May 09, 2008

Congratulations to Brant Hansen...

...he of Kamp Krusty blog fame, on his radio show going national.

And here's what's really exciting me: Brant currently plies his radio trade for South Florida's WAY-FM affiliate. It is natural to assume that it's the national stations carrying WAY-FM programming that are the likely recipients of Brant's syndicated goodness.

Including 90.3 FM in Rome, GA.

W00t.

By the way, Brant also wins "Quote of the Week" honors:

For most people, "Christian radio" isn't on the radar. And, for most people who read this blog, "Christian radio" has an approval rating right up there with, say, polio.

But it's what I do, and I'm thankful for that. I get to annoy, cajole, prod, anger, and -- mostly -- confuse people on a daily basis. Best of all, I'm talking to a lot of Good Churchgoing Folk, so I get to talk about the Kingdom of God to an unreached people group.

How true.

Posted by Chuck at 10:13 PM | TrackBack

May 01, 2008

I will never be able to explain why this song is so awesome. It simply is.

Posted by Chuck at 11:43 AM | TrackBack

April 09, 2008

News flash - it's baseball season again

(Permalink...and THAT happened.)

For those of you who are true geeks, you might recognize that as the Tokyo series between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A's. Some dork - who sounds like he knows baseball better than he lets on, if you listen closely - scored nice seats behind home plate, and provides sufficiently dorky commentary.

"I'm not sure what that means!" I don't know if I've ever heard baseball commentary so beautiful in my life.

Oh, by the way, apparently the guy is a pretty decent guitarist.

(I have to confess, I find it cool when famous people do vaguely anonymous stuff online.)

Posted by Chuck at 02:41 PM | TrackBack

January 31, 2008

Democratic candidates are debating, so HEY STUPID INTERNET MEME TIME W00T

With many thanks to that master of mischief, Randy Milholland:

instructions:
1 - Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr's "explore the last seven days" http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Put it all together, that's your first album.

So I did. My article, my (highly rock and roll) quote, and my album cover.

Put it all together - what do you get?

Airshow China - Best Done By Professionals

And here, I always thought my band name was going to be Endangered Species. Well, phooey. For good or for ill, I'm apparently going to be the frontman for another ironic indie pop troupe. Hope you like my stuff.

Posted by Chuck at 09:40 PM | TrackBack

September 01, 2007

News item: Michigan 32-34 Appalachian State

I'm going to be blogging even less than usual this semester (this little announcement will have something to do with that) but I'll pop in every now and again with moments of silliness like that. Hat tip, by the way, goes to Every Day Should Be Saturday.

Posted by Chuck at 08:24 PM | TrackBack

August 10, 2007

Still plugging away

I've not gone anywhere but into semester preparation. I've had several things across my desk, though, and I need to make sure you're appropriately aware of them.

In order of free stuff received from the particulars:


Permalink for Tim McAllister "Strong Tower" video, in case the Facebook importing ever works again.
Permalink for a highlight reel featuring nothing short of the greatest American striker ever, and I still get chills every time I see the two goals starting at the 1:58 mark, because I saw both those goals live.)

Posted by Chuck at 06:38 AM | TrackBack

July 04, 2007

Well, so much for me being edgy and real.

Apparently, the mingle2 people think I'm clean-cut and polite. Heh.

The rating system isn't by the MPAA, but these Mingle2 folk. I'm rather surprised, honestly. I'd have figured me for a PG at least. I really should be parental-guidance suggested, anyway.


Posted by Chuck at 11:29 PM | TrackBack

May 29, 2007

Yes, I'm recycling 12-year-old memes. So sue me.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GAT/S$/MU/O d? s++:- a35 C++ U+>+++ P+>++++ L+>++++ E+
W++ N+@ o- K++ w O-- M- V++ PS- PE Y+ PGP-- t 5- X-- R
tv- b+ DI++ D---- G+ e++++ h---- r+++ y++++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

If you find it necessary to know what all that means, here you go. And I apologize to all of you who are too young to know what a beast VMS is, or how OS/2 was supposed to rule the world and leave Windows in the dust, or all of that. But honestly, it's surprising how much of that code holds up...

(And every now and again, WWdN:iX is a nifty read.)

Posted by Chuck at 09:19 PM | TrackBack

May 24, 2007

Project Playlist

So this Project Playlist thing allows you to search for mp3's that are stashed on deep, dark corners of the web (disclaimer: legality of mp3s is not tested, this thing just harvests the raw data stashed somewhere...and there's enough raw data in the form of songs enough different places that something like this can work) and loads everything into a nifty playlist that looks something like this:


(Note: If you're on Facebook, you probably don't see the flash file there. You'll just have to go to the big-blog to see the thing in its glory.)

And yes, I picked all 26 of those songs. I won't promise you'll like everything there, but I hope you'll find something in there that's nifty to you.

Posted by Chuck at 08:31 PM | TrackBack

May 10, 2007

Why I love the quiz bowl game...

...from NINETEEN SIXTY SIX, people. (And the question format you'll hear is IDENTICAL to the much-maligned format used in College Bowl tournaments today.)

The matchup is Princeton University, whose reputation as an academic power in everything pretty much preceeds itself...
...and Agnes Scott College, which most people watching this match probably had never heard of.

(Shorter College people: please note the introduction of Agnes Scott's captain at about the 1:20 mark. Malinda Snow, REPRESENT.)

I'll go ahead and embed ALL THREE parts of the game, complete with commercials, and not give away the result if you've not seen this match. But if you don't have the time, go to the last embed (from the beginning if you like sung quiz bowl answers) and pick it up at about the 2:10 mark, at Agnes Scott 130-120 Princeton. The game is CLOSE. The game will get CLOSER.


