Mythbusters has been put on hold while authorities investigate their safety procedures.

I love the show. I hope it stays on the air. I am also very glad that no one got hurt. I’m sure the show will reimburse the families for the damaged home and minivan.

That they’ve gone this long on the air with no deaths and only mild-ish injuries to the staff speaks well of their safety precautions. Either that or God is a fan of Adam and Jamie, despite what they say about Him.

Unrelated:
My youngest and I have watched quite a bit of Wiggles this week. Six Months in a Leaky Boat always struck me as melancholy. Listening closer, the lyrics don’t match the upbeat feel. “The tyranny of distance” “I’m sailing to be free” “Lass, forget and forgive”:

Don’t be surprised when we start seeing the Gorilla Grodd threat make it to the front page like it deserves. We can’t rest in our victory over Red Skull. It’s not like we have an unending supply of heroes to thaw out and guys in red spandex have as many identity crises as guys with green rings.

Even the pigs and birds aren’t that angry.

Basically, when users type a Google search into Internet Explorer, Explorer records which ones you click on (if you have opted-in to send your data for higher quality products) and feeds that data to Bing to improve results. Google employees spent two weeks typing in nonsense words like “hiybbprqag” and deliberately clicking on results inside Explorer to skew Bing’s results. Here’s the defense from Microsoft where they explain clickstream stuff.

What I don’t get is why Google doesn’t just yell, “Gaqrpbbyih” and send the troublesome imp back to the 5th dimension.

All I know is that the Babelfish has kept AltaVista going. It’s still there! Oh, nostalgia. You remember web searches before Google?

The above photo is from a manual created by Egyptian protesters to promote unity. In the manual, they detail proper ways to shield yourself using home implements and where to aim spray paint at riot police. Notice how “positive language” is part of the battle plan.

We’ll come back to that.

Also in the news this week was Casas por Cristo in regards to the violence in the Ciudad Juarez area. The number of volunteers has dropped off in recent years since the U.S. media has picked up the story about drug-related murders.

General readership, I hate to break it to you, but Juarez was violent before we ever heard of it (technically, even back to 1911-1912 and Pancho Villa’s gangs, but that’s for another book, so to speak).

Part of what makes Juarez scary is that some of the police have sided with the cartels for their own advancement or protection. We’ve been traveling there for eight years and even in 2004, there was the drug violence. But the United States is not spared violence. The same weekend we went to Juarez this year, a police officer was shot and killed in New Jersey. This stuff happens in the fallen world we live in.

So, imagine in Juarez a people who don’t know if they can call the police and trust that they will be safe.

Now imagine those people living only in structures made from wooden pallets and cinder blocks.

There’s a need. Oh, I assume people wouldn’t dispute that. I think the issue is who God uses to fulfill that need and how to meet the need.

I’m reading the book Radical right now and it is definitely on my recommend list, although it’s taking me forever to get through. It’s very easy to read vocab- and style-wise. Heart-wise? It’s boot camp.

One section that I just read was David Platt guest-speaking about missions at a church. When he finished and stepped from the podium, the pastor said:

…brother, we promise that we will continue to send you a check so we don’t have to go there ourselves…I remember a time at my last congregation when a missionary from Japan came to speak…I told that church that if they didn’t give financial support to this missionary, I was going to pray that God would send their kids to Japan to serve with that missionary.

I don’t know what offends me more, that the pastor used serving internationally as a threat or that he held up his prayers as more important than his congregation’s. (What’s to stop the congregation from praying against what the pastor is praying? That’s when God facepalms at our stupidity.)

Now, I’m not saying that:
1. The role of sender is not important
2. I am in any way awesomer than anyone else for having gone to Juarez

What I don’t want to see, though, is someone who would have gone but chose not to based on fear. Even our team had people drop as the travel date approached, so I’m not judging people’s convictions.

What I have noticed, though, is the best way to fight:
1. Love God
2. Love neighbor

It’s a true positive message, with power and not just positive thinking. If we have people fighting in this way (and not in the “let’s protest funerals/ComicCon” way) on both sides of the border, I believe that fear will not be given the leniency we’ve allowed it.

What our news sources are going to focus on is how Marvel is designing mascots for the NHL (like they did for the NBA).

Looking at the photo, doesn’t it seem like Cobra Commander plays for Montreal?

…and now I wish to say seriously to all the daily newspapers, to the republican, the democratic, and the socialist parties that they cannot month in and month out and year in and year out make the kind of untruthful, of bitter assault that they have made and not expect that brutal violent natures, or brutal and violent characters, especially when the brutality is accompanied by a not very strong mind – they cannot expect that such natures will be unaffected by it.

I’m glad that 100 years later we have learned to remove bitter and untruthful assaults from our politics…

R 250930Z FEB 72
FM AMEMBASSY TEHRAN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 7561
INFO SECDEF
EUCOM
CSAF

UNCLASSIFIED SECTION 01 OF 01 TEHRAN 1164

E.O. 12958: AS AMENDED; DECLASSIFIED JUNE 21, 2006
TAGS: MASS MARR IR
SUBJECT: ACCELERATION OF F-4ES FOR IRAN

REF: TEHRAN 1091: TEHRAN 263: MOSCOW 1603

COUNTRY TEAM. MESSAGE

BEGIN SUMMARY

GENERAL AZIMI, MINISTER OF WAR, ON INSTRUCTION OF SHAH ASKS THAT WE TAKE ANOTHER HARD LOOK AT F-4E PRODUCTION LINE IN ORDER ACCELERATE DELIVERY OF ONE SQUADRON OF F-4ES TO IRAN IN 1972. REQUEST REFLECTS SHAH’S INCREASING CONCERN OVER SOVIET AMBITIONS IN AREA AND ESPECIALLY THREAT SHAH SEES TO IRAN OF FRIENDSHIP TREATY UNDER CONSIDERATION BY IRAQ AND USSR. SHAH RECOGNIZES PROBLEMS THIS POSES FOR US BUT IS TURNING TO USG WITH THIS REQUEST TO GIVE IRAN HIGHER PRIORITY ON FA-4E PRODUCTION SCHEDULE BECAUSE HE REGARDS US AS MOST DEPENDABLE FRIEND. END SUMMARY

ACTION REQUESTED: COUNTRY TEAM RECOMMENDS US REVIEW F-4E PRODUCTION LINE AND RESPOND FAVORABLY TO SHAH’S REQUEST FOR 16 F-4ES IN 1972 FROM WHATEVER SOURCE MAY BE AVAILABLE.

This is an F-4E:

The suit that Justice Wooten allowed to proceed claims that in April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, who were both 4, were racing their bicycles, under the supervision of their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, on the sidewalk of a building on East 52nd Street. At some point in the race, they struck an 87-year-old woman named Claire Menagh, who was walking in front of the building and, according to the complaint, was “seriously and severely injured,” suffering a hip fracture that required surgery. She died three months later.

Her estate sued the children and their mothers, claiming they had acted negligently during the accident.

Does this have to be how politics is played? I feel like we’re in one of those places in current history where once again we’re right and the other side is woefully wrong. I’m wondering if some of my older readers (or Political Science junkies) can remember a time when it wasn’t this way, when one side listened to the other side and vice versa.

Right now (past the 100 pages mark!) I can tell you that Taft is accusing Roosevelt of being too progressive and dividing the party. Roosevelt’s about to go all Ross Perot on the situation.

Beacon for lovers. Setting for weird Georges Melies films. Reminder of Chairface Chippendale’s far-reaching criminal influence.



In 1962, JFK said that we choose the moon (remember the cool site his library set up?):

George W. Bush had said that he wanted NASA to focus on getting us back to the moon. While a lunar base would be cool, especially as a construction yard (although would we want more space junk?), it’s a place we’ve already been.

Obama spent Columbus Day signing his space vision into law. We’re going to have a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in 2030. Those dates don’t feel like they have the same sense of urgency as the Space Race. We’re not afraid of a Sputnik fleet brainwashing our teenage girls, only to be saved by rock and roll, anytime soon.

What works is providing a challenge for NASA. Now they have to hit a moving target.

What? You say the moon orbits around the Earth, which in turn orbits around the sun? Don’t tell the Internet commenters that. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that trolls hate science.

