groan

Stumbled home a little while ago from my first non-training shift. Am tired, dead tired. Legs hurt, feet hurt, back aches, eyes burn--but brain isn't ready to shut down. I feel coated with grease, and if I were to shower for 2 hours a day for the next week, I might feel clean again. Instead, I'll go to work tomorrow night and do it all again.

I worked the first drive through window tonight (taking orders, taking money). That part was fun. But when there are no customers...I'm working on dishes...which is just wet, messy, greasy work.

If anything will drive me to give up fast food, it'll be washing dishes at McDonald's. But I don't think even that will interfere with the pleasure...as long as I have a couple of hours away from the sinks :)

Off to collapse now...

as long as we're talking cool Spidey stuff...

Ain't it Cool News has this very interesting best Spider-Man comics, fun with the movie column up today.

Spidey II: The Anticipation

From the day that Sony announced the release date (and then the revised date), my family has been focused on the sequel to one of our favorite movies, featuring my kids' favorite fictional character (and one of my top 5). Sadly, schedules didn't work out for us to see it on opening day, but we've got our tickets for Thursday. Mom and I are throwing caution to the wind and taking Sam and Frodo with us, The Princess and the Kidney Kid* will have to wait for the DVD (which all my kids are already asking for). I think it's safe to say that we're more excited about this than any silly "holy day" in December.

And then you get to the reviews: Joel Siegel, Ebert & Roeper and others are pronouncing it the "best superhero movie ever." Marv Wolfman (comic writer extraordinaire) says, "it is unarguably the best super-hero movie ever made. Because it's as much a drama as an action film, it can also stand up to almost any other movie out there. This one transends the genre. Congratulations to director Sam Raimi for a brilliant movie without a single false note in it." Peter David (another comic writer extraordinaire, and the man who wrote the novelization) writes, "The acting is even better this time around, the CGI has improved, and the sequences with Doc Ock are so seamless that you literally don't think about the fact that it's all trickery. Molina is just spectacular as Octavius, and the aerial battles between him and Spidey--especially when they're plummeting and still whomping on each other--are great. And it's true: Aunt May delivers a spectacular speech on the nature of heroism which alone is worth the price of admission." Harry Knowles (of ain't it cool news) can't say enough good about the movie.

I am so psyched....

*can't wait 'til he gets more of a personality and I can give him a new nickname

The New Job

Okay, have now completed three training shifts underneath those lovely Golden Arches. It's not the greatest gig in the world, but it certainly could be worse. I might actually enjoy it when I get used to the stupid keyboard at the cash register, or when I finally memorize all the ways the different sandwiches are made--would've thought I'd have had that down already, honestly...guess I need to eat there more often (just kidding, dear). Worked assembly today (putting together the sandwiches, etc), enjoyed myself occasionally--and working drive thru last night in the lightning storm was fun. Think I could do okay there.

One giant fear: I don't want to end up talking like a dumb high-schooler because of all this exposure. Nice kids (most of 'em, anyway), but, ugh. I hope I didn't act like that when I was 17...or 13, for that matter.

I should really subscribe to this

Took that off of The Door's description of the May/June 2004 issue. LOL.

quick hits

I've really been wanting to come up with something meaningful and insightful to write about for awhile now, but it seems my tank is tapped at the moment. (mixed metaphor there I think)

Anyhow, at the moment I'm supposed to be doing something both productive and that will make my wife happy. So, of course, I've been catching up on my on-line reading.

Ann Coulter, of course, is on her game today with a column about Clinton's book, and the left's obsession with him.

WND frightened me with this story of a new Bible Translation that makes the gender-neutral Today's NIV look decent. I will have nightmares for a week.

Movie Reviewer James Bowman tickled me with his Fahrenheit 9/11 review: "One thing that is clear is that Michael Moore is a stranger to all forms of restraint, and that he is able to find anti-Bush material in just about anything. To him, the president is guilty both of stupidity and of diabolical cunning, of laziness and of leading the march to totalitarianism, of cowardice and of insouciance under pressure in that Florida classroom — Goat-gate, as perhaps we ought to call it — of fear-mongering in order to sell the war and of neglecting warnings of terrorist activity, of over-zealousness about security and of laxness about security. Not only is he guilty of all these things, his whole family is. So are his friends. So is his administration."

His Life, His Lie, His living testamonial to the paper industry

"The book, which weighs in at more than 950 pages, is sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull — the sound of one man prattling away, not for the reader, but for himself and some distant recording angel of history.

"In many ways, the book is a mirror of Mr. Clinton's presidency: lack of discipline leading to squandered opportunities; high expectations, undermined by self-indulgence and scattered concentration."

And that's probably the best thing that Michiko Kakutani had to say in his NY Times Book review of ex-Prez Clinton's memoir this weekend.

