Degenerates Hell-Bent On Tripping Up God

Before I left for vacation last week, I had an interesting conversation with a couple of friends during lunch one day that revolved around this notion--if you could ask God (god) one question, what would you ask?

We can up with some vanilla questions (Is there really a heaven?), some I-forgot-you-are-God,-not-a-genie questions (What's tomorrow's winning lottery numbers?), and some tougher questions (What is the one thing I can do that will guarantee me not getting a spot on the eternity train?).

As we talked, we kept trying to out-think each other. In some ways, I look back now, and I think we were trying to out-think God. We wanted to get Him (I'm not going to debate God's gender here--I'm using the masculine for argument's sake. I still proudly wear my homemade God Is A Woman t-shirt, although it's been washed so many times it now reads od s oman) to answer a question He wouldn't want to answer, to reveal some truth that was otherwise unknown. My first response was that I'd ask who killed JFK, so that I would then be able to profit immediately off the information. I thought this was pretty good until one of us said, "Yeah, because everybody would believe you--the guy claiming to know who killed JFK, thanks to some timely information from God."

And we laughed, and kept pushing ourselves (and God) and eventually the conversation ended almost as quietly as it started.

I'm not sure why I'm thinking about that conversation today. Maybe its because vacation is just about over and work looms in the morning. Or maybe its because sometimes its important to voice our concerns regarding the unknown. Maybe because its what validates our existence as humans--continuing to push what we know together with what we think, so that we can then make sense out of the results.

Or maybe we're just a bunch of degenerates hell-bent on tripping up God.

Either works for me.

I'll tell you one thing you can believe in though--The Sunday Review.

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-via The New York Times: This became front page news early this morning (maybe even late last night?) and it seems like it will be another one of those stories that people don't fully understand, but still manages to stick around for a while. Looks like Dick "Make Sure The Safety's On" Cheney ordered the C.I.A. to withhold information from Congress regarding a secret counterterrorism program. Nobody is yet to disclose what the program involved, but this surely will get some fists pounding and fingers pointing. I'll withhold judgement until I hear what was actually involved, but I can say for sure that I'm not usually a fan of those in charge hiding things from our Congressional Representatives, and by extension, us. And I'll use a bit of Republican/Bushian logic--if you're not doing something wrong, why would you have to hide it?

-via The New York Times: This is a really great piece by Michael Powell about the film critic Andrew Sarris, who is, as the title suggests, "a survivor of film criticism's heroic age." I love the lead sentence so much--it's so New York Times-y:

The aging duelist sits in his Upper East Side apartment and contemplates all that is past, the polemics and late-night arguments and denunciations in one magazine or another.

-via The New York Times: Found in the NY Region section, this is a beautiful collection of real-life stories that is being updated weekly. Here's the description from the Times itself:

New York is a city of characters. On the subway and in its streets, from the intensity of Midtown to the intimacy of neighborhood blocks, is a 305-square mile parade of people with something to say. This is a collection of a few of their passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions.

-via The New York Times: Just to show you I'm not a hard-hearted man, and it's not all dollars and cents (that was a Godfather reference, sorry) I'm including this piece by Jack Curry about the long and winding (and non-rotating and fluttering) career of Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. Wakefield, who despite having a more than stellar career, was finally selected to his first All-Star game, at the ripe old age of 42.

-via The New York Times: This is from the Sunday Magazine and there's nothing too special about it--it's a piece by Susannah Jacob for the Lives column and its called Pancake Chronicles. Anybody who has worked a shitty job should read it. I doubt you'll regret it.

-via Gizmodo: I don't shop at Best Buy much, but when I do, I'm always left wondering if maybe they need to focus a bit more on employee training. And by if, I mean, for the love of Christ, please. Apparently the fine folks at the best gadget blog on the net agree. The Seven Types Of Employees You Meet At Best Buy is funny, sad, and most of all, true.

-via Gizmodo: Best Buy CMO Barry Judge responds with a blog post entitled: The One Type Of Gizmodo Blogger. Well played, Barry.

-via ESPN's Page 2: I'm sure you've heard about Dunkgate--Lebron James getting dunked on by Xavier's Jordan Crawford in a Nike basketball camp training game, and the subsequent confiscation of the video evidence by Nike officials. Well, here's Jemele Hill's take on the situation. I think people might be getting on Lebron a bit too much about this, but maybe I'm just biased. It is worth noting that Nike has pointed out that not allowing video to be shot at their summer basketball camps has been a rule for the past twenty years.

-via The Boy Genius Report: This is Part I of BGR's review of the first smartphone that isn't an iPhone to excite me in a while--the BlackBerry 9630, or Tour. If for some reason, the iPhone was outlawed tomorrow and I had to keep my AT&T contract, I'd go with the BlackBerry Bold. But if the iPhone was outlawed tomorrow, I'd assume AT&T would go belly-up in a month and then I wouldn't have to honor my contract, so I would then go back to Verizon and get the Tour.

-via The Boy Genius Report: This is Part II (newer) of BGR's review of the Tour.

-via The Unofficial Apple Weblog: iPhone Wi-Fi issues have been popping up all over the place since the release of OS 3.0 (I'm included in that group) and it was only a matter of time before Apple responded. I'm in the process of following their four steps to remedy the situation, but I'm also in the group that hopes this will be addressed in the coming OS 3.1 update.

-via The New York Daily News: I'm not a Bill Madden fan by any stretch of the imagination, but his piece today on why injuries should not be used as an excuse for the sad state the Mets currently find themselves in is a doozy. The only positive thus far in the Mets season is the fact that everyone else in their division--defending World Series champs included--sucks almost as much as they do, meaning they still have a shot to lose in the ALDS.

-via Lifehacker: Tired of giving your money to blood-sucking corporate entities in exchange for a shitty cup of coffee? No, I'm not either, at least not completely, but here's ten tips that will help you to find some kind of independence. DIY Life--it's the new reality TV.

-via Michael Ruhlman: One thing I am tired of is food that requires a Chemistry degree in order to read the ingredients. The best part of Ruhlman's Cherry Pie recipe? The six-item ingredient list: flour, butter, water, cherries, sugar, and corn starch. Love it.

And speaking of Ruhlman, he always has awesome photography highlighted on his blog, usually done by his wife, Donna. Here's a shot of his desk that I got a chuckle out of:



Important note--Donna didn't take that one. Ruhlman took it himself. With his iPhone.

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In the biggest news of all, I picked up a sweet new pair of kicks, and for a song. Here's the pics:





Those are Nike AJF 3's in flint gray/varsity maize/silver. It's a crazy Jordan/Air Force 1 fusion that were rolled out about a year ago. Craziest part? They retail for $115 on pickyourshoes.com.

How much did I pay?

$60.

Got to love those deals.

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That's all for now. My vacation may be just about finished, but I've still got a Sunday to enjoy. Hope you do the same as well.


More soon.

JS