It is the living in Christ and not the preaching of church by which the Kingdom of God will grow.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Fun behind the scenes of THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER
Last night we finally got our dressing rooms!! Awright, to be honest they're conference rooms in the Advanced Technologies Building at Rockingham Community College, which the Theatre Guild just appropriates for shows. We're thankful for Rockingham Community College letting us perform there but all the same: it will be much nicer when we have the new civic center with a bigger stage and dedicated dramatic facilities.
Anyhoo, during our dress rehearsal last night we often found ways of entertaining ourselves until our cues (we know when we're about to go onstage because of the baby monitor that's broadcasting live from the auditorium: can you tell now that we really are community theater? :-). Here's Eric Smith (who plays Reverend Hopkins) strumming a tune on his new banjomer (a combination of banjo and dulcimer)...
By the way, word on the street is that Eric has been wrecking all kinds of good-hearted mischief running around town in his reverend getup :-P
During our first dress rehearsal on Monday I found that my firefighter pants have a tendency to drop. Not so much that it would be a hazard or, ahem, expose me (even though I'm wearing bluejeans underneath) but I was wanting a bit of extra piece of mind. I asked Dad if he had any suspenders that I could use with my costume.
So he found a set...
And if you click on that photo to embiggen it, you can make out the Miller Beer logo printed all up and down the front of them bracers! Yah I know: not completely the most appropriate attire for a play with a large cast of children, but nobody is going to see the suspenders under my firefighter jacket. And besides: every fireman needs red suspenders for his outfit! :-)
Here's a better pic of me in full costume, including the real oxygen pack...
Opening Night for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is this Friday at 7:30 p.m. Click on the Theatre Guild website for more information and ticket pre-ordering. Hope to see y'all there!
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER: 3 days to showtime!
Last night was our first full dress rehearsal for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We've got three days 'til the show opens, but really it's two days for the cast and crew 'cuz on Thursday we do something like four or five shows for the county's elementary students...
They're the meanest kids in the entire town: The Herdmans (Left to Right: Aaron Boles as Claude, Jared Brown as Ollie, Donna Owens as Gladys, Peggy Wasmund as Imogene, Nathan Tolodziecki as Ralph) 
Bob Bradley (Tony Hummel) reacts to hearing about this year's church Christmas pageant from daughter Beth (Faith Jones), son Charlie (Logan Brown) and wife Grace (Jessica Gray) 
Charlie (Logan Brown) brags to Leroy (Deuce Mills) and sets into motion a chain of events that will astound the entire community. 
Mrs. Armstrong (Arlean Christman) can't believe what she's hearing! 
One of the Firemen (Chris Knight) tries to no avail to calm down a hysterical Mrs. McCarthy (Tish Owens). 
Grace (Jessica Gray) and Reverent Hopkins (Eric Smith) share their concerns that this could very well be the worst Christmas pageant ever.
...and I hope I can keep up the pace 'cuz I'm wearing what many are saying is the heaviest costume in Theatre Guild history! Yesterday evening I wore the full firefighter getup again, plus a real oxygen pack on my back. That's something like one hundred pounds of costume that I've got to put on and charge up onto the stage in. But the story and the message of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is so touching (not to mention entertaining) and this is such an amazing bunch of people that I'm getting to work with, that I'd gladly do this five times a day between now and Christmas :-)
Anyhoo, since we're getting so close to the show, how 'bout some photos to whet yer appetite for Christmastime community theater?
Click here for more information at the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County website!
Disney to remake THE BLACK HOLE
Disney's 1979 science-fiction space oddity The Black Hole is one of those "guilty pleasure" films for me. On one hand there are things like the U.S.S. Cygnus (my all time favorite design for a sci-fi spaceship) and then there are the multitudinous violations of physics and other scientific impossibilities (running around on the outside of a spaceship without suits and oxygen? Ummmmm...).
And now Disney is getting ready to "reinvent" The Black Hole. Aim here for the details from TheHollywoodReporter.com.
The Black Hole was Disney's first foray into "serious" storytelling beyond the G rating (meriting a PG instead). If the same film had been made today it might have well been a PG-13. The Black Hole was also Disney's first movie that literally sent small kids seeking therapy. Those cute lil' robots voiced by Roddy McDowell and Slim Pickens? Yeah, just let them weave their seductive Artoo-ish spell, while red robot Maximilian (another favorite design) looms silently over them. And then the themes of slavery and obsession that build up to that horrifying crescendo, before the trips to Heaven and Hell...
What in the world was Disney thinking?
Here's the ending sequence from The Black Hole. If you've never seen this before it will probably shock you that Disney in 1979 produced this movie, much less envisioned it to begin with...
"More light."
iPod therapy helping Alzheimer's patients and stroke victims
My sister is a physical therapist in a hospital that uses Nintendo's Wii to engage patients in stimulating sports-like activity as part of their regimen. And now another toy of the modern era is finding employment in medicine: Apple's iPod is helping patients recovering from strokes and suffering from dementia (like that which is symptomatic of Alzheimer's) to reconnect with memories and emotions...
Listening to rap and reggae on a borrowed iPod every day has helped Everett Dixon, a 28-year-old stroke victim at Beth Abraham Health Services in Bronx, N.Y., learn to walk and use his hands again.The Wall Street Journal has plenty more about this fascinating new use for personal media devices.Trevor Gibbons, 52, who fell out of a fourth-floor construction site and suffered a crushed larynx, has become so entranced with music that he's written 400 songs and cut four CDs.
Ann Povodator, an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient in Boynton Beach, Fla., listens to her beloved opera and Yiddish songs every day on an iPod with her home health aide or her daughter when she comes to visit. "We listen for at least a half-hour, and we talk afterwards," says her daughter, Marilyn Povodator. "It seems to touch something deep within her."
