Well, Pope Smoke Cam was fun while it lasted...

Four ballots was all it took for the white smoke to flow. Bells ringing in St. Peter's Square now. No one's come out to say who got elected yet.

EDIT 12:53 PM EST - Well, I was WAY off. Joseph Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict the 16th.

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The "bronze" did bad? San Antonio PD may have violated rights of "Mad Max" fans

Looks like the story about the "Mad Max" fans arrested in Texas posted here yesterday was really something that the media blew way out of proportion. Photos of the event are now getting posted and some of the participants have been sharing the experience online. The initial news reports would have you believe that freaks on motorcycles were weaving in and out of traffic around the tanker, waving machine guns at everyone. But Dholcrist at Ain't It Cool News was one of those jailed and gave his description of the scene...

The articles posted aren't too terribly accurate, we weren't recreating anything, we just dressed up some guys, made some cars and trucks look like they were from the movies, and followed a tanker Chris had hired out to the Drafthouse. Yes, on the back of one of the trucks we had a fake zip-gun made of bright white plastic, but it's a ZIP GUN. Y'know, the quad-barrelled arrow launcher? So we all just traveled in a single line on the highway, under the speed limit. We weren't "surrounding" the tanker truck, we didn't carry "fake machine guns" (the only fake "gun" was the Zip Gun, which was blatantly fake). Vernon Welles was even there (better known as Wez), driving a replica of Max's car.

You can see the fake zip gun in the photos link above. And apparently local law enforcement was notified that this was going down so they shouldn't have been this over-reactive.

All the same, a dozen people spent most of the weekend in jail... and I can't find a damned good reason why they should have been locked up at all. But what really bothers me is what's being widely reported as one of the charges levied against them. From the Chicago Sun-Times website...

'Mad Max' fans mistaken for militia get arrested in Texas

April 19, 2005

SAN ANTONIO -- Eleven "Mad Max" fans armed with fake machine guns were arrested after they surrounded a tanker truck while making their way to a movie marathon in a theatrical convoy.

As the group headed to San Antonio on Saturday, police received several calls from drivers who reported a "militia" surrounding a tanker truck.

Police charged nine people with obstruction of a highway and two others also with possession of prohibited knives.

One of the organizers, Chris Fenner, said the arrests were unfair. He said he didn't know why anyone would have confused the costumed crew re-creating a scene from Mel Gibson's cult classic "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" with a real threat.

AP

Now, would somebody please tell me what exactly a "prohibited knife" is? Because my Dad and I make knifes for fun and profit, and we know a lot of the people that are real masters of this craft. And this has got to be the first time I've ever heard of possession of a knife being illegal. Yeah I know, it's against the law to bring one onto school grounds in most places nowadays. Even those laws go too far (expelling valedictorians for accidentally leaving a butterknife in a car floorboard...?!) but we're talking about mature adults here, who chose to have some fun in their own way and in a manner that did not stop anyone else from doing the same... and the only thing that was found to be thrown at them was a dubious assumption that if something LOOKS dangerous then it MUST BE dangerous and therefore "prohibited".

Could someone please send me the statute that these guys violated for possessing "prohibited knives"? 'Cuz either this reporter got things WAY wrong, or there's some laws on San Antonio's books that are in apparent violation of individual rights. Or the SAPD overstepped their authority and committed gross negligence and illegally deprived several people of their rights.

Not that I'm THAT big a fan of the "Mad Max" movies, mind ya... but the police department's rationale for arresting these guys doesn't pass the smell test.

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POPE SMOKE CAM: Day #2, first puff

April 19, 2005: first ballot of second day of papal conclave. Nobody's been elected yet...

Am not Catholic, but I'm sorta rooting for Cardinal Francis Arinze to be voted for the post. He seems to be a pretty interesting fella.

