Update....

If any of you are interested, my old band will be "reuniting" and opening for Bowling For Soup at the Aardvark on June 6th. Tickets are available at www.frontgatetickets.com.

This is a really old picture. :)

Hypocrisy...

Ok...so there are few things in this world that I hate more than talking Religion or Politics. By nature, I avoid conflict as much as possible. I don't like to stir the pot at all, but I need to get this one off my chest.

The other day, I posted about the movie Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron and a bunch of other people, apparently who were all volunteers from a church. I had some opinions about the movie, but I was very, very careful to make very, very clear that my problems with the movie were all in the production side. I thought the acting was pretty bad (as you might expect with a volunteer cast), the writing was very, very weak (stereotypical black women who say little else than "mmmmm hmmmmm"), and that the movie felt a bit too preachy.

Not 30 minutes after the post went up, I got this comment:

undoubtly you didnt watch fireproof for the reason it was intended. my guesse is you are either single or divorced. if i am wrong about that then you are obviously not in a God supported relationship and there will come a time in your relationship that maybe you should have payed a little more attention to the true meaning of the movie.

Now, here is what gets my feathers all ruffled: If you go to any church in America (or the world, for that matter) that preaches the Bible, and speak with their pastor, you will hear nothing but the tenets of forgiveness, tolerance, acceptance, loving thy neighbor, etc. If you watch the congregation before, during, or after the service, you will see that all of the churchgoers really do a great job of showing these beliefs off. They love, and pray, and smile, and love, and pray, on and on, which is wonderful. But, a great many of these people, as soon as they leave the church, become what this commenter became. I don't know if it was petty jealousy because I didn't like a "Christian-themed movie", or if this person really thought that Fireproof was the Citizen Kane of Kirk Cameron movies, but sending comments like that one really doesn't do wonders for advancing the cause of Christianity.

My specific beef with this is not aimed at the commenter. People are entitled to feel how they feel. Moreso, my problem with the overall tone of the response is that this is the kind of thing I see from "Christians" all the time. People who go to church every Sunday, and tithe, and pray, and carry their Bible everywhere they go, yet somehow can't seem to find somewhere to get rid of all of this venom that builds up inside of them, so they attempt to take it out on those that they perceive to be less holy than them. The Bible is a complex book, and even most theologians would agree with that statement. The human race has waged wars over the interpretation of the words in the Bible, which is a whole other topic for another day. But, the basic ideas of the Bible are pretty simple. Act like a Christian, everywhere you go. Oddly enough, the phrase, "What Would Jesus Do?" is a pretty good rule to live by, yet it seems that a fair portion of people who claim to live by this sentiment are the first to knock you down a peg if they think that you aren't living by that standard.

My pastor at Church (Celebration Fellowship in Fort Worth, by the way) had a wonderful analogy for Christianity. Christianity is like salt. Take away the salt from a meal, and it tastes bland and lifeless and most people wouldn't think it tastes very good at all. Add a little dash of salt, and the meal tastes better, depending on your tastes. But when someone puts too much salt on your meal, it ruins a perfectly good meal. This pretty much hit the nail on the head for me with how Christians should act. Sprinkle a little salt here and there to season up someone's life, but don't crack them over the skull with how Christian you are. I don't need it, and I don't want it.

For this commenter to assume that because I thought the acting in Fireproof was not great that I am divorced is just the kind of hypocrisy that I have come to expect from a lot of "Christians". There are a lot of good ones out there, but there are just as many with the "holier than thou" attitude that I could frankly do without forever, thank you very much.

To all the morons...

An short message to all of the morons who think that their time is more important than everyone else's:


The reason that you don't stand up in the middle of a ceremony to walk out is not only because it is rude. You might be ruining someone else's experience as well. Such as this woman, who decided to stand up at exactly the same moment as my son shaking hands with his principal to receive his induction into the National Junior Honor Society. Thank you for ruining this moment in my son's life because you couldn't stay seated for another three minutes, when the ceremony would have been over. I hope you made it to your car in time to avoid traffic.

Spooner

Daily Movie Grind...