(Permalinks for all three parts of the game.)


Posted by Chuck at 12:12 PM | TrackBack

April 15, 2007

You can't touch my monkey (well, okay, EllaMinnow can)

Brant Hansen posts, and I quote directly:

It's not every day I get to personally beat you at something.

In bygone days, travel money and logistics would be involved.  I'd have to physically come to your hometown -- which reeks, by the way -- in order to garner the inevitable total victory over you, your family, and all that you hold dear.

But these are heady days, thanks to technology. Just click on this link, and get outkicked by my monkey.

That's right. My monkey will own you.

Such is your destiny, now writ:  You will be owned, and - oh yes! -- you will be owned by an animated monkey.

It's not a glamorous destiny, but at least has the charm of being yours.

(HT to the now vanquished monkey of J-Caparoon.)

It's fun, plus, it's FREE for Kamp Krusty readers!
You know, I must confess, it IS a great deal of fun.

Especially now that our man Brant's monkey has now, himself, been vanquished.

To quote the great Ariel Mazzarelli: Bite me, envious ones.

(UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long - Brant has vanquished me right back, as his link clearly shows. There will be monkey smackdown now. I guarantee it.)

(UPDATE UPDATE: Well, there's monkey smackdown, but not by me. If you dare, check out the standard that some poster on Brant's blog by the name of EllaMinnow has set. It is, truly, impressive. If you desire a more reasonable standard, however, here's the current DrChuck personal best.)

Posted by Chuck at 01:09 AM | TrackBack

January 01, 2007

Pottymouthed webcomics

The more I read webcomics, the more I find myself drawn to comics that have, shall we say, a less proper storytelling bent.

I blame Penny Arcade for this. Penny Arcade has been funny (and quite prophetic) for its entire run, potty-mouth or no potty-mouth. However, the potty-mouth will, from time to time, set up a real conversation that veers towards the hilariously bizarre very quickly. And, sometimes, the profanity is absolutely essential to the joke.

And I've already blogged about the quality of Something Positive's storyline, both here and elsewhere. Simply put, Something Positive is one of the most important webcomics I read right now. There's a GREAT deal of theological depth to the thing, however much that depth is mired in the misanthropy. It tells a story that a comic that's sanitized and prepared "for the kids" simply cannot tell. The characters grow up, change, the stupid things they did years ago come back to haunt them, often in unexpected ways...and I don't want my kids reading the thing until they're of age.

And I've found myself reading Sinfest more and more lately as well. If the comic is called Sinfest, then obviously it doesn't belong in a clean comics trawl, and there are so many ways in which that comic is so wrong. But, when God and Satan are two of the key characters in your comic, then you can explore the theology of good and evil in really intriguing ways.

I'm trying to work out why I am so drawn to so many of these stories. There's no question, in many cases, their use of profanity and sexuality is excessive and off-putting. Then again, that's the case in the broader media as well. I think I appreciate having the full backstory at my disposal and the ability to work out my own reactions to the characters' lives. The ludicrous sit-com situations are one thing; the deeply developed characters in a well drawn webcomic are something else entirely.

(None of these things, of course, explain why I like still laugh uproariously at the on-again, off-again in-joke goodness that is Indietits.)

The primary reason for this post is to kickstart the Webcomics heading in the blogroll. The listing I'm placing below the jump will be linked in the blogroll as "Warning attached", not only to place another block for the kids (because, let's be totally honest, there's a great deal on the internet the kids are going to find whether we want them to or not) but to make sure all parties know what they're getting into when they read these comics. The warning goes something like this:

I read these comics because I enjoy the storylines, the characterization, or the broad message. I do NOT read these comics because I condone the language used or the lifestyles portrayed.

But I'm not going to pretend that this language doesn't get used either, nor am I going to pretend that these lifestyles don't get lived. Misanthropes exist. One-night stands happen. People cohabit. Traditional morals, in so many corners of society circa 2007, have been obliterated, and there are plenty of people of my generation and younger who are confused and trying to figure out how to clean up the mess. A lot of what's in here reflects that confusion.

And quite often, the responses to the confusion are downright funny.

When you read something offensive in these comics - or anywhere else in the popular media or literature, for that matter - talk about it. And this goes about a hundred times if you're a minor. One of the things we screw up most often, as parents, is that we don't get involved with what our kids are watching on television or listening to on the radio or finding on the web. Please, if you're our kids, don't hesitate to help us out.

In order of how long I've read the comic in question, this is what I read:

(I'm also going to pay attention to the "director's cut" of the recently-completed Narbonic, because it has been recommended so highly by so many people. We'll see how this goes.)

Posted by Chuck at 08:53 PM | TrackBack

December 31, 2006

"This is why the terrorists hate us"

Why, oh why, did I not link BlogDad's adventure with the marshmallow burger and fries when he first posted it?


This only came back to mind because I randomly found Jeff's Flickr photo set chronicling this adventure, and it parallels the story exactly - and the captions on the photos are absolutely side-splitting, even having read the full story.

Anyway: Jeff, I just feel like I have to mention every now and again how crazy your skills are. You have the MAD skills. MAD MAD MAD.

Posted by Chuck at 05:54 PM | TrackBack

December 26, 2006

Satellite radio fandom

Let me be among the last to wish you Merry Christmas, first off.

I got an absolutely brilliant toy as a combination birthday/Christmas gift. Usually, for those of us who have birthdays and Christmas close enough together, such combination gifts are annoying and unappreciated. However, when the toy is this little thing...


