When a Forest Grows Too Wild, a Purging Fire is Inevitable and Natural.

"An important message" or "an important massage," which one?

Once again, we are at the weekend tipping point; Saturday midnight being the fulcrum upon which the weekend slowly tilts toward Monday, leaving Friday to creep below the horizon in our rear view mirrors...

How's THAT for corny? MUAHAHAHA!!!!

Mellow day today, involving a late rising, some mall activity, some food, a Starbucks run, a newly-reshaved head and some butter pecan ice cream with a healthy splash of chocolate syrup. Now to blog, to read, and to bed. Church day tomorrow; so I should get to bed early... hopefully before 3 am, MUAHAHA!!!

Dang, I used the evil laugh twice so far. Better pace myself, or you'll lose what little respect you have left for me... nothing slays respect like redundancy.

Before I proceed, I better play a request. Yes, I am taking requests now! Abbie and Rebekah have asked that I play the following clip of a three-year-old girl recapping the original Star Wars film...



I remember reading a bit about that clip when it first came out. Apparently the kid only saw Star Wars once, and had a long discussion with her mom about it that the mom thought was so cute she decided to try and have her tell the recap again. This video clip was that second attempt. Apparently, the first time was infinitely more awesome, but alas, it was not filmed. This one is good though... the mom was amazed that she could retain so much of the movie after only one viewing...

So I'm trying to decide what to read next. Ah, the trials and tribulations of the Average Soft American! Oh, what shall I ever do? Not sure what to read next! The horror! I have food to eat, a roof over my head, money in the bank, a wonderful family... all things that a significant percentage of the world does not have... I don't live in a city dump, I'm not rotting in a prison somewhere, I'm not missing limbs, I don't have grievous addictions or mental problems, or even chronic pain of any type. At the moment, life is grand... so what's a man to worry about when life is grand? Well, he worries about what book to read next.

That having been established, let me proceed...

I've pretty much overdosed on Fantasy books since the beginning of the year. If I wanted to, I could number the Israelites and post a list of all the books I've read in the past year, and then marvel at my reading prowess. "Man, that Dave can sure read a lot! So impressive! I wanna be just like him when I grow up!" or if you're female, "I wanna marry someone just like him when I grow up! Look how strong his eyes are! Dave, flex your lids for us again!" (Dave flexes his lids). *swoon*!

These are the Fantasy books I have at my fingertips:
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- The Sword of Shanarra, by Terry Brooks
- A Cavern of Black Ice, by JV Jones
- Hawkwood's Voyage, by Paul Kearney
- The Briar King, by Greg Keyes
- The Dark Tower (Books 1 and 2), by Stephen King
and several books by JRR Tolkien... everything but The Hobbit and LOTR (though I have those as well)...

Plus, some heavy lobbying of late for some Brandon Sanderson, which sounds interesting.

Thus, my Fantasy cup runneth over. But I'm feeling a bit burnt out at the moment. I might grab a different genre for a book or two, just to mix it up a bit... These are among my choices...

- The Virtues of War, by Steven Pressfield. A novel about Alexander the Great, by my favorite author.
- The Talisman, By Stephen King. Read it many moons ago, remember almost nothing about it except that I really liked it at the time.
- A group of Tom Clancy books that I've read before (and loved), including: Debt of Honor, Executive Orders, Rainbow Six, Without Remorse, Red Rabbit, The Bear and the Dragon, Red Storm Rising and more...

So there it is, my current reading quandary. While others agonize at the bedside of a dying loved-one, I wrestle with the best fiction title to next read into the wee hours... well, I suppose these are the "good old days" and that I should enjoy them while I can. Last night, as I was trying to sleep, I got a case of the shivers. Now, it's mid-August in San Diego, which means it's certainly not cold. Nevertheless, I lay there, blankets pulled up over my head, shivering. Of course, what's the first thing that pops into my head, morose fool that I am? Yup, concentration camps. Being called out in the snow, while it's still dark, wearing next to nothing, and being forced to stand quietly for hours, shivering, trying desperately to stay awake and erect. People had to go through that! People no different than me! Could I endure such hardness, when I grumble about shivering on my couch for a few minutes on a warm Summer night? I felt stupid. I felt soft. I wondered what the future held. How long would I have it so easy? Would I ever have to face challenges so common to man throughout history? Would I last a minute?

Such are my thoughts in the middle of the night. Pass the ice cream!

Time for the Funny T-shirt of the Day! That'll loosen things up a bit!

I would so buy that shirt. I love it. "WARNING: Do not try this at home!" I always roll my eyes when shows say that... I certainly can't say I recommend those Jackass-type shows, but some of the sketches and stunts they do are pretty funny. Most aren't, but some of them are. I loved the one where they dressed the midget guy up as a matador and had him bull fight with a calf. That was funny, sorry to say.

I was talking (via text messages) today with Joseph about the Beatles edition of the game Rock Band that is coming out in September. For those unfamiliar with the game, the game comes with little plastic band instruments, and the player "plays" along with the song, trying to mimic notes and chords as the tracks progress. It's actually pretty fun. You can play guitar, the bass, drums or sing. It tracks your pitch as you sing, and you score points for each note you hit that is on pitch. It's like karaoke on steroids, basically. It's as fun to watch friends play as it is to play yourself. Anyway, the Beatles version has 2 additional vocal tracks so that others can join in on the harmonies. You can even sing and play an instrument at the same time, if you've got mad skillz.

The Procelli's have a PS3 and the original Rock Band. Maybe they'll get the Beatles version too. That I would enjoy trying.

Countdown to the Scrabble Party! 6 days! At the moment, we have only 2 complete Scrabble sets (and 2 incomplete ones, lol), and then two computers with the Scrabble software on them, in case we need to hot-seat some games. I plan on buying at least one more game board, and maybe asking some of the people to bring their Scrabble if they have it. I have no idea how many people will actually be coming - I want to have enough copies of the game to accommodate as many pairs of people as want to play. I wanted to try and keep it small, but I'm finding out that when it comes to parties, the more people you invite, the more you have to invite, and it multiplies... you can't really draw the line without offending folks. Where's the line, you know? The line between wanting to invite everyone, and being realistic about how big a party you can afford to throw? So, I guess I'll just throw the doors open and see what happens. Hey, you only turn 39 once, right?

Time for another cool video clip. Vye sent me the link to this one a month or more ago, and it slipped out of my addled brain. But Today's Big Thing added it today, and I saw it and went, "Oh yeah, that's awesome!" So here it is Vye. Sorry for the delay...

I think I better pull the plug tonight, before I ramble on for another hour. I'm in a strangely chatty mood tonight, and feel I could go on and on about tons of other stuff. But I shall spare you all the tedium. Sorry about the lack of enthusiasm, with regards to the August Movie Quote Contest... I'm kind of burnt out on it. I may just let it fizzle out, and call Bob the Winner and Eternal Champion.

Until tomorrow, remember, still the guns and stow 'em! Signal the men, set the flags and make good to clear the port!