My roommate Zachary J. Brown says "Put my name on your website. Let everyone know they shouldn't mess with me!"

Here it is: DON'T MESS WITH ZACHARY J. BROWN, BIOTCHES!!

Still no word on my books yet.

I beat the game "Ico" on the Playstation 2. It may be the finest video game I've ever played... absolutely revolutionary graphics, totally solid game play, unparalleled level design... the entire game is just a study in exactly how videogames should be made. Play this immediately.

We bought a toaster oven today. It replaced our other toaster oven which died a horrible death yesterday. Instead of buying the "Krup" toaster, we spent a few extra bucks and bought the Black & Decker. Sweet...

I'm really looking forward to directing Act I, Scene 9 from Angels in America (part 1: Millennium Approaches). Good stuff... if you haven't read Tony Kushner's Angels in America, I highly recommend it.

No word yet on my books...

Oh yeah, my roommate and I bought the Playstation 2 game "SSX" about a month ago... it's a wonderful snowboarding video-game with choice graphics, a wonderful & intuitive control scheme, plenty of replay value and lots of extras to earn. One very, very strange thing... on the different menu screens, a voice in the background says "select board," "select character" or whatnot. But when the voice is saying "select character" it pronounces it like... well, like the "ch" was pronounced like the beginning of "cherry". So it's saying "select character" but pronouncing the "ch..." It's very odd... and quite funny (especially late at night).

I had a singularly frustrating experience today- or rather a frustrating experience that I will now work to make singular. On August 22nd I mailed a box of books from my home in southern California to my home in Manhattan. To make this long story short, my books may or may not still be in the box, and they may or may not be in the mail recovery center in St. Paul, MN; or perhaps just the box is there, or maybe some of the books are there. They don't know. And it took me an hour to get an actual human being on the phone. So maybe I'll actually get my books back... I hope so... they're my babies! Normally, I would just take the insurance money and start buying replacements if it came to that... but my high school yearbooks are in there... To use a set-up provided by Dirk Gently- "Damn and blast the USPS!"

In other news, and I really can't believe I'm having to talk about this, people are still outraged at the "politically incorrect comments" (meaning, it seems, comments that don't lend 100% support to every government action [of course, this exception to the first amendment is only applicable in times of crisis]. So the moral of the story kids- when there are troublesome times the government is infallible. Oh yeah, and the Bill of Rights goes out the friggin' window) made by Bill Maher on his show. Now not to steal anyone's thunder, and not to claim that this conclusion was reached by only me, but when I last checked, Bill Maher's show is called Politically Incorrect.

From Argus Hamilton:

"ABC watched as three network affiliates dropped Politically Incorrect because of Bill Maher's controversial remarks. It could have a chilling effect. To begin the Yankees home opener Tuesday night, John Ashcroft was on hand to throw out the First Amendment."

I just had a wonderful discussion with my roommate Aaron. We took opposite sides in an argument that, were it a formal debate, would begin with something like "Resolved: That following the terrorist attacks by religious radicals, the United States government should have the power to eliminate freedoms (granted by the Bill of Rights) of those who are of the same religious affiliation as the terrorists." Or something like that... it's not even fair to make that claim that all (that the majority, that even 5% of, etc.) Muslims follow the same ideals as the terrorists. It would be like claiming that all Christians have the same beliefs as the Ku Klux Klan.

I was arguing against this idea- and granted, Aaron did come up with some arguments that (initially) seemed sound. But at the end of it all, I think the agreement to which logical thought leads is that it's simply not a good idea. For any reason.

I can't find any other explanation than... well... I really believe that this whole idea is racist. I have heard people say that "For safety reasons, the FBI should tap the phones of people with Muslim names." This is frankly ridiculous and very, very racist. If the IRA had committed acts of terrorism against the USA, I don't believe it would EVER enter into conversation that MY phone line should be tapped because my name is David McGee. I happen to share an ethnic background with the members of the IRA, but my skin is pale and my hair reasonably blonde. So restricting my freedoms would not even be a considered option.

Consider World War II. The United States were fighting the Germans, Italians, and Japanese. Yet the government sent only the Americans of Japanese ancestry into "internment camps." Is there any other reason than that their skin was darker?

If you disagree with me at all, please e-mail me at david@mcgees.org. I would love to here any intelligent counter-arguments.

Crap.

So I finally finished my first real Blog, I was excited and heading to bed, I moved the mouse to push "Post & Publish" but my hand slipped and I closed the window, losing my blog.

Auspicious beginnings...

Well, the other blog had three major points-

1. You should go to mcgees.org and check out Josh's site. He has wonderful comments to make on everything from herbal tea to foreign policy- further proof that he has WAY too much time on his hands.

2. The title of this Blog actually does make some sense, as I live on the 26th floor in an apartment on the east side of Manhattan. Word up to fun!

3. I've really talked about this whole terrorism thing quite a bit. You can read my account of the events of Tuesday 11 September at mcgees.org or in this weeks San Gabriel Valley Weekly!

I realize that it's impossible for right now to return to a true state of normality- it's pretty chaotic here still. Well, now that we're on the subject, do you think that newscasters realize that whenever they say the word "normalcy" (which I have heard myriad times) they are quoting a campaign slogan of former President Warren G. Harding? I doubt it. And hey, maybe you learned something today!

Well, that's pretty much it. I'm off to bed. Thanks for coming! See you tomorrow!

Well, it took a while, but I finally figured it out.

I swear that my brother had absolutely nothing to do with this web page. He didn't help me at all. Not at all. Not one bit.

Oh wait... I confused us again. T'was I that had nothing to do with it.

Well, thanks Josh. :)

Here's a go... if you see this, I figured it out.