I visited a chiropractor for the first time last week.  I thought I had truly seen everything!  After 4 completely bizarre treatments, I’m convinced that chiropractors totally ripped off executioners:

Inversion Therapy	Upside Down Crucifixion
Decompression Therapy	The Rack
Stim Therapy	Electric Chair
Crazy Chiropractor	Crazy Ninja

Rating A

I was sold to this movie from the preview when her Dad says to her, “I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to stop.” Juno then says, “I don’t really know what kind of girl I am.”

This movie makes no assertions or sermons, and it’s certainly not a teenage comedy. It’s a love story. It’s a work of art. It’s hilarious! You know something is good when you constantly ask yourself “How did they think of that?” or “Why didn’t I think of that?”

I remember at one point in the theater leaning over to my wife and commenting, “I like this because it’s real.” I don’t know how they pulled it off, but kudos to director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking), writer Diablo Cody, and actress Ellen Page. Together, they made real entertaining, which is the greatest task in film. Sure at some points it’s a bit sexual and crude, but it never becomes offensive. If Ellen Page isn’t nominated for an Oscar then I’ll punch myself in the face. She may not win, but her performance was Oscar worthy and deserves at least a nomination. The film itself could take away Best Picture, but my opinion is that No Country for Old Men will get it. Both are this year’s “must-see” films.

Rating A-

The major complaint of film vs. literature is film’s inability to elaborate due to time constraints. No matter how great the movie is, nobody wants to sit through more than 3 hours (and that’s the max).

TV shows however transcend that barrier. The average book takes what, 15-20 hrs to read? Hour long sitcoms (about 43 minutes commercial free) have roughly 22-24 unique episodes per year. That is about 15-17 hours, the same as a book.

With TV shows the issue is lack of quality. Lost has made it into what I call HQE (High Quality Entertainment). HQE invokes inspiration. HQE stimulates the emotions. HQE requires intellectual investigation. Like literature, it requires an active mind, not merely a passive browsing. Even more impressive, Lost is in it’s third season. That’s like the freaking Lord of the Rings.

Can Lost propel the TV drama into the media-of-choice over film? Has it “one-upped” the movie industry? The cinemetography, direction, acting, writing and budget (perhaps most important) of Lost have certainly rivaled if not surpassed the best films that Hollywood produces. Lost deserves an A because it is better than a movie, but I gave it an A- because I hope other shows will step up to the plate and make something better.

Even my bookshelf is becoming jealous of my entertainment center. Lost occupied that time block I normally reserve to a good book. Like I said, it’s better than the average movie and just as good as literature. But don’t watch Lost on-air, buy/rent/borrow/steal the DVD. Personally, I don’t know how anyone can stand watching TV shows on TV!   How can you wait a week!

Guaranteed, if you don’t want to miss out on future lunch break conversations, you need to catch up on Lost. It will be a certain addition to the social cannon.

Check out the Article HERE

Here’s one I remember specifically being taught in elementary:

We only use 10% of our brains

“The myth arose as early as 1907, propagated by multiple sources advocating the power of self-improvement and tapping into each person’s unrealised latent abilities,” say Vreeman and Carroll. “The many functions of the brain are highly localised, with different tasks allocated to different anatomical regions. Detailed probing of the brain has failed to identify the ‘non-functioning’ 90%.”

I’ve always been skeptical of this one.

Shaving causes hair to grow back faster or coarser

This theory may go some way toward sustaining the multimillion-pound waxing industry. But it, too, is an optical illusion: when hair first grows after being shaved, it has a blunt edge on top, which gets worn away over time and results in the fine taper of long hair. Also, the sun naturally bleaches hair over time so hair that is newly emerged may seem darker but is, in fact, no darker than any other new hair growth.

I rear-ended a car this morning.  So there we are alongside the road and slowly the driver gets out of the car . . . and you know how you just get sooo stressed and life seems to get funny?  Well, I could NOT believe it . . he was a DWARF!  He storms over to my car, looks up at me and says, “I AM NOT HAPPY!”  So, I look down at him and say, “Well, which one are you then?”… and THAT’S when the fight started . .

Protein Shake Amateur Style:

Better Than Milk Shake Shake:

My wife and I recently watched the entire 2 hour documentary about the LDS faith on PBS (watch “The Mormons” Here). There was a reasonable balance between Pro-Mormon and Anti-Mormon views, BUT that balance is still VERY skewed for someone like my wife who has NEVER heard anything Anti-Mormon in her life. She was SHOCKED that Joseph Smith dug for gold and had multiple accounts of the First Vision. I’ve served a full time mission; you pretty much have to get acquainted with the basic Anti-Mormon Propaganda that’s openly taught in most Evangelical congregations. (If you are Evangelical I would like to point out to you that the LDS church has NEVER — and would never — offered a course slenderizing another faith. Even in the Missionary Training Center. If anything, they teach us to respect other faiths).

