Let Them Eat Cake

A good friend of mine has a business of creating cakes for all types of occasions. Check out some of his work Renaissance Productions.

He doesn't ship cakes, but if you have an event in the D/FW area, he is well worth the money. The cakes not only look good, but they taste delicious as well.

The Sun'll Come Out Today

Once again, I find myself unable to get to sleep. I have Court in the morning, but I just haven't gotten the least bit sleepy. I've been surfing the web. I Googled my best friend, Rod Martin and spent a lot of time sifting through 21 pages of results. If you Google my name, you get almost 80 pages, but very few of the links are about me. Most of them are about the former President of the Fort Worth Cats minor league baseball team or some guy who is in a Beatles tribute band.

I also found some info about a church I may visit soon. It's closer to us now than our previous church was before we moved, so it's worth the consideration if the church is good. I like the folks at the church we currently attend, but I feel like a fish out of water because we're not really Lutherans.

What Exactly is TheVanguard.org?

I've had a link to TheVanguard Blog on my sidebar since the early days of this blog. TheVanguard.org is the brainchild of Rod Martin, who happens to have been Best Man at my wedding and who remains my best friend despite the miles that separate us.

A couple of days ago, Human Events published a feature article entitled The Next MoveOn.org?" written by Stephanie Dube, a freelance writer from Dallas and creator of The Write Idea. Dube profiles Rod, giving a brief biographical background and professional pedigree. She goes on to explain the purpose of TheVanguard.org and mentions some of the others involved. Most of whom you've heard of, even if you have never heard of Rod Martin before:

Launched as an organization last March, TheVanguard.org already has a top-drawer cast, including Silicon Valley heavy-hitters like Eric Jackson (a former PayPal colleague of Martin’s, where he was head of marketing) and Gil Amelio (former CEO of two Fortune 500 companies, including Apple Computer), among others.

But it is far from an all-California show. Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist is on its board too, as are Club for Growth founder (and current Wall Street Journal editorial board member) Stephen Moore, famed actress Jane Russell, direct-mail pioneer Walt Longyear, “compassionate conservatism” guru Marvin Olasky, even Reagan Doctrine-architect Jack Wheeler. Martin refuses to confirm or deny rumors that Jerome Corsi—co-author of 2004’s “Unfit for Command,” which irreparably damaged John Kerry’s presidential hopes—has signed on for a similar effort against Hillary.

The diversity of issues represented by this group is not accidental. “The scope and immediacy of the internet makes bringing people together a lot easier,” Martin explains. “The conservative movement is far too fractured. Libertarians attack Christians, pro-gunners snipe at pro-lifers, border security folks question outreach to conservative Hispanics. It’s not what you’d call conducive to victory.

“The left has always been better at coalition building, and MoveOn is the latest means by which they’re better. But the internet is a great leveler: we can do this too. And we must.”

Early indications are that they will. After less than a year of “beta tests” which included efforts to extend the Bush tax cuts and derail a United Nations gun ban conference (it ended in deadlock), the group’s web traffic exceeds that of many of the most noteworthy political groups in America. While still far short of the exalted ranks of MoveOn, DailyKos or WorldNetDaily, web rankings generated by Alexa.com show TheVanguard.org beating such established organizations as the National Rifle Association, National Right to Life, the Club for Growth, the Minuteman Project and People for the American Way. Martin notes with a combination of surprise and glee that this is before the full site “goes live,” and before the group executes its marketing plan.

Conservatives owe it to themselves to check out TheVanguard.org. My prediction is that before too long, Rod Martin will be one of the most well-known people in America.

Celebrity look-alikes

There's a fun website where you can see what celebrities you look like. My brother mentioned this on his AOL Journal once, but I stumbled across it again recently. I decided to upload a pic of two of my friends from Kiss Me, Kate, Tyler & Josh.



According to the My Heritage site, Tyler (left) looks like:

Jesse Metcalfe (61%)
Clark Gable (57%)
Tom Welling (57%)

Actually, there were more, but they were either folks I had never heard of or women. In fact, his top match was Britney Spears, but I thought I wouldn't embarrass him by mentioning it . . . OOPS!

Josh (right) comes back as:

James Van Der Beek (74%)
Ron Howard (67%)
Joe Rogan (67%)
Hal Sparks (62%)
Rob Schneider (60%)
Tom Cruise (59%)

I don't have a recent enough photo of myself to get a good reading.

