my ragged and duplicitous life

2:37PM - free talking photo program

2:34PM - The History of LOL Cats

http://www.break.com/index/the-history-of-lol-cats.html

2:31PM - Best News Ever! Joss Whedon Spills Exclusive Deets on His New Series

Hear that? It's the sound of Joss Whedon fans around the world freaking the frak out. (And I am one of them!)

I'm thrilled to tell you that just this afternoon, Joss Whedon rang me up to break the news that after a long, Whedonless TV drought, we Buffy fans are finally getting another TV series created by Mr. Whedon himself. Hell. Yeah.

While you scream, hyperventilate and then (hopefully) recover, I will tell you this: The news gets even better.

Whedon's new Fox series, called Dollhouse, stars Miss Eliza Dushku, best known as Faith to you Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. And this show isn't just a pilot. It's already been given a seven-episode commitment by Fox. Woo!

Here's how Fox describes the series:

Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

2:28PM - Young Vin Diesel Shows How to Breakdance

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2:23PM - BONO the rolling stone interview

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17119236/bono_the_rolling_stone_interview?source=music_news_rssfeed

When I was about sixteen, my head exploded. I had violent outbursts. I smashed things up. I went into myself. And I had a kind of poetic reverie, a couple of them, and one was a vision of the future. It was of a single, a 45. The grooves were going round and round, like a spiral, and things started to repeat much quicker.

I don't know whether this was just a bad pint - I'm not ruling that out. But I remember staring at the ceiling and seeing a picture of the world speeding up, things repeating quickly. So the Fifties were going to happen again, the Sixties were going to happen again, and then they'd happen quicker. It was postmodern - there are no new ideas out there, everything is just being repeated. But it was this spiral thing I had. There was the first Buzzcocks EP, which is called Spiral Scratch, and it's like the picture we had in "Vertigo" as well.

Now sometimes when I'm walking down the street, and I see a hippie, a punk and so on, I think, "This is exactly this world I pictured when I was a kid." It's like every age is present in this moment. I don't know what it means, exactly. I don't think it's negative or positive. It's just, we do live in a fractional present. No one mood predominates.

5:58PM - time for a change

please feel free to add me at my other journal if you so desire

whitehorsedown


-xxxx

10:55PM - My photography journal...

ruinfalls

10:54PM - top 10 0f 2005

The official selections of AFI Awards 2005 for top films and TV programs were announced Sunday after two days of deliberations by two juries that selected the year's best in film and television.

The 10 movies are:
"Brokeback Mountain," "King Kong," "40 year old Virgin," "Capote," "Crash," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "A History of Violence," "Munich," "The Squid and the Whale" and "Syriana."

The 10 TV programs are:
"24," "Battlestar Galactica," "Deadwood," "Grey's Anatomy," "House," "Lost," "Rescue Me," "Sleeper Cell,"

10:50PM - Shrekified Narnia?

With the big opening weekend (and second weekend) box office success of the first Chronicles of Narnia film, rumors are that Prince Caspian has already been greenlighted.

I absolutely love, love, LOVE these books….but I was not so thrilled by the movie version of “Wardrobe.” Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, but it was just lacking something. I’m not sure if it’s just because I loved the books so much and it would be hard for a film to match that “magic” for me. I just wanted to like it more than I did. My biggest disappointment was how Aslan came across, he seemed rather bland compared to the powerful character in the books. A couple of reviewers hit on what I’m talking about:

David Downing, author of ‘Into the Wardrobe’, says, "It's an odd feeling to want to love a movie, but to find oneself only liking it. I wasn't disappointed … but I wasn't enthralled either."

Josh Hurst (Reveal) says, Wardrobe is not supposed to be "an action/adventure flick. C.S. Lewis … was big on characterization, good old-fashioned storytelling, the richness of language. Adamson seems more concerned with making a sleek, family-friendly holiday blockbuster, heavy on suspense, PG-rated violence, and wisecracking animal sidekicks. Yes, it's Lewis fans' worst fear—Adamson has essentially Shrekified Narnia." Aslan, he notes, has been reduced to "a mysterious but limited sage" who "never quite reaches the level of roaring power that is so vividly described in the book."

10:48PM - Budget cuts protested

Budget cuts protested

By Gary Emerling
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 15, 2005

More than 100 religious leaders and activists were arrested yesterday for blocking the entrance to a congressional office building in protest of budget cuts they considered "immoral" and oppressive to the poor.

"There is a Christmas scandal in this nation ... and it is the budget that is an assault on poor people and low-income families," said Jim Wallis, founder of the Christian ministry Sojourners, which helped organize the protest. "This budget and these cuts fill the rich with good things and send the poor away hungry."

