Peculiar Posts

Here are the oddities of the day, which you have admit, are kinda funny.

The first, Tranquilized Moose Downs Helicopter:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A helicopter is not necessarily a match for an angry moose.

Instead of lying down after being shot with a tranquilizer dart, a moose charged a hovering helicopter used by a wildlife biologist, damaging the aircraft's tail rotor and forcing it to the ground.

They may be docile and dumb looking, but don't mess with 'em.

The today's second peculiarity was nearly a international incident: Switzerland Inadvertently Invades Liechtenstein.

ZURICH, Switzerland - What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers from the neutral country wandered 2 kilometers (more than a mile) across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

Oops. Good thing the Liechtensteiners are so easy going. Oh, and of course, they have no army so it's not like they could make a fuss...

Musical Sunday

Very musical and very long day on Sunday. We did our regular Sunday morning music set and on top of that did a special night of music because there was a break in our Sunday night small group schedule. So here is the morning list:

Come, Now is the Time to Worship
Open the Eyes of our Heart Lord
Amazing Love (You are my King)
Holy is the Lord
Enough
Lord, You have my Heart
How Great is our God/Then Sings my Soul
Blest be the Tie that Binds (A cappella after Communion)

This was the Sunday night set:

Adonai
Be Unto Your Name
Jesus Lead On
Awesome is the Lord Most High
Better is One Day
Draw Me Close
From the Inside Out
Give Us Clean Hands
Kindness
Unashamed Love
You Alone
Forever
You're Worthy of My Praise
I Can Only Imagine

Yes, that was a lot of songs. The set clocked in at around one hour and fifteen minutes. The night went very well considering the practice the day before was nearly a train wreck. I wish that there had been a few more people, but if only one in the crowd got something out of it, then it was worth it. Remember, God is in control.

How far could they be?

This week's much anticipated installment of Tastes Like Chicken!

The crappy weekly paper, aptly called "The Weekly" (I usually change the spelling to "Weakly") chinsed out and printed this week's toon in black and white.

Well, here it is in color!

Josh, I look forward to TLC every week! Keep it up!

The joys of living in Maine

40º on Thursday.

Blizzard on Friday with 6" to 20" inches of snow forecast with everything canceled except my wife's workplace.

40º on Saturday.

As the old Maine saying goes: If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change...

Ayuh, deah.

Worship Set

So, a couple of weeks ago I was all motivated to post our Sunday morning worship set, and I've already missed a Sunday.

If any of you are involved in church ministry of any kind, and particularly music, don't be surprised when not only something goes wrong, but all kinds of stuff (some of you know exactly what I'm talking about).

Last week was like that. We had a great presentation by our Pioneer Club kids, which changed up the order of service, which is not a big deal, but we had all kinds of technical problems with our sound system to really start the morning out right. I usually show up about an hour before the service starts (my wife hates that because I drag her with me) and get warmed up and ready. I spent 40 minutes running around with my head cut off trying to figure out why the guitars weren't coming through the system. Consequently not the smoothest morning ever.

I guess the reason that I am writing this is just to prepare you to be ready to roll with the punches. It can be hard sometimes to get by the small stuff (I speak from experience here), but God is still good and in control of the show. Let's all try to lean on Him.

Here is the list from last week:

Indescribable
God of Wonders
My All in All
I Love You Lord
Christ in Me (offering)
You Alone
My Savior's Love (I Stand Amazed)- Chris Tomlin's version

Hmm... An Odd Couple

"If I keep still, maybe the nice tiger won't eat me..."

"An Incoveniet Truth" about Al Gore's Energy Use

While former VP Al Gore was out rubbing shoulders with Hollywood's elite and celebrating his documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth", apparently he was doing his part to contribute to the demise of our planet:

[F]ormer Vice President Al Gore was called a hypocrite by a Tennessee group that said his Belle Meade home is consuming too much energy.

The home’s average monthly electric bill last year was just under $1,200, according to bills that The Tennessean acquired from Nashville Electric Service.

“As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk (the) walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use,” said Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, identified as a free-market think tank.

