Copies of 'Star Wars' Sequel Online
What is the point of this? Aside from the juvenile joy of seeing it first.

Getting overexcited can only lead to disappointment.

We've all had the experience of going about our day when all of a sudden an echo from the past blasts back into your mind at full force, with or without a trigger. Today, I started singing the theme song to this cartoon from my childhood, The Bionic Six. It's a total Fantastic Four plotline rip-off, i.e. family gets caught up in mysterious alien radiation, they turn into a group of superheroes, yadda-yadda, but this one has an adopted asian and black kid, to suit the times, I suppose.

My favorite cartoons from childhood are:
1. Robotech
2. Transformers
3. He-Man (who didn't want to turn into somebody else?)
4. Spiderman and His Amazing Friends (lame title, but the first time I got to see Spiderman and other Marvel comic characters on TV)
5. Voltron (form... blazing... sword)

Galaxy Rangers is another one I remember that I liked a lot. Only was on for one season apparently. But nothing dies on the internet. Like the Silverhawks.

Today's Baseball Prospectus discussed an interesting tactic for the Giants to employ to combat other teams consistently walking Barry Bonds.

TV Size Matters
For my buddy Todd.

Taoism and the Philosophy of Tai Chi Chuan

I think I was reading an interview, and the interviewee had gone through a very difficult struggle in his life, but shared that he was bolstered by his belief in chi or balance. This means that good things occur to balance out bad things in life.

I suppose the idea that things will balance out is sort of comforting, but I think it is rather disheartening. To know that the grand effect of life after it's all said and done will be a net of ZERO is a little disappointing. I think you can turn bad things into good, or bad things into worse, or good things into bad. To have it all balance out evenly at the end seems sort of improbable.

Oh. I re-added a commenting tool. Try it out and lemme know it works.

I finally saw SpiderMan today. I thought the casting was excellent, but the story was stretched a little too thin in parts. I will look disdainfully at the next person who says "with great power, comes great responsibility." Hopefully, this will lead to a more inspired villain choice like Kingpin or Venom in the sequels, but you know what they say about sequels.

Ever heard that song "Walk On" by U2? Apparently it was inspired by Aung San Suu Kyi.

I read an article in Harper’s Weekly which pointed out a disturbing (in the writer’s view) trend of presidents not only using religious rhetoric, but seeming to truly believe that they were God’s instrument of divine retribution to the enemy of the United States. There is a strong belief still held in this country that somehow, some way, we’ll always win because God is on our side, that He has some special interest and love for this particular country. Reagan thought that he was the divine intermediary to bring death and retribution to the armies of darkness, AKA the Soviet Union. Jimmy Carter was very outwardly evangelical. Bill Clinton claimed a evangelical background, as did George Bush uno y dos.
If they are believers, then they have a right to think of themselves as instruments of God’s will; it’s what Scripture teaches. But the natives get a little restless when the Commander in Chief views himself as a catalyst in the Second Coming. And rightly so. The title on the door reads “President”; not “God.”
There are unwritten rules for every game, including the political one. In baseball, you’re not supposed to wince if you get hit with a pitch. In friendship, you’re not supposed to steal your friend’s significant other. In running for office, you’re not supposed to be too overly religious/ethnic/ugly/smart/female/gay/nonProtestant. The profile ends up being your next door neighbor’s nicest uncle Bernie, the car salesman. Government doesn’t call upon the best and the brightest to lead us, but the richest and least offensive. Calling yourself an instrument of divine wrath is one way to be offensive.
Why is the call to be a divine instrument of God never include feeding the poor and homeless? Or bettering public schools? Or reasonable healthcare for everyone? People turn a deaf ear to religious proclamations from political leaders, nay, every person on TV, because we know it’s part of the rhetoric. When Reagan called for God’s blessing upon this country during the arms race in the 80s, what exactly did he think God would bless? God bless our nukes when they turn Russia into dusty radioactive hell. God bless us as we liberate Kuwait (and our energy supply) from those evil Iraquis. God bless us as we turn a blind eye to civil liberties. God bless us as we overturn puppet governments in Central and South America, causing civil turmoil which enables the drug cartels to take control. It's hard sometimes to tell the difference between that good ol' fashioned religion and rhetoric.
What I’ve always been taught, what I’ve always learned is that God doesn’t bless you unless your heart is in the right place. You can say you want this or that, but he won’t give it to you until your heart is ready to receive it. The longer it takes for you to get there, the longer the blessing is delayed. There sometimes are sins you have to confess first before you can move forward and receive that blessing.

Yahoo! News - Billionaire Predicts Nuclear Attack
So what if he's right? He might not get the satisfaction of telling us "I told you so" because we'll be glowing bits of ash.

It's a bit odd when your worlds collide, socially. My groups of friends tend to be firmly sectioned off from each other, so it's bizarre and a little scary when the osmosis occurs. My orderly world feels a little out of kilter. You meet somebody, look through their pictures, and then you see you friends from your other worlds in them. It's really weird. You feel like, why didn't I meet you earlier?

The worst case of this is usually at a wedding, but you probably won't notice because you're too busy getting married.