As we were approaching Houston, I got a call from Tony D who invited us to check out this cool place he had heard about. The deal is that they have roughly 200 classic and modern video games in a gameroom downtown. For $15 you can play all night (9PM - 2AM roughly) for free. All the games are set for free play - hit the start button and soon you are off to gobble dots in Pac Man, create culinary treats in Burger Time or Root Beer Tapper, or save the universe from invaders in a host of games.

Just inside the door, our first stop was "Time Crisis" the buddy guy genre shoot em up. It is the first time I went all the way through the game as back in the day I would run out of quarters long before the story ended.

QUESTION: I posted the images to my brightkite account, but didn't have Joytix placemarked (I have since discovered it is already on there.) Does anyone know how to move a post from one location to another at brightkite?

I feel terrible that I am unable to attend the funeral because of prior commitments. It is not so much for me as for her family members. My thoughts are with them as they go through a very tough time.

The lone consolation is that she was not in peace for the past year or so and finally can rest peacefully. I will miss her.

I absolutely love the idea that Chris McCandless was first and foremost an adventurer. His belief that you shouldn't hesitate to do anything that strikes your fancy certainly appeals to me. His outright insanity in leaving behind civilization entirely is pretty scary.

As the film started, I told myself that I wouldn't like it. I was sure that it would glorify thinking "out of the box" and gloss over the stupidity of some of his actions. It turns out that it was actually a pretty excellent movie.

RATING 8 out of 10

I also took in Loggerheads the other day expecting some quirky little indie film. It certainly was quirky... but I seriously couldn't finish viewing.

The acting was good - but the film just turned me off. I really can't explain why, other than it seemed to drag on and made way too many obvious turns.

RATING 3 out of 10

While the show suffers from the fact that all the soldiers tend to look identical, it is definitely realistic in that respect - isn't that the point of the uniforms and short haircuts in the first place?

The fact that it is based on real events makes me a little more forgiving of plot and even dialogue. At the end of the day whether you view it as a sensationalized documentary or just a drama, the situations are enjoyable to watch.

I still prefer Over There, despite some people feeling it came out way too soon in the conflict, but hey - its still early in the series.

It turns out that a new generation of EPO blood doping offered enough enticement that it appeared worth the risk. Apparently, the drug is taken in such low dosages that Ricco felt it would be undetectable. NOT

Kudos again to the bicycling community for policing their own and getting rid of these cheaters. NFL, NBA, MLB - you guys need to take a lesson here - quit harboring cheaters, quit twisting the rules to protect your cheaters, quit being money-grubbing asses that put profits ahead of integrity.

One the things I have had to struggle with during the spring classics is figuring out which team to root for. It was easy during the LeMond era when he rode for Team 7-Eleven. US Postal and subsequently Team Discovery were easy choices when Lance Armstrong headed the team. Unlike other professional sports, you can't hitch your wagon to a team forever because the teams are very fluid. Team Discovery disbanded and I was faced with choosing a new team for the first time in a decade.

I thought about Astana because so many of favorite riders headed over to that squad - doping scandals ended that thought as the team was literally destroyed by scandal. Domestically, I had always been partial to Motorola, but once again they failed to make the grade and earn a spot into the Tour de France.

During the early spring when I heard that George Hincapie was with Team High Road, I figured I would give them a look. The more I saw, the more I liked. Just when I thought I was all set for my Tour rooting, High Road suddenly changed to Team Columbia (sportswear, not the country.) In addition, for the first time a second American team qualified for Le Grande Tour - Team Garmin-Chipotle.

Not a fan of Garmin or Chipotle, and a huge fan of Hincapie, it was obvious that the choice was the newly-formed Team Columbia.

In stage one, my new team nearly took the win as Kim Kirchen was passed within sight of the finish line by Alexandro Valverde.

The casual fans of the Tour are gone without an Armstrong story, but those of us who have loved this sport for the past two decades couldn't be happier. Three weeks of amazing athletic achievement, heart-stopping drama, spills, chills, and surprises at every turn - we are talking the greatest sporting event in the world.

I love this time of year!

If these are anything like the enchilada flavor, they won't last long. I found mine at WalMart.

The acting suffered when the script was either weak or too stereotypical of the characters - vacationer, news manager, secret serviceman, military adviser etc. The biggest shortcoming however was the Forest Whitaker character. His ability to follow Secret Service agents at a full sprint was unbelievable. There is no way he could have kept up physically with their speed, plus he stopped to shoot video and 'read the scene' time and again.

In the end, I loved the idea, but feel the project was too ambitious to pull off well. When watching the special features on the DVD, it was clear that the filmmakers' felt they had created a much more compelling and complex tale than came across on the screen. Good try, but from my angle it looked like a phantom punch to me.

RATING 6 out of 10

Lou and I went for a great walk this morning at Prospect Park in San Marcos. It was still early enough that the air was cool. The birds were singing in the trees. What's not to love?

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The science of little bits of 'flavoring' added to crunchy or chewy items is fascinating to me. Sometimes it amuses me - sometimes it totally creeps me out.

Andy Capp's Hot Chili Cheese Steak Fries are one of the ones that just blows me away. I am not talking about the flavor, which is top notch - I am referring to the uncanny similarity to the taste of real chili and cheese.

It appears we have actually reached what we have seen in science fiction movies all our lives - a tiny pill that tastes like a full course meal. This is a bag of corn and potato 'mush' formed into a shape and made to taste like something totally different. Now if they could just make broccoli taste like chocolate pudding.

So whats up? I have been noticing a boatload of new spam recently. I mean, gmail is also catching more than ever before, but things are starting to get through in pretty large numbers. Are these bums all creating gmail accounts? Is there a new way they are gaming the system? Or maybe - the sheer volume of spammers has just increased perhaps?

Just wondering - have you other gmail users seen a rise in the incidence of spams making it all the way to your inbox?

Even though all "M" felt confident in promoting was that he included about 6 ounces of blood this time around, I assumed that his ability to tell a good story would win out. Surely, it would be "average" at least. Hell, I had time to kill in Dallas - I had a free movie pass... what could I possibly lose?

Boy was I wrong. This movie will fight it out with Street Kings for not only the worst movie of 2008, but quite possibly the decade.

The idea of the film seems pretty cool. The problem is that it all ends there. The writing is about third grade level - seriously, I have a play I wrote at age 6 in crayon on two sheets of paper - it rambles, it mixes a genie with three wishes, something about a pony, and valuable life lessons... and it sucked horribly. That childhood scribbling reads like War and Peace compared to this.

I am a fan of Mark Wahlberg, but he has been riding sort of a stink streak lately - MAN did he stink in this one.

Do yourself a favor - if you are thinking of watching this movie, just poke yourself in the eyes with a crochet needle - it will hurt less.

RATING 2 out of 10