A small gift for the men and women serving in the Middle East from the folks here at 38. I hope to be able to hand them all out while visiting. We’ll be selling these when I get back. We’ll be organizing a program to have portions of the proceeds donated to families of fallen soldiers. Details will be forthcoming. Check it out here

What a night. I’ve never in my life paid as much attention to a campaign as I have this one, and especially tonight.

Proud to know more Americans voted yesterday than at any time in this countries history. Congratulations to everyone that made their voice heard yesterday.

Senator McCain; damn what a speech. Clearly continuing his life long display of class, dignity, honor and integrity I only wish more people knew the man as well as I do. He exudes those same traits regardless of the audience or venue. I am proud as hell to call he and his family friends. Not many countries are capable of creating men like him and I am proud we are one of them. To John and Cindy and the rest of the McCain family, thank you.

Senator Obama; damn what a campaign. Expert after expert talked about the nearly flawless political campaign he ran, and the voters in this country backed those opinions up, lock stock and barrel. Congratulations Mr. President Elect, I pray to God that starting tomorrow every decision you make, every piece of advice you receive, every minute of counsel given to you, all of those things lead you to make every day from tomorrow on a better one for the people of the greatest nation on earth. I know the move doesn’t become official until January 20th, but we all know better, change begins tomorrow.

Am I disappointed? Sure, the man I know and the man I believed to be the right choice didn’t win. It stops there though. Because tomorrow the sun is going to come up in this country and less than 40 years after an African American was not allowed to use the same bathroom as a white person, sleep in the same hotel, ride on the same bus, go to the same school, less than 40 years later our nation showed the entire world why it is the greatest nation on earth and selected an African American as it’s 44th President.

Do I agree with him? Not a lot. Was he my choice? Nope. But we end that ’stuff’ now right? Tomorrow we all wake up Americans. Tomorrow the world once again looks at us in complete awe. Never has a country on this planet selected what was once a ‘minority’ to it’s highest political position. No free nation has ever done what we just did, again. So while I made no bones about my choice, I do believe in Senator McCain, and I do believe him to be right when he says now is the time to put aside political differences, personal agendas and partisan politics and wish God Speed to President Elect Barack Obama in leading the greatest nation on earth over the next four years. It’s going to take effort and commitment like we’ve never seen.

God Bless every one of you who didn’t forsake the right afforded us today and voted. The votes have been counted and we’ve set our course, time for us to let a new captain take the wheel and steer us into uncharted territory.

The rhetoric, the BS, the white noise. Get out and vote. Vote for whomever you choose to, whomever you believe will lead this country over the next four years, but just vote.

When standing in line please say a thank you to the men and woman who’ve sacrificed so much for us to have this right.

Whether ‘your guy’ wins or loses, there will be a new President of the United States tomorrow and we need to turn the page, move on, and fix this thing.

I received this email today. Read it and take from it what you want.

Letter deleted.

But every single one of you ranting and screaming below about ‘fairness’, internet trolls and the like needs to shut it. The context of this letter was nothing more or less than has been spewed by media on both sides for much of this campaign, but this letter is a Birthday card compared to what the media has done, and said, about Governor Palin since she was nominated for the position of Vice President. It’s been one BS character assassination after another from people who don’t know squat.

Letters like this and comments contained in it have no place in what is happening and supposed to happen tomorrow. Yet most of you frauds are the first in line when commentary like that is put out there for your ‘opponent’. None of you will admit to it, most don’t have the guts, it’s not how it works these days, but it’s sickening, and inappropriate on any candidate and pathetic that you are ok with it for one side, hell many of you cheer for stuff like that, and then become horribly offended when it’s your ‘guy’.

I disagree with Obama, period. I question his judgment, it’s my right. I don’t think he’s a bad man, not at all, but the vitriol spewed from people during these last few months is embarrassing.

We are all to blame. As I stated earlier, after tomorrow it’s over. Whether my choice for President wins or loses, as a nation we absolutely have to move on, but in addition we as a nation absolutely have to change our expectations of our Politicians and of the process. We continue to hope we’ll elect someone to change it all, why? Are we powerless to make them change? Do we have to hope or wait?

This country is so desperately in need of change in so many ways, yet it appears we’re content to ’sit by’ and hope someone else does it. Voting is just the start.

I will vote for John McCain on Tuesday. Stop reading if you don’t care, and no, I don’t want you to vote for him because I am. Vote for the person you believe will best serve us, the American people on Tuesday.

95% of Politicians lives are spent ‘behind closed doors’. We can’t see or hear the things they do and say. We rely on these men and woman to make the right decisions, we rely on them to serve in our best interests at home and abroad.

What do I know about Barack Obama?