FAIR (The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research) LDS has created a wiki (fair lds wiki) of simple answers to these questions. Just like Wikipedia it provides plenty of references, and in my oppinion it debunks anti-Mormon views better than anywhere else. Here are two answers to Sarah’s Questions:

Why did Joseph Smith Dig for Gold?

Richard Bushman has compared the Smith’s attitude toward treasure digging with a modern attitudes toward gambling, or buying a lottery ticket. Bushman points out that looking for treasure had little stigma attached to it among all classes in the 17th century, and continued to be respectable among the lower classes into the 18th and 19th

Why Were There Multiple Accounts of the First Vision?

Paul the apostle gave several accounts of his vision of the resurrected Lord while on the road to Damascus. Like Joseph Smith’s account of the First Vision, Paul’s accounts differ in some details but agree in the overall message.

Last sentence of my last post I predicted Huckabee would come back swinging, and that things between Romney and Huckabee would get nasty. I guess that makes me prophetic because today Huckabee throws out anti-Mormon rhetoric by saying Mormon’s believe that Jesus is the brother of Lucifer (YAWN). C’Mon Huckabee, not only is that the oldest one in the book, but it’s a pretty low blow to attack someone’s religion, especially in this country: wasn’t if founded on freedom of religion? That’s right, and you wanna be president?

Here’s an article where you can read more about Huckabee’s bigotry.

Although, and I’m not saying another revelation has come, but I think things are just getting warmed up between these two.

Correlation is not causation, and even though Romney’s PLUMMET in the polls over the past month certainly correlates with INCREDIBLE amounts of media coverage on his Mormon Faith, it’s not the cause. Check out these two graphs taken from the prediction market Intrade:

About November is when Huckabee enters the Republican nomination scene, and you can see what that did to Romney. Things couldn’t be better for Giuliani, because while they’re sparring for second, he’s enjoying a 40 pt spread over both of them.

That is why I wasn’t surprised in the least to see Romney on the Huckabee attack today, accusing him of being “soft on immigration.” It will be a tight and exciting race between the two, BUT, second place means NOTHING in this race for the Republican nomination. Giuliani has made his disgust for Romney quite public in the last debate, accusing him of harboring illegal’s in his “sanctuary mansion,” which means Romney can kiss hopes of being nodded for vice president goodbye (should Giuliani win - which it looks like he will). The Iowa vote is almost 20 days away, and I expect things to get much more nasty between Romney and Huckabee if either of them wants to win.

Rating: F

I grew up watching reruns of The Simpsons and Seinfeld, but I’ve never been a die hard loyal to any television show until six months ago. I was getting some ice cream at Wal-Mart when my eye caught the first season of 24. A few of my friends always hyped it up like some crazy religion. Without ever seeing an episode, I felt like I knew Jack Bauer: the modern mythical legend who’s an indestructible prince charming.

We watched the entire season in two point five weeks. Nina! That ending was classic. I returned a second time from Wal-Mart with seasons 2-5. It took about 3 months to finish those. There were some pretty predictable episodes, but for the most part, the cliffhangers kept us interested.

We’ve been on a 3 month fast from 24 because Season 6 hadn’t been released. We’ve been waiting patiently until December 5th. I sliced off the plastic, popped out the dvd, and pushed play. Sarah even made popcorn. After three episodes I verbally shouted at the screen, “WE’VE ALREADY SEEN THIS BEFORE!”

I think the writers for 24 have been on strike for years. They left the producers with about 1000 words, and now to make an episode of 24 you scramble all those words up and viola! Here is my quick episode:

This is Bill Buchanan, infiltrate satellite surveillance CTU protocol. On your knees terrorist. Jack, please hold for the president. I strongly advise interrogation Mr. President. Suspect in quadrant perimeter, send tac-team for pursuit. Cloe Curtis Palmer Bauer. DROP THE WEAPON! [Cliffhanger here].

It was SO stupid. Wayne Palmer — the whiney moron brother of David Palmer — the guy they make you hate in season three — the pin prick goatee scratching fool — IS PRESIDENT. I can’t stand that idiot! I hate how every president has an evil turd following them around. Wayne Palmer WAS one of those, HE’S president, and now HE has a turd (who might be president in season 7).

They’ve always been slightly political, but this side story with the Guantanamo-ish muslim secret prison is ridiculous! RIDICULOUS! The president’s sister is the lawyer in charge of representing the “victims” of the “power abuses” of the “administration.” C’mon 24! You’re entertainment - not propaganda!

I can’t return this $50 complete waste of money, and I can’t give it away any more than I can give away my clipped toenails. Trust me, if you’re thinking about buying this DON’T. Get Lost, no pun intended. Season 3 comes out this week. Hopefully some sucker on ebay will take my Season 6 of 24; it’s worse than 24 hours of C-SPAN.