So remember how I use to talk about writing a book. Well, I think I actually started doing that today. So far I have A character, A dream, and AN idea to work towards. Perhaps I shall find more of these later. Still I think I want to get BFME2.

Plain View #38 3/30/06

Grizzly Man

Dear Frankie

The Olden Days

Lent

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I went bowling last night. I think I did pretty well. Well for me. My best game was like a 120. It was good fun. Plus Kirby was there and said he tried to bring single white females, minus the white part, just single females.

I bowled my first strike while Duran Duran was playing. Nothing quite like Duran Duran and bowling.

Netflix is great. I love watching movies. Tuesday I watched "Pulp Fiction", last night was "So I Married an Axe Murderer", and tonight I watched "Basic". That is right, two movies with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.

Today was one of those days that moved really fast. At 2:30 pm it felt like 10 am. And now it is about 7:40 and it feels like 3.

Friggin' Awesome.

It's always when I have the least to do at work that I forget to post. Go figure.

This weekend was a blast!

Friday night Dan was back in town to play poker with the guys, so while J9 worked on her final show and Liz went to be early, Grace and Ruth and I went out. We went shoe shopping, had a nice dinner at the Elephant Bar (slowly becoming one of my absolute favorite places to eat), and finally ventured into The Continental Room in Fullerton. This place looks huge and important from outside, especially because of the grand entrance that includes a dressed up bouncer and a red velvet rope, but when one walks in, it smells like any other club and is actually quite tiny. The crowd packed this place and the numbers increased as we stayed there. There was a tiny stage at the far end of the room that was decorated with voluminous red curtains, and a band on the stage was crackin out some beautiful cool-jazzy type music (sorry I don't know the name of the specific genre). Fun times. We came back to the house and watched a bunch of episodes of the Office with Justin until 2am. The Office has moved up this year to become my favorite tv show.

Saturday night there was a party at Gron's to celebrate Jenine's completion of her MFA (I guess they're saying it means "mother-expletive-artist") at Cal State Long Beach. We had a great time watching tv, eating good eats, hanging out around the fire and under the new backyard tent thing, and catching up with the gang. It was the first time we had seen Danine (together) OR Wiz since October, so it was great to talk about Boston, art stuff, and pregnancy to cover all the months we have missed with each other.

Sunday evening we all met up at CSU Long Beach to go to J9's big show. There were tons of alumni from our university milling around since another guy we knew had his final show too. It was weird. But the shows were great (except for the one across the way from some poor soul whose "show" consisted of a room full of condom boxes, two fans, and a bunch of condom-balloons flying around in circles). Some of us headed out to George's Greek Cafe after the show and had some great food and our final few moments with Dan and Jenine. It's sad to see them moving away from us, but it's an exciting time for them, and plus we'll have a place to stay in Boston from now on. We'll see you in the fall!

Congratulations to our dear j9! We'll miss you both but know you will stay in touch.

I've found a neat, weird little art website called man. vs. magnet. It features mostly short animation clips by a guy named Matt Smithson. I really like his visual style.

Be sure to check out the clip he made to go with Radiohead's "Fitter Happier," plus all the other stuff.

We've added some new bloggers to the brendoman.com lineup.

Milk without cookies

Melanie's husband, Andrew, has been with us for a while now, and she had been posting on his blog, but now she's moved to her own. These are friends of Kyle and Erika, who are friends of mine from Truman. Welcome, Melanie!

Ward Words

Lucas and Kelly are some more friends from Truman. If I'm not mistaken, Lucas used to run with Eric Wright. The Wards had a blog at LiveJournal that was always loads of fun. I invited them to come join us here. It gave me an excuse to write a LiveJournal importer for b2evolution, which we just used to import their old posts into their new blog.

Maybe all three of these guys will want to post more here introducing themselves.

I've just found out about the film Snakes on a Plane. Apparently, it's an action/suspense film about...well...snakes on a plane. Starring Samuel L. Jackson. Seriously.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Samuel L. only signed on to the movie because of the ridiculous title. The filmmakers wanted to change it to "Flight 121" but Jackson insisted on the original title.

And he's not the only one who likes the title as it is. It seems there is a growing cult fan base for the movie, as evidenced by the numerous items on this fan site. So an as-yet-unreleased B action movie nabbed an A-list actor and a strong fan base, all because it has an unintentionally funny title.

