Tammy’s out of town this weekend and I decided to treat myself to a big movie weekend. I logged on to the internet movie database and picked several off of my wish list. Then I headed to the video store. When I walked in, the clerk smiled and said, “Hi, Trint.” Is it just me or is it weird that he knows my name. He doesn’t even ask for my phone number when I check out anymore. It’s not like I watch movies every weekend. Gosh!

One of the DVDs I picked was Napoleon Dynamite. I’ve been hearing so much about it and it seems so divisive (either you hate it or think it’s “friggin’ awesome”), I’ve been dying to see what all the hype is about.

I’m not sure I can fit this film into my normal “grins” rating system. It’s just too unconventional. Certainly it is a comedy, but it’s not a ha-ha laugh out loud comedy (although I did a few times). It doesn’t follow any Hollywood norms (which I usually praise movies for) and even the nerdy clichés have some inventiveness to them.

I’d have to say I enjoyed the show, but it did leave me… contemplative. While I occasionally laughed and often snickered at the plight of the socially handicapped cast, deep down inside me a 14-year-old kid with uncontrollable, spiky hair, poorly fitting clothes, and braces cried.

After watching the movie, I sat down at my computer. I wanted to see if any of my multitude of on-line friends were on. Neither of them were. I checked to see what was going on on my on-line role playing game, but all was quiet. I looked up at my mint condition theatrical release Lord of the Rings movie poster, then to might right, at my complete collection of LotR figurines from Burger King (that actually talk… awesome). I began to think, “Jeez… Maybe I am a nerd. Maybe I am Napoleon Dynamite.”

When I returned the DVD to the video store, the weekend clerk was there. He doesn’t know my name or my phone number. As he was retrieving my next set of movies, all comic book inspired, he asked me if I liked Napoleon. “Eh, it was pretty good.” Then he asked me if I had ever seen “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”… as he was handing me the DVD for “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”. “Umm. No. That’s why I’m renting it.”

“It’s really cool… if you’re into comic books and stuff. It’s kinda weird, but if you ever read the comic book then it’s really cool. Have you seen…”

Then he went into a long list of similarly nerdy flicks which I had not seen, some not even heard of. Suddenly, all was right with the world again. God had reminded me just in time that the difference between geek and nerd is like the difference between pi and 22/7. Not even close… after the first few digits.

Don’t forget, boys and girls, “Geek is sheik.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a +30% damage crossbow that’s crying out for orc blood. Friggin’ awesome!

Just a few days ago, I posted about an extravagant homeless project in L.A. The Midnight Mission recently completed a new $17 million facility, which seems like a lot of money that may have been better spent on programs to rehabilitate than on a building.

Well, today I got a comment straight from the horses mouth. To be honest, I’m flattered that my little blog got the attention of someone in direct connection with the mission. The comment was so well articulated and addressed nearly every point of my post that I had to give it its own place. The following was posted by Justin Wisniewski, who gave his email address as volunteer@midnightmission.org. If he’s a fake, at least he’s a good one. Hats off, Justin.

There are many problems inherent in this article.

First and foremost, The Midnight Mission is a privately funded organization and does not receive your tax dollars for its operation.

Secondly, The Midnight Mission is not a SHELTER. It’s a transitional housing program that uses a drug and alcohol recovery program, counseling, education, training, and job placement to build a bridge back to self sufficiency for those individuals in need. People don’t just get to walk in and get a free ride, they have to sign up for the program which usually runs anywhere from 18 – 24 months.

The “Hair Salon” is nothing more than a three chair barber shop that is actually run by individuals living in The Midnight Mission’s recovery program.

The “Movies” are a large communal day room where a projector shows various movies, TV shows, or current events on a white wall. The room is more of a respite center to get out of the rain, heat, cold, or just the dog eat dog environment of the streets.

And if you’ve ever seen an individual coming off the streets who has been addicted to drugs or alcohol, you know that they are in desperate need of physical recovery. The Gym offers a place for a person to get that need. If you think you can complain about it, remember that even the YMCA was new once, and those were free centers for individuals to use.

Before passing judgment on an organization you may know very little about, please take the time to research what The Midnight Mission stands for, and try coming down to the center to volunteer for the day. It will change your opinions and open you to a true plight on our streets.

In fact, I have “seen an individual coming off the streets who has been addicted to drugs or alcohol”, many of them, some of whom became regular acquaintances. If it were not for my experience at Faith City Mission in Amarillo, and a few other unrelated instances, I would not be so hard on the homeless system.

In fact, I did do some research on the story before I posted (I always do), but all I was able to find were more references to detracting stories. I apologize that I did not dig a bit deeper. But, the funny thing is that your rebuttal made all of my points valid. Any venture that proposes to help those in need must help them help themselves. And, if you what you say is true, Midnight Mission does just that. Once again, hats off.

