To honor the victims of the recent Virginia Tech Shooting, many bloggers are observing a day of Blog Silence tomorrow. No problem for me. If anyone in the area is looking for something to do tomorrow night, Phil and I will be at Detroit Bar watching Matt Death & The New Intellectuals (Many former members of Havalina Rail Co.) and Deep Sea Diver. There's no cover so that is cool. Enjoy the silence tomorrow.

My freshman year of college I attended a poetry reading by Inada. He read this poem from Legends from Camp. I liked it so much I bought two of his books.

Rayford's song was Rayford's song,
but it was not his alone, to own.

He had it, though, and kept it to himself
as we rowed-rowed-rowed the boat
through English country gardens
with all the whispering hope
we could muster, along with occasional
choruses of funiculi-funicula!

Weren't we a cheery lot--
coming 'round the mountain
with Susanna, banjos on our knees,
rompin' through the leaves
of the third-grade music textbook.

Then Rayford Butler raised his hand.
For the first time, actually,
in all the weeks he had been in class,
and for the only time before he'd leave.
Yes, quiet Rayford, silent Rayford,
little Rayford, dark Rayford--
always in the same overalls--
that Rayford, Rayford Butler, raised his hand:

"Miss Gordon, ma'am--
we always singing your songs.
Could I sing one of my own?"

Pause. We looked at one another;
we looked at Rayford Butler;
we looked up at Miss Gordon, who said:

"Well, I suppose so, Rayford--
if you insist. Go ahead.
Just one song. Make it short."

And Rayford Butler stood up very straight,
and in his high voice, sang:

"Suh-whing ah-loooow,
suh-wheeet ah-charr-eee-oohh,
ah-comin' for to carr-eee
meee ah-hooooome..."

Pause. Classroom, school, schoolyard,
neighborhood, the whole world
focusing on that one song, one voice
which had a light to it, making even
Miss Gordon's white hair shine
in the glory of it, glowing
in the radiance of the song.

Pause. Rayford Butler sat down.
And while the rest of us
may have been spellbound,
on Miss Gordon's face
was something like a smile,
or perhaps a frown:

"Very good, Rayford.
However, I must correct you:
the word is 'chariot.'
'Chariot.' There is no
such thing as a 'chario.'
Do you understand me?"

"But Miss Gordon..."

"I said 'chariot, chariot.'
Can you pronounce that for me?"

"Yes, Miss Gordon. Chariot."

"Very good, Rayford.
Now, class, before we return
to our book, would anyone else
care to a sing a song of their own?"

Our songs, our songs, were there--
on tips of tongues, but stuck
in throats--songs of love,
fun, animals, and valor, songs
of other lands, in other languages,
but they just wouldn't come out.
Where did our voices go?

Rayford's song was Rayford's song,
but it was not his alone, to own.

"Well, then, class--
let's turn our books to
'Old Black Joe.'"

After Lawson Inada read this poem to us he told us that it's a true story from his childhood and that, of course, the teacher was wrong. If you pronounce the word chariot then the song doesn't rhyme. Rayford was singing the song the way it was originally sung by slaves in the South.

I hope they play "Stonehenge"

A: When it occurs at an abortion clinic.

Pickle Licious, Inc.

Just wanted to point out that thanks to our wonderful Pickle Week, this showed up in our Adsense ads. Someone buy me a gallon of those suckers.

Plain View #66 - April 12, 2007

Bufe

Kids collection

Ski trip

Talladega Nights

Potty talk

Sweet Hereafter

(the rural juror)

Research paper

Atheists

Extreme Home Makeover

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This is a book I can't really do much justice to because I didn't treat it fairly while reading it. I started Wuthering Heights as the logical next choice since I'm going through my books alphabetically by author. No, I haven't gotten very far since I'm only on "Bronte", but that's mostly because I get distracted a lot because of brand new books in series or books being adapted to film. So I started Emily Bronte's book in August while waiting in the car dealer for my Mini to be serviced. I didn't read any of it again until I went in for another service in January, and since then I've finally caught up with it and finished it. Poor Emily - she's only got one bestseller to her name, and I didn't really treat it with respect.

Quick setup: There's an estate called Wuthering Heights, rich family, and the father adopts Heathcliff, a gypsy-like boy. He's a wild child, and he's the best of the friends with his adopted sister, Catherine, with whom he eventually falls in love. Catherine and Heathcliff are two peas in a pod for several years, until she meets Edgar Linton and he proposes. She stupidly accepts even though she's in love with Heathcliff, and Heathcliff stupidly does nothing to stop her. She marries Edgar Linton and moves to his estate called The Grange. Heathcliff goes away for a while and comes back rich and ready for revenge on everyone who ever kept him from his beloved Catherine, and he accomplishes that hatefully and thoroughly, though he suffers much himself.

Emily Bronte's writing style is definitely a bit more blunt and unfeminine than sister Charlotte's. It's less flowy yet more rambling, and while Charlotte's story begins darkly and emerges into the light, Emily's moves in the opposite direction. While it's easy to see the similarities between the two due to their shared experiences in life, it's a lot of fun to see the different approaches they take.