Arrested Development - Season Two

Arrested Development - Season One

So this morning I decided to see what all this Evangelical fuss is about the Quiet Time. I opened up a copy of the Bible we don't happen to use very much, and one that includes short devotions on many of the pages. I happened to be in John 10, the Parable of the Good Shepherd, and saw a devotion by Tim LaHaye on 10.10: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." His piece was titled "God's Special Remedy," so I decided to read it since I am always looking for remedies, especially if I am not sure what ailments may be lurking inside of me. This is how that experience went:

Tim LaHaye: Most miserable or depressed people...

Peter: Are these two synonymous? This 'or' is grammatically ambiguous. Is being miserable the same as being depressed, or are they two different things? Or perhaps by 'miserable people' he means "people who are miserable to be around." Whatever way it was intended, I get the feeling that depression will be treated with great sensitivity in this devotion.

Tim: ...are not conscious of the fact that their misery emanates from the God-vacuum within them.

Peter: You would think that any vacuum worthy of being called a God-vacuum would be able to suck with such power that nothing would emanate from it, misery included. I hate to say it, but we might have to give the edge once again to Dyson in the vacuum market. Perhaps we have been given a dysfunctional metaphor to distract us from the implication that depression has the power to separate us from God, to drive his Spirit right out of us.

Tim: This spiritual deficiency or God-void makes them vulnerable to a variety of mental, emotional and physical maladies or disorders.

Peter: And leading "scientists" tend to say that if depression is caused by any deficiency, it is more likely a deficiency of certain chemicals in the brain. Idiots.

Tim: Whether they are antagonistic to God or just neglect his presence in their lives seems to make no difference. They experience an empty hunger within them for God, but they lack the spiritual resources to help them cope with the problems caused by their ego-dominated decisions.

Peter: If there's one thing I've found that helps a depressed person recover, it's calling them an ego-maniac.

Tim: This God-void is universally as old as man. The Bible calls it "death."

Peter: First of all, what purpose does 'universally' serve in the first sentence? I can't even come up with a humorous guess. Please post one if you can. Second, I thought what the Bible called death was, well, literal death. It's not like once they got out of the Garden of Eden and people started turning up dead that they went to God and said, "Hey, wait--you didn't say anything about actually dying. We thought you meant we'd just end up feeling blue."

Tim: [Skipping the short explanation of what happened to Adam and Eve, along with the transferance of original sin to all humanity, the terrible position it leaves everyone in, and the introduction of Jesus as the "special remedy."] The abundant life he offers not only fills the God-void in a person's spirit, but also provides him with the power to eliminate depression and other emotional problems.

Peter: Ahhh. Thanks, Tim.

***

Okay, so I ought to let you know I have many close friends and family members who have struggled or are struggling through depression. What's more, my wife and I spent something like two years walking, sometimes crawling, and sometimes just sitting exhausted through her depression. I tell you this because I know it biases my opinion. But it also informs it.

Something about growing up as a white Evangelical in America makes you look at Jesus's suffering and death as the curious precursor to what really matters: his resurrection. And the power of his resurrection becomes something akin to a "Get Out of Death Free" card. Flash your membership card and say goodbye to depression, sickness, poverty, and finance charges. We contemplate his Passion and say only, "He suffered so I wouldn't suffer." While I recognize the beautiful injustice in a God who freely chose death so that I might have life, I cannot let myself forget that there has always been a great many who look at his Passion and say, "He suffered because I suffer." Why, after all, would Jesus have to face death if we were not dying? Why would he have to endure brutality if we were not oppressed? And why would he have to become the "man of many sorrows" if we were not already grieving?

The gospel accounts tell of a man who was sorrowful to the point of death. When he was crucified he wondered whether or not a God-void had settled in, and crowds pointed at him as he hung overhead, telling him that what he feared was true--God had obviously abandoned him. What other reason could be given to explain what he was experiencing?

Jesus had already given the reason long before, as recorded in John 10: A wolf was attacking the sheep, and someone needed to lay down their life. The hired hands didn't care, and took the Darwinist attitude that everyone who could escape was probably meant to, while the sheep who were left behind only proved by their inability to escape that they did not have the Lord as their shepherd. But the mark signifying that we are the Lord's sheep is not some supernatural ability to run away from wolves. We know that we are the Lord's sheep because he jumped into our grave and fearful situation and fought to his own death for us. It is our inabilities, our weakness, and our need that most qualify us to be his sheep, and it is our depression that most qualifies us to inherit his joy.

He is not the kind of shepherd who stands in the green pastures and waits to see which sheep make it out of the valley. He goes to his sheep, gathers them together, and leads them along. Their dangers become his dangers, just as surely as his inheritance will become their inheritance. Otherwise, it would be a lie to call him Emmanuel. A shepherd called God-With-Us never forsakes the sheep, but teaches them the full refrain:

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.

and then from the same song:

He has not despised or disdained
the suffering of the afflicted one;
He has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him--
those who cannot keep themselves alive.

Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn--
for he has done it.

He has wielded the power, he has saved the sheep, he has done it.

Purpose
b₂evolution already has methods for importing blog posts from Wordpress, b2/cafelog and Movable Type. I've modified the Movable Type importer to create a LiveJournal importer.

Installation
Requires b2evolution 0.9.x or later

1. Download this file: import-lj.txt.
2. Remove the .txt from the filename and add a .php extension, then upload it to your b2evolution admin folder.

3. Edit the /admin/tools.php file and add this section:

   <div class="panelblock">
<h2><?php echo T_('LiveJournal Import') ?></h2>
<ol>
<li>Use LiveJournal's <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=8&q=export" title="LiveJournal documentation for exporting posts">export functionality</a> to create an XML file containing your posts.
<ul><li>Exports done in this way will not include comments.</li>
<li>LiveJournal's export page creates a separate file for each month, requiring you to run the importer multiple times</li>
<li>To get an one XML file with all of your posts and comments, use <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ljarchive">ljArchive</a></li>
<li>This importer is compatible with either method</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Place the XML file in the /admin folder on your server</li>
<li>Follow the instructions in the <a href="import-lj.php">LiveJournal migration utility</a>.</li>
</ol>
</div>

Usage
Go to the Tools tab and you'll see the instructions that you added in step 2 above. Get your xml backup file from LiveJournal using ljArchive. LiveJournal has their own export page, but it only archives one month at a time and it doesn't include comments. ljArchive is the preferred method, but the importer will work with either method. Upload the xml file to the admin folder and run the importer. You'll be able to choose which author and category you want assigned to the LiveJournal posts.

This movie features Gregory Peck as an attorney for a pretty woman who is accused of killing her blind husband. Peck's character falls for his client, which is a bit of a problem since a) he's married and b) his interest in her is causing a lot of problems for his career.

I only got into this movie for the last part of the story: the courtroom scene. The rest of the movie makes us sympathetic to the attorney's wife, who seems like a likeable girl, but it doesn't really show us what's so appealing about the married woman. The attorney falls in a split-second, even when the woman is admitting she's a bad person. She might be pretty, but knowing that isn't really enough to make this plot believable. So, as a lot of the story and the court procedures depend on this central relationship to work, none of it feels legitimate.

The interesting parts come when court is in session, or when the attorney visits his client's old home, both of which keep them apart from each other. Yes, it's more interesting when they are kept away from each other's company. As the story of the "who done it" elevates in court, things actually start to get a lot more involving , and I enjoyed that aspect of it.

Overall, not as clever, containing almost no humor, feelings seem forced on characters rather than believable, and kind of generic for a Hichcock selection.

Flash Version (no downloading of software)

I have some other videos I post at cinenate.blogspot.com if you are interested. Me and 2 tech guys from KC got together this last weekend and are talking about starting a God Vlog, a Christian Vlogging network. Contact me if you would be interested in being apart of this and check it out at the link below.

God Vlog

I finally found time to see this yesterday. I knew going into it that it would not be entirely faithful to the comic. No adaptations should be, because what works in one medium may not in another. I told myself I would try to suspend my appreciation of the comic book temporarily to be able to judge the film simply by its own merits. It turns out that's easier said than done.

I was actually pleased with some of the changes the Wachowskis made to the story. The biggest problem I've always had with V for Vendetta has to do with the pacing of the story. Moore's plot tends to branch out in many directions, particularly in the final third. While he makes it work in the comic, that makes it a little bit difficult to follow everything that happens. The movie features a much more cohesive and linear plot that still preserves the essentials of Moore's original story.

I was also pleased that some of my favorite scenes were represented very well. The part with the woman doctor is beautiful, and Evey's torture sequence works very well, which is absolutely essential for the story to work. Portman's performance in it rightly establishes her as the emotional center of the film. Unfortunately, the Wachowskis dropped that moments final payoff in the end by shifting the focus from Evey to the people of London (if you've read the comic and seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about). This change in the ending bothered me, but it's still not the biggest problem with the film.

