So, I'm gonna do something that I can't recall ever doing with this blog before. If you've seen G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, feel free to post a comment with your thoughts about it and whether you recommend seeing it now or waiting to watch it when it comes out on DVD (or even never at all).
If there's enough good word about it, I'll try to catch it this weekend.
A man in Great Britain spent 84 nonstop hours watching EVERY episode of the television sitcom Friends.Steve Misiura, 31, did it in an attempt to win a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. The current record is 72 hours.
Was it worth it?
He said he experienced nausea, stomach cramps and hallucinations while watching the adventures of Ross, Rachel and friends.I want to see my sister try to do this :-P"I love 'Friends,' but this did indeed hurt. At around 72 hours I wanted to die," Misiura said.
"I started hallucinating," he said. "I was saying to my friend, 'What's happening to this room? The wall keeps disappearing.'
"I was also getting quite delirious and not knowing what I was doing, but it helped that every hour I was updating my photo log," he said.
I will note that a number of people have informed me that Robertson apparently made some allusion to me during his What Does the Bible Say? broadcast - or as I call it "The Martinsville Taliban Show" - last Thursday night. Something about how I was waiting to shoot him in the street. Which is a lie and patent nonsense. I will however open fire if he ever shows up at my home and I will recommend that others give him the same dire warning, because who in their right mind wants a dangerous psychopath/pathological liar who stalks women, attempts to disrupt worship services in other congregations and levels baseless accusations of child pornography against churches showing up on their doorstep? Quite a number of folks have told me during recent weeks that they will certainly do likewise if Robertson tries to start trouble at their homes. But I digress. That's not what this post is about...
I happened to catch Robertson's broadcast tonight, and as has become the usual custom some of us had fun with a "running commentary" during the show on Facebook. Among the usual nuttiness, Robertson compared this area to Sodom and Gomorrah, and then boasted that if he were to "take it to the next level" that he would certainly be arrested (to which one poor sap called in to tell Robertson that he needs to raise "an army"). And at the moment Robertson's son Micah - is that really his son? Micah only refers to Johnny Robertson as his "brother" - is saying that Jesus Christ is NOT the same "yesterday, today and forever" (somebody show this kid Hebrews 13:8).
But now folks, I am going to do something that will no doubt positively astound everyone who has followed this blog's chronicling of Johnny Robertson and his evil cult. For the first time ever, and I am absolutely confident in saying this: tonight, I would have to say that Johnny Robertson is ALMOST correct about something!
In fact, were it not for one minor detail, I would even be man enough to admit that Robertson is perfectly in the right.
And yet, even on this, Robertson is still missing the mark bigtime.
Tonight Robertson was ranting against Jesse Duplantis, and I've heard he's been doing this for the past few weeks. A few things I have to comment about here: I do believe that miracles still happen today (something that Robertson claims is impossible). I do not believe that a real miracle is something that any sincere follower of Christ can call on God to deliver according to our own will, however.
And there has never been a miracle of God that has served to glorify anybody but God, and God alone. I've been following up on people like Benny Hinn and Jesse Duplantis for a long time, and in my opinion they are nothing but hucksters and shysters who are not far removed at all from Simon Magus: wanting to purchase with money the power of God.
For calling out Jesse Duplantis for what he obviously is, Robertson would otherwise be - I have to admit - right.
Here's where it all goes utterly, irredeemably wrong for Johnny Robertson and his followers, however. And this is the real point and purpose of this post...
However right they might be about Jesse Duplantis and anyone else in the "name it/claim it" racket, Robertson and his disciples are not motivated by the truth of Christ and earnest love of that truth and others.
Their motivation is, instead... pure hate.
That has been the motive for everything that Robertson and his cult have done.
That is but one reason why God can not and will not bless their efforts. They worship their own understanding instead of worshiping Christ for His sake. And that dark absence of Christ, His truth and His love, bears itself out in Robertson's current pursuit of Jesse Duplantis.
