life, and a little more

Is It Time To Close The Office?

Mar 27

metalman777The Office television, The Office, tv 1 Comment

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post.   I’ve been mildly obssessed with NBC’s The Office for about 4 years now.  So don’t label me a hater as I get this off my chest.

The Office has always been filled with the funtastic antics of The Office staff.   It has always been an over-the-top goofy show; but  it has always had a 1/2 foot in reality.

Fans know a boss like Michael Scott would’ve been fired a very long time ago.  Yet we all have worked for/with a boss/co-worker that has been just as clueless and naive as the Great Scott.  We all have a Dwight Schrute at our place of employment.  We have all had stupid birthday parties and Christmas parties and have all participated in the shenanigans that The Office gang have participated in.  That is what made this show so great – it was pure satire that made us laugh at the drudgery in our own office.

I’ve really been struggling with Season 5 of The Office.  The humanness of the characters has been stripped away.  They have been made into bad caricatures of what they are supposed to represent.  The most recent episode, “Two Weeks“, has pushed me over the edge.

I can understand Michael quitting.   We all know that he will get his job back somehow.  Really, could The Office survive without Steve Carrell?  We all know Michael is a stupendous salesman, but also a stupendous moron.  We all know he has no chance in heaven, heck, or even hell in starting a paper company.

Pam knows this, yet she decides to mimic the Jerry McGuire movie and quit DunderMifflin to join Michael’s never-existing paper company?  I was just waiting for the line “You had me at hello”.  Man I was ticked!

Pam quitting to follow Michael might be the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.  Maybe I’m still in a bad mood because Battlestar Galactica just aired it’s Series finale.  Maybe I’m expecting too much from what used to be an awesome TV show.  Maybe I should just shut up.

Maybe I shouldn’t.  What could be a better way to end The Office other than Michael quitting and DunderMifflin going down the drain in the bad economic times?

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He's Our You Recap

Mar 26

metalman777Lost Lost, recap No Comments

“He’s Our You” is the tenth episode of Season 5 of Lost and the 96th episode of the series as a whole. It was originally broadcast on March 25, 2009. The DHARMA Initiative struggles to discover the identity of Sayid Jarrah, while Sawyer tries to make sure that his secret remains safe. (Lostpedia.com)

1. But we must strongly consider the possibility that Sayid’s discovery of heroic will was actually nothing of the sort. According to the ”whatever happened, happened” theory of time travel, history is fixed. It can’t be changed. This means Ben grew up with the castaways living around the corner from him in Dharmaville, and more, that his list of Greatest Hits (Not!) includes ”The time that captured Hostile in the purple shirt who promised to take me to live with Richard in the enchanted forest betrayed me and shot me.” Seen from this perspective, the Ben-Sayid relationship takes on a provocative new spin, because it means that while Ben was ruthlessly cultivating Sayid into a seething ball of I HATE BENJAMIN LINUS! during those off-Island years, he did so keenly aware that one day, Sayid was going to fall down a wormhole into his childhood and try to kill him. Which, in my book, makes Ben complicit in the assassination attempt on his own life, and maybe even the plot’s chief architect. He wanted this to happen. And suddenly, I am reminded of one of the maxims in the Dharma brainwashing film that Kate and Sawyer stumbled upon in Season 3: ”We are the causes of our own suffering.”
2. ”He’s Our You” was certainly fixated on the theme of free will and the lack thereof. We saw the idea expressed through the abundance of handcuffs, restraints, and prison bars; through psychotropic drugs that eliminate choice and compel obedience; through the Dharma leadership sweating the interference and control of ”Ann Arbor,” as in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, homebase for Dharma founders; through Ben’s bitter, angry father, blasting his son for bringing Sayid a sandwich and yelling, ”I’ll tell you what to think!”
3. The challenge of personal transformation and the competition between material security and spiritual evolution is at the heart of the conspicuous literary reference that Lost gave us last night. ”A Separate Reality” should probably not be interpreted by us as a clue nodding toward an alternate reality theory, because that misses the point of the book. Of course, its author, Carlos Castaneda, is a controversial guy, and the serious Lostologist would be wise to apply his work to the show with extreme caution. (Doc Jensen)
4. So Ben never sent Sayid after Widmore.  I expected him to.  I thought that would be Sayid’s turning point.  I thought that Sayid would fail and Widmore would convince him to turn against Ben.  (Ben also didn’t send Sayid after Abaddon, but I don’t think that means anything.)
5. I don’t think Ben’s dead.  I don’t think I actually have to say this, but if I don’t then it might come back to bite me in the ass.  I believe Ms. Hawkins and Daniel, you can’t change the past and all that you will cause is “course corrections”.  So somehow Ben didn’t die.  Maybe he had a bible in his shirt pocket.  Maybe he had his heart removed and the bullet passed through his body (it would explain a lot, but it might cause a few problems).  Perhaps it was all staged, maybe it was a blank in the gun and Ben had a squib on him.  I really have no idea how Ben didn’t die, but I’m sure he didn’t. (from Not Confused Just Lost)
6. In fact, the whole episode is geared toward showing us exactly how Sayid is forged and tempered into a heartless killing machine… the writers have 40+ minutes to really, really convince us of this if they want to pull off the cold-blooded shooting of an innocent kid.

