(Remember - the official Beaver and Steve can always be found at www.beaverandsteve.com : Characters are © James Turner, I can't Believe it's not Beaver and Steve is © 2008 Mas )

Photos of tower builder by Anna Maria Johnson

Ah Babel.

Acabo de encontrar un video que me da mucha risa : ¡unos dibujos animados sobre Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates! Este video tan cachondo es en inglés, nuevamente, pero una vez más con subtitulos en español:

Y vosotros, ¿que preferís? ¿Mac o PC? O quizás la paz entre los dos...

Como bonus de este video, otro muy divertido:

My Verdict:

Buy an Iphone for personal use only if you must. Ideal for Students and people above the age of 60.

Keep watching this space for more on the Iphone!

That is what I am profoundly grateful for this week.

At only 31 weeks and a day old it was still too early for Ginny to consider being born yet, but for some reason she wanted to have an argument about it.

She insisted that she really did want to come early and the doctors insisted that she really needs to sit still a little while longer. Children don't like to sit still apparently.

I don't know if she is pouting or not about it, but Martin and I are very very grateful.

So thank you Lord, for the doctor's that did right by mama-Mel and baby Ginny.

Thank you for sending her a doctor that is treating her with respect and tenderness.

Please be with mama-Mel as she learns to stay off her feet in the coming weeks. Send friends to her doorstep and give her sweet hubby Steve the patience to help her without making her feel helpless. Bless all the members of our weird, extended, crazy family as we wait for "the time to be accomplished" for Ginny to be delivered to us. Healthy, whole and happy.

During dreaming a few days ago I was in between two streams of conscience and a child from Africa came up to me and said some scripture relating to my life I am living. I don't remember what the exact scripture the boy said, but the point was that it was alive. I asked a question about life following the scripture and the boy only repeated the scripture without reference to my internal inquiry. My question got eaten up by the truth that life is not found but lived in scripture. Other questions about other things don't go answered. They will find a way by themselves to work. But it is scripture that yields answers that need to be found. Even if you don't ask the right questions.

Par ailleurs, en 2009 paraitront aussi les actes de colloques "Musique et arts plastiques" de l'Université Paris Sorbonne dans lesquels on retrouvera mon intervention du 21 juin 2008 sur l'influence des expressionnistes abstraits sur la musique de Morton Feldman et la notion inhérente de traduction beckettienne.

Phoenix should just rename itself Dallas West. The best examples were back in the '90s when the Cardinals were still in the NFC East. Each year, the Cowboys-Cardinals match up at Sun Devil Stadium could be considered a ninth home game for Dallas. The stadium was nothing but a sea of blue and silver. And really can you blame them? It's the Cardinals for God's sake.

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as of now I will be starting a new Blog called "jesusPhone". This Blog will be related to as you might guess the Apple iPhone. So if you are interested in it stay tuned. I will be posting all sorts of interesting stuff on the iPhone like app reviews, general topics and tutorials (more to come). 

Check out my Blog from time to time and enjoy!

As part of the collection of renegade photos that Steve has taken that feature various friends "posing" with semi-famous to famous people, we have another addition to the illustrious list which includes David Cross (Arrested Development RIP), Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns) and now DJ/producer extraordinaire Diplo (errr...Mad Decent I guess?): [gallery]

So the challenge is to make a doll to interpret the word fair, fare or any derivative of the word.  Fairly, unfair, fairy..... just a few possibilities.  Due date is August 1.

TODAY is the first day I have known what I am doing.  I have a vision.  I have the supplies.  I have the doll's body that I made 2 mos ago.  Oh my.  I do NOT have the know how with paint and dye.

Steve just came out of the kitchen with a sandwich.  Says "It was kinda hard to make a sandwich.  There's a naked lady in there that looks like she had a run in with a bottle of iodine."

Man, he puts up with alot.

The other day, I was inspired to research some of the founding fathers, their history and beliefs. I discovered a TV series about John Adams on HBO (making me wish I subscribed to that cable channel). I decided to find and read some of Adams' most famous quotes. Here are just a few of my favs:

"Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide."
"Fear is the foundation of most governments."
"Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people."
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
"Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws."

To me, those are amazingly powerful and direct statements of wisdom.

