Monthly Archives: December 2008

New Year’s Eve – with Kids

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I do not lament my current lifestage. I used to party hop on this, the official party-hopping night. If you invited me to go somewhere tonight, thank you. I enjoy those invitations. This year, we’re doing something earth-shaking.

We’re taking things easy. (This is earth-shaking for my family.)

Instead of being annoyed at cranky dad and cranky kids, my kids are going to sleep in their own beds at their regular bed times. We’re swinging by my in-laws to see family from Montana and that’s about it. If you’re not doing this, that’s okay. This is an experiment for me. I shall take you along on this experiment.

I present to you some options:

  1. Howard the Duck – I say this at the beginning as a back up if all others fail. I mean, it’s a movie executive produced by George Lucas starring Lea Thompson (of Back to the Future) and Tim Robbins (of Shawshank Redemption). How bad could it be?
  2. Check out the streaming video from EarthCam. Times Square, brought to your computer. You can also choose from 13 different still cams (as well as updating pictures from around the U.S. and parts of the world), and not once do you have to watch Brittney Spears, the Jonas Brothers, Ryan Seacrest or Fallout Boy if you don’t want to. Do they have a Dick Clark camera? Even though his robotic joints are being modded this week, I still want to make sure he’s okay.
  3. If you’re like me and lived life instead of watching TV, now you can catch up on 24: Redemption.
  4. Have you met the new ball?

    Should be pretty. You can also check the schedule of events to pretend like you’re in Times Square and see what the networks don’t think you want to see.


Compare it to EarthCam’s coverage.

Proof that we love our sister-in-law as we plan for her wedding reception:
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You should have seen the neighbors’ reactions when the back of the Scion opened up. All stereotypes perplexingly thrown out the window.
But to repeat, for the sanity of grandparents, this is for the sister-in-law’s wedding reception and in no way related to New Year’s.

I did have to document the most amount of alcohol I’ve ever possessed. Substitute this for Vanilla Mocha Rockstar and a box of Hot Pockets and then we must question my temperance.

Mortar and Pestle for the win!
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Argh! The senile Tortimer would only give me one party popper. My wife just got seven.

I didn’t vote for you, shell-for-brains.

Updates as they show up through the day/night/day.

Xoso and a popcorn tin

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My friend Nick from college (Devin, he’s of the Den of Cows Star Wars tradition) started up his own sports company: Xoso. It’s a way for people post-college to meet and hang out with others.

Playing adult dodge ball. Yeah, that rocks and is one of those, “Why didn’t I think of/act on that?” Much congrats, Nick! They got named in the Sacramento News & Review as one of the best places to hang out.

They also got featured by the local Fox News stations (Nick is at 1:50):

Clan Sidewalk Driver, you will appreciate this advertising gem of a popcorn tin (recommended by friend who is in advertising).

Y Knot

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We’re helping to plan a wedding reception and we’re looking at rental places for an assortment of items. I shall grant temporary grammatical reprieve to (I cringe to type it) Y Knot Rentals. We may even go with them for the equipment. But I think the Linen Dinner Napkins are a better option over the other type that is “out of touch with modern fads or trends”:

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The other napkins seem to lack a certain je ne sais quoi. (That last part is a thank you to my dad, who infused multilingual one-liners for me since pre-school.)

And a Browncoat shirt

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  1. Just got done chatting with an up-and-coming web comic artist. Hopefully WordPress works out for him. I can help install relatively easy. I mean, how can you pass up setting up your site with this familiar theme? And yes, he was wearing a very special T-shirt.
  2. Did you see the football rankings today? Check out second team all-state offensive line. Way to go, brother-in-law! Remember – you make it to 6’9.5″ and I’m calling you a freak.

Happy Boxing Day…eh? Is that how to say it? I never know…

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To all my fans from Canadia and the UK (and the occasional Mr. Robinson), happy Boxing Day!

It’s good to see that Renaissance Bible Church is still rockin’ it, this time with their Christmas bail-out (it’s a tiny church in North Carolina). Another previous stunt awesomeness was when they bought gas for the community. (This is a state where they just ran out, plain and simple.)

We Got Gas from RenBible on Vimeo.

So, Boxing Day was initially set up as a holiday dedicated to loving others. Here are some thoughts on love…
From Jean-Paul Sartre, in his 1944 book, Closed Doors (ever the optimist):

Hell is other people.

(Ravi Zacharias contrasts that part of Heaven is your interactions with others)

Thomas Merton:

Man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself. He is not at peace with himself because he is not at peace with God.

Donald Miller:

He was saying I would never talk to my neighbor the way I talked to myself, and somehow I had come to believe it was wrong to kick other people around but it was okay to do it to myself. It was as if God had put me in a plane and flown me over myself so I could see how I was connected, all the neighborhoods that were falling apart because I would not let myself receive love from myself, from others, or from God. And I wouldn’t receive love because it felt so wrong. It didn’t feel humble, and I knew I was supposed to be humble…If it is wrong for me to receive love, then it is also wrong for me to give it because by giving it I am causing somebody else to receive it, which I had pre-supposed was the wrong thing to do.

