Your humble author magically aged to 77.

Some of you out there in interweb land probably know a couple of these, but I hope not everything.

I’m blind in my right eye. I had a freak accident when I was a kid and severed the optic nerve. Medical science can do lots of amazing things, but reattaching the optic nerve ain’t one of them. It doesn’t really adversely affect me. The only real downside is that the bad eye tends to drift when I’m tired and I never seem to be looking correctly in pictures. Of course, that isn’t to say I’m not reasonably worried about my good eye going bad. I keep waiting for Steve Austin’s bionic eye to become reality.

I once threw out a guy at first from right field. With my aforementioned bad eye, trying to hit any baseball thrown at me with any kind of movement became really difficult. You need depth perception to hit a curve ball. Who knew? Just recently I had my Dad, with his right eye closed, try and hit a whiffle ball thrown underhanded to him. He couldn’t connect while I was routinely putting the bat on the ball. But I digress. You put the not so good ball players in right field. That was me in grade school – I couldn’t hit worth a crap, but I was pretty good in the outfield and I had a decent arm. So this kid hit a one hopper to right field right over the second baseman’s head. I came charging in, fielded the ball cleanly and threw a rocket to first because the kid was basically walking to first base. They respected my arm after that.

The girl next door was the Homecoming Queen and the State Fair Queen. The girl next door is supposed to be plain and boring and likely the first girl a boy ever really notices. The girl next door to me was none of these things. She was gorgeous, fun, smart, popular and my friend. She became the Homecoming Queen in high school and I think a year later she won County Fair Queen, competed in the State pageant and won State Fair Queen. She was always just Sara to me.

I’ve never had a cavity in my life. Sara’s brother, Jeff, is my dentist (when I go… I’m so bad about regular dental checkups). All through my younger days until today, I never had a cavity. I’ve got crappy gums and I hate flossing, but zero cavities. Of course, I’m a little hesitant to go in and see Jeff because I’m afraid I’m going to ruin my streak. Everyone else in my family have horrible teeth. My brother wore braces and my parents have fillings and false teeth and whatnot all up in their mouth. Must have been all the fluoride in the water…

I once swallowed a goldfish. Swallowing a goldfish seems like the most obvious of fraternity pledging pranks on the planet. It’s big giant cliché, right? I did get to name it first and I chose the name of an active who really liked to torture me during pledging. Looking back on it, the best part was developing the skills to swallow the goldfish without throwing it back up. For weeks, we cracked raw eggs on our foreheads and swallowed them whole. In fact, my pledge class did it in front of the whole school one Sunday morning brunch. That stunt freaked A LOT of peeps out. Telling my daughter I once swallowed a goldfish freaked her out too.

I’m named after Sean Connery. My father is a big James Bond fan. He has these great original paperbacks from the 60s, nearly all the movie soundtracks on vinyl and loves the movies. I was born in ’68 and Connery was playing Bond in the movies. Sean is a great Irish name and so it became something of a no brainer. My brother was nearly named Ian for Bond creator Ian Fleming. As it turned out, he was named Ryan and unfortunately was smack dab in a class with a bunch of other Ryans and consequently was known by his last name or his nicknames: Mac and Mick. In fact, none of his friends call him Ryan. His wife does though. Her nickname? It’s Mic.

If left alone I will eat the entire bag of chips/sleeve of cookies/container of cottage cheese. I like to buy cottage cheese, open the package up, grab a spoon and dig in. I will easily eat the entire container in one fell swoop. I don’t usually buy cookies or chips because I eat the entire bag/package all at once and I hear that’s probably not the best thing. My will power comes back to the forefront when I’m in a group or with my family. However, if I’m all alone… just me and a bag of chips… the chips are going down… my pie hole.

I grew up with no animals in the house. No dog, cat, rabbit, gerbil or fish. I never thought it was weird that we never had any pets in the house. I never had to deal with a squawking parrot or clean dog piss out of the carpet. My uncles had dogs. My neighbors had dogs. My friends had cats. I didn’t need no stinkin’ dog or cat. To be fair, I really enjoyed playing (and sleeping) with the two and a half hours away girl’s dog, Penny, and my brother’s dog, Ozzie, is easily one of the best dogs I’ve ever seen.

I was the first four year letter winner in Cross Country and the four mile record holder (for a bit) at Illinois College. When I think back on my time as a serious athlete I’m amazed at the things I used to be able to do. I could run forever. I joined my high school cross country team as a way to get into shape for basketball. Basketball wasn’t in the cards, but I knew I could run cross country and still participate in sports. Running eight years of competitive cross country was some of the best times and worst times. What I really wish is that I hadn’t taken it for granted. The kind of shape I was in 1988 was unreal. I wonder if I could ever even get back to even just a glimmer of that again.

This was fun. Maybe I’ll think of a few more and do another of these.

LINKY GOODNESS

• Sometimes I Just Want To Copy Someone Else’s Status, Word For Word, And See If They Notice.
• Today’s Big Read: Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury.
• Now we’ll just paint a little happy Spartan over here. THIS…IS…PAINTING!
• Stephen Hawking: If you want to make a universe from scratch, you need not first create God.
• IFC’s 50 Greatest Trailers of All Time.
• Bill O’Reilly used to write porn reviews for a left-leaning alternative paper. Wait, what?
• People are always saying how movies and romance novels ruin the way we look at relationships, but what about power ballads?
• What happens when you give a credit card to a panhandler? A reporter tried it and found the answer is: all kinds of different things.
• Debunking Etymological Myths. A grammarian sets us straight on some word origin stories we’ve heard all our lives.
• Top Ten Lost Tech: The list includes Roman concrete, Damascus steel, and a napalm-like weapon called Greek fire.
• The Onion: Man Already Knows Everything He Needs To Know About Muslims.
• PopSci’s Theodore Gray sticks his entire hand in a glass Dewar flask full of liquid nitrogen. For science!
• 10 Star Wars Comics You Should Read.
• Be prepared to put your work aside and spend some time browsing. A ridiculously gigantic collection of vintage adverts.
• So you know, the 10 greatest accidental inventions of all time.
• “When the album that is life finally reaches the end, wouldn’t it be nice to keep that record spinning for eternity?” Get your ashes pressed into vinyl with AndVinyly.
• For when the facts are too confusing, Fake Science.
• An infographic showing the history of search engines.
• Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, Operation New Dawn begins.
• 35 Life Hacks You Should Know.
• Photo Series: The hurricane-damaged remains of Six Flags New Orleans.
• Infographic: 500 Years of Science, Reason & Critical Thinking.
• 6 Famous Unsolved Mysteries (That Have Totally Been Solved). Because the common, logical, and accepted explanation doesn’t make nearly as good a story. Text NSFW.
• Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009.
• 7.0 earthquake rattles New Zealand.
• The 100 most influential news media Twitter accounts.
• Puppy-tossing girl picked up by Bosnian police.
• Facebook endorses Facebook Stalking with new “Stalker Button.”
• The Oatmeal: The crap we put up with getting on and off an airplane.
• Body art puts paint next to nothing. Artists once painted nude bodies on canvas; now the naked body IS the canvas!