   But in reality, it’s not the viewers who really need the convincing: it’s Sayid. And as this episode unfolds, it quickly becomes obvious that Sayid’s hunting down and killing of Widmore’s golfing buddies never really meant Jack or Squat in the grand scheme of things. Not only were these killings unnecessary, they might not even have been related to anything other than planting the seeds of murder deep within Sayid’s brain.

7. We’ve seen many, many record players throughout LOST, but none as antique as Oldham’s Victrola. This means something, and I think it’s a not-so-subtle clue as to how this creepy new character is in keeping with the island’s ancient ways. He’s living very oldskool, deeper in the jungle, dwelling in a tepee with no electricity far from the civilized Dharma compound. He’s using old methods and listening to old music on an old recording device, and he even has ‘old’ in his name. Go figure.
8. I think the closer you get to the island’s spiritual roots, the more attuned you are to it’s true nature. Even more important, the deeper into subconscious a character’s mind can journey, the closer they get to achieving the island’s true enlightenment. All throughout LOST, the island has spoken most directly and pointedly to those who have been unconscious, semi-conscious, or drugged out of their minds. Boone tripping out on Locke’s magic paste… Eko’s dreams of Yemi while half-conscious… Locke using his sweat-tent to commune with the island. Last season I pointed out how Jack even took a nice trip to see dad after being knocked out during his appendectomy. These things are highly important.
9. So what do we have? We have Ben sending Sayid all over the world to kill people for three straight years. Did these people really matter? Did their deaths really keep Sayid’s friends safe? Shit no. I’m even sketchy on them being related to Widmore at all, but if so I’m sure Ben was just playing fun games inside Charles Widmore’s head. The deaths of these men meant nothing in the grand scheme of things other to reinforce one thing that I’ve always said: Sayid Jarrah is an absolute death-magnet.

   Then we have Ben reminding Sayid that he’s a killer… telling him that he’s a killer… over and over, beating it into his skull. We also have Sayid driven to an intense hatred for Ben and a complete mistrust in him by the time he gets on the Ajira airways flight. Add all of this together and what do you get?

   Alright, I’ve built it up enough: Ben wanted Sayid to go back to the past and shoot him. He fine-tuned Sayid into enough of a killing machine and instilled enough hatred in his heart for him so that Ben knew he would shoot even a young child version of himself. Yeah, I know it’s crazy. I know it’s out there. But if you examine this episode and really delve into why Ben spent so much off-island time honing Sayid into the killing tool he’s now become… it makes a lot of sense.