The protest, in which participants knelt at the entrance of the Cannon House Office Building, was part of a nationwide effort to organize prayer vigils to oppose House budget cuts that would affect such benefits as food stamps, Medicaid and student aid and would save $50 billion over the next five years.

About 300 persons participated in the protest, which began at about 11 a.m. in subfreezing temperatures. Shortly before noon, a crowd moved to the building's steps, where participants knelt in prayer, sang spirituals and ignored three warnings by the U.S. Capitol Police to move away from the building.

Protest organizers said 114 petitioners were arrested for blocking the building's entrance. They were ordered to pay a $50 fine and released.
Mr. Wallis, whose book "God's Politics" counters the conservative right's definitions of religion in the political spectrum, was among those arrested. Civil rights leader John M. Perkins and author Ronald J. Sider also were arrested.

The protest began shortly after leading House and Senate Democrats also invoked the Christmas spirit to help the poor -- by urging Republicans to pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005 before Congress leaves for Christmas recess.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat; Rep. George Miller, California Democrat; and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat and House minority whip, were among those who stood in front of the Capitol Christmas Tree and urged Republicans to increase base wages from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.

"It's a fairness issue," said Mr. Kennedy, whose two previous attempts to pass the act were blocked by Republicans in Congress this year. "That's not the Christmas spirit; that's not the Christmas we believe in."

If it is passed, the act would increase the minimum wage for the first time since 1997. The Democrats cited a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research that said full-time, minimum-wage workers generally live below the poverty level and that the proposed raise would increase their income by more than $1,500 per year.

The report "shows what a difference this would make in the lives of those earning the minimum wage and how it would brighten their holiday season," Mr. Hoyer said. "This is an issue of fairness, of decency and of right."

Mr. Kennedy last proposed the legislation as an amendment in October, when it was defeated by a 51-47 vote in the Senate.

http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20051214-112116-3657r.htm

12:00AM - gone but not forgotten...

as close as I'll ever get the man this side of Heaven...

11:37PM

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

--C.S. Lewis - from "The Problem of Pain"

1:44PM

Driving back to work from my lunch break, while listening to Rush (yes, he’s on my presets right next to NPR), I saw a bumper sticker that read, “Jesus was a liberal! Now what’s your point again?” It’s funny how both the left and the right want to whore out the Son of God for the sake of their political ideologies. The fact is that both Liberals and Conservatives will always be disappointed and confounded by Jesus. He is neither the heavy-handed killjoy cop in the sky of the right nor the limp-wristed sky fairy of the left. As silly as I find both sides to be, they have had me thinking a lot lately.

C.S. Lewis puts it best, "He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself..." Now I’ll admit that politics in general just piss me off, especially the type which we have seen over the last few election cycles. Truth be told, both major ideologies have got some things very very right but those things seem to lose their impact in the stew of egos, agendas, self-righteousness, and power plays. As much as the liberals tick me off, I hold more contempt for the conservatives who claim the name of Christ. When it gets down to it, these conservatives are the same as the liberals they rail against. It boils down to moralism and rerelativism. They are two sides of the same coin.

I recently read a great article by Tim Keller. He expresses some great ideas (though sometimes poorly written) in this paper “The Centrality of the Gospel” (http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/centrality.pdf)

He shows how both moralism and rerelativism are enemies or “thieves” to hear of what Jesus gave and taught us. He explains them as two false ways of thinking:

“… there were two basic false ways of thinking, each of which "steals" the power and the distinctiveness of the gospel (of Jesus) from us by pulling us…to one side or the other. These two errors are very powerful, because they represent the natural tendency of the human heart and mind…These “thieves” can be called, moralism and relativism. Another way to put it is: the gospel (of Jesus) opposes both religion and irreligion.”

…"moralism/religion" stresses truth without grace, for it says that we must obey the truth in order to be saved.

…"relativists/irreligion" stresses grace without truth, for they say that we are all accepted by God (if there is a God) and we have to decide what is true for us.

... But "truth" without grace is not really truth, and "grace" without truth is not really grace. Jesus was "full of grace and truth".

Keller goes on to define moralism and rerelativism and offer the “thrid way” of the gospel.

“Moralism is the view that you are acceptable (to God, the world, others, yourself) through your attainments. (Moralists do not have to be religious, but often are.) When they are, their religion is pretty conservative and filled with rules. Sometimes moralists have views of God as very holy and just. This view will lead either to self-hatred (because you can't live up to the standards), or self-inflation (because you think you have lived up to the standards). It is ironic to realize that inferiority and superiority complexes have the very same root. Whether the moralist ends up smug and superior or crushed and guilty just depends on how high the standards are and on a person's natural advantages (such as family, intelligence, looks, willpower). Moralistic people can be deeply religious--but there is no transforming joy or power.