...then much joy and happiness ensues.
(I raided the image from one Brian Gorbett, by the way. He's got a nice review of the product himself.)

I went over the edge and decided to plump for the satellite radio primarily because of the trouble that I had in getting AM radio in the nighttime around here. I really enjoy listening to ESPN Radio and to the Westwood One broadcasts of the Sunday and Monday (and now, Thursday) night NFL, as well as any yammering I can get randomly. But Rome, Georgia is NOT the bastion of great radio reception from Atlanta (and I'm not enamored of the choices I have on Atlanta radio...I miss Columbus something fierce) (yes, Rome does have an ESPN Radio affiliate, but I live in the county and totally lose reception between 6:00 and 7:00 PM) and, pretty much, I'm guaranteed 870 AM from New Orleans and 1530 AM (I think) from Cincinnati and everything else is hit-or-miss. And even those options can flake out with the right atmospheric conditions.

And whatever music junkiedom I have has been taking pretty regular hits lately (cross-reference the 96rock/105.3 The Buzz fiasco, and the Spanish-language station has taken over the 105.3 frequency...and 99x just keeps coming up with stupider talking heads and their playlist has been getting more and more limited). I've been able to hear the satellite music stations through my Dish Network subscription, I've generally liked what I've heard, and I wanted more.

So I got this little toy a couple of weeks ago, with a car kit and a home kit. I hooked up the home kit first, and the car kit finally got into place late last week. And it has been amazing. I've played with this thing so much over the past two weeks, it's been ridiculous. There are only a couple of moans I have about reception (and I really think I could fix those moans with the appropriate amount of elbow grease, which I'm not quite hip about putting in) and battery life (which I'm kind of stuck on), but compared to the horrific AM reception I've been getting in the nighttimes, I really don't have jack to complain about.

The nitty gritty is after the jump.

---START NITTY GRITTY HERE---

First truth about satellite radio: Not all receivers are created equal. Most of the cheap receivers you get at Circuit City are simple receivers, and really won't do a whole lot but give you lots'o channels in your car. If you have a big commute every day, that's worth it. If you don't spend at least 30 minutes in your car a day, not so much. Personally, I'm right on the edge of worth-it.

The opposite side of the spectrum is this Stilleto receiver (note: I've linked the scaled down version!) that is actually a receive-signal-as-you-walk-around satellite radio. They're expensive and a bit unwieldy, though.

So I went to the middle ground and got the S50. (And I was able to get a sweet rebate deal, so when all is said and done I didn't pay close to the listed price.) Its receiver is actually the docks that it's planted into at home or in the car; when it's disconnected from the dock, it's really a glorified mp3 player. But what a player!

Here are your Sirius S50 Things O' Niftiness:

So, yes. It's a toy. It's a toy of astounding flexibility and joy. It's every music junkie's dream.

The battery life leaves just a bit to be desired - it's not made to be listened to for long periods of time away from a dock. If you get six hours of listening time from the battery, you've done well. But the battery seems to charge rapidly enough when you do have it plugged in, and most of the goodness comes from the radio anyway.

Theoretically, if you're going to get best performance, you need to have the satellite antenna outside. This doesn't sit well with the lazy man who doesn't like making holes in his house (and who likes being able to move the setup around the house, if I'm going to be in the kitchen for a while for example). Fortunately, you can get a good signal with the antenna inside if you put it up high enough. It will be a bit limited, and if weather comes through you're pretty much going to playlists instead of live radio. But again: compared to the AM signal I have to deal with, the flakiness in reception is actually quite minor, even with the radio inside the house.

So, yeah, I kind of like this thing. Any questions?

---END NITTY GRITTY HERE---

(Oh, by the way, this whole post was for you, Sheppard - I expect you'll have geekdom there to last you for MANY a season...)

Posted by Chuck at 11:58 AM | TrackBack

December 15, 2006

Bringin' Rocky Back

In honor of my pastor's overjoyed, enthusiastic plugging of the December 20th release of Rocky Balboa, I provide for you here today an advance of a soon-to-be-released music video from the film. I'm particularly struck by the heartwarming fashion in which Rocky's struggle to overcome his advancing age to be successful in the ring is depicted...

(I love my pastor. Really.)

(And, for my Facebook friends: a permalink.)

Posted by Chuck at 02:35 PM | TrackBack

December 13, 2006

On my mind

I feel like I should be writing out a whole ton of stuff here, but I'm REALLY let-down from the semester. Astoundingly let-down. I don't want to do ANYTHING.

So I'm going to leave you with a few things that are running around my mind, and what I really feel like I should be thinking more clearly about if I had the wherewithal to think.


Posted by Chuck at 11:12 AM | TrackBack

December 01, 2006

Be careful around the aging hardware

News item: It's nearly birthday-time.


From Diesel Sweeties. Click on comic for full-size.

Posted by Chuck at 05:52 PM | TrackBack

November 22, 2006

The songs on the radio still suck, I'm afraid

($1 to Bill Mallonee for the post title.)

If his blogspace still existed, I would link to one of my quiz-game mates' laments on the demise of 96rock, the legendary Atlanta rock radio station, in favor of a ClearChannel monstrosity called "Project 9-6-1", which has a playlist that concentrates on current rock but pulls the odd AC/DC or Led Zepplin or Aerosmith track out of its hind end occasionally.

