Congratulations to Street Sense, a long-time reader of my blog on his win at the Kentucky Derby (I can wish, can’t I?  Although really, if a horse was one of my reader’s, I’d be excited!).

Letter to the Editor from past SVC President  I’m a little confused, as I thought all the presidents before Will were monks, but maybe I’m wrong.  Either way, a good read.  There is also an article floating out there from some of the faculty, which I was glad to see, it’s nice to hear that some spoke out.

I am extremely disappointed however with SVC at the moment.  Ignoring the entire situation with Bush (which, more and more students I talk to have become so angry with Towey for putting them through all this, including the fact that they don’t even get the chance to take a photo with the President, which at least would have made things a little better in my mind, and they are realizing just how much the day is Bush-centric instead of senior-centric), let’s talk about art for a moment.  I’m all for art.  And there is a lot of art being displayed on campus now, more than before.  It really is nice to see a lot of work from the students as well, I really enjoy it.  However, there is one piece that is hung on second floor Alfred.  It’s a huge (like really, the canvas and frame are huge) painting from the 18th century, a gift from Ludwig of Bavaria, the man (who was an Archduke if memory serves, or maybe that is just his modern-day descendant) who gave the money to Boniface Wimmer to create Saint Vincent.  And in this classical masterpiece, a woman’s nipple is showing.  Well, heaven forbid we let that masterpiece remain…it was painted over, very poorly I might add!  How insane is it that the school is now censoring art from it’s own permanent collection?!

On a better note, parents are actually doing their job, imagine that.  Wow, nice to see parents taking an interest in their children’s lives and the media they are exposed to.  Good job parents!

A few comments about Lost that I haven’t had an option to add here before.  Two weeks ago, the cable went out in all of Monroeville with about five minutes to spare.  We were able to catch the end of the episode through static, but it was very frustrating.

On the subject of TV, that new show, ‘National Bingo Night,’ looks a bit ridiculous…I want to check it out (also because it probably won’t last long).

Also about Lost, the music they are using for the promo spots was used in The Two Towers trailer, but never released on a soundtrack…anyone know what it is?

Also speaking of music, apparently it’s illegal to post lyrics to songs online.  However, Yahoo’s music service, Launch, has entered into an agreement with the music companies to host lyrics for them legally.  Which will make it possible to actually search for lyrics without getting tons of pop-ups and spyware for once!

I went out and saw Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters.  It wasn’t bad, it was very funny, but only if you like the humor of ATHF.  I wouldn’t see it again, but I’m glad I went.  The opening to it was great, where they tell you to turn off your cell phones and such, I hope other movies do something similar.

My Wii made a funny error the other day in the news channel.  It listed an item from Bristol, Indiana as Bristol, England.  Ok, so maybe not hilarious, I still laughed a little bit.

I think that’s it for now, big update, I know.  Another one coming soon, and it will include pictures!

Bigger update coming soon, I wanted to see if I could embed that first though.
   

Many thanks to my friend Sarah and her away message for suppling today’s title.

I have a lot of things to talk about, so chances are some of them will have to spill over to another entry.  Kathy was just asking if anyone had a copy of the book Blink which she could borrow.  I happened to come across an article about the Nintendo Wii and The Tipping Point.  The Tipping Point is the predecessor to Blink, it discusses how larger events and shifts in thinking and paradigm can be explained through seemingly smaller events and details such as the decline of a neighborhood into poverty and crime from a few broken windows.  The book is a very good read (I’ve actually been trying to find Blink as well, although admittedly I have other things to read at the moment) and suggest the book, as well as the article (which is a bit short, but still interesting).

Also mentioning The Tipping Point is an article about online peer pressure and social networking sites.  Another very good read.

The Ponderosa in Miracle Mile has been closed for a few weeks now (it will become a Quaker State).  There aren’t any cars in the parking lot, the windows and doors are boarded up, all the signage is gone and the large street sign says "closed"  While waiting at a red light the other day, I saw a couple drive up, get out and go to the front door, trying to get in.  When they couldn’t, they began to look around trying to find the way in.  I laughed for a good while.

A fun thing to do with Google Maps: get directions from New York, New York to Paris, France.  Pay particular attention to line number 23.