Relativists are usually irreligious, or else prefer what is called "liberal" religion. On the surface, they are more happy and tolerant than moralist/religious people. Though they may be highly idealistic in some areas (such as politics), they believe that everyone needs to determine what is right and wrong for them. They are not convinced that God is just and must punish sinners. Their beliefs in God will tend to see Him as loving or as an impersonal force. They may talk a great deal about God's love, but since they do not think of themselves as sinners, God's love for us costs him nothing. If God accepts us, it is because he is so welcoming, or because we are not so bad. The concept of God's love in the gospel is far more rich and deep and electrifying.

( moralism and rerelativism are the same?…is there a third way? )

1:40PM - this is nuts...

"I loathe careerism and the herd mentality,I really think that objective truth can be discovered and that popular opinion and consensus thinking does more to obscure than to reveal."

( so much for truth seeking... )

1:38PM

the images on my tv screen are breaking my heart...I don't even have the words...

10:33PM - emergency in niger

Right now in Niger, West Africa, an estimated 3.6 million people are in critical need of food, including 800,000 children under the age of five who are at risk of starvation. Drought and locust swarms devastated crops throughout the country.

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 176 out of 177 nations listed in the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report. Every year an estimated 166,000 children in Niger die from preventable diseases and almost 70 percent of the country's 12 million people do not have access to health services.

World Vision is currently on the ground in Niger, responding to the crisis. But we need your help. Your gift today will provide lifesaving food to children and families in Niger, West Africa. And thanks to grants from the U.S. government and the World Food Programme, your gift today will double in impact.

donate here
http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=1241388&cmp=EMC-1124329§ion=10023&xxwvCampaign=1124329

11:25PM

click only if you want to weird yourself out...

http://www.eviltree.de/zoomquilt/zoom.htm

10:44PM

"Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time."
-C. S. Lewis

10:28PM - 5 Top 5’s: Movie Edition

You know you wanna...do this on your journal too:

Top 5 Nostalgic Movies
Movies that remind you of your childhood:
5. Legend (great 80's fantasy movie with tom cruise)
4. Escape From New York (kick ass action)
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (nothing more be said)
2. National Lampoon’s Family Vacation (ahhh the classics)
1. Wizard of Oz
(before buying movies were affordable, this would come on once a year and was a huge event in my house. Mom would fix popcorn and snacks and I would set in front of the tv in my sleeping bag...to be a kid again!)

Top 5 Summer Movies
Guilty pleasure big budget summer action movies
5. Terminator-2
4. Armageddon
3. Con Air
2. Top Gun
1. Point Break (OK I'm the only person who really enjoys this movie...really I think I am.)

Top 5 Quotable movies
Movies you drive your friends crazy quoting
5. Swingers
(it's money!)
4. Weird Science
("Why are you messing with the fantasy? We know about the reality. Don't ruin the fantasy, OK?")
3. Anchor Man
(Baxter, you know I don't speak Spanish!)
2. Pulp Fiction
("Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration?" -Jules is the man!)
1. Office space

Peter Gibbons: Well see, they wrote all this bank software, and, uh, to save space, they used two digits instead of four. So, like, 98 instead of 1998? Uh, so I go through these thousands of lines of code and, uh... it doesn't really matter. I uh, I don't like my job, and, uh, I don't think I'm gonna go anymore.
Joanna: You're just not gonna go?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Joanna: Won't you get fired?
Peter Gibbons: I don't know, but I really don't like it, and, uh, I'm not gonna go.
Joanna: So you're gonna quit?
Peter Gibbons: Nuh-uh. Not really. Uh... I'm just gonna stop going.
Joanna: When did you decide all that?
Peter Gibbons: About an hour ago.
Joanna: An hour ago... so you're gonna get another job?
Peter Gibbons: I don't think I'd like another job.
Joanna: Well, what are you going to do about money and bills and...
Peter Gibbons: You know, I've never really liked paying bills. I don't think I'm gonna do that, either.
Joanna: So what do you wanna do?
Peter Gibbons: First I'm gonna take you out to dinner, and then I'm gonna go back to my apartment and watch kung fu. Do you ever watch kung fu?

Top 5 Music Movies

5. 8 mile
4. Spinal Tap
3. High Fidelity
2. The Doors
1. Rock School

Top 5 war movies

5. The Patriot
4. Gods and Generals
3. Full Metal Jacket
2. The Great Escape
1. To End All Wars (go rent it NOW!)

11:36PM

Some shots of blindside from their show a few weeks ago here in Louisville








listen to their new song "Fell in love with the game" here:
http://www.blindsideonline.com/