Well, folk of the blog, I have some comics sitting around that I happened to receive in the mail, yet I already owned them. Now I have two copies. So why don’t I give them away?

As you may know from contests I have run in the past, I love presenting panels and having you guess from which comics they come. Some people have bashed me for it, but there’s a reason I do it: It takes the subjective out of it. If I ask you to do something where I have to judge your entries, there’s too much subjectivity in it. If I ask you to identify panels, you really can’t argue with the answers - you either get it right or not! And, to be fair, for this contest, it’s usually a page that you have to identify, and definitely more than one panel, so there’s that. Let’s take a look at what you can win:

Aces: Curse of the Red Baron by Shannon Eric Denton, G. Willow Wilson, and Curtis Square-Briggs. This is an action-adventure story set during World War I that goes weirdly off the rails at the end, but you might like it!

Awesome: The Indie Spinner Rack Anthology. Lots of weird short stories by dozens of independent creators. It’s published by Evil Twin Comics, so you know it’s quality!

The Black Diamond by Larry Young and Jon Proctor. Larry’s homage to 1970s car-centered action movies is gleefully goofy, and while Proctor’s art is occasionally stiff, it gets better as it goes along and the coloring makes it pop off the page.

Dugout by Adam Beechen and Manny Bello. This is the tale of a manager of a bad baseball team and the lengths he’ll go to in order to get his star pitcher out of prison. A nice, twisty story.

Captain Stoneheart and the Truth Fairy by Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo. This is a big-ass hardcover version of Elephantmen #7. Richard Starkings gave it to me at San Diego, and while I want to keep it because it’s a nice huge thing, I do already have it, so I ought to share it!

Elephantmen: War Toys by Richard Starkings and Moritat. This is the trade that tells of the war that shadows the elephantmen in the present. It’s stunning - one of the best “mini-series” of the year (I put that in quotes because the regular book went on hiatus while this was being published, and it could easily fit into the regular title).

Holmes: Haydn’s Head by Omaha Perez. Perez, who seems normal enough, retells a Sherlock Holmes story as a wild acid trip through some ridiculous situations. It’s Holmes as a Mad magazine feature, and works quite well.

The Middleman: The Collected Series Indispensability by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine. This collects every Middleman series and the original graphic novel. Grillo-Marxuach was nice enough to give me a copy, so I have an extra one. Yes, I ordered it even though I own every issue of The Middleman already. I don’t care! It’s a wonderful comic book. Join the Middlecult!

Strange Embrace by David Hine. This is another monster hardcover that Starkings gave to me, and another one I’m tempted to keep. I’m sure it looks fantastic (it’s wrapped in plastic, so I haven’t looked at it). But I do have the issues, so I’ll pass it on to a lucky winner. It’s a creepy horror comic that is a tad predictable, but scary nevertheless.

Yes, that’s NINE comics you can win! Okay, not one person, because we’ll have three winners. The winner will get their choice of five (5) comics, the second-place finisher will choose three (3), and the third-place finisher will get the one that’s left. That’s fair, isn’t it? ISN’T IT??????

So here are the rules, if you’ve never done this before. I show you panels from comic books. You tell me the title of the book, the issue number, the writer, and the penciller (I won’t ask for the inker, because that’s a bit too difficult). Each answer will get a point value. Thus:

The title of the book is worth one (1) point.
The issue number of the book is worth two (2) points.
The writer of the book is worth one (1) point. I should point out that some of these have two writers, usually a plotter and a scripter. You can give me only one, but if you give me both, I’ll give you a bonus point! How nice am I?
The penciller of the book is worth one (1) point.

The issue number is worth more because it’s harder to get the issue number. At least I think it is. It seems like it would be, because you can guess the others more easily. I could be wrong, but I’m sticking to the point system! So each panel is worth five (5) points. You can get a possible three hundred (300) points.

What’s that? You can do math? Does that mean that there are sixty (60) panels to identify? Mais oui! Isn’t that too hard? In the past, people have accused me of being a bit too obscure with these. So I put more panels in this contest, but tried to address that criticism. Therefore, every panel below is from a Marvel or DC book. Nothing too weird. In fact, every page below is from a Marvel or DC book that, when it was published, had nothing but a DC or Marvel logo on it (I will say that I have no idea if the pages are still “in continuity,” but I can’t help that, can I?). That means no Vertigo, no MAX, no Elseworlds, no Icon, no Epic, no New Universe, no Milestone - only Marvel and DC, as mainstream as you can get! How easy is that????

