Mass Wii Pray

Review: "Gentlemen Broncos" READ THIS POST

Before you read anything, click here to watch the preview to Gentlemen Broncos.

Go ahead. This will still be here when you're done.

So what did you think? I bet you thought things like "Amazing!" and "What?!" and "Stupid!" But I bet you were also intrigued...

I was intrigued. I had never heard of this movie before last night. It came out of nowhere, although I loved Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, so I should have kept my eyes open for this one.

This was written by the same husband/wife team and directed by the husband. It's got a bit of a Napoleon Dynamite feel to it, but it's not a carbon copy. It is a unique beast.

The story follows a teenager who writes crappy B-movie science fiction. He attends a writing convention where his story is stolen and turned into a novel by a once-famous but now-not-so-great science fiction author. Throughout the film we get to see scenes from his story (as well as scenes from the stolen version of the story) played out as if they were a real movie.

And those scenes are hilarious.

I won't say much else, except this: the movie drags a bit at the end of the second act (around the one hour mark) and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. But the ending was worth waiting around for and I was quite pleased overall. If this film doesn't make it to a theater near you, check it out on DVD.

Dust-anus out.

Not fun. :-(

My wonderful wife is quite sick right now. She's got the flu (no confirmation on if it's H1N1 but it's very likely) and the beginning symptoms of pneumonia. Considering that 1/4 pregnant women who develop H1N1 with another disease actually die, that's freaking scary.

Tomorrow we go to the doctor to find out the sex of the new baby. We were going to cancel, but the doctor today suggested we keep the appointment as the OB will need to know what is going on and will want to examine Laura.

Keep her in your prayers, please.

Something AWESOME to end the week on a high note...

You see that picture of a book cover up there? That book is called "The Authorized Ender Companion" and the author on the spine is Jake Black. Of course, you probably read that already since it's written in large text in the picture, but I digress...

This book is something of a novelty. It was created for fans of Ender's Game. And did I mention that I'm in it?

But let's back up a second. Everyone knows that I love, love, love the novel "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. I fell in love with the book in high school, I've purchased at least 10 copies over the years and given them away, I even had a t-shirt that said "The Enemy's Gate Is Down" that I bought from the author's website.

I'm a big fan.

What you might not know, however, is how extensive the 'Enderverse'(a made-up but useful word!) really is. You see, "Ender's Game" had four sequels: "Speaker for the Dead," "Xenocide," "Children of the Mind," and "Ender In Exile." It also had a parallel novel written from the point of view of another character ("Ender's Shadow") that had several sequels: "Shadow of the Hegemon," "Shadow Puppets," and "Shadow of the Giant." Plus there have been several 'extra' Ender stories written for anthologies and Card's online SF magazine The Intergalactic Medicine Show. Then there are the comics...

The Enderverse is massive and spans thousands of years, yet when you read it, the books don't seem complex or far-flung. Everything fits.

"The Authorized Ender Companion" is an encyclopedia of sorts, but with some extra goodies. It details every character, city, technology, and major event from all of these stories and includes timelines and schematics even. In short, it is like a concordance for these books.

I read through most of the encyclopedia portion and was surprised at how many plot points I had forgotten. I've read ALL of these stories - most of them multiple times - yet details had slipped from my old man brain. It was fascinating to see how all of the pieces fit together from all of the books.

This book has other sections - one talks about the recent momentum to have Ender's Game turned into a movie. One discusses specifically the technology in the Enderverse. But the part I'm in (hooray for me?) is called "Friends of Ender." A request was made for fans of Orson Scott Card to send in letters about how the Ender books have affected their lives. I sent in a letter and they were nice enough to include it on pages 404-405. It's short, it contains a confession about my kleptomania, and I'm proud of it (if you can't tell).

Thank you, Mr. Card, for creating such a fantastic universe. Thank you for the stories and for the characters who are so real to me. And thank you for including me in this project.

Enough self-congratulations. Tomorrow I'll go back to talking about puke and stuff again. :-)

Well, now. Welcome back to the show.

I've reviewed a couple of CDs recently (seriously, buy "Monster Monster" from The Almost already) but I haven't updated with any real news.

Why, you ask? Because things have been too sucky to take the time to document them.

