January Links!

I have a daily calendar called "Wacky Web Sites." Every day, you get a new wacky web site to peruse. So far, I've gotten through January (obviously). I thought I'd share some of the best from the first 31 days.

JANUARY 1 - Ever want to know how to make a pork martini? No? Well, here you go anyway.
JANUARY 2 - If you wanted to lose weight in 1974, this was the way to go. Apparently. Well, it's from Weight Watchers, so it's gotta be good.
JANUARY 3 - This is actually pretty nifty. It's an actual table of the elements.
JANUARY 6 - If Hillary wins, did you think she would be the first woman president? Think again.
JANUARY 8 - This answers the age old question...what happens if you combine Diet Coke and Mentos?
JANUARY 10 - The traveling can of beans.
JANUARY 14 - If you're tired of the same old boring classic Impressionism, then you should check out the school of Depressionism.
JANUARY 20 - How to make a phone call, thanks to your friendly telephone company.
JANUARY 25 - Move over, Mr. Potato Head. Here comes a wider array of fruits and vegetables to play with, including three political figures!
JANUARY 27 - The cereals of our youth, and the mascots that go with them. The site includes your favorite fictional cereals as well.
JANUARY 28 - Want to write a stellar action plot and to avoid all those pitfalls heroes and villains seem to fall into? Here's some help.
JANUARY 30 - There are just some things you can always expect in the movies. And here they are.

Happy surfing.

Music added

In my further efforts to try and figure this whole bloggin' thing out, I've added a music playlist at the bottom of the page. Please take a listen. Here's a rundown on the current musical lineup:

1. March Fanfare by The Bobs - This fanfare was written by the a capella group The Bobs for a documentary about Andy Kaufman, and was also used in the 1999 movie "Man On The Moon."
2. Doctor Worm by They Might Be Giants - My theme song! Come on!
3. Moondance by Van Morrison - Van the Man is one of my all-time favorite artists, and Moondance is one of my favorite songs.
4. Billie Jean by Chris Cornell - You may recognize Michael Jackson's song in there, but this cover takes it in a different direction.
5. Sing Along by The Blue Man Group - They're more than just Intel salesman, they're quite talented musicians. This song features the vocal talents of Dave Matthews (not blue).
6. Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Greg Laswell - Despite the serious tone of this song, I have to think that Mr. Laswell really cracked himself up arranging it.
7. Over The Rainbow by Eva Cassidy - This has got to be the single most beautiful rendition of this song EVER.
8. Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce - The first time I heard this song was when Rowlf the Dog was singing it on one of my old Muppet records when I was a kid. But I like Croce's original too.
9. Don't Download This Song by "Weird Al" Yankovic - An impassioned plea to stop illegally downloading songs and depriving starving musicians their income. By the way, all these songs in this playlist, as well as being in my own music library, are all legally available on the internet.

Happy listening.

EDIT: 2/28/08 - The music playlist can now be found at this site.

Hamville and Eleven are up and running

Two more blogs have been added the the Bloglishsphere...the Bloglish Dining Guide to Hamville, and the Bloglish Eleven. Hamville is a town whose main claim to fame is the wide array of fantastic restaurants. The first restaurant discussed in the BDG is the Global Village, so go check it out. The Bloglish Eleven is a chance for me to make lists of my favorite things, and each list will have eleven items. You got a taste of this with the 11 Jack Bauer facts a few days ago, and you'll get more by visiting the Bloglish Eleven. Why eleven, and not ten? My first list explains. You can get the links under the link heading, or through my profile. Thanks for visiting!

Lunatic, Demon, or God

I picked up a couple of books on the recommendation of Head Butler a couple of weeks ago. One was The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan, published in 2006. I didn't get very far in it. It begins with a statement that love is never enough, and proceeds to call Jesus a madman, and the predecessor to the modern suicide bomber. I have no idea what Mr. Flanagan's agenda is, whether this is his belief, or a character's belief, or what. Page two, that's as far as I got.