Looking at the Atlanta radio ratings, it's not entirely clear why ClearChannel made this move on first glance. WKLS was (as of this summer) the best-performing ClearChannel station of the lot, trailing WSRV (97.1, The River) which really is more of an oldies station than a classic-rock station, but outperforming the other over-programmed radio project of the day, WZGC (92.9, davefm), and outstripping the modern rock options WBZY (105.3 The Blitz) and WNNX (99X) by significant and substantial margins, respectively.

It didn't make sense until yesterday evening (after a particularly bummer day at school), driving home and doing my standard flipping. The flip to 105.3 I didn't think much of until I heard the words "Project 9-6-1" muttered over the radio.

105.3 is also ClearChannel owned, I remember.

Oh crap.

I bounced to 96.1. Commercial. I waited out the commercial (checking news and other radio all the while), until I heard a song on 96.1 - Stone Sour's "Through Glass", a good cut, by the way. (Memo to pastors who like YouTube: The video to that song does not suck.)

After a few seconds, I flipped to 105.3. The SAME EXACT SONG.

And yes, as I do the research now, it is in fact true: 105.3 is simulcasting the new Project 9-6-1.

So, you have two radio stations that ClearChannel owns whose personalities are being folded into one, attempting to be all things to all listeners and pleasing them even less of the time than before. It might well help them in the ratings. Every other way conceivable, it's a raw deal.

Satellite radio sounds better to me all the dang time.

Posted by Chuck at 08:15 PM | TrackBack

November 14, 2006

An open letter to Mark Batterson

Dearest Pastor Batterson,

In regards to this whole Rocky business: Please stop encouraging my pastor.

With much thanks and respect,
Dr. Chuck Pearson
Parishoner, Chapel Hill UMC, Rome, GA

Posted by Chuck at 06:03 PM | TrackBack

November 11, 2006

TEH!

With thanks to Steven Krause, this is my new mascot.

TEH

If you need a primer on the beauty of the word "teh", you can go to Wikipedia or to Urban Dictionary.

And, of course, there's more where that came from.

Posted by Chuck at 08:33 AM | TrackBack

October 15, 2006

Learning biology the Buckeye way

If you or your son or daughter is having difficulty with respiration and photosynthesis in a high school or college general biology course, they can do worse than watching these two videos. (Upper-division biology students should spot a few flaky moments in the descriptions, but hey, what do you expect when it's the band and the football coach doing the teaching?)

(Permalinks for the Krebs Cycle and Z-scheme videos. Hat tip, in what is surely an all time first for biology content, to Deadspin. Twisted pride in alma mater is all mine.)

Posted by Chuck at 05:26 PM | TrackBack

September 28, 2006

A reason to like Facebook

If you're reading this on Facebook, you see my reason.

These big-blog posts are now, by RSS feed, appearing on my Facebook profile page as "notes". There's also a comment mechanism on the Facebook page; hence, I have my long-awaited comment solution. (Feel free to comment on Facebook in exultation.)

As social-networking tools go, I vastly prefer Facebook to MySpace. The current negative publicity aside, I think Facebook is infinitely better coded, with better interaction tools, than the corresponding tools on MySpace, and Facebook doesn't have the lowest-common-denominator feel that MySpace has. (The only killer app MySpace has working right now are all the bands with MySpace pages, and y'know, honestly, PureVolume is getting about as much use lately, and is overall better.) The fact that Facebook got is start as a college networking site rings true to my academic heart, as well.

And Facebook is in the process of opening up to the non-academic world. I can give out invites to people to join the network now. (Those of you who know me, if you want an invite, send me an e-mail and ask. I'll even let you be my friend. How L33T is that?)

I wonder if I can start a Rome, GA network...

Posted by Chuck at 08:53 PM | TrackBack

September 26, 2006

Wondering about the source of the meme

First off, I genuinely want to make sure Ashley receives her credit for pointing this out to me, for I had never seen this before:

Dilbert's "Salary Theorem" states that "Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives, sales people, accountants and especially liberal arts majors." This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two well known postulates:

Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power. Postulate 2: Time is Money. As every engineer knows: Power = Work / Time.

Since: Knowledge = Power, then Knowledge = Work / Time, and Time = Money, then Knowledge = Work / Money.

Solving for Money, we get: Money = Work / Knowledge.

Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.

This is certifiably TRUE. Anybody who has spent any length of time in an underfunded laboratory at a major research university can attest to this, and further, they can attest to this with no small measure of bitterness.

Of course, I can't leave well enough alone. It was quite clearly a quote, but unattributed. I started wondering where the heck this came from.

Because it refers to Dilbert's Salary Theorem, I had to hit up Scott Adams' blog to see if he'd written that recently. No dice.

Well, who HAS used that phrase? The list is HUGE. Darn near every instance of the derivation that I can see is uncited in any way, shape, or form - it seems like it's something that's been sent to inboxes for years, and appeared on blogs, without anybody ever thinking about who wrote it first. Click and Clack credit it to a Mike Yost, but I've not seen any other evidence around the web for his name attached to that proof, so I don't know where they got it from.

Because I am stubborn (especially when I have plenty of other work to do), I click through SEVERAL search pages and wind up finding a hit to a quick-hit article in from The Motley Fool dated July, 1997, attributed to some Robert Sheard. It (re?)states the proof, not from a scientist or engineer's viewpoint, but from an investor's viewpoint. Which also makes sense if you're a Wall Street investor, and again an embittered Wall Street investor at that. So maybe that's the original author.

I believe that until I see the .sig of this confocal microscopy listserv post - from 1996.

Blast.

Well, it's at least a 10-year-old proof, but I'm no closer to knowing who originally wrote it, and I just trashed a perfectly good academic hour looking. Yay me. If you have any clue, feel free to drop me an e-mail.

