Call Me Smoke Master

Today I tried something new. I used my week-old grill to smoke a beef roast. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I had always assumed it'd be. Just took a bit of research and trust. The results were amazing!

Monkey-Girl agrees.

There's something akin to a testosterone rush that occurs when one eats meat oneself has grilled. I AM MAN!

All that's left to make this a perfect Sunday is a couple episodes of terrible, terrible Transformers: Master Force. (There's a reason the U.S. never imported this Japanese cartoon.) I just can't help myself.

It's been too long since I've updated. We'll it's rainy today. Really rainy. (We need it.) It's too bad it rained today. Winchester is having its International Dogwood Festival this weekend. Not too many people are likely to come out for that. We're not.

The bright side is I'm back to writing an update for Penguin Postings. (Now I'm an optimist?)

This is All Saint's Chapel, the University of the South's campus chapel. We, associates of the seminary, don't normally worship here. Holy Week was an exception. For the "smells and bells" of Holy Week to be in such an impressive setting is very powerful. Maundy Thursday's "stripping of the alter" in that space accompanied by the lights being extinguished was quite moving. Although I did not attend the Holy Saturday/Easter Vigil, Monkey-Girl tells me that it too was a powerful service.

The long and short of it is this: if you come to visit, you will see All Saint's. It's a beautiful worship space, and a trip to Sewanee would be lacking without taking it in.

HAPPY EASTER!

Monkey-Girl pointed out that my blog has become a little Transformers centric lately. Today, I'll be presenting the basket-o-goodies I assembled for her. First off, we have the basket in its totality. Awe at its Eastery goodness.

	Sweet, sweet chocolate. What would Easter be without it? Just a religious holiday celebrating the defeat of death by our lord Jesus Christ, that's what. But chocolate's nice too.
	More chocolate.
	I made a little Yoda doll for Monkey-Girl, too. He's cute and wise! It was quite easy and fun to make a 900-year-old Jedi master. You can find instructions on how to make your own right here.
	In case Monkey-Girl gets jealous and wants to make something herself, I got her a LEGO creator set. She can make a LEGO monkey. (This one was a no-brainer.) She says she'll be able to use it to illustrate a heresy. Sounds cool!
	Lastly, there's a pack of pumpkin seeds. Monkey-Girl loves these things. She's like Sonny the Cuckoo Bird around these things. If you find yourself between her a sack of pumpkin seeds . . . there's really nothing you can do. Just pray it's over quick.
	Some may be wondering about that gargantuan handle on the basket above. Well, when looking for a basket at the store, I came across one of those oh-so-sad Easter baskets that, in my musings, only parents that can't be bothered to care for their children would purchase. You know, the ones with some really cheap toy you wouldn't buy from a dollar store, equally sad candy, and some hunk of cardboard with mazes and word puzzles on the back; all wrapped up in cellophane? This one has a knock-off set of Aerialbots. So, a little something for me too.

That's it for now. Make sure you find all of your dyed eggs. (They do get stinky after awhile.) God bless!

Meet the Headmasters

From the upper left and continuing clockwise: Hardhead, Chromedome, Brainstorm, Cerebros, and Highbrow. These guys are twenty years old and were the beginning of the end for the original Transformers toy line.

Hasbro decided to roll out an entire subline of toys based on a gimmick. These guys heads come off (on purpose) and change into little robots:

As cool as these guys are (and they are SO cool), Hasbro continued with line-expanding gimmicks. This eventually led to the Action Masters, Transformers that didn't transform. (For cereal.)

I like to take these out of context. I enjoy them for what they were not what they begot. Besides, part of the line was Fortress Maximus, the largest Transformer figure ever made.

BEHOLD!

At twenty-four inches tall he is mighty. He is rare. Even in 1987, when he released, he was hard to find. (Moms and dads are always a hard sale on toys in the three-figure price range.) Every once in a while I'll catch him out of the corner of my eye and his enormity gives me pause.

I think I should stop now before I get too deep about Transformers on Good Friday. God bless!

The Chosen One

Classics Rodimus, available now from Hasbro toys, is my current favorite Transformer. He is a re-imagining of the original Hot Rod toy from 1986. The trademark on the name Hot Rod has since lapsed so Hasbro had to come up with something else. They turned to the 1986 animated movie Transformers. In it a brash young Hot Rod realizes his potential and becomes leader of the Autobots during their darkest hour. His new authority is coupled with a new name: Rodimus Prime.

Although much maligned within the fan community, I have held a special place for Hot Rod in my heart for the over twenty years now. At the time the animated movie came out there was a lot of bad stuff going on in my family. Being ten, I was quite impressionable and found myself connecting with the character voiced by Judd Nelson.

Hot Rod/Rodimus will not be appearing in Michael Bay's film this summer or (consequently) on the toy shelves. This will most likely be the last plastic incarnation of my personal hero for some time. I'm just going to enjoy.

By the way, does anyone else notice how sad Rodimus looks? He seems a little emo to me. Is it the fact that Hasbro lost his name. Maybe he just needs a hug.

Comic Day!!

My monthly (down from bi-weekly) fix is in. Here you see reading material for the next several days. (I give it through the weekend.)

As Monkey-Girl and I live over an hour and a half from a decent comic shop, I get my comics delivered from an on-line dealer named Discount Comic Book Service. They offer enough of a discount that even with shipping I'm actually saving money off of my purchases. The only drawback is that I get all of my books after the end of the month they come out.

Well, as you can see, I have a lot of reading to do. I'm off!

Affix Propper Postage, You Will

2007 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Star Wars. Back then that's all there was to it. No A New Hope. No Episode . . . whatever. Just Star Wars.

The United States Postal Service and George Lucas have teamed up to give us a set of fifteen commemorative stamps. The stamps will be offered as a single sheet and represent the entire series of films. They will be released on May 25th, after the two-cent price hike.

Here is Yoda in all his glory. This is the Yoda I remember from my youth. The Empire Strikes Back was my world when I was four. My room was a shrine to the movie. My grandma made me an oil painting of this image for my birthday or Christmas. Yoda has always been the pinnacle of cool to me.

We, the postal consumers, get to vote one which of the fifteen stamps will be made into a full sheet of its own. We get to decide which stamp gets made! This is only the second time in history we've been given this power. (Remember the Elvis stamp?)

You can guess which one I'm voting for. Head on over to usps.com to check them out and vote for your favorite.

Happy birthday, Elizabeth!

It's April, Fool!

I'm sorry. It's been way too long since I've posted. I'm going to go ahead and blame this on the fact that I lost my image editing software. Yeah, that's it.

It's Palm Sunday. Just one week 'til I can gorge myself on candy! It'll be weird to go back to school on Easter Monday. Normally, we had spring break coincide with the week after Easter. We've already had our spring break here. Monkey-Girl's spring "break" was at the same time, but she had so much work to do she was working every day. We did see 300, though, so I can't complain too much.

There's only about seven weeks of school left. We teachers are scrambling to get our students ready for the Tennessee Gateway Exams. Basically, some very high stakes tests. (Failure means no diploma for the student and enough failures mean "Targeted" status for the school.)

The weather here is gorgeous. I'm running the airconditioner in my classroom everyday. Each evening here is just begging to be walked in. I think I will.