I Have Been Immortalized

My good friend, Moose, drew me in a cameo over at Casey and Scotty. Even though the voters of Kaufman County didn't make me a Judge, Moose has.




UPDATE: It has been pointed out to me that this strip isn't very funny if you don't know the context, so you can check out the previous strip HERE.

More Prayers Requested

My former Pastor, Tom, has had some heart problems. I just got an e-mail telling me that he had two stints put in a couple of weeks ago. Please keep him, his wife Mary, and his family in your prayers.

K-Bob Still MIA

Happy Birthday Kristi!

Wherever you are.

Help a Friend

One of my friend's pets is in contention for Pet of the Week at The Dallas Morning News. I would appreciate if you would go vote for Dori HERE.

Look for the "Vote For This Week's Favorite" Image and click it. Vote for Dori.

Voting ends Thursday August 10th, so don't dawdle.

Casey & Scotty is back up

Moose got back from his trip and got the server issue resolved.

the "missing" July 9th strip

The current strip

Server Problems in Andbait

Moose is having some problems with his hosting for Casey & Scotty. I certainly hope that it gets worked out in time for the scheduled return tomorrow.

In the meantime, why don't you show your support for him and Casey by voting for the strip. Really, it takes less than a minute to hit all three sites.

Webbed Comics

Top Comics

BuzzComix

Feeling Small

No, this isn't about losing weight, and it's pretty long.

A hot, prickly feeling of shame spread from the top of Harry's head all the way down his body. Dumbledore had not raised his voice, he did not even sound angry, but Harry would have preferred him to yell; this cold disappointment was worse than anything.
                       —Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, p. 428

I don't think I ever heard my High School Speech teacher, Janice Caldwell, raise her voice. She never had to. Mrs. Caldwell was one of those teachers whom everyone respected. In those days, it seemed that most of the students still cared what teachers thought of them. That was especially true regarding students and Mrs. Caldwell.

Mrs. Caldwell may not have ever yelled, but she certainly knew how to express her displeasure. Whenever a student behaved inappropriately, she would not berate or chastise. Instead, a hurt look would grow on her face, and she would say, "I'm very disappointed in you." The words were always the same. The reaction was usually the same, too.

My contact with Mrs. Caldwell began my Sophomore year. It was that year that I first competed in Speech tournaments. Mrs. Caldwell was also the Assistant Director for our competition One-Act play. Because of my course schedule, I was not able to fit Speech class in until my Senior year. It is a point of pride for me that I was the first person to obtain a grade of "A+" in Mrs. Caldwell's class. School generally came easy to me, but I made a little extra effort in Speech class. There's just something about Mrs. Caldwell that made students want to please her.

During that year, one of our units was Cross-Examination team Debate. The class was set up in an elimination tournament. Fifteen teams of two contended for classroom glory. The tournament was single-elimination (except for one of the first seven teams defeated; that team was randomly selected to compete in the first round again against the fifteenth team), so the pressure was immense. My partner, Kim Appleton, and I were paired up against Shelly Scarborough and Jennifer Raynes. They were the Affirmative. The topic being debated was:

Resolved: That the Federal Government should enact a comprehensive policy to protect the quality of water in the United States.

****At this point, you are either very impressed or very scared that I still remember that after almost twenty years.****

Shelly and Jennifer pulled out a plan to mandate Fluoridation of all public water supplies in the U.S. Now, Kim and I had all kinds of evidence about the water table, ground water, lakes, rivers, Superfund, and the like, but we had not card one about fluoride. I told Kim our only hope was to go after Topicality, which is an issue related to whether the plan really fits the stated topic.

The Judge, who was the school's Drama Teacher, voted for Kim and me on the Topicality issue. The team of Appleton and Scott were never seriously challenged in the next three Rounds and won the Tournament handily.

However, going back to the day of Round 1, at lunch that day I was up in Mrs. Caldwell's classroom. She told me that she thought the other team's plan was topical and that, in her opinion, we should have lost the round. I replied that we were caught completely by surprise, so we had to "BS our way through the Round." Mrs. Caldwell looked at me and asked if I knew the meaning of what I had just said. At that moment, if I could have hit a magic "Rewind" button, I would have, but it was too late. I told Mrs. Caldwell that yes, I knew what "BS" stood for, but I didn't really mean those words, which was at least consciously true.

