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So for the past few evenings I've been taking some time and playing all the way through some old "Nintendo 64" games: Diddy Kong Racing, Battle Tanx and its sequel "Battle Tanx: Global Assault". These games are kind of like comfort-food, I know I can beat their campaign modes with out too much strain, and they're a good time all around. But it hits me that I've rarely been so aware that I am so consciously practicing escapism. This week has been a real roller coaster, and immersing myself in these goofy and fun worlds (where I'm highly confident I'll come out on top in the end) is very soothing.

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Article of the Moment
Slate.com on how American parents also have a preference for sons over daughters, looking at marriage and divorce rates. The article, and the report it based, decline to speculate why that is, but my theory is this: men just don't how to relate to little girls. I think few would argue that the mother-child bond isn't stronger than the father-child bond. Therefore I'd guess that a lot of these breakups and what not happen because men just aren't emotionally in tune enough with young women, they just don't know what to do.

Just a guess.

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Brag of the Moment
Another 5 or so seconds off of my 15 minutes of Warholian fame, Popular Science just asked to copy my text for this Link of the Moment ("Murphy's Job") for a new blog area they're adding to their magazine's Reader Feedback section. (I suggested cleaning up the phrasing a wee bit, I must've been in a hurry when I typed it.) I'll have to look for it in the December issue--which will come out, when, early November or something? It's odd how so many magazines always beat their cover date by like a month.

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List of the Moment
MIT's Technology Review has Bruce Sterling's Ten Technologies That Deserve to Die. While I don't agree with some of them (in particular, I think he forgets about the random access qualities and special features of DVDs, along with the side benefits of material objects that look good on a shelf (as opposed to elecronically distributed alternatives)) I was struck by the one reference to "your American internal visa (formerly known as a 'driver's license')". He's got a point, for what it's worth.