Of course, I do try to trick you. I’m not going to make this too easy, after all. So I tried to find some obscure Marvel and DC books for you to identify. I’m not Greg Hatcher, though, so I often don’t have too many obscure comics, but I hope I did all right. But trust me - every comic below has only a DC or Marvel logo on the cover, and nothing else.

People who want to enter should send me an e-mail with their answers. Remember: Give me the name of the comic that appears on the cover of the book. Just because a famous character shows up in a panel, don’t just assume that name is on the front cover (in fact, it’s probably not going to be the case, although it might be!). And to those people who complained about this the last time I did it … well, is there any reason to do that? If you don’t want to enter, don’t enter. It’s all in fun!

I guess I’ll give you until the end of November to enter. That means you have until the Sunday after Thanksgiving, a little over a week. That’s enough time, right? I’ll remind you about it over the next week so you don’t forget. Last time I did this I got 12 entries. Let’s see if I can top that!

Okay, let’s check out the panels. Have oodles of fun with them! Click on them to make them bigger, because they’re kind of tough to read. Plus, it will help you gaze in wonder at the awesomeness!

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Have fun, everyone! Remember - you don’t have to answer them all, just beat everyone else! That’s easy, right?

p style="text-align: center;"a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-b_qjgenth.jpg?627400" rel="lightbox[article126579]" title="Resident 20Evil 205 20- 20Image 201 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-b.jpg 3F627400 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img alt="Resident Evil 5 - Image 1" title="Resident Evil 5 - Image 1" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-b_qjgenth.jpg?627400" align=""/abr/pbrIt's not as big a batch of screens a title="Resident Evil 5 screens: we got chainsaw-wielding Sackboys" href="http://www.qj.net/Resident-Evil-5-screens-we-got-chainsaw-wielding-Sackboys/pg/49/aid/126199"as last time/a, but hey, that's not stopping us from flying off the handle for span style="font-style: italic;"Resident Evil 5/span again - and just as some of you would have it, this batch of screens are indeed going batty. a href="http://ps3.qj.net/tags/zombie/5394" id="tag" title="an undead person"Zombie/a-batty, that is.brbrCheck out that huge mutated bat that's got whatsherface trapped. Reminds me of Saturday nights. Meanwhile, we see new screens of the same scenarios from before: a href="http://ps3.qj.net/tags/chris-redfield/15805" id="tag" title="Resident Evil protagonist"Chris Redfield/a sniping stuff from a balcony, more motorcycle-chasing, and another cameo of the Los Plagas Sackboy wielding a chainsaw.brbrp style="text-align: center;"a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-a_qjgenth.jpg?137552" rel="lightbox[article126579]" title="Resident 20Evil 205 20- 20Image 201 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-a.jpg 3F137552 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img alt="Resident Evil 5 - Image 1" title="Resident Evil 5 - Image 1" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-a_qjgenth.jpg?137552" align=""/anbsp;a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-c_qjgenth.jpg?354757" rel="lightbox[article126579]" title="Resident 20Evil 205 20- 20Image 202 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-c.jpg 3F354757 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img alt="Resident Evil 5 - Image 2" title="Resident Evil 5 - Image 2" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-c_qjgenth.jpg?354757" align=""/anbsp;a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-d_qjgenth.jpg?139720" rel="lightbox[article126579]" title="Resident 20Evil 205 20- 20Image 203 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-d.jpg 3F139720 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img alt="Resident Evil 5 - Image 3" title="Resident Evil 5 - Image 3" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-d_qjgenth.jpg?139720" align=""/abra href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-e_qjgenth.jpg?053467" rel="lightbox[article126579]" title="Resident 20Evil 205 20- 20Image 204 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-e.jpg 3F053467 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img alt="Resident Evil 5 - Image 4" title="Resident Evil 5 - Image 4" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-e_qjgenth.jpg?053467" align=""/anbsp;a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-f_qjgenth.jpg?483244" rel="lightbox[article126579]" title="Resident 20Evil 205 20- 20Image 205 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-f.jpg 3F483244 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img alt="Resident Evil 5 - Image 5" title="Resident Evil 5 - Image 5" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126579/resident-evil-5-f_qjgenth.jpg?483244" align=""/abr/pbra href="http://ps3.qj.net/tags/capcom/107" id="tag" title="Game Developer"Capcom/a's span style="font-style: italic;"Resident Evil 5/span for the a title="PS3 - Resident Evil 5" href="http://ps3.qj.net/Resident-Evil-5/cid/242"PS3/a and a title="Xbox 360 - Resident Evil 5" href="http://xbox360.qj.net/Resident-Evil-5/cid/531"Xbox 360/a is to be released on March 13.brbrhr style="width: 100 ; height: 2px;"brspan style="font-weight: bold;"Related articles:/spanbrullia style="font-style: italic;" title="Resident Evil 5 screens: we got chainsaw-wielding Sackboys" href="http://www.qj.net/Resident-Evil-5-screens-we-got-chainsaw-wielding-Sackboys/pg/49/aid/126199"Resident Evil 5 screens: we got chainsaw-wielding Sackboys/abr/li/ulbrbrimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/qj/ps3/~4/IARZ7CuwaX0" height="1" width="1"/

