Snow Falls

While on the marriage retreat this weekend, we had some free time and were able to visit Snow Falls in West Paris, ME.

From Duty to Delight

This weekend we attended a marriage retreat at the Mollyockett Motel in West Paris, Maine.

It was an incredible weekend in a variety of ways. We traveled over with some friends that we go to church with in a 15-passenger van, which led to all kinds of bonding time. A 2 ½ hour ride lends itself to plenty of conversation and hijinks. The weekend ended up being a great time for not only bonding with friends, but for bonding with my wife and learning how to get even more out of a great marriage.

Some people think your marriage is in trouble when you say you are going to a marriage retreat. This is not the case. My wife and I have a great relationship already, but that doesn't mean we can't learn new things that are going to push our marriage to a even better, newer level. Someone this weekend made this analogy about the retreat: If you want to keep your car running at its best, you don't neglect it. You keep the tank filled, the oil changed, and air in the tires. This can be applied to marriage. We were at the retreat for a tune-up, and we got it. There a many things about our marriage that we wouldn't change, because they work, but this gave us the opportunity to look at some areas we would like to improve in and the steps we want to take to achieve this.

The most eye-opening session this weekend was called "Realistic Expectations". The presentation was about how we come into our marriage with all these "unspoken" rules that we learned as a child in our homes that we not only brought into adulthood, but also into marriage. This hit home because I am the child of an alcoholic, therefore I could easily have plenty of baggage coming into marriage, and because of the situation I grew up in, I could easily display these traits knowingly or unknowingly, whether I am a drinker or not. Thank God, I know that I have some issues that I have worked through before I got married, but it still is a matter of daily prayer and vigilance to overcome these scars and traits.

After the expectations discussion, we were given a chance to go back to our rooms and talk with our spouses about whether we came into our marriage with these unwritten rules and whether we had some unrealistic expectations we had forced on our other half, and if we had, what could we do to make more realistic expectations. It was a great time of soul searching and prayer.

But not all was serious this weekend. We had plenty of free time to chat with other couples, see old friends, and make new ones. We had some free time on Saturday to see the sites.

Overall, a great weekend. My wife and I have come back from this retreat feeling like we had a great tune-up for our marriage and we can’t wait to see what God has in store for us.

Freshly Fallen Snow

Snow has been a rare thing here in Maine this winter. Usually we are in snow at least to our waists and it is nasty cold. Not this year though.

So, when we got a couple of inches of the white stuff the other day, I took the opportunity to snap some photos ('cause the snow might not last). Here is one of them. I had a vision of some Ansel Adams-like photo that I was trying to achieve. I don't think I got it.

Marriage Retreat

Posting has been light this week due to my excessive and often late Halo 2 playing on Xbox Live, but no posting this weekend as we are going to be gone on a marriage retreat.

As soon as work is over tomorrow me and the mrs. are getting picked up by our friends and we are heading for the luxurious location of South Paris. Maine that is. Population 302 (just guessing). It is an all inclusive weekend at a hotel that has an indoor pool and a hot tub. I think I'll get in the hot tub and cook myself like a lobster!

All kidding aside, it is going to be a great time to get encouraged and explore this lifelong journey that my wife and I have embarked on called marriage. Can't wait to see what God has in store for us.

I also can't wait to see what is in South Paris, Maine. Or is it Norway...

Goldilocks and the Gum Balls

This week's Taste Like Chicken by Mr. Josh Alves.

Home Ownership II

Remember my post about the extremely freakish weather here in Maine last week? Here is the hole in my house:

Now, the repair guy assured us that no destructive amount of snow or rain is going to get in there before he fixes it. But these guys make me nervous:

The Goodfeathers here are perching on the chimney next door. Just stay there until I get the gaping maw in my eaves fixed, okay?

Flock?

Monkey Bites leads the way to Flock, a Mozilla-based open source browser with some cool features.

I've just downloaded it and am going to give it a try. Remember, it is between its Alpha and Beta release, so it's bound to be buggy and unreliable.

Don't give up using your Firefox or IE yet...

Keyboard Shortcuts for your Mac

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am always looking for things to make computer use easier since I use it so much. Appleology has come across some very useful Keyboard shortcuts that I’ll be employing from now on (Link via TUAW).

Why use the mouse when you don’t have too?

