Impending Draft?

So I saw Impending Doom last night. It was cool! On top of being insanely brutal, they seemed like fun and genuine people. I'm a bigger fan of theirs today than I was yesterday, and that's always better than those times that you go away thinking that your image of a band in your head (or on your cd insert) was way better than the real deal.

Do you know what's even nicer, though? I didn't get hit in the face! Call me pansy or old or whatever, but bloodless shows are a plus for me. The "dancers" DID, however, manage to knock out a window. That's right, they didn't break it, just completely popped the bad boy out of the wall and onto the sidewalk. Good times, good times.

It was so much fun I'd like to do it all over again . . . and so I check their page and sure enough, they'll be back . . . on Valentine's Day? DANG! That's a tall order for married guy. Impending deal with the wife? How many chick flicks will that cost me? I don't know, I mean I'm pretty hardcore and all, but Mandy Moore movies just don't move me, you know what I'm saying? Impending decision, I suppose.

Whatever. Sorry this post is so lame. I'll try to do better next time (but no promises).

Just a couple random thoughts in the meantime:

1) Professional athletes often put their bodies through massive amounts of abuse. Not Celtics back-up center Scot Pollard, though. He's missing time because of a bad back that he hurt getting out of his car at Starbucks. Huh, and I thought that $4 for a white chocolate mocha cost ME a lot, but I guess not compared to him. Anyway, he thought it was better until he apparently aggravated his injury by putting on socks. My goodness. Seriously, what makes a guy (or a front-office, not that I'm going to be at ALL critical of Danny "bring me number 17" Ainge) think that he's going to be able to compete at a world-class level athletically when getting coffee and wearing socks puts him out of the game? My good golly-gosh. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up -- click here and read it right from the globe.

2) There's a preliminary version of what will become a Life Pointe promotional dvd (as well as the full half-hour performance at 4th Street Live as broadcast on the CW) on here. It's pretty flippin' cool, y'all, and if you're in the Louisville area, reading this, and STILL haven't checked out a service, you're missing out. Make it happen, you won't be sorry!

4 Channels, and . . .

It's the holidays, and for a bit Laura and I discussed not doing individual gifts for each other, but rather buying something big for "us". The best idea we had? A nice, new flat-panel or hd or plasma screen or whatever (I don't know the details of what's what and don't particularly care) tv. In fact, most of the obvious ways in which we could upgrade our "stuff" is in the tv family. We could get a home theater surround-sound deal, that sounds cool. Or an HD or Blu-Ray player (by the way -- come ON Sony -- is there a ration on "e"'s that you had to leave it off of "Blu-Ray"? Did Life Pointe take your "e"?) would look nice in our entertainment center. And of course if we DID get a cool tv, we should really look into ditching the rabbit ears and hooking up cable to be able to enjoy our newest purchase.

WHAT?! You don't have cable?!

Nope. And we're not getting the tv. Do you know why? Not only are they still WAY too expensive for cheapskates such as ourselves, but no matter how great your tv is, there's still nothing on. Hook up more channels? No it just takes longer to realize that . . . there's still nothing on. Get an awesome HD dvd or Blu-Ray player? Movies -- not all of them, but far too many -- still suck.

Hey -- like everybody else, I think that plasma screens have awesome pictures, and I love the newer higher-tech devices that deliver better resolution and more powerful sound and all that. I really do -- I love that stuff enough that every few months I think we should buy some of it. But then I ask myself the next question -- what will I watch on it? Football. That's pretty much it, and even then there's at MOST 2 games a week that I REALLY care about, and I can go out and watch those -- and eat buffalo wings -- for the price of buffalo wings. Hook up cable? Now I'm just watching MORE football games that I don't even really care about rather than doing something more productive (like blogging about watching football). HD dvd's are cool, but no matter how beautifully crisp Glitter looks, it's still the same crap.

So here's my deal -- I wish that everybody who is the "entertainment industry" would just go ahead and leave well enough alone technologically for a while. We'll be fine with our tv's the way they are. Now won't you put some of that creative genius that brought us these fine fancy toys into developing stories and plot-lines and witty dialogue that will be worth watching? THEN, my friends, maybe we'll have a more serious talk about those $800 tv's.

"Fiesta" -- Espanol for "Shouldn't Have Lost to Colorado"

So it's Ohio State and LSU. Whatever. Congratulations to the winner, I suppose.

