"Hey, honey, they just bombed my house and killed my parents. Can I stay over at your place for a while?"

"I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of commitment."

No longer must we live under the disingenuous denials of a domestic surveillance program's existence. It's now been properly approved by a court.

That's good, right? In all seriousness, though, does it sort of count as progress?

Great! I hope you took a photo with you standing in front of whichever government building you put that sticker on ... oh wait, sorry, I misread the antecedent. My bad.

I wonder if some of this is due to their inability to decompress with people in similar situations, like the armed forces can do with each other at meals or in the barracks.

It almost sounds like going home to their family every night, while certainly desirable, could perversely be keeping them from coping mechanisms that come along with being physically and mentally (attentionally ?) present with others in the same situation, e.g., during training/combat.

Besides, we'll still have enough change to cover the loss, with some left over.

Speak for yourself.

See, that's the problem -- as long as they see themselves in either role, it won't work. Perhaps if they were isolated at youth, taught to fight each other, and then misled into thinking it was just a really good video game or simulation of some sort. I bet they could make a movie out of that.

Between your game ideas, implementation, and playtesting, what have you discovered about planning, targeting, or adapting games to various durations (e.g., an hour or shorter to the better part of a day) and between dedicated gatherings with friends to something you could maybe play with someone you randomly meet in a coffeehouse for a while? This is more of an open-ended question; I'd just like to hear about your experience in considering and working through these issues.

I personally was too young to appreciate the social context around your pocket games when I played them, but still enjoyed them a lot -- Ogre, Car Wars, Illuminati, and Awful Green Things from Outer Space, and I'll mention Illuminati again because I enjoyed it so much.

And the playtesting, right?

When I eat with friends on the weekend, I'll order an omelette with an extra egg, extra veggies, and some nuts to add protein and keep me going through the day. It's almost the size of the entire plate. Since I order it frequently, I decided a while back to give it a name. It comes with basil pesto and looks green, and the name I gave it could be mistaken to refer to a large green character that has risen to animated movie fame recently. Thanks to you, Mr. Jackson, however, I chose the name from an entirely different time and setting.

I call it 'The Ogre'.

It was actually cost that decreased by 50% last week. So hopefully nobody remembers that, and they can double their battery capacity and their profits at the same time!

They haven't done many experiments. The ones they performed, they did by ... decreasing the gain until a Raspberry Pi inside a cadaver lost connectivity? That sounds plausible, right?

I'm thinking a miniaturized tennis-ball launcher, adapted variously:

• From the teacher's side, using face-recognition to identify and target dozing students, and then to launch dry-erase markers, erasers, or chalk.
• From the student's side, identify overly engaged students and curve-breakers, and target spitballs instead.

I think I can get funding for this soon.

The income stream you receive from continuously building and selling properties, rather than the one-time amount you receive when you sell a house?

At least she thinks she's human. The workers almost blew it when they powered up the Wi-Fi router -- it's a good thing they covered the LED before they hooked it up to the network, so her failsafes could kick in.