"...it devolves into a hodgepodge of jottings: part policy primer, part 12-step confessional, part stump speech and part presidential archive, all, it seems, hurriedly written and even more hurriedly edited."

Of course, who could imagine editing this guy? The draft probably hit the publisher's desk mere days before it was due...probably just run it through a quick Microsoft Word spell-check (with the "Check grammar" box checked of course, too), send it to the printers--all you have time for.

"Part of the problem, of course, is that Mr. Clinton is concerned, here, with cementing — or establishing — his legacy, while at the same time boosting (or at least not undermining) the political career of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Part of the problem? No, that's the crux of it. That's all the book is about (IMNSHO). The biggest question about this tome is what effect it will have on Kerry/Bush. Could actually make the Kerrster look intersting.

Trying to get excited about this

Turned in a bunch of applications today, ended up getting an interview with one of them. The interviewer will have to check with the manager, but it looks really likely that I have a job starting as early as next week.

At McDonald's.

Hardly a dream job, but it should pay enough to make ends meet. And hey, free food....

Still, it's McDonald's

Move over E=MC2

c=(m+n0)/p has arrived.

What's that? The formula for the perfect joke.

"The funniness of a joke – c – is worked out by adding the comic moment – m - to the “pratfalls”, or the number of times someone falls over – n0.

A comic moment is calculated by multiplying the funniness of the punchline and the length of the joke’s build up.

The “pratfalls”, or number of times someone falls over, is worked out to the power of 0 – the ouch factor which is the social pain or embarrassment of falling over as well as the physical pain.

This total is divided by the number of puns – p – to establish the final funniness of the joke."

You just know there were a lot of tax doallars that went into getting us to that point.

This is cool

Apparently this past Lord's Day while I was leading the worship service, the Kidney Kid was trying to interact with me. During the hymns, he was silent, but anytime I started talking, his mom and others tell me he started talking, too.

Okay, maybe it took him forever to smile for me, but, who cares? This is better than that. Can't even see me, but he knows it's me.

Spending too much time with Grandpa

Okay, I admit it, we've slipped when it comes to working on the catechism with the kids--between my work and all the hub-bub surrounding the Kidney Kid's arrival....anyway, not only haven't we made progress in the last couple of months, it looks like we've regressed.

Tonight was Night #2 of getting back on track. I ask Sam a question he used to be able to nail: "Can you go to heaven with this sinful nature?"

He answers: "No--I must change my heart before..."

We stop him at this point, and help him get it right, "No--my heart must be changed before I can be fit for heaven."

and him named for a Reformer . . . .

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Just heard Mick Jagger singing that in the background of a C2 commercial. He is sooo right. The Mrs. brought home a C2 for us to try out tonight. Gross! Give me New Coke anytime over that.

The Mrs. said it tasted to her like it was half Coke/half Diet Coke (and the ingredients suggested the same). Maybe, maybe not. I'll only say, ew, ew, ew, ew.

Twisted Thinking

“The only way that an outside observer can determine whether any entity feels pain is if the entity communicates distress to the observer. The parties agree that fetuses are unable to communicate, so it is impossible to determine conclusively if the stress responses seen in fetuses in fact translate into an actual pain response…”

So wrote Judge Phyllis Hamilton as she struck down the Partial Birth Abortion ban. This kind of thinking will cause me to lose sleep at night.

My wife works at a residential care facility for the Developmentally Disabled, many of whom are totally incapable of communicating in any meaningful way. By Judge Hamilton’s reasoning, why would it be wrong for someone to go through the campus and kill those clients? Heck, we don’t even have to go so far as killing—could the facility use her logic to explain why they don’t investigate charges of abuse? (this is a purely rhetorical question—they do investigate).

On a side note, I wonder what she’d say about Animal Cruelty Laws—I mean, the dogs can’t really communicate with us. No matter what we like to think, we don’t really know what they’re thinking.

Oh, for a judiciary bound by the law….

Mourning in America

I feel compelled to say something about the death of Ronald Reagan. Not sure what I can say that doesn't pale compared to everything I've heard in the last day and a half.

When I heard the news yesterday afternoon, I was stunned. Sure he was 93, and the long battle with Alzheimer's, but he was Ronald Reagan, fer cryin' out loud. He was about as likely to fall as Rushmore.

I guess the best way I can summarize my feelings about it is this. When I heard the news, I shed a tear or two. Can't imagine doing that for any other political figure--ever.

Signed, Sealed...

(Delivered was three months ago)

The Kidney Kid was baptised today. After trying and trying to get schedules to work out nicely, we threw that idea out the window a few weeks ago, and got our Ministerial Advisor over here today to administer the Sacraments.

