Next Item-the Locks
I got home from only five weeks away at college and discovered that there have already been a few changes around here. Some of them are fairly minor-a new soap dispenser in the bathroom, a new phone in the kitchen. A few of them, though, have been more drastic and disconcerting. My car, for example, not longer has my presets on the radio. I used to have FM1 settings and my sister had FM2. Now, her stations have flooded over into both FM sets. Also, my San Damiano cross hanging from the rearview morror has been replaced by a lei. The St. Louis Cardinals air freshener is now a strawberry. I'm scared to leave and come back again. I may not have a room next time.
What Would This Site Be Without Weird Links?
Like this.
I love this prayer. It sounds like something from Braveheart.
A Warrior's Prayer
Great Creator God, who rules the world in glory and honor, I regret my dishonor and am ashamed of the honors I have not won. My sins are great and noisome, unbefitting a warrior, and they have brought me no glory and no honor, but only the taste of ashes. I am leaderless and lost without a foe. Your brave death was bought with great pain, and it was glorious,
for in that death upon the cross, you defeated death, sin and Satan. Lord God, I accept your atoning death as the sacrifice which covers my sin and shame. Enter into this warrior's heart and become emperor of my life. I trust in you my commander and willingly follow you into battle. Direct me now in my deeds so that I may be worthy of the honor you have bought for me!
Qapla'!
I love this prayer. It sounds like something from Braveheart.
Great Creator God, who rules the world in glory and honor, I regret my dishonor and am ashamed of the honors I have not won. My sins are great and noisome, unbefitting a warrior, and they have brought me no glory and no honor, but only the taste of ashes. I am leaderless and lost without a foe. Your brave death was bought with great pain, and it was glorious,
for in that death upon the cross, you defeated death, sin and Satan. Lord God, I accept your atoning death as the sacrifice which covers my sin and shame. Enter into this warrior's heart and become emperor of my life. I trust in you my commander and willingly follow you into battle. Direct me now in my deeds so that I may be worthy of the honor you have bought for me!
Qapla'!
I Swear I'm Not Making This Up…
Sorry, Dave Barry.
I was walking through an office building at Marquette today and I heard this complaint (without a trace of irony), which I repeat for you verbatim:
"Some people are so repetitive, they repeat themselves and keep saying the same thing over and over in different ways."
I was walking through an office building at Marquette today and I heard this complaint (without a trace of irony), which I repeat for you verbatim:
"Some people are so repetitive, they repeat themselves and keep saying the same thing over and over in different ways."
Computer Update
Seeing that my F7 key got away with messing around when it was supposed to be working, my hard drive followed suit. The computer froze up yesterday and restarted with a blinking question mark (meaning no hard drive found). I panicked but it restarted several hours later and appeared to be working fine. Then this morning, it froze again. Now the computer won't even spin the hard drive or show anything at all on the screen. Needless to say, further posts will be spotty until I get this fixed or get a new computer.
I Lost a Key on My Computer.
I was never a big fan of F7 anyway, but the gaping hole in my keyboard matches the the special place I had in my heart for my formerly intact computer. Does anyone know how to reconnect the F keys on a G3 iBook?
Ha Ha, He Said "Poop!"
It's amazing what you look for when you google late at night.
*EDIT* I didn't even read the page before I posted the link. I am not responsible for objectionable material that may appear on this site.
*EDIT* I didn't even read the page before I posted the link. I am not responsible for objectionable material that may appear on this site.
Best. . .Headline. . .Ever.
"Long-necked sea monster resurfaces after 230 million years. Claims to be another love child of Strom Thrumond"
Thank you, Fark.com.
Thank you, Fark.com.
New U2 Song!
Official Flametroll Concert Review: Robert Randoph and the Family Band
I promised you, my faithful reader(s), that I would tell you all about the Robert Randolph concert I went to over Labor Day weekend. Then I promptly saved the story as a draft and forgot all about it. Here it is, for those of you who are still interested.
In what appears to be an attempt to cajole people into coming to Milwaukee, the city offered an encore to its normal June-July Summerfest. It was titled, appropriately enough, Summerfest Encore. As a special incentive to spend even more time in Milwaukee, anyone who had a ticket from any one of a number of Brewers games could get in free. Taking advantage of having a ticket and living a bus ride away, I went.