Caregivers have observed for decades that Alzheimer's patients can still remember and sing songs long after they've stopped recognizing names and faces. Many hospitals and nursing homes use music as recreation, since it brings patients pleasure. But beyond the entertainment value, there's growing evidence that listening to music can also help stimulate seemingly lost memories and even help restore some cognitive function.
"What I believe is happening is that by engaging very basic mechanisms of emotions and listening, music is stimulating dormant areas of the brain that haven't been accessible due to degenerative disease," says Concetta Tomaino, executive director of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, a nonprofit organization founded at Beth Abraham in 1995.
Dr. Tomaino, who has studied the therapeutic effects of music for more than 30 years, is spearheading a new program to provide iPods loaded with customized playlists to help spread the benefits of music therapy to Alzheimer's patients even at home. "If someone loved opera or classical or jazz or religious music, or if they sang and danced when the family got together, we can recreate that music and help them relive those experiences," she says.
IP Masochism: Games Workshop C&D craziness promises customer blowback
I caught on Slashdot this morning that Games Workshop, the publisher of Warhammer 40,000 (which I have gotten into this past year) has sent a very harsh cease & desist to BoardGameGeek, a website devoted to all things pertaining to tabletop gaming. The C&D from Games Workshop has ordered BoardGameGeek to "remove all fan-made players' aids. This includes scenarios, rules summaries, inventory manifests, scans to help replace worn pieces -- many of these created for long out of print, well-loved games. GW did this shortly after building a lot of good will by re-releasing their out of print game 'Space Hulk' to much hoopla."
What the hell is Games Workshop thinking?
Ya know, I'm no stranger to the crazy world of alleged "copyright infringement". And even though my situation was in the purview of the American legal system and Games Workshop is a company based in the United Kingdom, some things are common sense no matter where the jurisdiction is. I didn't mind it that my TV commercial was picked up and broadcast without my permission: I was too honored that so many (like E!'s The Soup and Jay Leno) found it interesting, thought-provoking and funny enough to share with others than to get angry at them for it.
So it should be with Games Workshop. Especially in these days of downturned global economy. Fans of Warhammer 40,000 and other Games Workshop products are doing the company a huge favor by demonstrating their love and loyalty to the game and its fictional universe. It's free advertising that Games Workshop doesn't have to spend a single pound or dollar on. The company had already come to rely on word of mouth to maintain and generate interest in Warhammer 40,000. Well, that's all it is that these fans are doing. There is no intent to violate intellectual property on their part, and every intention to support the game.
But it looks like Games Workshop has no intention of likewise supporting the players, and is even choosing to punish them for their enthusiasm.
This will come back to haunt Games Workshop in the end. Maybe not in the short term but in the long range of vision this is going to drive away many of even the most loyal customers that they currently enjoy. What Games Workshop is doing is not good marketing at all. The company needs to reconsider its position and like yesterday, if it wants Warhammer 40,000 to continue with anything like robust growth.
National Novel Writing Month 2009 is now over...
...so, did I finish mine?
Unfortunately, I have to report that I did not.
It was back in late July that I first mentioned that I was taking part in this year's National Novel Writing Month. About how each participant had to churn out a 175-page novel between November 1st and the night of November 30th. When all was said and done I missed the mark by about 60 pages: not enough to qualify as having been successful.
But that's okay. In spite of a month of unforeseen circumstance I produced a lot of material for my novel. And it will be finished soon.
And then, Lord willing, I will be able to share the tale of W------ F--- with y'all :-)
War Machine has his back: Teaser poster for IRON MAN 2
Iron Man 2 flies onto screens on May 7th, 2010.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Darth Vader rings the bell for the Salvation Army
Woe be the person who doesn't have some spare change for the Dark Lord of the Sith...
Don't worry. It's just the fine folks of the 501st Legion doing what they do best: using their love of the Star Wars saga to do good in the community. In this case it's volunteering to ring the bell for those Salvation Army red kettles in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
If the Earth had rings...
...it would possibly look like what Roy Prol has cooked up in this 3D animation. Prol took into account the Roche limit for Earth's mass to calculate the size and distance of the rings from the surface, and also how the rings would look from various latitudes on Earth.
Check it out!
Thanks to Shane Thacker for this thought-provoking and beautiful find.
Thought that came to mind while driving around Greensboro today
He who establishes his identity not in what he is but what he is not is worse than the most foolish of men.
GEARS OF WAR: ANVIL GATE coming in March 2010
While we're waiting for word on Gears of War 3 (which is being whispered will be released sometime late next year), the story of Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad will continue in the meantime with Karen Traviss' upcoming novel Gears of War: Anvil Gate, scheduled for publication on March 30, 2010.
Here's the book's description on Amazon's UK site...
With the Locust Horde apparently destroyed, Jacinto's survivors have begun to rebuild human society on their island stronghold. Raiding pirate gangs take a toll - but it's nothing that Marcus Fenix and the Gears can't handle. Then the terrifying life-forms they thought they'd left behind - the Lambent, creatures even the Locust feared - begin to advance across the planet. Gears and gangs must fight side by side to stop their deadliest enemy yet, falling back on the savage tactics of another bloody siege: Anvil Gate.So it's gonna be a direct sequel to Traviss' Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant, which itself was a superb follow-up to the events of Gears of War 2 (and if you're anything at all a fan of all things C.O.G., Jacinto's Remnant should be obligatory reading).
And Marcus, Dom, Cole, Baird, Anya, and the rest are going to have to now fight the Lambent, while in the process we learn what went down at the Battle of Anvil Gate. Oughtta be a great thrill!
