Retrophisch

Shootout at the Allen Corral

Our son Davis’ hockey team was invited to hold a shootout during intermission between the first and second periods of Friday night’s (1/29/10) Allen Americans hockey game.

Davis is the sixth shooter, skating at the 2:15 mark.

Get well soon, Charlie.

Because: “That’s how you do it, son.”

(I love the little point with the breadstick at the end. My favorite part.)

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“Mama!”

Featuring my all-time favorite Muppet:

Via Brent, who gave me a very appreciated laugh by telling me about it last night.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…

Because it’ll make you smile

Let the ocean come to you

To pass along Jon’s advice, “[g]ive this some time to load before watching…otherwise you won’t have smooth playback.”

Requiem For A Day Off

MC Vader

This is about a dozen kinds of awesome:

[Via Brent, who’s still ticked off about the Nirvana/Rick Astley mash-up. ;-)]

Because I know it will drive Brent bonkers

Brilliant mash-up.

Han Solo, P.I.

Love it.

But WAIT!

YouTuber TheCBVee provides us with a sequence comparison of Magnum, P.I. and his creation:

This is all doubly awesome since I grew up watching Magnum with my dad. (And mom, too, but she was just watching because of Tom Selleck’s hunkiness.)

Mucho gracias to mi amigo Stephen for the links via Twitter.

Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”

Except you haven’t heard it like this:

Dallas Wars? Star Dallas?

Love it.

“A republic, if you can keep it.”

“Many Americans would be surprised to learn that the word ‘democracy’ does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, or the U.S. Constitution. Nor does it appear in any of the constitutions of the fifty states. The Founders did everything they could to keep us from having a democracy.”

Democracy = mob rules. Republic = rule of law. Keep this in mind when American politicians—of any stripe—talk about the “will of the people”.

This is worth ten minutes of your time if you’ve forgotten—or never got—this lesson in civics class.

The Keene Act and You

Remember: together, we can forge a better America.

Puppet show

Davis threw an impromptu puppet show from Samuel, and as you can see from the latter’s reaction, the show got rave reviews.

Why did it take me so long to come across this?

Brilliant.

[Via Funs Size Bytes.]

This is for Brent

I laughed so hard at some parts I was crying.

Wow

I had read somewhere a brief bit of Brian Welch’s acceptance of Christ, but his testimony for I Am Second is powerful stuff.

[Wave of the phin to Evan Courtney.]

The most popular ringtone in Japan

The Scorpions + The Berlin Philharmonic =

Awesome.

An acappella tribute to John Williams

You can follow along with the lyrics.

[From my sweetie via e-mail.]

A prayer

Dark Knight Toy Story

[Via Lee on IM.]

Test drive

Our son, Samuel, tries out his crib and mobile for the first time.

“You can call me Al”

Like a lot of kids who came of age in the ’80s, I was not, and to this day am really not, a fan of Paul Simon. But every kid who came of age in the ’80s knew who Paul Simon was, thanks to this video:

I can still watch it just any ol’ time…

Habanera

Animal is my favorite Muppet. Just for the record.

Ode to Joy

With thanks to my frient Tom, who lifted my spirits with this earlier today.

Some day…

“Sorry about the mess.”

Start your day with a smile

Matt’s Dancing 2008 footage. My favorites: the DMZ in Korea, the two from Tonga, and Nellis Airspace.

[Wave of the phin to my sweet for passing it along.]

“Lola”? No, “Yoda”

Weird Al. Who else?

“High Tech Noon”

Pretty good:

[Wave of the phin to Bruce Webster.]

Matrix Guy

What do you get when you mash up Family Guy with The Matrix?

Fun fact: Both of these pop culture dynasties debuted in 1999.

[Wave of the phin to Dan.]

Remembrance

At least there was no “Ebony and Ivory”

One Gallon Axe

This is fairly awesome.

Doesn’t that make you want to drink milk?

The Empire Strikes Back. In 60 seconds.

