The release of this video, by the Clarion Fund (a non-profit organization whose mission is to “educate Americans on issues of national security,” and whose primary focus is on the “most urgent threat of radical Islam”) is timely - with elections in just 5 weeks and national security a hot-button issue.
You might be interested to learn that there’s a “presidential campaign edition” of the Obsession DVD, which carries the endorsement of the chair of the counter-terrorism department of the U.S. Naval War College. The Patriot News of Harrisburg, PA ran a story stating that the Clarion Fund web-site ran pro-McCain literature before attracting notice and subsequently being removed. Additionally, as reported by NPR, one of the major promoters of the DVD is Joe Wierzbicki who is active in two anti-Obama political action committees.
Now, bear with me. I’m not saying that John McCain was behind the distribution of this video, nor am I suggesting that the McCain camp is in any way responsible for these disgusting actions. What I am suggesting, however, is that EVEN with potential ties to a presidential candidate, America does not care about terrorism against Muslims. The media is more interested in covering the new fashion trends sparked by America’s favorite “milf” (of course I’m talking about Sarah Palin’s now famous rimless glasses).
You can bet your ass if this had been an attack on an Ohio church, for example, the media would be all over it like my boss on Sarah Palin, proclaiming (with little or no basis in reality) another Islamic attack on America. However, the story has gotten little exposure in the mainstream media as of yet. What gives? Why isn’t this story receiving more coverage? Muslims in America are one of two things: feared or ignored. This media blackout has got to stop.
The Location: Adelle’s Coffeehouse, 3 Hale St., Dover NH 03820 The Time: Sunday, October 5th 11am to 1pm The Goal: To provide an open, informal, and comfortable learning environment for anyone who is interested in “new media”, specifically internet-based forms of media, and the systems and tools which make the newest forms of media run, Macs, Windows PCs, and *nix-based systems. If you don’t know the first thing about Macs, Windows PCs or what *nix even is, it’s ok. If using the formatting tools on your email program are intimidating, or if the term “formtatting tools” leaves you at a loss for words, that’s ok too.
Meeting #1 - “Intro to Blogging“. Which will encompass a very broad range of topics, all relating to publishing on the internet and what it takes to get started and how to learn more about the aspects that interest you most.
Learn to format your writing for the internet by learning the basics of HTML.
Resources:
http://wordpress.comGet a wordpress hosted blog, with all the tools and controls of a personal wordpress installation.
https://www.blogger.com With a simple but flexible interface, this hosted blogging platform from Google is a popular choice.
http://www.livejournal.com/ One of the most popular places on the net to maintain a personal journal, with a massive community to tap into for inspiration, this is a good place to sharpen your skills.
Explore different CMS options and figure out what’s right for you.
This is a subject I have been thinking about for about six months now. If you’ve listened to me gibber, rant and rave about American politics in #ectomo (Efnet) then you’ll have heard this all before. But I think it’s a valid point to make and keep making. I’m not an American. I do not even wish to become an American. But I do admire the American political process as a good idea. I don’t know who said this, but someone must have said something along the lines of: “America, nice idea. Shame about the implementation.” I’ve a feeling it was Warren Ellis. So yes, I like a lot of Europeans who think that republicanism and liberalism are good things watch American politics with great interest. We are always ever ready to quickly shout our views at the American populace. Normally in one united voice of saying “don’t vote for the fucking idiot”. If my blatant pro Obama stance is going to get me shouted down by some roaming troll I’m just agreeing with most of the planet. However we don’t have a voice in the American general elections. It would seem a simple nicety if we did since America currently (although sliding) is the superpower that tries to tell the rest of the world what to do. So why do we care so much?