A couple of weeks ago I provided my thoughts on Alan Moore's graphic novel. I emphasized how, far from actually advocating violent terrorist action, the book treats V in a morally neutral way, partly by hiding the emotions in his face behind a mask. The emotion in his voice is equally hidden, due to the fact that the dialogue is read off the page--V's voice only exists in the reader's mind. This is obviously not the case in the movie. Hugo Weaving's performance, while good, changes the character by lending him an emotional force he does not have in the comics. Add to that the film's musical cues in key dramatic scenes, and it's obvious that the audience is expected to sympathize with the character. Even the character's remaining moral shortcomings are overshadowed by the leaders of the British government, who are made much nastier and more evil than they are in the comic. The result is that V very clearly comes out as the hero in this film. And that's why it's not nearly as good as the comic. Whereas Alan Moore's original comic merely raises questions about anarchy and fascism or terrorists and governments, the film makes up the audience's mind for them. There is little ambiguity left.

Despite that difference, I must admit that the movie is fairly well-done. It could have been much better with a more sensitive writer and director, but it still provides some very moving scenes and is perhaps the best Hollywood adaptation of one of Alan Moore's stories we can hope for.

cheerleaderToss.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

Launch the cheerleader and complete the challenges. Pretty darn fun.

Emma and I sat down with a microphone and talked about the vacation. We give a day by day audio report, complete with Emma's fascination with scary Disneyland rides and a few random tangents. The original recording was 33 minutes long, but I trimmed it down to a snappy 17 minutes. Here it is:

Emma's Disneyland Vacation (18 minutes, 16.5 MB)

If you want to get a feel for what it's like to have a conversation with this four-year-old, then you can download the uncut version (33 minutes, 30.5 MB).

I cleared everything off my iPod last night, and randomly loaded a new 1,044 songs onto it. Here's what it spit out this morning:

Paloalto - Pick Yourself Off the Beach
I got this CD, a CD single for "Fade Out/In," for free from Island/ Def Jam when I was trying to put out a compilation CD for a non-profit I was working with. Paloalto is very generic; imagine the most boring parts of U2 and Radiohead. They remind me a bit of Swervedriver (and any number of other early 90's shoegazer bands). This song puts me to sleep (in a bad way). This is full of parentheticals (isn't it?).

Compulsive Gamblers - I Call You Mine
I love all of the Oblivians related music. This is from a post-Oblivians release (as opposed to the pre-Oblivians Compulsive Gamblers material). This album is really great bluesy rock with earnest vocals and terrific rock n' roll.

Nirvana - Stain
I like the drums in this song, and the way they cut through the buzzsaw of guitars. I like that about pretty much all of Nirvana's songs.

The Donnas - Speedin' Back to My Baby
Back before the Donnas took themselves too seriously. I think this song was just as they were switching from the female Ramones thing to a more AC/DC type of sound.

Pere Ubu - Over My Head
From the live disc in their "Datapanik in Year Zero" boxed set. Seemingly as straightforward rock as Ubu is likely to get.

Cheap Trick - Oh Caroline
This is one of Cheap Trick's poppier songs. I've really become a Cheap Trick junkie over the years.

MxPx - Honest Answers
MxPx can churn out some fairly generic pop-punk tunes, and this is one of them. I like a lot of their stuff, but this is toward the bottom of the list.

Big Black - Bad Penny
Pretty much anything by Big Black is great. Pretty much anything by Steve Albini is great.

The Bollweevils - No Time
Fitting, since I am currently wearing my Bollweevils "Survive" t-shirt that I got in '94 or '95. The Bollweevils are one of my favorite bands ever.

The Modern Lovers - Dignified & Old
Jonathan Richman's terrific punk rock band. This is from the live album, "Precise Modern Lover's Order."

A heck of a lot of gratitutde all for one little snowcone.

I realize that not all of America has seen very many feature films set in Japan, or about geishas. I spent a lot of time watching foreign films in high school, and although I'm not sure how many were about geishas, I feel like Memoirs of a Geisha is good, but plays out like a series of scenes I've already seen in other movies. It's all very familiar. There are no guesses about where the movie is headed at any given time.

It does LOOK pretty. The costumes and makeup are nice, as are some of the beautiful sets, but I didn't notice anything very special about the directing. In fact, I thought several scenes lacked in that aspect.

Memoirs is a very long movie for such a seemingly simple plot (which centers around a young girl who moves from servitude to geisha after she is inspired by the kindness of one man to make something of herself and make him a part of her life). I can sense that the book probably went into more detail, but the movie always stays on the surface and yet still endures for two hours and fifteen minutes. Several audience members were checking their watches.

The lead actors were able enough, and even sympathetic, though I never fully believed in Ziyi Zhang as a "legendary" geisha, and some of the characters from the house in which she was raised were outright laughable at times. Yet her story with the chairman was enough to keep me going. It was kind of like going to a movie where half of the scenes work well and interest me while the other half were long and awkward. In the end, I mildly enjoyed it but saw too many flaws in it to let its beauty make up for the rest.

