I sure hope this isn't a hoax...

Because this is the coolest thing I've heard in a long time:

SALT LAKE CITY - For more than 50 years, rancher Waldo Wilcox kept most outsiders off his land and the secret under wraps: a string of ancient settlements thousands of years old in near perfect condition.

Hidden deep inside eastern Utah's nearly inaccessible Book Cliffs region, 130 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, the prehistoric villages run for 12 miles along Range Creek, where Wilcox guarded hundreds of rock art panels, cliffside granaries, pit houses and rock shelters, some exposing mummified remains of long-ago inhabitants.

The sites were occupied for at least 3,000 years until they were abandoned more than 1,000 years ago, when the Fremont people mysteriously vanished. The Fremont, a collection of hunter-gatherers and farmers, preceded more modern American Indian tribes on the Colorado Plateau.

San Francisco rolls out the red carpet for the Clintons

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Okay -- someone stop her NOW. The only reason we didn't lose the house this past year was because of the Bush tax cuts. And now Sen. Clinton wants to take away our house on behalf of he common good?

National Treasure Evan Coyne Maloney interviews people waiting for a Clinton book-signing in "The Clinton Legacy".

It's funny because it's not what you would have expected, but then, upon reflection (particularly the guy who thought he was going to see Avril Lavigne, instead of Clinton), it's exactly what you would expect people who would wait eight hours to see Clinton to be like.

And please don't make the comparison between Maloney and Moore. Maloney shares nothing of Michael Moore's vitriolic hatred and contempt for all humanity. When you watch Maloney interacting with the people he interviews you really do feel that really likes people, all people, and that he's talking with his friends (and this isn't that artificial Terri Gross "get down with the people" sort of amenability, either). It's encouraging, though, that the Left has yet to produce a younger Michael Moore (Maloney is in his early 30s and Moore is in his 50s, I believe, though his he's got to have the arteries of an 80-year-old). And I don't think the Left ever will. Where are their next Michael Moores? Aborted, every one.

Don't expect to see these graphic pictures in the New York Times, anytime soon (work safe).

And finally: a sensible and economic look at the effects of abortion, from the Wall Street Journal. I doubt many Dems will change their hearts, though. Abortion is the nuclear holocaust and the Democratic party is the Slim Pickens.

And for heaven's sake, keep your phone away from my 'nads!!!

Cheaper by the Dozen

Jackie, 'Xander, and I all saw this movie last night and we all really enjoyed it. I wasn expecting to really like it at all, but it was actually funny in spots, touching in others, and is probably the movie which most effectively, to this date, illustrates the conflict between pursuing career goals (with the best intentions) and really just focusing on what you need to support a family.

There were a lot of little annoying things (like why Clark didn't just throw the jocks at his new school through the air or zap them with his heat-vision and how come the family is so poor if multi-talented Disney sensation Hilary Duff is in it?) but overall I would recommend this to anyone with kids with a disclaimer: watching this movie will make you want to run right out and pick up more.

If I had a real-live swinging band, I like to believe it'd be a lot like Estradasphere (thanks for turning me on to them, Aristotle A.!).

Hey! Did you know that the chimpanzee that was on last night's episode of Monk is also Dennis Miller's co-host on his CNBC show? Things you learn by watching the credits...

And yes, I know my site's availability has sucked as of late. We'll be transitioning it at some point in the next week or so, so look for availability to just jump through the roof and then come down and land unharmed on the couch.

CBS 2 Chicago: 'No One Steals From God'

“He had threatened me that he had a knife so I saw the knife pouch on his belt. So, knowing that he had a knife I had to physically keep his hand away from the knife so I wouldn’t be harmed. So I put him basically in a half-nelson and held him to the ground,” said Father Foley.

Happy Fathers' Day to all fathers and Fathers everywhere!!!

I've never heard of the game "Dead Rush", but this screenshot, of a Ford Crown Victoria plowing through a bunch of zombies, tells me everything I need to know about the game -- WICKED AWESOME! (Also, the tagline from the trailer is "Sometimes a car is your best weapon", which is a belief I've always held deeply, and it's being developed by Treyarch, who do all those cool Spider Man games).

