Mean Gene

The Mouse That Could Roar

Nice piece in Slate today about UIGEA and what could be the possible ramifications of this blinkered legislation. Nothing that I haven't heard in other places, but a nice summation of some possible consequences. Why I don't usually cheer on the widespread theft of intellectual property, if the WTO gives Antigua the theoretical OK to rip off Microsoft and Disney and gets those two 800-pound gorillas on our side, I'm cool with that. My morality is, as you well know, quite flexible. Plus I like rooting for the underdog, which is Antigua in this case. And me, of course. And probably you.

There is the danger that, instead of doing the smart thing and legalizing all online gaming, Congress could ban ALL of it, even the ponies. But I doubt it would shake out that way. I don't think the religious-right lobby who pushed for the ban still have the juice to overcome those who want gambling legalized (and the billions in tax revenue that would come with it). But, we shall see. Probably not in the immediate future, but someday.

Speaking of gambling, I played a little 5-card draw at PokerStars yesterday. Didn't go so well. I try to avoid playing games where I have NO idea what I'm doing, but I couldn't resist. I wanted to see how you threw away your discards, and they did a nice job of it. Here's a tip--the cards you select are the ones you're THROWING AWAY, not the ones you're gonna keep. I learned that after I tossed away a pair of aces. Whoops! And then I was dealt another ace! Whoops! And I...would've lost to a guy who hit his straight! Whew! I'm a GOOOOOD poker player!

I can't exactly put my finger on why I'm so excited that Casino Royale opens tomorrow. I am a big fan of the Bond movies (though the last few were pretty ehh), and the reviews I've read so far have been uniformly positive. The fact that Bond plays a super-high-stakes game of Hold-Em at the end of course has piqued my interest. And then there's the fact that the series, which had become locked in a moribund, endlessly regurgitated scenario (megalomaniac wants to rule the word, Bond is sent to stop him, Bond flits between two gorgeous women, Bond plays with various not-that-cool gadgets) has apparently returned to it's roots. Bond is a ruthless killer. He's not a nice guy. He's not effortlessly suave. And the bad guys he's up against aren't cartoon characters with frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads. They're plausibly evil men who need to be stopped. I may actually do something I've never done before--I might go to the theater at 11AM to see the first showing. By myself. I'll bring a notebook along so I won't look like a total loser.

As I write this and contemplate how I'm going to spend my afternoon (a hike? a bike? a bit of overdue shopping?) I'm watching an old tape of Simpsons episodes I taped. I am a degenerate show-taper--I have hundreds of VHS tapes filling one of my bookshelves. It is fascinating watching these tapes and seeing the old commercials and promos for long-forgotten movies and TV shows. How old is the tape I'm watching? Let me put it this way--there was a McDonalds commercial featuring two members of the US Olympic basketball team--Dan Majerle and Shawn Kemp. That was funny enough, but then I just saw a public service announcement starring a skinny (well, relatively speaking) Jerome Bettis. Who plays for the...Los Angeles Rams. Weird on so many levels. I could do a series of posts just on the bizarro commercials I see going through these decade-old (or older) tapes. A treasure trove of incomprehensible nonsense.

I should admit now that my NaNoWriMo effort never truly got off the ground. I have been writing, but not at a 50K in 30 days clip. Combining two stories into one proved to be a...what's the word I'm looking for? Stupid, that's it. It was a stupid idea. So, I have two stories I'm working on. Well, three. So, once again, I've failed. But I've forgiven myself. For this, anyway.

Still reeling from the news that Iggy has hung up his blog, I tried to think of a way to honor the man. I made a token gesture this morning--I ordered A Confederacy of Dunces from the library. Which I've never read, though I meant to. Today I turned thought into action. And it wasn't that hard!

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