Gore’s power bill shows, however, that the former vice president may be doing just that.

Gore purchased 108 blocks of “green power” for each of the past three months, according to a summary of the bills.

That’s a total of $432 a month Gore paid extra for solar or other renewable energy sources.

The green power Gore purchased in those three months is equivalent to recycling 2.48 million aluminum cans or 286,092 pounds of newspaper, according to comparison figures on NES’ Web site.

NES joined the TVA program in 2000 to give power customers a way to support environmentally sound sources of electricity. The Tennessean could not determine when Gore signed up for green power.

NES gets its electricity from TVA. Most is produced from coal, which emits carbon, a greenhouse gas. A lesser amount comes from nuclear power and a small amount from hydroelectric.

Okay, they threw in something about "Green Power" and all that, but c'mon, $1200 is quite a hefty bill to pay to the power company.

I mean, I pay that for a year of power, not just a month, and I live in the highest taxed state in the Union.

Maybe I'll put up a windmill in my backyard. I bet the neighbors will love that...

And you thought mapping the human genome was tough...

Try analyzing the 39 ingredients that make up the components of a Twinkie.

A new book due out deconstructs all the tasty chemicals that go into making one of America's favorite snack cakes:

At the heart of the book is the fundamental question: why is it you can bake a cake at home with as few as six ingredients, but Twinkies require 39? And why do many of them seem to bear so little resemblance to actual food? The answer: To stay fresh on a grocery-store shelf, Twinkies can't contain anything that might spoil, like milk, cream or butter. Once you remove such real ingredients, something has to take their place—and cellulose gum, lecithin and sodium stearoyl lactylate are a good start. Add the fact that industrial quantities of batter have to pump easily through automated tubes into cake molds, and you begin to get the idea.

How utterly scrumptious!!! Now I remember why I haven't had a Twinkie in at least a decade. I'm probably still processing the one I ate back in 1997.

When the human race has long left this earth, and the only things left are the cockroaches and spiders, there will be a Twinkie sitting there in the midst of all the carnage, ready to eat...

C'mon now

I've been listening to the saga of Anna Nicole Smith's death and dead body for a least a couple of weeks now, and after this horribly cheesy attempt to delay the process even further this is my decree: just bury the poor girl's remains in the Bahamas next to her son, whom she deeply loved, and let us all move on with our lives as well as for all those actually have a vested interest in this affair.

I don't agree with the life that she lived, but this is just horrible to have such a media circus and all these arguments after she is dead. Especially as her body decays in the morgue. No open casket funeral for Ms. Smith...

Her example makes a real good case for a current, up to date will with exact details and wishes outlined.

Steamboy

Whereas I wasn't real impressed with "The Departed", Steamboy filled the good movie void this week. From the official site:

From the leader in animé Katsuhiro Otomo (Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis, Memories), comes his first feature- length directorial project since his breakthrough film (Akira). A retro science-fiction epic set in Victorian England, Steamboy features an inventor prodigy named Ray Steam, who receives a mysterious metal ball containing a new form of energy capable of powering an entire nation, the Steam Ball. Young Ray Steam must use the Steam Ball to fight evil, redeem his family, and save London from destruction. Ten years in the making, a total budget of $22 Million and with more than 180,000 drawings and 400 CG cuts, Steamboy is one of the most elaborate animated features ever created. Steamboy will be brought to life with an outstanding ensemble voiceover cast including Academy Award® Winner Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1994 Anna Paquin (X-Men), Patrick Stewart (X-Men), and Alfred Molina (Spider-man 2).

Who knew Anna Paquin would do such an amazing job playing the voice of a 13 year old boy! Patrick Stewart always impresses. Alfred Molina was amazing as well. But here is the really interesting thing: all three played in Marvel movies. Hmm...

This movie was visually stunning and actually had a plot that was very understandable. Sometimes I find Anime movies hard to follow. A lot of Eastern (not Maine that is) themes that don't always connect with my Western way of thinking.

