YouTubesday - My Shaytards Fascination

Remember when I told you about my family falling apart and said that it would lead into next weekend's confession?  Well, I've bumped it up to Tuesday cuz it fits.
Anyway, right around the same time as all that crap, my YouTube palate started defining itself.
I've talked about that before & in that rambling, I linked this video:

For the past 5 years, that family has done a daily vlog. Most of them are about 20mins long and he, Shay, edits together their Christmas footage into an hour long "Christmas Special".
It's a 20min window into another family's daily life.
And it's all the fun happy moments captured (except when their old dog, Malachi, passed...that was sad). But they include the random daily silly stuff that happens, like this, and then just this past weekend they were on Jimmy Kimmel because of this:

And yes, I've been watching them for that long.
And yeah, I'll admit that it's kinda weird - to watch a family on the webbernets. But they look happy and functional and I watch them because they restore a bit of hope for people/families and it's an awesome thought to be able to edit out the shit you don't wanna see. Plus, I selfishly wish my NJ cousins & Breeder friends would start recording and editing together their own little windows of their daily lives so I could watch them all grow up online and see the silly stories I only hear about when we're able to get together or those they occasionally post on Facebook.
It makes better reality tv than shit like The Kardashians or Honey BooBoo or whatever's currently sucking for entertainment on the cable channels we no longer have.

Aside from the Shaytards daily vlogs and the vids that Shay puts up on his channel, he's also involved in this kids cartoon series:

and has been working on this documentary where almost everyone cries in the trailer:


Lately Shay has been talking about his Mormon upbringing & experiences.
Some of it's interesting, some I don't agree with, but he's putting it out there. He's opening himself up to a broad audience and I have mad respect for anyone who's got the balls to do that and get conversations going.  Especially when it comes to complicated subjects that take people out of their comfort zones.

I love my little interweb family.
And, No...watching them does not make me want kids of our own.
My list of reasons to not birth any babies has only grown since watching them.
20mins is a lovely small dose and then I can click to see talking animals or watch someone play video games.

Me & Jesus

You haven't asked (no one ever does) what my thoughts are on Jesus.
The Man, the Myth, the Legend....

I grew up Methodist. Which usually meant, for me, sherbert soda punch, passing notes in the balcony, zany Pastor Bill after a Mr. Rogers-like Rev. Trembly, youth group scandals, getting in trouble while being the acolyte, puppet shows at nursing homes and schools, and killer acoustics in the outside hallway that had a wrought iron gate where I used to sing Madonna's "Like A Prayer".
I also learned how to play pool there.
My mom taught Sunday school when I was in middle school and gave us the low down on all the scary shit in Leviticus and how the disciples were brutally murdered.
Cuz that's how we roll.
There were buttons in the Grand Poobah's pulpit to control the lighting in the sanctuary.
The bell choir was amazing and my favorite at Christmas time.
Church was beautiful at Christmas time. All the candles and outdoor singing of Silent Night.
Potlucks and bazaars.
I remember one church bazaar where there was an entire table of books. I rummaged through and found a Frankenstein book. On one of the illustrations, someone had drawn a giant penis on Frankenstein.
I asked mom if I could have that book and it ended up coming home with us.
To this day, I swear it was an old book of Pannacake's & she'd been the penis drawer.
Seemed that my father was only in attendance for potlucks.  And maybe some of the church holidays. Otherwise he was left home while my brother and I were forced away from the tv and into stuffy uncomfortable clothes to go hang out with friends and old people for hours.

Youth group was fun. After the scandal, we'd had a few folks leading up the program. We went tubing down the Ichetucknee, and on a Blue Ridge Mountains camping trip that included horsebackin' and white water rafting. We went skiing in the Appalachians. We did car washes and BBQs and spaghetti dinners for fund raisers...
I was 14 and remember asking Zany Pastor Bill why we were supposed to take this story book called The Bible and see it as an historical account of the beginning of people.
"If it was just Adam & Eve, and Cain killed Abel, how was the earth populated? Cuz that's just  gross..."
"How do we go from death to rising from the dead without thinkin' zombies and has no one ever considered it may have just been grave robbers?"
I received a lecture in faith and belief.
Faith and belief were far greater than noticing & pointing out the obvious.

