Have you ever noticed how totally freaking awesome ninjas are? I dunno what it is lately, but a seemingly random confluence of events has brought ninjas into my life. Consider:

Hitotsu! Just the other day, Dorito Icee sends me a link to the best ninja video podcast to be seen anywhere (or seen at all, for that matter): http://www.askaninja.com. DI says: "My face is hurting from laughing so much." My own laughter is annoying Shel this very evening!

Hitotsu! Just other day before the other day in the previous bullet, I took my Xbox to work to show a few of the guys, and we end up playing some Samurai Shodown on my MAME engine. And who did I play as? Was it Wan-Fu the Chinese warrior, or Jubei the samurai? Noooooooo! I played and dominated others as the legendary (and actually historical) neeeen-jaaah Hanzo Hattori, finishing my opponents off with his spinning inverted pile driver. That's the kind of special move you can only do if actually born a ninja, folks.

Hitotsu! As a fair trade of amusing links with Dorito Icee, I sent him the link to one of my all-time favorite sites: http://www.realultimatepower.net. Supposedly authored and maintained by a 9-year-old kid named "Ryan Hamburger," this site is a perfect realization of the world of ninjas as seen through the eyes of a 9-year-old kid. Just reading it made me want to flip out and kill people. Because that's what I call real ultimate power! In an interesting sidenote, the guy has a book out now, which comprises much of the material in the website. The added material mostly comes in the form of footnotes and explanatory marginalia, which I understand actually portrays some respectable adolescent angst on a level clearly unperceived by the narrator, Mr. Hamburger (or is that Master Hamburger?).

Hitotsu! Lastly, I offer the following site as yet another example of how the master shinobi has a death grip on our imagination, even in animated form: http://www.fuggyfuggy.com. Favorite moment in the 5-minute film: in the "Disguise" vignette, the sounds of the goat guy performing the Valsalva maneuver. Hilarious!

What can I say? I'm a sucker for ninjas. I look forward to killing you soon!