Happy Monday

Am on day 2 of this strange headache that's giving me the chills, making me nauseous, and threatening to cleave my head in twain.

So not really up for coming up with much to say...so to start the work week off on a laugh, as I'm wont to try...here's a few fun videos.

Who needs the March of the Penguins when the BBC has found this?

Catherine Tate and David Tennant from 2007 Comic Relief. This two are interesting to watch together...think they have a future on screen together?

Craig Ferguson's 008 White House Correspondents Dinner performance was quite funny--GWB went out on a somewhat flat note, I thought--but Ferguson's worth the watch, here's part 1.

Dear Reader,

I noticed a couple of days ago that I'd missed the theme for NaBloPoMo (Letters), which caused me to lose absolutely no sleep whatsoever, but I figured I might as well take the opportunity.

First, thanks for reading. I'm pretty sure 97% of you have better things to do with your time than reading--clearly 99% of you think you have better things to do with your time than comment. I appreciate the inconsistency on the part of former. Wouldn't do this without you. Sort of. I'd probably say the same things, but my poor wife would have to listen to all of it by herself.

Secondly, thanks to all my Presbyterian and Reformed friends for keeping the positive feedback for Friday's post to IM and email. Wouldn't want to break up the theme in the comments thread there. To my Baptist friend and acquaintances in the comments thread there, I will respond--probably--just taking my time with it, am pretty sure I won't come anywhere near the length of what you've said so far tho.

I went hiking with Joe Spivy
He developed poison ivy
You remember Leonard Skinner
He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner.
...whoops, wrong letta. :)

Better get going now, be sure to say hello to everyone for me. Wish you were here.

'Til Niagra Falls,
Hob

No Time for Love, Doctor Jones

Continued my indoctrination prepping the Offspring for May 22 tonight by watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Easily the grossest of the Indy pictures (and thus the most memorable to the kids, I bet). Also, it was easily the lamest--in many ways it's a forerunner to the quality that is The Phantom Menace.

The thought that struck me tonight as I watched it, though, was a little less snarky: Will Kingdom of the Crystal Skull do what The Last Crusade failed to do? Namely, will we find out what happened to Short Round? Obviously, his grandchild was nicknamed Data and lived in Astoria, OR. But what happened to our plucky little street thief in between?

The Reformed Label

I've taken a lot of heat from my Calvinistic Baptist friends for stopping using the word "Reformed" to describe them. (I should add, one of them has stopped using it themselves, I am on the very rare occasion persuasive).

I only bring this up, because today Dr. R. Scott Clark asked on his blog, "Who or What Defines 'Reformed?'" Same argument I've been making for quite awhile. Just wish I made it as well as he did.

This one's a keeper.

Things That Make You Go, "Hmmm"

No, not

an example of how another brother can trample

But

Paying people a compliment appears to activate the same reward center in the brain as paying them cash, Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.

This sounds like a fairly interesting study, and not really that counter-intuitive--which is always something that appreciate.

Sorta explains why bloggers (particularly those of us who don't get paid for it) are so desperate for comments, eh?

make me feel like a rich man...(not necessarily on this post) and fill up those comment sections, okay? And I promise not to sing Tevia's song.

Caffiend

The good people over at Wired recently ran an interesting piece called, "Get Smarter: 12 Hacks That Will Amp Up Your Brainpower."

Naturally, my favorite hack involved good ol' C₈H₁₀N₄O₂: "Caffeinate With Care: Small Shots Do a Brain Better Than Big Blasts." The authors describe the best way to battle adenosine with caffeine...several small portions.

To maximize alertness and minimize jitters, keep those receptors covered with frequent small doses — like a mug of low-caf tea or half a cup of joe — rather than a onetime blast. Test subjects reported that periodic small shots made them feel clearheaded and calm, both of which enhance mental performance.

Even better

add a lump of sugar or have a carbohydrate-rich snack at the same time for an extra cognitive kick. It seems that glucose and caffeine together do more to enhance cognition than either does alone.

So, put away the tall cans of Amped/Full Throttle/etc and grab a simple cup of coffee and a donut. Stick with the classics and ya can't go wrong, eh?

The Things You Find Yourself Saying

To a nine year-old struggling with his vocabulary list:

Well, yes, I suppose you could say there is an evanescent quality to candy.

Leave some laying on the kitchen counter if you doubt.

By any other name...

So I feel compelled to start writing now, but I really not sure what I should be talking about, so it's free association time, I guess. Let's give the ol' noggin a shake and see what comes out.

I'm watching the Director's/Writer's Commentary to Juno right now--third viewing in five days--I'm still not sure when I'm going to send this back to Netflix. It's a decent commentary, not the best I've seen, but pretty good. Entertaining, if nothing else--they're both pretty clever. Not really sure why movie is clicking with me the way it is...something about the film's voice...sardonic, sweet, honest. Diablo Cody, in short, rocks. Jason Reitman's not too shabby himself--two solid comedies in a row, both very different in tone, look, and composition.

Diablo Cody is, obviously, not her real name. Awesome pen name. Assuming I ever get to the point of trying to sell a novel, I've got a pen name ready to go--had it since my sophomore year in college, but it's nowhere near as cool as hers--frankly, I'm jealous.

I don't know why I can't stand to see my first name in print, just don't like it at all (but it drives me crazy when 90% of people use something else in speech...isn't it ironic?). I remember in junior high reading a book off of my mother's office shelf* that had a forward by O. Hobart Mowrer, and thinking "What name could be so bad that this guy goes with "Hobart" instead?

Yeah, I spent a lot of time thinking about this. Go through 5th grade surrounded by 5th grade boys with a name that rhymes with a bodily function, and tell me you don't do the same thing.


* it occurs to me, my mother didn't have an office when I was in junior high. No idea where the book was then, it's in her office now. Not that it matters to anyone but me.

And the book, of course. Books always care where they're stored.

** it occurs to me, I didn't attend junior high. I attended "middle school." What a ridiculous name...middle school.

Quick Chuckle to Start the Week

I'm frequently teased about my compulsive watching of DVD commentary tracks (yes, I'm looking at you, dear...and several others). But if I didn't watch all the commentary tracks of HIMYM Season 1, I'd have never heard about Sheldon (Alison Hannigan was reading a collection in one scene), which would've been a cryin' shame--it's one of my favorite webcomics/addictions.

Yesterday's strip was an excellent example of it's brilliance. And the way it channeled Frodo and Samwise is just plain freaky. To think, hearing your sons' voices come out of a duck.

Thought for the Lord's Day #22

But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when they come to see it they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in him; it sees that till now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance; that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean. The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill the capacity. It is an infinite excellency, such an one as the mind desires, in which it can find no bounds; and the more the mind is used to it, the more excellent it appears. Every new discovery makes this beauty appear more ravishing, and the mind sees no end; here is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper, and never come to the bottom. The soul is exceedingly ravished when it first looks on this beauty, and it is never weary of it. The mind never has any satiety, but Christ's excellency is always fresh and new, and tends as much to delight, after it has been seen a thousand or ten thousand years, as when it was seen the first moment.

- Jonathan Edwards

A Kiss on the Brain

So much has been said about Juno already...what can I add? I could join the legions talking about the absolutely brilliant script by Diablo Cody. I could sing the praises of old-hands Jennifer Garner (this is so not the kind of movie she could be making), Allison Janney, J. K. Simmons; not to mention up-and-comers Ellen Page, Michael Cera, and Olivia Thirlby. I could rave about the soundtrack--best since Garden State (obviously, Once gets a pass here, as a musical, its soundtrack has to outclass all challengers)--particularly the last song.

But, I'm not going to do any of that. Instead, I'm going to simply say:

I Love Juno.

And I'm serious about it...this isn't some casual passing fancy, some crush, some high-school romanticizing of a flash of interest or hormones. This is the real thing. This is serious...I'm ready to commit. This is taking Juno as my teen pregnancy comedy to have and to hold, forsaking all others, 'til death us do part.

Shame on You, Rep. Simpson

From The Idaho Statesman:

Three members of Congress want the Justice Department to investigate whether college football’s Bowl Championship Series is an illegal enterprise.

Reps. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, are introducing a resolution rejecting the oft-criticized bowl system as an illegal restriction on trade. The resolution would require Justice’s antitrust division to investigate whether the system violates federal law.

The measure also would put Congress on record as supporting a college football playoff.

This is just ridiculous. Our supposed conservative representative is attempting insert Congress into college football.

Thankfully this demonstrates there's nothing serious that the House should be concerning itself with...borders must be secure, tax code is just and simple, armed forces are standing around with nothing to do, civil liberties are intact and flourishing...