The latest (and domestic) trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is out, with new content (and some from the previous trailer) mixed in.  Overall, I think I like it the best:

The new digital picture frames that are out I think have to be one of the greatest things ever.  I don’t have one, but will definitely get a few eventually.  I was reminded of this while traveling outbound on the Parkway East.  When you go over the bridge overlooking Old 22 between the Rodi Road and Monroeville exits, there is a large digital billboard, which was just cycling through pictures (dolphins, parrots and flowers).  It was very nice to look at, although I joked that it looked like someone just put a screensaver on.

That’s it for now, more coming later in the week!
 

Today’s title comes from Christopher Buckley’s new novel, "Boomsday."  The main character, a blogger who uses the above quote, finds herself dating a congressmen and pushing through a bill to create a voluntary suicide bill to solve the social security crisis.  The book is hysterical, and I’ll be putting up a review once I finish it (which shouldn’t be long), so look for my further thoughts there.

Huge congratulations to my friends Scott and Karen on their engagement!

I saw two game shows for the first time last week that I wanted to comment on, the first was Identity.  It was a cool idea, but got boring real fast.  I did like how they introduce the twelve strangers (probably the most exciting part of the show), there is all kinds of smoke and lasers and flashing lights and everyone is in a pose.  The other one I saw was Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader.  The show was great, Jeff Foxworthy makes a really good host, and the kids were a lot of fun.

There was a really good game of You Don’t Know Jack this week (I also did really good, I only missed one dis or dat and declined to answer one on the Jack Attack, other than that I got them all right for once!), check it out if you want to play a quick game:

There is yet another trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but I’ll post it later in the week.  It includes a lot of what is in the post below this, but a lot of new material as well.

On an actual serious note, the Westboro Baptist Church was planning on protesting some of the funerals of the victims of the VT shootings.  CBS ran a pretty good story about it here.  I know congress and a lot of states have passed all kinds of laws trying to limit these crazies so people can actually grieve at the funerals they protest, but something more needs to be done.  Of course I never advocate any kinds of violence, but I could easily be persuaded to change that stance for the WBC (and of course for the chance to go all "Tanya Harding on their kneecaps" …and the chance to say that).  But sadly, that is how they are able to keep doing what they do, by inciting people to physical violence then suing them.  The only consolation is that over 80% of the church is made up by the pastor’s family, so at least it’s not a widespread thing.

Well, off I go, catch everyone later!

Today’s title comes from Lost. And on the subject of TV, Black Donnelly’s was canceled, not that I’m very surprised. Dirt is in the iffy zone, as is The Riches, but Lost, Survivor and Heroes are all coming back next season, and Heroes starts back up again tomorrow! Who wants to be a Superhero is also coming back this summer, but I won’t be able to watch it, I’ll catch the reruns I suppose (it really is funny).

Yesterday I went with Cat to pick up her bike from Gatto’s and we stopped at Charlie’s on the way back. It’s official summer now that Charlie’s is open. I had jimmies on my ice cream cone…yes jimmies. That’s what it says on their ‘menu’ (various pieces of paper and poster taped to the window), so it must be the right word.

My favorite sales associate at Barnes and Noble, William is back! Not that he was gone I should add, just that we haven’t been there at the same time for probably close to six months. He always has good recommendations, and always makes sure to stop and see how I’m doing, so it was great to see him again.

I put a Creative Commons license on my blog (viewable at my site), so it’s all official and stuff, while still encouraging discussion and linkage. Ahhh, web 2.0. I also posted a link to EFF’s blogger’s rights section, a good read.

Avenue Q is coming to Pittsburgh this November! I am really excited, hopefully tickets aren’t outrageous. Prices won’t be announced for a while, and tickets won’t be available until six weeks before the shows anyway, so we’ll have to wait and see.

The new trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is out:

Well I think that’s it for now, catch everyone later!

Let’s see, more musings, a lot of things to discuss.  During the first of the two home Penguin playoff games, during the singing of "Oh Canada" one of the cameras had a shot of a sign with an ‘X’ through a maple leaf.  A little funny due to the irony of the timing, but disrespectful nonetheless.  And then we lost the game, and the one after.  Although yesterday’s game was a good one to watch, highly entertaining, aside from the questionable officiating during the first period.