“Don’t burden me with your Kepler ellipticals, boy!”

The real benefit of the program is that there are some vocal experts on landing on asteroids. Steve Buscemi is already putting together his Aerosmith mix tape in anticipation of being selected. The asteroid program is said to rely heavily on commercial help. Richard Branson is wringing his hands in Burnsian delight.

Which one’s the crazy one?

If you want to fund the program, sell advertising space on the module. Send the GEICO gecko up. Better yet, to gather the most news time, put Kim Kardashian up there with The Situation, Nancy Pelosi, and Glenn Beck.

The only danger would be if they could work out their differences, populating an asteroid with their own twisted culture. Then we would definitely need the nuclear option.

The big question is what will happen when the next administration takes over. Will the next president scrap Obama’s plan like he did to Bush’s Constellation project?

The funny thing is that I’m so immersed in my alternate history right now (27,000 words!), I keep thinking Woodrow Wilson wins the next election.

And now back to my alternate history.

I love hearing the calm voice trying to remind people of order.

Police at the Mexico City airport, who detained a man with a suspicious bulge under his T-shirt Monday, found 18 small endangered monkeys concealed under his clothing in a girdle.

Roberto Cabrera, 38, traveled to Mexico City aboard a commercial flight Friday from Lima, Peru, and was searched when he began behaving “nervously,” police said in a statement.

Behaving nervously? The guy had 18 monkeys stuffed in his clothes -did none make a sound?

Last year, an American woman was convicted for smuggling a rhesus macaque from Thailand to Spokane, Washington.

Gypsy Lawson, 28, pretended to be pregnant in order to smuggle the monkey into the U.S. She received 60 days in jail.

Manute played from 1985-1995 and helped start the Ring True Foundation, although you might not hear the specific purpose of the organization in the news this week. Ring True raises money and awareness for Christian persecution and death in the Sudan. From 1999-2001 his travel was restricted by the Sudanese government in suspicion of supporting the Dinka rebels (his dad is a Dinka tribal leader). He wasn’t allowed to leave the country. The government wanted a bribe. He sold his furniture and had friends in Connecticut send additional funds. The U.S. government wouldn’t let him bring his family with him until he filed for refugee status. He did and they were able to make it back to the U.S.

Manute wasn’t a perfect guy, by any means, but he is someone to read more about. In YMCA basketball my teammates used to call me ‘Manute’. (My dad thought they were chanting ‘Lute’ because they were huge U of A fans.)

Q: What happens if Arpaio is held in contempt?

A. Some experts said a trial of sorts would have to be held in order to find him in contempt. If that happens, he could be jailed until he agrees to turn over the requested documents. In court parlance, a judge will state that the person held in contempt “holds the keys to his jail cell,” meaning that if he complies with the order, he is released.

Short of contempt, the board could narrow the scope of its request for documents, or if dissatisfied, it could take a variety of actions. For example, the board could turn off the county credit cards of certain sheriff’s employees, restrict travel, or ask Arpaio to turn over all of his books to an auditor.

This goes beyond the William Henry Harrison/Benjamin Harrison situation. This is like when the clone of Grover Cleveland got elected, making it look like Cleveland won two separate times.

In even more important news, Sony has announced it will stop selling 3.5″ floppy disks.

Normally I’m not someone who says, “You need to vote for this thing.” (At least I don’t see myself as that.)

Do you remember when April 15 was stressful because of taxes? It’s also our district’s deadline to notify you if you have a job next year or not. Legislature was passed that said they didn’t have to give us that courtesy, but thankfully they will.

Right now we have four proposed budgets, based on if we fund all-day Kindergarten and if Prop 100 passes. The other surrounding districts will be funding all-day Kindergarten, so my money’s (literally) on our district doing the same (in an effort to not lose students to neighboring districts).

If Prop 100, the one cent sales tax for three years, passes, our classes stay at the ~33-34 students per class that we’re in (one PE class has 44 students for the one teacher…imagine my fun coordinating that class for AIMS).

We’ll be taking a 1% pay decrease to fund Kindergarten, along with less take-home pay to buffer our medical coverage. This is our best case scenario and I’m not complaining. I’m a fan of having a job. I remember when my library budget got zeroed out and I was frustrated. That’s had to become the new reality and like most decent educators, we adapt.

Whether you think there’s district waste or not, the plan is taking shape. If Prop 100 does not pass, the cuts look crazy. We’re now looking at how to hold class with ~35-40 students being the average, removing sections of Special Education inclusion classes, and a whole bunch of other stuff that trickles down to the students. Keep in mind that it’s students and teachers getting hit by education cuts – we’ll still have superintendents no matter what. That’s the reality of it and I don’t see it changing too soon.

I know it’s tough all over right now. I just ask that if you don’t vote for Prop 100, don’t tell me. And to my newly-turned 18 year-old readers…please register to vote. Hey! I’ll even provide a handy link right here.

Funding from Prop 100 also goes to police officers and firefighters. Rumor has it we need those, right?

Here’s the language of the Prop:

A “yes” vote shall have the effect of temporarily adding one cent to the transaction privilege (sales) and use tax that begins on July 1, 2010 and ends May 31, 2013 for the purpose of funding primary and secondary education, health and human services and public safety.

And here’s to April 16…

World Vision today is mourning the brutal and senseless deaths of six members of our staff in the Mansehra district of Pakistan, following an unprovoked attack by gunmen.
We have confirmed that the gunmen entered our office compound, threw grenades, opened fire on staff inside the office, and left the compound after exploding a homemade bomb. The compound is located about 40 miles north of Mansehra town.
In addition to those killed, eight employees were hospitalized with injuries. Four of them were released from the hospital, while another four remain hospitalized in critical-but-stable condition.
No threatening letters were received prior to the attack. World Vision’s relief and development work in Pakistan is conducted by local citizens, and local leaders have strongly condemned the attack. World Vision sees the attack not only as an attack on its own local staff, but on the Pakistani people themselves.

They provide aid for poor kids and will still do it, although operations in Pakistan have been suspended.

It’s true that about 80% of all jobs aren’t advertised. Although most job hunters spend hours every day responding to online openings, let’s face it: it’s probably easier to break into the Pentagon than to be noticed via an online job application.

Permit me to rant to my even wider audience about access of information. Why does the status of Jon and Kate’s relationship (you know, the 8 Kate) still rank higher for the news than the capture of the Taliban’s second-in-command?

Also, have you ever taken the time to read the crazy stuff coming out of Ahmadinejad’s mouth? Having hung out with snowboarders at NAU (and by “hanging out” I mean “documenting misdemeanors for Residence Life” – Mike has an even better tale), the comments from Shaun White’s coach don’t surprise me. If NBC has been covering snowboarding for longer than a week, they should know to what degree the trick should be stomped and what adverbs get attached to said stomping. Do people not give Ahmadinejad press time or do we just not care? We care more about a coach’s naughty words, not “I will wipe the entire people group out”.

Hopefully some junior highers will leave school this year with a wider worldview.

I must have been really tired, though, since I could have sworn I saw Nick Jonas and Snoop Dogg singing with Celine Dion.

Wait. That was real?

And I bet you’ll try to convince me that I saw a time-traveling Elvis confront Mike who thought he was Pablo Picasso.

That was real, too?

(Picasso at the Lapine Agile by THE Steve Martin is actually a fun show and yes, Mike, you did become a convincing Picasso.)

One thing that I did pay attention to last night was the montage leading up to the opening ceremonies. The landscape is spectacular and the tourism ads made me actually consider living in Vancouver (we all get one government-funded orca, right?). But the video bit about the six American diplomats being rescued by Canadians grabbed my attention.

Modern history is a blur in my memory. I can remember Tienenman and Kosovo, but the Iran hostage situation in 1979/1980 I don’t know much about. That was always the last chapter in our history textbook but we never got to it.

So, especially for you punk kids that follow me on Facebook, here’s the Canadian Caper.

53 Americans were held hostage on November 4, 1979 and on January 20, 1981 they were released (notice the proximity to Reagan being sworn in). It’s all right around when the Iranian Ayatollah came to power to replace the shah monarchy on February 11, 1979. The U.S. helped the shah get medical attention and as punishment, extremists captured the Americans. Things have calmed down in Iran, right?