A few peeps have been asking me for my friend codes for my DS games, so I figured I would put them in one handy post so I don't have to keep fishing for them. Here we go:

Metroid Prime Hunters: 0988 5186 5569
Tetris DS: 820228 599132
Animal Crossing: 253466392225
Mario Kart: 468214 507767

Feel free to post your code in the comments if I don't have it yet or e-mail it to me. I usually play late at night my time, but if you want to arrange a meeting, just e-mail me or something. I wish the DS had some kind of IM system so you would know when your friends were online. That's my one tiny complaint about the wifi connection.

I ported an open source web template to b2evolution. Nautica 2.2 Liquid is one of the nicest templates I've seen on Open Web Design in a while. You can take a look at the new skin here. Brendoman.com authors can use the skin by changing the settings in the backoffice. If anyone else wants to download it, get it here.

Wow, it's that time again already. I didn't think this week would go by fast because of my vacation coming up. Here we go....

1. Ocean Blue from How to be a... Zillionaire! by ABC
2. It Takes Time to Build from To the 5 Boroughs by The Beastie Boys
3. Desired Constellation from Medulla by Bjork
4. The Road from Standars by The Alarm
5. Say You Love Me from Greatest Hits by Fleetwood Mac
6. Suffer Little Children from The Smiths by The Smiths
7. Just from The bends by Radiohead
8. Short Circuit from Discovery by Daft Punk
9. The Voyager from Easy Come, Easy Go by Starflyer 59
10. Love Comes Tumbling from The B-Sides 1980-1990 by U2

There you go. Have a happy Friday!

Today's "Duh of the Day" comes from our esteemed Gringo who says:

...i’m failing to see the difference between this [Scientology] and any other religion.

Well, the difference between Scientology and any other religion usually stem from nonequal beliefs and customs. For instance, Scientologists do not practice salat. Most members of Islam do. Another example is that many Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. Many Scientologists do not believe that, to my knowledge.

It is in these ways that religions differ from each other.

Monday - Sucked

Tuesday - Good

Wednesday - Even Better

Thursday - DVD Burner, more RAM.

I am pure goodness.

For Christmas, I bought Aidan They Might Be Giants' "No!" I had recently discovered that they, and a number of other indie rock artists, began working in what might be called "kid's music." Listening to the CD this morning with Aidan on our way to his grandma's house, I realized how wrong this assessment is.

I already liked the album. We listen to it at home, and he likes to dance and clap and laugh along to it. But usually there is too much going on to enjoy the music. Usually, we are also playing with toys or reading books or running into the furniture (at least Aidan is usually involved in those activities) to listen intentionally to the music.

But this morning as we drove, I got a chance to appreciate it on a whole new level. At first blush, the album appears to be simply silly kids songs. But as I listened, I heard great songwriting, lyrically and musically. Songs like the buoyant rocker "Clap Your Hands" and the mellow, dreamy "Where Do They Make Balloons" transcend mere kid stuff.

The album would certainly appeal to fans of They Might Be Giants, but I think it would also appeal to fans of bands like the Flaming Lips as well. I look forward to discovering more kids music with my son.

No, not the Wilford Brimley movies. I've been looking for a case for my iPod Nano for a while now, and none of them seemed to be what I needed. All I ever found were sport sleeves or arm bands, or the occasional "leather folio." I really wanted a case that could hold my iPod and some accessories. I was tired of worrying, for example, that my iTrip would fall out of my coat pocket, or that I would misplace my ear buds.

Melanie found a case on Apple's website called a Cocoon. I just got it yesterday, and so far it seems to be just what I wanted. It has enough room for my earbuds and iTrip, with a little room left over for the lanyard that came with it, if I wanted it in there, too. I don't know if I will have much use for it yet. Maybe if I use it while working out.

It's a larger case, for sure, but I care more about the extra compartment than about keeping it slim. Plus, I like that the case seems durable, whereas everything else I've seen seems merely cosmetic.

Just wanted to share my excitement!

My mother-in-law wanted to make a birthday dinner for me, and asked me what I wanted. I have a particular affinity for this taco salad that she makes. She usually makes some killer enchiladas with it, so that's what I requested. I was told that that was too easy to make, that I should pick something else. So I said, "How about Chateau Brion"? Lo and behold, we go to her and her boyfriend's house yesterday, and what are they making? Chateau Brion.

