Post-Election Ponderings and Thoughts

Some ruminations on the election of Barack Obama last night. Don't expect too much structure... this is just going to be some bullet points. I'm a little too emotional right now to be very coherent.

• I actually got a little bit misty watching Obama's victory speech today (I can't stay up too late, or else I'm useless at work). Seeing the faces of hope in the audience, and the power of his words as he talked about how hard we all worked to get him into the White House, and most importantly how hard we're all going to HAVE to work to make our country truly great again were so inspiring.
  
  
• I watched Jesse Jackson weeping openly as he heard the good news. Can you imagine having worked on something for basically your whole life, having seen the lowest points of it, and then to have this happen? The culmination of his dreams is here, and like him or not, you can't deny the power of the feeling that this sort of event would have on him. Amazing.
  
  
• McCain's concession speech was elegant, and a return to the McCain of old, the one I used to like before he got caught up in election politics. I especially liked his recall of President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to the White House, as Roosevelt is one of my personal heroes.
  
  
• Listening to the McCain supporters booing the mention of Obama early on in the speech (and Biden later on) disgusted me. And I got the impression that it disgusted McCain, too. But I was touched by the applause at the mention of how far our country has come in the election of an African-American president.
  
  
• I said over ten years ago that our first African-American president was going to be a conservative. I didn't think Americans were progressive enough at the time to vote for a liberal candidate when race came into it. I'm so glad and proud that I was wrong on this one.
  
  
• But to continue on that last thought, it's interesting to me just how many people I know don't think of Barack Obama as African-American, nor of ANY minority. To me, he's simply an American. And it catches me off-guard when people talk about that issue... as if my brain is saying "oh, yeah... he is African-American." In saying this, I'm trying very hard not to seem to be trying to strip him of his proud heritage, as he should be proud. I guess that what I'm saying is that I don't see his heritage as having played any role in whether or not I supported him. I did, and that's that.
  
  
• Reading reports from around the world about this election, it's clear that the world had almost given up on the American people. I don't get to travel internationally as much as I'd like, but spending a night in a Scottish pub talking to folks who were hesitant to discuss politics with me almost five years ago, I got to see how much those folks appreciated seeing that not all Americans are hateful, insular, greedy, fearful, and cynical, as our national policies for the past eight years have been. And now I get that same feeling from other places that I'm reading about. It's a new day for not only America, but the whole world.
  
  
• My third grade teacher, Mrs. Rhoda Massanari, talked to us a lot about her personal experiences and participation in the American South during the Civil Rights struggle. That passion and optimism about Americans stuck with me over all these years, and has given me a certain impression about how to make change happen in the world. I can credit her with much of my ability to look at what seems like a hopeless task and take it on, as I've done with my bike commuting and other issues. And I see that same passion in the supporters of Barack Obama. You have to do these things in small steps, but not in steps that go backward. You may go off to one side for a while, but eventually your path will lead to its goal. Thanks, Mrs. Massanari.
  
  
• Pundits are picking out the problems that the McCain campaign had and some of the errors it made. But as McCain himself pointed out, this election was not about politics. It was about unity and positive change. And the candidate who was and always has been about unity and positive change won the day. That's really all you need to know.
  
  
• Exactly four years ago, I was chatting with my friend Shane about my first child coming into the world. I looked at the recent Ohio vote to ban gay marriage and was bemoaning the world that Duncan was being brought into. Duncan turns four today, and I think that's he just recieved the greatest birthday present a little boy can imagine: hope. He doesn't understand, naturally, but he will someday. I bought a newspaper on the day he was born, for him to be able to look at when he gets older. I'll buy one for him today, too. Because this is going to be a day that I want him to remember.
  

I've Been Meme-Tagged...

What can I say, Dale got me.

So here goes.

1. I was in ROTC in college, and was commissioned into the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant of Armor. Then the first Bush conducted the post Gulf-War-Reductions in Force and I was unable to find even a reserve unit, and I spent the majority of my term of service in the Individual Ready Reserve. I was officially discharged in October of 2001. I took advantage of the time and attended both Basic Parachuting School and Armor Officer Basic Course. Good times, good times.

2. I was drafted onto my high school quiz bowl team after a trivia contest in one of my classes caught the attention of the team's captain.

