Friends, I hope you had a good weekend. On Friday, 13 April 2007, I watched the half-season premieres of "Stargate SG1" and "Stargate: Atlantis" on the SciFi Channel. I think that "Farscape" alumni Ben Browder and Claudia Black have breathed new life into "SG1," which is probably the closest thing we have to the optimistic legacy of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry currently on U.S. television. However, 10 years is a good long run, so it's with mixed feelings that I watch the final episodes of the military space opera (at least until two planned telemovies later this year).

Spin-off "Atlantis," which will have some cast changes later this season (many U.K. and Canadian viewers have already seen them and protested), is O.K., but I'm not sure I'll watch it for long on its own, let alone the possible "Stargate: Universe." I do look forward to eventually watching Series 3 of the revived "Doctor Who," as well as to the next episodes of "Hustle" and "Heroes."

On Sunday, Janice and I took the T (Boston's subway) into town to meet Tim M.B. and Christy B. for lunch. We met at the crowded Hynes Convention Center, where Tim had registered for the Boston Marathon, which he completed on Monday despite bad weather. We went to a nearby barbeque restaurant, where we discussed mutual friends in Virginia, our respective role-playing games, and Tim and Christy's impending second son.

The marathon was overshadowed by the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. My thoughts are with the families of those slain, and I'm a proponent of stricter gun control. Unfortunately, many of the violent crimes committed in the Northeast are aided by the guns widely available in Virginia.

Speaking of Virginia, congratulations again to Steve M.R. on his and Aleece R.'s progress in their housing search! I've also been working with my brother Peter to arrange the celebration of our parents' 40th wedding anniversary in New York in June 2007.

I also watched the premiere of "Painkiller Jane," the second SciFi Channel series based on the action-oriented comic books. It was more cyberpunky in tone than its predecessor, but nowhere near as good as, say, TNT's short-lived, live-action "Witchblade." Janice and I have been enjoying the supernatural private investigator on "The Dresden Files," and she's been reading the novels, which are apparently somewhat different from the television show.

In other genre entertainment news, Edward Norton ("Fight Club," "The Illusionist") will replace Eric Bana ("Troy") as Bruce Banner in the planned "Incredible Hulk" movie. Intense and intellectual, he may be a good choice for the latest reboot of the franchise. While the Ang Lee-directed film had some psychological insights, the fans and studio want more of a superhero action movie next time around. I'm also curious about Robert Downey Jr.'s upcoming take on Tony Stark/"Iron Man."

Although I'm a big fan of the pulpy archaeological adventures of Indiana Jones and the recent "Mummy" movies, I'm disappointed that John Rhys-Davies ("Sallah") and Rachel Weisz ("Evie") won't be in the next installments of their respective franchises. Of course, "Indiana Jones [3] and the Last Crusade" and "Mummy [2] Returns" were both good endings, so we'll have to see how the next sequels are.

I'll have to save my dental and gaming notes for the next posting, but in the meantime, I hope you have a good week…

A few quick items:

R.I.P., Kurt Vonnegut. The science fiction author, whom I once met on a train between New York and Washington, died. His works were terse, sardonic, and shadowed by the horror of modern war. He will be missed.

Barack Obama, the Duke lacrosse scandal, and Don Imus: Despite a half-century's progress, race relations in the U.S. remain problematic. Presidential candidate Obama has been criticized by some African Americans as not speaking out quickly enough on civil rights issues and is viewed by (I hope only) a few as "not black enough" or "too black" to be seriously considered. While I feel that his relative lack of national political experience and vague idealism are flaws, I don't think that he or rival Hilary Clinton should be disqualified by the American public on the basis of their skin shades or sex.

Unfortunately, many rape cases become a legal duel of "he said, she said," and too many women suffer in silence. I'm glad that the Duke lacrosse scandal is finally over, even if my initial sympathies tended to be with the alleged victim. As fellow blogger Steve M.R. has noted, the occasional false accusation and use of the so-called race card — remember Tawana Brawley? And yet rabble-rousing preacher Al Sharpton still came across as an elder statesman when compared to some of his competitors in the last elections — undermines the credibility of those who criticize the real social problems of abuses against women and minorities worldwide.

Speaking of sports and race, our nation's original sin of slavery continues to contaminate popular entertainment. Nobody should have been surprised when aging radio "shock jock" Imus made an insensitive comment about members of a women's college basketball team. I'm sure his peer Howard Stern is laughing over on satellite radio, where he tries to be an equal opportunity offender. Imus has the right to be an idiot in public (see Wil Wheaton's blog about fellow "Star Trek" actor William Shatner for examples), but I'm glad that some sponsors have also exercised their right not to support someone who ceased to be funny years ago (see some of the work of the late conservative cartoonist Johnny Hart for more examples).