Climate data was DUMPED, East Anglia scientists admit
"Climategate" is a little over a week old but already is gaining steam faster than most scandals. Curiously most of the "mainstream press" has yet to pick up on it. Out of embarrassment, perhaps?
Well, this next item of news related to last week's leaking of confidential material from the Climate Research Unit outta raise ire even more: scientists at University East Anglia are now confessing to disposing of ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS worth of climate data! There is now no raw data to analyze and determine if there has been any real global warming... or global cooling for that matter.
What the hell kind of researchers throws away a century and a half of raw data upon which their studies are based? That's like a courtroom prosecutor chucking out all the evidence in the hopes that a jury will simply take him at his word that the defendant on trial is a serial murderer.
(Methinks that while we're using legal metaphor, that there is becoming a growing body of proof that "scientists" worldwide have been engaging in a gross act of scheming to defraud in the first degree.)
Seriously: how much storage is required to contain all that data? A regular 500 gigabyte hard drive like the kind probably in your computer? Likely not even that much. So they can't excuse this away by claiming that there "wasn't enough room" to keep the raw data. The CRU eggheads have a lotta 'splainin' to do...
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Where is THE ROAD?!? Help me find it!
So I'm gonna turn to this blog's loyal readers (all two of them and maybe others?) to help me out, 'cuz I am bound and determined to see The Road as soon as I can. If you know of any theater in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, heck maybe even Georgia and eastern Tennessee, that is currently running The Road, e-mail me at theknightshift@gmail.com and please lemme know where it can be located at. I'm seriously looking forward to watching this film (and writin' a review of it 'course :-)!
Friday, November 27, 2009
How'd them fried turkeys come out? Behold the pics and video!
Last year it was the outrageously jacked-up price of peanut oil that kept fried turkey from being economically feasible. This year I thought the price had gone down when I went to buy it, but turns out I was using cottonseed oil instead! Which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I'd been wanting to try cottonseed oil for awhile now but couldn't find it anywhere. Same great taste when all was done though!
Here's the first bird that I did (for a customer), after about 30 hours of marinading and rubbing-in seasoning, as it awaits the 350 degree Fahrenheit hot oil...
Yours Truly carefully lowering the turkey in...
Frying at 3 and a half minutes per pound, this 9-pounder took 35 minutes to cook...
A little over half an hour later (a heckuva lot shorter time than basting it in an oven) this turkey is done!
Beautiful, ain't it? :-)
Now this next one is the turkey that I fried for my own family's Thanksgiving dinner. And lemme tell ya: I've never done one this big before. It weighed in at more than TWENTY AND A HALF POUNDS! I nicknamed it "The Beast", it was so monstrously large. Think the previous biggest one was about 13 pounds and I darn nearly had cardiac infarction when Dad told me how big a bird he had purchased. But, I'm always up for a challenge.
Here's "The Beast" before frying...
A turkey this big deserves something better than just still pics, don't ya think? So how about a video clip of me lowering it into the oil...
"The Beast" took 75 minutes to thoroughly fry...
And an hour and fifteen minutes later...
That is going to be my personal standard by which all future fried turkeys will be judged. If all the rest to come can be as big and juicy and delicious as The Beast, I will be happy :-)
Thursday, November 26, 2009
What I am thankful for this year
I admit: it is not a habit that I have kept up very well. A number of years ago my friend Chad Austin made a post on his own blog for Thanksgiving about the things that he was thankful for. And I resolved then that I would do the same and stick to it.
Well, I missed it last year (because of some circumstance that a few of you are now aware of). But it's a funny thing: now, two years since the last time I said I was thankful, I feel more thankful than ever before... and thankful for things that maybe I didn't appreciate as fully as I should have been.
Thanksgiving remains a uniquely American holiday. No other place in the world, so far as I know, has a holiday devoted to reflection upon the blessings in our lives. Yes, I know: our Jewish brethren and many other religious groups do have festivals of thanks to God. But Thanksgiving enjoys the curious place of being perhaps the one holiday with anything like a spiritual basis that is endorsed by an understandably secular government. That doesn't mean that I think Thanksgiving is a strictly "Christian" affair.. but you've gotta admit: we would all be the better for it if we spent more time thankful for what we do have, and not lamenting that which we don't.
So without further ado, here is what I am thankful for as we wind down 2009...
I am thankful, more than I can possibly express, for the very many wonderful friends that I have been blessed with throughout my life.
I am thankful that for those friendships which may have fallen by the wayside, that there is hope for the reconciliation that I fervently pray for each day.
I am thankful for my Mom and Dad, who have always been there for me... even when I have been at my lowest.
I am thankful for my sister, who is far more an inspiration than she will ever know.
I am thankful for all of my family, now spread out throughout the world...
...and thanks to Facebook we are keeping in touch with each other more than ever before!
I am thankful for the very many opportunities that God has opened up for me in recent months, and I look forward to seeing where they might take me.
I am thankful to be an alumnus of Elon University, not only because I love the school but because the Phoenix have become the team to watch in football and basketball.
I am thankful for the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County and everything - and everyone - that comes with being involved with it!
I am thankful for this blog, which in however small a way I want to believe might be an encouragement for anyone who might find their way here to take a stand and contribute their own unique voice and perspective to the world.
I am thankful for discovering the joy of Warhammer 40,000 and Monsterpocalypse this past year, and the numerous friendships that have come about from meeting to play those games.
I am thankful for YouTube, which is always there to show me how to tie a necktie whenever I need the instruction.
I am thankful to live in the country, where I can take my telescope out on any clear dark night and use it as I please without getting honked-off at light pollution.
I am thankful for getting to see my life-long best friend Chad Austin get married this past summer.