3. I didn't own my first car (actually OWN, that is - not got as a hand-me-down from my parents) until I was out of college. It was a 1987 Mercury Lynx wagon and was possibly the best deal I've ever gotten on a vehicle until my current vehicle - my bike.

4. In fifth grade, I played Winthrop Paroo in our community theater version of The Music Man. Yeah, the Ronnie Howard role. According to my dad in the audience, I was so convincing that one of the old ladies watching the production said that it was too bad I had that awful lisp, otherwise I'd have been a fine singer.

5. When I was 11 or 12, I got two stitches in my face when I ran into a friend's brace while playing football. According to hearsay, he hit me so hard that it pushed his orthodontia schedule forward by six months (he was a bit bucktoothed at the time). I never saw a cent of it.

6. I used to be a lifeguard at Alice's Wonderland in Alma, a waterslide park that has gone under at this point (my brother refers to it as "Alice's Eyesore" now). That was my first real summer job.

7. I took classes after graduating from Notre Dame to try to get a teaching certificate, but got so fed up with living at home that one day I scoured the newspapers for a real job just to get out. I found one as a computer trainer... and that's what led to my current position.

I'm Learning More About Myself Every Day

8

Useful to know, in case I ever become a Kindergarten teacher and the kids get ornery.


41%

Also useful to know, in case Mike Huckabee ever gets elected president (proof that we're surrounded by zombies!).


93

Not bad... I was hoping to break 100 but typos kept screwing me up.


78% Geek

Oh, I'm definitely a geek.

36

Apparently I need to brush up on the Land's End Catalog a bit.

$4325.00
Um... is this good?

My Inner European... Huh?

From Dale's blog.

I'm sort of surprised it's not Irish... I suppose Dutch is sort of happy medium between German and Irish, though. A little more laid back but similarly anal about certain things.

Plus... they love their bikes in Holland. And they play great soccer.

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Your Inner European is Dutch!

Open minded and tolerant. You're up for just about anything.

Who's Your Inner European?

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Inspiring Words - BE A REBEL

I subscribe to a few mailing lists from different folks I admire, many of them fitness and motivation mavens. Vince Palko is one, and I wanted to share this message with you because it struck a chord in me. He hits a lot of areas in this message, but still, I think the point is clear. Read for yourself.

"Your job is not to make friends with everyone in your class or kiss up to your teacher.

"Your job is to learn as much as you can and then go out into the world, and test what you've learned against the realities of life."

Those were the words spoken to my oldest daughter when I found out she has never gotten one yellow card, red card, or black card for any bad behavior our last parent teacher conference.

I soft peddled the approach a bit but you get the gist of my message to her.

This might shock you that I think this way.

Yet, you have to be willing to take risks and step outside the boundaries a bit in order to reach your true potential.

And Sophia is petrified of how others will view her when she gets slapped with a yellow card. I speak from a lifetime of experience. Fear keeps her in line. Yet, at the same time, it is who she is.

So I will use this as a point to my email and let her be for now. Trusting her self-awareness will serve her as mine has done me.

I'm reminded of something way back when in art.

In graphic design class, my gay professor (not that theres anything wrong with being gay) always told us, sometimes you have to break the rules. Design is heavy on rules and formulas that you may or may not know. "When you do so," he'd say, "thats when the artwork pops from the background your mundane competition who follows all the rules."

Its the same with life.

Yet, if our school system is rewarding this get in a single file line and stay there... like emotionless robots ... this is very bad for this here thing called LIFE.

I have to watch what I say because I come from a family of teachers (Yes, more people pleasing). And teachers are about the worst paid professionals on the planet. Who wants to teach a class full of monkeys jumping off the wall. I know, I know.

However, this robotic-like behavior reminds me of being in Germany back in the late nighties and going to a bank to deposit a check for cash. Everyone stood in a single file line and never once crossed over the yellow painted box signifying the person speaking with the tellers space.

No one so much as stood out of line or dared put their shoe laces over that yellow
line.

Those Krauts are awesome fine tuners and great engineers but horrible original thinkers and creators.

Those words written at the top of this email often get repeated to myself in the mirror from time to time.

