I am writing this from my Mom’s computer in La Grange, Texas. We are at the ranch for Thanksgiving and things at home have been so crazy lately, I haven’t had time to post.

It seems to be a tradition for Tammy and I to have insanely busy holiday seasons. We have been rehearsing for our church’s Christmas musical three nights a week since the end of October. I still work with the middle school kids every Wednesday nights, and on our few remaining free evenings we’ve been packing up our apartment. We are moving (as I mentioned before) and our move in/out falls on Thanksgiving weekend.

So, we’re at the ranch for today and Thursday. Then Friday morning we hurry back home to sign the new lease and see if we can move all the boxes into the new apartment in one afternoon. Saturday morning, I pick up a rental truck and meet several friends (THANKS GANG!!!) to move the furniture. We hope to have the old apartment cleaned and get the keys turned in Saturday night. *Fingers firmly crossed*

Then we have musical rehearsal on Sunday afternoon. *Whew*

I just wanted you all to know that I’m not lying dead in a ditch. Much to the contrary. I hope to have pics of the new apartment up in a week or so. Until then, say a prayer for us.

My truck, BamBam (What? You don’t name your vehicles? Shame on you!), is famous for it’s many bumper stickers. Not just any bumper sticker has what it takes to make it onto my truck. They must say something important, poignant, or whacky enough to be a WBQotW. Such is the case with this week’s quip.

If you’re living like there is no God, you’d better be right!

photoshop – (fó´tó – shôp) v. To digitally manipulate an image.

I’m one of those geeks that turn cultural trends into verbs. I was one of the first people I know to use “google” as a verb. In the same manner, I have been “photoshopping” images for years and preaching that you can not believe your eyes anymore.

A couple of days ago I posted my first submission on Worth1000. If you have any doubt about the power of digital editing, spend some time over at Worth. You’ll be amazed. (The tutorial about artificial aging is my favorite.)

Now, it’s all well and good to photoshop for silly online contests. It’s another thing entirely to create images for the media that create a story where none exists (also known as lying). This is what you see on all those spurious tabloid covers and it’s called photo-chopping.

photo-chop – (fó´tó – chôp) v. To digitally manipulate an image for malicious or duplicitous purposes.

This is certainly not a new practice among the media’s dirtier dogs, but with the latest technology it’s that much easier and thus that much more tempting for journalists to make news rather than report it. I strongly encourage you to read this article about the history of image tampering. It will open your eyes to some of the things you may have seen but should not have believed.

I have seen so many movies in the last few months! Keep in mind that in the previous two years I had seen exactly five movies in theaters, all of which were part of trilogies. But in the last three months, I’ve seen “Batman Begins”, “March of the Penguins”, “Corpse Bride”, and “Wallace & Gromit” all in the theater. On top of that, we just rented “Herbie: Fully Loaded”, “Robots”, and “Shaun of the Dead” on DVD.

The problem is that I’ve seen so many movies in relatively rapid succession that I can’t remember enough about each movie to do a quality review. I do remember enough to rate them though, so here is my “lite” review of these shows.

I am a huge Batman fan, but I’m a pretty harsh critic when it comes to my favorites. This movie surpassed my expectations. Great show! Batman Begins earns five out of five grins.

Tim Burton is a freakish human being, but one of my favorite film makers. (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Burton directed the first couple of Batman movies that made me fall in love with the character.) The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all time favorites and Corpse Bride had the exact same style. The plot line is not as strong as it could have been, but the art makes up for it. I give it four out of five grins.

I have a soft heart for English humor, from Monty Python to Mr. Bean. Wallace fits nicely in between. If you liked Chicken Run, you’ll love Wallace & Gromit. I give it four grins.

March of the Penguins, in all honesty, is not much more than a National Geographic special with a better script. But between the stunning visuals and beautiful musical score, it’s worth seeing. The narration is brilliant and makes even the steamy sex scene (honest!) kid safe. I was most grateful that the film makers managed to leave Darwin out of the script. I’d say three grins is more than respectable for a documentary.

