The Spagnostics and the Pastafarians follow the Spaghedeity and believe in the sanctity of pirates. What's not to like?!
More info: Homepage: http://www.venganza.org/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
Sept 19th is coming fast.
... but Jesus has finally come out with a rebuttal to John Lennon.
Lennon had made very controversial comments back in 1966 regarding the waning popularity of Jesus and the Catholic church.
Jesus had been slow to reply, first allowing Republicans to have their say. But it turned out the Beatles were more popular than Republicans and the sarcasm of Lennon's comments was allowed to be understood. Lennon's comments soon drifted into popular culture...
... and then even into academic culture, as hippies soon became professors. (Yes, you need this for a quality education.)
But with the death of George Carlin, who made a few suggestions for Jesus' reply as the priest in Dogma, Jesus has released this statement:
"Who's bigger than Jesus now, John?! Who's bigger than Jesus now?"
Let us pretend this was a few days ago.
Rod Stewart is Mad about Models. And Not the Kind he's Been Known to Marry.
by jgr80
Rod Stewart, or Mr. Stewart (as he's known to his butler), has an unhealthy obsession with model trains. In the December 2007 issue of Model Railroader, Stewart said "It means more to me to be on the cover of Model Railroader than to be on the cover of a music magazine."
during a 63-show North American tour in 2007, Stewart relocated his wife Penny Lancaster, the couple's toddler son Alistair, and seven massive traveling cases of model kits and tools to a suite of rooms in Chicago. From this central location, he flew to each night's show. After the performance, a limo would rush him back to the airport where his private jet would be waiting. After a quick flight back to Chicago and a few hours rest, Stewart would be up bright and early and busy at his model railroad workbench. Stewart said he could usually manage a few hours of steady model building each morning before setting aside his tools and spending the remainder of the day with his wife and son.This is the rockstar lifestyle people dream of... I mean who needs to sleep when you get to spend more time with the models you build instead of the models you marry. Dude is compensating for something.
by jgr80
Given the charged debate around racial and gender lines during the primaries, Obama might be treading on thin ice with this...
Workers Bar Muslim Women From Obama Backdrop
Posted Jun 18, 08 2:53 PM CDT in
(Newser) – Two Muslim women were barred from sitting behind Barack Obama during a rally Monday, with campaign volunteers concerned about headscarves appearing on TV and in pictures, Politico reports. (continue...)Politics 
by jgr80
I'm an insomniac. Yawn.
It comes and goes. Usually for not much longer than a week. It can downright awful. Days sometimes ooze into one another painfully, both physically and mentally. Or sometimes it's just annoying. I try to sleep and it just doesn't work, although the next day I feel fine. Except for the constant yawning that follows me around. Yawn after yawn.
People think I'm not paying proper attention to them. Yawn. That they are boring me or something. Yawn. I have to explain that I didn't sleep well, which always sounds like a lie to someone who thinks they are boring you. But yawns are contagious, so they usually yawn, too.
My most recent bout of insomnia came earlier this week. After a quite successful band practice, my ears were ringing with the sound of bagpipes and flat drums well into the night. I was feeling energized. And then it was time to sleep and I was still energized. I didn't sleep that night. Yawned all the next day. Yawn after yawn.
Have you yawned yet? That's what I was going for by repeating 'yawn' so many times. And for the pictures.
Anyhow, the insomnia went on for a few days until last night. I was at the point yesterday afternoon where I couldn't do much of anything. So I vegged on the couch and went to bed real early.
During these few days, I noticed a few articles that popped up on Digg and Delicious. Having never gone to the doctor about my insomnia I figured reading something might be useful.
It was not.
These internet 'lifehacks' can be profoundly amusing in their deliberate obviousness.
Here is such a self-help article from EurekaAlert.org. Just in case you have no interest in clicking on the link, one of their tips for the insomniac is to "get a full night's sleep every night" ?!?!?!?!?! (Multiple interrobangs added for effect).
I wonder if the author had to go to Yale for that topical gem.
Here is another one I found from Time Magazine. Again, if you aren't interested in clicking on things despite surfing the internet, the gist of this article suggests that it's healthy to have between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep a night and that veering to either side of this window is bad.
