Lisa finally decided that I was having way too much fun for my own good without her, so tonight she set up a blog of her very own. Notes From Lisa will be her online chronicle of her life as a musician, a teacher, and as wife to a very oddball man. Expect her to post musings on various subjects, reviews of movies and music, maybe even a recipe every now and then. In her first post she writes about disc golf, which I'd never heard of until she told me about it this afternoon. We're gonna fix her up with some custom graphics sometime too. Make it a pretty blog for a pretty lady :-)
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Strike a pose!
While wearing my Jedi costume a couple days ago I visited my wife's school just when the kids were all having their Halloween parties. A photographer from the Reidsville Review newspaper was there and he took a pic of me wielding my lightsaber. This was one of the photos that appeared on the front page of yesterday's edition:
Pssst... Hey you, wanna laptop computer for $398?
Somehow a lot of Wal-Mart's secret day-after-Thanksgiving sales prices have slipped out, according to CNN. Among the deals: a 12-cup coffee maker for $4.24 and a Hewlett-Packard laptop computer for $398. Here's praying that the slashed prices will extend to the Star Wars action figures :-)
While we're talking about Wal-Mart, you might recall that I reported my original hometown of Reidsville, North Carolina got a Wal-Mart Supercenter last week. Well I need to make note of something that's happened since then: previously the average price of gasoline in Reidsville had been around $2.45 a gallon. Then Wal-Mart opened and started selling gas for $2.29. Ever since last Wednesday the average gas price has plummeted all over town: it's now around $2.25 in most places, with the Wal-Mart itself selling it for $2.15 per gallon as of yesterday. That's thirty cents cheaper than the average price here in neighboring Greensboro. Lisa has been telling me that Wal-Mart coming to Reidsville would bring economic benefits with it but I hadn't been sure about that (you gotta know Reidsville to understand what I mean by that), especially considering that Rockingham County will have three Wal-Mart Supercenters in a few months' time, in one of the most rural counties in the state. But right now, it's hard to argue about that with her. If its arrival to Reidsville will continue holding gas prices at bay, I'm all for it being there now :-)
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
The Last Midnight Madness: Revenge of the Sith DVD at the local Wal-Mart
I spent practically all day yesterday in my Jedi garb (even wearing it to the dentist office). So I was already set when Darth Larry swung by the apartment last night for what was possibly the final time we'll ever do a midnight run for new Star Wars goodness. This time it was the Episode III: Revenge of the Sith DVD that went on sale at 12:01 am this morning. Since I've chronicled all the other midnight madnesses on this blog, I brought my camera along to capture the fleeting moments for posterity...
Yeah it wasn't as crazy as it was back in April when we hit Toys R Us and Wallyworld and Target for a joyous Starwargasm of merchandise, but it was still a lot of fun. We had to do this, if for no other reason than to be able to tell our children what it was like to be out at an insane hour for sake of a saga. Anyhoo, I'll try and post a review of the DVD soon. And Darth Larry, it was great to do this one last time with you effendi :-)
Monday, October 31, 2005
Don't fear Halloween... laugh at it
There were at least two or three church signs that I saw while driving around earlier this evening, that had something negative to say about Halloween. Now, to be sure, Halloween used to be a time when the Druids sacrificed virgins to their heathen gods. How we went from that to giving out a bar of Snickers to kiddies is a whole nother discussion. But let's face it: Halloween as it's practiced today is not evil. It has nothing to do with evil. In fact, I think that celebrating Halloween is actually a very much Christian thing to do: we aren't supposed to be in fear of darkness. We're supposed to be triumphant over it. When we cringe in fear over a thing, we're letting that thing have power over us when it has no right to. So put on a costume (I've been wearing my Jedi getup all day) and get in the spirit. Have some fun with Halloween, instead of cowering in fear of it.
We watched Coach Carter and Fat Albert over the weekend
Coach Carter came via Netflix. Samuel L. Jackson plays Ken Carter, who took a basketball coaching job at Richmond High School in California, then benched the entire team - that boasted an undefeated winning streak - because of poor grades. One of Jackson's best roles, I thought. Really good movie for you to check out if you haven't already.
