Of Mickey and Marvel

I have for you one of those events that will utterly surprise you and yet make you wonder why it is utterly surprising.

Disney has bought Marvel.

In a deal costing about $4 billion, Mickey Mouse and Magneto will be under the control of the same company. Aladdin and Captain America. Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Little Mermaid. All under the control of the same company.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. As long as Disney's stupidity doesn't rub off the already volatile Marvel, I will be content. But the moment I see Goofy in an X-Men outfit, I'm out.

I will say that while this is a very surprising event, it really shouldn't be. Marvel, one of the most successful and effective companies as far as visual communication goes, seems like a very adequate partner for the animated entertainment giant that Walt Disney has become.

I think Penny Arcade puts it quite well:

Of Atheism and Animals

I feel like I only post when I have something funny to share. Alas, such are the woes of one sans the venue of Facebook with which to share comedy.

That being said, this is pretty daggum hilarious. It is a group of atheist animals lovers who will take care of your pets once you depart for heaven in the rapture. And for only a simple payment of $110.00 for your first pet, and $15.00 for each additional pet at the same location!

There are even terms and conditions that say "If subscriber loses his/her faith and/or the Rapture occurs and subscriber is not Raptured (aka is "left behind") EE-BP disclaims any liability; no refund will be tendered."

The only downside is that there is a ten (10) year limit to the contract, and then it has to be renewed.

Of Tights

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. I've always had a problem with tights and now I can put my finger on the reason for my disgust when they are publicly exhibited.

Read the manifesto.

And I quote:

"We have tired of tolerating attemps to force tights into a non-native garment category and have decided to do something about it."

Of Broken Arms Pt. II

I'll begin with the explanation. I was not at TVR the week that it happened, but at a Group Workcamp in Lexington, NC, which is supposedly the barbecue capital, but the general consensus of the group was that good ole SC barbecue is easily better. The town did feature a number of cast iron pigs, in different poses and painted, which was quite entertaining.

Well, on Thursday afternoon of the week, I was playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee with some people from the camp and from my youth group. Maybe 15 minutes into us playing, I collided with my brother as we were both going for a pass. Here is a basic diagram of what happened, with a few adjustments:



As you can see, I was running one way and my brother was running in the other direction, in the air after a jump. Unfortunately, my arm was between us when I was unable to move out of the way. And because I was only wearing a shield on my right arm, just like the picture, well:

Boom pop crack wallakazaam. You saw the picture.

Petty Teenage TV Shows

This is an amazingly accurate description of the ridiculous teenage TV shows such as Dawson's Creek, The Hills, The O.C., etc. from Dr. Awesome's Blog, To Every Man A Manswer. And I agree with it:

Main Character is a teenager/20-something adolescent with issues that he/she thinks are complicated but really aren't that complicated if he/she would quit whining about his/her problems and just do something about them. There is always a love-triangle, though sometimes the triangle expands to other geometric shapes, such as a love-quadrangle, love-trapezoid, or love-rhombus. Other members of the love-rhombus also have complicated-but-not-really issues that they think are very important, though ultimately these issues are also very unimportant and would be solved if people were just honest with each other. These issues get rehashed week after week, episode after episode, while each character of the love-rhombus shacks up with some other character, creating new unimportant issues that wouldn't have existed if the people would stop fornicating. Finally, there is usually some authority figure who causes problems for all of the parties involved by assigning needless homework, making their minimum wage jobs difficult, putting them in prison on charges of larceny...typical things your average teenager deals with. Oh, and there is almost always a loveable gay character who himself is part of an (un)complicated geometric relationship, probably an icosahedron.

Of Broken Arms

I broke my arm. It's taking me dang long to write this post with one hand. For this reason my posts this summer are probably going to happen hardly at all. Sorry. I know you are all greatly disappointed.

Here's a picture of the injury in the hospital, before it was set:

Of New Beginnings to Old Ventures

Today I leave for camp. I am a new man of sorts, I hope. Last summer was a horribly unproductive affair due to my divided attention between plenty of petty idols with a little sliver of care for God.

A friend recently told quoted to me a mantra: "If you don't think of something in your power as a possibility, then it will never happen." In this specific context, I do not want to keep living in my current state of unproductive Christianity, and I even more specifically do not want to have another summer like I did last year.

So now, I am ruling it out as a possibility. Your prayers are desperately desired.

I am going to try and update this once a week, we only have free time on the weekends for the most part, so we'll see how that goes.

If you would like to write me mail, then let me know.

Of "Two Hands"

A while ago I did a post based around Jars of Clay's song "Two Hands." Well, here is their explanation of the song:

Jars of Clay: Stories Behind the Songs (2 of 7) from Jars of Clay on Vimeo.

Of Materialism

"Our minds, which are even now only just awakening after years of materialism, are infected with the despair of unbelief. The nightmare of materialism, which has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past; it holds the awakening soul in its grasp."
--Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Materialism can be applied to an over desire for pleasure and other sins, yes?

The Onion On American Education Issues

I daggum love the Onion. For those of you that don't know, the Onion is a fake news network that creates satirical news stories and videos which are sometimes inappropriate, but always witty and hilarious while pointing to the real issue at hand.

This particular article struck me as something I simply could not not share. Here's a snippet. The article was titled "Report: Increasing Number Of Educators Found To Be Suffering From Teaching Disabilities":

WASHINGTON—A shocking report released by the U.S. Department of Education this week revealed that a growing number of the nation's educators struggle on a daily basis with some form of teaching disability.

The study, which surveyed 2,500 elementary and high school level instructors across the country, found that nearly one out of every five exhibited behaviors typically associated with a teaching impairment. Among them: trouble paying attention in school, lack of interest or motivation during class, and severe emotional issues.

"For teaching-disabled and at-risk educators, just coming to school every day is a challenge," said Dr. Robert Hughes, a behavioral psychologist and lead author of the study. "Even simple tasks, like remaining alert and engaged during lessons, can be a struggle. Unfortunately, unless we take immediate action, these under-performers will only continue to fall further behind."

And it only gets better. I love how it's mind-blowingly funny and at the same time points to two important issues: One, the incapability and underpaid nature of much of the teaching profession. Two, the oversimplification of the issue of kids falling behind in school as simple "learning disability."

So, what do you think?