I later stumbled onto (many) quotes from Thomas Jefferson, who is perhaps the most prominent and famous draftsman of the US Constitution. Here is a (long) list of my favourites:

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government."
"Delay is preferable to error."
"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."
"Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. "
"Every generation needs a new revolution."
"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
"Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind."
"I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind."
"I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too."
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be."
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion."
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."
"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
"Information is the currency of democracy."
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes."
"It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape."
"It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness."
"It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good."
"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people."
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
"Never spend your money before you have earned it."
"No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
"The most successful war seldom pays for its losses."
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."
"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force."
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
"There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world."
"Timid men prefer the calm of [tyranny] to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
"Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society."
"War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses."
"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter [newspapers withou the government]."
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."
"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government."
"Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe."

Finally, Benjamin Franklin:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

I am very tempted to memorize every one of these quotes (but I dread the disappointment of a faulty memory)!

Over the next few weeks, I intend to post some of my own thoughts and comments on how the ideas of these men apply to certain situations and issues of our day.

So... stay tuned!

& the man himself:

[[http://stevemccurry.com/main.php]]

Some may call it the most abused iPhone ever.. others may call it the most overused iPhone ever. Call it what you want, but it’s almost time to get a new one!

Just how badly do I need a new iPhone? Physically speaking, I need one ASAP but everything is still working perfectly on my device. It’s been over a year and I’ve never once even needed to do a clean restore — it’s still the same as the day I bought it (other than those few scratches)

If there’s one thing that I know for sure is that most Apple products have passed the irIain Abuse Test with flying colors.

From my Macbook that has been across the United States more times than most flight attendants to my iPhone that has a drop count greater than a professional sky diver — These two key products have yet to fail me!

Granted I’m sure some of you haven’t been so lucky. What’s one of your horror stories of gadget abuse? How’s your phone holding up? Can anyone beat these battle scars?

PS. I might make my iPhone a Bebo

Okay, perhaps that’s a bit of a stretch, but I did call over 35 stores yesterday and they were just that — All sold out! There are also still reports of lines with 3-5+ hour waits at the stores.

If you’re still waiting for an iPhone.. here’s the tips from the employees I talked with to hopefully assure you’ll get one in a somewhat timely fashion.. but probably not :D

• Get there early.
• Call ahead of time just to be sure
• Each store updates their availability after 9pm on the store’s retail page.
• If you’re crazy enough to camp out over night, “I won’t kick you out, but you could just call first?”

Pretty straight forward.. but don’t forget, you can also try to pick one up at most O2 stores too.. if they have them. Again, call first to make sure!

Perhaps this was Apple’s brilliant idea of hyping up the iPhone even more by limiting availability, nixing the online purchases and forcing you to activate in store? If you remember last year, there was still very high demand, but everyone who wanted an iPhone — got one. There were even people who were upset because they waited in line for a day and they were still in stock.

Ah, oh well. Can’t please everyone, right?

..and no, I have nothing else to blog about but iPhones. I can’t think of anything else but apps and 3G. Help! Addict!

(… se si riuscisse sempre a raccontare la verità del proprio interlocutore)

So, is anyone else out there about to freaking burst from excitement due to the arrival of the new Batman movie. The Dark Knight has already opened to rave reviews and tickets are sold out from coast to coast.

What gets my nerd pants in the biggest frenzy is the fact that someone finally made a Batman movie that shows the truly dark and twisted nature of crime-fighting in Gotham City. For years, Batman has been type-cast as a corny superhero in tights who squares off against zany villains who throw out quirky one-liners.

However, the real ethos of Batman is anything but light-hearted. Batman is a product of murder. Young Bruce Wayne watched as his parents were gunned down. He uses the symbol of the bat not as a bit, but because it strikes terror into the heart of criminals. I always thought Batman movies should border on being considered in the horror genre. Batman should be a scary figure and his enemies should make you wet your pants. I think Heath Ledger's portrayal as the Joker has finally driven this point home. Can you imagine anything more terrifying than a homicidal maniac in devilish clown make-up coming after you? The Joker isn't a prankster, like previous movies have tried to convey. He's the equivalent of Ted Bundy or Jeffery Dahmer with a disgusting grin painted on his face. He's what nightmares are made of.

My only regret for this movie is that it's not rated "R." If it were, it could really get into the nitty-gritty of what life in Gotham City would be like. But even though it's not rated "R," The Dark Knight is still geared for an adult audience. I'm hoping to go see it tomorrow with my brother, and if I make it, you can expect a full review shortly thereafter.