To say that I'm not giggling about this stunt's success would be an understatement :-) Now I just have to figure how to top this for next year...
Well, today is the day that the very last (we hope) novel of the Left Behind series comes out. Against my better judgment, I will commence to reading this shortly and likewise post a review.
Never let it be said that I don't go out of my way to provide new content on this blog...
Why are the soldiers being sent back so quickly? Because there's not enough military personnel to fully accommodate our presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. If this administration decides it wants to go to war with Iran, it will get even worse for our men and women in the armed forces.
Just one more indication that our armed forces have become spread too thin through the worst mismanagement of military resources in American history.
I'm glad to see this, because the Firefly universe is a franchise that really deserves to be continued one way or another. I never got to see the show but I thought that Serenity was both entertaining and thoughtful. Maybe I'll put the Firefly series on Netflix and catch it sometime.
So I've been keeping an eye out for Polar Rose to debut its service, which was supposed to have been sometime in the first quarter of 2007. We're now headed into the second quarter. There also hasn't been anything new added to the Polar Rose website since about mid-January. I've heard that they were originally going for a December 2006 roll-out. According to one source it might happen this month or in May.
I hope they get on the ball soon and release this, because there's a lot of good potential to be found in an innovation like this. But to have announced it with so much fanfare about what it promises, only to not deliver on time and then not offer something in the way of official feedback, Polar Rose is on track to become the Duke Nukem Forever of Web 2.0... and nobody wants to see that happen.
There have been times that it hasn't been so bad though. The following year after her funeral, during the first year of our relationship, Lisa went far in giving me a fun, upbeat, positive birthday. That included going to Olympic Park in Atlanta, then meeting up with my life-long best friend Chad where he worked at the CNN Building and he showed us around to a lot of places that you'd never see on a guided tour of the place, and then Lisa took me to see the annual Atlanta Passion Play put on by First Baptist Church there (the one that Charles Stanley pastors).
That was a good birthday. This year... not so much. Guess it's because of a lot of things that have come crashing down all at once lately. It was enough to jerk me back into that "birthdays = death" thing that I've tried so hard to shake off. But I was able to manage to have a little bit of fun all the same...
One good thing that I'll remember this birthday for, was that it was the day I finally got to see one of those cute new R2-D2 mailboxes for myself (click on the link to see if there's one in your town). Until this weekend I was ready to go to Raleigh, Charlotte, Asheville or maybe Roanoke to find one, but my friend Darth Larry told me the day before that there was definitely one in Greensboro. He told me where to find it (and here's his report and photos of the thing). So yesterday afternoon Lisa and I went to the corner of West Market Street and College Place (this is the front entrance to Greensboro College, if it helps any) and found our little Artoo unit...
Here's a shot of the intersection that Artoo is next too (along with Lisa)...
Here's what the back of our faithful astro-droid looks like...
Here's Lisa re-creating a famous scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (maybe we should have found her a white Leia outfit and done her hair up in buns for this pic?)...
And finally, to prove that I was really there (note my custom-built lightsaber hanging from my belt)...
When the new Star Wars stamps from the U.S. Postal Service go on sale on May 25th, I'm thinking of wearing my full Jedi costume to the post office when I buy some. Maybe I'll have photos to post of that too, if I can find someone willing to go with me who won't be afraid to associate with a guy in a Jedi getup :-)
As you've no doubt surmised by this post, Lisa and I have not decided to "be plain" after all. I couldn't resist doing this.The idea came last year to do an April Fools prank with my blog, and from the getgo the plan was to write about how Lisa and I had decided to join the Amish and give up the Internet forever. But it was like late evening on April Fools last year when I remembered that I'd wanted to do that... so I've been saving this gag up for the whole past year.
Anyway, April Fools for this year is over and this blog can get back to "normal", whatever the heck that is supposed to be around here. But for sake of posterity, here is the complete text of the post that was up for the past 24 hours...
Plain Blog written by Christopher Knight Sunday, April 1 2007 12:01 a.m.Dear friends and faithful readers of The Knight Shift blog:
As of today, I am surrendering my presence on the Internet. I will also no longer be involved in film production. Or anything else involving computers.Why?
Lisa and I are joining a community of Old Order Mennonites... more commonly known as the Amish. As you probably know, the Amish have very limited use of "modern conveniences" like cars and electricity. Which is going to take a lot of getting used to being without those things. But the Amish also practice a concept called Gelassenheit. It means "letting the will of God be". I've come to realize that the emptiness in my life is because I have tried to control it according to my own will, instead of surrendering it completely to God. I've let the things of this world come in between me and God, and that relationship is something much more important than petty materialism.
I've spoken with the elders of the local Amish community and they have no problem with our joining their congregation. One of them joked that my entire life leading up to this has been one long period of Rumspringa. Maybe so. I've seen and sampled a lot of this world's pleasures and they are not for me. I'm tired of them. I can turn my back on them now and fully toward what God would have me to be.
Your thoughts and prayers would be appreciated. We are so new at this. I'm going to have to learn to speak old High German in order to understand the worship services. I have also found employment as an assistant to a farrier, where I'll help in making horseshoes for my Amish brethren. Speaking of which, I'm going to have to learn to steer a horse for the first time in my life. It has also been agreed that I can teach school... which since Amish only go to school up to eighth grade, I'm more than qualified to be an educator. We'll be living with a young Amish couple for these next few weeks, until the brothers can get together for a house-raising, which is where we will spend the rest of our lives in peace and contentment.