For no money paid at all (college student's dream!), I saw Robert Randolph and the Family Band.
As the sun went down over the lakefront (Lake Michigan, that is), the grounds of the festival were covered in the fog. It was also covered in the collective smoke of a few hundred people who thought I was enjoying their second hand cigarette/cigar/joint. Thank you Febreze.
Instead of individual seats or open space, the stage was surrounded by long benches like you would see on the sidelines of a youth soccer league game. Anyone familiar with RR's music knows that no one will be sitting. It's going to be wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder with people dancing. So everyone danced on top of the shaky narrow benches. The kids behind me looked like juniors or seniors in high school. They were slightly stoned (I heard them talking about it) so after their first beers, they didn't have very good balance atop the benches. The same guy fell on me five times in the first four songs. Fortunately he mellowed out and maintained balance for the most part after that.
Oh, yeah. The music. It was great. RR is a jam band so they didn't really play a lot of songs in the traditional sense. Most of the songs didn't have lyrics and the ones that did only had mantra-like refrains ("Good time, good time. We gonna have a good time.") The rest of their songs were just extremely catchy danceable (that's saying a lot for me) with tons of improv. Three of the four members of the band are cousins. Robert wore a do-rag and played lapsteel guitar most of the concert. He got so hot playing onstage that his head was steaming through the do-rag. His cousin Danyel plays the bass. He must be six foot five and he just pounds away with his hands while the rest of his body doesn't even look like he's trying at all. The other cousin Marcus is the drummer. Then there's Jason Crosby. He plays everything else (piano, violin and organ). In one song, the guys all started switching around. By the time is was over, they had all played every instrument.
Anyway, great concert, very late review. Thanks for reading.
In what appears to be an attempt to cajole people into coming to Milwaukee, the city offered an encore to its normal June-July Summerfest. It was titled, appropriately enough, Summerfest Encore. As a special incentive to spend even more time in Milwaukee, anyone who had a ticket from any one of a number of Brewers games could get in free. Taking advantage of having a ticket and living a bus ride away, I went.
For no money paid at all (college student's dream!), I saw Robert Randolph and the Family Band.
As the sun went down over the lakefront (Lake Michigan, that is), the grounds of the festival were covered in the fog. It was also covered in the collective smoke of a few hundred people who thought I was enjoying their second hand cigarette/cigar/joint. Thank you Febreze.
Instead of individual seats or open space, the stage was surrounded by long benches like you would see on the sidelines of a youth soccer league game. Anyone familiar with RR's music knows that no one will be sitting. It's going to be wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder with people dancing. So everyone danced on top of the shaky narrow benches. The kids behind me looked like juniors or seniors in high school. They were slightly stoned (I heard them talking about it) so after their first beers, they didn't have very good balance atop the benches. The same guy fell on me five times in the first four songs. Fortunately he mellowed out and maintained balance for the most part after that.
Oh, yeah. The music. It was great. RR is a jam band so they didn't really play a lot of songs in the traditional sense. Most of the songs didn't have lyrics and the ones that did only had mantra-like refrains ("Good time, good time. We gonna have a good time.") The rest of their songs were just extremely catchy danceable (that's saying a lot for me) with tons of improv. Three of the four members of the band are cousins. Robert wore a do-rag and played lapsteel guitar most of the concert. He got so hot playing onstage that his head was steaming through the do-rag. His cousin Danyel plays the bass. He must be six foot five and he just pounds away with his hands while the rest of his body doesn't even look like he's trying at all. The other cousin Marcus is the drummer. Then there's Jason Crosby. He plays everything else (piano, violin and organ). In one song, the guys all started switching around. By the time is was over, they had all played every instrument.
Anyway, great concert, very late review. Thanks for reading.
Street Preachers
I've got nothing against people preaching. I'm a Christian and I'm happy to see other Christians helping people out. But sometimes people use their "call" as an excuse to be jerks. I post this because I found a person online having a similar encounter to the one I had.