Using the control key, and several different function keys (F2, F3, F4, F8), you can navigate through many key parts of Mac OS X with your keyboard alone.
Holding down the control key with:

* the F2 key enables you to navigate with the left side of the menu bar.
* the F3 key enables you to navigate the dock, using the left and right arrow keys to move between icons and the up and down arrow keys to view the navigate thought the contextual menu.
* the F4 key enables you to cycle through all of the open windows.
* the F8 key enables you to navigate through the right side of the menu bar. (Only works with some menu bar icons.)

Note that on laptops you must also hold down the FN key.

There you have it. Moving through the dock mouseless is now as easy as pie.

LIVE BABY!!!!!!

Posting will be very light over the next few days because I got Xbox Live!!!!

I'm online getting blasted by ten-year-olds, but boy is it fun!!!

Tastes Like Chicken

The Latest "Tastes Like Chicken" by Josh Alves is here.

2006 Movie Preview

MSNBC points out some highlights for the 2006 movie season. I hope they are right, because when I went to see Kong the previews they showed were horrid. I wouldn’t watch most of them. The movie industry is going to have another poor outing if they continue to release these mediocre to poor features.

Proposed highlights for this year. I’ll pick my highlights from their highlights:

“Superman Returns” (June 30)
“X3” (May 26)
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (July 7)
“Casino Royale” (Nov. 17)
“Cars” (June 9)
“Underworld Evolution” (Jan. 20)

Here is the iffy one:

“Miami Vice” (July 28): Michael Mann oversaw the TV cop show that helped define hip ’80s style and music. Now he’s got Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell as his smooth new undercover cops as they take on Miami drug runners.

Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell playing the parts forever immortalized by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas? I don’t see it happening.

Here are the ones I won’t touch and I don’t think the movie industry should have either:

“World Trade Center,” (August), “Flight 93” (April 28): Have we reached that point where the shock of Sept. 11, 2001, has worn off sufficiently where we want to see the events reprised on the big screen?

The curiosity factor — and two very different approaches — bode well for the first theatrical dramatizations about the terrorist attacks.

Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” stars Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena in the real-life story of Port Authority policemen trapped in the rubble of the twin towers.

“Flight 93,” directed by Paul Greengrass (“Bloody Sunday,” “The Bourne Supremacy”) uses a casts of unknowns as passengers who fought back against terrorists on the plane that crashed Sept. 11 in rural Pennsylvania.

While both of these stories are tragic and inspiring at the same time, I don’t think America is ready for a dramatization of the events of 9/11. It is too soon. Maybe in a few years yes, but not yet.

Of course, anything with Nicolas Cage in it is iffy to begin with.

Lunch anyone?

An unlikely pairing at a Tokyo zoo. A rat snake and a hamster.

If I was the snake I would have ate the hamster by now.

Home ownership is great...

Unless you are having extremely freakish weather. Came home to find the metal flashing had been torn off the front of my house, exposing a huge rotted hole that the previous owner never fixed, just covered over.

If it was frigid and windy, that would be fine, but it is an abnormal 53 degrees here and now there is water spraying into my attic.

Great...

Posting might be kinda light

I took some of my old X Box games to our local Bull Moose store yesterday and got enough credit out of it to get XIII and Halo 2. I’ll be busy playing those for awhile.

And if all goes according to planned, I might have X Box live by the weekend!!!

Now I just have to find a really long Ethernet cord and remember how to set up my crap Linksys Router with my Mac…

Entertainment Weekly’s Must List

The only thing I personally am interested in on EW's Must List: The Matador. Sounds like a good flick and I have heard nothing but good things about it.

Plus, I'm really disappointed that Pierce Brosnan is no longer James Bond. It will be cool seeing him playing a hitman.

Steve Jobs Interview

Found this on the MSNBC/Newsweek site: an interview with Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.

New Hellboy Comic on the Way

Here is the press release for the new Hellboy two-parter coming out called Hellboy: Makoma, or, A Tale Told by a Mummy in the New York City Explorers’ Club on August 16, 1993 #1.

Look for issue #1 to hit the stores February 1.

Watership Down

I got Watership Down by Richard Adams as a Christmas gift from my wonderful in-laws. I'm 50 pages in an intrigued so far.

While most of you were reading the classics in high school, I was reading Fantastic Four comics and Stephen King novels (which I both still enjoy), so I am a little behind on my reading.