div style="margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 10px;"posted by Neil/div a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6L1zPW0YW7k/SSdHmeCUOwI/AAAAAAAAL9c/6ucLxvezjQQ/s1600-h/Coraline-movie-poster.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6L1zPW0YW7k/SSdHmeCUOwI/AAAAAAAAL9c/6ucLxvezjQQ/s400/Coraline-movie-poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271260615083834114" border="0" //abr /There's an official CORALINE trailer out....br /br /object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nZI3X8advPYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nZI3X8advPYamp;hl=enamp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr /br /It's out in English, but this version of it is it in Italian. Because everything sounds better in Italian.br /br /A few of you have written in asking if I'd done an Alan Moore and taken my name off the film, or if I'd had a falling out with the studio, as my name isn't mentioned in this trailer, just Henry Selick's -- and no, not at all. Nobody's name except Henry's is mentioned in the trailer, and that has more to do with Focus wanting to make sure that if they invoked span style="font-style: italic;"The Nightmare Before Xmas/span, people wouldn't then assume this was a Tim Burton film, and go and see it -- or stay away -- based on that. (On the international poster -- above -- you won't find my namespan style="font-style: italic;" or /spanHenry's.) I suppose it's a marketing decision.br /br /I chatted to Henry today, and am really looking forward to seeing a finished film -- the last twenty minutes of the thing weren't done the last time I was sent anything. And it has music...br /br /Incidentally, thea href="http://www.amazon.com/Coraline-Movie-Collectors-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0061649708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8amp;s=booksamp;qid=1227317385amp;sr=1-1" Coraline Movie edition /ais now out, with an essay by me in the back, and another by Henry Selick...br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513N7j%2Bs8bL._SS500_.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 500px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513N7j%2Bs8bL._SS500_.jpg" alt="" border="0" //abr /br /I've now assembled the same list of passwords for the CORALINE website -- a href="http://www.coraline.com/"www.coraline.com/a -- that a href="http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/683120.html"everyone else with access to a search engine has/a:br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"stopmotion /span: the Biggest Smallest movie ever made.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"buttoneyes/span : Meet the cast...br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"moustachio /span: Bo Henry, art director of Coraline, shows off his remarkable moustache tricks.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"armpithair /span: Every hair in the film was placed there by hand...br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"puppetlove/span : Director Henry Selick explains what it must be like for the puppets in the film.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"sweaterxxs/span : Micro-knitting. That's right: micro-knitting./spanbr /br /...br /br /A small collection of MAD fold-ins are up at a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/28/arts/20080330_FOLD_IN_FEATURE.html"http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/28/arts/20080330_FOLD_IN_FEATURE.html/a. I cannot imagine a better time-waster than if someone were to put every span style="font-style: italic;"Mad/span Fold-in up on line. I could click my way through them forever...br /br /...br /br /I've started playing with the T-mobile G1. First reactions -- I like it, mostly. It feels good in your hand. It's reasonably intuitive. (Bizarrely, when it isn't intuitive and I've had to head into manual land, the phone's software and the PDF of the manual do not always agree with each other.) I've had fun making ring tones, creating galleries. The way that your contacts list is also your Gmail contacts is mostly terrific (although it won't let me create entries that have the same email address as someone already on the list).br /br /The things I don't like about it so far seem huge and obvious: no Blogger app (when there's a LiveJournal app and several others) seems a huge omission, seeing it's from Google; it can't read or open PDF files yet; you can send it pictures and watch them as a slideshow, but you can't save them; the built in Gmail app can't do anywhere near the things that the gmail program on my N73 can do; the camera