Do you know that this means that I'm going to have to grow a full beard now? Yeah, I can hardly see myself with one either.
You have to understand: we are not only doing this for ourselves, but for our children too. We've seen what this world is becoming, and we don't wish for our offspring to be brought to despair because of it.
So to everyone who I have come to know and love - and will still love in all the years to come - during this past decade and more, I want to wish you farewell, and please be careful out there among them English.
Gott segnen,
Brother Christopher Knight
Lots of people can't believe she's really 80 now ("but you don't look it!" they all say). You wouldn't know it either if you knew how fast she gets around. Definitely an inspiration to live and let nothing stop you. This picture was from the lil' breakfast we had in her honor at Golden Corral this morning. So here's wishing Aunt Glendora a Happy 80th Birthday!
Now go back and re-read that again, and hit the link.
Apparently this is for real. The plan: build a playground for children in Kosovo, and name it after Kurt Russell's character from Escape from New York.
What's next... the Ash Williams Memorial Wildlife Preserve?
In all seriousness though, I don't know if the lottery has had much of an impact... at least yet... on state education. If North Carolina was smart we would manage the lottery proceeds like how Georgia does theres, what with their Hope Scholarship and all. That, and bolster our teachers' pay a lot more than they're getting now (and they more than deserve it).
How did I remember to commemorate this historic anniversary? It's actually pretty scary...
Bummer. This was the one forthcoming Star Wars novel that I was seriously looking forward to. I was really intrigued by what little we learned about Darth Plagueis in Revenge of the Sith and have been dying to know more about him. Looks like it's gonna be a long time before we find out anything more definitive about him. There is a positive side to this though, I'm thinking: if the book has been cancelled, then Plagueis may not necessarily have been a Muun, as he's said to have been since the novel was announced. I think Plagueis should be human, and maybe there's a chance he will be after all.
More later.
EDIT 10:27 PM EST: Now halfway through the show. This may be one of the best Lost episodes ever. Last week's still rates in my book as all-time (so far) best but this one is amazing.
EDIT 10:39 PM EST: Paulo goes to the toilet again... and this episode is so cool that it even makes THAT good!
EDIT 11:01 PM EST: HOLY @&$%!!!
It was like they brought on Stephen King to write the last few pages of the script or something. That was gnarly.
I think it's safe to say that "Exposé" is going to be in the top ten Lost episodes thus far. Everything about this was perfect. It wasn't a "myth-moving" episode, but it did answer a lot of questions and amazingly enough it did make us care for the characters of Nikki and Paulo... if only for a little while.
I didn't have the highest hopes for this episode. But it wound up surprising me immensely. Definitely can't wait to watch it again off the DVR tomorrow with Lisa (and see her reaction to it :-).
She said it was Chris Sligh.
I wondered last week if American Idol had finally jumped the shark. Tonight, there is no doubt (but there was Gwen Stefani... get it? :-)
There are two singers left in this season's competition that I would like to see win this thing. Neither one of them has appeared on-stage with a hairdo that looks like a rooster. That's all I'm going to say about that. Except at long last, I think it can be said that American Idol is no longer compelling "must see" television.
As for Chris Sligh: I will definitely buy his first album when it comes out.
And here is the full cover artwork - front and back - minus the title. Notice that this is the VERY first time (I'm assuming this is him) that we have seen Voldemort's face depicted in any of the book artwork:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out on July 21, 2007.
EDIT 5:53 PM EST: I keep looking at this cover and for some reason I can't help but think: Harry is gonna die. There's something about this cover that hints at at, just like the last cover seemed (well it did for me at the time anyway) to be hinting at something major. It's the heavenly glow of the whole piece, it has a welcoming warmth to it.
Wouldn't it be something if Harry is killed, and we then see him come to Heaven and finally meet his parents and everyone else that he has lost?
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared to throw cold water on a possible presidential bid by former Sen. Fred Thompson while praising former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also weighing a presidential run, in a phone interview Tuesday.I've alluded to this before here, and I'll say it again: I'm damn thankful that I didn't wind up working at Focus on the Family a few years ago. It's true: I almost wound up in James Dobson's camp. But the Lord was gracious and started opening my eyes to a lot of things that are being done in His name... but are only about getting earthly power."Everyone knows he's conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for," Dobson said of Thompson. "[But] I don't think he's a Christian; at least that's my impression," Dobson added, saying that such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party's conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Thompson, took issue with Dobson's characterization of the former Tennessee senator. "Thompson is indeed a Christian," he said. "He was baptized into the Church of Christ."
In a follow-up phone conversation, Focus on the Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger stood by Dobson's claim. He said that, while Dobson didn't believe Thompson to be a member of a non-Christian faith, Dobson nevertheless "has never known Thompson to be a committed Christian—someone who talks openly about his faith."
James Dobson is one of the worst offenders when it comes to "pimpin' Jesus for votes".
Well, turnaround is fair play I guess. So... I don't believe that James Dobson is a real Christian. George W. Bush has never acted like a real Christian at all. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell couldn't care less whether a soul is saved through their "ministries", just that their faithful all vote straight Republican.
There aren't that many real Christians in positions of authority in this country anymore. Ron Paul comes to mind as one of them. But he's one of a very few.
The time is coming, my friend, when we who are Christians are going to have to make a choice: seek the kingdom of God, or seek the influence of power. I don't think we're testing the spirits as much as we should be when it comes to figuring out if these "Christian leaders" are the men of God they profess to be...