It was so very awesome.

My iPod gave me a rather diverse random ten this busy, crazy, hectic Friday.

Strung Out - Rotten Apple
Bad Religion - Faith in God
Tom Waits - Dead and Lovely
The Milkshakes - Pipeline
Minor Threat - Cashing In
Chevelle - Comfortable Liar
Tori Amos - Winter
Los Diablos del Sol - Wild Sound
Public Enemy - Hell No We Ain't All Right
The Hives - Antidote

Do these all seem like they belong in one person's collection? Do Public Enemy and the Tori Amos work side by side? Would the Milkshakes have toured with Minor Threat (or for that matter, would Thee Headcoats tour with Fugazi)?

The other day I told Melanie that her brain is like a Brawny paper towel, and mine is more like the other leading brand. She remembers so many things, like important dates, my pants' size, pizza toppings I like, who starred in what movie. I, on the other hand, can barely be counted on to remember my car keys, never mind where I put them the night before.

I wish I had a better memory. I try hard to remember to do nice things for her, and to clean up after myself, and to consider her needs, but sometimes I just plain forget. And it's not because I'm not thinking about her, because I am. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in doing something nice for her, that instead of thinking about what she would like, I think about what I would like if I were her and I do that.

4 color rebellion » Nintendo Keynotes Redux

Some excellent news from the Game Developer's Conference:

He's not done here though, he finally unveils that the Revolution Virtual Console will feature about 1000 Sega Genesis/Master System games and also some TurboGFX games! This makes the Revolution Virtual Console even better than we first expected.

I am already super excited for the virtual console feature of the Revolution and now I'm even more excited. I missed out on some good Genesis games because I never owned one, but now I'll be able to play Sonic, Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star, and plenty of others. Sweet! Hopefully some of the Bonk games will be included in the Turbo Grafix selection because I always enjoyed those. So what else could we be seeing on the Virtual Console now that Sega is on board? Saturn and Dreamcast titles? With a broadband connection they really wouldn't take that long to download.

The idea of Genesis games on a Nintendo system is still kind of throwing me for a loop. I never thought I would see this day. Yes, I know, Sega has been releasing games on Nintendo systems for awhile, but these are Genesis games from when Sega and Nintendo were bitter enemies! Now a lot of gamers tend to own multiple systems, but when I was growing up you were pretty much either a Sega household or a Nintendo household. We were Nintendo all the way up until the Playstation came out. Now us Nintendophiles are considered the quirky folks in the gaming world. Hopefully that will change with the Revolution and the rising popularity of the DS.

One of our favorite shows of late on Cartoon Network's magical Adult Swim is Harvey Birdman: Attorney at law. It's basically characters taken from old Hana Barbara cartoons, being used in this new show. Birdman is a lawyer for characters like the Jetsons, Flintstones, etc. The cases range from Apache Chief (of Superfriends) suing a business because their coffee spilled on him and blocked his ability to enlarge... to a custody case between Dr. Quest and Race Bannon for the kids after their "friendship" dissolves.

Besides the cases, I love all of the show's regular characters. Phil Ken Sebben, Harvey's boss, in particular is one of the funniest. He wears an eye patch, and often directs people to sit in a chair while pointing in a completely different direction. He's also just a weird guy.

Anyway, all that introduction to say that if you've ever worked for a company that is well-organized, you have most likely been witness to the creation of one or various mission statements. I have our school's mission statement memorized because I have heard it so often, and within each department, there are even more mission statements. Sometimes I feel a bit tired of the cliches that appear in mission statements, and also how unrealistically idealistic they sound at times.

So when I saw an episode of HBAAL which featured Phil Ken Sebben in an informational video about working for Sebben and Sebben (his company), I almost died laughing at the company's mission statement. It has every cliche in the book and is also hilarious (to me, at least). Enjoy:

PUTTING CLIENTS FIRST BY PUTTING EMPLOYEES FIRST, IMMEDIATELY AFTER PRIORITIZING FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND LEVERAGING PROFITABILITY TOWARD EXCEEDING BY EMPOWERING OUR EMPLOYEES TO PUT CLIENTS (AND THEMSELVES) FIRST, IN A DIVERSE AND RESPECTFUL ENVIRONMENT OF ONLY THOSE THAT COME FIRST, FIRST.

Yeah. Love this show.

Hello friends!On Friday, we leave for Chicago for five days in our grand quest to visit America's largest cities before we die. Do you live in Chicago? Do you live close to Chicago? Tell us some awesome places to visit or maybe we will visit you! Yay. Also, if you know where Wesley Willis is buried, let me know so I can pay my respects.


