Blak

About ten years ago, when I was in high school, a wondrous new product came out. It was called Pepsi Kona. My friend Tim and I quickly became fans of this..."unusual" new drink. It was a blend of Pepsi and coffee. At first, that sounds kind of disgusting. But, trust me. It was good stuff. We drank it as often as we could get our hands on it. Unfortunately, they only sold it in the Northeast United States. So, Tim's family in Pennsylvania would send him cases of the stuff. Soon, they quit making the experimental Pepsi Kona. My life hasn't been the same since.

Now, dear reader, there's a new drink on the market. Coke has come out with their own take on a cola/coffee mix. It's called "Coca-Cola Blak." I was excited when I first learned about it. Ah, the nostalgic days of the mid 90's Pepsi Kona!! So, I bought a six pack of the stuff to try it. Surprisingly, it's good. It has a nice chocolatey taste to it. It's not something you could drink every day. It's sort of a specialty drink. But, it's interesting enough to at least try.

There's a Blak web site here.

easter

1After the Sabbath, as the first light of the new week dawned, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to keep vigil at the tomb. 2Suddenly the earth reeled and rocked under their feet as God's angel came down from heaven, came right up to where they were standing. He rolled back the stone and then sat on it. 3Shafts of lightning blazed from him. His garments shimmered snow-white. 4The guards at the tomb were scared to death. They were so frightened, they couldn't move.
5The angel spoke to the women: "There is nothing to fear here. I know you're looking for Jesus, the One they nailed to the cross. 6He is not here. He was raised, just as he said. Come and look at the place where he was placed.
7"Now, get on your way quickly and tell his disciples, "He is risen from the dead. He is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.' That's the message."
8The women, deep in wonder and full of joy, lost no time in leaving the tomb. They ran to tell the disciples.

cat and the fiddle

I did some voiceover "acting" a few years ago for a friend of mine. (Jason). He was working on a senior animation project with his friend, and he asked me to be one of the voices in it. How often does that chance come up? So, of course I jumped at it.

Now, for the first time, this glorious short film is available on the net. Jason is incredibly talented. This is an older project, but it's still awesome.

I am the voice of the cat playing the fiddle.

Click here to see it.

Catalyst 06/Benchwarmers

Wow. I just rolled home from the Knoxville airport, and I'm quite exhausted. I just had a most incredible weekend in Savannah, Georgia!!! My friend Josh Hawk is a youth minister at a church in Georgia called Calvary in Savannah. Josh invited me down to do some comedy, and "acting" in some drama stuff for a youth retreat. Well, of COURSE I wanted to do it! It was a blast.

From wednesday until today (sunday), we worked and did various things to finish the process of getting ready. The theme was Catalyst. It was great. Often, these youth retreat things can be so draining and testing on the patience and/or emotions (and this one certainly had its moments!) But, overall, I think it was the most fun I've ever had working with youth. The group there is awesome, and Josh did a great job. We had a fantastic praise/worship band called Solomon's Porch. Chris Brooks was the youth pastor. (I know Chris from my Student Life days! Is it a small world, or what?!)

It was an incredible time. I made many many new friends, and God truly spoke to me.

By the way, I'm really excited about the new "The Benchwarmers" movie. My old pal, Doug Jones, is in it. For those of you who have heard my whacky stories about this man, but never saw what he looks like, then here's your chance!!! Doug has an interview online. (When you watch the interview, imagine this man petting my face like i'm a puppy.) DOUG I LOVE YOU!!!!! Click here to see the interview with John Lovitz and Doug Jones.

ear candle

I am officially an idiot.

On two or three different occassions, I've had various friends and/or aquaintances tell me about a "revolutionary new" ear cleaning treatment. They described the process. You take a candle-like object, that you can purchase at most drug stores. You stick one end in your ear, and light the other end. It then, according to my friends, creates a vaccum that pulls all the "impurities" out of your ear.

The gross part is, after this process, you can (allegedly) cut the candle open to see how much impurity has been extracted from your ear. Then, you can see just how effective it has been!!!

So, today I went to a local CVS drug store. I looked around, and saw no such "ear candle." I asked the woman behind the counter about it. She replied, (imagine thick country accent) "Oh, well, you'll have to go down to that 'all natural' place down the road. They might have 'em." So, off I went. To the "all natural, herbal" medicine place.

Sure enough, they had these ear candles. I took them home, and used them.

The experience was pleasant enough. There was a weird crackling sound. I didn't feel much going on in my ear, except a light crackling. Afterward, it certainly appeared as if many, many impurities and ear wax had been extracted from my ear. But, could this really be? My ears didn't feel any cleaner.

So, I got on the net and searched for the truth about these ear candles. As it turns out, I am a first class idiot.

I can't believe I fell for this idiotic scam. What made me believe that lighting a candle and lodging it in my ear would somehow magically suck out all the "dirt" and "impurities"? I'm an idiot. The truth is, the wax from the candle melts, and appears as ear wax on the inside of the candle. So, what you're looking at is NOT your ear wax, but candle wax.

In order for a vacuum to suck out impurities from your ear, it would have to be incredibly strong. Strong enough to destroy your eardrum. Ear cleaning should only be done by doctors, and trained professionals.

This is the part that makes me angry. Not only is the candle thing a scam, but it's dangerous. I read testimonies on the net of people who burned their ears. Hot wax dripped into their ears, and one woman even reported having a damaged ear drum. She had to go to the hospital and have the wax removed.

The OPPOSITE of what she was trying to do! I can't believe I feel for this snake oil. What kind of idiot am I? I'm like one of those people who buys the super-vegetable-steamer-metal-polisher at 3 AM from some infommercial.

I'm warning you. If you hear your friends raving about this new product, stay away. My ears still ache. And, so does my pride.