I remember watching the old Herbie movies at my cousins’ house. They had a satellite dish (the old eight foot SETI style) and could pick up the Disney channel when my house only got four stations. (No, not Fox. PBS!) This new incarnation does fair justice to the 70’s movies. Herbie: Fully Loaded is good, clean fun, garnering three grins.

I’m a sucker for computer animation. As far as the art, Robots is top notch. However, I got the impression that the art was the impetus and the storyline was an after thought. (Watching the DVD extras confirmed it.) Still, it’s a fun show with a good moral. Robots gets three grins.

Even if you’re not big on English humor, Shaun of the Dead is flat out funny. I laughed out loud many times (much to the chagrin of my wife who was trying to sleep in the next room.) Still, this is one of those movies that put me in a hard spot. Much like Office Space, no matter how funny I found it, I have a hard time recommending it to my friends because the language is really bad. Not quite Tarantino bad, but almost. There are more F-bombs in Shaun than in Office Space, but if you can turn on your mental filters for the night, this one is a must see. Oh, and don’t feel bad if you don’t understand every line of dialog. There’s enough UK slang that this movie could well be considered a foreign language film. I would give it four grins, but it gets a one grin penalty for language.

This week’s WBQotW comes from an old bumper sticker I saw in the early 90’s (looong before anyone knew Dr. Atkins).

Eat Rice. Potatoes make your butt big.

Which prompts a quandry. Wouldn’t it make more sense to call it Potato Butt, than Cottage Cheese Thighs?

Once again, Holly impresses me with her Christian maturity. Check out her post on prejudice in the church. (You may have to highlight the text to read it.)

I can always remember the Marine Corps’ birthday, because it’s mine too: November 10th.

Funny. My Uncle Robert (former Marine) can always remember my birthday because of the Marines.

God bless the USMC! Say a prayer for the boots on the ground today.

In relation to my previous post about the French riots…

Here’s an insightful blog post from someone who lived in one of the “suburbs” (read: slums) were “youths” (read: Muslim terrorists) are causing “civil unrest” (read: war).

Please don’t think that I’m some kind of anti-Muslim bigot. I’m not. I’m not anti-Islam any more than I’m anti-Hindu or anti-Mormon which is to say, I think they are on the wrong path, but through the love of Christ, I yearn for their salvation. I don’t think we (meaning America) should spray paint slurs on the houses of our Muslim neighbors. I just think we (meaning the media) should stop trying to cover up the truth about militant Islam and the “religion of peace”.

Now, let’s lighten the mood, shall we?

One of the coolest things about our upcoming move to a new apartment is the fact that we will have digital cable, and thus will be able to get TiVo. I don’t get a lot of time in front of the TV (not that this is a bad thing), but the time I do have is currently pretty miserable. There are about three shows I like to watch and I can’t ever seem to catch them when their on.

One of these is the Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters”. The show is now in its third season and shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, the show is growing, literally. Since the show began, the cast has continued to grow.

Now I had pretty solid opinions of the show’s creators (Adam and Jamie) back in season one. But with the “build team” added to the mix, I realized the “favorite MythBuster pool” had gotten much deeper.

If you have a favorite MythBuster (you can read their bios here, if your not sure) post a comment and let me know. To avoid skewing the results, I recommend you post your comment before reading my opinions below.

…

Obviously, being one of the show creators earns Adam Savage bonus points. Adam strikes me as the “loose cannon”. The guy who has good ideas, but maybe not the best execution. The kind of guy you invite to a party because you know he’ll do something crazy. I like Adam for his sense of humor and his wackiness, but he can be a real cry baby sometimes.
(Adam B+)

Again, being an original cast member, Jaime Hyneman has an advantage. Jamie is the polar opposite of Adam. He’s remarkably stoic and painfully precise. Jamie is the guy you’d call if your clothes washer quit working. You know he’d figure out the problem and he wouldn’t embarrass you about your pink bunny boxer shorts that gummed up the machine. Jamie does have a sense of humor, just not a very good one. Still, I admire the fact that Jamie takes his job seriously. That gives him an edge over Adam, in my book.
(Jamie A-)

Now on to the “build team”.

