In case you haven’t seen it yet, The Daily Show writers present the “Not The Daily Show” explanation of the writer’s strike.

Less humorous presentations from United Hollywood

In short…don’t piss on writers, because writers know how to write!

National Novel Writing Month pariticipants in several localities are competing against each other for most words written gross, and most words written per person. These are called Word Wars.

Here are the current stats for St. Louis and our chosen competitors:

Don’ t tell anyone, but at least one St. Louis participant hasn’t updated their word count online since the first night, and that’s not because they haven’t written anything since. So the St. Louis per-person average is a little lower than actuality. Of course, this could be true in the other localities as well.

On Mondays, I want my car to be red
On Tuesdays, I want my car to be orange
On Wednesdays, I want my car to be yellow
On Thursdays, I want my car to be green
On Fridays, I want my car to be blue
On Saturdays, I want my car to be indigo
On Sundays, I want my car to be violet

By 2010, all I will need is one car. As they’ll have on the market a paint job that can change the color of your car at the touch of a button.

And of course…the paint job I suspect could be applied to other things as well…though it will have to be something that an electric current passes through.

Before the bodywork is covered in paint, it receives a coating of special ‘paramagnetic’ iron oxide particles. The small crystals within the iron oxide particles change its alignment when a current passes through it. Consequently, this results in a change in the way light reflects off its surface.

On Mondays, I want my car to be red
On Tuesdays, I want my car to be orange
On Wednesdays, I want my car to be yellow
On Thursdays, I want my car to be green
On Fridays, I want my car to be blue
On Saturdays, I want my car to be indigo
On Sundays, I want my car to be violet

By 2010, all I will need is one car. As they’ll have on the market a paint job that can change the color of your car at the touch of a button.

And of course…the paint job I suspect could be applied to other things as well…though it will have to be something that an electric current passes through.

Before the bodywork is covered in paint, it receives a coating of special ‘paramagnetic’ iron oxide particles. The small crystals within the iron oxide particles change its alignment when a current passes through it. Consequently, this results in a change in the way light reflects off its surface.

For the next two weeks, you can buiy a laptop, and get a laptop. That is – buy a $200 laptop for a child in a developing nation, and get one of these laptops for your very own. Plus a year’s worth of T-Mobile HotSpot Wifi Access. Since a year of HotSpot access generally costs approximately $360, and you’re getting a $200 tax deduction, one could look at it as coming out ahead.

Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in North America. This is the first time the revolutionary XO laptop has been made available to the general public. For a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to empower a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child in your life in recognition of your contribution. $200 of your donation is tax-deductible (your $399 donation minus the fair market value of the XO laptop you will be receiving).

For all U.S. donors who participate in the Give One Get One program, T-Mobile is offering one year of complimentary HotSpot access.

On Sunday two women were ordained into an organization calling itself: Roman Catholic Womenpriests. They were ordained at a local Reform Synagogue – Central Reform Congregation. I’m not a member of CRC, but I was actually there on Saturday, as my sister-in-law, who converted to Judaism a few years ago, was having her Bat Mitzvah ceremony. I figured I might as well type out my thoughts.

If a Jewish synagoge were host to the ordination of two Baptist clergy, I wouldn’t expect the Roman Catholic Church to express any displeasure. Or Lutheran clergy. Or Muslim clergy.

To quote from a recent Post Dispatch article from before the event:

The two women will be ordained as priests of an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which, in its constitution, defines itself as “an international initiative within the Roman Catholic Church.”

The group was founded in 2002, when seven women were ordained aboard a boat on the Danube River in Germany. All of them were later excommunicated. The organization says other women have since been ordained by male Roman Catholic bishops, including Patricia Fresen, a former Dominican nun and Roman Catholic Womenpriests bishop, who will ordain Hudson and McGrath.

The group insists that it is Roman Catholic, but the church says it is not. Church leaders say that Womenpriests is like any other Christian denomination that breaks away from the church because it dislikes its doctrine.

Female ordinations by fringe Catholic groups are not unusual, and bishops often ignore such events because they occur outside the church.

The Church declares the Womenpriests to be a separate church. In so doing, they give up any right to complain about where they are ordained. That the Womenpriests claim otherwise is irrelevant.

