#NBCFail olympics

A response to the hubbub of how badly the internet populace feels NBC is handling the Olymipcs.

They aren't treating the Olympics like a "news" event or even a "sporting" event. It's an entertainment event as far as NBC is concerned, and they are trying to construct entertaining narratives and stories from the video and free "reality" star talent (what others would call "athletes") they have available to them.

The guise of a news and sporting event allows them to operate with lower production costs than if they had to pay all those participants and build all the sets and props themselves.

The internet thinks this is news and sports. But NBC views this as entertainment to sell ads against. They can't publicly admit that because then the actors and set designers would want NBC to pay them for what they are producing: an entertainment show. So NBC is going to do what they need to do to make this as "entertaining" as possible for the masses, and pay lip service to this being "news and sports" so costs stay low too. If editing and restructuring facts, helps them make a better entertainment show, that's what they are going to do, as long as people watch.

Safety Not Guaranteed

Went to Celebration Woodland and watched Safety Not Guaranteed in a tiny little theater.

The film is about some magazine reporters that go to a small town in the state of Washington to investigate a man who placed an ad:

*Wanted* Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.

Basically the movie is a character study of 4 people set against the backdrop of whether or not the placer of the above classified ad is crazy or not.

Good movie. If you liked Garden State, you'll probably like this movie as well. Go see, or rent.

Squirrels and Burnt Lawn
Through the front door. I shot this yesterday morning on my phone.

Maker Faire Detroit

Jennifer and I went to Maker Faire Detroit at the Henry Ford Museum yesterday. We also met up there with my Dad who was also at the show.

Highlight for me was finally seeing a Makerbot 3D printer in person, and touring The Henry Ford Museum which I hadn't been to since a small child.

It was a busy show and there was plenty to wander around an look at. On it's own I wasn't terribly impressed with the Maker Faire, but the way they had it integrated throughout the actual museum itself was a very well displayed and put together making the sum of both the Faire and the Museum greater than it's parts. If you haven't been to the Hernry Ford Museum, Maker Faire would be an excellent time to go.



Jennifer checking her phone



Maker Faire Detroit Cart Track


Maker Faire Detroit Powerwheel racers



One of the more colorful Power Wheel contestants



This Power Wheel came with a killer audio system
Imagine this cart rounding the track with base thumping Beastie Boys Sabotage. Maker Faire Detroit.



Gentleman Cupcake Cart
This lone cupcake cart patrolled the Faire grounds.



Jennifer in front of a recumbent bicycle thing


Jedi at Maker Faire
While not alot of costumes, there were alot of lightsabers.



This is the droid I was looking for
501st booth at Maker Faire Detroit



Adult Boy Scouts with Jawa and a Sandtrooper
Yeah, it was as weird as it looks. Maker Faire Detroit.


It ain't a geek event until some Storm Troopers show up



No idea if Roy flew this plane
The Henry Ford Museum



Car Display at The Henry Ford Museum



Sadly No Max Headroom
The Henry Ford Museum

An Evening with Michael Moore

This past Thursday Jennifer and I went and saw Michael Moore at the Fountain Street Church. He was there as part of a Grand Rapids Library book series for his book Here Comes Trouble which is a book with autobiographical stories from the first part of this life, primarily before his film carear took off.

He's a very animated and energetic speaker, and the talk was very entertaining. Of course Moore focusses largely on topics around what we now casually refer to as the "99%" and while politics may not be everyone's idea of a light evening, most of his presentation bounced between casual conversation and liberal politic "church service" in tone and not "msnbc" thankfully. While opinionated, and despite actually being in a pulpit, he was not preachy.

All in all an entertaining couple of hours and a speaker worth seeing if you get a chance to in such a setting, and after hearing him read a couple stories from his book, I'll likely look into seeing if there is an audiobook version read by him.

Action Figures

Some new figures: Goliath, B'wana Beast and Alien taken with some older figures.



Goliath, Giant-Man and Smart Hulk
I just got Goliath off ebay, he's about 3/4 of a head shorter than Giant-Man, although technically he is a Marvel Universe scale and not a Marvel Legends scale, so perhaps he's actually twice as tall?



B'wana Beast
Great figure I've wanted to get for awhile.



B'wana Beast and Beast
It was either going to be a pic of these two or B'wana Beast and Beast Boy.



Alien
In space noone can hear you scream.



Alien and Brood Seemed only fitting to take a pic of these together.

"Monster Model Review"¯ Interviews Sculptor Tim Bruckner
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

Nice interview with action figure sculptor Tim Bruckner.

