Posted 23:30 by Grote 0 comments

The Last (Thank God) Day

It's a little late getting started but I was seeing two beautiful blonde girls who can't get enough of me, so I hope you all understand. So let's get it on!

8:32 MSNBC. They're doing recaps of former military folks who became president. Zachary Taylor went from the battlefield to the oval office in 2 months and 2 weeks. Ike wouldn't tell which party he belonged to until 2 months before the election. Only once did a war hero win against an incumbent, 1840.

8:42 CNN. Willie Nelson steps up to sing.... something (Living in the Promised Land, Maybe). I'm kinda disappointed his eyes aren't acting like Carrie Fisher's in the Star Wars Holiday Special. He must be going through detox like something fierce.

8:46 PBS. While the others are doing commentary, only PBS is showing Fmr. Sec'y of State Madeline Albright's speech. Not surprisingly its mostly about foreign policy. It's nothing surprising, and mostly recycled stuff we heard from Edwards, Sharpton etc. I think when I run for President, if the networks want advanced copies of speeches, they won't get them. This is how they decide who to show and who not to you know.

9:00 FoxNews. "Special News Alert" "Kerry to speak tonight." Wow! Wait, there's more. I just learned that he served in Vietnam!

9:06 CNN. Bob Dole and Chancellor Palp... I uh mean Sen. Joe Lieberman discuss what they want to Kerry to say. Bob is a lot like me, he just wants to hear. "I'm John Kerry and this is what I stand for."

9:18 MSNBC. Iowa four months ago it was Kerry 47%-Bush 46%. Today 46-46%. In West Virginia, Kerry has a huge lead 47-44. All within the margin of error. We might see another Nixon-Kennedy or Gore-Bush. Heck, we might even see a case where neither candiate has a majority (269-269).

9:21 John Kerry's stepson, speaks about his step-dad. He introduces.... his brother. Then they introduce........ their step-sisters. For the record, CBS is showing CSI, ABC is showing primetime, or whatever is on Thursday night and NBC has commercials this second (probably Will&Grace). Also, a memo to my future staff, as much as I'll love my future children and all that, I just want to be introduced and speak. I don't need 52 introductions before I accept my nomination for president.

9:29 Vanessa Kerry finally introduces.... Alexandra Kerry, her sister. She talks about almost killing a hamster and sending him down to a watery doom. John rescued said hamster and gave him CPR. So, let's elect him president of the Hamster Rescue Squad. ;)

9:35 The sisters introduce...... a movie about John Kerry. Narrated by Morgan Freeman. Another memo to future staff, see if we can get James Earl Jones to narrate mine. All the news channels, except for fox are showing it full screen (they probably got the tape in advance). Fox News is showing the screen on which the film is being shown. It's pretty good. I'd watch it again before I'd watch Catwoman.

9:47 Then.... nothing. I guess we're allowing the cable networks to go to commercial and then allow the broadcast networks to join the rest of us at 10. Apparently they're ahead of schedule.

9:50 Now we have his boat crews from Vietnam. Including the Green Beret that Kerry saved, who will now say some more kind words about Kerry. Seriously, that first memo, I mean it. He introduces..... Max Cleland, a former US Senator and vietnam vet.

10:00 The network news stations finally join us. Nice of you guys to show up.

10:05 Random sports thought just popped in my head, if Kerry's from Boston, does this mean he's lost NYC? (Yankees-Red Sox, Rangers-Bruins, Jets-Patriots, etc.)

10:06 FINALLY! We get our nominee. He's working his way up to the front, shaking hands with delagates. Over/Under 10:10 will be his first words of his speech. Thank you doesn't count.

10:10 "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty." "I was born in the West Wing (of the hospital)" RIMSHOT. Ok, maybe I made the rimshot up.

10:16 He wants to restore pride to America. No word yet on how. It's a 50 minute speech though, so let's wait and see.

10:17 "As president I will restore, pride and respectabilty to the White House.... I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war, I will have a VP who will not conduct secret meetings... and I will appoint an Attorney General who will uphold the Constitution of the United States." Yeah, John Ashcroft is a Nazi. Even I said that.

10:20 More about outsourcing. Go to www.factcheck.org and look up the article about outsourcing. It doesn't have that big of an affect on outsourcing as much as some people would like you to believe and Kerry's plan wouldn't fix it.

