Congratulations Heather and George! God has blessed you immensely this morning, and the two of you are gonna be the awesomest parents to this sweet little girl :-)
But I don't like leaving my readers feeling like they wasted their time clicking on this blog.
So for the time being, here is an illustration of a jealous girlfriend killing her lover-boy with a basket of poisonous snakes, courtesy of The National Police Gazette...
For more classic depictions from a legendary American periodical, head on over to The National Police Gazette website! And be sure to tell proprietor William A. Mays that The Knight Shift sent you :-)
And like so many others, I got hooked on The Walking Dead.
This is not a story about a zombie apocalypse. Personally, I'm sick and TIRED of the whole "zombie genre". It's been done too much in recent years. Now I loved the movie Zombieland, because in my mind that was more of a comedy with some legitimate undertones of human drama. I can watch that movie a dozen times and not get bored with it.
And that's how I am with The Walking Dead. This is a series about real people and the depths and contradictions of human nature. It also happens to boast what might be the best use of the undead in pop culture history: the zombies in The Walking Dead are arguably the most gruesome creatures to ever hit television. But the zombies are merely the catalyst accelerating the foibles and weaknesses of its very personable cast of characters. Watching this show, it's very easy to empathize with these people (I myself am a huge fan of Jeffrey DeMunn's character Dale, the older dude who drives the RV). Heck, I was even on the verge of tears at the beginning of the third episode, "Tell It To The Frogs", gazing at Merle and how pitiful he had become.
The Blu-ray of The Walking Dead Season 1 comes on two discs. Those include all six episodes of the first season, along with a considerable amount of special features. A half-hour long documentary gives a behind-the-scenes look at production of The Walking Dead. Each episode is also given a five-minute long mini-feature about that chapter's characters, themes, and place in the story. "On Set with Robert Kirkman" follows the creator of The Walking Dead comic series as he strolls around where the first scene of "Days Gone By" is being filmed. "Bicycle Girl" reveals what it took to bring the legless, hideous zombie woman in the series premiere to "life". For those who want to go against the living two special features stand out: "Zombie School" (chronicling how extras were taught how to walk and talk zombie-ish) and a fairly extended piece demonstrating how anyone can look like a zombie with common household items like gelatin and oatmeal. Jeffrey DeMunn takes us "Inside Dale's RV": the set piece that fast became synonymous with The Walking Dead's sense of human community. "Hanging With Steven Yuen" is the actor who plays Glenn giving a tour of the first campsite. But the most startling extra feature by far might be "On Set with Andrew Lincoln", focusing on the actor who plays main character Rick Grimes. I didn't know until watching this that Lincoln is British who normally speaks with a remarkable English accent. That he is able to turn on that Southern accent for his characer in The Walking Dead... it's just totally wild! Lennie James, the actor who plays Morgan (who found Rick after his escape from the hospital) is also British, and if you only watched the show you might have been none the wiser.
The Walking Dead is the one show on right now that I'm investing my time to watch and enjoy. And though Season 1 was all too short (but happily Season 2 is already slated for thirteen episodes) I will be enjoying even these few chapters on Blu-ray until this coming fall arrives. Highly recommended, even if you haven't seen the show during its run on AMC yet.
I am hoping to have the first "Movies I've Never Seen" article up sometime this coming week. Have been looking forward to that one for quite awhile now, it's gonna be lots of fun :-)
So since I've been posting too many videos showing my ugly mug in recent weeks, I'll more than make up for it. Here is Lauryn, flanked by my equally stunning cousins Rachael and Angela!
Remember fellas: Lauryn is a taken lady, but she doesn't mind being The Knight Shift's poster gal. As for Rachael and Angela, I don't know if they're seeing anyone. However I feel strongly obligated to mention that their father is something like seven and a half feet tall and is a minister.
Parse that as you will :-P
This is one that I remember seeing a few times in my childhood: Kermit the Frog doing a report for Sesame Street News on what makes people angry. I laughed when I watched it then but now that I'm older...
...Well, is there anyone else who sees Kermit honked-off and thinking that he's a lot like Howard Beale from the movie Network?
