Photos of those Belgians!

All two regular readers of this blog know that last week I hosted four friends from Belgium in my home. We had quite a number of interesting adventures while they were here... and things got so wild we even had to dial 911! So to memorialize the fun times I thought I'd post a few pics from the past few days.

This is Bennie. She and I have been friends since 1992, when we first met while she was tagging along with family that was visiting from out of state (she used to be an exchange student with them). We hit it off so well that the following summer I visited her in Belgium... and that was my first time ever outside of America! We've hooked up quite a few times over the years. Here she is in the kitchen, making a special Belgian dinner...

What was Bennie and her family cooking up? Well, first there were these stuffed peppers and tomatoes...

And then for dessert, there was this chocolate mousse (made with real Belgian chocolate!)...

I'd thought that I'd gotten a photo of Bennie's stepson Gaetan, but apparently not. He does show up quite often in the camcorder footage though (so there is evidence that he actually exists :-). This photo is of his sister Fleur. And as you can see like any typical fourteen-year old girl, Fleur enjoys using Facebook to keep in touch with her friends (that's what she's doing on one of my computers, and incidentally this is one of the VERY rare occasions that you will EVER see my video editing room... and yeah it's a spare bedroom too :-P). The only thing really different is that when Fleur is on Facebook, she's doing it in French! How kewl is that?!

And finally, here is a picture of Bennie and her husband Eric. Yes, THAT Eric! The same Eric who told us last Thursday around 3:30 in the afternoon that he was going for a walk... and didn't come back. At 7 p.m. I had to call 911 because we had no idea where he was, Eric speaks no English, he was in unknown territory and this was the first time he had ever been overseas (or even on a plane trip for that matter). Around 7:30 a Rockingham County Sheriff's Department car pulled into my driveway and a deputy that I've known for years told me "he's walking up the road!" James didn't speak French and Eric didn't speak English but James told him "Chris Knight?" and Eric smiled and nodded. Turned out Eric walked to the end of the road I'm on toward thick woods, kept walking and ended up going more than six miles, then turned down a road he recognized from earlier that day and walked back along U.S. 158, stopping to get a Coca-Cola from a nearby store. When Bennie and I found him he was sans shirt and grinning like nobody's business. All told that was around FIFTEEN MILES that Eric walked through Terra Incognita without getting shot for trespassing, sunk in quicksand or held hostage by drug dealers. Someday I'm going to bring Eric (and Bennie to translate for him) to talk to our Boy Scout troop, 'cuz this guy definitely set a new standard for hiking in Rockingham County!

Anyway, here he is along with Bennie, sitting on the front steps of Speedwell Presbyterian Church near Reidsville...

'Twas quite a good time, with an old friend and some new ones. Lord willing I'll get to reciprocate and get back to Belgium sooner than later. It really is a sweet lil' country, and as you can see it breeds some rather hardy folks (not to mention being the home of Belgian chocolate, the Smurfs and Tintin, and the saxaphone).

Bennie, Eric, Gaetan and Fleur, thanks for stopping by. Y'all come back now, y'hear?!? :-)

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Video of Michael Jackson's hair fire made public 25 years later

It's probably going to get yanked as soon as you try to view it, but rest assured: this will be showing up on YouTube for many years to come...

Well, there it is: Michael Jackson's hair catching fire during filming of a Pepsi commercial in 1984, in footage published for the first time by US Magazine. This is something that had grown to legendary proportions long before Jackson's death a few weeks ago. And at the time this was a huge story.

Seeing this at last, the only thought that really comes to mind is "My God..." This was a far more gruesome mishap than I can recall ever hearing it described. Amazingly, Jackson was still dancing for several seconds, completely unaware that his head was ablaze.

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Harry Potter and the (Sometimes) Crazy Christians

So today is opening day for the eagerly-awaited film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I haven't seen it yet but advance word from friends who have is that it's a pretty good movie. I'll probably go check it out this afternoon (and write a review for this blog 'course).

