Halloween Pole

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The Blogger’s Dozen Best Animated Feature Films in the Thteed Collection

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Inspired by Time Out's deeply flawed (but very fun) top-50 list, Kohl Glass wrote his "Top 10 Underrated Animated Film List".

Wanting to get in on the fun, I've combed the Thteed Family Film Collection and curated a list of my own.

First, only animated films that are clearly features were deemed eligible. We own hundreds of animated shorts, some of which are among my favorite films of all time, but that's too hard a task, combing through those babies. So a film had to be animated, a feature, and excellent to qualify. And owned by the Thteeds. Those are the criteria. Then came the narrowing down to a blogger's dozen.....

Which was really hard. Getting from 15 to 14 was the hardest part. I love some films that didn't make the final cut. If I'd made this list a day earlier, it would have been a different list. Same with tomorrow. So I didn't bother ranking them --- this is just alphabetical order.

(The links go to the films' Wikipedia pages. My comments are in the rollover text.)

An American Tale: Fievel Goes West
Bambi
A Boy Named Charlie Brown
Dumbo
Finding Nemo
A Goofy Movie
The Incredibles
The Iron Giant
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
My Neighbor Totoro
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Spirited Away
Toy Story
Toy Story 2

X

Free bonus! The other animated features we own are listed below to help you kvetch that I chose the wrong fourteen. Again, when possible, I linked to the film's Wikipedia page. If there was none, then IMDb.

Aladdin
Alice in Wonderland
Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman
A Bug's Life
Cars
Chicken Run
Cinderella
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird
Fantasia 2000
Jungle Emperor Leo
Kiki's Delivery Service
Lady and the Tramp
Shrek
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Surf's Up
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Yellow Submarine

Thoughts on Inktober as it draws to a close

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It’s Inktober! What is Inktober you ask? It’s a month long appreciation of the art of drawing in ink and the practitioners that embrace that art. To celebrate I’m posting one ink drawing a day for the entire month. No pencils, no water colors, no photoshop, just the unadulterated black and white beauty of thick black ink on crisp white paper. Drawing with ink means commitment. There’s no hemming and hawing as to which pencil line you’re going to use, no sitting on the fence of values, no pussy footing with color. When you make your mark you better mean it. It’s black and white. True or false. On or off. And that’s what Inktober is all about. (original source) (inktobery rendering)

So even though I am by no means an artist of Inktober-founder Jake Parker's stripe, I do enjoy me a bit of a draw now and then and I thought I would give it a go. I clearly had good intentions or my sole Inktober entry would not have been given a number. But even if I didn't really play, I did watch others play (Brandon Dayton, for instance) and I enjoyed the artist links Jake provided.

One artist Jake references is Bill Watterson:

I sometimes don’t realize what an impact Bill Watterson’s art has had on me. I used to clip the Sunday strips from the paper and study them (I still have that little stack of strips filed away somewhere). Sometimes I’ll pull out a Calvin and Hobbes book and I’ll be looking at a panel or a character pose and it will hit me: So that’s why I draw eyes like that, or a running pose like this.

I'm currently reading the first volume of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes and I'm amazed every time I crack it how strips I still have memorized after years of neglect can make me lol all over.

But did Watterson affect my drawing style? No question I pored over those lines endlessly, particularly the more contorted faces (But surely you could try harder than this! / Yes, but you face? Doesn't that hurt? / I came from Sears? --- Money! Wealth! Power! I can buy anyone! --- I didn't look these up, but you fans know which faces I'm talking about.), and it's the faces where I can see his influence most of all. When I look at all these drawings I made this month, they are a) mostly faces and b) generally contorted.

But the drawing I do is not based on Watterson's style.

So my subconscious has been considering this problem of who the greatest influence on my drawing style has been. And an answer has been found.

James Thurber.



Could anything be more obvious?

I read all his books in high school and I drew hundreds and hundreds of Thurber dogs like these two:



No question my drawing style is more influenced by Thurber than anyone else.

Which is kind of hilarious when you realize he thought about as much of his drawings as I do of mine. And he was blind.

Once he was asked to reillustrated Alice in Wonderland but he said the Tenniel illustrations were fine --- let him rewrite the book.

But the most shocking thing occurred to me as I was writing this post. In addition to copying Thurber dogs all over my high school notebooks, I also practiced his signature. Including....this one:

"My drawings have been described
as pre-intentionalist, meaning
they were finished before the ideas
for them had occurred to me.
I shall not argue the point."