(And if you don't know what replaces "stuff" in my e-mail address, you're a bot who doesn't need to be e-mailing me anyway.)

Posted by Chuck at 09:29 AM | TrackBack

September 07, 2006

Apropos of absolutely nothing

Ya think when the Washington Post makes a front page story out of the Facebook news feed, Facebook's "great product" might be dealing with just a WEE bit of backlash?

Two words, Facebook coders: Opt out. The "news feed" IS great so long as I get to choose which events go up on it and which events don't, and you don't set my default to "everything's on it". If somebody doesn't like a news feed turning up on their page, they should be able to turn it off. If somebody doesn't like their events turning up on my news feed, they should be able to turn it off. Just. That. Simple.

Of course, the one good thing about this is that suddenly everybody's wondering about what they're doing on Facebook and who can find out about it. And yes, this is a good thing. Just because there is a "news feed" that slams all your Facebook friends and groups and wallposts in front of me now doesn't mean I couldn't find all this out with a couple of clicks before. As a general rule, we ARE too quick to say something or reveal something about ourselves online. All this is doing is making crystal-clear to you, ye Facebook denizen, how easily that something you reveal to one person in the wrong way can be revealed to the world.

I don't like the News Feed, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find this chaos and angst that Facebook has unleashed positively entertaining.

(UPDATE: Well, at least part of the "opt-out" message has been received.)

Posted by Chuck at 06:47 AM | TrackBack

August 08, 2006

Two sets of links...

...for your early academic year consideration:

Advice for the new freshman at Learning Curves. Annotation by Chad Orzel of Uncertain Principles. Pearson adds: They both speak truth about video games. And even if you don't have the X-Box (or, from my day, the NES), it doesn't mean you're immune; while my freshman-year hall-mates lost hours on end to Mike Tyson Punch-Out, I was losing hours on end to SimCity and F-19.

(Note: Orzel has since reiterated his point.)

And darn near the funniest MySpace criticism I've ever read at Danger West (warning: military-style potty-mouth enclosed, read with care). "GeoCitites with a guestbook!" I now have something I can toss at everybody who tells me how superior MySpace is to everything on the planet. "Where were you when I had my first GeoCities page?"

Posted by Chuck at 10:09 AM | TrackBack

HAM!

And among the webcomics I read and enjoy, Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't even enter the conversation.

But I absolutely ADORE seeing Tim Buckley's hands made of ham.

(And if you're just getting into the weird and twisted world of webcomics, the roll of comics on the left side of that page is a pretty good must-read guide. Some you will love. Some you will despise. Some will offend you. And at least one will excite you so much that you will wreck a day - or two, or three - going through the comic's archives.)

Posted by Chuck at 06:56 AM | TrackBack

July 28, 2006

All The Governor's Men

(This is legitimately my first multi-category post, and justifiably so.)

I am currently listening to one of the most amazing things I have heard in my life. It is a unique mix of progressive history and old-time radio.

It's called All The Governor's Men, and it's the story of the contested Georgia governor's election of 1946, wrapped up in the early stirrings of civil rights ideas and the aftermath of World War II.

There is historians' comment, actual radio footage from '46, and dramatization (and some pretty brutal dramatization at that) of the times.

And they're putting this on the radio.

Not only am I totally on-board, it's even kept my eldest daughter's attention for more than just a few seconds.

I may be about to actually give some money to public radio - under the guise of Georgia Public Broadcasting - for the first time in my life. This program is worth it. More please more please more please.

(EDIT: It would be even better if the media file on the site didn't say "All The Governer's Men" - ow. Try not to let that egregious mispelling distract you. Of course, I would have more right to moan if my syntax on the parenthetical sentence above wasn't so horribly fractured.)

Posted by Chuck at 03:20 PM | TrackBack

July 22, 2006

This is why YouTube scares me.

Student and I are in midst of conversation. YouTube comes up.

Student: Why are you so scared of YouTube? It really doesn't seem like it would be that bad.
Pearson: Oh, I know that if I even tried just playing around on the thing, I would not leave the site for 72 hours. Bare minimum.
Student: There's not THAT much on there, is there?
Pearson: Okay, example. I want you to name a band. Any band.
Student: You seem to have been talking about Mute Math a lot.
Pearson: Okay. I'm going to YouTube now. I am searching Mute Math hits...and look at all of this stuff I get...and...wait...look at this...

...and suddenly my brain is broken all over again.

Because, when I saw Mute Math play at Cornerstone, I saw a drum solo...well, more correctly, a piano stool and mike stand solo...that was simply AMAZING.

And what I found in THAT VERY YOUTUBE SEARCH was THIS VIDEO of THAT VERY DUDE DUDE OH DUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE

DUDE!!!

Let us recap. I, on a whim, go searching YouTube for a band of someone else's choosing, and I immediately found one of the most amazing concert moments I have ever been at. Total elapsed time: Two minutes. Including time to view video clip.

I don't even know if I want to do the search for any of the other Cornerstone bands.

Especially Luminate.


(Phew. No indie band video clips, just video game stuff.)

(But I wanted to find indie band clips.)

Posted by Chuck at 10:04 PM | TrackBack

July 02, 2006

Another dream, this one off the hook

What follows the jump was typed out last Wednesday morning early, while I was staying on Pelee Island, south of Leamington, Ontario. It has been thus far a wonderful vacation; this was a rather stark moment in the midst of it. I'm still trying to make heads or tails of it. It is probably horribly unrealistic, but I'm not sure it doesn't actually mean something.

