The Good Word

Seen the post-Super Bowl episode of The Office yet?

Check out the first two hilarious minutes of “Stress Relief”.

”

Today was the PTO teacher appreciation lunch.

For the 12 teachers in the 7th and 8th grades the parents provided: enchiladas, four kinds of bread, bread sticks, two kinds of ravioli, three soups, chili, four or five kinds of potato/nacho/bean salad, three different flavors of chicken wings (probably 50 of each kind), sub sandwiches, an entire turkey complete with stuffing and all the desserts you could handle.

It was decadent. Especially since I don't usually eat much for lunch.

So, in preparation for writing a bit about Walking Tall (action movie starring The Rock) I did a Google Image search. Turns out it had not just one, but two sequels. Both starring Kevin Sorbo of TV's Hercules: The Legendary Journeys fame. That's when you know your film was a real winner: when you have two sequels in which you downgrade your star from a pro-wrestler to a washed up actor for a USA(the network, not the country)-only drama.

IMDB also thinks that the two sequels were released in the same year...

Anyway, I liked the movie, but, like I Am Legend, it never really went anywhere.

I liked it mostly because it had The Rock in it, but also because it depicts how The Rock's character (Chris Vaughn) returns to his small-town home after a eight year stint in the army only to find that everything he once loved about his hometown has been destroyed. The lumber mill which used to employ most of the town's residents has been shut down and the economic center has become a crooked casino, which both employs Vaughn's ex-girlfriend as a stripper and fronts a meth lab which sells to his teenage nephew.

I guess I like it because it attempted to portray what it's like to open your eyes one day to see just how screwed up the world you thought you knew really is, and how difficult it is to do something about it.

Maybe Hamlet said it best: "The time is out of joint, O cursed spite! That ever I was born to set it right."

Walking Tall claims to be inspired by a true story, which seems unbelievable to me, but if it is true I would love to read more about the story. The idea of one man redeeming a community like that is inspiring.

This post will probably fall on deaf ears, I doubt anyone has seen the movie, but the point is that it affected me because I miss home and if I'm going to be doing good in the world I'd like to be doing it for people I know and love. And, while I don't doubt that in some way I'm being prepared for that where I am, it's difficult to wait.

And if that was boring, he's a YouTube of clips from The Office:

P.S. I'm totally winning at Christmas. More tomorrow. With pictures.

Colorado Springs is one queer city. It's also filled with homosexuals. For the most part I'm perfectly fine with that, but just like when people want to tell me about the way to heaven and they pull out the Mormon Bible, or when a homeless man attempts to convince me that the world is ending, I take the substance and tact of the argument into account before I automatically discredit the source.

Let The Puppy Moo

The Gill Foundation and the Gay and Lesbian Fund (if you look at their websites you'll find they're the exact same organization), in 2006 began a million-dollar ad campaign centered around a lovable little spaniel puppy named Norman. Several TV spots, a multitude of newspaper ads, and innumerable yard signs and bumper stickers which still blanket the city told the story of Norman, the mooing puppy.

In an attempt to woo the general populous of Colorado Springs into supporting the cause for gay marriage, GILL/GALF gave it the face of a cuddly little canine whose only flaw was that he was born different.

When I first came to the Springs, I saw a single yard sign in a neighboring lawn which, next to the adorable mug of Norman, read "Let the Puppy Moo," and I instantly knew what it meant. Only a real bunch of screw-ups could come up with such an obviously ill-conceived argument. One which, in the eyes of a person biased against their cause, instantly identified them despite its obscurity.

The obvious flaw? Puppies aren't born mooing. It doesn't happen. It's absurd.

To try to prove that humans are born homosexual by symbolizing the gay community as a puppy who does something completely and utterly against its nature is something that only the opponents of gay rights would think of doing.

I've been teaching fables and allegory to my 8th graders for a couple weeks now and even they could pick out the flaw in this ad campaign. Using personified animals as symbols or models of human behavior is only an effective technique when the animals actually possess the qualities that you want to highlight in their human counterparts. Foxes are sly. Sheep are followers. Donkeys are stubborn, etc. Puppies, however, don't moo.

That's probably why, if they ever did have a website, which a campaign of that nature would be insane not to have, they took it down after they realized just how ineffective and costly such a campaign would be.

Wow.

On a lighter note:

If you love Pam as much as I do, then you'll love this video. If you don't, well, you'll love it anyway.

P.S. I have no idea whether the person singing today's song of the day is a man or a woman. I've been listening to it since 1993 and I still just have no clue. However it's my favorite gender-confused song, so I thought it was appropriate.

Anyone have $20,000 or so I can borrow? It would go to a good cause. You see, they are auctioning off a Spider-man 4 package on Ebay that includes a meet and greet with the cast, a spot as an extra in the new movie and a trip to the premier. But really, I'm just interested because the proceeds are going to benefit Stand Up To Cancer.

Such Stuff As Nerdy Dreams Are Made Of

I've been worrying a lot about this fall lately. Not about school or about bills, about being away from Michigan, or even how I'm going to afford two plane tickets in November. No, I'm worried about not having a TV. It hasn't mattered up until now, but as we near Sept. 22 and the two-hour Heroes season premier, I'm getting progressively more anxious about how I'm going to get my fix without waiting for the episodes to hit Hulu.

Luckily, NBC has come up with a string of webisodes for both The Office and Heroes to tide us over until the coming season.

In The Office summer series Kevin takes out a loan and in the Heroes miniseries we meet Echo Deville, who may be one of the villians from "Level 5".

A teaser for the new season of The Office, featuring Dwight:

Also, it looks as though Britain is taking a cue from the international success of The Office and launching a show called No Heroics which will do to Heroes what The Office did to Ally McBeal and every other corporate drama and sitcom out there. Check out the trailer here.

Of course, a lot of that sexual humor will never cross the pond, but at least we can rest assured that an Americanized version will replace it with racial humor and violence. Huh... maybe it's because I used the phrase "across the pond" but Blogger seems to think "humor" is spelled incorrectly and wants me to change it to "humour"... no lie.

Seriously though, if you have a TV and live in CSprings, or if you want to go halfsies on the Spider-man thing, let me know.