Come strolling with Ashley on McHale's Random Walks!

Ashley McHale, who is like the most smartest-est person that I have ever met, has just launched her blog! McHale's Random Walks promises to be "A collection of thoughts, usually math-themed, that are or are not my own". But folks seriously: I've known Ashley for a way long time and she is no doubt going to be sharing some tremendously deep wisdom and insight that God has blessed her with, in addition to all that mathematical stuff she does... which makes my head spin (no easy feat that).

Anyhoo: welcome to the blogosphere (again) Ashley! :-)

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And this is why I don't proclaim myself Republican

Awright, a disclaimer is in order: at the present time I am still registered as a Republican. That came about two years ago during my flirtation with running for House of Representatives in my district ('cuz some people were suggesting I take a stab at it, and we all know how much of a sucker I am for that sort of thing given how my Board of Education campaign began). So as of this writing I'm a Republican on paper and haven't bothered to change that.

What can I say folks? When it comes to things that don't really matter, I'm lazy.

And because I've only always voted for the candidate, never the party. Not once have I filled in the little bubble to vote a straight-party ticket. Hell, I'm of the mind that straight-ticket voting should be forbidden: a voter should be forced to THINK about the people he or she is casting a ballot for. That right came at a high price. Too high to be too convenient.

If you've read this blog for very long, y'all know where I stand on a lot of issues. I think this government taxes too high and spends too much. Our elected officials have forgotten that they serve us, and that we don't serve them. If a major corporation fails because of its own mismanagement, that's not my problem. Socialism only ever worked in the Book of Acts and among the Smurfs. Education belongs to the states and the communities, not the federal government. America doesn't need to stick its nose in places where it doesn't belong... and we can't afford to do that anymore either. I despise hypocrisy, I despise fraud, and I despise lusting for power and excusing it in the name of God. The last serious President of the United States was Ronald Reagan and everyone since 1989 has been inept, corrupt, unbalanced or all three. Abortion is the greatest failure of a shortsighted nation. An armed society is a polite society and one with statistically less crime. We shouldn't be afraid to tap into our own energy resources. I didn't vote for McCain or Obama in the 2008 election and my reward for that is getting to sleep soundly at night. And there is absolutely no faith to be had in the political parties... and I mean any political party.

I suppose that for the most part, conventional wisdom would land me in the Republican camp, being it that my values might be described as more "conservative".

But do I spend any of my precious time and energy shilling for the GOP?

Hell no.

And based on what I've been seeing from the special election tomorrow for New York's 23rd Congressional District, that sentiment ain't likely to change anytime soon.

Perhaps you've heard of it. It's been making quite the rounds on the news networks and the Intertubes. Until this past weekend it had been a three-way race between Republican Dierdre K. Scozzafava, Democrat William L. Owens... and Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Scozzafava, the "Republican" candidate, favors abortion "rights", supports "gay marriage" (it's not possible for such a thing to even exist... but that's an essay for another time), thought the "stimulus" was a great idea, and didn't even have to win a primary election to be on the ballot. The only reason Scozzafava is a candidate is because she was tapped to run by GOP party bosses in the proverbial "smoke-filled room".

Doug Hoffman, on the other hand, is more Republican than the Republican candidate. Except that Hoffman is not running as a Republican. He's running as a Conservative Party candidate.

And until this past weekend, that was more than enough to merit his good name getting smeared by the elites of the Republican Party.

For the past several weeks the National Republican Congressional Committee put out press release after press release supporting Scozzafava and blasting Hoffman. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele - a man that I have no respect for whatsoever - vowed unflinching backing of Scozzafava. Many other Republicans also followed suit by circling their wagons around Scozzafava and firing cheap shots at Hoffman.

And then there's Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker of the House not only endorsed Scozzafava, he insinuated that Hoffman has no real knowledge of his own district and declared that Hoffman's supporters were little more than an enraged fad. All that mattered to Gingrich was to get a Republican elected, ya see.

Then, stuff started happening. People all across the country began paying attention to the New York 23rd District race. They began contributing more to Hoffman - the alleged "spoiler" candidate - than to either of his two opponents. Sarah Palin endorsed Hoffman. A lot of long-time grassroots Republicans started getting honked-off angry at their party's leadership.

And then this past Saturday Dierdre Scozzafava withdrew from the race. It's now a two-way battle between Democrat William Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman.

