Spiritual Tramp

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2008-07-18T21:23:34Z

If you like Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris, supervillains, musicals, supervillain musicals, or funny things in general then you need to watch this - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Apparently it was made during the strike and it will only be freely available at this site for a couple more days. You can also buy it if you're so inclined. I might just m'self. The first two acts are available today. The third goes live tomorrow.

Half-week in Review

2008-07-16T15:28:09Z

Life has been a little busy and I haven't had the creative energy to put into a blog post. Okay so it's only been a couple of days, but tha'ts been packed. Allow me to summarize. I tutned thirty-seven on Monday. The best gift? My hand painted wooden space shuttle. My most useful gift? Apple's Time Capsule, the 500 gig version, a simple, elegant thing of beauty. I also got some ducats with which to a) pay the guy I bought my mixer from and b) spend on something not as good as the Archos 605 or an X-box 360. Still there are some DVDs I want and some music and whatnot, so it's all good! I had a picture that I took go up at Insect Pod's Picture of the Day. Go look at it! The next three nights I'll be interviewing some of my favorite podcasters for Hollywood Jesus and putting up reviews of said podcasts. I'm also helping Chris Lester produce his podcast (basically editing the raw sound file, taking out breaths, burps, and flubs; dead sexy) Metamor City. He's moving halfway across the country thanks to a new job. If you read this Chris, good luck! I've also been tweaking my blog's CSS a bit to make everything a bit more readable. It doesn't do anything for the content though. ;-) I found a web based CSS editor that's WYSIWYG so that helped a ton. I'm not good at coding crap. There's a reason I'm not a programmer. So that's it for now!

Drive-By

2008-07-14T18:48:47Z

I was a victim of Drive-By-Shooting Sunday by the Men With Pens. It was all voluntary though. James and Harry are some sharp free lance writers who also happen to run a great play by post RPG I'm in, Escaping Reality. They gave me some pointers on how to make this here blog mo' betta. For the most part it strikes me as great advice. I shall no doubt be taking it, since I did ask. I don't know how to feel about some of it, like trimming down my blogroll. I do need to do some maintenance, but I read all of these on a regulr basis. Maybe I'll move them to a links page? Let me know what you think of any of their advice. You read this so your opinions count and if I can take their tough love I can take yours. If you'd like to have someone really take a hard look at your site, sign up. If you need someone to write something for you, hire them. If you want good writing advice read their stuff.

Archangel Episode 12

2008-07-13T22:49:11Z

Welcome to Episode 12! The aftermath! Story so far by Philippa Ballantine of the Chasing the Bard podcast novel. Promo this week for the Sonic Society. Call 206-888-4760 to leave me a message about Archangel! Leave me a review on iTunes!! Music in this episode from ADRAW

Blimpy

2008-07-11T19:36:20Z

Accoridng to Danger Room there's a new blimp in town.

Boeing says its JHL-40 could take some 80,000 pounds of cargo over 200 miles. "Boeing said the blimp would be environmentally friendly because it would eliminate the need to build roads or rail lines to remote locations, where transportation can be costly, inadequate and unreliable," Reuters reports. "The JHL-40, or Jess Heavy Lifter, is named after Pete Jess, president and chief operating officer of SkyHook International, the Calgary, Alberta-based company that secured the patent for the blimp, which combines elements of a helicopter and a traditional airship."

I've been watching Ice Road Truckers for the last few months and as cool as that show is, this thing sounds a lot less dangerous and would let companies get heavy goods even during the warmer months. I've seen a number of blimp like vehicles on the web over the last few years. There was talk of a passenger cruise-ship type deal a while back. I think that given the current level of tech that would be awesome. Now all I need is a pair of brass...goggles.

Archangel Episode 11

2008-07-09T03:06:13Z

Welcome to Episode 11! Things get a biiiit violent. Story so far by Taylor Kent of The Snarky Avenger podcast. No promo this week. Call 206-888-4760 to leave me a message about Archangel! Leave me a review on iTunes!! Music in this episode from ADRAW

You're Worse Than You Think

2008-07-08T16:15:16Z

but you'll get better if you KEEP WORKING! This seems blatantly obvious, but it's good to hear it from someone I respect and enjoy like Ira. Here he shows us a little of how bad he has been and I like the message that, you do what you do because you want to improve the medium in which you work. That's exactly why I write. I love to read and I see so much dross in Christian fiction and I want to get some good stuff out there. He says that so many people quit because they realize that they're bad. The solution? Keep working. Work more, work harder. Do not quit. You will improve. This echoes things that I've heard from Mur Lafferty and the NaNoWriMo folks. Give yourself permission to be bad for a while, only so it will push you harder to improve. I am striving to be a better writer, not just of fiction, but in general and the only way I'll do that is to keep at it and try and learn from folks that are further up the skill ladder. That's why I try and remain open to rejection and hard criticism. You can't let that shake your confidence. You have to turn it around into creative energy, drive, motivation. If you think my work sucks, tell me. I will try and make it better. HT to Lifehacker

