The Minnesota Legislature demonstrated uncommon good sense and overrode Governor Pawlenty’s veto of a comprehensive and long-overdue transportation bill. Overrides of gubernatorial vetoes are a rare thing and the six House Republicans who voted with the majority deserve special recognition. Their collective act of political courage has put Minnesota on the path to a more sustainable and prosperous future. The state’s roads and bridges will now receive the attention they so badly need and the metro area could finally get a modern public transit system.

Minnesota has long had a reputation as a state that understood the need to invest in public services to maintain a high quality of life. Over the last few years, our political leadership succumbed to the influence of anti-tax forces that showed nothing but contempt for the kind of public stewardship that has served Minnesota so well over the last several decades. It’s too soon to tell, but I like to think that this veto override serves as a rebuke to those who value having a few more dollars in their pockets rather than any kind of vision for the future.

If you have no other plans this weekend, you have the option of sitting in front of your computer and streaming every episode of the original Star Trek. CBS has also made the first couple seasons of The Twilight Zone and Hawaii Five-Oh available. Before long, I may not have a reason to ever get away from my computer again. The Internet: creating a nation of shut-ins since 1993.

A company called Emotiv will be releasing a headset that allows games to be played with only the brain as the interface. It will cost around $200, which leads me to believe that this will be little more than a biofeedback device with a USB connection. Until products like these include marketing language that says something like “100% compatible with Bioshock”, I’m not opening my wallet. Still, I hope the company sells enough of them to demonstrate market potential and warrant future R&D investments. And while you’re at it, please create me a brain interface that lets me bang out these blog entries even when my fingers are still thawing out. On the plus side, my current setup lets me give my neck muscles a daily workout. Women love a well-defined neck.

Another sign that we’re in for rough economic times ahead: my employer implemented a hiring freeze today. The last time state government imposed a hiring freeze was in 2003, when Minnesota was confronting a four billion dollar budget deficit. But the bad news doesn’t end there. Mortgage foreclosures hit a record high here in Hennepin County for the month of January. With more subprime mortgages scheduled to reset in the coming months, the sheriff’s office is going to be busy for the foreseeable future. I probably picked a turbulent time to start putting money in my retirement account, but I can afford to take on some risk. The people losing their homes didn’t have that luxury.

I went into Cloverfield not sure what to expect. The New-York-City-getting-fucked-up-by-a-Big-Bad is a plot device that is beginning to show its age. I was also wary of the Handicam-style of filmmaking. Sitting through ninety minutes of jerky home video footage could quickly become a test of patience. And the cast had the bland, generic good looks typical of teen soap operas. But I actually had a lot of fun at this movie. It has the reassuring predictable elements of most monster movies: the destruction of a famous landmark or two, the epic throwdowns between the monster and the military, and terrified citizenry running and screaming through streets strewn with rubble. Yet it also includes a few elements that invigorate and propel the story forward. A movie is doing something right when it elicits surprised yelps from me. The script is also funny in its self-awareness. When one character first catches a glimpse of the monster and asks what is, another character gives a hurried reply: “I dunno. Something terrible.” Minutes later, after encountering something equally horrific, he responds to the same question with “Something else. Also terrible.”