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝The outlandish stories about Barack Hussein Obama are simply false: he wasn’t born outside the United States (the tabloid “proof” has been debunked as a crude forgery); he has never been a Muslim (he was raised by an atheist and became a practicing Christian in his 20s); his policies are not “socialist” (he explicitly rejected advice to nationalize the banks and wants the government out of General Motors and Chrysler as quickly as possible); he is not a “warmonger” (he promised in 2008 to withdraw from Iraq and escalate in Afghanistan and has done so); he is neither a coddler of terrorists (he has already ordered the killing of more “high value” Qaeda targets in 18 months than his predecessor did in eight years), nor a coddler of Wall Street (his financial-reform package, while watered down, was the most vigorous since the New Deal), nor an enemy of American business (he and the Chamber of Commerce favor tax credits for small business that were stymied by the GOP to deprive him of a victory). And that’s just the short list of lies.❞ — Jonathan Alter’s Newsweek article

COLOPHON

Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

Cordoba House
What upsets me most about this story is the disingenuous way The Right Wing Entertainment Division™ has branded and presented the “controversy.” Half-governor, failed VP candidate and absent mother, Sarah Palin, called the Cordoba House, through her medium of choice Twitter, the “ground zero mosque.” It is not at ground zero and it is not a mosque.

First off, why do we describe the former World Trade Center site “ground zero?” Shouldn’t it be defined as the One World Trade Center site? Secondly, the Cordoba House is blocks away from the former World Trade Center so she’s being purposely misleading in her description. Thirdly, Cordoba House is not a mosque. It is a planned community center (for all, mind you) with a pool and a work-out room. It also has a prayer room. If you switch out Muslim with Christian, it’s no more a mosque than a YMCA is a church. Yet, the branding stuck because the Right Wing entertainers and their enablers continued to employ the term “ground zero mosque” over newspaper, internet, radio and television.

I admire their impudence in saying whatever the fuck they want and getting away with it. However, I long for the day when The Right Wing Entertainment Division™ steps over the line and gets taken down Edward R. Morrow style.

Eating the Dinosaur
I’m currently reading the paperback version of Chuck Klosterman’s book, Eating the Dinosaur. So far, it is my least favorite of Klosterman’s books. I just finished the “chapter” on ABBA and greatly enjoyed his premise that certain bands have maintained their appeal by not deviating from their “wheelhouse.” Unfortunately, the chapter centers around ABBA and the majority of the narrative bored me to death. Still, the idea that some bands have existed and thrived for decades by not embracing the flavors of the month is a good idea so I think I’ll write my own version.

How many bands can you name that fit the criteria? I’ve only got three off the top of my head: AC/DC, Iron Maiden and maybe U2. Remember, they have to have lasted for decades and continue to make the same type of music over the entirety of their career.

Semi Super Secret Website
I’ve been working on a secret website for my part-time employer. It’s secret because they are unaware I am working on it. It’s about 85% complete and I’m a little nervous because the people in charge haven’t seen anything. I’ve shown it to a few trusted peeps and they’ve loved it, but I’m still nervous. Lots to do before I drop it in their lap.

Sherlock
Only the BBC and Steven Moffet (the mind behind the resurgence of Doctor Who) could create a contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes and not have it come across like a lame attempt at copying American programs such as Castle and the Mentalist. The latter of which owes a great deal to the idea of Sherlock’s deductive reasoning, but wrapping it in the form of a former psychic. Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect as Holmes and I hope we got more than the three specials/episodes I’ve seen so far.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I urge you to find it online at the various places television episodes may be found.

Match
My friends have been urging me to get back on Match.com and see if there’s anyone out there interested in a 40-something, balding writer with delusions of grandeur. I know! What a catch! Anyway, the “woe is me pity party 2010” needed to wind down. I’ve reluctantly re-opened an account I had created several years ago, added a couple of new pics and was semi-surprised by the number of decent (READ: non-fugly and/or desperate) women on the site.

I’ve quickly found someone interesting and we’ve been exchanging emails. So far I’ve found no major malfunction i.e. severe Tourette’s syndrome or seven crazy exes I’d have to defeat. There are other irons in the fire and I’m probably jinxing it right here and now, but I hope we hit off when we meet. Wish me luck.

LINKY GOODNESS

• Inception explained in a single Tweet.
• Three teenagers, whose names all appeared on a “kill list” posted on Facebook, have been killed in the past 10 days in a southwestern Colombian town.
• Great day: catching a foul ball at a baseball game. Greater day: casually catching a foul ball while carrying a tray of food and seeing it all caught on tape.
• Hot Nerds Reading Comics
• The Top 10 Clips Of Jon Stewart Destroying Fox News
• So you know, how to turn old paperbacks into custom hardbacks.
• How much do music artists earn online? Wow.
• Tron + Kama Sutra = Tron-a-Sutra.
• 20 Best TV Couples of All Time.
• The Misleading World Of Atari 2600 Box Art: Part 1, Part 2.
• Photo Series: Hi-res 2001: A Space Odyssey promo stills.
• Icons of the Web: Traffic data for the web’s largest sites expressed through favicons.
• Movies That Would Have Been Ruined by Facebook.
• Hearing a song on the radio: 1990 vs. 2010.
• Nike files patent application for Back to the Future II-style “automatic lacing system.”
• Put This On #3: “Work.”
• The First 50 Photos That Appear When You Search “Hot Girl” On Google Image Search.
• The Evolution of Fast Food Logos. The challenge is to never really change something that is already recognized.
• “Tea Partiers in Michigan claim that the Michigan Tea Party — which had aimed to get 23 candidates on the ballot this fall — was set up by Democrats in an effort to split the Republican vote.” It’s actually looking like that’s likely true! Well, wow.
• Selected images taken by NASA’s Cassini probe which blasted off towards Saturn in 1997. Here’s the official resource.
• After eight seasons Will Forte exists SNL.
• Sci-fi movie posters from an alternate universe.
• 8 Shocking TV Sex Scenes.
• Combine the Electric Light Orchestra, The Supremes, and Michael Jackson to get a really toe-tappin’ retro mashup. You can call it Supreme Evil.
• A History of the 50 Greatest Animated GIFs of All Time.
• Report: 88% of full-length TV shows on Hulu Plus already available for free on Hulu.com.
• Infographic: A Guide to Internet Memes.
• The 25 Most Ironic Photos On The Internet.

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try.❞ — Roger Ebert

COLOPHON

Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

The colonel says you might have some trouble with this completely accurate statement.

WHAT WAS YOUR:
1. Last beverage: Diet Dr. Pepper
2. Last phone call: Ex-wife
3. Last text message: Jen
4. Last song you listened to: “Cold Ground” by Rusty Trucks
5. Last time you cried: I honestly don’t remember

HAVE YOU EVER:
6. Dated someone twice: Yup. I hear its better the second time. You get to do the freaky stuff.
7. Been cheated on: Unfortunately, yes.
8. Kissed someone & regretted it: Yes. And that’s all you’re getting.
9. Lost someone special: My grandma
10. Been depressed: Everybody hurts.
11. Been drunk and threw up: Far fewer times than you might imagine. If I mix, I’m in trouble

LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS:
12: midnight blue
13: forest green
14: black

THIS YEAR HAVE YOU: (2010)
15. Made a new friend: More like reacquainted myself with a couple of old ones
16. Fallen out of love: Does anyone really fall out of love? They just lie to themselves and move on.
17. Laughed until you cried: Yeah, but I don’t remember what for…
18. Met someone who changed you: I don’t know yet.
19. Found out who your true friends were: I’ve always known who my true friends are.
20. Found out someone was talking about you: Oh yes. Exasperating.
21. Kissed any of your friends: Yes.
22. How many people in your social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc( do you know in real life: On Facebook, alot. On Twitter, more people I don’t know than know.
23. How many kids do you want: I’m happy with the one.
24. Do you have any pets: Nope. I play with other people’s pets.
25. Do you want to change your name: Why, yes. My name is Bond, James Bond
26. What did you do for your last birthday: Watched my friend’s band play
28. What were you doing at midnight last night: Watching my friend’s band play
29. Name something you CANNOT wait for: sleep
30. Last time you saw your Mother: coiple of weeks ago. Talked to her earlier though
31. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life: I wish the perfect girl would come into my life.
32. What are you listening to right now: The sound of silence
33. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: yup
34. Who’s getting on your nerves right now: Westboro Baptist Church
35. Most visited webpage: Google Reader, Facebook and Tumblr
36. Whats your real name: Kal-El
37. Nickname(s): Supes, Man of Steel, Superman
38. Relationship Status: Single, for now
39. Zodiac sign: Cancer
40. Male or female: Male
41. Primary School: Sacred Heart
43. High school/college: Effingham High School
44. Hair color: Brown
45. Long or short: Mostly non-existant
46. Height: 5’8
47. Do you have a crush on someone: Maybe
48: What do you like about yourself: I’ve got a great smile and a long tongue.
49. Piercings: Franklin and Hawkeye
50. Tattoos: None, but I was thinking about a blue rose
51. Righty or lefty: Depends. Mostly right, but i do write left handed