I'll let you know what I thought when I am done.

Tastes Like Chicken

No, I'm not talking about eating snake, alligator, or track rabbit (rats).

I am referring to a local guy by the name of Josh Alves (pronounced "Elves" with an "A"). He is a graphic designer and draws a cartoon for a local paper. The comic is called "Tastes Like Chicken".

After checking out his blog, I find that he is a pretty cool artist. Very reminiscent of Huberto Ramos (Spectacular Spider-Man) in his style, who is one of my faves.

Worth checking out his site. I particularly enjoyed "May the Fork be with Us".

Ray and Jane

Here is the picture that I colored for my sister-in-law for Christmas. I didn't do much to the photo itself in terms of repair, just took a few of the major scratches out. I didn't even touch the fading on the right side.

But I did add a hint of color to the clothing on the grandparents. Nothing dramatic, because I didn't want to change the feel of the picture, but colored in the jackets and slacks with what I thought were appropriate colors for the era of the photo.

I also did the hat, which was kind of a fun touch.

“Vampire” to run for Minnesota governor

Minnesota sure suddenly sounds like an interesting place to live. Jesse “The Body” Ventura was elected governor in 1998, and he is certainly an interesting fellow to say the least.

Well, Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, running on the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party ticket, is throwing his hat into the ring to be governor. Sharkey’s highlights:

- A Satanist- He’s okay with Jesus though. It is God the Father he doesn’t like.

- He claims to respect all religions and if elected, will post “everything from the Ten Commandments to the Wicca Reed” in government buildings

- He pledged to execute convicted murders and child molesters personally by impaling them on a wooden pole outside the state capitol.

- He’s a vampire “just like you see in the movies and TV.”
“I sink my fangs into the neck of my donor ... and drink their blood,” he said, adding that his donor is his wife, Julie.

Sounds like quite a guy. I bet he will actually get plenty of votes.

Lost- The numbers make the rounds

Seen a lot of the "numbers" from Lost lately? 4 8 15 16 23 42 are everywhere on the show. The hatch, the lottery, so forth and so on.

Well, the numbers are showing up in some interesting places besides on the tv show.

Catwoman #51 features a cover with the numbers:

There are the famous numbers on the mug shot sign. Way to go DC for a little pop-culture cross pollination.

Also look for the numbers to make an appearance on the January 25th episode of UPN's Veronica Mars.

We've finally taken the plunge

We have finally arrived in the 21st century and have joined Netflix!

We signed up for the basic package, which is one DVD at a time, unlimited discs, for 9.99. We figured by the time we rented two movies at our local movie place, it cost almost $10 anyway, so we might as well spend $10 and get as many as we want.

They do only come one at a time, but there is supposedly only a one day turnaround once you send a disc back, so we will see how it goes.

The first disc in our queu, The Phantom of the Opera.

Lost-The Black Cloud

What an episode!!!! The mysterious Mr. Eko definitely had a shady past. The real remarkable thing about this show is the mysterious black cloud that went one on one with Eko. The obvious question about the cloud besides "what is it", is what were the images on the backside of the cloud as it faced Eko. The images were too quick or me to really catch anything. I found a site this morning that screen captured the images.

Here is the link.

The images appear to be Eko's memories. Now, some on the official Lost message boards are talking about that the cloud might be a "demon". I don't think so. As the cloud was sorting through Eko's memories, it sounded to me like an old computer cranking away churning data. I really think the cloud is part of the "security system".

It was just plain cool that Eko took on the system, and apparently won.

This will be very intersting to see how this plays out. Can't wait until next week!

You're feeding us Chili?

I am going to our church's men mentoring men group tonight. Last year we did a video series by Gene Getz called "The Measure of a Man", based on 1 Timothy 3:1-7, on how to be a Godly man.

To kick off "man-group" for 2006 and to talk about what we are going to study this year, somebody decided to feed us all chili.

A room full of men eating meat and beans. This could get ugly.

Meet and Eat

Okay, creepy story number two of the day. MSNBC headlines this one with “German cannibal finds biopic in poor taste”. Are you kidding me?

Kerri Russell stars in an apparently fictionalized version of Armin Miewes story which basically is that he met this guy online and the guy volunteered to be killed and eaten by Miewes. That is just sick. Miewes is suing to keep the film off the big screen and to make sure there isn’t a "false and stigmatized" view of cannibalism when he goes to trial. A little late for that don’t you think?

