In the '90s there was a package put out called "The Lost Treasures of Infocom." It is sitting just to my right as I type this, though as it's on 3.5" floppies and my USB-run floppy drive bit the dust last year, I can't presently test if they will run on my XP system. The games: the 5 Zork games HHG Planetfall, Stationfall Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker Deadline, Witness, Suspect Lurking Horror Ballyhoo Infidel Moonmist Starcross Suspended The package also contains a massive hint book, manual, reproductions of various ephemera such as maps, and a coupon -- surely long since moot -- for a "SPECIAL OFFER - The original Leather Goddesses of Phobos text adventure can be yours for only $9.95 plus Shipping and Handling - IBM version only." My Q: Just the other day I was reminiscing about some text game where the player started out in a castle, looked in a mirror, and saw holes in his/her neck. I remember Eric R_____ in my Computer Math class bringing that game, among many others, on little 5.25" floppies, where we would play whenever we'd finished our programming assignments. This was back before I knew what "pirated" meant, so I never saw the actual package or cover for the game. Does this description ring a bell, and if so, what's the game's name? The only other thing I remember is the fun we had giving it commands like "Eat holes" just to have it say, "YUCK!"

Having been friends with Greg since high school (and rediscovered him through the Internet), I find it hilarious that (a) he gets to meet, have fun with, and impress so many cool people and (b) when he does, some viewers inevitably don't realize he's friends with them! The number of people posting on that video who seemed to think initially that either you or Jonathan were annoyed by him or wondering who he was ... it happens every time any of you are in his videos, and I always shake my head and smile. To people who liked Greg and want to see more (BTW, he directed the first season of "The Guild," which is produced by his wife and which is rumored to have played host to some famous guy in a kilt recently): - Check his Mediocre Films channel on YouTube. I particularly recommend: "The Date," "Free Lunch," "Swapping Heads," "Mating Season," and "Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show," which moved to Sony's CSpot channel after that company signed them. Look in particular for an episode called "Garden Party," featuring a turn by everyone's favorite non-dick, as a (somewhat dickish) talent agent named Moishe Schwartz. I also must put in a plug for Greg's video "Surprise High School Reunions," since I'm in it for approximately 0.5 seconds via a yearbook photo for a Drama Club event - time stamp 0:02; I'm the one with the massive glasses, long layered hair, and super-dark Raven Red lipstick that got comments in my own yearbook. - Also try his MediocreFilms2 channel, where he sometimes experiments with putting up a new video per day or per week. Some are humor, while others are philosophical, and at least one ("How DARE You!?!!") gets philosophical about humor. - Look at his "Buttload of commercials" reel at http://www.greg-benson.com/gbvideo.html and see how many times you've seen him without knowing it. - Enjoy Yeshmin's own YouTube channel, including the commercial that started it all, for the Taleshmech Restaurant. - You can even see Greg, Kim, and their good friend Buddy in a 2007 episode of "The Dog Whisperer," which was used later for a look back at some of Cesar's toughest cases. (My husband, a major DW fan, called my attention to this one.) I'm just tickled I get to say "I knew him when."

"for the next few minutes I tried on a bunch of different costumes, all of which could have come out of my own wardrobe." Shades of "and Kam Fong as Chin Ho." Can't really explain why.

Just the words, "Tianenmen Square" bring me back to that horrible, horrible moment. We were 20-something Christian-college kids, braving the amazing adventure of studying in Guadalajara, Mexico. Our prof had taken us for a side trip to Mexico City, and we'd just gotten out from our Sunday morning church service. I'd developed a fondness for TIME International edition, and made everyone stop by the newsstand so I could get my fix. There it was. The photo. The news. The terrifying "How can ANYONE be doing this to another human being?" moment. ... the more I remembered, the more it became not so much a comment on your blog as an entry for my own, so here: http://thesongsinmyheart.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-that-day.html

Jules, re: "And why do people have to wait till 21 to drink there? They are old enough to have a say in how government is run but they can't have a drink?" I've said for years that if anyone wants to work toward evening this out by raising the voting age back to 21, I'll gladly back them up. :) Raising the drinking age created the desired decline in drunk driving accidents among teens, so nearly as I've been able to tell from my reading. If the claims are true that binge drinking and its impact on the individual increased, all I can say to that is that at least that one hurts the one who drank, not innocents who happen to travel the same roadways. I was of drinking age when the law passed in Texas and suddenly I wasn't ... and I was just fine with that.

