Author: smackyjackjack

Looking Up

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F.I.N.A.L.L.Y.

The Lakers are actually starting to look like a team. Or rather, the team they were supposed to be at the beginning of the year. I hate to be too optimistic, like I was after Christmas, but this team looks like they could actually make the playoffs.

Today, the Lakers actually beat one of the top seeded teams: the Thunder. Now, granted that the Thunder were just coming off of a six game road trip, Westbrook shot 6-22 from the field, and Durant was just 10 for 26, the Lakers still pulled off an impressive win.

Kobe, stunning his critics, got 14 assists, 9 rebounds and 21 points. He’s still the MVP. I said it. In fact, the Lakers had six players in double digits for points (not counting Howard. Because he only had eight points.)

Howard has actually been proving nerds wrong all year. He proved that Superman’s weakness is NOT kryptonite, but it is, in fact, shooting the ball from the free throw line. Howard has not been showing up to everyone’s expectations. He’s been acting like a little baby because he hasn’t been getting as many touches as everyone else. Well, actually, he does get as many touches, but he just messes them up when he does get them.

But, as badly as Howard is playing, a playoff appearance by the Lakers seems very possible now. Plus, with Rondo out anywhere from the rest of the year to two more seasons, things are looking up for Laker fans.

This is England

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It’s time for another movie suggestion everyone, so hold on to your horses. This week’s suggestion is Shane Meadow’s This is England.

The film documents the life of a twelve year old named Shaun while he struggles to grow up in the 1983 slums of England. Pretty early on in the movie, Shaun falls into line with a gang of much older skinheads who take him in and treat him like one of their own.

Now, keep in mind these are pre-racist skinheads, or original skinheads. Being a skinhead then basically meant juvenile delinquent.  The style was actually brought over from Jamaica by the Rude Boys there and eventually led to music like ska and 2tone. But back to the movie.

Remember how I said Shaun hangs out with non-racist skinheads? Well that all changes in about 30 minutes of the movie when Stephen Graham comes into the scene. Leave it to him.

The rest of the movie is about how little Shaun goes from this…

To this…

Little scamp.

Anyways the movie is an amazing portrayal of Falklands-era England and what was going on back then. Big thumbs up. Its Netflix watch instantly too, go check it out.

Best of Stand-Up

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This past weekend, while I was sick, I spent a lot of my time sleeping and watching movies. I also revisited some of my favorite stand-up comics. While I’m here, why not make a list of them?

If there has to be a number one spot, it would obviously go to George Carlin. Carlin is by far the funniest and most political of all stand-up comics. His shows changed the way people thought about comedy, and he certainly brought it to some new extremes.

Some new comedians that I’ve found recently are the panel hosts on 8 out of 10 cats, an English TV show. Jimmy Carr, the host, makes his living off of offending people. What’s so beautiful about it is how well he does it. I kind of think of him as a new and really adult Eddie Canter, because most of his jokes are one liners, and he looks like he belongs in the 20’s. I wish I could put a video up of him, but I’d be hard pressed to find one I could post without offending someone.

Someone whose stand-up I can post, however, is Jon Richardson. Most of Richardson’s comedy revolves around him having low-level OCD. It doesn’t sound funny, but the tiniest things bother him. He manages to make a bit about how he mispronounces “An Onion”, and makes it really funny. Plus, his bit at the end about watching a man eat an apple is gold.

He does swear in this, children, so cover your ears.

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Lakers: Proving it IS in fact possible to lose with this team

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Kobe, Nash, Howard, World Peace, Gasol.

What could go wrong with such a winning lineup?

Well, apparently, a lot. The Lakers proved today that it is possible to lose with a team so star studded as this. In fact, they can make it look easy.

You have to admit, today’s game was almost comically bad. Howard got kicked out before the half, Kobe hitting TEN for THIRTY-TWO shots, and Gasol flopping his lanky arms around the rim every play in a feeble attempt to make the ball go in.
FLOP
I honestly don’t know what’s going on with the Lakers. The talent is obviously there. Is it the age factor? Is it that no one on the team can play together? Is it that D’Antoni’s  mustache has cast a spell over the entire team? The latter seems quite possible.
What is he hiding under there?

Whatever it is, the Lakers need to figure it out, and fast. They’re falling dangerously close to not making it to the playoffs, with an even more dangerous schedule ahead. I say dangerous with my tounge-in-cheek because we did just lose to the Raptors. The TORONTO Raptors. Canada is not notoriously great at basketball.

Slide Guitar

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This past Thursday, I went down to Oxnard to look at a used car. After being told by the owner that the car’s trunk was big enough to store a gun by a very serious man, I took off to the nearby guitar center to waste some time. I ended up walking out with a Gretsch G9220.

Before Thursday, I’d been playing slide on a Yamaha classical guitar with three nylon strings. Needless to say it hadn’t been sounding to authentic. I started playing slide after hearing old slide players like the Texan Blind Willie Johnson. His music literally transcends his genre and even time. The beautiful slide on “Dark was the night, Cold was the ground” is one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. The loneliness portrayed in this song is one of the many feelings slide can represent.

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The Last Gasp (?)

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Justice Scalia knew this day would come.

The coming years will mark the end of the grumpy-old-socially-conservative-white-male political system.

States have already begun legalizing Marijuana for not only medicinal use, but also recreational use. Not to mention the “radical idea” of letting gay people marry has come around to existence in many states as well.

The nation has a restless youth that not only wants but needs to make a difference. Using new media such as secure chat rooms, tor and other encrypted ways of communicating, the population of America can be seen making a difference. The most obvious of these recent restless movements was the Occupy protests which sparked a symbol of rebellion all around the world.