The image I put at the top of this post is a sketch from Ken Taylor, Canadian ambassador to Iran. John Sheardown and Ken Taylor kept the six diplomats (all in the 25-34 years-old age bracket, scarily enough for my own personal relevance) in their personal residences until they could sneak them to Zurich on Canadian passports – Canadian passports that were forged, along with fake Iranian visas.

The Canadian government and the CIA worked together on a cover story. A movie called Argo was supposed to be made and there were even movie posters created and a fake PO Box in Los Angeles set up. Tony Mendez, CIA make-up specialist, worked with John Chambers (Star Trek and Planet of the Apes make-up guy) to change their appearances to look like a frumpy film crew. (Clayton, how does that make you feel?)

The Canadian embassy in Iran mysteriously shut down for the day. Ken and John also moved their families back to Canada. Ken, John, and their wives received the highest civilian honor from the Canadian government.

An award should also go to Jean Pelletier, the Canadian journalist who figured out what was going on before the plan was completed. He pressured the newspaper to not run the story until the six hostages were safe. The others still had a long time to wait, but I’m sure the family of the six were thankful.

The United States started saying “Thank You, Canada” on signs all over the place. Also, if you were Canadian you ate free for a while.

To be fair with me not knowing much about the Canadian Caper, many of the details were hidden until 1997.

Ken Taylor with Governor General Edward Shreyer

Our military’s response was Iceman and Joker? Were Maverick and Goose busy?

I always envisioned a giant mech. We’re one step closer. A weapon that can “send a sheet fire into the air and shock waves rippling through the desert in all directions” sounds familiar.

My money is on Richard Branson as the Supreme Overlord of the COBRA terrorist organization. Be watching him in the coming years – first he launched his own spacecraft, then he created a plane that could go underwater.

Within the next three years expect to see a HISS tank and/or Tomax/Xamot being announced as co-VPs of Virgin Megalomaniacal.

I’m glad we got that cleared up.

Queen Mum is a name for a widowed queen consort (a queen dowager). Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the current Queen Elizabeth’s mom) had an interesting rise to the throne. Her husband, Prince Albert, was not next in line – his older brother, Prince Edward, was. Edward abdicated and let Albert transform into George Super-Saiyan Level 6.

Seeing where the trend of votes are leaning, an “always prepared” Princess Elizabeth changing a tire makes a lot of sense:

Queen Mum is of the same long-livingness lineage as the current queen, so the qualitative assessments should not have too large of a margin of error.

All this talk of Elizabeths has good timing, I guess (Elizabeth being the name of John the Baptist’s mom). Today is Candlemas, a church holiday celebrating Luke 2:22-35. Simeon says, “I’ve been waiting for this. Now I can die a happy man. This kid is going to do awesome stuff.” (I paraphrase.)

I just thought that February 2 was Groundhog Day.

It’s the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club that announces Phil’s divinations. The Inner Circle? Because we don’t want the Outer Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club getting too uppity, right?
Every February 2 should have a subtitle of being Bill Murray Day.

Phil: There is no way that this winter is *ever* going to end as long as this groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don’t see any other way out. He’s got to be stopped. And I have to stop him.

I have to admit that I kept refreshing my browser (all the good sites were blocked) during the iPadapalooza whereas I wasn’t as glued to the State of the Union. I think that may be because we all have a general sense of the state of the union versus anything from Steve Jobs always promises to be a turtlenecked spectacle.

I still think that Obama should have presented a keynote using the tablet and then ended with, “Oh? What’s this, you ask? Why it does…” and then list off the tech specs. I also think that, of the stuff the iPad has, it was a big oversight to leave off a microSD slot. Of course they want you to spend more money on the bigger hard drives, but that instant expandability needs to be built into most devices these days.

If you remember a post from a while back, we looked at how being President of the United States was proof that stress causes gray hairs. Expect to see Obama’s hair get even grayer in the coming years.

In a shocking news release yesterday, the EPA told reporters that greenhouse gases could kill human beings.

This is very unnerving, indeed, considering how greenhouse gases have only received praise from the media. This tarnishes the impeccable reputation previously sustained by greenhouse gases, putting them in the same league as kilohertz and Niehls Bohr for scary-sounding science vocabulary.

One neighbor was quoted as saying, “I don’t think any of us could see it coming. Greenhouse gases were always such good neighbors. They were quiet and kept to themselves. It’s a real shame, if you ask me.”

In other news, Richard Branson, winner of The Bloggh’s 2008 Beardiest Billionaire Award, finally made it possible for people with lots of money to escape the confines of Earth and rise above their tortured existence of having lots of money and getting what they want. I’m glad their dreams can finally be fulfilled.
In keeping with VSS Enterprise tradition, Branson gave a Shatner-esque double thumbs-up, called a spaceship sexy, and put a picture of a woman in tights on the hull.

I must confess to you now that I fell into propaganda. I was emphatic about buying a truck because I saw an ad that it was Truck Month. If it’s only for one month, those deals will run out!

Then my high Wisdom modifier wife made a lasting comment: “It’s always Truck Month.” Over recent years I have noticed this same thing: every month is Truck Month.

So, like in good bloggh tradition, I’ve decided to keep track of the Truck Months. It’s like a paper chain counting towards Christmas, but instead of Christmas, it’s over-hyped vehicles. And instead of paper, it’s words on a screen. But other than that, it’s the exact same.

For the first one, the October one, Ford warns that it is the Final Days. [insert multi-horned goat/2012 joke here]

On the topic of Abominations of Desolation, have you seen the new Range Rover Sports? They definitely know that the era of the gas-guzzling SUV is waning, and I might be wrong, but I think they’re taking style tips from a mix between the Scion xB and a RAV4.

I wonder what the difference is between the $17,000 xB and the $60,000 Range Rover Sport. $43,000 floor mats?

Unrelated news: the word count is at 7,000+ as of last night/this morning. Also, Mike, you could be a mayor who patrols like Batman/the mayor of Newark. When Hulu puts up Conan’s interview with him, I’ll try and link to it. (The reason I heard about the Flagstaff mayor was because she broke up a drug deal right outside of one of her meeting rooms. She was on the news saying something to the effect of, “Not on my watch!”)

Have you seen Auto-tune the News?

Did you see this?

This is the moon saying, “Hey! Keep your lacrosse-loving probes to yourself.”

Not to be outdone, when two seemingly easy targets were picked on, these UK cage fighters unleashed the hurt.

UNITED NATIONS – After 40 years of shunning U.N. appearances, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi evidently had a lot to get off his chest.

UN or Intervention?

September 22, 2009 – Police investigators sent to the home of a convicted drug dealer in Polk County, Florida found and used a Nintendo Wii console during their search, reports TampaBayOnline.

The entire act was caught on tape through a wireless security camera placed in the home where detectives were seen playing numerous frames of Wii Sports Bowling over the course of the day for about an hour.

“Obviously, this is not the kind of behavior we condone,” said Lakeland Police Chief Roger Boatner. “There was a lot of down time, but that does not excuse the fact that we should act as the consummate professionals.”

Police had reportedly placed the camera in the home as far back as December 2008.

At this time, it’s still undecided what, if any, disciplinary action will be brought upon the investigators caught playing the game.

“Certainly this was a case of bad judgment,” said Auburndale Police Chief Nolan McLeod. “We will handle it appropriately.”

Tycho asked, “Is Han -”
“He’s fine,” Leia said. “Han shot first.”
There was no more blasterfire to be heard.

p. 232 from Aaron Allston’s Betrayal

I’m glad that my mind can now rest at ease. The great debate that had spewed from a certain Greedo scene and a “special” edition is resolved.

Now you can wear your nerd shirt with pride. Oh, you already did? That’s cool.

I am currently coming out of the 9-9-09 revelry (and by “revelry” read “editing a wedding video” and “living life”) and able to put up some prose that I chose.

I think my brain is still slightly broken from finishing my book. I’m very excited with the cover that @jeremypoehls did (among all the other ways that he has helped out this week). I can’t wait for the professional site to add a ‘/books’, if you know what I’m saying.

I did put up two articles on that other site today, one concerning philosophers that impacted the Constitution.