FIRSTS :
52. First surgery: Knee
53. First piercing: Brosnan, maybe
54. First best friend: Mark
55. First sport you joined: little league
56. First vacation: No idea.
58. First pair of athletic shoes: I remember getting my first pair of leather Nike basketball shoes in 8th grade

RIGHT NOW
59. Eating: laying down
60. Drinking: finished my apple juice
61. I’m about to: watch Mad Men
62. Listening to: The A/C
63. Waiting for: life to fulfill me with riches and happiness

YOUR FUTURE :
64. Want kids: No. My one is fine
65. Get married: Maybe
66. Career: Independently wealthy

WHICH IS BETTER :
67. Lips or eyes: Eyes
68. Hugs or kisses: Hugs you can get from anyone. Kisses not so much
69. Shorter or taller: shorter
70. Older or Younger: In my experience… younger
71. Romantic or spontaneous: Romantic
72. Nice stomach or nice arms: Nice stomach
73. Sensitive or loud: Sensitive .
74. Hook-up or relationship: Depends.

HAVE YOU EVER :
76. Kissed a stranger: No .
77. Drank hard liquor: Why yes, I’ll have some right now
78. Lost glasses/contacts: Not permanetely
79. Sex on first date: Nope
80. Broken someone’s heart: Yes
82. Been arrested: Yes. Fun times…
83. Turned someone down: Yep
84. Cried when someone died: Of course
85. Fallen For A Friend: Easily sometimes

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
86. Yourself: I do have a high opinion of myself
87. Miracles: Um, no
88. Love at first sight: Maybe
89. Heaven: Imagine that would you? No Hell below either.
90. Santa Claus: The idea is cute
91. Kiss on the first date: Yes
92. Angels: No

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
94. Had more than 1 girlfriend/boyfriend at a time: No.
95. Did you sing today: No, but I sang a lot last night.
96. Ever cheated on somebody: No.
97. If you could go back in time, how far would you go: Maybe back long enough I could know the grandfather I never met.
98. The moment you would choose to relive: McDonald’s, August 1985 (might’ve been ‘84).
99. Are you afraid of falling in love: Falling in love is the easy part. It’s what comes after…
100. Are you afraid of posting this as 100 truths: Of course not, since I lied. Sometimes.

LINKY GOODNESS

• Fark is asking readers to submit sentences that wouldn’t have made sense a decade ago. The list is growing quickly and it shows that the world we live in now is drastically different than it was just 10 years ago.
• Facebook Places is a privacy nightmare.
• This document is CONFIDENTIAL; This document is CLASSIFIED.
• Roger Ebert on Christopher Hitchens, illness, medicine, religion, and death
• “A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope” is amazing.
• Unsuck It: What terrible business jargon do you need unsucked?
• Debunking Grammar Myths. Defend your language from Grammar Nazis with the lowdown from a grammarian who knows.
• Pulsate is a simple but addictive game-ish music maker. Just click to create expanding circles that make music when they collide.
• Infographic: Can We Date?
• What if The Mighty Avengers had a movie as early as 1952? Who knew the past was so cool?
• The 25 Funniest Personalized Sports Fan Jerseys.
• Perfect for a hot summer night, the beer popsicle.
• “Smart Clothing” technology is advancing at a rapid pace – leading to new garments that manage sweat and odor, burn calories, and even monitor vital signs.
• Strip club pickets church picketing them.
• Glenn Beck says same-sex marriage not a threat to the country. Wait, who?
• 10 Tragic Athlete Deaths. Young, famous, and at the top of their games, their public deaths affected fans as well as family and friends.
• Photo Series: Even more rare Star Wars photos.
• The harmful effects of soda on your body.
• TV show EUREKA’s writing staff lose their shit.
• Amazing scanning electron microscope photos of insects and spiders
• Though they may not exactly be household items, turns out that at least 10 of James Bond’s gadgets are actually real.
• A super-short psych test supposedly used by HR firms. I actually found it fairly accurate, what about you guys?
• Infographic: The History Of The Internet.
• Ten Movie Bands We Wish Were Real.
• Matt rebrands the United States Postal Service.
• Trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s latest, Black Swan.
• Washington, We Have a Problem. A day in the life of the US president makes you wonder why on earth anyone would want the job.
• Salon traces the origins of the New York City mosque and community center controversy.
• An 8-year old British boy is being called the next Picasso – and not just by one crazy art critic. During a recent sale of his work, 33 of his paintings were scooped up in under a half-hour. One went for north of $235,000.

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝You despise this country if you think the Cordoba Initiative should move its planned community center. You have no understanding of the Constitution. In fact, you are in opposition to it. You have no respect for freedom of religion or speech. You are a coward who believes that the Constitution and the nation are too fucking weak to handle such freedoms. If you’re not one of the crass politicians seeking to exploit the simpletons for your gain or a ratings-whore on Fox, you are a vile, hate-filled, unprincipled lump of shit who thinks that rights are only good when convenient for you, and you are too fucking lazy to fight for anything other than your prejudice and hatred. That’s easy, motherfucker.❞ — The Rude Pundit

COLOPHON

Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

When I see you smile...

When two of my best friends in the world made a point of telling me after reading the last few posts they were personally worried about me, I listened. I was certainly going through a “woe is me” period there.

So, I decided to make a list of the things that make me happy. I had a short list and then I kept coming up with more and more ideas. Here’s the first batch of things that make me happy. What about you?

Looking up while underwater
My daughter and I have decided that if given the chance, we would try scuba diving. Just from our experiences at the Urbana Aquatics Center with their 15 foot deep well, I know we’d love to go under and stay under. And, you know, still breathe. I love the weightless feeling of being underwater and looking up.

Staying up until 3am and everything is just hilarious
Here’s something I haven’t done in ages. Drinking usually isn’t even part of the equation. I like the half finished sentences or the single word that will bring me and my friends into fits of laughter. Rico Suave indeed.

Guilty pleasure songs
I bet you have one. I have dozens. Wanna know one of them? “Beat It.” The solo puts a smile on my face every time. Also that part where Michael makes some weird noise.

Driving around with the windows down on late summer nights
I spent many summers jamming in my car with my friends as we listened to Aerosmith and the Eagles. The night air and the highway mix into this scent that means summer to me.

Watching cream go into coffee
I have a nice travel mug of coffee every workday morning. I don’t always have cream with it, but I do love watching the inky blackness turn tan with a touch of creamer. I also love the hiss of Splenda hitting the hot coffee too.

Figuring out the plot twist in a movie before everyone else
I do this so often that I’m actually surprised when a movie is so original and engaging that I have no idea what’s going to happen next. The Departed did that. Inception did that too.

The moment of no return on a roller coaster
It’s the apex of the first hill as you climb and just get over the hump for the first drop. Riding the roller coaster at New York, New York in Vegas gave me that feeling in a big way.