Watch This Awesome Version of the Indiana Jones' Theme Sung By Only One Guy [Video]
source: Gizmodo

Kick-ass They Live cosplayers
source: Boing Boing

After a few references to the movie They Live this week, this image showing up in my Google Reader put me over the edge and I finally watched the film. Quirky but very entertaining. I look forward to using the bubblegum quote from the movie at my earliest opportunity.

West Wing, Fringe Coming to Amazon Instant Video Exclusively
source: Mashable!

Might finally be my excuse to watch Fringe.

Yesterday Shipping from Amazon [Humorous Video]
source: the How-To Geek

Two Teaser Trailers For Man Of Steel, Zack Snyder Superman Movie
source: Bleeding Cool

One from Pa Kent Point of View and One from Jor-El

Tiny telepresence robot wants off of Kickstarter, into your heart
source: DVICE

Neat Idea.

Man or Mainframe

Mainframes were expensive machines that lots of people wanted to use, but because they were expensive and limited in number they had to be shared.

You had to fill out a request, and then you had to have punch cards completed in a certain way.

Those cards would get processed by your mainframe and with any luck you'd get your data. And hopefully your input produced good output (Garbage in, Garbage out.)

Of course people have laptops now. They don't have to wait for a mainframe, they can crunch their data any time they like. Unless they don't know how, or unless they aren't allowed to for other business reasons. In those cases they may need to use a group of people, that can do those tasks, and those people may not report directly to them. Those people may require briefs, forms, and requests (although probably not punch cards.). Those people may be a resource shared by others, so they may have to schedule your request to be processed after other requests. With any luck, after your inputs are processed you'll get good output. Otherwise a new cylce starts all over again. So time consuming.

Why can't those people be like laptops? Why do those people require forms and and requests like mainframes?

It's because if you share resources, you need to schedule which tasks have priority. And while labor is cheap, it's not quite so cheap that everyone gets a personal minion, like they get a personal laptop. So disappointing.

But who knows, maybe if we can't have personal minions, Siri will get really really good in 50 years and everyone can have an electronic personal minion. Yeah that will solve it. Then people won't need to wait for anyone. We won't need to share resources at all.

We may, in the future, have an entire planet of people who don't have to share resources.

Oh, wait, I see what I just did there. "An entire planet"? Just one? We have to share it? Can't we have our own planet too?

Hero Worship

This is the image floating around the net everywhere yesterday. Christian Bale visited shooting victims in Colorado.

It's a nice enough action by Bale and I won't question his motives, but the whole thing is very disturbing to me.

Bale had nothing to do with that shooting. Yet the internet got together, signed petititons and such and tried to get him to visit Colorado dressed as Batman. And the internet won sort of, as they got Bale to go, if not in costume, at least in a black tee.

The thing is, Bale isn't Batman any more than he's American Psycho. And while no doubt the victims of the shooting crime in Colorado probably enjoyed their visit with the Hollywood Actor who's midnight movie they went to see, the whole thing becomes that much more of a circus by his participation.

Again, I don't really fault Bale for the visit, he was damned if he did and damned he didn't.

I'm just very disturbed by a media machine that takes a diplorable event like this and turns it into a reality show. How much money is the gunman's actions making our media? And how much as a people are we focussed on the surface trivialities of this instead of grappling with the more serious issues? Even as I type this post, I wonder if I'm feeding into the problem too?

The Dark Knight Rises

Sunday afternoon I went to see The Dark Knight Rises. Good movie overall. The movie did manage to tie everything together as a trilogy, even if the third movie felt more like a sequel to the first than to the second. The Joker is basically forgotten in this film with instead the threads of The League of Shadows and Harvey Dent picked up and weaved into a tighter tapestry.

The cast is fantastic. Even the actors with walk-on parts are cast most excellently. It's a better movie than Avengers by far, although I did have much more fun with Avengers.

Good film, do see.

Teamwork

If you do something that is going to fail, and I say nothing, and it fails: You have failed and I have failed to help you.

If you do something that is going to fail, and I say something, and you change it, and it succeeds: You have failed and I have succeeded. Although you may still wonder if your way would have had greater success. (The road not traveled.)

If you do something that is going to fail, and I say something and you change it and it still fails: We do not know for sure if it would have failed your way, but we do know that it has failed my way. And you will wonder if your way would have succeeded after all. (The road not traveled.)

