The scary thing is, he's showing more public intimacy here than he does with his wife

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?"

-- 2nd Corinthians 6:14

Real cowboys aren't supposed to be that limp-wristed, are they?

Read More

About 1200 miles or so later ...

Just got back from Star Wars Celebration III in Indianapolis, after a grueling 12-hour trip that's left us pooped. This is the first I've been at at computer at all since this past Wednesday (it being early Monday morning now) and will file a full report later including pictures. In the meantime take a peek at the reports that got filed from the field during the past few days, courtesy of Brian AKA the daft, the daffy and the ever-dapper Darth Larry, who from the looks of it did a FANTASTIC job of relaying the sense of the thing to the folks back home.

Okay, more later. Me sleep now. It'll be good to wake up in the morning and not see a dozen Boba Fetts standing outside my hotel room door...

Read More

Worst nickname for a pope, ever

London's The Sun seems to have been the first to coin this moniker, and I've seen it quite a few other places already...

"Papa Ratzi".

Read More

Forcery update: How to make a grown man (almost) cry

The good news is, everything is backed up. At least twice over.

The bad news is, there's not enough time to reconstruct it all in time.

For the past several days I've been finalizing the work on Forcery, hoping to have it ready in time to bring it to Star Wars Celebration III in Indianapolis this weekend. And it was looking mondo AWESOME!!

And then the hard-drive containing ALL the work that had accummulated over the past week or so crashed and burned.

I can easily reconstitute the film from the material we already have, and the project files from Premiere and After Effects. That is, if we had time enough to do it before we leave. Except there is no time to do it. There's a complete version ready but... I'm not happy with the thought of getting it out there while knowing that it could have been a LOT better finished product.

So Forcery won't be ready in time for Celebration III after all. But that ain't gonna stop me from finally releasing it before this month is out.

Trust me: it'll be a hoot. You ain't lived 'til you've seen how buff George Lucas looks with a lightsaber :-)

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

"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

Read More

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.

Read More

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...

Read More

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 :-)

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More