----James Thurber

Click on Oscar to Play

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We're down to one month in Preseason Oscar Game play. And participation, which I, in my optimism, expected to be up this year, is down. Very down. I mean, in other words, so far it's just me. That's it.

So.... Maybe I won't have to give out a prize this year after all.

But I don't want that to happen. So please consider the movies (you already know more than I did, like, for instance, Amelia is apparently really really boring --- so use that) and put together your entry.

[next5books]

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095) Rift by Todd Robert Petersen, finished October 24

The last line of the epilogue knocked me into a big sloppy smile.

I'll be posting my review on Motley Vision soon. That link to Mansmansylvania^* will be added to the comments of this post once it's up.

about twenty days --- can that be right? that slow?

094) Book of Mormon Stories illustrated by Jerry Thompson and Robert T. Barrett, finished October 8

These scripture comics the Church puts out are remarkably good at covering all the major plot points. Certainly of the better known stories. Any kid versed in these books is ready for Sunday School. They aren't particularly, ah, dynamic or anything, but they're fine in most respects.

One this about this particular volume though that's rather troubling is its stark cowboys-v-indians art. Anyone trying to prove the Mormons-are-racist rumor is going to love this book because the good guys are generally from London and the bad guys straight off the res. When a story demands that not be the case --- stripling warriors, Samuel the Lamanite --- the artists zip back to the whitegood/brownbad dynamic with whiplashy speed. It's . . . disconcerting.

Another thing I don't like is how wickedness is generally represented by sitting around with rough-hewn mugs laughing. Makes being bad look like a lark. Meh.

But on the other hand, it looks like Ether's having a good time:



about a month

093) Invincible: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, finished October 5

Note that I skipped the first, oh, quarter of this book as it was the same content I read and reviewed here. This volume is discussed in brief at Fob Comics.

a week

092) The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye by Kirkman Walker Ottley Crabtree, finished October 5

More on this volume at Fob Comics.

an hour

091) The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker, finished October 2

You can read everything I've said about Elna by clicking on the word marfluious, which is not a word one hears everyday.

at most two weeks

Previously:

090) Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1, Unmanned by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, finished September 30
089) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, finished September 24
088) Tales From the Bog by Marcus Lusk, finished ~September 18
087) The Complete Peanuts 1969-1970 by Charles M. Schulz, finished September 13
086) Crush by Murphy Hall, finished September 1
085) Full Color by Mark Haven Britt, finished August 31
084) Manhunter: Forgotten by Marc Andreyko et al, finished Aug 25
083) Glacial Period by Nicolas de Crécy, finished August 20
082) House of Mystery primarliy by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges, finished August 19
081) The Portable Frank by Jim Woodring, finished August 19
080) Runaways Vol. 3: The Good Die Young by Brian K Vaughan et al, finished August 15
079) Runaways, Vol. 2 by Brian K Vaughan et al, finished August 13
078) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, finished August 10
077) Runaways, Vol. 1 by Brian K Vaughan et al, finished August 10
076) Essex County Volume 1: Tales From The Farm (Essex County) by Jeff Lemire, finished August 8
075) A Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare> by Jeremy Butterfield, finished August 8
074) How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do by Dr. Sharon Moalem, finished August 6
073) We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson, finished August 6
072) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, finished July 29
071) The Left Bank Gang by Jason, finished July 22
070) The Juggler of Our Lady by R.O. Blechman, finished July 22
069) Waterwise by Joel Orff, finished July 22
068) The Saga of the Bloody Benders by Rick Geary, finished July 22
067) 10 Books That Screwed Up the World (And 5 Others That Didn't Help) by Benjamin Wike, Ph.D., finished July 21
066) We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson, finished July 11
065) Hooper Haller by Dean Hughes, finished July 18
064) Stay (MS) by Moriah Jovan, finished July 15
063) The Question: The Five Books of Blood by Greg Rucka et al, finished July 14
062) Daisy Kutter: The Last Train by Kazu Kibuishi, finished July 13
061) Gravity vs. the Girl by Riley Noehren, finished July 11
060) The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, finished July 1
059) Letters from a Nut by Ted. L. Nancy, finished June 21
058) The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling, finished June 21
057) Lowboy by John Wray, finished June 16
056) One silent sleepless night by Spencer W. Kimball, finished June 14
055) Blue Beetle: Boundaries by Sturges/Albuquerque/Coelho, finished June 6
054) [title in flux] (MS) by B.G. Christensen, finished June 5
053) Invincible Volume 1: Family Matters words by Robert Kirkman, pictures by Cory Walker, finished June 3
052) Der Ostwind (MS) by Kohl Glass, finished June 2
051) The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde, finished June 2
050) The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton, finished June 2
049) Superman / Madman Hullabaloo! by the Allreds, finished May 29
048) Beyond Fair Chase: The Ethic and Tradition of Hunting by Jim Posewitz, finished May 26
047) Brave and the Bold: Demons and Dragons by Mark Waid et al, finished May 20
046) Atonement by Ian McEwan, finished May 20
045) Love and the Light: An Idyl of the Westland by Orson Ferguson Whitney, finished May 20
044) Tales Of The Batman: Tim Sale by Tim Sale and some motley group of writers, finished May 17
043) Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street by Ed Brubaker et al, finished May 13
042) Aztek - the Ultimate Man by Grant Morrison), Mark Millar, Keith Champagne, Steven Harris; finished May 11
041) Cypher by Brad Teare, finished May 7
040) My Faith in Frankie by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, Marc Hempel, finished May 5
039) Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg, finished May 5
038) Batman: R.I.P. by Grant Morrison et al, finished May 4
037) 1000 Steps To World Domination by Rob Osborne, finished May 4
036) 110 Per¢ by Tony Consiglio, finished May 4
035) Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker, finished May Day
034) All Star Superman, Vol. 2 by Grant Morrison, and Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant, finished April 22
033) All Star Superman, Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison, and Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant, finished April 20
032) Bound on Earth by Angela Hallstrom, finished April 19
031) Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul by Grant Morrison and colleagues, finished April 18
030) Madman Atomic Comics Volume 2 by Mike Allred with Laura Allred, finished April 14
029) For a Good Time by K. Voss, finished April 11
028) The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, finished April 11
027) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, finished April 6
026) Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey by Karen Wilkin (essay) and Edward Gorey (art), finished April 5
025) Owly: A Time to be Brave by Andy Runton, finished April 1
024) Blue Beetle: Endgame by John Rogers and Rafaele Albuquerque, finished March 29
023) Blue Beetle: Reach for the Stars by Rogers, Torres, Albuqerque; finished March 26
022) The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968 by Charles M. Schulz, finished March 25
021) Blue Beetle: Road Trip by various, finished March 25
020) Love That Dog by Sharon Creech, finished March 18
019) Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, finished March 17
018) The Proviso by Moriah Jovan, finished March 16
017) An Ensign to the Nations: History of the Oakland State by Evelyn Candland, finished March 7
016) Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, finished February 27
015) Batman: The Black Glove by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel and J.H. Williams III, finished February 23
014) The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston, finished February 22
013) Lex Luthor: Man of Steel by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, finished February 19
012) Blue Beetle: Shellshocked by Keith Giffen and Cully Hammer, finished February 18
011) The Joker by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, finished February 17
010) Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, finished February 18
009) Superman: Red Son by MJR&M, finished February 11
008) The Best American Comics 2008 edited by Lynda Barry, finished February 9
007) The Blot by Tom Neely, finished February 6
006) JSA: Darkness Falls by Goyer, Johns, et al, finished January 28
005) The Road by Cormac McCarthy, finished January 24
004) Poor Sailor by Sammy Harkham, finished January 19
003) The Waitress was New by Dominique Fabre and translated by Jordan Stump, finished January 19
002) Stagger Lee by Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix, finished January 12?
001) The Arrival by Shaun Tan, finished January 8

the first five, 1-5
the second five, 6-10
the third five, 11-15
the fourth five, 16-20
the fifth five, 21-25
the sixth five, 26-30
the seventh five, 31-35
the eighth five, 36-40
the ninth five, 41-45
the tenth five, 46-50
the eleventh five, 51-55
the twelfth five, 56-60
the thirteenth five, 61-65
the fourteenth five, 66-70
the fifteenth five, 71-75
the sixteenth five, 76-80
the seventeenth five, 81-86
the eighteenth five, 87-90

Svithe: The Me-First Fallacy (and its amazingly simple solution)

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Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as he is with you. ---Oswald Chambers

I've been thinking a lot about this issue lately, in part because of my Elna Baker posts and in part because of friends of mine and in part as I reevaluate my own thinking, and rediscovering the above quotation has gelled it together for me.