This moody piece is told by way of a narrative within a narrative. A person from the outside enters the world of the Grange and Wuthering Heights as a tenant, only to find himself captivated by Nelly the maid's long tale of the two families. I like that. It's like a film within a film within a film when Nelly repeats dialogue from other people, especially the cranky and religious Joseph. I like the many layers by which the story comes across to me as the reader, because since it's so far removed from the actual happenings, it's already become somewhat of a legend. It's easy to imagine that the story has been overexaggerated in some areas, or that details were lost in others. At any rate, it's that storytelling aspect that makes it more engrossing to me as a reader.

Something I also appreciated was Bronte's ability to make Heathcliff a character who is meant to be despised, but also pitied. He accomplishes so much to make us hate him, yet when he (poetically) describes what life without Catherine is like, we want to make everything work for him. This love-hate relationship between protagonist and reader was very interesting. Actually, I'm not even sure I ever hated him - he did some really cruel things, but somehow I always rooted for him anyway, and when he sinks to his lowest depths at the graveyard, it somehow seemed excusable because his love somehow made him more human.

Anyway, the only writings I read about this book were those included in the introduction (which really shouldn't be read until afterwards anyway). I liked the focus on how Heathcliff and Catherine are somehow one, and how the lines between their individuality are often blurred, especially with the introduction Catherine and Edgar's daughter, also called Catherine. I don't really have a lot to elaborate on there, but I liked perusing that discussion.

This is pretty much all on the surface. I should probably do some more reading about the book - we'll see if I find the time. At any rate, I thought it was great and am surprised I never read it earlier, considering my tendency to enjoy darker tales. I'm sure Becky's reading this and thinking, "Yeah, finally!" :)

Didn't get tickets to Coachella? Didn't want to brave the heat and crowds (for which I don't blame anyone)? Have no fear, you can still watch the show, from the looks of things, at the AT&T Blue Room, which is actually a pretty decent music site. The coverage starts tomorrow at 3 PM Pacific and goes til Midnight each night of the show.

Oh man, I forgot to mention a recent happening. The guy who was largely responsible for me leaving Disneyland, the one who didn't get in any kind of trouble at all over the events that occurred, was fired recently. I don't know why and I don't really care. Chalk that one up to the Karma Police. That's all I have to say about that.

Spikey's Bounce Around is pretty darn simple. Just click the mouse to make Spikey bounce around and free the butterflies. As usual, it gets more difficult the further you get.

Hat tip to the always awesome Jay is Games.

Fates Worse Than Death by Kurt Vonnegut

NPR's Fresh Air has a nice interview with Bill Moyers, one of the few great journalists remaining in America. I know I've been linking to a lot of NPR stories lately, but this one is definitely worth your time. In it Moyers talks about the failure of the mainstream media to scrutinize the federal government's claims leading up to the Iraq war.

My favorite quote:

Splitting the difference between two opinions does not get you to the truth. It gets you to another opinion.

In other words, forget the debate over conservative, liberal, or moderate biases. We need media that have a bias toward the truth.

I was about to email Justin the details of our next show, but I figured I should just put them up here so all of you can read about it and hopefully attend (if you are in the area). From our Events page:

May 5th, 2007 5-7 PM

Writer & Paravell

Songs for Speech: A live concert event to benefit:

* The Center for Children who Stutter
* The Speech and Hearing Clinic at CSUF
* NSSLHA(National Student Speech and Language Hearing Association)

At Cal State Fullerton Titan Student Union Building
2555 E. Nutwood Ave.
Fullerton, CA 92831
$10 @ the door

Yeah, Phil and I have been busy with lots of different stuff lately. That's probably one of the reasons I haven't been posting as much. Also, things have been pretty busy as far as schoolwork goes. CBEST scores are still a couple weeks away. I also have been playing a trial of Vanguard, which I really dig. I think they still have some bugs and stuff to work out, but that's pretty typical of new MMO's. If my financial situation was a bit better, I would probably buy it. But most of my free time has been spent at Phil's either watching Alias or working on our various projects. Hopefully we're moving closer to our ultimate dream of doing pop.vox full time. Some day.....

So the Superior Court isn't able to track well when women change their names. They send summonses based on your voting registration, right? Well, the past few elections, my mom has told me that I'm still showing up on the list at my old polling place, where my parents still vote. Yet I also show up on the list at my new polling place. If I really wanted to, I could vote twice.

I have already received a summons and served jury duty under my new name at my new address. Yet, the court recently sent a summons to my old name at my old address. My parents gave it to me. Now I could have just thrown it away and said, "Hey, I'm not at that address, so I could pretend my parents just throw away any mail being sent to me," but, being a good citizen, I called in to let them know they had a glitch in the system. The guy says no problem and tells me to mail back the summons and write that I've already served under my new name. I even listed my new name and new address.

Today, my mom gave me another summons that said my request for an excuse has been denied. Apparently, even with the update, they insist on mailing the second summons to my old address, with my old name. So now I've got a summons to serve with a name that isn't mine and an address that isn't mine.

Now, I have no problem serving jury duty, when it's actually my time to serve. My problem is that I'm in their system twice, and as such, I'm more likely to get called for service more often.

