Unpublished Steinbeck manuscripts found

Very cool!

LOS ANGELES - A handwritten draft of John Steinbeck's novel "Sweet Thursday," along with an unpublished story and other works, will be auctioned by a writer who says they were sitting in a closet for 50 years.

Read the story here.

Grim thoughts

Mark told me today that Johnnie Cochran died in 2005. Somehow I missed that, maybe because you can still see commercials for his law firm on local L.A. TV?

But it made me think: aren't there people out there older than dirt? These are people I am surprised are still alive:

The Queen
Fidel Castro
Charlton Heston
Ted Kennedy
I'm sure there's more...

Adobe's "myFeedz" site

A co-worker just informed me about this... Adobe has a test product it calls "myFeedz". The use of "z" in place of "s" aside, this thing is cool.

It's what they call a "social newspaper" - you set up a free account, pick the topics you are interested in (by selecting "tags" - and they give you some suggestions to get going), and then the site searches through hundreds of thousands of articles and creates for you a list of the most recent, and most widely-read articles with those tags.

I love Digg, but this is like Digg, Bexy Style. Awesome.

Googling gone awry

Does this ever happen to you? You are searching for something innocuous and end up finding something like this?

The Queen

Queen Elizabeth II is visiting Virginia this week in honor of the 400-year anniversary of the Jamestown colony. The story of Pocahontas was depicted in The New World, and while the film was probably the most beautiful reel of celluloid ever, it doesn't stick to the facts. For instance, it's believed that Pocahontas was anywhere between 8 and 12 years old when John Smith arrived, so the idea that they fell in love is, well, wrong in so many ways.

"A Greener Apple"

Steve Jobs posted a letter addressing Apple's efforts to be an environmentally-responsible company today.

The company has come under attack from environmentalists (they always picket MacWorld) but it seems their record is better than you might think. Regardless, I'm glad there's enough pressure on companies to be thinking about this issue.

My obligatory post about 24

OK, so I'm a huge fan of this show, and I absolutely loved the 5th season (maybe it was my favorite). Despite my better judgment, and the fact that I don't buy into the fear b.s. that the government tries to sell us all the time, this show is still highly entertaining and Jack Bauer is a total badass.

But the current season totally blows. It's so sad. I thought the 3rd season with Boobs Bauer caught in a bear trap was bad, but by far the 6th season is the worst.

Here's a suggestion from a poster on Ain't it Cool News (the typos are his):

BRING BACK ZOMBIE ALMEDIA!
by LordEnigma
This would be the only thing to fix this season. We cant even get more than three episodes of hip and happenin JACK SACK ACTION! Something big has to happen this season because it comes across as all SET-UP! This whole f*****g year is a set-up to something else. What could it f*****g be? What the f**k else could this show pull out of it's ass? Nevertheless, the writers of this show better be happy that everyone has decided to kick LOST around this year. If not, then, they would have to deal with people giving them sh*t for 24 episodes of F*****G EXPOSITION!

Here, here, brother!

X-Files 2

OK, so for years now there have been rumors circulating that there will be a sequel to the X-Files movie, that all parties are on board... Recently, some cynics have theorized that Mulder and Scully bring up this potential project only around the time that they are promoting their other projects. That they are lying about the project and using it as a ploy to get attention. I hope not.

But there are also a lot of rumors about how much they disliked each other on the set, and how they hated the experience, etc. Scully recently posted a message on her website addressing this, and made an interesting comment (please note the text I bolded and italicized below:

The series went on for a long time - longer than any of us had anticipated or some of us had wished. It was the hardest work I will ever do in my life. I hope for the sake of my children and my sanity that I never have to work that hard again.

Did I hate it? At times yes.

Did I love it? At times yes.

Did I regret it or do I regret it now? Not for a second.

Did David and I hate each other? At times yes like any brother and sister, husband and wife, co-worker and co-worker forced to spend that much time together under such strenuous circumstances.

Do we hate each other now? Not in the least.

Do I imagine that when we do the film together we won't hate each other for a few hours during the filming? No. We will. Vehemently. As David waits patiently, again and again for the hair dryer to calm my frizzy hair between takes so it matches the beginning of the scene... he will undoubtedly be thinking "what the hell was I thinking agreeing to shoot with her f****** frizzy hair again?"

But we will also love each other and laugh with each other and pull pranks on each other and bug each other like we did for nine years.

And that's that.

If this thing ever hits theaters, we will have to all meet up in some city and see it together, yes?