Holy Crap!

A man, who shares my first name, was arrested at Pace University for throwing a copy of the Quran in a toilet. How many members of other religions would raise such a ruckus over their "holy book" being in a toilet? And if I threw The Book of Mormon into the nearest urinal would anybody on this campus even notice? Read more about it.

Catch phrases.

Yesterday, as I was watching my friend Lisa leaving the DesignStar studio, I began to wonder why reality shows have such stupid catch phrases. The highly pompous host of DesignStar told Lisa that her "show has been canceled." I thought the idea was that the contestant were there to win a show not to have one canceled. And how about the equally pompous host of the equally overrated Survivor, "the tribe has spoken" has got to be the dumbest thing in television history. The so-called tribe does not speak, they vote. And these votes, despite the host insisting on it, are not tallied. They are simply counted. Also, why does he keeps saying "somebody is going home tonight" after the contestants who get voted out go from the tribal council to the jury. What ever happened to the simplicity of a baseball umpire's call: "You're Out!" It does not belittle or humiliate the contestant, it simply notifies them that their turn is over. I would like to see more baseball umpires host so-called reality shows.

A great artist is gone.

Ingmar Bergman, one of the great (if not the greatest) 20th Century filmmakers, has died at his home in Sweden.

Reality TV.

I no longer consider myself an HGTV viewer. My friend Lisa got kicked off the second season of DesignStar after the first competition. I was only going to watch the show because of her anyway and now I will occupy my time with a far more amusing show, The Two Coreys on A&E. It is an ingenious paring of married, stable actor Corey Feldman and single, not-so-stable actor Corey Haim. They appeared in several movies together in the '80's and were, at one point, huge. This show is hilarious, especially for somebody like me who is fascinated by the real person behind the role.

Lili and Mom

Lili is getting ready for bed. I just wish she didn't have redeye.

In the news.

This morning, as my wife was driving me to work, I heard a story about Islamabad's Red Mosque being reopened for Friday prayers. It has recently been the site of a week-long standoff between the Pakistani military and the local chapter of Militant Muslims. This made me wonder why are there no militant Buddhists, or Jews, or Christians, or Hindus, or even Atheists. Why did Muslims corner the market on this?

Lili sleeping.

This is my daughter sleeping in her bassinette back when she was one month old. I ran this pic through PhotoShop.

Drunks in space.

A NASA study found that astronauts were allowed to fly drunk on two occasions. I wonder how soon we can expect a bar module to be added to the International Space Station.

A giant moth.

This picture was taken in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Time.

Today, my daughter is seven months old. I am amazed by how much she has changed in the last few months. She can hold her bottle, pick up her toys, and sit up. But the thing that amazes me the most is my daughter's smile, except when she wakes up in the middle of the night and smiles at us when my wife and I tell her that sleep is a really good idea.

All in the family.

If Muslims want the West to stop seeing them as barbarians, they have to stop the honor killings. It is hard for me to buy the claim that Islam is a religion of peace when murdering a woman to restore the honor of her family is acceptable.

In local news.

This was bound to happen eventually. Somebody my wife and I have known for years is a contestant on a reality show. My friend Lee's wife, Lisa (first one in the right column), is a contestant on the second season of DesignStar on HGTV. She has a chance to win her own show on HGTV which would be awesome since she's very creative and talented artist. Lee is a very creative and talented artist, too.

The less you know.

The better off you'll be, according to the late, great Warren Zevon. There have been recent developments in the glorious lunatic asylum we lovingly call the Congress that I thought were worth commenting on. As always, I took some time to think about what I was going to write before actually writing it. It seems that the Democrats voted to pull the troops out of Iraq by April. There are a couple problems with that idea. One, Iraqis are as ready to govern themselves as a ten year old is ready for a driver's license. Two, this would leave a lot of soldier, who have put their lives on the line, with a sense of defeat that American soldiers have not felt since Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Since "couple" usually means two, I will not list anymore. Another bit of craziness was the Congress staying up all night to debate the War in Iraq which, according to Bush, we won two or three years back. Come on! These people have not pulled all-nighters since they were in college twenty or thirty years ago. And they could not form a coherent thought back then. So, what are they trying to accomplish? Oh, and what is up with the all the Presidential candidates' MySpace pages?

Been a long time.

Since I posted here. It seems that John Lennon was right: life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans. I have been working, going to school, and taking care of my daughter after work. These things took up most of my time for the last, almost, three months. The point of this post is not to complain about my life, but to explain.