High school Padawans celebrate ascendance to Jedi Knighthood with cafeteria lightsaber sparring match!

And their mad skillz with the legendary Star Wars weaponry garnered wild applause for Tom Costello and Ryan Angco! Unfortunately while their classmates were thrilled with the mock combat, the principal of Westfield High School in Massachusetts - perhaps seduced by the Dark Side - suspended seniors Tom Costello and Ryan Angco and declared that they wouldn't participate with their classmates at graduation!

But thanks to a groundswell of support from a Facebook group, Principal Raymond K. Broderick has turned back to the Light Side and rescinded the suspensions, so Tom and Ryan get to walk at graduation and get their sheepskins after all.

Here's the story from WHDH and here's the report from WWLP...

This story gives me a new hope that ridiculous "zero tolerance" policies will once and for all be thrown over the railing and into the abyss where they belong! Principal Broderick, my hat's tipped to you for doing the right thing and Tom and Ryan: good luck and God bless you as you graduate and move on to bigger and better things! :-)

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A thought this Wednesday morning...

Christianity should never be about making other people "just like me".

Christianity is best when it is a bold demonstration to others why they shouldn't be like me at all!

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"Twenty-one dollars a day, once a month!"

Alright, sure. Why not? :-)

So I'd been working on something for Memorial Day, for a huge chunk of this past weekend and late into last night and several drafts later, the finished product was nothing like what I had originally envisioned.

And that's perfectly fine. The other things that had been on my heart to convey, those can wait for another day. But I gotta tell y'all: I was really looking forward to closing it out with something decidedly upbeat.

So it didn't make it into the Memorial Day tribute proper. That's fine. I still think this is well worth sharing for... well, lots of reasons! It's a catchy lil' ditty that'll no doubt be stuck in your head the rest of the night! It's a classic cartoon from Walter Lantz Studios (look for cameo appearances by one or two famous characters).

And then there is the sheer weight of its theatrical release date: December 6th, 1941.

Think about that for a moment. This cartoon premiered on the very last day of true American innocence. While audiences were first enjoying this cartoon, the navy of the Empire of Japan was steaming across the Pacific toward Pearl Harbor and the date of infamy.

In every way possible that I can imagine, what you're about to see is a historical document of amazing import. It's like one final glimpse of the America that we once were and haven't been since.

Okay, 'nuff from me. Without further ado, here is... "$21 a Day (Once a Month)"!

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Today is Memorial Day

For the past several days there was something that was percolating in my mind, that I've been struggling to put into words for this occasion.

In the end, I failed. For the time being, anyway. And now I see that in this instance, that my coming up short is the right thing...

Today is not a day to flex my writing skills. Today is not about "me" at all.

Today is the day that we remember those who went and fought and paid the most enormous price that there can be under the sun, so that the rest of us would not have to.

They did not go to fight for glory. They did not go to fight for fame. They did not go to fight so that their names would be immortalized in statue or song or names of great cities.

Too many of them fought and died, alone and in dark places, with only the presence of God to give them comfort and the strength to endure.

They did this, so that their children and the children of people that they could never know in this earthen realm might have just one iota of freedom more than they themselves had been able to know.

Freedom is never free. It only comes at the gravest of costs. And some gave all, so that the rest of us need only maintain the watchful vigilance of sound and grateful mind.

For my own part, the only commentary that I will proffer this day is: Dare we say that we have honored their sacrifice?

            In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.

                    -- Lieutenant Colonel John McRae,

                        Canadian Army

                        written near Ypres, Belgium

                        May 3, 1915

For those who gave everything: we remember you.

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A ponderance upon wisdom...

Knowledge to do a thing is good. Wisdom to not do a thing is often far better.

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ALPOCALYPSE... WOW!

We are now just over three weeks away from the Alpocalypse!!!

Y'know, I'm still giggling more than is probably good for one's health about how Weird Al has taken the place of Famine among the Four Horsemen :-P

So many people tried to access "Weird Al" Yankovic's online store yesterday that they crashed the server!

And no wonder...

- Alpocalypse CD/DVD ($13.99)

- Alpocalypse CD ($10.99)

- Alpocalypse Deluxe Package ($29.99)

- Alpocalypse Super Deluxe Package ($99.99)

Most people will probably go for the CD/DVD set, which includes the standard music disc and a DVD containing music videos for ten of the songs. The Deluxe Package includes all that plus a limited edition 18"x24" gallery quality Alpocalypse album art lithograph. And the Super Deluxe Package? It has the CD, the DVD, AND a limited edition SIGNED AND NUMBERED cover art lithograph, and also a "highly limited run 4'x4' Alpocalypse Wall Mural made by Fathead".

Yowza!! C'mon, spring for the Super Deluxe Package. You know that you're lusting for it badly! And it'll be your chance to clear your conscience for all those Weird Al songs that you've been downloading for years without paying for them, you hooligan!!

Here's the track listing for Alpocalypse!

1. "Perform This Way"
2. "CNR"
3. "TMZ"
4. "Skipper Dan"
5. "Polka Face"
6. "Craigslist"
7. "Party In The CIA"
8. "Ringtone"
9. "Another Tattoo"
10. "If That Isn't Love"
11. "Whatever You Like"
12. "Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me"

Well, "Polka Face" is almost certain to be the traditional medley. But I'm wondering which (if any) of these are gonna be an extra-long which Al has been putting on his albums since 1999's Running With Scissors. Five of these are songs that Al has been releasing during the past couple of years as part of the Internet Leaks collection. 'Course we all know the recent events concerning "Perform This Way" (that its video isn't included on the DVD would indicate that it's still in production). And the rest? "Party In The CIA" especially sounds like a lot of fun :-)

Can't wait until June 21st! I'm gonna go ahead and pre-order a copy... but I'm also gonna be at the nearest big box store bright and early just to behold the sight of a new Weird Al album on the shelves ;-)

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New trailer for GEARS OF WAR 3!

And that was the gist of the seven e-mails that I found in my inbox this morning: about the new trailer for Gears of War 3 campaign!

And here it is! Featuring Marcus Fenix! Anya! What seems to be the VERY much alive Adam Fenix! Lambent! King Ravens! Locust Grubs! Underwater combat! More Lambent! The weaselish Chairman Prescott! Big guns! Brumaks! STILL MORE LAMBENT! All set to Black Sabbath's classic 1970 song "War Pigs"!

The story of Marcus, Dom and the rest of Delta Squad arrives at its conclusion on September 20th. And I am stoked about this game like I haven't been for a video game in a long time. The Gears of War franchise really does have a very human heart and soul to it and seeing this chapter of the saga end... well, I've got a lot of high hopes for it :-)

(And I am still wog-boggled amazed by this HAUNTING fan-made Gears of War 3 trailer from last summer, focusing on Augustus Cole and using Johnny Cash's song "Hurt".)

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