A great movie overall. Worth the full price of admission if anyone around here had the wherewithal to actually bring it to our local theater...

This stupid thing itches...

TLC for the masses. That is Tastes Like Chicken.

This is how I feel when I haven't shaved for a couple of days...

Holy Squid, Bat Man...

990 pound squid caught off the coast of New Zealand, perhaps the biggest squid ever caught.

If calamari rings were made, expert says, they'd be size of tractor tires.

It'd probably taste like tractor tires as well.

Currently playing in iTunes...

Demon Hunter- The Triptych

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce and his fight to abolish the slave trade in Britain, is opening tomorrow, February 23rd, and looks totally amazing. Not only is it a story of huge historical significance, but a story driven by Wilberforce's faith in God.

Here is the link to the movie site. You'll find there information about the movie, an educational resource and a study guide.

I found a link on John Piper's website that has a PDF version of a book that Piper's ministry has written to go along with the movie. Here is the link for the book and the free PDF download.

Enjoy and go see this amazing story!

The Departed

I just watched The Departed, and that is 2 1/2 hours of my life I can't get back. I hated it. I've had a ton of people I know recommend it because they thought it was awesome. I am so disappointed.

But, I think I now why I hated it. It wasn't Scorsese, even though I think he is overrated. It definitely wasn't Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg or Matt Damon. It might have been DiCaprio (or as I call him "De"Crap"rio), but I doubt it.

It was the script. The story was actually very good. It kept you guessing to the very end. But it was very disjointed. There was no sense of time, except when they told you how much time had passed. One minute Leo's starting his undercover thing, and then suddenly a year passed.

But my biggest complaint was the language. Now, those who know me know I'm no prude and have been known to throw around a colorful word here or there, but this was just nonstop vulgarness. There was some very nasty references to other races and about women as well, which I feel were unnecessary because they certainly didn't enhance or move the story along. This is definitely a film for adults and mature teens.

I won't pan the thing entirely, but I am only gonna give it a two out of four stars. Not worth admission, but a rental, especially if you can get it for free.

Sunday Morning Music Set

After having a discussion with my friend Reese this morning at church, I've decided that I am going to try and post our Sunday morning worship sets here on the blog. I know that I am always looking for new songs to do on a Sunday morning, so hopefully this will help someone somewhere in worshiping our God and King.

A little background to start. We are a small church in Hampden, Maine, with about 250 attendees. We have two worship groups, of which I am the "leader" of one. Our first service group, the one I play in, has a twin Les Paul powered attack with a full compliment of drums, piano, bass and several singers. We can be a huge wall of sound. But, while our goal is always to sound good and play the best we can for God, we always strive to not be the focal point. We strive for invisibility, so the focus and goal is worshiping the Lord Most High, not us as musicians.

Here is the worship set for this Sunday:

1. Adonai- (Paul Wilbur)
2. Be Unto Your Name
3. Your Love, Your Mercy
4. Lead Me to Calvary
5. Light the Fire
6. From My Heart to Yours (offering)
7. Your Love O Lord
8. Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)/Doxology

A couple people in our group had the idea to do the "Doxology" a cappella at the end of "My Chains are Gone" and it turned out to be amazing. God really did an amazing work with this song combination. Now, the doxology is not a song we have ever done, and in my ignorance, didn't even know what it was not growing up in a church that ever sang it, but it was perfect to end the service on.

Okay, I've rambled on long enough to now. More to come later.

This would make me really happy

Oh to be having an ice cream sundae with the Master Chief...

Thanks to my buddy Scott and Pat for the pic!

Nature themed blogging ensues...

Animal Kingdom 1, Humans 0

The stupid things people do when they are drunk...

If your a drinkin' buddy with this guy, you might want to rethink that:

CANBERRA - A fisherman fueled by vodka caught a 4-foot shark and wrestled it onto a jetty on Australia’s south coast, suffering only small tear marks in his trousers, media reports said on Friday.

Phillip Kerkhof, 41, caught the bronze whaler shark by hand on Monday after he spotted it chasing squid lures near the jetty at the tiny seaside town of Louth Bay in the South Australia state.