So guess what happened next? All those Republican honchos who had vehemently stood up for Scozzafava had a conversion as profound as Paul's on the Damascus Road. The scales fell from their eyes, they recognized how blind they had been and declared they were now for Doug Hoffman!

Yah right.

Do they sincerely believe we're going to fall for that one?

Friends and neighbors, you and I know what really happened. Newt Gingrich, Michael Steele, and a lot of incumbent Republicans all over the place put their collective moistened finger in the air, felt which way the winds were blowing and decided that supporting Hoffman after all would be politically prudent.

Maybe so. But theirs are not actions of people of principle.

And that is why I do not count myself among the Republicans today. I can not be a Democrat because of that party's official stances on too many issues. But I can not be a Republican because of that party's lack of principle.

Now, you tell me which is the worse of the two.

As I see it from here, the Republican Party has a choice. It can give itself a good long enema and completely flush out the tired old blue-bloods and the elitists that have been running the show for more than twenty years, and allow some seriously fresh meat to take over. Or, it can keep with this foolish errand at preserving its brand name at the cost of ever-diminishing quality. It would mean an absolute repudiation of the neo-conservative and "bigger government" philosophies that have entered into the party during these many years, but doing so promises to yield a vibrant and robust party of principle for many years to come.

Or, it can hold steady to its present course, until the Republican Party goes the way of the Whigs and the Bull Moose.

As I noted earlier, any business that fails by its own lack of merit deserves to fail. Nobody should be asked to prop it up.

The same holds even more true for a political party.

The Republicans can re-define themselves, or fade away.

And as I see it on this end of things, the latter is the more probable. Perhaps even the more preferable.

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Think Switzerland is the world's most secretive place for banking?

According to the Tax Justice Network based out of Great Britain, the most secretive financial jurisdiction on Earth is actually... the state of Delaware.

Yeah, that Delaware: on the eastern seaboard of these United States! $2.6 trillion was deposited in this country by non-resident citizens and corporations in 2007, with Delaware leading the way...

The survey of laws, practices and size of inflows in 60 jurisdictions found Delaware coming in first, followed by Luxembourg and then Switzerland. The Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom round out the top five.

"While the U.S. has been jumping up and down and saying 'Aha, bad, wicked Swiss banks,' the U.S. is doing exactly the same things as far as non-resident bank account holders," said Sarah Lewis, executive director of the group, based in the U.K.

Switzerland has been the poster child for financial secrecy over the past year. The United State sued Swiss global banking giant UBS AG, which paid a $780 million fine to settle a lawsuit against it by the government. As part of the deal, UBS admitted it actively helped Americans evade U.S. taxes.

The ranking is based on a composite of total offshore activity and measures such as whether a jurisdiction obtains beneficial ownership information about companies and the degree of cooperation in turning over requested financial information.

Delaware is attractive because it does not tax profits realized outside the state and does not require companies to be physically present, according to the Tax Justice Network.

So if I ever win the lottery or write a best-selling novel, I'll know now that I don't need to fly to Europe or the Bahamas to stash my money: I can just drive a few hours north and put it in Delaware :-)

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Review of THE ESSENTIAL "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC

For more than thirty years (I'm counting his earliest submissions to The Dr. Demento Show too) "Weird Al" Yankovic has influenced culture just as much as he's parodied it. Sometime next year will come his thirteenth studio album. And while we're waiting for it, I have to recommend that you run out and buy (but don't illegally download, you hooligan!) The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic: a fantabulous two-disc set of 38 songs, all terrifically remastered, spanning Al's professional career.

It came out this past week and on Saturday night I bought my copy (on Halloween incidentally, so I was wearing my Jedi Knight costume when I went into the store... which was all the more appropriate since "Yoda" and "The Saga Begins" are both on the album :-). I spent most of yesterday listening to this two and a half hour treasury of Weird Al goodness. Like, three or four times, I think...

The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic is a musical odyssey not just of Al's career, but even of modern civilization... after humorous fashion. This is no mere compilation album, though each song is certainly a classic. But The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic must be appreciated as a monumental work in its own right. This set is absolutely a serious study in the beginning and development of a true musical artist. And not just Al either: his entire band - Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Steve Jay, Jim West and Rubén Valtierra - gets spotlighted for their talent in the liner notes. These guys have been wildly successful for three full decades and are now primed to enter their fourth with no end in sight. How does that happen? Listening to The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic, the lesson is clear for any who endeavor to succeed: do what makes you happy, but don't be afraid to grow and change.