Something that I have found rather intriguing about the Harry Potter phenomenon over the last few years: Where the heck has all the "Christian" opposition to these books gone to? I mean, I remember when the movie of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was coming out, and the local TV news showed these overly-righteous "Bible-beating" types marching outside of a nearby theater about how the Harry Potter books were "evil", "witchcraft" and "leading children astray". I'll never forget this one particularly stern-faced young woman in an outfit like something out of Old Salem (or perhaps olden Salem, Massachusetts) who said she would "never" let her children read Harry Potter.

To which I said to the screen "Fine you hard-hearted ninny, but don't tell the rest of us what to do with ours!"

But nearly eight years later, and all of that alleged "Christian opposition" to Harry Potter has pretty much evaporated.

Well, not completely. At left you see a photo taken yesterday of severe nutcase Rev. Doug Taylor in Lewiston, Maine, as he publicly destroys a hardcover copy of a Harry Potter book.

Look at Taylor's face. Especially look into this man's eyes. Does that truly resemble at all the visage of a person who has the love of Christ, the grace of God, the humility that comes with fully knowing that one's self is not perfect and that we are all struggling in this world? I don't see that. Instead I see something in Doug Taylor that I have seen many more times than I care to count: someone who cannot or will not control his desire to hate others and is willing to use the name of Jesus Christ to excuse that hatred.

Thankfully, Doug Taylor and his Harry Potter-hating kind (including those lunatics from the Jesus Camp documentary and only the better angels of my nature kept me from weighing in on that as fully as I had wished!) have been relegated to the region of laughingstock over the last few years. But... why is that?

Part of the reason is that I cannot help but believe that J.K. Rowling, the authoress of the Harry Potter novels, completely and without apology disarmed the self-righteous wrath against her work with the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final novel of the saga. No one who read that book could take away anything from it other than it, and subsequently the entire Harry Potter series, has carried a brilliant pro-Christian message. Indeed, many have since come to praise the Harry Potter novels as the finest Christian allegorical writing since C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. What I found especially endearing about the Harry Potter novels is that Rowling not only touched upon, she fully delved into something that has gone missing all too much from not just most children's literature but a lot of Christian fiction as well: how we approach death. The theology of Harry Potter's world is absolutely recognizable as that of the Judeo-Christian tradition, where to cling to life is to ultimately lose it and where there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for his friends.

Now, why does that sound so familiar?

So I think that in some measure, the Harry Potter books themselves have shamed thoughtless opposition into silence.

But mostly, I think that the reason why there is not nearly as much fevered hatred toward the Harry Potter books is that most of these same "Christians" who have publicly shown spite against the books in the past, are now... well, bored with Harry Potter.

And I think that says a lot about what kind of Christians they are, or have been.

I said earlier that Christians like Rev. Doug Taylor desired to hate others and used Christ as an excuse to hate. But that by itself is nothing without a target upon which to fixate and focus that hatred toward. And that's all that the Harry Potter books have been over the years to these people. It has never been about sincere serious theological disagreement with the contents of the books. All that these loons had to hear was "witchcraft and wizardry" and that was enough reason to rail against these books until they were (often literally) hoarse with screaming.

But as the Harry Potter books have passed from fad into defining literature of the current Zeitgeist, these same Christians have also lost interest. They now have bigger and better enemies to latch their hatred onto: Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Sonia Sotomayor, Democrats in general, whatever. One Baptist minister in California is now even publicly praying not just for the death but for the eternal damnation of Obama.

That's why Harry Potter has fallen out of hate-filled vogue. Why would anyone want to pick on a fictional teen wizard when they can just as easily - and with even more intoxicating wrath - hate and seek to destroy a President of the United States?

Do these people have any idea not just how silly they look, but how much they are turning others around them away from Christ?

As a follower of Christ, I have come to understand how it is that we, as one minister wisely told me years ago, are supposed to be "in this world but not of this world". We are called not only to be missionaries of His word, but also ambassadors for His kingdom. And that does mean an active and passionate abandoning the lust for the powers and institutions of this carnal realm.

