When I was down in Texas, visiting fellow cartoonists Scott and Kris, the word that happened to be stuck in my brain was "Snap-a-doo."

Casual use went something like this:

"Hey Kellett, wanna go get some pancakes?

"Snap-a-Doo."

"Hey Kellett, here's that five bucks I owe you."

"Snap-a-Doo."

It's one of those all-purpose words that mean everything and nothing, depending on the inflection you give it. In any case, I used it a lot in Texas.

Kris tells me the word has now infected their conversation, to the point that they now imagine it to be my Shazam summoning word. Hence, this little caricature of me by Kris:

TED, to me, is one of those mythical conferences of beauty and light and goodness and intelligence and awesomeness and lots of scientists that didn't date much in High School. And I want to attend so badly.

Back in my Mattel days, when I was helping to run some sessions of "Project Platypus" (Mattel's really cool, blue-sky, months-long brainstorming and creativity project), the two places I always wanted to check out were the IDEO San Francisco offices...and the TED conference. Given enough funding and the right creative space, nerds can create some truly awesome things. IDEO does it on an almost daily basis...and TED...well, TED is TED.

Anywho, of all the TED-related items that Sheldon readers sent me yesterday, I liked this one the best.

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Blank Label Comics, the ground-breaking co-op of independent cartoonists, is partnering with Project Wonderful to launch an ambitious concept in advertising that will offer never-before-seen marketing possibilities.

BLC's Summer Wonderfest is a limited-time offer through which advertisers can buy ads that will appear across the entire BLC network at the same time. That's every single Blank Label comic and their forums.

Ads will be purchased through Project Wonderful's innovative infinite auction model: You bid on an advertising slot, and for as long as you are the high bidder, your ad is displayed. You can bid whatever price you'd like for as long as you'd like: two days, a week, a year - it's your choice. Read through Project Wonderful's site, then advertise on Blank Label Comics (including Sheldon) here.

BLC traffics over 20 million pageviews a month. That means that you have a very good chance of buying a phenomenal amount of exposure for much less than you would spend on a traditional cost-per-view basis. Plus, you're buying a tremendous amount of advertising saturation. Your ad will be seen simultaneously across the Web sites of some of the most popular comics on the Net.

The traditional BLC ad system will return in four weeks, so this is your chance to make an incredible impact for your product, site, comic, or group.

The URLs for the BLC member comics are:

Checkerboard Nightmare: http://www.checkerboardnightmare.com/

Courting Disaster: http://www.courting-disaster.com/

Evil Inc: http://www.evil-comic.com

Greystone Inn: http://www.greystoneinn.net/

Joyce and Walky!: http://www.joyceandwalky.com

Krazy Larry: http://www.krazylarry.com/

Melonpool: http://www.melonpool.com/

Real Life Comics: http://www.reallifecomics.com/

Schlock Mercenary: http://www.schlockmercenary.com

Sheldon: http://www.sheldoncomics.com/

Shortpacked!: http://www.shortpacked.com/

Starslip Crisis: http://www.starslip.com/

Ugly Hill: http://www.uglyhill.com/

Wapsi Square: http://www.wapsisquare.com/