I am thankful that I get to be creative and productive, and can now get away with it after some previous stunts finally garnered me some hard-earned street cred (especially among my family ;-).
I am thankful for Fallout 3, which has to date consumed 130 hours of my life (and still counting...).
I am thankful that I am getting to learn more of the fine art of knifemaking from Dad.
But, most of all...
...I am thankful that I serve an awesome God, Who has been faithful to me even when I have not been as faithful to Him. I am thankful that His grace is sufficient to cover the unbelievable amount of shortcomings that are in my life. I am thankful that even though I do fall and make many mistakes, that He is ever there to pick me up, dust me off, and be beside me closer than a friend as I continue on the difficult, strange and at times all-out wacky journey that is life.
If am am thankful for nothing else, then I am thankful that I have Christ in my life. And I am thankful for being able to see, thirteen years later, that He is a presence in my life... and one that I want to grow all the more, for as long as I am in this world.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
How much do I hate Christmas songs before Thanksgiving?
So earlier today on Facebook I made the following status update...
Chris Knight says that it's TOO EARLY for Christmas music!! Can't we wait until Friday?! If I hear ONE MORE #&@% Christmas song I will brutally murder a kitten. In the name of all that's good and holy, THINK OF THE KITTENS!!My good friend Lee Shelton (who is celebrating his first Thanksgiving as a father this year, congrats Lee!) read that, and decided that I was not nearly vehement enough about that sentiment.
And so, Lee made the following visual reinforcement...
Lee, next year I'm going to go around all month of November wearing a t-shirt with that graphic on it :-P
Stephen King working on a sequel to THE SHINING
The planned title for the sequel is Doctor Sleep. And so far as what it would be about, King plans to revisit the story of Danny Torrance, now forty years old "...and living in upstate New York, where he works as the equivalent of an orderly at a hospice for the terminally ill. Danny’s real job is to visit with patients who are just about to pass on to the other side, and to help them make that journey with the aid of his mysterious powers. Danny also has a sideline in betting on the horses, a trick he learned from his buddy Dick Hallorann."
I'm cool with that. And a revisit to the Dark Tower series as well (which King has recently said he's working on too). Just as long as there's no follow-up to The Stand: whatever happens after that story needs to stay in our imagination.
But more tales of Danny Torrance? Sounds intriguing...
The Muppets perform BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY!
Somewhere, Jim Henson and Freddie Mercury are smiling and laughing their heads off...
This DESERVES to be a real Thanksgiving TV special...
It's not the first time that I've blogged about this. But a short film this good easily merits sharing more than once. And who knows, there might be some who have never had the pleasure of seeing it before.
Here is that brilliant, spot-on and hilarious spoof of Ron Howard's Apollo 13 that Gene Kranz himself has taken to watching with his family as a holiday tradition.
Behold: Thanksgiving With The Kranzes...
Thanksgiving 2009: And so it begins...
The twenty-pound turkey (what the heck was Dad thinking?!?) that will be our own family's main course tomorrow. Since this is the biggest bird of the batch, I used this one to do the "water trick" with to measure out how much peanut oil to pour into the pot tomorrow morning. That means you put the turkey in, and start pouring cold water into the pot until it meets the top of the turkey. Then take it out and make a mark (I use a piece of tape) at the water line minus the displacement. That way you don't have to rough guess and risk flames and destruction when peanut oil comes flowing over the top of the pot...
So all the birds are now marinaded and well-rubbed in with Cajun seasoning. There'll be several more treatments throughout the day but for now "the chef" is going to take a break and do something I've hardly had time to do at all the past few months: finally get into seriously playing Batman: Arkham Asylum :-)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Random thought/proverb/wisdom/whatever
There is one letter's difference between "fame" and "fake"... and often not even that much.
BioShock cosplay recreates Rapture at the Georgia Aquarium (WOW!!!)
This is about the most crazy awesome astonishing thing that I have seen all month...
Folks, that is NOT from a BioShock video game! Harrison Krix out of Atlanta built that unbelievably sweet Big Daddy costume, then contacted reps with the Georgia Aquarium and got some time scheduled there for a photoshoot. With Harrison in his Big Daddy gear and his fiancée in decrepit dress and scary makeup as a Little Sister, they brought Rapture to life amid real sharks and jellyfish.
Click here for MANY more images of Harrison Krix's BioShock session at the Georgia Aquarium, including some that Harrison has made wallpaper size for your desktop (and they will certainly be made useful, of that there is no doubt :-)
THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER: 11 days 'til showtime
Last night we had our first technical rehearsal for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Prior to that co-directors Jeff and Melissa Mericle had a "costume parade" where the cast got to show off the costumes they had put together for approval. The idea is to evoke a Seventies-ish look (since that's the time period of the original novel).
Although I didn't take part in the costume parade itself (since it had been provided by the Theatre Guild with special arrangement with the Madison Fire Department) I did put on my Fireman's getup for the first time, and kept it on when we rehearsed the fire scene...
I have an entirely fresh appreciation for firefighters now, after wearing that for just one evening. It is heavy! And that's still not all of what I'll be running around in during the show. Firefighter's attire is big and bulky and gets hot inside: it's like a Snuggie from Hell. But when you think about the alternative and then realize that at the present time there is no alternative... yeah, I have to really tip my hat to the men and women who choose to do this for real.
"Technical rehearsal" is just what it sounds like: rehearsing just as we've done for the past four or five weeks, but with things like props and furniture in place, going through the lights and sounds, etc. We'll do it again tonight, and then full-blown dress rehearsals next week.
Everyone is stoked about doing this show! The kids especially are doing a terrific job. Hope y'all will get to come and see them shine :-)
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tip your waiter or get arrested in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania!