10:22 He offically accepts the nomination for the president of the United States.

10:25 He thanks his family and his shipmates for their support throughout the primary campaign. He thanks his opponents in the primaries for teaching and keeping him honest during the campaign.

10:27 On 9/11 I'm proud that all Americans rallied to President Bush, that there was no Republicans and no Democrats, there were only Americans. He wants hard facts and that he will restore the standard that "America will not go to war because we want to but because we have to." Hear, Hear.

10:30 "We need a President who knows that we need to share the burden, with other countries." So far so good.

10:32 He wants to strengthen the military and increase our special forces. I'm wondering what the majority of the attendees are thinking about this, who are against the war and think we should pull out.

10:33 Good line. "The future doesn't belong to fear, it belongs to freedom."

10:42 I think his messgae is that "America can do better and help is on the way." I'm not sure though. Oh my God, it's a 10 word answer. (Ask me later, and I'll explain it).

10:45 Someone needs to read Article I, when he promises to change tax laws. This is my biggest gripe when it comes to Presidential races; promising tax breaks or changes in tax laws. They can suggest it, but in the end, it's up to Congress, and there's nothing you can do but broker a deal sometimes, and in the end you'll break your promise and only look bad. Don't believe me? Ask Bush Sr.

10:48 "I want a country that relies on it's own inginuity and not the Saudi Royal Family." I'd like to seen Al Jazerra's response about this.

10:50 When he was reaching out to George Bush at first, the crowd seemed kinda disappointed about not attacking each other (the candidates). Hmmm. Points for going to the undecideds.

10:52 More props to going to Abe Lincoln for the quote, "I want to pray humbly that we're on God's side."

10:53 Hey! Props for recognizing Dayton, OH and the Wright bros. :D

10:56 Bravo. B+. He did really well to reach to the middle, to the undecided voters. He played to his party, but party politics alone will not win this election. He knows it but does Bush know it? He didn't elaborate on how he would put 10,000 new police on the streets, how to make 40,000 new troops active, but not put them on active duty. He went to the Right of Bush on the military. This will be an interesting 4 months. I'm sure the pollsters are going to have a busy next 72 hours.

So in the next week or so I'll explain the concept of a ten word answer, talk about the ancient greek calender computer and release a board game about running for President that is nearly done. :) Have a good night and a good weekend.

Posted 22:55 by Grote 0 comments

Day Two(or Three)

Well, we're about to start the third day of the Democratic National Convention. We'll be hearing from John Edwards tonight, amongst others. I'd like to give a quick shout out to Sportswriter Bill Simmons for the model of my blogging. Thanks Bill!

It's 8:00 P.M. and we'll start on CNN.
Once again we have the national anthem, except this time we're asked to wave our left hands gently while we put our right hands over our heart. What is this hokey-pokey?

8:10 All the pundits are blabbing and nothing is going on yet. Although, you can hear someone speaking and the crowd cheering. Must not be too important.

8:16 On MSNBC Chris Matthews his likening Teresea Heinz-Kerry to Black Coffee. "Bitter on the first taste, but eventually you can't live without it." Alright then.

8:21 Clips of Rev. Al Sharpton, on the campaign trail. No matter what party you belong to, he's always good for a laugh. Chris Matthews brings up that he wasn't a serious candidate.

8:23 Up walks Sharpton. He wants to answer Dubya's questions (in a speech he made last week in Detroit).

8:25 He says we fought 282 years ago for our freedoms. That would be 1722. Off by a couple years there Al.

8:30 He's shouting his entire speech. Although, being a preacher, I'm pretty sure its second nature when he's behind a lectern.

8:33 "The government's worry should not be who's sleeping in the bedroom but rather who's not eating in the kitchen." Agreed. however, I'd also include, fix our school, roads, and general infrastructure first.

8:35 He's closes with the "40 acres and a mule" story. The only problem is President Johnson, a democrat, recinded the excutive order after the civil war ended. He goes on to say, if George W. Bush appointed the court in '54, Clarence Thomas wouldn't have gone to law school. Wow. Most incendiary line evar. (or at least this week).

8:39 "With all due respect Mr. President; Read my lips, our vote is not for sale." You can't make this stuff up.

