PM's Lair of Villainy

A bit of encouragement for you

2009-12-21T09:10:00.003-05:00

When the aggravations of day-to-day life get added to the larger problems we face it is very easy to start feeling insignificant, or as Chip Ingram put it "a nobody going nowhere". Speaking of Chip Ingram, I am re-reading his book Finding God When You Need Him Most, and came on a passage that I wanted to share.

You Are Desirable To God!

Are you ready for this? You are desirable to God. He's pursuing you, but not to point out all that's wrong with you. He's pursuing you because he desires an intimate relationship with you. God is pursuing you every moment of every day. This idea is staggering.
The Bible is filled with references that show that God values us so much more than we think he does, especially when we're feeling like a nobody. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus explains his reason for coming to the earth: "to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). Elsewhere God calls his people "the apple of his eye"; believers are called the object of his affection. In the New Testament, God calls those who are his beloved, chosen, holy, dearly loved. We are told that nothing and no one can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ. Nothing.
When you feel like a nobody you need to remind yourself that God understands how you feel because he knows you completely. You need to remember that you are wanted in a very special way.

This touches on something I think gets lost sometimes when people talk about God. Yes, you need to go to Him in a spirit of humility and repentance; that is, you have to own up to him that like everyone else you've screwed up in relation to His law, and you have to be willing to accept what He has to say about that sin. The point of that isn't to drive us into the ground and condemn us, however. God's not pursuing us to merely wag the finger at us and say "Shame, shame! I know your name!", but because he wants to fix our broken relationship with Him. We have to come clean about our sin because that sin grieves Him and drives us away from Him. Our mental image of Him shouldn't be that of some Cosmic Cop who's waiting to bonk us on the head with his billy club when we do something wrong, but our Heavenly Father (and a loving, intimately-involved Father at that; the original word used in the Lord's Prayer for "father" is "abba", the Aramaic equivalent of "daddy"). Like a father, He will punish us if we willfully disobey him, but he's always ready to make things right and restore our relationship with Him. As Chip put it, "He's pursuing you because he desires an intimate relationship with you."

Anyway, I hope that's an encouragement to you, should you have chanced to read it. :o)

Quote of the Day

2009-08-21T11:59:00.001-04:00

"Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose head, John Conyers, says he doesn't understand it. It'll be passed by Congress that has not read it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a Treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that's nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?" -Rush Limbaugh

Like him or don't, you have to admit that's pretty funny stuff. At least, I think it is. :o)

I Had A Dream...

2009-06-21T17:05:00.003-04:00

No, this isn't about Dr. King. This is about the dream I had last night about what looked like a pretty cool SNES-era RPG. I have no idea what the game's title was, but it had crisp, brilliantly-colored graphics (like Tales of Phantasia, but with brighter colors) and a real-time combat system similar to the Secret of Mana games.

Anyway, the bit I remember was some kind of a boss battle; one of those which is semi-scripted in that you don't so much defeat the boss as you survive and damage the boss to a particular degree before a cut scene kicks in. It was fairly early on in the game (I remember thinking that it was the first boss battle), so I only had the main character to use; a typical RPG main character (fighter with some magic/special abilities/whatever). The fight took place in this deep well, and was with a dragon so huge you could only see its head peeking in from the top of the screen. The dragon would periodically change colors from red to blue, and its attacks were elementally keyed to its color (i.e. it breathed fire when it was red and water when it was blue). When it was blue it would try to deluge you with a torrent of water; if you got caught in the stream you'd have to hit the attack button repeatedly in order to keep from being held underwater and drowned, but its attack raised the water level somewhat and made it easier to hit the dragon (which was good, since it was vulnerable to the main character's fire sword thing). When it was red, though, it would try to roast you and your sword didn't damage it in the least. Suddenly I had a flash of insight during one of the times it was red: I could target the water, which caused a geyser to shoot up and hit the dragon, which damaged it a lot! After doing that a couple of times, the cut scene kicked in: the dragon turned gold and it sucked up all the water (my character included). I think the dragon spit the water out somewhere and my character was in the next chapter's area map.

Overall, a cool dream. I'd love to see an actual game made in the style of it.