It's not Harry Potter or Barack Obama that is causing grievous damage to the world around us. No amount of book burning or lobbying or legislation is going to heal the land, or provide it what it really needs.

What this world needs more than anything is for those who profess to have Christ to start living for Him... for His sake, not for our own.

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Oh crap: Socialized medicine coming to U.S.?!?

Years ago when I was a Cub Scout, there was a cartoon in Boys Life showing a kid, obviously over-zealous with carpentry tools, telling his dog that he was there to give him a new doghouse. It was a parable about working with plans (which the lad decided for whatever reason that he didn't need). In the first panel after the kid announces his intentions, the dog thinks "Oh no, spare me this!"

That was the first thing that popped into mind this morning when I read that President Obama might push through a vote on national "health care reform", that it's going to cost at least $1.5 TRILLION and to fund it Congress is looking at a 5.4 percent additional tax on the richest Americans.

Much like the dog in that cartoon: "Dear God, PLEASE spare us this!"

Lemme tell you what is going to happen if Obama and his allies have their way with their medical machinations: the quality of health care in America will plummet, a lot of the economy (that we can't afford to lose) that isn't related to health care will simply relocate rather than pay higher taxes, and the United States will lose its driving motivation toward cutting-edge medical and pharmaceutical research that the rest of the world benefits immensely from.

I thought "health care reform" sucked donkeys balls to no end when the Clintons tried to pull this one over on us fifteen years ago. It was a rotten plan then and as Obama and his crew are trying to do, it's even more rotten now.

And I hope and pray that there will be even more Americans opposing it this time around!

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After-action report on today's Warhammer 40,000 battle: Space Marines versus Orks and Chaos

It was not a good day to have played loyalist Space Marines.

And not even the presence of the mighty Marneus Calgar himself - chapter master of the Ultramarines - was enough to stave off the combined threat of a massive Ork Waaaagh! led by Ghazghkull Thraka and a surprise attack by several squads of Chaos Space Marines who appeared on the scene to... well, spread chaos.

So today was the first time in three weeks that I've been able to get down to the nearest friendly local game store (FLGS) for a battle or two of Warhammer 40,000, the far-flung future-based miniature wargame that's wildly popular all over the world. Once again I brought several squads of Space Marines from the Ultramarine chapter. By 3:30 a new game was starting with 1,800 points of tactical value allowed for each side. Now, my own complete Space Marines only number a little over 500 points... but as there were two others playing Space Marines we mustered our forces along the eastern side of the table. Leading our forces was the indomitable Marneus Calgar (a miniature that I'll probably be adding to my own collection sometime). Before us stretched the landscape of a world held by the Orks, and among the more prominent features was a tower of some sort (we figured it was an oil derrick drilling for Ork petroleum). But no matter why we were there: we determined to enforce the will of the Emperor of Humanity... and the Orks were goin' die!

I think those of us playing the Space Marines had a feeling not long into Turn 1 that this battle was going to be especially brutal. First it was our entire squad of Scouts that we lost, and I was hoping we could get to use them to great advantage with their sniper skill. Alas! The Scouts were among the first to go, perishing by the guns of Ork heavy weaponry. At the same time a squadron of three Ork Deffkoptas attempted to take out my Dreadnought but he easily evaded the attack (for the moment). And then as if we didn't have enough to worry about, a squad of Chaos Space Marines attempted to teleport in front of our forces. However these missed a roll and wound up stuck intangible amid the wildness of the Warp, so for the time being we didn't have to worry about these traitors to the Empire.

Meanwhile on the southern end of the table the battle was becoming one of heavy hardware as several Space Marine troop carriers and tanks engaged with Ork battlewagons and a number of Chaos Space Marine vehicles. Calgar himself was put in the midst of this action which saw at least one troop carrier explode (and costing the lives of all the Space Marines within it). I wish that I could report more about the southern front of the battle however as we were too busy holding down the northern end, that's the part that held my attention throughout the nearly three hours that we were in combat.

