Actually, I did chuckle over the time machine...

If this keeps up I'm going to start reading the sports section. Go Brewers!

And, oh yeah, I managed to get that box against the wall in God of War, and my next challenge is battling the Hydra. I am probably the worst video game player in the world. I just sit there randomly hitting the buttons over and over, hoping something will happen. Eventually something does, or I give up. As you play any of these games they're always slow-feeding you instructions on new subtleties, presumably at the point at which you're ready for them. Tap lightly on L1 while breathing garlic on the X button twice, then let go of R2 for special Groin of Power Spell. Like anyone can remember that stuff. Just hitting the buttons at random is enough for me. It's thoughts like these that will probably stop me from spending a fortune on a PSP, despite the attraction of instantly available games for all the debate down time.

I'm always doing my best not to spend money. It's not as if I have all that much of it, but I would like things like the aforementioned PSP, an iBook or 12" PowerBook, a portable DVD player, a cellphone smaller than Chihuahua, a new PDA. I may or may not get anything of these things, depending on forces of lust beyond my control. I did just get a standalone hard drive, however. This way I can dump all my stuff in one central place for both my active home machines, and not have to think about it again. Seems to be working fine, so far, but I haven't tried hooking it up to the Windows 98 machine yet. That's tonight's challenge. Then I'll take on the Hydra.

And I've come to the conclusion that Napoleon Dynamite is simply the bright line between blind youth and benign old age. I have yet to find anyone past one score and five who likes it, or anyone under that age who hasn't memorized it. Fortunately, it's easy to memorize. One viewing was all it took for me; it only has about four pages of script, recited very slowly. What I'm thinking is that I can drop little Vote For Pedro references into my everyday conversation in order to look cool while I'm husbanding my Tots. That ought to fool the little buggers!