I just love Rube Goldberg devices. Check out this one that was made in 1987 by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. Actually, that's just a trailer for the complete film (the whole device is 70-100 feet long). Amazing.

I wonder if the Honda Cog commercial is a direct knockoff ...

Winners
   passion of Christ + "James dobson" + "child"
   James Caviezel being hit by lightening
   oj mayo north college hill
   nbc dateline the passion of christ
   stan lopp
   8 queens of death
* "macs and pcs have never been so compatible"
   The Passion filming actually whip James Caviezel Jesus
   filming facts about the passion of the christ move
   James Caviezel hit by lightening
*  "made him lick it up"
   true majority oreo film
  webel
  rodger degagne

Whiners
* skipping a court date
   papercraft software
   Passion of the Christ gibson download font
* teaching phonemes in middle school
   camp cheerio counselor pages
   Passion of The Christ graphics
* how to become a orthadontist
   prize Carrara S
   Sharonville Sidewalk Festival
   Actor Jim Caviezel Real Life Wedding Photos of 1997
   picture of oj mayo
   OJ Mayo Videos
* classes on the computer for introduction on mrdd

   * my favorite searches

A 29-year-old woman from my hometown just gave birth to six babies in one minute. She's got the right idea ... if you've gotta do it, just get it over with. No more of this "hours of labor" thing, women just need to start buckling down and popping them out.

"The speed at which the babies came out was overwhelming. It was like a popcorn popper."

-- Keith Hanselman, father of sextuplets

On a serious note, the couple used a pretty hefty fertility drug called Gonal-f. When she conceived of all six babies, the doctor urged them to kill four of her babies to increase the chances of survival for the other two. After the couple talked about it, they decided that they "didn't want to second-guess God's blessings" and went ahead with the pregnancy.

The delivery itself was an intricate dance-of-sorts that involved nearly three dozen health professionals and a complicated process of receiving and caring for the kids and mother. But now all the kids are born, healthy, and heading towards stability.

What a blessing ... I remember when Naomi and Claire, my twin nieces, were born at 2 and 1 pounds, with plenty of health problems, acid reflux, and uncertainty about survival. I ended up spending that summer in New Jersey helping to care for them and their brothers ... and I'll never forget standing there with one in each forearm, their heads cradled in my hands, wondering at the breadth and depth of God's creativity and compassion.

I've mostly kept my thoughts on birth-control and fertility drugs to myself (I'm pretty blunt about abortion), somewhat because they're just that (thoughts) and somewhat because those decisions aren't yet an immediate part of my life. I think I'll continue that, for the most part ... but simply point out that all six of these children are loved.

Father, I do not understand why we as a nation and as mankind use phrases like "terminate the embryos." I do not understand why we try to control your creation and manage your processes with drugs and research. I don't ask for forgiveness, for we have not yet repented (turned and walked away) from our actions ... instead, I ask that we may suffer the consequences of our sins, that we may see the just results of a culture of death. I know that your father's heart wants to bathe us in grace, but I ask that you reconsider and let justice previal ... that the injustice might stop, at least for our children. We do not deserve to control their fate.

I feel the need to share this portion of an email I just typed to a friend ... perhaps it's a message for one of you as well.

----------
Thank you for your words, your courage, your honesty, your self. I've known much of what you shared ... and i understand why it's taken so long to spill it out. It's horrible ... and even though I'm not incredibly surprised, it pains me to hear. I'm so sorry. I'm going to call you tonight, but I want to type a few things first ...

Please don't think that I look down on you, want to judge you, am "bothered," or anything of the sort. You're my friend, and I trust and admire and love you. No matter what happens to you, or what you do, you are still a precious child of the Living God ... one that has blessed me immensely. I don't care how scraped or bruised you get ... you're my friend. And no amount of sin or abuse can make God see you as anything but His child ... because Jesus already came to earth and paid the punishment for all of that stuff. That's what His passion, His suffering, is all about ... your redemption.