is about the same standard as the iPhone's, which is to say, a bit span style="font-style: italic;"meh/span. I like having a real keyboard but wish it was a tiny bit bigger -- I find myself typing with fingernails. Battery life is fine unless you've got Wifi on.br /br /More reactions after it's been on the road with me and been used for a bit.br /br /...br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Hi Neil,br /br /I just had a quick question on the span style="font-style: italic;"Who Killed Amanda Palmer/span book. I have the album already (and have listened to it countless times. It's beautiful).br /br /I was going to go and order the book, but when I went to the site, I found that the book seems to only be in packages. I was wondering if there are any plans to sell the book alone, or whether I should buy one of the packages. The extra CD could make a nice gift.br /br /Thanks,br /Nate/spanbr /br /Let's see... the book is being desgned right now, then it goes off to the printers. The people who bought the package version will get theirs first. Depending on where in the world it's printed, this could be a couple of months before anyone else. Then, when copies come in from the printer, they'll go on sale -- probably in the early Spring. I think.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Neil!br /br /I'm re-reading American Gods, and I'm at the point where Shadow first meets Sam. At the diner, Shadow reads a newspaper story saying "local farmers wanted to hang dead crows around the town to frighten the others away; ornithologists said it wouldn't work, that the living crows would simply eat the dead ones. The locals were implacable. 'When they see the corpses of their friends,' said a spokesman, 'they'll know we don't want them here.'"br /br /Neil, I don't have Time Enough for Love here at school, but wasn't there something very similar to that in that story? Was your dead crow story a little Heinlein homage?br /br /And OMG - just realized that Sam's last name is Black Crow, and that story was about crows. Wow. Sneaky of you.br /br /Chrisbr /br //spanbr /br /When I'm driving through small-town America I make a point of buying local papers in towns where I stop, and reading them, preferably in local coffee shops. I read that in a small town as I went, and thought "It belongs in my book". So I put it there.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Dear Mr Gaiman,br /I recently finished reading M is For Magic, and I have a question about the story Chivalry. Sir Galahad was considered the holiest of Arthur's knights; so, how coul he have obtained an apple from the garden of the Hespiredes? The Hespiredes were a part of greek mythology which was actually a religeon based on monotheism. So, how could he get something that his religeon said didn't exist? I am sorry to bother you with this question, but it has sparked my interest.br /br / - a young and curious reader/spanbr /br /He had to travel a long way.br /br /I don't think it would have been a problem for early Christians, of whom Galaad would have been one: in span style="font-style: italic;"The Golden Legend/span, which was the most popular book of stories about saints, collected in the thriteenth century, Saint Nicholas (the one who became Santa Claus) went up against the Goddess Diana. Then again, Narnia, a most monotheistic world, had more than its share of nymphs (just like the Hesperides) not to mention such gods as Bacchus and Silenus (and Santa Claus again) wandering around. So I would not worry about it, were I you.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"I loved the link to the Sandman Death 20th Anniversary Bookends you put up.br /When should they be coming out and how much of a dent will they put on my wallet, please?/spanbr /br /According to a quick Google, a href="http://www.toymania.com/news/messages/9960.shtml"http://www.toymania.com/news/messages/9960.shtml/a says they came out in September, and they will cost a wallet-twinging $295. (Ouch.) There are only a thousand of them.