This isn't a plug or a review as much as it is an open letter to anyone shopping for me this holiday season: buy me this.

Pretty straightforward, really. QMx, the talented and obsessive artisans who somehow reach into my brain and make the things I want, made a great big Serenity. Which I want, don't get me wrong, but can't quite justify buying (and I've tried).

They also made an ittle one, which I own and hangs from my car mirror where people try to steal it constantly. And for awhile there was a Serenity ornament, which berths comfortably on my desk at work.

But I wanted a nice display model that fit in my budget, and lo, they have answered me. As part of their Serenity Little Damn Heroes Maquettes series, they've released a 1:400 scale version of our girl, priced at an affordable $99.95, due to ship in December.

Roughly 8" long, it's hand-painted, made of dozens of polystone pieces, with an insane attention to detail for this price point. You can remove it from its stand and zoom it around the room — and I will — and the shuttles are removable. One of them is in a flight position and can be fixed on a wire stand to appear to be launching off the wing (as shown). It doesn't light up (that's the bigger, pricier model) but the solar panels are chromed to provide a nice effect. And, like the larger model, it was made from the original CG files from the show, so it's as screen-accurate as can be. The black base is attractive and solid and would show off silver-penned autographs nicely, should someone happen to bring theirs to a convention, hint hint.

While the other LDH maquettes were released as limited editions, this one is not. However, I'd expect the first run of 2,000 to go fast and they take some time to make, so if you want one soon best get on the preorder list now.

Behind me, of course.

The latest in DC's new "We totally respect women, you bet" line of comics, "Helen Keller: Unleashed" is both inspirational and wicked hot!

Remember, a beautiful and confident woman shouldn't have to be ashamed of how she dresses, or chooses to splash about, or carries on all her conversations with Anne Sullivan while one or both of them is dressing or undressing. Don't be a prude or a hater. And don't miss the pivotal 12-page water pump scene!

Next month: "The Diary of Anne Frank."

Lust for Love is the story of an innocent guy (Fran Kranz) who wins the love of his childhood sweetheart (TBA), but since he’s been holding out for her his whole life, he's so embarrassing that he’s quickly dumped. Convinced he needs more experience with women to win her back, he convinces the sweetheart's girlfriend (Dichen Lachman) to teach him how to woo women.

It's also got fellow Dollhouse alum Enver Gjokaj, plus Maurissa Tancharoen, Caitlin Stasey, and (because she is federally required to be in all indie-Whedony-webby productions) Felicia Day. It's written and will be directed by Anton King, the guy who did the amazing music video for Tancharoen and Jed Whedon's "Remains." So yeah, I want to see this.

And I will; it's already funded. But a basic budget, while cool, isn't enough. I'd like to see higher production values, better distribution, maybe even (gasp) a few bucks for the people involved. There's still 6 days left to contribute and be a part, and you can get lots of great stuff by doing so. Copies of the movie, access to the behind-the-scenes stuff, posters, even private screenings if you've got the bank for it.

Indulge your lust for "Lust for Love."

It's been making the rounds so you've probably seen it, but just in case… the cast and crew's goodbye to David Tennant. Watch closely and you can tell who knew the words already and who didn't!

For nearly 10 years now, I've had an electronic device stuck in my hand. Which was an upgrade, really, as before that there was usually a book there.

But as soon as I picked up a Palm Pilot and found I could read books on it, dozens, hundreds of books I could carry around with me at all times, I've never looked back. I was very loyal to Palm's eReader for as long as it lasted, holding off on upgrading to an Apple device until they had something at least as good. (They did: eReader ported over and I bought an iPod Touch soon after).

But after awhile eReader wasn't as supported anymore, and more and more books were in ePub format, and I grudgingly, reluctantly began using Stanza by Lexcycle. And I also found Calibre, an amazing ebook management tool that Stanza could seamlessly connect to and download from, and the combination was everything I wanted.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Stanza was the app I used most often on my iPhone. More than the other apps (including the phone itself) combined, and probably multiplied. I read a lot, everywhere, and this made it so very easy. Stanza was designed for readers. Not to be a storefront, not to locked you into any particular format or layout or ebook management program; it was designed to load a book and get the hell out of the way. That's all I wanted. It connected easily to online catalogs like Gutenberg and Baen, and even let me add my own catalogs from other URLs or my own Calibre library with a minimum of fuss and an absence of wires. I loved it.

I also am not exaggerating when I say that when I upgraded to iOS5 this morning, my displeasure at finding out that Stanza no longer works was epic, loud and very likely offensive in a family setting. Just error after error, no way to open a book, nothing. Imagine a heroin user being told that needles don't work any more and he'd have to find another way to get the stuff into his veins, and you'd have the general idea.