   Notice I said ‘shoot him’ and not ‘kill him’. I’m pretty sure young Benjamin Linus will live. But I think Sayid shooting Ben is going to have serious repercussions on the 1977 timeline that might result in big changes to the way things originally would’ve played out. Maybe Ben getting shot in 1977 will somehow delay or prevent him from joining the hostiles? Maybe the purge will be avoided? I won’t pretend to know those answers, but somehow 2007 Ben understands that getting shot in the past will cause ripples through time that will change things in a direction favorable to his master plan. (DarkUFO)

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80's Music Playlist Meltdown

Mar 26

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Rebekah

Mar 23

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My Bekah

My Bekah turned 12 this weekend and I can not believe who fast those 12 years have gone by.

When she was first born, she was nothing but cheeks and hair.  She would waddle over to you and give plant a big juicy kiss on your face.  As she grew older she literally wrote, colored or scribbled on every wall of our house.  It was at that point we knew she’d be a creative one!

As she grew, so did her vocabulary.   She started writing awesomely descriptive stories and still hasn’t stopped.  My favorite one was written when she was in the 1st or 2nd grade.  She wrote about a beautiful butterfly that loved life but hooked on drugs and ended up dying.  It was so matter of fact!

Now she’s in 6th grade and growing up too fast!  She is still writing and playing piano as well. She loves people, especially little kids.  Most importantly, you can see Jesus shining through her!

Bekah, I’m proud of you!

Namaste Recap

Mar 19

metalman777Lost Lost, recap 2 Comments

“Namaste” is the ninth episode of Season 5 of Lost and the 92nd episode overall. It was originally broadcast on March 18, 2009. The return of his old friends to the Island forces Sawyer to struggle to keep his lie concealed. (Lostpedia.com)

1. Although Ajira Airways Flight 316 travels through a time flash (going from night to day) just before landing, the plane and its remaining passengers are implied to still be in 2008 because a title card in the episode states that the 1977 scenes take place “Thirty Years Earlier”.
2. As the plane’s co-pilot issues a Mayday call, he picks up a transmission of a voice reading The Numbers. The origin of this transmission is a mystery, as DHARMA’s original radio message was replaced by Rousseau‘s distress signal in 1988, and that broadcast was subsequently terminated in 2004 during the events of “Through the Looking Glass“. (1-2 from Lostpedia.com)
3. This episode’s ’70s segment formally introduces / reintroduces a number of secondary characters:

Radzinsky — A balding, cranky Dharma scientist who spends his downtime constructing scale models of the Swan station’s computer room. Radzinksy’s involvement in the Swan’s development has a whiff of irony since we know he eventually uses a shotgun and his own brain matter to redecorate the Swan’s ceiling decor.

Ethan — Last week, we saw Juliet rejoice at delivering Amy’s baby boy. This week, she throws up in her mouth a little when Amy reveals that her new son’s name is Ethan … as in Ethan Rom … future Oceanic faker, Claire kidnapper, and Charlie hanger. The most intriguing part of this revelation is this: How does Ethan go from being Dharma born-and-bred to a homicidal Other?

Pierre Chang — Jack is formally processed by Dharma’s instructional video host.

4. Little Ben — We first met innocent Benjamin Linus during the flashback sequences of “The Man Behind the Curtain,” but Little Ben is bumped into the direct narrative with a foreboding scene at the conclusion of this episode. A simple sandwich exchange between Little Ben and Dharma’s latest prisoner, Sayid, suggests that Sayid will soon put Daniel Faraday’s “you can’t change the timeline” theory to the test. (3-4 from from The Lost Blog)

1. I know how the time jumping baffles some of you. So let’s establish temporal context. It seems those Ajira 316 castaways and the Oceanic 6/Left Behinders are separated by 30 years of time. While there’s always been some debate as to when exactly the Oceanic 6 left The Island, I’m going to take the conservative estimate and say it was late December 2004. They spent three years away from The Island before boarding Ajira 316 to head back. Hence: The Ajira/Hydra castaways are in 2007. The time travelers are in 1977.
2. In the opening sequence, we saw that after the Island beamed Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid off of Ajira 316, Captain Frank Lapidus spied a makeshift runway on Hydra Island and successfully executed a landing.
   I f I am recalling the Lost lore accurately, the Others were working on the landing strip during the time that Kate and Sawyer were stuck in the polar bear cages. In fact, I think Project: Runway was the hard labor the fugitive lovers were assigned during their imprisonment. Sure, the Others may have been making the strip for their own use. But I’m liking the idea that they were making it because they knew — or more precisely because Ben knew — that it needed to be there in the future for Ajira 316. It certainly fits my long-held contention that Ben’s machinations have been informed by knowledge of future events.

