Sunday, July 25, 2004

Warning, Warning!

Mallard Fillmore is frequently preachy, all to often just not funny, yet frequently hits the nail on the head. This isn't particularly funny, IMHO, but it's true.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

my night

5:30 go to work. Things are crazy.
7:00 Things slow down for 30 minutes
7:30 Things go even crazier. We are inexplicably 1 person short on grill, this makes things even crazier.
8:25 YAHOO! One more hour of this insanity..
10:20 WHAT? Forgot to look at my watch 'til now! Ugh.
10:30 All caught up, in a slow period again. Ask managers if now is an okay time to ask about going home. They look at the clock for first time in hours...tell me to clock off and apologize.

So, how much am I gonna get done for Sunday now? blech.

not writing....but I am reading

Can't seem to get anywhere in my prep for Sunday morning. Which is bad, because I think I should do more than read James 1:9-18, say "amen," and sit down.

So, as I frequently do, I turn to some other writers for inspiration. Even if it's on a different topic, just reading something good will get me going. Hasn't worked yet today, but here are my top 5 columns of the week...

5. Kerry/Dole '04! by Jonah Goldberg

Imagine you are a war hero senator running for president. You have a very long and, for the most part, dull legislative record. You're stiff on TV and generally listless on the stump. You can't stop talking like a senator even though you know it leaves people cold. Your opponent, the incumbent, is presiding over a booming economy just emerging from the doldrums. Your base despises the president, but you need to reach out to moderates who are inclined to like him.

Wouldn't it make sense to fix your charisma deficit and bolster your ticket by picking an energetic, enthusiastic, appealing younger guy - somebody who both excites your party's base and charms the press by being polite and high-minded?

Well, that's certainly what Bob Dole was thinking when he picked Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996.

4. Free the Schools! by Harry Browne
Education is a disaster. If you don't believe me, ask the politicians. Every election year they tell us how terrible the schools are — children not reading at their grade level, bullies running the schools, infrastructure falling down, drugs being sold in the schools, classes that are too large.

Of course, every politician has solutions in his pocket that will cure all these problems. But even after they impose their solutions, they keep coming back to tell us what terrible shape the schools are in.

3. What media bias? by Larry Elder Nothing earth-shattering here, just a good review...

2. The demise of literature by George Will
There have been times when reading was regarded with suspicion. Some among the ancient Greeks regarded the rise of reading as cultural decline: they considered oral dialogue, which involves clarifying questions, more hospitable to truth. But the transition from an oral to a print culture has generally been a transition from a tribal society to a society of self-consciously separated individuals. In Europe that transition alarmed ruling elites, who thought the ``crisis of literacy'' was that there was too much literacy: readers had, inconveniently, minds of their own. Reading is inherently private, hence the reader is beyond state supervision or crowd psychology.

Which suggests why there are perils in the transition from a print to an electronic culture. Time was, books were the primary means of knowing things. Now most people learn most things visually, from the graphic presentation of immediately, effortlessly accessible pictures.

People grow accustomed to the narcotic effect of their own passive reception of today's sensory blitzkrieg of surfaces. They recoil from the more demanding nature of active engagement with the nuances encoded in the limitless permutations of 26 signs on pages. Besides, reading requires two things that are increasingly scarce and to which increasing numbers of Americans seem allergic -- solitude and silence.

and the top column of the week is....
1. The Imperial Middle by Jonah Goldberg.
November 2 promises to be another in a long line of elections decided by those Americans who are the least engaged, least interested in, and least informed about politics.

and Goldberg thinks that's bad...and he's right.

new TV

Just got done watching FX's new show, NYFD Blue...er, no, make that Rescue Me. Not bad...little foul mouthed, little too pre-occupied with 9/11 (but don't think that'll last). All in all a good use of TV.

It's kind of like Dennis Leary's The Job from ABC without the pressure to be comedic.

Taped The Grid Monday night, haven't found the time to check it out...maybe tomorrow. FX and USA have done some good original shows, time to see if TNT can follow suite.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

A moment of self-indulgent venting deleted

shouldn't have indulged that way...

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Quick notes about movies

Okay, it's been awhile since I've posted anything...I've actually started quite a few, but haven't gotten further than that. I have a small rant I'd like to do about the Bryan Singer Superman movie (despite the fact that most of my readers really won't care), but in the meantime, I'll just give you a couple of links.