First of all, let me say this: my work has a very generous vacation/sick time policy. I am provided with plenty of days off from work, and it is very easy to get the time off when I need it.

Having said that, the recent string of sicknesses in our family - including my two bouts with MRSA and the probably H1N1 our kids have been going through - have made me miss a TON of work. I've also had to work from home quite a bit, which isn't my preferred method to get things done.

So now I'm down to ONE paid day off of work. In total. I've used up every single other day off with this stupid stuff.

So where should I begin? The kids have been sick off and on for about three months. This latest sickness started on Sunday and resulted in Ethan and Caitlin getting sick and puking - on the couch, on the floor, on the stairs, in the toilet, in trash cans - I think they made it land on just about every kind of surface ever invented.

Ethan threw up probably nine times between Sunday and today. Caitlin threw up three times that I know of, but it could have been more. Laura has been working extra night shifts this week, so it's just been me and the sickos. I've tried to do things around the house (dishes, laundry, trash, etc.) but I've been overwhelmed and not very effective.

In the meantime, I've been feeling pretty crappy too. Nausea, an earache type thing on my jaw/ear, sore throat, stuffy nose, etc. It's made it all even more fun!

Throw in an ant infestation in the kitchen (I sprayed those little suckers!), a lack of funds (turning in coins to buy cans of soup for supper is SOOOO college), and other stupid events, and you can see what fun we've had.

So I hope to update more frequently in the near future. But if I don't, don't worry: I'm just busy cleaning up more puke and buying stock in Clorox.

Review: "Monster Monster" by The Almost

This is my kind of music. The Almost is a side project from members of Underoath (who I think are much too screamy) and their music is best described as emo/new rock. There is a rawness - an honesty - to the lyrics and the vocals that just tear at my heart sometimes. Words like "When I am a monster/You don't wince when you look at me... When I am a freak/You don't stare... When I am a leper/You don't say 'Unclean!" And when I am lost/You help me get free" are spot-on in their description of our relationship with God.

Some of the songs are aggressive rock with loud guitars and slight screaming. Some are acoustic (for the most part) and full of emotion. And some (like the song "Hands" which I love singing along with) are straight-up praise of God.

I am impressed that a band/album like this can get such a mainstream release. Kudos to The Almost for being popular in a world that doesn't often like Christian 'art.' And kudos to Tooth and Nail for putting out such great music.

Seriously - if you read my blog, check out this album. It is fantastic.

Review: "0.1 Daylight's Coming" by Vesta

Back in the day (I'm thinking specifically of 2000 to 2004 or so...), The Juliana Theory was my favorite band in the whole world. Their sophomore release "Emotion Is Dead" was an incredible step forward for emo music as a genre, and their follow-up EP "Music From Another Room" was just as good. These albums spoke to me on a fundamental level - when I listened to them, it was if I was listening to the distillation of music. I loved every second.

Since that time, The Juliana Theory released two more albums ("Love" and "Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat") and a 'best of' disc, and although these were great albums in their own right, they didn't compare to the previous two discs.

When the band finally broke up a few years ago, I was ambivalent. It was quite possible that the band's best days were behind it, and I would rather have them break up than continue to churn out music for no good reason.

Which brings us to Vesta. Vesta isn't a re-imagining of The Juliana Theory. Although the two bands reside in a similar genre, they are quite different in their sound and execution. But what brings the two bands into the same review is this: two members of The Juliana Theory are now in Vesta.

THAT is what made me give this disc a chance. And I'm glad I did.

"0.1 Daylight's Coming" is a curious album. The music sounds a bit like Brit rock (think Franz Ferdinand) and a bit like standard emo fare, but with 'loose' sounding vocals.

That's the best I can do, sorry. But imagine a mainstream band like Coldplay or U2 but with a bit of a different groove and you're not too far off.

When I first listened to this music, I was a bit put off. It sounded derivative - maybe I was expecting The Juliana Theory - and I almost dismissed it. But I gave it another listen. And another. And now I've been keeping it in rotation for about six weeks and it has really grown on me.

If you liked The Juliana Theory, if you like Franz Ferdinand, if you like Rooney, I suggest you give this a listen. It's not groundbreaking, but it IS high-quality, sing-along stuff that I thoroughly enjoy.

