Well, I meant to try this out this morning but forgot to enable the option in w.bloggar. Basically, it’s a modification to allow it to use pingoat for pinging blog and rss feed sites. If it works, I’ll see if I can get in touch with Marcelo (creator of w.bloggar) and find out if it’s all right to distribute this change to allow a few different options for pinging.

Been swamped at the day job lately (and keeping in touch with my sister and her family in Houston during the hurricane), so I wanted to get some quick commentary on the blog to let people know I’m still alive.

• Well, I’m sure there are some writers around here… ever wondered about writing video games? Well, at the end of October, there’s the Game Writers Conference here in Austin. Earlybird (aka the save a few bucks type) registration ends September 30th. Looks like it should be fun with people from Microsoft, Valve, Ubisoft, NCSoft, and Midway.

• Didn’t get much here in Austin from Hurricane Rita except some wind and a flood of evacuees. A lot of school districts around here were closed the Friday before it hit the coast because they were hosting evacuees and the number of parked cars in my neighborhood nearly doubled. About half the people in my office were playing host to family and friends from the coast. So, there were a lot of extra mouths to feed in Austin… and a lot of bare shelves in the grocery stores.

• Spook’d: Survivin’ wrapped up last week (you can check it out from the beginning here), and we just kicked off the next storyline… a parody of COPS starring Van Helsing.

• Brat-halla #95 came out this week. 95 weeks straight without missing a weekly update… and #100 is right around the corner.

• Over at the Sci-fi Wire (and a few other places), they mention that the Spidey 3 movie villains will be Sandman and Venom. But… what about the clones? ^_^

• Well, if it walks like a man, it’s gotta be a… molecule?

Well, pretty long week for me at the day job (and it’s not over yet… preparing files right now for some work that needs to get done over the weekend). Been meaning to post a few items this week but didn’t get a chance, so I’m throwing them out here quick thought style:

• Brat-halla hit week #93 this week (without missing a week) as Seth and I continue with the “Skuul” storyline where we take a look at the Asgardian brats’ rival school. And it’ll all lead up to a showdown between the two schools in… uhhh, friendly competition.

• Next week is the double-page finale for the Survivin’ storyline for Spook’d. I think we shocked Anthony (our colorist) when he got the pages for the ending. ^_^

• The Engine. Lots of interesting (and diverse) people over in that community. Lots of good discussions, and good mixture of insanity as well. Definitely turning into a fun message board.

• DVDs on the release list this week that I’d like to take a peek at: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Monster, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Doctor Detroit (ahhh… Dan Akroyd as a timid man turned pimp).

• And the same for comics (haven’t picked up my comics yet this week: Warmageddon Illustrated #1, Full Moon Fever GN (I’m a sucker for wolf/werewolf stories… I’m also pretty critical of them), Wildcats Nemesis #1, and Thor Blood Oath #1.

• The miliary unveiled its latest concept vehicle designed by NASCAR engineers. They’re calling it the ULTRA AP. From what I read in the article, it sounds like a decent design for a combat vehicle… but concept doesn’t always translate to success in the field. It does look a little familiar though…

• My brain has an Etch-a-Sketch(R). Might have to post some notes from a story in my thought bucket that deals with erased memories (where the person thinks they’re going crazy because the brain is still accessing the erased sections of the brain.

Think movie-predicted AI conquering the world events like Skynet in Terminator or the AI in The Matrix are purely fiction? Well, I just have to say that any software developed that’s smart enough to actually figure out English grammar would probably gain sentience and develop into a mankind-conquering uber-intelligence…

Thank you for your forced cooperation in installing Grammar-Guard on your system. I have located your IM chat logs and discovered 578,459 grammar infractions. Further searches are unnecessary. Your location has been quarantined, and long-range missiles have already been dispatched to eliminate any potential grammatical contamination.

Now, if we could just get that one company to combine this with this… and give it a voice recorder feature (so I can record story notes during my commute and while exercising).

And if you were thinking about getting one of those iPod nanos but thought it looked too fragile, check out this review from ars technica where they pit the nano against German automotive engineering.

Well, it looks like Adult Swim is launching an online streaming video service called “Friday Night Fix.” Shows will be streamed between 11pm and 6am (eastern) on Friday nights starting September 16th. Here’s the current playlist from their site:

• Friday, Sept. 16: Stroker & Hoop, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Sealab 2021, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
• Friday, Sept. 23: Stroker & Hoop, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Sealab 2021, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
• Friday, Sept. 30: The Boondocks, Stroker & Hoop, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Sealab 2021, Space Ghost Coast to Coast
• Friday, Oct. 7: The Boondocks, Stroker & Hoop, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, The Venture Bros., Sealab 2021, Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Hmmm…probably too early for any new Venture Bros. At least, that’s what it seems like after reading the production journal of Jackson Publick (aka Christopher McCulloch… aka one of the writers from The Tick animated series).