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POPE SMOKE CAM: Day #1, first puff

I'm going to try and keep a running chronicle of the smoke from the Vatican as the faithful in St. Peter's Square wait for the puff of white smoke that will signal that a new pope has been elected. Here's what we know of the results of yesterday's ballot, the first during the papal conclave (and this is ALL we know so far)...

I'm seeing lots of "betting pools" and odds being laid down as to which cardinal will get elected. Those are meaningless: NO ONE but the cardinals and their assistants inside the building have any idea what's really going down, and they are effectively cut off from the world. Practically nobody saw Karol Wojtyla getting elected in 1978 before the puff of white smoke came out of that conclave, right? Anyway, it'll be hard to do this during the next few days but I'll try my best to make a record of it.

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Thank the Lord blogging wasn't big during the Clinton years...

"President's Intern" is one of the more clever blogs I've found lately. Yes, I know it's gotta be fake, but no matter which public figure this might be a sly broadside on, it's VERY hard to pull off this kind of parody: it takes a committment that I certainly couldn't apply on this normal a basis (last year's "Andy Kaufman Returns" being another rare example). The funny thing is reading some of the comments left on "President's Intern", I don't know if most of these people are "going along" with the joke, or if they're dead serious! Sorta like Rush Limbaugh's thing about "Uglo-Americans" that he discussed in his first book: one of his more genius gags that proved a point.

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"But the Lord Humongous promised us safe passage through the wasteland!"

Geez I know gas prices are pretty high but we don't literally have to wage war for a tank of juice do we?! From the Associated Press via ABC News:

'Mad Max' Fans Arrested for Re-creation
'Mad Max' Fans, Armed With Fake Guns, Arrested for Surrounding Tanker Truck in Scene Re-creation

The Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO Apr 18, 2005 — Eleven "Mad Max" fans armed with fake machine guns were arrested after they surrounded a tanker truck while making their way to a movie marathon in a theatrical convoy.

As the group headed to San Antonio on Saturday, police received several calls from drivers who reported a "militia" surrounding a tanker truck.

Police charged nine people with obstruction of a highway and two others with possession of prohibited knives in addition to the obstruction charge.
Top Stories

One of the organizers, Chris Fenner, said the arrests were unfair. He said he didn't know why anyone would have confused the costumed crew recreating a scene from "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with a real threat.

"I honestly don't know how that could be, because 'Road Warrior' was so over the top," he said.

The movie marathon was canceled after the arrests.

These guys make those of us that dress up like Jedi from the Star Wars movies seem almost normal :-P

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Why did the U.S. government let 1 million illegal aliens go free?

I defy any Bush supporter to tell me that this shouldn't be an impeachable offense against the domestic well-being of the American people.

Here's your "illegal immigrants amnesty" at work, folks.

And... he wants MORE.

Thank God that some REAL Americans with backbone are taking up the responsibilities that our "elected leaders" are too coward to do.

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Kyle Williams. Read it. 'Nuff said.

This week's subject: the GOP's blind loyalty.

It's precisely the reason why WorldNetDaily.com - despite every attempt to appear the contrary - has become such a dreary bore to read: because nearly ALL the columnists they have use their time and talent to shill for the Republicans... at cost of real ideas and original thought.

All I gotta say is: WND had better pray that nothing happens to Vox Day or Kyle Williams. If either one of them were to pull up stakes at that site for any reason, WND would lose whatever interest and attention that a lot of people still give it. Not to worry about Vox or Kyle though: it takes more than a website's failures to bring down a theological revolutionary.

Though I gotta wonder if anyone is left at Free Republic that would understand what Kyle is saying here...

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BREAKING TONIGHT - WORLD EXCLUSIVE: The best news posted to this blog EVER!!

At approximately 10:15 PM EST tonight the phone rang. Since waking up about 6 this morning I've been working non-stop all day on finalizing Forcery and only allowed myself an hour's break to eat and goof off some. Still got a LONG night ahead of me... but my juices are really stoked now after getting the good news.