500th Post

2008-07-07T18:08:51Z

I'd like to do something really profound here, this being my five hundredth and all, but I don't feel quite up to it. I thought about linking to some of my most commented on posts, but there was no easy way I could find to do that. As it was the five hundredth was almost an Archangel podcast and that would have been fitting since it has become the biggest raison d'etre for this here site. I couldn't get the audio edited last night though so that didn't happen. Yeah, yeah I should have built a buffer. My apologies to those of you who are waiting on Episode 11, it should pop up tonight. As it is I need to engage in a little writing as therapy. I know I should be writing interesting posts about spiritual stuff, since that's supposedly what this site is about, but frankly I started blogging as a way to spew my emotions and along the way picked up some readers. Thanks for reading. For some reason it's comforting to know that even crap like this isn't going into the ether unignored. I have folks that read this that I consider friends, some I consider brothers. For you and you know who you are, thanks in advance for the prayers and kind thoughts. If you know me at all you know I'm prone to bouts like this. So why am I blue? Well, I suppose the primary reason is I'm freakin' tired. I was up at 4:30 this morning sending my wife to the mountains for three days. I'll miss her (reason two), especially when it comes to the more mundane things like putting a meal on the table (which she does so well) or helping brush the Rochelings' teethses, so there's that too. Where she's going is to a home schooling training session. She'll be tutoring our homeschool groups' kids in grammar starting in the fall. This will pay actual money, though not a lot, and I don't mind telling you that she's a bit nervous, in spite of the fact that she is hands down one of the best teachers I know. Still, nervous is not a bad thing. There are a host of other reasons, including a sense of being overwhelmed both by things I want to do and things I don't want to do. The less details there the better so forgive me my crypticality (yeah I made that word up, go poetic license go!) Still I've got good things going on. We're moving (eventually, living amongst boxes is reason three) to a much larger house in the same great neighborhood. Folks are listening to my podcast. I'm having a blast in an online RPG. My spiritual life is about the same as ever, but I am being challenged at church when it comes to thinking about how I can be involved in the community when it comes to matters of social justice. So while it is not "all good", I really should be counting it all joy. So I end this entry, actually one in spirit with the reason I started blogging, a little better off than I was before I started it. Seems appropriate enough to me.

Booyah indeed...

2008-07-02T16:28:58Z

I am SOOO ready for this movie. The fact that GDT is doing The Hobbit (unconfirmed rumor)and that Ron Perlman will no doubt play some part in that, hopefully voicing Smaug at the very least(/unconfirmed rumor) cranks my geek up to twelve. Ganked from Hollywood Born: Booyah! Oh and then there's this piece of loveliness:

Archangel Episode 10

2008-06-30T02:48:30Z

Welcome to Episode 10! I'm cranking up the tension to 11! Story so far by Chris Lester of The Metamor City podcast. The promo this week is from P.G. Holyfield's Murder at Avedon Hill. Call 206-888-4760 to leave me a message about Archangel! Leave me a review on iTunes!! Music in this episode from ADRAW

Mystery Boxes

2008-06-27T17:26:34Z

This is an excellent talk by J.J. Abrams about his love for mystery boxes and what that means. This and Harry's gushing over meeting with Abrams and getting to see Star Trek footage give me hope for the franchise reboot. J.J. Abrams' mystery box | Video on TED.com

Character Casting

2008-06-26T21:33:11Z

This is for an online RPG I'm doing. If you read the follwing and an actor springs to mind, drop his name in the comments. I'm coming up empty. Lee Barrett Hair Colour: Sandy Blond - Currently shaggy and a little curly Eye Colour: Lt. Brown Age: 32 Height:5'9" Weight: 150 Other Physical Description: Lee Barrett has a wiry build and most often sports a patchy beard. His "uiniform" consists of black combat boots, dark blue jeans, plain white tee shirts, and his fatigue jacket with patches from his tours of duty and his chaplain insignia. His Bible, harmonica, walking stick, and survival knife are never far from his person. He doesn't wear any jewelry. He has a tattoo of a triquetra superimposed on an American flag on his left shoulder.

Parkour Training

2008-06-23T19:16:00Z

I love this "sport". Parkour's a cool man vs. environment puzzle. It aims to figure out the most efficient way to travel from point A to point B. Maybe it is, maybe not. It also looks like excellent training if you want to be Spiderman (who doesn't?) or a second story man. This is one guy's solo training exercises. I'm glad he left the ambient sounds intact.
Parkour - Simple Truths from Danny Pack on Vimeo. Parkour - Simple Truths - Parkour on Vimeo

Archangel Episode 9

2008-06-23T01:55:11Z

Welcome to Episode 9! Things begin to take a turn for the worse for all of our heroes! Story so far by Indiana Jim of The Adventures of Indiana Jim podcast. The promo this week is from Chooch and Viv's 'cast Into the Blender. Call 206-888-4760 to leave me a message about Archangel! Dave and Zaphod did and get played in this one! Leave me a review on iTunes!! Music in this episode from ADRAW

Mark Twain Prize

2008-06-18T17:47:48Z

UPDATE - And like that, he's dead. George Carlin passed away yesterday from complications due to a heart attack from what I hear. He will be missed. George Carlin is set to be the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. I didn't know there was such a thing. Apparently it's only been around for eleven years. The comedians that have won it to date are: 1998 - Richard Pryor 1999 - Jonathan Winters 2000 - Carl Reiner 2001 - Whoopi Goldberg 2002 - Bob Newhart 2003 - Lily Tomlin 2004 - Lorne Michaels 2005 - Steve Martin 2006 - Neil Simon 2007 - Billy Crystal 2008 - George Carlin PBS will be broadcasting the awards in Novemeber. That's a pretty good list right there. Granted there are a whole bunch of funny folk that could be there. Carlin is certainly one of the funniest folks I know that are still drawing breath. He informed the sense of snark I have, thankfully balanced by a love of The Cos and Jerry Clower. I listened to every comic album I could lay my hands on by all three of these guys. So before I bless you with some youtubery of the greatness that is Carlin, who has yet to be on the list that should be? Who will be on there in twenty-five years? Is there anyone that shouldn't be? My answers and some vids after the jump.]]> 7 Words Things That Come Off Your Body Hippie Dippy Weatherman Who should be on it? Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks Who will be? Hopefully the above and in addition some "newer" comedians like Seinfeld and maube Seth Rogen. Who shouldn't be? Whoopi maybe? I mean she was funny back in the day, but is she in the same league as the others?