"I feel used," said Meiwes, who filmed the killing and confessed to the crime but denied it was murder since his victim volunteered to be eaten.

He feels used? What about the guy he ate!?!?

This is just plain creepy

The mummified body of a woman who didn’t want to be buried was found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death, authorities said.

But which part is creepier? The fact that the woman’s mummified body was found only after the AC kicked out and her corpse was stinking up the neighborhood, or the fact that there was family living downstairs with the dead body.

Intel-based Apple Computers hit the market

The day has finally arrived. Today at the Mac Expo, Steve Jobs unveiled two new computers on sale now that are Intel powered: The MacBook Pro and the iMac.

Both models look awesome, and the price is right for the features that are packed into these two machines.

But, like anything new technology, I am going to wait until the little quirks are worked out before I buy.

Look for Apple to start taking over even more of the computer market share than it already did last year as the machines become more plentiful due to the Intel chips and people get tired of dealing with Windows viruses.

Josh Lucas you Two-Face...

IGN (via Batman-on-Film) is reporting that Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama, Glory Road), is in the running to play the dual role of "Two-Face/Harvey Dent" in the next Batman installment.

Yeah, I can see it. Or at least I can't picture anyone else right now that would fit the bill.

Did I mention that Dennis Quaid would be a perfect Joker?

Of Mice and Men

Nature strikes back as a vengeful mouse sets a house on fire.

An 81-year-old guy threw the mouse in a pile of burning leaves to get rid of it. That’s just mean. The burning mouse ran toward the house and the thing caught fire destroying the dwelling. Though the mouse most likely gave his life…

Mouse 1, man 0.

Where in the world...

EL over at Meaningful Albums is really getting the Winter blues early and is sharing with us some potential travel plans.

Which made me think, where do I want to go?

Philadelphia- We have some friends that just moved to Philly and it would be great to visit them. But also, it would be cool to see King Tut in all his glory at the Franklin Institute. Pull out the couch friends, we're coming for a visit.

Egypt- You can possibly see a pattern developing here can't you? I love the ancient pharaohs, so I would love to go to the land of pyramids and kings. I'd also love to ride a camel across the desert. That would be awesome!

Rome- C'mon. What ancient history buff doesn't want to do Rome. I want to see the Coliseum, the Forum, Capitoline Hill, well just everything. I'll take plenty of pics on this historic journey, maybe even find myself a nice villa in the Italian countryside...

Greece- Can't do Rome without doing Greece. Two of the most influential societies in the world's history. Got to visit them both.

Olympic National Park (Washington State)- I have seen some absolutely stunning photos from this park, and I'd like to go myself and take some of my own photos.

Now I have to check with my wife to see where she wants to go...

Comic Book Movies

Thanks to the Holiday Gift Giving Season, my comic-based movie collection has grown by leaps and bounds.

My mom, with my wife's help, bought me The Punisher and The Crow. In my humble opinion, two awesome movies. It seems to me when I went to see The Punisher at the movies, the scene where Frank Castle's family gets run over by the thugs was way more brutal, as in you could actually see them go beneath the vehicle. No guts and gore mind you, but you definitely saw the heinous act. Not so on the DVD. One minute they are running, cut to them falling, then cut to the vehicle driving on. Not as gruesome. Maybe this was the way it was at the theater, and my faulty memory is tricking me.

Then my wonderful wife surprised me by getting me The Fantastic Four. Once again, I think this movie was awesome. I was very skeptical when I first saw some of the images before the movie was released, but once I was at the theater, I was not disappointed. Like the Hulk, which was horrible, I was simply excited to see it to watch a childhood favorite hit the big screen. I love the Hulk comics as a child and basically grew up reading The Fantastic Four. I still read the FF.

Comic movies to look forward to this year (to my knowledge so far) are X3 and V for Vendetta.

X3

Just checked out the teaser trailer for X3. The X-Men franchise has been awesome so far, and I expect this one to be no different. Kitty Pryde, Hank McCoy (Beast) and Angel make appearances in this one.

Hard to tell who the baddies are still, but you can bet they are going to nasty.

Release date appears to be May 6, 2006.

I gotta get this!!!

I was at my buddy Peter's house Saturday night and we played Halo 2 on X-Box Live. Our friend Scott was there, too. It was neat because we could all logon and play as Peter's guests.

