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As of tonight, this man has no more excuse for not updating his blog.
Back in May I wrote about my quarter-century long friendship with Chad Austin. Two friends see a lot of things in that time. Lots of good times, and bad. You can't avoid the heartbreak... but then there are the moments when you get to rejoice, too. Those rich, beautiful slivers of time that make you glad to be alive and remind you that there is a God who rewards virtue and patience.
Chad Austin is one of the most virtuous people that I have ever known. He has also been one of the most patient. He's always known what it means for him to be happy, and I always knew that he would never settle for second best.
Tonight, he's been rewarded in spades.
As not only his friend but also a brother, it is my supreme honor to be the first to break the news to the world that this evening we get to toast one of those happy moments.
A very short while ago, in Virginia Beach where they ran in the 2008 Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon earlier today, Chad proposed to his girlfriend Koren Borchers.
And Koren said "Of course!"
(I've been in the loop for a few days now, so I already had this graphic ready to roll :-)
Word has reached The Knight Shift that Chad popped the question in real style. He took Koren out to dinner, then they went on a romantic walk along the beach. And that's where Chad, on Koren's birthday, dropped to one knee and asked her to be his bride, and she agreed to his suggestion that maybe it's time they start running as one instead of merely as two.
Y'all have no idea how long I've been waiting to make this post. On the list of things that I've wanted to most write about on this blog, Chad and Koren getting engaged easily comes in at #2 (and #1 hasn't happened... yet). And I've been hoping and praying for much longer than that, for literally years, that I'd get to see this day happen for a friend I've known for almost my entire life.
Chad and Koren, you guys have already been a beautiful couple. And you are going to make a wonderful team of husband and wife. May God bless you today, and all the days that are yet to come.
Dunno how else to close this 'cept to say except, again: CONGRATULATIONS! :-)
Norm Fields, who has hosted one of the three weekly live television broadcasts of the self-professed "Church of Christ" cult in the Reidsville, Martinsville and Danville area of north-central North Carolina and southern Virginia, has been kicked off the air by cult leader Johnny Robertson, The Knight Shift has learned.
Fields, who came to this area from Georgia in 2007 and has been working at the Danville Church of Christ, has been doing the Bible Q&A broadcast every Thursday night at 10 p.m. on WGSR Star 39, broadcasting from Reidsville, North Carolina. For the past several weeks Fields has been conspicuously absent. This past week there was a two-hour broadcast of A Word from the Lord at 9 p.m. to fill in the hour that Fields has usually hosted. That broadcast featured a "debate" between James Oldfield of the Reidsville Church of Christ and Larry Surber of Stoneville in regard to science versus religion.
The Knight Shift can now report that Fields "won't be coming back" and that Johnny Robertson has made this clear to WGSR general manager Charles Roark. The reason? Fields wasn't "working out", which was explained that Fields was not combative and aggressive enough for Robertson and Oldfield. Indeed, of the three "Church of Christ preachers" broadcasting on WGSR it should be noted that so far as is known, Norm Fields was the only one who did not ambush any other area churches or pastors with a hidden camera during worship services or at any other time. Many people have regarded Fields as the "more sensible" of the three preachers. A number of sources have been reporting to me in the past few months that there was some friction between Robertson and Fields and that Robertson "did not like Fields at all", that Robertson thought of Fields as a "wimp" for not "taking on the denominations hard enough".
The "Church of Christ" cult - which is not associated in any way with the mainstream Churches of Christ - prides itself on "unity" and maintains that being one church is something that Jesus not only taught but demanded. Robertson and Oldfield are known throughout the area for broadcasting their message that unless a person is a member of their "Church of Christ" that a person is damned to go to Hell, with zero tolerance allowed for dissent. It now looks at this hour that Fields, the preacher of the Danville Church of Christ, is indeed dissident enough for Johnny DeVere Robertson - widely known as the leader of the cult - to have him drummed from the airwaves.
There is no word yet on how Fields's position with the Danville Church of Christ is affected.
More information as it becomes available.
(Actually I'm sitting on a whole mountain of more information about Johnny Robertson and his cult, that I haven't divulged yet. If he's going to declare during his Sunday morning "church service" and on broadcast television that I'm his "worst enemy", I might as well act the part, yes?)
I'll admit, it's so ironic you have to wonder if there's some karma at work here.