Workspace of the Week: Effortlessly efficient tiny home office
source: Unclutterer

Nice curtain/rod idea.

DIY Security Cams Offer Peace of Mind While You Vacation
source: Unplggd

I've seen this one in stores, neat looking device.

Holy Licensing Miracle, Batman!
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

6" Adam West Batman. Very cool! (As a side note-- AFI really should chill out with their watermarks, it's not like they created this image, yes you were able to shoot a photo of a projection screen in a public panel, congratulations, that's lovely. But seriously... overkill on the watermarking much?)

Google Doesn't Know How to Spend $50 Billion, Says PayPal Co-Founder
source: Mashable!

I enjoyed this 45 minute video. There are some good points made, even if the guy making them is a little over anxious to interrupt a good sport: Eric Schmidt to make them.

Hulu Premieres Larry King's New Talk Show
source: Mashable!

I never much cared for King on CNN, but I'll probably check this out.

Aggressive Batman Gives New Meaning to "Dark Knight" [VIDEO]
source: Mashable!

More Batman growling parody action.

Interactive "Electric City" Web Series From Tom Hanks Debuts
source: Mashable!

Production values are good, but this first 5 minutes didn't really grab me.

You'll Never Guess What's in Steve Wozniak's Backpack
source: Mashable!

His backpack is abit nuts. I have a tech bag with lots of stuff in it, but Wozniak's seems overly redundant.

Mattel Young Justice 2-Pack Pre-Order 8/1 to 8/14 Only!
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

Sort of bummed they didn't do the white costume, but still this looks like a good figure. Too bad I have to buy it with the Superboy as a 2 pack.

Comic Con 2012 Season 2 Clips from "Green Lantern: The Animated Series"
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

There are 3 very cool clips in the video at the link. Guy Gardner, Ch'p, Manhunter robots and it opens with a seriously cool baddie. Very excited for this show.

If you are the least bit of a Green Lantern fan, you need to click above and watch the clip. Happy stuff.

Teen Titans Go! could be the silliest DC animated show yet [Video]
source: io9

Y'know, I'm sure this will be a fun show. But it's just a weird thing to put out a completely Chibi version of this show.

The Personality Layer
source: Smashing Magazine Feed

Interesting stuff.

The term “emotional design” was defined by (among others) Aarron Walter. In his book Designing for Emotion, he describes emotional design by building on Maslow’s famous hierarchy of human needs, which posits that humans need to achieve elementary states of being, such as health and safety, before they can start thinking about higher-level needs, such as self-actualization. People who are seriously ill or lack safety would find it difficult to think about self-actualization as expressed, for example, in morality, creativity and problem-solving.

Emotional Design Positivity See the article “What Are the Top 10 Positive Emotions.” Surprise Do something unexpected and new. Uniqueness Differ from other products in an interesting way. Attention Offer incentives, or offer help even if you’re not obliged to. Attraction We all like attractive people, so build an attractive product. Anticipation Leak something ahead of the launch. Exclusivity Offer something exclusive to a select group. Be responsive Show a reaction to your audience, especially when they’re not expecting it.

The Trivial Eye: Superteam HQs
source: Woot! - One Day, One Deal

Nothing really beats the Hall of Justice.

Batman

Last night Jenn and I watched a 5 hour marathon of the the Batman Begins and the 1st Dark Knight movie. This morning I looked back at my blog and noticed that I never really reviewed either movie on my blog. With Batman Begins I had a one sentence review that it was very good. And I have no mention of Dark Knight at all other than a post that I plan to see it in the evening. Most strange.

In anycase, the movies hold up well enough even if Christian Bale's Batman has gotten increasingly difficult to take the least bit seriously. While there is ample gowly talk, there was less growly talk in the actual movie than I remembered. The growl is bad though. Mostly I think of Toronto Batman walking around saying: "Swear to me" and "My parents are dead" the latter of course isn't in the movie, but it should be shouldn't it?

The one thing that really strikes me watching the two films back to back is how different Gotham is in both movies. In the first film, we very much get a cinematic superhero world city, but in the latter film, Gotham completely becomes a realisticly portrayed city. The second film is even more grounded as it doesn't spend it's time in far off lands fighting super ninja's and the like and with the exception of some crazy cell phone tech and bullet fingerprint reconstruction techniques that even your typical CSI show would be hard pressed to try to pass by an audience, the Dark Knight virtually dispenses with being a Superhero film altogether. DK is a much more straight forward action film.