Steering wheel drumming
I am the foremost steering wheel drummer on the planet. Give me a song I really know well and I’m on fire. My fingers actually hurt after a while, but I don’t stop. You can’t kill rock and roll.

Finding that perfect level of warmth under covers
Sometimes you can have too many covers and feel smothered. Other times too few covers and you can’t get comfortable. It’s like Goldilocks.

More coming soon.

LINKY GOODNESS

• Exposed: Vast right-wing conspiracy to bury left-leaning websites on Digg.
• He will be transported to the afterlife in a series of tubes.
• Did Sarah Palin roll her eyes at teaching? Yes. Yes, she did.
• 12 theories about “Lost” that were better than the actual show.
• Why Emma Watson Cut Her Hair Off.
• Here’s a cheery poll for summer’s day: If you died alone in your apartment, how long do you think it would take before someone discovered your body?
• Meet the worst landlord on the planet. What a tool.
• The easiest way to write your life story.
• Bill Gates and Warren Buffet just announced that they have signed at least 30 billionaires through The Giving Pledge Project to give away more than half of their fortunes to philanthropy. That’s going to be a lot of money going into various good causes in our lifetime.
• Man posts photos of his wife on Facebook. Not surprisingly, his other wife has a problem with this.
• “Does your man have ADHD? If he does, then here are those two tickets he bought to that thing you love and then he forgot about them and never gave them to you because he got interested in model trains.” What it’s like to have ADHD.
• Author and polemicist Christopher Hitchens writes about his cancer.
• Gifts for the Geek Home.
• The famous last words of 10 authors.
• An in-depth study on the 8 hottest teen movie villains of the 80s
• From the Annals of Fantastic Photos: a collection of pictures where science, art and photography intersect.
• Kurt Vonnegut – How To Get A Job Like Mine: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
• Infographic: Back To The Future Timeline.
• Why The Star Wars Holiday Special Still Matters.
• “Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup.”
• 10 Unbelievable Technologies that Exist Now.
• Little 4-year-old Geoffrey Jr. is angry that his day at the zoo didn’t go quite as he expected.
• Who knew Lady Gaga and Berlin had so much in common? Top 10 Songs That Sound Exactly the Same.
• Of all the ways there are to raise money for charitable causes, cramming 102 naked people on a roller coaster might be the strangest.
• So you know, the 2010 Social Networking map.
• As we are facing a full week of temps in the 90s this week, it would be so great to have this air conditioned bed.
• Who does Google know that you know?
• American Idol’s Fantasia Caught in Sex Tape Scandal.
• Which “Captain America” stories is Chris Evans reading for research?
• Mexico’s Supreme Court: All 31 states must recognize same-sex marriages performed in Mexico City.
• This delightfully-intricate machine cracks open a Cadbury cream egg – and it’s one of the most impressive and creative accomplishments I’ve ever seen on the internet.
• Secrets of the first Moon landing: all nighters, lost footage and a ten-year-old to the rescue.

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝This was really a nothing post, except it kind of illustrates how boringly most comics are put together. It should really be a sort of Paul Schraderesque ‘well, we did a pile of cocaine the size of Sally Field, and then it turned out it was actually just Sally Field covered in cocaine, so we all did her, even Robert Towne’s dog, and then we ramraided a store and stole twelve typewriters, and then Peter Boyle beat us all unconscious and shoved peyote down our throats, and when we came to he was gone and there was just the typewriters and a loaded gun, so we menaced all the typewriters with the gun until one of them shat out the script we wanted, and somehow three weeks had gone by, and John Milius came by with a surfboard and a harpoon gun and said “let’s find us an artist” and…❞ — Warren Ellis, after announcing he has a new project in the works for Marvel

COLOPHON

Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

Don't know where I'm going, but I sure know where I've been

I remember the moment I had a perfect life.

I was married with a young daughter and living in a nice three bedroom house with a great deck in the backyard. I had a decent job and so did my wife. I had friends I’d see on a regular basis. Family was just a short drive away. My car was old, but reliable.

For one shining moment, I had exactly what I expected in life. And then it was gone.

My wife divorced me and turned me into a weekend father. I ended up job hopping trying to find some stability. My friends forged their own families and moved away. My car was upgraded from reliable, but old to better, but used. I still had my parents, so I hadn’t lost everything.

All in all, my life was turned upside down. Not a great feeling. I hope you never have to go through it yourself. Of course, I put on the happy face. Nobody knew how much I was really hurting inside. I mean, why should I burden everyone else with my own private pity party. Friends and family don’t understand. Only the lonely.

Since then, I’ve taken a couple of chances at finding love again and came away bruised and battered. It made it hard to keep trying. You never take a chance, you never get hurt. So, maybe I’m better off alone. I’ll keep my own counsel, thank you very much. At least I’m a fool of one.

The forks in the road changed with every decision I made or was made for me. I look back at all those millions of choices and it always feels like I never had a choice or I made the best choice with what I knew at the time. I could have zigged instead of zagged and would likely have had a different outcome, a different life. Who knows if it would have been better or worse?

There’s an old saying that love is easy with the right person. You have these wonderful conversations deep into the night, your toes curl every time you kiss and everything is hearts and flowers. All lies to sell greeting cards and candy.

I loved two people in my life. One was my wife, whom I care about a great deal but have no romantic feelings toward anymore. Although, we really are good parents together. The other was the first girl I ever loved and, you know, you never get over the first.

I didn’t marry my first love. I should have. We should have had that magical life together. We were soul mates. Maybe we still are. I don’t know. I’ve never fit so well, on so many levels, with another person. I can’t even imagine feeling that way with someone else. I certainly can’t see how it could be better. And maybe that’s what’s holding me back.

Spending hours pondering those imaginary zigs and zags keeps me up at night. Playing what might have been can be fun, but mostly it’s sickeningly depressing. So, I decided I should start a new game: what might be.

What might be waiting for me just up ahead? I dunno. I’m going to find out.

LINKY GOODNESS

• It’s getting to be embarrassing to be a conservative
• What it’s really like to work in a record store, parts I, II, III, IV, and V.
• Google Wave to be shut down. In other news, fish still don’t need bicycles.
• Federal judge overturns Prop 8 in California, paving the way for gay marriage.
• 57 Things You Didn’t Know About Hugh Hefner.
• RIP: Tom Mankiewicz, Superman screenwriter, dead at 68. I believed a man could fly.
• Did Chris Nolan rip off the plot for Inception from this Uncle Scrooge comic book?
• Those garage sale Ansel Adams negatives worth $200 million? Yeah, not so much.
• Sergey Larenkov superimposes photos from the past onto photos from the present.
• Mirror + blue paint = Instant portal.
• YouTube increases allowable video length by five whole minutes.
• The 25 Greatest Moments In Bathroom Graffiti History.
• Everything you always wanted to know about swearing, but were too fucking afraid to ask. A nice companion to this.
• Relax: It’s Torosaurus that’s going away, not Triceratops.
• Inside the iPod Playlists of 5 Powerful People.
• So you know, How to be an astronaut: A beginner’s guide.
• Tumblr, a New Spin in the Flurry of Social Media
• This is what happens when you put a brick inside a washing machine. When it happens, you will laugh, and you’ll watch it again.
• Lady Gaga, Lindsay Lohan And Demi Moore: The Best Nude Magazine Covers Of All Time.
• Covered Up: Cover songs that are widely recognized as being the definitive version.
• The 30 Worst Baseball Cards Of All Time.
• Tom Tomorrow predicts the next great right-wing scandal.
• Shaquille O’Neal signs with Celts. Hmmm.
• Bristol Palin Breaks Up With Levi Johnston. Just fucking go away.
• A revealing, if slightly chilling, review of how Sarah Palin curates her Facebook comments.
• This is what it looks like when you shoot off 500 Roman candles at once.
• Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age.
• The etymology of 10 musical genre names.
• 11 Predictions About 2010 That The Simpsons Got Right.
• What the fuck is my social media “strategy”? I use this everyday.
• Scott Rhea’s underwater photography.
  