7. Sun and Lapidus took one of the Hydra Station outriggers and paddled their way to the Island. As they approached, we heard Smokey’s distinctive rattle — and then the monster retreated. Arrrgh! Who dares waddle onto my beaches?! Oh. You guys. Yeah, you’re all right. Welcome back. Help yourself to the Dharma beer in the barracks. A supernatural entity will be along in a minute to download some crucial intel. And sorry about the mess. Mercenaries, you know?

8. Said spectre was Jack’s poltergeisty pop. Although Ghost Shephard seemed to be slightly more tangible than your typical Casper, didn’t he? And interesting how he turned on the lights in that cabin and then led the way with the flashlight into the old Dharma orientation center. Does Christian actually need that light, or was he just being hospitable for his more conventionally humanoid guests — part of his duty as an otherworldly psychopomp, lighting the way for afterlife travelers? (PYSCHOPOMP! PSYCHOPOMP! PSYCHOPOMP!)

9. One other thought: Was Lost trying to suggest a connection between Christian and Smokey by having the two in the same vicinity at roughly the same time? Could Jack’s father be the monster in human form? (5-9 from Doc Jensen)

10. Okay, so we hate to make it seem like anytime there’s a small amount of smoke in an episode of Lost that it means that Smokey was there, but rewatching the scene where Christian opens the door in Othersville, there is obviously quite a bit of what looks like smoke behind him. Then, as they enter the house, the door opens to a strange squeaking sound and the smoke swirls through the rooom. So is this Smokey, and proof that somehow Smokey is involved in the Christian sightings? Or is this mearly a smoky room and the wind is blowing through the door, making it swirl? I, for one, think that its Smokey. (from Sledgeweb’s….Lost Stuff)

11.  If you rewatch the scene where Christian takes Sun into the house, at the end of the scene, if you watch very closely, you’ll notice that there is another woman in the room. At the very end, just after Christian says “You have a long road ahead of you,” and it goes to a tight push in shot on Sun. Over Sun’s shoulder you can clearly see a figure, that appears to be a blond female, move her head. So are we to believe that Claire was in the room with Christian?

12.  All of this reminded me of my wild theory, proposed two weeks ago, that season 5 of Lost is running parallel to season 2. Because this bit of business totally evoked for me the Henry Gale storyl ine of the show’s second season, when the castaways nabbed themselves a man they suspected to be an Other. And they were right. Which leads me to my big theory of the column: I think that the Others/Hostiles got their hands on Sayid prior to his capture by Jin. I think they’re blackmailing him into doing something for them that will prove detrimental to the Dharma Initiative and put Sawyer’s standing at risk. And remember how Sayid was allegedly feuding with Ben? How he made that big show to Hurley about how he was never going to trust Ben ever again? Well, I’m entertaining the notion that that was all a ruse, too — all part of Ben’s scheme to manipulate and herd the Oceanic 6 back to the Island. Crazy? Totally reaching? My guess is we won’t have to wait too long to find out….(11-12 from Doc Jensen)

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My Wife Knows Me So Well

Mar 16

metalman777music, videos stryper 2 Comments

My wife just sent me this piece of flair on Facebook and I thought it ws beyond awesome!  Thanks Babe!  And just for grins and giggles, here’s a Stryper video!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIkchk19GV8]

Bekah's Birthday

Mar 16

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[viddler id=92ff7fa4&w=437&h=288]

Bekah had a party for her 12th birthday and sure had a blast!  Treasure hunting and picture taking and snacks and loud tweenagers!  She had a blast and so did we!  Happy Birthday my favorite 12 year old!