When I got married, I changed my name with Social Security, the DMV, and voter registration, and I also filed an official change of address with the postal service. So, why should I be forced to serve under a false name when I've done everything according to the government's rules, but the government can't keep up their files properly?

I am sorry guys, I have been so incredibly negative recently and I can't believe that I am starting to talk politics. I hate it when I do that.

Sorry Dave, I have been such a hoser.

Anyways, I want to become much more positive again. For some reason I have it in my brain that being negative is a good thing. In fact I think that negativity surrounds us so much that when we see it, we view it as a good thing. Instead of trying to find what works and what will make things better we become so focused on what is wrong and we decided that we are going to dig and burrow our niche into what is wrong in life instead of holding on to what is good and cling to it.

So I am sorry that I haven't been here much. I feel as though I need to be here more and write more and be myself more and well just about be anything that is beneficial more. I guess what I am saying is more more more.

On that note, you shall soon learn the truth of that which is all matter.

Hey everyone! How have all of you been? I ask, because none of you (save a couple) ever update your blogs.

Mine was great! I actually had a busy week last week with something new to do every night, so I'll back up and start with Thursday.

Thursday night, I met up with Paul and Cyndi at the Fox Theatre in Fullerton for Movies on the Fox. The pre-show entertainment was ghastly, with someone playing Joplin piano tunes on a keyboard. There were so many mistakes and the rhythm was constantly off, so I just laughed a lot, especially during the pieces I've actually learned how to play. Poor guy. We graded Cyndi's highschoolers' math work before the movie (wow, those were bad!) and then settled in to watch The Sting. I'll review that later. The experience was good overall, albeit pretty cold by the end of the night. I'm looking forward to these things in the summer, although I'm skipping the one in June because they're showing Grease.

Friday night, Ric and I had a good meal at Panera and just hung around the house. I've been getting a lot more reading done, which is great!

Saturday I woke up early, went to the post office to pick up my Keane tickets, which had been sent via registered mail (grrr!) and then headed out to Megan's apartment for Amy's girlie shower. That's all I can say, because I don't want to post spoilers for Ryan's honeymoon. After the shower, I headed to the mall, then went home where I feel deeply asleep for a couple of hours. Mornings on Saturdays just aren't my thing. I did laundry at my folks' place and then Ric and I went out to eat at Claim Jumpers. I ordered healthy this time around with the Oaxacan sea bass, which was pretty good. We stayed for a while and had some great coffee drinks for dessert.

Sunday we had church and hung out with the Andersons. Emily actually let me hold her for a good five minutes before getting fussy. We did laundry at Ric's folks' house and I washed my car (why?) about 2 hours before it rained. We met up with Gron in Brea to check out the Hot Fuzz, which was very funny. I was glad that they played Supergrass' Caught By The Fuzz during the credits.

This week holds a bunch of software presentations from another vendor who wants our business at work, the usual tv night with the Neals, hopefully the Last Mimzy at the dollar theatre, a visit from Amy's mom, the play, brunch with the Andersons, and a Travis concert. I'm excited!

NPR has a great essay from Diane Roberts warning against the danger of reading too much into the writings of the Virginia Tech murderer.

I agree with her completely. When I was studying to be an English teacher I was a little nervous about what I'd do if I had a student that wrote dark and disturbing stories about people getting killed. You know what I found out in the last few years? Lots of perfectly normal teenagers like to read and write morbid stories and poetry. If I were to panic over every piece a student turns in that involves a violent death I would not only be totally alarmist, but I would lose my students' trust.

Although it's difficult to read, I assure you that this is the official website for Beautiful Katamari, the fourth game (counting the PSP one) in the beloved Katamari Damacy series. The big deal about this one is that is supposedly being released for 360, PS3, and the Wii. There's also going to be a new character. Hopefully we'll get some more info soon.

Every once in a while I read a book that perfectly expresses my own intuitive ideas about the world, only in a way that is more clear, articulate, and compelling than I could ever put it. Blue Like Jazz is one of those books.

For every chapter I read I find myself inwardly cheering, "Yes! That's right! Finally someone gets it!" On matters of Christian love, tolerance, politics, evangelism, and involvement in the secular world Donald Miller expresses things I've been feeling for a long time. Some of them I've discussed openly, while others have been more difficult for me to put into words. It's passages like this that I love:

I felt like both churches came to the table with a them and us mentality, them being the liberal non-Christians in the world, and us being Christians. I felt, once again, that there was this underlying hostility for homosexuals and Democrats and, well, hippie types. I cannot tell you how much I did not want liberal or gay people to be my enemies. I liked them. I cared about them, and they cared about me. I learned that in the woods. I had never felt so alive as I did in the company of my liberal friends. It isn't that the Christians I had been with had bad community; they didn't, I just liked the community of the hippies because it was more forgiving, more, I don't know, healthy.

The big difference between me and Donald Miller, though (aside from the obvious fact that he's a much better writer than me) is that he doesn't just criticize the church--the greatest portion of his criticism he reserves for himself. Following the passage I quoted above, he goes on to say that the problem with Christians, himself included, is that we treat love as a commodity, doling it out to the worthy and withholding it from those we would like to change. From there Miller talks mostly about examples from his own life--how he can show love more unconditionally to everyone, including Christian fundamentalists.

