Pure Energy

That's a picture of a compact flourescent light bulb.  Read about this here on Digg. Here's the info from the EnergyStar.gov website:
   

ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs:

• Use at least 2/3 less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, and last up to 10 times longer.
• Save $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb’s lifetime
• Generate 70 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
• In addition to other quality requirements, must turn on instantly, produce no sound, and fall within a warm color range or be otherwise labeled as providing cooler color tones.
• Are available in different sizes and shapes to fit in almost any fixture, for indoors and outdoors.

I'm really skeptical when people play with numbers, but here's an interesting savings calculator showing the money you can save by using compact flourescent light bulbs.  Saving money, saving the earth, and you get the same amount of light as normal light bulbs?  Sounds like a no-brainer.  Even though it seems that the savings will be obvious, it still might be hard to plop down a fiver for something I normally pay $0.75 for.

Bubble Trouble.  Lame name, lame picture, but fun game.  I've played a fair amount.  Simple, and short games.  Bubble in the title makes me think that it's the type of game where you're guiding a bubble around or something like that, but it's not that type of game.  Not an amazing game, but worthy of a post.

That's a picture of the new Starburys I'm rockin.  We'll it's not a pic of one of MY shoes, but that's what they look like.  Stephon Marbury is doing a cool thing with these sneaks.  They're the shoes that he wears on the courts.... and they cost $15!  It's no secret that lots of inner-city kids want to wear the hottest sneakers, and it's also no secret that the hottest sneakers cost $100-$150. 

Marbury comes around and says, ""Kids shouldn't have to feel the pressure to spend so much to feel good about the way they look. I'm blessed to be in a position to do something about it, to help change the world."  He's come out with a line of inexpensive shoes and clothes available exclusively available at Steve and Barry's.  The shoes cost $15, and I don't think that any of the clothes cost more than $10.  I got hooked up with a $6 hat, a $6 t-shirt, and a $10 pair of tearaway basketball pants along with my $15 Starbury Ones.  I picked up the clothes mainly cause I wanted to support the business, but it's a bonus that it's cool looking and decent quality.  I'll definitely be going back for more when it warms up enough to where I can be out on the blacktop.

I'm hoping that the Starbury collection does well and that it's adopted by the kids in my church and after-school program.  Moreso, I'm hoping that more famous athletes and other celebrities follow in Marbury's tracks with similar socially-minded ventures.

I know I lose a lot of geek cred when I say that I've only read the Lord of the Rings once, and that was right before the movies came out.  I knew I would see the movies as soon as they came out, so I wanted to make sure I was able to read the books without any imprint of the films on my brain.

I had previously read The Hobbit, and had really enjoyed it.  I figured that as the prequel to the LOTR, the books to follow would be similar.  If you don't know, they aren't.  The Hobbit is akin to a young person's book, and the LOTR trilogy is definitely an adult read... at least in my opinion.  It is not necessarily adult in content, but adult in terms of the reading level it is written at (which I think must be just a notch above mine).

Because I not only enjoy, but I'm okay admitting that I enjoy some fantasy genre in my diet, I scarcely admitted to anyone that I didn't LOVE reading the LOTR trilogy.  Not only did I not love reading it, I was finding myself trudging through the books, not unlike how I would trudge through some books I used to have to read for high school English class.  My brain has probably jellified some over the years through a steady diet of magazines and novels most people would not classify as literature.  You see, I don't read David Sedaris, and I'm actually frightened of the thought of reading American Pastoral based on the intellect of people I know who claim that as a favorite book.

Maybe it's not that my brain isn't a race car, but that I'm impatient.  I found in reading the LOTR, that Tolkien would be working towards a great battle, only to spend the next ten pages detailing the mythology of the land that the battle was to take place.  "Give me the sword fighting I crave!" I would shout in my head to J.R.R. ( like to think that I'd be on a first name basis if I knew him).... and that's how my reading of the novels would go.  I don't doubt that I probably skimmed over some of the pages to more quickly get to pages of Legolas unleashing a hail of arrows onto some evil orc hordes.  Sweet!  Good triumphing over evil rocks!

So, in the interest of not writing a trilogy length post, let me be quick.  I finished the books, and the movies came out.  I loved the movies, and they quickly rose to the tippity-tops of my favorite movies, along with Star Wars and The Matrix.  I don't have the writing skillz to explain how I felt watching The Return of the King, but I had just a myriad of strong emotions during that movie, and I know that rarely do I exhibit any real emotions during my movie watching.  I walked out of the movie theater astounded, knowing I just watched a truly great film.

I've watched the LOTR trilogy many times, and I realized it was time to read the books again.  Let me say that I'm amazed at how much I love the books.  This time reading through the books, I can't get enough of the details.  Even though an epic battle may be looming in the pages, I'd be willing to read two more trilogies of the mythology behind the story before I actually get to read about the battle.

I think the great thing is how J.R.R. creates a world that I care about.  The example I want to share is the city of Osgiliath.  In the movies, this ruined city was the setting of a few scenes, largely in The Return of the King.  If you only watch the movie, you might merely think of it as a cool setting, and a neat place for humans to fight some orcs.  A ancient city in ruins is fairly cliche for stories dealing with adventure.  In reading the books however (and you may wish to check out the Wikipedia article about Osgiliath I linked at the beginning of the paragraph), you find out some of the history of Osgiliath.  You realize that it was once a city where people lived, and battles were fought, and evil took over, and people were pushed out of.  More simply put, you actually care about the city.  It becomes like a real place, rather than just a cool location for a fight scene. 

I'm realizing that I love the LOTR movies, because they brought the story to life in my eyes and ears.  I'm finding that I love the LOTR books because they are bringing the story to life in my heart.  As lame as that sounds, I really can't think of a better way to describe it.  It seems silly, but J.R.R.'s writing is really helping the story come to life for me, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Not sure about my Pirate-Ninja-Hacker logo, even though pirate ninja hackers are totally rad, except that they're pretty much all bad guys... although as far as pirate ninja hackers go, there has to be one guy who became a good guy... um, yea.  So... that's the good guy pirate ninja hacker logo... which makes it seem not as cool for some reason, even though I'm not down with the bad guys.  Hmmm, I'll have to figure that one out one night in my sleep.  I'm still not sure about the logo.  The pirate ninja hacker theme is a lot better in my head that it is on screen.  Anyway, it's rad whether you realize it or not.