It’s been pretty interesting watching the media handle Howard Dean. First there was a rush to anoint him as the nominee. They couldn’t say enough about his unorthodox fundraising and how he dared to take Bush to task for the war and other issues. Then right after the military caught Saddam the tone changed. All of the sudden there was a spate of stories about Dean, questioning whether he was the guy for the Democrats or not. These stories were all the same, posing the question, “Is Dean too angry to win the presidency?”

Apparently the idea that enough people in the country might actually be angry with what the current administration has done over the past three years is a ludicrous. All these articles predict that if Dean gets the nod that it could spell doom for the Dems. His anger, you see, will drive away all those middle-of-the-road types. Ah, yes, and the Democrats have enjoyed sooooo much success cozying to the right. Surely the path to victory is to be only slightly left of Rumsfeld and his ilk.

I’ve got news for them: they’ll never defeat the Republicans by being just like them. If they had any balls, they would embrace the idea of being an actual party of opposition. I don’t want some chucklehead telling me that he too is for tax cuts for the rich and that he too supports the war despite its bogus pretexts. Fuck that. I want the guy who will stand up and call the Bush Administration on their lies and take them to account for the horrendous damage they’ve done to this country since 2000.

I swear, 9-11 was the biggest gift Osama could have possible given Bush and Rummy. Brand new American martyrs and a golden excuse to drape the president in the flag and use people’s fear of terrorism to go hog wild with their hideous agenda.

So yeah, give me the angry guy. Give me the guy who might actually rouse some people out of their apathy. There are a lot of disenfranchised lefties out there and no mainstream politician has made an attempt to get those votes in recent memory. Maybe getting angry is just what this country needs.

And for the record, it remains to be seen if Dean is that guy.

The past few years Nicole and I have spent New Year’s Eve at shindigs thrown by our good friends Jess and Kathryn. Late in the evening (or early in the morning, depending on how you look at it), Jess always does a round of New Year’s resolutions. One of mine the previous two years has been to eat better, exercise, and lose some weight. Suffice to say that hasn’t exactly worked out, with my “sitting in front of a computer/attending game conventions” lifestyle.

This year Nicole got a headache early in the proceedings, so we actually left the party by 1 am. Thus we missed the resolutions, so I told no lies this time. Ironically, Nik and I had agreed to give the South Beach plan a try and we started that today. Phase 1 is no carbs and no sugar for two weeks. As a guy who likes sugar and cream in his coffee and toast and cheese for breakfast, this is going to be interesting. I also decided to start using the exercise machine again. Figured if I was making the effort to adjust my diet, I might as well try to get back into the workout routine.

So this year no resolutions, but action. We’ll see how strong my will is!

Hong Kong actress Anita Mui died of cancer this week. In the U.S. Mui is probably best known as “Wonder Woman” (no, not the comic character), one of the Heroic Trio. Who can forget the scene in Heroic Trio 2 when the imprisoned Wonder Woman squeezes a rat until its blood drips into her mouth so she can regain her super strength? She was also terrific in Drunken Master 2, giving a hilarious performance as Wong Fei Hong’s sly mother. 2003 was not a good year for Hong Kong cinema fans, as Leslie Cheung also committed suicide a few months ago. Cheung starred in many of the seminal HK films of the 80s and 90s, from John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow to Ching Siu Tung’s A Chinese Ghost Story to Ronny Yu’s Bride With White Hair. Ironically, he and Anita Mui co-starred as lovers in the ghostly romance Rouge in 1987.

Appropriately enough considering our Knights of the Old Republic addiction, we had dinner last night with an old friend from my WotC days who has been working at Bioware for the last couple of years. His wife and two month old baby joined Nik, Kate, and I at a Brazilian place on “the Ave” called Tempero do Brasil. I had found the place on the internet, as many of our usual haunts were closed for the holidays. Turned out to be a good choice. It’s small and family run, so it has a cozy feel. Three musicians provided some good tunes while the kitchen dished up the eats. I had feijoada, which the menu claimed was one of the favorite national dishes of Brazil. It was a black bean stew, with ham hock and sausage. Very hearty and quite tasty. The portion was big enough that I had it for dinner again tonight. We also sampled several appetizers, including crispy cod rolls and a delicious chicken croquette with a spicy green sauce. Of course, Nik and I also had to have caipirinhas . We discovered these in Vegas several years ago and never pass up an opportunity to hoist a few. They are made with a sugar cane liquor, lime juice, and sugar and go down far too easy. This place made a decent caipirinha, but they were nowhere near as huge as the ones at Samba in Vegas. I capped off the meal with Brazilian coffee and a regional variant of flan. I would certainly go back to Tempero do Brasil.

It was a fun dinner. I wished we could have spent more time with our friends, since we haven’t seen them in at least two years. It was good to catch up though, even for a couple of hours. Hopefully, we’ll see them again before two more years pass by (though the chances of us visiting Edmonton seem remote).

