Freetime - what you won't have after you buy this

Yet another Sims 2 Expansion Pack -- "Free Time"

Now your Sims can do crafts, sports, music, and compete with their talents or meet other people because of their talents! And apparently it's all tied to your lifetime aspiration meter! AND you can unlock cool stuff!!!

Yes, the irony is not lost on me! But still. It's not coming out until mid-2008. I must collect the rest of the games before then!!!

authority or not?

For those of you with questions about 'His Dark Materials' and the rumors that swirl around it's ending, Scott Westerfeld just did a fantastic post on his blog breaking it all down. Semi-spoilers for the end of the series, but if you're truly curious about what happens to the "god" at the end of HDM, this will hopefully clear up some questions (not all, you should still read the books and interpret them for yourselves!)

I really want to read the books again. Or, I guess read them for the first time since I've only experienced them as audiobooks. The first time through you're just so caught up in the story that there's hardly time to think about the metaphors/images/parallels/agendas/etc. Especially since it ended completely differently than what I ever expected.