Baptism Cannonball

This video has probably been floating around out there for awhile now, but I just ran across it today.



Lately I've been running into a lot of blogs from angry Christians. They seem to feel that their ministry is to point out everything that's wrong with everyone else's ministry. I'm not going to link to any of their sites here because, well...I don't want to give them any more traffic. They don't deserve it. The first thing I thought when I watched this, after I stopped laughing, was how a bunch of these folks would probably think this is horribly sacrilegious. I might have even thought that a little myself. But that's wrong! We should all be so excited about showing that we stand with Christ that we would cannonball into the baptismal! It's an exciting thing, after all! This kid obviously made that whole church smile, and I think God probably smiled biggest of them all.

The Dark Knight

After months of little glimpses here and there of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight," the first real trailer is now out. So if you haven't seen it yet, here ya go.

When it was announced that Heath Leger was playing the Joker I thought..."seriously?" It didn't seem like a good choice to me...but at least it wasn't Sean Penn (which had been rumored). But now I'm officially creeped out. This isn't the giggling buffoon portrayed by Cesar Romero, or the cocky clown of Jack Nicholson. And I have nothing against Romero or Nicholson. I love their portrayals for other reasons. But this is just plain scary. I can't wait.

I don't think we need to worry about nipples on the bat suit

Two New-ish Blogs

I wanted to announce that I have two other blogs that I've started recently that I haven't mentioned yet here.

The first is SquonkArt. I started it earlier this year to give me a place to post some of my drawings. I've always enjoyed drawing, but have never been a really good artist. I'm trying to develop my skills a bit more, and just devote more time to hobbies...so I figured trying to keep a blog current would help me spend more time drawing. It hasn't worked out that way yet, but I'm still trying.


The second blog is SquonkSL...which stands for Squonk's Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual world completely created by it's users. People create their own identity...or avatar (mine is called Squonk Lockjaw), create the world, interact, buy and sell goods...you name it. The blog is simply following my avatar as he explores the world. There are a lot of interesting things in Second Life...a lot of nasty things too. We're just exploring the cool stuff.

Muppets, Hockey and the Dentist

To my kids, what determines whether or not a restaurant is good or not all hinges on the answer to this question, "Do they have toys?" When I was a kid Happy Meals were not a permanent part of the menu. But now, other places have toys too. And, of course, I am very jealous because I love those toys as much as the kids do. But never have I been more envious than after my son's recent visit to the dentist. He came home with a pack of Muppet Hockey trading cards.


A few years back there was a whole NHL and the Muppets campaign in Canada. Every now and then a few items from this campaign make it stateside. I remember spotting a few Kermit in a hockey uniform dolls in one of those claw grab arcade games once. So now I want to know where the Kids Dentist Prize Surplus Store is so I can get my hands on some of these cards. My son is wise beyond his years...he knows better than to let Daddy near his.

Anyone else find it weird that the dentist is giving away hockey related stuff? I mean, I doubt hockey is a sport most dentists would encourage kids to take part in.

Bat Flake

I work with a bunch of creative people. It's kind of a tradition around the office that many of them make snowflakes out of coffee filters at Christmas time. My favorite this year, Brandon's "Bat Flake." That sounds like a title out of MAD Magazine, doesn't it?

Here's the folded up version, so you can see how it was cut out.

Viva Knievel

This evening I was driving in downtown Denver when I spotted an electronic news ticker on one of the buildings. My eyes went straight to the words "Evel Knievel Dead at 69." Being a kid in the 70's I was very familiar with Evel Knievel...daredevil and inspiration for one of the greatest toys ever created. I mean check out the video below. I had one of these when I was a kid, they were great! I want one of these for Christmas! I'm serious.



Knievel is certainly a unique figure in American pop culture history. I have to admit, as I became an adult and learned more about him (watching Biography and such), I didn't think too highly of the man. In interviews I'd see he came across as a very angry person. I mean after watching an interview with him I actually feared that he might one day spot the negative review of his movie "Viva Knievel" I posted on the web, then hunt me down and drag me back to Butte, Montana to wash his motorcycle with my face.

After hearing of his passing tonight, I began searching the web for information about him. I was surprised to find a video on YouTube from earlier this year where he stood before a crowd at the Crystal Cathedral and told how he had accepted Christ. It's a pretty amazing clip.

But "Viva Knievel" is still one of the worst movies ever made. Sorry Evel.