Robertson shouldn't even be obsessed with people like this anyway. For all the airtime that the cult buys and for even calling their shows "What Does the Bible Say?" and "A Word from the Lord", the local "Church of Christ in Name Only" does nothing to preach Christ! They don't even seem to have any real doctrine to call their own! All they possess is "we hate churches that aren't like us" and "the words 'Church of Christ' make us special, damn you to Hell!"
There is a lesson here, I believe, for any who profess to follow Christ. Because Christ and all that He is must be our sole motive for everything that we dare to do in His name.
And hatred, of any kind, has nothing to do with the name of Christ. We don't have that right. It's not given to us.
I learned a long time ago, through hard experience: if anything is done, however pure and noble it might appear or be intended to be, but with the wrong motivation, then the entire work becomes corrupted and impure. And in the end it will self-destruct.
There are people who are seeking Christ for the right reasons. When they see antics like those of Johnny Robertson - and they do realize that his motive is hatred and not love of God - then that not only drives those people away from whatever mad doctrine Robertson and his cult are preaching, but it may well drive a lot of them away from Christ entirely.
(And at this moment Micah Robertson and Mark McMinnis are spouting unbridled hatred about everyone who worships in a Baptist or Methodist church. These guys just keep proving my point.)
This is not what God has called us to do. This is not how we show Christ to the world around us that is dying without Him!
We can be as "right" as we think we can possibly be. But without Christ and His honor and glory being what drives our purpose, without the sincere love that we are called to have in our lives...
"...I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."But then, this is no doubt all for naught. I have also learned through experience that you can never convince a hyper-legalist that we can not merit salvation or the love of Christ on our own. So it is with Robertson and his cult: bound and determined, as Jesus said in Matthew 23:15, to "travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."-- 1st Corinthians 13:1
But hey, can't say that I didn't try :-)
Props to Matt Mittan for finding this!
John Hughes - who wrote or directed and quite often both some of the greatest comedy movies of the past few decades including Home Alone, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, National Lampoon's Vacation, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and a bunch more, has passed away at the age of 59.
Thoughts and prayers going out to the family of this most talented filmmaker who made us laugh and think.
Nestled away on a tree-lined side street in Durham, North Carolina is one of the most rollickin' fun discoveries that I have made in recent months. And if you didn't know that it was there or were searching it out already, you could easily overlook it. But that seems to be such with so many good things in life, like a hole-in-the-wall restaurant or small bookstore.I first heard about Sci-Fi Genre late this past fall, mostly by word-of-mouth over the Internet. At the time I was getting back into playing BattleTech and was looking for someplace nearby that sold more of the miniatures. And more than a few times, Sci-Fi Genre kept coming up as a place that I should check out. So one Saturday afternoon I headed out east on I-40 and started seeking out this joint.
I have to admit: my first glimpse of the place was a little underwhelming. Until the moment that I walked through the front door. In terms of geology, Sci-Fi Genre is like a geode: appearing like one stone among countless others on the outside... but within, a stunning myriad of color and wonder and delight for the eyes and mind!
For pure geekdom, I don't know of any place in the area that possesses it more than Sci-Fi Genre. This hub of the fantastic has EVERYTHING! A huge selection of comic books and graphic novels (both current and back issues) including trade paperbacks. And as you can see from this next photo, they stock an absolutely unconscionably massive supply of games: from children's games on up to practically every conceivable Dungeons & Dragons book and module and dice set, and enough miniature wargaming supplies to lay siege to North Africa a dozen times over. Of course, being a BattleTech player and now a newly-minted Warhammer 40,000 gamer, I've had loads of fun perusing Sci-Fi Genre for new cannon fodder and materiel :-)
The store also has a fairly good-sized gaming area where players can congregate and hash things out like men (and more than a few women... no chauvinists we!).