I've usually stayed away from political debate in this blog, but as always, I welcome any constructive criticism or rational debate.

Friends, I hope you had a good vernal equinox, Passover, or Easter. This past Friday, 6 April 2007, Dexter V.H. took the bus and train up from Brooklyn, New York, to the Boston area. Janice was visiting her folks in Pennsylvania, and Dex and I got burgers for dinner at "Friendly's" in Needham, Massachusetts.

After a long workweek, we reminisced about college, compared notes on recent genre entertainment, and created a Player Character for my "Vanished Lands" heroic fantasy campaign setting using "Dungeons & Dragons" Edition 3.5 — a female Dwarf Paladin of Sif, goddess of valor and wisdom. Her ties to existing characters, such as Drow Ranger "Faelonia," will be revealed in due time…

On Saturday, Dexter and I wrote up his new P.C., who should start adventuring the next time we get together. We drove down to Norwood, Mass., for lunch at Boston Market and to pick up my subscription at New England Comics. I showed Dexter the latest crossover stories of Marvel and D.C., as well as adaptations of various fantasy novels. We also chatted about his challenges in being a single parent and about old friends, such as Bill A.R. and Stuart C.G.

Upon returning to my duplex, we then rolled up "the Ebon Flame," a new superhero for my D20 "Mutants & Masterminds" 2nd Ed.: "S.J.I." scenarios. In fact, the last time Dexter came up was for the annual Halloween costumed session!

Beruk A./"the Stranger," Thomas K.Y./"the Righteous First," and eventually, via videoconference, Byron V.O./"Arcturus" joined us for another "Drake's Port" one-shot. We picked up from Byron's visit from St. Louis the previous weekend. The costumed vigilantes fought insect swarms and the Avatar of Disease! See the Yahoo/eGroups Web club at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DnD3VanishedLands/ for more details.

Since the group was a bit smaller (and older) than our usual D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" party on Tuesday nights, we had a leisurely start and went out to dinner at "Fuji," Janice's and my favorite local Japanese steakhouse. We had dessert at "Cafe Moca Blue," a relatively new gelato place. Some of the gamers didn't attend because I didn't run a higher-level D&D3.5 plot, but there will be other opportunities that make sense given who's available at the time.

Dexter also did some troubleshooting of the Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop software for our Wednesday night teleconferencing sessions (http://www.fantasygrounds.com/screenshots/). On Sunday morning, I meant to show Dex how my "City of Heroes" characters had fared since he got burned out of the computer game last summer, but I got sucked into a team mission with some of our usual group: Kim A.G., Steve M.R., and Shari S. (David I.S. and Thomas were offline).

While our metahumans have occasionally struggled with tactics, Dex agreed with me on the larger issue of time management and said he's unlikely to rejoin that game anytime soon, especially when the D&D3.5 P.C.s are going strong. For more "CoH" discussions (and images such as "the Emerald Quarrel" above), go to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/dimensionalcorpsonline/

After lunch at "Acapulco's" Mexican restaurant, we drove to some bookshops in Newton and Harvard Square, Cambridge, some of which were closed for the holiday. We did check out Pandemonium Books & Games, but Dex didn't want to load himself down, since he still had to travel home and doesn't play face-to-face games very often.

Janice got home not long after I had dropped off Dexter, and she and I went out to dinner at "Mandarin Cuisine," so we should eat in for the rest of this week. In the meantime, my family has started planning to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary in New York in June.

More immediately, I've been enjoying the "Dresden Files" television show, and I look forward to the remaining half seasons of "Smallville," "Stargate SG1," and "The Batman." Next week, I'll try to post in more detail about my gaming history and preferences…

In between juggling work, various games, and weekend visitors, I've been following a number of debates online. The most important is the discussion, exemplified by friends and fellow bloggers Steve M.R. and Jim J.D'B., about politics and how to best protect our future. Should the U.S. continue its current military engagement in the Middle East? How can we contain the threat of nuclear proliferation? What's more important at home, security or freedom? Nobody has all the right answers.

As co-worker Ken G. noted, today is "First Contact Day," which in the "Star Trek" space opera franchise refers to the day in 2063 when humanity takes its first steps toward becoming part of an interstellar society. Let us hope that even if Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future (from World War III to the utopian Federation) isn't correct, that we can successfully strive for a world in which our environment is nurtured, our people are at peace, and each person can fulfill his or her true potential.

At work, there has been dynamic tension as journalists and others in our industry struggle to best serve readers and preserve their careers in the face of changing reader habits and the shift of advertising from print to online. How do we broaden our audience without losing our distinctive and authoritative voice? How can we maintain quality while increasing workoads? Only time will tell if we're successful.

