Last week's winner was callmesteam ! Congratulations! We have a new contest this week, and the prize is: Microsoft points for use on XBL, retail value $19.99. Again, the rules are simple: post a response to this question, clear, with comments turned on. If you could get one of the vehicles from Halo (ground or aircraft) to use in the modern military, which one would it be and why? ...

Telltale Games is giving away the new Monkey Island game for free today, in the form of a PC download. http://www.telltalegames.com/playlikeapirate

The 2002 He-Man cartoon is actually pretty good! Lots of great fight scenes, and the intro starts with a parody of the original intro, which is full of NOSTALGIOLZ!! It is still very kiddie, but it's an entertaining kind of kiddie rather than a painful kind of kiddie. Orko's still there, but Cringer doesn't talk, which is good. Thanks for loaning it to us, callmesteam !

mostly for personal reference, but if you're anxious to loan me any of these then feel free! Naruto: Rise of a Ninja Ninja Gaiden II Hulk: Ultimate Destruction Sid Meier's Pirates Gun Valkyrie Kingdom Hearts 2 Resident Evil 4 Wii De Blob Little King's Story Muramasa Phantom Brave: We Meet Again Chibi Robo Paper Mario Eternal Darkness But first I need to finish Wheelman and get it back to ...

...even if they're available for free on watch instantly . I have a terrible sneaking suspicion that this post will compel callmesteam to watch it RIGHT NOW. :)

Been a really rough couple of days, but Friday was great. I took a day off work, and Nicole & I spent the day going on a driving trip to the Jemez Mountains, visiting hot springs, natural mineral dams, and WPA-era tunnels hewn out of living rock by rough men working for pennies a day. So yeah, pretty great. Saturday I spent most of the day helping callmesteam move, which left me exhausted...

We saw Up on Friday, at long last. Coming off something like Wall-E , which was about BIG things, Up took me a bit off guard with its lighthearted adventure story. It wasn't really about anything in particular, just a little romp through South America in search of a beautiful landscape. callmesteam said he was surprised by how villainous the villain was in it. Sure, he talked about killing...

Except when it does happen again... and again... and again...

LOTR is about 95% complete. The only thing left is that one of the flasher lamps is stuck on, which probably means I need to replace a transistor. Last night I fixed a bunch of switches, and replaced a TON of lamps, many in very-hard-to-reach places. And the night before last, right after I got it, I resoldered a broken switch. Oh, and also last night I added a fourth ball to it; somehow this machine...