Still trying to swallow that bitter pill...

Obama thinks small town folks are bitter? Well...even granting him his premise for the sake of argument (tho' only for that sake), they've got nothing on Star Wars fans.

Case in point, John C. Wright's SF to English dictionary. As funny as the Onion piece below, but harder to understand.

I will admit, I understood over 95% of the references there. And yes, I know that that says about me.

Reversing the Curse

Well, so much for that jersey's curse! (still, why Ortiz? Why not Manny? He's more lethal to the Yankees...or Schilling?) The Yankees have buried something of greater karmic weight than any silly shirt....Bernie Williams.

Citing a need for physical and spiritual cleansing after a Boston Red Sox fan entombed a David Ortiz jersey in the floor of the new facility, the New York Yankees buried former centerfielder Bernie Williams under 4,650 pounds of concrete Wednesday in the foundation of the new Yankee Stadium for good luck.

According to team sources, the instant the 39-year-old Williams was completely submerged in the rapidly setting structural material, stopping his voice as his lungs and mouth filled with concrete, the sun broke through the clouds and shone on the yet-incomplete field. Yankees part-owner Hank Steinbrenner called the occurrence a sign indicating that the "Curse Of A Red Sox Fan's David Ortiz Jersey" had been reversed, and that God was once again on the Yankees' side.

"Any attempt to put a hex on the New York Yankees has been successfully averted," Steinbrenner told reporters while standing over the still-wet concrete slab beneath which, judging by the sluggish ripples and lopsided bubbles in the hardening agglomerate, Williams still struggled. "Not that this organization believes in curses. We're the Yankees. We believe the success of our team is based purely on our players and their on-field performance. And we act accordingly."

"However," Steinbrenner continued, "Bernie was on our last World Series team in 2000, so we figured burying him under our new home certainly couldn't hurt. Also, he was available, and his appearance fee was quite reasonable."

[snip]

"By giving Bernie this chance, we have once again proven why we are the classiest organization in all of sports," [Yankees President Randy] Levine added. "Lesser teams would have overreacted to this whole curse thing and buried Derek Jeter."

From The Onion, naturally...very, very funny stuff. Why can't I be this funny?

H/T Peter Abraham.

Quick Updates - Updated

I started another post this morning at work, but couldn't focus enough to finish it, so I'll try that again tonight, but in the interest of keeping my at least one post a day rate going for April...

• Almost a month ago, we bought a van (still dealing with the fallout from this convo). Last Tuesday, while taking TLomL to work, we were rear-ended. The damage wasn't horrible, but there was a lot of it (just for fun, I'd show you the pictures, buy my cell isn't sending them for some reason). Yesterday, they found some more damage while doing the repair work. The body shop guy guesses the repair work will be extensive enough to get this called a total loss. Should get the official word this afternoon...stressing over that, just a bit. Update 3:20 pm:I'm not too brave to admit it, I came close to begging on the phone this morning with the adjuster. I'm relieved to say that it appears he has a heart. He thinks he can justify the additional $1K in damages found yesterday because of what we paid a month ago--all I have to do is supply him some proof of that. Official ruling tomorrow. Those of you who are praying types, would appreciate some.
• Samwise is having an excellent baseball season--his team is doing terrific, rolling over the first 6 opponents (tomorrow night they'll face a pretty good team tho...might actually keep the score close). But Samwise, who's been struggling a lot at the plate over the last couple of years is having a great year. Hitting pretty consistently, visibly improving almost every at-bat. We've got parents talking to us about how they've seen him improve (even overhearing some comments directed to other people about him). It's just a lot of fun to see.
• The Princess's T-Ball experience this year looks like a joke. She seems to be having fun, which is all well and good, but she's learning nothing. Maybe even un-learning from last year. Her coach last year was just great, this year, we've got some guy who makes Fred Rogers look like a WWE regular, who basically gets almost organized chaos on the field. I'm trying not to hold it against him, but am failing.
• Nothing major to report with either Frodo or Arnold--which is good.

Allrighty, quota met...see ya soon :)

The Ides of April are Upon Us

which means it's time for me to post this quote again.

A man condemning the income tax because of the annoyance it gives him or the expense it puts him to is merely a dog baring its teeth, and he forfeits the privileges of civilized discourse. But it is permissible to criticize it on other and impersonal grounds. A government, like an individual, spends money for any or all of three reasons: because it needs to, because it wants to, or simply because it has it to spend. The last is much the shabbiest. It is arguable, if not manifest, that a substantial proportion of this great spring flood of billions pouring into the Treasury will in effect get spent for that last shabby reason.

--Nero Wolfe

Gonna Need Some Sort of Therapy Myself to Cope with the Loss

This one took me awhile to write/rewrite...not wholly satisfied, but I doubt I'll get it into the shape I wanted it to be...so, here ya go

Back in the halcyon days when I believed I was going to have a career, one of the few I considered most seriously and often was being some sort of therapist. I majored in psych, with the intention of earning at least a Masters' in it. I still read books, articles, and whatnot related to the field in my leisure time, and have a soft spot for characters in movies, books, TV that are in the field (the thing that drew me to Dr. Lecter was his being a shrink, for example). So when I heard about HBO's new show about a therapist, I had to give it a shot.

HBO lately has not been known for playing it safe when it comes to TV series, this years' In Treatment, is just another example of that. Based on an Israeli TV show, In Treatment is an intense look at one therapist, Paul (Gabriel Byrne), as he interacts with 5 patients and his own therapist, Gina (Dianne Wiest). This was TV at its best--challenging concets, interesting--and real--characters, powerful acting.

In theory, each episode (there were just enough episodes off-formula to keep everything moving forward) was essentially one session--which was portrayed--and seemed--to be in real time, but the 50-minute hour was shown in 20-23 minutes (how they pulled that off every time, I'm still not sure). For eight weeks the series aired five nights a week, a different patient for each night, tracking Paul through the week as he saw each of the culminating in his own therapy session on Friday (the ninth week had only three episodes to air because of changes in the status of some patients). Not too many shows can handle that kind of schedule, but In Treatment not only handled it--it demanded it.

As in therapy, the little things in this show were important--and interesting, thankfully. The arching of an eyebrow, the silence between lines of dialogue, the way (or place) someone sits told as much as the words that came out of their mouth--maybe more. In Treatment didn't do so well as background noise, it required your attention to small details. Sure, you could get a decent idea what was going on only by listening, but you'd miss more than you'd catch.

Probably the best way to give you a taste of the show, is to follow its own format--a quick look at each days' patient.

Mondays: Laura--an anesthesiologist (played by Alias' Melissa George) who's been seeing Paul for a year or so...I don't believe we're ever told why she started therapy. By the time we're introduced to her, she's working on a serious case of transference, professing her love for Paul.

Tuesdays: Alex Blair Underwood blew me away with his performance as this Navy pilot who claims he comes to Paul to help him deal with a mission in Iraq that didn't go off as it should've. It doesn't take too long to see that his difficulty with the outcome of the mission is just the tip of the iceberg, this hardship is really letting/forcing Alex to deal with many questions he has about his own identity and family. I don't remember enjoying Underwood this much since his early days on LA Law. Possibly the only thing better than Underwood's portrayal, was when Glynn Turman appeared in two episodes as his father--you could see the same mannerisms, the way of speaking...unless you knew better, you really would think they were related. Great job all around on this one.

Wednesdays: Sophie quite possibly, this patient was the highlight of the series. Sophie's an Olympic hopeful acrobat, played by Mia Wasikowska who I've never seen in anything, nor heard of anything she's done. Which is a crying shame, because she's fantastic. Sophie was hit by a car while riding her bike and needs to have her emotional state checked before she can return to training. Paul was never better as a therapist than when dealing with Sophie (at least among the patients featured)

Thursdays: Jake and Amy From the blogs/message boards I read, Jake and Amy were the least liked of all the sessions. I never understood that. Josh Charles and Embeth Davidtz were so compelling as a married couple seeking some help working through some issues. I'm not suggesting for a second that the Mrs and I were anything like them, but I could relate to both of them better than any other character--particularly Jake. Their progress was a clear case of therapy going well, but the affect on the patient not looking anything like success.

Fridays: Gina Things in Paul's life and practice aren't going the way they should--I don't think it's giving too much away that Paul at some point realizes he's having some sort of mid-life crisis. So he contacts an old collegue/mentor and enters into therapy himself at the end of the first week. I frequently wavered in my opinion of Wiest's Gina--but in the end, I had to respect her a lot more than I thought I would. The sessions with her were so revealing--Paul played the same kind of games with her that his patients would with him--leaving out details, spinning others, etc.--but the audience would know Paul was doing so, while only suspecting that of Paul's patients.

