Zixar

It's a decent way to kill an afternoon--if you realize going in that it's going to be "The Mummy III", with only one person from the original cast. (Kevin J. O'Connor, who played the weaselly Benny in "The Mummy", plays Igor in VH.) Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale are quite good in their roles, as is David Wenham, who plays Friar Carl. He's also the man who played Faramir in LOTR 2&3, although he's totally different in this character. My real beef was with Richard Roxburgh, whose Dracula is one part camp, one part bad Bela Lugosi impersonation, and one part not-in-the-least-bit-menacing. If you don't take it too seriously, it's a halfway-decent 1930s monster movie with enough Stephen Sommers anachronisms to choke a small mob of angry villagers with torches and pitchforks. Two and a half stars out of four.

Psalmie: It may not have been PayPal/eBay, unless you responded to an email that appeared to have been sent by them. Crooks can copy the graphics off of the eBay and PayPal sites and set up dummy sites that look just like them. Usually they send you an email saying your credit card is about to expire and to follow a link in the email to re-enter your info. Of course, the link takes you to the fake site, not the real one! If you ever get an email of this nature, DON'T click on any links in it. If you think it could be a legit inquiry, close the email and login to their site by hand (i.e., go to your browser and type in www.paypal.com) and check your account status THERE. If the message was legit, you're now ok. If it was malicious, your account should be in good standing. PayPal and eBay are favorite targets of these crooks, and they're starting to send emails dressed up as coming from your internet service provider's billing department--same scam, same solution. If it was a check card, someone could have just as easily dumpster-dived a receipt from your local store and used your account that way. Monitor all your cards closely! Sorry it happened to you. Hope it's the last time! Zix

You could always go to the local law school and present your case as an exercise for the students. Clever (i.e., sneaky) law students live to impress. After all, "a score of peasants with hayforks can defeat a handful of men with rifles..."* Goey's right. Take every possible precaution because this is your one shot at them. Don't jerk the trigger or you'll miss. Zix * "...but if they have a tank, stick to farming."

Pat, you definitely need an attorney, and a competent one, too. Legal proceedings can not be adequately executed by those at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence.* You need to have a lawyer who specializes in intellectual-property law to handle this for you. Yes, it's possible to represent yourself. It's possible to remove your own appendix, too, but that doesn't make it a good idea. Copyright Regulations for Dummies is long out of print. Get some help, Pat. Really. * smarter than the average bear

Tom: Sorry, but a REAL Believer™ could simply speak in tongues for five minutes and be able to drive perfectly, even if his blood was completely substituted with Jack Daniels. You fail the believer test and must drink. Them's the rules, bud.

Steve!: Hey, this is a "Biblical RESEARCH and TEACHING ministry" we're dealing with, remember? ;)--> You know, the people who can rewrite the Bible at will because of their all-encompassing knowledge of biblical "usage", including grammar and spelling? Guess their powers leaked over into rewriting the dictionary now, too... ;)--> Besides, the mention of the word is effectively so rare that draining the glass would be appropriate. (Even though hypocatastasis is the most-used figure in the world...)

Optional Advanced Rules--only for experts and unrepentant alcoholics --one drink when anyone quotes any verse from Ephesians --one drink when anyone changes a word because of the "original texts" --three drinks when anyone says "literal translation according to usage" --one drink when someone mispronounces a Greek word --DRAIN GLASS if the word mispronounced is "hypocatastasis"(*) --one drink whenever someone finishes a sentence with "what", as in "For God so loved the WHAT?" (Use this one with caution!) --one extra drink (over the "class" rule) if it's ended with "what, Class?" In other words, "For God so loved the what, class?" is a 3-drink phrase, one for "what" one for "class", and one for combining them into "what, class?" --one drink if any time period is redundantly broken down, as in "in this day and hour" --one drink for any utterance of "Dat's riiight!" --one drink if anyone works "wonderful" and "beautiful" into the same sentence. (*) The correct pronunciation is HIGH-poe-cah-TASS-tah-sis, stressed as if saying "super-catastrophe". LCM usually mispronounced it hypo-kahta-stahsis, apparently because he could not process info in greater than two-syllable chunks...

A faulty DVD drive would not cause loss of audio sync. If the audio were gone altogether, that might indicate a faulty drive, but simple sync problems do not. The most frequent culprit for audio sync problems is high processor load. If the computer's CPU is running a bunch of other processes in the background, it may not be able to properly decode the audio stream in sync, especially with Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS soundtracks. Close all unnecessary programs before starting your DVD. Amount of available memory (RAM) may be too low to keep the buffers updated, too. Number 2 on the problem list would be the playback software like WinDVD or PowerDVD. Make sure you have the latest updates for it.

Raf: Congratulations! What is the proper form of address for one as newly-exalted as yourself? Your Irritance? :)-->

Dot: :D--> I have an experimental Sitcom Plot Rehasher, er, Generator, too, but the results are a bit erratic. Here's the output of the latest test run: Naaah. Back to the drawing board. No one would ever watch THAT... ;)--> Better throw in a gratuitous chimpanzee in a diaper. Much better.