A few weeks ago one of James Dobson's cronies made a video and posted it on the Focus on the Family website. In the clip Stuart Shepard, who does a lot of multimedia production for the "ministry", asks Christians to pray for "abundant rain, torrential rain... flood-advisory rain" in the Denver area on the night of Barack Obama's open-air acceptance speech at the Democrat National Convention.
Here's Shepard's video, which he claimed was done for humor (but I can't find anything funny about it at all)...
As anyone who caught his speech will know, Obama enjoyed terrific weather for his address, which aired to what some are saying is one of the record highs for political speeches before a televised audience.
But if Shepard's cry to Heaven was echoed by his fellow evangelicals, they're about to get an answer. Maybe not just the way they'd wanted. With Hurricane Gustav now threatening to wreck more havoc on New Orleans than Katrina did (if that's even conceivable) in 2005, the Republicans are being ominously overshadowed for their own convention by the forces of nature. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have canceled plans to speak there (one Republican friend has told me that a lot in his party are considering this to be a good thing) and now there's mention that John McCain himself may not show up, instead delivering his acceptance via satellite.
(Incidentally, McCain and Sarah Palin have already announced that they're going to be visiting the area that's being threatened by Gustav. Obama is supposedly going there too. I wish they would all steer clear of the place. Those people have enough to worry about right now than to also have some politicians coming in for a photo op, with all the logistics of personnel and security that it entails.)
I've no doubt that many professing evangelicals took Shepard at his word and prayed for rain on the Democrats: a few even told me that they did. What then do we make of Gustav and now Hanna, which one Democrat official and filmmaker Michael Moore are now gloating are proof that God favors the Democrats?
They're wrong. All of them. "Conservative Christians" like Stuart Shepard and "liberal Democrats" like Michael Moore, they are equally in grave error so far as God and politics goes.
God is no more a Republican than He is a Democrat. Things like temporal politics don't interest Him. Yes, we are told many times in scripture that He causes nations to rise and then collapse, and that He brings up rulers and brings them down again. But nowhere are we told that He ever has grace for one political faction and contempt for another concerning their vying for control of a country.
Here's how it is, folks: God doesn't answer our prayers for "divine intervention" against our political enemies. Especially not here in America. And it does no good to pray regarding the outcome of an election, either. Praying about an election violates everything that we know about how God grants us free will in whether or not we choose to follow Him. He can't make us want to seek after Him: we have to want that on our own. So how can He ever make someone else's mind be swayed to our own political proclivity?
Or maybe He does answer those prayers, just as He's now apparently answering the one that many Christians had for rain during a political convention. I am now hearing many among the evangelicals declare that Sarah Palin is a "gift from God". But if that is the case, then the same people had better be prepared to accept that all the damage that George W. Bush has done to this country is also God's will, since they were just as quick to claim that Bush was "anointed", and they darned well were praying for him to get a second term.
Perhaps these same Christians would do better to heed the words of Proverbs 3:5, where we are taught to "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Our ways are not His ways, and we tempt disaster to suggest that they are.
And so far as the weather is concerned...
"...for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."
-- Matthew 5:45
America is in a lot of trouble, and it's time for the Christians of this land to own up to their responsibility in the mess. We have assumed wisdom, when we should have come to God broken and willing to admit that we don't have wisdom at all on our own. We have sinned in our pride, and if Gustav and now Hanna might be the result of appealing to Heaven, I cannot but now believe that it is because God is trying to humble this nation. If we are smart, we will recognize that now is not the time to turn that opportunity into an occasion for arrogance.
You guys are definitely in this blogger's thoughts and prayers this weekend.
I'm now hearing that Hurricane Gustav has gone from a tropical storm all the way to a Category 4 within the space of the past 12 hours. That in the past 3 hours alone the central pressure has dropped 9 millibars and Gustav still hasn't hit the warmer Gulf waters yet.
The projected tracks also have the storm going west of New Orleans. If the east side of the storm gets too close, the town which is still cleaning up after Katrina three years ago will likely get hit even worse this time around.
Lord willing, this thing will fizzle-out into a relatively weak system (it's happened before). Three years ago I went nuts chronicling Katrina on this blog, and truth be known I'm still a bit burned-out by the experience. It's not something that I want to have to do again. But if it does hit, hopefully there will have been much that was learned from the mistakes of Katrina that will make Gustav a much less traumatic event.
Speaking of Katrina, here's a photo that I found a few days ago...