Advise on being a Father... from Men's Health magazine

I know what you're thinking, but this is actually a pretty amazing article, as out of step as it is with practically everything dads have been told in the secular media for the last 30 years.

Basically it's the 10 regrets of the author's fatherhood experience... and the 11th wish? "Bonus Wish: I Would Have Had More Kids"

I don't know who is behind those new Spy Vs. Spy ads for Mountain Dew ("Helicopter" and "Hallway") but they're perfect. They look exactly like what a live-action representation of my favorite comic strip should look like (even down to the expressions on their faces -- and the rendering of the helicopter is spot-on). The Grey Spy has yet to make an appearance, but probably will soon.

I wish I had never gotten rid of my Spy Vs. Spy Board Game. That was really fun.

OverClocked Remix

More remixes of classic video game music. It's hard not to love a piece entitled "Pachelbel's Ganon" (by DJ Pretzel, who seems to be one of the best and the moderator of the site; remarkable, actually -- gotta appreciate anyone who gives Alex Kidd mad props).

Fans of Tetris will appreciate this. This Zelda remix from the same artist is also very good.

As someone who can't walk up a hill without whistling the theme of Sony's "Wild Arms" (probably my favorite RPG of all time), I'm looking forward to these.

UPDATE: Okay, my favorite so far is this boogie-woogie (though over-quantized) tribute to the NES classic "Ice Climbers"

Idiot Roundup

NJ Residents Fear Backlash if Saudi Hostage Killed

If the 9/11 terror attacks didn't prompt a "racist backlash", what makes anyone think killing another hostage would? Besides, it's not like anyone was planning on blowing up a shopping mall anytime soon, right?

Baptists reject public school pullout

Earlier this year, a statement denouncing "government schools" as "officially Godless" had been proposed...

Of course the public schools are officially Godless, but I think what the Southern Baptists are really afraid of here are children moving from the officially Godless schools into schools which are nominally Catholic.

Let's see... who else is an idiot today...

The US Senate, of course... whatever happened to "equal protection under the law". Why write a law that only applies to 1% of the population (yes, there are a few more idiots in that article)? Yeah, I know the whole "all crimes are hate crimes" angle has been played to death, but it's the truth. I wonder if they'll count cases of statutory anal rape as a "hate crime against homosexuals"... maybe they consider that a love crime, though. Who knows.

More idiots...

Dan Rather, but that's too obvious. Tootsie Heinz Kerry, too.

And, oh yeah... You missed. It'll take more than that to knock it into the sea.

Way to go, Fr. Bryce!

I bet there are more than a few Louisiana senators who are now cursing his name.

Cool!

Sorry about the light 'blogging as of late. I have a large presentation I need to work on (for work) and plus, it's summer, and you should really be outside. On top of that my webhost is not providing reliable service and so we'll probably be moving to a different hosting company soon.

Anyway, our order from Cheapass Games arrived last weekend and while we haven't managed to put together a game night yet to give Kill Doctor Lucky a go, we can say that the Very Clever Pipe Game and Safari Jack are both fun, simple games which two players can play in around 15-20 minutes a piece. And they're cheap, too. This weekend we'll probably try Nexus and Lightspeed.

Looks like someone beat me to it. Still, my idea was for an animated version of the story. Maybe someday someone will give it the WestonWoods treatment.

To counteract the previous post, a new reflection for Corpus Christi is up at CrossBeams.org.

Dance, Dance, Resurrection

Truly blasphemous or a wry commentary on the readiness of most Christian artists to co-opt rather than to truly transform popular culture? You decide. No thanks to POF for finding this link.

Fatchett Design

I wonder if that's the same Casey Fatchett I went to college with, and who has been in several plays out in New York since then. Maybe someone will know.

Brigitte Bardot would make a great drinking buddy... or a senator.

Motown momentum: Pistons' stifling defense shuts down Lakers in Game 3 rout

We watched half of this game last night and it was AWESOME (well, flipping between the game and the MXC marathon on Spike!). It's almost enough to make me want to run out and buy NBA 2k5 or something.

Rest In Peace, Ray Charles.