Listen I don’t for a second think the links to Bill Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground and known domestic terrorist, who bombed among other things a police station, the Pentagon and other buildings, I don’t think that makes Barack Obama a terrorist, contrary to what some might have you believe.

I don’t think that the links to Rashid Khalidi make him a supporter of the PLO.

I don’t think that his associations and work with ACORN means he was out soliciting and registering ‘fake’ voters.

I don’t think that his associations and ’spiritual counseling’ from Jeremiah Wright means he hates our country or wishes the country ill will.

Maybe he does, I don’t know, but I don’t believe he does.

I am very concerned about the fact that in the past 7 days the ‘floor’ of his tax plan on Americans has been given as 4 very distinctly different numbers that, depending on which one we are to believe, would affect a much larger % of Americans than we’ve been led to believe.

What I do know about Senator Obama is, I don’t really know what he is going to do other than raise taxes and put in mechanisms to parcel out that money under a ‘plan’, supposedly, we know nothing about.

But none of the points above make me think he’s a ‘bad guy’ or ‘mean person’, however they give me absolute right and I think it would be borderline negligent to NOT question his judgment in a very serious way. And isn’t that important of a President? Aren’t we supposed to vote for someone who, even if they don’t have every single interest of ours as their priority, we trust to have good judgment? Do any of those examples make me think that is the case?

(Anyone wishing to use this as a reason for me to vote against him can zip it, I don’t have a job, I am likely retired, and the tax threshold means squat to me. I am now a small business owner in a start up and there is nothing he’s proposed that is going to help me hire new employees or maintain the best health care coverage in the industry my company is in. I’m going to have to do that despite him if he’s elected)

I am not voting for John McCain for any of the reasons above in and of itself. In fact pretty much every reason I can think of to vote for Senator McCain has to do with the man himself.

I am put off by the fact that Senator Obama has made this campaign about him, and his desire to be the President of the United States, while Senator McCain has made it clear that serving as President would be an honor and privilege following a life spent doing that very thing.

But this is the reason it has all become easier for me. Neither of these men stand on platforms I am in complete agreement with. If you say otherwise, you’re lying. For one reason we don’t know what their platforms are in total, but we have an idea. Obviously my beliefs are more in line with Senator McCain but it’s not some landslide thing where I can say “Wow! That’s stupid! No way I’d vote for that guy”. No. So if I don’t agree with both of them in total, I need to go to the next check mark. Which of these men can I trust to do the “Right Thing” (Sorry Spike!).

In a scenario far beyond anything anyone reading this can imagine, on the most important day of his life, in the most life threatening peril any of us could think to imagine, no cameras, no votes to win, no political favors to gain, this man, John McCain made a decision I don’t think many of us could, or would have made.

Faced with likely death if he stayed, versus living and being nursed back to health AT HOME, IN THE U.S., John McCain stood by the code of Honor, Ethics, Morals, and Integrity we only WISH men running this country had. Broken arms, leg, shoulder, ribs, dysentery like you can’t imagine, after years of torture and beatings, solitary confinement, all of that, he choose to stay in prison, with his brothers in arms, rather than being set free because he was the son of one of the most powerful and influential men in the United States Armed Forces.

He was willing to give his life for something he believed in. Something that to many was nothing more than words on paper, but to men like Senator McCain and all those serving with him, beside him, these were much more, they were something you built a nation out of. A nation of great human beings. He did this for that reason, and that reason alone.

Having every reason in the world to go home to his wife and young child, and health, he didn’t! Why? Please answer that question in your own mind. Answer that and then tell me with a straight face this man is someone you don’t trust with our best interest? Really?

The other big piece to this is that if you have heard him he’s as honest as the day is long. For better or worse this man will be the first to admit he’s made mistakes, he’s screwed up. Show me any other person on the ticket that has been so ‘real’, his warts are out there for all to see and he makes NO EXCUSES, NONE, for his short comings. I can live with someone that’s made mistakes as long as I know those mistakes were made in our best interests, made with the notion of serving the greater good. I worry more about people failing to recognize or admit or own up to screwing up.

The one prime example of this, and you only need to pick up the paper to see it, is the war in the Middle East. 1 year ago it was front page news, every single day. Why not now? Well in addition to the Global Economy being in the tank, the bigger reason is because the ‘Surge’ that was thought to be “Political Suicide” for any politician endorsing it, is working. No one needs to be reminded who voted on which side back then, but it’s horribly convenient that it’s dismissed off hand today. Once again, with everything to lose, Senator McCain said “I’d rather lose this election than lose this war” . Against literally all odds and I would guess advice, he did what he knew to be the right thing FOR THE COUNTRY.

Senator Biden? Where was he? He’s the foreign Policy Expert guy right? The guy with a lifetime of experience and know how? Well he was here and he was wrong. Wrong then, wrong now.

