My friend Rob wrote a great article today about Congress and their immediate attention to the single most important controversy on American soil: steroid use in baseball.

The soldiers in Iraq, the budget crisis, the intelligence failures, social security, those are really back-burner issues compared to whether Sosa juiced up.

It’s funny and poignant. Check it out.

Dude… They invented a phaser. It fires “directed energy” up to two kilometers away, and it can be non-lethal (as Kirk would say, “set phasers on stun”) or lethal (as Kirk would say, “set phasers to kill”). Do Gene Roddenberry’s relatives get royalties for this?

Ash had to do an off-site event for work yesterday near our apartment, so I decided to walk with her to her work and to the event. She had to get a bunch of stuff from her workplace and pile it into one of those grocery carts that old people use, to take to the event. As we walked from her workplace to the event, by way of Starbucks, we took turns acting like old people. It was fun–bad karma, I’m sure, but fun nonetheless.

My first thoughts about the new Star Wars Episode III trailer:

1. They should have chosen better actors to play Amidala and Anakin. Normally Natalie Portman isn’t bad, but I think the problem is that we know she’s Natalie Portman. They should have chosen someone not so famous. And as for Hayden Christensen… he reminds me a little bit of Keanu Reeves. A little too much intensity without much believability.

2. At the end of the trailer, they shouldn’t have used the same music that’s at the end of “Star Tours.” Bad, bad move.

Still, I’m really psyched to see the movie. Ever since I saw the original movies, I wanted to know “what happened before that?” And it’s wonderful to finally see it happen.

It’s currently 63 degrees outside, which is phenomenally warm for winter in New York.

I was able to sit outside at Starbucks today and enjoy the nice weather, and I’m really glad I did since this is apparently the warmest high temperature we’re going to get–by about 20 degrees–for the rest of the month. It’ll go back to being in the 40’s (with lows in the 20’s) by tomorrow.

Oh well. It was nice to have a preview of spring to remind me that it can actually be pleasant here.

Chelsey and I happened to stop by the Loews State movie theater (inside the Virgin Megastore in Times Square) last night, and we discovered that it has an ongoing Times Square Centennial Film Festival on Monday nights.

Tonight they’re showing Fame and Midnight Cowboy. And as an added bonus, you can “come in costume or in drag and get free admission!” How sweet is that?

There’s a very large building across the street, two blocks up, with scaffolding all over its facade. Quite often when I glance out the window, I see a large bucket floating upward in front of the building. I can’t see any wires or cables from here, so it just seems to levitate. I like it.

I was just thinking: Since “stewardesses” is the longest word that can be typed (using the standard touch-type method) using only the left hand, there should really be more stewardess-themed porn sites on the internet.

While walking down Third Avenue, I picked up a menu from a Mexican restaurant called Samalita’s of California. I was all excited. Could it really be just like the Mexican restaurants back home?

First thing I always look for is the chicken quesadilla because it’s my favorite. They had two quesadillas on the menu:

Quesadillas
Corn Tortillas with Monterey Jack Cheese
Original Cheese – $4.75
Picadillo or Chorizo con Papas – $5.25

What the fuck? They don’t have a chicken quesadilla or a beef quesadilla, but they have a chorizo con papas quesadilla? Who orders that? And as if that’s not bad enough, they put both quesadillas on corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas.

Mexican food is so simple. It constantly amazes me when I see the great lengths to which Mexican restaurants in New York will go to screw it up.

Quite often I’m inspired to write an entry while I’m in the restroom. (You can search the site for the word “toilet” to see what I mean.)

Today, however, I wasn’t.