When I speak to people who are mildly or severely disenfranchised with faith, they often blame that disenfranchisement on the affliction called Other Believer's Expectations for True Believers.

Often, as humans, we make the mistake of believing that we are in fact the center of the universe, that we are in fact the archetypal human, that we are in fact perfectly average and merely typical. All of these assumptions are varieties of the same sin, an accidental, almost negative version of pride.

About ten years ago I was plotting a book written for teenaged Mormons about sex. Because I had figured out what I had needed to know when I was a teenager and I was going to take my wisdom and lay it out for the next batch of teenagers.

I'm glad I never got more than a few paragraphs written down, because the hubris of the concept appalls me now.

The whole point of this life is to figure some things out for ourselves (within doctrinal guidelines if possible, but those things are rather vague if we're being honest). If there was a single correct answer applicable to every question, we'd have nothing to figure out.

And when we do figure out an answer it feels so good that of course, being good people, we want to share. And that's when we make our mistake: assuming that the answer God has shared with ME is also therefore the same answer he would share with YOU.

Why in the world would he do that?

The reason that answer felt so good was because it was, of all possible answers, the best one for me. And I am not you.

We can also make this fallacy in regards to ourselves. Learning at age 15 that X is a huge error, then assuming that X will be an error of equal magnitude at age 45, does not necessarily hold true. Sometimes, sure. But the subtle details of life are everchanging and God knows what we need.

So the solution?

Be open to God's will for you now.
Expect God's will to differ for others.
Don't presume to judge the quality of God's various answers.

Or, at least, that's the answer I seem to have today.

What thinkest thou?

last week's svithe

Generally, things go wrong the same way in my life

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I've just noticed that many of the lowest moments of my life share one thing in common and it makes me wonder if I brought these low points upon myself. Tell me what you think:

When I was sent to the principal's office

My friend Jon dropped him pencil during a test and it rolled under my desk, so I leaned over it to pick it up and hand it to him. My teacher saw this and came over to ask if I was cheating. So I stabbed her.


Receiving an incomplete in AP Lit my final semester of high school

I had been sick for most of May and when I came back, I was struggling to read Riddley Walker and process it and write a decent paper about it. When Mr Richards, ten days before graduation, suggested that I rewrite the conclusion to match my thesis, I stabbed him.


Getting stranded in Baker, Calif. in the middle of the summer

One time my roommate and I decided to skip Friday classes, hop in his car, and spend the weekend in L.A. We stopped to have some of that famous Mad Greek food. My roommate had watched Zorba the Greek as part of his film class and so he made a comment about the poster next to our table. The cute waitress and he then talked about their favorite parts. I listened for a while, then stabbed them.


Failing my renewal license test

I had too many tickets to just renew my license by mail, so I had to go into the DMV and take a driving test. I did the three-point turn and the backing up and the merge and everything. I was doing very well, the guy said. On our way back he patted my dashboard and said he was happy to see classics like this still on the road. I knew what he meant. So I stabbed him.


Sleeping on the couch for two full weeks

She'd burnt the toast three mornings in a row. Of course I stabbed her.


Ear infection

A gnat flew into my ear. It tickled so I stabbed it.


Online gossip rags

Just because Barbara Boxer's my senator or related to the Clintons doesn't mean I'm going to let her kiss my baby.

What did you think "Mr." was short for?

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I was profiled in the high school's newspaper.

(Also, don't forget to play the Preseason Oscar Game.)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK

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Oh, no, wait --- sorry --- just a threatening piece of lint.

#1st112chs

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If you're not on Twitter, one question: Why not? Join me.

This week I'm going to be doing some tweets regarding works of mine that are available online. They'll include the hashmark #1st112chs and a link to the work and the first 112 characters of the story or play or poem or essay.

Sure, it's totally selfpromotional, but it should be fun. the first one's coming up soon. Something for the Halloween season.

It's hard being a Pirates fan. Woe is us.

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From Wikipedia: The Pittsburgh Pirates reached a new low in futility on September 7, losing to the Chicago Cubs, 4-2 clinching their seventeenth consecutive losing season, breaking the all-time low set by the Philadelphia Phillies between 1933 and 1948.

