Angels and Airwaves Live in Cincy

My brother treated me to an early Christmas present last night. We headed to Cincy for the last stop on Angels and Airwaves maiden voyage. Their debut album was stellar and the concert had the same kind of energy which pretty much blew out the small venue. Other than DeLonge‘s immature antics, I thought the performance was very good, especially the wild, but under complete control, drummer Atom Willard.

Big thanks to Andrew for a fun night and great start to the holiday season!

Bizzaro Internet

A big apology to everyone who came to my site and were greeting to this garbage:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_bloginfo() in /home/6847/domains/21stcenturypaladin.com
/html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 304

Somehow, my config for WordPress changed. Now, I’m not one to believe in gremlins but I didn’t change my config file. What I did do was add another install of WordPress on an alternate domain. Me thinks something that was supposed to be automagically setup, boofed my existing install. Arrrgh.

So… is now the best time to upgrade to 2.0 of WordPress?!? You betcha! Full steam ahead! (This is bound to end badly. Stay tuned.)

Happy Thanksgiving

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
—America the Beautiful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Spammers Must Die

Hi all, due to increased traffic, I’m receiving an abnormally large amount of spam. So, I’ve turn OFF comments until I can install some kind of spam prevention plug-in.

I appreciate each and every one of you for visiting this site! Well, except you bloody bots and spiders!

Update: OK! Let’s see if this Akismet dealie really works. Fire away!

Update 2: So far so good… no spam! If this keeps up, we’ll be naming our next son Kismet.

Update 3: If you’re reading this you must not have experienced the error (or figured past it) but apparently the plug-in might cause a problem with the Db connect, the solution is to type in www.21stCenturyPaladin.com without the “http://” and things become rosey. Who knew?

Only Informed Votes, Please

I thought about this concept last week, then I totally forgot to post. My bad. Let’s say I owe you guys. Here’s the slogan I hear from every corner.

It doesn’t matter who you vote for, as long as you vote.

It might sound like a good idea, on the surface, but think about how it plays out. Most people don’t have the time to research all the candidates on the ballot. Even people like myself, who are fairly politically active, certainly don’t know about every single one of them.

Election Tuesday
I was standing in the voting area holding Barret, while my wife filled out her ballot. I took the time to observe how others voted, in particular, whether or not they took something with them, like some papers or a notebook, with them into their individual blue, plastic voting booth. Most didn’t. Maybe 1-in-10 did.

What does this mean? Well, I’m not certain, because I didn’t look over enough shoulders to form a statistically significant sample but I’d wager most people followed one of two methods: 1) vote the party line; or 2) vote for the names that “ring a bell.”

Just because someone is a Republican, doesn’t make them conservative. (This past 6 years is plenty proof of that!) There are some Democrats who are pro-life and socially more conservative than some Republicans. *cough* *Arlen* *cough* So voting the party line might be better than being blind-folded and tossing darts, but it’s not truly the way of an informed voter.

Voting for the most recognizable name is far worse. I’m sure there are goofballs who go, “Adams? Yeah, my son used to date a girl whose last name was Adams. I’ll vote for this person.” How horrible is that?!?

An Educated Electorate
So what’s the solution? Well, unless you have time to do the research yourself, (the Internet has all the voting records of everything ever voted on, if you can find it) then I think the only way someone can be informed in this day and age is to find an organization who: 1) believes in the same core values that you believe, 2) does the research on each candidates voting record, if that’s not available, at least their responses to a questionnaire, and 3) who produces a voter guide.

Note: Just a word of advice, some groups have named themselves such that must be a good group. “People for the American Way” support a kind of government that’s more socialistic then democratic, in my opinion.

As someone who believes very strongly in pro-family issues, I’ve utilized the American Family Association’s voter guides for many years. Even though the homosexual lobby here in Louisville have sought to demonize Dr. Frank Simon, our family has known Dr. Simon for years we trust his work to promote pro-family legislation in our city.

Unless you know what the candidates stand for, even better their voting record, it’s better for you not to vote. Because one thing we see on both sides of the isle, are politicians who say one thing then do another.

Know who you’re voting for or don’t vote at all.

Barret’s Do Is Thick and Lustrous

Call us bad parents. Call us curious. Call us whatever you like. But seriously, who knew those hair growth pills would work so well?