Here’s an excerpt from my science article:
To set up your hypothesis
Make an informative guess
For what you will try
To be like Bill Nye
And live a life of success.

I think that some of you may appreciate the fact that I was the alternative assignment for the Obama speech, considering my previous assertion.

Those that love irony will enjoy hearing that I presented to the students questions about setting goals, how they can contribute to society, and why they should stay in school. This should sound somewhat familiar. (I was remiss in not mentioning caution in what you post online. When you consider the precedents I’ve established, it makes sense.)

Oh, and I asked them to support me while I dangled a flashy watch on a chain in front of them.

Just kidding.

met with some 40 students gathered in a school library before the speech carried on ESPN and on the White House Web site.

I thought my concern was how to display the site across our campus since our district censorship filters block parts of the White House’s site, including any video files.

What I didn’t know is that there is a vocal parent group that doesn’t want our students “brainwashed and indoctrinated by that corrupt office”.

It’s a message from the President. Hearing the complaints you would think we invited this guy.

Tomorrow I go to my first parent-teacher conference sitting on the other side of the desk. It should prove interesting, if anything.

It’s crazy.

Other news:

If you’ve ever been annoyed by your cell phone minutes being wasted by voicemail instructions, David Pogue has your solution. The voicemail instructions are 15 seconds. That adds up if you actually listen to the whole pre-recorded message. Trust me, Pogue has done the math about how much that nets companies each year. He also gives instructions on how to beat the system-ish. (I already knew this trick. It’s called pressing buttons in a random combination. It’s how I could get E. Honda to beat Zangief.)

The phone companies have been threatened to stop their schemes (at least one of the schemes) and are being bombarded by Pogue’s readers. Pogue put a link to the different sites. T-Mobile got so swamped they created a special site for the Take Back the Beep! campaign. (Complete with filtering out any comments that mention the word ‘beep’.)

What Pogue’s calling for is smart mob action, like when protesters in the Phillipines took out the Estrada regime by coordinating with text messages.

I don’t think iPhone users have that voicemail instructions message, right? How will people know how to work this new technology called voicemail?

After reading those selections, I don’t know why any of you trust my opinion on quality television.

I really can’t believe that that’s all the TV I’ve watched. But then I realize I have been writing sunup to sundown (as in masters degree capstone sunup to sundown). Yesterday I started the drawing stage, immersing myself in Photoshop’s gravity well.

Spending so much time on the computer working, when I take a quick break of course it’s going to be on the computer.

When you’re not following Sarah Palin or The Author of The Shack (not The Shaq), you should check out We Choose the Moon.

It’s what Apollo 11 might have looked like if we had all of the tech to do status updates to give instant updates.

As of my writing Apollo 11 is at Stage 6, half-way between Earth and the moon. If everything stays according to plan, we should see a landing around, oh, I don’t know, July 20-ish.

At the site it not only has the countdown and the visualization, but it’s also streaming all of the dialogue between Capcom (Mission Control, not Street Fighter) and the astronauts. (Click on those links to follow them on Twitter. I set it up for text updates – so that I feel like I’m someone so important the astronauts feel the need to text me.)

Listening to the streaming audio makes me feel like when Tom and I removed two of the legs from our dorm room beds and slept like astronauts while the NASA channel gave us updates on John Glenn’s return to space.

In the bottom right of the site is what puts it all into context. Scrolling are fun facts about 1969, like how gas was 35 cents a gallon or how Slaughterhouse 5 was on the New York Times bestsellers list.

You definitely have to check out the video and photo galleries. After 40 years there is still media that I haven’t seen before. It’s all sponsored by the JFK presidential library. I think it’s really cool and for that I give you JFK’s moonshot speech:

Either that or Jean Claude Van Damme’s Double Impact mixed with Karate Kid II (or if Chuck Norris’ Top Dog is more your thing).

Once you’ve done that, listen to Neil Gaiman read The Graveyard Book in its entirety. Newbery!

You may have seen that our politicians don’t always agree.

The legislature of Arizona approved a budget June 4. We can start planning for the school year, right? Not yet.

We have three branches of government (checks and balances still rock, even if we don’t wear powdered wigs anymore).

The legislature is holding onto the budget. It’s like a game of keep away, where they keep looking like they’re going to give the paper to her, and then they pull it back quickly.

It’s actually more like a game of chicken. We’re waiting to see who’s going to be responsible for shutting down parts of Arizona government. Who will flinch?

Who will have the stinky hot potato budget in their hands when the June 30 Catch Phrase buzzer goes off?

One branch of government is suing another branch of government and asking the remaining branch of government to mediate.

“I’m not speaking to you. Judicial Branch, will you tell Legislative Branch to give me the budget?”

“Judicial, you tell Executive that we can do what we want. I’m going to hold my breath until she says that she loves me.”

I think we may have a possible cause for low voter turn-out. There’s an attitude that politicians follow their own interests and not the interests of the people of the Republic – that the population doesn’t feel represented/that their vote affects policy. Intriguing…

And then we see goofy school districts doing stuff like this. I feel like mentioning that not all of us subscribe to the rubber room philosophy.

While I was looking up the details about the Arizona Supreme Court, seeing if I could find anything in the Supreme Court online records about the budget case…imagine my surprise at what I stumbled across.

The Public Access Case Lookup.

I searched myself and thankfully none of the atrocities committed under the Booyor banner were listed, but one guy who shares my first and last (but not middle) name should probably lay off the alcohol – forever.

Look up your name. Tons of fun for the whole family. Gotta love public access court documents provided by our government.

I know that we’ve been very focused on the Iranian elections (which I’m glad that crimes normally ignored are being brought to light) but I find it interesting that people haven’t been intrigued by what’s going on with North Korea, Myanmar, and China.

View Larger Map

A cargo ship, the Kang Nam, is heading to Yangon, Myanmar but may have to refuel at Shanghai.

Here are the complications: there’s a U.S. destroyer (the USS John McCain, ironically enough) following the ship to see if it has illegal cargo. After North Korea tested nuclear weapons and launched a missile in May, the UN has sanctioned North Korea from shipping nuclear weapons-type stuff. If they have that junk, the ship is to be redirected to a port of Pyongyang’s (North Korea version of Washington, D.C.) choosing to be searched.

North Korea has been saying that this would be an act of war.

We’ll see what happens with the port authority of Shanghai. I wonder if North Korea’s testing the sanctions like a one year-old tests if you’ll make them finish lunch (not like I have any experience, right?) or if they’re just waiting for the U.S. destroyer to slip up.

I should be careful with my comparisons to big news events with immature acts. I don’t want to pull a Hoekstra. He posted an exaggeration on Twitter:

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

and an entire site was born:

Moms, this one’s for you. Check out EBLane’s We Know Mom. It’s a collection of research on how moms are responding to the current economy. My friend Gary, of Star Wars renown, has helped create/promote this.

This proves that Star Wars fans can actually hold serious jobs. (And talk to non-Star Wars women, contrary to Triumph’s assumptions. Thanks, Jeremy, for watching a talking dog at Bonnaroo with me.)

Something that I found, that you probably already have, is that the White House streams live footage on their site. Right now Obama is signing an act that allows the FDA to regulate tobacco. Check it out here.

I still baffle that it took them so long for Crystal Skull.

They’re staying with an old Indy and not passing the torch just yet to Mutt (remember, LeBoubou’s character? I forgot his name, too.)

What’s also interesting is watching these directors who have made huge action films now making films like G-Force (Bruckheimer) and The Adventures of Tintin: Schindler’s List 2 Secret of the Unicorn (Spielberg).

It’s like they’re fans of money or something.

Spielberg will be challenging Pixar’s The Bear and the Bow
.

Also, check out where AMC is now streaming B movies.

I can also understand how to get around that (the bloggh’s siderbar RSS feed, oddly enough, slips through the blocking software).

But an entire country? And so close to the anniversary of Tiananmen?

I know they’re just social networking/media sites, but it betrays a sentiment of wanting to control the flow of information/thoughts of an entire nation (kinda like Iran blocking Facebook…an entire country treated like a conservative district’s junior high).

And what do we do here? How do we perceive this? YouTube got blocked because of footage that leaked about beat-downs of protesters.