Here's the passage that inspired this post, beginning from page one: "The innocent heart of Jesus could never have enough of human love. He demanded it, as Nietzsche observed, with hardness, with madness, and had to invent hell as punishment for those who withheld their love from him. In the end he created a god who was 'wholly love' in order to excuse the hopelessness and failure of human love. Jesus, who wanted love to such an extent, was clearly a madman, and had no choice when confronted with the failure of love but to seek his own death. In his understanding that love was not enough, in his acceptance of the necessity of the sacrifice of his own life to enable the future of those around him. Jesus is history's first, but not last, example of a suicide bomber."

Flanagan proceeds to draw comparisons to Nietzsche's philosophy and Jesus', but I've seen enough. I'll cite C.S. Lewis now, from his collection of talks entitled Mere Christianity, originally published in compilation form in 1952. This comes from Book 2: What Christians Believe, chapter 3: The Shocking Alternative. "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice: Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

This is reminiscent to me of Joshua's statement in the Bible. The book of Joshua, chapter 24, verses 14-15 (from the New International Version). "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

In Mr. Flanagan's statement that Jesus was clearly a madman, it appears he has made his choice. Mr. Lewis made another choice, as shown in the beginning of chapter 4: The Perfect Penitent. "It seems obvious to me that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend; and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God." This seems to me to be the obvious path as well, but I understand not everyone can accept it. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 18: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

These are just a few of my disjointed thoughts. I really just wanted to put some opposing viewpoints in here. Any other thoughts are welcome. Even if someone wants to defend the rest of Mr. Flanagan's book, since I'm not planning on finishing.

Six posts for the Bloglish Blog! Whoo hoo!

Jack Bauer facts

Tonight, I should be watching the fifth episode of the seventh season of 24. I should be eagerly anticipating what armageddon Jack Bauer and company are working to thwart. Instead, I'm just wondering when this writer's strike will end. Maybe Jack Bauer should be the mediator. Here are eleven facts about Jack Bauer that you may not know.

1. Jack Bauer shaves with a chainsaw.
2. Jack Bauer doesn't kill terrorists. The terrorists actually die from fear of being killed by Jack Bauer.
3. When Jack Bauer requested a cookie in kindergarten, his teacher told him no and laughed. Jack replied by saying, "Look lady, I have crushed three rib cages since recess, rigged the fire alarm to go off right before the spelling test and stolen a total of $7.50 in lunch money. So maybe you should be a little more scared of the situation you're in and just give me a cookie."
   
4. Jack Bauer's cellphone battery died twelve years ago. It has run on pure adrenaline since.
5. Jack Bauer is a vegetarian, not because his dislikes meat, but because he hates vegetables.
6. Jack Bauer once lost his keys. He then spent half an hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.
7. Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead, it just makes him angry.
8. Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he doesn't hit you, it's because he was aiming at a terrorist twelve miles away.
9. Jack Bauer was not addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.
10. If you get 7 stars on your wanted level on Grand Theft Auto, Jack Bauer comes after you. You don't want to get 7 stars.
11. Let's get one thing straight. The only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

Here's to hoping the strike ends soon so Jack can get back to thumping baddies. Thanks for joining me for post #5 on the Bloglish Blog. Tune in again soon for more random thoughts.

(By the way, I didn't write these. I don't know who did, but it wasn't me, I'm just sharing.)

The BBL is underway!

A plug for another project I'm working on - the first series of the Bloglish Baseball League is up for your viewing pleasure. I hope you find it at least a bit interesting...I'm going to see if I can get through a whole season. The link is under the links area, or you can get there through my profile. Enjoy.

NFL Playoffs

I can now officially completely enjoy the NFL Playoffs, now that the Cowboys have gone down in flames. Jerry Jones' face after the loss was priceless. There will be heck to pay...heck, I tell ya.

Might as well give my analysis of this weekend's games...