One significant part of Paul's life that's not going too well is his marriage. His wife, Kate, is briefly seen before and after some sessions and shares a few with Paul at Gina's. I don't recall ever seeing Michelle Forbes playing anything other than a SciFi military character--Ensign Ro, Admiral Cain--and was pleasantly surprised watching her in a civilian role. I could see her pain, her anger--sometimes feel it just by watching her. I honestly didn't think she had it in her.

Obviously, the lynch pin to the endeavor was Byrne, someone I've appreciated since the first time I saw Miller's Crossing back in middle school. He carried each episode, it was really his story, his treatment being explored. Too frequently, his dealings with his patients were cringe-worthy, because Paul was not the all-knowing fount of wisdom that therapists are frequently portrayed as in TV and film. Not a bit. Paul was fallible, sometimes unreliable, sloppy, and careless--in short, human. And not for a second a therapist I'd trust with me or my family :)

43 episodes in 2 months is quite the demand to make of an audience, no matter the quality of the program--as the low ratings show--and several times during the initial weeks I considered abandoning the series. I'm very glad I didn't. In Treatment was the kind of show that proves TV doesn't necessarily turn brains to mush (although it does that too frequently). Now that it's over, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. Think less about what I'm watching, that's for sure. Obsess a bit less, too (which is a good thing, I realize).

Last I checked, the first 15 episodes were available for free on iTunes and at Amazon (although they're edited a bit). Try them while you still can, and when HBO puts out the DVDs, they're definitely worth the time and effort.

Really only posting this to keep up my quota

Watched The Water Horse, this weekend with the family, which garnered very mixed reviews. TLomL called it "cute" and "a fun little movie." The rest of us couldn't disagree more. Whyfore the difference? The rest of us read the book last year before it opened in theaters, (one of our nigh unto unbreakable House Rules is "read the book first") and the experience coupled with the trailers we'd been enjoying switched it from the "Get thee to a Multiplex" list to "Eh, maybe on video." And we almost didn't do that, but in the end, Frodo's desire to compare the two and the Princess' curiosity overcame Sam's apathy.

I fully realize that you sometimes have to alter, tweak, or change elements of a book to get the thing into a movie. Sometimes I wonder why choices are made, but I can understand it. But this wasn't on the level of leaving Hermione's founding S.P.E.W. out of the flick, or something on that level. This was a wholesale re-write.

Dick King-Smith's perfectly charming kid's book is about two kids Kirstie and Angus living in Scotland in the 1930's with their mother and her father (their father is a merchant marine gone for months at a time). They go to the shore frequently to look for firewood, kelp (to put on their grandfather's garden), and miscellany. One day, Angus and Kirstie find a giant "mermaid's purse", which our protagonist, Kirstie, decides to sneak home because she's so curious about it. That mermaid's purse turns out to be an egg sack for the Water Horse. The rest of the book is about the family's struggle to feed and care for the beastie while keeping him secret. He's moved from body of water to body of water 'til he ends up in Loch Ness, where a certain picture is taken of him in 1934. Along the way, silly Angus grows up a bit, grandfather (named 'Grumble' because of his personality) cheers up, Kirstie becomes more mature.

In the movie, we're still in Scotland, but it's in the middle of WWII, and Angus is the focus...he's drawn to the water, yet terrified of it (for reasons to be semi-explained later). One day at the beach where he's supposed to be playing, he finds this strange rock, which he takes home--which is a large estate, his mother is the Head Housekeeper there. The rock turns out to be an egg, from which hatches the Water Horse. The next day, a regiment (or so) of soldiers arrives to be housed at the estate while they guard the nearby Loch from German Subs. Angus recruits the help of Kirstie and the new handyman with the mysterious past (taking the job of Angus' father) to help him keep the creature a secret. Which brings them into confrontation with the soldiers, helps Angus deal with the loss of his father and his fear of water.

Which would've been a fine little flick, if it didn't claim to be based on the book. Trust the source. You thought the novel was good enough to buy the rights to...don't mess with it. Why is this so hard for people to understand?

So, basically, if you and yours haven't read the book--it's a cute movie to watch with the kids. Otherwise...find something else.


By the way, I have to wonder...just what history books do the people at Walden Media read? Apparently, aside from one/both parents being separated from their kids, WWII's a pretty magical time (maybe just in the UK). The Pevensies are whisked away to Narnia, the MacMorrow kids get a magical pet...

Thought for the Lord's Day #21

God has not in vain taken upon Him the name of a Father; He fills it up to the full. It is a name of indulgence, a name of hope, a name of provision, a name of protection. It argues the mitigation of punishment; a little is enough from a father, therefore, in all temptations, it should teach us by prayer to fly under the wings of our heavenly Father and to expect from Him all that a father should do for his child, as provision, protection, indulgence, yea, and seasonable corrections also (which are as necessary for us as our daily bread), and when we die we may expect our inheritance, because He is our Father. But yet we must understand also that the name of a father is a word of relation, something also He expects from us. We must also reverence Him as a Father, which consists in fear and love. He is a great God and therefore we ought to fear Him. He is also merciful, yea has bowels of mercy, and therefore we ought to love Him. If we tremble at Him we know not that He is loving, and if we be over-bold we forget that He is a great God; therefore we should go boldly to Him with reverence and godly fear.

- Richard Sibbes

Families Beat Paper, Rock Beats Families

Each day at work, the clients start off with reading a "daily meditation" together and reflecting what it means to them personally. Frankly, I'm glad I don't have to put up with it too often, as it starts after my shift. A new book was purchased this year for this purpose, and we're increasingly convinced that TPTB didn't review this one too closely before handing over the cash.

This is a sample from one entry a few weeks back that made some of us roll our eyes:

Families are like scissors. They are joined in the middle but often spread wide apart, moving away from each other. When we're not feeling close to other family members--when it's hard even to like them--it seems as though we'll never come together again.

But pity the scrap of paper that comes between our scissor blades! The scissors work together again and clicks the trouble clean.

Yes, that's right..families are like scissors..."joined in the middle." Who writes this stuff?

I should note, if someone read me stuff like that every day, I'd give up whatever addiction I was dealing with to protect my ears from that or worse--so maybe it's working.

Stop It!

Apparently, Dr. Suess is sending messages from The Great Beyond...

Stop Making Movies About My Books

On the fourteenth of March, in towns nationwide,
In every cinema, multiplex, on every barnside,
Gleamed another adapting of one of my books,
CGI-ed and digitized by another sly crook.

Horton, my favorite—look how he's been treated!
Stuffed with tinsels and tassels and promptly excreted!
The puns! And the filler! The script fees you must save!
While I tumble and grum-humble around in my grave.

Read the rest here at the Onion (language warning, which I really need to give after that last post)

Well, I'm Officially Disqualified Now...

No Father-of-the-Year Awards for me.

True Story.

Just finished watching a youtube video of a comedy bit enacted with Legos, and since this particular video featured Star Wars Legos, it grabbed the attention of the Offspring. Sadly, the clip ended up featuring a certain expletive a couple times before it was over. Didn't want to draw undo attention to it so I just played on and we all enjoyed the bit. So much so, that the Offspring wanted to watch it again.

"Uh," I stammered, "I don't think so. Pretty sure we've had more than our daily allotment of the 'F-word.'"

Samwise shoots me a confused look, "The 'F-word'?"

For crying out loud, this isn't the convo I'd intended on...I just wanted to watch a silly Lego video. "Yeah, we've talked about this before. You know, the 'F-word'..." I get a blank stare in return. "Oh, come on! Okay, like in the video, 'This isn't the who the [bleep] are you game.'"

"Oh! [Bleep]?"

"Right."

"[Bleep] [bleep]" he was getting on a roll, and clearly enjoying it.

"Allright, you're done with that word. Next time you get to say it is when you're over 18 and living on your own."

"But I can still say it in my head, though, right?"

This is the point where if it were functioning properly, my brain would simply stop my heart and I wouldn't have to deal with this anymore. Sadly, the neurons kept firing, blood kept pumping and whatnot, so we got to have a nice little conversation on appropriate words. Not a complete one, mind you, because I'd have to teach him an entire vocabulary he just doesn't posses just to get the job done properly. And yeah, I know the day is coming when he'll need to have a better grasp of it than he does now.