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"This one has almost nothing to do with you Neil, but since his website is still in the makings I thought you could perhaps forward this to him.br /I was very sad (like a child whose told there won't be a Christmas this year) to learn that Dave McKean's appearance this weekend in Buenos Aires was canceled.br /In the event's blog they posted Dave's email in which he mentioned he couldn't make it because a date was changed (which sounds reasonable). But it remained unclear if it was the date of ANIMATE (the Buenos Aires event) which was changed, or if it was one of Dave's previous engagements./spanbr /br /Dave McKean said...br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Hi Neil,br /br /Please post this, as I certainly do feel very bad letting people down:br /br /I agreed to go to Animate in the summer and had to organize a militarybr /operation of friends and family to take care of our son Liam duringbr /the proposed week, as he is appearing as Gavroche in Les Miserables inbr /London and has to be accompanied to and from the theatre each day he'sbr /on, and also be available on 12 hours notice every day in case anotherbr /actor drops out.br /We managed this, so both Clare and I could make the trip to Buenosbr /Aires, a city we've always wanted to visit.br /Unfortunately, the date was changed by the organizers, and so we hadbr /to re-arrange.br /More importantly, it became obvious that the festival was nowbr /colliding with a variety of previous commitments falling in the latterbr /half of November, so I decided with great sadness to withdraw thisbr /year.br /I hate letting people down, and I was really looking forward to thebr /trip (though not the 24 hours travelling each way, I admit!).br /br /Hopefully there will be another event, an animation or film festival,br /that will allow me to visit the city in the future. Or maybe we'llbr /just go for a holiday, and do a signing in a bookstore.br /br /Thanks,br /Dave/spanbr /br /(I think it's worth pointing out that ten-year old Liam McKean -- owner of the original Pig Puppet -- is in span style="font-style: italic;"Les Miserables/span in London. If you happen to go and see it, check if he's in your performance. Get his autograph. Mention pigs. Make his day.) And that reminds me...br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Hi Neil,br /br /I thought you might like to let people know that Dave McKean is on the BBC4 programme "Picture Book" talking about his illustations for David Almond's 'The Savage' and how he was inspired by Comic Book's art. The programme is airing (again) at 19.10 on Saturday and 3.30 on Sunday, and is also currently available on the BBC i-player. a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fhnb6/comingup"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fhnb6/comingup/abr /br /Thank you again for all the stories,br /br /Marjorie/spanbr /br /You're welcome.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Hi,br /br /Just read that you completed "the Dying Earth story." Huh? Is there a new collection of Dying Earth stories coming out? Is it an homage to Jack Vance's work, or what?br /br /Did a search for "dying earth" on your website and saw no other mention of it.br /br /Thanks,br /Chrisbr /br //spanspanIt's for a href="http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PRODamp;Product_Code=martin07amp;Category_Code=PREamp;Product_Count=24"this/a./spanspan style="font-weight: bold;"br //spanbr /...br /br /And finally, Larry Marder talks about why a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/NEIL-GAIMAN-SANDMAN-Sketch-With-Larry-Marder_W0QQitemZ140282064832QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item140282064832amp;_trksid=p3911.c0.m14amp;_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318"the drawing we did together/a is so special at a href="http://larrymarder.blogspot.com/2008/11/neil-gaimanlarry-marder-drawing-up-for.html"http://larrymarder.blogspot.com/2008/11/neil-gaimanlarry-marder-drawing-up-for.html/a. div class="label_list" style="margin-top: 20px; padding-left: 15px; text-indent: -15px; font-size: 78%/1.4em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: .1em;"strongLabels:/strongnbsp; a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Coraline%20movie" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"Coraline movie/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/liam%20mckean" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"liam mckean/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Jack%20Vance" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"Jack Vance/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Dave%20McKean" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"Dave McKean/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/crows" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"crows/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/why%20I%20was%20disappointed%20they%20cut%20Bacchus%20out%20of%20the%20Prince%20Caspian%20Movie" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"why I was disappointed they cut Bacchus out of the Prince Caspian Movie/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/G1" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"G1/a/div