But personally, for me the biggest thrill of going to Sci-Fi Genre (whenever I get the chance to be around Durham and sometimes I'm determined to find a chance to be there :-P) is oggling the crazy amount of action figures, toys and other geeky memorabilia. The last time I was there I wound up buying a G.I. Joe Hall of Heroes edition Zartan action figure. Why? Mostly for old times sake since Zartan was my favorite figure of the G.I. Joe line back in the Eighties. And also 'cuz I wanted to remember Zartan for the way he used to be, before the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie comes out tomorrow and possibly trashes those good memories ('tis the dismal tide of our times, it seems...).
Of course, Sci-Fi Genre having so many Star Wars action figures couldn't possibly be a reason why I keep coming back to the place, right? ;-)
They also stock action figures related to comic books, video games, movies and TV shows like the new and old Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek (both old-school and the new 2009 relaunch stuff), and a wide assortment of the various Transformers lines.
And if by some cosmically incomprehensible reason they don't have what you're looking for on hand, Sci-Fi Genre's knowledgeable and extremely friendly management and sales staff will be glad to order it for you!
Sci-Fi Genre is located at 3215 Old Chapel Hill Road in Durham, North Carolina. If you're coming in from I-40, it's about ten minutes' drive time from Exit 270 (and sometimes less depending on traffic). Well worth checking out and if you go, you will most certainly be coming back plenty more!
And tell 'em that you read about them on The Knight Shift :-)
Apparently the move is to recoup from more than $200 million in lost revenue for News Corp during the previous quarter, including significantly less profit from The Wall Street Journal, which Murdoch now owns.
This might become the biggest blunder yet in the newspaper industry's series of attempts to regain the ground it's lost to online media. That horse departed the barn about fifteen years ago, and it ain't coming back. The New York Times has already tried charging for access to its site: a plan that promptly went down in flames. Murdoch's scheme will likely meet a similar fate.
That's the speculation from Investor's Business Daily. In recent days it has come to light that two Russian submarines have been found patrolling off the American coast. And now Russia is signing contracts with Cuba to develop the oil and natural gas fields in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico... which have thus far gone untapped by United States-based industry because of legislation stifling such drilling.
It kinda boggles my mind that distant Russia would be going after petroleum reserves just a few hundred miles away from here. Anyway, it's an intriguing enough read to bring to y'all's attention.
For $29.99 you too can own Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds Barbie Collector's Doll! Complete with Fifties-style attire and homicidal feathered fiends.Gotta wonder what's next. Psycho Barbie perhaps? It could come with no clothes and multiple stab wounds!
(Thanks to Lee Shelton for the great find.)
Right now the Intertubes are burning up with heated controversy about this poster appearing around Los Angeles depicting President Barack Obama in Joker-style makeup as Heath Ledger portrayed Batman's nemesis in last year's The Dark Knight.
What particularly makes me chuckle are remarks made by Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable (whatever the hell that is) president Earl Ofari Hutchinson: "Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery. It is mean-spirited and dangerous. We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."
So let me get this straight: it's now considered a dire offense, if not an outright sin, to criticize Obama?
I don't think this is "mean-spirited" at all. Most longtime readers of this blog know that I have used my own meager Photoshop skills to mock public officials - of all partisan stripes, mind ya - whenever I've felt they deserved such. Heck, for awhile this place was practically wall-to-wall Ron Price visual jabs. And it's safe to say that I did more than my share of slamming George W. Bush (Worst President Ever(tm), thus far anyway) when he was in the White House.
But "mean-spirited"? Honestly... and I don't care if people disagree with me on this one... not at all.
I like to think that the stuff I did, and what this "Obama as the Joker" obviously is, stems from a legitimate disagreement and even frustration with the official policies of these people. Sometimes that frustration is more than mere words are enough to convey. And when that happens, the time-honored tradition of protesting via imagery comes into play. So long as it's not completely tasteless - and I don't see how this particular image is that at all - then I don't see what the problem is. Obama wanted to be President of the United States. He and his supporters should have realized fully well what they were getting into, if he desired to be such a high public official.