This redemption, however, doesn't eliminate the sinful, dirty, horrible world that we live in. We still are surrounded by filth ... you know what I'm talking about. Jesus knew this too ... just read what He said when He sent out the twelve disciples (Matthew 10 & Mark 13):

"I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."

Darkness hates the light ... death hates life. When the Truth pierces a person's heart and she responds to Christ's redemption, the whole world turns against her ... even her family. Fathers betray their children to death and children have their parents put to death. The disciples lived this out when they chose to follow Jesus ... here's how Jesus responded when Peter told Him that they left all they had to follow Him (Luke 18:29-30):

"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

I know I often sound preachy ... I'm sorry. I don't mean to be, it's just the only way I know how to communicate when talking about scripture. But the reality is there ... God isn't sitting idly by while your life falls apart. He sees your pain and knows the abuse more intimately than you might imagine (the brutality of "The Passion of The Christ" only brushes the surface) ... but He's not here to "fix the world." He's here to love you in the midst of it all. If the broken world was fixed, we would have no need for Him (just think about it). No, instead of sweeping up the filth and creating a sterile place for us to live, God has chosen to redeem us by becoming flesh, living among us, teaching us how to live, sacrificing Himself for us, then conquering death itself in His resurrection. It's a rugged and beautiful thing ... but it's a raw story of God's love for you.

And believe it or not, it's a story of God's love for your parents as well. That's just how He is.

I'll talk to you tonight.

love,
lance

Live By Faith
by Chris Rice

I can't feel You movin' inside
I don't hear Your voice whisperin' in the night
And I've never seen You with these eyes
Am I a fool, am I just a fool?
They ask how I follow what I can't see
Why I trust in a love that my arms won't reach
I don't need You, don't need You, to prove it to me
I'll be a fool, yes I'll be a fool

'Cause blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin' but never receive
Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin' on
Holdin' on for another day
'Cause that's what it means to live by faith

So I cry for Your help while the world looks on
And they laugh at my hope when all hope is gone
But I'll just keep prayin' when answers won't come
Am I the fool, am I just a fool

For standing alone while they mock Your name
"Well if your God is so good, tell us why all the pain?"
I'm not sure, not so sure that God is to blame
So don't be a fool, please don't be a fool

'Cause blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin' but never receive
Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin' on
Holdin' on for another day
'Cause that's what it means to live by faith

In a world where our questions are haunted
'Cause life's not as fair as we all wanted
Where the innocent die, we ask why
And still we await the reply...

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin' but never receive
Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin' on
Holdin' on for another day
'Cause that's what it means...it means holdin' on for another day
'Cause that's what it means to live by faith
Yes that's what it means to live by faith
That's what it means to live by faith, to live by faith...

Remember when Gateway ran that ad featuring an Apple Titanium Powerbook G4 two Decembers ago? Well, apparantly Microsoft got jealous:



An ad for a M$ seminar on security featuring a Powerbook ... the irony is dripping off of this one.

Christopher just posted an interesting idea [via frogblog] ...

Step 1: Open your mp3 player.
Step 2: Put all of your music on random.
Step 3: List the first ten songs it plays, no matter how embarrassing.

I almost always play my music this way ... it's just more interesting that way (especially with 2600 songs). Here were my results:

"It's not good for the females that they can't go to the bathroom," he added. "And it's not good for the men because we have to wait on 'em to get out."

-- Rep. Tommy Smith on a proposed Georgia bill that would require twice as many potties for women as men.

Today I found out two things ... first, our head coach for the MS track & field team (I'm the assistant coach) is going to be leaving to coach at the high school. So as of tomorrow I'm going to be stepping up and taking the head coaching job. This is a huge responsibility ... the sport is much more complicated than cross country (40 kids competing in about 25 events simultaneously) and will involve quite a bit of organization and discretion. But it'll be really fun to step up to the challenge. I've learned enough in the last three years of my life to know not to expect too much ... I'll grow in my ability to be creative, show compassion, and make solid decisions in this role. But, with God's grace, it'll be a time to wipe another slate clean ... to begin to create another worthwhile and potentially life-changing experience for a young man or woman. I delight in that.