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝There are no great analogues for the Jedi in modern American society. They are a secretive, powerful religious sect contracted by the Republic to do vital governing tasks that include policing and diplomacy. Perhaps the Knights Templar were similar in some ways, although I don’t think the Knights had any real authority within European society. Their jurisdiction was the Holy Land. In some ways, the Jedi sound more like the Taliban than anything we’ve got going in the U.S.❞ — Libertarian blogger Seth Masket. Pretty sure Lucas was going for the samurai vibe with the Jedi.

COLOPHON

Photo by Shahram Sharif

Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

There'll be peace when you are done

No matter how bad a day I’m having, someone is having a much worse day. Perspective is a good thing.

I can’t diet. I’m ridiculously bad at it. I need to exercise more. I’m reasonably better at that.

Sometimes the most popular songs by an artist aren’t their best songs. One of the best KISS songs you don’t know is “A Million to One.” It’s probably in my top five favorite KISS songs of all time. I bet you’ve never heard it.

I hate paying bills. I have the money to pay them, I just hate the actual process of sitting down and writing checks. Yes, I’m in the process of paying everything online.

You are either in love or you never were in love. There is no middle ground. I’ve been in true love two times. At one point I thought it might have been three, but I was mistaken. One broke my heart and the other I’m still not sure about. To some extent I still love them both. One more than the other.

I wish I didn’t have any regrets because I’m pretty happy with my life, but I do. I should have asked out that one girl in high school. I should have gone to more parties. I should have appreciated my friends more. I should have worried less and done more.

Being unprofessional in any endeavor is anathema to productive work. I have been guilty of it. You probably know someone who is that way all the time. If it’s you: correct it. If it’s someone else: avoid them or help them correct it.

Writing is hard. Math is hard too (Barbie told me), but I don’t enjoy doing math. Putting a written piece together that I’ve struggled with is a great feeling.

Nobody likes the latest material by a band that has been around for 20-30 years. Everyone politely waits for the band to get through whatever crap they are peddling so they can play “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Satisfaction” or “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

I never remember my dreams. Except for this one time when I dreamed I was running. It was awesome.

None of my friends are even remotely online as much as I am. I’m in front of a computer screen about 15 hours a day. This horrifies many people.

Outside of the Midwest, everyone pronounces Illinois as if it’s Illinoize. This is annoying to people who actually live in Illinois.

Speaking of Illinois, those who live in Chicago believe anything below I-80 is the deep, deep south i.e banjo playing, inbred rednecks. This is annoying to people who actually live in Illinois under I-80. And probably rednecks.

I don’t like songs without a discernible melody. Iron Maiden is melodic. Radiohead not so much.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle tangled Christmas tree lights. Personally, I slowly work through them until they aren’t tangled and never get upset about it. Others have too little patience. You can also tell a lot about a person by how they talk to a waiter and deal with airline personnel when they’ve missed a flight or lost luggage.

A friend is someone I would contact if I was diagnosed with a life threatening disease. Not you, friendo.

The best shape of my life was when I was 18. I took it completely for granted.

Readers love lists. You finished this one now, didn’t you?

LINKY GOODNESS

• Ten questions every supporter of Sarah Palin (especially mothers) should ask themselves.
• With The New Smallville Trailer, So Comes Superman (Almost).
• A thorough debunking of Stanley Kurtz’s case that Barack Obama is a socialist.
• A music video pits a flamethrower against a fire extinguisher -in slow motion! Even if you don’t care which wins, the effects are awesome.
• iPhone Jailbreaking legalized. Apple will still void your warranty though.
• Pirates, Zombies, Robots, Ninjas, Vampires or Werewolves. Check the chart to see who is most detrimental to your health.
• Ellen DeGeneres Quits ‘American Idol’. Good. She added nothing, but time.
• Also, TMZ is reporting that Kara DioGuardi has been fired. I think she was on a year to year contract anyway.
• Security consultant, out to prove a point, generates file with 100m Facebook profiles, makes it available for download.
• From the fine gentlemen over at The Art of Manliness, 14 Famous Man Caves.
• 500 Worst Passwords Poster. Cha-ching.
• So you know. You are not so smart.
• The best cosplay photographs from Comic-Con 2010.
• The 10 Biggest Stories of Comic-Con 2010.
• A couple of kids on Cape Cod in the 1970’s make a Star Trek film.
• Cool photo sequence of lightning over Nashville.
• Matt Fraction – The Batman Dreams of Hieronymus Machines
• WikiLeaks gave 90,000 classified documents on the war in Afghanistan to the New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegal. You betcha they are sifting through and publishing what’s in those documents.
• “From the perspective of your brain, dreaming and movie-watching are strangely parallel experiences”: The Neuroscience of Inception.
• Warner Bros. Animation officially announced a DC Universe Original Movie based on All-Star Superman, the award-winning series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Yes. A thousand times yes.
• Top 10 Things Not to Say to a Writer (there are more, but I get too sad thinking about them).
• In an absolutely shocking survey that will forever alter the way human beings relate to each other, USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s 2010 Digital Future Study discovered that a whopping zero percent of participants would consider paying for a service like Twitter.
• Sarah Palin recently complained that her ABC News interview had been edited to make her look bad. Well, here’s the full transcript of the whole fricking thing. Alas, no unedited video to reveal the moments of cluelessness, panic and lies that litter the rhetorical landscape. Enjoy.
• Warren Ellis terrified to note that the documentary film about him has a Facebook page.
• Speaking of Master Ellis, he answered a few questions regarding his internet serial with Joss Whedon called WASTELANDERS.
• In 2010, it was made official that you could purchase physical products and then put them to whatever use you wish.
• Best worst first date ever.
• Are Jedi Knights Libertarian or Socialist?
• Finally, a story on digital comics that uses terms I can understand: “Digital Comics: Nemesis or sidekick to comic book culture?”
• I’ve read a couple of these: “Five Graphic Novels Your Kids Will Enjoy (and So Will You)”
• Sweet Gevorg Kerensky directed “Impossible is Nothing” spot for Adidas and a cool visual effects breakdown too.
• The Web: The End Of Forgetting
• The best advice and favorite pieces of snippy wisdom from Mad Men’s most iconic character, Joan Holloway
• 8 Totally Mean Things Women Do To Men.
• Insurance covers for Apollo astronauts.
• Boxes of photos purchased for $45 at garage sale contain long-lost Ansel Adams negatives worth $200 million.
• The Ultimate Superfans: Tribute Bands That Really Rock,
• Axel Braun’s Star Wars XXX is happening, will be the most expensive porn ever made.
• Most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration law blocked by federal judge.
• Finally, “A paralysed Austrian man was eaten to death by maggots in his bed while his partner slept beside him, police said Wednesday.”

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝For the first time at Comic-Con in 16 years, I felt surrounded by the film and television industries. I felt like I was attending the comics portion of their show. When I left for the day I felt like the film and television tracks had set the agenda… …There are a lot of reasons that film and TV has become so dominant there. It’s not just proportion. So many comics companies are movie companies now, first and foremost; others act that way for a long weekend; articles speak solely in cinematic terms. The shift might be best seen in the comics coverage in mainstream sources, both in the pity fuck nature of a lot of it and the fact that most of the comics stories end up being movie and television stories, too. Chew isn’t a surprise publishing hit, it’s a surprise publishing hit with a fast-track option. The Walking Dead isn’t the series that’s kept a lot of serial comics buying alive in comics shops and has made a superstar comics writer of Robert Kirkman, it’s AMC’s The Walking Dead. And so on. Film and television has become the medium through which we understand and communicate the cultural potency of things that aren’t film and television, and that can’t be healthy.❞ — Tom Spurgeon

COLOPHON
Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

I refudiate your claim, madam.