Believer's Gabriel Song Samples

Mar 12

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Bravewords.com reported:  in honor of the upcoming release Gabriel, Pennsylvania based thrashers BELIEVER are releasing a second track ‘Stoned’ via the band’s MySpace page. Gabriel will be available next week, March 17th through Cesspool Recordings / Metal Blade Records.

Says drummer Joey Daub: “As we were mixing Stoned, the ripping old school death metal riff and locking into a groove felt great until we added the weird piano section. After repeated listens to this part during the mix, both Jeff and Kevin developed throbbing headaches and severe nausea. It must have been the odd, conflicting timing between the keys, guitars and drums totally screwing with their inner ears or something. Obviously Kurt and I felt great (not sure what that says about us), but I guess that’s what one might call ‘feeling the song’. Warning: Listening to this section over and over again may induce physical illness.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB7b1AMXg2o]

From the bands MySpace page.:

Believer has gained worldwide recognition for their boundary-breaking, artistic form of extreme metal. Joined by bands Cynic and Pestilence, Roadrunner Records pushed a prog-metal/thrash campaign with the three bands called, “The Breed Beyond” and solidified Believer among the ranks of unique, creative musical acts. The centerpiece of their 3rd release, Dimensions, was a metal opera that brought them great praise from fans and musicians worldwide and threw open the doors to collaborations between metal and orchestral musicians and sealed the band’s legacy.

Formed in the mid eighties by guitarist/vocalist Kurt Bachman and drummer Joey Daub, the Pennsylvania based Believer was destined to put their mark on the music scene. With the early line-up of Bachman, Daub, guitarist Dave Baddorf and bassist Howe Kraft, Believer secured a deal with East Coast indie label R.E.X. Music. The band’s debut album, Extraction from Mortality, was greeted with vast acceptance in the metal world and also drew attention from Roadrunner Records. The band’s second offering, Sanity Obscure, released by Roadrunner saw the band breaking new musical boundaries and establishing themselves as creative and experimental musicians in the metal community. With a new label and bassist, Wyatt Robertson replacing Kraft, Believer set out in support of Sanity with a European tour and an extended tour of the States with fellow thrashers Sacrifice and Bolt Thrower. Upon completion of the tour, Bachman and Daub parted ways with Baddorf and Robertson. With a new musical vision for their 3rd record, they again called upon friend and violinist Scott Laird, and his opera-trained sister, Julianne Laird, who both made brief appearances on previous Believer releases. Fellow musician and friend Jim Winters and cellist Glenn Fischbach rounded out the band and 1993’s Dimensions was the end result of this collaboration.

After a long hiatus, Believer is back with an intense fury and the band’s new record, Gabriel, once again sees Believer conquering new musical and artistic territory. With an upgraded sound and songwriting that has been alluded to as a “sick, insane cross between Tool, Voivod, NIN, and Destruction”, Believer’s 4th release Gabriel shows a band simply not focused on regurgitating and reliving their past. To this end, Bachman and Daub have surrounded themselves with new creative blood in keyboardist/programmer Jeff King, guitarist Kevin Leaman and bassist/programmer Elton Nestler. Securing a new home with legendary Metal Blade Records, Believer is determined to win over fans of old and new with their brand of ‘Believer-esque’ metal.

The Future of Calvin and Hobbes

Mar 12

metalman777Life, calvin & hobbes calvin & hobbes 1 Comment

I saw this post on Digg and absolutely had to share it.  I’ve been a HUGE Calvin and Hobbes fan ever since it was in the papers.  I still read the collected books to this day.

No other comic has touched me as Calvin and Hobbes.  I actually choked up a little upon seeing this picture!  I was never so proud as a dad as when my daughter Bekah started reading through our Calvin and Hobbes Collection.