Poetic food for thought

2009-03-14T10:46:00.001-04:00

"Creed" by Steve Turner

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin.
We believe that everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone,
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and
after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy's OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes,
UFO's and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher although we think
His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same—
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, the dead have lied, then it's compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson.
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is not absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds
and the flowering of individual thought.

"Chance" by Steve Turner

If chance be
the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
and when you hear

State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man
worshiping his maker.

Long time, no blog

2009-03-12T17:25:00.003-04:00

Yeah, I've noticed that it's been close to 2 years since I've blogged anything. I finally decided to do something about that. I don't know how often I'll post anything, but I intend to make at least some posts.

Oh yeah, Mrs. Mobius and Honkey Magoo are doing just fine. Here's a pic of the three of us from Christmas 2008:

Baby Mobius is HERE!!!

2007-05-05T15:41:00.000-04:00

Baby Mobius was born yesterday at 6:31 pm! He is 19 1/2 inches long and 6 pounds, five ounces. He and his mommy are both doing very well. Here's a pic or two:

My wife and I are very happy he's finally here. Give baby Honkey Magoo a warm welcome, won't you? :oD

Baby Mobius update 5/3/07

2007-05-03T22:19:00.000-04:00

My wife and the baby are doing okay, but the induction is going slower than we had hoped. At this point, it looks like the major part of the induction may take place tomorrow (Friday, 5/4), provided my wife's body cooperates and her and the baby's health are not endangered.

Keep us in your prayers, please.

Baby Mobius update

2007-05-02T19:14:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to say that we are taking my wife in to be induced at midnight. Odds are very good that Baby Honkey Magoo Mobius will be born on Thursday, May 3!

That is all. :o)

Thanks to Wurwolf!!!

2007-04-10T21:24:00.000-04:00

My good friend Wurwolf of Cooties Cards sent me some neat bookmarks she made. If you haven't looked at her site before, check it out; she does wonderful work!

Here are the three of them:

The first one has a Chinese food takeout box and three fortune cookies on it. The fortune says "You will always get what you want through your charm and personality." :o)

The second one is a neat collage of vintage motorcycle imagery, with three chrome studs and my real life initials!

And the third has a Coke bottlecap background, two chrome studs and a shiny plastic coke bottle decal!

Thank you so much for these, wurwolf! They are very neat; excellent work as always. :o) I'm going to put them to very good use, as I am an avid reader. I'm going to use the fortune cookie bookmark to mark my place in A Clash of Kings!

Foodblogging: Monday, 4/9/07

2007-04-09T21:31:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted anything new in awhile, but things have been crazy busy lately, what with getting things ready for Honkey Magoo (aka PM Junior). We had the baby shower this weekend, which took a lot out of us (what with setup, cleanup, and toting all the gifts home). It was another one of those times where a regular work day was more restful than the weekend!

But enough of that. I'm here to post a foodblog entry. Today's food question is: "what do you do with leftover meatball hors d'ourves when the party's over?" And the answer is: "make spaghetti and meatballs with them."

Yeah, it's not terribly original, but it was delicious. :o) I whipped up a quickie sauce with a can of tomato sauce, a (chopped up) can of stewed tomatoes, some Italian sausage, and some Italian-type seasonings (basil, oregano, rosemary, garlic, etc.), to which I added the meatballs. Once that had come together and the meatballs were heated through, I put that on low and put a pot on the boil to make the noodles. Once those were done, I drained 'em and mixed them into the sauce. The finished product is what you see in the picture above.

It was good stuff, if I do say so myself. Nothing innovative (my cooking rarely is), but it tasted good and there was enough left over for us to take in our lunches tomorrow. The meatballs I didn't use today went in the freezer. Sometime in the future I may post other uses for leftover meatballs (hint: meatball subs may be involved).

"Honkey Magoo" says hello!

2007-04-04T21:35:00.000-04:00

As those who know me already know, my wife is pregnant with our first child, and is due to have him in seven weeks! Needless to say, we're very excited about it. My friends on the net are excited, too, have have taken to calling our little boy Honkey Magoo (long story as to that...).

Anyway, we had an OB appointment today, and they took an ultrasound. We got some good 3D pics out of it; this one's my favorite:

"Hello, Internets!" - Baby Mobius

What.