I guess it is time to start hocking the old games and get the online gaming package.

It was awesome! We were probably getting hammered by 10 year olds, but it was still cool to play with a lot of different people.

Occasionally, we get a group together and play, but that involves lots of game consoles, routers, and back breaking TV moving. With Live we can all play together and talk via the headset.

My best game last night was King of the Hill. I came in third. Go figure. In the other games I was near the bottom of the barrel, but occupying space rather than a frag rate seemed to work in my favor.

Now, how do I run a cable all the way to my attic where the widescreen TV is...

Who knew?

Well, as I ranted the other day about movie etiquette, little did I know I would actually be quoted in a public forum.

Our pastor, Mark, quoted my little etiquette rant in his sermon this morning as an opening illustration.

After the first few songs are played, we have a meet and greet time during our service. While the parishoners were talking amonst themselves, Mark looks at me with a mischievous gleam in his eye and says, "I'm going to quote you in the sermon this morning."

My mind raced, wondering what I had said in the last week that was worthy of quoting. Then I hoped it was a good thing.

Apparently it was.

Thanks, Mark, for using my little rant as an illustration.

Now maybe the Emily Post Institute will pick me up as a contributor (insert maniacal laughing here).

Welcome to the blogosphere

Our friends have just joined the blogosphere, with two very different blogs. EL (we'll call her), has just chimed in with Meaningful Albums. She keeps my wife in Creative Memories goods (btw, her parents loved the album, EL!!!). Meaningful Albums' focus is going to be on photography and Creative Memories, but look for some great insights from this one as well.

EL's husband has also got the blog itch, so I present to you Beyond Existence. This blog will primarily focus on the happenings of our youth group at church. I think we might see a personal blog in the future, because I know he has got a lot to say. Great biblical insight and a real vision to share God's greatness. Plus he is a heck of a Halo player!

Welcome and God speed!

Slogan anyone?

I am trying out some random descriptions to see what I like. I might stick with the current or change it tomorrow. We'll just have to which way the wind blows.

Apple iWeb?

The latest buzz on the web. What is iWeb? There is a lot of speculation what it is. Apple uncharacteristically leaked the info on their website, but has since retracted it. It might have something to do with blogging, podcasts, or both.

We’ll know for sure next week when the information about this app is officially released at the Mac Expo. iWeb looks like it is going to be part of the iLife ’06 package.

I found this at the one of the Wired blogs called Monkey Bites. I’ll definitely be checking this out from now on.

Also, through Monkey Bites I found two cool Mac rumor mills, Mac Rumors and TUAW. Both now appear in the links section at the right.

Giving the rest of us Christians a bad name- Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson, of 700 Club fame, is again in the news for making inflammatory comments that shame the rest of us Christians. On his show yesterday, Robertson essentially said, “God smote Ariel Sharon as divine punishment for dividing God's land." (My interpetation.)

That is one of the stupidest comments ever.

Of course, Robertson has a business he is running, and plenty of crazy followers to bilk money out of, so sure, he is going to make a statement like this because the Kool-Aid drinkers will like it.

For the rest of us, it was a damaging, thoughtless statement.

Sure the Old Testament is full of stuff like this, but the last time I checked, we aren’t playing by those rules anymore.

At the risk of being like one of those people you see at sporting events and such that hold up a John 3:16, I am going to quote the verse. There really is no other way to sum up the gospel message and describe what God is really like.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

God didn’t cause Ariel Sharon to have a stroke as some sort of retribution for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. Robertson completely misrepresents God and God's plan for us. God is not cruel and vengeful, but loving and desires nothing more that to reconcile us to Himself, not strike us down.

Mr. Robertson's words and deeds don't reflect the true nature of God, but he certainly isn't helping unbelievers come to the realization that a relationship with God isn't all that bad. He should be spreading God's love and good news, not judging his fellow man in the guise of "God's will."

Can I put one of these in my house?

While checking out Slublog’s Friday Link Dump, I came across the link he has for the 50 Best Robots Ever (R2-D2 of course). While there I started poking around and found this. Not only is it one of the coolest home theater setups I have ever seen, but it is Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Mark Quesada’s no less.

(I am now wiping drool from the corner of my mouth.)