It’s Big Brother! Not the Orwellian totalitarian state. Not directly at least. But the TV show. It must have started a new season about six months ago in the UK. But why do we outsiders care so much about the American political process? Because it’s the most entertaining multimedia reality event every four years. Yes, Europe cares because it is another state like France who early in the modern era rebelled against the shackles of monarchy and cried out for liberty (let’s ignore slaves, vote most men and all women for later). Like France it is a modern first-world nation with strong notions about liberty. Unlike France however most of its media is produced in English, a language that the rest of the world understands. That means we can follow the election. That means we have the ability to follow on hundreds of TV stations, millions of newspapers inches, uncountable numbers of blogs; basically everyplace that produces news and comment about current affairs is talking about the election. It’s pure entertainment for us. The world decided who we wanted to win long ago. We don’t want the old fart and we definitely don’t want the Barbie Doll hockey mom. They don’t stand for American values. Or at least the American values that us outsiders see. For the past eight years it’s been the party that hasn’t won that we wanted. We’re at fever pitch now. We want our candidate to win political Big Brother.
That’s it! That is the only reason I care about American politics at the moment. But the tone of distant entertainment is evident in our media commentary on the event. Sure, we all have ardent political positions we’d like to see in action over there. I for one would like to see a bit more lite socialism creep into American politics. Do any of you guys remember how great “The New Deal” was? But it doesn’t directly change our lives. America is still going to bomb innocent people in the “war on terror”. It’s still going to offer much more aid to those who desperately need food, clean water and AIDS medication to those who need it. But for those of us in the first world; like in Europe. It doesn’t actually affect us. We care because it’s fun to care.
While writing this Will had the new Mogwai album “The Hawk is Howling” on. Unsuprisingly it has an American bald eagle on the front of it. It is a good album and has song titles like: “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” and “The Sun Smells too Loud.”
You are hiding behind a stone wall being shot at by heavily armed cultist. You have had two weeks of training to deal with situations like this. But you’re only just starting to remember this. You know you should feel angry that people are shooting at you. But you consider that they would shoot at anyone trying to sneak into their heavily armed and very secretive religious compound. Instead you think about the figurative bastards that put you in this situation. They woke you up at four in the morning approximately thirteen hours ago. Bundled you into a car, then an airplane and whisked you six hundred miles from your home. They told you that that two week blackout you had was their fault. That two week blackout two years ago. A blackout that cost you a relationship with a person you deeply loved and very nearly alienated you from your immediate family. They said that you’d been taken to a secret government facility and been in their words ‘The Clockwork Orange’ treatment. Except instead of making you dislike violence they taught you to know how to do very unpleasant things to your fellow human beings. When you didn’t believe this as they quite reasonably expected they produced photographic evidence, timestamped and digitally signed. These memories slowly came back to you. You attributed this to the background music playing in the airplane’s cabin.
The current problem that you are to be injected into was explained to as a local disturbance which could rapidly turn into the European version of the Waco Ranch massacre. They explain to you that this is where you come in. You, they explain are to sneak into the compound and assassinate the leader of the cult as well as disrupt as much of the chain of command. Logically you try to explain to them that Solid Snake does this in the video games and he tends to die an awful lot in the attempt. They do not get the reference. They also suck their gums a lot which you take as a sign of ‘you’re not the first one we’ve sent in.’
The sneaking into the farm ran by crazy cult members did go better than expected. You made it past the official police line and through a field past the body of who you assume was ‘the first one sent in.’ As you reach the edge of the main farm complex however it all goes wrong.
Not the first one to be sent in seems to explain the problem well as you hide behind a dry wall. Your mouth is dry and your hands have almost stopped trembling. Their bullets have stopped firing. Cautiously you peer around the corner and see that three of the larger cultists are running towards you while brandishing very scary looking shotguns. You gulp. Aim the silenced pistol you were given at the closest cultist. Then you fire. It isn’t a perfect shot. It goes through his leg and he tumbles to the floor. He is screaming but the other two have upped the pace. You take aim again and fire. The next one drops without a sound in a mist of red. The third cultist stops. He raises his shotgun. You take cover. He discharges the weapon into the wall and the pellets bounce off the wall harmlessly. You feel you are getting the hang of this. Looking around the corner you feel slightly disappointed that he is running away from you.
