Darth Vader vs Jesus

I just noticed an audio book at my local Borders the other day:

James Earl Jones Reads the Bible

let me repeat that... Darth Vader Reads the Bible

On the surface, I sure everyone thought it was a great idea. He's a well respected actor with a powerful commanding voice that would seem right for the material, but I'm sure I wasn't the only person to see that book and wondered... I don't recall, but is there any point in the scripture where God says, "Jesus, I am your father"... cause that would just seal the deal for me :-)

One Good Turn - The Temptation of Evil

Interesting thing happened at the gym the other day... and NO, I don't mean the fact that I was there. I found someone had forgotten a personal item after using a piece of equipment. It had been minutes since I'd seen anyone on that device so I picked it up.

Turned out to be an iPod, a little old, but one of the large video iPods. My first thought was to turn it in to the main desk. Then something inside me said keep it. Keeping it felt wrong, and not just because I already have an iPod (in fact I have two, a Nano and Shuffle), and not because I thought I was going to be found out. Something inside me said that if the tables were reversed, I would want someone to turn it in. I know it's not likely to happen (my sister-in-law lost a camera at the National Museum and no one there bothered to turn it in) but I don't want to live my live based on the philosophy of "that's what some people would do"... well guess what, some people eat other people, doesn't mean it's something I want to try.

Call it Christian upbring, call it karma, but in the end I had to turn in the lost item. It was the right thing to do; it was the right thing for me to do.

PA Ninjas

Hey, everyone knows about asian ninjas from all manner of tv, movies and books, but apparently Mr Miagi's been training more than just Daniel-son (and Julie -- bonus points if you know who Julie is)...

Apparently Richmond township (PA) lived through the onslaught of a horde of ninja recently. And by "horde" I mean 2, and by "ninja" I mean NINJA. In days of yore they would fight for coin and do the dark bidding of oriential lords (at least that's what we thought at the D&D table), but nowadays, it seems their goals are a bit more common... smokes, cash, and some scratchers. All I can say is... hum.

For more on the story... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/25/ninja_blag/

Cupid Returns

In the last few years it's been more common for failed TV shows to come back after being canceled. Usually a successful write-in campaign from the show's most loyal fans can help sway a decision to cancel a show (such as Jericho, Touched by an Angel, and Cagney & Lacey -- to name a few). Others jumped networks to avoid cancellation (such as Taxi, Family Matters, and JAG). But rarely has a show been off the air for more than a decade before being revived... Star Trek (with the TNG series), and the new Doctor Who are the only two examples... that was until early Oct.

Now there's another one to add to the list, and in many ways stands above both ST and Who... Cupid.

What's Cupid? Well here's some info from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_%28TV_series%29

In short (if you didn't read the link)... it was about a "man" who claimed to be the Greek god Cupid bound to earth for not properly doing his job and forced to match 100 couples without the benefit of his magic bow and arrow.

He's locked up as a nut and convinces a psychiatrist that he is sane long enough to get out of the hospital, where he goes about trying to complete his mission. The doctor, tries to find out who he really is and uses him as the subject of her next book on relationships. Week in and week out, Trevor Hale (NOT his real name) tries putting together couples and is confronted with romance in the modern age. More often than not, he fails in getting his matches.

The show lasted 15 eps (only 14 shown in the US) and disappeared forever. It stared Jeremy Piven, who went on to STEAL the show on Entourage, as well as Paula Marshal, Jeffery Sams, and Paul Adelstein (Private Practice). Ever since cancellation, the show has been on several "Canceled Too Soon" lists and lamented about by numerous TV critics, but has never been shown in reruns or has had a DVD set released (unlike ST and Who, which have had both)

Now, word comes out that the show will be remade for the 2008 season, with all new actors in the key rolls... will it be the same? I don't know if lightening can strike twice... there was a special charm in the show (ask any fan of the show) and it came to help lift me up at a low point in my life personally. I'm rooting for Trevor and Clair, even if they look a little different from what I originally remember them... Here's to believing in a little magic...

Recycling

First off, I'm not one of those "green" folks who's all in to recycling everything from milk cartons to shoe laces, unless you make it convenient for me. It's not much effort for me to separate a few bottle, cans and paper from the rest of the trash. In fact I wish curb side recycling was expanded to include things like recyclable steel cans and those milk cartons I mentioned earlier. But one thing that really gets me is electronics.

