Planet Hulk is a must-own publication, I tell you. It's soooo good. Go to your nearest Barnes & Noble. Read and let yourself be enveloped by the Hulk's world-breaking rage. I must own this graphic novel. I must. 
 

 

Like my 2-dimensional, 6-year-old hero, I wait with great anticipation for the arrival of my new purchase. With that item, I hope to finally be cool. Pray that the learning curve will not be too steep for me; I'm not 6 years old after all.

I went for a walk with Meg in a thunderstorm yesterday. It was an atypical sort of jaunt for us. We jumped in puddles, not over them. We greeted the rain. For once we stood our ground and let him bullet and buffet us. With courage we looked up at the heavens. The sky was a deadly battleground in which cowards were slaughtered. Yes, we needed courage and lots of it.

Then I made a really stupid comment: "Our lives are in God's hands right now, huh?"

As if God had no control of our lives inside a flimsy shelter made of wood and stone.

As if mortals could do anything to protect themselves from their Creator.

As if He was only Thor.

 

I think Creative Commons is a great idea. Do you know what it is? Here's a video to help you understand it. Pretty simple really: "Remove the intermediaries." CC will do wonders for the arts.

You guys have to hear this: Prayer: Spiritual Activism. This is Erwin McManus at the most emotive I've heard so far. There's really nothing wrong with passion. In fact what I dread most about my life now is the seeming lack of it. I'm bereaved. How about you? Are you a risk-taking barbarian, full of hope?

This object is 40 inches of terror on wheels. My longboard arrived on Wednesday and now after 3 straight days of beginner boarding, I have no qualms revealing to you all this recent investment of mine. You have to understand my hesitation. Wasn't the driving force behind this purchase my desire to be cool? Oh sure I could come up with reasons like 'towering gas prices' and so on. But in fact, all I really wanted was to be cold. If I had prematurely revealed what I had bought, without first finding out if I could use it, my friends, you would have collapsed in laughter. I would be the brunt of jokes for weeks. Waiting three days allowed me to stow away the longboard and hide it from prying eyes, preserving my reputation if God refused me the skill of balance. (Yet I know I can't preserve my reputation forever; one of these days you're going to find me out). But we'll cross the bridge when we get there. God is great. I've got balance.

Most of you probably already know what CC is. I linked to a video about it about it a few days ago. Today I want to give you another reason to want to use CC: Brad Sucks. If you can ignore this one-man-band's silly name and crappy album cover, you'll find out his music is actually quite good. In my opinion anyway. I enjoy it. Full of personality, character and a kind of sick humor.

The fact that I found him on Creative Commons means Brad's got relatively loose copyright tastes. He's letting anybody download his album for free, remix it, and share it. It's true, you can do that legally. How does anybody make money like that? Apparently Brad doesn't really care:

"I put my music online because I want people to hear it. I'd obviously love to make a living making music, but if the worst-case scenario is becoming a well-heard artist that never gets paid, I can live with that. "

Something tells me he's yet to experience that worst-case scenario, though.

That's because there are countless people out there who do appreciate human artistry. And though you may not know or admit it yourself, I believe you are counted among them too.

("Worthify" is not [yet] a word. I know; you need not lord it over me with your superior handle of the language. Just play along, you might find it worth the trouble).

I guess worthify is basically a synonym for worship - without its deistic connotations. To avoid sacrilege, especially in the minds of my religious brothers and sisters, I hereby deploy "worthify." It isn't an idolatrous idea, thus do not feel hesitant to utter it. The root word is the same: worth. If you worthify something, you declare outwardly, "I must say, I find this thing good."

More than simply a declaration, in essence to worthify requires one to sacrifice. You must give up something of value for the sake of another thing more worthy. We commit this act every day. So my question to you, o reader: "What did you worthify recently?"

Brad Sucks posted the source tracks for his music online and encouraged fans to tinker with them. Here are some of his favorites. This band has made me very happy these past few days. Now I want to look for more indie stuff.