This is the storm surge itself of Hurricane Katrina, as it came ashore near New Orleans. I can't recall anyone else photographing the surge of any hurricane in such up-close detail. That is pretty much a mountain of water dozens of feet high as it's crashing down onto the shore. For this and other pictures in the series click here.
Two months after the passing of Uga VI, the world today got its first look at his son Uga VII (official name "Loran's Best"), who tomorrow will make his public debut as the latest in the University of Georgia's proud line of mascots as the school hosts its season opener against Georgia Southern.
EDIT 11:27 p.m. EST: So what happens when Sonny Seiler and his family are faced with the task of producing a new mascot? The Fayette Daily News asked the man himself about what it takes to breed the most famous college sports mascot in the world. I'm still laughing about his comment on sending up red and black smoke to signal Georgia fans that they have a new Uga :-P
I watched some of Barack Obama's speech last night. I'm not voting for him. But I could see where a lot of people would vote for him based on charisma and presence.
(Parse that as you will...)
I'm not voting for John McCain either. And so far I haven't found anyone jazzed about him enough to cast their ballot in his favor. Any man who by all accounts left his wife just so he could have a younger woman, is not a man that I can trust to be President of the United States under any circumstance.
In a sane world, Sarah Palin would be running for President, and I would vote for her regardless of what party she's coming from. That's still not enough to entice me to ever vote for McCain though, now that she's set to be his running mate. But I've been following her for awhile now and she seems to be the kind of lady who's on my wavelength so far as good clean outrageous behavior goes: the gal shoots moose and makes burgers out of 'em... that's awesome!
In the end it will not matter who is elected President, I hate to say. There is simply too much rot at work in the timbers and one man - or one woman - can not stave off what history has demonstrated is the inevitable consequence of too much bureaucracy, too much extension, too much empire, and too little enlightenment.
I've known Dave Lowe for a number of years now, ever since he used to submit his wicked funny cartoons to TheForce.net Humor. Dave passed along his latest handiwork...
Lord only knows how many Star Wars fans will be enjoying that one :-)
And after going to his site I couldn't resist drawing y'all's attention to this one as well...
Mash down here to enjoy more of Dave's hilarious vision!
A major American bank is not just teetering perilously close to failing, "it's unavoidable", a source has told The Knight Shift.
Details about the possible imminent failure first came this way a little over two weeks ago, and I've been doing a lot of calling and checking around since then. The individual who first told me has been a longtime (over ten years) source whose information has previously turned out to be exceptionally reliable. And all the evidence that I've been gathering over the past few weeks jibes bigtime bad with what the source has been saying.
For various reasons I'm not able to divulge the name of the bank. But this blog can report the following details:
- The bank in question is one of the top five financial institutions in the United States.
- The bank has posted a high profit loss but this is "not even close" to how much money it has actually lost, according to others in addition to the original source.
- The biggest contributing factor to the bank's dwindling financial security has been "fast credit for every Tom Dick and Harry demanding a mortgage". This has been especially severe in the southwestern portion of the United States, where this bank has apparently loaned too much to people with little or even no collateral at all. And apparently this bank has thrived on business with people who weren't even supposed to be doing business in this country at all: parse that as you will.
- Some branches of this bank have already told customers that it might be days or even months before they can access their funds. You read that right. I've spoken with enough customers and one branch manager who confirmed this to be able report it as factual information.
- FDIC "could never" fully compensate depositors if/when this bank goes down. Source says that it will be like IndyMac but "much worse".
I debated long and hard about whether or not to post even this much information. In the end I decided that it would be better to publish what I can talk about now, so that there'd never be the nagging in my brain that I didn't do something about this.
There's not much else to say at the moment other than this: it seems a trend lately that bank failures are only reported on late Friday afternoons or early evenings, after the markets have closed for the weekend. I'd wager a dollar (however much that's actually worth these days) that if/when the institution under discussion takes a dive, that'll be when you first hear solid word about it.
I'll try to write more about this as it becomes available.
Something I came up with after the idea hit me on the drive back from Atlanta last week.
It could also be argued that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without really firing a single shot, or inflicting any fatalities. He defeated the Soviet Union in the only way that it could be beaten: by forcing it to bankrupt itself to death.
Not even twenty years later, his legacy is becoming undone before our very eyes. And millions of people who have never had to know such things may soon be hearing quite a bit about bomb shelters and air raid sirens.