Because that is a virtue that I doubt will go without respect upon listening to this album. Playing it all the way from "Another One Rides the Bus" (Al's 1980 debut on the charts) on through "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" (the parody of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet", from 2006's Straight Outta Lynwood) one can't help but hear the maturing of Al as both singer and songwriter. It's a quality that, I hate to say, isn't embraced as fully as it should be by too many in the arts and entertainment industry. I'm not going to "name any names" here, but I will comment that in my long-considered opinion it's much of the reason why "Weird Al" Yankovic's career has never waned, and indeed has only continued to find new fans even while maintaining the many faithful that he has already accumulated across thirty years and more.

As I said, there are 38 songs filling up two discs of The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic, including the extra gory version of "The Night Santa Went Crazy" and "Albuquerque" (Al's longest song to date, running more than 11 minutes). The set is about evenly split between Al's parodies and his originals, among which number some of his finest and funniest works, such as "Dare to be Stupid", "Don't Download this Song" and (one of my all-time favorites) "Trigger Happy".

Of course, the songs likely to be played most often are going to be the parodies. And I'm happy to report that most of the classics are here and sounding better than ever! "Eat It" and "Fat" are naturally part of the album. You'll also be glad to know that "Like a Surgeon", "Smells Like Nirvana", "Amish Paradise", "White & Nerdy" made the cut, as did "Jurassic Park" (only Weird Al could have taken Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park" and turned it into a song about rampaging dinosaurs). The one song that's not in this compilation that I wish had been included was "Couch Potato": Al's spoof of Eminem's "Lose Yourself". But then again, Disc 2 was already crowded enough with "Albuquerque" and "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", so that's likely just a quibble about technical issues.

I'll wrap this up by saying thusly: that The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic is a MUST-have album, whether you have just discovered Al's music or are a longtime fan. And, echoing the sentiments of the interior notes written by NPR Music's Stephen Thompson, this collection exemplifies why Weird Al more than deserves to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... along with finally getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

If you only buy one CD this year, make it The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic. And if you only buy six CDs this year, buy six copies of it!

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Asimov estate authorizing trilogy of sequels to I, ROBOT

Isaac Asimov - perhaps the most prolific writer of the Twentieth Century and especially regarded for his contributions to science fiction - passed away in 1992. It's now being announced that Asimov's estate has given the official go-ahead for a trilogy of sequel novels to his acclaimed I, Robot series. The books will be written by Mickey Zucker Reichert, an author whose works have primarily been of the fantasy genre.

(With all due respect to Mrs. Reichert, I've no doubt that she is a fine writer but I also can't help but find this situation very ironic since apart from Tolkien and a few other writers that he respected, Asimov was famously known to have despised fantasy literature and on at least one occasion referred to it as "crap".)

Hmmm... I'm more "meh" about this news than I care to really dwell upon. If there's going to be any official pastiche of Asimov, I'd much more prefer that it be a fitting conclusion to the Foundation series, produced from any notes that Asimov might have left about whatever grand finale he was driving toward.

Not likely that will ever happen though. Maybe that's for the best...

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The world's TINIEST working model train set

Check out what David Smith of New Jersey has made: a scale model of a scale model train set (for his real model train set's layout). And the thing actually runs too!

Behold...

It's 35,200 times smaller than an actual train.

Now that is some practical nanotechnology! :-)

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Star Wars costumes of Halloweens past

Since last night I've been getting my Jedi Knight costume (yah the very one that I wore to the Board of Education meeting two years ago) ready for this evening. Mostly 'cuz I promised some friends that I'd come by and let their own younglings see it. And I thought it'd be fun to wear it around throughout the rest of the night so I've been ironing the kimono, brushing the cloak and polishing my lightsaber.

It's a fine costume. Movie quality at that! And staffers from Lucasfilm have told me that the lightsaber I made is like something they would have made for a real Star Wars film! Yes, I'm very proud to own some real Jedi threads :-)

But you know: we all have to start somewhere. Every journey has a first step. And it's true with being geeky enough of a Star Wars fan as to make a costume - or more than one - inspired by the saga. When I was a younger punk and going out trickster-treating on Halloween, I usually had one of those vinyl "costumes" with the cheap plastic mask. I was Darth Vader and Yoda and a Stormtrooper back in the day but...