Leslie Pope and John Wagner were hauled away from the Lehigh Pub in handcuffs by the police in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania last week. Their "crime"? Refusing to pay a tip!
If you're frustrated by poor service at a restaurant, think twice before you decide to not tip. You may be in for a bit more than just a dirty look from the waiter.Bet that's one place that's gonna lose some patronage!"Nobody, nobody wants to be forced to pay a tip or be arrested for terrible service," Leslie Pope said when her happy hour ended in handcuffs.
Pope and John Wagner were hauled away by police and charged with theft for not paying the mandatory 18 percent gratuity totaling $16 after eating at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pa. with six friends.
Pope claimed that they had to wait nearly an hour for their order and that she had to get napkins and silverware for the table herself.
"At this point I became very annoyed because I had already gone up to the bar myself to have my soda refilled because the waitress never came back," Pope said.
After the $73 bill came, the group paid for food, drinks, and tax but refused to pay the tip. After explaining the bad service to the bartender in charge, Pope claimed he took their money and called police. The couple was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.
"I understand that, you know, we didn't pay the gratuity, but it was a gratuity, it wasn't something that was required," said Wagner.
The owner admitted that the group waited unusually long for their food, but said the pub was extremely busy that night. He said managers offered to comp the food, a claim the couple denies ever happened.
Obviously we would have liked for the patron and the establishment to have worked this out without getting the police involved," said Deputy Police Commissioner Stuart Bedics.
Police charged them with theft since the gratuity was part of the actual bill. However, it is doubtful that the charges will hold up in front of a judge. The couple is scheduled to appear in court next month.
GeekTyrant's retrospective of ALIEN
GeekTyrant has posted a fine retrospective of Alien, including some thoughts and observations that had never occurred to me before, as well as lots of trivia that will now doubt come as new information to many people (like how H.R. Giger's designs for the Facehugger were held up by alarmed U.S. Customs agents at the airport, prompting writer Dan O'Bannon to drive on over and explain that they were meant for a horror movie).
Chad Austin makes THE NEW YORK TIMES!
A little over three years after my photo appeared in The New York Times, now it's life-long friend Chad Austin's turn! New York Times is running a story about the SAS Institute in Cary, where Chad works. The story is mostly about how the company is the biggest independent software company in the world and how its fast gaining attention in the corporate world, but there's also a lot about how SAS gives some awesome benefits to its employees. And among the photos in the slideshow accompanying the story there's this pic...
See those legs in the foreground wearing the blue-trimmed shoes? Those are Chad Austin's legs!
Sorry girls but as nice as Chad's calves are, he is a married man as of this past summer :-P
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Ahead of his time: Michael Crichton on the global warming fraud
"F---ing pissed!" And that was one of the more polite e-mails that have come in since Friday afternoon when this blog and many others spread the news about the Climate Research Unit at University of East Anglia getting hacked. That 61-megabyte .zip archive has gone viral across the Intertubes and bunches of blood-boiling stuff is still being gleaned from the correspondence between climate "scientists" that points to a decades-long conspiracy to promote paranoia about global warming at cost of rigorous and honest study.
Well, many people have been saying for a long time that global warming is fake. And few argued against global warming as articulately and passionately as did Michael Crichton. The acclaimed bestselling author of Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain addressed global warming in his novel State of Fear. It was one year ago this month that Crichton passed away, but I've no doubt that he would have been very pleased with this weekend's news... and would probably smile from knowing he was so far ahead of the curve. If you're interested in some serious discussion about the Earth and its climate, I greatly recommend reading Crichton's 2005 lecture "Complexity Theory and Environmental Management". It's a rather long read, but one rife with all sorts of solid information (the thing about Chernobyl severely made my jaw drop).
And I'm gonna do something that I've never done before: if you maintain a blog, SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE HACKING OF THE CRU! I'm seeing the traditional press start to finally disseminate this news, but they're (perhaps understandably but that's still no excuse) being awfully slow-pokish about it. This very well might be the biggest scam in modern history, when you consider all the money that's been wasted and legislation that's been enforced in the name of "global warming". Should that make everyone "f---ing pissed"?!? Yer #&@%ed right it should!!
If sincere investigation bears out that this has been a fraud, then careers must be forever destroyed and I'll even suggest that a lot of climate con-artists need to be strung up from the nearest telephone poles by their circular reproductive units. With piano wire.
Chris Knight's somewhat typical Sunday
Right now: catching up on e-mail and news.
Later: writing more of the novel that I've been working on for National Novel Writing Month, which as things stand now won't be finished by the end of November because of all the good stuff that I'm finding to add into it. But what will be done by then should still be enough to meet the 150-pages needed to qualify as "done" for the month. I'll just put the finishing touches on it later :-)
Later still: painting some more of my army of Orks for Warhammer 40,000 and then laying out all my works for turkey frying on Thursday.
And done already this morning: videography of the baptisms of a friend's children at a church in Greensboro. I'd never done a baptismal job before.
Maybe someday I'll get to film a bris. But please... no tipping! :-P
Linguist spends first three years of son's life speaking only Klingon
An expert at linguistics used nothing but the fictional Klingon language from the Star Trek franchise when he spoke to his son for the first three years of the kid's life.
Dr. d'Armond Speers wanted to observe whether baby Alec would pick up Klingon as naturally as most babies learn English or any other real language. Speers was especially giddy about the prospect of Alec's first word being "vav" (the Klingon term for "daddy"). Although Alec, now 13, doesn't speak Klingon at all, at the time "He was definitely starting to learn it... When Alec spoke back to me in Klingon his pronunciation was excellent."
This dude should have tried getting his son to speak fluent Sindarin or Quenya. Now that would have been impressive!
