We just watched Star Trek II: Attack of the Killer Clones or something like that. My review: entertaining but tedious. Jedi's certainly do come off as anything special, I thought the that they were supposed to strike fear into the hearts of people and justifiably so, but they just appeared to extra-skilled swordsmen with cool light sabers. Also I found Yoda's speech to be annoying. They made it so that the verb is always at the end, which made for a silly way of speaking. One of two things, they either want to make him sound like he is translating internally from another language to English or make it so that he is just about speaking another language. The reason I am on their case about this is that with Jabba the Hut, they actually got anthropologist to fuse two obscure South American languages for the sake of authenticity. Now, they might have done something similar with Yoda, but it sure didn't sound like it. At the least, they could have written his parts in German and done a transliteration, I think that would have worked better.

We also finished our first season of 24 viewing, quite entertaining.

I am finishing initial edits on a manuscript that I am about to sign a contract for.

On the politcal front, I am trying to decide how involved in should get in the presidential campaign. I'm a Kerry democrat for now and my only goal in life is to get Bush out of office.

I watched Howard Dean on Tim Russert's Meet the Press and he was a disaster.

Bishops' meeting is over. We all know that the US Bishops are what they are, but somehow the Vatican has gotten off the hook as though they have no role in all of this. I guess it shows how slick they are and effective they are as politicians. The US Bishops appear to be clueless and tactless and have no media savy whatsoever. I say it is the system and not the product that should shoulder the blame.

Hulk made 62 mill over the weekend but that has to be considered a bust for a film that cost 135 million to make and the exit reviews are not good. The movie just seemed plain ol' stupid. Just my opinion.

I'm trying to decide how active I should get in the 04 presidential races. It is possible that if Senator Kerry wins the Democratic nomination, I may volunteer for his campaign. There's also word that Senator Biden is seriously considering a run, I would volunteer in his campaign and then there's the CNN, NATO, Kosovo General, i forget his name. I'd like to know more about him. People are touting him as a great VP but I think its time we got a woman, Hispanic, or Black, or Jew, or Native, you get my drift.

I have finally emerged from the stone age, my wife and I just got a DVD player and I also got a HP color printer. To celebrate this new DVD player we are watching the first season of Fox's hit show, 24, which has been quite good. The President character, who was a Senator at the time, is so much better in this series than in last season's.

I'm happy with my HP color printer, scanner, copier. The only problem is that I heard that HP puts a computer chip in the ink cartridges and they are programmed to stop working after a set time because they assume you would have used up all the ink. I've seen this happen repeatedly with a HP printer my wife uses for business. We have to change the cartridge regardless of how much printing we've done. I'll see if this is the case with mine.

A publisher sent a contract and I replied with some suggestions, no word yet. My book is Catholic sci fi, about aliens, the Catholic Church, Geo-politics and human destiny. Get your copy today (or whenever it comes out)!

Besides me and my wife, does anyone else think that this animated incredible hulk dude coming out at the movies is attrocious and stupid? Granted it is hard to find a 15 foot, 500 pound actor, still a 6 footer, 300 pounder with great camera work is much better than a stupid computer generated hulk. The previews are so annoying. It seems like David Banner likes being hulk when in fact the authentic Banner hated the monster that he had become. I hope the movie bombs but I know it won't.

I think it has been really sad about the Mideast peace process. There are going to be many major potholes on the way to peace, there just has to be the will and patience, especially on Israel's side. They are in a rough spot, but at some point, you have to realize that you can't fight your way out of everything. They will have to turn to the other cheek one of these days to restore confidence in the process.

Congress is looking to do something on Medicare and prescription drugs. I don't trust what will surface, because it is coming from the Republicans, but we'll have to wait and see.

I am about to agree to contract terms with a publisher regarding a science fiction story I wrote. The book should be out within the year, yeah! Thank you Lord.

I got into a fiction reading rhythm for a moment there with Kat Lively's Saints Preserve us and Greg Tobin's Conclave, both very worthwhile reads. However, no more fiction for a while, it gets to engrossing and prevents one from doing other things. I'm trying to complete a collection of short stories. I have about three stories and need a couple more. I also am stuck 30-40% into a couple of drafts. For ine, I know where I am going and just need to sit my butt down and write, for the other one, which was also my Nano project, I'm not sure where I'm going with that one.

Summer is here which means very, very, slow sales at the store. Summer is a horrible time for Catholic retailers. However, this year could be different. Because the economy is slow, less people may decide to take vacations and thus stay home, which means they'll be "around" to stop in to buy gifts,etc.

Is George Bush beatable in 2004? Yes. By whom? John Kerry, if he does it right.

It is a strange feeling when you wake up one day and realize that your baby is not a baby anymore, she's a toddler.

I read in the Washington post and opinion piece on Bush's tax cuts, the issue was that the $400 checks for child credit will only pump $14 billion into the economy and in our economy which is a multi trillion dollar economy, that barely makes a dent. ordinarily it is a bad idea, and worse in the present situation with decent jobs to come by and Americans mired in so much debt. Besides, oil hit $30/barrell today, which takes some of the bite out of our spending dollars.

I finished Saints Preserve Us by Katherine Lively, fun book, recommended, hopefully, I hope to provide a positive review for it when I am less tired and thinking more clearly. I'm now reading Conclave by Greg Tobin, page turner and gripping are the words that come to mind.