Svithe: Stand on Your Head

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The Berkeley Ward has its own legend: J. Ed Johnson, who stood on his head.

He stood on his head at funerals, in testimony meetings and, most famously, at a Berkeley City Council meeting where his antics won the ward the permission to build a modest parking lot next to the building.

He did a lot more than just stand on his head of course, but just being a stellar Saint might not be enough to ensure legendary status. You might also need to stand on your head.

This is our stake's 75th anniversary and we've had a variety of theses and thatses to celebrate, Today, at our our Priesthood/ReliefSociety/YoungMen/YoungWomen meeting following a Stake Sacrament Meeting one of J. Ed's granddaughters showed slides of him standing on his head in cemeteries and national parks and spoke of his diligence.

So when we speak of creating a spiritual legacy for your dependents, yes provide for the widows (another Johnson trademark) but also come up with some grand, photographable quirk. Because that's the stuff of legends people. Then people will remember you.

(And if your example was in the right things, then they will also remember He whom you served.)

last week's svithe

No Kamsa: Mahatma Gandhi

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....however, I am constrained to admit that Mr Gandhi had nothing to do with the writing of this book and I can think of no legitimate reason to thank him in the forum of a kamsa page. Sorry, dude.

Awareness of outlet

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Occasionally I realize that I've written something perfect for McSweeney's Internet Concern, but by then it's been on my blog for weeks. Today's post, however, I realized I could submit before posting it. So I sent it in. When the reject it, I'll throw it up here, but until then, it's in the ether.

I read a blogpost today that lacked some clarity but seemed to suggest that his writing group gives out a prize to the person that collects the most rejections each year. Which is awesome, of course. Writers collect rejections and display them like war wounds, but sometimes it's hard to not think that maybe I'm just going around this all wrong.

Most boilerplate rejections I've seen contain a variation on "it's just not right for us" --- which, while obviously a euphemism for You Suck, is also a clear message to the skilled writer that maybe they need to research a bit better.

But how do you motivate yourself to research a mag that will at best pay you enough for a dozen donuts? So much shorter writing is only done for love and while any decent writer subscribes to a few literary mags, no one can afford to subscribe to all of them.

And so what?

Because it is entirely possible to have something incredible and worthy that genuinely is "just not right" for anyone --- the world doesn't provide publishers anxious to publish one of every sort of everything. That's not the way things work. So what do writers do --- particularly those so far from any stream that mainstream sounds like a myth?

In the modern world, connecting the monotype author to the (very few) appropriate readers should be possible.

How do you think we're doing?

And how can we do better?

The return of Elna Baker

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My new post on Elna Baker's new book (out tomorrow) (my copy free from the publisher) is up on AMV.

I finished it at 1.25am so if there's anything weird, PLEASE COME HERE AND TELL ME POSTHASTE.

Thankee.

----------th-

Preseason Oscar Game

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It's that time of year, folks! Time for a terrible photomashup and speculation on the best movies we haven't even seen yet! We live for this kind of thing, in Thutopia--- What could be more exciting?



Here are the rules:

1. Your goal is to predict that a movie will be nominated in a particular category (not that it will win).

2. You may only make one nomination per award.

3. You may nominate a movie in only one category. If you nominate a movie in more than one category, only the first will count. (In other words, you can't choose Barking Up the Wrong Leg for Best Picture and Best Actress and Best Director and Best Art Direction. And if you do, only the Best Picture guess will count. Because it came first.)

4. The winner will be the person who makes the most correct nomination guesses.

5. In the event of a tie, the tied player who posted first wins.

6. Categories marked with an * require the name of a person or a song in addition to the movie title.

7. Categories marked with an * can receive half a point even if incorrect. For instance, if you thought Dave Adonis would be nominated for Best Actor for his work in Bully Boy, but he was nominated instead for his role in Death in the Midwest, you will receive half a point. Similarly, if instead of Adonis, Marlon Muirin is nominated for Best Actor for his work in Bully Boy, half a point. But! if Muirin is nominated for Bully Boy and Adonis is nommed for Death in the Midwest, you still only get half a point. You were wrong after all.

8. All entries must be posted in the comments of this post by the last minute of November (note that the comments will timestamp your entry California time). Part of the preseason fun is the impossibility of having seen every movie eligible.

9. You may research your answers anywhere you like except in the comments section of this post. Looking at others' guesses before posting your own makes you illegible to win. Honesty is our policy. That and garroting filthy cheaters.