Hmmm, it occurs to me, when that day comes, I should have Uncle Bluewoad pitch in...am sure there's nothing like a lesson on the development of the English language to suck the fun out of cussing...

My tongue can't multitask

Just finished giving a spelling test (while grading a grammar test) with one child demanding I start his spelling test and another semi-patiently waiting expectantly to me to dictate a literature passage to him.

As Butters recently said, "Ow! That hurt my brains! Ow!"

Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover

Somewhere, maybe it was a Robert Crais discussion list, I saw the debut novel of Sean Chercover mentioned in the same breath as Michael Koryta, so I instantly got it put on hold for me at the library. Kortya's debut (and two follow-ups) was one of the best reads I had last year and I relished the idea of having a similar experience with another first novel.

I almost did, but not quite.

Don't get me wrong--Big City, Bad Blood rocked. A really good--maybe great--first novel. I just didn't connect with Ray Dudgeon and his friends and clients the way I did with Lincoln Perry and his crew.

Big City is the story of a movie location manager stumbling into an Organized Crime operation--one that seems pretty minor at the beginning, but doesn't stay that way for long. He comes to former journalist, now P.I. Dudgeon for protection. After some slow establishing chapters, the action picks up and doesn't slow down until the end. I don't think Chercover missed a beat or hit one false note--it's a great read, leaving me checking his website for details on his next book.

Bringin' Da Funny

I read and watch a lot of things considered comedic, humorous, funny, etc. but it's not often that I'll find something that his worth more than a handful of laughs--recently, I've stumbled onto a few things that are laugh out loud funny from beginning to end. Been meaning to talk about them for awhile, might as well get to it now, 3 books and 3 movies that I still laugh at weeks after finishing

Books:

• The Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp - This is the first installment of what I hope is many in the adventures of two LA Homicide Detectives, Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. The detective story is solid--a serial killer(killers?) is attacking people associated with a Disney-like company (complete with theme park), leading the detectives through both the messy world of the animation industry and its even messier history. At the same time, Lomax is dealing with the recent death of his wife and some other family issues. BUT the story is told with flair, heart and a lot of laughs. This isn't one of those books where the serious or violent aspects of the events are played for laughs. It's like Harry Bosch having a great day ('tho I don't know if Harry could handle such an eventuality). Better yet, it's like those 'comic relief' episodes of The Closer where Detectives Flynn and Provenza get themselves in the middle of some silly situation (like "To Protect & To Serve" or "Saving Face")--the murder stuff is serious, but everything around it is hilarious. It was touching, it was hysterically funny, with a dead-on mystery. Probably the best book I've read this year.


• Bloodthirsty by Marshall Karp Naturally, after The Rabbit Factory I rushed out to get the next Lomax and Biggs case. Thankfully, it was almost as good as the first. The humor still crackled, the insider's view of Hollywood again felt genuine, the crimes...well, they were more violent, more gruesome. Sadly, I could see the solution to the mystery a few miles away, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment watching the heroes get there themselves. Honestly, I can't really see the events of the first book happening in the real world--but this one? I'm surprised we don't hear about that kind of thing every day. A solid sequel that leaves you wanting more, I can't wait for the next thing Karp brings out.


• I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle Take the ultimate Teen Movie in the vein of Better Off Dead, Say Anything, or Can't Buy Me Love, make it funnier yet more heartfelt, and then commit it to print rather than film, and you've got this novel. Denis Cooverman, alpha-geek, uses his valedictorian speech at graduation to announce to the world--including Beth Cooper--his love for the titular character, the requisite gorgeous, rich, blonde cheerleader. There are a few problems with this...1. Beth is barely aware Denis exists; 2. Beth has a boyfriend with a nasty jealous streak; 3. Boyfriend is an Army soldier--with Special Forces training--on leave. Hilarity ensues. The novel is a chronicle of the day that follows graduation, that one last night of revelry. Well, revelry, violence, and young love. I wasn't reading it long before Samwise started saying, "you're about to start laughing" when I'd pick up the book (he was right).

Movies:

• Shaun of the Dead I finally gave into all the buzz I've heard over this and was delighted. This zombie flick had my coworker and I in stitches. Simon Pegg was fantastic as a beta male trying to win back his girlfriend (Studio 60's Lucy Davis) while trying to save her, his friends and mother (Penelope Wilton, Doctor Who's Harriet Jones) while the undead are conquering England. Sure, it's a story we've all seen a million times, but this time it was special. :)


• Hot Fuzz Simon Pegg does it again--and better! His character is 180 degrees different from Shaun, Type A over-achiever all the way, but just as funny--scratch that, even more laugh-inducing. This time out, Pegg's London's top cop (think Billy Rosewood in Beverly Hills Cop II), transferred to a small town. The culture-clash is a great setup and somehow doesn't become battle of the cliches. This was simply a perfect comedy. Again, my coworker and I were on the floor, and were afraid we were going to wake the clients.


• Death at a FuneralA dutiful son and his wife conduct a dignified funeral for his father, hosting many relatives (including other son, the celebrity author just flown in from the States), friends, and coworkers. And the laughs start coming. Typical comedic fare, right? This is an ensemble comedy, I only recognized two of the actors--Alan Tudyk (Wash!) and Peter Dinklage. It starts off pretty slow...set-up/punchline, set-up/punchline, and so on, slowly building up steam and then ka-pow! it takes off and you barely get a chance to catch your breath between punchlines. I can't really say more without giving away some of the plot, just trust me...you'll laugh a lot. This time at work, we didn't care if we woke anyone up--we just had to laugh--we had tears in our eyes. I watched this two times back-to-back and was in stitches both times. Can't say enough about this one.

"Their Best Game Ever"

A minor family emergency gave me an unexpected and unwelcome night-off last night, which took away my prime-blogging hours, no time to get anything real posted today--but am sticking with my at least one post a day for April target...

via HotAir, another Improv Everywhere video--if this one doesn't make you smile, there's something wrong with you. Frankly, I needed it--one van in the shop for transmission work, another van (which we haven't even made our first payment on!) in the shop for some body work thanks to some possibly un-insured dope with a slippery brake pedal...well, let's just say it does not make for a happy Hobster (or any other member of the clan).

No Matter How Small...

Well, once again, I went against my better judgment a few days back to see a kid's movie that I fully expected to be disappointed in, and was proven wrong. Although, this time my reluctance wasn't without merit--Defense Exhibit A, Defense Exhibit B. I knew, I just knew that this would be another example of the filmmakers getting the Seuss-portion right--and then all 60 or so minutes worth of filler would be dreadful.

But, I'll admit it, the non-Seuss stuff was seamlessly integrated with the original. The whole thing worked in a way that rivals the best of Pixar's works.

The animation was perfect--you know, you just know if he was alive and working today this is the kind of thing Seuss'd be producing. The characters--major and minor were fun, interesting, clever. The character voices were great--was very impressed with Will Arnett's work--making me regret his being replaced as KITT. The story was intact, especially the moral--a person's a person, no matter how small. (or big, or blue, or Whovillian, or whatever).

The way that the kangaroo provoked the mob mentality was brilliant. "It's for the children. It's for the children." How many ridiculous, criminal, and out right bad movements/ideas/policies have been rammed down our throats from all ends of the political spectrum by that mantra? If only real people were able cajoled out of following that Pied Piper of a slogan the way they were in the movie.

Shockingly, there's a little controversy around the film, first was the the way Carol Burnett's kangaroo states with aplomb, "that's why we Pouch School." I found (find, actually) that line hilarious. There are a few tight-shoed homeschool bloggers who are up in arms over this line, but most of those I've talked to/read actually have a sense of humor about it--some have even embraced it. (if I was more energetic, I'd go see how many homeschool bloggers have complained about the depiction of homeschooler Mama Boucher in the Adam Sandler classic)

The second comes from the Pro-Life movement's embrace of the line "A person's a person, no matter how small" (despite the widow Geisel's objections). This led to quite the tacky protest interrupting the Hollywood premier. How stupid. Great way to create ill-will for the movement.

Thankfully, that nonsense doesn't interfere with the movie (unless you happen to be reading blogs while watching it or were at the premier)--which was a real pleasure to watch, through and through.

The Doctor Is In...

Just caught the season premier of Doctor Who--loved it! Tennant scores again as the Doctor, and I didn't hate Donna this time out. Thankfully, her initial contact with the Time Lord had a positive impact on her and she's likable now. Still, I miss Martha (esp. after SciFi showed "Smith and Jones" last week), not as much as Rose, mind you. Can't wait to see the two of them again...