You move forwards from this wall to the next. This is progress you think. Then they start firing a machine gun at you and you dive for the closest thing you see that looks like cover. The training you remember consisted of firing ranges, simulated close quarters combat exercises and training drills. Very little of the training (although you cannot be quite certain right now as your memory is still fragmented) involved being shot at and the immediate action to be taken when you inevitably come into the situation. You go on instinct here. Duck and cover, then hope that the machine gun breaks or runs out of bullets.
The person manning the machine gun appears to be enjoying himself. Every few seconds a burst of fire removes fragments of the dry stone wall. The bullets are close and you hear some of them whistle through the air. The gunner however has a steady rhythm to his firing. You remember that you have a mirror on one of the cargo pockets. You take it out and use it to peer round the edge of the wall. There is only him. His burst finishes. You jump over the wall and shoot him in the head. The way into the main building is clear now. You kick the flimsy wooden door from it’s hinges. You hear a thumping noise.
You are cold and cannot move. Your head aches with a dull throbbing sensation. Your face hurts. Opening your eyes you see that you are in a cellar. The thin light of sunset comes in through an opening in the wall near the ceiling. You work out why you are cold and cannot move. Directly ahead of you is a man. He is naked and strapped to a gurney. His right arm has a horrific gunshot wound and his groans occasionally break his possibly drug induced sleep.
Four sky clad people walk into the cellar. One of them has a demonic mask and a evil knife. Another, a drum made from wood with a tight white skin with tattoo ink blue Celtic markings on it. The other two are women who start dancing and chanting as soon as they enter the room. The drummer starts to hit his drum and the masked man you watch move to stand in front of the injured man blocking him from your view.
“For your intrusion onto hallowed ground we punish you,” the masked man shouts. “For your intrusion onto hallowed ground we punish you,” the others repeat. You watch the masked man drag the knife across the injured mans chest. Blood runs to the ground. “For your violent ways we injured you,” the masked man shouts. “So we shall injure you again!” The two dancers say. The masked man pushes the knife into the injured mans gunshot wound. He screams! “We the children of the gods say you must die,” all of the cultists say. The injured man screams one last time. You see the masked man turn to you.
You are sweating heavily now. That evil knife is covered in gore and the blank look of the masked man you feel hides a sadistic smile. The drumming man carries on his vile rhythm for the dancers to follow. You see a small ball shaped object role through the sunlight opening. It bounces on the stone floor of the cellar. “For your intrusion,” the masked man starts to say. You close your eyes in terror.
You hear a deafening noise followed by chaotic screams and gunshot. You close your eyes even more. The ringing in your ears stops and you open your eyes. You try to speak and a desperate whimper is all you can summon. You see eight people in battle dress and black full face gas masks. One of them approaches you and slings his weapon over his shoulder. You watch him take his gas mask off. “It will be alright. You’ve done your duty. You’ve exceeded our expectations. Let us help you,” he says.
This story was originally entered into the SFX Pulp Idol competition. It didn’t win (aw), didn’t get shortlisted and it didn’t even get an honerable mention. No matter I’m well aware of it’s deficencies and it was a tracer bullet. Oh well it’s a success if someone enjoys it.
In the spirit of anarcho-capitalist-warm-fuzzy-anti-establishment (alright so that’s pushing it) consciousness expansion and technological empowerment, I am proud to announce the foundation of a series of meeting guaranteed to satiate your curiosity, tittilate your senses, and delight your sense of accomplishment. It’s an offshoot of NH Media Makers geared towards creating a fun learning environment for new technlogies.
The Time:Sunday, October 5th 11am to 1pm - Date and Time unconfirmed! Watch this post for changes!
Meeting will officially start at 11:30 to give everyone time to mingle and get settled. Meeting may end earlier or run later than 1pm. Let me know if there are any conflicts here!
