You are the talk show host

Larissa was showing me a huge list of talk topics you can download on itunes to your ipod. Of course you had CNN, ABC, and news like that, and Air America has gone podcast crazy (of course, thier pod casts are all free) but then i saw, tons of individual pod casts... ranging from news, politice and religion, to technology, comedy, and bluegrass talk...

Makes me want to start my own talk radio show and 'pod cast it" to the masses...

oh, and you can download books on tape...err... on ipod...

Josh, you can make your own book for download. Youll just have to read it out loud, in it entirity, record it in some format, and let people download it for free... or for however much you want! Might be good to give to publishers to listen to.

BumStats

I came up with a new way to do statistics the other day while driving down the road. I call it BumStats since you just pull the stats out of your butt. For instance, if you are driving down the road and decide you want to see how many people driving on the road talk on the cell phone while driving (a deplorable activity in my opinion) all you do is look at the first 10 cars you encounter and if 10 out of 10 people talk on the cell phone while driving, so do you (even if you really don't). It's sort of an absurd and fun way to pass the time while driving. Do any of you have BumStats?

Deep Sea Fishing

On Friday morning @ 6 am, Jamison and I will be joining my dad, brother, an uncle, and Thomas my co-worker for a fishing trip out of Panama City Beach, FL. Jamison will be car pooling with Thomas down to PCB. Hopefully we will have something worthwhile to post. Oh wait, Jamison is going. That will be a thread all of its own.

Will post results sometime this weekend!

-CM

The Chuck

So who is this "Chuck" guy anyway? I think I know him...but I've not been formally introduced.

-CM

So Long, Farewell

Saturday Amy and I are headed to Dublin to meet my sister and her husband. We will then be gone on vacation for about two weeks. The same friends that let us use their flat in Paris over Christmas have offered up their place again for our usage. We are ending our vacation there, and will stay in Paris until our money, or sanity runs out. This should be sometime around July 17.

Also, our flight home leaves on July 21. Amy's parents have a slow dial-up connection so I will be in some kind of touch right after that, but it will be very limited. A few days after we arrive we are headed to Gatlinburg, TN for several days of relaxation and visitation with family. Post that, we will be dilligently be trying to get everything set up in Bloomington, which includes finding a place to live.

All of this is to say I am mainly going to be absent from the blog, and most forms of communication for the better part of a month. I'll still be in and out until Saturday, so I'll probably shed some comments out, but this will be my last post for a long while.

greetings brothers!

Yes, it seems as though I've died, sorry about that.
Someone please e-vite Jules to blog. mXXXXXX@yahoo.com.
Last week I had about three days of shooting Wed - Friday so I was out in the sun a lot!
Yesterday I was out because Caleb was ill, that later turned into a 3-5am ER visit from an asthma attack. Not fun. I hope and pray that none of you guys ever learn what the inside of an ER looks like because of a child. Caleb is really good now but tomorrow, Thursday, we're got to see his pulmonary doctor at Children's Hospital so I'll be out again. Last night we had a really shitty nurse but a dang smoking hot X-Ray tech. I guess there is balance in the word. I told Jules that should I even need x-rays I want that tech to get me positioned properly...
So, my Asheville gig. The clock is ticking and the pressure is rising. I just had my Director of Photography (DP) bail on the shoot. He's a great guy and a good friend but he's left me in something of a bind. Chuck, if I can't find a replacement then I'll let you know that there will be no need to drive north to stand in the blazing hot July sun for a couple of days.
Yes in a nut shell one person has caused this entire project and my subsequent world domination to grind to a screeching halt. Can you say stressed?
As I was doing a bit of back reading I came across my propensity for swaging in question. As Jules is trying to get me to reclaim the mantle I'll explain my thoughts. First Asheville is 90% totally comped. The only thing I'm not coving is the cost of petrol for the participants and souvenirs, who am I Trump? The reason that I'm not offering to swag anything right now is that I don't have an excuse. When I was working on The Best Of I had every opportunity to scout and write proposals, basically stating that every where I went could be a potential shoot. This is a great way to build a relationship with a future client. At Scripps right now I'm doing jack, thusly forbidding the ability to "scout" anything. If the golf thing gets picked up consider your selves on notice for a fine time at some exotic local.
But as to what my favorite trip was, I'm not really sure. Nashville and the Opry was really great and a finely structured arrangement that should have never happened on that scale, you guys have no idea what they were actually giving us. On a skill level it was an easy 8.5. Myrtle Beach was a great joy and a wonderful beach and the first time I met the future Miss. Stubbs. WE got nailed the first night out by the buffet but that's turned into a wonderful story. Destin was wonderful! I loved kayaking with Sipp and Jamison and our "nice", country club, meal was indeed awesome! Who can forget watching Brittney?! Yes, Sipp I sinned... I guess Nashville was the best because outside of Stubbs we were all there. I always love dining with Charles because if everything is just right "Chuck" comes out and the fun meter is turned a click closer to 11. Chuck you may have no idea what this means and that's fine we've all discussed this and trust me it's a good thing.

The Other Night

We got home Monday night at about 9:30 PM. When we arrived, we noticed a car on our grass between this line of shrubs in our yard and the road that runs next to our house. We didn't think anything of it at first since lots of people park where they can in our neighborhood for get-togethers and stuff. Anyway, I also noticed that the sensor light in our carport didn't come on and the gate to our back yard was open. Rachel took Luke inside while I unloaded the van and I came in soon after. When I came back out to let the dogs in (after Rachel had already let them out) I saw that car speed off. This got me thinking, but I still didn't really understand what had happened till yesterday afternoon. When I got home from work yesterday, I noticed that there were scratches around the door where it looked like someone had tried to break into the shop attached to our carport. Then, it all made sense! The car, the open gate, the broken light, etc. The shed is an easy target and has some pretty nice tools in it, but our house thankfullly is well-lit, has double-keyed bolts, and a security system. But, it still scares me to think that there were robbers hiding in my back yard when we got home! I fixed the light and secured the shed, and I doubt they'll come back again. It just makes you feel insecure and violated! Let's all pray for each others' safety!

