Would You Believe $1?

So we had a huge, gi-normous church-wide garage sale on Saturday. When I say there was a LOT of stuff, it is only because I am at loss of how to really describe it adequately. You know the old saying, "Everything but the kitchen sink?"...we had TWO sinks. It was awesome.

One of my goals was that at 2:00ish, when it was officially over, was to be down to a small enough amount of stuff that it could be taken in one trip to Goodwill. And, I am happy to say, we did it! If you were there all day (which some were), you would have heard the "language" of the event change as the day progressed. I've created a timeline below for your reading enjoyment.

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7:30 AM - "We officially start at 8:00, so we'll still be bringing some great stuff out for the next little bit, ma'm."

9:00 AM - "Anything in particular you are looking for?"

11:00 AM - "Are you interested in that? We'll make you a great deal..."

1:00 PM - "Just make us an offer, we'd love for you to have it..."

1:30 PM - "Everything must go! Everything must go!"

2:00 PM - "Take a box, fill it up. Anything you can fit in that box is yours for $1."

2:15 PM - "Take a box, fill it up. It's yours. Make a donation if you would like."

2:25 PM - "Ma'm, I'll move the orange cones so you can pull you car over here by this table and I will put everything on it in your trunk."

2:40 PM - "How much, you ask? Tell you what...how about $2...unless you load it yourself, then its free."

2:55 PM - "You can take any item you'd like, as long as you also take a couple that you don't."

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We had a great time, raised some money, and made some new friends. It was a lot of work..and fun!

I've Said It Before

Kiefer Sutherland is possibly in a little bit of trouble.

The bizarre case took place at a costume gala afterparty at New York's SubMercer bar, where Sutherland reportedly saw fashion designer Jack McCollough knock over Brooke Shields. When Sutherland asked the Proenza Schouler designer to apologize and was pushed instead, Sutherland reportedly headbutted McCollough, breaking his nose.

If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times:

Don't mess with Jack Bauer.

Economic Crisis Not So Bad

So, as most of you know, I'm a comic book fan, and have been for years. I have lots of comics, and several comics that are worth well over $100 apiece.

Today I heard that a copy of Action Comics #1 just sold at auction for $317,200 dollars. You read that correctly, I didn't put the comma in the wrong place or leave out a decimal. That's 312 THOUSAND dollars. Apparently, the current "economic crisis" hasn't reached everyone.

Do you know what's special about Action Comics #1? A bet a lot of you do. If you don't, and you want to find out, here's a link to an article about the sale. There's a couple of other interesting tidbits about this particular sale that are also in the article.

Do you collect anything? Are they valuable?

Superbowl Lamentations

In case you are from Mars and didn't already know, tonight was Superbowl XLVIII. This is one of the few times since my wife and I got married that we didn't host a superbowl party. This year I had to work at the Hut, so Cheryl went to some friend's house to watch the game. I joined them a little after halftime.

For many years, we had a party for the youth group at our church. Below is a little video promo we did for the party one year. Hope you enjoy it.



If for some reason you can't see the embedded video, here's a link.

Starring: Chris Sheppard
Music by: Dave Brubeck Quartet/All-Star United
Directed by: Me
Filmed by: Me
Edited by: Me
Screenplay by: Me
Based upon an original full-length novel by: Me

Filmed on location at an undisclosed location. No animals were harmed in the making of this video, but a toilet was actually cleaned.

Save the Planet!! (It's where I keep all my stuff.)

I've decided to go purple...or any other color...just not green. Overuse of the word "Green" as a catch-phrase for everything environmentally friendly is now to the point of driving me crazy!

While you are at it, let's throw the terms "eco-friendly", "renewable resource", "hybrid", "alternative fuels", and my favorite, "low carbon footprint" into the same category.

Don't get me wrong, I love the environment. I live in it everyday. It grows my food and feeds the cows that become my cheeseburgers. I want the environment to be healthy. We have reusable grocery sacks.

I guess I am just a little tired of all the ecovangelists.

Uhhh...Say What?

The following is what serves for me as a "political post".

Today I was listening to Dave Ramsey.  He was taking calls from people letting them tell him who they voted for and why.  I only got to hear a few minutes, but one guy called to say he voted for Senator Obama.  