We had a pretty mellow Xmas at Chez Lindroos/Pramas/Frein. We opened our gifts on Xmas Eve, which has been traditional for my family for many years. Kate was beside herself. You’d think the poor girl was being physically tortured as she waited for darkness to fall. “Can we open our presents now?” she pleaded all day. We had dinner out, at Cedar’s in the U District, and then came home and opened gifts. Kate, with her multiple grandparents and endless relatives, did quite well for herself. I was finally able to unleash the big family gift I had been kept mum about since ordering it on Thanksgiving: an X-Box. Nicole and Kate were both delighted. It came with two games, but I also bought Nik Knights of the Old Republic because I knew it was up her alley.

Nik hooked up the Xbox and started playing Knights. I was content to watch for a few hours. Once the girls went to bed, I gave it a try. I figured I’d poke around a bit, but didn’t expect to get sucked in. I’ve never gotten adept at modern controllers, being more of a joystick and fire button kind of guy. Well, wouldn’t you know I got totally sucked in and played until 1:30 am. I woke up this morning with Star Wars on my mind. Nik, of course, was already playing. She let me take over in the afternoon and I kept at until 5 or so. Nik’s been playing since.

I had heard good things about the game and I must say it lives up to them. It feels more Star Wars than either of the new movies. It’s like the guys at Bioware understand what made the first trilogy cool so much better than George Lucas does. The only downside is that we can’t play together. I think we’ll have to schedule X-Box time for the next couple of weeks.

I picked up the latest issue of the Ultimates recently. At this point, I’m not sure how long I’m going to stick with it. When the series started, I was in to it. I’m not enough a comic nut to be offended by the way Marc Millar has reinterpreted some of the characters. And I totally dug his rewrite of Thor. The first six or seven issues had some good stories and clever dialog but at a crucial point the series failed.

[Stop reading now if you don’t want the plot ruined for you].

The point I’m referring to was the revelation that evil shapeshifting aliens are on Earth, have been for a very long time, and are responsible for many of the most terrible episodes in humanity’s history. And of course it was really aliens behind the Nazis.

I was quite disappointed that this was what the series had been building towards. Aliens controlled the Nazis, that’s the best they could come up with? I must say, I hate it when stories try to tritely explain away the evils of mankind. “Oh, the holocaust wasn’t our fault, it was those damned shapeshifting Nazi aliens!”

I’ve kept up with the Ultimates in the hopes that this whole story arc will be an elaborate double bluff or something and that the actual interesting plot will be revealed soon. After issue 12, I don’t think my hopes will be realized.

On the other hand, Courtney Crumrin continues to be delightful.

There are several game industry forums where members of all three tiers—manufacturer, distributor, retailer—can interact. This may not sound like a big deal but in the old days the distributors really weren’t too keen on manufacturers and retailers getting too friendly. It is, of course, useful for manufacturers to get news from the front lines. What’s selling, what’s not, what was the surprise hit, etc. For the last four months I’ve been seeing retailers talking about how poor their sales are compared to previous years. At first I thought it was a periodic dip, but every month since September I’ve been seeing reports about how business is down. Some messages have been frantic. For many retailers, Xmas sales have not magically reversed the trend.

Today I went out to do some Xmas shopping. Nik and I stopped at the post office to mail some packages to our folks. I fully expected a monstrous line and an endless wait. Instead we walked right to the front and were out in ten minutes. Then I went to downtown Seattle to pick up a few last minute items for Nik and Kate. I walked through the corpse of FAO Schwartz, which was having a going out of business sale. Nonetheless, they still played the “welcome to our world of toys” theme song over and over at the front entrance. It was the cheeriest funeral dirge I’d ever heard.

There were certainly crowds downtown, but it was all very manageable. There seemed to be plenty of everything for all the shoppers, the lines weren’t too long, and it only took me a couple of hours to finish. You wouldn’t have guessed it was three days before Xmas in downtown Seattle. This all seemed to reinforce what I’d been hearing from the game retailers: this year people aren’t buying. At least, not as much as usual. Now maybe that’s great and we should all celebrate how the commercialization of Xmas has been taken down a notch. Or maybe what I’m seeing are a lot of signs that the recession is far from over and 2004 may be a shitty year for everybody except the super rich—and hey, I’m sure those guys will get some more choice tax cuts.

I’ve got two quick GenCon stories before I leave for Portland, one amusing and one appalling.

Amusing: Shatner was there signing autographs and the line wasn’t that long. My friend Zev, of Z-man Games, decided he had the perfect thing for him to sign. It’s a card from one of Zev’s games (Grave Robbers from Outer Space, IIRC), with the flavor text, “Where’s Bill Shatner when you need him?” Zev walks up to Shatner and hands him the card. Bill looks at it, laughs, and says, “I’ll sign that!”

Appalling: One of the union guys walks up to a cart full of donations for Toys for Tots, reaches in, and grabs a baseball hat that Privateer Press had donated (with their logo on it). A GenCon staffer (who related this story to me) says, “Hey, what are you doing, that stuff is for kids?” The guy replies, “My head is cold.” Then he walks away, hat on his head.