Best moment: when the Doctor realizes he's talking to himself while starting to explain the alien technology. Hard to feel bad for someone who can say, "I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey of the constellation Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old, and I'm the man who is going to save your lives and the six billion people on the planet below. Do you have a problem with that?" But Tennant makes you do just that.

Maybe this ep was a little long on the comedy, short on the thrills. But hey, I'll take the good Doctor in any way they give it to me. I trust they'll get the balance right in the weeks to come.

For girlfriday's sake, I won't talk about the jaw-dropping bit. Can't wait to hear what she has to say about it...

Upcoming Events

Be sure to mark your calendars:

Ides of April - just in case you forgot--Tax Day. [sigh].
April 23 - Tax Freedom Day. Early this year. But don't worry, Obama and/or Clinton have plans to move this to later in the year.
May 3 (a.k.a. Day After Iron Man's premier) - Free Comic Book Day
May 8 - No Socks Day (name pretty much says it all)
May 9 - Lost Sock Memorial Day, not really sure what it is with May and Socks...
May 16 - National Sea Monkey Day. Frodo will be celebrating this one for sure...
May 24 - International Talk Like Bob Dylan Day
May 25 - Towel Day

Hope you appreciate this bit of public service, now back to obsessively focusing on myself.

Meet the Family

Ack! I can't believe I forgot to watch/record the first Walken-hosted SNL in five years. He has got to be one of the all-time greatest hosts. Thankfully, NBC's put a good chunk of the episode on hulu.com, including this bit of impression-y goodness: Meet the Family.

Postscript

Calvin and Hobbes doesn't corner the market on comic strip government school critiques, go Frazz!

Thought for the Lord's Day #20

The Tamed Lion

1 A Lion, though by nature wild,
The art of man can tame;
He stands before his keeper, mild,
And gentle as a lamb.

2 He watches, with submissive eye,
The hand that gives him food,
As if he meant to testify
A sense of gratitude.

3 But man himself, who thus subdues
The fiercest beast of prey,
A nature more unfeeling shows,
And far more fierce than they.

4 Though by the Lord preserv'd and fed,
He proves rebellious still;
And while he eats his Maker's bread,
Resists his holy will.

5 Alike in vain, of grace that saves,
Or threat'ning law, he hears;
The savage scorns, blasphemes, and raves,
But neither loves nor fears.

6 O Saviour! how thy wondrous pow'r
By angels is proclaim'd,
When in thine own appointed hour,
They see this lion tam'd.

7 The love thy bleeding cross displays,
The hardest heart subdues;
Here furious lions while they gaze,
Their rage and fierceness lose.

8 Yet we are but renew'd in part,
The lion still remains;
Lord, drive him wholly from my heart,
Or keep him fast in chains.

- John Newton

Demons can charm you with a smile, for a while

So I watched Sweeney Todd the other night, and it was about what you'd expect for a Tim Burton musical: dark, cool sets, twisted, lots of strange hair, and Johnny Depp. While I don't know that I'd recommend it to anyone based on the content, it's one of the better musicals I've seen on film (right up there with Grease 2).

Everything I know about Sondheim, I learned from Mandy Patinkin CDs, so I wasn't too sure what to expect from this story outside the trailers. It was a decent story as far as revenge flicks about wronged barbers go (so glad I've given up the whole shaving thing...would have a hard time using the ol' Mach 3 for awhile), the use of the word macabre to describe this hardly seems fair to such a fun word to say. There are some truly great moments--mostly due to the music. The songs were great--it's like the Broadway success that Sondheim's had was deserved or something (yeah, I'm talking about you, Lloyd Webber).

Who knew these people could sing? The always reliable villian, Alan Rickman, Johnny Depp, and the proto-Goth Chick Helena Bonham Carter all made their singing debuts here. Who knew Sacha Baron Cohen could do something worth watching? What is with Timothy Spall showing up everywhere now?

I thought this was some of Burton's more creative uses of color--and was tempted to hang on to the DVD for a few more days to study it, but in the end I decided I'd find a decent discussion on-line or in the comments of this post.

I didn't have to see his face to reflexively shout "Giles!" during a certain actors' uncredited appearance. Anyone else do that? (my bad coffee-making coworker did, so I'm not the biggest geek I know).

Really can't think of anything else to say about this flick at the moment, so off to eat a couple of meat pies...

P.S. So TLomL doesn't hyperventilate, I should probably say that the Grease 2 thing was a joke. "Grease 2? What will people think? You know people don't always know when you're joking..."

Ah-hey ma ma ma

Been awhile since I did a Music Video Friday Post, and I can't seem to get enough of this cover of Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town" by Sugarland, Little Big Town and Jake Owen (who better to sing of life in 1960's England than circa-2007 American Country Music artists?).

Following some of the "Related Video" links, it looks like if this whole Country Music thing doesn't work out for Sugarland, they've got a future as an 80's cover band. See also: "Where The Streets Have No Name", "Pour Some Sugar on Me".

Meanwhile, am thinking of starting a charity organization: The Buy Jennifer Nettles a Sandwich Foundation.

Learning from that Kid and His (Imaginary?) Friend

I've been reading lately about comic strips helping kids become better readers (if for no other reason, they'll invest more effort into understanding unfamiliar words/phrases/ideas so they can get the joke), so last week I plunked down a few bucks for a Calvin and Hobbes collection. It's truly the rare moment over the last five days when that book has not been open in someone's hands (except for school or dining time...pretty much).

Of course, the downside to this is that Samwise is taking Calvin as a role-model.

So getting a link to this article in the mail this week was quite well-timed, "Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Public School...I Learned in Calvin & Hobbes Comic Books" by B.R. Merrick. Now, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't sign on to everything Mr. Merrick says about Calvin, Hobbes or Public School--but as I read over it again, I can't think of a single thing he gets wrong.

Particularly worth your time is "list, in order of importance from worse to worst, the life lessons I, and all the other non-fictional Calvins out there, learned from former-factory/now-corporate government schools."

Sadly, not so sure those strips are that funny anymore.

A quick grumble

Steve Taylor's first film, Second Chance was almost a paint-by-numbers Evangelical movie, but it was good enough to be enjoyable--and I was eager to see more.

But to follow it up with Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz? Ugh.

First time since my initial exposure to Steve that I'm not eagerly anticipating, nay, am dreading, his next project.

Talkin' Baseball

Not only was Monday Opening Day for MLB, it was the start of another season of Little League for the Offspring. Frodo's elected to not play this Spring--which is both sad and understandable (and hey...makes things a lot easier on his parents--we'd have had 3 kids in 3 different leagues and would've had to clone one of us to cover everything).

Samwise has his first game of the year tonight, the Princess has hers tomorrow (immediately following Sam's second game). Arnold desperately wants to play this year, and is counting down the days 'til next season. I'm very impressed with Sam's coach--not sure what kind of results he'll get out of the kid, but am sure he'll get good stuff out of the team as a whole (and vice versa). Not as impressed with Princess' coach--seems to put a great emphasis on quantity of practice over quality.

On the professional side, looks like Torre's getting off to a good start in LA. Beckett and Schilling started the season on the DL. The Girardi-era Yanks got off to a decent start in their opener--the Melk-man doing most of the splashy stuff, but the pitching was as good as it needed to be. Like Patrick over at Yanksblog said, "You're not going to beat the Yankees very often when the only pitchers you see are Chien-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera."

Someone asked me why I'm so obsessed with baseball when it's so "boring" compared to say football or basketball. Here's a snippet from Chabon's Summerland to give part of the explanation:

"I hate it that they even count errors," Ethan said..."What kind of game is that? No other sport do they do that, Dad. There's no other sport where they put the errors on the freaking scoreboard for everybody to look at. They don't even have errors in other sports. They have fouls. They have penalties. Those are things that players could get on purpose, you know. But in baseball they keep track of how many accidents you have."

[snip]
"Ethan," Mr. Feld said, shaking his head in sorrow.... "Errors . . . Well, they are a part of life, Ethan," he tried to explain. "Fouls and penalties, generally speaking, are not. That's why baseball is more like life than other games.

Am I the Only One Who Does This?

Driving into work tonight, "Bohemian Rhapsody" comes on the radio, which is a rare enough event to warrant me staying on the channel without looking around to see what else was playing.

Somewhere between "spit in my eye" and "leave me to die" I realize that I'm doing the whole lip-synch, air band thing right out of Wayne's World--minus the DeLuise kid in the back and with greater accuracy than Dana Carvey.

Torn between being embarassed despite the fact that I was alone in the van and knowing I was alone in the van so I didn't need to care, I admit I faltered a bit there. But figured hey, the song was almost over, so I might as well finish.