Injustices happen when we keep truth in the shadows, including when no one speaks up.

I wonder if the text messages still get through, if you have device updates on.

I’m curious to see what China tries to do to the iPhone and G1 – the phones that are portable computers. Are they blocking that access as well?

Thank you to those who are serving, will serve, and have served.

History of Memorial Day
U.S. War Casualties
The President’s Address

How this will affect some of The BLOGgh’s readership is the Casas trip. You might want to work on your passports (legitimately or otherwise) for next year’s trip. Once people really see the bureaucracy in action (inaction…wakka wakka) they’ll start to freak out.

On the topic of Cyberdyne – If you liked action movies of the ’90s, where not everything had to line up logically, you’ll love Terminator Salvation.

I, for one, prefer Sydney Poitier’s characterization of the T-800.

A part that I did enjoy was the nod to T2 fans with a vehicle duel choreographed to Guns ‘n Roses “You Could Be Mine”. It’s fun that John Connor still has some old cassette tapes from his teenage years.

I also appreciated that John Connor ditched his Batman voice after the first few fight scenes.

Woo to Anton Yelchin! Congrats on being in two big summer movies. In Star Trek he was part of a great ensemble. In Terminator he stood out as the coolest character. (Kyle Reese has always been my favorite – the no-name soldier sent back in time that alters time.) Look for Kyle Chekov in New York, I Love You where he joins a big cast in a collection of short films.

Flashlight Peter, we can now answer two of your questions. Kate Connor is a veterinarian, so she might not have the same ethics debacle. Also – Roland Kickinger, who played Arnold in See Arnold Run, was the body of the T-800 in the current film (another Austrian bodybuilder?) and Governor “Get to the Chopper!!” had his face digitally masked over poor Roland.

I know all of this is big, but I can’t help but crack up looking at all of these people holding up this statue, very seriously, and postulating.

But what if this was the carving of some obsessed high schooler? I think it’s hilarious to stereotype a people based on one work of art. Not even Thrawn would do that.

And what the heck is going on? Cloverfield is real? Robot teachers?

Is it summer yet?

Maybe I shouldn’t type that too loudly. Oh, we’re good. John Connor’s been born already and Christian Bale will growl us into the future.

I’m looking at some of the headlines and thinking, “Really? Was it 1991 when Shrapnel City came out?”

I remember getting the Shareware of Apogee’s Duke Nukem from a friend of mine. (We were pretty cool because it fit on one 3.5″ disk and it required a 286 (so my 386 was fine)).

Then there was Wolfenstein and all that. Duke went 3D and then he became trendy (as trendy as computer games were back then…I still remember a little bit of eyebrows being raised. Yeah, I’m talking to you, Ryan Seacrest. Don’t do the Vulcan hand jive unless you really mean it.).

Now they’re out of business, but the memory of Duke will live on.

Richard Garriott (from Ultima) is suing NCSoft for calling him crazy, I think. It was either that or a Kilrathi ploy.

NCsoft terminated Mr. Garriott’s employment while he was still in quarantine from his space flight.

I know I’ve seen this before.

Another article reminded me that the shuttle program is nearing its end quickly (I thought it would be a little bit).

Check out the new Ares rocket:

Very Apollo-esque. This is designed more for getting us past an Earth-orbit, so I’m okay with that change. I’m also glad that we’re not just trying to recycle Soyuz rockets, as was proposed.

Russia’s kickin’ it old school, continuing in its Sputnik ways.

No parachute needed, it looks like it uses thrusters to land. This is a huge step in reducing recovery cost (and the threat that their ship would float into enemy territory. Their main launch pad got re-acquisitioned when Kazakhstan was re-acquisitioned.) Now we can have the spacecraft that everyone envisions, not these goofy crash-into-an-ocean shenanigans. I have this weird feeling that I’ve seen this before. Is it just me or does it seem like some of the NASA pages need a web design revamp?

The U.S. has Cape Canaveral and the Johnson Space Center. Russia has Vostochny, which is a cool way of saying “Eastern” (the field is on the east, simply enough).

Fans of a certain show will enjoy this proposal:


We’re getting there. What makes me laugh is that RKK Energia, lead designers for manned Russian spacecraft, want to fuel it on alcohol.

I think my sense of irony is flaring up. I picture Captain Mal saying, “One for you, two for me” in the depths of engineering.

Then look at what happens when The Anchorman tries for a witty comeback.

Or uses MS Paint for the first time:

As a librarian, the whole fair use issue intrigues me. Why else would I listen to Lessig as I drive in the Scion? Out of sheer pretension?

Perhaps.

Also – did you see the memo to Hollywood from the New York Times? Is it within fair use to rip off Devin?

South Korea, on the other hand, is cornering the market on glowing beagles.

May 1 you’ll see a new option (in Japan) on the Wii. Much like what Sony wanted with Home, you’ll have your own personal space for your Mii to hang out and manage media. Your TV in the Sims-ish set-up will play actual videos downloaded from Nintendo.

My prediction? Anime. I do realize that I may be going out on a limb with such a gutsy prediction.

It seems there are also places in your virtual hangout that when you click on them take you to ads. How…exciting?

My guess is that you won’t be able to interact real-time with other people, but you’ll probably send messages to other Wiis. What would be interesting would be VC game demos on a virtual system.

It’s nice to see that the current console to popularize avatars (understanding that there was previously Second Life and Alpha World) is getting in on the virtual world idea.

Also, will the NSA approve the new First Blackberry (Blackberry One?) for Obama? It’s interesting that this article comes out alongside an article about triangulating locations for prison-smuggled phones.

One billion apps downloaded from iTunes. Craziness.

Japan’s paying immigrants from Latin America to go home and never seek work in Japan again. Spain did this, but didn’t make too many headlines. It’s interesting the types of jobs that the immigrants took:

“kitsui, kitanai, kiken” — meaning “hard, dirty, dangerous”

I can’t remember which comedian it was (or demotivational poster) that said that if your job could be replaced by a guy who doesn’t understand English, your job stinks and will probably be replaced by robots.

There’s an interesting social experiment going on with Facebook and voting. The ghost of Benjamin Franklin approves.

I see this photo and I think The Office.

There’s talk of this Lyman-alpha blob changing how we view galaxy formation, possibly changing how we think about the origin of our own galaxy. Or it could be a fluke.

Or it could be a giant blob in space waiting to absorb us all? Am I the only one who noticed that this is huge – from 12.9 light years away?

I think we should focus our global efforts on the world’s largest spoon.

Mike, I humbly request your forgiveness for mocking your plan for the two of us to enroll in Space Camp. We need it now more than ever.

But who cares about economic reform or education?

Ashton Kutcher has proven that he’s popular.

In an attempt to win over the cosmetologist demographic (as opposed to the cosmologist), it looks like Fitzgerald and Polamalu might share the cover for the next Madden game, ending their careers completely.

The Madden curse extends to John Madden himself. Trained at Juilliard and Cambridge in the theater, he lost his mind while playing “The Scottish King Who Shall Not Be Named” and was reduced to mindless prattle about moving the chains.

The most unfortunate part is that it ended John Madden’s career when it was just starting to gain momentum. Now who will I switch off in the audio options?

MELBOURNE, Australia – Four baby pythons escaped from a container aboard a passenger plane in Australia, leading to a search that forced the cancellation of two flights, the airline said Thursday.
Twelve non-venemous Stimson pythons were being transported Tuesday on a flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne in the plane’s cargo area in a bag inside a plastic foam box with air holes.
When the flight landed, it was discovered that four snakes had escaped from the package, a Qantas spokeswoman said in a statement.
A reptile expert searched for the 6-inch (15-centimeter) -long snakes but did not find them. It was not known if the snakes were still on the plane or if they had somehow escaped outside after the plane landed.
In the meantime, the plane missed two flights it had been scheduled to fly and the passengers were transferred to other flights.
When the snakes were not found, the airplane was fumigated and it returned to service on Wednesday.
Stimson’s pythons, which can grow up to three feet (one meter) long, live in western and central Australia and are not an endangered species.

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.
I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.
Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a Man In Black.
I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believin’ that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believin’ that we all were on their side.
Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.

Check the news today and if you know me, you’ll understand.

