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"I prefer to derive the motivation for my actions from a love of life, not a fear of death."

Here is situation brief #2.

--Well, the Mavericks couldn't get much done against the Sacramento Kings. It didn't come as much of a surprise. The Kings are one of the best teams I've ever seen in my life. They are a juggernaut. They are up 3-2 on the Lakers right now and it seems inevitable that they'll finish that series up and then go on to easily win the Finals. There have been some very entertaining games here in the Conference Championships, including the biggest comeback in history by the Celtics and a game-winning buzzer-beater by Horry for the Lakers. But as to the Mavericks, they need a big guy inside. Simple as that. They need to learn to play defense. They need to ditch a few people, like Mantis, Raef, maybe Van Exel. The Chinese government decided to take Wang back. I like the core of Finley, Nash, and Nowitzki as starters and Griffin and Najera off the bench, but as I see it, everyone else is expendable. Getting rid of them is the problem though.

--I picked up the Ultimate Martial Artist book last week and I'm enjoying reading it. I also got a bunch of 3rd and 4th Edition stuff for two to three dollars each at Half Price books. I plan to pick up the Bestiary when it comes out and then 5th Ed. Champions this August. Also planning to pick up Wild Talents, Silver Age Sentinels, and Cartoon Action Hero when they appear. My plans are like this: I'm joining an online game, I'm going to play at the bi-monthly store game, and I'm going to run a game for a small group in Fort Worth. Later I might run one here closer to home.

--Today the talk is about the Sports Illustrated expos� on steroid use in the MLB. The author estimates anabolic steroids are used regularly by 50% of all players, while some people interviewed today have said that's probably a conservative estimate. But is anyone really surprised by any of this? I mean, steroids, while illegal, aren't prohibited or tested for by baseball's rule-making body. Steroids were used by several people I knew in my high school and probably even in junior high and probably by much of the football team. Mark Maguire put on fifty pounds of muscle. We have Barry Bonds aiming for eighty homeruns this year. We have guys hitting opposite field upper-deck homers off the wrong foot. We have tremendous salaries being paid for perceived talents (over twenty-five million dollars a year for A-Rod). What does it matter anyway? They're going on strike in August anyway. One of these days those people will realize this country can get along just fine without major league baseball.

--The livin's easy in Fort Worth. The spotty internet connection would be the only downside. Other than that, I had my choice of three or four different beds or three or four different couches. Televisions with cable and sound systems. TechTV, Sci Fi, NoEx, and Speed. Cars to drive when you want to go somewhere. All kinds of food every day. A fast computer and games and fast internet. An X-Box, a GameCube, a Dreamcast, and a Playstation 2. A motorcycle. Two bicycles to ride around the neighborhoods or at the parking lot or around the track or to the comic and game store right down the street. Places to visit like the clinic, friends' places, brother's new house, brother's work, Kyle, Rachel, etc. A cuddly little yapdog. Newspapers delivered daily. A Corvette. No bills and no homework and no work. And a cleaning lady to take care of all messes.

--Just in time for... well, nothing, I got my AMA membership card. I'm an official member of the American Motorcycle Association.
--The median pre-tax income per household in Plano is $71,000. Is that something? What are all those people doing that's worth $71,000 every year? I'm confident I'll never make over half that per year.
--I really don't know what to buy dad for his sixtieth birthday. I could get something for the Vette I s'pose. But what? What about something more creative? Something for the clinic? Something computer-generated?
--Fort Worth's cable has a system of digital music channels. The sound comes down digitally in CD quality--there's no video except for a picture of the album cover and information such as the names of the band, album, and track. I think there are about sixty different channels covering a vast range of music and some have specific programs and such. And no DJs. The musical selection is SUPERB. Obscurities, B-sides, live cuts, stuff I never would have imagined they'd play.
--So we're driving down I-35 in the Vette and we come to this odd road surface and all of a sudden a deafening roar begins to emanate from the tires. Who are they kidding? Is this the new road surface we can expect along the entire interstate in the future? It was painful and we pulled over at one point to recover. Who made this decision??
--Eyedrops is a show on TechTV which shows 3-D animated short movies. Some of the best stuff I've seen is to be found there.
--I saw Spiderman. It was... good, but not great. I can't get too fired up for it right now. I might have written a review but it doesn't do much for me. Lots wrong with it. At least I didn't see Attack of the Clones. I read enough from people who were subjected to it to know better.
--They have a new DVD format which holds one hundred Gigs of information. One small disc, one hundred Gigs. Gee.

This concludes situation brief #2.