David I.S. and I spoke last night over the telephone about the constant challenge of time management. As tempting as videogames and other genre entertainment may be, there's still no substitute for face-to-face socializing and creativity. Even I, who tend to prefer sedentary pursuits, have gotten a bit stir crazy after the belated and long New England winter. On the other hand, I also want to make the best use of time playing "Dungeons & Dragons" Edition 3.5 and "City of Heroes," which has been leading me, if not all my peers, toward "rules-lite" rules systems and more rationed scheduling. Ah, to sleep, perchance to dream–there's the rub!

Of course, fanboys are always happy to debate the merits of a particular franchise or medium: Was "Highlander: the Series" better than the movies? (Yes to all but the first one.) Can the "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer" comic books sustain the cult following of Joss Whedon's ensemble horror/drama television series? (Maybe.) Of course, we also have to look at things in their historical context and acknowledge our own biases.

Are all the summer movie sequels good for our favorite franchises or bad for them? I'm optimistic about "Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and the next "Harry Potter," but less so for "Spider-Man 3," and I wonder how long Hollywood can keep mining comic books. Why has "Justice Society of America" been more interesting than "Justice League of America" so far, and will readers keep following Tony Stark's plan to turn superheroes into SHIELD flunkies?

I promise a less-philosophical and more detailed update after this weekend…

Friends, I hope you had a good weekend. On Friday, 30 March 2007, Byron V.O. arrived from New York, where he had been attending a work-related conference. The patent lawyer and former member of the Boston-area social/gaming groups has been very good at staying in touch since moving to St. Louis last year, and Janice and I hosted him for the weekend.

On Saturday, Byron went to visit an ill niece while Janice and I did some shopping at the so-called Natick Collection and Shopper's World plaza near where I work. We had Indian food for lunch in the food court before running into Byron on our way back to Janice's and my second duplex in Needham Heights, Massachusetts.

That evening, I was pleasantly surprised at the strong turnout for a one-shot game in honor of our guest. As shown in the photograph above, the group included me (kneeling, front left), Brian W./"Le Cafard," Beruk A./"The Stranger" (standing, far left), Brie/"Daughter of Ether," Paul J./"Capt. Oblivious," Thomas K.Y./"the Righteous Fist," Brian A./"Cmdr. Confusion" (back row), Greg D.C./"the Electric Slide," and Byron/"Arcturus." Not shown are Dexter V.H./"Neutralizer-X," who participated by videoconference, and Janice, who took the picture.

The code-names after each person listed above are those of their characters in my D20 "Mutants & Masterminds" 2nd Ed.: "Drake's Port" superhero scenarios. In all, even with James B./"Sid the Kid," Doug H., and others missing, we had 10 role-players for a game scheduled on short notice!

Of course, that led to a slow start and some communications challenges in my basement, but I hope everyone enjoyed the session, in which the costumed vigilantes dealt with the ramifications of events depicted in Marvel Comics' "Civil War" and D.C. Comics' "Identity/Infinite Crisis" and "52/One Year Later" storylines. For more information, visit the Yahoo/eGroups Web club at: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DnD3VanishedLands/

Greg brought dinner from "Blue Ribbon Barbeque" in Newton, Mass., but unfortunately, spicy food two meals in a row was a bit too much for me and Janice, who spent Sunday recovering. Byron and I stayed up late into the night talking, mainly about his Egyptian Paladin "Ibrahim" in my D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" fantasy campaign.

Yesterday, Steve M.R. and I demonstrated the "City of Heroes" online game for Byron. College friend Ron J.K. (who was visiting his brother in Brookline, Mass.) met Byron and me for lunch at a local "Bertucci's" Italian restaurant, followed by picking up Janice to screen the new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie. If you're a fan of the original comic books, the various television cartoons, or the previous movies, you'll probably like the latest revival of a 1980s genre franchise.

The martial arts action was well-choreographed, the computer animation was stunning, and the action scenes were fast-paced. The relatively simple plot takes place sometime after the events of the live-action flicks, and the decent voice cast included Patrick Stewart ("Star Trek: the Next Generation" and "The X-Men"), Sarah Michele Gellar ("Buffy: the Vampire Slayer"), the late Mako ("Conan: the Barbarian" and "Samurai Jack"), and Chris Evans ("Fantastic Four"). I'd give "TMNT" a 7 or 8 out of 10.

Although I won't be running the regular D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" Arabian fantasy game on Tuesday night, I'll probably run another one-shot during Dexter's planned visit this coming weekend, when Janice will be visiting her extended family in Pennsylvania. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying the latest episodes of "The Dresden Files" and "Smallville," as well as "Avatar: the Last Airbender" on DVD. As co-worker Ken G. noted, so much genre entertainment to follow, so little time…