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Dr. Atomic

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(no subject)	[Jun. 10th, 2010\|01:48 pm] Dr. Atomic
An interesting essay -- rant? manifesto? editorial? post? -- about turning ourselves into brands. Most online marketing types think that this is how you succeed as an artist (or whatever). Branding, branding, branding! Sell yourself! All. The. Time! But this writer disagrees. Many of you might pull something from all this. Or not. Presented without further comment: http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com/2010/06/08/manifesto/
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Yet Another Reason I Will Never Sign Up For Facebook	[May. 5th, 2010\|09:52 am] Dr. Atomic
FROM BOING BOING (boingboing.net) Six reasons to hate Facebook's new anti-privacy system, "Connections" Cory Doctorow at 10:12 PM Tuesday Wondering exactly why people are so pissed about Facebook's latest display of contempt for user privacy? The Electronic Frontier Frontier Foundation's Kurt Opsahl has a good, short article explaining just what's going on with the new "Connections" anti-feature: 1. Facebook will not let you share any of this information without using Connections. You cannot opt-out of Connections. If you refuse to play ball, Facebook will remove all unlinked information from your profile. 2. Facebook will not respect your old privacy settings in this transition. For example, if you had previously sought to share your Interests with "Only Friends," Facebook will now ignore this and share your Connections with "Everyone." 3. Facebook has removed your ability to restrict its use of this information. The new privacy controls only affect your information's "Visibility," not whether it is "publicly available." Explaining what "publicly available" means, Facebook writes: "Such information may, for example, be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), be indexed by third party search engines, and be imported, exported, distributed, and redistributed by us and others without privacy limitations." 4. Facebook will continue to store and use your Connections even after you delete them. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they're not there. Even after you "delete" profile information, Facebook will remember it. We've also received reports that Facebook continues to use deleted profile information to help people find you through Facebook's search engine. 5. Facebook sometimes creates a Connection when you "Like" something. That "Like" button you see all over Facebook, and now all over the web? It too can sometimes add a Connection to your profile, without you even knowing it. 6. Facebook sometimes creates a Connection when you post to your wall. If you use the name of a Connection in a post on your wall, it may show up on the Connection Page, without you even knowing it. (For example, if you use the word "FBI" in a post). I confess that I haven't paid much attention to this. It came up while I was on holidays, and I hate Facebook and never use it (I have a profile, but haven't logged in for years). But holy crap, that is the most reprehensible bit of corporate awfulness I've seen in months.
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My Other Blog!	[Aug. 9th, 2009\|12:02 am] Dr. Atomic
For those who are interested in reading my vintage toy blog, Doc Atomic's Attic of Astounding Artifacts (astoundingartifacts.blogspot.com), but are too lazy to actually click over to it because it's not part of the Live Journal universe, your prayers have been answered! Yes, it's now being syndicated on LJ, which means you can add it as a friend and peruse it to your heart's delight. Simply add doc_atomic to your friends list -- or whatever other methods you might have of collecting LJ posts -- and enjoy. For some reason, it doesn't seem to syndicate the entire blog... Nothing earlier than a particular day is showing up. For that reason, to read some of the best entries, you're still going to have to head on over the the actual site. Sorry, but if you want your toy porn, you're going to have to work for it.
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Goodnight, Anchorman.	[Jul. 18th, 2009\|10:15 am] Dr. Atomic
Died. Walter Cronkite, 92. Probably one of the two most important television newsmen in America. (The other being Edward R. Murrow.) As the host of CBS Evening News, he covered the Kennedy assassination, the moon landing, the MLK assassination, endless presidential elections, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and pretty much every other important event from the Forties through the Seventies. Was popularly known as "The Most Trusted Man in America"; I believe it. I'd call it the end of an era, but that era ended a long time ago.
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(no subject)	[Jun. 15th, 2009\|03:28 am] Dr. Atomic
Hey, all. For reasons unknown even to me, I started a new blog over at Blogger. It's toy-related ONLY. Vintage robots, ray guns, etc. It's my goal to update it daily. Why? Because... um... hm. Actually, I have no fucking idea. But at 3:29 in the a.m. it seems like a really good idea. <a href="http://astoundingartifacts.blogspot.com">astoundingartifacts.blogspot.com</a> So feel free to take a visit if you're bored. Make me a blogging sensation. Or something.