10. You do not have to take a stab at each category to qualify. But, obviously, the more complete your survey, the better chance you have of winning.

11. Don't rearrange the nominations' order. That'll just confuse me. And I reserve the right to disqualify anyone who rearranges them if I'm running low on time.

12. So here's what you do: the categories appear below. Just copy them and paste them into the comments box, then fill them in.

13. REMEMBER: NO LOOKING AT OTHERS' SUBMISSIONS BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR OWN.

14. After the real nominations come out, I will do the math and announce the winner.

15. The winner will get a cool prize.

16. So please beat me so I can give it to someone this year. (I am, after all, still undefeated.)

Go forth. If you would like to see last year's competition, to get a sense of how the game works, here's the link.

--------------------------------------
COPY AND PASTE CATEGORIES THEN FILL 'EM IN AND POST 'EM
--------------------------------------


Best motion picture of the year
--------[title]

Best animated feature film of the year
--------[title]

Achievement in directing
--------[title]

Performance by an actor in a leading role*
--------[name] [title]

Performance by an actress in a leading role*
--------[name] [title]

Performance by an actor in a supporting role*
--------[name] [title]

Performance by an actress in a supporting role*
--------[name] [title]

Adapted screenplay
--------[title]

Original screenplay
--------[title]

Best documentary feature
--------[title]

Best foreign language film of the year
--------[title]

Best animated short film
--------[title]

Best live action short film
--------[title]

Best documentary short subject
--------[title]

Achievement in film editing
--------[title]

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
--------[title]

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)*
--------[song] [title]

Achievement in art direction
--------[title]

Achievement in cinematography
--------[title]

Achievement in costume design
--------[title]

Achievement in makeup
--------[title]

Achievement in sound editing
--------[title]

Achievement in sound mixing
--------[title]

Achievement in visual effects
--------[title]

You don't need to read this post. Really, you don't. Not yet.

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But I need to give credit in a future post to two images I've combines, and since I can't link one image to two sites, I will cite the sites here.

Site one.
Site two.

#svithe #ldsconf

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If you're not following Thwitter, you're missing out, folks. Not because I tweet such interesting things, but the conversational nature of Twitter is a marvelous way to build relationships and knowledge. Dandy stuff.

Anyway, bit of background for those of you who merely observe the Mormonness of this blog with a bemused eye, but last week was the Church's semiannual General Conference (my blog notes, response to my twitter notes). For that moim we get together worldwide and leadership speaks from Salt Lake City. It's covered by a goodly number of tv and radio stations and is streamed online). Anyway, it's kind of a big deal. That's my main point.

Watching Conference and taking my notes and then being on Twitter at the same time was an unusual experience. On the one hand, all these things distracted me for the other things. On the other hand however, it was a great way to find other Saints also watching #ldsconf. (Well over 10000 tweets over the weekend.)

I had been mulling a post over the so-called Twitter Stake experience, but I got busy and didn't type anything up.

So I'm going to take my cues from Tyler and make this week's svithe a response to his blogpost on #ldsconf. (Or, more accurately, a reply he made to a comment left for him.) Specifically, he was discussing how Saints can bear (t)witness during the #ldsconf offseason:

I don't think it needs to be anything excessive or overbearing, such that we become twitness bearing zealots. For me, as on this blog, that means not being afraid to discuss spiritual/religious matters when they come up or when I feel compelled to share some experience I've had with God. In the past, I've tried to implement a weekly svithe (a neologism combining seven and tithe) as Theric (also know as Thmazing) and others have done---and that I really should pick up again---as a means to devote one post in a week to spiritual/religious matters. Perhaps a #twitness hashtag (though I see it's already been co-opted for other purposes; let's take it for ourselves!) or some such label might encourage Mormon tweeters to do the same, to share their resolve to live and share the Gospel in real time, to be a support system for other Twitter-day Saints.

Adding a hashtag is the easier way to draw attention to a regular occurrence on Twitter and we have a few options here. One is #ldsconf although that seems necessarily limited to references back to Conference (as if that were a bad thing.

Another is #svithe which I am leery of promoting. Although I'm always happy when someone finds svithing a useful concept, promoting the concept to others seems self-promotional somehow.

The third is #twitness which has hardly been strongly used by anyone to this point --- it could certainly be repurposed. The problem I see is that bearing witness is a phrase less used by Mormons than bearing testimony (though #twestimony is kinda lame).