2007-03-27T20:23:00.000-04:00

I have found evidence that people are even more insane (and asinine) than I previously even thought.

"How do I know if my cat will dance with me?

Well the question you should really ask is not, "Will my cat dance with me?" but rather, "Will I dance with my cat?"

No, the question you should really ask is, "do I really need to buy a book about dancing with cats, or buy a cd of music specifically designed for dancing with my cat?

I mean, seriously. What the hell?

Foodblogging: Sunday, 3/25/07

2007-03-25T16:11:00.000-04:00

Well, it's the first really nice weekend of spring, so you know what that means (note: if you don't know what that means, read the words that come next): grill season has begun! :oD

Yeah, I brought the grill out of its hibernatory cave (note: I mean the garage. I do not literally have a cave), cleaned it up, opened up a bag of quick-light charcoal, and fired that puppy up! (Note: by "puppy" I mean grill. I am not burning dogs!)

On the menu for today: pork ribs smothered in barbecue sauce (Maul's original, for the record) with some onion chopped up in it, corn on the cob, and homemade potato salad. I put the ribs in a pan, poured sauce and grated onion over them, and covered in aluminum foil. Nothing fancy, mind you, but they've been on a little over an hour at this poin and after about 45 more minutes they ought to be very tender and delicious. Jenny wrapped the corn in foil with butter, salt, and pepper inside and we put those on the grill, too. Jenny finished the potato salad an hour ago, and it's been chilling in the fridge ever since. All in all, it promises to be a great kickoff to grill season! :o)

We're having some family over to eat with us, because good food is better if you share it with people you care about. Plus, my sister is bringing a homemade banana cream pie for dessert, which should cap everything off wonderfully. Well, time to get the house ready for company. I'll let you all know how dinner turned out!! :oD

Update: Monday, 3/26
The ribs were just about perfect! We started the corn a little late, though, especially considering it started out frozen. We saved dinner by popping it in the oven for about 15 minutes; it ended up good and hot and buttery and delicious. Jenny did a fantastic job on the potato salad, and my sister made an excellent pie! Overall, a fantastic meal.

Hot Hot Swinging Action

2007-03-19T21:57:00.000-04:00

Our good friend Wurwolf has expressed a desire to see hot hot pictures of swingers on Tork's Blog, but Tork refuses to post any such pictures. He says it goes against his morals or something.

Well, I have no such scruples against posting that sort of picture. And so, I will post some! But because I want to keep my blog at least a little bit work friendly, I will only post links to the pics. You have been warned: only click on the following links if you want to see pictures of people who are totally unashamed to be SWINGERS!!!

Swingers 1!
Swingers 2!!
Swingers 3!!!

I hope you enjoy these, Wurwolf. I may never post such pictures again!

Foodblogging: Sunday, 3/18/07

2007-03-18T14:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, so today was one of those days where I sort of had to fend for myself for lunch, and I didn't feel like having a sandwich or anything like that. And so, I went into cooking experiment mode. I didn't want to use up stuff that we might use for supper sometime, so I was forced to work with stuff that we had on hand that we either had a ton of, or that we probably weren't going to use right away. I threw something together, and it didn't turn out half bad. It's not something I would want to eat all the time, but if I had to make a lunch or dinner with these ingredients, I could rest assured of making something edible and filling.

Here's the recipe, if you want to see for yourself whether I veered closer to madness or genius:

PM's Artichoke & Carrot Skillet

Ingredients:
1 12 oz jar artichoke quarters
1 can sliced carrots
1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup w/ roasted garlic
Milk with which to fill the soup can
1 cup instant rice
1/4 stick of margarine or butter (4 tablespoons)
1 pinch minced garlic
1 or 2 dashes Paula Deen's Silly Salt (if you don't have Silly Salt, you can substitute a dash of garlic salt combined with a dash of pepper and a pinch of thyme and savory. Or, just salt and season to taste.)