Mrs. Caldwell gave me a brief lecture about choosing words carefully, especially as a Christian who desired to be a positive example for my classmates. I sat there and took my medicine hoping it would be over quickly. Mrs. Caldwell spoke again, quietly and calmly, "I'm very disappointed in you." Since the Rewind button was nowhere to be found, I started wishing for a hole in which to hide. It did not need to be a big hole either because I only felt about two inches tall.

After that, as further testament to Mrs. Caldwell's greatness, there was no lingering condemnation from her. She had expressed her displeasure and then moved on. I have communicated with Mrs. Caldwell occasionally over the years, but it's been a while since the last time. She was one of those great teachers who leaves a lasting impression, and I am a better person for having known her.

More about Jamie Foxx

I just read that Jamie Is the first person to have been nominated for three acting awards at the Golden Globes in the same year. I'm not sure if it's true that he is the first, but it is true that he is nominated in 3 categories in this year's Golden Globes.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004937/awards

In case you're wondering why I care, as I mentioned before, I graduated from Terrell High School with Jamie.

Collateral

My wife and I watched Collateral Wednesday night on DVD. I'm not necessarily the most objective person in this regard, but I thought Jamie Foxx turned in a tremendous performance. What I don't understand is why the Golden Globe nomination for Foxx was for Supporting Actor. Maybe it's just me, but Max sure seemed like the main character to me. This is his story, not Vincent's.

I thought the movie was good. It felt a little rushed from the time Max & Vincent left the meeting with Felix until the final scenes on the train, but for some reason, I think that was on purpose.

The DVD extras were disappointing for the most part, but I did like the selection showing Foxx & Cruise rehearsing both at the initial read-through and at a later time.

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow

I trekked down to the local community theatre to audition for Annie tonight. My up tempo song went okay but my ballad was dreck. I really wanted to sing "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors, but despite the fact that I just did the show, I didn't get a copy of the score to keep. So, I had to go back to a song that I'm less familiar with and that is slightly out of my range. It's too high where written, and a little too low if I drop it an octave.

Anyway, I thought the cold reading went okay, and given the paucity of men that were signed up, I'm pretty sure I'll be something in the show. Probably not what I want, though.

A Great Evening, Nonetheless

Despite my failings as an auditioner, it was great to see Babs tonight. I'm sorry she ran into all that crap up in Denton, but if it means I get to do a show with her again, I'll be happy.

This will also likely be my eldest daughter's first show. She participated in our Children's Theatre program last summer, but this will be her first full production, assuming she gets cast. She'll turn 6 on the date of one of the performances.

It's been a long day

I had a Court Docket today. 105 cases set in the morning. 40 this afternoon. For some inexplicible reason, the afternoon docket took almost as long as the morning one. I got done with Court at 3:45, and I had to head downtown to get some stuff done (my mileage report and my time entry). Normally I wouldn't have had to do that today—the mileage report isn't due until Thursday, and the time doesn't close out until Friday—however, I'm taking the next three days off from work.

Why? you ask.

Tomorrow morning, I have to get up at 4:30ish (there's a 4:30am?) to accompany my wife to the hospital. The Doctor, a great guy named Dr. Lee, will be inducing labor for our fourth daughter, Lindsey in the morning. Well, it'll be our fourth daughter unless the ultrasound was wrong. In that case, Dr. Lee will be inducing labor for our first son, Jarod.

So, tomorrow's gonna be another long day, and the odds are that I won't get a chance to post. I know, I know, all 3 of my readers are heartbroken.

Now, for the seven and a half of you who are wondering why I had 145 cases set on my dockets for today—I am a Prosecutor in the Hot Check Division of the Dallas District Attorney's office. One of our duties is to cover the dockets in the Justice Courts. Primarily, that means prosecuting traffic tickets, but there are other types of cases as well. In the twenty months I've had this job, I've tried approximately 2000 cases (yes, you read that right—I try about 100 cases a month). I have a 97.5% conviction rate, and I haven't lost a Jury Trial in over a year. Of course, now that I've bragged about that, I'll probably go on a terrible losing streak.

Anyway, back to the long day. After I left the office, I had to go to my part-time teaching gig at Eastfield College. That was another three hours. So, now I'm worn out, but not sleepy, and I have to get up in six hours.

Finally tonight, my best friend threatened me to within an inch of my life if I didn't link to his site, so here goes:

The Vanguard

I'll most likely be posting more about Rod in the future.