Shortly after my questioning of things, a married couple came in to lead up the youth group and gave us the whole "MTv is the devil and secular music is baaaaaaad..." song & dance.

Mentally, I'd rebelled and started liking darker music, but only after going through a Newsboys/Steven Taylor/Carmen phase. Hey, I'll try anything once.

As an adult, I don't attend church (seeing some of the politics and behind the scenes business aspect of churches while growing up can be thanked for that). I've always disliked organized religion & view it as a safe haven for those not practicing what they preach. Or for those who have no idea how to forgive themselves for mistakes they've made.

There's also an amazing amount of community assistance from churches - so, I'm aware that it's not all bad & my views are somewhat cynical.

On the whole, I find theology/spirituality to be an absolutely fascinating topic of discussion. It's mainly just the church thing that bugs me.

When I was a kid, I remember saying, "Jesus spoke outside. Why are we cooped up in these ridiculously expensive ornamental buildings?"

My first trip to NYC and into St. Patrick's and I was disgusted with the gift shop in the back of the sanctuary. Didn't Jesus drive out the money changers from the temple?

I do not believe Jesus is my savior. 

I do believe that he was a man. And more than likely a surfer, since he walked on water.
He was probably a great story-teller, a bit of a rabble rouser, and may or may not have been a shitty carpenter.

I believe that if most of you met him today, you'd think he was a damn dirty hippie & probably not give him a 2nd look.

I believe that I am solely responsible for my rights and wrongs & hold myself accountable for keeping them balanced and in check.

And I believe that the majority of us are good people just trying to do the best we can, the best we know how.

TT - Bedspread Jesus

Every year, when we go to Green Bay, WI for my mother-in-law's birthday Packer game, we stay at this place.
I think almost every room has a different bedspread in it.
This year, we noticed our motel room bedspread had these little Jesus faces all over it.

Happy December 1st!

Movie Monday - Red State

WOOHOO!!!  A MOVIE!!
Its only been, what, like 6 weeks or some shit since the last one of these?
Got a good one for ya today.  You turds ready?

We went to see this badboy last night.  One night only engagement followed by Q&A with Kevin Smith via UStream.

First, the movie.
What happens when homophobic jesus freaks are well armed and kidnapping kids they lure with the devil's business?
The FBI shows up at their compound and shoot things up.
Also, the sheriff is gay, which doesn't really help the town with dealing with the religious cult.
Michael Parks as Abin Cooper - the cult "father"....was absolutely captivating on screen.
John Goodman, the same, and looks great after the weight loss.  Its nice to still have him around & lookin' good.  Years ago, I would've thought he'd go the way of John Candy.
Pretty damn good cast all around, really.

Its being claimed as a "horror" movie.  I wouldn't call it that.
I'd say its more of an action thriller - and even using the term "thriller" seems a bit off.

I won't give you any spoilers here but towards the end John Goodman makes an amazing speech about how, when he was a kid, his grandmother had a couple of dogs as family pets.  One day, he was finishing dinner and threw the dogs a turkey leg and they went at each other over this turkey leg like they'd never known one another.
Then he says, "People just do the strangest things when they believe they're entitled.  But they do even stranger things when they just plain believe."

Ruminate on that shit for a minute or two.

Second - the Q&A on Ustream.
While they were streaming and setting things up, they had the twitter feed going and folks were crackin' me up with things like, "WTF, I paid $20 to see Kevin Smith on the computer?" and "I missed Breaking Bad for this?"
Kevin Smith was wearing a hockey jersey that made him look 10x bigger & started answering questions about how they took care of all the investors first, didn't take huge salaries in an effort to get the flick out there, and then the stream glitched out so we left.

There's some fun trivia here and an original ending summarized here with more about how they made it on a small budget and crap.

I loved it and give it 5 out of 5 Gabriel's horn blasts.