The ugliest dwarf in Sigil is practicing his tai chi in the center of the room. He moves without any real grace; his precision is the certainty of stone, rocks sliding against rocks, limbs held in place by muscle alone. His hands are enormous: strangler’s hands, with knuckles like pebbles thrusting up out of his weathered grey skin. He turns, and turns again, balanced on the balls of his feet. His brows jut out over his eyes. He stares, angry, at the world. ...

Aw hell, I’m a big dorky geek. So… I did an animated LiveJournal icon. Because I could. Use at will.

All in all I’d have to say that worked out pretty OK. Yeah. Dudes, I don’t know what to say. That was just… I watched the game in a bar on Mass. Ave, in the middle of Cambridge, near Davis Square. And that was good. And after the game, I walked down to Davis Square with friends and cheered. And that was good. And then I drove home, and now I’m home, and that’s good. ...

Without further ado, the non-partisan competitive Election Night drinking game. The players come to consensus on which network they’re using for results. If they can’t come to consensus, they have to use CNN (if the party is predominantly Republican) or Fox News (if the party is predominantly Democratic). Everyone predicts the winner and his percentage of the vote in 15 battleground states. If you get the winner wrong, drink! If you get the margin of victory wrong by more than 1%, drink! ...

11:30: 2-0 (original). We are FUCKED. Also, I am apparently wrong about that whole four error thing. It can happen every game, although I really rather wish it wouldn’t.

Some things that are important about the just concluded Game One (original) of the World Series: That could well have been the worst starting pitching the Cardinals will have to face this series. Wakefield is pretty bad when he’s not on his game. Four out of the remaining six games will feature Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling, and while Pedro has certainly declined, there’s no question but that he’s better than Wakefield was today. The other two games are Lowe and Wakefield, both of whom are capable of raising the bar somewhat higher. ...

Add San Francisco (original) to the universal wireless list, or at least to the “we’d like to have universal wireless someday” list.

I’m going to be in Atlanta for LISA from November 13th to the 19th. Anyone else gonna be there? Dinner?

The most terrifying sentence in this Washington Post article about Kerry’s cabinet choices is this: “John Sasso, who was recently put on the Kerry plane to restore order and discipline, is making a move for chief of staff, too, campaign sources say.” In case anyone was under any false impressions, John Sasso is not a nicer person than Karl Rove. He just happens to be on Kerry’s side. It’s a pretty pro-Kerry article, by the by. The first few paragraphs are particularly beneficial — the article starts out with a joke about Kerry having a tough time making decisions, but then defuses the negative implications by pointing out that Kerry may well make the tough bi-partisan decision to put a Republican in as Secretary of State. That speculation also helps shore up Kerry’s image as a uniter who can fix the problems Bush has created. ...

Never did get around to talking about Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, did I? Well, I didn’t really like it that much. I didn’t mind the violence. I didn’t even find it very distressing. Yeah, there’s a lengthy scene during which a young woman gets electrocuted. I’ve seen True Lies; you can’t faze me. I also didn’t have any objection to the theme of the movie — “the desire for vengeance reduces everyone to the same primitive level.” ...