I hate stupidity and ignorance. I hate it in myself even more. Admittedly, I am not without a stupid gene in my body and I’m smart enough to know I’m ignorant about a great many things. I’ve made ill conceived choices and decisions based on faulty logic and wrong information.

However, here’s the difference between my own personal acts of stupidity or ignorance: I correct them. I don’t double down on them.

The political falsehoods and misinformation out in the ether today are some of the most ignorant and stupid things I have ever heard. Case in point, Newt Gingrich, the failed former Republican Speaker of the House, is talking smack about the Cordoba House, a $13 million community center in New York that is basically the same thing as a YMCA or Jewish Community Center. It will have 13 floors devoted to classrooms, fitness and recreation and open to the entire downtown community, not just to Muslims. There will be a prayer room, but this place is not a mosque.The location is blocks away from where the World Trade Center towers once stood and run by a group that has been in New York for years, not some unknown group sweeping in to rub the collective American nose in their shit.

He said the Cordoba House would overlook the WTC site which is factually a lie. He purposely (or not) integrates all Islam with jihadists which is also a lie. All this man does is purposely lie to promote his own personal or political agenda. It’s not like he hasn’t had plenty of practice. He had sex with his high school teacher seven years older than him and then left her when she was sick with Cancer. He them cheated on his second wife with his now third wife. Wasn’t Newt the one who complained about Clinton’s dalliance with Lewinski? Hypocrite.

Half-governor and status update/tweeter, Sarah Palin said this, “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.” Putting aside the fact that “refudiate” isn’t a word or a shortening of an obvious world like “pls” for “please,” Palin is the epitome of stupid and ignorant and she demonstrates it nearly every time she discharges something into the collective. By the way, when did she become a spokesperson for the heartland? Isn’t she from Alaska? Moreover, even if you say “Ground Zero Mosque” a hundred times, it still doesn’t make it true you negligent parent.

These are perfect examples of why I get fed up with the political discourse. Newt lied to instill fear into non-New Yorkers about something New Yorkers don’t have much of a problem with. He was jumping on the bandwagon led by uber-bozo Palin, who seems to be channeling George W. Bush with the made-up words and inability to acknowledge when one has made a mistake.

At least when Bush was speaking it made a bit more sense. Who doesn’t fumble through words when speaking (Even Obama miscounted the number of states as he was impromptu speaking), but rarely does the stupid in political leaders come out in their writing. Even worse was her doubling down on it and invoking Shakespeare as if “refudiate” was something the great Bard himself might have used.

So, it seems only fair to use a few well-known Shakespeare quotes (out of context, I might add) and address Palin and Gingrich directly:

In this “brave new world,” every “dog will have his day.” However, “the game is up.” You two peddle “improbable fiction” and I can only assume with you, Mr. Gingrich, “misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

Both of you are a “laughing stock” and a “sorry sight.” “The short and the long of it” is both of you are “tedious as a twice-told tale.”

In the end though, I expect your “laughable,” “baseless” and “sanctimonious” blathering will be “much ado about nothing.”

LINKY GOODNESS

• Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church demonstrated at Comic-Con in San Diego. Robots, magical anime girls, Trekkies, Jedi, kittens, and other cosplayers demonstrated right back.
• “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” just the drums.
• Mad Men’s Ten Sexiest Scenes.
• Look at your god / Now back to me…
• Every Doctor Who theme from 1963-2010.
• The Machines run Facebook, and they are willing to make your racist busybody Facebook posts disappear.
• How your not-so-close Facebook friends are eating away at your happiness.
• Joss Whedon Confirms He’s Directing The Avengers. Also, he’s writing the entire script.
• The Greatest Science Experiment Of Our Time: Reverse-engineering an In-N-Out Animal-Style Double-Double.
• 10 Writing Tips That Can Help Almost Anyone.
• Dealing with the delicate matter of death on Facebook and elsewhere.
• Crazy. The 15 most expensive desserts on Earth.
• Uhura gets buried in tribbles in the Alamo Drafthouse’s new Star Trek-inspired poster.
• Shopped photo of alleged BP oil spill command center posted on company’s site.
• Glenn Beck claims he has macular dystrophy, may soon go blind.
• Ten Fictional Pieces of Technology That Actually Exist in Real Life.
• Jennifer Aniston: Will Strip for Perfume Sales.
• The greatest Halloween costume idea ever. I hope someone picks this up and runs with it this year.
• Obama signs Wall Street reform.
• Tokyo after everything.
• Who knew? Impersonations by Kevin Spacey.
• The five stages of Facebook grief.
• 6 Labyrinths To Get Lost In (not counting the David Bowie movie). Don’t forget your lunch and your cell phone!
• New York City from above.
• Ghost Writers: The Surprising Names Behind 10 Famous Works
• 10 Unexpected Secret Service Duties
• Astound your friends by freezing a beer in seconds!
• Facebook users take old Onion video seriously, inadvertently set human civilization’s demise in motion.
• The 40 Sexiest Comic Book Covers Of All Time.
• Millennium Falcon Guitar.
• Google Images gets much-needed refresh. Here’s what’s new.
• Hulu Plus is actually worth your money. If you’re a TV-addicted shut-in, that is.
• Avatar and Aliens are the same goddamn movie.
• Thomas Jefferson: The Sensitive Writer Type. See how the founding father’s insecurities make him seem just like the rest of us -except for that founding father stuff.
• How long can food be out of the fridge before it kills me?
• The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense.
• Top 10 Actors Originally Considered For Famous Movie Roles.
• The Secret Meaning of Inception

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝My notebook has more empty pages than not, and just twenty minutes earlier, that made me feel sad. Looking at them now, though, those empty pages didn’t represent the failure, or the fear, or the safety of just not trying … they represented the opportunity – the freedom – to make something where nothing was before.❞ — Wil Wheaton

COLOPHON
Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

I don’t know about you, but I tend to make lists of projects I want to get done every day, week, month, quarter and year. The biggest project for me personally this year is writing this weekly blog post. Although, to be fair I think getting the whole Rocketship of the Mind collection finished is a close second and much harder than you might imagine.

With the year basicaly half over, I decided to reprioritize my personal projects. I’m taking a look back at what I wanted to do in January and see if it makes sense in July. Some of the projects are the same, some are new and all still have a December 31, 2010 deadline.
Swimming in Champaign
I started this project as a personal challenge to myself. Could I write a weekly post of 200-500 words or more a week? Would I have something to say? Well, so far so good. Looking back there are some winners and losers in what I’ve written, but overall I’m pleased with what I’ve done so far. I never wanted to write a niche blog about shit my Dad says or why Team Edward is the bestest. My niche was me, myself and I. While I’m not trying to corner the market in personal journey writing, I do hope people are enjoying what I’ve done so far.

Rocketship of the Mind
Rocketship of the Mind is my earlier stabs at essay writing coupled with a dozen or so short fiction pieces. The goal here is to simply have a classy looking collection of my writing in one volume. I don’t expect to sell many copies, but it’s not really designed to be some sort of money maker. If I break even, I’ll be flabergasted.