Boeing creates laser weapon that shoots down flying aircraft
Aim your browser here for more, including the next technical goal that Boeing is setting out to accomplish: mounting these laser weapons onto sharks.
(I'm kidding! :-)
It's an odd commentary on our culture...
...when all the literature on the front shelves of the bookstores is about either vampires, zombies, or Sarah Palin.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
CLIMATE RESEARCH UNIT HACKED! 61 megabytes reveal massaged data on global warming?! Did scientists conspire on climate scare?!
Ho-lee HELL!! This could turn into one of the biggest stories of the decade... scratch that, decades!
Could it be that the whole "global warming" thing has been nothing but a colossal scam on damned near every man, woman, child and dumb animal on the planet?!
The Intertubes are smoking hot this afternoon from the news about University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Unit getting hacked and a heapin' big pile of material being leaked online. The 61 megabyte file can be downloaded here. But if you want the gist of it, Watts Up With That has a bigtime discussion going on, including excerpts from the hacked stuff.
And if this small sample is any indication, a bunch of scientists have a lotta 'splainin' to do. There are e-mail exchanges among researchers about hiding data reflecting temperature decline over the past three decades, and even adding on to temperatures. There is also some troubling discussion of political ramifications of the climate research which strongly suggests that it has been severely tainted with outside interests.
Just... wow.
And according to the story at Watts Up With That, the Climate Research Unit has canceled all e-mail passwords and is now admitting that the breach is real. The plot thickens.
This demands to be the hardest-hitting story of the next week if not the next several months. It also needs to be thoroughly investigated... and let the chips fall where they may.
WWII IN HD: Best high-def programming I've seen yet!
HOW did I miss hearing about this until now? Well, no matter 'cuz History Channel is broadcasting them again and if you've got a high-definition television you really owe it to yourself to catch this, because you've never seen World War II as clear and brilliant as this before. See that still image? Those are British soldiers coming ashore at Normandy, and it looks so crisp and sharp you'd swear that this was footage gathered just yesterday.
If History Channel puts this out on Blu-ray... well, between that and Star Trek that's prolly gonna be more than enough to pull me into adopting a Blu-ray player at last. But 'til then, watch WWII in HD however ya can!
LOST Season 6: February 2nd, 2010
ABC's Lost, perhaps the most defining and innovative show of the decade, will begin its sixth and final season on February 2nd, 2010. That's a Tuesday night by the way, which is where Lost will be from here on out (apart from a break for the Winter Olympics). Eighteen hours spread out over sixteen episodes will begin with the two-hour season premiere, "LA X".
Can showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse wrap up everything in those 18 hours?! In no particular order we've got: the smoke monster, Jacob, Richard's eternal youthfulness, Walt being "special", Christian Shepherd and why he's still walking around, the statue, the Temple (which we have yet to get a serious look at), the food drops, why Marvin Candle uses those names for different DHARMA films, the hollowed-out Bible, the Black Rock, whoever thought to build the pendulum inside the Lamppost station (I've thought since last season that there's some importance to that), Sun and Jin and how the heck they're supposed to reunite, how "the rules" don't apply to Desmond... and what promises to be an all-out epic war between Benjamin Linus and Charles Widmore for control of the Island if not of the Earth itself.
Holy cripes crispies, this season of Lost is going to be insane!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Food Nazis strike again! Movie theater popcorn = 3 hamburgers?!?
Those bastitches at Center for Science in the Public Interest made it damned near impossible to get a decent bag of popcorn at the movies for many years after that. Thankfully (well in my book anyway) most chains went back to using coconut oil.
But I learned something from that incident: that it's ridiculously easy in this modern world for someone or a small group of people to hide behind some fancy-pants official-sounding name that cons the media into thinking they're "legitimate". And from there they can claim anything and get away with it, no matter how outlandish. Who ARE the people at Center for Science in the Public Interest? Did anyone in the press do any hard questioning or fact-checking about their accusations at the time?
And that's why Center for Science in the Public Interest has borne a whole 'nother title in the vocabulary of Chris Knight these past fifteen years: the Food Nazis.
And now they're at it again! Once again the target is movie theater popcorn, which the Food Nazis at the Center for Science in the Public Interest insist is the equivalent of three hamburgers.
What the...?!?
Center for Science in the Public Interest claims that the findings were arrived at by "an independent lab". But when you look at CSPI's official release about movie theater popcorn you can't find any solid reference to this "laboratory". We have to take Center for Science in the Public Interest's word that the analysis was conducted and that these were the results being reported.
I don't mind saying this: that's piss-poor scholarship. It wouldn't merit a passing grade on a college paper and it wouldn't hold up under scrutiny in a court of law.
For all we know, CSPI pulled these "findings" out of their collective ass and thinks we'll be none the wiser. Jayne Hurley and Bonnie Liebman, the two "scientists" who published this alleged "study", are each longtime activists with CSPI, and the organization itself has quite a history of unfounded "attack dog" tactics.
These are jerks with nothing else to do but try to ruin a good time for everyone else so that they look superior and un-reproachable.
Just trickery trickery trickery, friends and neighbors. Don't fall for it.
(And when I go to see The Road next week, I'm buying an extra-large tub of popcorn with plenty of butter in honor of Center for Science in the Public Interest!)
Box art for BIOSHOCK 2
I'm really digging the BioShock 2 logo: more decrepit than the one for the first game and now encrusted with barnacles and other sedentary sea life. And look: the Big Daddy is so ticked-off that he's smashed a crack in the game's cover! But what's seriously wigging me out is that... thing... to the left of the Little Sister's head. Is that a group of fish or someone's face?
Just two and a half more months before we get to return to Rapture!
