Closing out the books

Five months after its inception, a little while ago I closed out the Knight for School Board 2006 Committee. So legally I am no longer a committee and can go back to being an individual :-)

Today was the deadline for the fourth quarter reports, which if you miss it then it becomes a $50 a day fine up to $500 until you do file it. Which I'm not really a procrastinator: I just like to make sure EVERYTHING is in order before turning it in. There wasn't much to report: between the last report I made a few weeks before the election I had only made one expenditure - which was $250 for the newspaper ad - and no contributions. So while I was there I turned in the paperwork that officially closes out the campaign.

'Twas a heckuva neat ride, in spite of not winning a seat. If I could do this all over even knowing that I wasn't going to win a seat, I would definitely have still done it. Who knows: I might just go for it again next year :-)

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Video Blog #1: Various Rants

Behold, my first-ever video blog post!

Topics discussed: America without real leadership, individualism, political parties, Democrats, Republicans, the Iraq war, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, unsecured borders, manufacturing and industry, 2008 presidential election, history.

I may do more of these. It was a lot of fun putting together. The song is "Road Movie to Berlin" by They Might Be Giants, in case anyone's wondering.

EDIT 10:06 AM EST 01-10-2007: I'm watching this again and, it could have been a little better. Sometimes people notice that I tend to blink a lot, which is 'cuz my eyes are VERY sensitive to light (I can see much better at night or in a dark room than most people can, is one neat thing about it). It also tends to ramble a bit. But this was my first time trying this so this was something of a "trial run". The next ones should be more focused/concise and somewhat briefer.

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KING KONG Extended Edition DVD

Lisa got me the King Kong: Extended Edition DVD for Christmas and we finally found time this afternoon to watch the movie (I've already been checking out the extra content). This is the King Kong that Peter Jackson released a little over a year ago in 2005 and just as he did with The Lord of the Rings, he filmed a ton more stuff that he waited to put on a "special release" DVD. Here's the review I did when the movie first came out and since then, after watching it on DVD a few more times, Peter Jackson's King Kong is easily one of the most beautiful - and haunting - things I've seen so far as recent movies go. If you liked the original version, you'll love King Kong: Extended Edition. More than 13 minutes of new footage has been incorporated into the film including when the rescue party is attacked by a charging dinosaur not long after going through the gate. And another scene where Denham, Jack and the rest are ambushed by Skull Island's aquatic wildlife while crossing water on rafts. A few other additions give some more depth to the characters. Also included in the set are almost 40 minutes of deleted scenes, a few making-of documentaries and "The Eighth Blunder of the World": a hilarious blooper reel. Definitely something to add to your DVD collection if you already enjoyed Peter Jackson's King Kong.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Seasons greetings to our friends in many of the Orthodox churches who are celebrating Christmas today. Merry Christmas!

(Christmas is celebrated by a lot of Orthodox Christians on January 7th, because this is the original date of the holiday per the original Julian calendar.)

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Five things you didn't know about me

Shane Thacker "tagged" me so now I gotta play along and give five things that most people probably don't know about me...

1. I wrecked my first car when I was two years old.

2. One of my favorite things to eat is a home-made pepperoni pizza with lots of sauce, then drizzle it plenty with Paul Newman's Olive Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing before putting it in the oven. Some people think that sounds gross but I think a pizza done "Chris Knight style" is delicious.

3. In eighth grade there was this girl who kept thinking that I was her boyfriend. She wouldn't leave me alone and she kept telling everyone that we were "going steady". So I put a stop to that... by sending her divorce papers.

4. I once got lost at night and stopped to ask for directions at a church... that was having a snake-handling service.

5. Whenever I'm in church I don't sing the hymns: I whistle them.

I'll tag Chad and Jenna.

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Christian theology and G.I. Joe

My friend Doug Smith has been posting some good theological musings on his Myspace page lately. Here's one that's particularly clever.

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Bizarre IT setups

Pretty hilarious thread on Slashdot where people are posting about all the whacked-out stuff they've seen on corporate IT systems. I'm still laughing about the accounting department that backed up its data on VHS tapes.

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