Color Scheme...

Any way to change it. I'm having a hard time reading the White on Black. Forgive me for being 32 and going blind.

-CM

I can't believe I'm doing this.

I've avoided this as long as I can, I guess. You guys better be glad I love you. Are we going to do everything here as long as blogger.com is open for business? If so, maybe I can post all of the old e-mails, or is there a quota for this blog section?

Ha, Ha, Ha. I just spell checked my post. Ironically, it did not know that "blog" was a word.

-CM

Bad Sermons

I heard a sermon last night at a gospel meeting that started off good, but ended badly. The guy talked about the "practicality" of scripture and using the Bible as our life-guide. He spoke on and on about how the Bible contains all the answers and gave some great examples from scripture of why we should stick closely to the book, chapter, verse method. Only problem was when he got to the end of the sermon, the guy nullified what he had just said by telling what my wife and mother-in-law have coined a "dead baby story". You have all heard them. They are stories that appeal to the emotions and try to convince people to be baptized for strictly emotional reasons. His "DBS" included a little crippled girl who didn't have long to live telling her Daddy she had a dream she was with Jesus. Then she tells him she will soon be able to laugh and jump and play like all the other children in Heaven, and she wants him to be there to see it. So, he wraps her up in a blanket and takes her to church and as he is being baptized, she dies happy because she knows her Daddy will be in Heaven with her. OK, I have some issues with this. 1) The story says that we should become Christians to make people happy instead of for God 2) The story has no scriptural basis (which was the whole point of his sermon) 3) The story appeals strictly to the emotions. Just kinda irks me. Do any of you have "dead baby stories" to share? I have probably heard them all anyway.

"The Panther Hunt of 96"

Guys;
I was telling Mr Sipper last night that I was thinking of writing a fun little bluegrass song based on our "Panther Hunt"

Here it is. Please offer suggestions and changes since you all were involved. I would prefer not making it longer or shorter.

In the Chorus, I was torn. I wanted to use the phrase "Chasing a shadow" so badly, but I could only think of the workd "Jell-o" to rhyme with it. So I offered an alternative.

They keys are D, A, and G if you wish to try and play it, of course you wont know how to sing it until you hear me sing it. I cant write music...

SUGGESTIONS!


The Panther Hunt of 96 (in D)
Words and music by Jamison


It wasn’t all that long ago
In ‘Gomery Alabam (not a misppelling)
six boys got together for some mischief and mayhem


None of them wore much clothes
They didn’t too much care
If anyone spotted them or saw their dark chest hair

They sat outside their rooms one night
Gazing at the moon
Then they saw a shadow go across their field of view

One boy said "Its nothin’"
Another cried “Not so!”
They rounded up together and through the field they’d go!


CHORUS
G
Shirtless in the night
D
Through the field they go
A
Runnin’ without shoes
D
Chasing a shadow

G
Come along and join
D
Go grab your sticks
A D
This is how we did The panther Hunt of 96


The boys had come too far by now
There was no turning back
They still caught glimpses of the cat that they planned to attack


They ran down to the ditch, you see
That ran behind the school
They lost site of the panther that fantasized them so

“Its gone, its late, I’m tired” some said
As hearts began to drop
That’s when Matt yelled out loud and over the ditch he hopped

CHORUS

Nat'rally they followed Matt
To, perhaps, their doom;
“I think I saw him crawling ‘round the football locker room”

Upon close inspection
There was no feline found
Everyone stood silent, they didn’t make a sound

They walked back with their heads held high
They were in a good mood
Mainly cuz they got to run around the fields half nude!

CHORUS x2

An Idea Involving Good Tunage

Some buddies of mine in another e-mail group have started trading good tunes using gmail. Essentially we all know the login and send the shared e-mail varous mp3 files that we dig. Then the others can log in and download the files. Anyone interested in doing that? Anyone have an extra gmail account that could be used? If not, I'm sure other storage means could be used.

Anyone up for a game of playing God?

Click here to read a cool news story on zombie dogs...

Good news I would imagine for loved ones who have been dead for a few hours... but what would happen to our souls? If we died, where would our souls be? And what if we were "revived" a few hours later...?

Not For the Faint at Heart

If your stomach turns easily, or you don't care for disgusting news stories then please, do not read any farther.

However, if you are fascinated by the weird, the wacky and the gross, if you always loved jokes that began with "what's grosser than gross" then click here.

What the Fleep!

Click here for a really cool, interesting comic strip in 44 installments. It's about a guy who wakes up in a phone booth encased in concrete and must figure out how to escape.

Mike Tyson's Punch Out!

Before I left for France I downloaded some emulators for the NES, SNES and Gameboy Advance systems. For anyone not in the know emulators are basically are essentially exact copies of the real game systems, set up for your PC. Technically they deal in copyright infringement, but I figure these are old systems, and I purchased all the games for these things years ago, so it’s ok.

I have been playing these suckers like made in France. Nothing cures my culture shock like turning 14 again and playing a little Super Mario Bros. Back in the day, my brother called me a Nintendo nerd, which was quite true, though it did hurt my feelings.

Lately, I have become addicted to Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. I played this game for hours and hours when I was a kid. Me, my brother, and my cousins used to try to out punch each other and see who could finally beat the thing. As I recall, I could never actually defeat Mike Tyson in the final bout. Dude, with one punch that bad boy would knock you down. And as the way these things go, by the time I was really close to being able to beat him, everyone else was tired of the game, which means we had probably gone out and bought another game. Ice Hockey maybe, or the impossible Adventures of Link.

Anyways the emulator scene is one of nostalgia and fun for me. It is amazing how well these games still hold up after all these years. Sure the graphics are pretty crappy, and the game play isn’t all that spiffy, but they are straight forward and a lot of fun. In fact, I prefer a lot of the NES games over the newer superbit games they have these days. Punch Out doesn’t take a degree in physics or make you be double jointed to be able to figure out the controls.

Good emulators can be found with a simple google search, or the use of the P2P sharer of your choice. Here, and here are pretty good fan sites for Punch Out.