After the Orks and Chaos forces had resolved their moves and weapons fire for Turn 1, now came our turn. My own Space Marines killed four Orks with fragmentary grenade fire, and attempted to move into position to better engage the huge swarm that was the rest of the northern Ork forces... which threatened to overwhelm my position. And now I was faced with a tactical decision: should I attempt to take out the Deffkoptas or the ground-based Orks? After conferring with fellow "general" John, we decided to concentrate the next attack on the Deffkoptas...

...unfortunately, not long into Round 2 the Deffkoptas utterly destroyed my Dreadnought in one fell swoop!

And then the rest of the Orks rushed forward in a frenzy of lust and death:

From there, nothing worked. The Tactical squad of my Space Marines that was armed with missile fire still attempted to destroy the Deffkoptas... but on my roll I only got a 1! That wasn't just a miss, it was as miss as you can possibly get (think Stormtroopers from the original Star Wars movies).

As for the rest of the battle: the Orks made mincemeat out of my Space Marines and none of my rolls went good (save for taking out five Orks with one well-placed shot of fragmentary grenade). One by one I was having to remove the shattered corpses of my trusty Ultramarines from the field of battle. The Orks on the northern end moved down the battlefield to join their brethren, and the Deffkoptas roared ahead to continue their carnage.

All that was left after that was basically mop-up action as the Chaos Space Marines and the Orks decimated what remained of the Ultramarines. Marneus Calgar himself somehow made it off to fight another day, and Ork warleader Ghazghkull Thraka let out a howl of victory...

What happened next? Well, it was 7 p.m. and I was starving so it was time for me to grab some dinner. I can only imagine that the Orks and Chaos forces then turned on each other (and probably it was the Orks who started it).

So there's another week before the league at the aforementioned friendly local game store meets again to throw our armies of Space Marines, Orks, Tyranids, Chaos at each other: plenty of time to study tactics and maybe even bolster my forces (I'm thinking maybe about investing in a Rhino tank).

By the way, if you play Warhammer 40,000 also and are in the Greensboro/Reidsville/Burlington area or so, write me at theknightshift@gmail.com and I'll fill ya in on the very exuberant league we've got going, and I'm always up for having a good-natured battle with a new friend :-)

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Here we go again! Online petition for a full release of TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN score by Steve Jablonsky

Two years ago, an online petition drive spun out of this very blog and may or may not have convinced The Powers That Be to release a CD of Steve Jablonsky's amazing score for the motion picture Transformers.

In 2009, Warner Bros./Reprise did release a CD of Jablonsky's score for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. And everything was cool this time, right?

Well...

A LOT of folks have written in here over the past few weeks about how much of Jablonsky's score for the new movie is missing from the current CD release. And we know for certain that there were plans to publish the full score (or a much bigger chunk of it than we have now anyway) but now, those plans have been officially dashed. It's currently not set to happen.

But now, a warrior has arisen "to light our darkest hour"!

Mike Casteel, a fellow fan of Transformers and Steve Jablonsky, has started a NEW online petition dedicated to getting a full score CD of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It just went live tonight... but we all know how fast the last one drew support, aye? Let's hope and pray that Mike's will get even more! And I'm heartily asking EVERYONE who signed the one from two years ago to please sign this new one.

Have faith, friends. I believe that there will be a release of this CD, if there is substantial enough support and we nicely convey that. And from what I've seen on this end, the support is definitely there! So be a good fan of Transformers and Steve Jablonsky and everyone else at Remote Control who worked on this score, and sign the petition today!

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"Weird Al" Yankovic does Disneyland in "Skipper Dan"!