Although Miller expresses a lot of views that I already agree with, what I am taking from this book is that the way to change Christianity is to start with myself.

Okay, so I finally hunkered down to watch Tideland. A couple weeks later, I'm still figuring out my thoughts, but I'd say it was "okay." I don't hate it, like many did, but I don't love it either. While I understand it and do not object to the occasionally grotesque content, nothing really pushed me one way or another.

The movie begins as Gilliam himself makes a statement about viewing the movie through the eyes of a child and how, while creating this movie, he discovered his own inner child, which was a little girl. The little girl in the story is Jeliza-Rose, a kid whose mother dies at the start of the film, and she's taken by her drug-addicted father to a rundown house in a remote location on a prairie near some train tracks. Her father dies early in the film too, but she actually doesn't catch on to that for quite some time. I thought her interaction with her dad was fun, especially the wig. The girl also meets a couple of odd characters who live nearby. She is too young to understand a lot going on around her, but she is also becoming a young woman, and the dynamics of those two factors cause the audience to be both adult and childlike in response: we fear for her quite a bit, as well as sit back and enjoy who she is.

Jeliza-Rose is played by Joelle Ferland, who is obviously extremely talented. The weight of the movie is on her shoulders, and with the amount of dialogue and variety of moods she portrays, she gives a very winning performance.

I didn't see it on the big screen, but I can imagine that the shots of the sky and fields were great to see. I think the movie looked good in every shot, even the ones that were bizarre.

But even though it looked good, and Ferland was perfect, the movie itself didn't do anything for me (or against me). I thought it was a very slow-moving movie, which seems weird considering how much goes on. And while the girl is captivating, she is captivating amidst a lot of weird stuff that just did nothing for me. It's not that I didn't like the subject matter just because it was potentially offensive-- nothing shocked or angered me (and I actually liked J-R's interaction with Dickens a lot)--I just didn't care for the style of it, finding it just a bit too weird in an annoying way.

I realize that my reaction is a bit flawed. I know that without the story and the weird stuff I wouldn't be able to appreciate who Jeliza-Rose is, but even though her character shines through, the world around her isn't something I want to spend time with, even from her own point of view. And that's the paradox of my response, I guess..

Anyway, I guess I just don't feel as strongly about this movie as all of the other reviews I've read. While I appreciated one particular character, the rest of the movie fell short of my interest, and the slow pacing made it feel longer than I cared for it to be. With occasional sparks of greatness, it will most likely fall to the middle of my list for the movies of last year. (And yes, I'm still working on that list.)

Hello real world, how r u bb?

Also:

I saw a free sneak preview of this tonight. It was as awesome as I thought it was going to be. It even has some of the carnage of Shaun of the Dead and even more great performances. Tons of great British comic actors including Bill Nighy and Steve Coogan in brief roles. Nick Frost and Simon Pegg are great together, as always. This film also has the greatest homage to Point Break ever. It's great. Go see it this weekend. I give it 4 out of 5 pickles.

I made sure to see this movie before voting for our local bbs movie awards, since I've heard it praised so highly by critics and friends. I agree with all of them. United 93 is quite an accomplishment. Showing us the story of September 11th on the ground and in the air on United Flight 93, it feels somewhat like a documentary and an action drama, but the entire time it feels very organic - no exaggeration of the events - and lets the story tell itself in a very effective way.

I think World Trade Center was more difficult for me to watch than this movie, because that movie dealt with these events on a grander scale, and was built on an emotional foundation. This movie caught me up in the adrenaline of the moment for two-thirds of the story, and then gripped my heart as soon as the flight's occupants started calling home to say goodbye to their families.

United 93 was pretty much flawless in execution. I wouldn't have included the introductory scene of the hijackers praying since we didn't see background moments on the other passengers on the flight, but otherwise the presentation of the story is unbiased, which I think is key in its success.

This and World Trade Center show us different aspects of how people experienced the events of 9/11, and I think both are important for what they have to offer.

In a related vein, thinking about how I've coped with those events personally, I just thought I'd share a memory, in memory of someone. I just found out today that a guy named Will M., with whom many of us went to college, passed away last weekend when he fell asleep at the wheel on the way up to go skiing and crashed into a tree. I was more of an acquaintance of his, but one of the memories I do have of him was that, in the week(s?) after 9/11, I was studying and feeling down one evening, and Matt (who I think must have been Will's roommate at the time) invited me to go hang out at their place just to talk and feel better. I remember that Will was there and that he made me laugh a lot. It felt great to just hang out and feel cheered up because of the company of friends. It's probably something neither of them would remember, but it made an impact on me at that time when I needed it.

Anthony from Destructoid is as shocked as I am over Rush defending video gamers. I've found it rather ridiculous that this is happening yet again. Here's what Rush said in response to a caller echoing assclown Jack Thompson and others:

Not every video gamer goes out and murders 33 people on the college campus though. There's more to this than that. We can find all kinds of societal problems and ills, but the fact of the matter is that whatever you would look at as a bad influence -- video games as you mentioned -- it may desensitize people, but it doesn't turn everybody into mass murderers.