For those of us whose workplace hasn't blocked Wil's blog (yea!), but has blocked certain content types (sigh!) ... what the heck is at the top of this page? I've gathered that it must be some kind of animation, accompanied by some song that was in Pump Up the Volume, but that's as far as I get on my own steam.

Hez (p. 3 of comments): "I [voted] from the only Democratic county in predominantly Republican Texas. Travis County represent!" Check out Dallas County for 2004 (near 50-50), 2006, 2008 ... and check out the Valley for who knows how far back. Always an odd feeling to be able to pick out your own county easily from those color-coded maps. Rio Grande Valley counties with higher percentage for Obama than even Travis County's 64.1% -- check out #3 on the list!: Starr County - 84.5% Obama Zavala Co. - 84.2% Maverick Co. - 78.2% <--now THAT'S funny! Brooks Co. - 75.7% Dimmit Co. - 75.1% Duval Co. - 74.8% Jim Hogg Co. - 73.6% Webb Co. - 71.5% Presidio Co. - 71.3% One hopes that'll shut up the ignorant pundits who said Latinos wouldn't go for an African-American candidate. (For the uninitiated: The Rio Grande Valley is predominately Latino.) And count me as another who was disappointed they had no stickers, but at least I can say that for the first time in my life, I voted for the candidate who'll be taking the oath come January (as only my second major-party selection in all these years).

It was so moving translating the speech to my mother-in-law and explaining the allusions that I kept having to hit pause -- the speech took at least twice as long at our house. :)

On the subject of humor (but otherwise totally OT): http://www.safenow.org/ A humor site exploring ambiguous symbols on Homeland Security's readiness web page ... one of my favorites shows a split screen of a guy with a whistle, back to back with a bald guy shouting: "If you spot terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle. If you are Vin Diesel, yell really loud."

And lest I be accused of throwing stones through my glass house, over the years I dressed up as a light-up bumblebee, the Skipper from "Gilligan's Island," and as a banana that peeled to reveal Carmen Miranda, all for that same competition.

At least you presumably can say you never DRESSED UP as a Swatch and sang a medley of Swatch-themed songs, unlike 100 fellow members of the freshman class at my university ... In their defense, they did beat the other three classes in the competition.

re: teleportation, I always used to think it'd be handy to have transporters because it would end my punctuality problems. Over time, I realized I'd still be late, because I'd run around doing other stuff until well after it was time to get in the transporter. Came over here to see if you'd seen this yet: http://moonraking.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/lol-palin/ Found while Googling "Lolcats Palin" on a whim.

My mom's family has the variation on 17a in which newcomers to a game are encouraged to show their hands and be advised by more seasoned players. No way could I ever count the times my aunt Sue's said, "Here, honey, put these cards back and play these - here's why ..." My dad's family, OTOH, were "go for the throat" players in every setting, family gatherings included. His mom was a canasta demon. Can anyone guess what happened the first time Mom's family exercised their 17a in front of him? "But that's cheating!" My parents have been married for almost 51 years, and it's really only in the past 15 or so that he could enjoy playing a game with them. For most of my childhood, he'd wander off to read the paper. :)

I did get my copy of Happiest Days last night and couldn't help but read it all in one gulp. Despite all my best intentions, that's exactly what I did, too! Irresistible. I even took it in my car to somewhere I knew I wouldn't get to look at, which was, ironically, a voice-acting Meetup. Funny enough, I was about to post this remark when a Digsby pop-up told me that after all these weeks, Wil just collected his PayPal money from me. Good deal.

Even when I thought I was the first one in the past, I wasn't, so this year I decided not to sweat it, and just recognize that a heartfelt HAPPY BIRTHDAY is a nice thing any time of day - just especially nice from the nearest and dearest right away, which surely you got. :) Congrats on making Comic-Con and also on Ryan's great maturity. (We'll try not to embarrass him by raving over it too much; like you, we already knew he was pretty cool.)

Semi-OT to David Goodwin: "Now that I think about it, lots of people get to go back to the place they were married. I won't." We were married in the Chapel Hill, NC, police station basement. (Neither of us had done anything wrong -- that's just where the magistrate was that afternoon.) So even some of us who can revisit the place we were married don't necessarily opt to do so!

