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The existance of 24-hour stores, such as Meijer Thrifty Acres in the midwest, or the Long's Drugs at 51st and Broadway in Oakland (which, it must be stated, is far more than just a drug store and in fact is equal in square footage to about one half of a Target, but without as many clothes, so the actual selection of non-clothes articles is both deeper and broader (where else can you buy a live lemon tree, a fishing rod, a bolt of fabric, your choice from an entire AISLE of shelving paper, and a bear-claw all in one shopping trip?) than your average Target or K-Mart), while awesome, is significantly mitigated if you never wake up at 4am and are wide awake and desperate for something to do. I mention this for two reasons. One, so I could make a super, super long sentence, and two because while I used to always either wake up or still be up at 4am, and looking for some fun place to hang out, these days I seem to go to bed early and wake up late. Possibly due to oldness.

The last boss in Clock Tower 3 is really just annoying. But other than that I loved the game. I beat it -- ok, I got to the final boss -- a super long time ago, but just scammed a save off a friend tonight so I can just see the ending movie w/o having to beat the final boss.

Why is it that the only people who seem to really need / want medical marijuana are like burn-outs driving VW micro buses? I mean, are they reflecting the classic stereotype of pot smokers *before* they need medical marijuana, or does using medical marijuana for dodgy reasons like "back pain" somehow *cause* one to become some kind of hippy throwback?

You never see some guy in a suit talking about he needs pot because of his back pain... it's always some person who looks like they just wandered out of Humbolt County. It's amazing to me how just as soon as medical marijuana was legalized in CA, all these burnouts suddenly developed medical-marijuan-requiring conditions...

Anyway, just for the record, my current thought is that I am pro-legalization of most recreational drugs. Using drugs is incredibly stupid and self-destructive, but since most drug users just self-select themselves out of the way of non-drug-users' lives and career paths, it's really no skin off my nose if they want to ruin their own lives. Criminalizing drugs just creates a black market and the attendent violent crime and lengthy, pointless, jail sentences for non-violent offenders.

The day after Thanksgiving should officially be known as RPG DAY. On this day, the shoppers can go shop, and the gamers can spend the entire day playing RPGs.

Normally I'm not much of an RPG player -- I like action, fast games, racing, etc. RPGs take too much time for too subtle a pay-off (not to put too fine a point on it, but when I want stories, I read books). But every now and then, you do want a linear, structured, environment in which to experience success, and nothing fits the bill like an RPG.

RPG DAY -- a day when there's really nothing else to do -- fits the bill perfectly. Nothing else is calling your time, chores can still be put off to Saturday or Sunday, and there's a great feeling of holiday quiet that can't be duplicated any other day of the year. Oh, and left-overs and leveling up just go together in a way that can't be articulated.

So my advice to the world? Pull out Zelda, Final Fantasy, or even go old-school to Wizardry on your Apple II or emulator, and get ready to spend a whole day immersed in hacking, slashing, and mindless leveling up!

For me, this year, my poison of choice will be Gladius from LucasArts. Happy RPG day!

I'll probably get meta-moderated into oblivion, but I just moderated the hell out of the Edward Teller comments. From what I saw, comments fell into these categories:

1) Comments bashing Teller because he ratted out Oppenheimer and/or because he was all about nuclear weapons.

2) Comments praising Teller for being a badass.

3) Comments that were praising his accomplishments, but taking note of the fact that he did some fucked up things and was a pretty complicated individual.

What irritated me though, was that comments in the first category were all at 5, and the other two were either at -1 Flambait/Troll or just 1 or 2. I fall in category 3, but I just feel like people who made/moderated comments in category 1 just are either naive or ignorant. The soviets are a big joke now, but back in the day -- when Teller was saying the only thing that would hold them back was the H-Bomb -- they really WERE bent on world domination, and you know, evil. Like, do some reading (gulag archipelago, the richard rhoades books, etc.) before you start saying the world would have been a better place if Teller was never born!