The Amazing Race 8--"Don't Talk to Me Like I was an Animal or Something"

Sorry no post last week...no, not really. My hate for the Weavers burns with the fury of a thousand suns. Which is just what they want.

And your Xbox freezing up represents the Rapture

(Yeah, that was an unannounced posting absence, but I really was on vacation home. Sue me.)

OK, I know every movie needs its damn computer game tie-in now. But I'm a little wierded out by this rule applying to that Christian semi-allegory, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Is playing through the game now symbolic of your journey through sin to redemption? I'd let this go, except they are now prominently advertising going to the game's website to get the cheat code. Now, this seems wrong somehow--wouldn't Aslan and/or Jesus want you to defeat the game honestly? And what could the cheat code represent in the allegory? My suggestion is that it represents selling indulgences. Share your suggestions in the comments.

Colored Soap Bubbles and a New Class of Dyes

Even for those of you not terribly interested in surfactant physics/chemistry, this is a bitchin' Popular Science article on a years-long quest to make colored soap bubbles--ending in a clever set of new temporary chemical dyes.

And you Thought I Was Kidding About That Civ Addict Thing

New Scientist:
"Excessive computer gaming has the hallmarks of addiction"

To be fair, they do seem to have picked their controls right--studying gamers who have not reported social problems from their hobby with those who have let gaming interfere with work in socializing. So this is not some anti-gaming "think of the children" crackpot stuff.

That being said, it's not surprising: lots of things can be addictive without a chemical trigger. I just find it funny the silly "Civanon" ad campaign apparently has a real life counterpart.

Now if you'll excuse me, the Romans are encroaching on my territory, and I have to spend three or four hours kicking their butts across the continent.

Imminent Carousel

If you see any Sandmen coming, give me a heads up, will ya?














Oops. Too late.

The Amazing Race 8--"You Look Ridiculous"

Two hours tonight. Lord, if it is Your will, get rid of the Weavers.

Civic Duty

For whatever odd reason, Virginia has state officer elections the year after the Presidential cycle. So I get to vote tomorrow. I don't think I've voted at a booth since...I'm not sure when. I know it would have been at the pink firehouse in Manistee (I know it's red in that photo, but it used to be this color)...I think during the 1996 Presidential primary. But the question then is why would I have been home from Hope? Winter or Spring break, maybe.

Anyway, since I never got around to voting in Chicago, all my balloting has been absentee since then. Tomorrow I get to walk to the elementary school across the road and stand in line. Should be fun. At least the annoying advertising will end--Republican Jerry Kilgore is trying to paint Democrat Tim Kaine as inhuman or something, when it's Kilgore who was used a grieving widow to call Kaine "soft on the death penalty, as Kaine opposes it on the basis of his Catholic faith. The spot actually has a policeman's widow on the verge of tears, upset that Kaine would be against executing her husband's murderer. (I mean, I'm sympathetic, but this is part of the reason the laws are left to representatives duly elected by the body politic, and not by people necessarily running on emotion.) At any rate, I found it to be a cheap, pandering, disgusting ploy by Kilgore--and while I certainly would have agreed with the Democrat on most issues most of the time, had the roles been flip-flopped I could not have voted for Kaine. I was that turned off by the ad.

Jacques Demers

News came out today that former NHL coach Jacques Demers is illiterate. Wow. That one's hard to believe--he even had some GM duties for a while, meaning he was getting assistants to handle the details of contracts for him. That would sound possible, except for the fact that no one but his wife knew about it. The reason for his illiteracy can be traced to the horrible circumstances of an abusive upbringing. I have to be quite impressed that he seems to be one of the guys who came out of awful circumstances relatively alright. And that you can manage to hide it and apparently no one thought twice about it.

The Amazing Race 8--"I'm Sick of Doing Stuff I Can't Do."

More Godlewski multiple-underwear madness!

CBS really needs to work on their adds; I didn't especially want to find out during football on Sunday that it was in __________. Of course, maybe that's all they've got to sell this season...