...well, when you get older, and bigger, you realize that you deserve something a bit more "boss".

It took me longer than most would have expected, but in October of 1996 I made my very first "serious" Star Wars costume. It was for the Halloween party the Baptist Student Union at Elon was having at Blue Ribbon in Burlington. I'd been wondering all that month what I should wear. And then one day at Spencer's at Four Seasons Town Centre in Greensboro, just over a week before the party, I spotted a two-piece Darth Vader mask (the kind that Don Post Studios used to make).

"And that's when I went mad, Your Honor..."

It started with the mask. Then I decided that I had to have a black cape. And then a lightsaber. And gloves. And... well, you get the idea. I just couldn't stop until I had made myself as Darth Vader-ish as I possibly could. The chest-box, bits of armor and the boxes on the belt were all cannibalized from one piece of a child's Darth Vader costume that the manager at Halloween Express let me have for free (when I bought the cape). There was also a black vinyl cape that I cut holes for the arms and had that under the main cape and also over the armor and tucked in beneath the belt (so as to achieve that "multiple robes" look). I bought a black pair of jeans just for the occasion and thankfully the Darth Vader lightsaber toy had just hit the toy store shelves. Finishing it off, I used Dad's old black motorcycle boots.

Well, "Darth Vader" was a hit! I even wound up winning the "Best Costume" award at the BSU party. And for the rest of the evening I enjoyed strutting around Elon's campus as the Dark Lord of the Sith (something that would kinda be repeated a week before Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace came out, but that's a story for another time). The one thing that I wish could have been better, though no fault of my own, is that I'm admittedly not as tall as Darth Vader was in the movies! To really pull off a persuasive Vader, you need to be at least six feet tall. Most folks aren't anywhere near David Prowse's height and build. And some people who build extremely good Vader costumes wind up compensating by wearing way padded boots: almost like something you'd find in Gene Simmons' closet. I don't have that sort of stature, and I don't plan on ever making a Vader costume as awesome as some of the fan-made ones that I've seen...

...but on Halloween night 1996, none of that mattered. For one wonderful evening, I was Darth Vader, baby! :-)

So that was what I did with a week to work with. But come the following Halloween, I wanted to spend more effort on the matter. Baptist Student Union was having another Halloween get-together at Blue Ribbon. And emboldened by the previous year's costume, I got a bit daring.

There was no question what I had to do to top Darth Vader. For 1997 it had to be Boba Fett. Including the jetpack.

It took me over a month to build, but in the end I had my Boba Fett costume for Halloween 1997! The helmet is the classic replica that Don Post Studios created. I bought a light-blue jumpsuit from Sears and a gray t-shirt for the "vest". Most of the armor pieces were cut from sheets of aluminum that I bought at Lowe's, then shaped and spray-painted (and I painted Boba's various insignia by hand on them afterward). The codpiece, collar armor and knee armor were cut from placemats found in the kitchen section of Wal-Mart and likewise spray-painted. I bought ammo pouches from an Army surplus store in Greensboro and dyed them a dark enough shade of brown. The gauntlets were made from youth-sized soccer shinguards I found at K-Mart: I just took the hard plastic guards, and epoxied onto each a plastic disposable drinking cup that I cut down the side and added Velcro for easy wearing and removal. The bits on the gauntlets were salvaged from various toys and models (and the "flamethrower" hose is one that I found at my family's old farm). The boots were an old pair that I didn't wear anymore, so I spray-painted them and added cloth "spats" to hide the laces. Mom helped me with the cape.

And the jetpack? Cardboard, for the most part. The "rocket" on top of it was fashioned from three of those cone-shaped air fresheners that you can buy at any grocery store or Target or Wal-Mart. I used two of the bases from the fresheners (I'm telling y'all here and now, that the apartment "Weird" Ed and I had smelled glorious for over a month) to make the tops of the side "cylinders" on the pack. The nozzles were small plastic cups epoxied to balls I found in the sporting goods section of K-Mart, then spray-painted silver and attached to the sides of the pack. The whole thing attached with Velcro and a hidden piece of belt to a strip of armor (also made from placemat) that extended down the back from the collar armor.

