The new year has been eventful so far. I solved the GAMES Magazine contest, "Mystery Cross III," so quickly it seemed like an accident. I've made a discovery about incompatible polyomino decompositions, and I hope to write a paper on the topic. I read A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, and he's really funny (think Dr. McNinja). I'm planning on reading more of his books.

Well, here's the first part of that story I mentioned last time. For now, it is titled with a bad pun. Enjoy.

( Shock )

"Heroes," if for any reason you're wondering (living under a rock, premature cancellation, etc.), is a new show on NBC just before "Studio 60" (another terrific show, but that's off-topic) that my mom describes as "X-Men, Generation Zero." (Or was it "one"? Anyway.) Many of the characters have superpowers: flight, teleportation, mind-reading, and such. I described one character to my mom as "channeling Wolverine, whose mutant power is super-healing." Then my brother said I was lying, because Wolverine isn't technically a "mutant" since he doesn't have the "mutant gene," but rather an evolutionary throwback. Discounting for now the embarrassingly pseudoscientific claim that evolution has definable direction...

Where was I? Oh yes: off-topic. In the last episode, Hiro (yes, there was a pun made, and that's the only reason I remember his name) was shown a newspaper dated November 5 to make a point. (Spoiling as little as I want.) The headline said something about some election. (I have real trouble with names. It was years before I knew Goren and Eames's names on "Law & Order: CI.") But November 5 is Sunday this year, and Election Day is the 7th! I have no idea how important this is.

The thing I wanted to talk about, though, stems from Mom's high-concept description "X-Men, Generation Zero." If you've seen "Heroes," you'll agree this is accurate, and the series has clear influence from X-Men. It occurred to me that I could think of it aa a fanfic!

Er, a high-quality fanfic. Which, importantly, is on TV. The point is that it's a little more derivative than other shows, but it's still TERRIFIC- er, fun- uh, good? Feels professional? Well, the point of the point is that derivative works needn't feel that way, and I in particular should not be shy to post a sequel to "Being John Malkovich."

There. I announced it, and now I'm committed to write it. But maybe later, when I have an audience.