a blab by idle

Somehow this little piece made me laugh and cringe at the same time:

They were both reading magazines

I watched Kevin Smith's excellent special edition DVD of Dogma again last night for the umpteenth time, along with all the outtakes and deleted scenes for the first time. I still find the movie to be brilliant, and I appreciate some of the subtleties more and more each time I watch it — a mark, for me, of a truly excellent film. However, something hit me in the shower today which I couldn't precisely resolve, and so I figured I'd voice it here and see if there was any feedback on the matter (especially from the Catholics, because it's entirely possible that this seems perfectly natural to anybody who's sat through 18+ years of Sunday mass).

Of course, significant spoiler warnings apply if you haven't seen the film. (Which you should.)

Oh, one other note: re-reading the extended portion of this post now that I've written it, I would imagine that it could seem pretty heretical to a rigid Christian. So if you get bent out of shape by that sort of stuff, you should probably just move along now. Nothing to see here. Thank you for calling.

For the rest of you….

At work, we are celebrating Earth Day 2006 today. I really dig this new logo that Jean from the IRC came up with; it has all sorts of elements that harmonize nicely. It was too nice to stay on internal emails and posters, so I felt compelled to put it here as well and share it with all of you. I really think it deserves much broader distribution, so in the spirit of "think globally, act locally"… it's here.

My amazing friend Bill, a fantastic author, has just had one of his short stories, "Observations From the City of Angels," podcasted on Escape Pod. Be sure to go check it out!

ピタゴラスイッチ, known in English as PythagoraSwitch, is a darling little NHK children's show that seems to be a highly focused left-brain cousin of Sesame Street. There are segments throughout the show known as "Pythagorean Device" (ピタゴラ装置) featuring Rube Goldberg-esque devices that are incredibly reminiscent for me of the Pinball Number Count segments on Sesame Street. (Come on, you know you know them and loved them, even if you didn't realize that it was the Pointer Sisters voicing it.) Anyway, Cliff Johnson's website pointed me to a YouTube-hosted collection of the best of ピタゴラスイッチ, and they range from amusing to truly incredible. The fact that they seem to be all made at home with pretty much nothing but standard household items really takes the cake.

Check it out; it's well worth the watch. Totally safe for work, too. (Not that I'm suggesting anything about where you should watch it… um, wow, look at the time; gotta run!)

I've seen the future, and it transcends the blogosphere.

…okay, well, at least it's good for a laugh. Read all the little juicy bits for maximum smilage.