A quick Google search revealed this was a known problem among beta-testers and that there is very likely no update coming since a) Amazon bought Lexcycle and doesn't really have any motivation to improve their competing product and b) the developers no longer work for Amazon anyway. I hope I'm wrong and it updates anyway, but now I have to find another ebook reader, and this is going to be tough because I've tried them all as they come out and not a single one combines the features I want as elegantly as Stanza, an app that hasn't had a significant update in two years.

Here's what I want in my ereader (your mileage, obviously, will vary): Let me add books in a variety of ways, at least one without syncing. Let me connect to my Calibre library, or download from online catalogs. Let me adjust the layout — font, font size, line-height, margins — to my own comfort. Let me lock the orientation. Make it easy for me to find and sort my own books. Display ePubs, and whatever other formats you see fit. That's pretty much it. But how tough could it be?

Here are my other options:

iBooks. Sorry, a non-starter. The default ebook app that ships with the Apple OS, it displays your books on shelves, connects nicely to the Apple ebook store and makes the books look very pretty. Sadly, none of that is what I want. What it doesn't do is allow me to reduce that huge page margin I don't need, turn off right justification if the ebook designer wants it, change line-height, or lock orientation so it'll stop spinning on the screen as I move around. It won't go full screen, forcing me to waste reading space on icons, the name of the book, page edges and page numbers. And adding books is either through their store, through iTunes (meaning I have to sync every time) or through email. No. But the books sure do look pretty.

Kindle. Probably the ebook reading app I use almost as much as Stanza, mostly because some books are cheaper or only available in the Kindle store. It's not bad, although it's severely limited just because it can't read any format besides Amazon's proprietary one and now PDFs. Most of my ebooks — and I have thousands — are not in those formats. I can convert them with Calibre, but it's slow and not always attractive and many of them are DRMed (which isn't necessarily a problem, but that adds another step or two). Also: can't turn off justification, won't connect to other catalogs, won't connect to Calibre. The Kindle app will stay on my device, but it'll never be #1.

Nook. Nah. Can't add books except by buying them from B&N, adding them through the Nook app or by connecting the device and dropping them into a folder. Won't connect to Calibre, won't add through email. And not a lot of customization possible; 5 font sizes but no line-height or margin adjustment. Not bad, but not exciting or convenient enough.

Kobo. I'm a little confused about Kobo. Didn't it have a lot more options before? Customization isn't far off from the Nook's, which isn't surprising since I believe they use the same code. But I had thought it connected to free catalogs and other sources, and I'm not seeing that now unless I'm just missing it. I know they had to kill their store connection to comply with Apple's new "we want all your money" rules, but what about the rest?

Bluefire. A lot of regular Stanza readers have moved to Bluefire and I'll give it a try, but so far it's been crashing on me. When it doesn't, it's slow. Not a good beginning.

MegaReader. A strong contender so far. Displays more or less the way I like, connects to Calibre, connects to free catalogs, and even features a cool heads-up display by turning on your iPhone's front camera and making the page opaque (customizable) so you can see where you're going as you read. Of course I read while I walk, don't you? It's not perfect — the page doesn't quite go fullscreen (the iPhone's status bar is still visible), sorting by author just rearranges the whole list by author rather than giving you a list of authors, which you can then click on to see the books (a big advantage when you tend to carry a few hundred books with you), there's no way to jump straight to recent books added or read, and it can't add more than one book at a time from Calibre or do it in the background. But better for me than the rest, so far, and I've heard the developer is working on those features.

There are plenty of other readers I dismissed long ago, or haven't tried yet because I read about problems with them (I2Reader doesn't look bad but people have reported memory issues with large collections). And all of these ereaders have features Stanza did not. Kobo has a whole social aspect, iBooks lets you move books around on your shelves, others have different ways of adding notes and such.

But Stanza was a book reader's dream. From the superior way it managed large quantities of books — you could search by book, author, collection, subject, and recently read, with a quick-jump alphabet list on the side to speed things up — to the way you could adjust the brightness by running your finger up the page while you were reading, rather than having to go digging around in settings, to minor tweaks you wouldn't think of. One example: I like the page-turn effect. It's not a deal breaker — I didn't mention it at all in my lists — but it contributes to a pleasant you're-reading-a-book environment. Several of the ereaders above have it, and I turn it off in almost all of them because it's awkward or too slow and or too disruptive to my reading. Stanza not only had a smooth page curl effect but you could adjust the time it took. Whatever Stanza lacked it made up for in personal customization and convenience, and that was the part I want.

I'd love to hear suggestions for replacements, or reasons why I'm wrong, or ways to emulate Stanza functionality. And I hope I'm wrong and Stanza gets an update. For one thing I wouldn't have to reload 300 books on this thing.

R.I.P Stanza. We read a lot of good books together.

