20080416

First:
In light of tax day, I just wanted to send out mad props to Kent Hovind, the national mascot for taxes.

Second:
Get out your fives, dust 'em off, and raise 'em high, because tomorrow (Thursday) is National High Five Day once more.

Third:
Darwinia is an awesome game and you should download and play the free demo. It presents a whole self-contained level taking place generations after the actual game and can really give you a feel for how the game works.

Fourth:
I've been reading the Book of Mormon and it's awesomely bad. Like seriously. This Mormon cat came over to my house the other night and was like: "It's such an amazing book that a man couldn't have written it." My thought was How could the person behind the book actually be considered a writer? This stuff is worse than The Lovely Bones. Silly Mormons. That probably sounds mean to you. But that's only because you haven't read this thing. Maybe I'll devote a post to the thing but here's a taste.

Beyond the clownishly overwrought impersonation of Elizabethan English (written 200 years after Elizabethan English was the pops), the book features expressions such as Hosanna (3 Nephi 11) and I am the Alpha and Omega (3 Nephi 9:18) and Mammon (3 Nephi 13:24). Keep in mind that this book is written (between 600 BC and AD 400) in some fantasy language called Reformed Egyptian (like Quenya but senseless). This particular section of anachronisms occurs after the resurrection of Christ and so terms like Hosanna (a Hebrew term) and Alpha/Omega (Greek letters) would be gibberish to both audience and author (none of whom speak Hebrew or Greek). That their Jesus would come to Native Americans and introduce himself as the Alpha and Omega kinda lends to the picture that their Jesus is kind of dumb in the head.

No really.

20080219

Some of you may recall the link I unveiled between Britney Spears and the Presbyterian tastes. Because that was so popular, I now reveal new joys, transversing from las palabras to iconography. Bon appetit.

20080215

So I'm a day late on this, but here's my happy VD wish for y'all.

conflict of interests

Sorry, I wanted to post something celebratory and exciting in honour of National High Five Day (my favourite annual holiday - perhaps even more favourite than Halloween), but I've been a tad melancholy all afternoon. A friend of mine died on Saturday in Iraq when the Humvee whose turret he was manning rolled in a simple, stupid traffic accident. He was a lance corporal (whatever that means) in the marines and was in the military police, hoping to essay that role into a civilian career. He was young and I was one of his youth group leaders. He was a good kid and I miss him, knowing that I won't see him again in this lifetime.

But just because I'm sad doesn't mean you have to be. *high fives all around*

A Two-Fisted Salute to Martin Luther King Jr.

Because I'm like that, I now present two archival celebrations of the glory that is: King Martin Luther - Reformer.

#1 - A documentary presentation exploring and summarizing the life and accomplishments of said civil hero:

#2 - a tribute to the 20th century folk hero carved in graven pumpkin flesh:

Cast Your Pearls before Harbours

Even as the seventh of December is yearly marked as Pearl Harbour Day and is celebrated by much hooplah, drinking, and revelled abandonment, the day is also marked by a far more solemn anniversary. Without becoming too somber in my elocution here, it will suffice to say that it has been fifteen years since I cut my hair, on 7 December 1992.

1989-1992
R.I.P.

The Good, the Bad, and the Xmas

My Top 5 Christmas Songs by Popular Performers

(in no order beyond alphabetical)

"A Holiday Song (Happy Holidays)" - Starflyer 59

"Christmas Time is Here" - Vince Guaraldi Trio

"It's Cold Outside" - Brian Setzer Orchestra

"Santa Baby" - Eartha Kitt

"White Christmas" - Bing Crosby

My Top 5 Worst Christmas Songs Ever

(in no order beyond alphabetical)

"Little Drummer Boy" - performed by anyone

"Little Drummer Boy" - performed by anyone

"Little Drummer Boy" - performed by anyone

"Little Drummer Boy" - performed by anyone

"Little Drummer Boy" - performed by anyone

That little drumming hooligan. Why is it that one of the worst Christmas songs ever penned plays several times an hour in any tune-playing restaurant you go to? How did such a stilted, painfully composed march ever become so joyously greeted that it found a home on EVERY Christmas album ever produced (thereby ensuring that every Christmas album has at least one wholly unlistenable track on it)? How do things like this happen? Yet another argument, I suppose, against postmillennialism.

"What's that Mr. North? You have an argument to forward on the behalf of your eschatalogy? No, please. no need to get up. No need to actually present your argument. For you see, it will do you no good. Allow me to introduce you to the bane of your ideology: Mr. Little Drummer Boy. Oh, look what you did Mr. Little Drummer Boy. You just made Mr. North weep."

Pumpkin Carving 2006

I hate to knock down the Christ-figures post a notch (especially as its finally getting some comments), but hard work must not go unrewarded and since I just spent three hours carving, sliced open my left thumb, and inflamed the other (my right thumb is the one that houses the tendon that I so lovingly tore nearly two months ago playing frisbee - and it's now about 15% larger than my left thumb). And so, in all it's pumpkin glory, this Halloween's* carvation!

[UPDATE: I noticed my pumpkin art section was a touch out of date, so I fixed it up and you can check them out here]

*note: I still have another pumpkin for carving this year, but in light of how badly it hurts the thumb on my drawing hand, I'll probably hold off for Thanksgiving. Pax out, y'all.