The call was from "Weird" Ed, my longtime partner in crime (and co-director, co-producer and co-star of Forcery so you'll be seeing plenty of him soon). I love Ed like a brother but for him to call at THAT late an hour is way unusual: he's either playing Xbox Live or online computer gaming or watching either The Matrix or UHF for the hunnerd zillionth time... or whatever else when he's just chillin' especially during the weekends. So for him to call THIS late meant that somethin' BIG was up. Like he had something IMPORTANT to relay...

And, he did.

It is The Knight Shift blog's greatest pleasure and joy to announce that about 9:15 PM this evening, Ed Woody (right) popped the biggest question of all to his girlfriend Olivia. No it was NOT about what kind of pizza to order from Papa John's... we're talking the OTHER biggest question of all! And Olivia did what any girl would do when the guy who loves her more than anyone or anything else in the world - and who happens to be one of the nicest, sincerest and kewl-est guys around - asks if she would be the one that he pledges to love, honor and serve for all the days of his life that God might let them have together on this Earth...

And... SHE SAID YES!!!

It's shoes and rice time, folks: we is gunna have us a weddin' soon! Ed and Olivia are getting hitched and... DARN this just warms the cockles of my heart bigtime!

No date has been set yet. But I'm already plotting out some things for Ed's bachelor party... hee-hee-hee!

~~ Congratulations Ed and Olivia ~~

God bless you both as you begin planning your new life together.

The Knight Shift is, of course, looking forward to posting actual photos of ensuing developments in this matter as they occur :-)

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Harry Knowles recreates biblical plague, film at 11...

I'm afraid to ask, but: How do you intentionally breed over 25,000 houseflies?

Leave it to Harry Knowles - the mad maestro of the Ain't It Cool News website - to come up with a stunt that combines inspired homage with insane horror. Knowles and his buddies at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas did a huge premiere for the remake of The Amityville Horror. Harry got star Ryan Reynolds and the film's producers to attend. The theater's staff made a terrific-looking facade imitating the infamous Amityville house that patrons walked through as they entered the place. Harry pulled out all the stops to make this an awesome premiere. And... everyone who attended got to see the movie for FREE!

There was just one catch...

To get into the theater, you first had to walk through a cloud of twenty-five thousand houseflies, that had been bred just for the occassion.

Harry posted the twisted details a few weeks ago: everyone coming had to enter "the fly chamber" to get their individual ticket. Yeah, get inside. With the flies. And someone said they had to STAY there until a recorded voice screamed "GET OOOOUUTTTT!!"

Reports are starting to trickle into Harry's site, including this photo of Reynolds with the flies. Sheesh... I grew up on a dairy farm and never remembered the filthy things being THAT thick. So does this mean that somewhere in America there's a facility that can handle 25,000 squirming maggots at one time? Just plain ewwwww man. If you think you can stomach it here's a Quicktime video of the fly chamber in action.

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This blog had its 10,000th visitor yesterday!!!

And I didn't get anything in the way of a nice price for whoever was the lucky guest! :-(

Whoever you were, go out and buy a candy bar and pretend you got it from me.

Thanks to everyone who has seen this lil' blog get this far.

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The idolatry of modern America

Found a VERY good article by Clyde Wilson, a professor of history at University of South Carolina. In "The Cerebral Emperor" Wilson raises a warning against the American people partaking in what could only be described as "worship of government". Here's the part that resonated particularly strongly with me on some things I've been pondering lately...

How did we get to this state of emperor worship—the need to identify with "our" president, as if he were the father of our one big happy family? It would seem that for millions of Americans now, to criticize "our president" is to commit treason against what they imagine to be a family. Well, the President is not "my president." He is a rather mediocre and troublesome man who has acheived temporary (let us hope) power through a corrupt and irrational process that required of him neither an admirable character nor proven services to the country. The President is most certainly not "my commander-in-chief." He is merely during his term of office head of the Armed Forces established by law—that is, he has the responsibility for directing their operations. He is not commander-in-chief of the United States. Constitutionally considered he is not even commander-in-chief of the federal government, which was supposed to be a government of divided powers.