Then last night Lisa and I watched Fat Albert on HBO. And it's a surprisingly good movie. It's a "cute" lil' flick: maybe not Coach Carter calibre but still worth catching at least once. The premise is that Fat Albert and his gang escape from their cartoon world and come into the real one to help a girl solve some problems. There's a nice twist regarding the girl and the grandfather she often mentions, and the final scene is really touching. Kenan Thompson pulls off a great Fat Albert, as do the rest of the cast. If there's anything to complain about, it's that the animated segments aren't done in the style of the classic 70's tv show, but instead that "fake 3D" style that's been around since the mid-90's or so. The Russell of the movie sounds nothing like the Russell of the original series. But these are really minor quibbles. Watch it sometime if you want something light and entertaining.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Biking the Virginia Creeper
Yesterday Lisa and I joined some friends for a bike trip on the Virginia Creeper Trail in southwestern Virginia. It was a seventeen-mile ride from the top of Whitetop Mountain on the North Carolina border, then west along the Tennessee state line to the half-way point of the trail in Damascus, Virginia. It was a good trip through some beautiful countryside, made all the more epic because my MP3 player was going through the entire soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings. I was sure the trip was going to end somewhere deep inside Return of the King's music but we ended up rolling into the bike rental place with "Isengard Unleashed" from The Two Towers, much shorter trip than I expected. We may go back and do the lower half of the trail sometime this coming spring.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Kyle Williams weighs in on Plamegate
Young master Kyle Williams continues to wield his considerable grasp of things with his essay this week, this one on the CIA leak inquiry.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Hollywood gets exorcism all wrong
Well, AMC just had a show about the impact that The Exorcist has had in the three decades since it first came out. I first saw this movie back in 1999 and... well, how should I put this...?
Okay, The Exorcist is a good movie but it gets some things wrong. Like, I mean ALL wrong.
Real confrontation with demons isn't some ritual you follow from a book. Ceremonial prayer doesn't really do anything. Neither can you just throw "holy water" at it and think it's gonna burn the thing like battery acid. In fact you will probably make it laugh at you for trying that.
You never tell it your name. You don't even ask IT for its name. Yes, it has one but you are not interested in what its name is, period. You don't answer anything it asks of you. You close your ears to it no matter what it tells you. You DO NOT dwell upon any kind of knowledge or prophecy it screams at you. I can't emphasize that point nearly enough. It can tell you how you're going to die but you have to deafen your ears and mind to that. Else you obsess with that and then you’re no good to anyone who’s involved in this with you.
Now, some things the movies do get right, like when it's talking in some other language, but don't expect to be able to translate it. I'm just saying it can do that is all. But do not expect for it to make someone's head turn a full 360 degrees like Linda Blair's did. The inhabited person will sometimes display feats of strength not in proportion to sex or physical size, though.
A drop in ambient temperature has been reported in some cases, but in general this doesn't seem to happen very often.
Oh yeah and it does sometimes produce vomiting, so be ready for that.
There aren't too many people really strong enough to handle this sort of thing. If you aren't that strong, be somewhere else, okay?
I wonder if anyone in the film industry will ever make a movie about what fighting a demon is really like.
Where da heck is the KWerky website??
It occured to me this afternoon that we still don't have our website back up. There's a reason for that: both Ed and I have been pretty busy with other real-life things. Heck, Ed is getting married in a few months: I've been there, done that, know all about the stuff that goes into wedding planning. The website was previously on his own server, but since recently moving he hasn't had time to set it back up.
This doesn't mean that we haven't been working on KWerky Productions-related stuff though. So far my lil' "experimental filmmaking" project is going pretty well: we should have something to show for it by February. On the lighter side of things I'm thinking about filming EVERYTHING that goes into the fine art of deep-frying a turkey, and make a "how-to" video on that around Thanksgiving. It's the second most dangerous form of cooking known to man (after fugu preparation). We'll see if I can both run a camera and play with 350-degree boiling peanut oil simultaneously.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
20 years of Nintendo Entertainment System
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System. I remember seeing one for the first time in a Service Merchandise store not long after that, just before Christmas 1985. So many classic games that were played on that lil' unit. This deserves a fitting salute in the best way I know how...