Granted, it's possibly the cheapest Boba Fett costume ever assembled. I think the entire thing cost about $200 (and most of that was the price of the helmet). But it looked hella kewl! My friends in Baptist Student Union loved it, and the kids who came into the restaurant couldn't stop oggling it. Then the next day (which was the actual Halloween 1997) I put it on that afternoon and Ed and I walked all over Elon's campus and saw jaws dropping all over the place. The funniest moment came when we went into the student center where a group of prospective students and their parents were being given a tour: I did my best Boba Fett walk, came in, and nodded my helmet toward them. Ehhh... wonder how much enrollment money that lil' stunt cost Elon that day? :-P

Well, that first Boba Fett costume was a knockout! But someday I want to make a much better one: out of vacuu-formed plastic and whatnot. I've met Jeremy Bulloch before: he's the actor who portrayed Boba in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and he and I are the exact same height! So a Boba Fett costume would be all-around sensible to have if I'm gonna dress up as a Star Wars villain.

But in the end, it really isn't how much money and material you can pour into a Star Wars costume, or any costume for that matter. It's the passion you have for a character or a story which really counts. People aren't gonna be impressed by a thousand-dollar getup as much as they are by seeing you having fun with the role and enjoying being something different or odd or both... if even for just one night.

Happy Halloween y'all! :-)

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House "health care" bill: Death panels and trial-lawyer protection

The guys at Flopping Aces have gone through the 1,990 page abomination that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has introduced as the House of Representatives(?) version of the health scare "reform" bill.

Yah you read that right: one thousand, nine hundred and ninety pages.

It's calculated to cost $1.28 trillion.

So what's in this... thing?

Abortion funding.

The so-called "death panels" that we have been told repeatedly were just a figment of some people's imagination.

And... get a load of this one:

"Pelsoi inserted a provision which would punish state governments who attempt any kind of law suit abuse reform that would impact lawyers fees."

What. The. Hell. ???

So it's not enough that Congress has decreed that pharmaceutical firms are to be protected from lawsuits stemming from any injury or death that even untested vaccines might cause. Now our "lawmakers" are shielding trial lawyers from tort reform... by way of "health care" legislation?!

Who the hell do these people think they are?

I know what they are not. They certainly do not qualify to be our "representatives". With the exception of possibly two or three people that I can readily think of that are in Washington today, the members of the House and Senate and the Obama White House are so detached from the reality outside the Beltway that they have no understanding or empathy at all with the American people. Pardon my French folks, but these idiots don't have a f#&@ing clue at all about the lives of the people they allege to be "serving".

Do you think Nancy Pelosi gives a flying rat's ass about you or me or anyone else? "Let's hear it for the power!" she cried out when she became Speaker of the House. And that's all that matters to these bastards.

We don't have a government of the people, by the people and for the people anymore, friends and neighbors. Sane people are incapable of even desiring to write up nearly two thousand pages of legislation that will take away personal liberty and put their children's grandchildren into hopeless hock.

So what kind of person is capable of such a thing?

Mull that one over in yer gray matter...

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Stimulus jobs are $160,000 each?!?

That's what Jake Tapper at ABC News has reckoned. Figuring that the Obama administration is boating of anywhere between 640,000 and 1 million jobs saved or created because of the "stimulus" package, and that $159 billion was allocated by Congress and President Obama for such purpose, then the most conservative estimate has each rescued job worth $160,000.

The White House economists are calling these figures "calculator abuse". Wish I'd have thought of that one during those many times that I struggled with algebra in eighth grade!

Pssst... hey, President Obama. Wanna really use the government to create jobs and bolster the economy? It's very very simple:

CUT TAXES
AND
CUT SPENDING!!!

NO country in history has ever spent itself into prosperity. America can not possibly be any different.

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It's Chris Knight's Jack-O-Lantern 2009 Edition

Two years ago it was pumpkins carved in the likenesses of the honorable Dr. Ron Paul and a certain local school board member. Then last year it was a Big Daddy from the BioShock video games series.

So what did I do for this year's Halloween?

It's ME!

THAT'll make the neighborhood kids think twice before knocking on the door for candy! :-P

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Bad driving has a genetic component

Have a horrible driving record? It might be in your DNA. Here's what scientists at the University of California at Irvine have found...