Instead of fighting the fact I have always been a people pleaser. I have adopted a new approach. I've found it to be apart of my success system and you can use it as well -- if you tend to be one of us.

In football, I never wanted to be the weakest link in the chain and let others on the team down with anything that resembled sub par performance. So, I played like I had hot coals in my drawers. And pinned my ears back trying to make every tackle. And more times than not, I did.

Today, projects get done a lot faster when I know someone is depending on me to accomplish them by a certain date.

My health becomes paramount knowing my family is depending on me to support them for a loooong time.

Yes, your health is important to you too. And if you play around with this a bit you will see that if you go with the flow of your essence you can make the people pleaser in you into a positive.

The interesting thing is by observing myself and others in people pleasing modes, I've learned to forgive myself and others when I recognize it.

So if your health immediately becomes more important because your family is depending on YOU. Go with that thought and see where it takes you.

I've long said that everyone loves the rebel, until they have to face them in person. Then, suddenly, they're an outcast.

Here's the reason for this: no one likes to see anyone else not following the rules that they feel compelled to follow. It shows their cowardice and lack of self-determination. When the rebel in question isn't right in front of them, it's easy to distance yourself from their situation. And to see that rebel succeed by not following the same rules as you? What could POSSIBLY be worse??

I put myself into a lot of situations where I'm that rebel - biking instead of driving, wearing kilts as normal clothes, etc. Obviously, there are practical reasons for these things, such as saving money on gas, or being more comfortable. But the other side of that is that I have learned that being a rebel in one thing leads to having a freer mind. The more you stop thinking of society's rules as absolute, the more you're going to succeed.

The greatest question a man can ask himself is "WHY?" And if you can't get a good answer (and that good answer is never "because everyone else is doing it"), then that rule can be thrown out. Question yourself in all things, it's the best way to succeed.

What Political Leader/Classic Movie Are You?

I'm sort of surprised at mine... never pictured myself as a Kennedy.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Now THIS is a little more like it...

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Best National Anthem Ever

This is almost enough to make me want to be a Red Sox fan.

If you've ever stood near me at a sporting event, you know that I'm a connoisseur of singing the the National Anthem of the US. I'm a firm believer that if you're going to have a live singer or singers performing the Star Spangled Banner, or ANY country's anthem, you should sing it in a way that allows the crowd to sing along. Not everyone has operatic voices, nor the ability to hold a note for ten minutes.

And it's not a song that you should be experimenting with bizarrely styled ad-libbing of the notes, either. It's a song that means a great deal to our country and its citizens. No matter whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, pro- or anti-war, etc., you can sing the anthem and it means something to you. America is a place of which to be very proud, as is just about every country for different reasons (yet, for some reason, the same reason when you get right down to it).

I have been known to heckle singers who play around with it and make it impossible to sing along - they have no business leading the crowd in singing a patriotic song. It's not meant to be a performance, it's participatory. You SING ALONG.

I also have no time for people who stand there and look around at everyone else, or talk, or just don't even try to sing during the anthem. We sing the anthem to honor our home. Get on the stick and be proud of where you live.

That being said, here is possibly the GREATEST singing of the Star Spangled Banner that I've ever experienced. And I wasn't even there. The description of the clip on YouTube reads:

It was Disability Awareness day and the folks at Fenway did a lot of great things for kids with challenges..here is one who sang and when he got nervous the Fenway Faithful helped him out

And help him out they do. Simply fantastic.

Nerd Tests

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New Addition!

Jennifer and I added a new member to the family over the weekend. Moira Torunn Fellrath was born on Friday morning at OSU Hospital. She's in great health and is cute as the dickens.

She's 7 lb. 6 oz., 19 1/2" long, and did I mention she's cute as the dickens? :)

Moira is an anglicization of the Gaelic Máire or Mary. Torunn is Scandinavian and means "Daughter of Thor" (and no, this does not mean I have delusions of grandeur).

Mom is also doing well, she came home from the hospital a day early.

I may be scarce for a while on the old blog, for obvious reasons. I'll catch you up later.

Ne'er Forget, Me Hearties...

Talk Like A Pirate Day is nearly upon us! Arrrr!!!

Here's Duncan talking like a pirate during breakfast on TLAPD last year. Cute guy.