Tim Brooks, one of the guys who helped launch the Sci Fi channel when he worked at USA, is quoted as saying:

The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular

Ouch. I may be antisocial, and I may be obsessed with video games, but I do not have a basement! (But if I had one I would transfer the Star Wars room there.)

Here’s another gem:

We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi

I really don’t think you’re fooling anyone, Mr. Brooks. Mr. Howe, the guy that currently runs the Sci Fi channel (I refuse to say ‘Syfy‘), has this to say:

We need an umbrella brand we can attach to new businesses: Sci Fi games, Sci Fi kids. It does no use to attach ‘Sci Fi’ because there’s hundreds of sci-fi Web sites and sci-fi publications. So it’s changing your name without changing your name

Then he goes on to talk about how they’re working on a show that also will have a subscription-based MMORPG. I remember the good ol’ days when it was the movie and then the spin-off marketing.

Did you know that not once are the words ‘TIE Bomber’ or ‘Palpatine’ used in the dialogue or the script for the original Star Wars trilogy? Check out the proof that Lucas is a marketing genius.

Syfy? That’s your marketing genius? And you say that you don’t want to focus on space or aliens? Because that hasn’t been their focus, right? [cough] Cylons [/cough]

I must admit that I am intrigued by an MMORPG that updates with the events of the show, but I don’t have time for that. I know that there’s all this stuff about Heroes or Lost, but I don’t have time to check that out.

Who has that time?

geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular

The Facepalm v. 1.2

And to save you the trouble, Wookieburger, I point towards what Syfy looks like an abbreviation for.

Did you see that Hulu turned one yesterday? For the next couple of days they’re announcing new features/additions to the site. Yesterday was adding some MyFacer features (notice a lack of Tubes). Today is more seasons of shows they already had.

Star Wars guys – I finished creating Moff Cage just now, tactical genius. Very excited.

While we wait for budget decisions, let’s do something healthy with the news.

Oh, forget that. Let’s blame people.

Can entire global markets collapse based on one man?
The Moff says: Yes.
You just need a big enough turbolaser.

And did you see the presidential rankings? Clinton at 15?
Moral of the story: Nobody votes for Andrew Johnson.

It came to me the other day:

Were I to die, no one would say,

‘Oh, what a shame! So young, so full

Of promise – depths unplumbable!

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes

Will greet my overdue demise;

The wide response will be, I know,

‘I thought he died a while ago.’

For life’s a shabby subterfuge,

And death is real, and dark, and huge.

The shock of it will register

Nowhere but where it will occur.

Interesting take on death, especially since not too many people would know the name ‘John Updike’ if you walked up to them and said it on the street.

Now you can be updated if the world is ending around you. This is in the same tradition as didtheworldend.com and isitchristmas.com.

1. A justice sleeping next to Obama
2. A guy with literally four eyes
3. Aretha Franklin
4. Hillary yelling at Bill
5. A scary detective sitting near a skeptical cowboy
6. From far away you can still see Michelle Obama
7. Cheney in a wheelchair
8. The press section
9. The band’s sheet music

Anything else of interest in the photo, folks?

Have you seen Recovery.gov? With all of the proposed investing that the president outlined in his first weekly address, I think it’s a great idea to set up a site where we can see how that money is being spent. Government spends money – hopefully now it can be a little bit better at investing.

Also, I think it’s smart that when the transition was done, BarackObama.com was put on the backburner and whitehouse.gov took off. The site is already something that we use at school as a resource, but now more people will be drawn to the info. Bush had already been RSSing his weekly speeches/announcements, but I don’t know how much of a desire there was to be informed. Hopefully more people will stop being partisans and return to being citizens.

(That’s not to say I’m a full-fledged fan. I am very sad that what has been nicknamed the Mexico City Policy has become a political football. If you’re Republican, support it. If you’re Democrat, strike it. Goofiness. I’m kinda like Jack Bauer in 24:Redemption (how many times do I really get to say that?): I’m not a big fan of the U.N. Many times it’s a “That sounds like a good idea” but then in implementation there’s some major fumbling. I mean, Promoting Human Rights in a Culturally Aware Manner sounds like my thing. But Obama’s “family planning assistance” reads like George Orwell wrote it.)

SMS Polling

Google Docs now has Forms. Why didn’t anyone tell me of this?

(One of Tony Vincent’s favorite blogs is the Unnecessary Quotation Marks blog. Woohoo!)

Click here if you want to be a part of the new cabinet. How uber-techy is this conference? We watched the inauguration streaming online on a MacBook and an LCD projector. Check out the Twitter search for “proud American”.

Cue the Ohm’s, “Oh, dear” and Slade facepalm.

Who will save us? When will there be change? I think it may be our own fault.
Check the text at the top of the cup and compare it to the text at the bottom:

I will be at a “web apps in education” conference tomorrow. The positive? I don’t have to be perky. The negative? I actually kinda wanted to watch the inauguration.

The Cardinals are doing what? King Brian, what strings did you have to pull? Woo also to the Steelers. Even though I am a literate fan first and foremost, it all boils down to wanting to see Mike and Sean duke it out with laser swords. February 1st it is, people.

Also, congrats to Manbeast W for winning first in the wrestling tournament.

But the biggest MVP? My wife. My oldest woke up at 4 this morning sick. My wife woke up with her while I was still groaning, “Why are we up? Why aren’t we sleeping?”

My wife was able to go thanks to Danjo sacrificing and staying behind. We really appreciate it. The house did get built, Jesus was honored, and now for the pictures:


We will have to get photos from other people’s cameras. The first non cellphone pictures that we took were after the house was already up. Oddly enough, all of the ones posted today are from my Nokia.

Is it wrong to be so enamored with a windowsill?

One co-builder mentioned as I shaved the edges of the drywall that he had not seen such a masterpiece since Michelangelo’s David.

With Extreme Home Makeover, we did not see Ty and the crew. We were too busy building a house for people. Irony. I am glad to see that the El Paso paper defended Ruiz against the criticism from talk-radio and Internet goofballs.

Well, this is new:

Last night we had to give over all of our IDs and only one was scanned. Today we had to hand over all of them. They were handed back. We then had to hold the photos up to our faces while the van was opened up. We did not have to file out, which we expect next time. This was on the U.S. side of things.

On the Mexico side, things were tense. I guess 2,000 troops have been deployed to the city this past week. Before we freak out, though, keep in mind that the Juarez cartel is not a new thing, it’s just now getting more coverage through faster communication. Also keep in mind that Juarez is a spread-out city. There’s 1.5 million people in the city. I think I saw maybe 20 troops this weekend. Juarez is bigger than we think. We just get to the edges, where it’s more of a reservation-type landscape.

There was a soldier who was shot this weekend, but it seems like it was a drinking game gone wrong. Everyone was out and about, though, and thankfully my wife caught the word “iglesia” as we got stopped.




(That guy’s armed on the roof.)

With all of this, keep in mind that there are innocent (as much as the rest of us) people in Juarez who need help and need Jesus.

Next MLK weekend: open invitation. Mark your calendars now.

Tonight I was at Fry’s picking up the necessities for taking care of a sick baby. I was sitting in the Scion when an elementary school kid in the truck parked next to me slammed his door into the side of the car. I did get out quickly to check the scratch but pulled back when I realized what a 6’9″ scowling Hairyman must look like to the poor kid.

Now imagine my encounter with humility as a mom with two young kids is sobbing as she gets them into her car. She’s got the scarf and look of a chemotherapy patient. As she’s crying, I’m thinking, “Do I treat her kids to Baskin Robbins? I have to get home. Should I go get them dinner?” While my brain is in discourse, I watch as a group of women from all walks/sedans/SUVs of life, including a cashier in full uniform, come support this woman and comfort her. People surprise me. (To feel like you were in the Scion with me, check out what I was listening to.)

Think about all of the heartache that we see/endure/cause during the course of one day. Opportunities.

Also:
I was glad to hear from The Cannon (our stand-up comedian/puppeteer friend)(re-printed in case you missed the e-mail):

Either gender is welcome. Yesterday I got two tickets to go see Tim and Eric (a hilarious comedy duo) for Sun. January 18th 7:30pm. And, then afterward I wish to go see a weird circus sideshow act at the Trunk Space. It’ll be an all expenses paid trip to wacky fun land. The first response I get is the person I take with me on this grand adventure.

