#1: The best Kijiji ad ever. Kijiji is somewhat like Craigslist if you’re unfamiliar with it. Hey, if you’re going to ask for something for free, you might as well make it interesting (seriously, go read it).

#2: You may have heard that news that John Hughes died last week. He was the director of a number of movies, like The Breakfast Club, that defined the ’80s for many people in North America. In the wake of his death, there was a very interesting/touching post on a blog by a woman who was pen pals with John Hughes when she was a teenager.

#3: You know you’re unpopular when hackers trying to knock you off the web take out LiveJournal, Facebook, and Twitter to do it. Something tells me this guy is going to be unpopular with users of those sites for a while. In other news: Georgia and Russia are still not playing nice with each other.

#4: A humorous look at the ups and downs of writing (er, dating) a book from initial idea (first date) to publication (break up) by Libba Bray. Dang, I wish I was this clever.

#5: If you’ve been using Tr.im as your URL shortener, you’re out of luck. The service is shutting down. No word on what happens to all those shortened links people have made.

#6: It was bound to happen: Recent Amazon patent filings suggest ads are coming to Kindle ebooks.

#7: Do you know what it takes to be blocked by William Shatner on Twitter? Hilarious blog post by blockee.

#1: Having your creation become part of popular culture is certainly an accomplishment. It’s hard to know which creations will reach this level ahead of time. For instance, the designer of Twitter‘s infamous overcapacity error page surely never imagined that the image would take on a life on its own (not to mention becoming part of modern social media slang). There is an entire site devoted to collecting images of Twitter’s Fail Whale. You can also follow the Fail Whale designer (also creator of the Foul Owl) @yiyinglu on Twitter. (Found this link on Mashable.com–read the original article).

#2: Airlines are notorious for damaged bags and indifferent customer service. For the most part they get away with it. United Airlines almost got away with it when they tossed around Dave Carroll’s guitar as they loaded it onto the plane. After getting no joy from customer service, Carroll told them he’d be writing three songs about his experience. You know how they say not to piss off a writer because you might find yourself immortalized in ways that you won’t appreciate? That goes double for song writers:

Did I mention he’s Canadian? You can read his whole United Airlines saga on his website.

#1: A judge ordered a pharmaceutical executive to write a book. Now that’s punishment!

#2: Not really publishing related, but since I spend a lot of time on Twitter: 10 irrational behaviors on Twitter that’d make you look crazy in real life.

#3: What would you do if someone cut your salary by 23%? I’d probably do what this editorial cartoonist for the Boston Globe did. (It’s this kind of thinking that makes me well-suited to freelance work and not so much to having a boss).

#4: It takes a special sort of person to ponder “Menstrual Cycles in Romance Writing & Reading.”

Enjoy.