Wow, good for you Rush. I just always cringe when bad things happen and this whole blame game starts up again. It's insane and stupid. Of course, in the same call Rush when on to blame the shootings on things like "Godlessness in schools" and other such nonsense, but hey, that is to be expected.

Today we write haiku
Second hour makes me proud
Third hour, less so

Arms crossed in front
Daniel sleeps stealthily
Failure is an art

Dutiful students
crank out three poems each
in just five minutes

Heather hates poetry
but writes stunning haiku
"Is this okay?" she asks

Here is the news I promised in the last blog: Kelly and I are moving to Houston, Texas! That's right, we will become Texans in a few short weeks.

The job I took actually resulted from an online application to a company Kelly found - and I had sworn that nobody ever looked at resumes submitted via the internet. At the time we were thinking that we would remain here in Colorado, as I had an interview that went really well here. However, in between the interview and job offer here, I did two phone interviews, flew to Houston for an in-person interview, and received an offer.

We are a bit sad to leave Colorado, because we really like it here. And, after my knee blew out last summer, we really didn't take advantage of being in the mountains like we wanted. But, we are going to try and squeeze in a hike or two amidst packing, finals, graduation, Kelly's work, and finding Kelly a job (if you know anyone in the school system in Houston's bay area, let us know!).

So, the offer still stands that you are welcome to come visit us--for all those of you who didn't make it out to see us in Colorado, perhaps Texas will entice you. Ocean, anyone?

I seem to be getting lazy about posting on Mondays. Oh well! This weekend was mostly uneventful, but with plenty of out-to-eat meals.

Friday, Ric and I went to DeLuca's. If you're in the Whittier area and haven't been there, and want something with a little more mood than the franchise feel of Olive Garden and Lascari's, this place is a nice choice (Gaetano's is too). The lighting is dark, the service is great, and the food is even better. Afterwards, at home, we started watching the New World together, and let me tell you, I'm going to have to buy that soundtrack. I forgot how much I liked it when I heard it the first time. And dang, it looked great on our plasma tv.

Saturday I went for a jog at the creek park and then joined Ric and my sister to see Grindhouse in Brea. That was a fun afternoon. First off, the park was so refreshing. It's such a great time of year to go there. The leaves are bright spring green, the weather is windy and full of clean air, and this time around I even got to see ladybugs. There was also some massive tree wreckage from our windy weather, which included a tree-sized branch that snapped and collapsed, and that was very cool to inspect. Grindhouse was entertaining as well. I laughed a lot, especially at the trailers, and the stunts were awesome. Jenny and I went out to eat at the Thai place over in the complex of stores off Malvern (with the Target). That's a really good place if you like Thai. It always seems pretty empty when we go, so I hope it's able to stay in business with so few customers. I try something different every time and always like it. We ended the night watching Night Watch, which is something I'll definitely have to watch again. Not only is it cool looking - it took a bit mind-power to follow, especially since Pip was hissing at my sister the entire time she was there. Man, he's moody with strangers!

Sunday morning, church as always. We go to the coffehouse satellite service, and let me tell you, it's getting kind of old that they talk about that place like it's brand new when we've been going there for over a year. They always remind us that there's a prayer room in the back, and Ric and I always look at each other sarcastically and say, "Did you know there was a prayer room in here?" "No, I didn't, wow, that's great!" Okay, yes we're terrible because we're so sarcastic at church, but if you were there, you'd be getting sick of the same thing being said each week in a service that visitors rarely attend. We had a good lunch at Mad Wolf in Fullerton (wow, you get a lot of food for just five bucks!), and in the afternoon, we kicked back. Ric and Colin were supposed to see Reno 911 while the Anderson girls hung out at our place with me, but Liz got sick. We ended up doing laundry at Ric's folks' house and I chatted for a long time with his mom (about work, of course!). I also got more reading done in this past weekend than in the past four months. I guess that's good.

Last night, after a bad back day at work, I was pumped up with pain-killers and feeling good, so we went to Disneyland. We had gumbo at the Jazz Kitchen and headed to the park, only to realize that they were closing early, so we only got to go on Indiana Jones, but we were still thoroughly entertained. The parents behind us in line were torturing their poor child by telling him that when the park closed, he'd get trapped in the Indiana Jones ride, and they basically let him think that every special effect was real, so he was sincerely panicked when it was 3 minutes until 9 and he was still in line. The boy was crying, "I wanna go back, I wanna go back!" and when his brother pulled the rope with the sign "do not pull this rope", he was sobbing, "Don't pull it, please!" If it weren't so sad, it would have been hilarious. I felt so sorry for him, but couldn't help laughing. Poor kid is probably traumatized for life.

Have a good week, everyone. I've got grocery shopping tonight, tv with the Neals tomorrow, Movies on the Fox on Thursday, and whatever else the weekend holds! By the way, good luck with the play, Ryan. I think we'll probably go next weekend, since Ric's mom told us it will take a few performances for you all to get in the groove. :)

Fired Up Missouri reports that Governor Blunt's latest campaign finance report includes some big numbers from a notable name: Bob Perry. He was also a contributor to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the 2004 smear campaign that brought us four more years of Bush. Perry has been the largest donor of some of the political action groups run by disgraced former congressman Tom DeLay.