There is simply no stopping "Weird Al" Yankovic! Last month he released his new single "Craigslist" done in the style of Jim Morrison and The Doors. And now Al's "Internet Leaks" collection has grown even more with "Skipper Dan"! It's about the never-ending lament of a poor guy who could have been a great actor... but instead wound up a guide on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland. Not so much a parody as it is just Al waxing philosophic in his own signature style. All in all, a pretty good song!

Hit here for the "Skipper Dan" music video (directed by Divya Srinivasan) on YouTube, where you can also find links to purchase the song via iTunes and other online outlets.

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Economic downturn hits Rapture! BIOSHOCK 2 delayed!

Not even the sub-Atlantic metropolis of Rapture is safe from the global financial meltdown. In a move that would certainly have Andrew Ryan spinning in his grave had he been given a proper burial, Take-Two Interactive is delaying the release of its much-anticipated BioShock 2, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed 2007 first-person shooter that challenged players' morality as much as it did their aim.

The cause for pushing back the release? To give BioShock 2 more development time and because the retail environment for the near future is being forecast as bleak. The game is now said to be coming out in "fiscal 2010"... which could mean anything. Take-Two's stock dropped a dollar and a half following the news.

Bummer. BioShock 2 was the video game that I was most looking forward to. But I guess in the meantime I'll have to make do with playing the original BioShock again, along with Ghostbusters: The Game (which a lot of people are telling me is very good) and Batman: Arkham Asylum later this summer.

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Review of the PLAY! A VIDEO GAME SYMPHONY concert in Cary!

Last week this blog received a nice e-mail about Play! A Video Game Symphony. It's exactly what it sounds like: a full symphony orchestra playing a selection of music from a variety of video games. The accompanying press release had details about the concert's performance later on that weekend in Cary, North Carolina.

So on Saturday afternoon fellow blogger and gaming junky Matt Federico (who wore a t-shirt reading "I GAVE UP VIDEO GAMES and it was the worst 15 minutes of my life" for the occasion, and is a very cool guy even though he is dead wrong about daring to think that Fallout 3 is a bad game) and I high-tailed it to Cary and the Koka Booth Amphitheater there. There was even a very neat press pass waiting for me since I'm an established journalist by way of this blog! Kewl aye?

Well, that was still not as kewl as the actual Play! concert itself. The amphitheater was packed with a plethora of people eagerly awaiting the performance by the North Carolina Symphony and the Concert Singers of Cary Chamber Choir. At 8:30 p.m. guest conductor Andy Brick took to the podium and after a series of introductions, the concert was on! The first bit of music was by Nobuo Uematsu, the composer of the Final Fantasy games, and was written exclusively for the Play! concert series.

Then, with footage from the games accompanying the performance on a giant screen hanging above the orchestra, the show got started in earnest with Kojo Kondo's immortal music from the Super Marios Bros. series! We heard the classic theme, the underwater music, the theme often heard whenever Mario is underground, and the notes from the finished castle sequence. I recognized just about all of the Super Mario Bros. games when they were shown on the screen, including Super Mario Bros. 2 (the "black sheep" of the Super Mario games). And all the while, at conductor Brick's encouragement, the audience was often cheering and whooping and hollering with joy!

Next came the music from Battlefield 1942, which I have never played but I thought it had both a unique sound of its own and also, for me anyway, evoked imagery from Steven Spielberg's film 1941.

Next came music from the Silent Hill series, with guest accompaniment by acclaimed guitarist Carlos Alomar, who has played with John Lennon, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen along with many others. I've also never played a Silent Hill game, but the music and the associated imagery on the screen is tempting me to give it a try sometime.

Then came an extended and very neat arrangement from the Castlevania series! Never before has the centuries-old tale of the Belmont family and its endless battle against Count Dracula looked and sounded so sweeping and epic. This was by far one of my favorite parts of the show.