My nephew, Dustin Ladd, and his sweetie, Ashlee are new parents! Brycen was born yesterday and the official report from his grandma is that, “He is just beautiful.” I’ll be sure to remind him how beautiful he is in about 14 years when he’ll really appreciate it.

So, since he was born the same day that the new pope was elected, is his nickname going to be Benedicto Ex Vee Eye? Cuz you know the kids in middle school would really dig that.

What I’m really wondering is when Dustin started painting his fingernails. (See photo evidence to the left.) I know they didn’t teach you that in the Army, Soldier!!

(Via Drudge) This week the city of Los Angeles opens its latest crowning achievement, the $17 million “Midnight Mission” homeless shelter, complete with a full gym, movie room, and hair salon. It’s never been easier to be homeless! If I lived in L.A., I’d sure be tempted to give up the daily grind and go watch free movies, eat free food, and enjoy free hair do’s all day.

I don’t pretend to be a great social architect but it seems to me that 17 million dollars could put a heck of a lot of homeless people in career training or create a fair amount of low-income housing. I’m not alone in this thought. Apparently the National Alliance to End Homelessness is pretty upset at this gross misappropriation. The organization’s president, Nan Roman says:

“Since the late 1980s, America has built a mammoth infrastructure of shelters and the number of homeless has gone up, not down. It’s a bit of the if-you-build-it-they-will-come phenomenon at work.”

I think it’s very telling that each great success story on the road to liberal socialism becomes a perfect picture of why liberal socialism doesn’t work. Give a man a fish and he’ll be back tomorrow with a dozen friends wanting more free fish. Where does it end?

When I was in junior college, I was part of a group of students from the Baptist Student Union that worked one night a month at Faith City Mission. The cool thing about Faith City was that it wasn’t free. If you came in to the mission for a hot meal and warm bed, you’d get it, but only after you signed in and got a packet containing info on various day-labor businesses in the area. If you wanted to stay another night, you could, but only if you brought back paper proof that you visited the job placement places and made an honest effort to find work. If you expect a man to learn to fish for himself, you need to give him incentive and make sure he says fed while he learns. Have I beaten that analogy enough for today? I think so.

Read the complete article here.

Did you get your taxes done on time?

Be thankful that we don’t get as much government as we pay for.

A few weeks ago, I linked to an article in which a woman found a human finger in her Wendy’s chili. Gross, yes. But ever since infamous 1992 Stella v McDonald’s hot coffee case, any legal claim against a fast food giant has had to be looked at very carefully.

Now, first I want to be fair to poor old Stella. It turns out that the “Micky D’s coffee burned my butt” case has been pretty badly misrepresented. You can read all the details in this article, but Stella did receive third degree burns, requiring skin grafts, from coffee that, as a policy, was served at almost 200 degrees! (Youch!) AND, the $3 million dollar jury award was reduced to $600k by the judge. None the less, the case did spawn the age of the Stella Awards.

Now, back to Wendy’s. Police in Las Vegas seem to be very concerned over the fact that Anna Ayala, the finger-lickin’ victim, “has a history of filing lawsuits – including a claim against another fast-food restaurant.” So concerned, in fact, that the LVPD fraud division got a search warrant for Ayala’s house.

The problem with Anna’s case is that no one can get their hands on the short handed source of the offending digit. All searches have come up empty handed. According to Wendy’s, “The employees at the San Jose store were found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy’s ingredients have reported any hand or finger injuries.” Hmm. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something seems amiss.

Anna’s defense? The police are “out to get her.” Uh huh…

“Lies, lies, lies, that’s all I am hearing,” she said. “They should look at Wendy’s. What are they hiding? Why are we being victimized again and again?”

More finger pointing. In the end it comes down to a matter who’s telling the truth. If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit!

Unfortunately for Anna, Johnnie Cochran is busy defending another client… giving his closing arguments at the big courtroom in the sky.

Read the complete article here.

It’s that time of year again.

Dear IRS, Please cancel my subscription.

Do you have tender, childhood memories of “Sesame Street”? I sure do. Silly old Ernie endlessly pestering poor old Bert. Big Bird’s wide-eyed naivete. Kermit’s soft hearted interaction with kids my age. Good old, well meaning Grover, the worst waiter ever. And, of course, that great blue haired glutton, Cookie Monster. Well, if you share those precious memories with me; if you feel all warm and fuzzy inside with you hear that familiar toon (“Sunny day. Everything’s A-OK”); if you too long for the simple days of yore… GET OVER IT! Grow up! Act your age! And, most importantly, do NOT scarf down whole platefuls of cookies in a crumb flinging binge!!!

Yes, it’s true. Life is not the sunny days and a-ok’s we were promised. If you live in a trash can, you’re not a grouch, you’re a drunk. If you call your male roommate “good buddy” and your beds are next to each other, you’re probably gay. If you’re a waiter who can’t tell the difference between a bowl of soup and a straw hat, you’re going to be unemployed! And if you consume cookies fast enough to choke a snuffaluffagus, you’re going to die of obesity-induced diabetes!!