8:41 Chris Matthews, interupts the speech, questiong the "rable rousing" and their questioning whether he isn't doing what the Kerry Campaign wanted and that's grabbing the middle 20. We're gonna switch to see who else has interupted the speech. CNN & PBS are still showing the speech. I'll admit that party conventions are to build party unity but they are to grab the middle. Sharpton has put a good hole in the campaign. You also have to wonder, they bring up, why put this person who didn't win a single delagate.

8:47 According to Brian Williams, who saw the teleprompter, Sharpton's speech went over for "what seems like forever". If I was Kerry, I'd be pissed.

8:53 CNN interviews Sharpton and tells him, they think he was off message, and he says he was on message. He admits that the Kerry people did not see his speech. I've said many times, that conventions now days are very scripted to grab the middle 20%, John Kerry cannot be happy.

8:57 Fox News. Aww, I missed it, apparently Mike Moore and O'Riley had an interview, you could've sold tickets to it.

9:01 MSNBC. Burn. Matthews questions VA governor about "Southern values" that the Kerry campaign keeps talking about John Edwards has. "What makes southern values better than northern values? The South had slavery.. "The governor looked like a deer in headlights.

9:09 Gov. Dean is being interviewed on PBS. He claims that Bush is unable to build international support, while John Kerry will be able to. I'm not sure if either statement is true. Bush has burned a lot bridges but he can start rebuilding them by going to said leaders and asking for help. Kerry, will have to do the same thing and I'm not convinced either will be good at conceeding things they may not be ready to conceed.

9:18 MSNBC, is quicky becoming my favorite news network. They seem to be between Fox and CNN on the political spectrum. They're interviewing a republican about Edwards and Cheney in the future debates. "Bush said 'Dick Cheney can be president', which implies that Edwards isn't ready." That and Kerry claimed during the primaries that Edwards wasn't ready to be president. Which begs the question, why pick him as a possible successor if something happens to you?

9:29 They sure are running a lot of "Manchurian Candidate" ads during the convention. Just sayin, if the president(whichever) gets killed, conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day.

9:39 Wow. Lots of nothing. No wonder the main networks don't want to show anything. If this gets worse tomorrow night, I quit.

9:53 MSNBC is interviewing Madeline Albright. She believes that John Kerry will try to get the troops home sooner but we can not leave Iraq in chaos. As if Bush likes seeing daily casualty reports. I'm sure that without foreign support either president will get the troops home in about the same period of time.

10:11 Cate Edwards introduces her father, to speak and accept the nomination for the Democratic ticket. She looks like a 60's movie star. :D

10:15 Apparently she's only introducing her mother, who will introduce her (Cate's) father. I think.

10:19 John Edwards comes out to "(your love keeps lifting me) Higher". Not my choice for a intro song, but hey each to his own. Let's hope he says something.

10:24 Edwards accepts the nomination to a standing ovation. He wants to talk about Kerry. He talks about Vietnam. Seriously, that's great it really is. But let's talk about issues. I keep hearing about Vietnam and nothing about issues. I can't help but sing "I won three purple hearts, this land will surely vote for me."

10:27 Edwards doesn't like the negative ads from the Bush campaign. Doesn't pledge to stop the attack ads from Kerry's campaign though.

10:30 They have a plan for "one america", for the same health care. They won't have to have two diffrent schools. Doesn't hint at how they plan to pay for it or how to get it through Congress. Must be a secret plan.

10:34 Tax breaks for health care for children, and daycare, and for higher education. So does that mean if don't have any children, my taxes will go up?

10:36 Their going to raise the minimum wage, give tax breaks, and create jobs. Someone hasn't read Article One of the Constitution lately.

10:40 I'll donate $100 to the Red Cross if the GOP doesn't mention 9/11 once. Everyone who has made a major speech at this convention has made reference to it. Policitizing an apolitical moment, that's just great.

10:50 Edwards, wraps up. Promising hope is on the way. The speech didn't overwhelm me, but it was a little more substantial than I expected. B-. However, he still has a long way to go, to prove to me that he is Presidential material.

Have a good night everybody!

Posted 23:00 by Grote 0 comments

Democratic Convention Day 1

So I'm going to blog three out of the four days (I have plans Tuesday) of the Deomcratic Convention. I'll suffer through the mind-numbing political speeches. Hopefully they'll say something, anything besides "John Kerry is not George W. Bush." Right, and I'm the Pope. Oh well, let's buckle down. I'll flip channels through out the night and try to keep you posted on what's going on. There aren't going to be a lot of links, because I'll be doing this on the fly.