Anyway the wind blows, anyone else do this?

Templatey Goodness and the like

Those of you who checked this space Tuesday evening may have noticed the presence of a couple of names rather than my avatar and e-bumper sticker over to your right. That's because I added TLomL as an author to this here blog, and it threw my template into a tizzy.

Now, she was an author here before...well, as far as the permissions and whatnot were concerned, she was an author, she just never contributed anything. Which was okay, because she started her own blog. She closed that one down awhile ago, and hasn't really wanted to get back to trying to keep up a blog of her own--which is a shame, but, hopefully, hopefully, she'll throw something in here from time to time.

I should mention that it took me an hour (in retrospect, it should've taken 5 minutes) to fix the template after adding her as an author. I would like to think, if nothing else, she'd feel obligated to post a few things because of the trouble I went to just to add her. You'd agree, readers, wouldn't you? Leave a comment, pour on the guilt encouragement.

Before I started dealing with the template, I installed the new Microsoft video software MLB is using so I could watch some highlights of last night's Yankee game. I'm not sure why/how, but after doing so, I lost about 25% of my Firefox window to a large toolbar that doesn't seem to include any content. I've uninstalled that software, restarted the computer, played with my Firefox theme...and nothing. Still have this large ugly grayish-brown rectangle at the bottom of my screen. Which really has nothing to do with anything but is just my way of saying that I"m apparently spending my down-time at work tonight on cosmetic troubleshooting. Not really what I had in mind, but what're ya gonna do, eh?

Dialogue Snippet of the Moment

Ben: I mean, they're like our cool, fun uncles.
Sock: Benji, have you ever had a cool, fun uncle?
Ben: Uncle Hector.
Sock: Uncles are creepy by definition, okay? Have you not been watching your SVU?

Reaper

Quote of the Moment

I guess one of the drawbacks to doing nothing with your life is that you're never quite sure when you've accomplished it.

- Jonathan Tropper
Plan B

Opening Day

It's here, it's finally here! Spring is officially here (not that my hay fever hasn't been telling me that for a week), I'm not wasting part of my TV dollars paying for ESPN...life is good.

The Offspring are a little annoyed with me, Opening Day is typically a day off school, but I've been little to disorganized lately and we're behind...so they have at least half a day. I may spare them this afternoon.

Aaaand, Toronto at New York is rain-delayed. I said some not-fit-for-print things to my TV because instead of turning in 30 min late for Wang's start, I saw Kansas City at Detroit. I did retract those things when I finally noticed the bottom-of-the-screen scroll telling me that the game was delayed, so they were showing this "bonus coverage."

That mollified me a bit, but still...I don't care if Detroit's a favorite to win it all this year (and they do look good); on Opening Day, I want to see the Bronx Bombers. Rain had better clear soon...

Some interesting facts, via the best Yankee blog on the 'Net:

The Yankees are 61-43-1 on Opening Day, 28-10 at the Stadium. They are 16-11 in presidential election years. When the Yankees win at home on Opening Day, the GOP is 4-1 in the election. When the Yankees lose, the Democrats are 3-0.

Punished with a baby?

"Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old," [Obama] said. "I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn't make sense to not give them information."

He's going to have to tap-dance a lot on this one, methinks.

Obviously the pro-lifers are going to have a field-day with this one, but I'd like to think that even some of the pro-choice crowd will have a hard time with the idea of a baby as punishment.

Thought for the Lord's Day #19

We need the Decalogue not only to apprise us of our lawful obligations, but we also need it to discern how far the Holy Spirit has advanced in His work of sanctification and by how much we still fall short of the goal, lest we become secure and imagine that we have now done all that is required. Thus we must constantly grow in sanctification and always become new creatures in Christ.

- Martin Luther

Wow, I Thought Took Music Seriously

Rockabilly, punk, and metal fans are rioting against emo kids in Mexico? I want to laugh at the ludicrous nature of it*...but these are actual kids getting hurt, encouraged to kill themselves, etc. This kind of thing shouldn't surprise me...but for some reason it does.

Mexico's Emo-Bashing Problem (Time)
Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico (Wired)

*I'd even planned on putting a joking headline to this like, "Wow, I didn't know Julie had moved to Mexico"

radio.blog update

Got a new radio.blog over there on your right...no real commentary to go along with it...unless it's demanded or something...give it a listen whilst you surf.

A History Lesson

not sure how this documentary video from the future got posted on youtube now...but hey...it did.

TV Catch-All

Random-ish thoughts on what I've been watching/not-watching lately. Basically, since the beginning of the Writer's Strike, whatever's been on TV has been 'stuff to watch 'til BSG and Burn Notice return (with Chuck close behind).' Now, during that period I did find a few things that are very worth watching, but I also found a few that just weren't. But anyway....

John Rich made the dumbest TV choice since Fox's cancellation of Firefly). Gone Country was marginally entertaining at best--other than for the few moments when they focused on music: singing, performing, song-writing--rather than making their stars/victims look foolish in various ways. But something about the show kept us watching from the get-go--our viewing of the premier was a combination of "there's nothing else on/to-do tonight" and "you've got to be kidding me...they're really trying this?" And then after watching faithfully after that, Rich reveals that this has all been just an elaborate set up, like the 1919 World Series or every WWE match.

I briefly held out hope that my faith in Reality TV could be restored once American Idol finished all their audition phases (with a mercifully changed Hollywood Week--tho I did miss all the fighting that went along with the group sing). Particularly with the (first) all-Lennon/McCartney night. I was filled with dread actually by the prospect, and didn't watch it live so I could use my DVR's 360x playback speed (and/or 'Delete' function) if the show went as badly as I feared. But it was actually a pretty good episode--yeah, there were a couple of disasters--but on the whole, it was probably the best performance episode for the top 12. But I found myself just not caring. I skipped most of the next performance, and didn't watch a bit of last night's--not sure I'll watch the rest of this year. These are supposedly the best finalists in the show's 7 years, but I can't seem to care too much about them. Say what you will about Sanjaya, Scott Savol, or Constantine--they got a reaction. Most of these people--including the ringers--induce yawns. I really like Brooke White, but if she wins, she'll make Taylor Hicks' sales figures look like Carrie Underwood's. Ditto for Lisa EdelsteinJason Castro. I just don't get the appeal of Michael Johns (the downunder Tim Daly)--why do voters/the judges like him? Archuleta's nice, a near-lock to win, and duller than a very used plastic butter knife. What can I say about David "I wanna be Chris Daughtry when I grow up" Cook? Really put off by him...the smugness, they way he does the same thing to every song (mostly ripping off a hard-edged cover of something)...his apparent refusal to use shampoo. A friend of mine (with typically decent taste) recently said something about Cook growing on her--I almost air-mailed her some anti-fungal cream. (I appropriated a couple of jokes here from Ken Levine, who's weekly Idol recaps should be must reading for those who watch the show)

The Return of Jezebel James. Wow. If Amy Sherman was looking for something to remind people that she wasn't always the genius behind Gilmore Girls, that she was also a 'genius' behind Veronica's Closet, she found it. Kind of Fox to kill it before people forgot they like her.

New Amsterdam is, um, a decent way to kill an hour. I dig the premise, I like Omar and John, the cop-stuff is tolerable, the backstory things are interesting. But if I didn't have to stay awake all night, and therefore spend a lot of time watching TV, I doubt I'd stick with it. I can't help but quote Marv Wolfman here.

But I do have a question: how come I didn't get that memo that obviously was sent to everyone in Hollywood that said all new cop series had to feature a light-haired male lead and a beautiful Hispanic partner who doesn't like/get along with the hero until she begrudgingly realizes how good he is. We saw this done in Eureka, Life and now New Amsterdam.

Canterbury's Law is about the as good--an okay way to spend some time. It's reminiscent of early episodes of The Practice, but probably won't last as long. It's far superior to Eli Stone, tho, which I gave up on after four episodes.

About the time that the strike started, I put Season 1 of The Wire on my Netflix queue, and so did many, many other people apparently. Six weeks later I got Disc 1 and 2. The story-telling was skillful, there was real talent behind the scripts, and a good deal of it in front of the cameras, too. But it wasn't until Disk 3 that I cared what happened to any of the characters--I was about to write it off as not my cup of tea at that point--and then I was addicted. Now I have to live with the fact that the series finale just aired? Ahhh, I'm the master of bad timing.

I'm tempted to go on and on about In Treatment here, but think I'll put that off a few days and give it its own post.

