New Variants

We are building a religion.
We are building it bigger.
We are widening the corridors and adding more lanes.
We are building a religion--a limited edition.
We are now accepting callers for these pendant keychains.
-Cake

My wife, Jen, sent me a new XBOX. God bless her. I have been wasting lots of my spare time playing Morrowind (possibly the best RPG ever made) and watching movies. I just watched City Hall. Not great, but not bad. I do not like John Cusack lately, but this was made before he became a walking political endorsement. And I always like watching Pacino. I think it may be hard to get him to explore new emotional territory as an actor, but when you can achieve it, it is a great thing. I also realize every once in awhile how very much like Chris Walken he is. Although I think Walken would be a lot more fun to go to a bar with.

I am also using my XBOX, along with my warrant's, to host Halo tournaments several nights a week. A few of us in the battalion get together a couple nights a week, away from our bosses, and just blow the hell out of each other. It is kind of funny that we spend many of our days wishing we were back inside the wire, away from guns and things that explode; and then when we get back, we can't wait to shoot and throw grenades at each other in a video game. On the other hand, maybe it isn't funny. We are professional warriors. Maybe it makes sense.

One of my very good friends is getting promoted tomorrow. I will now have to call him by his rank in public. He is far too nice to put up with it for long, at least in private, but I know I can always do it to get a rise out of him. It is weird to see your friends promoted above you. I guess it happens to everybody eventually.

I have been proofreading and giving notes on my best friend Nick's book. He sent me the draft, and it is a very good story. I am a little afraid of hurting his feelings, but he told me to be absolutely heartless. So heads up, Nick. You asked for it. I am only hoping he will be as heartless with drafts of my books. I plan on slamming out my first one when I get home. I'll take a couple of weeks of leave, and for one of those weeks I will lock myself in my study and just write. I'm trying to get the prewriting done for the first one and hopefully a second one while I'm here.

I see the Seattle football team has been trying to steal the "12th Man" concept away from us. I would be angry if I weren't so amused. What 12th Man will the Seahawks get from a Seattle fanbase? Niles Crane? Bill Gates? The desiccated corpse of Kurt Cobain? Between the meth and the Starbucks, I'm surprised anybody in Seattle has the attention span to attend an athletic event. I'm sorry; I shouldn't badmouth Seattle. It's just that I've never felt like I had a team in the Super Bowl before. Now I have one--whoever the hell the other team is. I want to see whatever team that is punish Seattle for daring to call themselves the 12th Man. Who is it, playing against Seattle? The Bears? The Knicks? The Manticores? I don't even know. But I'll be rooting for them. Go Manticores.