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	the stuff inside my head that must get out archives 2008 june may april march february january 2007 december november october september august july june may april march february january 2006 december november october september august july june may april march february january 2005 december november october september august july june may april march february january 2004 december november october september august july june may april march february january 2003 december november october september august july june may april 2002	Mon, 27 Aug 2007 DIY shrinky dinks Remember Shrinky-Dinks? I sure do. Now you can make your own using little more than some markers and an old salad container from the deli. Just make sure it has a little number 6 in the recyling logo and you're good to go! Color and pop in a 350 degree oven for about 10 seconds. Voila! [/topics] permanent link Fri, 24 Aug 2007 virtual graffiti View Larger Map It looks like my days of feeling special for being able to make my own custom google maps are over. Now it's as easy to embed custom maps on a page as it is to embed a YouTube video. I'm pretty happy, but I'm also a little surprised it wasn't this easy from the very beginning. This is just the latest in a steady stream of improvements to Google's already impressive mapping system. I think I'll be using this new feature to do some map posts exploring comic shop penetration in the bay area. I really think there are good opportunities to open new shops, and I'll be blogging a bit about that. [/topics/tech] permanent link Wed, 22 Aug 2007 Forbidden Lego I can't wait for Forbidden Lego, the book of secret, unendorsed Lego contraptions made by Lego Masters. Diagrams and instruction for building a toy gun that shoots LEGO plates, a candy catapult, a high voltage LEGO vehicle, a continuous-fire ping-pong ball launcher, and other kooky stuff your mom wouldn't want you to make. The official website has a sample diagram and the complete table of contents. This one looks like a winner, and we'll be carrying it for sure! [/topics/etc] permanent link McCloud Clan wrap-up A terrific time was had by all at our Scott McCloud appearance. Wine flowed and much cheese was eaten. There are very few pictures yet, as I was pretty busy with my hostmaster general duties, but I'm sure a few will pop up. For documentary evidence of a different sort, try this blog entry by Hijinx irregular, and all around good egg, Matt Doar. Try to contain your excitement as you read his other blog entries about bug tracking, build configuration and source code control. Riveting stuff! You may also be interested in reading this blog entry from the official Making Comics tour blog. Nice things are said about the store and the event, and I'd have to say it was one of the nicest events we've ever had in the store. [/topics/store] permanent link Thu, 16 Aug 2007 Rube Goldberg Most people have heard of a Rube Goldberg device, but most probably don't know who the man was. Rube was not an inventor, he was a cartoonist whose pictures of insanely complicated devices for accomplishing mundane tasks were popular in the early 20th century. He was a bay area guy, hailing from SF and trained as an engineer at UC Berkeley. He drew lots of comics for different publications until he finally came up with a character called Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts who created the absurd contraptions of which Goldberg is best know for. The video I've embedded above is from a Japanese TV show that created a bunch of Goldberg-style devices and set them in motion. Enjoy! [/topics/arts/comics] permanent link What's the best comic shop in Silicon valley? If you're already shopping at Hijinx you know the answer to that question! Share your knowledge with the world by filling out the Metro best of Silicon Valley survey, or by grabbing a copy of the paper and filling out a ballot by snail mail. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, but to not share your love of Hijinx with the world would practically be a crime against humanity. Won't someone please think of the children! [/topics/store] permanent link Wed, 15 Aug 2007 King of Kong One of my customers (who just so happens to be the world's foremost authority on Qbert) told me about this great documentary he saw this weekend at the California Extreme classic video game convention. He said it was awesome, and if this trailer is any indication, he's right! [/topics/games] permanent link a bit o' my childhood For some reason when I think of my childhood a few different candies spring to mind: Junior Mints, Charleston Chew (frozen), and my favorite Bit O' Honey. My mom would sometime put a couple of pieces in with my lunch and it would take most of my time just to eat it. The link leads to a recent review on the Candy Blog that really sums up the appeal of this confection, and also talks about some forgotten history. I never knew there was a Bit-o-Choc and even a Bit-o-Coconut. I'd love to try them! [/topics/etc] permanent link Mon, 06 Aug 2007 Top 20 selling comics the for the week of August 1, 2007 Any week with Dark Tower and World War Hulk means big sales here at Hijinx and this week was no exception. Countdown dropped to #3 thanks to big sales by everybody's favorite thunder god, the Mighty Thor. My favorite comic of the week was probably New Avengers Illuminati #4, but it's much harder to pick my least favorite. It's a toss up between the equally lame and superfluous titles: Spider-Man Meets Red Sonja and Marvel Tarot. Marvel Tarot gets the edge as it's not really a comic at all. WORLD WAR HULK #3 THOR #2 COUNTDOWN #51 UNCANNY X-MEN #489 DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER BORN #7 NEW AVENGERS ILLUMINATI #4 JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #8 FANTASTIC FOUR #548 DETECTIVE COMICS #835 NEW WARRIORS #3 NIGHTWING #135 MS MARVEL #18 ACTION COMICS #853 PUNISHER #50 SUPERGIRL #20 SHE-HULK 2 #20 BLACK CANARY #3 OUTSIDERS FIVE OF A KIND WEEK 1 NIGHTWING BOOMERANG #0 JONAH HEX #22 SPIDER-MAN RED SONJA #1 [/topics/store/top20] permanent link winning is fun Each of those little red plates equals $5000 worth of chips. Unfortunately they don't equal that in real money. At least not American money. It's not as cool if each one is only worth 5000 pesos... [/topics/games] permanent link Fri, 03 Aug 2007 Hijinx hype machine gears up Those of us lucky enough to live in Willow Glen woke up to see an angry looking me threatening them with physical harm from the front page of this week's Willow Glen Resident. Inside there's a nice long article about the state of the comics industry and lots of pictures of the store including this one of Hijinx Wednesday regular Torrance "Huge Hands" Philips: [/topics/store] permanent link Wed, 01 Aug 2007 Top 20 bestselling graphic novels for July 2007 As predicted, Bookhunter has surged up the charts to become the #1 bestselling trade at Hijinx by a wide margin. It's always nice when customers listen to your suggestions, but it's even better when they come back an talk about what a good suggestion it was. The Watchmen made an appearance pretty high on the list as the movie hype is starting to kick in. It still amazes me that any comics reader hasn't read it a long time ago, but it just goes to show how much potential for sales the comics market has. It looks like the final Ultimates 2 volume spurred sales of the earlier books, which is always nice. I'd like to see another hardcover collecting the last 2 trades or even an omnibus collecting the whole magilla. That would be awesome and I'll bet I could sell more than just a few of them. BOOKHUNTER CIVIL WAR TP ULTIMATES 2 VOL 2 TP WATCHMEN CLONE WARS ADVENTURES, VOL. 2 CLONE WARS ADVENTURES, VOL. 3 STAR WARS CLONE WARS ADVENTURES VOL 5 TP ULTIMATES 2 VOL 1 GODS AND MONSTERS CLONE WARS ADVENTURES, VOL. 1 FRAY MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN VOL 5 DIGEST TP ULTIMATES VOL 2 HOMELAND SECURITY TP DEATH NOTE, VOL. 1 FABLES VOL. 9: SONS OF EMPIRE TP SERENITY TP CIVIL WAR ROAD TO CIVIL WAR TP ANNIHILATION BOOK 3 HC 52 VOL 2 TP SHENZHEN: A TRAVELOGUE FROM CHINA MOUSE GUARD VOL 1 FALL 1152 HC [/topics/store/top20] permanent link