8:00 P.M. CNN As they pan the crowd, I wish I could screen-cap some of the crowd shots. We're talking an Unintentional Comedy Factor(UCF for future references this week) of 8 or higher. Bebe Wyman is singing the National Anthem but I have this urge to sing "O Holy Night" because that's the harmony the piano/jazz quartet seems to be playing behind him.

Al Gore is first to speak tonight, and awaaaaay we go:

8:10 Four 2000 election jokes. Recounting Sheep, lying awake at night, winning the popular vote.

8:12 Wow. Bitter much? Making sure, the Supreme Court doesn't pick the next President, etc.

8:15 Good move, asking the third party supporters to throw their support the democrats, and then asking whether or not we need a new president to regain our allies. This is something I thought that Bush made a mistake on, burning his bridges and claiming we don't need our allies.

8:17 There's a guy wearing a Kerry-Edwards button, but due to the lighting, it looks like Kerry-Lincoln. UCF=7

8:20 Gore calls Edwards middle class. I wouldn't call a ambulance chaser/tort lawyer middle class, exactly.

8:22 Tipper runs up and gives Al a kiss when he finishes his speech. Everyone altogether now:awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

8:25 As they show different shots of the crowd, we see Janet Reno standing next to a man in a Hawaiian shirt UCF=8

8:28 CNN goes to commercial so we go to MSNBC. They're doing "post-speech" anaylsis. Topics include, Florida, not covering his home state, and his depression in early 2001.

8:30 MSNBC goes to regualr programing. Well if you count "Countdown" as regular. Just kidding Keith!

8:32 PBS, talking to a 20-something Miami-Dade county delegate. Asked said candidate if the delegation was pro-Kerry or anti-Bush. Answer? "Both." See, this is why I haven't decided yet. I don't like Bush, I don't like his type of Neo-conservatism, but Kerry hasn't said a Gorrammed thing that convinces me to vote for him.

8:36 Gah! The female democratic senator, looks like Dr. Kane. Help me. That and there is a senator standing behind the speaker waving to random people. The speaker is shouting at the crowd, giving her speech, like they stole cookies. There are a few prettier, and I'm assuming more melodic voiced senators in the democratic party yes? Couldn't they have picked one of them?

8:38 PBS is talking about the lack of overt Bush Bashing. Eh? Gore's 2000 election jokes, the esteemed senator's not going to war on paper thin evidence comment. If you say so.

8:44 Nader and O'Reilly are having a shouting match on FOX news. Moving on.

8:46 I wonder, do the political parties have an exhibitor halls like they do at Origins? Have a booth from each of the 50 states. Ohio gives away buckeyes (chocolate covered peanut butter balls), Florida gives out orange slices. If they don't do this, I think they should. Think about the advertising for tourism for each state. Someone needs to hire me to run these things.

8:51More crowd shots on CNN. I wonder, if the GOP's convention is going to have such a diverse crowd. I've seen Muslim women (or women with shaws(sp?) on their head), hawaiians, african-americans, whites, asians.

8:56 MSNBC has been stealing my thoughts. I've said for about a month now, Bush takes a big step forward if he admits that he has made mistakes, and will do a better job in his second term. Maybe he's waiting for the convention or maybe even October.

9:00 MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Matthew Perry were separated at birth, I'm sure of it.

9:03 PBS. Former President, Jimmy Carter. I don't want to say he's mumbling but I have to concetrate to understand him. This is the first time I've heard him give a speech. *shrug*

9:06 Just sayin, but Carter, is talking about president's with military experience and whatnot, going as far as to say "Kerry showed up when he was called to serve." How quickly they forget. Just sayin.

9:08 He does bring up a good point. The isolationist policies (however unintentional) of the current administration is keeping us from flourishing as a country. He goes on to say that we wasted a lot of the goodwill of the world towards the US between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq.

9:15 As he wraps up, he doesn't dispair, no matter how much he dislikes the last few months, he trusts in the american people. Again, despite your political leanings, no president we elect (unless one tries to stay in power) will ever lead the country down the road into fiery destruction. We'll wound ourselves, yes, and we have. But, we will never destroy ourselves. The Civil War almost did that and we came back, and we'll come back from nearly anything.

