Listen, Wil -- you really need to stop making Tabletop. I mean, you're introducing me to new games and making them look like a lot of fun. Thanks to you, my gaming budget is out of control. Please stop before I dip into my kids' college funds!

You might try "Vincent and the Doctor" from last season. An especially easy hook if she's a Van Gogh fan and/or has been to the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, although obviously it does have that invisible space monster thingy (the Doctor Who episode, not the art museum).

Ostrich riding, eh? I kind of assumed that would happen if the date went well enough. Hi-yo!

Late to the party here, but do a Google search for "NAET." It is an acupuncture/acupressure allergy elimination treatment that I can say has worked for me. It also has some weird spiritual stuff that goes with it, and believe me if a friend of mine hadn't recommended it that shit would have kept me away. She found out she was allegic to dogs shortly after adopting a puppy, and now she owns two with no allergy problems at all. With that recommendation I decided to give it a shot. I have to go back for tune-ups every so often, but that's not the case for everyone. If you can deal with the mumbo jumbo and don't mind the acupuncture part, look for a practitioner in your area and talk to them about it.

Sorry if these are duplicates, but I'm late to the party and there are a lot of comments! Here are my top tips from my experience: 1. "The Joy of Homebrewing" is a must-have reference. When in doubt, check the book and relax... Have a home brew. 2. Watch the wort during the boil. It can get away from you easily and boil over into a huge mess. 3. Boiling the wort stinks. Badly. Open your windows first. 4. Hopefully the salesman sold you liquid yeast (within its expiration date) instead of dehydrated. If not, go with liquid next time around. 5. I don't often brew in the summer because it can be tough to cool the wort. Try a cold water (or ice) bath in the tub. Don't get antsy and add the yeast too soon while the wort is still too warm. 6. As others have said, sanitization is important. When it comes time to bottle, I always rinse my bottles and scrub them with a bottle brush, then I run them in my dishwasher using the heated drying setting. The finished bottles are sanitized with minimal effort! 7. When you are ready for even better beer, buy a second carboy and add a second fermentation. 8. Instead of filling your fermentation lock with water (which has a small chance of leaking into the wort and contaminating it), buy some cheap vodka and use that instead. Nothing survives in vodka (true on multiple levels...), so if it does leak a little, you don't have to worry about it skunking your batch. Also, one of the reasons beer like Budweiser is more difficult for the home brewer is that pilsners use a yeast that requires stable cold temperatures to ferment. Unless you have a fridge big enough for your carboy, this can be tough. Ales use a warm-fermenting yeast and therefore can be kept in a closet while they are working their magic. Good luck!

Way to go Wil! My wife and I recently celebrated our 10th as well. It does indeed rule to be married to your best friend. Moderately interesting 10th anniversary story: On our trip to Paris the BBC was the only English-speaking channel on TV. They ran an ad, voiced by Patrick Stewart, touting Georgia as a great place to invest (when they aren't picking fights with Russia, I suppose). Since then I've been wondering -- has your agent ever contacted you about doing commercials for other former Soviet breakaway republics? Could be the Next Big Thing.

Better watch it with those magic missile comments. If any non-geeks venture here, they may think you're threatening them with something else...

I'm torn about Chrome. While competition is a good thing, I can't help but feel like Google is being the Ralph Nader to Mozilla's Al Gore. (Or the Ross Perot to Mozilla's George H.W. Bush.) In the end, though, we'll all be better off as Google and Mozilla push each other. Microsoft will continue to sit smugly at the top for all the people too lazy or too ignorant to know that they can download something better. But one day we might all find Google is the platform and we don't need Windows at all. Maybe.

First off, I am disappointed in the result of the vote on this bill, and I'm disappointed that Obama didn't make a bigger stance on the immunity issue. But I'm more troubled about the increased domestic wiretapping ability the gov't will have now than about potential civil lawsuits against AT&T et al. However, I figure Obama was being a pragmatist here. Not voting on a bill this big is cowardly. Voting against it gets you labeled by Rovian opponents as being "for the terrorists." BO was left with little choice as his campaign moves to the center for the general election. (Note to those upset about this move: it happens in both parties at every presidential election. It's not new. Get used to it.) I'm disappointed with the Dems in the Senate, but let's be realistic here. To all those who say we have a "Democratically controlled Senate," look at the party breakdown: 48 Dem, 48 Rep, 2 Ind. Does it look like anyone really controls it? Yes, they have majority status and all the power that comes with it, but when it comes down to voting they are still very much balanced out by the Republicans.