I'm Proud of Us!

I just wanted to commend us on keeping this blog hoppin'! I was skeptical at first, but we have really kept it going and stayed on-course with conversations, topics, etc. If we keep this up, we will probably be able to move to the webzine with little or no effort eventually, if we so choose. Let's keep it going. I'm having a blast!

I'm the Bat, I'm the Man, I'm the Batman...

I won't write a review for Batman Returns since there must be a million and one out there, but I will say that I thought it was the best Batman movie, ever! One reason I think so is that I was actually very sad and had tears when his parents were killed. This may be a product of me being a father now, but it seemed like they incorporated more story into the father/son relationship, and it made a difference. On top of all that, the story itself was really well-presented. Y'all watch it if you get a chance.

AP compassion

Maybe I don't know enough about the entire situation but I would think a touch of compassion could be found. I just read the article from AP about Bert Thompson's leaving.

I don't know who Brad Harrub is so this is a bit one sided but I thought even, especially in the midst of sin we as Christians are supposed to try and hold up our fallen brothers in Christ. Mr. Harrub seems exceedingly cold to the whole thing. I could see that this (apologetics) is something he's dedicated his life to and finding out that a mentor has worked for God while dealing with "long-term, deep-seated personal sins in his life" could easily be crushing.
The line "But truth is truth—even when one who has been a prominent advocate of that truth succumbs to hypocrisy and fails to apply that truth to himself." Is dismissive and harsh. Maybe they are too close to the fire to realize that Bert is a frail human just like the rest of us and we are all susceptible to Satan’s influences and Gods eternal grace. Sipper like you said it's a long hard road to find your way back into Gods favor but aren't we supposed to help those fallen saints.
Any thoughts?

The bad guys

Recently Aljazeera.net has begun its service in English and I've got to tell you that it's interesting. When searching the web for news I'm more likely to find a slew of BBC and AP pieces with a smattering of the big five news sources in the US: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CNN. These five are constantly recycling the same international news all day long, nothing new happens and there is very seldom a story covered from outside their confines of "journalism". Aljazeera is interesting. They cover a large percentage of the same stories but have a different take on the subject particularly when the subject is the conflict between the US and Iraq. They also cover a lot on international news that I've not found on traditional US based news sources too. One thing that I've found that I really like about Alj. is that they have an immediate link to their Code of Ethics. Questionable as it might be from our perspective I think it's respectful to state their practices and goals in an easily accessible place. What's funnier is that if you do a search for "fox news code of ethics" from the Fox News website the first hit is for Aljazeera. Maybe that says something about the great American scourge of foreign news propaganda. All of this is to say that knowing what ones "enemy" is actually thinking about might be a more informed perspective than what "we" have been told our enemy has been thinking.

Suddenly, Last Summer

Rachel was watching AMC the other day and caught the last quarter of this Elizabeth Taylor flick called Suddenly, Last Summer (a movie made in the late 50s). She came in at a point where Elizabeth Taylor' character was in a mental institution becuase she had gone nuts from some horrible thing she experienced while vacationing in Spain with her male cousin. Meanwhile, her aunt (Catherine Hepburn) is trying her best to get the psychiatrists to give her neice a labotamy so that her memory will be erased and she cannot give away a big nasty secret. The big, nasty secret happens to be that Catherine Hepburn's son is a homosexual predator who has been using his mother (Hepburn) to lure young, European boys to him during their vacations in the summers. She, however, has become a little too long in the tooth to lure the boys he wants, so he takes his young, attractive cousin (Taylor) instead. She complies and begins to lure in his fresh prey. After a few liasons, it seems that things are going well until one day when they are about town in Spain and a group of the young men and their friends all gang up on him and chase him around making eerie music on tin cans. They chase him toward the sea and corner him at a precipice, then overtake him. Elizabeth Taylor hears him scream and faints out of despair for lack of being able to help him. When she awakens, she sees that he has been torn to pieces by the young victims. I guess the whole point of this is that it is interesting that this subject matter was out in the cinema in the fifties....that blows my mind!

Banking on a Story

There is a bank in Luverne where my Mom has worked for the last eleven years. About two years ago, there was an incident there with mold growing in the walls of the bank due to improper roofing on the flat top of the structure. Several people became ill from this toxic mold, and one lady even had congestive heart failure! The bank knew that something was up, but didn't shut its doors until OSHA came in and demanded it. Since then, they have been working in a trailer and using the downstairs drive-through and vault of the existing structure. This in itself is a major security issue since all money has to be taken back and forth between the bank and the vault. On top of all this, my Mom has a bad knee and even has a handicap tag for her car. Yet, she routinely has to walk across a busy parking lot to use the restroom and also has to walk up a long flight of stairs to get to the vault. When she or another of the employees transfers money to and from the vault, they have no security escort. It is a bad situation all around. I am thinking seriously about getting my Mom's permission to tip off the Montgomery Advertiser to this flagrant misuse of employees and facilities. This is the basic story, but there is much more.

"WORLDS LARGEST!!!"

Sorry, I am in a blogging sort of mood right now...

Have you ever noticed (at least here in the south east portion of America) how every fireworks store is the "Worlds Largest"?

How is this possible?

And what's scarier, is that they all tend to be named after a "Crazy" person... Crazy people and gun powder? In the worlds largest?

Whats funnier is that I've seen many in Georgia that are a combonation gas station... Yikes!

Is the term "Worlds Largest" up for grabs by anyone regaurding anything with no legal repercussions?

No lie, back home there was a water slide up on lookout mountain somewhere (I highly doubt it is still there). It was not a water park, it was just a big pool with a pretty good sized water slide. It's claim: "WORLDS LONGEST WATER SLIDE!"

Friends, I've been to several water parks. You'll find bigger slides on the side of the strip in any white-trash, tourist-trap town in florida (And there are lots of those).

Anyway, just some perceptions by Jamison; Owner of the worlds fastest growing facial hair...

Writer's Digest

I subscribed to Writer's Digest magazine a couple of months ago and suddenly felt compelled to give a short review of the periodical.