Second, I found out that I'll probably be making the eighth grade graduation video again (the final decision should be made by tomorrow). This shouldn't be hard (especially if I can start now), and the finished product is going to be much nicer (all-digital DVD w/customized menus, slideshows, and quite an archive of memories).

Both of these will be adding to a whirlwind spring ... but I think I'm ready to hit the ground running this time. Some variables will be gone this year (I won't be moving, I won't be planning camp programming, I have some great equipment for the video) ... and I'm feeling very well rested from a settling winter.

Bring it.

Hello there, stranger. As I've mentioned on here many times before, there's an inversely proportional relationship between my posting content and posting ability. The more I have to tell about, the less time there is to tell it all. Such has been the last week.

First, to quell the fanatical urgency some of you have been brewing, let me tell you why I was up at quarter of four last Thursday morning. I won't even try to do it justice, I'll just tell ya (that's what you get for getting your hopes up). Every year we have a tradition of surprising the student body with a day we call Student Appreciation Day (SAD). Education stops and enjoyment ensues as we have class parties, school-wide competitions, a huge lip synch contest, a faculty/student basketball game, no uniforms, and constant reminders of how much we appreciate them. SAD was last Friday, but two other teachers and I decided to show our appreciation a day earlier with the annual Wake Up Video.

That's right ... I was up at 3:45am (without an alarm, might I add) to go wake up students. With advance permission from their parents, Miss Elam and Mr. Porter and I invaded 11 bedrooms with foam noodles, stuffed animals, framed photos, a baseball bat, silly string, an accordion, and (most importantly) a video camera. Of course, the students had no idea we were coming, so the reactions we got were quite hilarious. We planted funny things in their rooms (a framed copy of the dress code, a Photoshopped photo of the student with Barney, etc) then "found" it in their room on camera. Then, after some slick editing, we showed the video at the SAD Chapel in front of the whole school. The students are surprisingly good sports about it ... and as you can imagine, we all have something new to laugh about when passing each other in the hallway. I just love this school.

I also participated in the basketball game later that day and went to the Luau that night for the eighth graders ... and got my behind whooped by both. I'm getting old, I tell ya ... but track season is right around the corner (it'll whip me into shape).

Alright, what else is going on ... well, I just got back from a 4 day trip to Columbus for the CCI-USA (christian camping) Ohio Chapter Conference. I'm so grateful for the rest I was able to get (it's gonna be a two day week!), and God really sparked my desire to learn and grow and move in quite an exciting direction in regards to PVM.

Simply put, I really want to learn how people learn experientially then develop a cohesive approach to teaching counselors and campers through experiential learning. Over the next several weeks I'm going to try to closely examine how Jesus taught people and compare his methods and examples with those of challenge course and initiative theory. I have a few books I want to purchase and a whole lot of soul-searching to do. Ultimately, my desire is to teach our counselors how to teach and be teachable. It's going to be a neat process, I think ...

Ok, even though there's much more to say, I need to go to bed. Tomorrow morning I've got D-group (8th grade boys discipleship group) and after school I'm going to see The Passion of The Christ. Then it'll be on to some staff recruiting for this summer and some of the aforementioned study of Jesus' teaching ...

Craig recently posted an interesting question on Avoiding Evil: Should preaching be central in worship? Here was my response:

how ironic ... i've been thinking an awful lot lately about the very same thing. more specifically, i've been wondering why we always use musical worship to bookend the "content" of the worship service. it seems to marginalize the musical worship and, in a sense, detract from our ability to be intentional in our worship.

pressed, i'm with you 100%. worship is, by definition, a response to who God is and what He does. without acknowledgement and understanding of His character and actions, our words and songs and sermons and service and choices are simply meaningless drivel.

it's becoming harder and harder, however, to find solid and passionate preaching/teaching anymore. i've been looking in a city of 1,000 churches for three years now and still haven't found it. sure, we're all doing a great job with the media, but the message it carries is simply becoming paper-thin.