Sadly, our old sunny neighborhood has made quite a few concessions to reality since you and I left. (I blame that little falsetto fiend Elmo.) For example, this season “Sesame Street” is focusing on childhood obesity. Yep. You guessed it. Cookie Monster is on a diet. Oh, rest assured the left-leaning loons who run PBS (on our tax dollars) firmly deny that Mr. Monster has a “problem”. They have taken the cover-up and spin approach.

“We are not putting him on a diet … We’re teaching him moderation.”

So says, Dr. Rosemarie T. Truglio, the show’s vice president of research and education. Suuuure. Moderation. Like I’m going to fall for that one! I’ll bet they’ve got our poor furry friend tied to a chair in some dark room, force feeding him lettuce wrapped tofu! OH THE HUMANITY!!

Read the very entertaining full article at cnn.com. Link courtesy of PvP Online.

The process of creating a new world for our Ultima Online game server has passed a mile stone. The map is finished, at least finished enough to start building towns and decorating dungeons. I still have some tweaking to do here and there to fix glitches produced by the map compiler program, UOLandscaper.

Other than tweaking the map, I need to finish drawing the “paper map” image that will be used for treasure maps, etc., and drawing a smaller version for the web site that players will use to learn their way around the new world.

I’ve already updated the new, unreleased web site with descriptions of the new races and classes, and I’ve finished my first draft of the world history that will be used as a back story for events and quests that we put together to keep the players occupied.

Mean while, on the live server, we’ve started the process of ending the world, so to speak. We kicked off an event this week that is the first in the story arc that we came up with to set up our move to the new server. I won’t go into detail, as I don’t want to give away all the goods in case any of our players happen across my blog.

If any readers think they might be interested in playing UO, check out the current game site and feel free to ask me any questions you have about getting started.

I’ve been delinquent in my posting again, so I figure it’s time for another personal update. It’s funny how owning a digital camera changes the way you record your life. The other night, I dumped the digi-cam onto my computer, all 200 or so pictures. It was then that I realized how far behind I am in telling the story of my life to those who are interested. (For the rest of you… Sorry. Deal with it.)

Back on March 5th, our youth drama group, The Bottom Line, had a landmark performance. They did an opening sketch for this year’s Disciple Now. The theme for DNow this year was the awesomeness of God. Youth Minister Bill asked me to put something together for that theme and the end result was a moving “reader’s theater” style piece that contrasted the real meaning of the word awesome with the way it’s been trivialized in the lingo of today’s youth. The performance was aw… um… it was really good.

On March 12th, Tammy and I experienced a real land mark. In preparation for my big trip to the Tetons in August, we met up with the rest of they guys from the expedition at Mineral Wells. It was the first time since Tammy’s rock climbing accident in 1999 that we successfully climbed live rock (that means climbing outside). We’ve been gym climbing since a few months after her accident, but phobias (mostly on my part) kept us from being comfortable on live rock, away from the safety of man made walls. It was a fun day and we both climbed really well. The other members of the expedition learned more about rope work and belaying. It was an all around success.

For the entire month of March, I’ve been making the drive to church (during rush out it takes about 45 minutes) twice a week to practice for our Easter musical, “Believe”. Due to casting issues, I handed over the director’s chair to Ron Buck (who did a fantastic job) and I took on the role of Pilate. Tammy managed all the back stage stuff, from costumes and props, to extras and make up. As usual, she was the glue that held the show together. (Thanks punkin!)

The week before a production is always pretty crazy, but with Ron directing, I didn’t have to be there every night. I got Monday off. *wink* We managed to get home before 11 PM all week, better than the Christmas show. Performances were on April 2nd and 3rd (yes, the week after Easter) and except for some minor tech issues, the shows were all perfect!

Spring has sprung, and Tammy and I are both eager to get outside. I managed to ride my bike to work once this week, but another cold snap has kept me from any more than that. My plan is to ride my bike to work everyday this summer. With gas prices retarded high and my trip coming up, I’ve got no excuse not to put the bike to good use.

This weekend is Tammy’s birthday. Not just any birthday, but the dreaded 30th! She has tried so hard to give me a hard time about being over 30 (to no avail). Now it’s time. *wink* Sadly, we’ve been unable to coordinate anything with our friends. Between folks hauling there kids to this or that and a others suffering through morning sickness, it’s just been impossible to put together the party Tammy deserves. (No! Tammy is NOT pregnant. Bite your tongue.) We are going to Six Flags with the Preeces on Sunday afternoon, but I’m pretty bummed that I couldn’t put together something better.

I think that covers the high points. Sorry for getting behind again. I shall strive to improve.