Very nice song

So, I love hearing Robbie Williams sing. I even get Google Alerts to keep up with his shenanigans. Occasionally, I'll get a reference to a site that provides a song or video clip of his. Today was one of those days. The song is "No Regrets" with Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys (you know, the guys who did "West End Girls"; yes, you do). The link for that particular page is here.

Looking at some other pages for recent "Songs of the Day", I came across this gem entitled "Throw Your Arms Around Me" by a group called Doug Antony Allstars (for more background info about who and what, click here):



I rather enjoyed it, and I hope you did, too!

Sci-Fi and Science Fiction

A short post after a Merry Christmas!

Being at home in Mississippi where my parents have cable, I get to see the Sci-Fi Channel, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, etc. All week, Sci-Fi has been advertising that they're showing Elf Friday night, which is tonight. What does Elf have to do with science fiction? Really, what?

Not that they ever mentioned they were going to show The Nutty Professor beforehand. This has a slight (and I mean very slight) science fiction bent with the development of "flubber", but who really thinks this is anything other than just an out-and-out comedy?

Miracles Never Cease

I went to Wal-Mart tonight. And I left the store without buying anything!

Speed Racer

Speed Racer is a show I used to love watching as a child. I especially loved the Mach 5. I used to dream about being able to drive it, racing around town, hitting whichever button dropped the stilts that made the car jump through the air. Nice, fun escapist fantasy; isn't that what cartoons are supposed to do/be?

Then I heard a couple of years ago that the Wachowski brothers wanted to do a big-screen version of it. I figured it might be okay, or at least I wanted it to be okay. It doesn't have to be the greatest, but I would hope for pretty good.

Here's a link to the trailer-selection page. Lots of people think this looks great. I think I'm in the opposite camp.

Current Favorite Commercial

My current favorite commercial is one of the ones where the cell phone blanks out during a very inopportune time. You know the series, even if you don't know the company (I know the company, but I'm not advertising it. They do happen to provide my DSL.)

This one is about the guy who asks his butcher for 50 lbs of beef. The butcher tells him he doesn't have any. The guy then asks (roughly), "What, did your wife eat it all for breakfast this morning?" The butcher then proceeds to laugh extremely heartily, but his phone has cut out, so the guy thinks he's offended his butcher. He then proceeds to say (again, roughly), "well, look at me. I mean, we're practically the same si...".

So classic.

Shakabuku — Not Finished but Better

So, the day after I wrote my previous post, of course, I went to church. And God spoke to me.

In the sermon Sunday morning, Dr. Brooks (our pastor, natch) said roughly, "In the darkness, we have to remember the promise spoken to us in the light". The darkness is not the definition of my life (or anyone's life), and even if it's extended over a lifetime, God can still work and bring many blessings.

The second thing was during Bible study. We were talking about God calling Abram out of Ur and calling him to a land he did not know, and giving him a promise that he wouldn't necessarily see in his lifetime. But Abram had to have faith that God would fulfill His promise.

So, I need to remember the promises of God, and have faith that He will work in my life to my benefit, but more importantly, to His glory.

Shakabuku

Debi: You know what you need?
Marty: What?
Debi: Shakabuku.
Marty: You wanna tell me what that means?
Debi: It's a swift, spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever.
Marty: Oh, that'd be good. I think.

This is from my favorite movie ever, Grosse Pointe Blank. It came to mind while pondering this depression that has set in upon me. It rolled in like a wave as I was leaving work last night, and it was all I could do to keep from just breaking down into tears. Nothing in particular and everything was making me sad, both bad and good.

I've never felt the sadness of Christmas before. I've read about it, and I know it's a very real phenomenon for many people. What should be the most joyous of times for people is anything but a chance of seeing any bright side of life; that's why the suicide rate climbs during Christmas-time. For the first time, though, I can sense that deep sense of being on the dark side. Not the hopelessness, but just the awareness that things aren't what they should be, or at least not what I wanted them to be. Which is fueled by my own sense of inadequacy, worthlessness, and irrelevance. It's a twisted mess and self-fueling quagmire.

I have to remind myself that I have friends who love me, my parents love me, that I haven't destroyed my life with all of my bad decisions, that God loves me and has a future and a hope for me, that Jesus Christ gave His very life so that I might live eternally with Him, and that my current circumstances are not the totality of my existence.

But one day, it would be really nice to not have to remind myself of these things, that they are just a part of my life naturally.