Some find it surprising that the increasingly unpopular Matt Blunt is even raising money for a reelection run in 2008. Bob Perry is not the kind of person that we want associated with our state. If we judge by the company he keeps, then Matt Blunt isn't either.

Be sure to vote in the new poll. For those wondering, "Buy Music?" won the last poll. You should be ashamed of yourselves, for sure.

Forgot about the pickle theme, sorry. I give you Japanese Pickle Poker. Play poker with some pickles. It's pretty darn simple.

Yes, this is a Flash version of the DS game which was based on an earlier Shockwave game. It's a Bejeweled clone with some twists. I highly recommend the quest mode. The only problem is that the instructions are in Japanese. You can get the gist of some of the levels, but for a full translation of the instructions, head over to Jay is Games.

"The Wasp"

The wasp and all his numerous family
I look upon as a major calamity.
He throws open his nest with prodigality,
But I distrust his waspitality.

"Samson Agonistes"

I test my bath before I sit,
And I'm always moved to wonderment
That what chills the finger not a bit
Is so frigid upon the fundament.

"The Purist"

I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist,
Trustees exclaimed, "He never bungles!"
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
"You mean," he said, "a crocodile."

Ogden also coined the line quoted by Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory:

"Reflections on Ice-Breaking"

Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

Here's my first entry for Pickles Week:

PICKLES! The movie

The Sneeze is a great blog. There were some follow-up posts after this with user submissions, but none of them topped the original movie.

I have a friend named Aaron who has been trying to get into philosophy PhD programs for about three years now. The first year he got turned down, so he decided to get a Master's degree in philosophy to complement his Master's of Divinity degree from Fuller. (Oh, he also has a Master's in Engineering from Stanford, just so you know.) Last year, halfway through his Master's program (in philosophy--pay attention now) he applied again to just one or two programs and got turned down again. He is now finishing his program this spring and applied to six or eight schools (or eight or ten?), got into a few, but especially wanted to go to UCLA.

So he gets on the waitlist at UCLA, which is an incredible feat because the PhD program at UCLA is in the top three or five in the country (let's compromise and say it's the best one imaginable). The scene at UCLA is idyllic: green pastures, sunshine, liesurely academic discussions around putluck dinners, lions and bunny rabbits lying down together for afternoon naps, unicorns prancing around and doing tricks for apples, in the middle of campus there is a fountain flowing with grant money--you get the picture.

So the waitlist is great, but it means prolonged agony, since decision day for PhD programs is April 15. On that day, everyone finally decides where to go (I offered to tell a few of them where to go to make it easier, if you know what I mean) and there is quite a shaking out of the waitlists at various places.

So Aaron finds out on Friday that he is number one on the waitlist, but that there are four undecided people with offers still out there and only 2-3 spots left in the program. So he emails. And we all pray.

This morning he finds out that two of the four have accepted their offers, one has rejected, and the other is in Cambodia or someplace really out of contact (okay, not really). So we wait. And we pray.

Aaron comes down after a shower (I am taking him on his word here--I wasn't there to see it) to his wife, Angela, crying at the computer. Oh great, right? She asks him, "Is this real?" and he reads an email congratulating him on his acceptance to UCLA. Yes, it's real! It's as real as the prancing unicorns (maybe not the unicorns, but again, you get the picture). So he emails. And we all pray.

When I read his email I threw my hands in the air and shouted, "Yes!" (what must the neighbors have thought, eh?). Then I rushed to read past the first line and make sure that my uncharacteristic display of unrestrained exuberance was not in vain. It was not, and so I repeated (now the neighbors just figure I'm bragging).

Then a couple of thoughts set in. First, I am truly happy. I write him a congratulatory email of my own, with probably a tad more lighthearted profanity than the one UCLA sent him (I am assuming, although I would be pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise). I tell him I am happy and end the sentence there. It occurs to me that I ought to put "for you" after the "I am happy," but just as I reach for the key to go back, I pause. I am happy just. Happy "for you," sure, but mostly happy. Period. Happy.

Now you have to know that it has been a tough couple of years out here for us (for me) with friendships, especially ones connected to our church. I have wondered if I am a good friend, if I bail out of friendships and abandon relationships (I do sometimes), if I have any real community or am really capable of it or willing to pay the cost for it. But in the aftermath of that moment today I realize that I am tied to Aaron--my life to his, my happiness to his, and who knows what else. The admonition to laugh with those who laugh was not needed, and it didn't take conscious effort to obey it. I was not happy for him, because I did not need to imitate his joy in order to share in the moment. I was happy just. I had my own joy. It was shared, yes, but it had become as much mine as his.

And I realized I had done something right, or perhaps more accurately, God had done something in me to set me right, at least in this relationship. I felt, perhaps for the first time in any relationship, blessed to have this friend that I have and at the same time also blessed to be this friend that I am. I don't think these two have ever really come together for me before, and the latter one has been much more elusive.