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(no subject)	[Jun. 5th, 2009\|02:12 pm] Dr. Atomic
Drag Me To Hell. I really liked it. I'm not a huge fan of horror movies, but this... It's just hard to call it a horror movie. It's like a Tales From The Crypt comic or something. It's got a fair share of stuff jumping out at you, but it's also smart, funny, clever, tightly constructed and perfectly shot. Anyone who appreciates Sam Raimi's early films -- Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness in particular -- will love Drag Me To Hell. Is it scary? It's got its moments, but they don't linger. "Boo!" and then it moves on. Still, if you hate horror movies, you're not going to have a lot of fun. If you don't mind the frights but don't generally like the stories, you'll be pleased by this one, I think. There's not a lot of gore, either. There is, however, copious amounts of oral spewage... mostly various types of slime. Kind of gross, but laughably so. This isn't torture porn, not in the slightest. One small complaint, and I might as well warn you all now: no Bruce Campbell. Disappointing, but it's hardly fair to call it a black mark against the movie. Otherwise, I'd have to find fault in every movie that doesn't feature Bruce Campbell -- Godfather, 2001, Taxi Driver, etc. Any of those could be better with Campbell, so why single out Drag Me to Hell? I'm just letting y'all know not to bother looking for him. That said, fans of Raimi's other movies do get a nice amount of inside references. Thankfully, they're deftly deployed and not at all distracting. His car, of course, makes an early and lengthy appearance. (If that thing doesn't have its SAG card yet, I can't imagine what they're waiting for...) Anyway, it's over-the-top, it's fun, it's everything I want from a Sam Raimi movie. I loved Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2* (no comment on no. 3), but I wish he'd make more movies like this one. Smaller flicks like Drag Me to Hell really showcase his quirky artistic talents.*
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(no subject)	[Jun. 3rd, 2009\|09:41 pm] Dr. Atomic
Happy birthday ladyangel!
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(no subject)	[Feb. 10th, 2009\|01:20 pm] Dr. Atomic
Attention Citizens (of this or any other planet)! Atomic Box will be celebrating Valentines Day by conducting an experiment on the attendees of Katsucon 15 in Washington D.C. While the parameters of the experiment demand, as always, an utmost level of paranoid secrecy, public disclosure laws -- as well as the safety of our gene pool -- require me to say that tentacles, broad-spectrum radiation, and at least one egg beater will be involved. That said, we invite you all to participate in what will definitely be an almost completely painless procedure, and a really good time that you'll be proud to tell your grandkids about. However gigantic, multi-limbed, and radioactive they may be.
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(no subject)	[Dec. 19th, 2008\|01:10 pm] Dr. Atomic
Color junkies, I need your help! I'm thinking of painting my toy room. One wall is made of dark bricks -- ranging from a very "typical" brick red to almost brown -- and I'm not sure what would best compliment it. I like cooler colors, generally speaking, and I'd rather stay away from reds and oranges, if possible. I've been thinking a sort of light blue -- cyan-ish -- since I know that goes well with dark brown, chocolate-y tones, but beyond that, I'm sort of at a loss. I definitely don't want anything too bold or garish -- it's a room full of toys, and they're bold and garish enough as it is. I'd like a color that works well as a background. I'm avoiding white because it's just a little more stark than I'd like. I'm trying to take a step or two back from the whole museum thing that's sort of going on already.... Thoughts?
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(no subject)	[Dec. 14th, 2008\|12:34 pm] Dr. Atomic
A friend and I created a calendar for 2009 featuring a bunch of ray guns. Geek porn at its finest. Anyway, if anyone's interested, check out the completely plain web site at www.atomicarmory.com. The calendar is actually a teaser for a larger ray-gun related project we're currently working on for 2009. Sort of a slimmed down proof of concept kind of thing. It's all being printed by Lulu.com (unless something better comes along), a mostly-cool site that also provides a means to sell various print projects. It's got a few issues, but I'm pretty happy with it so far. Anyway, yeah. Just in time for the new year.
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