Got "Our" War On
So we bombed Baghdad early their morning. And I think I now realize the source of part of the malaise I felt earlier this week. It's war. A war that much of America doesn't support, that much of the rest of the world doesn't support, that the "leaders" of America are waging in our name regardless.

I felt this way back when the Gulf War was just getting started, and I was hanging out with Jodie and stressing over whether I'd be drafted. At the time, there was no draft, but I'd researched conscientious objection and talked with friends in Canada just in case I needed an out. I also felt this way just after Sept. 11, having left work early to eat takeout pizza with Sarah and Paul -- and debate whether we should watch the news coverage or change the channel to something less real. I felt this way days later sitting upstairs at Charlie's Kitchen, almost crying into a beer as the import of what had really happened really hit me. (That night, I actually left without paying my bill. I mailed the restaurant a check for $9 because I wasn't able to get back before leaving for the 2001 CoF Roadshow. I've never ditched a bill before. Or since.)

And I feel this way now. It's a slightly different feeling because so much of the country's population isn't with Bush on this one. But it's frustrating to think that this is happening in America's name without the full support of America. We do this to ourselves. And the sociologist in me is curious. What impact does war have on the mood and emotions of the populace? Is there a war-time depression?

A lot of research has been done on war's impact on soldiers and veterans -- shell shock, post-traumatic stress disorder -- but what of those who don't fight but still bear the psychological brunt of the fighting? Researchers have considered how the threat of war affects Iraqi children. Clinical psychologists offer advice on reacting to terrorist attacks on our soil. Economists analyze how war can influence economic activity. And experts line up to comment on the psychological effects of war.

But what about me? That's all a bit macro; let's go micro. Is war-time sadness and helplessness natural and normal? What toll does this take on us as military conflicts expand and continue?

How does this make you feel?

Technofetishism XXVIII
Mystery solved! What I thought was a smudge on my PowerBook screen -- and which I've tried to clean off to no avail using the iKlear Apple Polish Kit -- is in fact the luminous Apple on the lid of my laptop shining through the display. It's only visible when the sun is shining on the flip top of my PowerBook, and it's good to know that my laptop display doesn't have a permanent smudge worked into the screen. Mystery solved!

Corollary: Magazine Me XXV
The 2003 National Magazine Awards finalists have now been officially announced. The full list is now available.

The Free-Range Comic Book Project II
This is an installment of Media Diet's Free-Range Comic Book Project.

Accelerate #1 (DC/Vertigo, August 2000). Writer: Richard Kadrey. Artists: The Pander Bros. Location: A bench in front of Pagliuca's.

For more information on this project, please refer to this Media Diet entry.

Event-O-Dex XLIII
There's a Blog Meetup that I can't make tonight, but it's exactly one week before the No. 1 Fun Boston Blog Bash that I'm organizing, it's a good time for a reminder. Media Dieticians everywhere are invited.

Nervy, Pervy XII
My Suicide Girls membership has been deactivated. When I went to log in and catch up on the discussions last night, my username wasn't recognized. When I entered my email address to make sure I was using the right password, I was informed that I wasn't a member. So I emailed the customer service address. This is what I got in response:

i don't know what's up, i'm just a customer support lackey. you probably said something lame on the boards or something. sorry! happy trails.

So I emailed Spooky directly, and this is what's going on:

According to our records your last transaction did not go through at iBill, our old payment processor, due to a technical error on their part. If you would like to reactivate your account, simply go to join page and use the reactivation box to turn your account back on. In the future you will be billed directly by us, and these sort of errors should not repeat themselves.

I apologize for the inconvenience, and hope you decide to remain a member of suicidegirls.

Phew! I was wondering what I might have said or done that would prompt an arbitrary deactivation, but it seems that SG is moving its billing in house -- and that the transition hasn't gone as well as it could have. For a minute, my conspiracy-filled mind was doing cartwheels.