I one had an old TV break down (as far as I could tell, it may have just needed a new picture tube) but the guy at the repair shop (and believe me, just finding a repair shop was the first hurdle) told me that it would be cheaper to replace it than repair it. Needless to say, I ended up getting ride of it, but it always bothered me that a very decent tv was trashed for no other reason than the economics of contemporary appliances valued disposability over longevity. And I know I'm not alone in this story.

Recently I was getting rid of some old computers, and I didn't want to have to just throw everything in the trash. I looked in to some of the reuse programs, where they refurbish them and donate them to schools or other places in need. I couldn't find anything in the area (plus they were older Mac computers). I looked into recycling on the Apple website and they WILL recycle an old computer with the purchase of a new one. While I don't need an excuse to buy a new Apple, I decided to look on.

I found some places that did recycle programs for free, but that was for a limited time and also a few years ago. The only place I found in the area doing a computer recycling program at the present time was Staples... yeap, your local office supply store had been doing a program where you can recycle old cell phones, pages, and rechargeable batteries for some time and has now expanded it to include computers.

The catch... there's a $10 dollar charge per computer (computer, keyboard, mouse), and a $10 charge for a monitor. It would be nice if it was free (like the rest of the program), but it was convenient, and I could believe that at least some of it was going to be reused, instead of the whole thing lying in a trash heap for a millennium. I paid the dough and dropped off the old equipment and I feel at least a little better for trying to do my part...

If you're interested in more info, here's the press release...
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=96244&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1004542

Geek Update

For more info on the story, here's an update:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showpost.php?p=4541443&postcount=1

Geeks with Spare Cash... Take Notice!

First off, no offense is meant by the use of the G-word. I'm one, so I'm allowed to use it... anyone else better step off or feel the fury of my pimp hand :)

If you or anyone you know has some spare cash hanging around, you might want to make a call and find out about getting your own copy of Detective Comics #27. If you didn't already know that it's the FIRST appearance of Batman, all I can say is... HEATHEN!!

Apparently there are a few (maybe as few as 5) copies of the book floating around in the world, and I think Nick Cage had a copy at one time (he's a big comic fan, taking his stage name "Cage" from the comic character Luke Cage and naming his some Jor-El, the kryptonian name for Superman... and I thought Kevin Smith was bad!!)

For more on the story, check out:
http://forum.newsarama.com/showpost.php?p=4540754&postcount=1

Afraid of the Dark

When I was little I used to be afraid of the dark. It's a common fear, since the dark seems to hold so much that we can't see, lurking outside the periphery of our vision, and everyone else seems otherwise unreachable (asleep) that there's a sense of loneliness that can add to the fear, but now as a grown up, I'm finding a new, different reason to be afraid of the dark...

I've always had problems sleeping, or more to the point, sleeping on a "normal"/regular schedule. As a very small child, my mother tells me, she would let me stay awake and sleep as I felt like. Later as a youngster I did have pretty strict curfews since I had school in the morning during most of the year.

As a young teen I still recall regular sleeping habits during the school year, but in the summer, I know I would stay up later and later and get myself all out of whack. And as an adult, that seems to be the norm and not the exception. In college I'd pull alnighters routinely and for no significant reason. After college I worked evening jobs that allowed me to have reason to be up late and sleep late into the morning or more often, the afternoon.

But the last year has been different, I'm still up late most nights, but I need to be up and at work early in the morning. No one's said anything to me about being late, I've been able to early almost as much as I'm late so I've stayed off some people's radar and I'm always willing to work late, so it seems to balance out. But I don't want that anymore... I want to go to bed at a reasonable hour, wake up refreshed, and not be tired at work. Or fall asleep while driving to (and sometimes from) work...

Things need to change and I've been trying... I've used OTC sleep aids (and I've been cautious not to use them too consistency for fear of developing a dependency) and have been able to start a regular schedule, or at least a different schedule. By different schedule, I mean that instead of staying up to 3am, I end up going to bed at 8 or 9pm for a few days. And once I get a few days going then I start getting worried about losing that momentum; the new fear of the dark begins, the fear that I won't get to bed early, that I'll be up late, late into the night and that the dark will have me once again...