Senator Obama? He was here stating emphatically

“nobody wants to get U.S. troops out of Iraq more than he does, but doing so will require voters to pressure Senate Republicans, including New Hampshire Senators Judd Gregg and John Sununu, to break with President Bush”. That was 16 months ago!!. In the past 16 months can ANYONE on the planet not admit the tide has turned, things have changed on an epic scale? Senator Obama still holds to the line saying “It has not worked”.

Can anyone fathom what would have happened if we’d actually followed that course of action? Can you honestly say if he’d has his way, and we’d pulled out, things would be better in this world? How can you? He was wrong, all of them were.

That’s not to say it’s over, it’s not and won’t be in the near future, any rational person knows that and should expect it to be more time and effort and unfortunately lives and least of all money, to get what needs to be done, done. Don’t we owe it to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces, NATO forces of the coalition and the men, women and children of Iraq to see it through? That’s not to say it’s been easy or in any way diminish the staggering cost in lives, those things in and of themselves are horrible. But we have a country of men and women willing and able to take on that responsibility and that is a source of pride we should all take comfort in. Stop with the why’s and how’s of it all beginning. None of us can or will deny we were not given the right or proper information at the outset and I won’t disagree for a second that the people responsible will have to bear witness to their involvement and accountability. But memory is a funny thing, because I have trouble finding anyone that was out in the street screaming and hollering at President Bush in the months following 9/11. We were proud as hell to be acting how we acted, and doing what we were doing. The minute the ‘cost’ came into view people started scrambling for life boats and politicians all over this country showed you what they truly believed about us, and their agendas, in the months and years that have followed.

In the last debate Senator McCain emphatically asked us only ONE THING, one, ‘Check the record’ on both he and Senator Obama. In the white noise that has become this political campaign lots of people, me included at times, have lost focus on the people, the men, the women, and who and what they are. Isn’t that what matters?

I am voting for Senator McCain because when the lights are off, and no ones watching, I know for a fact this man is going to ALWAYS vote for and push for and make happen, the thing that is in our best interest; and by “our” I don’t mean my taxes, your salary, his 401K, her Medical, I mean he’ll always take the route that is best for US, as a whole, the country, and that’s what we need in my opinion. We must have someone who understands this job is bigger than he is. Than any one or two people are, and that this job unlike any time in our life, is going to command someone with the life long experience of instituting change, redirecting failed efforts, fighting the establishment and having to ‘go against the grain’ but most of all someone who knows and understands service to country is the most important responsibility we have. Someone who’s done it, someone who’s passed tests few have ever been asked to take, and far fewer could ever pass.

John McCain has spent his life passing tests in service of our country and at no time in my life, or my children, is this country more in need of someone new to take charge and change the very fabric of who we are, and what we are doing.

I just watched the most painful loss of my life, including games I’ve ever played in. Franklin defeated Medfield on a hail mary with 30 seconds left, 20-16.

Congratulations to the Franklin team and best of luck in winning it all, no shame in getting beat by the SB Champs! The sign of class is as much about how you handle winning as it is losing, and they were classy as hell, congrats and best of luck to you all.

To the Medfield kids, congratulations. Cliches suck at a time like this but we could not be prouder of the season you kids had.

To Coach D’Angelo, thank you. In a day and age when parents have trouble giving even their own kids enough time, you give what seems to be your entire life outside the court room, to the kids of Medfield. A federal judge, cub scout leader and head coach on what appears to be every football team in Medfield. No idea how you do it but it’s greatly appreciated to have role models outside our house that our kids believe in and who conducts themselves with as much integrity and respect as you and your coaches did this year.

To G-man, damn proud of you and the season. Sorry for the genetic hand-me-down footspeed, but you made the most of it and we’re proud of the time, effort and commitment you made.

P.S. Connor B…. You figure out that Focus thing you’re going to go places:)

Does this woman not go to jail? Isn’t what she did a crime? How is this possible? How is she not fired, arrested and held accountable? How does the system work that someone supposedly held to higher standards than the rest, since her job is predicated on people VOTING her into office, is held to a set of rules no one else is? I am asking because I am not sure I understand. She is ‘immune’ from sentencing or serving or being convicted of committing a crime? Didn’t the Kwame Brown (think that’s his name) go to jail for this or something similar in Michigan? How about the folks offering the bribes? How does that work?

And people wonder why we don’t trust our elected officials?

