Monday, September 30, 2002
Plotting again. Follow Hurricane Lilli at nola.com.
Got Hank? 
Tracey's beloved curmudgeon cat sat for this portrait and is now available as a desktop. Find him Hank-alicious? Useful products emblazoned with his image are the inaugural items at the traceylink.org shop. As always, proceeds go to the Tracey's Lung Transplant Fund.
Sunday, September 29, 2002
Did I say how freaking glad I am we're not China? Well, I really am. Got that Scary Larry Ellison? [via nwd]
Friday, September 27, 2002
CheeryWeb: Baby Rhino. Baby hippo. Baby Gorilla. Huge pumpkin. [cheerio fark]
Saturday 
is my little sister's birthday! Here we are celebrating (gasp) 33 years ago! Happy Birthday Tracey, you are an inspiration.
Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Got a minute? Participate in this do-a-nice-thing meme. You send birthday wishes to Christopher Reeves and an annonymous donor will give $1 to Reeves' charitable foundation. Skeptical? Here's what myth-busters at snopes have to say about it. (Cynical? For all the paranoia and bile that can be generated by a simple web charity promotion, see this thread on metafilter.)
Satire-ganda artist 
Micah Wright (with some help from E.J. Fischer) does some ingenious recycling, turning old and used WWII propaganda posters into shiney new public communications from the Office of Homeland Security. See them. Buy Them.
How bad can it get? You might get popped for photographing a statue, but damn, at least we're not living in China. (Don't worry, China's feelings won't be hurt, because they'll never see this.) [zank you, zem]
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Saluting the mushroom. Because the web is wonderful, when I was working on something entirely serious, I ran across Tom's utility page where he points to the funny Euphemism Generator, Rymerator, Workspeak Translation Table and other confections. Thanks Tom!
Rule books or play books? Read here how weblogging sage, Tom Matrullo wonders if the recent spate of books on weblogging will have an the ossifying effect on the sapling weblog world. Today's californiaauthors.com does a touch-and-go of the weblog book phenomenon.
Monday, September 23, 2002
For keeping track of Isidore and the folks back home. Nola.com's very cool Hurricane Page bristles with data. And if this doesn't freak you out, there are pages and pages of this to make you want to evacuate the moms — right now.
In a true "Third Culture" move, over the next ten years MIT will post all of its coursework on the internet — where it will be free! The Pilot Program opens Sept. 30. with courses in Anthropology, Biology, Civil and Environmental Engineering, History, Linguistics and Philosophy, Mathematics, Ocean Engineering, Political Science and more. BBC . MIT OpenCourseWare.
State's right. The SF Gate brings us the good news: "Challenging the Bush administration on one of the hottest controversies in medicine, Gov. Gray Davis on Sunday signed legislation intended to make California a haven for stem cell research. The law makes California the first state in the nation to give its stamp of approval to research that scientists say could lead to breakthroughs in treating disorders ranging from Alzheimer's disease to spinal cord injuries..." (read more)
Sunday, September 22, 2002
It's Banned Books Week! Be a carrier of the knowledge virus. Read — or re-read — a banned book (list.pdf), give it to a friend, tell the world why. And, generally, Support the Banned Books Project.
Inspired by Banned Books Week? Here's a little banned-book store*:
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Slaughterhouse Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut
The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
* amazon.com referrals go to the Tracey Rabalais Lung Transplant Fund.
Best-linked books. All-consuming.net lists the blogverse's most linked-to book pages at Amazon and provides links to referrers. Bookwatch sniffs for links to Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Powells and creates a Top Ten list.
Thursday, September 19, 2002
Priceless. Hours of design-reference fun at Ron Wise's World Paper Money Homepage.
Monday, September 16, 2002
Nice to be noticed! San Francisco Chronicle critic David Kipen mentions californiaauthors.com in his weekly column, calling us “increasingly essential”. Well you gotta love that. New on californiauthors.com this week, an excerpt from War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam [amazon] by Tracy Wood, one of the book’ s several authors and Ms Magazine's editor-in-chief.
Sunday, September 15, 2002
A website for an extraordinary journey. Please visit traceylink.org, my sister's support website for her double lung transplant. Five years ago — when she was only 34 — Tracey was diagnosed with a rare and deadly disease, lymphangioleiomyomatosis or LAM, which is robbing her of her ability to breathe. Today, there is no cure and no treatment for this disease in which an unusual type of muscle cell invades, grows and obstructs the airways of the lungs. Tracey will need two new lungs and is already on the transplant list. We hope you will stop by the site, leave a message of support and learn how you can make a real difference just by shopping at Amazon.
Monday, September 9, 2002
Autotypographica. A hastily prepared collection of car typography as seen at the Belmont Shore Car Show on sunny Sunday, September 8, 2002.
Friday, September 6, 2002
In the middle of deadline craziness I've gotten three letters from friends I haven't heard from for years. So good! Still I had to beg off responding until the client signs off. And tonight, I get this from the Daily Hindu Wisdom e-mail of beliefnet:
An intimate of any strength will never listen to faults said of friends;
and on the day a friend offends, he is content to keep silent.The world cherishes faithful men who never forsake
old friendships, worn by time but unbroken.
-Tirukkural 81: 808-809Excerpted from the Tirukkural, translated by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.Copyright www.himalayanacademy.com.
Don't worry faithful men, the day of proper replies approaches. (The client has the pages for approval!)