Check it out here.

Review: "(M)orning" by Mae

First let me say this: I liked Mae before they were popular. That makes me super cool.

Let me say this too: I got bored with Mae before anyone else ever heard of them, which makes me lame.

When I first heard Mae, they were on a Tooth and Nail sampler and it was one song: "Embers and Envelopes" from their debut album on T&N. The song was one of three I really loved (along with "Foreign Language" by Anberlin and "Shine Like Stars" from Holland) and I quickly bought - and loved - their first album. But when "B-Sides" came out and it was more of the same, I was annoyed and decided not to buy any more of their albums...

So when Mae's superb record "The Everglow" came out several years ago, I saw it several times at the store (mainly Target, of all places) and I never actually bought it. It seemed too 'mainstream' of a release for my tastes.

I was an idiot.

I purchased "The Everglow" a few months ago and was really surprised by the quality of the songwriting. It is an album that you can put on in the background and do anything: work, washing dishes, cleaning - anything seems to go good with that album. It is just fantastic music.

So when "(M)orning" came out, I was ready to buy it on day one. There was some controversy online that said the band had changed and this wasn't a "true" Mae release, but I ignored the nonsense and downloaded straight away.

And I'm glad I did.

This album follows perfectly in the steps of "The Everglow." Some songs on it ("Fisherman's Song," I'm looking at you...) are so great that I find myself repeating themselves over and over. The songs aren't complicated - they're pretty straightforward modern alternative/emo - but they are so well crafted that I love listening to them.

And that's about the best praise I can give an album. This one hasn't grown old since I started listening to it several weeks ago. If you consider yourself a fan of modern rock (be it Christian or otherwise), I recommend this album to you. If all else fails, at least check them out on their MySpace page here.

Nice.

Wow.

This should have been on CounterPopCulture.

Much ado about nothing...

This article on CNN.com (site motto: It's not news - It's made up crap!) is full of something. Something that stinks.

The general idea of the article is this: modern, evolved, intellectual humans aren't dumb enough to fall for the myth of monogamy anymore.

Give it a read.

And an awesome/terrible story

Here's something odd I forgot to mention.

Last night at 2:30 in the morning, Callie came stumbling into our room. This was her third night to come in (since she's been feeling sick) so I didn't think anything of it.

Then she said "Daddy! There's something in my hair!" and started crying. I reached out and sure enough, there was a Dum Dum sucker stuck in her hair. Apparently she fell asleep eating it and it fell out of her mouth and then into her hair.

Have you ever tried to pull a sucker out of a 3-year-old's hair at 2:30 in the morning when you are half-asleep? It was a new experience for me as well. And I didn't like it, but I did it.

When I finally pulled it free, guess what she did? Did she say "Thanks, Daddy!" and give me a hug? Nope. She ran over to Mommy and got a hug from her.

Moral: Dads fix things. Moms make you feel better.

The End

Another day, another sickness...

So let's see. First my kids were sick. There was puking. Then I was sick. Then the kids were sick again and Laura was sick. There was more puking. Then I got sick again. Then I got a new MRSA infection... Is everyone caught up?

So this past weekend, guess what? That's right: more sickness! This time Callie had a fever and I felt like puking any time my body was vertical for more than 10 seconds. It was a miserable weekend. Yesterday I was feeling quite a bit better, but Callie was sitting in the living room watching me play a video game when she shreiked "Your game is getting into my eyes!"

I laughed and said "Okay, sweetie. Sorry about that." And I kept playing.

A couple of hours later when I came into the living room, all of the lights were off and the curtains were closed. "What's going on?" I asked my wife.

"Callie says the light hurts her eyes," she answered. "So I cut out all of the light I could, but even the TV hurts her eyes."

So Laura called the advice nurse with my insurance and found out that most of the victims of the flu this season are having sensitivity to light as one of the symptoms. Fever + photo-sensitivity = flu for sure. They couldn't diagnose if it was regular or H1N1 via phone, but either way they said to give her Tylenol and lots of water.

So imagine the awkward position I was in this morning. I've been working from home a TON lately, mostly because of my nasty infection, and I don't want to lose my job over attendance issues.