This has a parallel in that Jews for Jesus, and other Messianic Jewish churches claim to still be Jewish. Most of the rest of the Jewish community disagrees with the claim. But most religions disagree with each other on the claims they make. That doesn’t mean we disagree with their right to exist, and worship as they choose. That’s why there are different religions. And if a group of Rabbis from a Messianic Church wished to be ordained in a Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church said OK, I’d say, ‘fine.’ Neither the Catholic Church, nor the Messianic Church are part of my religious community, so it’s none of my business.

Similarly there have been scattered stories of Orthodox Jewish women becoming ordained as Rabbis. The Orthodox community doesn’t accept them, and they usually end up with Conservative Congregations. Not being Orthodox, my opinions aren’t very relevant, but I feel that’s as it should be. I don’t expect Orthodoxy to change. But I support the right for women to be Rabbis.

I wasn’t at the event yesterday, but it sounds like it was well attended. I think that CRC’s willingness to be host to the ordination of the clergy of a new religious group shows a strong interest in interfaith ties. Because being a supporter of interfaith relationships doesn’t mean you only strengthen ties with religion A once you get permission from religions B, C and D.

I have also heard some fellow Jews complain a little about the idea of the ordination of another religion occurring within a synagogue. It seems appropriate from a historical perspective for Central Reform, since they spent their first fifteen years renting space from the First Unitarian Church in the Central West End. I suspect several weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs occurred inside the church. Their current synagogue is across the street from the church where they began.

Careful readers of the Post Dispatch article linked to at the top of this post will notice that the new priests plan to celebrate mass at – where? – The First Unitarian Church. The exact same place CRC held its services for 15 years. It’s extremely appropriate for CRC to have been the location where they were ordained.

Scalzi on the Ficlets blog points out that writers on strike write the best strike journals.

The journal in the NYTimes article he links to is quite funny. It is written by one of the writers for The Daily Show.

However, my favorite strike journal was written a couple years ago by a local writer. It’s entitled, The Non-Texas Chainstore Massacre. It was written when the grocery store chains went on strike. Most writers don’t make a living from writing…Most writers have other jobs. The piece linked to above appeared in a zine called Bewildering Stories. Don’t be fooled. It was published as fiction, but I know the guy, and it could be true.

I was looking at my statistics for the month of October, and the number one search term that drove people to my site?

Anakin Skywalker

I looked at that, and started racking my brains trying to recall when I last blogged about Star Wars. I am a geek. I have seen all of the films multiple times, but I know I haven’t blogged much about them. I did a google search, and my website didn’t turn up in the first 100 results.

On a hunch, I tried a Google Images search. Fifth picture. From a meme-quiz I took which identified me as most like Anakin out of all the Revenge of the Sith characters. I took the quiz back in 2005. Two years ago!

So there are only 4 other pictures on the entire interweebs of Anakin that are ranked higher than mine. (And the image isn’t even on my site – it’s hotlinked from the quiz site. But the search results link to my site.)

So…Welcome Star Wars Fans!

I was looking at my statistics for the month of October, and the number one search term that drove people to my site?

Anakin Skywalker

I looked at that, and started racking my brains trying to recall when I last blogged about Star Wars. I am a geek. I have seen all of the films multiple times, but I know I haven’t blogged much about them. I did a google search, and my website didn’t turn up in the first 100 results.

On a hunch, I tried a Google Images search. Fifth picture. From a meme-quiz I took which identified me as most like Anakin out of all the Revenge of the Sith characters. I took the quiz back in 2005. Two years ago!

So there are only 4 other pictures on the entire interweebs of Anakin that are ranked higher than mine. (And the image isn’t even on my site – it’s hotlinked from the quiz site. But the search results link to my site.)

So…Welcome Star Wars Fans!

Been doing this for the past couple years, I might as well keep it up. See if it ever changes. These are the number of news articles turned up in a “Google News” search for the corresponding terms:

“Berlin Wall” – 848
Kristallnacht – 220
Holocaust 1938 – 99
“Night of Broken Glass” – 51
“Kaiser Wilhelm” – 42
“Beer Hall Putsch” – 40
“World Freedom Day” – 1
“International Day Against Fascism” – 1