SEATTLE at GREEN BAY - It's amazing that Favre is still playing this well at age 83 (or is it 38?). He's had retirement rumors for, what, ten years now? He'll never retire. Unless they win the Super Bowl this year.

JACKSONVILLE at NEW ENGLAND - I think people were giving the Jaguars way too much credit this year. The only team that I think could've given New England a run for their money this year was Indianapolis. BUT...

SAN DIEGO at INDIANAPOLIS - The Bolts beat the Colts. I didn't see that coming. Give Norv some credit...no LT, no Rivers, no Gates, and they STILL won.

NEW YORK at DALLAS - Ah yes. What a marvelous end to the game. I'm sick of Tony Romo, I'm sick of Terrell Owens, and I'm sick of Jerry Jones. Please, build your billion dollar stadium and go ahead and secede from the NFL. America's team, my eye.

I'm going to stand by my original pick of Green Bay vs. New England in the Super Bowl, with the Patriots completing the 19-0 season. However, after watching how tough the Giants have been the last few weeks, I wouldn't be surprised to see them be New England's punching bag.

Post #3 is in the books. 3 posts, 3 different topics. What will the next entry bring?

Puerto Rico, My Heart's Devotion

One of the things my wife got me for Christmas was the board game Puerto Rico. If you're not familiar with the game, it's not your standard roll-the-dice-move-around-the-board-try-to-get-to-the-end-first type of game. Each player has certain roles to fill, and each player gets to do something on every turn. It's just a question of who gets to do it first.

I've been trying to get into the board game culture recently, and I discovered Puerto Rico through BoardGame Geek (link to the left). Discovered is probably not the greatest word to use - when I found it, it was already number one on BGG. But, my wife bought it, and we've played it a few times. It's extremely intricate and detailed, but the rules are logical enough to follow once you've gotten around how many there are. I'm looking forward to playing it with a lot of friends.

I've also been getting interested in game design lately, and I'm trying to design a few games at least for personal use (I'm not terribly confident in my commercial appeal). I highly doubt I could create anything like Puerto Rico, but I'm going to start small.

Thanks for reading post #2 on the Bloglish Blog. Until next time, this is Dr. Worm, signing off.

Sweeney Todd and The Demon Ushers of the Movie Theater

Well, here I am. It's bloggin' time.

I went to see Sweeney Todd today. Great film, very faithful to the original production. It's quite violent, which I know has turned a lot of people off, and it's a musical, which has turned more people off. But, let me just say that I don't think any director has been more suitable for a movie adaptation of a musical than Tim Burton with Sweeney Todd. The casting was ideal - Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall all filled their roles wonderfully (great to see Snape and Wormtail as the "bad guys"). Sacha Baron Cohen did well with his role, but it's hard seeing him in an essentially noncomedic performance. The rest of the cast did well too. I missed the Ballad of Sweeney Todd, if only for the line "So what if none of their souls were saved / They went to their maker impeccably shaved." Ah well.

It's my tendency to stay after the movie and watch the credits, or, more accurately, listen to the music. It's typically where the composer gets a chance to shine, bring together themes from the movie, make music that can stand on its own and doesn't only exist to support the action. Of course, in a pop song driven soundtrack, I usually wont stick around, but many times I will. Sometimes you get a treat at the end, with a scene that ties up a loose end or makes a joke. Sometimes that treat isn't worth the wait. Other times, the credits themselves are an event to watch. Particularly, I'm thinking of Lemony Snicket or The Prisoner of Azkaban. Sweeney Todd had neither of these, but I still wanted to hear the music. So, I was a bit upset when the cleaning staff came in, stood in front of the screen, talking, laughing, trying to make me hurry up. Now, there were three of us left in there, and the other two got up and left, but I refused. It is my right to watch all the way through the credits if I want. I paid for my ticket. Don't try to bully me out. Start cleaning elsewhere...it's a big theater, I'm the only one there, do your job quietly and let me enjoy the movie. Am I wrong in this?

Anyway, there's my first post on the Bloglish Blog. More to come, and I promise not to rant every time.