New wallpaper protects against bullets and bombs
I'm wondering how 'spensive this stuff is. X-Flex probably has a hideous price tag. But if nothing else I could see papering your bathroom with it and hunkering down in the tub during a tornado and really being secure :-)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Finally watched last night's V and finale of AMC's THE PRISONER
AMC's much-promoted revamp of The Prisoner concluded last night. After watching both hours twice-over now I am going to say that that, acknowledging that while mine is going to be in the minority of opinions, that I very much enjoyed it and thought it was time well spent. And I will likely be getting the DVD of the series when it becomes available. But I will say that AMC way over-hyped The Prisoner. And so much so that I have to wonder how much confidence they had in their own product. Doing "coming up" bumpers before each commercial break did nothing to instill one's faith in this show as a viewer. Without those, I think The Prisoner could have been much more enjoyable. Another reason why I'm looking forward to a DVD set of this.
Meanwhile, ABC aired the third episode of the relaunched V. I watched it from the good ol' DVR this morning. Last week I said that V needs to drastically ramp-up its action and intrigue. Well, it's a funny thing but last night's installment "A Bright New Day" did just that and in spades! The Visitors (in perhaps a thinly-veiled commentary on real-life immigration policies) began receiving passports and visas to travel throughout the country. We discovered that the Visitors had secretly been installing themselves on Earth for at least twenty years. We learned a lot more about the traitors and the words "Fifth Column" were finally used in this V's incarnation. And there were devious plot twists out the wazoo. If V keeps up this kind of tempo, it will almost certainly become the breakout hit of this television season and set itself up as the high-brow science-fiction series of the medium in the absence of Battlestar Galactica and the soon-to-depart Lost. After last night's show, me want more V!
Okay, three hours of television from one night: that's way more than what I'm used to. I'm gonna go read a book or three and compensate.
International Space Station transits the Moon
Bernhard Christ, an amateur astronomer from Germany, put himself in just the right spot on the Earth's surface (a testament to his mad plottin' and plannin' skillz) and using a digital astronomical camera produced this sequence - made in less than 0.4 seconds - of the International Space Station transiting across the Moon...
That's five shots of the ISS taken at equal intervals. If you're wondering where the fifth is, click on the image to drastically embiggen it and look just inside the Moon's limb toward the left side of the picture and you'll easily pick it out from the lunar landscape.
Aim here for more about Bernhard Christ's astonishing photo, and many thanks to Shane Thacker for the great find!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
"...Only to God and woman."
Last week President Barack Obama met with Akihito, the titular Emperor of Japan. You might have heard about it: Obama made a ceremonial bow to Akihito and it's purportedly caused a lot of his political enemies to seethe with outrage...
Interestingly, many if not most of these same critics defended George W. Bush when in April 2008 (when he was still President) Bush not only held hands with but also gave a big fat slobbering fat kiss right on the lips to the visiting king of Saudi Arabia...
Bush's supporters at the time claimed that Bush was just "following protocol", exactly as Obama's defenders are doing now.
Me? I can't see a difference between what either of these two Presidents have done. And regardless of who's doing it, it sickens me to no end.
If either Bush or Obama had acted like this as private citizens, that would have been their right. But Bush and now Obama, as elected head of state of the United States of America, each ceremoniously capitulated their nation to a foreign sovereign power. This ain't about our home-grown assumption that the United States is "the greatest" country on Earth and everything with our understanding that in the roll call of nations ours is equal - no more and no less - to any other.
That's not a small matter, folks. And I can't see how it can be defended.
A little over a hundred and fifty years ago in 1859, John E. Ward arrived in China. Ward, a proud native of Georgia and former mayor of Savannah, had been dispatched by President James Buchanan to begin trade relations with China in accordance with the Treaty of Tientsin. But before such could happen Ward would have to come to Peking: a place that no American had been allowed to enter. Ward was allowed to proceed but on every step of the journey he asserted his native land as equal to China and not as a vassal state, as the Russians and the British and everyone else had done according to "diplomacy". The final act of "insolence" on the part of this American "barbarian" was his refusal to kow-tow: a low bow before the Emperor.
John E. Ward refused to bow. The representatives of the Emperor told Ward that he must bow not only for purposes of diplomacy but out of respect for the land's religion.
The reason Ward gave the Chinese: "I kneel only to God and woman."
True to his word, Ward did not bow to the Emperor of China. He never got the audience with the Emperor that he had been sent to have, but Ward wasn't fazed. He still delivered his letter about the treaty (to a minor official) and returned to America, his pride upheld... and China beginning to respect "the Country of the Flowery Flag". You can read more about John E. Ward at AmericanHeritage.com.
Y'know, I can't even begin to imagine either Bush or Obama getting up the nerve to think of something as brazenly principled as "I kneel only to God and woman." In the chronicle of American statesmanship, John E. Ward is certainly the greater man than our two or three or four most recent Presidents of the United States.
And if we had men (and women) of Ward's caliber and character, this nation would no doubt have more respect and standing among the countries of the world today.
Auto-Tune as explained by Rocketboom and "Weird Al" Yankovic
Depending on you who listen to, Auto-Tune has become either a boon or bane to music production. The Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies examines the Auto-Tune phenomenon in their latest video, with some rather scholarly assistance from visiting professor "Weird Al" Yankovic!
Thanks to Geoff Gentry for the heads-up!
BioShock EVE Hypo Prop Replica (yes, you can BUY this thing...)
Got a small daughter or know where to borrow a little girl (legally 'course)? Wanna have some fun freaking out the neighbors? The officially licensed BioShock EVE Hypo Prop Replica from Play.com is just what you need!