If you don’t have the books, you can view the entire collection of comics here.  Someone has lovingly scanned every comic strip and sorted them by date.

Man I miss Calvin and Hobbes….

The coming evangelical collapse

Mar 11

metalman777Christianity Christianity 2 Comments

The Christian Science Monitor had a great opinion piece on their website today, written by Michael Spencer.  The article puts words to feelings I’ve had for quite a while now.  I want to read through it and bring my thoughts to the table.

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

I’m not sure I like the wording.  I would clarify that “evangelical Christianity” is not the same as “authentic Christianity“.   I would substitute “evangelical Christianity” for American, western churchianity.  This is what will collapse – the overblown, bubble world in which Christians only interact with themselves and not the real world.  I pray this folds, and folds soon!!

Spencer gives seven reason for his thesis.

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

I’m in absolute total agreement with him on this one.  In America, one Christian = one Republican vote.  Or so it was in the past. While I am concerned with the ramifications of same-sex marriage and abortion, those two topics are not the only two we have to be concerned with.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it.

Ouch. This one really, really hurts.  I’m a parent of a teen ager, an almost teen ager, and not quite a teen.  I feel the sting of this reprimand.  Do I expect the local Christian school and local youth group to do my job and disciple my children for me?  If I sequester my children from everything that isn’t “christian“, won’t that turn them into more devoted followers of Jesus?  Do I really have to make my kid watch Bible Man (follow the link if you think I’m joking)  instead of Spider Man?   Ugh….I am not advocating that we stop parenting responsibly.   I need to live my faith in a real world way which my children can see so they can emulate it and make that same faith their own. And no offense to Youth Pastors! You all know who you are!  I admire the work and time you give to my kids!!

3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile.

I don’t believe there is anything more to say about this point!  I do have to point out that there is a flourishing movement that tries its best to be an authentic gathering place for Christians and non-Christians alike.  Be it home churches, churches in parking lots, churches in coffe shops, churches just about anywhere.  Many Christians are finally waking up and realizing that they ARE the Church and can be that Church anywhere they go.  (Check out The God Journey website and podcast! Brad Cummings and Wayne Jacobsen will make you think deeply as you laugh your head off!)

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism.

We had our children in a Christian school for about 3 years and were shocked to find they were behind academically when we moved them to a public school!  Points 2 and 4 are tied directly to parental involvement.   We can not drop our children off at a Christian youth group or a Christian school and expect them to become Christian.  Our faith has to permeate everything we do and everything we are for it to rub off on our kids!

5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to “do good” is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.

Should we care how the world views us?  Isn’t the Truth offensive?  Is taking on a “less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive” compromising the faith?  Good questions to ask, but the answers I hear from fellow believers (even in my own congregation!) scare me!  Jesus wasn’t offensive to anybody but the religious establishment.  The poor and oppressed and drunkards and whores loved Him and wanted to be with Him.  What do those people look like today?  The poor and oppresed and trans-gendered and abortion-promoting and evolutionist?  Why do we pick fights along this line?   Do we water down Jesus warnings about the power and consequences of sin?  Absolutley not.  Can I love a trans-gendered abortion-promoting evolutionist and have dinner with ‘em and be part of their life?  Absolutely!  That’s what Jesus would do.

6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

This is a restatement of number 2,  so see my comments there.

7. The money will dry up.

Again, ouch.  Talk about being hit where it hurts.  Here is where I insert my tirade against ministry monetary mis-managment.   What does happen if the money dries up?  I have be careful here, as I do have close friends who do earn a living from ministry work.  I believe in what they do with my whole heart.

Imagine with me though, if, the money people gave to their local congregation was spent entirely on helping the poor and down-trodden.  How would the pastor get paid?  What about the secretary and youth pastor and janitor?  Obviously these titles would have to be redefined.  The entire organizational structure of  “church” would need to be redfined.  I don’t want to talk about that here; I’ll save that for another blog post.

This post is getting rather long, so I’ll wrap it up.  Please leave comments and tell me what you think!!