Jessica Smith is Chief Mom Advisor of MomForce.com and Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com. She chronicles her experiences as a mom and virtual executive at JessicaKnows.com.

More and more moms are leaving the nine-to-five corporate grind and finding themselves working virtually from home in order to spend more quality time with their children. These balance-achieving moms need to stay productive, flexible, and as stress-free as possible what with carpooling the kids, making dinner, and advancing their careers.

As a mom who works virtually myself, I’ve tried out my share of productivity and communications tools. Now I’m going to share with you the five I can’t live without:

Google Apps

I use GMail to manage five different accounts related to the different projects I’m working on. I use Google docs to collaborate with other moms for event planning, project execution, and information capture. And Google calendar is a life saver when scheduling meetings because it plays nice with just about any calendaring platform out there. The bonus? Now that I have a T-Mobile G1, I cut out the step of a daily sync because Google’s Android platform syncs “over the air.” Meaning, I can focus on my child, the dishes, my clients, the mom communities, etc. instead of trying to remember the last time I synched my BlackBerry.

Remember the Milk

As a busy mom, every second counts. Fleeting ideas and phone calls can happen unexpectedly and sometimes at the most distracted part of my day (erm…that would be every part). Remember the Milk is a task list tool that I also use to capture those ideas, jot a quick note, or write down a few words to jog my memory later.

Using the Gmail Remember the Milk Add-on, this nifty little tool now lives within my Gmail screen. Handy and unintrusive, I don’t have to open any extra windows to get what’s in my head on that list. Literally, within seconds, it’s captured and saved. And with my hectic life? Every second counts. Alternatives to Remember the Milk include Jott and Evernote.

Twitter

Seems like more and more moms are on Twitter every day. So it was no surprise when the moms’ twitter streams made headlines recently after a Motrin ad rubbed many moms the wrong way. However, a lot of moms, like me, use Twitter as a way to keep up with current events, parenting resources, and developing friendships. And more moms than you might think are using Twitter as a professional networking tool. I’d even argue that I use Twitter stream as a blog reader that sees more action than my Google Reader.

Want to find moms on Twitter?

- Use Twitter Search with the search term mom, baby, or other keyword like baby sling, preschool, etc to find other like-minded moms on Twitter.

- Sign up for the Twitter Moms Ning group to connect and share with other Moms on Twitter and find new ones to follow.

- Look for a link to the mommy blogger’s Twitter profile on your mommy blogs.

Facebook

Sure, I’ve connected with childhood chums on Facebook as far back as elementary school on this ever-popular (some might even say THE most popular) social networking site. However, I also use it as an effective way to make important announcements about projects I’m working on, sharing resources I’ve found helpful with other moms, and discovering new blogs and websites to read and explore further.

The Notes application makes it easy to share my feed with those that might not be avid blog readers and the Groups function lets me make new connections within various niches of interest. I’ve even designed my own flair with the logos of the companies I work with. Facebook can be a total time waster, but if used properly it can be a valuable tool.

Feeling overwhelmed? Start with these mom-friendly Facebook apps:

- Add your blog, support your favorites and discover new ones with Blog Network.

- Support your favorite charity or express your passion for a cause with the Facebook application Causes.

- Escape from preschool TV show line-up and be entertained by taking your friends quizzes or making up your own with the Quizzes app.

YouMail

This is a neat application that works with your cell phone’s voicemail. A lot of people will find this useful, but moms especially. I know there are some times when because of a yapping puppy and a tired, cranky preschooler, I just can’t get to the phone. With YouMail, not only can I set up different voicemails depending on who the caller is, I can also see who left a voicemail in my email. This, with the ability to forward a voicemail by email to some else, helps me prioritize and therefore makes me productive.

Plus, it takes Caller-ID to a whole different level, by showing me not just the number but the location, too. Working virtually, I get calls from all over the country, so this feature is very useful when taking time zones and the appropriate time to return a call into consideration.

Living a balanced life as a full-time mom and a virtual executive isn’t easy and it’s certainly not without stress. But I’ve found that using a few key tools consistently, makes for a more productive and therefore, more successful outcome both with my family and my career.

What are your must have tools?

Jessica Smith has successfully brought her 8 years of marketing and business development experience home with her, literally. She is Chief Mom Advisor and the woman behind the idea for MomForce.com, Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com, and works with big brands including Walmart and Ford. Jessica offers a personal glimpse into her life as a mom and virtual executive at JessicaKnows.com. Her specialties include creating buzz and community for companies that target moms through new media. She has also been recently tapped as one of the 50 Most Influential and Powerful Women in Social Media as #23. Jessica enjoys the best of both worlds, motherhood and career, at home in the DC Metro area with her husband and young son. You can find her on Twitter as @jessicaknows.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, iofoto