The conclusion I mostly walked away with is that five hours straight of Nolan's Batman is too much much Batman in one sitting. While I'm still looking forward to Dark Knight Rises today, last night's binge might have taken abit of the edge off this afternoon's anticipation. My other concern is that after Ledger's Joker performance, I'm not sure they have anywhere to go with villains in the 3rd film. The strength of the villain is the key to any good superhero movie, and I just can't see topping Ledger's Joker which really owned the 2nd film.

I'll see this afternoon though, whether these two fairly disjointed movies. do manage to get turned into a trilogy or if as I suspect, they'll likely just be looked back at as 3 loosely related Batman movies that had Christian Bale in them.

Reagan on a Velociraptor
source: Boing Boing

America F*ck Yeah! ;)

How To Build Your Own Smartphone Document Scanner
source: MakeUseOf.com

Nice simple card construction.

Underground Toys Offers New Information and Images for Their SDCC 2012 Exclusive "Doctor Who" Set
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

This was at SDCC. Very cool set, who doesn't want a Winston Churchill action figure?

The Tinkering Monkey Square Register iPad Stand
source: Unplggd

Nice.

50 Retractable Rods Make This the Most Customizable Coat/Hat/Key Rack Ever [Daily Desired]
source: Gizmodo

Neat idea.

Anywhere Board Games takes free open source gaming to Google hangouts [Freeware]
source: The Red Ferret Journal - gadgets, cool sites, freeware and tech trivia

Cool

Google Hangouts Get Closed Captioning, Transcripts
source: Mashable!

Interesting, but the implications are creepy as well. Targeted advertising based on what you are talking about is right around the corner it would seem.

High-security first pet naming guidelines
source: Boing Boing

Banks are now advising parents to think carefully before naming their child’s first pet. For security reasons, the chosen name should have at least eight characters, a capital letter and a digit. It should not be the same as the name of any previous pet, and must never be written down, especially on a collar as that is the first place anyone would look. Ideally, children should consider changing the name of their pet every 12 weeks.

Expectant mothers have also been advised to choose carefully where they give birth. Anywhere that has a place name is best avoided. These are listed on maps, which are freely available on the Internet.

Tabletop Forge Lets You Play Games In Google Hangouts [VIDEO]
source: Mashable!

This is crazy, crazy cool. You can go to Tabletopforge.com scroll down and launch their app in to a Google Hangout. Then you can add background jpegs and upload token images. I tried Jpeg and PNG tokens. The PNG tokens with transparency work great. I made the above grid jpeg and png tokens real quick in Illustrator, but you could probably do some very cool elaborate pieces in photoshop too.

This is just incredibly cool. With up to 10 people in a video chat, I imagine you could have a really cool game of heroclix or something similar going in this.

Credentialism is just as screwed up as corporatism
source: Boing Boing

The Awesomest Jelly Bean Dispenser Ever
source: Instructables: exploring - featured

Neat idea.

Twitter is a Corporate API
source: Marco.org

Nice article on what Twitter really is.

America's ISPs set to spy on your network access to help entertainment industry
source: Boing Boing

Webcam Timelapse lets you create cool timelapse videos with your webcam [Freeware]
source: The Red Ferret Journal - gadgets, cool sites, freeware and tech trivia

Wacom Launches Cintiq 24HD Touch Pen Display
source: Tablet News

The big one is pricey with touch at $3,700. The little 12" one is interesting though at a more manageable $1,000. Cintiq site.

Marvel Legends Hyperion on display
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

Cool.

Boy Band Parody Mocks You For Still Acting Like a Teenage Girl
source: Mashable!

Very funny.

Comic Book Archive Creator: Create Comic Book Archives From Images
source: MakeUseOf.com

Coding Q&A With Chris Coyier: Code Smell And Type On A Grid
source: Smashing Magazine Feed

DCUC Mallah and the Brain
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

Cool.

Live Updates from Mattypalooza SDCC 12 Panel
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

Nice breakdown of the upcoming Matty Collector figures.

Mattypalooza Pictures From Panel
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

Photos from SDCC Panel.

The Rock Comments On The Progress Of The Lobo Movie He's Involved With
source: Bleeding Cool

This seems like bad bad casting.

Some things you can do online.

• You can directly sell a product online or you can do something well enough that people pay you to watch, listen, or read it.
• You can hold someone's attention well enough, that while you have their attention, you can try to sell them something else.
• You can gather information about someone and sell that information to people who are trying to sell things to them.

DC Collectibles



Hmmm... a 3 3/4" GL line could pull me into this size... hmmm....

