Epic Baby

I am always a sucker for a good you-tube baby video:
This baby will have the greatness of the best ninja ever!

Accents to smooth everything over

Seeing as how the last vids posted were of a flammable nature, I thought this would be a wonderful change of pace.

Henry Higgins himself might have a hard time keeping up with Amy Walker... from genius-town.

Two Big Obama-Pastor You-Tubes

Best thing I can do is let them speak for themselves. I will process what I think about them and might write some commentary about it later.

I did not go looking for these posts, they are headliners on Google Videos popular videos feed.

Automatic Detective

For those of you who are following this gentleman with me I know you will be excite to see this, his next published novel. Amazon has it for $10, but you could pay more for it at your local retailer if you want.

Mack Megaton drives a cab in the mutant-infested technotopia of Empire City. It's a step down for a massive killing machine created for world domination, but kindhearted unapologeticMegaton has bucked his programming, and when his secretive neighbors, the Bleakers, go missing, he begins a search. Young Holt Bleaker has something in his mutant blood that makes him valuable to aliens poised to invade Empire City, and only a giant robot—a robot like Mack Megaton—can break him out of the fortress where he's held prisoner. Soon plans go awry when sinister psychic Grey subverts Megaton's programming, but he finds an unlikely ally in Lucia Napier, an outrageously beautiful and talented media star and roboticist. Eccentric characters, all of whom are clever twists on stereotypes, populate a smart, rocket-fast read with a clever, twisty plot that comes to a satisfying conclusion.

That's the synopsis and I can tell you, it's already better than it sounds. Martinez delivers on his classic wit and humor, this one is technical in nature, hence robots, and he is brilliant in the way he pulls of android humor. The writing is more tight than Gil's All Fright but there is still the silliness and ingenuity that makes Martinez stand apart. Some of the elements he has created for this novel are really clever and the ones he borrows he does so with unapologetic cliches. It contains some expertly wrought tributes/assemblages of several genres; detective, sci-fi, noir.

Enjoy.

Still Awesome

So great, so many memories, still awesome after all these years:



/me remembers the sacLANd days

A responder in serious kind - aka genius

Let this man stand forth to show his greatness: public schools not withstanding.

Please be sure to watch 3yrs old Star wars review below for this to make any sense

Faulkner

Greeting a Monday morning with an excellent and harrowing Faulkner quotation, from As I Lay Dying

How do our lives ravel out into the no-wind, no-sound, the weary gestures wearily recapitulant: echoes of old compulsions with no-hand on no-strings: in sunset we fall into furious attitudes, dead gestures of dolls.

207

Identity

I tend to have strong beliefs about things; religion, politics, logic, art, pop culture. And you know, I have come to learn that this should not be the case. There, I said it, actually got it out onto the keyboard and into this dialog box despite the need for my mind to work out the best of all possible ways to say it. It's kept me from a lot of writing, that personality flaw, should see some progress as I work away from it. But back to my opinionated nature, no better way to put that. Nothing, it seems, is the source of more of my problems that this one trait. Which is why it should be at the forefront of my striving to become a better person.

Hold one moment while I upload this week's sermon: If you would like to check it out, I highly recommend it, Tom Rupp was our special speaker and he did a marvelous job, really spoke to my heart, and is perhaps part of the force behind this reevaluation. [brb] Bridge Community Church

Where to find Tom's talk

While that's uploading... I don't mean to make light of this with that little aside and I am not trying to be cavalier about this.
But it seems true that stress at work, between personnel, at home, on the road, in discussions, on topics of taste and preference, in games, well, I think the picture begins to solidify, should be a focus of my change.

What do I know anyway. I will put that down right here and make it a part of my life pattern for the time being, just short of tattooing it to my wrist. Do I know that much about movies, books, or even politics? Do I know that much about debates, arguments, discussion topics, or theories thereof? I need to start answering NO.

I know some things about some stuff, but who cares. I am distancing myself so much from the people I care about and for what?! Something I think I might know something about... not the most definitive statement ever made to be sure.

What I need to do is start valuing the moments over the knowledge, the relationships over my interpretations, the joy of existing over what other people insist on doing with their lives and to other people. Even to ME. What should I care if some guy somewhere, in a car, store, or whatever, doesn't care a wit about me, his surroundings, the people that work at a place, or the people on the road with them, who should care? The authorities. They get paid to and are good at what they do. The managers. They want to allow reckless, disgusting, embarrassing behavior in their store, it's their store.

The liberation in acknowledging "what do I know?" can only be rivaled by the freedom Christ gives me to be me. I will be no less me by changing this way that I live, Christ will be with me, even MORE with me because "ME" will get in the way less of my expression of love for others. I think ultimately that was one of my fears, but if this "altered yet still me" me gets along with others better, enjoys work (employees and customers) to its fullest, rides home everyday thinking more about the blessings of breath than about the lanes that are changed, then how wonderful that me might someday be.

And although those opinions have been part of my identity, they won't be there to get in the way of my happiness and joy for life.

Napa Visit

 

A beautiful vision of Napa Valley. I took a field trip there on Thursday and there was much to be seen. I should be able to fit one more picture on here, although I am not sure I have ever tried it. I was blessed with an excellent, gorgeous day, and let me tell you, the Napa Valley Visitors Center really sets you up for a great day. Although a bit hard to find from the freeway, it is worth the search; maps, coupons, and a list of must sees, all worth the price of admission, free. We first stopped by the V. Sattuoi winery, had sandwiches and homegrown olives. Next we took a ride over to the Beringer winery, took an excellent tour through their caves and learned a lot about their history. After that we swung around to the other side of the valley and went by the Mumm Napa winery, famous for their champagne. They had a wonderful piece of land, sure it was farther than we could even see, and nice shop, and they were even host to a Ansel Adams photographic art gallery. Among the gallery were also windows into various parts of their factory floor which was very cool to see. One room boasts about 1,100,000 bottles in it alone and there were other rooms. One can't help but think of the value of that which rested inside.

I will have to include some more pictures at a later point. This on here is from the V.Sattoui picnic area, an old wine press outside what is now their storage cellars.