I've spent the first hours of my 25th birthday in my birth-town as a lithe night-elf rogue called 'Asthma'. Yes, Eric's been gifted by the gods with a spot in the World of Warcraft beta. I'm at his apartment in Corvallis (second in the definitive 1992 'Best Small Towns in America' list), about ten seconds by foot from the store where I bought my Petra tape. As Christian metal bands go, the twelve-year-old me gave them two adolescent thumbs up. Didn't mean to make a sabbatical here for the quarter-century anniversary of my birth down the street, but the promises of Woodstocks pizza and late night geeking-out forced the detour.

Thusly proven, stateside existence refosters my inner dork. And he likes Button Men, particularly the delicious online manifestation. I face off against accountants and Poindexters the world over. If you too harbor a strange interest in dice games, sign up and challenge me (my uninspired username: Downen) or just email me after you have an account and I'll take care of the dirty work. Devil take us, it is a game of chance, but it doesn't cost any dollars. And it's open to all of us proletariat, not just those on the Blizzard Friends List.

More words about California soon.