9:19 CNN. Larry King is interviewing the daughters of John Kerry. They seem smarter than the Bush girls (of course considering, dear ol' dad...), but not as pretty. But I'm not saying they aren't attractive either. I wonder if ol' Larry is considering another divorce. ;)

9:24 Fox. Cavuto(sp?) are arguing about Iraq. Cavuto points out the Kerry hasn't said he's going to stabilize Iraq but has said nothing about bringing troops home. Well, of course not. No matter who we elect we're not going to be out of Iraq for at least five years, but we need to stabilize the election.

9:27 Coming up on Fox, Jerry Springer and Ann Coulter. Wow. I better secure the UCF meter. Hopefully, I'll flip back to catch a bit of it.

9:30 I need to either a) get a laptop. (Corporate sponsorship? Dell?) or b) change my setup. I have to twist to type and watch tv, since my computer and my tv are facing each other.

9:33 Jerry Springer is an Ohio Delegate? Alright then. Springer says (without Gay Jewish Black dudes) that the Dems need to sell their case and not insurance to the American people. Heh. Good line. He opines that this might be 1980 in reverse. He is also thinking about a run for Governor. God help the state of Ohio.

9:38 Well close the books. If you had 9:38 or *under* 9:39 in the pool. You win. I opened my first beer. It's even a better bet that as the week goes on the beer opening will get more frequent and sooner.

9:40 MSNBC. Fmr. Mayor Willie Brown believes that John Kerry needs to go to the Dem. base. No. You've got 40% who will vote for Kerry, 40% will vote for bus. You need to grab the 20% in the middle, like myself.

9:44 PBS. They're having a discussion with Democratic representatives that are for the Iraq war. Huh. I didn't know they still exist.

9:48 Fox. Ann Coulter. Wow, she scares me. She is spouting off about the liberal media, muffling the conservatives. Apparently USA Today hired her and then fired her the next day when she said some unkind things about democrats. Yikes. About Carters remarks about how "we won the cold war." Her comment was "What's this 'we' plaeface." Yikes. Now I know how moderate democrats feel when Barbara Streisand spouts off. I want to hide under my bed until she goes away. In fact I'm changing the channel.

9:55 Woah we got a spike on the UCF. Flipped to Headline News. They were talking about a "Hip-Hop Summit". It was to get late teens and early twenty-somethings to register to vote. But I couldn't help but to imagine a USSR-US-esque summit, limmiting shootouts, and a drug sharing plan. UCF=9

9:59 Fox. Another spike. Someone talking about Kerry's current location and an arm shoots from stage left in front of the reporter and covers his face and he pushes the arm away without missing a beat. Too bad for our, mystery man that it was a white sign so you couldn't read anything with the bright lights. Moron. UCF=7

10:03 CNN. Glenn Close gives a speech about 9/11. One of the relatives of the victims from Flight 11 (first plane) gives a speech. Its a very touching speech. It may be from watching to must West Wing, and I'm not taking anything away from this woman, but, I have a feeling that the speech was professionaly written. I wouldn't be surprised if it was. If you've read any of this blog, especially tonight, I have a meager command of the language. If you're going to put anyone on national tv, you want them to sound at the very least a smidge intellegent. I'm sure she had a hand in it but I'm sure a "Sam Seaborn" gave her a hand.

10:11 Violin Solo of America the Beautiful, very well done. Although something made it seem sureal with lighters held aloft by delagates. No I'm not making that up. UCF=9 I should laugh during a moving moment but it was just too funny to see lighters held high. I'm sorry, I'm going to hell, but at least it'll be first class.

10:21 CNN. That's depressing. Jeff Greenfield, senior political anylist for CNN said that John Kerry's bar is low. "Not getting Americans to fall in love with John Kerry but to fall in like with him." *Sigh*

10:24 Hillary walks to the stage while the band plays New York State of Mind. She says she's practically speechless. We should be so lucky.

10:28 While she's speaking and getting scattered applause during her speech a random camera shot gives us delagates, not applauding during a round of applause. Interesting. I wonder why. (Seriously, I don't know, I mean this is a democratic party love fest.)

10:36 Bill Clinton comes on stage. CNN commentator makes a good point. "This is why they put him on Monday." He's the biggest star in the Democratic party. If he could run for a third term he'd win and win big. You don't need him stealing the spotlight. After the convention, if he wants to help, he should disappear.