Typing out dreams is not my normal style, and I'm taken aback that I've now done this twice in the past three months. But I really can't keep this one to myself.

Staying in this bed and breakfast tonight, I had one of the most vivid dreams of my life.

I dreamt I spent a sabbatical year as a kindergarten teacher.

As near as I can tell, I spent sometime between 12:30 AM and 2:30 AM having this dream. Admittedly, 12:30 is a guess - but I was asleep by 10:30 PM, and I usually do get two hours of REALLY HARD sleep when I sleep. I saw 2:32 AM on the alarm clock in the room, and good luck getting to sleep after that.

And this isn't as surprising a dream as it might first seem. My grandmother was a kindergarten teacher, and one of the great ones at that. My mother was a kindergarten teacher who took many years off to have two sons, and then returned to her vocation while I was in junior high (if I remember that right). She was also one of the great ones.

(Of course, they're my own flesh and blood and it stands to reason that I think that they were two of the great ones. But: they WERE, they WERE.)

But the dream, man, the DREAM. There were details of this dream that you never get out of a dream.

The one thing I don't remember is names. But: I get to the school for the first day of pre-planning (I don't even get dropped into the middle of it; I remember PRE-PLANNING) and I'm introduced to the teacher whose classroom I'd be using for the year. The principal that introduces me is this combination of Amelia and Anna's outgoing elementary school principal and my OWN elementary school principal, Carl Kane, whose name I swear I hadn't thought of for ten years before this (and only then because Mama brought him up). The teacher has the features of Amelia's old kindergarten teacher; she tells me that she retired last year, but she would be available to sub this year (a look in her eyes said to me "I'll be here when the kids overwhelm you").

I'm terrified, of course, but not as much as you'd expect given the circumstances and given my own tendency towards emo.

The first day comes. The kids come in. They are a whirlwind of excitement and nervousness and fear. I immediately wonder what I did to get myself into this.

But I do this next bit automatically, I daresay instinctively. I stand in the middle of everybody and I raise my hand, and just stand there. I wait. A couple of kids (and the parapro in the room - again, I remember the parapro assigned to me, details!) get the clue immediately and raise their hands, and stand quiet. Slowly, everybody in the room sees what's going on (a couple of them see it with an elbow in the ribs from their mates) and is standing, looking at me, with their hands raised.

"When you see this, boys and girls," (and immediately a couple of them cringe and think "wow, this guy is LOUD") "you now understand what this means. If you're talking, you are quiet. You look at me. I'm about to say something important. Does everybody understand this?"

Murmurs of assent.

"And in this room," (my dear Lord, where did THIS come from? I never say something like this! Mama, is this next bit your fault?) "you will not say "yeah" or "okay" or "whatever" or anything like that. You will address me with "yes, SIR" and you will address (parapro name, not remembering) with "yes, MA'AM". Is this clear?"

"YES, SIR."

"Okay. Now, my name is Dr. Pearson."

More murmurs, this time of nervousness. Did he just say DOCTOR Pearson?

"And this means most of you think that I'm a guy that you go to when you're sick, that this is what the 'DOCTOR' in front of my name means, right?"

"YES, SIR." (Oh WOW, how'd they catch on that quick?)

"So I get to tell you know: I'm not that kind of doctor. Which means you want to know next: what kind of doctor am I? You want to know that, right?"

"YES, SIR." (I'm getting pretty stupefyingly amazed at this point.)

"And I'll tell you - but I want to hear about you first."

Somehow at this point I line them up. Don't remember how I told them to do this, but that's not the vivid part. The vivid part is, I told them to do so quietly, without speaking to their neighbor at all. And, of course, because they were new kindergarteners, that didn't happen.

So, as the line was forming, I took as many talkers as I could pinpoint and I sent them to the back of the line. I also deliberately took a couple of people who I know were NOT talking and sent them to the back of the line as well. (Early childhood newbies, please do not try this at home. I'm a trained professional. Or a trained dreamer. Or something.) There were the expected howls of protest, but sulking, to the back of the line the innocent went.

Once the line was assembled, and everyone was quiet, I said "Quite a few of you wound up at the back of the line, yes?"

And one of the aggrieved, still sulking, looked square at me and said "But I WASN'T talking."

I looked at her. I said "You are not in trouble. Nor is anyone around you. You are still learning my rules, and I am still learning about you. But can you understand that, with all the talking, I might have been a bit confused about who was talking and who wasn't?"

She nods.

"Can all of you understand that, with all the talking, I might have been a bit confused about who was talking? And that I might have been unfair to somebody?"

"YES, SIR."

"So there is only one way for me to be totally fair to everybody when I have you being quiet. If you know what that is, raise your hand."

Eager boy raises his hand, and I recognize him. He says, with appropriate cynicism, "We all get into trouble."

"That's a good thought; I see exactly why you think that. But I don't like it so much, because there are good kids in this bunch who don't deserve to get into trouble at any time." (Note exceeding optimism.) "I don't think, if everybody gets in trouble, I'm being fair to them. But it's obviously not fair if somebody talks and that boy or that girl DOESN'T get in trouble. I want to be fair to everybody, and have nobody get in trouble. If you know how that can happen, raise your hand."

Confused girl raises her hand. She says: "The only way that can happen is if none of us talks."

I smile. "Exactly."

There is thought about what this means. I remember that this doesn't click perfectly initially, but eventually, it's understood that if I'm going to be fair to everybody, everybody has to do what I say. Again, I don't know if every kindergarten teacher does it this way, or even if such a technique works in real life - the point is, I VIVIDLY remember how I made these kindergarteners understand this in the dream.