• I saw a couple of movies over the weekend. Neither were very good, in my opinion.
• First, I saw Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron as a firefighter going through a rough patch in his marriage. This movie, for lack of a better phrase, was so unbelievably average, it made me sick. It felt like I was watching a poorly-scripted play at church. Overt Christian overtones, stupid attempts at comedy, and more preaching than you get in an average year at church. Now, before anybody gets their panties in a bunch, I thought the message of the movie was good. As is usually the case with "regligious" films, it spent way too much time pandering to the audience and not enough time developing the story. It felt like I was watching a cross between an afterschool special and a Lifetime movie.
• The sad part was that I had several people recommend this movie as a life changing type of film. As a film per se, it was terrible. Absolutely awful. The acting was pretty crappy, and I HATE to be pandered to, and this was one of the most pandering movies I have ever seen. Seriously, it was like reading a childrens' book.
• I liked the firefighting scenes the best, especially the train sequence. That was kind of cool.

• The second movie I saw was Seven Pounds with Will Smith. Very, very confusing movie, but it all makes sense in the end. I thought that they kept us in the dark for too long, then accelerated the story too fast to catch back up at the end. Not a bad movie, good premise, but I just found it too hard to be emotionally involved because they just wouldn't give any of the story up!

• Baseball aside: We finally won our first game of the season on Friday night. We scored the winning run on a safety squeeze, called by yours truly. The funny part was that the kid that was batting had two strikes when I called it, but he had no idea he would have been out if he fouled it off, but I was counting on that when I called it. It worked to perfection, and I was as pleased as punch!

Daily Grind...

• I really, really like the show Fringe. Great story lines, has a very witty edge to it, and the guy who plays the eccentric scientist is great. But there are a couple frustrating aspects to it.
• One, they always (ALWAYS) get it right the first time. It is kind of like in Star Trek, how every week there was a 1 in a million chance that this could work, and it always did. In Fringe, the theories that are floated out there about what is going on are always dead on, even though they preface the theory with "this may sound odd, but...". I would like to see them get it wrong once or twice to make it a bit more on pace with reality.
• I realize how silly that sounded, especially if you watch the show. Reality is not this show's strong suit.
• The second thing that really bugs me about the show is that the people involved in the show still find things hard to believe. In this season, we have seen: A 12 foot long lizard/snake/scorpion hybrid, hands reaching out of computer screens, a giant porcupine monster, women who can become pregnant and deliver a baby within an hour, and people whose heads spontaneously explode. But every time that Agent Dunham goes to her boss in the FBI (who is head of a special task force related to paranormal/weird happenings) says something like, "You realize how crazy this sounds, right?". WHY??? DOES HE NOT KNOW ABOUT ALL OF THE OTHER WEIRD SHIT THAT HAS HAPPENED, OVER AND OVER AGAIN?
• Sorry for yelling, but you think that the writers of this show would have caught that by now. Everywhere she goes, weird crap happens over and over, yet they still act like they haven't ever seen anything weird before.
• I have a bet with a friend that I have to buy him lunch if the Rangers finish over .500 this year. It is one bet I would be glad to lose.

Monthly grind...