I've been up since 3:45am. Just wait until I get the chance to tell you why ...

Yesterday I found this note in my mailbox at school, in the scribbly handwriting of a fifth-grader:

Dear Mr. Webel,

You are SOOOOOO
funny! You are sooo
fun to be around. I hope
you are enjoying your
Black socks!

??? From someone ???

P.S. someone is going to give you
black socks

"I want my heart to be the same shape as God's."

-- A man diagnosed with leukemia

I spent all day today at school organizing data, contact information, and junk. I got all the information off my iBook (it's getting sent for repair tomorrow) and consolidated a lot of my address book and emails. My office is once again livable (though not yet organized), and the piles of junk in the corners of my life are slowly receding (or getting tossed). By the time summer rolls around, I expect to be a lean, mean, streamlined machine.

One Day [listen]
Martin Reardon

One day every knee will bow
One day every tongue will confess
That You are Lord over all
You are God over all

But for now (but for now)
I will sing (I will sing)
A new song (a new song)
To You

Winners
* What is the average velocity of an unladen swallow?
   austin webel
   bear falling out of tree video trampoline mpeg
   WEBEL COMPUTER
* "It was when I was happiest that I longed most"
   oj mayo chca
   webel.net

Whiners
   "South Carolina State anthem"
*  "kids in overalls"
* advancements in technology of plastic surgury
   affects of gameboys
   mob chips for x-box
   font webl
   "hot surprise"+"pvm"
   Chiropractic adjustment mpeg
* how much is a stalk of celery?
* renting a popcorn machine
   charitible contributions calculator
   passion of the christ +banner ad
   dateline stone jesus mel
   blair peyton
* orthadontist training schools
   sharonville Mulch
   oj mayo february 2004 articles nba
* the percentage of lizards that change colors
* where can i find a picture of chuck e cheese?
* no-shooting-friends

   * my favorite searches

I've often thought about the way college now works ... it uses a factory approach, an assembly-line-conveyor-belt system of getting students in, knowledgeable, and out as quickly and easily as possible. Gone are the days of mentor/student relationships, where a young and promising kid goes to a certain school simply to "study with" a certain professor, to work under the guidance and protection of his expertise. Sometimes grad school works that way (depending which profession it's in), and in some cases coaching is the same ... but I think the last remaining field where the mentor/apprentice model dominates is music performance.

Yesterday I went to the beautiful Corbett Audiotorium at CCM to see one of my students perform. She's in one of those mentoring relationships, and it was easy to see the results. Here's the bio that was printed in the program:

Ga Yeon Lee, 11, is from Seoul, Korea. She has performed concertos with the Sang Lock Orchestra in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Daejoen Philharmonic and Sang Lock Orchestra in Korea. After studies at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2002, she decided to relocate to Cincinnati and enroll in the Starling Program. She has been a featured soloist with the Starling Chamber Orchestra in concerts in Cincinnati and on their recent tour to Austria, Germany, and Russia. In 2003 she performed the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the American Academy of Conducting Orchestra at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Not bad for a 6th grader, eh? Yesterday she performed Mendelssohn's Concerto for violin and orchestra in e-minor, op. 64, Allegro moderato, backed up by an orchestra of college students. It was amazing ... that girl is just precocious, well beyond her years. Well beyond my years too. Bravo, Ga Yeon.

I'm going to think some more about this mentor/apprentice thing.