  1. Why no one want make Hulk 2? A plea for a second chance from everyone's favorite green giant.
  2. An open letter from Wolverine to Superman...not as clever as the Hulk piece, but darn close.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Kidney Kid Update

Well, today was the least interesting kidney doc visit we've ever had...guess that's a good thing, right? He took his pulse, read over the last test results (astoundingly good) and said, come back in 3 months! (okay there was a little more conversation, but not much)

Other than that: he's rolled over once, but keeps getting tripped up by his shoulder when he tries it again. Teeth are in the near future. Pretty much normal stuff. He's a lot of fun ('cept at times like the moment when he's yelling for no reason...)

Friday, July 09, 2004

hi, remember me?

Sorry I've been away from here for awhile...been working on a couple of personal projects and trying to get my brain moving in general. This last week I've just been fried. Between trying to start a series on James, this misc. personal stuff, and work...I'm on overload it seems.

This McDonald's stuff is unbelievably hard. I'm sure I'm working more for this slightly-above minimum wage gig than I have for any of my "professional" jobs. Working with the customers is fun, the rest isn't too bad (although I could do without the rushes once we're down to our skeleton crew), but you're pretty much moving all night. So I come home totally wiped out, yet unable to sleep for an hour. Generally, it's sometime after 3 that I crash most nights. I think I'm getting more used to it, but in the meantime. sheesh.

Monday, July 05, 2004

housekeeping

Every few days, my wife will complain that she can't see this blog. She uses IE, and while it will show up fine in Mozilla, it won't in IE. So I re-publish the index, and all is well. I don't get it. Does anyone have any ideas why? Anyhow, will try to get better about checking IE to make sure it works...

Secondly, just set things up so that the Mrs. can post here, too. Don't know if she ever will, but a little more Noise from her can only help this thing.

Sunday, July 04, 2004

Finished!

32 weeks and I've finished my series of exhortations through the Epistle to the Ephesians. Originally, I was hoping, hoping to get through Eph. 3 before I got to stop because we'd have had a new pastor. Clearly, that didn't happen. It was cool to work through the entire book--I think I grew and I know my gifts (if they exist) were tested. I know I'd rather listen to the latter ones again than the first. The congregation here has been mind-blowing in terms of their support and encouragement. I wouldn't want to think about how it would've turned out if not for that.

Sadly, today I felt off my game--like the pitcher who for some reason one day doesn't "have his stuff." What's worse is that the PCA pastor in town decided to worship with us today--his last day of vacation, and he didn't want to get back in the office early, so to speak. I mean, I hate being off anytime, but it seems worse...eh, he was encouraging, so I should probably get off the ego trip....

Lord willing, beginning next week, we will be in the Epistle of James—-for me at least, it will be a bigger challenge. I haven’t really studied James in years—-in fact, it was the same year I wrote a college paper saying that Luther got it wrong in his debate against Erasmus, needless to say, my perspective has changed a bit since then. I hope very much that I won’t get very far in it before we have a permanent man in this pulpit.

Friday, July 02, 2004

Finallly, Trebek doesn't look so smart

Thanks to World's blog for tipping me off to this nice article from National Review about Ken Jennings, aka "That Jeopardy Guy". The dude is just smart...it's amazing to watch.

Just hope he doesn't lose tonight when I'm at work and can't watch. Then again, maybe I don't want to see that.

Why didn't I watch this??

Oh yeah, something about working...oh, man, oh, man.

Okay, I'm not gonna talk about Sheffield getting hit twice by pitches, I'm not gonna gloat over the 8.5 games that the Yankees have over Boston, what I am gonna say is this: Say what you will about A-Rod or Nomar or whoever being a one of the best short-stops playing. Here's what makes Derek Jeter a great player



from mlb.com:
Boston had runners at the corners with two outs in the 12th, when Trot Nixon lifted a fly ball to shallow left field. Jeter ran the ball down near the foul line, catching it before diving head-first into the stands.

"It's the greatest catch I've ever seen," said Alex Rodriguez, who was just feet away from Jeter at the time. "It was unbelievable, he's so unselfish, putting his body in compromising situations. It was hard to watch."

Thursday, July 01, 2004

No time for a big blog on this

BUT, Sam Raimi--you're my hero.

Alex Ross--wow, I wish I was rich enough to buy your prints.

James Franco--hang in there, you're improving.

Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Bill Nunn...A+'s all around.

Go read this

Razormouth.com has returned from the land of no-updates--not sure if that's good or not yet. But this column "Knocked up and down", is the best "culture of life"-esque thing I've read in ages

Spider-Man 2 Conspires to Silence Michael Moore

This is too funny.... click here and scroll to the article by Scott Ott

"Mr. Moore added that buying a ticket to Spider-Man 2 is 'tantamount to voting for George Bush.'"