Dave asked him why.  They guy on the phone said it was because he liked Obama's stance on social and economic issues.   So Dave asked him if he was in favor of socialism.  Check out my paraphrase of the guy's response:

"I've heard that some people think that Obama leans too much towards socialism.  (Pause)  I'm not sure I know what they mean by that.  What really is socialism?"

They guy said in one breath that he liked Obama's social stance, and then in the next breath said he didn't understand it.  Wow.  I don't think he really liked Obama's social policy ideas, as much as the way Obama presented his social policy ideas.

Well, we'll find out in a little while if the caller will get to learn about socialism through life experience over the next few years...

And Now We Find Ourselves Here

So I was watching the tube the other day and I saw an advertisement for a new movie. Keep in mind this was during prime time.  The title was "Zach and Miri Make a Porno". As I sat and watched the commercial, feeling somewhat dumbfounded, I couldn't help but be a little shocked as to what now passes as fair game for mainstream comedy. IMDB has this for the synopsis:

Lifelong platonic friends Zack and Miri look to solve their respective cash-flow problems by making an adult film together. As the cameras roll, however, the duo begin to sense that they may have more feelings for each other than they previously thought.

Now, I wouldn't be surprised that if you sat down and watched this movie (which I am not recommending, by the way), that you might actually find a few funny scenes, and probably even some heart-warming moments. After all, they are almost billing it as a romantic comedy.  But the basic premise of the movie just steps over another line.  It's been the practice of the movie industry for years to throw a smattering of bad language, a little nudity, and a couple of bedroom scenes into their "Rated R" comedies for years, but it this just seems to be a new low.

I understand that this movie has an "R" rating, and is therefore intended for "adults".  I've never been accused of being a prude (at least not to my face), but it just feels like ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is now fair game for the media in songs, movies, and television.  There's no longer any sense of the sacred or profane.  Nothing is too holy that it can't be made fun of, and nothing is too profane that it can't be slathered all over prime-time television.  

In my opinion, and that's all it is, this just reeks of the media latest attempt to find something new and provocative, to push the envelope, and to be the one that breaks new ground "artistically".

But, for me personally, this was ground that I would have love to have left unbroken.

The Cowboys Game...in 30 Seconds or Less

Let's just say, for fun, that you hid in our back room tonight during the Cowboy game. This is what you would have heard:

C'mon!! What were you thinking?

Go! Go! Go!

What? Give me a break!!

Not again...hold on to the football!!

Go, Crayton, go! Wahoo!!

Nathanael, don't hit the TV.

Folk...what is wrong with you?!??!

Stop them, stop them, stop...aw, man.

Yes!

You've got to stop them. You've got to...

C'mon Dallas! You can do it, just move that ball.

C'mon Folk, c'mon Folk...yes!!!!!!

Great, now just get into field goal range.

Okay, now hold 'em and get that ball back.

Watch out! They're gonna...I can't believe that just happened.

And of course, this is all my wife talking.

Gas Prices, Oil Prices, and the Media

To my loyal blog readers (both of you), my apologies. My rate-o'-blogging has decreased dramatically with my new job, and my injury at my new job (which, by the way, is mostly better now...thanks for asking).

(Aaron steps up onto soapbox.)

So here' what I'm talking about tonight: GAS PRICES and the MEDIA!!! (Yes, it has to be in CAPS, because that's the way they announce things.)

Wow. One of the media's favorite topics in Atlanta is gas prices. I am sure that it's the same other places, but I don't read the Tulsa Times (sorry Jeff). This past week, with Hurricane Ike coming in, they began to announce things like:

• Gas Prices May Climb to $5.00/gallon!!
• Georgia Only Has Three Day Supply of Fuel
• Texas Refineries Shutting Down Due to Approaching Hurricane
  

So what did people do? They went to the gas station as quickly as they could and filled up. Lots of people. And guess what, wouldn'tcha know...some stations ran out of gas. Gas stations took advantage of it and raised their prices some, also. Imagine that. Thing is, though, no one is doing any more driving this week than they would have. Why did everyone need that extra gas they just "had to have"?

True, there are some stations around with their pump handles covered, so some stations did run out of gas. Of course, about 2 miles away is a station with gas for $3.79...a whopping .15 more a gallon than before the "scare". Heck, even the media is blaming the media.