Grant Imahara strikes me as a bit of an appendage on the show. I can see how they might have wanted to even out the guy/girl ratio on the build team, but Grant just doesn’t seem to have the personality to be a MythBuster. He seems more like your run-of-the-mill MIT grad student. I’m sure he’s brilliant, but does he have style? I just don’t see it.
(Grant D)

Since my wife thinks that Tory Belleci is “hawt”, you might think that jealousy would taint my judgment of his myth busting prowess. But I am above such petty emotions. Tory is great fun to watch, mostly because he’s reckless. It’s kind of like watching Funniest Home Videos. You know the kid is going hit the dad in twig-n-berries eventually, so you keep watching to find out how. Tory tries to be serious with his projects, but inevitably, he either hurts himself or catches something on fire. (And don’t get me started on his bicycle antics on the car-pole-vault episode.) But, the same thing that makes Tory fun to watch makes him a poor MythBuster. I don’t want to see Funniest Home Videos. I want to see MythBusters. And besides… He’s a ugly punk who’d make a terrible husband for my wife.
(Tory B-)

I’m sure that my long-time readers can guess how I would feel about a San Francisco, vegetarian artist. But let’s be fair. Kari Byron really is one of the more solid contributors to the show. She is very creative and capable when it comes to building some of the stranger myth busting contraptions and she clearly takes pride in her work. I also give her credit for her willingness to get her hands dirty from time to time. But I just can’t get over her incessant blithering whenever animal products show up on the set. I’m not saying I would jump with glee if I had to man-handle a pig carcass. I’m just saying Kari needs to get over it. Stuff dies… then we eat it. Get used to it. (However, I must admit that Kari is babe-ilicious. See the silver body paint episode. Rowwwrr! Oh! Is my wife reading this?! I LOVE YOU, HONEYYY!)
(Kari C+)

Speaking of my wife, let me tell you a little about how awesome she is. She is one of the only people I know who can enjoy her femininity (i.e. purse shopping and pink nail polish) but she also loves football, hockey, and NASCAR. I am the luckiest man alive. I have huge respect for a girl who can be a girl and still enjoy guy stuff. I think that’s why Scottie Chapman is my favorite MythBuster. Scottie is a good looking girl, but her resume includes horse training, building race cars and testing video games! Scottie is a punk princess in the best way. What makes her a great MythBuster is the fact that she has fun, stays safe, and seriously blows stuff up. When it’s time to do something dangerous like cut metal with fire, she’s dead serious. But give her a machine gun and a dead pig and she’s gonna make sausage with a smile!
(Scottie A)

In all fairness, Scottie only barely edges out Jamie in my book because, to be totally honest, she’s a lot better looking that he is.

It took me a while to figure out the riots that are tearing France apart. I read a few news blurbs trying to discover the reason behind the civil unrest, but all that was reported was that a couple of “youths” were “accidentally” killed by police. That just didn’t register with me.

That was until I finally found this piece which gives us a peak at the truth behind the riots. The “poor suburbs of Paris were set ablaze” by North African Muslim immigrants.

France has long been courting the Islamic community and welcoming any immigration that might “diversify” France. Now, according to Paris’ police union, the mostly Muslim “ghettos” around Paris are in a state of “civil war”. I am not making this up! The violence has spread to other cities with large Muslim populations and, if you can believe what you read on the internet (yeah, I know), there is currently an influx of illicit money and guns into France with the purpose of arming this “unrest”.

Why is it that mainstream media continues to call this “civil unrest” and the perpetrators “youths”? How can they continue to insist that all this “unrest” was caused when “two youths jumped over the wall of an electrical substation and died, thinking they were being pursued by the police”?! Can someone explain to me the difference between the “unrest” in Paris and the “war” in Chechnya? Could some on clear up the distinction between French “youths” and Iraqi “terrorists”? Yyyeah. That’d be great.