So now she and everyone else gets to check him out too...
For the past few months my lifelong bud Chad Austin has been talking about running the Krispy Kreme Challenge. It's an now-annual charity race that takes place around the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh.Here's the deal: start at the bell tower on N.C. State's campus, run 2 miles to the nearest Krispy Kreme donut shop, devour a dozen original glazed donuts, and then race back to the bell tower. All within the span of one hour.
As you can no doubt imagine, people blow chunks all over the place on the return leg of this oxymoronic endurance test.
So, how did Chad do? Could he go the distance without adding his own decoration to the landscape? Here is his full report on this year's Krispy Kreme Challenge. And you can also read about what happened from Chad's friend Ashley, who not only ran but also has gory full-color pictures chronicling the gastrointestinal aftermath.
Less than 48 hours now before Lost returns. Only one other television series in my entire life had had me this excited about a new season. Yeah I've never been much of a teevee person at all. It's the story that compels me to watch something. And they don't get any more compelling than Lost has become.
Lisa and I have been watching the Season 3 DVD set for the past several days. Tonight we saw "Greatest Hits", which was this past season's penultimate episode. Now we can either watch "Through the Looking Glass" from the DVD or the special "enhanced version" that ABC will be broadcasting tomorrow night with Pop-up Video-style "factoids" on-screen. Might be worth DVR-ing that one, in case there's some new tidbits of info.
It's no joke. Danny, Donnie, Joe, Jon, and Jordan are coming back.
If Lisa even hints at wanting me to take her to a concert on their new tour, so help me I will tie her up and throw her into a dark bathroom until the band has left town. A husband should want to do whatever makes his wife happy, but this would be undeniable mental cruelty.
Oh well, might as well "celebrate" with one of the New Kids' better music videos...
...but to waste my valuable time with a "customer service representative" who is talking to me from another country and can not speak discernible English at all, when there are plenty of people in America who could both use a job and would not be an insult to the intelligence of Amazon's customers as their "outsourced help", is the final straw.
I can already tell that Rock Band is going to be one of our favorite video games for a long while to come: we're having a blast with it! Lisa is getting really good on drums, and for once I'm not getting booed off stage while singing ("Don't Fear the Reaper" is my best song so far). We haven't done anything with the guitar yet. I'm gonna study the instructions some more, figure out just what the heck we're doing here before we start really jamming with Rock Band.
And if you've ever played this before, you already know something: that Rock Band has the most mind-blowing title sequence for a video game... probably in the history of anything. Here it is courtesy of YouTube.
And turn up your speakers. Turn them way up!
EDIT 9:34 p.m. EST: I just found out that this song is called "Highway Star" by the legendary English hard rock band Deep Purple. They were once listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as being "the loudest band in the world". And supposedly those are the band members as they appeared in the 1970s who are riding atop those vehicles.
But if you're wanting to have DHARMA Initiative food on hand for the big season premiere of Lost a little over 48 hours from now, here ya go: Max Pictures has DHARMA labels for just about everything you'd need: DHARMA Chili, DHARMA Mini-Chocolates, DHARMA Water, and even DHARMA Vodka for those moments when you need to get all good and sloshed like Desmond! Great work there guys :-)
As always, he won't dare speak the truth about the condition of this country to the American people. Too much "legacy" is at stake to do anything other than to BS people as he's done throughout his term.
So it falls to me to go where most politicians, the mainstream press, the partisan sycophants, and the useful idiots fear to tread, and lay down the real smack on the true state of the union...
- You will hear Bush tonight repeat that "America is strong" or that "our union is strong". This is a damned lie. The truth of the matter is, America is not only not strong, America is dying. In fact, America may be dead and beyond resuscitation already.
- We have precious little industrial infrastructure left. Bush and his buddies have sent most of it overseas.
- We are being overwhelmed with illegal aliens. There's no way in Hell that Bush will touch upon that one.
- Our economy stands upon the edge of a knife. That Bush and Congress are flooding it with money that doesn't even really exist anyway demonstrates the "wisdom" that our "brilliant leaders" have been endowed with. It's almost enough to make one wonder if they want to bring about this country's financial collapse.
