It's really something. One hardly knows what to say . . .

Okay, I was stupid. I knew I shouldn't look, but I did. My 401(k) has lost about 39% of its value since the beginning of the year. My family's dealing with unemployment, but I know there are a helluva lot of families out there with equally scary stories. The mind boggles, trying to grasp what this desperation is like, nationwide.

A sentence in the cover article of this week's Time Magazine sort of jumped out at me: "Credit Suisse predicts that 13% of U.S. homeowners with mortgages could end up losing their homes."

Excuse me?

You know, I wouldn't blame either Obama OR McCain for looking at the mess of headlines from the last couple weeks and saying, "You know, come to think of it . . . nah. I'm withdrawing my name from the ballot. Don't want the job anymore." But we need someone to step up and lead us out of this mess. Which just keeps getting more frightening all the time.

Remember that great exchange in between the President and one of his advisors in Rob Reiner's movie The American President?

Lewis Rothschild: People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

President Andrew Shepherd: Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.

You know, I'm getting really tired of drinking sand.

(Great movie, if you haven't seen it.)

hpalternity again

I'm writing five parts now. Just so you know. And I gotta say, I think the writing in this game is really damn good. If you haven't checked it out yet, please give us a try, and feel free to join the discussion at alt_fen, the fan discussion group. Once again, if you want to read everything (including alt_fen), read the alt_player's friends list here.

If you want to read just the game, without the alt_fen posts interspersed, read the custom reading group here. Weekly recaps of the story line are here.

(So it's been almost a month since I mentioned it. . . are any of you reading it? What have you thought so far?)

If you're enjoying the game, please spread the word!