Now, I defy anyone to point out the fallacy of the above paragraph. 'Cuz when you study the traditional, historical role of ANY elected officials in America, you CAN'T find it anywhere that they're supposed to be a sovereign lord or king over us. And yet, we act as if they are just that...

Not long ago I wrote that there are three kinds of people in this world: those that want to control others, those that WANT to be controlled, and those (like me) that are OUT of control. Now, why is that? I think it has to do with the things we cherish and value most during our life on this Earth. It further goes on to define how confident we are as individuals.

Some of us want freedom... I mean real freedom. We don't want there to be any guarantees of life: just an honest shot at making it on our own with whatever God has given us to work with. I like to think that we do put our confidence both in ourselves and in God.

Then there are those who want power, obviously. Ultimately these people have NO confidence in God whatsoever, so they put their confidence in the accumulation of material wealth and affluence. It's NOT enough for them to simply play with whatever cards life deals them: they want to stack the deck in their own favor... because they're afraid to let ANYTHING or ANYONE bring uncertainties to the table that they're not prepared to deal with in their own minds.

And then there are those who lack just as much confidence as the second group, but they're even more pathetic.... because they put their confidence in those who place their OWN confidence in power and control.

That's what most of the American people - and maybe most people in this world - are: they've been made too afraid to take the reins on their own. They think they cannot have the wisdom or power... so they're expected to yield their lives over to those we are supposed to believe have been blessed by God with all the wisdom, and power, and right to govern as THEY see fit.

I think it's fair to say that most Americans really are slaves: in thought if not in flesh. I mean, at least consider why it is that most of us are INCAPABLE of comprehending anything politically without it being defined by the Democrats and Republicans. Who gave them the keys to our minds?

Come to think of it, who the HELL are both major parties to believe that they have sovereignty over the American people at all?! I sure as hell didn't put them in charge of my life... did you?!

The modern American is more a slave than any ancestor of those brethren among us of African descent. I would even dare say that the slaves of antebellum America possessed more strength and freedom than most of us today have ever known: it was not their own doing that their bodies were in bondage. But their minds were their own, and their spirits strong. In every way that really matters in the eternal sense, they were free... because they chose to be free. It's like what Andy said in The Shawshank Redemption: that there's something within each of us that no one can touch or hurt, unless we let them...

Well, most of us not only let them touch us, we willingly accede our souls getting raped without lubricant. For practically every moment of our lives. And that's something that hardly any of our ancestors tolerated or encouraged.

No, it's not freedom or even a sense of control that most Americans want, but security. They don't want the nuisance of having to worry about their own lives. They don't want to have to THINK for themselves... but there's plenty enough folks more than willing to think for them. It doesn't take too much to convince the insecure gullible that the power-mad jackals are trustworthy either: so long as they claim strength in numbers and enough money to buy plenty of airtime, they can get away with any lie, no matter how big... and usually the bigger the lie the easier the masses will swallow it.

Well, like I said before: you can either be controlling, or be controlled. Or you can choose to be out of control, which isn't the easiest thing in the world, because we still have to figure out what we're going to do with everyone else and their insecurities.

Do I have some of my own? Sure do. But I ain't gonna let a government or political party tell me how to handle them.

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Does this mean Commander Ashtar is returning to Earth?!

Dear Lord... I never thought that this day would come again.

Chad, if you're reading this, I heard something about this a few weeks ago but didn't think they were SERIOUS. Apparently they were.

It's Ken and Mark.

They're ba-aaaack.

The mother of all call-in shows (well WE thought so back in the day anyway) has returned bigger badder and bolder than ever. Check out the official website for "Monday Night Live" for the 411 on the return of a local legend.

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Why the Bush-bots will loathe the new Star Wars movie

So... you a George W. Bush supporter?

'Cuz if you are, you aren't going to like Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith one bit. At all.