- We continue to be mired in meaningless wars overseas that have nothing to do with legitimate American interests. All that we will have to show for them are thousands of armed forces personnel dead, many more maimed either physically or mentally and almost certainly emotionally also.
- We no longer have a free press in this country. One need only look at how Fox News has blatantly sought to manipulate the current presidential election to know this. The only true "fair and balanced" coverage you will find these days will not be on cable television, but from independent outlets... and even then, you're supposed to judge for yourself without having some big company judge for you.
- The American political process is completely bankrupt and unable to produce sincere, legitimate leadership. By that I mean individuals who seriously want to serve others, instead of wanting to only exploit government and the power that comes with it. That we have a country where "anyone can grow up to be President" is now a damned lie. The reality of it is, you only can get elected if the party bigwigs determine that they can use you in their schemes enough to give you enough backing to run for office. And then when you win, you belong to them. The system does not like people with honest principles taking a stab at things. It has a nasty tendency to destroy those who try.
- There is no more "rule of law" per the Constitution. We no longer have a government "of the people, by the people and for the people". We now have government that exists for sake of government. It is now the rule of force. We live at the peace of the gun. This is not government as the Founding Fathers intended for it to be at all. Why should any of us feel morally bound to be loyal to this government, then? Why should any of us be asked to potentially give their lives for this government? Because I can't fin any reason either per moral conscience or per studies of scripture that mandates this in the least bit. I'm loyal to the Constitution. I'm not loyal to men who would destroy the Constitution.
- This country is becoming a fascist state, and we all know it. But damned few of us are willing to admit it.
As sometimes happens on this blog, I might watch the address tonight, with my back to the TV so that I can "tune in" without the distracting visuals, and post my thoughts about it live.
And since then there have been enough LEGO bricks manufactured that they could build ten towers stretching from the Earth to the Moon.
Celebrate LEGO's anniversary by finding more amazing facts about the classic toy here.
By the way, I will admit to being a life-long LEGO Maniac. When I was a kid I had so many LEGO bricks, that my Mom gave me this big suitcase to put them all in. I still have it too. My most recent LEGO purchase was the new Indiana Jones "motorcycle chase" set that I got at the LEGO Outlet at Discover Mills Mall near Atlanta a month ago. Probably my favorite LEGO model is a tie between the Millennium Falcon (the second version) and the AT-AT from the Star Wars series.
Now if only Lisa would let me get the big Millennium Falcon LEGO set - the one that costs five hundred bucks - I would be in Nirvana :-)
Anyhoo... Happy Birthday LEGO!
I'll admit some disappointment here, because I was sure that del Toro was also in the running to direct Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which is also said to be a two-part production). But that aside: del Toro is a superb choice to bring The Hobbit to life on the big screen. I'm a huge fan of his Hellboy movie (and am looking forward to seeing Hellboy 2: The Golden Army) and I thought that Pan's Labyrinth, although I didn't quite "get" it, I still gotta love del Toro's signature visual style. Now imagine that same imagination getting to work on Mirkwood Forest, the spiders' lair, the elves' hall, Esgaroth on the Long Lake, the Lonely Mountain, the Battle of Five Armies... and of course, Smaug (maybe he'll be voiced by Ron Perlman? :-P).
If this story is true, then I am really, really looking forward to seeing The Hobbit when it comes to theaters. Especially with Lisa, since this is one of her favorite books :-)
Happy Birthday Jenna! May God bless you immensely on this day and all the days to come :-)
So we saw Cloverfield at the West End Cinema in Burlington (where we always used to go for movies when we were at Elon together), and "Weird" Ed liked it an awful lot. And this time, I'm pretty sure that I did see it this time. It's very fleeting. Even if you have your eyes wide open and trying not to blink, it's not easy to see at all. A very small dark object that hits the water and kicks up the foamy wake. Here's a pic of the splash.