The Goal: To provide an open, informal, and comfortable learning environment for anyone who is interested in “new media”, specifically internet-based forms of media, and the systems and tools which make the newest forms of media run, Macs, Windows PCs, and *nix-based systems. If you don’t know the first thing about Macs, Windows PCs or what *nix even is, it’s ok. If using the formatting tools on your email program are intimidating, or if the term “formtatting tools” leaves you at a loss for words, that’s ok too.
Meeting #1: Intro to Blogging
This is for the person who says to themselves “I want to get my writing published on the internet, and I want it to look professional and attractive.” Or “How do I write things to put up on the internet?” Or “What the heck is a blog?”
For this meeting, I can and will personally commit to going over the basics of Wordpress, since I am most familiar with that. I will also go over some HTML 101 topics, which is critical for writers who wish to publish on the internet. I am looking for help for people who want to talk about other platforms, TypePad, Drupal, etc etc.
The only requirement for attending is a desire to learn more about computers and the internet. The requirement for presenting is to have something you want to share with others. That’s absolutely it.
Of course we’ll do our best to stick to one topic per meeting, to give all attendees the best introduction and help on each of the billion topics as possible.
I am also looking for is people who want to learn! Tell everybody and their brother who has ever wanted to publish something to the internet. Come find out how to run your very own blog, and help us decide what the most enticing topic of conversation is for the next meetup!
Future ideas include:
HTML and CSS 101 - Don’t even know what CSS stands for? That’s ok! Learn the basics of HTML, XHTML and CSS, and get reference resources and practice ideas.
Video meeting - From the basics of using your webcam to slap a video up on YouTube, to putting together or participating in a web series.
Photography meeting - Photophiles share their favorite techniques, tips, and equipment recommendations. Figure out how to share your work, get noticed, and enjoy photography more.
Podcast/audio meeting - Wonder what a podcast is? Want to know how to listen to them, even if you don’t have an iPod? Want to learn how to make audio to distribute via “podcast” or the internet? We’ll go over all that good stuff!
Image editing - Ever wonder how the captions get on all those lolcats? Want to crop a photo so you can email it? There are all kinds of easy ways to edit images, and lots of folks to share their favorite techniques.
M$ Alternatives - Don’t want to pay for licenses for the Inext generation of Microsoft Office or Outlook? That new version of AIM really making your computer choke? There are alternatives, and best of all… they’re 100% FREE.
TV Alternatives - Don’t throw away your television, but do figure out how to make your home network, internet-based content and your TV circumvent your pricey cable bill.
Windows 101 - Learn more about the system you might have been working with for years. What to turn off, what to keep on, how to maintain and support one of the most popular OSes in the world for the best possible experience.
Mac 101 - Learn what it takes to make the most out of a system known for it’s sleek, artful presentation. It’s not just for artists and college students! Come see the real thing and learn how enjoyable and approachable the Mac OS can be.
Linux 101 - No neckbeard required. It’s an open-source (community supported), lean, mean operating system. Linux may run some your favorite sites, but it can run your home computer in ways you might not have expected.
And that’s really just the list of topics I came up with in a short amount of time. There are probably a few dozen that could take up several meetings to cover the basics! Of course no one has to attend ALL meetings, and I’d encourage everyone to follow their passion and speak their mind. These meetings are meant for you, for me, and for anyone else who wants to attend. As I learned from the GI Joe cartoon: Knowing is half the battle. If you’re fighting with your concerns that you just “don’t get” computers, or code, or a specific kind of tech, it’s OK! Bring your questions, bring your lack of experience. We’re here to share!
So please, comment, email, tell a friend. We’ll be here, and we’d love to see you, too.
Note: I’d love to be able to webcast or record the instruction part of the session for future reference, anybody interested in helping with that, email me.