Memories of digital clocks blinking "12:00" race through my head. I've never felt so energized as the moment I wake up and realize the power went out the night before and my alarm clock has reset. One time, I got to my first year philosophy exam an hour and a bit late.... I ended up nearly failing the class. However, showing up late to the exam had no bearing on this since I was well finished ahead of the bell. One of the first ones finished actually, as I recall. Maybe this is why I almost failed. I didn't like philosophy until my fourth year.
Regardless, since we've already established that clicking on things is too difficult for the sleep depraved, I will embed this video. I find it unhelpful to the insomniac, self-proclaimed or not. It is quite funny though, even if it's not trying to be. Especially the wallpaper images at 1:34 and 2:17... they just don't make sense. Enjoy.
by jgr80
Today is the birthday of Mary Travers, La Bolduc's. She would be 114 years old. I know of La Bolduc from this:
This was always one of my favorite Heritage Moments because I noticed she sings over an Irish pipe tune.
The gal had no formal musical training. She got the tunes from her dad who taught her the instruments he knew how to play by ear. She could never read music.
Despite my fondness of the vignette, there are quite a few gaping holes in this heritage minute. The song in the video was from her 3rd recording. By then, Mr. Beaudry already knew her despite the surprise on his face.
Her first two recordings flopped. Then a 3rd recording, which had "La Cuisiniere" as the main song, changed everything. It was released for the Christmas shopping season, and before the holidays were over, she was a household name in Quebec. In the middle of the depression, on her first tour, she earned $2000.
In 1994, she was honored with a stamp by Canada Post. My first "when-I-was-your-age" moment... Stamps were 43 cents back in 1994?!
These commercials were dangerous. I remember sitting in front of that TV for hours waiting for them to come on during The Racoons...
In stead of sitting in front of the TV, I shoulda been out in the driveway practicing my slapshot...
Hmm... all this talk about what I was watching when I was a kid and I still haven't said anything about the greatest ongoing television commercial theme song ever... the Hinterland Who's Who...
Sssssplendid
'Guerdon' rewarding word in spelling bee
Sameer Mishra won the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington on Friday by correctly spelling the word guerdon, which appropriately means reward.
Sameer Mishra, after winning the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington on Friday. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)
Mishra, 13, from West Lafayette, Ind., won $35,000 in cash, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond and thousands of dollars worth of reference books.
He's a reader, enjoys video games, has played the violin for four years in his school orchestra and wants to be a neurosurgeon.
It was his fourth appearance at the bee, after moving up the rankings from ties for 98th, 14th and 16th place in the previous three competitions.
He beat first-time contestant Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Sameer was coached by his sister, Shruti, a high school student and three-time bee contestant.
The last seven Canadian contestants were eliminated earlier Friday for flubbing such words as accordatura (the notes to which a stringed instrument is tuned), tonneau (an early style of touring car) and otacariasis (an infestation of the ear with mites).
"Seven up, seven down," said Pam Penny of Ancaster, Ont. Her daughter, Veronica, was one of the seven.
Frank Neuhauser, 94, who won the first bee in 1925 with gladiolus (a flower), said : "It was a lot easier back then." He only had to beat seven others; Mishra vanquished 287. " I'd never make it now," Neuhauser said.
He won $500, and was honoured with a parade in his hometown, Louisville, Ky.
by jgr80
I grew up on Rod Stewart. My parents are big fans. They always played Rod the Bod in the car on trips whenever I was young. There's a special spot in me for the old fella. I'd say that spot lies somewhere in 1994 or so. Before then, there were a few times in his career I'm sure he would have liked to take back. But ever since then, he's just been ridiculous.
Roderick used to be in excellent shape. In earlier times, he was a grave digger, a fence erector, and nearly a professional footballer. Rocking out from 1962 to 2001 probably kept him in pretty good shape as well.
Poor old Rodney... I guess trying to be Frank Sinatra for the last seven years has taken its toll. His newly updated tour rider calls for 2 oxygen machines. They need to be ready for him before, during, and after his sets and are to be placed near stage.
He also needs 48 FIFA Soccer balls and $16,000 of food?!