People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it - and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant.

"These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," says Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology associate professor and senior author of the study published recently in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

This gene variant limits the availability of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor during activity. BDNF keeps memory strong by supporting communication among brain cells and keeping them functioning optimally. When a person is engaged in a particular task, BDNF is secreted in the brain area connected with that activity to help the body respond.

Previous studies have shown that in people with the variant, a smaller portion of the brain is stimulated when doing a task than in those with a normal BDNF gene. People with the variant also don't recover as well after a stroke. Given these differences, the UCI scientists wondered: Could the variant affect an activity such as driving?

"We wanted to study motor behavior, something more complex than finger-tapping," says Stephanie McHughen, graduate student and lead author of the study. "Driving seemed like a good choice because it has a learning curve and it's something most people know how to do."

The driving test was taken by 29 people - 22 without the gene variant and seven with it. They were asked to drive 15 laps on a simulator that required them to learn the nuances of a track programmed to have difficult curves and turns. Researchers recorded how well they stayed on the course over time. Four days later, the test was repeated.

Results showed that people with the variant did worse on both tests than the other participants, and they remembered less the second time. "Behavior derives from dozens and dozens of neurophysiologic events, so it's somewhat surprising this exercise bore fruit," Cramer says.

And we are now one step closer toward understanding my family :-P

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Meet the Liberian Analog Blogger

Think the blogosphere needs the Internet? Bah! A dude in Liberia on the west coast of Africa is running a blog devoted to gathering that country's news and in spite of his old-fashioned technique, he's got hordes of readers!

In Monrovia, Liberia, there's a guy taking the matter of a lopsided, state-run media and reshaping it into a free-of-charge, independent news-aggregator—all accomplished with dry-erase board and couple markers. (Sorry, internet!) Each morning, at 10:45 AM, Alfred Sirleaf wakes up and heads down to his bulletin board to post the day's news, culling together a slate of stories his countrymen might otherwise never see. Grateful readers line up in droves, on foot and in cars, to read these updates, in what has been described as the country’s—and probably the world's—only analog blog.

Hit the above link for video of Mr. Sirleaf and his unique "website"!

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What has been seen...

...can never be un-seen.

Be mindful of that before you click this link.

Remember: it's your choice. Consider yourself duly warned.

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Tricky the Coyote hits car at 75 mph, is trapped between grill and radiator and gets taken on 600 mile ride... and SURVIVES

Sometimes, the headlines simply demand to write themselves.

Crash here for the tale of Daniel East, his sister Tevyn, and how they inadvertently brought Tricky through a harrowing eight-hour scenic tour of the desert wasteland of Utah and Nevada.

Tricky not only lived, but he suffered just a few minor scrapes on his paws.

(And methinks Tricky should sign an endorsement deal with ACME while that iron is still hot.)

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Electronic Frontier Foundation launches Takedown Hall of Shame!

The Electronic Frontier Foundation - which many of y'all will remember came to the aid of Yours Truly two years ago during that very bizarre situation with Viacom - is now setting out to document "the worst of the worst" of bogus copyright complaints. Hit here for the Takedown Hall of Shame, featuring outrageous acts of DMCA abuse by Warner Brothers, the Nation Organization for Marriage and many more!

(By the way, in my opinion there are few finer organizations out there than the Electronic Frontier Foundation: those guys really go all-out to defend the rights of content creators. If you're feeling so led, ya might wanna consider making a contribution to 'em 'cuz they definitely more than earn it :-)

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This weekend only: Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's encore performance of DISNEY'S MULAN JR.

This past month the young actors of Theatre Guild of Rockingham County rocked the house with Disney's Mulan Jr. (starring Jessica Wray as Mulan and Peggy Wasmund as Wushu). In case y'all missed it the first time, be at the new Market Square in Reidsville (ummm... North Carolina) this coming Saturday, October 31st at 4 p.m. 'cuz they're gonna do one more performance. Come out and enjoy the show.

And you'll still have plenty of time for trick-or-treating, too!

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BIOSHOCK 2 finally gets a real trailer!

Rapture: the ultimate town without pity. The fallen utopia that brutally demonstrated man's horrific potential without God and law to restrain him.

And it looks like things have gotten even worse in the ten years since the events of BioShock...

BioShock 2 beckons us back under the sea on February 9, 2010.

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