To quote Geekdad, where I first saw this: “Sheer brilliance.”

Taken

Taken is an upcoming film written by Luc Besson and starring Liam Neeson as the dad you don’t want to make mad by hurting his little girl:

Unfortunately, it doesn’t release here in the States until September. Brent, Nathan, this gets a thumbs-up from me.

AirHogs Press Conference

The Grand Prairie AirHogs are a new minor league team in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, and we have some footage from a recent press conference:

The AirHogs season begins in May, and I’m looking forward to taking in a game or two this year.

Ride’em, cowboy!

This past weekend, we spent a few days visiting my parents in the suburbs of Birmingham. (That would be Alabama, not England. Just in case it wasn’t clear.)

My dad pulled my old rocking horse, Donut, out of storage, cleaned up the parts, and assembled him in the basement, all for my son to ride while we were visiting.

I got Donut about the same age as the little phisch is now, roughly 1974. The nostalgia from watching my own child ride the same horse I did thirty-three, thirty-four years ago, was overwhelming.

Dog’s Best Friend

This is fairly awesome.

REM + Muppets = Furry, Happy Monsters

How can you go wrong when you mix REM and The Muppets?

Twitter in Plain English

Whenever I bring up Twitter, I always get asked what it is. The best description I’ve mustered to date is “It’s a microblog”, which doesn’t fully do Twitter justice. Lee LeFever of the Commoncraft Show, has a easy-to-follow explanation:

So if you’re intrigued enough to check out Twitter, look me up, and feel free to follow my updates.

Re: Your Brains

This is for my pal Nathan:

[Wave of the phin to Grant.]

If George had hired Saul

Opening credits of Star Wars, Saul Bass-style:

[Wave of the phin to Laughing Squid.]

Hey Jude

At least his version doesn’t go on forever.

The 2008 Presidential Candidates

Muppet style.

Awesome. Just awesome.

With or Without You

My pal Dan turned me on to this fantastic cover of U2’s “With or Without You” by Japanese pop star Hikaru Utada:

Don’t fear: she may be speaking Japanese at the beginning of the clip, but she sings the song in English. It’s really good, a great arrangement, and awesome voice.

It’s true: bacon makes everything better

Everything.

Zero Tolerance = Zero Intelligence. Example #4,219

The TSA detained and searched a five year-old boy.

Read that again. It was a case of mistaken identity; a five year-old boy has the same name as another individual who is on the no-fly list. The Consumerist adds:

When his mother went to pick him up and hug him and comfort him during the proceedings, she was told not to touch him because he was a national security risk. They also had to frisk her again to make sure the little Dillinger hadn’t passed anything dangerous weapons or materials to his mother when she hugged him.

For those of you wondering, “Why the heck would they do all this?”, Bruce Schneier has the answer:

The explanation is simple: to the TSA, following procedure is more important than common sense. But unfortunately, catching the next terrorist will require more common sense than it will following proper procedure.

[Emphasis added. —R]

It’s all theater. It does nothing to protect the public; it simply pulls the wool over the eyes of those who choose to not think about it, to make those sheeple feel better. Five year-olds do not pull off terrorist acts, nor are they engaged in chatter with sleeper cells, which land them on a no-fly list. Any five year-old could figure that out. Okay, that’s not fair. Five year-olds might have a hard time figuring it out. But I know an eight year-old who’d know it was wrong…

[Wave of the phin to Lee and Tanner Lovelace.]

A reality show I’d actually watch

I make no bones about my disdain for the reality shows which litter network television. The only one I’d consider watching on a regular basis would be The Amazing Race. From the few bits and pieces I’ve seen of the various shows, it’s the only one that didn’t annoy me after thirty seconds.

One of the things that annoys me about some of the reality shows is that they’re not originals. They’re just re-hashed versions of something popular in another country, most notably the United Kingdom. Well, if we’re going to retool reality shows for the American audience, my vote is we roll with this one from Japan:

American Veteran Removes US Flag from Beneath Mexican Flag