It's been a while, so I thought I'd jump up on the ol' soapbox for a sec.

First of all, I just want to publicly air my support for the man who will, in less than an hour, be our new President. I'm not going into this new administration with blinders on, and I can safely say that I already question one or two of his ideas, but I do have faith that President Obama will have a positive effect on the office of the President, on the country as a whole, and on our perception in the larger world. He is inheriting a great opportunity, and a massive burden. Here's hoping that he (and we) can rise to the occasion.

And on a much more trivial note, my lovely wife just bought me an amazingly extravagant early birthday present: an XBox 360. This big lump sum purchase leaves us rather cash-poor at the moment, so no games other than the two that came with the system ("Lego Indiana Jones" and "Kung-Fu Panda"). I did, however, sign up for XBox Live, which is very cool. The only problem is that I had to sign up as "grailwolf13" because someone already had the name "grailwolf". It's very odd. That's the first time I've ever had anyone else take my usual name, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. Anyway, if you see a "grailwolf" on XBox Live, it's not me, but a "grailwolf13" uttering my usual catchphrase will be the genuine article. I won't be able to be online very often (at least, not playing), but if you see me around go ahead and introduce yourself. And if you need someone to catch bullets, fall off platforms, or get eaten by zombies, I'm your guy.

Hurdy gur,
-Marc