Having one of those classic family emergencies and won’t be back till… not sure yet.
Updated July 16@9:06 a.m.: Things are still on the crazy side and I’m not fully back yet, but starting tomorrow I’ll be posting again regularly.

George Carlin died last night due to heart failure. He was 71.

On campus for iTunes all day Monday and Tuesday.

The dislike for Dan DiDio is so strong that now film industry people are reporting on it!

The problem isn’t just that, under DiDio’s leadership, fanboys are disappointed with the directions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and other characters. (How dopey of DiDio to come out with a new series Decisions this September where the superheroes take political stands timed to the election.) Little wonder that fanboys are selling “Dan DiDio Must Die” t-shirts. But also average sales of the DCU line are down more than 20% from a year ago, and DiDio has lost a big chunk of existing readers in a year while deliberately failing to reach out to new ones.

Damn. Steve Carell’s “Get Smart” obliterated Mike Meyer’s “Love Guru.” The former is expected to break $40 million for the weekend hull while the later is going to make around $14. I blame it Carell for being so awesome and on Meyers being such a diva.

Here is the third PSA I did at work this week. If you missed the first & second you can find them here and here.

I just discovered that for some reason I’ve not been getting comments emailed to me. So for all of you who have left comments in the past 3-5 weeks, I’m seriously sorry. The problem has been fixed and I’ll once again be responding to comments.

Even though there was nothing juciy in it, I still got really excited when I saw that I had an email from the Dharma Initiative:

Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of the Dharma Initiative, would like to thank you for registering your expression of interest in our latest volunteer recruitment drive.

We will be launching in San Diego on July 24th at Comic-Con International offering select registrants the opportunity to take an exciting aptitude test that will give applicants the chance to demonstrate their unique talents.

The Dharma Initiative hopes you will be able to join us to find out more about their ground-breaking new research project. We will contact you closer to the date with more information.

For those not able to join us in San Diego, Dharma’s full recruitment program will be made available online to registered recruits after July 27th.

Madchen Amich, who was on “Gilmore Girls” (she played Chris’ baby’s Mama for two seasons), is joining “Gossip Girl.” She’ll play a cougar for at least five episodes and will be a love interest for Nate.

Even though he’s on hiatus while switching from TV Guide to EW, Ausiello is still dishing out the scoops:

My increasingly itchy moles report that Sam Witwer, best known to Battlestar Galactica fans as ex-Raptor ECO Alex “Crashdown” Quartararo, has been tapped to play the series regular role of Doomsday. Additionally, relative newcomer Cassidy Freeman is joining the cast as Tess, a sexy and vengeful firecracker with whom Lex hires to run his empire in his absence. Ironically, the actress’ most recent credit was the failed CW pilot Austin Golden Hour — starring none other than Green Arrow himself, Justin Hartley (who’s back on Smallville full time next season).

Finally got some time to play “Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.” Basically the game has two major problems. The first is that it is way too simple for an RPG and lacks no depth. I mean second to story, depth/customization is the most important part of an RPG. I’m shocked this was so basic.

The second problem is that if you are normal and don’t own an HD TV then the font is too small/blurry to read. This problem has basically made the game unplayable. I can’t read the dialog or narration boxes and as a result I’m missing all the humor (which is the best part of the game).

Wow. EA produced a really crappy “Princess Bride” game. It’s downloadable (for a fee of course) and seems to have been made for a two year old.

Here is the second PSA I did at work this week.

J.J. Abrams is now producing a movie about the topic of this article. Basically some crazy NY architect designed an apartment ala’ Da Vinci Code/National Treasure with secret panels, clues, furniture, walls, and the works.

But some of that furniture and some of those walls conceal secrets — messages, games and treasures — that make up a Rube Goldberg maze of systems and contraptions conceived by a young architectural designer named Eric Clough, whose ideas about space and domestic living derive more from Buckminster Fuller than Peter Marino.

Looking for something to watch with the lack of TV? Then try out “Burn Notice” on Hulu. The whole first season is online for free and now is a great time to get caught up before the second season starts.