• True Majority - A clever illustration of how the federal budget is spent (and how it can be fixed) using oreo cookies.
• Cheesus - Yep, that's right. They're actually selling Jesus-shaped cheese. Also for sale? The Gouda Buddha.
• Islam in the U.K. - In Britain, more people regularly worship at mosques than in the Church of England.
• Get Up Move - Ever played DDR (Dance Dance Revolution)? It's a videogame ... a videogame that helped this girl lose almost 100 pounds.
• The Periodic Table of the Condiments - Pretty self-explanitory (and pretty hilarious at that).
• Will Giuliana replace Cheney in '04? - Will Bush drop Cheney as his V.P. candidate? This article claims that an American hero may take his place.
• Sounds Inside the Womb - Many people sing and talk to their babies in the womb ... find out what their kids are hearing.
• 3D Sidewalk Paintings - Check out this awesome street art by Kurt Wenner ... you can see more here.
• Texas Tea Pee - Sorry, this one's kinda crude (pun intended).
• Rotary Fishtanks - This may even be cooler than my MacQuarium ... this dude builds aquariums out of Mazda rotary engines!
• Being Jesus - It's worth reading this great interview with James Caviezel about his portrayal of Jesus in the upcoming Passion of The Christ. During filming he was actually hit by metal lashes and by lightening.
• My Kind of Road Trip - This dude was hit by $600,000 while riding his motorcycle.
• Space Balloons - Here are some pretty sweet videos of water balloons being popped in anti-gravity conditions.
• Not Very Magic - A float at Magic Kingdom killed Goofy.
• F.C.C.'s Future - It looks like we may eventually be getting the Internet over power lines (it'll beat dialup!).
• Who Will Buy Disney? - There's a war going on now, will all kinds of rumors and offers and shakeups in the company. What is happening to America's funny uncle?

"I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow."

-- from The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg [via brownpau]

Microsoft has been using this banner ad to promote Microsoft Frontpage 2003 and its "clean code." But they made an oopsie ... the code on the banner ad itself is wrong. The tags surrounding "That's right. We said Frontpage." are both closing tags.

Will they ever cease to entertain us?

selah.
2.11.2004

when i think i've got it all together
i turn to find the rest of it falling apart.

where does the rest come from?
i thought i had it all.
i thought i was holding it all together.

where does the rest come from?

Today is an "inservice" day at school, but I really don't have the heart to work on the curriculum stuff that we're being given time to work on (it's not due for another month or so), so I'm gonna go home and relax instead. I figured I could post an update before I leave, though. I'll go reverse-chronologically.

Last night we had a meeting at Apple to talk about some changes in the business ... of course, I can't type anything specific, but I realized that I'm blessed to work with those people. Even if what we're doing isn't eternally significant (making money by selling computers?), the people are pretty amazing.

Yesterday morning I went to University Christian Church in Clifton to hear Dr. John Perkins preach. He has been awarded 7 honorary doctorates for his work with racial reconciliation and community development (you can find out more here). Dr. Perkins, a 73-year-old man with a deeply compassonate voice, decided to talk about Christianity:

"I've found that after all this time people finally want to listen to me. So I'm not going to tell them what they want to hear, I'm going to tell them what they need to hear."

--Dr. John Perkins

And that's just what he did ... he took the opportunity to shed some light on the weaknesses and hypocrisies of the modern church, suggesting that what this world needs is a pretty radical shakeup from inside, a bold effort to undermine American culture and simply love people instead, investing in relationships and actually meeting real needs. I don't know what else to say but to agree with him ... there was a wisdom that just poured out of his lips, an understanding of culture that I've rarely heard before. It humbled me.

On Saturday night I went to see O.J. Mayo and North College Hill take on our CHCA Eagles. Mayo is being hyped as the next LeBron James, a "dominating" player who will probably skip college altogether to enter the NBA. Sure, the kid was good ... and his physical abilities were very impressive for a freshman, but I hope a good coach gets his hands on O.J. to teach him about character. He was like a boy on a playground ... he seemed to run the team, he was telling the coach what to do, and he was more concerned about the cameras than his teammates. Hardly anything like LeBron, if you ask me.