Man, that is a real drag. I saw The Police last summer on the first leg of their tour at Churchill Downs. Turns out that's not a great concert venue for setup reasons IMO, but it was still a phenomenal show. Easily in my top 3 of all time. I was bummed when a friend of mine saw them recently in Chicago and told me they added "Bring on the Night" for the second leg of the tour, but I guess I can take some solace knowing that they did play "Sychronicity II" in Kentucky. (Aside to musicians and their booking agents: Why do so many big shows totally skip over Indianapolis? We have some good venues here!) You think Elvis is The Man at 53? He's younger than all three of The Police! I think Andy Summers will even be 61 in a month or two. But they still threw down like it was 1983. On a final note, check YouTube (if you haven't already) for clips from the Hollywood Bowl concert. You might be able to relive some of the show without the annoying distractions. Man I hope they release a concert DVD when the tour is over.

Phoebe Cates FTW!

Sorry. The URL in my post above should be www.naet.com

Good luck with the sinus surgery next week. I seem to recall you complain about allergy problems from time-to-time, and even if your surgery goes well, you might want to look into alternative treatments to help stop the cause of your allergies. I've had great luck with a specific type of acupuncture called "Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques." It has helped me deal with allergies that were causing a painful autoimmune response, and it also helped a friend of mine completely overcome her dog allergy (she now owns two). You can read about it at www.neat.com. It may sound a bit over the top, but my experience has made me a big fan.

One of the greatest jazz songs ever, IMO. I think it was mentioned earlier, but merits repeating, that Joe was able to play like that without a monster drum set that has its own zip code. I would sooner die than say anything disparaging against drummers like Neil Peart or Stewart Copeland (see them live and you'll be amazed for weeks afterward) -- but Joe's understated kit proves that having serious chops is more important than having a 100-piece set.

As you've learned by now, component cables will work just fine. They are analog, which unfortunately may someday stop working as the content providers force everyone to digital (and DRM), but for now you're good. Let me put a plug in for Earl at dbstalk. He has an "in" with DirecTV who gets him new hardware to test/review in advance, and he is very active in that group and formerly with the TiVo Community Forum. If dbstalk group doesn't answer your questions, drop him a private message. I have a DirecTivo, and when I went to those groups for tips, Earl was all over them. Haven't spoken to him personally, but I've benefited from his posts. As far as having to spend your own money on cables, there's a little-publicized group at DirecTV called Customer Retention that can probably help you. They used to have a direct phone number, but now you have to ask a regular customer service rep to connect you I think. As a 10 year subscriber with an account in good standing, you can probably get a credit on your account or free premium channels for a few months. I don't recommend that anyone try to scam the system, but in this case I'd say you are justified since you have to spend your own money to receive service that you already pay for. DirecTV had a similar DRM mixup with TiVo a few years ago where people with DirecTivos couldn't save certain programs (or set them to only be erased manually). Again it was a software glitch, but it doesn't bode well that content providers are moving in this direction. I wonder why my friends with Dish Network haven't had these problems, but I've been satisfied with DirecTV for the past 15 years and see no need to switch. Good luck getting back up and running.

Good grief, man. The Wikipedia entry for the show mentions that you are expected to star in it. How is that fair to you? On one hand it's cool that the article mentions before any of the actors who are already cast (w00t!), but on the other it seems to unfairly put pressure on you. I hope you nailed it and can prove the Wikipedia entry right! If not, we should find the author and flog them for jinxing you.

Well, thanks. Another t-shirt I have to buy. On top of getting "the look" from my wife when I open the package, I can't even wear this one in front of my kids. Still, for adult gatherings it is sure to hold a spot next to my current favorite: Stewart/Colbert '08!