Lord's Table, Son Baptised, and I didn't have to exhort! Who could ask for more?

near disaster

As you may recall, back on March 4 I talked about the PR gal at the hopsital taking photos of my youngest, but he wasn't going to end up on the billboard (and if you do recall that, I almost pity you--read a book!).

Well, today I'm driving home from signing Sam, Frodo, and the Princess up for swim lessons, and as I enter the driveway, I grab the rec catalogue, and my eye catches the back cover--full page ad from the hospital--"That's My Boy!" and "That's My Garage! Better hit the brakes!"

Turns out there's actually 2 pictures of him in the advertisement. How cool is that?

Now, gotta grab a few handfuls of that catalogue tomorrow :)

So-called Chaos

Alanis' new album is, of course, as lacking in chaos as anything with that title could be. This is really her best album since Jagged Little Pill, which she won't ever be able to top--others will be able to, just not her, since a lot of it's magic is that it's her bursting on to the scene (and she can't re-burst).

Anyhow, the music is great, the lyrics are frequently clever, she doesn't over-do the strange meter thing too much (and it's very effective when she does it). Of course, she bears her soul and psyche throughout, but what do you expect? It's Alanis.

There's one big beef I have with the album's lyrics--and it's a common theme in the post-Jagged Alanis stuff--I hate it when I hear interviews/read books/hear songs by people that have so clearly spent too much time in therapy (not the Dr. Phil kind, see below). Now, in a way it's more tolerable this time around--there's less of it, I think. But at the same time it's worse--because when it's there, it's a lot more heavy-handed. Reminds me of the David Meece album, Once in a Lifetime--it's just sooo clearly the product of a good session with a counselor/shrink.

Standout tracks (at least for now) for me are: "Eight Easy Steps", "Knees Of My Bees" (aka Head over Feet, pt. II), Everything ('tho I have a couple of knee-jerk rebuttals to make to that one sometime--still like it). Problem track? "Doth I Protest Too Much" Just a tad--but you definitely Pusheth the Metaphoreth Too Much, a few less lyrics would've saved this song.

Yes, I did just relate an Alanis Morissette album to a David Meece album. Bet I'm the first to ever do that!

Proof against Darwinism

Back in the day, when I was in High School, Bill Engvall was a funny guy. He had this great stand-up act. Then he decided he wanted to make more money, or maybe he really likes hanging out with Foxworthy (somebody has to). But, IMHO, he's really watered down his act. He would (still does, I guess) complain about stupid people, wishing they'd have to carry signs, so you'd know who you were talking to.

Here's a couple of people deserving signs:

1. Heard this on Sean Hannity's show today (2nd segment), looked around online, but can't verify it yet. 'Course I believe Hannity (am about 60% Hannitized), so here it is. This guy files some sort of complaint with the Civil Rights Commission in New Jersey and gets Ladies' Nights at bars banned! Apparently this bar had a five dollar cover charge for men on said nights and charged full price for drinks. Clear discrimination!

2. This utter moron (sure, he has a doctorate, but he's still a moron) who's filed a complaint with the FCC about the disclaimer on the Dr. Phil show. "It needs to be bigger and at the beginning, so people know it's not therapy." Well, DUH! Any semi-lucid person watching that lunkhead for five minutes knows it's not therapy anymore than Katie Couric is a journalist or that Judge Judy is a competent jurist (which still puts her ahead of most Federal Judges). Of course it's just entertainment--for some anyways (making no judgments about those who like him for entertainment purposes). He spends too much time and effort on the goofy facial expressions and the clever figures of speech to be real therapy.

Latest on the kidney front

Whoo-hoo! (or for the geeks in the audience, w00t!)

Fresh from the kidney doc--things are looking good, he's a little low on sodium (always has been, just like his mom). So we'll be getting a supplement there to help. Otherwise, everything's looking good.

In fact, if the magic levels in his blood level off where they are, instead of renal failure before the age of 2, we could be looking at 6-8 instead!!!

Otherwise, he's doing great. He's growing slower than his siblings, so mommy gets to play with a baby a little longer than she's used to. He's talking a lot, almost rolled over last night, smiles for everyone but daddy....can't ask for more. God is truly blessing him.

Wouldn't it be nice if he actually had a chance?

I don't know much about Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik other than what's in this post, but, man! Wouldn't it be nice to live in a country where a guy like this had a shot at the presidency?

Here's what he as to say about schools
There is no clause in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution that grants the federal government the authority to control public schools. The entire Department of Education is unconstitutional. The citizens of the United States used to be the most intelligent society in the world. Now we rank approximately 21st in the fields of math and science. Even if the Department of Education was legal, it is not doing its job. There are heated debates about posting the Ten Commandments in schools. Football players are prohibited from saying a short prayer before the big game. We do have to "separate church and state", but in trying to decide whether to keep "God or government" in the schools - we've picked the bureaucrats. How dumb is that?!