The more I think about it I could totally see Muppets Network happening, with Kermit screaming "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" In his reporter gig he even looks a lot like Howard Beale, right down to the raincoat. Yup, "Kermit the Frog, the Mad Prophet of Sesame Street". And Arthur Jensen could be played by Oscar the Grouch.
Ahhh c'mon... that would be hilarious! :-)
Several readers of this blog have notified me that Johnny Robertson has been diagnosed with colon cancer. And apparently it's pretty severe.
So I'm asking everyone who is reading this: Please put aside whatever else you feel toward Mr. Robertson, and hold him up in prayer. Ask God to bring him healing. Ask God to bring the peace which surpasses all understanding to him and his family.
Johnny, regardless of the past, I will be praying for you to fully recover from this. And I'm going to sincerely encourage everyone that I know to do the same for you.
And the coastline of Japan has been permanently moved nearly 2 and a half meters.
Once again, I am reminded about how lacking in humility we are in regard to the world we live upon.
Try to think about the forces required to move something as big as the entire Earth by ten inches. Just ten inches.
In the first year of this blog's operation, after the 2004 Indonesia earthquake/tsunami, I posted an excerpt from Jurassic Park (the super-incredible novel not the less-than-satisfying movie). It's the scene toward the end where Ian Malcolm is telling Hammond about how the Earth cannot be destroyed. It's perhaps worth reading again, and pondering.
8.9 Richter... sheesh. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to experience something like that.
Thoughts and prayers going out this morning to our friends in Japan. And if you can, tune in to the television coverage going on right now. This is history in the making.
EDIT 2:55 a.m. EST: This blog has lots of readers in Hawaii (yeah hey to you too Danny :-). Now hearing that a tsunami warning has been issued and that you guys are due to get hit by the heavy end of the hammer around 3:00 a.m. Hawaiian local time this morning.
Got you guys in prayer especially. Please, be safe.
And I hope to have Part 6 of Being Bipolar up by the weekend :-)
Here's the link to the item's eBay page. And here's the official description...
Up for sale is a genuine Copper Moonshine Still that was used by the legendary Popcorn Sutton of the appalachians. This item is being sold for historical purposes only, not for actual use. This still is 45-50 years old and has a 110 gallon pot!Rare and collectible, indeed!! I would love to own this... or anything that was the handiwork of Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton: a character who was truly an American original.Any additional questions please call about this rare and highly collectible item.
Tip o' the hat to Eric Smith for an awesome find!!
It will likely hit $4 per gallon or thereabouts by the end of the week. And this month might end with it averaging $5 a gallon, depending on how the situation in Libya goes.
I haven't said anything about Libya yet on this blog. But for those who are curious: I don't see any good outcome. Kadaffi (or however you spell his name and I've heard there are about a hundred English translations) is a nutcase and a half enforcing his private little fantasy world with lots of guns and missiles and probably chemical weapons... but if he goes down in what can only be called civil war at this point, look for the Muslim Brotherhood-type that we just saw running the show in the Egyptian revolt to take charge.
And then things start to get interesting.
(I would also - not to put too fine a point on it - advise keeping an eye on Saudi Arabia in the near future.)
Two other factors that are ramping-up the price of fuel: the official stance by the executive branch of the United States federal government to disprove of increased deep-water drilling. And, something that I've talked about a few times already on this blog: that this country needs more oil refineries. That is more a bottleneck than most people realize, but there haven't been any new refineries built in quite some time. Without that, whatever increased petroleum production we might have becomes a moot thing.
I'm due to take a trip early next month. It'll be a long drive. Here's hoping that the pumps between here and yonder won't be seven bucks and change. The way things are going now, I wouldn't doubt it.
...I feel like I have grown more as a person than, I probably have in, well... a very long time. Emphasis on "very".
And with the sun rising on this new day...
...I am finding myself thankful to God, that however He allowed my mind to be, that He did bless me with a wonderful mind.
And now I am going to keep on doing what I have always done: doing my best to make the most of it.
To put it in some perspective: it's been, ohhh... about twenty years since I've had a moment like this.
(And no, the previous post has nothing to do with it...)
That is all.
Guess I should dust off the welcome mat again, huh?
