Kids, Grow Giant Mushrooms In Your Basement!

Maybe not quite, but I have fond memories of these guys from my brief flirtation with comic books when I was a kid. Luckily that flirtation did not last, and I moved onto more important things like science fiction!

They're back...and they are apparently internet-enabled (sort of). Yes, the Amazing Sea Monkeys found in the comic book back pages of yore are back with a whole product line to support them.

The "Executive Set" is certainly cheaper than the Sharper Image (I think) self-contained environment that I saw in a catalog around the holidays. Of course the Sharper Image environment was "NASA-certified" or some such rot. This one is just proven by countless generations of glorified brine shrimp (whoops! the secret is out!)...

Metropolis

Newly restored (original film score, lots of footage put back in, digital restoration to picture) version of Metropolis will soon be available on DVD...

Metropolis!

Books 2003: So Far

(Do you think this might be a repost?)

Alphabetical by author, what I've gotten through so far in 2003. In addition to the books I've read, as usual, there are a dozen or so "works in progress", as I always seem to start a bunch of books, go slowly, then race through one, then another, etc...

Baxter, Stephen: Manifold—Time
Bear, Greg: Blood Music
Friedman, Thomas: Longitudes and Latitudes
Gibson, William: Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties
Haldeman, Joe: The Forever War, Forever Free
Levy, Stephen: Crypto
McCaffrey, Anne: Dragonflight
Pierce, Hayford: Chap Foey Rider, Capitalist to the Stars
Simak, Clifford: The Trouble with Tycho
Weber, David: The Short Victorious War, Field of Dishonor
Woodward, Bob: Bush at War

The commute from hell continues, so I'll keep reading...