And besides, it's not like Bush the Lesser received any different treatment from his detractors.
Or maybe the plain truth of the matter is, whether we want to admit it or not, that this really is a country run by a pack of jokers.
If you're one of "Weird Al" Yankovic's many fans you're no doubt enjoying this summer and Al's "Internet Leaks" collection (one new song and video a month through September). So far we've had "Craigslist" aping Jim Morrison's style and then a number of weeks ago "Skipper Dan".
And a short while ago Al released his latest "Internet Leaks" single: "CNR", spoofing the signature sound of the White Stripes. And it's a song about Charles Nelson Reilly, of all people!
Mash here for the "CNR" video (created by JibJab) on YouTube. And on the video's page you can find links to purchase the song and video via iTunes and other online outlets.
Take, f'rinstance, Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled, a 28-minute long film – done in stop-motion animation with LEGO bricks – about the fall of Jericho from the Book of Joshua in the Bible.
I first wrote about this movie a few weeks ago. And also about Anthony and Jessica Rondina: the brother/sister pair who have earned widespread praise and official acclaim for their work on the film. Well, after I posted that I got a really nice e-mail from Jessica Rondina letting me know that they would be hosting a free public screening of Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled at StoneBridge Church, their home church, on the evening of July 31st.
Now, some people might think it's a bit crazy to drive two hours one-way just to see a short film starring little yellow LEGO minifigs. But this kind of thing cries out to me like the irresistible lure of the fabled Sirens. So on Friday afternoon I got in the car and set out to see, as I called it when asking if I was at the right place, "the little LEGO movie".
I spent the two hours driving back trying to think up enough adjectives to describe what I had just witnessed. And after watching the DVD of Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled three more times over the weekend, I still can't produce adequate hyperbole to convey my delight about this film!
But first, a little setup about what went down that night. I was quickly greeted by director Anthony Rondina, who showed me the display of some of the sets and "actors"...
Mark and Wendy Rondina - the producers of Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled and the co-producers of Anthony and Jessica (i.e. their parents) - went all-out to create a true cinematic experience for us, even getting a movie theater-style popcorn machine!
A little after 7 p.m. the show began, with the pastor of StoneBridge Church introducing the Rondina family. Wendy Rondina then briefly discussed how Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled has been making the rounds at film festivals.
Wendy Rondina also talked about how Christian filmmaking is starting to really come into its own, with many people now beginning to realize the talents that they have been given in this powerful medium. And I fully agree with her. In fact, in many ways the film we were about to see epitomizes something I've been saying for years on this blog and elsewhere: that the technology has finally become such that anyone can make an excellent film. The opportunity is definitely there. We just need to make the most of it with what God has given us.
And then the film started...
Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled is an unparalleled achievement not just in Christian filmmaking, but for the art of stop-motion animation. I have seen many LEGO-rendered films over the years but if any one of them has approached the technical complexity, the sheer ambition and all-out comedic genius of Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled, my mind is drawing a blank. This was very much a labor of love on the part of the Rondinas and their colleagues at Gideon Production Group and it's only too obvious that they poured, if I might paraphrase from Mark 12:30, all their soul and all their mind and all their strength into this film. Its production took a year and a half: a testimony to the dedication and passion of the people who made it.
Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled is about the epic conquest of Jericho by the Hebrews following their four decades of wandering in the wilderness. Two things that I feel compelled to note about this film from the getgo. The first is the insane amount of research that Jessica Rondina did in writing the script. Like stuff about Rahab which isn't necessarily in the Bible itself, but is still ancient Jewish tradition. The second thing is that Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled never takes itself too seriously! It is a film all too aware of its nature of being done in LEGO, and that leads to some very clever visual gags inspired by the properties of LEGO bricks (but I ain't spillin' the beans, you'll just have to see for yourself :-). Between that and how Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled pays homage to such pop culture icons as The Matrix and Cops, this might be the most offbeat and fun example of Christian filmmaking that I've yet seen. Indeed: the thought crossed my mind more than once during the screening that if they keep this up, Anthony and Jessica and their crew might well become Christian movies' answer to Monty Python!
