LA Times was the paper than broke the news of Ivin's suicide.

Here.

Son of a bitch

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:03:54 GMT

The yahoo article has changed yet again. It's like watching the news evolve!

I wonder if my first post on this topic even makes sense now. The current article is a completely different beast. Look at my previous post (the one right before this) for proof.

The original article

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:05:35 GMT

I drove home from a school building and found I had the original article's window still open. Here is the text of the original article, copied and pasted from that window.

I found the part about Ivin's award:
"Officials said that Ivins, who shared in the 2003 Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, was under investigation to determine whether he released the anthrax as a way to test his vaccine."

Read the original and the case against Ivins looks ANYTHING BUT open-and-shut.

Compare this to the rushed, disorganized rewriting, crammed full of ad hominem attacks. Then again, this version has some glaring errors (a repeated paragraph.) It's probable this version is not the original either.

By MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writers 2 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks were planning to indict and seek the death penalty against a top Army microbiologist in connection with anthrax mailings that killed five people. The scientist, who was developing a vaccine against the deadly toxin, committed suicide this week.
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The scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md. For more than a decade, he worked to develop an anthrax vaccine that was effective even in cases where different strains of anthrax were mixed, which made vaccines ineffective, according to federal documents reviewed by the AP.

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing grand jury proceedings, said prosecutors were closing in on Ivins, 62. They were planning an indictment that would have sought the death penalty for the attacks, which killed five people, crippled the postal system and traumatized a nation still reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks.

Officials said that Ivins, who shared in the 2003 Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, was under investigation to determine whether he released the anthrax as a way to test his vaccine. The decoration is the highest honor given to civilian Pentagon employees.

The Justice Department has not yet decided whether to close the investigation, officials said, meaning it's still not certain whether Ivins acted alone or had help. One official close to the case said that decision was expected within days. If the case is closed soon, one official said, that will indicate that Ivins was the lone suspect.

Ivins' attorney said the scientist had cooperated with investigators for more than a year.

"We are saddened by his death, and disappointed that we will not have the opportunity to defend his good name and reputation in a court of law," attorney Paul F. Kemp said. "We assert his innocence in these killings, and would have established that at trial."

Kemp said that Ivins' death was the result of the government's "relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo"

White House press secretary Dana Perino said President Bush was aware there were "about to be developments" in the case but did not elaborate.

Authorities were investigating whether Ivins released the anthrax as a way to test his vaccine, officials said. The Justice Department has not yet decided whether to close the investigation, officials said, meaning it's still not certain whether Ivins acted alone or had help. One official close to the case said that decision was expected within days.

If the case is closed soon, one official said, that will indicate that Ivins was the lone suspect.

Ivins was "hounded" by aggressive FBI agents who raided his home twice, said Dr. W. Russell Byrne, a colleague who worked in the bacteriology division of the Fort Detrick research facility for 15 years. Byrne said Ivins was forcefully removed from his job by local police recently because of fears that he had become a danger to himself or others. The investigation led to Ivins being hospitalized for depression earlier this month, Byrne said.

He said he does not believe Ivins was behind the anthrax attacks.

Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. Tom Ivins, a brother of the scientist, told The Associated Press that his other brother, Charles, had told him that Bruce committed suicide and Tylenol might have been involved. The Los Angeles Times, which first reported that Ivins was under suspicion, said the scientist had taken a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine.

The Fort Detrick laboratory and its specialized scientists for years have been at the center of the FBI's investigation of the anthrax mailings. In late June, the government exonerated a colleague of Ivins', Steven Hatfill. Hatfill's name has for years had been associated with the attacks after investigators named him a "person of interest" in 2002.

Unusual behavior by Ivins was noted at Fort Detrick in the six months following the anthrax mailings, when he conducted unauthorized testing for anthrax spores outside containment areas at the infectious disease research unit where he worked, according to an internal report. But the focus long stayed on Hatfill.