Here's the deal -- OU was beyond spectacular last night in absolutely destroying the #1 (ranked) Missouri Tigers. It was an absolute joy to watch the Crimson and Cream (note the color change -- who reminded the Lions that they were the Lions?) take home another Big XII Championship. Wohoo! And then a little disappointing to come up short in terms of playing for the national championship. But do you know what? They don't deserve to play for the championship because they lost . . . twice. Of course LSU lost twice too, so do THEY deserve it? Nope. But that's what happens when you lose (TWICE) in college football -- close your eyes, clench your fists, and hope for the best. Who DOES deserve it, by the way? Pshhhhhhhh. Nobody, really. Just don't whine about your fate if you lost, that's all I'm saying.

A Big XII Championship, and maybe a Fiesta Bowl, too. That's pretty good. Next year might be even better. And in the meantime, there's still those Celtics . . . .

So . . . Do You Like Bacon?

1. The Celtics lost, in overtime, on the road, to the defending Eastern Conference champions last night, and I'm upset about it. That's WAY better than, say, last year, when the losses were completely forgettable and the wins were shocking. So much better that I had to go order tickets for when they come to Indianapolis. Six years I've lived in Louisville, and never in that time did I make seeing a Celtics game a priority -- until now.

2. On Saturday OU plays the grammatically challenged but athletically formidable and #1 (ranked) Missouri ("Mizzou") Tigers for the Big Twelve Championship. And #1 is a three point underdog! It doesn't mean they don't "deserve" to be #1 -- they've lost one game and we've lost two -- it just goes to show that being the "best" team isn't always the most important thing. Anyway, here's to taking them down (again) and winning (another) conference championship. I know, it would probably put Ohio State in the championship game and nobody (outside of Ohio) wants that, but let's make it happen anyway.

3. Isn't Thanksgiving weekend supposed to be a "down" week for church attendance? Because Life Pointe just had our best attended service since Mother's Day and capped off our best attended month ever! The momentum and excitement are back, and if you're in or near Louisville you really owe it to yourself to check a service out. I really, really think you'll be altogether pleased with your decision.

4. Yep, I like bacon, too.

5. The latest from Nodes of Ranvier? Really quite enjoyable, if not necessarily original or groundbreaking. South Dakota's finest, and doing us all proud, thank you very much!

6. Fans of all things hilarious and worthy of repeated viewing click here. Just make sure you're not drinking anything that you don't want splattered all over your keyboard and monitor as you watch. You're welcome.

7. I desperately hope I have something more substantial to write about soon. In the meantime, if you can place the post title, leave it in the comments. That's right, the gauntlet's been thrown down. . . .

Way Late, But Way Fun!

I know this is out of season already, but drop a note into the complaint jar if you must. I thought that Laura and I were hilarious at the Life Pointe Halloween party and wanted you to share in the delight. Wohoo! (click on them and they get really big)



(for reference sake)

Maybe the funniest part, though, is that we won the best costume contest and were awarded . . . are you ready for this? A gift card to Blockbuster! It's not *quite* as funny now that I changed jobs, but you can't buy that kind of hilarity, right?


And just because it's here and I know the world is full of haters and flamers, here's my little diatribe on Christ-followers and Halloween:

"Don't you know the evil origins of Halloween?" the reactionaries ask. "Whether you know it or not, by dressing up (or allowing your children to dress up) and going to a party you're participating in an evil pagan celebration and it's wrong, wrong, wrong!" (The tri-fold "wrong" makes it wrong, then right the second time, but ULTRA-wrong with the third negative.)

Ok, let's just take that train of thought to it's logical conclusion, shall we? If, due to it's origin and original intent, dressing up and getting fun-size Milky Way from the neighbors is participating in evil, what does that mean for Santa and the Easter Bunny? Wouldn't it be consistent, then, to say that "Whether they know it or not, children asking drunk mall Santas for HALO 4 and gangsta rap is participating in the celebration of the miraculous birth of our savior! In fact, every time I see the Christmas ads for Victoria's Secret I just can't help but fall to my knees and praise God for the subtle but real way he's invading our culture! Similarly, Cadbury Cream Eggs bring a tear to my eye, because I know that every child who develops cavities as a result is doing so because of their unwitting but surely monstrously influential celebration of the singular high-point of Christian redemptive history! Oh hallelujah, I'm going to break out into an impromptu chorus of my favorite Gaither song right now!"

Now I ask you -- have you EVER heard the same person who opposes Halloween be in favor of Santa and the Easter Bunny? That's what I thought. Why do people think it's so spiritual to be angry all the time and against everything? My goodness, eat a chocolate Santa, enjoy life, and go love somebody who needs it. . . .


Color change note -- I put the OU Crimson and Cream up when they vaulted themselves into the national title chase, and an invigorating chase it was. They're still having a great season, but that's over now, and the Lions are running down a playoff spot, so Honolulu blue it is!