I used to have fun customizing LEGO minifigs. Most of them didn't turn out so well (especially the lineup of Cenobites from the Hellraiser movies that I attempted). I still have the Darth Sidious one that I made not long after Star Wars Episode I came out: it's in storage somewhere but it looks pretty cool, right down to that scowl on the part of his face that's visible.
None of my customs were anything as good as this guy's work, which includes minifigs based on historical figures such as the Beatles, Fidel Castro and Christa McAuliffe (shown at left). Those with a religious inclination should check out The Brick Testament: Brendan Powell Smith's popular effort at rendering the entire Bible in LEGO (I can't wait to see how he depicts the Book of Revelation). People who prefer their LEGO creations to be more action-oriented need to stop by BrickArms: a fella who makes highly detailed weaponry for LEGO minifigs, including AK-47s and Uzi submachine guns.
And as if LEGO minifigs were not versatile enough, there are the amazing short films (and not a few longer ones) that employ them, such as this now-classic version of the "Camelot" scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail...
What more can be said but: Happy Birthday, LEGO Minifig! May you see many more years of being cannibalized for parts and stopping up vacuum cleaners :-P
Older women, I have long thought, are potentially much more beautiful than younger women. As proof, I offer this recent photograph of Eartha Kitt (who for many years I have harbored a very deep admiration for):
What an amazing performer. She was the best girl to ever play Catwoman in any medium. And Miss Kitt is not only beautiful and a talented singer and actress, she's smart, too. I'll never forget hearing her give the most articulate reason that anyone made for why Bill Clinton should have been impeached: because the White House belongs to the American people, not to the President who's temporarily living there.
So now you know one of my more peculiar secrets: I think Eartha Kitt, now 81 years young, ranks high among the hottest and loveliest women in recorded history.
Now look at this photo that was taken over the weekend of Madonna, who turned 50 last week and just kicked-off her new "Sticky and Sweet" concert tour...
That is not hot. That is not beautiful. That is not sexy. Not at any age, for what it's worth.
That is just... what the Hell was Madonna thinking?!?
You know, getting older isn't a bad thing at all, even for a performance artist. The ones who have enjoyed consistently successful careers over time, they've learned how to grow and re-define themselves. David Bowie readily comes to mind. So does Bob Dylan. And Jon Bon Jovi. Trying to stay in one place in an attempt to recapture lightning in a bottle doesn't work. And it's not really fair to the fans either, who should expect new and fresh material from a talented artist, whenever that artist produces something.
Madonna has had a great career for well over twenty years now. But she needs to learn to adapt and grow, and move away from whatever it is that she was in the Eighties. She can do it. She has to do it, if she expects to sell her music to a new generation of fans.
It was reported earlier this week that officials here in Rockingham County, North Carolina have begun looking at the county landfill off N.C. 704 as a rich source of high-quality methane. The plan is to harvest the gas and use it for artistic uses - such as blacksmithing - and even for commercial purposes... such as "creating electricity". All of this is supposed to help boost the local economy.
Maybe we should turn control of Rockingham County over to this guy. He seems experienced...
"Who run Bartertown?"
"MASTER BLASTER RUNS BARTERTOWN!"
Come to think of it, the way things are going lately it might not be a bad time to pop those Mad Max movies in the DVD player. Might be a good brush-up for how lousy things are getting.
I still can't believe they're doing this with the landfill though. I mean, with all the cows in Rockingham County, that seems to be a more cost-effective source of retrievable methane, if they're hellbent on using the stuff.
Through a series of events that I don't care to discuss, it has come to my attention that this week has the dubious distinction of being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of Yor: The Hunter from the Future, claimed by many to be the most schizo and ridiculous movie ever made...
Release on August 19th, 1983 and starring Reb Brown as Yor ("My what?" is what everyone around him must ask when they hear his name), Yor: The Hunter from the Future is about a big(?) blond guy who runs around a seemingly prehistoric landscape, killing things (mostly dinosaurs). He hooks up with this chick named Kala and her "protector" Pag. Yor and Pag have to go rescue Kala from some blue-skinned cavemen. Then they wind up at a beach village that is blown up real good courtesy of a "damn talking box". And then Yor and crew wind up on a remote island run by the Overlord and his Darth Vader-looking robots. Overlord is glad that Yor has come because he needs Yor's sperm to create a better breed of androids. The movie ends with a spaceship flying away.
