After a sleepy first hour or two last night’s fundraiser was wildly successful, and kept me plenty busy with serving drinks, working the door, ordering pizza for the famished hostesses, and playing “name that sample” with Suz during New Age Crew’s set.

After some light cleanup I was deposited back in my home slightly after four in the morning, my hair a tangle of cigarette smoke. (Before Philadelphia’s smoking ban went into effect I would not go out to bars because I had so much hair, and it would suck up smoke like a sponge, leaving me in a nicotine cloud for the remainder of the evening.)

As a result, today I needed a bit of a recharge, which mostly consisted of sleeping through the majority of Fellowship of the Ring. I did, however, managed to catch up a bit on my blog reading, which only compounded the massive backlog of links I have queued since my last link-centric post way back in mid-October. As such, I have the following bounty of links to share.

Every post through Friday on Brenda’s Babes featured an illustrated vintage pinup girl from a classic magazine or advertisement, often accompanied by the history of the image and its illustrator. The blog was cultivated as an entry into a $20k blogging contest, and it won!

Aside from a brief-but-fascinating glimpse into screen-printing, No Commercial Potential produced The Octophant. It’s an image I’d pay major dollars to have on a t-shirt (it strikes me as very Arcati Crisis), but for now you have to settle for a print.

Zen Habits’ article on Fiscal Fitness compares effectively righting an unkempt budget with a sustained weight-loss program. I think it’s an apt analogy; it’s exactly how I got on-budget, and as of a month from now I’ll have stayed that way for four years.

I illustrated this sign on a note from my personal memo pad two years ago, and it has hung at my desk ever since.

An extremely well-written and poignant entry from Nancy at Naked on Rollerskates.

Tokyo-based design publication Ping Mag recently looked at the most eco (-nomic and -logically-friendly) packaging in the country. Fascinating to see, as well as to consider the impact of culture on the design process.

The simple-yet-effective logo for Portugal’s Presidency of the EU. I doubt anything so literal yet abstract could ever emerge from the U.S. government.

I missed the current-event boat regarding NY Girl of My Dreams, but it’s still a fascinating story of the intense power of the internet. Cribbed from Mark Larson.

Useful: 10 questions it’s illegal to ask in a job interview. Reflexively, it’s also information you shouldn’t give away. From Kottke.

Philly gets annoyingly hip with it’s new “One Book” choice: Dave Egger’s What Is the What. (Actually, maybe I’ll be able to stomach Eggers’ writing if it’s constrained to a concise fictional topic.)

I was fascinated by a Mental Floss entry on Dubai’s super-resorts. That’s a little out of my aforementioned budget, though.

Similarly, I’d love to have a personal moon, but I’m not sure that’s in the budget either.

For now I will settle for rockin’ ice stirrers and call it a night.