The articles in Writer's Digest give in-depth, entertaining, and informative layouts of how to be the best writer you can be. Articles ranging from how to develop characters to writing software adorn this storehouse of penmanship. There are also articles that deal mostly with how to publish and promote your work. Thses are truly gems to be cherished by the beginning, unpublished writer. They give inside information from the experts about obtaining agents, writing queries, and making the most of your manuscript. The only drawbacks (that are really not noticeable in this magazine, but ever-present) are the advertisements for vanity presses. This, however, is a necessary evil due to the sponsorship needed to continue publishing a fine and informative magazine such as this, that nevertheless has a low readership. The end analysis of Writer's Digest bears forth it's wealth of information and knowledge from experts, beginning authors, and seasoned authors, thereby creating within itself the means by which we who treasure the quill might reveal our creations to humanity.

"Werewolf!" "There wolf." "What...?" "There castle."

Okay, time for another, world famous "JAMISON DREAM!"

Hope you people like long blogs... until the blog admin (Brew) sets a limit on length, expect long ones from me...

The wife rented Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban last night. I walked into the house a bit late in the movie, so once I got comfy, I sat down with her to watch it.

The coooooolest scene on earth happened right before my eyes during this movie, I began to have nystagmus* due to the coolness of this scene...

First, some background...
My favorite "horror movie" character of all times has always been the werewolf. I like the Thriller video okay, but I LOVED "An American Werewolf in London" (yes, I saw it when it came out, I was 5, it was rated R... not my parents fault, HBO). There are two types of Werewolves: the quadruped and the biped. I am more of a quadruped fan. They look like real wolves on steroids... Even as a kid, I would have dreams that my dad was a werewolf and I thought, "cool!" ... it didn't scare me!

In later years I would go to sleep fantasizing that I was a biped werewolf, but hunched over (you never saw these kind in movies, you either saw the quadruped or the biped... my fantasy was to be somewhere in the middle...)

Well friends, in this Harry Potter movie, my fantasy was before my very eyes. The scene was a quadruped and a biped (like I imagined myself being) having a fight. I knew I was going to have a great dream from this one.

And indeed I did friends!

I don’t know why, but werewolves do not scare me! I LOVE THEM! If superman fought a werewolf, I would root for the werewolf! ...Okay, but if like, Jesus had a fight with one, I'd have to root for Jesus...

Anyway, I had a dream that I was an 18-wheeler truck driver and I had a partner (BUSINESS partner you perverts) who drove another truck behind me. We stopped at a gas station (in fact, one down the road from me on HWY 231) that has an almost identical gas station across the street.

I forget what happens now, but the next thing I know, we get out and are in a building off to the side of the gas station (like a storage shed) and this HUGE werewolf is trying his hardest to get in. Its head it in the door and me and my partner are trying to close the door. I hit the werewolf in the head several times, but he keeps snapping at me and ramming the door with his shoulders.

All this time, I am not all that scared. Since I love werewolves so much.

Finally, the lady working in the gas station comes out and is like "What's going on out here?" The werewolf turns to look at her, we shut the door, she screams, runs in the gas station, locks the door. Werewolf breaks through the glass, wreaks havoc.

Next scene the lady is in the parking lot with us telling us that if we are "gonna cause commotion like that in the future, you need to start going across the street" (Pointing to the other gas station). I then say "But you have more candy in your mart than they do!"

Next scene we see our boss (some character I have never seen before” walking towards us in a huff, carrying the lid to a garbage can (don’t ask me).

He sees a man approach him, between him and us. My partner and I know this is the werewolf, so we are like “yes, yes, yes, make him mad!” Our ‘boss’ then tells the guy to move it! They have a heated exchange. The man then somehow produces this asparagus plant. In the dream, I know that this is what the werewolf comes from, but now, it makes no sense… but is funny. Our ‘boss’ starts to closely observe the asparagus plant until it turns into the werewolf and attacks him.

I woke up trying to relive the dream.

The end.

What are ya'lls favorite horror creatures?

* Once you figure out the meaning of this word, use it in a sentence today! Have fun with words!

Archaeology fun

Interesting site with some recent news and older finds, too.

http://www.christiananswers.net/archaeology/home.html

Peta Blog Update

UPDATE: June 23, 2005...

Okay, I caved in my promise to go a week without looking at the drudge report. But I found this article that go along with the former PETA blog...


Not so high on the "hog" anymore are they? Another one of those "dog" days of summer. I guess a "cat" got their tounge. This article comes straight form the "horses" mouth. I bet they wish this story would be as quiet as a "mouse". I think tha... (Stubbs' hand lays on Jamisons shoulder, Jamison turns around; "That's enough Jamison, we get it..." Jamison looks at everyone in the room, all are yawning and rolling their eyes.) Well, ummm, hehe, I guess I'll be... (jamison darts out of the room like lightning)

Here is your deal of the week.

Buy Jerry Garcia's Mailbox

From the wide world of weird this just in: you can now purchase the late Jerry Garcia's mailbox here.

This mailbox sat in front of the late guitarist's last home, a custom made mansion in Nicasio, California. When Jerry died the house was sold and the new owner upgraded the box and put Jerry's in storage. Apparenly, now is the time to bring the thing out and make a profit from the deceased.

In a culture where celebrities are the new deities, even old mailboxes are sacred. The starting bid is $2000 so tighten up your budget if you want to have this one of a kind memorabilia.

The only question I have left is that with all the millions Jerry Garcia was making, why didn't he buy a better looking mailbox? That thing looks like it would fit better in front of a beat up trailer, than a million dollar mansion.


Coposted to Brewster's Millions

Jamison's Life Reviews: Sippers Grape Roma Tomatoes

(Our good friend J.S. will be referred to simply as ‘Sipper’ so as to protect his identity here on the internet)

One step into Sippers lovely backyard and one will notice God’s goodness flowing forth in the north-east corner. It looks more like an octopus-esque beast that has buried its head in the ground, died, shriveled up, and grown leaves on its arms… this man can grow some tomatoes.