10:43 Making broad generalizations, Clinton says that "Republicans act unilaterally and co-operate only when they have to." That's usually false. I'm sure a lot of Republicans, would speak out against him but they need the support of the party to win elections. It's a nifty Catch-22.

10:47 I don't always agree with his politics but I have to say, I wish I had just half of Clinton's speech making ability. His ability to energize people is downright amazing.

10:54 Clinton gives props to Kerry for going to Vietnam, while Bush, Cheney and himself skipped out. Got to give the guy credit for throwing himself under the bus, figuratively speaking. On the other hand, he never has to run for anything again so he can have all the scandals he wants and not worry about it.

11:00 As Clinton, wraps up, so must I. And that's the way it is, July 26, 2004. (Ok I'm not Walter. Please don't sue me Mr. Cronkite).

Posted 17:28 by Grote 0 comments

How is this not Illegal?

So, I was in the mall the other day and I saw this Power Player 12K Plus. I'm sure you've seen them if you've been in a decent size mall lately. Seriously, how is this not violating about a billion copyrights? I can see maybe konami selling the rights to a 3rd party for their old games. What I don't see happening is Nintendo authorizing a third party to put out Super Mario Bros on a non nintendo system!

Also, how is this group not up for fraud? They claim there is 12,000 games, which is partially true. They list 20 games to a page, so figure you have about 600 pages. Here's the kicker, of the 5 to 6 pages I browsed through, I saw at least 4 Super Mario Brothers, and 6 Bombermans. So I figure, they probably only have 50 games. Sixty tops.

Anyway, I'll do the research on the system and give a full report on it, if someone buys me it. I'm not going to shell out 60 bucks for it. As I said, I played with it, and the controller was pretty sucky, pacman wouldn't go where I told him. Mario wouldn't duck when he was invincible.

Posted 20:38 by Grote 0 comments

Origins Pics!

I went to Origins at the end of June with Jim and his sister Kate. A good time was had by all. We got to meet Sean Astin, although we didn't get to hear him talk as much as we would have liked to, due to a misprint in the convention packet. Anyway, Kate brought her camera and took some pictures of the event, and here they are:

Sean signs my LoTR poster, while wishing me a happy birthday at the same time.


Sean and I do the obligatory after-signing pose.


Kate was next


Jim brought up the rear

A couple funny stories about all this. The three of us go see Sean speak and then they announce that we need a ticket($25.00 per item. Ouch!) to get something signed by Sean. So Jim, Kate and I all get in line. We all go through line, and I get my one ticket and Kate gets her one (Two? I forget but its not important) and when I meet back up with her, I see Jim back in line! I ask what's up and, apparently, Jim went all the way through the line, didn't buy a ticket, and then realized that he needed one to go meet Sean. So, Kate and I decide to wait for Mr. Jim. About 100 people pass us (Exaggerating? maybe a little, but it's my story :P). So were finally in line and then they announce that they're only accepting tickets that say "11:00". There's a group of 3 twenty-something girls, who start shouting "ohmygawd, no way. ohmygawd!" Most of the group was rolling their eyes at their mixed panic. Probably about being stuck in a sea of geeks for another four hours or somethin.

Anyway, back to the last two pictures. We had arrived at the Columbus Convention center about nine and got our badges for the day and our bag of free swag. We walked around and decided to check out the exhibitors hall before going to hear Sean speak. (This was before we knew that he started speaking at 10.) Walking by was various people in costumes of LoTR characters, Star Wars Characters, Fairies and general fantasy characters. Nothing special, until we see a father and son in these costumes. Too cute.

For those of you who don't know, Jango Fett (from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones) in blue and his son Boba Fett (from Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi)

Last, not least, I have been a lot of things in the last year. I've been a World Champion of the World, (scroll down a bit); and I've met Storm Troopers and I've told "Mr. Gorbachev to tear down this wall!" (Click here to see all of the photo essay from mine and Jim's D.C. Trip.) Now I can say I've fought in a galaxy far far away


Yup, I'm an X-Wing pilot baby! I've shot down my share of TIEs and now I've got the picture to prove it.

With the Democratic Convention next week, look for comments from me about the whole kit and kaboodle. Shame, I can't be there in person to blog it for ya.