Super secret comic book script
One day in the shower, a complete comic book idea burst forth from my mind like Athena out of the head of Zeus. I scrambled to write it all down. I collected the scraps into a coherent storyline perfect for a one-shot, oversized comic book. Ran the idea by a few people and was stunned by the overwhelming praise for the whole thing. I cracked my knuckles and wrote three pages of script before the wave of energy finally disappated. The story is there. I know what happens. I just have to put some meat on the bones.

Personal Brand Identity
As many of you know, my day job is in marketing. I love brand identity and when well known brands change their look, their message and their image. I’ve been reading a bit on personal branding and want to create my own personal brand. The first step is take control over my social media platforms.

Me – Physically and Emotionally
Personally, I’m a mess. I eat terribly. Don’t exercise. I’ve got gout which flares up time and again. I don’t get enough sleep. It’s a wonder I’m even functional. Okay. Maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but not by much. It’s my belief if I change the physical than the emotional goes along with it. So, I’m changing my diet – eating more fruts and vegetables, whole grains, lean chicken and hamburger and added more fish. Working out has never worked out, but I’m going to try and stick to a schedule. Wish me luck.

LINKY GOODNESS

• The enormous timeline of science fiction
• Free Inception prologue comic book, Inception: The Cobol Job.
• Comic-Con International: What to Get in Line For Early.
• 40 Things You Need To Know About the Next 40 Years.
• Part of 18th-century ship exhumed at Ground Zero.
• “We’re glad that everyone is alive, despite being ‘undead’.“
• Good News: BP Strikes Success, Stops Oil Leak. For now.
• Roger Ebert on Chicago architecture.
• This sounds like the coolest thing ever, do you have what it takes to live in the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago for 30 days, 24/7?
• One of the world’s most perplexing mysteries has been solved.
• Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a totally electric sports car. Stats: 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, 535 horsepower, top speed 120.
• “Your subjective experience is not observable, and you overestimate how much you telegraph your inner thoughts and emotions.” The illusion of transparency.
• A collection of really terrible stock photography.
• 20 hottest celebrity beach bodies
• Top 10 party science stunts.
• Why Sarah Palin’s fundraising numbers aren’t impressive.
• In Wichita, more than three times as many people went to see Nickelback as went to see Sarah Palin. More than twice as many each went to see the Professional Bull Riders, Brooks & Dunn, Star Wars, and Daughtry.
• Control colors and waves with the dials on this electronic kaleidoscope.
• Darth Vader actor Dave Prowse allegedly banned from Star Wars Celebration V.
• Consumer Reports: Why we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.
• 7 reasons people think you’re a douche
• Marc Ambinder tries to figure out what exactly Sarah Palin is up to.
• Chart showing the circumstances when whipping it should be considered.
• Why dieting is hard.
• Former weatherman beats Price is Right system, walks away with $50k in prizes.
• Music cannot get you high. Except, perhaps, metaphorically.
• Methane released by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is not going to kill us all.
• Whatever happened to the box-office bomb?
• Scott Pilgrimage
• Who do you write like? Supposedly, H. P. Lovecraft. I did sell my soul to Cthulhu that one time…
• Like the best “best-of” lists, this one of 50 must-own DVDs is filled with ones you love, filled in with a few you likely have yet to.
• Mark Waid Says Goodbye To Superhero Comics
• There’s an extinction event on Earth every 27 million years. It’s a cycle. And we don’t know what causes it. But we’re in the middle of the cycle right now, so we’ve got about 15 million years to work it out.
• Countdown Shreds Fox’s Fake New Black Panther Story
• Funniest Last Words, Deathbed Witticisms. These people took the advice to “leave them laughing” a bit too literally.
• Star Wars original art by Tsuneo Sanda.
• So you know, origins of the world’s most important typefaces.
• The most most needed URL in these hard times: AgainstDumb.com
• Happiness and sadness spread just like germs. Be careful what you spread, and what you expose yourself to today, OK?

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝I remember that, at the time, someone telling me that the stance was that Paul Levitz would not release the book so long as he was running DC. It never occurred to me that a new regime would feel differently.❞ — writer Warren Ellis, responding to news that his 1999 Hellblazer story “Shoot,” which was never published as a result of the Columbine shootings, will finally be released under the new “Vertigo Resurrected” banner

COLOPHON
Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

"I'll get you my pretty... and your little god too!"

I grew up in a house full of books. My father is a reader and he has hundreds of books, almost all fiction. I read plenty of his collection, mostly the science fiction stuff and a Bond novel or two. My own collection is probably a bit more eclectic. I own a Jefferson Bible and all seven Harry Potter tomes.

Books are important in my family. Reading is done for pleasure. It was years before I realized other families simply didn’t have shelves of books in their homes.

My daughter has my love for libraries and reading. She devours books. I’ve turned her on to a few things I thought she might like, Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book comes to mind. However, the most successful suggestion was when I handed her a copy of Twilight with the words, “I think you might like this. Your Mom likes vampires too.”

So, it caught my attention when some Christian coalition group with right wing political ties of some sort had their tighty-whities in a bunch over Twilight. Their press release denounced the sparkly vampires as bad role models and encouraging occultism. I’m guessing they probably had a problem with the overt Mormonism in the books too, but that isn’t the interesting angle.

It’s the same stupid argument regarding Harry Potter: these books/movies encourage readers (READ: our childrens! Think of the childreeeennnns!) to worship the occult or Satanism or something else far more sinister. I have no patience for these brainless mouth-breathers. Anything that encourages children to read is a good thing. In this day and age of video games and internet diversions, getting a kid to read a 300 page book is a feat of epic proportions. Of course, when you dig just past fingernail depth their real agenda is for everyone to read the Bible and nothing else. Basically, they are positioning themselves as book reviewers telling everyone who will listen that their book is better than the new flavor of the month.

By the way, I’m not knocking the Bible. It’s an interesting read on a variety of levels. Still, amazingly there are plenty of other books at the bookstore. A person can actually read more than one book and I would even venture the idea that they should.

As for the occult nonsense, I often wonder how much damage the Wizard of Oz has made on the collective psyche of the American public with its flying monkeys, talking scarecrows and wicked witches. In the pre-DVD, cable movie channel world, Dorothy’s adventure in Oz was family viewing often playing during special holidays on one of the three television channels received in those bygone days. The horror it must have inflicted!

Of course, I know the answer to that question: zero effect. It’s a story. It’s fiction. Kids understand vampires, flying monkeys or witches aren’t real and those who have trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy have larger issues than reading a story book.

Inevitably it’s the overtly religious who are up in arms regarding whatever the kids are into these days. From Dungeons and Dragons to rock music to sparkly vampire movies, the fundamentalists and neo-christians always find their boogie man to scare stupid and ignorant parents and pliable politicians into some sort of action — banning, burning or worse.

There is no good arguement for banning a book. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something — likely a Bible.