Upon a closer look, one cant help but wonder in awe at the success of only a few mere months. These tomatoes are everywhere! And all seem to be successful growths! No duds here friends. The shape of these large-grape-sized tomatoes is truly perfection. Their size is perfect; their color, too, is a recognizable, medium-red color. A color that any child would not hesitate to use in order to color a picture of a tomato in a coloring book.

Once invited into Sipper’s home, I am pleased to find a paper towel sitting next to his sink, with about 20 to 30 of these tomatoes sitting in a neat little row, with small soakings of water beneath each one. “For you!” Sipper exclaims! To which I explain “For sooth! I am honored!

Dinner is served. Unfortunately, and quite ironically, none of these tomatoes are included with the evening’s dinner. However, my wife and I take a few tomatoes and place them on our dish, and happily eat them as side dishes.

Text book taste my friends. Only a fool would scoff at this taste. And only a fool would prefer grocery store tomatoes over these. Truly these tomatoes were grown in a way that only a farmer’s son could grow them. However, Sipper mentions to me that his wife does not enjoy them too much, due to the tough skins. This comment is brushed aside by my wife and me as we bite into another tomato mixed with roasted chicken.

The tomatoes are brought to their new home; mine. The next day, my wife cooked a hearty meal of sausages, peppers, onions, and marinara sauce, mixed in with, of course, our delicious gift from Sipper.

Upon the 2nd or 3rd bite of my dinner, I can’t help but notice a very hard-to-chew item in my mouth… I soon discovered that it was the skins of these roma tomatoes. The taste was certainly fine, but the skin was unmanageable in my mouth. It had to be discarded. It certainly could have been eaten, (my wife ate hers), but I am too fickle.

The next day, I mention to my wife that it is too bad about the tough skins on the tomatoes, to which she replies “Give me one! They are great!” With a confused look on my face, I hand it to her; she bites into it lovingly and tells me to do the same. I pass. I really don’t like tomatoes alone, by themselves. My wife then goes on and on about how sweet and delicious these tomatoes are. She is sold for sure.

Turns out, the skins are not a problem at all when the tomatoes are eaten raw or cold (alone or in a cold salad) but appear to toughen up when cooked. As a side note, my wife mentioned that after eating the tomatoes, she craved something sweet, and then craved water.
These tomatoes are great, but I will stick to eating them raw or cold rather than cooked, although the flavor in cooked dishes can not be matched. I will just squeeze the goodness out like a muscadine if I have to cook with them again. 8.5 out of 10.

Hit Counter

Not that we get any hits but our own and a few randoms from blogger, but I added a hit counter to our blog. Right now it will be interesting to see if anyone comes to our blog via other means. Later, if this grows, it will be cool to check out how many people join the "discussion."

To access our stats, just click on the picture at the bottom of the blog that says "site meter" on it.

Jamison's Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Sorry for another review... I just saw a movie that I really liked... I am thinking of reviewing many aspects of my life, not just movies, so stay tuned to the Midnight Cafe discussion group...

Before you say anything, I already know what you are thinking: “Jamison, this is a KIDS movie, you are almost 30 years old!” … But I gotta tell ya, I really love these “kids” movies.

This follow-up to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has our young wizard friend Harry Potter (Played by Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) facing a new challenge or two during their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (A year that almost doesn’t exists for Harry due to his evil Aunt and Uncle trying to lock him up). The gang of young wizards try to discover a dark force that is terrorizing the school, originating from the fabled “Chamber of Secrets”.

Sequels? Oh no! Oh YES! But this is no mere sequel. You see friends; I have never seen any previous Harry Potter movie all the way through before this one. Only bits and pieces on the TV versions of each. I literally go into the Chamber knowing little if anything about the background, history, or characters in the film. Yet, within minutes, I already had decided who to root for, who to root against, and what the goal for the hero is to be during each scene. YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE FORMER POTTER FILMS TO ENJOY THIS ONE!

A few kick backs to the former films may just go over audience members heads… Harry’s cloak, the broom-stick rugby matches, etc. But these in no way hinder the movies ability to bring in the viewer to fall in love with our heroes.

Rather that go into depth about the plot and story line, I’d rather focus on the enjoyment aspects of the film. First off, the kids are cute. Sure, they are older in this one than they were in the past ones, but the little girl is still irresistible cute and a fine actress. Any kid with red hair and freckles is cute (until they get acne) and of course Harry Potter wears glasses. Kids with glasses…c’mon people.

For a bunch of no-named actors prior to these films, the kid’s abilities are outstanding! I can totally see myself as a kid wanting to act like one of them in my adventures in the woods behind my house. The only real un-kid-friendly aspect I can think of is that Ron says “Bloody Hell” several times in the film. Not a comment I would want my 7 or 8 year old repeating, which of course any kid will repeat when heard (Isn’t ‘bloody’ a very vulgar term in Brittan?).

The humor is relatable to all viewers. All characters have a British or Irish accent, yet none of that hard-to-understand British humor (the accents just make the kids seem cuter anyway).

Special effects are outstanding. The last scene involving a large snake looks kind of Willow-ish, but other than that, all the effects seem so flawless that they hardly seem like computer generated effects (Especially the spiders…ewww).

Full of spirits and ghosts, magic and monsters, humor and lovable characters, along with an easy to follow plot (Yet with enough twists to entertain an adult) I can’t help but recommend this movie. I loved it.

Although I have not read any of the books, I can’t help but think that the author was a Tolkien fan… We have two old gray wizards (the school’s Headmaster… and Gandalf from Lord of the Rings), two brown haired, bright eyed boys (Harry Potter… Frodo Baggins), His two friends (Ron and Hermione… Merry and Pippin), Trees that attack, a small, annoying, loud, little ghoul in both films, a very large spider in both Films… and a few more similarities. I certainly am not accusing this woman of copying Tolkien, but the inspiration is there for sure. Go rent it!

