That was easy...too easy.

OK, comments appear to be working again...

Comment system upgrade

YACCS has upgraded its comment system, rendering my old code dysfunctional. (One of the major drawbacks of Web services). I'm working on some fixes and hope to have comments back online soon.

Top story again!

My video game story made it to the top of the MSNBC local news page this week... Woo-hoo!

Happiest place on earth?

Well, here I am in Orange County. Yesterday we went to Disneyland. We meant to go the entire 14 hours, but were so exhausted by 10 p.m. that we had to go back to the hotel. I guess we're all just getting old. We'll have some "before and after" pictures up on the Web site soon.

Today, Chad and Susan are going to Magic Mountain while Andrea and I go to California Adventure. Chad is more gung-ho on the rides at Magic Mountain, but Andrea's not much of a roller coaster person, so we figured it would be easier to split up for the day. I actually like the complete Disneyland experience -- the shops, the thematic details, etc. -- so the idea of Magic Mountain never really thrilled me. (I did want to ride that new roller coaster, The Goliath, though.) We're planning to take today a lot slower, meandering around the park rather than going from ride to ride. Hopefully we won't be as tired. California Adventure is a much smaller park, too, so we'll probably be able to see more of it.

I think this trip is going to hot my wallet pretty hard. I forgot how quickly everything adds up. But I'd say the experience is well worth the money.

Meet Frankenchicken

Naked chicken may ruffle feathers

This is weird...

Because a simple hijacking would have been OK...

Rice: Pre-Sept. 11 alert too general

WASHINGTON, May 16 — The Bush administration chose not to tell the public about a potential al-Qaida threat to hijack airliners a month before Sept. 11 because it did not want to risk shutting down civilian aviation “for very general warnings,” national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.

...

Rice repeated the administration’s insistence that the al-Qaida information referred only to a general threat from bin Laden involving jetliners. She said Bush and U.S. intelligence did not know that suicide hijackers were specifically plotting to use planes as missiles, as they did against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

Make that 5.2

Shake, shake, shake

I just experienced my second Northern California earthquake, the first since I moved here. Apparently, it was centered in Gilroy and measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. I'm fine.

Enron memos detail Calif. schemes

Enron memos detail Calif. schemes

Ah, so Enron DID benfit from energy policy. And this was while the conservatives were blaming California for last year's blackouts.

Ah, yeah. Top story on the MSNBC local news page. I did work hard on that story.

Carmel By-the-Sea

Andrea and I took a fun little day-trip to Carmel By-the-Sea today to relax and test out her new Minolta Dimage 7. Anyway, you can see the photos here.

Pollution battle moves to the states

One of the few reasons to love Califonia.

Little Jesus Dolls

This is wrong on so many levels.

The Empire Bounces Back

Let's hope this one is better than Phantom Menance. Double for the video games based on it.

CNN.com - Mr. Elmo goes to Washington

The apocalypse has arrived.

FDA panel backs nonprescription Claritin

Sweet!

Melee closes down theme park

The one day I decide to go to our crappy little excuse for a theme park, a riot breaks out. Sarah, Jeff and I got out minutes before the fun really began, but we did have several -- yes, several -- verbal run-ins with line-jumpers affiliated with the step-dance competition.

Come Home, McCain - The Washington Monthly and New Republic are right: McCain should run for president as a Democrat.

Interesting....

I just got out of jury duty, which is a big relief, since I came within one juror of being selected. (Here, potnetial jurors are questioned in groups, a process that stops when all 12 jurors plus one alternate have been selected.

It was actually kind of nice to not have to show up for work on deadline day. But it also means that I had only two stories in this weeks paper...

Researchers find 3,600-mile ant supercolony

Be afraid. Be very afraid.