Bless This Boomstick-Weilding Cherub - Okay, I get the whole idea of supporting our troops. I want them back safely, too. I get the idea of praying for them, if you're of the religious sort.

But this is twisted.

The combination of wide-eyed cherubic innocence and camoflage so the enemy doesn't see you as you riddle him with holes, all wrapped up in the crystaline hands of the divine just has my widdle head spinning.

Lord, bless this defender of Freedom Fries.

Hot Off The Press - Cursor.org is a link-blog, keeping track of the stories that are hitting the media. It's got a progressive spin, I believe, from a quick look at it. Thanks for the link, Patti.

I usually look at Google News a couple of times a day for a news bot's view of the stories going by. I think Google does a decent job.

But the more compelling stories are ferreted out by link blogs, such as the one above. And, of course, my blogroll contains blogs I wouldn't want to be without, lately.

I Watch So You Don't Have To - Not that you likely would, but don't rent Ghost Ship.

There is a pretty well-executed-if-repulsive bit of SPFX in the beginning (mostly makeup, some CGI) but after that it is all downhill. I guessed the "point" in the first 15 minutes (Please. - a character named "Ferriman?" How stupid do I look?)

I've said it before - I'm a sucker for these films. I would have been better off just watching Aliens again.

I watch them so you don't have to.

The sad thing is that Julianna Margulies puts in a halfway decent performance, trying to flesh out a character with very little that isn't warmed over tough-girl-among-the-guys cliché. Aliens had already done it better.

But as long as there are suckers like me, they'll keep making this dreck.

Pure Geeky Goodness - Digging through some old stuff, I came across Dr. Momentum's old character sheet from a Marvel Superheroes game of long ago. It's on my favorite sickly-green "Engineering Paper" and surprisingly free of doodles for a sheet of paper that sat in front of me for so many sessions. It was written, I'm almost certain, with a Pentel mechanical pencil. Probably a .9 mm or .7 mm lead.

Maggie and Bob, were there (and sometimes Bull) with Brian as the GM. Memories of hanging around in the hot summer in Brian's family's house (they were like a second family to us). Not a care in the world, really, and one silly game after another.

And then there were the elaborate D&D adventures Chuck would whip up in record time. He could pull a world out of his imagination so detailed, you could read the labels of the jars on the spice rack in the room of some castle keep.

It's no wonder gaming appeals to so many young adults. You get to make your own world and live in it before you've got a handle on the real world.

I'm still waiting to get a handle on the real world, but a recent gaming get-together reminded me that the games themselves were really beside the point of what we were doing.

Looking for HD Space on your PC? - BestBuy has a decent 200Gig HD for $180 after rebate. Check your flyer, or go to your local BestBuy. The website has it, but does not seem to reflect the $50 off that I saw in the store: Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200.0GB Internal Hard Drive at BESTBUY.COM

I can't believe you can get a gigabite of storage for $.90 nowadays.