Fishies

I'm in a much better mood now then I was my last post. Did I really sound like Charlie's old self? Yikes.
Today we went on a field trip in my Marine Science class. We went to take phytoplankton samples to study and to also catch various other critters that like at the bottom. Highlights: Butterfly Ray, RobinFish, Sea Urchin, Flounder, Hermit Crabs, Lady Crabs, Squid, Pipe fish, etc. It was really fun.
In other news, I got accepted into the Spadoni College of Education Professional Program, I painted a picture, and I may be getting a new/old minivan. I think I may go to the pool later. I will soon have a Let it Be Naked interview. The other day I found my Journalism portfolio from my senior year. It really reminded me of how much I miss it.
I love everybody! Diana

Nirvana

I have reached a new level of enlightenment. OK, not really enlightenment, but a new/old place in my physical continuum. I am now comfortably waering a pair of pants that I have not worn for at least a year and a half. My love handles are almost gone and my stomach is flatter than it has been in a long time. I feel like I'm in my 20's again! Doubt I'll ever have my old college bod back, but this feels pretty nice. I think I'll write an article for Men's Health or something!

Young Frankenstein

Here is an old fave of ours! I found the full screenplay written by Gene Wilder: http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/young.shtml

Here is a page full of wav files from the movie...hilarious!
http://www.moviesounds.com/youngf.html

FOF Webzine

Check this webzine link: http://www.boundless.org/

It's a nice webzine for Focus on the Family. Funny thing is, when I Googled "Webzine" this was at the top of the list. Anyway, it is a nice site with some good info if y'all want to check it.

Jamison's review: Be Cool

"Get Shorty" is truly one of my favorite "Cuss 'em up" movies of all time. And when I heard of the sequel "Be Cool" coming out, I was very pumped. Breifly, the storyline is that the main character, Chili Palmer (played by John Travolta) is tired of the movie biz after having just made a terrible sequel to his first movie, staring Martin Weir (Danny De Vito). Chili has a music producer friend named Woods who is shot during the start of the movie by Russian mafia goons (still not sure how they come into play, I guess they are rampant in L.A.). Due to this turn of events, Chili offers to help out his friend's wife (Uma Thurman) run thier business. Whilst scouting out a talented singer in a club (Christina Milian) Chili is forced to tangle with her sleazy music manager (Vince Vaughn), his gay body guard (The Rock), and his producer partner (Harvey Keitel, who played in Chilis first movie, but in this movie, everyone acted like it was a different person... really confused me). Wood's horrible management of his music company gets Chili entertwined with members of the same Russian mafia (that killed his friend Woods) and a rich, well-to-do, clean-on-the-outside rap roducer (Cedric The Entertainer) and his gang of merry thugs. Uma's charachter had at one time done the laundry for Aerosmith. This sets the stage for Chili and her to make contact with Steven Tyler at a L.A. Lakers game. They end up getting thier scouted out chick (whos group used to actually be called "the chicks"... horrible, I know) a duet with Tyler at an Aerosmith concert. Getting her foot in the door to be produced... I guess...

I actaully went into this movie EXPECTING to like it. The start of the film was pretty pathedic. Chili goes on to explain to his friend Woods that he couldn't get a PG-13 rating in his last movie because it had the "f word" in it more than one time... He then says "You know what I think of that? FU*? that." And, in fact, that is the only F word in the whole movie, allowing it to keep a PG-13 rating. But before I go on, don't think that due to the rating it is safe for all 13 year olds. Every other allowable curse is throw around like a rag doll... if I heard a 13 year old speak like these characters, I'd probably slap him myself... Anyway, it was just pretty stupid to literally use that word for no reason at all... but that's just me...

The movie just does not have that "Get Shorty" feel. Get Shorty kind of felt like a comic book to me. It was fun, colorful, and the characters drove the plot. Chili was much smoother, much cooler in the first one. In "Be Cool" he seems fake-cool... I'm-too-old-to-be-cool-since-Get_shorty-came -out-10-years-ago-cool.... wow, 10 years? You'd think the same writter could come up with a better story in that time.

Cedric the Entertainer is great. He has a nice, multi-millon dollar home in the suburbs, waves a "top of the morning to you!" to his old white neighbors, cooks pancakes for his daughters every morning, and takes them to get ice cream after picking them up from their private school... only to have a group of thugs at his side when out making music deals and taking money from producers that "owe" him. One of his side kicks enjoys killing people. The movie tries to pass this on as comic relief, I actually found it boring. However, this side kick was Barney Fife-esque and had horrible aim, or shot accidently when not asked to...

Vince Vaughn I thought for sure would leave me in stiches, along the side of "the rock". Vaughns style of comedy couldn't really come out in this movie, so I was disappointed. But his attempts to talk and act black were very entertaining. The Rock actually played a black gay man very well, considering he is a straight white man. As horrible as an actor as he is, I dare say he was the most refreshing part of the movie.

And one of the biggest let downs of the whole film was the fact that Danny Devito was left out to only play a cameo. He comes out of a club and sees Chili drive up in a Honda Insight (the hybrid car). Devito says "what about your Cadilac Chili?" (Which got shot up in the start of the movie), to which Chili responds "It's the Cadilac of hybrids." A kickback to "Get Shorty". Was used in the previews for good reasons... it made me laugh in the preview...

All in all, the story was very hard to follow, of course Get Shorty was too, but somehow I understood Get Shorty easier. This one tried to be like Get Shorty, as far as plot twists go, but they seemed to be fake and not genuine plot twists... kind of like the writers were syaing "Hey, we need more plot twists, have someone sit in the living room with the lights off and the TV on and let them point a gun at Chili when he walks in on them and..." it got tiresome fast.

Oh, and one last complaint. The entire movie seemed a good excuse to make a soundtrack... too much singing for too long. It was almost a musical... but that was sort of the theme. Get Shorty was funnier and more entertaining.

Been a while

Well, I just recently queried a publisher about Runaway Swimmer and actually got a request for manuscript from them! The publisher is called Publish America. I have queries and manuscripts out with different folks at the moment. Will it get published? Y'all can start a betting pool if you want. (Addendum: Publish America is really a vanity press. I recommend NOT using them after researching them. I certainly won't. See further posts to this string for more info).