Wacky fun land is, in fact, truth in advertising. Any takers?

And Israel/Gaza/Puppy breaks it all down nicely:

1. Textbooks will have an addendum photo
2. Not much else.

In all honesty, I hope this wasn’t a clothing drive shipment where someone forgot to close the back door. I’m glad that the Miami police department is looking for charities to donate to and not immediately looking at the dump.

And thanks to The Ohm for the following photo:

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?

But the dad seems to be forgiving:

“Dad, I’m so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family,” Daniel Petric said, according to his father. “I’m so glad you are alive.”

“You’re my son,” Mark Petric responded. “You’re my boy.”

This next story would be sad, if it were real. The Earth Collider…

“The Large Earth Collider will surely gain us priceless scientific insight by offering a brief glimpse of the universe at the moment of its destruction,” Fermilab director Gordon Josephs said. “But because the Collider achieves this by hurdling Earth into another large celestial object, there are some who feel the risks associated with annihilating our world are too high.

Fans of the LHC will relate.

And then this just isn’t news, but I still heartily endorse its coverage.

Top 10 NBA Beards

Yeah, buddy.

Now more than ever we need to help the people caught in the middle between flooding and conflict.

NEW YORK – Police were reviewing video from surveillance cameras in an attempt to identify who trampled to death a Wal-Mart worker after a crowd of post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at a suburban store and knocked him down.

Criminal charges were possible, but identifying individual shoppers in Friday’s video may prove difficult, said Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, a Nassau County police spokesman.

Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries.

Hard to identify because of the human swarm? People bummed that a store closed because a worker died? Please don’t write this off as a New York thing.

PALM DESERT, Calif. – The shooting occurred in a crowded toy store on the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, but authorities say it wasn’t related to the bargain-hunting frenzy. Instead, two men pulled guns and killed each other after the women with them erupted into a bloody brawl, witnesses said.

Here are the AP articles for New York and California.

Granted, in California they say it’s not part of the frenzy but was instead something that they had going on before they entered the store. I think with both instances it’s a trouble inside of us before we enter the stores. It’s the same trouble inside of us that leads to tragedies like what went on in Mumbai (and the constant trouble in Pakistan). Keep in mind that this trouble is not just overseas.

The question is, what are we going to do about this trouble? It’s something that’s tugging at the back of my mind this Christmas season.

(Don’t get me wrong. I’m still very much excited for the awesomeness of an Animal Crossing (even the website changes based on time of day) that I had missed the first time around. And yes, Slade, that includes fishing tournaments which I will drag you to.)

And Peter then says, “Oh, dear.”

I was (and still am) excited for $1.89/gal gas. That, in combination with 28mpg for the xB right now, and I’m happy. I was pondering the last time I had seen $2 gas. Was it elementary school? Nope. 2005. How quickly I forget. Still excited for cheap gas, hoping that the trend gets even cheaper.

The economy hit me today when I found out my neighbors can’t afford their house and are moving to a rental. I’m not a big fan of Jim Cramer right now. “I don’t want to create a panic.” Really…

My YA/Teen Lit staff development class got approved today. This was another example of sitting next to a computer hitting refresh, this time to let my staff know when to sign up.

Also – I traded in games at GameStop because they offered me better store credit than GameCrazy. Anyone have some insight?

I looked at the magazine and sure enough, the president-elect and his “lady” were on the front cover.  She was very excited about it.  Then she found another magazine:  “Oh, Mom, it’s Obama and his girls.”  Yep, another one with the future first family on the cover.

She continued to talk about Obama and all his ladies until we were headed out the door.  I finally asked, “Do you know who Obama is?”  She replied, “He’s that man… that man that won the American game.”

We’ve also had some good news.

photo by Cheryl Evans/ Arizona Republic

So now our future Presidents have spent $8 per voter to get me to choose them. On the positive, I think we’ll see record numbers of voter turnout (and you will hear all about our Day of Ruing tomorrow).

Two questions, though:

1. Could anyone actually become President without spending more than $1,000?
   (Or even a million?) What kind of system is it when only rich/famous people can become President? Are they more qualified? (Okay, so that was all question one.)
2. What could they have spent that $8 on?

Right now I can’t tackle what’s hugely wrong with a media-drunk information society voting. But I can make some suggestions on what to spend the $8 on next time if you’re buying for me.

1. Wii Points – I could have gotten a decent Virtual Console game from the NES, Genesis, or Super NES. Ninja Gaiden? Hello?
2. 8 double cheeseburgers from McDonald’s – Hey, I’ll foot the sales tax. And if you’re going to one of those crummy McDonald’s, I’ll settle for the Hot n’ Spicy if they don’t have double cheeseburgers. In Albuquerque, add some green peppers. Charleston – Mickey D’s Sweet Tea
3. A matinee movie ticket – We might even have enough left over to fill up a Harkins cup
4. A RedBox keeper – Sure, it doesn’t have the fancy packaging. But at least it’s Iron Man and not Let Me Blame the Other Guy…Man.
5. Two dozen donuts
6. 6 vanilla mocha RockStars – Mmmm…I love elections.
7. A book – When Hunger Games comes out in paperback, you owe me. Or get my library another copy of Bogus to Bubbly.
8. 8 songs on iTunes- Would that cover every Weird Al polka medley?
9. Health Care for a kid in Honduras for a month
10. 800 pennies – Put them in a sock and I’ll get you the votes you need.

These are just off the top of my head, fellows. If you’re going to make policy, at least send me a better gift.

Update: By the time we’re done, it will be an estimated $5.3 billion spent on everyone’s (the Hillarys, Dodds, Romneys of the world included) campaigns. $5.3 billion. Yeah, the GDP of Nicaragua.

Also, should my district have given me access to a district-sponsored domain name?

District Logo Rev 2.0:

I finished Force Unleashed today. There are some moments with the Apprentice theme that the same feelings occur. It does capture the Star Wars mood. And a battle damaged Vader versus the Apprentice, with Apprentice screaming, “You should have killed me when you had the chance!” as you are locking Wii Remotes quickly and savagely to push Vader back – yeah, fanboy moments galore (ever want to throw a squad of stormtroopers into a test-firing Death Star chamber?). Nice job on fanboy moments, LucasArts…now to make a classic game. We’ll see about replay value. It’s pretty much paced like a movie.

Today was the funeral for an old student from our junior high and on Sunday I have the funeral for my friend Chuck. If you see me in person and wonder if my heart is worn out, it is. Today was a good day for Star Wars. (On that topic – when are we meeting, paper and pencil friends? (Non-gamers have now assumed that I make origami companions.))

The “Happy Tech Could Help” Portion
Hey, the message from Renaissance Bible Church is up. We put it up earlier this week, but I got distracted by a Legend of Zelda theme that burned my brain. Check out their podcast for the message. Some context: the local church body that isn’t connected to Wachovia is connected to Lehman Brothers, so Matthew 6 is kinda gutsy and needed. He’ll mention how a “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” mentality is like telling someone to not think of something: they automatically think of that unwanted thing. To demonstrate, he mentions some “meal” involving bacon, syrup, and I’m assuming a defibrillator. For my non-Southern readers, substitute a steak (or, in my case, a toss up between sashimi and a Hot Pocket (although the Pillsbury Toaster Strudels bring back good memories)(Did I mention that I lost 10 pounds unintentionally using Wii Fit?)).

The Baked Goods Portion
Really, you should check out that Toaster Strudel website. Flaky crust Flash player hotspots. Peter laughs then cries.

The Proud Father Portion
My oldest got complimented in pre-school today. The teacher sat my wife down to tell her that my oldest is very artistically advanced. Woo! My daughter also has made up a word. To remember which feet her shoes go on, she calls them a backwards butterfly. Her word for that?

doval (n) – DOH-val a backwards butterfly; usage – “To remember which shoes go on which feet, ask yourself: Does this look like a doval?”

The first time she said it I thought she said dovin basal. (Refer back to The Star Wars Portion.)