Obviously, there is a lot I remember here. The frightening thing is, I've only typed out a fraction. There is SO MUCH MORE here.

I remember reading silly stories to them. Frog and Toad stories appeared a LOT. I remember getting choked up a little during one such story, the one where Toad dreams (ha!) about being THE GREATEST TOAD IN THE WORLD and performing in a theatre as Frog, watching him, gets smaller and smaller - and Toad gets VERY afraid. I remember tears as I read "Come back, Frog, I will be lonely" - and I remember the relief in my voice that I REALLY FELT as Frog said "I am right here" and Toad woke up from his dream. Somebody - in the middle of the class - asked why I was crying. And, in the middle of the room (again, I don't know if I recommend this for real teaching professionals) I told them that I got afraid like Toad did, of being alone, and that I knew that I need that true friend like Frog who would be there to make things right.

I told them that they needed a Frog around for them, and they needed to be Frog to several people around them, and they weren't real friends unless they had both.

I remember telling a couple of outcast boys, who were simply alone and alone and alone all the time, that if they really needed a Frog, I would be a Frog for them. I also told each of them that there was another boy in the class who seemed alone and he really ought to offer to be a Frog for that alone boy. I don't remember if that worked or not.

I taught with soccer a LOT. The discipline system in my class was yellow cards and red cards. (REALLY. This says a lot about my subconscious, I know.) The rules said clearly what rules broken got them a yellow-card warning, and that two times breaking these rules got them a red card. They also said what rules broken earned them straight red and kicked the school discipline rules into play.

I spent the whole year teaching them the rules of soccer in PE (I taught them PE too; I think that's the least realistic part of the dream thus far) and, towards the end of the year, we played a short 11 vs. 11 game. (I had 22 kids exactly, by the way. Again, I don't know what that means.)

There was also a trip to the Atlanta Silverbacks' training camp, to see how the soccer team trained and to learn about how the real business of a professional sports team works. The kids were blown away when they learned that not only were the players not big-time bling-bling superstars, many of them worked jobs outside soccer to make ends meet. They were starstruck anyway. They got tons of autographs anyway.

And there were times we had talks about the real big-money soccer players (I think I got away with this talk while the Champions' League final was on in the background, it may have even been the Barcelona-Arsenal game from this year) and how they get paid millions to play a game for a living, and how many of their parents work very very hard at their jobs and barely clear minimum wage. And how that wasn't fair.

A lot of the theme of the year was how life isn't fair, come to think of it. But a lot of the theme of the year was how, when we work together with one another, we can make good things happen.

I'm not even going into the teaching about religion. Let's just say there was a lot of practical experience with the limits that public school systems put on talking about Jesus.

I did finally tell them what it meant to be a doctor of philosophy. I remember the field trip to Shorter to show them what I normally did for a living (there was the "real college class" in the middle of it which was really Dr. Turner and Heath Simpson doing chemistry demonstrations, and with that there is a first hypothesis of where this dream actually comes from, which I'll tell the interested another time).

They really came away with the feeling that, if you were really good all throughout elementary school and middle school and high school, and you did what your teacher asked, college was your REWARD.

I got the kids to promise me that they would do everything they could while they were going to school to prepare for college. I promised them that, if I could help them with college at all when the time came, I would. That was honestly the scariest part of the dream - looking at 22 kids and saying "I love these kids, but there is so much in their life that can change in twelve years - what can I do for them in the meantime?"

I don't remember when I woke up, when the dream ended and when I realized "oh wow, that was an INSANE dream." I do know that when I woke up, it was bolt upright, and any hope of me getting back to sleep was essentially nil.

But this is a nice bed and breakfast, and there is a sitting room with a nice lamp and a plug to charge up the computer with. And so I came in here, and plugged in the computer, fired up an Ashley Cleveland album, and typed all this out.

It is now 4:20 AM.

I still have no idea how I'll get back to sleep.

Posted by Chuck at 10:22 PM | TrackBack

June 20, 2006

Academic emo-kid alert

HOW THE BLUE FREAKING BLAZES DOES MARK NOLL WIND UP IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS AND I HEAR NOTHING ABOUT IT?!?!?

You think I might just be a LITTLE upset about this? Anybody who has talked ANYTHING with me about Christianity and academia has heard me recommend Scandal Of The Evangelical Mind to them. The guy is quite possibly the DEFINITIVE historian of American evangelicalism. The ONLY reason I heard anything about this was because I was jabbering with a guy at First Pres about denominations and he mentions that his tiny little branch of the Presbyterian Church is having general-assembly there this week, and I do random web-hackery.

This is a BIG FREAKING DEAL. And I don't want to build men up too high, or make too much about the opportunity to see one guy. But - ARRRRRRRRRRGH!

Posted by Chuck at 07:39 PM | TrackBack

May 21, 2006

Big-Time Internet Theologian!

This ell-jay is absolutely HILARIOUS.

Chad Orzel provided the link with this clip-and-save reference guide to groups within Christianity that you probably DON'T want to show your pastor (even though I think I'm gonna show mine). And this faux Q&A on The da Vinci Code has absolutely hooked me.


Q: What does all this have to do with Jesus? Or, for that matter, Leonardo Da Vinci?
A: The premise of the book is that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and that the two had children, who passed along Jesus' bloodline through generations of French people. Leonardo was the member of a secret brotherhood of painters who protected this secret by painting pictures of men that look like ladies.

Q: Isn't this more or less a straight rip from the book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"?
A: No! Ha ha! How silly of you even to mention that very obscure work! Next question...