The second thought came later as I was driving and listening to Tommy's song "What a Good God," which he sings every year (on Thanksgiving?). I was thanking God for his many blessings, blessings so beyond what we deserve that to even mention deserving or not deserving muddles the point. They are blessings with no reference to what we deserve, as if it doesn't matter, as if they are free gifts.

Then I thought, well shouldn't we be happy like this all the time? Don't we always have blessings that are more than we need? And remember, there will be parts of this PhD program that Aaron won't like, that will wear on him, that will stress him out. Let's not forget about that, now.

Then I stopped the song, took a deep breath at a red light, and when it turned green I started the song again and regained my joy. I decided I did not need to be happy, but remember it would also be hard. I didn't need to be happy, but acknowledge that I should always be this happy about food and breath and the many other necessities of life--as if having meaning and a calling had become disposable appendages to life, true life, eternal life. I did not need to be happy, but. I could still be happy just.

And so I started to be happy again, and I stopped there and didn't move on to the many qualifiers and disclaimers and statements of supposedly mature faith that buttress tattered hope against the imminent likelihood that God will turn out not to be as promising as he first seemed. Or if he is as promising, then not as fulfilling as I would like. And so it struck me that my joy stands or falls with the faithfulness of God, and when I lack joy it is so often because the God I serve is not faithful enough to ellicit joy, not strong enough to warrant unrelenting trust, and not deep enough to secure the anchor of my hope.

Then comes the transition: The moment becomes about my lack, and not his. Have I entrusted myself to the sturdiness of my disappointment? Reality is so predictable, and it masquerades as a pessimistic kind of faithfulness. I can safely count on things to fall apart, to fail, to die. The moment becomes about my life and reaching for God, not halfway so that I don't lose my balance, but forsaking all others in an all out desperate attempt to hold onto something sturdy--or, rather, to be held by him.

And so I am tied to him as well--my life to his, my happiness to his, and who knows what else.

And I smile at the declaration of my dependence.

And I am happy just.

If any of you folks in L.A. or Orange County are still looking for something to do tonight, head on out to our show in Cypress. The bands playing are Joy Electric, Paravell, Calico Sunset, and The Foxglove Hunt. Only 7 bucks! Get the rest of the info here. If you show up and say hi, I'll give you some free stickers!

I just got some spam from a UFO cult called Universe People. Their website is a hoot. I guess they're based in the Czech Republic. Here's the Wikipedia page for them. Jesus is one of their deities, but he's also joined by Ashtar Sheran, the high spiritual being, the commander of the Grand Cosmic Squadron of 10 million spaceships. They believe that most humans are controlled by Saurians, subterranean lizard-like IT workers, as this chart clearly shows.

If all spam were this fun, I would disable my email filters.

I thought I was imagining things when I bought some Creme Eggs this year and thought they were smaller. BJ Novak of The Office proves otherwise:

WTF Cadbury? We're on to you.

This is the likely the last year that Kelly and I will share a spring break, as I will graduate school next month. We took a break from our Top Ten Biggest City tour and went to Boston (although now we are unsure if we should do the Ten Biggest City tour or the Ten Biggest Metro Area tour - they're quite different). We chose to go to Boston because we had free plane tickets and knew people we could stay with. Saving green.

The flight we took was a red-eye from Denver to Hartford, Connecticut where we rented a car and somehow managed to stay awake enough to navigate the maze that is Boston. More importantly, we were awake enough to make our way out of the Hartford ghetto, which we inadvertently toured. We passed some dilapidated apartments spray painted with, no joke, "Crips" and "Bloods." Even more, out in front of this building were at least 6 police cars with their lights on. They say that the first impression is the most important - HARTFORD.

About Boston streets, I get that the city is hundreds of years old and the streets were once dinosaur trails or something. But that doesn't explain why the streets changed names every block (if they were named at all, get some street signs!) or the strange aversion to divider stripes. Needless to say, we cut off people left and right and drove round and round blocks. Luckily, we had Connecticut plates on the rental, so when crazy driving commenced, our excuse was "We're from Connecticut!!"

After we arrived at my friend Leah's house, we took a nap and then zombied around MIT and Harvard. The MIT science museum gets a thumbs up from us. The next day, we walked the Freedom Trail, the red-brick path that takes tourists past most of the historic Boston spots. That day we had a Sam Adams beer across the street from Sam Adams himself. I also discovered how my tombstone will be decorated - with a winged skull. The skulls were on all the 300-year-old headstones there.

The third day we visited Plymouth and another friend of mine (Preston), who happened to be working there at the moment. We have some advice for those who want to see Plymouth Rock, or as Kelly calls it, Plymouth Pebble. It's small. So small that any promotional material we saw showed the pavillion that houses it rather than the rock itself, so as to not dissuade visitors. Anyway, the rock has 1620 chiseled into it. And, it was labeled Plymouth Rock 120 years after the Pilgrims actually landed there. The whole thing is a shady letdown. The upside was Kelly's ability to fantasize about pirate life while in Plymouth.

