Naturally 7

Chuck Hines showed me these guys at work yesterday. Very unique. Very cool.

Mnemonic Alphabet Soup

I've been DVRing Demetri Martin's new show on Comedy Central called Important Things. It's most excellent. I politely urge you to join me in watching.

He did a quick sketch where he made a mnemonic device to remember the alphabet. I thought it would be fun to try. Maybe you'll attempt one as well...


About bears (crafty devils)... every fortnight, ghastly, horrible, invincible, jerk-killers love manslaughter. Never obstruct pressuring/questioning, rappers & sailors. They urge violence wherever Xavier yearns zucchini.

Is this guy serious?

I honestly can't tell.

Gay Marriage

I listened to a fascinating interview today on Talk of the Nation (NPR). I copied this from npr.org: David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, and Jonathan Rauch, who supports gay marriage, wouldn't seem to have much common ground on the issue. But, in an op-ed for The New York Times, they found it.

Everyone has their ideals, their perfect picture for everything. Rarely are those ideals met. I'll never dunk a basketball or have a functioning pancreas even though in an ideal world I would. So in the absence of realized-ideals there has to be compromise right? I can't yell and scream for the rest of my life that I deserve a pancreas. I probably do. But I have to compromise and take insulin, exercise and eat right.

People who hate gay marriage are probably never going to fully support it. People who want gay marriage are never going to stop wanting it. Both of these groups are never going to stop fighting for what they believe in. But it's pointless for both sides to keep screaming at each other. So this article offers a compromise. It's not the "ideal" for either side. But it's reasonable. And that's a better place to be than where the debate currently is.

Here is that op-ed.

Vacation Lessons

Lessons learned on vacation:

Don't get a LAND and SEA passport card. Get the real kind. Otherwise the AIRlines won't give you the AIR ticket you paid for. And you'll have to watch your friends leave for paradise while you figure out what you're gonna do for a week in the Heartland. (this happened to three people the morning we left)

We naturally gravitate towards a routine of some kind even in new environments.

Sunshine devours stress. Tequila helps too.

Sunshine and tequila make people buy silly (regrettable) things like pink straw cowboy hats and shirts that say, "I Love To Fart- Cancun." I saw lots of people in the airport going home who were wearing things that'll end up in Goodwills across America.

American males are either embarrassed of and/or stingy with their upper thighs. Every other nationality is not. They share them freely with the world.

People LOVE omelets. Every morning there were long lines of hungry tourists staring at the omelet man.

Birds are impatient for humans to wake up. Maybe they're bored? Maybe they're ready to eat our dropped crumbs and morsels? Regardless, they shout A LOT in the morning and ruin the peaceful song the ocean + shore are trying to hum.

Germans LOVE dominos. These two old men played them for five hours straight everyday. I guess it's not fair to stereotype all Germans as domino-lovers. Sorry, Germans.

Lots and lots of people are unhappy with their skin color/shade. They invest lots of time and money (nice smelling oils aren't free) trying to change color.

Head scarves and giant sunglasses can make almost any woman look fabulous (in a hot pirate kind of way).

It's fun to guess what people do for a living when they're wearing swimsuits. I saw one guy who is either CIA or a battery salesman.

Married couples should figure out how to have vacation sex at home. If you're married and don't know what vacation sex is you need to go on vacation. Now.

Firemen are called Bomberos in Mexico. America should take note and institute a name change.

I have the same shoes as a breakdancing jujitsu drummer dude. This makes me strangely happy.

When you take a break from your cellphone, wallet, shoes, socks, watch, laptop you realize what a load those things are both literally and figuratively when you put them back "on."

Sunshine should come visit us here in Ohio more often. We're good people. We're polite. We like Vitamin D as much as anyone else. What the heck, Sunshine? Why you such a hater?

All inclusive vacations are fun. For 4.5 days. After that I think you'd start feeling like those carp in tiny concrete ponds.

It's good to be home. Dorothy was onto something. The view of Cincinnati from Kentucky softens the gray blow. Maybe that's why they put the airport out in the middle Bluegrass Nowhere.

Need Input

Leah and I leave tomorrow morning for Cancun. We will soak sun, sip silly drinks, sleep in and slosh around the pool for five glorious days. Leah has been reading me their weather report every day for two weeks now. I've heard people say, "I SO NEED a vacation." I don't feel that need per se. But I do feel the need to fast from this computer. I realized the other day when I was preparing for the writing workshop that for the past year I've done a lot more outputting than inputting. I've abandoned one of my favorite things: reading. So this coming week I'm pulling a Johnny5. I'm going to forget the internet exists and get lost in some good fiction. I do in fact SO NEED that. I am also excited to start the RESET personal guide in such a "secluded" atmosphere. I think I'll really be able to get lost in the book of Luke and this concept of resetting my assumptions of Jesus. I NEED that as well. Need input.

Animated Seinfeld

These guys reinterpret scenes from Seinfeld using animation. Pretty cool. Found them at this new site: www.eGuiders.com

Old School

Isaac and I found an old school nintendo on the internets this week. We shot a video for work yesterday. Plugging that thing in and pressing start on Super Mario Bros. was like time-traveling. So many memories. Much time was spent in our unfinished basement playing this joy box. Brenty, remember Paperboy? Wow.

I still suck at video games. I died at the first little mushroom demon like three times. Leah is pretty good though. We played after we finished shooting the video. I love my job.

Terry's Turf Club

Have you been to Appalachia's Las Vegas? Considering it? Check out a few people's review here. And...if we're lucky...maybe Leah will share her story (via comments section) about her recent conversation about TTC down in Daytona. (She won't and she'll get mad at me for writing this. But I don't care because I'm really proud of her)

Tuba Wolf

Two men set out this past Thursday evening with two unique yet similar missions. One man wanted to make a video so ridiculous that billions of people would watch and Oprah/Ellen would invite him on their show thus resulting in his wife becoming BFFs with said talk show hosts. Love was his mission. The other man wanted the world to stop hating wolves so much. He wanted orphans (with hi-speed internet connections) to know that wolves are dancing-machines not killing-machines. Love was mission as well. We hope you enjoy the fruits of our labor mission and help us accomplish our love mission. Mission impossible you ask? Not when love is a missionary. Not when love is a missionary.