why am i not surprised that balk is a PC kinda guy?

wait, $500 for the book, or $500 for the pic? No wonder they paps are so pissed at Paris's blogging cousin. what's his name? starts with a P?

The book is about a Sudanese child soldier and refugee who is now a college student in America. The "Lost Boys" have a problem returning to their communities, often rural, since they murdered and terrorized so many people and all. I believe Jolie is the Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

I went to a talk with Eggers and Deng (aforementioned child soldier). Didn't buy the book though. Why buy when I know at least one of my friends will buy it?

It's a shame Angelina hasn't adopted any kids that are breastfeedable. For sure she'd be totally into that.

i am totally stoked to see transformers. you are not alone, choire.

Don't get me started on Fucking Thursdays. You don't even want to know the kind of shit we posted today.

Man, I would so get fired for flirting like that at work. Well done Balk, I would totally have asked you to come up.

Nick Denton is an a-hole. Really. "Weird and self-referential" is my favorite tag.

Photo is too smudgy. We learn nothing of Balk's preferences.

@nigerienne: The book is about a Sudanese child soldier and refugee who is now a college student in America.

Not for nothing, but nowhere in What Is The What was Deng referred to as a "child soldier". He wasn't one at all. He was simply one of the Lost Boys.

Please read the book first.

Never mind facts, give me opinion: is it better than Velocity or not? Cuz if not, I'm not going near the damn thing.

Eggers signed my copy of HBWOSG. He doodled a frog-like creature and was very cutesy about it. I thought at the time, "This guy can make money?"

Obviously he could, but I can see why the company ain't doin' that well. Artists and entrepreneurs share a mentality, but the entrepreneurs tend to follow through more steadily.

Balk, you want an unsolicited opinion from a faithful reader? Of course not. But here goes anyhow:

Thursdays here rock. As your desperation for content visibly accelerates toward hysteria, the writing amps with it. Some of us read this for the writing as much as for the 'news' offered. Once you all start in with the jigging and jagging, this becomes One Righteous Partee.

Sorry if this offends the Gawker paradigm. I'd ask to be beheaded, not rendunded. Bacon & eggs beforehand, please.

@KarenUhOh:
for "some of us" read "maybe all of us"

I agree with KarenUhOh, the off topic stuff is usually the most fun to read.

@nigerienne: I decided to spend the $500, but I cringed a little. After I finished the book, I saw that proceeds were going to help Deng pay for college and rebuild his community in the Sudan, I was actually happy I paid for it.

@KarenUhOh: I also miss the visual glee of the guillotine.

What's with the shameless plug of Marco Roth and n+1? Angelina is *so* much more likely to have a hot affair with one of those brainy women at The Believer.

@KarenUhOh: Agreed.

There is altogether too much Jolie even when she does not have another "A. Jolie is a Saint" movie to flog. The thought of the next few weeks of All Jolie All the Time is giving me such leprosy.

It was altogether dispiriting to watch Jon Stewart fawning over all her and her 10,000 teeth and asking her if a burqa could contain her hotness.

@superba: There can never be "too much Jolie". Stop those destructive words.

@The Real JR:
I agree--that's like saying there can be too much guacamole. As if. Hmmph.

@CodePink: Hmm, okay. Media coverage of Angelina Jolie is like swimming in a vat of guacamole.

Dearest Angelina
No one gives a flying fuck as to which books you pretend to read. No one gives a flying fuck as to what some highschool dropout with a predilection for tonguing her brother and who regards her adopted children as image rehabilation, thinks of third-world debt.

All we we want to know is when you and Brad started fucking. If the woman who has heretofore made mention of her sex life in every print and television interview, from Allure magazine to Inside the Actor's Studio suddenly wants to present herself as the voice of third world struggle, please, sincerely, truly, go fuck yourself. Thankeee.

@superba:
which is to say, pure bliss?

@IBentMyWookie_TheReckoning:

I like the cut of your jib, kid.

You get a real sense of how manipulated and oversaturated the celebrity media is these days when stating the obvious about a given personality comes off like some kinda cynical assessment.

I'm most impressed by the number of IMs Balk's juggling back there. I max out at three and call it a day. Impressive.

You didn't finish What is the What?! Dag. It's not a climactic ending, much like life. Especially after you've had climactic moments in your life like walking a kabillion miles barefoot at the age of 8 watching other kids get mauled into the bush by lions. Such as.