Mezzamorphis

I’m interested to know what social networking sites people use the most. The only options I have on there right now are Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Give me others and I’ll add them.

I’ve been fairly agnostic about Twitter. I didn’t really see a good use for it. I’ve been roughly of the same opinion on Facebook status updates as well.

However, in the last few days, I’ve gotten more of an idea of the usefulness of said tools. I’ve found that he Facebook status update provides a sense of community with others that you are friends with. It doesn’t replace face to face interaction, but it can help keep people closer who are separated by great physical distances. If the status updates are honest, you can get a feel for the highs and lows, the ebb and flow of a person’s life. You can encourage them when they are down, congratulate them when they report something good, and just generally keep in touch.

Twitter is a little more difficult to nail down. The best example of something useful I’ve found is a weather update that I get from the chief meteorologist at WFAA in Dallas, Pete Delkus. Mr. Delkus uses Twitter to send forecast information and severe weather updates. I found it fairly handy last weekend when we had storms rolling through, and Mr. Delkus would update with when the storms would generally arrive in Dallas or Fort Worth. That is useful, timely information that I like to have.

I don’t really get into the minutiae of daily life from others on Twitter. It doesn’t really hold my interest all that much. Are there other things that you find useful about Twitter and Facebook?

Believe me, it’s not what you think.

Guy really likes Star Wars.

I’ve been tagged to produce this as part of a 123 meme. Here are the rules for this fun little bit of Internet foolishness:

• Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more (no cheating!)
• Find page 123
• Find the first five sentences
• Post the next three sentences
• Tag five people

So, the book that is nearest to me is “Christ and Culture” by H. Richard Neibuhr. It’s  really a great book, and it’s taking me forever to get through it, mainly because it’s written by a former Yale theology professor. Big words, long sentences, great thoughts. Here’s the quote from the book, which is actually taken from Matthew 22:21 and Romans 13:1.

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. … The authorities are ministers of God.”

Yes, it’s four sentences. Call the Meme Police on me if you want.

This is part of Niebuhr’s larger thought of Christ being above culture, of people trying to create a synthetic view between Christ and the culture around them. This synthetic view tries to take into account that while we are under Christ, we are part of our culture, and we must have complete “awareness of the dual nature of our law, our end, and our situation.”

Actually, this page contains my favorite sentence in the book so far.

The New Testament contains no document that clearly express the synthetic view; but there are many statements in gospels and epistles which sound the motif or which can be interpreted, without violence to the text, as containing this solution of the Christ-and-culture problem. (emphasis mine)

That’s great stuff. “Without violence to the text”. How many authors do commit violence against the text of Scripture in order to make a point?

Wow. I got sidetracked. Here are my tags. Angie, Amy, Chris, LaShawn, and Patti.

First, check out this story.  A group of engineers built a 21 foot long replica of an X-Wing from Star Wars. It was rocket powered, built with the intention of actually flying the thing.

So, yesterday they actually flew it. The video is here. Let’s just say the take off was spectacular.

It was a cool idea, and I’m sure it was fun, but the only thing I can think of when watching it is a quote from Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons.

While reading a comic and loudly lecturing Aquaman on his romantic choices, the Comic Book Guy sees a missile bearing down on him and comes to sad terms with his impending death. He utters, “Oh, I’ve wasted my life.”

Your results:
You are Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan Kenobi 77% Qui-Gon Jinn 75% Yoda 70% Darth Maul 65% Mace Windu 63% R2-D2 63% Chewbacca 59% Jabba the Hutt 58% Boba Fett 58% C-3PO 57%

You are civilized, calm, and have a good sense of humor, even when those around you don’t. You can hold your own in a fight, but prefer it when things don’t get too exciting.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)
Click here to take the “Which Star Wars character are you?” quiz…

This just became #1 on the list of things that I must acquire before I die. Watch the video too.

I don’t usually watch these talent shows, but I saw this video on the internet and thought it was worth sharing.

Phone Salesman Amazes Crowd – Watch more free videos

This summer looks to be a big one at the movies. I was reading on another site about how the competition is going to be pretty thick this year, and looking at this list I think it will be. Here are the movies and what I think might result.

Spiderman 3, May 4 – I think this one will be pretty good, as the first two were well done, though not entirely faithful to the character. Venom will be a good addition to the movie universe, thought the Sandman might be lame. It will do well simply because it's the first big blockbuster of a season full of them, and it builds on an established franchise.

Shrek the Third, May 18 – Shrek was excellent, Shrek 2 was good, but I can't see where they can go from there. I'm sure it will be another big hit, but it had better get it's money the first weekend because it is being followed by….

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, May 25 – This seems to fall into a bit of a lull in the schedule as it comes directly after Shrek the Third, but it's at least three weeks before another big movie comes along. This is the final story in the Pirates trilogy, and will be huge. Especially huge after the teaser at the end of Dead Man's Chest. We should finally see the fates of Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swan, Commodore Norrington, Captain Barbosa, and Davy Jones. Oh, and a drunk Keith Richards as Jack's dad. Good times.

Ocean's 13, June 8 – As with the Shrek movies, this had an excellent first movie (one of my all time favorites) and an OK second movie. I'm not even sure what the plot is supposed to be on this. As it comes out so close to Pirates I can't see it being a major hit.

Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, June 15 – The first FF movie was decent, but adding a dude in a silver bodysuit probably won't bring a lot of people back. Might be popular enough simply because it's in a good position.

Ratatouille, June 29 – The next Pixar movie, but it might become the lowest grossing of the lot. There are two more kid/family movies coming after it that would most likely take away any repeat viewings this might have received. Plus, it's about a rat. Not too much to be optimistic about.

Live Free or Die Hard, June 29 – Essentially Die Hard 4, it will be worth it just to have John McClane blow up something. “Yippie-ki-yay” to this one.

Transformers, July 4 – Independence Day was released on July 4 back in 1996 and was huge. They did a good job of not showing what the aliens in that movie looked like until it came out. They have tried to do a similar job with Transformers, but to much less success. Credit the intarweb with that. Can't keep a secret anymore these days. My opinion, and I'm a Transformers fan, but I think it will suck. Armageddon meets big robots. However, the main reason it won't do big business is….

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, July 13 – The fifth of the HP films, the longest of the books, and a pretty dark descent into the HP universe all adds up to big money at the box office. I predict that this will be one of the top two films of the year, behind Pirates of the Caribbean. The story is difficult to read, but I think it lends itself well to the big screen. I don't like Michael Gambon's Dumbledore, but Dumbledore doesn't play a huge role in this book, at least not one that the viewer will see. The next film will have Dumbledore in a crucial role. I'm looking forward to this one more than any of the rest of the films.

So there you have it. The claywginn.com 2007 film preview. One more note: Indiana Jones IV, May 2008. Good stuff.

You know, it's about gorram time that this happens. I'll be first in line, as I'm sure will many others. I was late in coming to the 'verse, but it's well worth it.

Like Capt. Mal Reynolds stumbling in after a bar fight, the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi series Firefly will soon make an unexpected return, not as a TV show, but as a massively multiplayer online game.

Now that's shiny.

Multiverse, maker of a free
MMO-creation platform, plans to announce Friday morning that it's
struck a deal with Fox Licensing to turn the show into an MMORPG in the
fashion of Star Wars Galaxies or Eve Online.

What does this mean?