Paladin’s Top 10 Reasons Why He’s a Blogging Slacker

I feel like I must apologize for the lack of updates recently. There are a bunch of things going on. Let’s hit ‘em like this:

#10: There’s a clause in my contract with the Hot Tub that requires me to spend, at minimum, 15 minutes twice a day with her. Some might say that’s a bit much, but what can I do… I’ve already signed the contract.

#9: Our family has grown so large that we have a birthday celebration practically every week. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying, “That’s a lot of cake for one man to eat.”

#8: Quake 4 is a pretty fun game, when it isn’t crashing my computer.

#7: My son, The Benjomeno, is playing Flag Football on the weekends and both sons will be suiting up for Basketball in the next couple of weeks. Just call me Mr. Taxi Cab.

#6: Fantasy Football always takes its mandatory hours each week. What can I do, stop playing?!

#5: Building Web sites for money is an idea whose time has come. Ok, ok, it came back in 1994. I’m just now giving it my full attention. Plus, it seems my family has become accustomed to the idea of eating. Go figure.

#4: Sleep trumps Blogging, unless you’re playing with sandbags, then you never know.

#3: I’ve got a cold that makes me feel like Owen Wilson looks. Ugh. Just remember, Drugs can be your best friend. Pretty… colors…

#2: For the first time, I’ve become thoroughly addicted to following the recruiting of my beloved Kentucky Wildcats. Got a raw 7-footer and a Top 100 kid in A.J. Stewart, now we’re on pins and needles waiting for Patrick Patterson and Jai Lucas to make their decisions. I know it’s insane to let a bunch of 17-year-olds dictate my happiness, but I already told you I was an addict. And “yes” I do need professional help.

#1: Taking my Real Estate License courses. From chapstick to lawsuits, it’s all in there. My world domination plan is set to commence in: mark, 6, 5, 4…

The Smile of a Child

For no other reason than to wish you happiness on this Friday. Have a great weekend!

Barret’s Heart Is Great

We received a wonderful answer to prayer this week, as we learned that his ASD and VSD have both completely closed. The doctor has told us that he’s got a “healthy heart” and doesn’t need to come back for any more visits. We’re so thankful and relieved. We appreciate all you who prayed for Barret and us… you’re the best!

Child Behavior Advisory System

The official status levels have been released. Parents, we’re all in this together. Please feel free to distribute.

IQ Test Found Wanting

Looking back, it seems my intellect was probably my primary source of identity. I was semi-athletic but never made any of the big school teams. I was a bit creative in art class, but not enough to be considered to have a talent for it. It was great fun being Winston Smith in George Orwell’s famous 1984 but since my acting career ended there I’ll have to assume it was a one-hit wonder. So it looks more than likely that, at least subconsciously, I let my brain define me.

Continue reading »

Paladin’s ‘Five Quotes’ Meme

Via SFO Mom comes this meme. Find five randoms quotes here that represesnt who you are or what you believe.

1. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better. [link]
2. We can only learn to love by loving. [link]
3. This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. [link]
4. Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. [link]
5. The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it. [link]

It took me 19 refreshes; a bit tougher than I thought. My I must be picky.

Early Christmas Present?

Now Bear may be only 7 months old now, but come Christmas he’ll be ready for some serious indoctrination. Uncle alert! [via KSR]

Random Topic #1

I was thinking today… yes, that’s rare for me, but let’s keep on topic, so as I was saying… has anyone else thought it strange that practically 99.99% of the people in the Northeast who are shouting up and down about the “unbearable” heat are the very same people who are planning to move south first chance they get into another place that’s just as hot?

Or am I the only one?

The Earthsea Cycle

Lately, I haven’t been keeping up with my online database of books and videogames. That is until today. But since I’m so tardy, I’ve decided to take those images out of the right sidebar. (Too much pressure.) There are still link near the bottom to them for those interested.

Here’s a brief review of the last series I finished called The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Very interesting but not grand as the reviews led me to believe. Ged, also known as Sparrowhawk, is a gentile but powerful magician who almost singlehandedly confronts many manner of evil in these four books. I believe there are more but I shall stop here as Tehanu was the least impressive. I imagine it was fanciful stuff for the late 1960s. 6 out of 10

For more Science Fiction and other reviews you can visit my archive.