According to this "toy"'s description, "EVE is the lifeblood of the underwater city of Rapture, the setting for Bioshock and Bioshock 2. It is the substance that fuels the bizarre powers of the genetically-engineered splicers' plasmids, and it is the fight to control this precious resource that has nearly destroyed the underwater city. This Play.com exclusive EVE hypo prop replica is based on the in-game models, and features a light-up LED feature for that authentic eerie blue glow!"
Yuck... but still awesomely kewl!
Just finished watching the second installment of AMC's THE PRISONER
We had the first run-through (or "stumble-through" as it was officially called :-) of both acts of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever last night, so I was late getting home. But I had the DVR whirring away recording the second two hours of AMC's remake of The Prisoner and I just finished watching 'em.
I know that I'm in a solid minority here, but I am absolutely digging the heck out of The Prisoner! To me, it's the same theme going on as the Sixties original series. Just... different. Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner was about individuality, and this one starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan is about personal identity. Now, those may seem like the same thing, but they aren't. They're just aspects of the same thing. I don't have any better word for it other than "soul".
Is The Prisoner meant to be entertainment? Hmmmm... not really. It's more like something made to be endured (call it "enduretainment" perhaps?). There are no easy answers here, just more questions that one winds up asking more of self than of the show. But then, the original The Prisoner, forty years and more later, is still doing that. So on that note, AMC's revamp is already successful.
The final two hours air tonight. I'll be watching with great interest.
EDIT 12:31 p.m. EST: I like the "enduretainment" term so much that I thought it deserves an apt definition...
Enduretainment (noun): A work of performance art, usually but not limited to television and motion pictures, intended to bring about sometimes painful personal reflection and self-questioning as opposed to being intended for pure enjoyment and distraction.
Monday, November 16, 2009
A tiny lil' musing this afternoon
The smallest sincere kindness mocks every cruelty of the world entire.
Edward Woodward has passed away
Woodward was a very, very good actor. His portrayal of Howie in The Wicker Man has always haunted me for some reason. But like many people I was especially awed at Woodward's ability to convey "controlled rage". Robert McCall, his character in The Equalizer, was a man with James Bond's dirty tricks combined with Batman's thirst for justice. The last time I saw Woodward in anything, it was in the ill-fated Babylon 5 spinoff show Crusade: he played a Technomage who was the father of series regular and fellow Technomage Galen (who incidentally was played by Edward Woodward's real-life son Peter Woodward).
Thoughts and prayers going out to his family this morning.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Just watched the first two hours of AMC's remake of THE PRISONER
Hmmmmmm...
Well, it's unarguably not The Prisoner of Patrick McGoohan's day. And I knew that it wasn't going to be that either.
But, I think that I wound up liking it quite a bit.
Need to watch it again before tomorrow night's two-hour installment. Maybe even two or three more times.
Now you gotta admit: that is what good The Prisoner should compel you to do :-)
Tommy Burst toy commercial ("From Mattel, it's SWELL!")
There is no way that a TV commercial like this would ever be made, much less allowed to broadcast, in 2009. But once upon a time when boys were allowed to play "cops 'n robbers" there were fewer toy weapons as kewl as Mattel's Tommy Burst arsenal. For three bucks you could get the revolver and for seven you got the Detective Set complete with handgun and holster, toy bullets, badge and one neat-o machine gun!
Behold the commercial from about 45 years ago...
And if that adult looks familiar, it should: that's Hal Smith as the thief and the commercial's pitchman. Smith will forever be known as that lovable town drunk Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show.
I remember about two decades ago when every Toys R Us had an aisle devoted to toy guns. Seems like we had a lot less real-life crime then than we do now. Maybe we should let children be children instead of expecting them to be miniature adults, and allow them to live out the "good guy/bad guy" fantasy. That's the kind of thing that has gone on since time immemorial and it's only been in the past number of years that the "child experts" (who never seem to have children of their own, hardly) have done their damndest to change that.
Well, anyway: it's a "swell" commercial, I think. Especially that machine gun!!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Hey, live near Reidsville, North Carolina? Want a professionally-fried turkey for Thanksgiving? Read on!
Lots of this blog's readers are well aware of my obsession with/addiction to deep-fried turkey. I first heard about it nine years ago this month and then spent two more years studying the technique and getting brave enough to attempt it. With that first succulent bite in 2002, I knew that Thanksgiving would never be the same for me again. I'll never go back to basted turkey if I can help it. For me, a bird as magnificent as a turkey deserves better. Deep-frying it is the only way to honor what no less an authority than Benjamin Franklin once decreed should be our national fowl.
This is not mere "cooking" to me. This is an art! One that demands meticulous care and attention and passion. That this is also considered the second most dangerous form of preparing food known to man (after cleaning fugu) is even more extra incentive to treat turkey frying like delicate surgery. I love my work but I also know how to be really careful. I haven't been burned yet and Lord willing, I won't be anytime soon either.
Well anyway, for some reason my fried turkey has always been a smashing success for Thanksgiving and Christmas and a few other festive occasions. It's always the first thing to go at the family table. And a bunch of folks have told me over the years that I should go public with my nigh-patentable technique. That I could offer my services to others, for a reasonable fee.
I hadn't really given it much thought. But y'all know me: I'll try anything once!
If you live anywhere within driving distance of Reidsville and your mouth is already watering for one of those gloriously seasoned and deep-fried turkeys like you see me holding in that photo, fire me an e-mail at theknightshift@gmail.com and I'll get back in contact with you. Thanksgiving is a little less than two weeks away. I've already got a few orders in and can fit in some more.
And remember: you ain't just buying a turkey. You're buying confidence! Confidence that your Thanksgiving main course will be given all due diligent care, that it'll be done by an experienced pro, and that you will be risking neither your own life or house! That's a no-lose proposition folks :-)