The music from Square Enix and Disney's Kingdom Hearts series followed. Now, I for one think that the whole Kingdom Hearts concept is more than a little... strange. I mean, having Donald Duck fighting alongside Final Fantasy characters stretches credulity even for a video game. Nonetheless, I thought that Yoko Shimomura and Hikaru Utada's composition was beautiful. And in and of itself the Kingdom Hearts stuff was plenty enough reason why a concert like Play! has come into its own and found appreciation: because video game music has become as much of a form of art as soundtracks for movies and television shows.

The first half of the show wrapped up with a return to the work of Kojo Kondo, and a series that began in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Of course, this was the music from The Legend of Zelda series. Flutes and other woodwinds tantalized us and then the strings kicked in as the universally recognized main Zelda theme began. Once again the audience got riled up into wild applause and even laughter, especially as the screen showed the unintentionally hilarious "I am Error" bit from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The Underworld theme from the first game was particularly haunting, especially now as darkness had enveloped the amphitheater.

A short break followed, and then at 9:30 the concert began again with something that conductor Andy Brick had composed himself: the music from Sim City 4, which he described as having to be both monotonous and simultaneously not boring. I liked it a lot, and once again the crowd joined into the spirit of the show as the screen depicted a Sim town being wracked by tornadoes and monsters (hey, this is a Sim City game after all ;-)

Following this came the music of the Elder Scrolls games, and particularly The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, before which Brick enlightened us about how composer Jeremy Soule wrote some of this music following a near-fatal car crash he was in and how it moved him to compose something touching upon mortality and the preciousness of human life. I found this music to be dark, tragic and moving: without knowing anything else of the game, I thought that Soule accomplished what he set out to do.

Then came the music from Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger, also two games that I have never played before (and having Matt along for the ride came in very handy 'cuz he has played many of these games before, so he could 'splain to me when I needed it :-). I found this music to be wild and dreamy.

And then it started to rain, and those on the ground went scurrying for cover. Matt and I found it beneath a hospitality shelter not far from where we'd been situated on the lawn. And maybe the rain in some way made the next bit of the show even more appropriate...

...'cuz now it was time for music from the Halo series.

The Carolina Symphony Orchestra and the Concert Singers of Cary Chamber Choir, performing the music from Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels. That, my friends, was utterly majestic, especially as the choir began. The ancient beyond reckoning constructs of the massive Halos came into mind as the arena shook and our hearts beat in awe. Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori did some unbelievably powerful work with the Halo games, even the music from the trailer for Halo 3, which was also part of the arrangement. You could almost see a miles-wide Forerunner artifact opening beneath Raleigh, just from listening to the music like that.

Halo music in the rain. Just one more moment of experience that I will take with me for as long as I live :-)

Now it was time for something considerably more light-hearted: the music from the Sonic the Hedgehog games! Can you believe that I've never played a single game from this series in all its many years? That still didn't keep me (along with everyone else) from cheering and laughing and otherwise being thrilled by the driving and whimsical beat of Sonic as he did his... whatever :-P

The music of Warhammer Online came next, which can be described in one word more than any other: "brutal". I've never played Warhammer Online either, but I thought it fits well the motif and genre of the Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop game's mood: dark and fearsome. Hopefully the forthcoming Warhammer 40,000 Online will feature just as awesome music :-)

And then the orchestra started playing the music of World of Warcraft. Which I have also never played... but I am now feeling more than a little tempted to buy all of the CD soundtracks from this series. Matt's "narration" was very much appreciated 'cuz he told me which was the theme for the human capital city, what was the music for the Lich King's realm, etc. This was definitely one of the best parts of the show for me, and I found myself thinking that if Star Wars: The Old Republic has music even half as good, that it's going to be a heckuva MMO game. Nearly two days later and I still can't get the World of Warcraft music out of my head!

The Cary performance of Play! came to an end with a selection of music from the Final Fantasy games. Yeah, I haven't played these either, and I've never understood at all why these games can be called Final Fantasy when (a) they have no common continuity at all across the entire series and (b) the series hasn't ended yet and I think it's now up to Final Fantasy 47 at the moment. But again, I thought the music was quite nice.