It comes on very good authority to this blog that the final chapter of the Star Wars saga is a MASSIVE slam against Bush.

It won't be PERSONAL, mind you. In the character and machinations of Emperor Palpatine, George Lucas is merely using a metaphor for EVERY would-be tyrant throughout human history. And knowing what I know about it now, I cannot but believe that this detail of the story was planned out long, LONG while back.

But that won't come as any comfort to Bush and his supporters.

In fact, based on what I've been given about Revenge of the Sith, this movie might incite some blatant thoughts about active rebellion against Bush and his cabal.

But if not, the parallels between Palpatine and Bush are damned downright unsettling. Anyone with two neurons and a synapsis between 'em isn't gonna fail to see the analogies that Lucas has evoked. F'rinstance (SPOILERS AHEAD)...

- something happens that Palpatine will exploit, turning it into an excuse to demand more power from the Senate and effectively making him an absolute dictator. For the most part the Senate cheers and goes along with him.

- Palpatine will gain the power to declare anyone an enemy to be destroyed, at his own pleasure.

- At one point Palpatine will claim to be above any kind of accountability.

- There's one thing in particular that I can't help but think is a dire reminder of the situation in Iraq right now. Don't know if it'll make it into the final cut of the movie or how many will see this, but I did and it's a pretty damning indictment against ANYONE who would get innocencts involved in this kind of meaningless conflict.

- The whole notion of political parties and having one party dominate just about everything takes it on the chin bigtime in Revenge of the Sith. Anyone who still adheres to that outdated belief after seeing this movie should forevermore be branded a blithering fool.

- A modified take on Bush's speech about "if you are not with us, you are with the terrorists" is used by Palpatine.

- There's some real allusion to the PATRIOT Act and it ain't pretty either.

There's more but I can't recall all of it just now. Better that way anyway: I don't wanna spoil it for anyone and I don't want to know anymore for my own part. But I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe, Revenge of the Sith could be a seed of some much-needed dissent in this country against The Way Things Are.

I wouldn't mind being a Bothan Spy in that action :-)

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The Matrix Online has me

Been meaning to write about this game for a few weeks now. It retails for $50 but through a bizarre congruence of luck and multiple gift certificates I wound up picking it up for about ten dollars the day it came out! Figured it was worth at least a looksee. And if it wasn't up to snuff well I wouldn't be out of the full wad of cash, just like I scored Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords from a guy on eBay for twelve bucks (and it's not even worth THAT much, until LucasArts FINALLY releases a patch that will fix ALL the bugs that make this game darn unplayable... but that's a rant for another post). Right now I gotta rave about The Matrix Online:

This is now my "drug of choice" so far as videogames goes. Or at least computer games: I'm also HOOKED on MechAssault II for the Xbox (don't worry Ed I'm just waiting to get REALLY good then I'm coming after your butt on Xbox Live :-). I've been playing Star Wars Galaxies for a little over a year now and I still love that game, it's AWESOME and it's gotten even better as time has gone on (and promises to get better still in the near future with the combat system upgrade and revamp for Smuggler, my chosen profession) but I haven't been able to spend as much time in Galaxies lately as I have in The Matrix Online. Fer one thing, it's HARD to resist the chance to be involved in the ongoing saga of the Matrix... and for it to COUNT as official story canon!

You see, The Matrix Online picks up after the events of The Matrix Revolutions, when Neo sacrificed himself so that Agent Smith could be destroyed before Smith destroyed the Matrix and everyone in it. In doing so Neo negotiated and won a truce from the Machines that were trying to destroy the last free humans in Zion. From now on the Machines won't attack the people of Zion. Zion won't try to destroy the Machines. Anyone that wants out of the Matrix is now free to leave. No one "side" was destroyed in the war, because Neo realized that EVERYONE deserved a chance to live, be they flesh or metal. After a century and more of war, there was finally peace.

That's where The Matrix Online comes in: when people are trying to WRECK that peace.