The other day when I used the caption “Sick of Being Sick”, I had only been ill for a day or so and figured it’d pass quickly. I used that title more because it’s an old song by the Damned than anything else. But today, I mean it! This wretched flu won’t go away. The fever comes and goes, I’ve been coughing enough to make my throad raw, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. Tonight I decided I just had to work through it lest this whole week be a wash, so I pulled out the Psychic’s Handbook ms to finish my development pass. I had started this last week, first on the plane ride down to Anaheim and then during mornings at Starbucks before the exhibit hall opened. Only took a few hours to finish my development pass and send off my queries to the author and editor. Hopefully, I can get that off my plate by the weekend regardless. It helped that it’s a really good book and came in clean from both author and editor.

We are driving down to Portland this weekend to have “early Xmas” with Nik’s brother, sister-in-law, and mom. Hope I feel better by then, as I don’t want to infect my entire extended family in one go. Bleh.

No doubt millions of nerds are writing about seeing the Return of the King at this very moment. If you don’t want to hear another thing about it, stop reading now. I am about to activate this fully armed and operational Tolkien Goob.

Like many gamers of my generation, I grew up on the Lord of the Rings. When I was young I always hoped I’d get to be the guy to bring it to the screen. I rate the chances of that happening now as unlikely at best! However, I am pretty happy with the Return of the King. It hit all the high notes, unveiled the most stunning visuals of the whole trilogy, and generally got the spirit of the book right. The big battles were very impressive, the oliphaunts were awesome, and Eowyn’s duel with the Witch King was tre cool. I do, of course, have a few comments. Here we go:

1) Why are the orcs the only ones who know how to use a damn bow? It bugged me in the Two Towers when the Rohirrim just let the huge orc horde march up to the walls. Similarly here, we have Faramir’s rangers letting the orcs land in Osgiliath without firing a shot. Then the Gondorians let siege towers and orcs get real close before they start shooting. Conversely, the orcs decimate Faramir’s cavalry and then kill a bunch of the Rohirrim as well. Legolas needs to school the Free Peoples!

2) I think the book did a better job dramatizing the arrival of Aragorn. In the book, after Theoden is slain, Eomer and his men have been surrounded and are prepared to give their lives after taking piles of orcs with them. They chant “Death, death, death!” Then the black sails of the Corsairs are spotted and hearts sink. It’s only when Arwen’s banner is unfurled that the Free People’s realize that Aragorn has shown up to kick ass and take names. The movie stumbled with this a bit and didn’t play the moment for what it was worth. What’s funny is, they add all this stuff for Arwen that wasn’t in the books and then cut the one thing she actually did do–give Aragorn that standard.

3) No Mouth of Sauron!? I know the movie already had a lot of characters. I know that only people like me even wanted to see guys like Elfhelm and Imrahil show up onscreen. But you gotta have the Mouth! He’s only in one scene in the book, but he’s so coolly evil that he makes a larger impression.

4) While it was nice to see Theoden acting like a king in this movie (since he more or less whined his way through Two Towers), I wish the charge of the Rohirrim captured the book a bit better. I totally understand cutting Ghan-buri-Ghan. There’s no real time to develop him or the Wild Men of the Woods in an already long movie, but I think they still could have shown a surprise attack by the Rohirrim from an unexpected quarter. As it was, they line up on a hill and the orcs literally turn to face them with readied weapons.

5) They sure do make shoddy castles in Middle Earth. One catapult stone and down goes several storeys! OK, so I’m mostly kidding. I did love the depiction of Minas Tirith though. Really well conceived, though its design sure does make it hard for minis gamers to recreate the battle.

6) Pippin didn’t get to kill his troll. A small thing I know, but surely there was a chance in the Battle at the Black Gate for Pippin’s hour of glory. He had to keep up with Merry, after all. I thought the whole sequence with Aragorn and the troll was leading up to Pippin getting medieval, but no.

7) Thankfully, Gimli was much less stupid on this installment. He did have a few one-liners, but at least he wasn’t getting tossed or pinned under worgs.

8) I’ve thought since the first movie that the Eye of Sauron was way too obvious. I never really imagined it as a huge neon eye in the middle of Mordor. That was magnified to a ludicrous degree in this installment. I didn’t need to see the Eye acting as a giant spotlight across Mordor to get the idea that Sauron was looking for the ring. Or to see it literally swing away to know that the battle at the Black Gate was having the desired effect.

That’s about it for my nitpicks. Really not too bad considering. As I said above, I really enjoyed the film. I’m now wondering what’s going to show up on the deluxe DVD. Cirith Ungol got short shrifted (though again I totally understand why), so maybe they’ll have some more scenes of Frodo in the tower. I doubt they bothered to film the Houses of Healing, since that would bring the movie to a screaming halt as it moves to the climax. I know the Scouring of the Shire wasn’t filmed, which I still think is too bad. The whole point of that sequence is to bring the War of the Ring home for the hobbits. It’s not just far off lands that were affected, but their quaint little homes as well.

Ah well, I’ll just have to wait another damn year to find out.