"Drinking the blood of our enemies gives us strength!"
"Urgh... I prefer to stay weak then!"
"We will need a lot more hemp before we're through.""I am the Overlord, ruler of my people and yours too. You are completely in my power."
And then there are the special effects. It's hard to miss the action figures used in the scene where Yor and Kala are swinging over the atomic pile. But that's nothing compared to this, possibly the greatest scene in a hundred years of movie history. It's the part where Yor kills a giant bat, then uses its carcass as a hang-glider to rescue the girl...
Don't you wish you had your own theme song that played whenever you did something, like driving out of your garage or using the bathroom?
While on the road in Georgia yesterday during a bit of a business trip, I found this little guy...
Lisa spotted it in the University of Georgia catalog the other day and fell in love with it immediately. So I was able to surprise her with it when I got back last night :-)
It's actually from the "Sports Spuds" lineup, meaning it's about half the size of a standard Mr. Potato Head. But in that classic red and big "G" logo, this is sure to please any fan of Bulldogs football! Should be able to find it in a lot of places around Athens and Atlanta but if you're a Georgia alum (or just crazy about UGA) living elsewhere, you can order it from the current school catalog and if you don't have that, here's where you can buy it from Amazon!
Y'all wouldn't believe how crazy the past few days have been. And it's gonna get crazier still! Lord willing, I'll be able to report on it soon.
YES I KNOW! I still haven't done that The Dark Knight review! But it hasn't been for lack of trying. If I'm having this much trouble putting my thoughts together about this movie, I hate to think about what's gonna happen when Watchmen comes out in about six months.
Last night at Rockingham Community College the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County held its season-ending banquet, followed by the 2007-2008 Golden Guild Awards. That's the annual ceremony that honors those who volunteered during the previous season. The various award winners are chosen based on votes cast by the cast and crew of the shows.
In addition to the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, Best Production etc., there is what is called the Spirit Award. There's one given for each show during a season's run. I was told that it goes to the person who "best exemplifies enthusiasm for a show".
The last Spirit Award for the 2007-2008 Golden Guild Awards was the one for Children of Eden.
And I'm still reeling in shock after the envelope was opened and hearing "Chris Knight" announced as the winner!
I barely remember staggering on stage, and the first words out of my mouth at the podium were "Holy cow!" I quickly stammered how I'd first seen Children of Eden performed at Elon in 1998, and how I fell in love with the show and for almost ten years wanted to be part of it. How I told the producers at the audition that I knew that I couldn't sing and that I get booed off stage every time that I play Karaoke Revolution. That I just wanted to be part of this even if it meant working backstage and how thankful I was that they let me have this opportunity. I thanked my wife Lisa for supporting me, thanked God for letting me do this, thanked Mom and Dad and that I was glad that they got to come see me perform. And I said that even though he was no longer with us, I knew he was there in spirit and I thanked Gene Saunders, my drama teacher in high school and the founder of the Theatre Guild, 'cuz I definitely wanted to give this my best shot to honor his memory. And I vaguely remember getting a standing ovation 'cuz by that point, folks, I was seriously holding back the tears.
Getting to be in Children of Eden was not only the fulfillment of a dream, it became one of the greatest experiences of my life. And the best part of that was getting to know so many wonderful people. Making not just new friends, but becoming part of a terrific family: people who know and love and stand beside each other through thick and thin. To receive the Spirit Award for Children of Eden from these people... well, that has to rank right up there with Eagle Scout and marrying Lisa for lifetime achievement in my book :-)
Here I am with the Spirit Award for Children of Eden...
Seth and Seth's Wife reunited! Me and Tish Owens, who also racked-up Golden Guild Awards for Children of Eden and Steel Magnolias...
And here's most of the people who received an award at this year's ceremony (including Pete Barr, the director of Children of Eden which won for Best Production)...
I'll throw up the complete list of who won what as soon as I can get hold of the official roster of recipients.
Thanks to Tish Owens for providing a lot of these pics.
And thanks to the cast and crew of Children of Eden for giving me this honor. 'Twould be an understatement to say that I've been immensely humbled by this.
By the way, after the Golden Guild Awards last night, Lisa and I were driving back and we decided to stop by Mom and Dad's first to show the Spirit Award to them. I couldn't think of a better song to celebrate with than to crank up "Ain't It Good?" from the Children of Eden soundtrack on my iPod over the car stereo system.