And this time it's not the Wachowski Brothers calling the shots on where this story goes, but you and me.

And so far it's been a heckuva fun ride!

The day the retail version hit I installed the game and immediately set about creating my persona in the Matrix. As you can see from the pics above, he looks a LOT like me :-) I named him "Cyllinus" and for his backstory said that he was once a history student who realized that there was something wrong with the subject he studied, and came to discover the truth about the world that he had always thought was real. I then gave him something of a religious quest, saying that in pursuing aspects of the Matrix he is trying to discover the true nature of God. Hey this is the Matrix saga so anyone running around in it DEMANDS a deep philosophy driving him/her/it right?

Well, in the two weeks or so since Cyllinus took his first breath of digital life, the ongoing storyline of the Matrix has erupted into all-out war on the streets of the mega city. Neo is dead but Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne and other actors from the films are providing voices for their characters during in-game cinematics) is obsessed with the Machines returning Neo's corpse. Red-eyed fake Agents are starting to swarm out of nowhere and nobody knows WHERE they're coming from or WHO is sending them: the Machines claim innocence and the Merovingian's gang swears they ain't behind it either. Some are saying Morpheus is trying to destroy the truce by acting on his own. And now the mysterious fake Agents have been enigmatically "upgraded" into the considerably more dangerous "N30 Ag3nts" (the "Neo-Agents"?!)

What this is all lending itself to, is that in two weeks time The Matrix Online has become the first massively-multiplayer online role-playing game that has given rise to full-bore philosophical disagreements among players and even outright religious jihad inside the game. You can choose to side with either Zion, the Machines or the Merovingian and his fellow Exiles but even then NOBODY is trusting anybody else, not even within one's own side. I'm playing on the Method server and wound up founding and leading a new faction - the Priory of Zion - and just today WE were accused of not serving the best interests of Zion... that we were "traitors" even. I told our accuser that he is getting perilously close to sounding like many tyrants throughout history who have said that "if you aren't with us, you are with the enemy".

Does this sound like FUN, or what?!

And the neatest thing is, right now I and my character "Cyllinus" are forever official part of the Matrix story. If any future movies are made, they are going to have to acknowledge the events of the game and what the players have done, according to no less an authority than the Wachowski Brothers themselves. Meaning that if I make Cyllinus do something particularly outrageous in the game, he stands a shot at getting portrayed in any future movies (though that's kinda doubtful since there won't be any more movies we're told).

Even so, this is a bold and refreshingly new kind of storytelling: one that hasn't been attempted this way before. And even though I'm not a "power player" it's a way kewl thing to be part of it in some small way.

Hey, if anyone plays this or winds up playing it, look me up as "Cyllinus" on the Method server: the Priory of Zion is always welcome to the prospect of a new recruit :-)

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Crunch time on "Forcery"

Right now I'm taking a break (after more than 24 hours straight of final touching-up to "Forcery", going on 3 hours sleep and not nearly enough food) while the bigger of the two 'puters here crunches some video/audio rendering. It's been mind-numbing work that requires total concentration. So much so that since yesterday Lisa is spending the next few days at my parents' home 'cuz otherwise I'm going to drive her totally bonkers. So right now it's just me and two computers and a lot of DVDs and videotape and some audio software that I'm still getting the hang of. I thought the thing was ready to go, but some complications came up and... well let's just say that come this time either tomorrow night, or early Wednesday, this monkey that's been on my back the past three-plus years (since first starting the script the night before 9-11 happened) will finally be DONE!

But right now I'm gonna take a breather, and eat and catch a small nap and use the bathroom, and maybe have some fun with the blog.

BTW, movie making is a TOUGH thing to do!!! I can't think of anything more fun that I'd love to spend the rest of my life doing though :-)

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Darth Larry beat me to it :-)

Head on over to my buddy Brian's blog and see what he's got to say about the Episode III soundtrack. Where did HE get it? He's got his sources... as do we all :-P

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