Am very glad that CBS has it's comedies back in production--particularly How I Met Your Mother. The St. Patty's episode was a good turning point in the season, and I can't wait to see where they take it from here. The Big Bang Theory is still silly fun.

Speaking of comedies, I'm grateful that TBS puts entire episodes of their original series on their website. My Boys was another mid-strike discovery on my part. It'll never be considered a great sit-com. But it's a good one. And given the state of sit-coms today, good ones are a real rarity.

I lost interest in what kletois called The Summer Glau Chronicles during episode 2, and number 3 didn't help. I've got the rest of the season on the ol' DVR--klet, Julie, anyone...do I finish it?

I think that about covers it (hope so...it's long enough). Is there anything on the air now that I should watching?

Happy Birthday, Princess

Well, my little girl is on the downward slide towards double-digits and is careening towards the time where she'll break my heart...sigh.

She's progressing nicely in school, not as well as her brothers were at this point, but moving along steadily. Last week she started her second year of T-ball, and seems to be enjoying it. Frankly, she's probably our best bet at raising a decent athlete, if she can just stop worrying about the state of her clothes and hair long enough to focus on the play.

She's also the most musically inclined arrow in the quiver. We gave her a CD player over the weekend, and it's barely been off since. She's spent hours just sitting in front of it, staring at it like kids do at radios in pictures from the 1940s--taking quick breaks every 90 seconds to let me know what song she's playing/radio station she's tuned into/what CD I need to get her next. I'm pretty sure that's not going to end any time soon.

Happy birthday, sweetie. It's been a fun, giggle-filled six years. Looking forward to as many more as I can get.

(Last birthday post for awhile--phew. Checkbook can't take much more abuse...am getting sick and tired of cake, too)

Mr. Chesney's youngest critic

(quick throwaway post just to help me remember my blogger password)

Arnold's sitting in my desk chair, listening to some iTunes whilst I puttered this afternoon. He turns to me with his unique "confused face" where he scrunches up half his features in a way that's impossible to describe and probably equally impossible to capture on film and objects, "When the sun goes down...it's dark."

I decide not to explain how that's sorta the point and try to distract him with a Backyardigans track instead.

Who knew he listened that closely?

Thought for the Lord's Day #18

let us beware of under-valuing the Old Testament. There has arisen of late years a most unhappy tendency to slight and despise any religious argument which is drawn from an Old Testament source, and to regard the man who uses it as a dark, benighted, and old-fashioned person. We shall do well to remember that the Old Testament is just as much inspired as the New, and that the religion of both Testaments is in the main, and at the root, one and the same. The Old Testament is the Gospel in the bud; the New Testament is the Gospel in full flower. The Old Testament is the Gospel in the blade: the New Testament is the Gospel in full ear. The Old Testament saints saw many things through a glass darkly: but they looked to the same Christ by faith and were led by the same Spirit as ourselves. Let us, therefore, never listen to those who sneer at Old Testament arguments. Much infidelity begins with an ignorant contempt of the Old Testament.

For another thing, let us beware of despising the law of the Ten Commandments. I grieve to observe how exceedingly loose and unsound the opinions of many men are upon this subject. I have been astonished at the coolness with which even clergymen sometimes speak of them as a part of Judaism, which may be classed with sacrifices and circumcision. I wonder how such men can read them to their congregations every week! For my own part, I believe that the coming of Christ's Gospel did not alter the position of the Ten Commandments one hair's breadth. If anything, it rather exalted and raised their authority. I believe, that in due place and proportion, it is just as important to expound and enforce them, as to preach Christ crucified. By them is the knowledge of sin. By them the Spirit teaches men their need of a Savior. By them the Lord Jesus teaches His people how to walk and please God. I suspect it would be well for the Church if the Ten Commandments were more frequently expounded in the pulpit than they are.

- J. C. Ryle

For those who were disappointed with the Super Bowl ads

I really think this election cycle is bringing out some of the most creative advertisements I've seen lately. This one is a great example. I am in no way, shape or form a fan/supporter/voter for Obama...but you gotta love this:

hmmm, okay, I've gotten political again. Mentioned Obama...gotta make sure I keep the scales uneven. RON PAUL. RON PAUL. RON PAUL. RON PAUL. May 27, Idaho. Make your voice heard. Don't vote for the lesser of two evils. Vote principle. Vote Paul.

You know I had to post this...

Even if it is further proof that only The Man should read the lists...

now excuse me while I go scrub the image of #5 out of my mind...where's the lye?


(I almost wrote something new at work...just didn't like it enough to hit publish...am trying...)

This just in from the "Wayyyy Too Much Time on Their Hands" Department

Happy Birthday, Dear

*

The Love of my Life was born 29+ years ago today, and I am extremely glad she was--taking particular pleasure in 1991 through present.

Mrs. Gibbs was right when she said, "People are meant to go through life two by two." Glad I get to go through it with you, dear.

Happy Birthday.

*Please note the total lack of green on this post. Just the way you like it, Sugar Pie.

Thought for the Lord's Day #17

The Sabbath came out of Christ's hands, we see then, not despoiled of any of its authority or robbed of any of its glory, but rather enhanced in both authority and glory. Like the other commandments it was cleansed of all that was local or temporary in the modes in which it had hitherto been commended to God's people in their isolation as a nation, and stood forth in its universal ethical content. Among the changes in its external form which it thus underwent was a change in the day of its observance. No injury was thus done the Sabbath as it was commended to the Jews; rather a new greatness was brought to it. Our Lord, too, following the example of his Father, when he had finished the work which it had been given him to do, rested on the Sabbath—in the peace of his grave. But he had work yet to do, and, when the first day of the new week, which was the first day of a new era, the era of salvation, dawned, he rose from the Sabbath rest of the grave, and made all things new. As C. F. Keil beautifully puts it; "Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, and after the completion of his work, he also rested on the Sabbath. But he rose again on the Sabbath; and through his resurrection, which is the pledge to the world of the fruit of his redeeming work, he made this day the Lord's Day for his Church, to be observed by it till the Captain of its salvation shall return, and having finished the judgment upon all his foes to the very last, shall lead it to the rest of that eternal Sabbath which God prepared for the whole creation through his own resting after the completion of the heaven and the earth." Christ took the Sabbath into the grave with him and brought the Lord's Day out of the grave with him on the resurrection morn.

-B. B. Warfield

In honor of Frodo being clueless about next week being a certain "Holy day"--atta boy!

Creative Recycling

I just know that Micah's going to start planning his version of this (if he hasn't already). I should probably apologize to his wife now.

Some advice...

I love coffee. It is truly odd when I don't have at least a cup in a day. It's unusual if I don't have a pot a day, honestly (thankfully, the days of late Spring Term '06 are a distant memory--there was a month or so that I was doing three pots a day. Yes, three by myself). Coffee's so important to me, I wrote one (and I think only) love poem to it. I've been tempted to write more. TLomL takes her coffee almost as seriously, and we're raising three coffee-holics (Frodo's a hold-out, for some inexplicable reason).*

I don't primarily drink the stuff for the caffeine (tho' I do avoid decaf--it doesn't taste right), but I do certainly appreciate the effects of C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ (as diminished as they are for me). I drink it for the taste first and foremost--then smell, then feel of it, then heat (esp at work, where it's nearly always cold). But it's primarily about the flavor.

Which brings me to my dilemma. I work with two different people during the week. One is in recovery, and drinks/makes what another colleague calls "AA coffee"--which, in a pinch, could probably be used in place of 10W-30. We knock off our first pot in the first 1.5 hrs of our shift, the second takes the rest of the shift because he really slows down so he can sleep after work. The other person I work with maybe drinks a cup every other week--and then she pours in enough milk/creamer that it's maybe 50-40% coffee--she doesn't like the taste. But there's enough in there to almost make her jumpy.

On the nights she needs coffee--she really needs it. The problem arises if she makes it back to the coffee pot first on those nights--typically she doesn't, but twice in the last three weeks she has. As someone who doesn't like Java, she cannot make a decent pot. It just tastes weak, watery and bland. (now I know a certain man who recently relocated from Idaho to South Carolina thinks I drink mine too strong [he's wrong, incidentally], but I know he'd have issues with this stuff). Incidentally, I've become convinced that Emily Post needs to codify the maxim that only those people who drink coffee should be allowed to make it in the workplace. At my last office job, we had a gentleman who rarely drank the stuff, and couldn't make a decent pot. He'd only make it if he was going out of his way to be a help, or as a gesture of gratitude--but he realized his shortcomings and generally just asked someone to do it for him. That I could respect.

I used to suck it up and drink the stuff my partner makes, but I just can't anymore.