Rock over London!
Rock on Chicago!

Burger King - Your way, right away!


- Lucas & Kelly -

I noticed the post below, and Honzo is too much of a slowpoke. So here it is, in all of its hilarity.

Metroid Prime Hunters

Nintendo DS Tetris

So I'm stealing this idea from Mac but I don't think she'll mind. I'm going to be on vacation (far away from the internets most likely) from March 27th until April 8th. I might be able to get online while we're in Florida but while we're on the cruise I'll most likely not. Since everyone is going off and doing their own thing in blog land (not that there's anything wrong with that), we need to enlist some more guest authors here. Heck, it might even lead to a regular gig if you are interested. You don't have to be a geek and talk about geeky things either. If you're interested, let me know in the comments or email brendoman at this domain.

Want to hear the new Flaming Lips album legally and for free?

Just curious about this weird band I keep raving about?

You can go now to the official Flaming Lips website and hear the new album in streaming audio. Just click on the audio tab.

And I would like to add that the more I listen to this album the more I love it. Some songs that sounded simple and poppy at first are beginning to sound much more complex to me. The song "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung" is one of their absolute best.

the mindful mission

Our own Hippy Dave has moved on to greener pastures and has obtained his own domain and hosting. Be sure to update your feeds and stuff!

Now that I have Tetris DS and Metroid Prime Hunters in my hands, posting will be a little light. And then I'm going on vacation. Sorry guys. I stayed up waaay too late last night. Phil and I went over to his brother Dave's house and we played Metroid and Tetris until about 1 AM. We also messed around with Dave's new recording setup and my copy of Electroplankton. In just a few minutes we were able to record some pretty darn cool tracks.

So how are the games? Incredible. And I haven't even really played Metroid that much. We were just playing download play because not everyone had the games yet and it was amazing. The gameplay on Tetris is as addictive as it's always been and now you have all the retro Nintendo goodness thrown in. The multiplayer adds a whole new dimension to the game. I was going to just go to bed when I got home but decided to play some single player Tetris instead. It was 3 AM before I knew it. I got caught up in all the different modes and then I tried a few online matches via the Nintendo WiFi service. I almost got completely sucked in again but I had stuff to do today so I pryed myself away and went to bed.

The controls in Metroid take a little getting used to, but once you do it becomes an amazing first person shooter. The multiplayer is fast and furious. I haven't even played the single player yet but Dave loves it. Kudos to Nintendo for releasing two amazing titles on the same day. And curses to them for eating up all my free (and not so free) time.

Xenu.net is offering torrents of the supposedly banned episode of South Park. Here's a link to the .avi torrent. Not only does this show take a huge stab at scientology, but it also makes fun of our good friend R. Kelly and his ridiculous music video series. If you haven't watched it yet, it's a must see.

One of the advantages of faster internet is the ability to post pictures faster, and also to post larger pictures than before. Click on the 'Photo Gallery' link to the right to see a few new albums (as promised). A couple of the albums feature pictures cropped to 20% of their original size rather than 10%, as I was fond of under our old internet regime. Just click on the picture you want to see larger, and it will open up in on a new page.

You can enjoy the pictures in the gallery, save the pictures on your computer if you want, or even contact me if you want a copy of the original for yourself. However, the originals vary between 3MB and 6MB, so my ability to get them to you will be very limited.

Let me know if you like the pictures, but not if you don't.

Link: http://www.caeaglerock.com/images/medialibrary/C3EA3850950CA7F838DAA391C7C66C3943.mov

Here is the Easter video created by our church to help raise volunteers for the weekend services. This is one of the cool things about going to church in LA, I suppose. Enjoy!

V for Vendetta grabbed me as soon as there was a beautiful spray of alliteration in one of its early scenes. V, the name given to the man in the Guy Fawkes mask, is incredibly witty, creative, and wants the English masses to think for themselves instead of bowing/cowering to the Hitler-inspired British rulers. His opening scenes are inspiring and interesting, as is the use of all things visual in this film.

As the story unfolded, I did feel a little bit bogged down by some of the political ideas. The idea of a totalitarian Britain, heavily impacted by the spin the government forces the media to make on its stories, is an interesting one, but unfortunately the addition of many references to America's current politics, religious condemnation of homosexuals, and the banning of the Koran are all things that jerked me out of my suspension of disbelief. Instead of believing in a futuristic society, I merely compared it to our own. I think the movie might have been more powerful if it had stuck to the big ideas rather than getting down to specifics.