Also seen during the Pens game is a great commercial for the DVE morning show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j48bryuXAc

Cat, Brad and I headed out to Phantom of the Attic after heading to mall to look around.  I haven’t been there in a very long time, so it was interesting to go back.  We almost missed the entire back room with all the comics, having been engrossed in the graphic novel section.  We then headed to a little hobby shop that Cat happened to spot on Old 22, next to the nursery near the Water Authority.  They were mostly stocked with RC vehicles and models, so we looked around a bit, they said they’ll be putting in an RC race track, which sounds cool, I’d like to check that out when it’s ready.

The new project from NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy’s page is now open: check it out here.

I’ve noticed that local eye doctors have very unfortunate names.  I keep hearing radio commercials for Dr. Di (die) and Dr. Missery (misery).  I think it would be a little strange going to them, especially since I get freaked out by eyeballs anyway.

I think that’s actually it for now, I know I have more things around here somewhere that interested me, I just can’t find the list.  Have a great one!
 

Let’s see, some more fun links to pass on to everyone.  The first being Lifehacker.  I just read their book, and the site is really good too.  Constantly updated throughout the day (although if I remember they may be offline for upgrades this weekend), it had tips and downloads to make common tasks easier.

Also, check out one of the latest "We are St. Vincent" videos.  This one features Fr. Wulfstan.  He is the adviser of the APO chapter and my professor for Literature and the Bible and Tolkien.  The video is here.  His "pet" he shows at the end of the video was given to him by my class!  And even though he doesn’t teach the Klingon version of Hamlet, he does speak Klingon, Elvish (both dialects), dwarfish and the black tongue of Mordor.  I tried for a while to download this and embed it here, but to no avail, sorry!

I was flipping through TV stations and noticed that MTV is playing shows from VH1’s production studio…odd, maybe a merger, or some sort of greater cooperation in their future?

Since the Pens are in the playoffs (and they won game 2, game 3 tomorrow at 6!), 100.7 has been playing spots wishing them luck (and a lot of Penguins songs, which have been great).  However, at the end of the spot, they call themselves the Penguins’ ‘black and gold athletic supporter.’  They may want to consider a change of wording…

Bill Engvall has a show this summer coming to TBS.  I’m really excited, he was my favorite of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, hopefully the show does well (although it looks a bit campy from the promos).

I don’t talk about it much, but I have a few comments on the latest Survivor show.  It was interesting in a few ways, first the fact that directly after the merge, everyone wanted to vote the same person off.  I don’t think that’s ever happened, it was so weird to see.  Granted, because of the team challenge, they didn’t get to vote Boo off, but it was still amazing.  I also do think Stacy should have been voted off, I may not like Dreamz’ personality that much, but that’s no reason to treat him like she did, and it sucks that she got to stay around.

As of this last show and the merger, it’s probably the most complicated season in terms of who is playing who and who has alliances with who, it’s turning into a real mind-buster, which is awesome to see.

I headed out geocaching today, went to Boyce Park to ‘Carpenters Loot’ and ‘Carpenters House.’  I’d found House before, but it was getting dark so I didn’t get a chance to read all the logs, so I wanted to go again.  I took my camera, and took some (what I thought were) interesting shots, I’ll add them as soon as I can to my galleries.  I also did the first stage of Loot.  From there it’s a puzzle, so once I get the puzzle figured out (and it’s a toughie) I’ll head back to find the final stage.

Happy Black and Gold Day!  Today was declared Black and Gold day in honor of the Penguins appearance in the Playoffs.

A really cool link that I came across:
Donkey Kong created with 14,000 post it notes

I am not Anna Nicole Smith’s baby’s father – Larry Birkhead is.  Well, at least I threw my hat in the ring just in case.

I went to Elmer’s last week and bought fish with my brother, which was really fun.  I haven’t been in Elmer’s for a long time, so I forgot just how much stuff was in there.  The staff didn’t seem very helpful (except for the one guy, but he was on his way home so he couldn’t do much more than answer a few questions), most of them seemed to just stand around behind the counter.  But looking around was a lot of fun.  He ended up getting an albino scum sucker and (I think) a few red tetras.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but the website, iserenity.com is wonderful.  It has a variety of sound environments that you can open up in your browser window and keep in the background.  When I worked at Westinghouse, I usually would open up wind chimes, and I’ve been using rain to help me fall asleep lately.  There are all kinds of sounds, including white noise, if you need it.