• Ok, so let me explain...I just got done with pretty much 4 straight weeks of work hell. Now, my work hell isn't like a lot of other's work hell. I didn't put in any crazy hours, I didn't not see my family for a month, etc. But for me, work hell is just an incoming barrage of to-do items mixed with two crazy projects coming at the same time. When these happen, I don't even really see my desk for the entire day, let alone have time to blog.
• ExplosiveSon's baseball team, for lack of a better word, sucks. We have only won one game this year, and it was in a tournament. Otherwise, we are ohfer in our other games. To make matters worse, we haven't even scored a run in the last three games. Yes, we have been shutout three straight games. In the last game, we were so bad that our #3 hitter in our lineup only got one at-bat. That is pathetic.
• Two weekends ago, I had a GREAT idea for a business themed website. I started to map out the ideas, talked it over with a few friends, and even started putting together a very loose business plan. I got to work on Monday, and there, in my Google Reader, was my business plan. Thought of by someone else. That same weekend. FML
• Boy, Twitter has taken off, hasn't it? It is all I hear about anymore.
• 6 months ago, I emailed Jeff Catlin of the Ticket (1310AM in Dallas) and told him about Twitter, and how useful I thought it would be for the station. I tried to explain to him about how they could post guests and upcoming segments, etc., and that they would have a captive audience constantly waiting to tune into his station. The other day, Gordo on the morning show said that the station should do this, and how awesome it would be. FML
• We hired someone at work, spent two weeks training them, and they didn't show up for 2 straight days after getting out of training, automatically earning them a pink slip. How can someone do that? They didn't even call or anything. I would like an explanation, please!
• I played the "final final" show with my old band over the weekend. It was fun. Here is a song from that show. That is me on the bass.
• I finally ordered my new computer. It is a Gateway. I should get it this week via FedEx. I cannot wait. It has been forever since I had a badass computer. I am so stoked!
• Did you ever notice that there is an arrow between the E and the X in the FedEx logo? Someone pointed that out to me and now that is all I ever see when I see the logo.
• Big Bang Theory last night was a rerun, but it was a good one. It was the Christmas episode where Penny gave Sheldon the napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy. Funniest scene ever when he unwraps the present and freaks out. If you don't watch this show, you really, really need to.
• I am amazed that the same guy who came up with The Big Bang Theory is responsible for Two and a Half men, the most unfunny show in the history of television.
• Every night, I watch an episode of the Simpsons on the Tivo, and they always have a little promo for 2.5 Men. Those promos are so unfunny that I actually enjoy watching them before forwarding through the rest of the commercials.
• I forgot that Jon Cryer (Ducky from Pretty in Pink and one of the 2.5 Men) was also in Hot Shots with Charlie Sheen. He played Washout, the guy with walleye vision.
• They wanted to perform a multioptipupiloptomy on him, but because the corneas are so delicate, they had to go in through the rectum. Ain't no man gonna take that route with him.
• Movie that was better when I was younger: Big Trouble in Little China
• Movie#2 that was better when I was younger: Crocodile Dundee
• Movie that got better as I got older: The Neverending Story
• There is a blog that I read that goes to great, great lengths to point out every single potential misstep of Barack. Now, I am no political genius, but shouldn't we give this guy a shot before completely dismissing what he is trying to do?
• I forget sometimes that the basis of politics is degrading the other guy. There really seems to be very little about "pundits"

Mark June 5th on your calendars. I can't tell you why yet, but mark it down.

Daily Grind...

• I really like to use ellipsis...
• Do you have people that you work with that are completely incompetent, and everyone can see it but their boss?
• Spent most of the weekend building a custom, in-wall media rack with my brother in law. He is the carpenter, I was the gofer.
• My trade is helping them set up computer stuff. As much as he knows about carpentry, he doesn't know that much about computers. I am glad to help.
• We are preparing for the semi-annual garage sale at the house, so our house is in complete disarray. The dog is loving all of the new stuff to chew on.
• Speaking of that, the dog got into ExplosiveWife's new "motto on the wall" that she hasn't stuck up yet. She custom ordered the stickers on the internet, and the dog chewed some of them up. I thought she was going to break down and cry (after beating the dog) but she did neither. I am proud of her.
• We had the WORST umpire in the history of ever at ExplosiveSon's baseball game on Saturday night. He was just awful. Words cannot describe the injustices he purveyed at our game. But what can you do?
• ExplosiveDaughter came home sick from school today with a minor ear infection. Poor girl called me from school in tears because she didn't want to go see the nurse. She wanted to stay right there with her teacher. It was touching.
• I don't know if I mentioned it here or not, but I got the new Pearl Jam remixed version of Ten. It is really, really good. I thought the album was pretty good when it came out, and now that it has been freshened up by Brenden O'Brien, it sounds really great.
• I just wish that my computer hadn't died, so I could put it on my iPhone.
• Speaking of iPhone, I paid $10 for the MLB At Bat 2009 application, which allows me to listen to any game audio for this season. It was AWESOME to hear the Cubs' game last night, even though they lost. For $10, it is a great deal, especially because you get pretty close to real time highlight videos sent to your phone, which is killer.
• Now if the MLB can just get rid of their silly blackout rules. Big company idiocy at its collective best, right there.