To the NES UP-UP-DOWN-DOWN-LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-B-A-START
My old hometown got a Wal-Mart Supercenter of its very own today
Reidsville - the benighted armpit of North Carolina - got a Wal-Mart Supercenter at 7 a.m. this morning. If you know anything about Reidsville, you're probably scratching your head about what it is exactly that makes this 'burg deserve a Wal-Mart, much less a Supercenter. This is considered such a big deal that there were high school bands brought in to play at the opening, in addition to most of the local politicians and whatever else showing up. Celebrating a Wal-Mart opening? That should tell you something.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
William Hootkins passes away
William Hootkins - forever known as Rebel pilot Porkins in the very first Star Wars movie - has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 58. In addition to his legendary role as Porkins, Hootkins did a lot of other good stuff: he was one of the U.S. intelligence agents that met Dr. Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. You might also remember him as playing that corrupt police lieutenant in Tim Burton's first Batman movie. Interesting trivia: the Rebel pilot costumes were one-size-fits-all, but Hootkins was WAY too big to fit into the outfit. His costume had to be cut in the back to accommodate for his enormous girth. He also happened to be wearing an R. Crumb "Keep On Trucking" t-shirt under the Rebel gear. And when he first heard that his character was named "Porkins" he thought that George Lucas was going to put a pig nose prosthetic on his face. A super nice guy who was taken much too soon. Thoughts and prayers going out to his family.Monday, October 24, 2005
I met Nicholas Sparks yesterday
Can't believe I forgot about this already. Sparks was at the local Barnes & Noble yesterday afternoon. Lisa has a copy of The Wedding that I took for him to sign. The store was packed with fans (mostly female). I've never read anything by Nicholas Sparks but I have seen the movies of A Walk to Remember and The Notebook. Anyway, he did a fifteen minute Q&A session then started signing copies of his newest book (the name of it escape me at the moment). I stood in line for two hours before getting to where he was sitting. We shook hands and he signed the book. He strikes me as being a super nice guy. He said this was a really "sweet" thing to do to get this for my wife :-) Anyway, just thought I'd make a mention of that, that I met Nicholas Sparks yesterday afternoon.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
"Anointed by God": The REAL reason why neo-conservatives want to attack Syria
I'm going to go ahead and speak the obvious...
The real reason why the neo-conservatives running the White House want to do something militarily with Syria has nothing to do with the United Nations investigative report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. That just happens to be a very convenient excuse.
You will never hear it mentioned in a presidential speech, but here it is...
There are too many people in this administration who want to attack Syria because they see themselves as fulfillers of biblical prophecy.
According to most adherents of the "pre-tribulation rapture" scenario, the next prophetic event that must happen before "Daniel's seventieth week" - AKA the Great Tribulation - begins is the coming to pass of Isaiah 17. The chapter that begins "An oracle concerning Damascus: 'See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins...'". So long as Damascus is still standing, the tribulation cannot come. It has to be knocked-over first.
I find it quite serious to believe that there are some in our government who believe they are "anointed" by God to be the agents that cause this to happen. Or perhaps that prophecy isn't unfolding as fast as it should so it needs a good "kick-start" to get it rolling.
Don't think for an instant that people like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson have not contemplated that this might happen. They are probably even feverishly praying for it. Maybe even slyly encouraging their friends in the White House to consider doing this.
Believe me, I know what kind of mindset this is that we're talking about. I've dealt with them for most of my life. They have a really unhealthy obsession with the rapture. They focus on THAT more than they focus on God, if that makes any sense. Trust me: somewhere out there are people licking their chops at the possibility of the U.S. acting against Damascus. They want nothing less than the end of the world... and maybe a little credit for "helping" it come about.
There you have it: the true rationale for why Bush and his administration are wanting to go after Syria next. If no one else will say it, then I will.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Saw a pretty good movie today
We caught Just Like Heaven, with Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo and Jon Heder (the guy who played Napoleon Dynamite). From a guy's perspective, for a chick-flick it's a darned good movie. It has a nice twist to it that makes it NOT be the story you think it's about after watching it for awhile. I won't post any spoilers here though, go check it out for yourself, now or later when it hits DVD.
Speaking of DVD, we got Army of Darkness via Netflix today and finished watching it a little while ago. I think that Lisa much more preferred Just Like Heaven though: that movie made a little more sense to her than Ash's shenanigans :-)
Monday, October 17, 2005
New pen computer will FLY off the shelves
I saw a commercial for this a little while ago, went to the website and was absolutely astounded at what this lil' gimmick can do. It's the FLY Pentop Computer and it's gonna be one of the hottest selling items this Christmas, bank on it. Costs $99 bucks but you tell me: isn't it a pretty neat thing to be able to draw a picture of a calculator and then be able to use it? Or to draw a keyboard and play it? Wish we had stuff this neat to play with when I was a kid...
