First, the New Stuff:

• Our on-line survey is finally ready!
• We created a customer Testimonials page.
• Jake's got a new game to play with your Icehouse set: IceChess
• 19 new photos on my Image Wall
• I've updated my business card pages, and added an Activism index.
• Fluxx got another great review!
• Chapter 57 of the Empty City (in which Jim replies to a personals ad)

Late Thursday night I invented a new game, which I'm calling Proton. On Friday we built a prototype, and Kristin and I have been playtesting it ever since. And it's great! We like it so much in fact, that we've decided to make it our Universal Holiday Gift this year. And this means that you could win a free copy! Just be one of the 100 websites that generate the most traffic for our website, and we'll mail you a free copy when we start giving them to friends and family for Xmas this year. Check out the Wunderland Boosters Club for more details.

If you've spent much time at this site, you probably know that I am opposed to marijuana prohibition. Given this, many of my readers probably assume that I'm just a dedicated stoner who wants to get high. Well, it is true that I've tried marijuana and found it to be a better drug than alcohol, and as long as the one is legal for use by adults, I can see no reason why the other should not be. Cannabis is clearly no more dangerous than cigarettes or alcohol; I believe it should be regulated and taxed in the same manner.

However, my primary reason for caring about this issue as much as I do is because of Kristin. My wonderful wife suffers from terrible migraine headaches. They are triggered by perfume, especially men's cologne, which means that every time she goes out in public she runs the risk of encountering someone slathered in cologne and ending up with a pounding migraine. This allergy is so severe that just picking up a magazine with one of those stinky perfume ads can trigger one of her headaches.

For those of you without much knowledge of migraines, they aren't like regular headaches. Migraines are far more debilitating, last much longer (as long as 3 days in Kristin's case), and do not respond to traditional headache medications like Aspirin or Tylenol. In her 15 year struggle with them, Kristin has tried numerous therapies, including a wide range of prescription drugs and special dietary programs. Few treatments have been able to do more than merely mask a migraine temporarily, and most have unpleasant side effects.

Anyone who says that marijuana has no useful medical value is either ill-informed or lying. Fact is, cannabis is useful in treating a variety of aliments, one of which is the migraine headache. It's one of only 2 drugs Kristin has tried that can actually get rid of one of her migraines. The other is DHE, a prescription drug that can only be administered by inter-muscular injection with a big scary needle. Both drugs have risks and side effects, but there is simply no question that Kristin would benefit from being able to make use of marijuana as treatment for her migraines. But of course, under our current laws, she cannot.

Every time I see my wife suffering with a migraine, I curse the perfume industry for causing it, and the War on Drugs for standing in the way of a treatment that can stop her suffering. Of course, I cannot put the perfume industry out of business, but I can campaign to change our inhumane marijuana laws. This is why I fight so passionately for this cause.

It is outrageous and inexcusable than truly dangerous drugs like cocaine can legally be prescribed by doctors, yet marijuana is forbidden even for use by dying AIDS and cancer patients.

This Tuesday is election day. If you live in one of the states that has a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot this year, I urge you to cast a vote for compassion, instead of drug war rhetoric.

Happy Halloween!