Scientologists avoid public discussion of some of the stranger elements of their mythology. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was a science fiction author, so it's no surprise that he included some space aliens. South Park famously lampooned this mythology in the episode "Trapped in the Closet". An audio clip of Hubbard explaining the story of Xenu has been making the rounds on the Internet. Here's a copy of the clip on gawker.com.

After listening to it, I think the South Park episode was pretty accurate.

People actually believe this.

If anyone wants to get in on some Fantasy Football action, it's too late to join the league my brother set up. We need at least five more teams to get a decent league going. Last year I kicked everyone's butt so I'm definitely looking for a challenge.

EDIT: We've gotten enough people so thanks a bunch guys. My brother has one more spot for his friend and then we'll be set to go.

Okay, so now that all those movies are out of the way, I only have a couple of reviews to do! Phew! Well, until then, I'll tell you what we've been up to.

All last week, our sister-in-law and the two nephews were in town. They visited her family by day and spent the nights at Ric's parents' house, where they could easily relax. That meant a lot of catchup time for us. We were there four nights in a row. So, by Friday, Ric was tired and I could use a break myself after all the Olympics preparation (final details to come). We spent the evening at home and I think I probably spent most of it watching the Olympics.

Saturday, we drove out to Redlands to have lunch with Kristen at the Royal Falconer, an English pub that has some very tasty fish and chips. We had a good time hanging out for a couple of hours and then headed up into the mountains to visit Yo at his home in Crestline. We spent a long time there, just hanging out, eating, and drinking. I love the view from Yo's balcony, where we spent most of our time. It was a great time and reminded me a lot of how we used to do the same stuff at his old place in Huntington Beach when I was in college.

Sunday morning was church with the Andersons. I came home to watch more Olympics and then went out to see Bottle Shock (review to come, but skip it). After that I went shopping for heavier clothes that I can wear on our trip. I got some jeans, a jacket, and a couple of sweaters. After a Flame Broiler dinner, I set in to watch some tv with Ric. Now that the Olympics are over, I'm back to watching Sledge Hammer with Ric, as well as figuring out which movies I want to Roku.

Up this week: working on the condo, cleaning the condo, movie night on Wednesday (hence the cleaning), trip talk over coffee, and mini golf to celebrate Ric's mom's birthday on Friday.

brendoman.com reddit

So I've seen the create-a-reddit feature for awhile on reddit but put off making one of my own. Then I thought today it would be cool if we had our own reddit we could submit stories to and vote on. If you're not familiar with reddit, it's a bit like digg but a bit more minimalist. Sign up and check it out!

Madden NFL 09

Maxed Out

Friday Night Lights - The First Season

These scientists, working to hasten the day when we are exterminated by our robot overlords, have attached a suspension of biological neurons to a robot. The electrical activity of the biological brain drives the robot via some electrodes. The robot has sensors that feed back into the brain. In the video it bumbles around the room in a very nonintimidating fashion, but THEY SAY IT'S GETTING BETTER AT IT!!!!!!! The neural connections for certain activities are strengthening. Of course, they say they're doing the study to help them understand the human brain and cure diseases like Alzheimer's, but isn't that exactly what the robots would want you to believe?

(via Atheist Media Blog)