The wife and I have talked about building someday, and I always joked that I would like to have a hidden room home theater and that we would budget in a 42” LCD TV. I’d have some sort of pressure sensitive hidden door that you would have to open to get into the theater. I’ll never be able to do what Quesada’s done, but a home theater would definitely be cool. I’ll be a little more serious the next time the discussion comes up.

Oh, and I'd have to put some money in the budget for a new G5 to run all of it too (more drool).

One of the most overlooked albums of the year- Stryper?

MSNBC sites some of the most overlooked albums of the year (good ones that is), and I was shocked to see Stryper’s 2005 offering “Reborn” make the list. The ‘80’s black and yellow striped Christian Metal band is back with what apparently is there best album since 1988.

Go figure. I thought that Stryper had long ago gone by the waste side. Guess not.

I just gave it a listen over at the iTunes music store, and it wasn't half bad. A little too pop metalish for my likes. But, I always enjoyed Oz Fox's guitar playing. Might download it sooner rather than later.

AARRGGHH!!!

Somebody at work gave me one of those Sodoku (pronounced how?) puzzles to do, and gave me some pointers on how to solve the puzzle. The OCD has kicked in and now I am feverishly working to get the stupid thing done.

Where do they come up with this stuff?

The First Rant of the Year- Etiquette

We were on vacation last week, so my wife and I decided to go to a matinee and see King Kong (awesome movie by the way).

We settled into our seats, and low and behold, a family of six sits down behind us. The kids were all aged 6-12, so I figured there would certainly be talking, which would really kind of ruin the movie-going experience. My wife could see the impending preoccupation with the small children behind me so I wasn't surprised when she agreed to move.

Well, we landed a few rows up and no kids (Don't get me wrong, I really like kids). I thought this would be a great seat. We are sitting perfectly in the middle of the row, and between two speakers no less for optimum sound. I was so happy!!!!

Then out of nowhere, halfway through the movie, this teenage couple shows up and sits behind us. Not right behind us mind you, but probably 5 or 6 seats away from us on the end of the row. And they start to talk. Not a quiet whisper that is barely audible, but at a level you would speak at if you were trying to talk over background noise, which in this case turned out to be the movie.

I tried my best to ignore it. I even turned around and gave them a scowl or two, to no avail. All during this my wife realizes I am getting more and more irritated with the young couple who apparently have had no parental training up until this point on how to conduct themselves in a movie theater. The grip on my hand tightens more and more. She can tell by the glow from the screen I am bright red. I am about to blow a gasket and start yelling at the kids to shut up. Thankfully, they seemed to quiet down a little (they were still talking, but not as loudly), and we made it through the rest of the movie.

When the movie was over I immediately stood up and was about to confront the two movie-talking teens, but thankfully, my wife restrained me. No good thing can come from this proposed interaction. But, I envisioned the dialogue sort of going like this:

Me (to the teens): So, did you enjoy the movie?

Teens: Oh yeah, that was great. Awesome movie!!!

Me (turning umpteen shades of red): Oh, you think so. Well, I wouldn't know 'cause you talked through the entire movie!!!!!

The young man probably would have then copped some major attitude and then I would have had to grab him by the throat and then the whole scene would have been very ugly and probably wouldn't turn out that well for me.

So therefore, this will be the year of etiquette. The thank you notes are going out for the gifts we received. Parties will have invitations with RSVPs. The works. I might even write an etiquette book this year. There has to be someone who can rival Emily Post. However, mine would have a slightly different twist. It might go something like this:

Chapter 1- Movie Etiquette

Shut up and shut off your cell phone!!!

Chapter 2- Church Etiquette

Shut up and shut off your cell phone!!!

Chapter 3- Restaurant Etiquette

Shut up and shut off your cell phone!!!

Chapter 4- Library Etiquette

Shut up and shut off your cell phone!!!

I think you get the gist. I'm not sure it will make the New York Times' Bestseller List, but the message might get through to some.

There, I feel much better now. Probably the first of many rants to come.

Top 10 Music Artists to Watch in ’06

MSNBC’s pick for the top 10 up-and-comers of 2006. The one to note: Decemberadio.

They are Christian artists that are the current worship band for Camp Berea’s Deep Freeze youth camps near Concord, N.H.

It’s very cool they made the top 10 to watch, and even cooler because it wasn’t under a “Christian” category. It was “Indie Rock”. Can’t wait to hear this one.

Here is a link to the group's website.