(Image from lexcycle.com)

He defied conventional reasoning and made the unconventional commonplace and obvious.

He proved that technology could be beautiful.

He demanded that technology be easy to use and as foolproof as possible.

He had a simple, unbelievably complicated goal: "“I want to put a ding in the universe.” And he did just that.

As I write this with my finger on the glass of a small, elegant, handheld device that holds every song I like plus my favorite shows and movies and the entire fricking Internet in my pocket, I thank you Steve, for your crazy geniusness.

Adam Levermore has done a lot of amazing things. He's made stuff for the Can't Stop the Serenity campaign, the Serenity Travel Posters, Battlestar Galactica Propaganda Posters, funky packaging, the GUI for the popular Super 8 iPhone app, tons of logos and maquettes and websites and more. And he was my cocreator on our Save Hiatus webcomic.

But now, for the first time, he's illustrated something that wasn't someone else's idea.

Over a year ago, he told me he was thinking about robots. This is just something you know you're going to hear from a friend at some point in your relationship. We talked about a new webcomic and schedules and whatnot, and then we went off and did other things. One of the things he did was quit his job and move to become a full-time illustrator, a daring leap that still impresses me. Since then he has created more wonderful things for other people, and then he went and made a robot print. Which you can now buy.

There is one major reason I like "At the Roburbia Cafe." Not the quality, I expected that. Not the old-fashioned look or the pulp sci-fi robot style, or the subliminally comforting,  pre-aged textures, that's just Adam. No, what I like is that this is telling a story, and it suggests a future that contains many more Roburbia prints. I want to know more about this world that looks like concept art for "The Iron Giant" or a retro Pixar short. I want to see a small 1950s town where working-class robots go about their business. I want more.

For now, I'll settle for this. 18"x24" on acid-free paper, limited to 250 signed and numbered copies, they go on sale Oct. 17 but you can save 20% off the $30 price by pre-ordering them here.

Marian Call's new CD is done and ready for pre-order! And she wasn't thinking small…

2 and 1/2 years in the making, "Something Fierce" is a double-album, a 2-CD set with 19 songs and a 16-page booklet of lyrics and photos. In that time she's traveled all 50 states, had some amazing experiences both good and bad, and she returned home to fall in love with Alaska all over again. And all of that went into her music.

Broadly speaking, "Something Fierce, vol 1: Good Luck With That" is about her life and what's happened to her over the last few years, and "Something Fierce, vol 2: From Alaska" is a love letter to her adopted home, but that's far too vague a description for both. It's not as geeky as her previous releases — one of which was commissioned to be just that — but she is a proud geek, and so the flavor remains. It's not a single thing at all. There is sad here, very sad, and there is thoughtful, and there is bouncy fun that I guarantee will stick in your head for days. There are the thoughts of someone who has traveled far and done a lot, and there is the expertise of dozens, even hundreds of friends, family and fellow musicians with whom she crafted different parts (I'm in the background of "Goodbye Morning Moon" but I don't think I damaged it any). There are sections she recorded in hotel rooms and in studios, with raucous crowds and by herself, and with every instrument you can think of, including, of course, typewriter, rainstick and deceased cat.

But what it really is, is Marian. It's a look inside her head. It's her thoughts and her humor and her heart. It's the powerful voice we knew she had, further tempered into a finely wrought tool by, basically, life.  And I haven't really told you a damn thing about the songs, because a) I hate spoilers and b) it's easier to just show you. Head to SoundCloud for samples, or listen to (and maybe buy) Good Morning Moon and Anchorage. Go to her live shows or listen to her occasional concert webcasts (check her site for times). And then order "Something Fierce."

"Something Fierce" will be released October 1, 2011, and there are a variety of ways to get it. You can pre-order the digital download version for $15 (or more, if you wish) and you'll get something free now and the download link to the album as soon as it's available.

Or you can pre-order the 2-disc CD. The first 500 will be autographed, and you'll get the digital download copy as well so you can listen to it right away while you're waiting for shipping. Autographed copies are $25, or you can wait till after the release and get the non-autographed ones for $20.

More details here.

Thought of a fun media-spin project I'd like someone to do.

First, film some poor people in a run-down area. Get some interviews, shoot some driveby footage of dingy houses and trailers, get some charts showing income levels, unemployment, the tanking economy, etc. Edit it together into 5 or 6 minutes of compelling video.

Now create two different documentaries, with different voice-overs, opening and closing sequences, music, etc, but with the identical 5-6-minute video in each one. One documentary talks about how Americans are struggling against adversity with courage and determination, the other talks about how much of our tax dollars go to lazy welfare cheaters and unemployment racketeers.

Easy bet both would be convincing, and it would be a cool demonstration of the power of media spin. Go for it.