I just wish that the Play! concert had included some music from the Gears of War games, 'cuz as the show was in Cary this is the hometown of Epic Games and Gears of War! Maybe next time? :-) I'd also thought afterward that it would have been unbelievably awesome if the music from the first Doom game had been thrown into the mix: can you imagine a full orchestra playing the theme from the very first level of Doom? Again, maybe in the future they can do this, 'cuz that alone would demand a concert ticket!

But those very minor quibbles aside (and hey, there's no way that every bit of classic video game music can make it into one concert) I thought that Play! A Video Game Symphony was a fantastic show, and one that I will give my heartiest recommendation for. The show is next coming to Salt Lake City, Utah in November. If you're out that way, you should do everything you can to attend! And I'll certainly be looking out for it the next time it performs anywhere around here :-)

EDIT 07/15/2009 9:40 a.m. EST: Matt Federico has also posted a review of this concert! Check out his write-up, which also includes a bit about the crazy drive we had on the way to Cary :-P

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For good food on the road, give Sheetz a shot

Last month I wrote here about this new commercial for Sheetz that has been playing like crazy around here...

I'd gotten gas plenty of times from a Sheetz station whenever I've been driving here and yonder. But until this past weekend I had never bought anything more than a bottled soft drink from the place so far as dietary consumables are concerned.

And then came the way wee hours of yesterday morning - around 1:30 a.m. to be precise - when I was leaving High Point after dropping off fellow blogger Matt Federico following a concert in Cary (which I'm about to write a review of).

So it was unconscionably late at night (or too early depending on your point of view) and not only was my trusty vehicle needing some juice, but I hadn't had anything to eat since around 8 the previous morning. So on my way back to my own domicile I found the Sheetz on Highway 68 near PTI Airport and after gassing up, chose to follow up on satisfying my own hunger pangs.

Folks, if you ever get the chance, I can say that I will heartily recommend perusing from and selecting from the awesome made to order menu that Sheetz has available. I bought a foot-long ham sandwich, "custom tailored" via a touch screen with whatever it is that you want on your item. Within 30 seconds I had my sandwich order made with white bread, a good choice of toppings and Italian dressing. A few minutes after paying it was ready and I went out the door. I waited before getting home to indulge myself and found that my sandwich was exceptionally delicious! So much so that I felt compelled to give it a positive write-up here on the blog.

Sheetz locations can be found stretching from northeast Ohio on down through central North Carolina. If you don't have a Sheetz near you, the company is apparently in the midst of a considerable drive in its growth. Be on the lookout for 'em and when one pops up in your neighborhood, give their food a try! :-)

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New MechWarrior game on the way!

The long-classic MechWarrior video game franchise (which is based on the venerable BattleTech universe) is finally getting some new love, courtesy of a full-blown relaunch of the series courtesy of Smith & Tinker and Piranha Games. Simply called MechWarrior, the new game will be on PCs and Xbox 360. IGN has the initial details and check out this first bit of footage to be released from the game...

Looks like old school MechWarrior with a bit of Gears of War mixed in. That's pretty hella sweet! :-)

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This blog's design is soooooo 2007

So this blog's look has been with us for more than 2 years now. Which is the longest that it's held to any single design.

But now, I've decided to give this place a bit of a turnaround.

If y'all see things way screwy sometime soon, it's likely just me playing around with the template. Hopefully a better look will soon emerge :-)

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Classic LucasArts games now on Steam

Earlier this week LucasArts unloaded the very awesome news that it has commenced to re-releasing many of its classic games via Steam!

I had never used Steam before, but the prospect of once again playing Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (right) was too good to pass up, so I went to the Steam site and purchased the game. For $4.99 you get the CD-ROM "talkie" version from 1992, guaranteed to run on a Windows Vista system! LucasArts is also publishing anew The Dig (LOTS of people no doubt happy about that one), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, Armed and Dangerous, LOOM, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure, Star Wars Battlefront II, Star Wars Republic Commando, Star Wars Starfighter, and Thrillville: Off the Rails.

