Random walk

If you live in this area and want some incredibly tasty, local-made ice cream, look no further than Maple View Farm. They operate an ice cream store in Carrboro, and from the two flavors I've tried their offerings are competitive with anybody's. The Double Chocolate is particularly good.

Joss Whedon is teaming up with Eliza Dushku for a new TV series, Dollhouse, that's due in early 2009. For diehard Whedon or Dushku fans this is doubtless old news, but I only learned about it recently and am quite hopeful that the team will produce a good show.

Saturday night, a few of us watched the UFC PPV that aired earlier in the day live from the U.K. No fight stood out as great, but they were all good enough that I didn't mind having paid for the PPV. Future hall-of-fame fighter Matt Hughes looked simply out of his depth against his more complete opponent, Thiago Alves, and now many folks are calling for Hughes' retirement. I suspect he won't retire and will at least fight Matt Serra, but I believe this match showed that his skills just aren't as broad as those of the best of the younger competitors.

A big advantage writers have over fighters is that we can, barring horrors like Alzheimer's, keep growing our skills even as our bodies age. Slanted Jack is a better book than One Jump Ahead, and I believe Overthrowing Heaven will be better than Slanted Jack, because I'm learning and improving as a novelist. I believe I can continue to do for a very long time. I certainly intend to do so.