For its writing and comedic creativity alone, Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled would shine. But in terms of technical production, the film is utterly mind-blowing: a glorious orchestra of stop-motion, in-camera practical effects and cutting-edge computer imaging. Every frame of the film was stop-motion animated by hand, with no looping involved at all. So far as I know from watching the "behind the scenes" feature there is only one effect that was done in real time (watch for the water cooler). The battle scenes are of a scale and complexity that would make Cecil B. DeMille cringe with despair, but that didn't stop these North Carolina kids from pulling off shots guaranteed to drop jaws all over the place. The ultimate downfall of Jericho should be meticulously studied in film schools, it is that amazing. And then there is the Jordan River: easily the most beautiful stop-motion rendering of moving water that I have had the pleasure of seeing.
So, was Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled worth driving two hours to see? You bet it was! And I sincerely hope and pray that as many people as possible will be able to watch and appreciate this wonderful film. At the present time your best bet is to catch it at a film festival or a similar screening. Keep an eye on the Gideon Production Group's website for any that are scheduled.
And y'all also keep an eye on Anthony and Jessica Rondina and Gideon Production Group. This is a team of family and friends that has been gifted with an unbelievable amount of talent, and I have no doubt that God is going to continue to bless their hard work and enthusiasm.
As you can imagine (and you can see it in the comments of the above-linked article) quite a number of folks are honked-off about this. I would be too. Traffic cameras, be they for speed or at stop-light intersections, are not about enforcing laws for sake of safety. They are, first and foremost, a "revenue enhancing" scheme.
And these cameras are inherently not constitutional. We are supposed to have the right to face our accuser in a court of law, regardless of how small the offense.
How does one do that when the accuser is a robot?
For $8,000 you can purchase the TubeSat Personal Satellite from Interorbital Systems. Then you outfit your satellite however you like, and send it back to Interorbital Systems where it will be scheduled for orbital insertion aboard a NEPTUNE 30 vehicle (set to begin launch next year). Your satellite and 31 others will be hurled into an orbit 192 miles above the surface of the Earth, where it will function for a few weeks before safely re-entering the atmosphere and burning up. I'm thinking this might be a groovy thing for schools to look at: imagine the students of a science class beaming with pride as a satellite they designed is flying overhead and sending back telemetry!Here's the page at Interorbital Systems' website for their TubeSat kit where you can order a satellite of your very own. And they even take PayPal!
And besides: Barack Obama has to be a natural-born citizen of the United States to have even thought about running for President, right?
Right?
Here's what finally caught my notice and began raising red flags in my mind about the issue: that Obama has not only not produced evidence that he was born in Hawaii and thus is a born citizen of the United States - as required to be eligible to be President - but that he adamantly refuses to provide it.
And I don't think that we should be taking the word of any "official" in government that such a thing truly exists. We must be able to see it for ourselves. Journalists should be allowed to examine the original document. It needs to be posted on the Internet (specifically the White House website) as a high-res Adobe Acrobat file.
It's not like there should be any nefarious or incriminating information on a birth certificate. It's already well established that Barack Obama was born. We just need to know where.
I'm not saying that I'm aligning with one side or another on this issue. I am saying though, that in regards to eligibility per the Constitution this matter obligates nothing short of absolute transparency.
That should be insisted upon regardless of who is President or running for the office.
Watch it below folks. This simply must be seen to be believed...
Look on the bright side: those wacky Turks have brought a whole new unprecedented scale to the old game of dominoes! :-P
The biggest problem so far is that it can only run on level terrain. Give it a little time though, and these 'bots will be jogging all over the place.