RIP: Tommy Makem

As much as many of them cringe to hear it, the music of most children's memory is that stuff their parents listened to during their early years. For me, that consists of lots of Neil Diamond, Burt Bacharach... and Tommy Makem. My dad is a bit tone-deaf due to a bad ear infection he had as a kid, and he always gravitates to lyrical music over instrumental because of that. And one band he loved dearly was the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

So I grew up listening to them - and when I was old enough I actually bought a couple of their albums myself. Tommy Makem is the consummate musician - passionate, respectful of those who've come before him and appreciative of those who've come after him, and humble about his skill and fame. He has a golden voice (golden as a dram of Irish Whiskey) and a wonderful presence about him, that makes you feel as if you're having a conversation with him as he sings or talks about his music.

Tommy died yesterday, but he'll never be missed. This weekend's Dublin Irish Festival will be a bit sadder for the loss of one so great, but in typical Irish fashion I'd imagine that this is going to be one heck of an Irish wake!

I'm Not An Addict, Baby. That's a Lie

68%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Online Dating

My Rant About the Worst Anti-Science Excuse: "I Don't Believe In It"

A couple of scientific issues that are continually in the headlines these days are evolution and global climate change. And the thing that irks me continually is to see the people who come out publicly saying "I don't believe in" one or the other.

You know what? We don't have the luxury of not believing in these things, because they're not belief systems. They're science. And both of them are so strongly considered to be consensuses by the scientists that study them that they're can be considered fact.

Science is a process of researching, hypothesizing, experimentation, analysis, and then the same again, over and over. It's the fact-based, empirical search for truth. Scientific consensus is not a matter of opinion. If scientists say something works a certain way, and the theory has been tested and re-tested in numerous ways the way that both evolution and global warming have at this point, then it's truly folly to say you "don't believe in them."

When you hear pundits on the radio and elsewhere talk about how these things are matters of opinion because they have the tag "theory" on them, that's not valid questioning. A "theory" is a tested and verified hypothesis, which is an educated guess to begin with. So subjective evidence supports the claims of these theories. These pundits have a misunderstanding of what a theory actually is, and have attempted to spread that misunderstanding to the world through their "outrage."

Now, if you have an actual scientific reason, based on data, experimentation, and analysis, for questioning a theory, that's a whole different issue. That's the purpose of scientists reporting their data to peer-reviewed journals throughout their discipline - to invite more research and experimentation. It's part of the scientific method - the system of research, hypothesis, experimentation, and results reporting - that all reputable scientists use.

Such concepts as intelligent design and the like, which are proposed as "competing theories," are actually nothing of the sort. If you read them, they are philosophy at best - a "what if" scenario that doesn't have any experimentation to actually back it up. And what they strike me as is the last-gasp attempt of someone, who thinks his belief system is under attack by real evidence, to hold on to something that's given them comfort.

150 Things You've Done In Your Life

One of my favorite cycling blogs had an entry today with a list of 150 things you've done with your life - mark off the ones you've done, that sort of thing. I thought I'd post it here and see just how I did...

The whole list is down in the comments so that I don't take up too much room on the main blog page. I've apparently done 64 of these. Not bad:

3. Climbed a mountain
8. Said "I love you" and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
15. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
22. Watched a meteor shower
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Bet on a winning horse
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
34. Ridden a roller coaster
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
67. Started a business
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
74. Crashed a party
77. Made cookies from scratch
84. Performed on stage
87. Eaten shark
91. Bought a house
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently
97. Raised children
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
110. Broken someone's heart
113. Broken a bone
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
118. Ridden a horse
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read
137. Skipped all your school reunions
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
148. Shaved your head

Pitter Patter ...Pitter Patter... redux

Duncan walked up to me the other day and handed me something that he didn't quite understand, but was full of meaning for me... a picture of him in a frame, a frame that said "#1 Big Brother."

Yeah, that's right. The plumbing still works, we're having another kid. Aside from answering my own questions about my virility (which I really had none of, but I find funny to say, so bear with me), it's interesting to me how different this feels than the last time (when Jenn just told me she didn't think she was going to be able to play in our next indoor soccer season).

First of all, there's not any fear like last time. Duncan is a two-year-old now, and he's happy, healthy, and we're financially secure. I have no fears that we can't keep this going with another kid.