I was walking down Wisconsin Avenue on my way to my scheduled adoration in the Straz Tower chapel. There was a man standing on the sidewalk telling people about Jesus. He told me I needed Jesus. I told him (bad phrasing, in hindsight), thanks but I've already got Him. It's true. I was on my way to see Him right then. The guy responded "I don't believe you!" That set me over the top. I stopped and had a conversation with the guy. He grilled me on what I believe, apparently assuming that if I didn't believe everything he did, in the exact same way he did, I couldn't go to Heaven. Anyway, we talked for a couple minutes and went our seperate ways. The guy was mostly nice enough and doing a good thing, so I won't say he was jerk, but reading the story above made think about my experience. And obviously everything I think about is of great interest to the citizens of the Internet in general and must be posted here.
I was walking down Wisconsin Avenue on my way to my scheduled adoration in the Straz Tower chapel. There was a man standing on the sidewalk telling people about Jesus. He told me I needed Jesus. I told him (bad phrasing, in hindsight), thanks but I've already got Him. It's true. I was on my way to see Him right then. The guy responded "I don't believe you!" That set me over the top. I stopped and had a conversation with the guy. He grilled me on what I believe, apparently assuming that if I didn't believe everything he did, in the exact same way he did, I couldn't go to Heaven. Anyway, we talked for a couple minutes and went our seperate ways. The guy was mostly nice enough and doing a good thing, so I won't say he was jerk, but reading the story above made think about my experience. And obviously everything I think about is of great interest to the citizens of the Internet in general and must be posted here.
Security Alert!
Terrorists are now attempting to attack the US using unassuming former musicians!
Source.
In other news, what the heck is airline security coming to?
Source.
In other news, what the heck is airline security coming to?
Some Random Updates
#1: The Flametroll's candidate of choice, Tim Carpenter, did not win in his primary election. Vote for somebody else for all I care.
#2: The story was broken here, a Flametroll exclusive. We were informed that Jason might be opening for Switchfoot. Well, after some further research, it has been confirmed. He will be (one of?) the opening act(s?) for Switchfoot at the Rave in Milwaukee on October 20.
#2: The story was broken here, a Flametroll exclusive. We were informed that Jason might be opening for Switchfoot. Well, after some further research, it has been confirmed. He will be (one of?) the opening act(s?) for Switchfoot at the Rave in Milwaukee on October 20.
Thought of the Day
I pass a Starbuck's between my dorm and classes every day. Every time I go by, it occurs to me that "barista" sounds more like a South American rebel group than a guy who serves coffee.
"Sir, the baristas attacked our fortified position then retreated into the mountains."
"Sir, the baristas attacked our fortified position then retreated into the mountains."
Vote Tim Carpenter!
After much deliberation, the Flametroll Editorial staff has decided to back State Senator Tim Carpenter in the Wisconsin 4th congressional district primary. To tell you the truth, we have no idea where Senator Carpenter stands on any issues. We don't even know what party he belongs to. What we do know is that he knows what it takes to get elected in the great state of Wisconsin.
As a member of the editorial board was walking down Wisconsin Avenue this morning, a man handed him a Carpenter for Congress business card-sized flier. The front was typical of campaign material. It was blue on top and red on bottom with a white star shooting a white trail across the middle. It said "Carpenter for Congress" and included what is probably the blandest slogan ever--"He Speaks for Us." But the front isn't what captivated our staff and captured out support.
On the back, rather than a listing of campaign promises or quotes of support from influential people, was a Packer schedule. After Week 1 (September 13 vs. Carolina), was the date "September 14 Vote Carpenter!" Talk about knowing your audience. If any member of our editorial board was registered to vote in Wisconsin, we would suurely vote for Carpenter based solely in this criteria.
As a member of the editorial board was walking down Wisconsin Avenue this morning, a man handed him a Carpenter for Congress business card-sized flier. The front was typical of campaign material. It was blue on top and red on bottom with a white star shooting a white trail across the middle. It said "Carpenter for Congress" and included what is probably the blandest slogan ever--"He Speaks for Us." But the front isn't what captivated our staff and captured out support.
On the back, rather than a listing of campaign promises or quotes of support from influential people, was a Packer schedule. After Week 1 (September 13 vs. Carolina), was the date "September 14 Vote Carpenter!" Talk about knowing your audience. If any member of our editorial board was registered to vote in Wisconsin, we would suurely vote for Carpenter based solely in this criteria.