First off, it was great to see everybody again! I had missed the last two Media Makers events and kicked myself pretty hard both times. Thanks to my cat and the fact that I have a memory like a (rusted) steel trap, I was able to make it out to Newmarket in time to schmooze a little before everything got started.
Everybody is really busy! I took some general notes on each person and everybody had something fun or interesting to share.
Talked about film projects he’s working on, stuff in conjunction with NewtonStudios.com and BostonFilms.com (bostonfilms.com links to a weird page about internet connection sharing??) - Zerk.tv
Mentioned that he is scoring a film (horror film I think it was).
Bryan White of Cinema Suicide -
Launched Soundtrack Apocalisse, featuring soundtrack reviews. Apocalisse is Italian for apocalypse! Neat!
He’s got tshirts for Cinema Suicide now! They’re really cool looking, done in fake movie poster style, with Cinema Suicide’s URL on them. Go get one now so you can say you were in at the ground floor.
Quoted by Ghost Adventures, who will soon be putting out a DVD (which may or may not contain some of those CS group quotes). (Correct me if I’m citing the wrong Ghost Adventures group.)
He mentioned gearing up to do a documentary about the less-than-savory history of Portsmouth, NH and doing some paranormal investigation to coincide with the area. Talked about a lot of really interesting history surrounding Portsmouth. Things I’d never heard before like all the old aqueduct work that has survived, and the old tunnels under the city surviving from old military installations. It sounds like there are a lot of really fascinating subjects he could cover in a Portsmouth documentary and I look forward to hearing way more about it.
Cinema Suicide got covered by local entertainment paper: The Wire. The story is mentioned on the front page, so if you see a copy, go grab it!
Rob is a writer, a musician and photographer. He’s got a pretty awesome flickr profile at santaplausible (which is a name I just absolutely love, by the way). He’s looking to collaborate and learn more about cool stuff to do on the internet.
Shawn is a writer and I believe he said he’s also done some teaching. He’s interested in getting involved in more media and web-based projects.
Over at GeekForceFive, he experimented with adding a Question of the Day to a video post he did regarding his recent NIN concert experience. This got some of the best feedback he’s seen yet, and he is considering making Question of the Day a regular feature on GFF. Sounds like a terrific idea and I hope he keeps us posted!
He’s also forging a community area for GFF at geekforcefive.ning.com - ning.com being a resource for people who want to take a sort of plug-and-play approach to social networking/community sites.
Got BIG plans for the upcoming SXSW, trying to get a panel together on “Can social media save the world?” and is looking for support to get this exciting concept off the launchpad and into the conference. The idea behind this panel was inspired by her recent experiences at PodCamp Boston.
Got a site going called UptownUncorked.com, which has a neat wine glass shape going on with the first U that I think is really neat and would totally like to see develop more as a concept.
Recently attended a Mashable event in Boston. Also mentioned that she’s a frequent attendee of Boston. Any Media Maker folks who are interested in Boston events should probably contact her for info on carpooling and so forth.
I finally got to meet @debdebtig! I’ve been following her for a while on Twitter because she’s a locally active person. It’s nice to be able to put a face to a name like that.
Deb is a tech communicator (all types of media, not just writing), as well as a local farmer!
She’s got nheggs.blogspot.com and will be branching that out to include an official site (NHeggs.com) as well as adding some web service profiles for her chickens, giving people a day-in-the-life look into what it’s like to be a hen on the farm.
Anecdotally - Back-in-the-day, her husband ran the largest BBS in southern New Hampshire! How cool is that? I myself didn’t spend much time on the internet during the BBS days, I spent more time trying to stay up late playing Shining Force on the Sega channel without getting caught. :3
He’s also written a book! It’s called Practical Rails Plugins and it’s currently available for pre-order on Amazon. It’s pretty exciting to have published authors in our midst.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Nick is a freelance developer, working primarily with Ruby on Rails, but is awesome enough to provide services above and beyond that as duty calls.