“I just snuck up behind him and eventually I went for the big grab and I fluked it and got him,” Kerkhof told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Animal Kingdom 1, Humans 1

What's that you say?

New Mexico is hoping to keep drunks off the road by lecturing them at the last place they usually stop before getting behind the wheel: the urinal.

The state recently paid $21 each for about 500 talking urinal deodorizer cakes and has put them in men's rooms in bars and restaurants across the state.

When a man steps up, the motion-sensitive plastic device says, in a woman's voice that is flirty, then stern: "Hey, big guy. Having a few drinks? Think you had one too many? Then it's time to call a cab or call a sober friend for a ride home."

Are you serious? A talking urinal? Well, if it gets some drunkard off the roads because he just had a religious experience because he heard a voice from the urinal, so be it.

I just hope nobody finds a shark to wrestle...

"Is your marriage in trouble?"

The question asked by my beloved high school students when I said I was going on a marriage retreat. And often if you say "marriage retreat" to the public at large, this is also their question.

And my response is, "Heck no!" There are ways to improve an already stellar marriage, and that is what the Mrs. and I did this weekend, with our friends Scott and Esther. We headed down country a ways to Camden, Maine, to stay at the Country Inn and attend the 2007 marriage retreat headed up the Russ and Lorie. And what a great time is was.

At the risk of plagiarizing Esther's post, here we go. We left after work on Friday and drove down to Camden and ate at this great restaurant at the Cedar Crest Hotel (aptly named the "Restaurant at the Cedar Crest") and had the most amazing burger and got to watch live jazz, as well as drool over the Gibson Les Paul one of the old gents was playing. Please wipe the drool now...

Then back to the hotel for the first session of the weekend, which dealt with living in the N.O.W. or Nourishment, Observation and Work, which are the big three in having a great relationship with your spouse. Also being able to hit the "reset" button when things get a bit dicey helps as well, because as most of you know now, most fights are about the stupidest things.

Saturday night brought about date night, and while we were tempted to double date with someone despite instructions not to, we ended up at Su Casa, a Mexican restaurant near the inn, almost by ourselves, but a couple we had just met this weekend decided to eat there as well and I resisted the urge to go sit with them and have some Nachos and a Corona. The food was amazing and the owner was even visiting each of the tables to see how peoples' meals were. Incredible! If you are in Camden and want some authentic Mexican, this is the place.

The weekend also featured some videos by Mark Gungor. He has a great insight into marriage and is an absolute riot. He takes the edge of potentially serious topics by adding very timely and appropriate humor. Check out his website here. I would recommend his seminars to anyone. He had too much info to really post here, but if you check out his stuff, I have to say my "Nothing Box" is about the size of the Grand Canyon...

A great weekend!!!

The Dead of Winter in Maine

It took awhile to get here, but winter has finally arrived in our beloved state of Maine. December saw us having 40's and 50's, but during that last week we have often woken up to negative temps. And much to our chagrin, not much snow. Tomorrow's forecast is for a couple inches of snow, which will me nice for my buddy J.R. Mitchell and the Pine Tree Camp's Egg Ride.

The Mrs. is currently playing her new game in attempt to pass a cold winter's night. While being a complete button-masher, the voice talents of Elijah Wood, David Spade and Gary Oldman keep this one entertaining.

Norah Jones' new album, Not Too Late, is playing on the laptop as I write this. She could be singing jibberish and she would still be so amazingly talented. My favorite so far is "Sinkin' Soon". Interesting sound for this one.

School is going well. I survived the first semester with only a moderate amount of stress, anger and frustration. Me and the boys have made some great changes for this semester to reduce our stress as well as give the kids a better chance of success. Out of our class of 36 we have 20 seniors, and right now we hope to see most of them graduate. I'm very glad to be done with teaching Earth Science and Psy/Soc. I'm now on the Health, Pre-Algebra and Guitar. Never a dull moment.

Alright, I'm about to go pass some time reading this incredible novel. I am amazed so far and can't wait for the rest of the story to unfold.

