In an effort to shed the very last of our regular readers, I am pressing on with a near-liveblog of my reading of Neal Stephenson's Anathem. (This follows up on the last installment for Parts 1-5.)

I have entered a stage familiar to me from other Stephenson books, a state of deep immersion where I carry the thing around all the time and read it while walking, talking on the phone, operating heavy machinery, etc., and can't think about anything else. I'm like Sammann with his beloved jeejah. It's not like there's a historical vice-presidential debate going on or anything.

Hence these notes, thoughts, impressions, etc. which will be incomprehensible unless you're reading along with me. Massive spoilers for Parts 6-10 follow.

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On the credits of The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, the producers and staff always replace their unfunny and unspooky real names with spooky and funny "Halloween Names." (Except for a couple years where we didn't for reasons I forget.)

MATT GROENING becomes BAT GROENING. SPOO-OO-OOO-KY! FUUU-NNNNNN-YYYYYYYY!

My past Halloween Names are (with letter grade):

SELMANIMAL (C-)
NIGHTMARE ON SELMAN STREET (C)
MATT SKELETON (D)
bloodselman@aol.com (what the F?)
ISLAND OF LOST SELMANS (D+)
MATT WOLFMAN (D-)
SELMAN OF THE CORN (B-)
MATT SARUMAN (A+++++++++++++++++++)

Obviously it's not a legacy of greatness. So, if anyone in bored-on-the-internet land has any ideas for the Matt Selman Halloween name for "Treehouse of Horror XIX" (airing November 2, 2008), that would be super. A few tips:

Halloween Names must be short. 30 characters or less. Less is better. And please, no marriage proposals, inside jokes for your buddies, lame Lord of the Rings puns, insults to me (unless they are really, really personal) insults to The Simpsons, spec scripts for The Simpsons, Nigerian money scams, or ads for porn sites (unless it is a really great porn site.)

Post all Halloween Name submissions in the comments section of this blog post. Enter as many times as you want. Submissions are due October 10, 2008. The winner will get a prize, I swear. (WARNING: THE WINNER-SELECTION AND PRIZE-GIVING PROCESS WILL NOT BE IN ANY WAY FAIR.)

According to Ain't It Cool, there's further evidence that a Tron sequel is actually happening. Apparently the costume designer for 300 and Watchmen is on board. Maybe Flynn will get trapped inside an iPod and have to escape from its restrictive DRM.

For nostalgia's sake, here's the trailer for the original.

Apparently some test footage of Tron 2 (and no, I refuse to say TR2N, and there's no way you can make me. TR2N is not a word) was even screened at Comic-Con, featuring an actual non-CGI Jeff Bridges. A synopsis is here. I don't get it either. But it's being directed by Joseph Kosinski, who's mostly (and justly) famous for directing the "Mad World" Gears of War ad. Hey, somebody get the Mercenaries 2 guy a movie deal!

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