The “Okay, So I’m Not Quite So Jaded, Just Cautious” Section
I went back to read my reviews of Obama’s Audacity of Hope (Review 1, 2, and 3) Even then I was jaded about this election, it was just in haiku form.

I remember enjoying the book, for the most part, but finding some key parts that bugged me. Check out the 1, 2, and 3 links for more detail. His peer evaluations for teachers has some flaws and he does clump in National Right to Life with the NRA, which makes me kinda cringe. I do (non-sarcastically) like Obama’s megalomania quote.

Innocent blood and a distaste for extremes: I wish we could take an average of the two parties. My big issue is abortion, plain and simple. It’s like a William Wilberforce abolitionist issue with me. Where were the slaveholder’s rights? Sometimes we have to infringe when it’s life-death issues. This is not a Republican/Democrat thing, because you can bet if Giuliani (or, my goodness, Bob Packwood) was the Republican option, I would not stick with party ties. Being a father of a daughter born a month early and the brother-in-law to a guy born two months early, we must be very cautious as to when we determine a person is a person. Yes, I agree with Obama that we need to increase the Family and Medical Leave Act to help with the financial burden of having a child. (Although I have more than one co-worker who is spending way too much money to adopt a child…there’s a disconnect.) Something that I think is forgotten is that rich women have abortions, too.

Check out my good friend from college (Mike, you’ll want to click) who just got accepted to be an adoptive parent.

I’m also a big proponent of feeding the poor (taking care of widows and orphans and all that). The government and big business do not have a good track record with this, both Democrat and Republican. This is why two of my mentors, Randy Alcorn and Don Miller, are sometimes at odds. (Although now seeing Donald Miller’s “Mentoring For President ’08″, I dig Don even more.)(To add info that Don Miller doesn’t have is that McCain goes to North Phoenix Baptist. I can’t see into either candidate’s heart, though.)

Check the voting records for Obama and McCain for more details.

Check out Alcorn’s and Miller’s blogs for great insights from great writers.

And continue to be annoyed by Internet rumors that smear and/or relate to how Bill Gates will pay me a million dollars for forwarding that e-mail.

Editor’s note: Can anyone do a word count? I may have rambled more than Slade rambling about Shaq. (Messing with you, fool. CAN YOU DIG IT?!)

Brown Squadron, you have just been re-activated.

Update: Check the factcheck.org or Yahoo article to sift through some of the spin. Also, if you’re tired of politics, check out a video from Peter and a video from Danjo. Slade, you need both. “It’s the final countdown!”
Debates and state ads interrupting my dinner (yay, 3rd grade extra credit for watching the debate):
The new catchphrase with candidates is campaign reform, but I’m not seeing it, especially at the state level. The VPs were relatively polite, surprisingly, during the debate tonight. Why can’t the locals learn from that? But then there’s all that other junk. I wouldn’t lend money to a friend who kept wasting my money on junk. These guys keep using my money for stuff that could have fed homeless people, saved librarians in Mesa…even just to buy everyone in the Valley a hackey-sack I would deem more useful. “John Shadegg voted against soldiers and kids and will take away your MediCare fund”. (Think I’m joking? Click away.) I see no improvement in the mud-slinging department. I wonder how my dad tolerates it – I’m burned out by it all at 29.

I was whatever about Arpaio until two events: one, when I saw him saying one thing about looking for one thing in his sweeps of Guadalupe and that he had no idea he would find illegal immigrants. The way his eyes resembled a student lying to me bugged me. The other was when he said he was pulling all police coverage from Guadalupe. Criminals, move here. A “No Comment” response to an ad that plays during primetime like this? I don’t want my kids watching and repeating this.

The whole vote for a lesser evil-thing has not set well with me this election. It’s not a policy I would take in selecting a teacher, a babysitter, or a doctor. (Although when I have to choose between McDonald’s/Arby’s or Wal-Mart/Target, I do feel like I’m choosing one of two evils.) I don’t think it lines up with the vision statement of a “more perfect Union”.

Are there going to be other candidates at the next debate?

2. Kelly from the Office just said on Leno that it’s post-poned a week. America, you have been warned.

If you’re like me and bored/frustrated about traditional news broadcasters, check out what Twitter and currentTV.com are doing with the debates:

Wired has a new Twitter widget, as well:

The next Hack the Debate occurs during the VP debate on Oct. 2 at current.com/debate

Something that we can all get behind: anagrams. (Not to be confused with palindromes/Palin Drones.)

Who should we as a collection of nerds vote for? Let’s look at the names:

McCain/Palin

1. La Man Picnic

– Serving up La Food

2. Mac Can Nil Pi

– It could be that McCain’s not good at Math, but I’m guessing it’s Apple becoming bigger than pi itself…Mmmm…Apple Pi…

3. Am Clinic Nap

– Is that a comment about his age?

4. Calm In Panic

– Either he’s got strong military training or refer back to his clinic nap

Obama/Biden

1. Babied Moan

– To be fair, a knock on his age, as well.

2. Babe Domain

– Insert your own Clinton/JFK/FDR/Buchanan joke here.

3. Me Bob Naiad

– Me Jill Centaur. Want dance?

4. A Daemon Bib

– For Chef Ramsay’s show, right?

5. A Badmen Bio

– All of the playground politics of Hussein/Osama references finally catch up.

6. Amoeba Bind

– Possible healthcare reform. Also could be a promise of death by interstellar goo.

Okay, so this election is still crazy. But political commentators, know this: I reject your reality and substitute my own.

On the topic of nerds aging: Do you remember PC games where you had to flip to parts of the manual for different words? I think Mechwarrior had a crazy wheel like Penny Arcade mentions.

Favorite quote? “Democracy needs a patch.”

But if Election ’08 really is a game, I want to trade mine in at Bookman’s for the next New Jedi Order book.

If you haven’t already, check out the celebrations of Gabe’s birthday around the world.

Listen to the Democrat talk about Wall Street, and you’ll hear what the Republican thinks and be told that the crisis is the Republican’s fault.

Listen to the Republican talk, and you’ll hear him call the economy “fundamentally sound,” blame Wall Street’s woes on “unbridled corruption and greed” and propose the formation of a commission.
Sorry, guys, but how about a plan?

[Obama's] talked about strengthening capital requirements on mortgage securities and derivatives, rigorously managing liquidity risk, and investigating ratings agencies and their potential conflicts of interest with companies they rate.

There’s not much to criticize there, and that’s the problem. Obama is echoing what people in the current administration — people like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — have been saying. There’s nothing new. Obama’s “plan” is a bunch of warmed-over ideas.
…
Aside from his idea to create a 9/11-style commission to find out what went wrong and propose changes, McCain wants a safety-and-soundness regulator for every financial institution.
Again, that’s not bad, but it’s hardly radical.

Theory is great, but can I see some steps?

It seems to me like our obsession with information is creating a panic, in all honesty. Not that I’m saying we should just let it ride, but we also shouldn’t just freak out.

And: should we give tax incentives to people who save more than they spend?

And what would it look like if every American just pitched in $5 bucks to keep the economy from collapsing?

In another showing of her talent, Lisa Frank has a new product line on the market:

The rarest part of the whole story?

When interviewed, the okapi had no idea who Obama or Palin were.

Fact: Okapi are politically apathetic.

Bob Barr, huh?

I also find it interesting that neither Obama nor McCain filed for the Texas ballot by the deadline – 70 days before the election (Texas Election Code § 192.031). That was Aug. 26, 5pm.

Texas doesn’t count.

It’s also good to hear that no black holes formed today, but that’s simply because no particles were collided. That comes in a few days. Then we panic.

Much like Proverbs 26:11, I sat down to play Gyrostarr again last night. It did me in.

McCain/Fey ’08

1. Mt. McKinley
2. 97 pound king salmon/ 137 pound Chinook salmon
3. Big state-iness
4. Barrow, the northernmost town in the U.S.
5. Juneau, accessible by ferry, not road
   
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6. 43% of the population attends/attended college
7. Jewel
8. A new start for the Simpsons
9. Curt Schilling
10. Dwight Schrute
11. Sarah Palin – hockey mom with an Inuit, dog-sledding husband. I, the Voice of Democracy, was planning on abstaining. Campaign tricks have worked on my mind and I am intrigued.