He’s also been involved with a zine called ink19, which as I understand it started life as a paper zine and has since evolved some digital tentacles to better propel itself through the cultural miasma that is the internet. The primary focus of ink19 is music, but they cover other fun stuff like movies, television and various other exciting whatnots.
Nick has a dream! A dream in which it is much easier for people to read and distribute webcomics. That’s a really awesome dream. One which we can probably all get behind.
Sub-question: Should we do a group event to brainstorm all the possible features and needs of a webcomic reader/distro system? Could be a really entertaining and worthwhile project, and could ultimately unseat things like WordPress when it comes to web comic creation and distribution! (and how boss monster would that be? pfft. very.)
Brian Turnbull -
Another newcomer, and recent transplant from Chi-town (Chicago). He’s a professional photographer and has recently collaborated with ZapNap.
Brian and Nick worked with a client to very recently launch Razume.com, a site in which people can have their resumes reviewed by their peers (and probably also by hiring professionals!).
He’s also working away on a pilot for an HD webisodic show called Thomas in Wonkyland. The premise came about at an improv event a while back, and some of those same players are coming back to work on this concept. It sounds absolutely hilarious and I can’t wait to see it!
John recently helped his wife make a 1 minute movie for a film festival called le 60, a bunch of 1 minute movies to be shown in Boston in mid-September. He shared with us a really inspiring story about how he contacted a musician in Germany that he really admired, and was able to get some unique music for the project from that communication. Very cool. Incidentally: le 60 is accepting submissions through August 15th, so there is still time to participate in this project/contest.
Jill Silos -
Jill is an author and cultural historian who works with grad students at UNH, as well as other local college-level students in the area.
She is working on a book called Everybody Get Together: The Politics of the Counterculture. The book in project form won an award back in 2005, and I think it’s safe to say everyone in the group was very interested in the finished product when it’s ready for release.
She’s learning to play guitar and apparently does a pretty mean D minor, but is still looking for tips on how to transition between chords.
As for myself, I talked a little bit about exciting new developments at work, and a few of my ideas for RKNet.
RKNet will be featuring content from paid bloggers. I am still taking inquiries about this, although I have had several interested parties contact me already. Email giania [at] gmail.com if you wish to get more info about the program.
The purpose of the paid blogging program is to free me up to do the following: redo the RKNet template, develop really cool merch ideas, strengthen affiliate relations. Eventually I want RKNet to be something like boingboing without the awkward lesbian “unpublishing” drama. Baby steps.
Chris had a really terrific merchandise idea for RKNet, develop “random kitty” plush toys, literal random kitties, probably small batch or one-off items to keep things interesting, and cement their status as collectors items.
I talked briefly about an idea I had to create a site to specialize in supporting local farmers and local farmers’ markets by providing a centralized site catering to their needs. Deb let me know that in her experience it’s actually pretty difficult to keep up with the normal demand, much less deal with greater exposure. I’d love to work with some people on this concept, to come up with a variety of ideas on how a site like this could help the most people, and maybe make some money.
Some things I neglected to mention:
I’ve got a soup! giania.soup.io it’s a kind of micro-blogging, tumblr sort of service. It’s lots of fun and allows for quick sharing of some of your favorite (or least favorite) items on the internet.
I attended the Boston-based An Event Apart conference. I have transcribed some of my notes, but there’s still a lot left to put up. Stay tuned.
I mentioned a friend’s ninja doll project but forgot the URL ( ninja-dolls.com DUH), also posted the URL in the comments at the NH Media Makers blog.
As mentioned gingerly so as not to offend the nice people at Crackskulls, I am a HUGE fan of Dover’s newest coffee shop, Adelle’s. As we get more people at NH MM, we may run out of room at Crackskulls. I spoke briefly with one of the people who works at Adelle’s and it sounds like they might be interested in hosting an event like ours. I believe they have wifi there, and I’m working on getting them their own website so news/events can be posted there also. I’m really dying to try one of their bacon cheddar scones.