And then there's the Myst 10th Anniversary Edition DVD that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. From the moment I opened the box I've been playing it constantly. I beat Myst in a couple of days and then beat Riven (the sequel) in about a week. I'm trying to avoid starting Exile (Myst III), but really getting antsy. I just love playing those games ... the combination of exploration, mystery, brain teasers, and gorgeous visuals and audio just make it fun to play. Good thing I'm not married ... I'd be sleeping in the doghouse.

Ok, I need to go home now or I won't be able to avoid the urge to start playing again. Aaaaa!

And I thought that justice in the United States was bad ...

Winners
   eye of the aardvark lance webel
   lawrenceburg tennessee gps bush hog
   pat robertson passion of christ film
   get in a rut idiom
   sarah of IJM
   www.webel.net
* stump the computer teacher
   austin webel
   Webel
   lance webel
* chin 3 video

Whiners
* steven spielburg lego movie lessons
* purell jokes
* ASSEMBLING DISCS FOR AOL
   font used for "passion of the christ" graphics
* muppets "big bird" suit handle
   name and photo
   http//www.abcnews.com + Mel Gibson + January 15, 2004
   scramble fo africa
   funny stuff blair peyton
   South Carolina state anthem lyrics
* catchy sayings for yearbook ads
   what font is used in trading spaces logo?
* Renting Inflatable Jousting
   pontic vibe
   papercraft hut
   ginghas kahn
   Mel Gibson and Dateline

   * my favorite searches

I know that I often post links to disturbing or sad articles about education on this website ... mostly because I find them to be interesting and important. But I'm actually quite an optimist (believe it or not) ... and there are so many more good things going on in schools these days (even though there aren't many articles about them).

Here's one that I found today about a teacher named Stan Lopp. If you're a teacher, you might notice that many of the things he does are routine for most of us: setting expectations, demanding respect, showing compassion. Nevertheless, it's encouraging to read about his approach and successes!

1. Second-grade Boy says, "I swear to God."

2. Second-grade Girl says, "You're going to hell for swearing."

3. Second-grade Girl gets suspended for swearing.

"But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."

-- Matthew 5:34-37

For those of you who are interested in Apple, here are some recent things worth noting:

• Sony is investing $325,000,000 into the plant that makes Apple's G5 chips. This may mean that future Playstations will run on G5's (further proving the dominance and superiority of the G5 chips over Intel stuff).


• In a related story, Microsoft is also investing in the G5-ish chips for their XBox Next, their future videogame console. Interesting, eh? The XBox Next will reportedly have 3 processors and will compete on price, not features (but will try to keep up with the Playstation 3).


• Did you see the Pepsi/iTunes Superbowl commercial? If not, you should note that 1 in 3 bottles of Pepsi now award you with a free song ($1 value) from iTunes. Some controversy has arisen from the wording of the ad (and the irony of the RIAA's involvement), but you sure can't beat free music. Hey, even if you don't want it, you can donate it!


• It's not exactly Apple-related, but it's funny to note that this dude named his son Jon Black Cusack 2.0 (yes, version #2). I wonder when 2.1 becomes available for download ...


• If you were wondering, defending Windows over a Mac is a sign of mental illness.


• Curious about where font names come from? This article explains how the Macintosh, the first machine able to support proportional typefaces, decided on the names for its fonts.


• Apple has finally recalled certain iBooks for a defect that causes the screen's backlighting to go bad. This happenned to my book, but unfortunately mine is too old to be covered under Apple's program. So my book is off to Circuit City (it's under their warranty), where it will hopefully be fixed (along with the keyboard problem I mentioned a month or two ago).

Volkswagon is an absolutely amazing company. Honestly, if I ever buy a new car again, there's a very good chance that I will support them and their creative/technical pursuits (if I can). Just look at their cars ... they're beautiful.

Or look at their newest $208,000,000 factory in Dresden, Germany. It's completely transparent, assembled from over 290,000 square feet of glass. The floors are Canadian maple, there is no "messiness" in the assembly process (all the parts arrive ready to snap together), and there are quite a few innovative features in the assembly line. Just take this virtual tour ... you'll be amazed.