And of course, this time I know what's coming: sleepless nights, countless diapers, lots of laundry, more little toys all over the place, even more tiny socks (the socks! they're everywhere! ARRGGHH!!), power-chucking breast milk, and all the stuff that goes along with an infant. Plus the absolute joy at seeing a little life grow in front of your eyes.

What I don't know is a little unsettling, but not too much: how is Duncan going to handle being a big brother? Is he going to be helpful and happy to have a sibling? Is he going to be one of those kids who is resentful at having the attention taken away from him at times? I'm sure it'll be a combination of the two: the boy loves babies now, but certainly does like having the attention. He's a ham.

And how are we going to handle things like different schedules? Just simple things like the Little Gym - Duncan and the sequel are going to have to be in different classes due to their ages. And we're definitely going to need a new car - we barely all three fit into the one we have now. I have to sit in the back with Duncan because the passenger seat in front has to be pushed too far forward to fit his car seat; I simply don't fit up there.

I'm sure we'll sort it all out. But it certainly does get the mind reeling a bit.

The Boy Makes Me Proud

Duncan brought this book over to me last night to read to him. I almost cried I was so happy.

Of course, we ended the evening with One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and How Do Dinosaurs Count To Ten. The boy likes his Geisel and extinct reptiles.

I'll Take Potpourri For $1000, Alex

Just a little bit of catch-up to cover the holiday happenings here, before I go off tomorrow on whatever the result of the Sugar Bowl is.

• Christmas was great. I got to spend some quality family time at home with Jenn and Duncan and he really had a good time (though I'm getting a little weary of his Wiggles piano). Duncan also got a pair of padded (of course) hockey sticks and a ball. He's happy as a clam - the kid has picked up on hockey as his favorite sport, for whatever reason, and he runs around the house with one of the sticks, not flailing it around as much as I'd feared, and having a great time trying to hit the ball.
  
  For myself, I got a lot of James Bond stuff from my wonderful family; a pair of bike tights, some gloves, and a pump/repair kit from my folks; a beautiful Irish sweater from Jenn; and some other fun trinkets from various other folks. The tights are going to work out nicely, I think, plus they show off my sexy legs really well. ;)
  
  The one disappointment - our global-warming-addled climate not having enough snow for me to take Duncan sledding on the sled I restored for him for his gift. Hopefully we'll get some of Denver's weather.
  
  
• The best bowl game I've seen so far is the Fiesta Bowl and the upset win by the Boise State Broncos. Despite my disappointment that the Glendale staff didn't paint half the field blue for the visitors from the potato state, the game was the most fun to watch of all of them. Normally I hate the NCAA's overtime structure, but darn it if that wasn't a great one. To watch a team actually go for a two point conversion instead of playing it safe and taking the one-pointer to force a second overtime period was a joy. And I always (with one notable exception, Jenn) enjoy watching Big 12 teams look like a bunch of over-hyped jokers.
  
  And the incurable romantic in my heart appreciated Fox covering the post-game proposal by Broncos star running back Ian Johnson to his cheerleader girlfriend... true Americana there!
  
  
• I started a new twist on my workout routine - instead of saying "I'm gonna work out every day" or something like that, I am going for numbers this year: I set a goal for the year of 100,000 Hindu squats and 30,000 Hindu push ups from the Matt Furey Combat Conditioning workout. And keeping track of those reps all year long will hopefully help me to have something to really strive for. We'll see... check out my other blog if you're curious about how that's working out (no pun intended).
  
  
• The Sugar Bowl has me a bit scared. LSU is gonna be tough, and we've not played up to our potential in a lot of games this season (with the exception of the Penn State game). Hopefully Weis has the boys ready. And hopefully we'll be surprised as we were back in the Cheerios Bowl a decade ago.
  
  
• I watched a great documentary from Discovery Times that I'd Tivoed a couple months ago (finally) called Addicted To Oil. Created by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas L. Friedman, it goes into the damage that oil does to our national security and to our climate, really breaking it down and showing the effects on both our security and the world's weather. He also goes into oil alternatives for both vehicles and general consumption, pointing out the good and bad of the various ideas. Very cool - check it out if you have the chance.
  