Q: Okay, let's put the Unpopular Gospels aside for a second. If Brown's book is based on factual events, what evidence does he have for the marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene?
A: Oh, you know...sources.

Q: So, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"?
A: Yes. "Holy Blood, Holy Grail."

Winner.

Posted by Chuck at 06:55 PM | TrackBack

May 05, 2006

Why are MySpace and YouTube popular?

Now that the semester is over, and now that I have time and space to think about stuff, I've been trying to string together three or four coherent thoughts about this "grand unified theory of YouTube and MySpace" that appeared on Slate last week.

Both YouTube and MySpace fit the textbook definition of Web 2.0, that hypothetical next-generation Internet where people contribute as easily as they consume. Even self-described late adopters like New York's Kurt Andersen recognize that that by letting everyone contribute, these sites have reached a critical mass where "a real network effect has kicked in."

But the focus on the collaborative nature of these sites has been nagging at me. Sites like Friendster and Blogger that promote sharing and friend-making have been around for years with nowhere near the mainstream success. I've got a different theory. YouTube and MySpace are runaway hits because they combine two attributes rarely found together in tech products. They're easy to use, and they don't tell you what to do.

But here's what's bugging me: So much of the stuff that turns up on both looks like crap.

Please don't get me wrong - both are treasure troves. One of the things I'm looking forward to doing over this summer is the mindless fiddling of weaving through MySpace and finding the cool bands I hadn't neard of yet (please note the following: Paramore) or the bands who I haven't heard from in a while who are now doing something completely different (please also note the following: Brandtson). And if you hack around the blogosphere AT ALL, you cannot help but notice how much that YouTube gets linked, or how insanely easy it is to link YouTube (heck, it's so easy, I've even done it).

But it doesn't change the fact that 99% of what you find on MySpace are way-too-emo kids (which I sympathize with, but it doesn't need to be reinforced) with way-too-ugly pages (which, frankly, sends me completely over the edge), and 99% of what you find on YouTube is horribly lip-synched or danced out stuff from people who think they're the next Star Wars Kid (always forgetting that Star Wars Kid never wanted to be Star Wars Kid in the first place).

I respect this about both sites: They do encourage community, and the community feeds off of itself. It is easier for me to reestablish contact with just about whoever now that I have a page on MySpace (yes, I have a page on MySpace, you are allowed to lose all respect for me now). There are so many cool tidbits you come across with YouTube (so much of the South Park stuff from the soon-to-be-legendary Scientology/Islam era is there...and people like Dean Esmay use the links, although I'm not sure that YouTube video still survives). And, because it's so easy to find people on MySpace, and it's so easy to post video and link video on a blog through YouTube, the sites are going to get used more and more.

(The above was not intended to be an obligatory trackback to Dean's World to get more traffic, but Dean's World is a wonderful blog and you should go read it now, thankee.)

But the simple question is: At what point does peer pressure begin to raise the level? How can we put pressure on such things to not just settle for crappy writing, or crappy video, but find pockets of goodness and get the goodness out there? Both sites, by allowing easy-access, open the door to a whole lot of people. But how do we then gently make a whole lot of people do a lot of things better?

I'm not sure that's quite coherent, but it's as coherent as I've been able to make the point yet, so I'm leaving it alone.

Which may yet be contributing to the problem and not the solution.

Posted by Chuck at 11:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 25, 2006

If I'm not careful, YouTube will take me over.

And what's more, this is probably the truest representation of Muncie, Indiana that there ever has been, except for the one use of MF (if teh cussing offends, jump to about halfway through the video.)

My beloved is from Muncie, and she concurs. EVERYTHING can be found on McGalliard Road. EVERYTHING.

(YouTube Permalink.)

Jim Davis, REPRESENT, YO.

Posted by Chuck at 06:34 PM | TrackBack

March 06, 2006

I don't like or dislike George Clooney in any sort of dramatic fashion.

But this is funny.

Posted by Chuck at 12:24 PM | TrackBack

February 24, 2006

Scott Kurtz nails it.

For all those times when you can't figure out the computer - or you can't figure out a physics lab - or how to work a problem - or ANYTHING technical, and you just need the person who knows how to do things to pay attention to you and be your check while things fall into place...

...for all those times, today's PvP is for you.

And I don't know how Scott feels, but I don't mind at all.

Posted by Chuck at 08:13 AM | TrackBack

February 15, 2006

"She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid"

QuizFarm memes are not usually my style.

But I took the Sci-Fi Crew meme quiz, and it came back saying I'd fit best on the Millenium Falcon.

Which, quite frankly, does not suck at all.

Posted by Chuck at 09:02 AM | TrackBack

February 01, 2006

Angst-ridden adult's cry for attention

Why do I like Yellowcard?

(I didn't post this just to keep the front page from going blank, but it's close.)

Posted by Chuck at 07:00 AM | TrackBack

November 14, 2005

My child's rebellion against me - revealed!

She's going to listen to classic rock.

(Hey, mom already has both kids loving the Beatles. And, 34 years into life, I still don't get what was so important about the Beatles. If Amelia discovers Jethro Tull as well, I fear it will be all over.)

Posted by Chuck at 10:02 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 18, 2005

It's true.

The internet really does have too much space.

Posted by Chuck at 07:38 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 30, 2005

This might be the single most profound three-paragraph blog post I have ever read.

Posted by Chuck at 08:19 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

August 20, 2005

Highly shallow formatting question

As I reset the blog on this new domain goodness, I changed the tagline from the venerable "Somebody tell me what this should be" to my favorite quotation:

"Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.
I hate quo