That would be the names of the various work clients that are reminding me why I hate Wall Street (the metaphorical concept, and the actual street just around the corner) with the intensity of a thousand exploding suns. Plus, if you say their names three times, they appear to kill you. Or I get fired. Whichever, not on my to-do list for today. Instead, how about some holiday cheer?

• A followup on last month’s mention of Patrick Rothfuss and the Worldbuilders charity — in his blog, Rothfuss takes a look at the webcomics items that have been donated to help entice you (yes, you!) to support Heifer, International. Lotsa books, and even a couple of in-strip guest appearances up for grabs.
• Know what I could do with right about now? A damn good party, filled with laughter and joy and comics for me to take home and a tall, ruggedly handsome Canadian dude. As long as I’m on the record, I also always wanted a pony, but that hasn’t shown up yet. But the first one remains a possibility, at least for those of you in the Greater Toronto Metrosphere, as one of the great North American comics shops (that would be The Beguiling), run by one of the great North American comics proprietors (that would be TCAF organizer Christopher Butcher) is hosting a book launch for one of the great North American webcomics creators (that would be Ryan North).

  Dinosaur Comics: Dudes Already Know About Chickens will get the fun-times treatment on Tuesday, 21 Dec at 7:30pm (doors 7:00) at Pauper’s Pub, 539 Bloor St West in Toronto. You can even participate in a Secret Santa gift exchange if you like! It’s a Tuesday so I can’t make it (EMS duty, dang), but otherwise nothing would keep from the transnational fun in RYANTOWNE.

• Recently released news from the Stumptown organizers (specifically, showrunner Indigo Kelleigh) that dropped today — table confirmations are going out soon, and there’s a new process you need to know about:
  

  As the Stumptown Comics Fest has grown over the past seven years, demand for space on our exhibitor floor has skyrocketed well beyond our capacity. For the 2010 Fest we managed to fill our 130 exhibitor tables in a three week period, and were left with a sizable waiting list. Moving to a larger venue for 2011 was intended to alleviate some of that problem, but the community’s demand to be a part of the Fest exceeded our expectations, and we are again looking at having a waiting list of over 100 applicants. There is simply no fair way to decide who will get space and who won’t, and so in an effort to maintain the high caliber of exhibitors that people have come to expect from Stumptown, I have decided to curate the exhibition space.

  That’s maybe not the understanding people had when they applied for space, but perfectly reasonable from my point of view. The small-to-midsize shows that prove most successful for creators are all seeing a demand that requires they be selective about who gets in, and finding a good match between exhibitors is arguably preferable to making it a random collection of whoever got the earliest postmarks or timestamps.

  Having corresponded with Kelleigh a bit in the past, I’m confident that in trying to make the show better for exhibitors and attendees, he’s likely made his own job much more difficult, as he’s the sort of guy to agonize over what now needs to be a judgment of relative worth. He’s going to look at work in depth, trying to find the very best representatives he can in the applicants, and not making the cut isn’t him telling you that you suck. He just found somebody else that fit in place better. With the increase in floor space for 2012, hopefully the decisions will be less wrenching for Kelleigh and his staff.