According to the backstory that's been generated by the viral marketing for Cloverfield, this object is not the monster. Cloverfield creator J.J. Abrams says that the creature was already on Earth, that it was down on the ocean floor for thousands of years before it woke up feelin' pokey after being aroused. That thing falling out of the sky and hitting the water off Coney Island? It's supposed to be a satellite known as the "Chimpanz III" owned by the Tagruato Corporation of Japan, which makes Slusho (the soft drink that's shown a lot in Cloverfield. According to the backplot, the satellite fell and Tagruato went looking for it in addition to the secret ingredient for Slusho, which can only be found deep in the ocean. And that's how the monster was awoken and wound up coming ashore.
Sounds a bit hokey even for a sci-fi movie. But I've no doubt there are some who are disappointed that the Cloverfield monster wasn't a guy in a big rubber suit, either :-)
EDIT 4:41 p.m. EST: Looks like the Bad Robot/Paramount dudes weren't being too fanciful about falling satellites at all, since this afternoon there's now word that a U.S. spy satellite is going to come crashing down in the next few weeks and they can't figure out where it'll hit. Let us pray that it veers clear of the Coney Island vicinity :-P
For this week's show, they had scheduled to broadcast a segment where the show's creator, Molotov Mitchell (already I've got a baaaaad feeling about the nature of this series), devours a cookie emblazoned with the frosted visage of Muhammad, the founder of Islam. The whole thing is apparently meant to be a stunt intended to offend Muslims, particularly since according to Islamic tradition images of Muhammad are forbidden... which has always struck me as funny 'cuz how do we know what Muhammad looked like, anyway?
Here's a pic of "Molotov" Mitchell committing sacrilege while satiating his sweet tooth...
However, in the wake of the initial report about Flamethrower's show this week, Faith TV has now pulled the plug on the segment. "We're not going to air it," said the president of the network. "We feel this program just goes beyond the bounds of good taste."
I agree. And I say that as a follower of Christ myself.
"Molotov" Mitchell told WorldNetDaily that "Islam is not even a religion... It's an ideology of 'might makes right' disguised as a religion." I don't disagree with Mitchell on that point at all. And without elucidating further (because it would take way too long for this kind of post), I'll even say that there hasn't been a worse cancer upon human history than Islam. It is collective madness at its most destructive.
But how is Christianity any different from Islam, when its own adherents stoop this low? Can somebody please tell me how, precisely, the Flamethrower team is furthering Christ's love toward others by doing this kind of thing?
Does the Flamethrower staff believe that Muslims are too far beyond the love of Christ that they cannot find redemption?
Let me be clear on this: Islam is a "religion" that cannot be reasoned with. When coupled with unbridled power, it has invariably become the most bloodthirsty cult in human history. There will never be "peace in the Middle East" between those of the Judeo-Christian persuasion and the Islamic mindset. Heck, there can't even be peace among Muslims themselves per their religious traditions: witness the civil war that would break out in Iraq if the United States were to pull out. Which is probably the biggest reason we should have never involved ourselves in that fraud of a country anyway, but I digress...
"Join us or die!" is the Islamic cry. But don't Christians do much the same when they demand that we "join us or burn in Hell"?
Do we try to convince others of Christ because we sincerely love them and are legitimately concerned for their eternal destiny... or do we try to win others to Christ because of our own ego? Because if we can "get more people" to join with us that this somehow validates our creed, when we should be content and motivated by nothing more than the grace of Christ that has saved us.
I don't think the Flamethrower crew understands what it means to be serving the cause of Christ, at least not when they attempt cheap stunts like this. But I don't think they are past understanding. I believe they can learn and grow from this, and come to realize that to follow Christ and present Him to others means that our actions are graced with humility, rather than confronting those apart from Christ with blunt-force trauma.
Why should the rest of the world be convinced of Christ, then? When the Flamethrower staff does stuff like this, it only exhibits before everyone else that they don't have anything different to show for their faith than what the rest of the world presents. We as Christians are supposed to be in this world but not of this world... and when we do things like this, we only demonstrate that we haven't died to this world's ways in the least bit. Christ just becomes another idol for conquest... exactly like Muhammad.