This looks eerily familiar...

Kinda reminds me of the night I proposed to the missus...

Not really, but the newest cartoon by the amazing Josh Alves.

So Josh, when is the TLC collection coming to book form?

Have you been "plutoed" lately?

Pluto may have gotten a raw deal from the astronomical pundits because of its asinine demotion to a "dwarf" planet, but the term "plutoed" has won the Word of the Year Award as determined by the American Dialect Society.

The society defined "to pluto" as "to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet."

Way to go Pluto. There are many of us out there still routing for you, god of the underworld and underdog, in the icy abyss of space and we still believe you are a real planet, orbiting the Sun like the rest of us other "planets".

Since its demotion to the "minor leagues" per se, Pluto is getting more media attention than any of the other celestial bodies. Here is a link to what I thought is a very entertaining column by sports writer Frank Deford, using Pluto's demotion to the minor leagues to draw some funny parallels to the sports world. Here is an audio link of the column, which causes some chuckles all by itself.

Thanks to my bro-in-law for the links.

Snakes on a Plane 2: Scorpions Revenge

Thought Snakes on a Plane was a wild ride? Here come the sequel starring everyone's favorite stinging arachnid: the Scorpion.

Two separate people on two separate flights were stung by stowaway scorpions. No one knows how either one of the little buggers got on the planes. Luckily, none of the bites delivered were fatal, unlike the snakes in Sammy Jackson's high altitude thriller.

Zune R.I.P.

While Microsoft, already behind in the hand held multi-media department, might be trying to make a fight of it by releasing their beloved Zune in a vein attempt to challenge the iPod by offering a music player with video capabilities and Wi-Fi connectivity, is now definitely going to be laid to rest by the release of Apple's new iPhone.

Now to mention it, it actually took several tries to get to Zune's webpage from the Microsoft homepage. It just didn't work right (no surprise there), and finally had to take four extra steps to get where I wanted to go.

Apple once again is a trend setter and the leader of the revolution by revolutionizing the phone.

Oh sure, you can buy phones that you can type on with a cheap little keyboard and play music on, but Apple is going to lead the way again by offering a phone, MP3 player, Wi-Fi connectivity, video player and an internet browser all in one compact package. Plus, it is all touch screen.

Watching a video? Hold it upright to watch it portrait style, and then simply turn the device on its side and the video goes wide screen automatically. No buttons to push. No commands to type in. It is intuitive, like all of Apple's products.

I'm just scratching the surface with what this new phone can do. It runs on Mac OS X and has Safari built right in to browse with. Amazing!

The only problem Apple will run into with this product (besides licensing the name) is if they price it too high, because right now the Mrs. and I are trying to figure out to get a pair when they are finally released.

All right, maybe I'm the only one scheming how to get paid for some medical experiments to get an iPhone..

Hey, where's the snow?

The Mrs. and I reside in the beautiful state of Maine, famous for Acadia National Park, Mount Katahdin, and Moosehead Lake. Most years, we have tons of snow to play in.

The snow is not here, but here.

Not that I want 19 feet of snow in one sitting that cripples the state, but a couple feet would be great to do some snowshoeing, and best of all, a little playing in the snow in the 4x4.

4x4? C'mon, I do live in Maine...

Are you kidding me?

This has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever seen.

It's no wonder print media is going out of business. Good thing I got my subscription to Time for free. Oh wait, it's on their website too...

Mastodon Rocks!

For some crazy reason, I absolutely love Mastodon!!! And their website address says it all: Mastodon Rocks.

"Leviathan" was an amazing album. I haven't had a lot of time to listen to their new offering, "Blood Mountain" yet (already on the iPod for the gym in the morning), but I have already checked out this song a bunch of times. "Colony of Birchmen" is just a great song. Amazing intricate guitar with not a lot of screaming. And some great vocal harmonies to boot. Still, not for the faint of heart.

Check out the "Birchmen" video. If you dare...

This week's sign of the Apocalypse

Unbelievable. But, in this day and age, unfortunately becoming the norm...