And LucasArts has promised that many more classic games will be coming over the next few months.

Personally, there are three games that I want to see more than anything else from LucasArts getting Steam distribution: Maniac Mansion, Star Wars: TIE Fighter (still considered by many to be the greatest Star Wars video game ever and it had better have the original SCUMM-driven soundtrack)...

...and, it goes without saying, Full Throttle:

"One minute you're on the road, riding. Not a care in the world. Then some guy in a suit comes along, says he's got a deal for you and your gang. But when you come to, you've got a lump on your head, the law on you back, and a feeling in your gut that the road you're on is about to get a lot rougher..."

If just Star Wars: TIE Fighter and Full Throttle can see the light of day again, I will be a happy man. And so will a hella lotta other people :-)

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Bill Gates wants to control the weather

In his never-ending bid to become just like C. Montgomery Burns, Microsoft founder and world's richest geek Bill Gates has hatched a diabolical plot to destroy hurricanes.

Ummmmmm... Gates and his gang haven't exactly thought this out very well, have they?

For all the damage and death that hurricanes cause, they do accomplish some good. They are a mechanism that keep the oceans from over-heating. And isn't drastic climate change something that the allegedly "enlightened" among us are trying to prevent?

This (literally) crazy scheme, if it actually gets implemented, will no doubt do far more harm than good... and probably in the short term even before the long-range ramifications become apparent.

Hey Bill, I'm one of the few people out here who isn't complaining about Vista and I'm also a die-hard junkie of your Xbox 360. But this is one realm of things that you need to leave well enough alone.

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Murrill McLean FIRED!! Danville cop who murdered dachshund is out of a job!!

Remember Murrill McLean, the Danville Police Department officer who a month ago shot and killed a tiny miniature dachshund that was only barking at him?

Here is "big bad" Murrill McLean...

And here is a photo of the late mini dachshund "Killer" that McLean terminated...

Well, guess what folks?

Murrill McLean has been FIRED from the Danville Police Department by Chief Phillip Broadfoot!

Incidentally, The Knight Shift was the first source that publicly broke the pictures of Murrill McLean hefting his heavy hardware. After the photos of McLean were published here they wound up widely disseminated among the mainstream press (and were also stolen for broadcast use on WGSR by general manager Charles Roark without attribution... and yeah I've got the proof of him visiting this blog to nab 'em too. But then he's a well-known kleptomaniac anyway...).

So, for this time at least, justice is served, and a member of law enforcement who abused the power entrusted him has been punished.

May other cops across America take something from this example.

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Coolest. Google. Doodle. Ever.

I love it when Google does a "doodle" for a special occasion. Check out this one that they've cooked up for today's observance of the birthday of Nikola Tesla!

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"It's so hard to say goodbye..."

Well, Bennie, Eric, Gaetan and Fleur just left a short while ago. For most of the past week I have been host to four friends from Belgium: one that I have known since 1992 and her wonderful lil' family that we have had the pleasure of meeting for the first time.

And already, I'm missing 'em.

It's been a long time since I've known such a fun and action-packed last few days. Eric's incredibly bold hike through the Rockingham County wilderness yesterday, has truly inspired me. Dude only speaks French, and yet he took off on a fifteen-mile trek through woods and landscape that he had never seen before. Lord willing I'm going to get to bring him back just so I can get him to talk to our Boy Scout troop here, 'cuz he set a whole new standard for outdoorsmanship here :-)

And I made sure that Bennie left the recipes for all those exquisitely delicious Belgian dishes that she and her family made last night.

Oh yeah, I also learned something: that the Star Wars movies are perfectly suited for just about every language that you can think of! Not only do they translate well even for dubbing, but it's remarkably easy to follow along even if you don't know the language being spoken :-)

Well, anyhoo... they're on the road again, heading along on their tour of the United States. But Lord willing, we shall meet again and sooner than later ;-)

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