The aforementioned last two times she beat me to the pot, I've just gone without for the shift. (just got home from one of those shifts as you can tell from the mildly rambling nature of this and the previous post, just am not that sharp). I don't want to put up with that garbage anymore, but I'm afraid I'm coming across as rude when I don't have any--and I know I'd come across as rude if I dumped hers out after she's had her 13 fluid ounces and made something palatable. What should I do, readers? Other than redoubling my efforts at being the first one to the staff room, that is. I really don't enjoy going an 8-hr shift without drinking anything--nor do I enjoy withdrawal headaches like the I'm almost done with now. She takes criticism (constructive or otherwise) as well as a bratty, catty and semi-talented American Idol finalist, so I really don't think I can say anything, but I'm open to suggestions.

Alright, whine's over. Hopefully back soon with something else.

* worry not, we don't let the other three, particularly, Arnold drink it that often--but they are learning how to appreciate it

Blog, Interrupted

Sorry, kletois, I was trying to get something posted yesterday, really. But I sorta got distracted. About 4 or so, started having this sharp pain in my chest. It wouldn't go away, didn't seem to be made worse or better by anything I did. After a half-hour or so, got annoyed enough I went to WebMd to play with their "Symptom Checker," which was a waste of time. Because they only have one result for chest pain..."seek medical attention immediately."

How's that helpful?

St. Luke's Symptom Checker was no better. "Call 911."

Again, not helpful.

I want to know what might be going on. Want to know how concerned I should be. And I want to reach these conclusions by playing "House: The Home Game." First I try for Lupus, then come up with some sort of infection, finally settling on something more pedestrian--and bring myself to the verge of death at least twice in the process. The level of my sarcastic remarks is directly proportionate to the level of my pain (yes, the more it hurts, the funnier I get--really). But I don't get to play today, Apparently, I'm supposed to be"very" concerned about whatever it might be that's going on--and never mind the details. [sigh] Just no fun at all.

Well, St. Luke's is just about 4 miles away, so I leave work and check into the ER...excuse me, ED, is what they're calling it now (can't imagine who thought that acronym was a good idea...maybe they're getting underwriting from Pfizer). Anyway, they whisk me into a room, slap on the EKG pads and whatnot, got the ol' IV in, and things get rolling. Sort of.

It was typical ER stuff...lotta hustle and then nothing. Eventually, the doctor came in and told me that my EKG was fine but he was worried about maybe a clot in my lungs (not sure why a bad EKG sounded like a better option to me than that) or something else (not sure what the something else was...I'd drifted off for a few minutes before he came in and was still groggy), so they were going to run some more tests before they decided whether they kick me or keep me around.

It's not too long after that before TLomL joins me in the doing nothing (but making me feel so much better). TVLand finished showing the 80's comedies that had been keeping me company. So I switch to the news, where we are told every 45 seconds that the governor of New York hasn't resigned, but they'll let us know when he does--or decides to. Occasionally, they'll mention Obama's primary win, or the latest scandal with the Clinton campaign. It's enough to make me want to walk out (why couldn't I have done this on or after Opening Day [12 days from today--yee-haw!] so I'd at least be able to watch ESPN?), but I don't--just in case the louse does decide to resign. Or was it because TLomL was there and probably would've arranged to have me sedated if I tried?

The doctor finally returns, probably no clot--tho' it can take a few more hours before the enzymes start to show up on a blood test, so no promises. No mention of the other thing, so I still don't know what it was. My choices are: get checked into the Chest Pain Center, which will mean I'm there for at least 10 hours, while they monitor me and hope the pain goes away; or go home and hope the pain goes away. I opt to go home for three main reasons: 1. Saving thousands of dollars; 2. More comfortable for me and the Mrs., 3. There's food at home. (if it was 1 or 3 alone, I'd have decided on home, honestly--put the two of those together and it's a slam-dunk). So 20 minutes and 30 NY Gubernatorial updates later, we're outta there.

The pain does go away--sometime during my 5-hour late morning/afternoon nap. Have been getting the occasional momentary twinge just to remind me that it was around. So what was going on? Beats me, as the doc said when he was discharging me: "Sometimes with chest pains, we just don't know where they come from or if they mean anything." There are times when I think I'd be happier if they slapped on a leech and sent me home.

One of these days, they'd better find something. I can't afford to keep calling wolf. Since Sept. 06 I've been to the ER 4 times on heart-related issues. Each time, I've come home empty handed. Pretty soon, the villagers are gonna stop coming out to protect the flock of sheep.

So that's all just to say why I didn't get around to talking about The Wire, American Idol, and some books I've been reading lately.

Overheard

Q: Did you hear about the deadly serpent with a lovely singing voice?

A: It was a choral snake.*

*I really have no idea why I felt compelled to post this...but maybe this'll help all of you emailing me for more posts to qualify that request with words like "good," "decent," "quality," "not stupid," etc.**


**I realize if I really focused on those kind of posts, I'd be looking at 368 posts since I started this thing, not 1296+.

First Paragraphs

Subject A:Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Carravagio. Grabbing the gilded frame, the seventy-three-year-old man heaved the masterpiece toward himself until it tore from the wall and Saunière collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas.

Subject B:In the history of the world there have been lots of onces and lots of times, and every time has had a once upon it. most people will tell you that the once upon a time happened in a land far, far away, but it really depends on where you are. The once upon a time may have been just outside your back door. It may have been beneath your very feet. It might not have been in a land at all but deep in the sea's belly or bobbing around on its back.

One of these is the first paragraph of a "Juvenile" novel that will never make the author famous. One of these is from a record-selling novel that received mega-press. One is imaginative, clever; the other seems paint-by-numbers. One is something I wish I could write; the other I could whip off in a few minutes.

In short, one is good. The other, not.

Arnold/Kidney Kid Update

March 5, 2004	March 5, 2008

Been a wild 4 years since those first few days of his life...but nowhere near as wild as we expected, thankfully.

Had another checkup last week--on the 4th anniversary of his initial diagnosis. Not exactly the greatest anniversary to note, but hey...you make the best of what you do. As the pictures above indicate, things are going much better now than they were then.

Kidney function tested as 41% (really anywhere between 30-45%, but the most recent blood work showed 41). For those keeping score at home, "10% is Transplantville...20% is when we start planning." Or so says our doc...homey little metaphor, isn't it? Worthy of Dan Rather. Oh, for those who've asked--we're still waiting on results from that all day test.

The visit was educational...learned about the hormonal component to toilet training. Don't know why I'm so surprised there is one, there's a hormonal component to everything nowadays*. A fringe problem with the kidney issue is that that hormone doesn't usually kick-in on time with kids like him. Which does explain a thing or two. Now I don't just bring this up so I have something written with which I can embarrass him...it's just that there's all these things that come along with his condition. You think about chronic renal failure and you think about transplants, dialysis, growth problems and all that. You don't think about problems with toilet training, or having to go through physical therapy, or potential delays in intellectual development (very thankfully, nothing we've really noticed). Every now and then, can't help but wonder about what unexpected problem is next.

On the less nephrological side, things are going very well. He's the life of the party--even when we're not having one, maybe particularly when we're not having one. His speech development could use some work--he gives soft-spoken a whole new meaning. He has this toy computer that he plays with all the time--he's teaching himself a lot of spelling, letter and word recognition, etc. He's chomping at the bit to grow up--even while we all try to keep him from doing so. His parents, my folks, his siblings, my sister, my niece--we're all trying to keep him as a toddler, we're not letting go. But man, oh man...he so wants to grow up; to play baseball, to do schoolwork, to be like his brothers. And he's not letting us win.

Blast it all.



* yeah, yeah, I know there's always been hormonal components to things, we just know about them now...

I don't remember drinking a whole bottle of NyQuil this morning

...but I must have. Cuz I could swear that the by-line to this piece is former Sen. George McGovern.

But it can't be...it says things like:

I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society.

Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don't take away cars because we don't like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don't operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.

The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else.

Oh wait...that first paragraph I quoted starts off by saying:

Since leaving office I've written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in.

Since leaving office. Well, that makes sense now.

I really liked the piece, I've got notes on my other hard drive for a rant about how our state gov't is trying to protect us from ourselves in similar ways. Yipe. I was getting ready to write something that would echoGeorge McGovern.

Stop the world, I want to get off.

From Our Table to Yours (or your nook, bar, over your sink...whatever)

Happy Cereal Day!

(yeah, it's a real day...commemorating the creation of Dr. Kellog's flakes in 1897)

(and, yeah, having a hard time coming up with things to blog)