Before there was It's All Too Much, there was Don Aslett and his classic Clutter's Last Stand and Not For Packrats Only. A couple of people I've met were turned off when he made the point that excess weight can be a form of clutter, but he made the point well, and I say that as one who's been MANY different weights in this life. To the sweet soul who pointed out you wouldn't want to get rid of all your treasures, Aslett would agree (and Walsh likely would too). One of the things I appreciate about Aslett is that he gives you ideas how to make the most of the treasures you do keep. One particularly memorable example was a woman whose son had died and left behind an extensive, very nice pencil collection. Rather than part with them all or keep them all, she selected several representative examples of the best of the collection, then passed on the rest to a little boy interested in starting his own. He also has a chapter on gift-giving that will change the whole way you select gifts, and for the better, too.

OT: Have you already been exposed to "LOLsauropods"? A friend Stumbled it, and it seemed right up your alley.

Hurrah for Wil, goody-goody for Anne, and let's hear it for Nolan and Ryan! Enjoy, and here's hoping you don't even SEE most of these posts for the next week. Bonus wish: May you return to discover your con visits are back on -- I can't go, but others will be well pleased.

Regarding the basketball thing ... one of the only professional games I ever watched (having greatly enjoyed college ball when I was in school) was the 2006 Mavericks vs. Heat final. Despite being from Dallas, I really would've been fine with the Heat winning fair and square. I did think their owner was being more of an ass than Mark Cuban, but nonetheless. Instead, though, I ended up watching as refs overlooked numerous blatant, shameless fouls by the Miami Heat. News of this refereeing scandal naturally made me Google that other game. Check this out: The Salvatore Side of the Story: 'Crucified' in the 2006 Finals (November 20, 2007) Skip past the Nowitzki-Wade call and get to Wade's uncalled foul against Jason Terry. I'll grant what was argued by one of the bloggers I read (maybe Abbott, maybe a different one -- I forget already), that the better way is to play such a blow-out game that a single call doesn't determine your fate. But I still say that sword cuts both ways: If Miami had played better, it wouldn't have made such a difference that refs looked the other way when they played dirty.

Damn ... I was soooo hoping I could get over here and gush before it officially hit the blog, but I should've known better. Will have to settle for saying that it utterly failed to disappoint. (!) Any concerns that it might not live up to weeks of expectation, exacerbated by its not airing when the press coverage said it would, have now dissipated into a happy mist floating over your colorfully flowered faces. Your acting was in fine form (as, incidentally, were you -- congrats to Anne! It's always nice to have a spouse who's not only loving and funny, but keeps himself up ... take it from one who knows). The episode was back up to the show's former standard, and being the show's #1 fan (as designated by Pogo Saito herownself), I couldn't be more pleased that it arrived there with you on board.

Ensign Ed Gruberman says, "Yeah, yeah, patience; how long will that take?" Priceless. Just priceless.

Came by here last night to alert everyone to a magazine bit about the project to make a LOLcats Bible (see "I Can Has Forgiveness? in The Wittenburg Door), but got totally distracted into ThinkGeek Land and am now trying to decide about the Ninja Alarm Clock that supposedly shakes the whole bed as well as blaring loudly. My husband votes "no," not because he thinks that's a bad idea but because he doesn't believe it really can accomplish what it says without being a much larger apparatus. Anyone here actually able to attest to it?

Yesssssssss! No kidding, I shouted out across the house when I saw the confirmation on your doing GTCMS. I got faked out last week by previews for episode 5 -- when much of a guy's face is obscured by a Cownicorn suit, it's a lot harder to distinguish even a famous face -- and narrowly avoided the embarrassment of wrongly announcing your GTCMS debut, only because posting just wasn't working right on that computer. (Whew!) I know that Kim Evey's Facebook status indicated she was editing episodes 9 and 10 last weekend, so it may well be one of those, though it was unclear whether she meant #10 in the total lineup of 12, or the tenth of the new episodes. For the uninitiated, you might want to go to YouTube and subscribe to Cspot's channel now so that you'll get notification each Friday when the new episode goes up. The original channel, Mediocre Films, also has a lot of hilarious video made by the same folks, so you might check that out too. (I don't claim to be impartial, having gone to school with the director. :) In other news: Thanks so much to the poster last Friday who mentioned using his PayPal balance to pay for his copy of Happiest Days... I was due for a payment in the format of my choice from a survey company, and your comment totally settled the question. Just ordered my copy and can hardly wait the 2-4 weeks it will take to get to Dallas.

Saw this wilw Twitter: "Having all the fun shooting Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. My comedy is rusty, but coming back nicely. Super fantastic shiny time!" Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!! Not that Ron Jeremy didn't turn out hilarious, too, but I was so jazzed by that tidbit the other day online, then bummed when episode 4's "big star" turned out NOT to be you. Just hoping you don't turn out to have a B.F.F. like episode 3's special guest ...