Speaking of browser windows, I tried out a new browser by the name of Flock.  It’s centered on community building, particularly blogs and pictures.  You can connect it to your flckr or photobucket account, as well as a blog community (I believe the choices were Xanga, LJ and Blogger, but I could be wrong).  It wasn’t bad, I really liked the default skin it came with, but it wasn’t for me.  The main emphasis was on photo sharing, which isn’t something I’m really involved with, I have enough trouble managing my own.  Most extensions from Firefox work with Flock, as it’s based on Mozilla’s code, but not all of them, which to me, was discouraging to me switching.

I headed to Pat Catan’s with Cat yesterday.  I’ve never been there before, and I was really surprised with how big it was.  She got some good ideas for what she needs for the Bridal Shower she’s throwing and I had a good time just wandering around, seeing what they have that Michael’s doesn’t (which we went to first).

Each year, when my uncle has steers at his farm, the ones he has for meat get a creative name, such as T-Bone, rump roast, tenderloin, etc.  This year’s names: Sloppy Joe and Meatball.  Which is twice as funny since Cat’s nickname for Moose (her kitten) is meatball and Brad is always joking about making him into Chinese food.

That’s it for now, I’ll be posting (hopefully) again later today, there is a new "We are Saint Vincent" video and I want to embed it here to point out some really cool stuff, so I’m trying to upload it to youtube so everyone can watch it (without having to worry about Quicktime extensions and plug-ins and whatnot).

Happy Jesus Zombie Day!
And by that, I mean happy celebration of the day when Jesus rose from the dead to return to earth as a rabbit that hides colored eggs (today’s title comes from The Colbert Report):

But seriously, happy Easter. Good sermon at church this morning, although there was a very strange lump in the cushion I was sitting on. No biggie, I just moved down a bit, but still weird. Best quote from the sermon: "You have braved the cold to come to church on this Easter morning, a first in itself."

Last week, when it was warm (before the cold weather canceled my car washing and geocaching plans), Brad, Cat and I went to Evergreen park to toss a frisbee around, and we saw a hawk fly around for a while. Eventually we flew off, but it was fun to watch it while we could. We also found a bike jump at the top of a hill going over a nasty looking hole, looked dangerous to us, hopefully people don’t get too hurt on it.

So I found this great picture, that while is funny, also speaks to the culture we live in today (and as always, if you can’t laugh at and with your own religion, you need to take a step back I think). In the nearer-than-we-would-like-future, it may actually serve as a way to convey the Gospel stories:

lol. brb.

Today was Oyster Day in the Kingdom of Loathing, and I spent a bunch of time collecting eggs, which I think I’m going to put into a display case, although I haven’t decided yet.

Work should begin this week on the marketing campaign for summer camp ’08 & ’09, which I’m very excited for, if not a bit apprehensive, since it is such a huge project (magazine, DVD, web, print and tons of direct mail in addition to whatever else I can wrap my mind around).

If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the picture for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. I really like the style, especially since the movie and show are nothing like it:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters

Other than that, I’m reading a bunch of good books, so look for new book reviews soon!

Here’s one last picture (as if there weren’t enough in this post), enjoy:

Happy Easter!

I forgot to mention it on Tuesday, but happy Passover! And of course, happy Maundy Thursday.

I went to Pack 139’s Blue and Gold banquet last night and had a really good time. I met some of the scouts and leaders from Troop 139 as well, and even got a window cling sticker for my Aztek! I helped out with their crossover and generally just had a good time.

I really don’t know if these will both work, but I wanted to give it a shot. They are videos from myspace, one is a parody of Heroes (that ran as a commercial I believe) and the other is exclusive shots from the upcoming return at the end of the month:

Edit: Ok, neither worked. I figured the exclusive clip wouldn’t work because it didn’t really have the option to be embedded, I was just trying to MacGuiver it onto the page, but the Zeroes clip didn’t work either, so here it is, courtesy of youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWJJBwKhvp4

About two weeks ago, a campaign was launched called Bum Rush the Charts, it was an effort to organize podcast listeners and blog readers to buy one specific song on one day to prove to the recording industry the power of the indy bands and new interactive medias. The day was a success, and the song that was selected is awesome: "Mine Again" by Black Lab (previously signed, but dropped by two major record labels). You can check out the song at their myspace page here.