I just think it is crazy that if a person with a microphone says there' s a chance of something happening, everyone acts on it like it's fact. And, just because there's a chance it could happen, it's no reason to broadcast the worst-case scenario. It's a great way to start a self-fulfilling prophecy, though!

Below are some example headlines of what the media HAS said, along with things that the media COULD say, if they wanted...because they are just as true.

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Example 1:
Gas prices could soar above $5 per gallon with the effects of Hurricane Ike.

Alternative headline:
Miniature schnauzers could spontaneously combust if dipped in lighter fluid.

My take: I'm not gonna fill my car up, and I'm not going to trade my schnauzer in on a less combustible canine.

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Example 2:
With only a 3 day supply of fuel in Georgia, many stations could begin to run low.

Alternative headline:
With most grocery stores only carrying 10 pounds of bratwurst, a run on a particular store could cause a shortage.

My take: I'd be more worried about the bratwurst. You can never have too much bratwurst.

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Example 3:
Refined gas could possibly be in short supply due to damage to refineries in Texas from Ike.

Alternative headline:
The mullet could possibly be the next in retro look.

My take: Almost any statement can be made true if throw in the words "could possibly". As in, I "could possibly" quit listening to the media entirely if they keep saying stupid things like they did this weekend.

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(Aaron steps down off of soapbox.)

Which Reminds Me...

If you read my last post, you'll learn that there's a news feed in an elevator I ride in daily. Something I saw on it yesterday prompted my previous post. While typing that post, I was reminded of something else I saw on the screen in my elevator around Christmas.

(CNN) -- A CNN analysis of four common brands of Christmas lights shows levels of lead experts say are high enough to be dangerous to children.

Personally, I would be much more worried about the fact that kids were playing with the lights at all, than the fact that there are traces of lead in the paint. The last time I checked, electrocution tended to lead to death more quickly than lead poisoning. I dunno, maybe I've got it backwards...

Here's the article if you are concerned about your children chewing on lead painted lights.

I Must Confess...

My daily commute involves an elevator ride. In our elevator, we have a nice little 9" screen in the top left-hand corner by the door with a news feed running on it. Sports, current events, stock market stuff, etc. Sometimes it will just throw a quote up from a current new story. Yesterday, I saw this one:

It has been discovered in a small sample study that some toddler and preschool children have unusually high levels of chemical fire retardant in their blood. These elevated levels of the chemicals average three times higher than levels found in the blood of their mothers.

I must confess...when I first read it, I thought to myself, "Well, that's good. That means the children are 3 times LESS likely to combust than their mothers."

I really did.

Of course, even though I have this post categorized as "humor", it actually appears to be a serious problem. If you want to read about it, here's an article.

Google Chrome - Gotta Have It!

Today Google rolled out their next step in taking over the world:

Google Chrome!

It's a brand new (and extremely cool) web browser.  It has so many new features, I won't even begin to tell you about them all.  Don't wait.  Don't be the last one to do it.  Just go here and download it.

Then go here and watch the short (very well done) demonstration videos so you'll know how to take advantage of many of the cool features.

And if you are geeky, go here and read the comic about it.

The only negative I have found so far:  it doesn't support live bookmarks yet...

MySpace Is Out - Facebook Is In

Okay, okay. I know that MySpace and Facebook are old news, but I just created a Facebook page, and it's cool. Not my page specifically, but Facebook itself.

Did you know that you can link to your blog from Facebook. It will automatically pull your blog into your Facebook page. Myspace won't do that (not that I can figure out). It has a wonderful photo uploading tool, and just works well in general.

Check out what RhettandLink think about it:



So, for those of you who have been catching up with me on MySpace...

Sorry! I'm phasing it out. It's dead to me.

American Idol (aka I told you so!)

Well, Season 7 is all over and David Cook reigns supreme. I told you so. I predicted it weeks ago. Last night when all the judged where gushing Archuleta from their eyes, I stood by my prediction.

Then, as the day went on, I knew my prediction was going to come to pass. Every person I talked to, heard on the radio, or saw on televesion said the same thing:

"I like David Cook better, but I think Archuleta is going to win."

It didn't take me long to see the prevalence of that sentiment. Apparently, 50-something% of the people that voted felt the same way. They liked Cook better, and they voted Cook.

And I for one, am glad!