EDIT! Obviously I didn’t google any of this and was posting off the cuff after seeing something on her that just made me have to ask the question. Kwame Kilpatrick is who I was referring to and from what I understand Diane Wilkerson was arrested and posted bail. However, how can she be allowed to continue holding a job ’serving the public’? And someone referred to the fact that both are black, and insinuated something about that, noting there are many white elected officials every bit as bad, if not worse. Couldn’t agree more on the latter and as for the former, I could care less what color they are, yellow, red, white, black, green, whatever, the color is the least relevant issue to any of this.

First things first. Congrats to the Phighting Phils, World Champs. A well deserved and great story. Hats off to Tampa as well, AL Champs and rightly so had a fantastic year. And I’ll go back a year or so and laugh at the idiots that crucified me for saying “Ya I’d play in Tampa” last year as something other than what it was. An open acknowledgment of how far that organization has come.

Cole Hamels, damn, that was impressive. He’s a force already and I see he, Jon Lester and Santana as the 3 of the top 5-6 pitchers in this game for the next 5-10 years.

The Celts get their rings the other night, and take down Lebron and the Cavs in their season opener. Pretty awesome stuff to see Boston sports continue to rise higher and higher across all the Majors.

Tim Thomas has like 412433 consecutive shut out periods, great stuff.

Oh and there is a new NBA Champion on the block. EA Sports NBA ‘09 is now by a longshot, the best stinking non-Madden sports game I have ever seen or played.

EA is the first company to get the Fantasy league thing right! The NBA game allows daily downloads of players from the live, real world stats! Players are going to mirror real life streaks to a degree. Think fantasy football on Red Bull!

Great stuff and kudos to Peter Moore and the gang at EA Tiburon on another great product. I wish I liked Soccer because it seems the entire world of ‘European Football’ is going crazy over their FIFA ‘09 game….

P.S. I forgot to mention Peter is still 0-1 from 50+ but thanks for the games! And Tana, thanks for managing those hooligans over there at EALA….

I was in, and still am, a discussion about MMO’s and particular pieces to them. There was a few questions I was asking of a veteran community and the responses were fantastic. The two questions were:

1) The one core basic feature would you 100% expect to be in, and expect to be perfected at launch, bug free and ‘cool’

2) What one thing that hasn’t been done well, or at all, in any MMO, would you most like to see as a thoroughly fleshed out mechanic/content piece/UI feature?

After back and forth and seeing answers I came up with my own two answers.

1) A completely thorough and robust ’social’ networking system. I want to be able to communicate, chat, mail, in game out of game, all of it, with anyone anywhere with nothing more than a click or two before entering ‘chat’. Be it a fully integrated VO system or actual in game chat, let me do the thing you want me to, within the framework of an incredibly USER FRIENDLY interaction system. Not only that, but don’t make me ’search’ for the methods and means to do this, make it easy for me and make it as user friendly as anything else you will ever put in your game, more so if you can. I want that one stop one/two click amazon.com experience to be the most I need to do to ever find/talk/interact with my friends, or my potential friends.

2) Make me feel heroic on day 1, minute 1, until I am done playing the game. There are quests, there is gear, there is some semblance of story that can at times make me feel, look, heroic. But damn, I want to be a hero all the time right? By heroic I mean make my actions and choices MATTER in a way other people can see. Not only visually, but damn if I do something ‘heroic’ in a heroic world should people know that beyond the folks in my group? Killing rats with a rusty short sword to get money and experience so I can start to become heroic is not it, not even close. Aren’t you creating a world that needs a hero? Aren’t you creating a world calling for millions of heroes? That doesn’t work if only a few of us can ever get that feeling. Well it does for the few but the rest of us ‘are not worthy’ to the few.

The challenge to me is what people define as ‘Heroic’, and finding the most common ground there. Hey, that’s going to be my next question.

1) Has any game ever made you feel like your character was really heroic?

2) If yes, what game? Why? Was it an acquired thing or was the game designed to make you feel that from start.

3) Does being heroic need to be exclusive to you?

The last question had more to do with thinking about City Of Heroes. I played a small amount of time in that game, but in a ‘city’ or ‘world’ where everyone is a hero, is anyone really a hero?

IPhone user? Want a REALLY cool, fun as hell new app? Check out a game called Fieldrunners!!!! The funnest tower defense game I’ve ever played.

The cool part? Well in addition to the game being cool as hell, it was created by an engineer here at 38 and a small group of his friends. It was ranked #12 on the most downloaded apps as recently as Wednesday! Congrats to Jamie and the guys at Subatomic Studios, LLC!!!! I haven’t read a review below 5 stars yet.

Tampa tied it up last night. Didn’t see much of the game until the last 2 innings due to flying back to Boston from Night to Unite in San Francisco. Had a chance to meet a ton of people across the industry. Congratulations to Miyamoto-san on the recognition of his industry inspiration and lifetime achievement! It was an honor to meet him and talk with him.

Great to meet a bunch of folks from all over the world.