Not to worry, precious Dotster. Uncle Zix will show you how to roll your OWN sitcoms for whole MINUTES of current-tv-quality entertainment: Zixar's Generic Modern Sitcom Generator (roll a single six-sided die on each table) Show's Predominant Ethnicity ---------------------------- 1-3 Caucasian 4-5 African-American 6 Other Main Character is: ------------------ 1-2 Adult Female 3-4 Adult Male 5 Child(ren) 6 Other If Adult Female, Main Character's Personality: ---------------------------------------------- 1-2 Neurotic twentysomething professional 3 Neurotic thirtysomething professional 4-6 Shrewish emasculating housewife If Adult Male, Main Character's Personality: -------------------------------------------- If Ethnicity is Black: 1-2 Upper middle class professional 3-4 Blue-collar family man 5-6 Offensive stereotype If Ethnicity is White: 1-6 Clueless doofus with the IQ of a slow squirrel Overall Premise and Setting (the "situation") --------------------------------------------- 1-2 Work sucks. 3-4 Love stinks. 5-6 Work stinks and love sucks. What Makes It Different From All Previous Sitcoms (the "hook") -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Odd family size (single parent...Brady Bunch) 2 Distinct job of main character (radio psychiatrist...bum) 3 Period piece (Korean War...goofy starship) 4 Fish Out Of Water (My Favorite Martian...Gilligan) 5 Fad Flavor Of The Week (Stunk'd...My Big Fat Pointless Greek TV Show) 6 Roll twice and combine results, rerolling any subsequent 6s. Sell to network and cut Zix a check! Enjoy!

Here's a crazy thought... What if some GreaseSpotters who still have some TWI material had an unofficial eBay contest with it? Each contestant eBays a book of theirs and agrees to donate all proceeds to Paw for the upkeep of GSC? The person who manages to squeeze the most $$$ out of the item gets a free GSC t-shirt or something. Yeah, the idea needs work. But we might as well turn a little of Darth Wierwille's legacy back to the light side of the Force...well, the GREEN side, anyway.

The inn rooms remaining are as follows: 2 double beds, non-smoking - 1 left 1 king bed, non-smoking - 1 left 1 queen bed - 3 left 1 queen bed, non-smoking, no balcony - 3 left All rooms are $78/night excpet for the king bed room, which is $83/night.

Come on, guys. Be nice. The banjo thing was just an inside joke between dmiller and me. No sense piling on him.

Some random musings... PRO: Pat's right in that "The Way" is pretty diluted as a trademark. CON: Unfortunately, "The Way International" isn't, and that's what the whole case hinges upon. Probably would have worked for "The Way of Christ", but no chance for "Way International". PRO: TWI really did/does disparage the beliefs of non-TWI religious groups. CON: Unfortunately, TWI is a religious group itself, and disparaging the beliefs of other groups is part and parcel of what starting a separate sect is all about. Catholics excommunicate Protestants, Muslims kill Jews, etc. No court will touch that one, and rightly so, under the First Amendment. PRO: TWI's prohibition against the Internet does work in Pat's favor. CON: Unless it was written down somewhere, TWI will produce as many witnesses to say there was no prohibition as Pat can produce to say there was. et cetera...

Pat: If you're going to have any chance at all with the disparaging-beliefs claim, you're going to have to steer clear of actually trying to define Christianity yourself. That's why so many people are ragging you on the trinity point, for instance. Anyone can produce evidence of non-TWI-affiliated unitarian Christian churches fairly easily. Instead, you might go after the blanket statements made by LCM and other leadership, like referring to Christendom as "Christen-DUMB", painting all churches except TWI as somehow deficient in knowledge or application of the Bible, etc., without going into doctrinal specifics. Under the 1st Amendment the court can't possibly adjudicate what is Christianity and what is not, but statements that condemn it as a whole, without being subject to judicial-religious interpretation, might be admissable for that claim. Heck, it might even be classified as "hate speech", if you happen to draw a liberal, ultra-PC judge, that is...

It may be a bit long, but I'd nominate "You'll Have To Excuse Me, I Play The Banjo" for dmiller's Karma-tag! :D-->

Has anyone looked into reserving one of the picnic areas for us?

Only 8 rooms left as of 9am today...

Details on the the 3rd Weenie Roast thread. Just started this topic so everyone who hasn't finalized accommodations can jump on it today! Please redirect all replies to that thread. Thanks!

NEWSFLASH: All cabins are now GONE for the roast weekend! (October 8-10) There are only about 10 inn rooms left, so unless you're planning on tents/RVs, reserve your room TODAY. You can do it online at the park website. A credit card is required, and they do charge you 1 night's stay up front (currently $83 or $78, depending) but that is refundable up to 48 hours prior to arrival. Get a room now, if you want it! (I got a room reserved, but seeing how my luck runs with GS gatherings, odds are pretty good I'll never get to use it... )

The idea that TWI committed some sort of misrepresentation of "Christian" beliefs is so vague as to be ridiculous. Quick! Answer the following! What are the real Christian beliefs? --Baptism: Sprinkle, dunk, or ignore? --Saints: Icons or idolatry? --Clergy: Celibate or just guys in collars/robes/neckties? You see what I mean. As long as any church even acknowledges Christ in some way, they can't be said to have misrepresented a "Christian" belief, even if they think he's a blue-furred Venusian who secretly plays goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Jim: I think it was NYPD Blue, not Hill Street Blues, but I get where you're coming from. I think the cam work on The Shield is right on the edge, but generally it's just enough to keep from inducing nausea. I learned that moving the camera is the main reason home videos look awful. If you just put it on a tripod and edit properly, you can make some fairly professional-looking stuff. The handheld shake and unnecessary zooming (never zoom while you're recording--if you have to because of a sudden change in action, edit the zoom out in post--looks 100% better) are the hallmarks of amateur camera work.

God, I H*A*T*E idiot directors who think Shaki-Cam™ is "artistic." Spielberg started that .... with Saving Private Ryan and everybody's imitating it. The director has the script, so he KNOWS what's going on. He can't understand that whip pans and un-steadi-cam work completely obliterates the flow of the action. Bad director! No Oscar! Too bad, I wanted to see MoF too. Oh well.

Yeah, I'd pay money to Ziering David Schwimmer. He ruined the first episodes of "Band Of Brothers".