"God doesn't call the equipped.
He equips the called."

Junior Allen stole a television in 1970. He was convicted of the crime and sent to jail, where he's been ever since. Yes, that's right ... he's now 63 years old, serving a 34-year sentence for a crime that would currently only merit probation. Meanwhile, other men have been convicted of murder and released in less than one third of the time.

Ah, the American Justice System.

Oh, the atrocity, the inhumanity! How low will this country sink? Why do we insist on being the butt of the world's jokes? Do we have any decency left?

It's simply unbelievable.

I'm on the verge of tears.

For those of you who have been waiting on the edge of your seat, the Russian Orthodox Church has finally declared that chess is not a work of the devil. Whew, that was close.

Oh, and here's a nifty place where you can play scrabble against yourself. Granted, there's no sentence scrabble ("Calabble"?) or speed scrabble ("Screbel"?), but it's fun for now (until the cease-and-desist order from Hasbro).

On a related note, I think I'm going to start bidding on Scrabble pieces. There's just too much fun to be had in that department.

"It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime."

-- Joe Browne, NFL executive vice president

Disney lost big on two items this past week where it had tried to throw around its megalo-corporate weight. As a result, their stock has fallen sharply and some have speculated about the future direction of the company. I don't think it'll change much (unless if there's a shakeup in their upper management). Here's what happened:

• After a long-standing feud between Disney and Pixar, Pixar finally decided to cut all ties in the relationship. For a few years now, Disney has been handling all distribution and has had rights to the Pixar movies, while they split profits ... Pixar will have to uphold this deal through 2005 (two more movies). Most are putting the blame squarely on Disney CEO Michael Eisner (probably rightly so), who is intending to concentrate on his own computer-generated animated features. You heard it here, folks ... the Disney CGI is gonna stink.


• You may remember (if you're a geek) that Disney had previously decided to start selling disposable DVD's for some of its movies. This was intended to be an alternative to renting or downloading from the Internet. As could be expected, the program is starting to flop, partly because of environmentalists who loathe us throwing away a few more grams of plastic, and partly because it's just outrageous to pay $7 for a movie just because you don't want to return it.

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Pressed, a minister of youth and media, recently posted an interesting question to his blog ... Should we encourage students to see The Passion of The Christ?

His post is a response to an article by Doug Fields (both are worth checking out). Here is my response:

I think we often forget why movies are rated the way they are ... it's not a form of censorship (as many Christians think of it), it's a way of informing the audience (namely, parents) what kind of maturity level is needed to see, understand, and enjoy the movie.

Personally, I don't even know if I want to go see The Passion in a theatre, simply because it will be a very personal and emotional experience for me. I feel no need for anyone but me and Jesus to be in the room when I witness it for the first time. Yes, I understand the implications of this film upon our culture, and especially our youth culture (I teach media classes to middle schoolers), but the story of the crucifixion is much more than just a tool to impact our society.

Unless if you have an extremely mature youth group, I'd be very hesitant about taking them to this movie as a group. The "mob mentality" that most youth groups morph into is often a great dynamic to break down walls, but it would be horrible for the message and penetrating nature of the film to be interrupted by a rowdy, joking, or simply distracted teen (or ten).

If I were a youth pastor, I would study up on the scriptures then invite families that were interested in seeing the film to meet me over dinner (just the parents and teens) to learn more intimately the story of Jesus' death (not the story of the movie). Then I would try to encourage and empower the parents to decide if they should go to the movie as a family (perhaps providing an example "outline" or something of a possible family discussion afterwards). Then, after a couple of weeks, I'd invite the families that chose to watch it over for popcorn, hot chocolate, and an intimate discussion of their experience seeing their Savior's sacrifice.

Then again, I'm not a youth pastor. I just think we need to be careful to preserve the intimacy of the story. Christ didn't become obedient to death to save America ... He did it for you and for me. Let's remember that.