Procedure:
Put a large saucepan on high heat and melt the margarine. Once it's well melted, drain the artichokes and dump them in the saucepan. When the artichoke pieces start to caramelize, flip them and then drain and add the carrots. Add the minced garlic and the Silly Salt and stir the veggies until they're all heated through. Add the cream of mushroom soup and the can of milk. Stir well until it all comes together. Let the mixture come to a boil, then turn down heat to low and allow it to simmer for a few minutes. Add the rice and mix it in well. Allow the mixture to simmer for five more minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and allow to stand for a few minutes, then serve. Serves two, unless you're a p-i-g hog like me and you're hungry, in which case you might eat the whole thing yourself.

Like I said, it's not grand cuisine, but it tasted pretty good and I'm very full. Time to roll myself into the kitchen again and clean the saucepan I dirtied. :o)

Lame Half-assed Post #1

2007-03-14T22:00:00.000-04:00

This is the first in what is likely to be a long series of lame, half-assed posts which serve only to increase my post count. I don't have much to say today (tune in tomorrow to see if that changes!), but I will post a pic I did experimenting with coloring on Photoshop.

Enjoy, please.

Be Good, Supernanny

2007-03-12T21:57:00.000-04:00

So I'm sitting here minding my own business, and I hear my wife watching Supernanny in the other room. No big deal, she can watch whatever she wants. The thing is, every time the show goes to commercial, they play a snippet of the theme song, which is "Be Good, Johnny" by Men At Work. I've known that song since I was a child (it's a musical deconstruction of the classic song "Johnny Be Good"), and God knows I know what the words are, but every time I hear it, I still think it sounds like they're saying "Bigot, bigot! Bigot, bigot!".

All this is just to say that it makes me chuckle inside to think of the Supernanny being called a bigot. Maybe it's just that she's racist against bad parenting? (Where "racist" means simply that she hates bad parents, not that bad parenting has anything to do with race. Just to clarify.)

Kool Aid Man: What a Jerk!

2007-03-07T19:08:00.000-05:00

So I've seen this Kool Aid commercial lately where some kids see Kool Aid Man on a deserted island with the letters "SUS" written in the sand. When the kids get there and tell him they're responding to his SOS, though, he tells them it actually says "S-U-S: Stirrin' Up Singles!" No, Kool Aid Man, putting out a phony SOS is more like "stirrin' up sh-- I mean, crap". Jerkface.

Makes me long for the old Kool Aid commercials. Or even a Kool Aid/Mad World mashup on You Tube.

Comic Project Update: 3/6/07

2007-03-06T18:09:00.000-05:00

Okay, just so you all know that I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth or anything, here's a sneak peek at my latest character concept sketch for the Big Comic Project. I'm also close to narrowing down a name, but I need to mull it over/run it by a few people before I fully settle on it.

New Greatest Idea Ever!!!

2007-03-01T21:54:00.000-05:00

So, I was thinking about carbon offsets today. You know, carbon offsets. Where someone like a preachy celebrity or Al Gore who chides other people for causing global warming can't be bothered to reduce their energy usage or take the bus or any of the other crap they tell people to do, so they pay someone else to reduce their own "carbon footprint" so that they can keep on producing lots and lots of CO2. Sort of like paying someone else to do your homework for you in college.

Anyway, thinking about that gave me a great idea. Today I invented a new dieting method: calorie offsets. Now I can eat whatever the heck I want whenever the heck I want to, and I can just pay someone else to eat less for me!

Oooh, better yet... there's plenty of people going hungry in the world already. So I can just use their calories without even having to pay them a dime. I ought to be back to my college weight in no time!

Inaugural Post!!1!!omgone!!!!!

2007-03-01T21:27:00.000-05:00

Hello there and welcome to PM's Lair of Villainy, or as it will undoubtedly soon be called in certain quarters (which for now shall remain nameless), PMS Lair of Villainy. I really have no idea why I'm starting another blog, because historically I have been horrible about updating such things. Oh well, all the cool kids are doing it. :o)

I'll probably write on an irregular basis about stupid crap that crosses my mind or about TV or comics or videogames or stuff like that. You know, like pretty much every other blog in existence. :oD I may also have updates about my big comic project I'm working on. Maybe!

So anyway, welcome to my blog. Hopefully you enjoy at least some of what you read here. If not, tough! I'm writing it anyway. :o)