I saw the Incredible Hulk a couple of days ago. Started wondering what it must be like to be Stan Lee right now. Imagine seeing all your creations being embraced by the worldwide community. Imagine those heroic characters (birthed in your mind) being transferred from comicbook paper to big-budget film in just a single lifetime. For a moment, try to ignore your green thoughts about the size of Stan Lee's paycheck, or amount of royalties he must be receiving, or the funny cameos he gets to participate in.

What is going through his heart-mind?

Forget fleeting treasures. I'm talking about a more profound and deeper joy. A person probably feels a certain inexplicable joy when his contribution to culture is confirmed.

Superhero Recipe

1. Mysterious Origin
2. Strength
3. Weakness
4. Unattainable Life Goal
5. Love Interest
6. Villain
7. ...?

Go to their website and listen to their new album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust.

"There are no exceptions to the rule that everybody thinks they are an exception to the rules".     - Banksy

Read this article: "Senators Approve Anti-Spanking Bill." So apparently Canadian mothers, fathers, caregivers or teachers may soon face jail time for spanking their children. This is saddening news. I realize you may not feel the same way. But personally the approval of this bill is very disconcerting. It's weird; I'm not Canadian... why, I'm not even a parent! Why should I worry? I'm deeply afflicted because I know it will impact my family or community one day.

I'd fight any institution that would dare assume an external, robotic, personally-uninvolved legislator is able to love a kid more than a kid's own parents. What utter hubris.

Albert Mohler writes:

"A recent court decision in Canada should send chills down every parent's spine. The ruling is so out of bounds that the news story sounds like a parody -- but it isn't. A Canadian judge ruled that a 12-year-old girl was "excessively" punished when her father told her she could not go on a school camping trip because she had broken rules for use of the Internet."

Read entire article.

 

Will we see a future generation of inadequate, ill-equipped adult 'babies'?

The question I had was: "Why didn't Cookie Monster drive himself?"

What is Pecha Kucha Night?

"Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show."

This is such a great idea I can’t believe I’ve never come across it. I’d like to see a gathering like this. Seems so darn simple that any community or a group of friends or even an individual could organize it. It could start out small: at home, in a church, etc. With its grassroots’ sort of vibe, plus its ready popularity, it seems to me that a new Pecha Kucha site could take off in no time at all.

Topics can cover anything. It can be something you created, even just something you like. What a tremendous way to know the creative heart and pulse of a city in just one night. Have you been to one? What's your experience?

More: Link 1, Link 2.

 

Here I make tribute to another one of my favorite human beings: C.S. Lewis. I don't often like people with Herculean mental faculties. They're frightening snots; plus, I envy them.

But C.S. Lewis is gold. He savored literature and friendship. He braved the hard questions. He strove for truth. And eventually found it (or perhaps it found him). I did a quick search online for some of Lewis' timeless sayings:

 

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"'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver...'Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'" - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

"All that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy." - Mere Christianity

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." - The Problem of Pain

"God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love." - The Problem of Pain

"Human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and can't really get rid of it." - The Case for Christianity

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Here's Brooke Fraser with "C.S. Lewis Song":



"If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can satisfy, also we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for another world." - Mere Christianity

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - Is Theology Poetry?

Have you wordled anything lately? In keeping with my CSL theme, here's a wordle of Mere Christianity.

The column on the right depicts the books I'm currently reading. (Although it says "my library", I don't often own the books listed on there. Sometimes I do).

So I've begun to read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I knew it was a classic; I knew "Oscar Wilde" was the name of a famous dead man. Finally, I also know that this book was listed on "100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man's Library." (You can find this list on the Art of Manliness website).

Sidenote: The Art of Manliness states that "[in] our search to uncover the lost art of manliness, we’ll look to the past to find examples of manliness in action. We’ll analyze the lives of great men who knew what it meant to “man up” and hopefully learn from them."

I felt a curious feeling of dissonance as I waded through TPoDG's first pages. That odd feeling only increased as I went on.

"This is very peculiar," I thought.

"TPoDG is not going to simply be a story of a handsome chap's adventure."

"I think I need to find out more about Oscar Wilde."

And I did.