The fourth day we went to Salem. We took a tour of a witch museum that didn't allow photographs for the same reason that the Plymouth Rock material showed the pavillion and not the rock. We payed to basically watch a narrated puppet show and then be proselytized by a Wiccan. They're people too! That evening we had a tasty Indian dinner with fellow Truman grad and blog friend Sara and her husband Chuck.

On Day five we revisited the North End and dined on some tasty Italian food, gellati, and Mike's Pastry treats. Then we drove back to Hartford for an early flight the next day.

To see some photos, go click the photo of me sketching a robot. There are, however, no Hartford bad neighborhood photos. We don't snitch.

Boston 2007

Here is a teaser: Kelly pretending to be an amazingly strong pirate.

Be sure to stay tuned to the blog for some news. And no, it doesn't come with diapers.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention this serendipitous run-in. It got cold one or two days while we were in Boston. There were two train stations near where Leah lives. We had been using the Davis Square station, but one cold day we Google Mapped (double true!) the stations to see if one was closer. It turned out that the other (Porter) station was closer by a few steps. So, we went to Porter station. On the escalator down, I heard someone say my name. It was Tyler, a guy from Truman State (and member of the blog world) who makes Boston his home. Neither of us had much time to talk, but man, it's a small world! And the circumstances that lined up to allow the chance meeting! I should have bought a lottery ticket that day.

The trailers for The Lookout weren't incredibly appealing to me, but with all the great reviews it was getting, and the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to have a knack for picking substantial films to star in lately, I thought I'd give it a shot.

Gordon-Levitt's character, Chris, was a high school star athlete who was in a car accident that caused some problems with his brain functions. He has trouble sequencing events and has to write a lot of stuff down on a notepad so he'll remember to do them. That's where the similarity with Memento comes to mind, but that's where the similarity ends as well. Chris has a job at a bank as a janitor, and some guys befriend him so they can get in and rob the vault after the harvest earnings have been deposited. It's a one time big chance, and things get messy (of course! or it wouldn't be a movie!).

Gordon-Levitt continues to be on top of his game here. I still think of him as George, DJ's friend from Roseanne (oh, I guess most people know him from 3rd Rock, but I didn't watch that show), but to see that he's really getting into the more creative independent movies is awesome. With great performances from supporting actors, Jeff Daniels and Isla Fisher, the story could go in a cliched direction, but their characters bring it a bit deeper than just a heist movie.

I liked the lighting, the way the film resolves itself with a sense of character development instead of just focusing on the plot, and the overall acting was very good. One character, Bone, was a bit too much for my liking, but I guess he was successful in evoking a sense of fear for the hero's safety.

This was a breath of fresh air in the midst of all of the fluff that's being released this year, just as Brick was around the same time last year. I'm really hoping Gordon-Levitt will start to gain more recognition in the next couple of years. Seems like the critics like him as much as I do.

Mad About the Fifties

Ric and I convinced my sister to see this movie with us a couple of weekends ago by offering to pay for her ticket. She showed no interest in seeing it until that offer, but I saw her crack quite a few smiles while watching it. How can you not laugh if you've actually watched any Olympic figure skating in the past? The movie is packed with awesome little references that are funny to the average viewer but even funnier to someone who's familiar with the sport. Ice skater cameos include: Brian Boitano, Sasha Cohen, Peggy Flemming, Dorothy Hamil, Scott Hamilton, and Nancy Kerrigan, and there are also lots of references to other skaters in the dialogue.

Quick plot for when I try and remember what this movie was about in a few years: two male ice skaters are banned from competition in the sport after their rivalry results in a disgraceful fight during an awards ceremony. A few years later, they discover they can compete in pairs just days before signups are required, so they are forced to sign up with the only partners they could find at the last minute: each other.

I think the closer the plot stayed to the sport, the funnier it was. Actually, Will Ferrell's character was probably the least funny to me because he wasn't actually much like a real ice skater, and his sex-addition plotline was only funny in his scene with Jenna Fischer. Not to say he wasn't funny, but it could have been funnier.

When it comes to costumes, they definitely hit the nail on the head. With obvious throwbacks to Johnny Weir (the peacock outfit), Rudy Galindo (the fire and ice outfits), and Elvis Stoiko/Kurt Browning (the leather pants outfit), I was cracking up, and the more original JFK/Monroe and hip-hop outfits were even funnier.

Since I didn't like Napoleon Dynamite, I'm happy to say I actually liked John Heder in this movie. And Will Arnett (forever Gob in my eyes) was funny and creepy as well. Jenna Fischer was perfect in her role too! I love her.

All in all, Blades of Glory was entertaining, a little slow in parts, and funny, but not hilarious (although it does have a couple of hilarious scenes, like the one in North Korea). And there you have it - I think that pretty much sounds like a recommendation for seeing it at the dollar theater.

I think I'm finally over whatever sickness I had when I got back from SF. Haven't been doing a whole lot besides homework and rest. My brother also got me way into this game called Diner Dash. I played it on his phone while we were waiting for Grindhouse to start, which was also totally sweet.

So I'm listening to The Good, The Bad, and The Queen right now and they're pretty freaking awesome. Some of you might be asking what the big deal is, well I'll tell you. First off you have Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz fame. Then add in Paul Simonen from The Clash and Simon Tong from the