NEW! Dick Cheney action figure -- "Dressed in jeans or Urban Camo pants, Shotgun, T-shirt and Retractable kick spike shoes"!

Hey Y'all. The Ms. Films Festival has begun! If you're in the area, please check out some of the events, and read my interview/article with the head honcho Niku Arbabi "The Ultimate DIY Gal" for Venus online here.

The Chinese have just banned content depicting human actors with animated characters. CGI and 2-D characters alongside human actors jeopardize "the broadcast order of homemade animation and mislead their development," according to a report from the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

"Chinese regulatory authorities are notoriously skittish regarding broadcast and film themes that include the supernatural or fantasy, including talking animals. "Babe" was banned on the basis that animals can't talk and some viewers would be confused."

Another good link from dirtyweekender: Chewbacca's Blog

My new Favorite Blog: Cats In Sinks. That's right. Cats...In Sinks (basins too!)

I've already recommended this blog to most of you...and I know I'm Just Shy already is a fan...but it's one of the best written blogs out there so I'm going to risk repetition and show the link yet again for I Blame The Patriarchy. It's full of Patriarchy Hatin' Goodness and about 90% of the time I feel like Twisty is stating exactly how I feel but, like, 200 times more eloquently than I ever could. Plus, she knows a good sandwich (and lives in Austin).

I've been off running a conference for work (a user's group for our customers), as I do every year, which explains my recent absence from all things computer (and, uh, fun). This year's was particularly horrid as the hotel we held it int treated us quite poorly. I -- and my boss - ended up having to get ugly to get things turned around. My boss was quite a bit more imposing myself as he is much taller. Contrary to popular belief, I don't enjoy having to be "nasty" and sadly, in this case, the result was ass-kissing. I didn't want THAT - I just wanted them to do things right in the first place. Anyway, the upshot is I'm back! Hoo-hah! I'm happy to put the stress behind me and move on. I have no idea what happened last week, but I hear Dick Cheney shot a man. Unfortunately, that man was not George Bush.