LINKY GOODNESS

• The most assholish opinion column of all time.
• “It’s one of the most important and least expensive gifts you can give your children—or any loved one, for that matter.” Can you guess what “it” is? I bet you can’t!
• Family Guy could win an Emmy for the song, “Down’s Syndrome Girl.” Take that Sarah Palin!
• Google has many special features to help you to find exactly what you’re looking for. I didn’t know any of these.
• Take a trip back in the time machine and check out the hottest gadgets of the 1980’s. Bodacious.
• “What in life did it take you a surprisingly long time to realize you’ve been doing wrong all along?”
• John Cleese on the difference between Soccer and Football.
• Senate GOP in disarray over health reform repeal
• Behold! Lindsay Lohan’s all-too-illustrative message to the judge who sentenced her to 90 days inside
• Everything you need to know to brew a great cup of joe.
• Back in the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in outer space. This is what it looked like.
• The Republic of Facebook: Mapping out the Facebook Economy.
• Trailer for Let Me In.
• The Geek’s Vacation Checklist. Before you get away from it all, make sure you have take everything with you!
• 20-year-old superhero-wannabe dons mask, calls himself The Viper, patrols streets of Columbia, TN.
• Whedon, Abrams To Team-Up At Comic-Con?
• A list of the 10 most controversial horror movies
• The U.S. Military’s new “Cyber Command” logo contains a hidden code. Noah Shachtman at Wired News says, “Help us crack it!”
• How to make ice cream in almost any flavor.
• Evolution of an M. Night Shyamalan fan.
• Old and Busted: Fake news from the present. New Hotness: Fake news from the future.
• Chicagoan Tim Souers documents the bad, the worse and the delightfully irrelevant on his illustrated Cubs blog.
• 6 Things From History Everyone Pictures Incorrectly. Of course, it’s mainly Hollywood’s fault, but Michelangelo bears some guilt as well.
• The Latest James Bond Movie Has Officially Been Canceled.
• 10 Fascinating Facts You Didn’t Know About Apple.
• The strongest visual birth control on the market today, Sh*t My Kids Ruined.
• Soldier smuggled highly classified data out of his intelligence unit on a disc disguised as a music CD by Lady Gaga.
• WANT! Venn Diagram Coffee Table.
• Best crop circle ever, at Cley Hill, nr Warminster, Wiltshire UK
• The Museum of Hoaxes
• Around the World in 80 Seconds.
• Be they accidental typos or intentional puns, these 10 Hilarious Newspaper Headlines never fail to amuse.

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

❝I think because what we get told about the Bible is a lot of picking and choosing, when you see, you know, Lot’s daughter gang raped and beaten, and the Lord being okay with that; when you actually read about Abraham being willing to kill his son, when you actually read that; when you read the insanity of the talking snake; when you read the hostility towards homosexuals, towards women, the celebration of slavery; when you read in context, that “thou shalt not kill” means only in your own tribe—I mean, there’s no hint that it means humanity in general; that there’s no sense of a shared humanity, it’s all tribal; when you see a God that is jealous and insecure; when you see that there’s contradictions that show that it was clearly written hundreds of years after the supposed fact and full of contradictions. I think that anybody… you know, it’s like reading The Constitution of the United States of America. It’s been… it’s in English. You know, you don’t need someone to hold your hand. Just pick it up and read it. Just read what the First Amendment says and then read what the Bible says. Going back to the source material is always the best.❞ — Penn Jillette explaining how reading the Bible will make you an athiest

COLOPHON

Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com

The bombs bursting in air...

When I was a kid, I always hated July 4 because it marked the endless possibilities of a long summer vacation had reached its apex. Soon school would start and with it the crushing inevitability of the daily grind while we waited for the weekend. So it was with this notion of the downward spiral that I picked up the 15 year old for a weekend of fun, food and fireworks.

Friday was about a perfect a day as I could remember. It wasn’t too hot and there was an honest to goodness pleasant breeze. I had decided our first bit of fun would be mini-golf at our favorite spot, Old Orchard Links. One of the best aspects of Old Orchard Links is all the water hazards and streams. It didn’t take us long to start using our clubs to splash each other.

On Saturday we had decided we needed to take our first excursion to Sholem Pool. While my kiddo practiced swimming underwater without holding her nose, I caught a few rays. Sholem has a nice little waterslide. Unfortunately we waited in line far too long. Every time we go there, they inevitably have a drill which lasts 20 minutes or longer with everyone out of the pool. I understand the need for drills, but doing this stuff in the middle of the day is annoying. Besides, half the guards were blowing their whistles keeping people out of the pool during the drill.

Sunday we invited the grandparents to come up and have an indoor picnic and watch the fireworks. I pan fried some tasty hamburgers and used my small George Foreman grill for a few requested hotdogs. We had chips, macaroni salad and lemonade. It was a regular indoor cookout. The fireworks were as impressive as always. The move out to Parkland has made, in my opinion, a world of difference.

Having Monday off was a nice treat and we slept late. Our plan was to take everything slow and drop in on Edward, Bella and Jacob at the local cineplex. Yes, I was getting dragged to Eclipse. Still, the popcorn was fresh and, you know, Ashley Green is hot so I had that to look forward too.

And now, its all in the past. The roller coaster has hit the top of the hill and the ride down is coming up fast. Summer is careening toward the loop to loop of September and bringing with it falling leaves, crisp winds and first days of school.

However, until then I hope we can squeeze bit more out of Summer. I dunno. Maybe we can take the roller coaster metaphor and make it real.

LINKY GOODNESS

• The 10 Funniest Movies Scenes From The Last 10 Years.
• The 100 greatest movie insults of all time.
• Safety takes a back seat to getting the job done in this picture collection. In other words, we need to print more Darwin Awards applications.
• Republican Jobs Plan: Kick Americans When We’re Down.
• Steve Martin’s Tour Rider.
• 11 Predictions That Back to the Future Part II Got Right / Got Wrong
• Vanity Fair has an article about Michael Jackson and the shooting of the Thriller video, a point in time when he was at the top of his game but already showing signs of his future troubles.
• Stephenie Meyer: “I’m really burned out on vampires.”
• The 13 Smartest Porn Stars of All Time.
• Book of Odds is an addictive website that applies statistical probability to answer an array of life’s most vexing questions.
• Scott Adams is enthralled by what he calls the “exobrain”
• The Graveyard Book has won the prestigious children’s literary award The Carnegie Medal.
• The secrets of Psycho’s shower scene. Including one great big secret you’ve most likely never heard before.
• Got a song stuck in your head but cannot for the life of you remember the name of the song? No worries, here are 4 ways to find out the name of that elusive song.
• How Our Gang came to be, and how they became a big sensation. Also, how they came to be known as The Little Rascals.
• The Top 100 Star Wars figures. Jek Porkins: a fat Rebel Pilot that can’t fit into any X-Wing toy is a must have.
• Logo design then and now: Major League Baseball.
• Discovering the Virtues of a Wandering Mind
• Flying car gets go ahead from FAA. Still no jetpack.
• First Photo of a Planet Outside Our Solar System.
• Take a look at the design and progression of Apple computers.
• Rob Spence had his missing eye replaced with a wireless video camera he calls Eyeborg. His next plan is to upload the video so that we can all see through his eye -literally.
• An eloquent argument for engaged reading that won’t take at all long to read.
• The Tribune’s page of Rod Blagojevich audio files and transcripts is awesome
• Rolling Stone has a new health columnist: none other than Ozzy Osbourne. Keith Richards was booked.
• “I was a fool for mentioning video games in the first place”: Roger Ebert rethinks his controversial think piece.
• Tooth Regeneration Gel Could Replace Painful Fillings.
• That thing that separates us from the animals? Turns out, it’s masturbation.
• Mel Gibson Alleged Racist & Sexist Rant Caught On Tape.
• 15 Grave Coincidences. Snapping pictures of gravestones at “a certain angle” could become a new hobby. Here’s one more.
• Ten etiquette rules that have been forgotten.
• Infographic: How Does Google Work?.
• Tea Party Jesus.
• “You see, Gallagher is—how best to put this?—a paranoid, delusional, right-wing religious maniac.”
• A lengthy but engaging article on two seemingly unrelated things: the game of Tetris, and the Cold War.
• 8 Historic Symbols That Mean The Opposite of What You Think
• Nerve.com suggests you improve your taste with John C. Reilly, who gives his list of pop-culture recommendations (which are, of course, awesome).
• Finally! A toothbrush designed so it can stand on its own. What took so long?

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

“Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.” — Steve Jobs

COLOPHON

Photo by dawnzy58

Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com