Job Creators

There are people that feel very strong about getting rid of unions. And largely there are not unions in offices. But historically offices have hierarchies. However what if that were to change? What if labor becomes so productive, yet cheap that you can get rid of departments and internal hierarchies all together?

What would it take to "perform" and "stay on top" in such an environment? How does work and an office change if everyone in an organization becomes in effect: freelance? And what happens if that's done on a massive scale?

Blog
Experimenting with the blog. This page may be weird for awhile, and not match the rest of the site. Such is play.

The Amazing Spider-man


I'm going to throw you out the window now. Video.

I didn't like the movie. You may like it more than I.

It would be perfectly fine for little kids.

If you are old enough to have seen the previous 3 Spider-man movies in the theater, there won't be much new in this movie for you.

As these Summer Blockbuster movies go, it isn't a bad movie per se, but if you've seen the other Spider-man movies, there's just nothing much new.

It's not a deep movie.


blah, enough ranting... Reccomendation: Wait for the DVD, or catch a matinee.

# Update 7/8/12 11:20am

Here's an article where the director talks about not using the "With great power, comes great responsibility" line.

Ultimately, even though the line is important to fans and Spider-Man mythos, Webb had a hard time fitting it into his vision of the hero. "There were moments where we thought about using it, but it didn't feel as emotionally honest to the scenes and to the sequences. We were trying to create something more naturalistic," Webb said. "Because we had seen it so many times before, I didn't think it was absolutely necessary."

I'd probably sum up the entire film with just that last sentence:

"Because we had seen it so many times before, I didn't think it was absolutely necessary."

Continuity

Interesting little slideshow at Newsarama: 10 worst things about the current Marvel Uninverse.

I especially liked this:

What Marvel does have is a creative conceit willing fans agree to think of as "continuity", a holey, threadbare patchwork of rewrites, retcons, gaps in logic, denial of time and active ignorance of incontinent truths.

The above just as easily applies to DC (except DC has now had 3 major line-wide reboots of time over it's history, so the "denial of time" is slightly lessened.

On the topic of continuity and reboots. They don't work. You can't say: "X never happened to this character", because yes it did, the stories were written, people read them, and X happened to that character. (And in the case of the big 2 comic companies they even continue to sell the old stories after their "reboots")

Stories can be retold, and people do enjoy a good retelling, but once you have two versions of the same story, then the reader/listener/viewer gets to pick which one they like best. Both tellings "happened".

You can't really take a character that has been around for 50+ years of continual stories and make them "fresh". Granted there are likely stories that can be told, and fresh takes, but a character that's been around for 50+ years can't just be rebooted with a clean slate-- unless...

Such a character can't be rebooted unless you have an audience that isn't familiar with the character or the stories. Such an audience, in the case of comic fandom, for a comic character would have to be young.

If someone is young enough never to have been exposed to an earlier version of a character, then some new take, beit in comic, film or tv, might seem fresh to them, until they do some research, and in today's internet age, they likely will research, and if a character gets changed drastically, then someone, the old fan or the new fan, is going to be annoyed when they discover the other version, since this thing with the same name is now representing two different things.

I would imagine that with everything becoming a remix and a reboot, people are probably begining to absorb the concept that "things change, things get retold a different way, and things don't stay one way." And on some level that's probably good, this stuff is fiction after all, and one shouldn't have one's entire day ruined because this or that event drops out of something called "continuity". But this constant reboot, and constant remix done in such an obvious way creates this other concept of things being in constant flux, of things not being able to be counted on and "authenticity" is brought into question.

Words get constantly redefined and their meanings can't be trusted. Authenticity can't be determined. (People generally like meanings to be static and like things to be authentic.)

That is what it is, but that's the interesting concept to me, whereby something as simple as constantly changing comic characters can lessen people's beliefs in authenticity and truths overtime. But then again, some teenage fan might not notice, their favorite character or story may not have been changed yet, and this whole redefinition-cultural-issue may just be a older fan issue. Maybe it's always been this way, and only now are the records being kept so well that we can compare different eras so closely. It feels new though, it feels like redefinitions are a new thing. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, maybe I'm just older, and maybe some younger fans are just better informed, faster now.

end rambling.

Three $1 DIY iPad Cases
source: Unplggd

Furby gets a reboot for 2012, we go hands-on (video)
source: Engadget

$60... looks boring out of the box, but looks like it has some hacking possibilities.

Hands On With ReconstructMe
source: Fabbaloo Blog

Facinating.

