Mental Poohsticks

Let's just throw some stuff off the bridge (my brain) and see what comes out first:

• I saw U23D last night (with Aaron & Margaret and Tim & Sarah - why, yes, I did feel like a 5th wheel, thanks for asking.) I have one complaint about the movie - it was too short. At roughly 90 minutes, I wanted at least a 1/2 hour more of music. The 3D effects were, for the most part, pretty subtle - of course, Bono is never terribly subtle, but that goes with the territory if you're a fan of U2. It's a pretty amazing concert film - coming from a band with a history for amazing concert films.
• For the record, I don't mind Bono's Coexist headband - the one using the Muslim crescent, the Jewish six-pointed star, and the Christian cross. I think we should coexist. I do think his chant in the film, "Mohammed, Jesus, Jew, all true..." betrays either an overblown sense of the theatrical (likely - it's Bono!) or an appalling lack of knowledge about the individual truth claims of each religion - who have decidedly different views about the nature of Jesus. (I did find a blog entry from Paul Myers that suggests what Bono says is "it's true... all sons of Abraham," - which makes more sense. If you want to see a picture of what I'm talking about, head over to his blog.)
• Speaking of Christianity & Islam, you need to read Barack Obama's interview over at Christianity Today. And if you're reading this and have been sending e-mails about his involvement w/Islam, you seriously need to repent & and send retractions. Come on, people, I'm not telling you to vote for the man, but for the love of all that is holy, don't lie about him!
• Thanks to Church Marketing Sucks, I found a really interesting post on church marketing from Seth Godin (who is NOT a church marketing guy). Anyone interested in church life needs to take a look at what he has to say.
• Brian Bankler's The Tao of Gaming won Best Blog in the 2007 Board Game Internet awards... check him (and the other winners) out. (I mention this because I actually nominated Brian...)
• Shari & I played a real blast from the past last night - Rail Baron. (My copy has root beer stains on it from 30 years ago, thanks to many late night games with Jim & Tom Trerise.) It actually moves pretty nicely w/two players, though it does still have the problem of a lull in the middle of the game. (With 4+ players, I've previously reviewed this classic rail game as "30-45 minutes of fun at the beginning & end of the game... with 2 hours of tedium in between.") We played where you ran free on your own lines, $1000 on bank lines... and the upgrade from Express to Superchief is free (but takes a buying turn). Oh, yeah, Shari won... but it was close!
• Hopefully, fans of Chuck didn't miss the "Chuck Sandwich" Thursday night - the final two episodes of Chuck that were finished before the writer's strike. Hee & double hee... what a delicious mix of nerd/geek humor & over-the-top spy antics. Think if you mixed Alias and, oh, Freaks & Geeks, I guess.