Well, this weekend I took the plunge, sold my soul, went for the bait, mixed the metaphor. I signed up for an online game. But not just any online game, this is Magic Online. and it’s a lot of fun. My username there is, naturally, “Legomancer”.

I stopped playing Magic several years ago for a variety of reasons. Apart from random sealed deck games since then I haven’t really kept up with it. But when WOTC announced Magic online, I was intrigued. This would not only give me the opportunity to play Magic again on a regular basis, but to play with people I know who don’t live near me.

The other plus is that you only pay for your cards. There’s no monthly fee, no per-game fee (certain events do require tickets, but these tickets cost, I think, a dollar.) So the cost is reasonable. As for buying electronic cards rather than paper, that’s not a problem - I don’t have to figure out where to store electronic cards.

The interface for the game is pretty intuitive, and so far the players are pretty cool (or at least, not jerks). I played all weekend long and had a really good time, having paid only ten bucks total so far. I highly recommend it.

CNN, your number one source for news, has decided to interview Karyn. Who is Karyn? She’s an enterprising young woman who one day found herself $20,000 in credit card debt from buying expensive clothes. Naturally, she did what anyone would do in such a case, she put up a website and asked strangers to pay her bills for her. As she says on savekaryn.com, “I’ve done my part, now I need you to do yours.” So far, $2000 has been collected to help save Karyn from her own responsibilities.

What amazes me is how few people are outraged by this. And no doubt many folks are cheering for her, for her brutal frankness and her unflagging optimism. Or even for her ability to bilk idiots. I don’t like stupid people any more than the next guy, but I don’t believe in taking their money just because they’re stupid. Stupid people need their money to pay rent, buy food, and purchase items they can hurt themselves with.

But anyway, CNN, obviously having nothing else of any importance to report, feels this person deserves to have her sad story of ’spensive shoes told before an audience of millions. Maybe this will burn Karyn. After all, I wasn’t going to link her site in this story because I didn’t want to give her the hits, but I eventually realized that she’s her own worst spokesperson. Read her irony-free missives and thrill to this woman’s complete inability to face the consequences of her actions. So having her on CNN would work if she became a model for irresponsibility and a target of mockery. But this is CNN, where “hard news” means telling you what’s on TV tonight on other channels, so I feel any hopes of a character-shredding will be dashed.

(And god help us if she turns out to be attractive. She’s very coy on her website, not ever showing her face - perhaps out of a vestigial sense of embarassment. In today’s post-Survivor society, attractive + publicity + 15 seconds of mass exposure = I’m entitled to be on TV forever!)

Well I’m not CNN, I’m not interviewing this sad creature, and no more than ten people will see this, so let me tell you. Maxing out your credit card doesn’t make you a bad person, even if it’s for dumb crap like designer purses or whatever. Expecting others to pay the price, and in fact telling them it’s their job to do so is where you cross the line. You aren’t a hero and you aren’t a celebrity. At best you’re a living cautionary tale.

Words fail me.

Ex-Enron Execs Seek Millions in Severance

I can’t begin to conceive of the mind that could come up with this. “We destroyed the company, defrauded our investors, and looted the retirement savings of our employees. Aren’t we owed a performance bonus?”

The mind boggles.

We saw Signs last night. (Rotten Tomatoes reviews.) Very good, I thought. The skeptic in me is still recovering from the battering, but the movie is very enjoyable. Interesting premise, scary, and also genuinely funny. Unfortunately it’s difficult to say much about the movie without giving things away. I was a little concerned that Mel Gibson might not be a good choice for the lead, but he really did a very nice job. M. Night Shyamalan seems to have a knack for bringing out atypical performances in his stars. The question of whether it needs to be seen in a theater, is a tricky one, though.

For Signs itself, the sound is very well done, and that alone might merit a trip to the Googleplex. However, I try to avoid entering a movie theater if I can help it. I suppose there was a time when I enjoyed the “theater experience” but these days it’s more of a religious experience: pray that the people around me will sit still and be quiet, pray that the movie is focused and framed correctly, pray that the place isn’t bone-chilling cold, pray that I don’t have to hear the explosions from the movie next door during the quiet parts of this one.

Maybe I’m longing for a past that never happened, but people don’t seem to know how to go to movies anymore. I blame the increased quality of the home theater experience, due to DVD, large screen TVs, better sound, etc. But so many people come to a movie and suddenly they’re in their living room. They’re wandering around constantly, talking throughout the show, and generally unaware that anyone else might have paid to see the movie. At the price I pay to go to movies these days, why would I want to do anything but watch the movie?

And the theaters are also getting lazier. We saw a movie recently that never was framed properly, even after two people complained. I don’t think the projection booths have humans in them at any point in the process, I suspect it’s all automated now, because there sure isn’t anyone staying in there for five minutes to make sure everything’s framed and in focus. Instead one of the paying customers has to go tell someone it’s out of focus, because naturally part of our ticket cost is to cover the task of doing someone else’s job for them.

Is it just me? Or has the theater experience degenerated into people who don’t care showing movies to people who don’t care?

Looks like there’s no evidence against alleged “Dirty Bomb Suspect” Jose Padilla. According to the linked article, it looks like his worst crime might be thinking about possibly doing something like that at some unspecified time in the future, but nothing more. Nevertheless, this American citizen arrested on American soil by American police is being held indefinitely without trial because John Ashcroft says he should be. It’s one thing to argue that the people captured in Afghanistan should be held indefinitely without trial or charges, but an American citizen? Because we think he might be a suspect? As Tom Tomorrow says, “There was never much doubt that Charlie Manson was a mass murderer–he still got a damn trial.” This is scary stuff, folks.

News giant CNN.com (Monday’s top story: Jason Priestly isn’t dead) is soliciting ideas for what to do with the site of the World Trade Center. People are sending in ideas with comments, which you can look at here. It’s a real interesting glimpse into how people feel about the event, nearly a year later.

There are several themes that run through most of the suggestions:

1. Whatever we put on the site needs to be the biggest that in the world. If we only put a park bench there, it better be the biggest park bench ever.
2. No matter what we put there, the previous buildings need to be present as well, through lights or skeletal structures.
3. The actual footprints of the original buildings are sacred space and nothing should be built on them except for things like reflecting pools.

There are a few very interesting and well-thought designs, but a lot of them are just bizarrely over-the-top. Many submitters felt that the tragedy and solemnity of the site would best be conveyed through laser light shows, giant globes, animatronic firemen, and such. Everything short of a giant robotic Uncle Sam giving the finger towards Mecca is suggested here.

There are also some bizarre misfires, like the one suggestion that pretty much incorporates a “bulls-eye” into the design. Many other people want to use the site as a religious icon, either a giant cross (because clearly everyone who perished in the disaster was a Christian), or the sort of halfway thought out idea of having a cross, minaret, and Star of David all joining hands in an attempt at unity (despite that the cross and minaret all tower over the flattened star). My favorite tragic design involves a “stairway to heaven” that abruptly ends several hundred feet above the streets of New York City, supposedly to symbolize the ascent of the victims into heaven, but more likely becoming Disneyland for the suicidal.

Anyway, it’s a fascinating look at popular impressions of the tragedy.

First off, today is the ninth anniversary for Becky and me. Woo-hoo! Nine years!

Second, Last night we heard that Jeff and Gabe are now engaged. Congrats go to them!

The “Stuff I Got” page has finally been updated, after several several months, and will hopefully continue to be updated.

Also, while I’m here, let me point out that you can see older blog entries by clicking on the little arrow at the bottom of the blog. I’m going to make up an icon that’ll make this more clear.