That being said, it didn't kill the movie for me. As much as I may have rolled my eyes at certain obvious references to today's world, I liked pretty much everything else. Hugo Weaving is able to channel the spirit of a revolutionary, all while never showing his face. That we believe in him and see him as an emotional character is proof that Weaving has done a great job. Portman, as well, hits all the right notes in her role as Evey, a girl who is brought into V's plot by either coincidence or fate.

The story goes a bit long, but I didn't mind too much. V for Vendetta is filled with great uses of visual effects, music, acting, and some clever dialogue as well. I had a good time and like where it was going with things, although I can see where it could have been better.

... And I liked The Island, so take that for what it's worth.

"In a sense we're doing a 'mea culpa' in saying we've waited too long for a new browser release," Gates said during his talk to kick off Microsoft's first show for designers and developers of high-impact Web sites. "We are very immersed in the browser as a platform." (Microsoft Admits Internet Explorer Mistakes - Yahoo! News)

This has been painfully obvious to everyone familiar with browser issues, but it's nice to see that Microsoft is owning up to the fact that stopping development on an app as crucial as a web browser might be a bad idea.

Recipe for this novel:
- 1 cup The Bourne Identity
- 1 cup National Treasure
- 2 cups college Art 101
- 1 qt. religious iconography and history (not always accurate)
- A dash of Eyes Wide Shut
- A dash of Rick Steve's Guide to Paris
- A pinch of the "Who is Kaiser Soze?" effect
- 1 lame ending

Moves quickly, has a page-turning affect for about 200 pages, gets a bit predictable and preachy, and stays interesting enough to the end. A bit cliche, but an okay read. It didn't quite convert me to reading modern literature on a more regular basis, but it should make a decent movie, since its structure is quite like watching scenes in a movie.

I give it an "okay".

You may have noticed that we're getting more spam than usual. All b2evolution users are feeling this and the devolpers are working on new solutions. Since we're getting hit so hard and the beta release isn't expected out anytime soon, I've taken matters into my own hands. I applied a little hack to slow down the spam. Registered users won't even notice it. You can continue like you always have. Unregistered commenters will have one extra checkbox to fill out before comments can be posted. If the spambots catch on to this, then we'll have to do something else. This may uglify your blog's skin. If it does or if you can't comment at all on certain blogs, let me know.

Murderball

Disney Cruise Line® - 7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise

Oh man, I cannot freaking wait. We're actually going to Disney World first, but this is what I'm looking forward to the most.

My Boring Ass Life » B-Star G

After a recommendation from Danny and now from Kevin Smith, I think I'm going to have to give this show a whirl. Onward into geekdom!

Since I switched to a Mac last May I've been constantly on the lookout for good, free software. One site has helped me more than any other. They're always posting descriptions of programs that are useful, fun or both. I've been meaning to post about FreeMacWare.com for a while so my fellow Mac converts will know where to look. The contest they're having now convinced me to get it done.

I want to highlight 5 apps that I've discovered through the site. These may not be my favorites. I heard about Firefox, Quicksilver, Cyberduck, etc, from other places. But here are five programs that I heard of first from FreeMacWare.com.

DoubleCommand - One thing that's made the switch a bit more tricky is the fact that OS X uses Home and End keyboard keys a bit differently than Windows. In Windows, hitting the End key moves the text cursor to the end of the line. On OS X it goes to the end of the document. DoubleCommand is a little application that let's you remap keys. In some cases you can make it more like Windows. I enabled the "PC style home and end keys". You can also make the control key on the Mac act like the command key, which is another area where I still slip up sometimes.

Disk Inventory X - Before I got my new external hard drive, video projects were hard because I was always running out of space. This program scans your drive and makes a graphical representation of the whole drive so you can see where the space is going. It's been very useful for me.

Sizzling Keys - I like listening to iTunes while I use the computer. This app gives you keyboard shortcuts for controling you music even when iTunes isn't the active window. So, right now while I'm typing, I could hit Command + Option + Space and pause iTunes without ever taking my hands off the keyboard or leaving the Firefox window. It also includes a little info window that pops up to show you the meta data and album art when a new song comes on.

Handbrake Lite - Handbrake is a program for converting DVDs into compressed video files. Handbrake Lite is a simplified version that mainly converts into a format that can play on my iPod. What used to take several steps and some trial and error is now done with a few clicks.

MacOSaiX - This is the app I used to make the photo mosaic of the brendoman.com logo. It's dead simple to use. Choose your main image. Then enter some search terms and it hits up Google Images for images to compose with. The more search terms you give it and the longer y