Ivins was the co-author of numerous anthrax studies, including one on a treatment for inhalation anthrax published in the July 7 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Henry S. Heine, a scientist who had worked with Ivins on inhalation anthrax research at Fort Detrick, said he and others on their team have testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that has been investigating the anthrax mailings for more than a year. He declined to comment on Ivins' death.

FBI vehicles with tinted windows had watched Ivins' home for a year, neighbor Natalie Duggan, 16, said.

"They said, 'We're on official business,' " she said.

Tom Ivins said Friday that federal officials working on the anthrax case questioned him about his brother a year and a half ago. "They said they were investigating him," he said from Ohio, where he lives, in a CNN interview.

Ivins played keyboard and helped clean up after masses at St. John the Evangalist Roman Catholic Church in Frederick, where a dozen parishoners gathered after morning Mass to pray for him Friday.

The Rev. Richard Murphy called Ivins "a quiet man. He was always very helpful and pleasant."

The government paid Hatfill $5.82 million to settle a lawsuit contending he was falsely accused and had been made a scapegoat for the crimes.

"We are not at this time making any official statements or comments regarding this situation," said Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, which is investigating the anthrax attacks, said Friday.

Five people died and 17 were sickened by anthrax powder in letters that were mailed to lawmakers' Capitol Hill offices, TV networks in New York, and tabloid newspaper offices in Florida. Two postal workers in a Washington mail facility, a New York hospital worker, a Florida photo editor and an elderly Connecticut woman were killed.

___

Associated Press Writer Dave Dishneau from Hagerstown, Md. and AP researcher Susan James in New York contributed to this story.

***More on Ivins, from 2004 USA Today article paints Ivins as a crusader for higher safety standards.

Scary

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:20:38 GMT

I read a story linked from the yahoo frontpage this morning that is freaking me out.

In summary, an anthrax researcher who was the subject of an FBI investigation concerning the 2001 anthrax mailings has "apparently" committed suicide, just as the FBI was preparing to file criminal charges.

The article goes on to say his work was key in developing an anthrax vaccine that is effective even when multiple strains of anthrax are mixed. So why would such a person try to harm others with a disease he'd devoted himself to curing?

Supposedly he wanted to infect others to have the opportunity to test his vaccine.

Wha-wha-wha-what the hell? When I read that part of the article, I yelled to Severin to come read it--that's something a real-life mad scientist would do. That motive is straight out of James Bond or The Island of Doctor Moreau.

And it doesn't make sense.

As I read the rest of the article, it became apparent that 1. mad scientists escape the detection of their colleagues and coworkers to infiltrate high government positions working with dangerous substances or 2. the FBI can hound an innocent man to death in their search for a scapegoat.

**Since Severin and I read the article on Yahoo! News about an hour ago, The original article has been modified. A new article with other changes has also been posted. The newer versions of the article include some additions.

"In his research, he complained about the limitations of testing anthrax drugs on animals."

"Ivins, who received three degrees including a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, co-authored numerous anthrax studies, including one published in July that described efforts to treat mice deliberately exposed to anthrax. The scientists complained of the limited supply of monkeys available for testing and said testing on animals is insufficient to demonstrate how humans would respond to treatment."

"Maryland court documents show he recently received psychiatric treatment. Last week he was ordered to stay away from a woman he was accused of stalking and threatening to kill."
!!!Severin and I would remember if that had been included in the original article.

At the bottom of the revised article, it does not that there have been changes made to the text:
"(This version CORRECTS UPDATES throughout with theory of motive, scientific research, biographical details; SUBS graf bgng, Ivins played ... to correct spelling of Evangelist.)"
That doesn't change the fact that the original version of the article NO LONGER EXISTS. Why the rush to modify a news piece posted about an hour ago?

Also it doesn't mention information WAS REMOVED.

The original article mentioned an award Ivins received in 2003. Now mention is gone.

****Another update
Every time I refresh the window with the article, practically, it has been rewritten. I am saving successive versions. THIS IS VERY WEIRD!