And the guy I will grab a cup of tea with past the Shadowlands, C.S. Lewis:

I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.

But the most tangible example of love for me? You didn’t see the diaper I just changed (which also resulted in a bath for my youngest). I am very much reminded of my diaper/sin metaphor from when I first started this dad business.

I am very thankful that Jesus washes us up. Because I seriously don’t want to sit around in that.

Favorite carol?

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Mine (complete with subtle electric bass)(you’ve got to read the lyrics as to why it stirs me):

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times did’st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Gingerbread Ensign -> Gingerensign

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This is just a simple, photographical image of our feelings about being stood up by Mike and kids for cookies and a playdate.

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I slaved over a hot oven to bring you the masterpieces you see here. I mean, what else would possess me to create a gingerbread away team? Only my deepest respect for Mike and his frontierial obsessions. Or I’ve gone loopy. Either are plausible excuses, really.

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First person to name at least three characters depicted here wins a gingerensign of his/her choice.

All I know, Mike, is that someone else had to eat the gingerbread ensign, and I cried through every bite… *sniff*

I’ll present these other photos to you as a warning to keep Booyor away from the decorator bag full of frosting…

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Merry Christmas!

Alter our lives to alter our hearts

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Fanboy note: I am working on a Christmas project for Slade so that empirically we can determine who would win, Spider-man or Wolverine. But for today I’m putting some thoughts down for myself to look back at later.

We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another.

Humility is nothing else but a right judgment of ourselves.

Today I heard some quotes from William Law and became intrigued. He’s the author from the 1700s (not to be confused with 1800s William Law) of the book A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life and it’s not as self-righteous as some of the writers from the time period come off to be.

One of the concepts that grabbed me is that knowledge of the Bible that is not acted upon inoculates us to its reality. We get too used to hearing the same old stories and think that we know everything, whether we’ll admit it or not. Or we’ll just stop caring about what we know or not. I think this is a major issue with churches in our country and why we’ve lost perceived relevance in many situations. Yeah, I’m reading through Blue Like Jazz again. I love it.

Advancing the cause of not helping out your fellow human:

That split second of, “Could I get sued?” could mean a life. Should we just say, “Leave ‘em” just to keep our lives less complicated? But a person jumping in to save another is going to be a risk taker already. Would they fear a lawsuit?

WordPress 2.7 and a new tag cloud

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My contributors will notice a huge change, although the readers won’t. I did browse some themes today, but I like how I’ve modified this one to my liking.

I’ve grown accustomed to its CSS face.

Those who are non-mobile users (or probably IE users, since that usually tends to screw up my formatting no matter what) will also notice that the Tag Cloud on the sidebar has been replaced with a psychedelic Rotating Sphere of Knowingness. This is the bloggh’s panopticon and it tells you what we’re about.

Thus the handy label.

I’m a dealer.

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I just got a call on my cell. I’m to meet someone in the parking lot of Fry’s at 9am on a Saturday morning. They’re to look for a silver Scion xB and a tall, hairy man.

I’m a freaking dealer. Is this how things are done? I don’t know. This is my first craigslist sale. Much better response than eBay. I put the ad online at 12am and some lady responded at 2am.

What am I selling? Oh, the classic of all classics…Cabin Boy…(?)

As my wife said of the deal: “One man’s trash…”

On the topic of trash:
The same could be said about the RIAA cutting deals with Internet service providers. Yes, the closer we can get to megacorps, the better. Right?

Verb Volley

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I thought that this file had been deleted and I had been kicking myself.

Setting up an old external hard drive tonight, I found this:

I uploaded it immediately, because we all know the BLOGgh will outlast my corporeal state.

Wolverine!

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Seen that new trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine yet?

Other than the super-cheese of the helicopter jump, and the fact that Emma Frost looks absolutely nothing like I’d expect, I’m pretty psyched. I’m glad they’re sticking to Wolverine’s little Lord Fauntleroy backstory, and the shots of him in the various wars around history were cool- too bad we won’t get a bit of Wolverine fighting alongside Captain America in WWII, though.

Sidenote: I find it interesting that, by their uniforms, Wolverine is going ashore at Omaha Beach with the 29th Infantry. What, he couldn’t have gone ashore at Juno Beach with the 3rd Canadian Infantry? Hopefully they’ll at least show him with the Devil’s Brigade in WWI.

But beyond that nitpicking? Seriously, people- Gambit. All my rationalization gets overwhelmed by nerd glee at the scene where he starts fighting with the staff and throwing things around with telekinesis. Ladies and gentlemen, that is what I have been waiting through three X-Men movies to see.

Well, two- I still like to pretend the third X-Men movie never happened.

Topic for discussion: Better nerd show: Heroes or Chuck? I ask both in terms of quality of the show, and in qualifications as a “nerd show.” Both are, of course, subjective.

Also, as a late addition: a review of the Doctor Horrible DVD, by a completely unbiased source.