Anyway, I'm not promoting any particular concept, nor am I convinced the Twitter Stake had enough mass to make something like this a solid phenomenon. But I do think that Mormons (or any serious religious denomination, for that matter) should think about their presence online. And that's best done by the plebes, not the hierarchy. So it's worth discussing and experimenting with and figuring out.

That's all. Dicuss. Here or on Twitter. Remember, I'm @thmazing.

last week's svithe[tacular]

thwitter

A sexy joke for your weekend

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It's important to tell jokes. We all have a moral responsibility to tell jokes and really, I fear hell for not being more consistently funny. Which is to say, if you don't laugh at the joke I'm about to tell you, I fear for my very soul. So before you choose not to laugh, ask yourself: Do I really want the stain of a lost Theric upon my conscious? I'm assuming the answer is no. So listen up and prepare to laugh heartily.

Ready?

So there was this girl, right? She was a looker of course, because I want you to stick with me to the punchline and I'm not sure you have enough depth as a human being to stick with an ugly girl. No offence, but you sort of give off that impression.

Anyway, she was walking down the street and since it was a hot day she was jogging --- not because it was a hot day, but because she wants to stay hot. Get that? Bit of a pun to keep you going. And so she's wearing shortshorts and one of those trainer top things only the kind they wear in magazines that are cut a little lower. And she's sweaty. A thread or two of her hair hanging down onto her face.

So she's jogging down the street, right? Jogging with all the motions and stuff, arms and legs and so forth. That kind of thing. Keeping healthy. And as she turns to head up the hill that will take her home and into her shower, she sees this shiny green thing off the side of the road in the weeds, just before this little bunch of trees, so sort of in the shadows kind of, only before the shadows get that deep because it is daytime, you know. Not safe to jog alone after dark.

So she slows down and jogs in place to look for a while and after a second the green thing hops up and over towards her in the street and it's this sort of iridescent frog thing. I mean, it is a frog, but iridescent frogs aren't exactly natural, you know. So she's surprised of course and says, what? and the frog says, what yourself! and she laughs because she's the kind of girl who laughs when she's surprised.

And the frog hops closer and she stops jogging in place so she can crouch down and check it out.

The frog says he's a prince and the girl says that's crazy. the frog says, why? and she says, we live in a democracy, and the frog says, well maybe I'm not from around here, and she says, well then you have no domain anyways and what's a prince without a domain anyways? so the frog gets all huffy and says, fine if that's the way you're going to be then maybe I won't let you kiss me! and she says, ew like I was going to kiss you anyway! and so they're at an impasse.

Which is too bad of course, from the point of view that we should all try to make sincere honest connections with others while we're on the earth, but ignore that because I don't want you to be sad when we get to the punchline and we're almost to the punchline and when you get to it, it's really important that you laugh. Don't forget.

So they're at an impasse and the girls says that she guesses she should maybe get going but the frog says, wait! so she waits because she feels bad about saying, ew.

The frog gets himself up on his hind legs and they look each other in the eyes and then the frog says, aren't you going to ask me why I'm glowing?

So she says, sure I guess why are you glowing?

So he kind of smirks and says, you'll never guess what you have to get a witch to do to become a frog in the first place.

And that's the punchline. I'll admit that it needs some tightening up and probably I could tell the same story and end with a more weekend-appropriate punchline but I think you'll agree that with the vampire rage coming to an end, amphibians are apt to be the next hot thing with teenage girls and I got to start now if I want to break that market.

Anyway I feel a little bit better now for making you laugh and staying one more day away from damnation. Hit me up next week for another. I've got some real guffaws in the works. I'm serious. I've got a joke about a frog and a pony (not sexy) and a frog that dies by unicorn (too sexy for my blog). Just got to tighten the old screws a bit.

Big shoutout to my man Mark Twain before we go! I'm pretty sure stuff like this is what he had in mind when he told that gag about the ghosts and the gold leg or something. He really had some laughs, that guy.

Last post of the, um, the, ah, the something.

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I'll tell you something. I'll tell you

I got something to say. You listening, buddy

I need to get this off, uh, off

There's

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Look, it's like this:

It's like

It's kinda like

See, I

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You were

You were just

Give me a second

I said give me a se

Just a second

Just one seco

Please

Just one

Come one

I

It's really important

It's

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