Speculation on libertarian themes in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, as well as the role of the Great Wall in keeping people in China. Read the full story.

Jordan's a year old today.

Wow.

It seems like only a handful of months have passed since the night that Sue and I went to Hunterdon Medical Center, excited, edgy and still not knowing whether we were going to be parents to a baby boy or girl. Still blissfully unaware that our unborn baby was going to take her own sweet time getting her, and that 12 hours of labor and 4 hours of pushing still lie before Sue. Hell ... in some ways, it seems like absolutely no time has gone by, as though we've still got a tiny infant sleeping downstairs in the nursery.

But of course, time has passed -- 12 months worth of it actually, and a lot has happened in those twelve months. Jordan's had her first helicopter ride, after her heart went into overdrive and she was taken to Pediatric ICU at Lehigh Valley Hospital. She's been to two weddings and two funerals. She's mastered climbing up stairs (but not down), taken her first steps, and managed to utter a handful of words. She's cut eight teeth, and developed what I hope will be a life-long affection for real-time strategy computer games. She's discovered that books are for more than chewing, and now happily sits in the middle of the library paging through her collection (though naturally, she's not actually reading them yet).

One of the guys in my gaming group picked up a copy of Conan: The Role-Playing Game last week and I've got to say, it's one sweet book.