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img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/11/1121 Paris Hilton Benji Repo/post_image/post_image-1121_paris_hilton_benjirepo_00.jpg" border="0"br Paris Hilton called into a href="http://www.kiisfm.com/cc-common/losangeles/podcast/kiis.html"Ryan Seacrest's radio show/a this morning to set the record straight on her relationship with Benji Madden. Supposedly, the two are "just talking a break," and Paris hinted they could get back together, according to a href="http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b70047_paris_on_benji_were_just_taking_break.html"E! News/a: blockquote"He is an incredible person, and we will always be really close," Hilton said. "We will see what happens in the future. I am still in love with him."br As for why they decided to go their separate ways for now...br "He has been working nonstop with his brother on his new record. I am working and traveling," she said. "All these reports that say I dumped him aren't true. This is a decision we made together as adults."/blockquote The last time I was on a "break" from a relationship, I sat around in my boxers for days on end building LEGOs and watching porn. (Its been five years, but I know she'll call me back as soon as her husband gives her the message.) I'm sure Benji Madden's doing the same thing - or he's frantically searching for a hooker that won't make him wear a HAZMAT suit. I'm not a mind reader. div style="width: 425px; margin: 0 0 0 30px; padding: 0;"ul style="list-style-type: none; display: block; width: 425px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"li style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/11/paris_hilton_benji_madden_just.php" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/11/1121 Paris Hilton Benji Repo/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1121_paris_hilton_benjirepo_00.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/lili style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/11/paris_hilton_benji_madden_just.php?bfm_index=1" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/11/1121 Paris Hilton Benji Repo/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1121_paris_hilton_benjirepo_01.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/lili style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/11/paris_hilton_benji_madden_just.php?bfm_index=2" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/11/1121 Paris Hilton Benji Repo/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1121_paris_hilton_benjirepo_02.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/lili style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/11/paris_hilton_benji_madden_just.php?bfm_index=3" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/11/1121 Paris Hilton Benji Repo/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1121_paris_hilton_benjirepo_03.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/lili style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/11/paris_hilton_benji_madden_just.php?bfm_index=4" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/11/1121 Paris Hilton Benji Repo/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1121_paris_hilton_benjirepo_04.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/lili style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/11/paris_hilton_benji_madden_just.php?bfm_index=5" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/11/1121 Paris Hilton Benji Repo/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1121_paris_hilton_benjirepo_05.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/li/uldiv style="clear: left;"/div/div div class = "credit"Photos: WENN/div pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/2V5AX9nGnv7ARbaq4LFsc_vLqwU/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/2V5AX9nGnv7ARbaq4LFsc_vLqwU/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thesuperficial/SNxk/~4/weuWmBKT7f4" height="1" width="1"/

last time this was ok, if not mods delete this thread if necessary:cool:

1st Gen - Code: http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-5779.20081120.Pt5yH/iPhone1,1_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw 3G - Code: http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-5778.20081120.Aqw4R/iPhone1,2_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw Touch - Code: http://pfd.apple.com/ProtectedAsset/iPod/061-5356.20081120.Pt3ct/iPod1,1_2.2_5G77_Restore.ipsw?downloadKey=1227333494_98fe2830b1053d2dee336181a3fd751c Touch 2G - Code: http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPod/SBML/osx/061-5358.20081120.Gtghy/iPod2,1_2.2_5G77a_Restore.ipsw

Over the past few days I've been conditioning the battery on my iPhone to make sure that isn't the cause of this....

I'll go throughout my whole day, the phone gets down to 20%, yeah yeah, normal. I'll send a few txt messages, push the sleep button and let the screen turn off (no, not turn the phone off).

I check about 5 minutes later, click the home button. I have no service (one bar without an edge, grps, 3g, or wifi icon, but AT&T displayed), the battery is no longer on 20% (it switches up to 1/3 of the way sometimes, 1/4 sometimes, 1/5 sometimes), and the slide to unlock button freezes up for 5+ seconds.

I slide my finger across, wait the 5 seconds or so, and the phone goes to the home screen. All of a sudden (as the phone regains service) I'll receive any txt messages that have been sent to me since the last time the phone decided to randomly go out of service.

I've restored the phone, used it until it won't turn on anymore (completely dead), conditioned it multiple times....

Any tips on what's going on? Should I take it to the apple store?