But...

Do I go to work to save face, even though I've been sleeping in the same bed as a 3-year-old with the flu? Or do I stay home another day in the hopes of not spreading the germs, but make it look like I just don't care about my job?

It was a tough question, so I emailed my boss and she suggested I work from home today and come back tomorrow if all is well. So I guess that's that.

I feel great today, so hopefully the flu won't sneak up and kick me in the butt tonight...

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One other thing: my friend Luke Nelson is in town this week, just to spend time with us (and see the state) but we haven't been able to see him due to the sicknesses. He's been stuck driving around with his dad. Poor Luke. Sorry about that. Hopefully we'll get to see you ONCE before you leave town on Thursday...

Who's your daddy?

Okay, I really don't know where the title of this post came from. I decided to sit and write whatever came to mind, and that's what popped out. Take it or leave it.

Actually, this is the Interweb so you can't take it even if you wanted to, unless you know my password (hint: it's STOOPID!). It's here forever!

Which reminds me: did I ever tell you how smart my oldest daughter is? Let me explain...

Yesterday (or perhaps the day before... they all blend together since I'm an old man) I showed her some pictures on my blog that I took when she was five (she is now almost nine). She was mortified that there was a picture of her on my blog with her shirt off (under the post heading: Not Child Porn - seriously!) and she demanded that I delete it. I refused and quickly closed my web browser so she couldn't see anything else.

Imagine my surprise when she opened the web browser, typed my name in the Google search box, and began looking for my blog. Then when I told her not to use Google (she isn't allowed), she clicked on my blog link in the bookmark toolbar, scrolled down to 2006, then to January, and then scrolled down to the picture.

"It's right there! Delete it!" she said.

Thinking I could trick her, I deleted my blog shortcut and closed the browser again. Imagine my further surprise when she clicked on my "Blogger: Dashboard" link and got into the editing portion of my blog. "If you don't delete it, I'll find it and delete it" she said. !!!

Seriously, what kind of nine year old kid can figure out how to use a blogger dashboard to find a post and delete it? How did she learn this?! I'm baffled.

Knowing what kinds of topics are on my blog, I forbade her from reading it and she agreed. Let's hope she keeps that deal...

Anyway, I'm impressed. Oh, and our six-year-old son is learning to read pretty good too. Yesterday we passed a street sign and he said "That says Slow Down." Good job, buddy.

Now if only they were smart enough to clean up after themselves...

Great video!

Good News / Bad News

Let's play catch up. And by 'catch up' I don't mean to make a pun on the word 'ketchup' and make you think of my wounds. But so be it... :-)

-------

Good News: My infection started out as three separate wounds. Luckily, two of them 'melted' together and then broke open.

Bad News: When the wound broke open, a bunch of nasty stuff came out. Use your imagination. Now I have to change my dressing several times a day while it seeps out.

--

Good News: After the wound broke open (I was sitting in a chair with my shirt off, so it was rather peaceful), most of the pain went away. Hooray!

Bad News: Now the other wound has started growing and is beginning to hurt. Which means... It's going to open soon, giving me two open wounds and two dressings to change. :-(

--

Good News: I've been taking antibiotics for almost a week now. Hopefully they're kicking this bacteria in the butt and getting rid of it.

Bad News: In addition to the oral pills, I also have to put some ointment on a Q-tip and put it in both nostrils twice a day. Seriously.

--

Good News: I'm alive, my kids are doing great, my wife is awesome (and hot!), and I still have a job.

Bad News: Nobody has offered to give me money for the rest of my life so I don't have to work ever again...

Pics of the Grossness

I know some of you are just clamoring for pics of my latest staph infection. In honor of your request, they are posted below. They don't look as bad as last time for two reasons:

1) I've been on the antibiotics for three days now
2) They weren't sliced open to let the pus out

But let me assure you, I'd rather have one lesion on my thigh than three on my torso ANY day. This really hurts.

And without further ado...



This is the entire infected area. It was much bigger yesterday, so it looks like the pills are working.
This is my new third and fourth nipple. These two stupid 'bug bites' are right next to each other which makes it worse.



And the one on top seems to be doing the best. It is starting to peel! Tasty!