Speaking Of Art

We recently visited the cathedral museum. It is filled with lots of art from the middle ages. The statues in the picture above depict the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. The wise virgins are smiling and holding their cups up. The foolish virgins are sad and holding their cups down. Notice the tempter on the left. He is dressed very stylishly and has a sheepish smile. Yet his back is crawling with snakes and frogs. Not very subtle art, but very cool. Click on the pic and you will be taken to my webshots album that has all of my pictures from the museum.

art shmart

Where do we draw the line between art and just plain absurd...?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4110402.stm

I mean, it looks like a freaking bar of soap...

catching up

Midnight Cafe Discussions
Midnight Cafe Discussions

Hey guys so I'm on and I think I'd much rather lay myself open on the blog rather than on the all seeing computer network of Scripps email.
Jamison, beautiful story about your grandmother. Save it some place where it will last. I wrote something for my stepfather’s funeral sort of along the same lines that was much more of a remembrance than a golly I'm sorry we're all at a funeral. I was obviously but funerals are all about contradictive thoughts when someone has been suffering.
About the death and dieing. It's something you have to face. I've always had different thoughts about death because I never saw myself getting really old. I think I would like to do out like Jamison, quickly before becoming frail. What will get to you is when you have to look down the barrel.
For instance. I went to the doctor to get some Alegra while I was there the nurse noted how high my blood pressure was. When the doctor came in we talked about the Alegra and then he said, "So about this blood pressure, what are we going to do?" I told him that I was trying to start losing weight blaa blaa blaa. The long and short of it is that I'm the perfect situation away from becoming Chuck’s neighbor that dropped dead a couple of months ago. I'm now taking meds for my ticker and I'm going to start losing weight because if I didn't do anything and I didn't stroke out or suddenly drop dead I'd start taking decades off the end of my life, which basically means that I'm bound to drop dead any minute. This sort of thing really helps you keep a perspective on things. EAch hug to my boys takes a bit longer now.

:) 

My wife took all these pics, so they are mostly of me 

I know it looks like I am looking at sip, but i am not 

Us jamming 

Goofy smiling Jamison 

Josh and Jamison dueting with More and More 

The boys singing Angel Band 

Pickin and grinnin....

It is so stupid that I have to download a program to post pics on a blog... sounds scammish to me...

Brew, if you know how to consolodate all these pics into one blog, please do so...

The Tower Quail

Hey guys! I already posted this to my own blog, but figured I would post here, too. Just some info on the book I am editing at the moment.

-Sip

Alright, here it is...The Tower Quail is the story of a young girl who is suddenly given an ability to foretell the future. The ability is imposed upon her after she goes through a "time-bounce" and unconsciously absorbs information from her future. She is then tortured by the images and events she cannot understand or stop from happening. Her mind and emotions begin to deteriorate and she is ultimately led back to the Tower from which her time-bounce initially began only to discover that she was subjected to the suffering and torment of her mind for a higher purpose.

Call for Posts

I was just thinking that this would be a great place for us to all post some of our artistic/literary/musical/etc. Endeavors:

Charlie - Post your comic stuff.
Jamison - Post your site for your art.
Brewster - A run down on your compilation from your one-year romp through Europe.
Mullins - Your Master Plan! (No, not the one for World Domination, the one laying out your entertainment empire!!!)
Chuck - Your expository thesis on uh, whatever...I need to get together with you and find out what it is you are planning/doing. I am a bad friend!
Sip - I will continue to be my old, pushy self and post stuff about all the books I will probably never get published but will keep writing because I can't stop. My brain is so full of stuff that needs to come out. You guys are really great friends to hold my hair while I spew.

-Sip

Google Smackdown

Click here for some silly fun. You can type in two seperate search listings and let them battle it out over who has the most "hits" on google.

For example. "mat brewster" beats "jamison braly" 28 to 12.

Yeah, I've Got Famous Friends

So David Gans and I have been personally corresponding with each other. I even helped get him a gig in Bloomington, for which he personally thanked me. I like hobnobbing with the stars, and helping them out. I'm just generous like that.

*For the unenlighted David is the host of the Grateful Dead Hour, the author of numerous rock books, the producer of several albums including one by the Persuasions and the Grateful Dead Boxed set. He's also a rather nice guy.

Old folks...

• My granny (Bertha Hixon) died, as you know, several months ago…
  
  Her life taught me a few simple lessons. Some of which I’ll follow, many of which I won’t due to morality and health reasons…
  
  Then again, she lived to be over 95 years old, and didn’t get put into an assisted living home until she started making sugar sandwiches and coffee-grind sandwiches on a regular basis.
  
  The worst part about her losing her mind was that her family members would not so much ‘rub it in’ but rather would ‘test’ her memory. They would point to one another and say “Mama, who is this?” I’m thinking in my head “She doesn’t know! Why are you asking her? To remind her of that?”
  
  But, in typical Bertha Hixon style, she would turn it right around on them and say “Why are you asking me who that is? If you don’t know who that is you’ve got problems.” And I’d just smile and think “Good one granny!”
  
  
• Ever since I can remember, Granny had a bottle of Jack Daniels by her bed. She wasn’t given to alcohol, but I am sure she took a swig before bed. I suppose it is certainly better than sleeping pills or pain medication…
  
• Granny always had a gallon of Mayfield vanilla ice cream in her freezer. Not in the freezer part of her 1950s refrigerator, but in the separate unit on the back porch. No chocolate, no chocolate chip, just vanilla. And this wasn’t those neat gallon ice cream boxes; it was the yellow RECTANGULAR box, with the black writing on it and a picture of a cow. You opened it by pulling that tab that went along the perforated dots on the package. To this day, vanilla ice cream is my favorite Mayfield flavor. If I get ice cream elsewhere, I may be bold and get chocolate chip, but that’s it.
  
• Granny always had snicker bars in her freezer. You should have seen this woman chow down on these rock hard items. She looked like a Labrador chewing on a soup bone. She died with no teeth by the way.
  