I gotta say Tom Waits does the better version. Rodlington is close though, with special thanks to the added fromage in this video.
by jgr80
Maybe you've seen this video. You know the one... the one of the girl playing the hula-hoop game for her Nintendo Wii Fit.
I won't embed the video on this site because it's probably not suitable for work or around kids. But you can see it here if you like.
The video is a few days old. As of the last time I watched it, it has been watched nearly 800,000 times (it wasn't just me, I swear).
I'm fascinated with the internet, I must say. Just the mere idea of it. This video is a testament to that. I first found it on Digg. The video is called Why every guy should buy their girlfriend a Wii Fit. After I got over the initial grammar mistake in the title, one of my next thoughts was that if I had a girlfriend, it is likely I would also have a Wii Fit.
I had been duped... dupadee duped.
This video was made by an advertising company. And this is brilliant viral marketing. But dude, you let the secrets get out... you uploaded the video under the user name 'tinsleyadvertising.' What did you think was going to happen?!
The L.A. Times picked it up this morning. The guy's response appears to be more spin to me. Sure, she didn't know she was being filmed. She always plays video games in her underwear with the windows wide open.
The idea of such viral advertising is incredible and I'm happy it was thought up by someone so young. He still has time to find the error of his ways and use his smarts for something better than advertising.
by jgr80
Finally!! This is up for debate:
Court Claim: Chimps Are People, Too
Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.comThu May 29, 9:55 AM ETMatthew, a 26-year-old chimp, is headed to court in Europe as part of a human effort to classify him as a person.
Beyond the legal challenges, anthropologists say chimpanzees are not humans, though without a clear definition of what it means to be human, backing that claim up is a challenge perhaps fit for some great courtroom drama. (continue...)
The key to the entire incipience of this argument comes in the first line of the story... Perhaps unconsciously -- or maybe... nay... hopefully, completely on purpose-- the reporter regards the human fighting for the rights of this monkey, Paula Stibbe, as an imbecilic Neanderthal. Her stunningly vacuous thoughts were somehow, unbelievably, motivated into action.
Matthew, a 26-year-old chimp, is headed to court in Europe as part of a human effort to classify him as a person.
"Everybody who knows him personally will see him as a person," Stibbe told the Evening Standard.
by jgr80
"In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." - Andy WarholBob Barr is running for President of the United States. Recently, he won the right to run on the well-known Libertarian ticket.
by jgr80
This post is about baseball, for those of you who don't care about that sort of thing.
What the deuce happened to the Blue Jays last night against the Angels? Look at the boxscore. (It's a good thing Eckstein wasn't playing, cause he's just too little and cute to badmouth... it's too bad he CAN'T play even when he's healthy)
T.O. had 11 hits to Anaheim's 4... and still lost. The worst baserunning I have ever seen. How many brainfarts does it take to wake up and get your head in the game? Between the errors, baserunning mistakes, fielding flubs... it's clearly more than ten.
And for the amount of money the Jays are spending on these guys-- especially what Rios is making-- their heads should always be in the game. Rios didn't advance to 2nd base on a passball that went 30 feet behind the catcher. So there's a runner on 1st and 3rd instead of 2nd and 3rd... Next batter: inning ending double-play instead of RBI fielder's choice. Stupid.
Speaking of double-plays... the lowly Jays grounded into three more, bringing their running total after 48 games to 58 for the season. They're on pace to smash the all-time record of 174 by about 21 (58/48*162=195). So even if you have a pile more baserunners and a pile more hits than your opponent, if you can't get them around the bases, you are going to lose.
If you want to make the playoffs, these are games you have to win. You know... the games where you outplay your opponents. Such games ones are important. These players are better than they are playing. The coach is not getting their value out of them. Fire Gibbons.
I jumped on the Red Sox bandwagon a few years ago and stopped cheering for the Jays because they were too stupid to endure for a number of years. They made offseason moves I supported and seemed like the Jays were back in business. I started cheering for them again. This is frustrating.
They have the ingredients to make a good team and keep going to the grocery store instead of getting down to cook. What is a Brad Wilkerson anyway?! and why does it get the chance to lead off the batting order?
23-25. Keep doing the country proud.