2012 Harvey Awards nominees announced
source: Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources - Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment

Adam and Comfort got nominated for "Best Cartoonist!"

Responsive Grid System: Get Your Website To Scale To Any Width
source: MakeUseOf.com

This looks pretty simple.

The Photographic Tricks That Make McDonald's Burgers Look Good [Video]
source: Gizmodo

Nice Photo Stylist video.

Gif:earth
source: Likecool

Cool Image.

It will never die! Lionsgate dreaming up ways to reboot Twilight? [Twilight]
source: io9

Wouldn't that just be the most awful idea ever?

At Last: Why YouTube Suddenly Stops Counting Views at 301 [Video]
source: Gizmodo

this was informative.

New York City Subway Stairs
source: Likecool

Great video.

Belkin WeMo controls your household electronics from near and far
source: The Red Ferret Journal - gadgets, cool sites, freeware and tech trivia

Dora the Explorer Isn't Playing Around Anymore [VIDEO]
source: Mashable!

How physicist Jim Kakalios invented a math equation for the new Spider-Man movie
source: Boing Boing

Modern relationships
source: Super Punch

The Star Wars That I Used To Know [Video]
source: the How-To Geek

Even better than the actual Goyte song. Good Stuff.

Use an FTP folder as your very own, Dropbox-like backup service with FTPBox
source: freewaregenius.com

This looks useful.

How Can You Not Love This Snuggie-esque HoodiePillow Even a Little? [Unedited]
source: Gizmodo

More From George Perez On Working At DC Comics
source: Bleeding Cool

I really enjoyed listening to the MP3 at this article. Good Stuff.

How to make match rockets
source: Boing Boing

Cool.

Terminator Skull Crafted from Dollar Store Parts [Video]
source: the How-To Geek

Cool.

The Tinkering Monkey Square Register iPad Stand
source: Unplggd

Watching This Man Have a Conversation With His 12-Year-Old Self Is Hilarious and Heartwarming [Video]
source: Gizmodo

DC Collectibles Reveals San Diego Comic-Con Exclusive: Green Lantern 3.75ā€³ Action Figure 2-Pack
source: Action Figure Insider - Best Toy News on the Web!

I think I miss the DC Direct name. DC Collectable seems abit too fancy, as is this packaging.

Legos

Played around with Build with chrome a neat Lego and Google Chrome site where you can play with a basic Lego set. Very intuitive 3D modeling. This would be really cool if you could then print out your Lego creations on a 3D printer.

In the near future, I would imagine you'll be able to do something like that.

It's getting hot hot hot
Nest Thermostat chart
Air conditioning has went from 6 1/2 hours on Sunday to 8 hours on Monday, to 15 3/4 hours on Tuesday to 19 3/4 hours on Wednesday. We might have a good shot at 24 hours of continual air conditioning if these 100 degree days hold out thru tomorrow as forcasted.

update 4:44pm: 102F. That's crazy hot!

How many licks does it take to get to your salvation?

... the world will never know. There are just so many things wrong with these. Jesus as a candy brand name, the Jesus logo in the shape of a Christmas Candy Cane. And what's with the Jesus Tangy Tarts? Is that a Mary Magdalene reference or something? Hobby Lobby may be closed on Sunday, but when they are open Monday thru Saturday, they're probably one of the few stores you can get your Faith Pops from.

Hot

It's hot out there, that's not Wyoming the Wild West State, that's Wyoming, MI outside of Grand Rapids.

Later people will celebrate the 4th after a week and a half of no rain and 90+ degree temperatures by shooting fire into the skies. Let's hope none of that fire hits the ground.

Random Non-Sequiters

Nice break down, I pulled off web, of the four different types of paragraphs.

The four types of paragraphs are the narrative, descriptive, persuasive and expository. The narrative tells the story and the persuasive helps to influence others to take your position and opinion. The descriptive paragraphs are used to show or describe a thing, person or place and the expository paragraphs are used to explain and inform facts.

Narrative, descriptive, persuasive and expository.

I could tell you a story.

I could describe something to you.

I could try to get you to see my way of thinking.

Or, I could just lay out the facts for you.

Narrative - You're born, you live, you die.

Descriptive - We live on a beautiful world filled with interesting complexity.

Persuasive - If you don't stop and look around once in while, you just might miss it.

Expository - I have been working now for about 25 years. Assuming a retirement age of 65, I will likely continue working for 25 more years.

Technically, I suppose, the above are sentences and not paragraphs.