In the end I enjoyed it. A fun, fast-paced action flick with some excellent FX. It's not an Oscar-caliber script, but it's fun (especially to see Spiderman explore some of his dark characteristics), and it tries to emphasize the importance of making the right choice between good and evil. As a parent, I liked that. Not a bad message to get out there to the kids and teens (and even the adults) who will see it. I'm not sure if this isn't what has turned some people off, though. While I didn't take it as overly preachy, some people might.

Great story, Wil. You have a terrific ability to make the reader feel like he's witnessing the event for himself. And, if it makes you feel any better, most of the parents who were there probably knew right away how unfair the teacher was being. I'm sure they knew you were being unfairly singled out. But I can imagine how you must have felt back then, not knowing this. I'll be sure to keep this post in the back of my mind if either of my kids find themselves in situations like this. I certainly don't want them to feel like you did that day. No child deserves that.

I was at dinner last night with the wife and kids at a restaurant with lots of TVs. Usually you get a couple of baseball games and some ESPNEWS. Last night they were all on CNN, which was in the middle of non-stop broadcasting of the photos and video the shooter sent to NBC. When our 3 year old looked up from his coloring book and asked who the guy on TV was, we had the manager change the channel (which he promptly did, to ESPN9 or something). What makes the TV networks think we want to watch this stuff non-stop? How about some respect for the victims and their families. And what makes someone working at a restaurant think we want to watch anything like this while we eat? At least they changed it when we asked.

I live in Indy and am a big Colts fan. I watched the entire thing, and it didn't disappoint (duh). The game through three quarters was within one score, so we were still a bit nervous that one big play could ruin our party in a hurry. But there was never a sense of panic, because the game just wasn't as close as the score indicated. The Colts dominated on both sides of the ball, with the exception of being bogged down in the red zone a few times and having to settle for field goals. But -- in the second half, especially -- there was no real fear that the Bears could do anything with the ball on offense. Sure, you can blame Rex a bit, but I think the Colts defense really should get the credit. I honestly don't think Griese would have done any better. (As an aside, Rex is from Bloomington, IN, where I went to college, so I wasn't really rooting against him as much as I was rooting for the Colts.) Commercials: too violent and not original enough. Sure, some of the violence is funny, but not so much when my young kids wander into the room in time to see a guy get beamed in the head with a rock. Just like I don't like my kids to see a dead guy on a table in a CSI promo during the regular season. Career Builder had some funny spots, and I loved to Bob Goulet piece. Sierra Mist had a good one, too, but that might be because I think Jim Gaffigan is a funny mofo.

I have to take the side of thinking this wasn't the wisest of marketing campaigns. That said, the police probably overreacted, and the media certainly over-hyped it, too. From AP, reporting on four (only four?!) 911 calls around 1pm reporting suspicious devices: "Two devices, at the Longfellow Bridge and the medical center, however, turned out to be unrelated to the marketing campaign, Police Commissioner Edward Davis said." Um, okay. Why are you mentioning this at all if two of the devices were unrelated? That's not news. That belongs in the police blotter of the Globe. Are they Turner's fault, too, by association?

You might have a reason to keep your URL, but probably not the old blog. Typepad works pretty well (certainly from a reader's perspective), so we don't need much more. Maybe the ability to search posts, but that's not a make or break kind of thing. I used to maintain a personal website with photos of my kids. It was a great way for family and friends all over the country to watch them grow. But it took me hours to update the photos every month or so. And then I just stopped doing it because it was such a pain in the ass. Sure, Photoshop helped me by batch processing the photos, and an out-of-the-box HTML program like Dreamweaver might have helped with the coding, but it was still a lot of work. Now I use this little site called Flickr. Costs me peanuts for unlimited storage, and it's easy to upload photos. My long and rambling point is this: if Typepad is working for you and your readers, go with the easy solution and save your time for more important things than fighting with MT. You can keep your old URL and point people here if you're afraid of losing old readers. Or get a hosting service that will redirect your typepad traffic there (or vice versa). But there's no need to kill yourself to keep a blog that can be done more easily elsewhere.