>bt: The Children of Reagan

Touching eulogy from Evan Coyne Maloney, a member of the real Greatest Generation (mine). Anyway, I don't have quite the same, vivid memories of Reagan. My parents admired him, and I remember the 8 x 10" glossies arriving in the mail every Christmas, but we didn't have a TV and so I was spared pretty much all of the great disasters of the 1980s (including MTV; the sparing of me from which I will ever be grateful).

I do remember, in third or fourth grade, drawing angry eyes and a sharp-toothed monster mouth on the USSR whenever we'd get a map of Europe off of the ditto machine, so apparently something of the "Evil Empire" speech filtered through.

Stevie Wonder has a new album coming out!

Yes, it's his first in over nine years (I can remember exactly where I was when Conversation Peace came out). Yes, we'll preorder it as soon as we get some cash. Yes, he was on Oprah today, singing some new songs. Yes, Jackie taped it, and yes, I'll be watching it tonight.

Maybe it was just the time (May, 1997) and the way (live to four-track) this track was created, but this has got to be one of my favorite (Victor-made) tracks of all time.

Captain Sisko's Badasssss Song (.mp3 format)

And that's one thing they can't take away from me.

The 3rd season of "Dead Zone" started last night on USA. If you're thinking it's been a while since the second season ended, you're right (yes, that was even before the bizarre and still-unsolved case of Brian Wells). It played pretty much like a continuation of the second season, although now they have a new CGI sequence to show the destruction of Washington, D.C., in 2015. And Frank Whaley did return as Future Man (though the billing at the start of the episode was f'd up... how does "2nd-season 24"-chick get "Very Special Guest Star" status and Frank Whaley, one of the best actors of our time, doesn't even get an "and".

Still the best part was the commercial they showed with Adrian Monk and Johnny Smith attending the American Detectives Association meeting (I guess that organization shares an abbreviation with the ADA, the Dyslexics Against Drugs -- motto: "Just say on!"). It was a very funny commercial with the germaphobic Mr. Monk wondering if Johnny really needs to touch someone to read them ("You can't just jab... or poke?"). That was the best part.

Anyway, that's it for me. I'm looking forward to watching Venus' transit on my walk tomorrow morning.

Garageband.com has taken the content from mp3.com and ... well, my page is there, anyway, but none of my songs are yet. I guess I could put them up (after doing 30 reviews), but what's the point?

Bangtown is from up the road in Flint, Michigan. Noted songwriter Pharlon Randle plays and sings everything and it's pretty good Nu soul/funk ("Funky Pill" being my favorite so far -- though there's a lot to be said for "Superreactivepsychobump").

"He was a Christian gentleman. His prospects are good."

- My father, on the passing today of Ronald Reagan.

"seiklus is an exploration/adventure game that I made. Try it and see what you think."

A fun and whimsical and free PC game featuring a little white guy who runs around a diverse world collecting things (and never dying, which is nice). The music is vintage C64, which is very cool.

Migraine today. Behind on everything. Will see what I can get done this weekend.

Crossbeams.org

A site Jackie and I have been working on (it's been active since about the start of Lent). The Reflections archive page is forthcoming.

INSTALANCHE!!!

Well, I guess that explains why I haven't been getting any fanmail lately: MailWasher, our favorite free (used to be free, anyway) "delete the spam and viruses while they're still on your mailserver" utility has somehow added entire domains like hotmail.com and attbi.net to its blacklist.

So if you've been sending me fanmail and I haven't replied, that's why. If you've been sending me hate mail, don't give up: I'll probably come around to your way of thinking eventually.

Great... NOW I'm addicted to YoHoHo! Puzzle Pirates!

Seriously: if you like MMORPGS, Puzzle Games, or pirates DO NOT play this game. If the idea of walking around talkng like a pirate, swordfighting, joining a crew of real live people, battlin' other ships, sharin' the booty, and buying new clothes appeals to you DO NOT play this game.

You WILL become an addict. You have been warned.

Still if you happen to see "Freestarr" walking around, give me a holler.

Wired.com: The Thermochemical Joy of Cooking

Rather nice article about Alton Brown. I also enjoyed this entry, from AB's 'blog:

Thursday, May 27, 2004

The fact that “Dr.” Phil has the number 1 cookbook on Amazon.com makes me want to end it all.

posted by Alton Brown, 7:38 PM