Lawn party

Mr. Baseball

2008-05-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of growing up listening to Bob Uecker broadcast the Milwaukee Brewers. If the game wasn't entertaining he kept it lively with his banter. He really isn't that far off from the character he played in Major League. Anywho I ran across a Q&A with him on Yahoo, a little too heavy on the Mr. Belvadere stuff. But they had a miller light ad with him, (John Goodman (pre-Roseanne) is in it too). If you ever get a chance to read Catcher in the Wry it is hilarious.
Here is the Miller light spot:

There is a God.

2008-05-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

Just finished this book. Honestly I didn't know who Anthony Flew was or is. The book is good, but the Appendices are the most relevant for me. I grew up more or less agnostic, but as I grew in life and continuing in the "medical" field I really see how absurd it is not to believe in intelligent design. My choice of Christianity was also a growing into, it wasn't something I chose to believe and from that moment was all in. I tried to avoid it the best I could, but that is beside the point. In the first appendix there is the rebuttal of the "new atheists". The second appendix is a piece by N.T. Wright which is compelling. This I would recommend to those fence sitters regarding the existence of God. I just got done reading this from .Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller "Sooner or later you just figure out there are some guys who don't believe in God and they can prove He doesn't exist, and some other guys who do believe in God and they can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago and now it's about who is smarter..." Oh yeah btw you can't search inside, sorry got the pic from Amazon

Falling Down

2008-05-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

I saw this posted and instantly didn't like it. Well I finally listened to it and still didn't like it. The original is much better, even Rod Stewart's Downtown Train cover is better. Here is Falling down as it should forever be

City of the Dead

2008-05-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

I started reading this book not sure if it was a sequel or not, it turns out it was, although you could never tell by the jacket. Read this in a day, not great lit, but a page turner nonetheless. This is what horror stories should be, not lame attempts at literature ala Stephen King. Basically you have a guy with his 6yr old son and a motley crew of caricatures fighting off all of the Eastern Seaboard. Still not sure what it is with horror writers and masturbation and other acts of sexual deviance, so you have to deal with that. Sometimes less is more, but whatever. Like I said I read it in a day, yeah there were some Hallmark moments of conversation, when most people would be screaming their heads off, not trying to explain their emotions. I don't think Keene wrote himself into a corner but expressed his world view to an extent. Other reviews

Odd Thomas

2008-05-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

I am constantly looking for a good "horror" read. I have read some of Koonz's books before some good (Intensity) and not so good (Tick Tock). I picked this up at the library and got through it in a week, off and on. Odd Thomas is a short order cook who can see ghosts and uses this ability to solve crimes (murders) and or prevent them. He can also see shadow creature called bodaches, kind of evil voyeurs. It's kind of a Sixth Sense redux, and has that kind of twist to it as well. Will I read more of the series, I might. The problems I had with the story, it introduces weird charicatures for no apparent reason other than to be different, and Odd is 20yrs old but isn't written as so. One problem I will blame on myself is constantly picturing an overweight Thomas Dolby as the fungus man.