The population is upset, and there’s going to be a difference.

Right?

I mean, it’s not like we haven’t seen this before. In the 60’s and 70’s everyone was pumped up about making a difference, and some WAS made, but a few short years after that the still angry and energized youth was given Ronald Reagan, the exact opposite of what they wanted. Then, there were a couple of Bushes, and we all know how that turned out. Even in other countries this has happened throughout history. In Russia, a change was very badly needed so the people turned to Lenin. Before long they had Stalin.

Now, this country is most certainly not headed towards a Stalin-esque type leader, but you get my point.

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Does Creationism Have a Place in Public School?

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No.

Tsk tsk

And when I saw that headline on the LATimes here, I was very befuddled. Since I don’t feel like writing a several page long essay trying to tap into the small brains of creationists, I’ll try to do so in a few short paragraphs.

Let’s begin with a couple of little things called facts. Facts are what you teach children in school. Children do not need their heads filled with hearsay or so called “faith-based facts” that rely on gut instincts. Children need to know what is actually true, because information is power, and the more knowledge you have, the better your short time on Earth here is going to be.

And secondly, let’s remember how you are supposed to make logical conclusions. You are supposed to form a hypothesis (well done religion, you make it this far), and then gather as much proof and evidence (this is where ol’ God loses it) to back up your hypothesis. This is how the great scientists and thinkers of time have always done it, and how it should be taught. Scientists, atheists, anti-theists and evolutionists understand that to understand the world you must have proofs for your beliefs. It is the creationists who need to supply proof for what they believe. Science has been doing this for years and years. It baffles me how something so blatantly false and fabricated as religion and creationism can be even thought about for curriculum in schools.  Once some proof other than some burnt toast comes forth for religious beliefs, I’ll stick with the side that supplies the logic.

Boom.

2012 Youth Filmmakers Competition

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This is it folks!

All of the entries for the 2012 Youth Filmmakers Competition in Ojai have been judged and the winners have been decided.

The films range from from zombie-thrillers to real life documentaries about citizens in Ojai.

For the last several months students from junior-high and up have been working on films to be submitted to the competition, all hoping to win one of the three cash prizes ($500, $400 and $300).

The films are being shown on the 9th of December at the Ojai Playhouse. All of the films submitted will be screened, and the winners will be announced on the same day. Along with the three cash prizes, an audience choice award will also be given.

This is a great opportunity to see the works of the young people of Ojai. I suggest everyone comes down and checks it out!

Los Lakers!

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Well, I’ve made it a little bit without blogging about the Lakers. But, it’s time to end the streak of silence and do a quick summary of the season so far.

Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace…what could go wrong?

Well, a lot.

Nash has fractured his leg and no one knows when he’s coming back.

Dwight Howard has the power to be the best center in the league and, to his benefit, he certainly is sometimes. BUT! He definitely has some off nights. In our last game against Memphis, Dwight only had 7 points a 4 rebounds. Hrrrm.

Kobe’s still Kobe. Anyone trying to doubt that needs to look at the list of the league’s highest scorers.

And finally Gasol. Oh Gasol, you fickle, fickle man. As terribly as he’s been playing recently, I still think he should still be kept on the team. There are a lot of trading rumors, but I think they’re a waste of time. He’ll smarten up when Nash comes back.

So, having said all of that, the Lakers still have a losing record (.467). This is 15 games in too. Sure, a lot of that was to do with Mike Brown, but D’Antoni still has to prove himself to L.A. We’ll see how the season pans out. The very first game of the year I predicted that the Lakers would go to the finals and win in six against the Heat. Well, now I’m not so sure. Kobe needs to lead some of the younger players and show a bit more charisma. But so does D’Antoni. Hopefully the team starts to win some games, because I’m not comfortable with the only sport team I follow having a losing record.

Another War in the Name of God

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Let’s say

That I belonged to a social club that met each week.

Let’s say

That the people in the club believed that it was founded by a guy named, I don’t know, Chuck.

Let’s say

Chuck was a homophobic, misogynistic, genocidal old man who lived in a cloud and had the power to make everything happen.

Lastly, let’s say

That because I belonged to this club, I inherited a hatred of all other social clubs in the area.

Okay, now of course no one would ever join this club. It’s ridiculous. However, if this was your religion, you’d be perfectly fine with it.

The Old Testament, for instance, a book held believed to be true by both Christians and Jews, is one of the most outrageous pieces of literature in Western Culture.

For most of it, God is killing people. He wipes out everyone but Noah and his family in one part, destroys two cities and its inhabitants in another, forces Lot to offer his own daughters to be raped, etc.

However, when the O.T. is lacking in violence, it makes up for it in sheer whimsicality and stupidity. This is the same with all religious texts. There really is no room for a reasonable person to believe in some of the “facts” of Juedo-Christain beliefs (I’m not leaving other religions like Islam out on purpose, its just that these strike a little closer to home).

Religous “Facts”:

1.   Sadly (spoiler alert), Noah of the O.T. died at the young age of 950. The good die young.

2.   Although also in the New Testament, it is possible (and actually turned out quite well) to be swallowed by a giant fish, live in there for a while, and be spat back out.

3.   The universe was created by…well God. There isn’t much else to say about that because books like the O.T. say about that much in regard to the beginning of time (cough-COP OUT-cough).

However, taking what some would call “cheap shots” like this at religion isn’t fair because these things aren’t meant to be taken literally. They’re simply meant to be ignored and the good bits should be cherry picked out when needed.

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