TTFN, BBOL!

Flogging, But With a "B" isn't necessarily full of "personal notes", but this one is worthwhile: this Friday the 16th is my last day at Blockbuster Online!

It's not that it's the worst job ever, per se. It doesn't pay much and the work is mindless and repetitive, but it's not necessarily unpleasant, at least when it's not 100+ degrees in the summer. That said, I'm moving on.

Laura got me an interview at the pharmacy in the hospital where she works, and the gig is just ridiculously ideal for my life. It's a PRN position, which means that I quite literally make my own schedule and (more or less) work whatever and as many hours as I decide to . . . and then get paid extra for the convenience. Seriously! As you might guess, the pharm is also climate controlled, which will be a very, VERY big plus come summer, and I'll actually know when my shifts will be ending before I go in.

And to top it off, how about this little gem -- at my job interview, the manager was asking questions about Life Pointe to the point(e) where I just couldn't NOT toss her an invite card (as tacky as that felt at a job interview), which she looked at, chuckled, and then ASKED FOR MORE!!! So while I'm desperate to make sure that everybody at BBOL gets invited out (one more time) before I'm gone for good, there's a whole new network of peeps that I'll get to meet and interact with, and hopefully invest in in a more meaningful way than was possible at the warehouse.

Hey, I met a lot of GREAT people and had some good times at BBOL (and also met some gold-medal losers and had some pretty bad days, but whatever), but it's time to turn the page. Friday is it! And then it's off to what I shall, from this point(e) on, affectionately refer to as "the p-pharm." Wohoo!

Democratacisy? Sounds great!

As Americans we treasure -- above all else (with the possible exception of the right to procreate at will and let the government pay for the consequences) the right to vote in public elections. It validates us. It tells us that our opinions matter. It means that we have a voice. And here today, in what *may* eclipse even my BCS post as the most hated in the history of Flogging, But With a "B", I'll tell you why it's a terrible idea.

Let's start with a story. I lived for several years in Minnesota where you can actually register at the polls. When I went to register/vote, I provided the requisite information and verification, and was then instructed to print and sign my name along with my date of birth. With all the care and caution of your least favorite multinational environment-raping oil conglomerate, then, I proceeded to indicate that I had been born, apparently, earlier that day. The poll worker was very nice and helped me correct the obvious oversight, and I proceeded to cast a vote in determining the course of our country, state, and county. But should I have been allowed to, really? My attention and care was so infinitesimal that I put "today's" date where my date of birth was supposed to go, and yet I was somehow qualified to have a say in things? Is that REALLY sound policy?

Here's the deal, though -- I'm a reasonably sharp dude. Even at the time the story took place (7 or 8 years ago) I held a B. S. (that still cracks me up) and had better critical thinking skills than a lot of people. My only conclusion, though, is that there was absolutely NO WAY I should have been allowed to vote! Which led me down a dark and depressing thought highway which dumped me off at the point where I've determined that democracy (representative or otherwise) is officially a bad idea.

Look, if you're anything like me, you're pretty happy that political ads, phone calls, etc. are done for a bit. They're obnoxious, misleading, and intentionally slanted with half-truths and twisted logic. If somebody voted against a bill that would use taxpayer money ([Jack Nicholson voice ON] "Is there another kind?" [Jack Nicholson voice OFF]) to put plasma tv's in every 2nd grader's coat hanger, he's against education and hates children. If he had a plan that would eliminate income tax completely but bump sales tax by half a cent, he's trying to give the rich more tax breaks and take bread from babies. And do you know what bothers me the most about these? That they work!!! Let's face it -- there wouldn't be 8,000,000 ads during every hour of tv if they didn't have effect, and that means that the insipid things are actually effecting people's votes, and the outcome of our elections. What kind of a system is this?

Do you know what, though? Even if we didn't base our votes on manipulated half-truths and emotional appeals, we STILL wouldn't be really qualified to vote. Raise your hand if you REALLY know what's going on in Iraq, or the probable consequences of any course of action? How about economics? Who here REALLY understands the various factors and arguments regarding costs of health care and what socialization would mean? Do any among us understand the implications of big political topics? What about the fact that, even among experts, there's heated disagreement? How does THAT turn into people who DON'T know stuff having a say?

Here's where it gets really bad, though. Yesterday I had somebody with a 10th grade education tell me that they'd just come from the polls. On one particular issue they admitted -- laughing -- that they really didn't understand the question, and so just voted "no". Now, I ask you -- who determined that this was a GOOD way to run a country?

That said, the only better system I've come up with is to just kill the whole deal and put me in charge. Now, who's going to vote for that one?