Magazine Me XXV
Judges for the American Society of Magazine Editors' National Magazine Awards gathered yesterday to select the finalists. To be announced later today, here are most of the finalists, hastily scribbled down during the judging:

General Excellence: Under 100,000

American Scholar

Chronicle of Higher Education

Foreign Policy

JD Jungle

STEP Inside Design

General Excellence: 100-250,000

Architectural Record

Harper's

Mother Jones

Nylon

[One more]

General Excellence: 250-500,000

National Geographic

Saveur

Skiing

W

[One more]

General Excellence: 500-1,000,000

Atlantic Monthly

Conde Nast Traveler

Esquire

House and Garden

New Yorker

General Excellence: 1-2,000,000

Entertainment Weekly

ESPN

Fortune

Real Simple

Vanity Fair

Discover

General Excellence: 2 million and up

Newsweek

O

Parenting

Sports Illustrated

[One more]

Web Site

Chronicle of Higher Education

National Geographic

Slate

Style.com

[One more]

Personal Service

Business Week

Money

My Generation

Newsweek

Outside

Reporting

Atlantic Monthly

Newsweek

New Yorker

Sports Illustrated

Public Interest

Golf for Women

Texas Monthly

Newsweek

National Review

Harper's

Atlantic Monthly

Feature Writing

GQ

New Yorker

Harper's

Men's Journal

Outside

Columns/Commentary

Fortune

The Nation

New York

New Yorker

Vanity Fair

Essays

American Scholar

Atlantic Monthly

New Yorker

Self

Vanity Fair

Reviews/Criticism

Atlantic Monthly

Harper's

New Yorker

Vanity Fair

Profiles

Atlantic Monthly

GQ

Harper's

Outside

Sports Illustrated

Photos

Conde Nast Traveler

Elegant Bride [?]

National Geographic

Vanity Fair

[One more]

Design

Details

Dwell

Esquire

Nest

Surface

Single Topic

GQ

Popular Science

Scientific American

Tech Review

Texas Monthly

Fiction

Book

Georgia Review

New Yorker

Leisure Interests

Esquire

Sports Illustrated

Vogue

National Geographic Adventure

Time Out New York

Tele-Phony III
Two cell phone models manufactured by Siemens can be disabled if the user opens a text message containing specific language. The two models affected are sold only in Europe.

The e-mails contain a single word, taken from the phone's language menu, surrounded by quote marks and preceded by an asterisk, such as "*English" or "*Deutsch," Siemens said.

This makes me wonder whether all cell phones have such back doors or ways phone makers, government and law officials, or other people can deactivate or limit our access to and use of our cell phones. Paranoid? Sure feels like it.

Thanks to Lost Remote.

Business Media Reportage Goes Bust, Now Boom? IV
BusinessWeek's working on a "dramatic" redesign that could hit the stands as early as this summer.

"It has a lot more pop," said one person who has seen the work. "It gets rid of the spindly, spinster look."

Hmm. I can barely wade through the thing every week. Maybe this'll help!

Thanks to Jim Romenesko's Media News.

Event-O-Dex XLII
What is up with March 29 this year? Regardless of where you might find yourself, chances are good that there's a good independent media gathering afoot. Here are just a few:

Boston: Beantown Zinetown 6

San Francisco: 8th Annual Anarchist Book Fair

Toronto: Toronto Comic Arts Festival

Sheesh. Do I stay home? No. I'll be heading up to Toronto to hang out with Jim Munroe of No Media Kings and to check out the fest. The Highwater Books hoi polloi -- Marc Bell, Tom Devlin, Megan Kelso, Brian Ralph, and Ron Rege, Jr. -- will also be present. Should be a fun time. Perhaps I'll even blog it like I did SXSW.

Among the Literati XXVIII
Jeffrey LeRoy Boison recently stepped down as editor of the hip-lit journal Pindeldyboz "to raise his heir so that the Boison name might someday rule all of the earth." Whitney Pastorek will replace him as editor. Big shoes to fill, given that Boison founded Pindeldyboz and all. Best of luck, Whittlz!

Workaday World XXIII
With the overcast skies and turn toward the cold in Boss Town today, I was feeling pretty down and mopey earlier today. I was feeling sad, even. Then I talked with Seth Godin on the phone for awhile, and our conversation picked me right up. New directions, new ideas, new people. I've got my twitch on again. Woohoo!