A portion of that song references a classic Three Stooges bit of which I knew nothing! I didn’t grow up in a household that really appreciated The Three Stooges, and so was never really exposed to some of the comedic gems they were responsible for creating.
Here, for your enjoyment, is a short bit of theirs which is titled (on the YouTube page where I found it) “Slowly I Turned”. Or perhaps more appropriately… Niagra Falls!
Perusing through my feeds this morning, as I am wont to do, I discovered a blurb in Wired’s The Underwire about the whole MST3K crew putting in an appearance at this year’s Comic Con! Not only that, but they plan to do a live Rifftrax session of Plan 9 From Outer Space as well.
Then the part that really grabbed me (because I can’t attend Comic Con this year), the announcement of an MST3K boxed set! SQEEEE! It’s currently up for pre-order on Amazon, with a listed release date of October 28th of this year. According to the Underwire article, legal issues have prevented Shout Factory from releasing the list of episodes that will be available in this set. With 4 discs in the set, my hope is they get as many as possible or at least all the ones not covered by the currently available DVD collections.
I’m hoping for Sidehackers, some of the Godzilla movies, Castle of Fu-Manchu (which I own a copy of in non-MST3K format), and Time Chasers. (”Wheee we’re getting poison sumac wheeee!”)
Burning Questions:
What episodes are your favorites?
Joel or Mike Nelson?
Tom or Crow?
The Doctor or Pearl?
TV’s Frank?
Shared by Mathiasx via #ectomo.
I really like this! The video itself looks like it was generated by painstaking hours on a Lite Bright, although I’m sure that’s probably not the case. The sound is modern, perhaps a rather common brand of modern not-quite-pop. Yet it’s pleasant and listenable and there are threads of influence running through here that are almost palpable. Fuzzy guitar matched with a good drum beat, and a lilting vocal make this a pleasure to listen to in my book.
Within the video, a friendly older gentleman wishes to share a neat experiment and a metaphor with the audience. The experiment involves taking a regular pickle of fairly decent size, skewering either end with metal forks, hanging it from a safely grounded sling, and hooking up electrical clips to the forks. When the wire with the clips is plugged into a source of electricity (in this case a wall socket, as evidenced by the standard US plug on one end), we can see that electricity is conducted through the pickle to create a complete circuit. With the lights off, you can watch one end of the pickle glow and spark like a fourth of july sparkler as seen through frosted glass.
It is at this point which Grandpa John - that’s this older fellow’s stage name I’d assume - wishes to really make his metaphor. His goal was to demonstrate that by introducing the power of Christ in the life of any average person, that person will glow (figuratively) with the power and light of God.
Needless to say, the BoingBoing commenters had a field day with this somewhat dubious analogy.
My favorite comment: “Pickle! Pickle! burning bright,
Between the forks of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” ~ chriss1519
Later on…
Gia-tan HA. take that expensive, wasteful floor washing kits and mops! Entire kitchen floor cleaned with one clorox wipe and my foot!
Gia-tan toes: best for getting into corners since the jesus pickle invented them
Then Mathiasx mentioned a song called Handlebars by a band called Flobots (which is absolutely amazing, by the by), which in turn reminded me of a song called Jesus Grow a Handlebar Moustache for Me by a band called Pataphysics. Bringing things somewhat full circle. Quite a reach for synchronicity, but without the original Jesus Pickle video from earlier, the odds of my remembering the Pataphysics’ song to make mention of it would have been significantly lessened.
Pataphysics - Jesus Grow a Handlebar Moustache for Me
Some kids play in the sandbox. We play in the.... litterbox??? The RKNet staff is pleased that you decided to stop by. Currently this is a multi-author project, with a rotating cast of totally kooky characters. Contact giania [at symbol] gmail [dot] com if you'd like to play here too.
and it’s currently available for pre-order on Amazon. It’s pretty exciting to have published authors in our midst. 