I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't know what it's like to be a Christian such as Mitchell and his compatriots. Years ago, when I was new to the faith (and a bit younger than the Flamethrower panelists) I too was "full of spice and vinegar" as they say... and I was eager to put it to use for my new faith. To show that I was a good and sincere Christian.
Among other things I told former United States Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, to her face, that she was a "murderer" for her support of abortion. Heh-heh... I'd love to see the Flamethrower crew top that one!
But all the same: it was a wrong thing to have done, and a few years later I apologized for it in an op-ed piece in my college newspaper. By that point I had come to realize: this kind of confrontation isn't what being a follower of Christ is about in any way whatsoever. Not when it comes to trying to persuade others about the truth of Christ within us, anyway.
There's not much else that I know to say about the matter other than this: Flamethrower's staff no doubt feels a sense of purpose and power with what they are doing. I absolutely know, because I've had that kind of high myself. And it's something that I have sincerely come to regret. I would save them the shame and guilt that might not come today, but will certainly come years from now, when they realize that they had talent and opportunity to demonstrate Christ in a loving way... and instead they turned Christ into a weapon of hurt and spite.
Maybe this is how you fight a "cultural" war. Maybe this is the temporal realm's way of fighting to "change the world". But I don't care much for changing the world anymore. I'd rather change people's hearts. And so should the staff of Flamethrower.
I know what I'm going to do with mine...
I'm going to buy a gun. And ammo. Lots and lots of ammo.
The way things are going lately, that's probably going to become a very wise investment in the short term.
But Lisa's been taking care of me, and my fever has been breaking for the past little while. Maybe I'm on the upswing of things. Which I need to be 'cuz "Weird" Ed, my college roomie and filmmaking partner, is due to arrive later tonight. He'll be here for the rest of the week. Gonna be fun :-)
In the meantime, I need to find an "upbeat" thing for this blog, 'cuz looking over the past few weeks' worth of posts, it's a real downer how many posts were devoted to the passing of other people. And maybe something fun to reflect on my current fevered state of mind.
So here's what I came across on Myspace tonight: some consider it to be the most bizarre music video of all time. Personally, I think it's sheer genius. This was a big thing when I was in my last year of high school. So much twisted coolness in this piece.
From 1991, here is "Justified and Ancient" by The KLF... with lead vocals by the immortal Tammy Wynette!
If the name doesn't ring a bell, I would absolutely guarantee that you would recognize his face and his voice...
Melvin was easily one of the better-known character actors on television over the years. The role that he'll probably be best remembered for was Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch. He also played Archie Bunker's friend Barney on All in the Family (a part that he continued when the show became Archie Bunker's Place) and Corporal Henshaw on The Phil Silvers Show. Melvin also did quite a lot of work playing various characters on The Andy Griffith Show (I remember him especially as the guy who got mad at Barney for giving him a ticket... and he swore to beat Barney to a pulp as soon as he was out of his deputy's uniform) and Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. And he did some animated work too, particularly in providing the voice of Magilla Gorilla for Hanna-Barbera.
He was married to his wife Amalia for 64 years. Melvin was a great actor, but if you ask me a marriage that long is a much more proud accomplishment.
Sad to see Allan Melvin leave us, but he did so much classic work over the years, we'll always remember him.
You've probably heard by now that Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment in New York City earlier this afternoon.He leaves behind a wife and a 2-year old daughter.
He also leaves behind an amazing career that was just beginning to take off. The first time I saw him, it was as the oldest son of Mel Gibson's character in The Patriot. He did a great job with the role and I made sure to take note of his name when I saw it in the theater.
I didn't care much for the story itself, but I will admit to having watched Brokeback Mountain once, and Ledger... like I said, I didn't care for what the story entailed, but Ledger did an admirable job with his role.
Ledger had just finished principle photography on The Dark Knight, due out later this summer. I've heard nothing but incredibly strong word about his performance as the Joker... and that it might even be the best Joker ever put on film. Michael Caine has said that it's the "scariest" acting he's seen in his entire life.
I honetly don't know what else to say about this. Such a promising life... gone.
