I'm really looking forward to my newest toy which I'm planning on getting in roughly a month, the Nintendo Wii (pronounced "we"). Its controller has a motion sensor in it which enables the console to know where in space the controller is, and at which angle. Kind of hard to explain, but really easy to understand when you watch these videos. Warning: These may cause you to want to buy a Wii yourself.

Fishing


Tennis


Boxing


Baseball


My family is coming for Christmas to our place, and by then I'll have 4 controllers. I'm REALLY looking forward to playing a round of doubles' tennis with my bros (and sis' of course), and a round of golf with my dad. :)

One of the strangest pieces of news this month was that Shaquille O'Neal was a part of a child porn raid team last month which ended up a disaster because they hit the wrong house, finding nothing. They ended up raiding the place of some poor family who had absolutely nothing to do with child porn. Shaq himself apparently is actually a sheriff in the off season. I'm serious - you can't make this stuff up.

Now, that has got to be the most surreal experience ever - the doorbell rings, you go and open it and look up and see Shaq in all his 7 ft 1 inch glory, behind him a troop of special police. And to top things off, he says in his deep voice, "We have a search warrant because you're suspected to be involved in a child porn ring." I mean, that would be a weird and surreal dream, but it actually happening is goes beyond simple weirdness. :)

Check out an article or simply Google "Shaq" on news.google.com.

Oh, and I just saw I got some linkage love from Ariel, which will probably cause my traffic to rise by a factor of about a hundred for a couple of days. To all of you one-time visitors, all I can say is: I had this stylish blog layout picked out before Ariel did. :D So there.

Vox has now opened up registration to anybody at all, which means you can now all sign up and post comments on my journal if you want! :)

Vox

The John Journal

[dull voice]Whoopeedoo.[/dull voice] :)

No, seriously, I really enjoy Vox especially because of its easy tagging of posts, something which Blogger is just now getting around to in their Beta.

This is a very awesome idea: You answer roughly 30 questions with "agree / disagree" and then it shows you the varying "contradictions" or "tensions" that exist in your beliefs.

Philosophical Health Check.

I got a tension quotient of 27%, which apparently is pretty much average.

One of my "tensions" is the classic one:

You agreed that:

There exists an all-powerful, loving and good God

And also that:
To allow an innocent child to suffer needlessly when one could easily prevent it is morally reprehensible

These two beliefs together generate what is known as 'The Problem of Evil'. (...)

Richard Dawkins has been creating quite a bit of hype in the blogsphere and news lately with his new book "The God Delusion".

I have to say, in interviews and such, he really comes across very sharp and logical to me, so much so that I think I'm going to get the book and read it.

In any case, I was really glad when I came across this 15 minute debate between him and a guy named David Quinn, a Catholic commentator and journalist. Very sharp thinking is going on here on both sides, but IMHO, Richard gets debated right into a corner.

Quotes to look for from Richard:

"I simply deny that."

"I'm just not interested in free will."

Enjoy: Quinn vs. Dawkins

Found on Uncommon Descent. Note that I don't really like that blog, BTW. :)

I know, I know, I'm WAY late on this, this was becoming popular months ago, but anyways: Pandora (www.pandora.com) is AWESOME. It's a free Internet radio that automatically picks music you like.

It first asks you for your favorite artist. So I entered Jars of Clay, and here's what it said to me:

"To start things off, here's a track that's musically similar to Jars of Clay called "Free" by Donavon Frankenreiter, that features a subtle use of vocal harmony, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, a vocal-centric aesthetic, major key tonality and electric pianos."

Now, how frikkin' cool is that? You can create up to like 100 or 1000 "stations" that all dynamically play music "similar" to whatever you specify, and it reacts to you saying you like or dislike certain songs.

Just read this incredible letter directly from a Marine in Iraq. Time magazine itself tested its authenticity, so this is the real deal. Just jaw-droppingly intense stuff in there, and it sure is a breath of fresh air to hear straight talk about the war without having any political agenda (in either direction) be involved in the report.

Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province — Any Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD Tech). How'd you like a job that required you to defuse bombs in a hole in the middle of the road that very likely are booby-trapped or connected by wire to a bad guy who's just waiting for you to get close to the bomb before he clicks the detonator? Every day. Sanitation workers in New York City get paid more than these guys. Talk about courage and commitment.

TIME World -- The Secret Letter From Iraq

Check this out. Very intriguing picture where you can basically zoom in further and further and the picture just keeps revealing more and more detail until you end up being back at the beginning. Hard to explain, but anyways, try it yourself.

Chelsea Hudson, a friend from church, came on Saturday and took loads of pictures for fliers and advertisements and stuff for us. She's really, really good (see her web site). Check out this one of Joshua with the rest of us in the background, it rocks. This one is perfect for a tagline like "CHECK US OUT!" or something. :)

See a few other pictures from Saturday here: johnandchels's Xanga Site - Welcome to The Rock. Big thanks again Chelsea for taking the pictures, they're awesome!