  And yes, I still need to see An Inconvenient Truth though I know most of what he's talking about already.
  
  
• On a similar train of thought, I watched Syriana over the holidays. This movie was outstanding though very disturbing at parts. Theatrically, it was a bit confusing, though that's part of its charm - you never are quite sure what's going on any more than the characters themselves are. It's definitely a movie you can see over and over and make new connections all the time.
  
  But the more important thing to take from it is the hypocrisy of the oil industry and its proponents in the government. The part that got me the most is when the eldest son of the emir, Nasir, is talking about how the US wants his brother to be the new emir because they consider him a Communist, simply because he decided to sell the country's oil to China as they offered him the best price (a very capitalist idea, wouldn't you think?).
  
  Go see this one if you haven't already. Though, if you're looking for a typically buff and sexy George Clooney in it, you're going to be watching the wrong movie because he reportedly put on 30 pounds for the role.
  
  
• There are still a couple things I want to get for my biking experience - a set of bike lights for the dark days and for my own safety, and some panniers so I don't have to use a backpack (and hopefully are a little more waterproof than the backpack I'm currently using. A set of fenders would also be nice - so I don't have to keep putting on rain pants.
  

I think that's everything.

Frappr Map

If you'd like to join my Frappr Map and tell me where you're from, I'd love to have you join!

"You Gotta Be One Of The Good Guys....

...because there's way too many of the bad." - John Custer, Preacher

I may have to start getting HBO... one of the absolute best pieces of writing in the past twenty years is having a series made about it for HBO: Garth Ennis's Preacher.

"Now hold on, Jamie," I can imagine you saying. "Isn't that just some comic book?" Boy, if that's your attitude, you obviously haven't read anything from the Vertigo line of titles by DC Comics. Vertigo is the adult-oriented line of books with mature themes and adult stories (and not adult in the same way as you see adult bookstores along the highway with trucks pulled up next to them at odd hours). These books are serious literature, and Preacher rises above even those.

It's the story of Jesse Custer, a fallen preacher who has just quit his job when he is suddenly enveloped by Genesis, the offspring of an angel and a demon, and suddenly gains the power of suggestion. But the book isn't just a superhero story, rather it's the story of a modern Texan gentleman experiencing the hypocrisy of the world head-on and dealing with it in a way that he sees as honorable and just. It's got great characters coming out of the woodwork: Tulip, the drop-dead gorgeous tomboy who just happens to be a dead-eye with a pistol and has an attitude to match; Cassidy, the Irish Vampire who'd rather swill Guinness and eat bangers and mash than do the Anne Rice thing; Arseface... who I can't even describe. You just have to see him.

The series ran for 70 issues and ended with a big bang, and along the way Jesse and the gang saw the good and bad in just about everything. It's a serious commentary on hypocrisy and humanity that I can read over and over. And I'm very heartened by reading this particular news on the link I've provided:

"I gave [HBO] the comics, and I said, 'Every issue is an hour,'" [Director Mark Steven] Johnson said at a preview of his upcoming film Ghost Rider in Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 30. "And it's exactly the book. ... I had my meeting yesterday, and [Preacher creator] Garth Ennis is on the phone, and we're all in the room, and Garth is like, 'You don't have to be so beholden to the comic.' And I'm like, 'No, no, no. It's got to be like the comic.' So that's what's so brilliant about it. It's just like, HBO, who else would do it but them? Nobody. ... HBO is just like, 'Bring it on.'"

Comic book fans so rarely hear stuff like this - you get things like Batman's parents being killed by the Joker, or that horrible Fantastic Four movie that fortunately never made it to release (not the recent one, thank goodness). So when someone loves a work you love as much as this and wants to make it even bigger... oh yeah. Gotta start looking at how much HBO costs.

More Than Just Face Chap

In my first big discovery with the biking to work thing (which I've had plenty of time to practice this weekend, unfortunately) is that I am going to need something to cover my headphones on my telephone (Motorola SLVR, so it has iTunes) while I'm listening to podcasts on the way to work. All the wind rushing past them is making it impossible to hear anything! Also, the ears are getting frostbit.

I've ordered a balaclava to try to alleviate the problem... we'll see how it does (BTW - if you're looking at getting me bike stuff for Christmas.... don't get me a balaclava now).