• She got chocolate covered cherries every year for Christmas, and loved them.
  
• She was so not afraid to tell people what she thought of them. Mostly family members. I, of course, was never at the horrible end of this openness… I was one her faves. She typically called people a Gorilla if she didn’t like them
  
• Granny’s husband died when my mom was 12. But he collected ceramic animals while he was alive. I remember seeing an ashtray in Granny’s house from day one of my memory. It was shaped like a curled up python. I loved taking it outside, hiding it, and showing it to my female cousins and scaring them. My brother was always in love with this item. It was given to him by the family the day of granny’s funeral. The thing is in mint condition, and is AT LEAST 50 years old.
  
• Granny was no stranger to hard work. Try being a woman in the 1950s and 60s living on top of a mountain of mostly dirt roads raising 6 girls and one boy who just left for the navy.

• Granny had a tree in her front yard. My cousins and I used to climb it all the time. You could climb about 15 feet easily in this thing. The snake climbed out of it one day and we didn’t climb it too much after that.
  
• Granny used to grow strawberries and make strawberry jam with them
  
• Granny had a yellow apple tree in her back yard; she made cobblers with those apples. I never understood this, but my aunts and mom and granny always told me that I shouldn’t pick those apples to eat them (even though I always did) because I would get a stomach ache… yet we ate them in her cobblers…why the hypocrisy?
  
• When I spent the night with granny, she always cooked biscuits (home made my friends. They were not pretty, but they were from S C R A T C H) and bacon… she had this every morning.
  
• Next to Granny’s home was a huge field that had a grass air strip on it… I thought it was so cool seeing that man land his plane and take off… turns out he was running drugs…. And he was arrested
  
• On the other side of granny’s house was a nice pond that I was never allowed to go to. However, I could walk on the road and throw rocks into it. That land used to belong to our family… must be 20 acres plus some… a great aunt of mine sold it for like $4,000 many many years ago… at least the now-owner only uses it for his cows, but the home my mom grew up in was on that land, it because abandoned of course, and stood for many years… but the owner of the land had to destroy it, his cows would walk in there and I guess he was afraid it would fall on them…
  
• Granny always had a pet cat. I don’t know what it is about those north Georgia mountains, but cats are always walking around. One shows up one day, she feeds it table scraps, and somehow it never goes away, and survives off table scraps…
  
• Granny has a great record collection. Lots of Floyd Cramer. She still had an 8 track player and the 8 tracks to go with them.
  
• Granny had a rocking chair “lazy-boy style” that was pretty old. It was HER chair. Us kids would always get in it when she wasn’t around and rock in it, 80% of the time the chair would fall backwards… why it never happen with Granny in it is beyond me.
  
• Her front porch was a forum for all sorts of topics and meals.
  
• She dint have air conditioning. Just a window-unit fan.
  
• To warm her house, she USED to have a wood burning stove. It was replaced by an electric heater about 10 years ago sadly… or maybe for the best, that stove was HOT to the touch.
  
  I could go on forever. I don’t know why I felt like putting all this to word, but it was fun.
  Jamison

Epicenter of gayness

We live one street over from the epicenter of homosexuality in Montgomery. Here is their website: http://gaymontgomery.com/

Just thought it was amusing.

playing, cool

Jamison and Sipp are actually going to a jam! How cool is that?! Too bad you guys can't find a way to record the audio and post it.
Sipp when are you going to pick up that guitar?
btw I have a thought that I'm going to put to paper which I think will be a uniquely piece that will really put the blog off on the right step.

Playin' in the band

This saturday, Joshua and myself will be doing an acutal performace with some other men for a group at church.
Photographs will be taken (by both our wives i am assuming) and they will be posted here for your amusement

Blogger confuses the crap out of me, i cant figure out how to start a new post unless I am logged in as midnightcafe...


and I cant figure out how to add links to the blog unless I am logged in as midnightcafe, rather than jamisonb

anyway, this is jamison

Poo is what I feel

I think I'm going to be a boring part of the blog cause I don't know what to talk about.
I miss Alabama and all who live in it.
and I wish we could go to Disney.
and I'm having a crappy summer.
So I will leave you with this.
:(
I think today when I go to work I will talk like Yoda. "Take some lotion you will, hmmmmmm?"

mullinz

PETA and NAACP have to have the conflict because they will dissolve otherwise. It's funny because if you use the word "colored" in reference to blacks they will get upset but if you point out the fact that the C in NAACP is for colored there isn't much merit for their being disgruntled.

Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist

For my review of Dr. Katz click here.

-mat

People for the ethical treatment of some animals (PETSA)

Does anyone find this terrible funny? Or Terribly terrible? Or interestingly uninteresting?

http://www.wavy.com/global/story.asp?s=3482974&ClientType=Printable

It leads me to believe a theory I have had for a long time about organizations like PETA, or even the NAACP for example...
These organizations exists because something they don't like is happening and they want to change it.

While they are non-profits, employees (and the big wigs) still make money (look at Jesse Jackson!).

What happens if the entire world stops eating meat and treats animals like they were gods? Well, I guess either PETA dissolves (and all their donations and money) or they rule the earth (unlikely).

What happens if all Americans and American businesses stop being racist and pander to all colored people? Well, then I guess the NAACP will dissolve, since its purpose has through.

DO they really want that? I think not. Money is powerful.

I am led to believe that organizations like PETA, the NAACP, and many others actually want the problems they fight against to always exists. Otherwise, they all have to find real jobs...

I have a need...a need for speed!

Guess I had better pick up the posts on this site. I have been thinking about more books to write. I have a series on the horizon that might change the way I write forever! It is a young adult fantasy series. I have wanted to do this for years and I finally have the ideas and background on which to build my little universe. Should be fun!

Here we are but straying pilgrims...

Good morning Midnight Cafe!!!! OK...Let's keep it relatively clean and very interesting. What shall we discuss first? I think something to do with marriage and family is in order. Have we ever discussed that before? I am not talking about Donnie Hilliard's class at Faulkner...I mean our own experiences and beliefs. What say you?