Boars, Monsters and Polar Bears

I'm always a couple years behind on whatever the popular TV shows are. For example, I love "24," but for me President Logan just went down. I'm a year behind! I always have to wait for the DVD's. Even with a TiVo now, my effort at watching "Bionic Woman" from the beginning fell apart quickly.

Anyhow, one series I'm catching up on is "Lost." Of course, I'm still back in the first season. One of my favorite moments in the series so far comes in episode 9 - "Solitary." In this episode, Hurley finds a set of golf clubs from the plane's wreckage and decides to build a golf course. The scene where he invites his fellow castaways to join him in a game of golf is a great example of the importance of having fun.

Hurley: Welcome to the first, and hopefully last, Island Open!

Jack: What?

Hurley: It’s two holes, for now, three par, and no waiting.

Jack: Hurley, you built a golf course?

Hurley: Rich idiots fly to tropical islands all the time to whack balls around.

Michael: All the stuff we got to deal with man, this is what you’ve been wasting your time on?

Hurley: Dudes, our lives suck. Everyone’s nerves are stretched to the max. I mean, we’re lost an an island…runnin’ from boars, and monsters…freakin’ polar bears!

Michael: Polar bears?

Charlie: You didn’t hear about the polar bear?

Hurley: Look all I’m saying is, if we’re stuck here then just surviving’s not going to cut it. We need some kind of relief, you know. We need some way that we can…you know, have fun. That’s right have fun, or else we’re just going to go crazy waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

Now let me be perfectly clear about something...having my toenails pulled out with a pair of chopsticks would be more fun to me than a round of golf, but what Hurley's getting at is still true. My life is full of boars, monsters and polar bears. I'll bet yours is too. But do we make a real effort to have fun...to play? I know I don't as much as I should. The boars, monsters and polar bears are at home, at work, at church...many times we let all those environments become so tense. Often we truly are just waiting for the next bad thing to happen. We need to make an effort to have fun!

When I tell people that I'm a puppeteer many respond by saying, "oh that must be so much fun!" Well, it is fun, and exhausting, and stressful, and everything that every other job is. Even when there are plenty of things around me that can bring me fun, I'm the kind of person who spends a lot more time focusing on the boars, monsters, and polar bears.

So here's a challenge: Christmas time is upon us, it's a festive time of the year anyway...but it's also pretty stressful. Try to approach this month with that spirit of fun that came automatically when you were a kid. Have fun! Lick the spoon when you're making Christmas cookies. Go Christmas shopping wearing a pair of antlers and a light-up nose. Hey...it's going to be a challenge for me too, my wife says I've been a real grouch the last few days. Don't try to just survive each day...Have fun!

Genesis: Live Over Europe 2007

I've mentioned before that my favorite band of all-time is Genesis, so I just had to offer up a review of their newly released live album, "Live Over Europe 2007."

I think Genesis may have released more live albums than just about anyone: Genesis Live (1973), Seconds Out (1977), Three Sides Live (1982), The Way We Walk Vol. 1: The Shorts (1992), and The Way We Walk Vol. 2: The Longs (1993). It's kind of interesting that a band with it's roots in the progressive rock genre would have so many live albums. Prog bands don't tent to have a lot of variation between the album versions and live versions of songs. But from the days when Peter Gabriel would wear fox heads and flower costumes in concert, Genesis has always been a great live band.

The new album features songs from all stages of the band's history, recorded at various venues across Europe last summer. Most of the songs have appeared in other live incarnations, still, it's great to hear new recordings of these classics. For me, the highlight of the album "Ripples," a beautiful song from the 1976 album "A Trick of the Tail" which has never made an appearance on one of the band's previous live efforts. Another favorite was "Conversations with Two Stools," which is a recording of the Phil Collins / Chester Thompson drum duet, which has been a Genesis tradition since Collins took over lead singing duties in the mid 70's. The duet flows directly into the classic instrumental piece "Los Endos," which at least features part of my namesake song, "Squonk."

It doesn't exactly break new ground, but "Live Over Europe 2007" is great chance to hear a classic band together again.

Children's Church Coolness

The last several weeks have been pretty busy for me. I had several puppet festivals to be at. They all went really well, and I got to see a bunch of great children's church facilities at the churches I visited. Here are some photos of some of the creative stuff I got to see.

First up are some shots of the children's church set at Flint River Baptist Church, which hosted the Huntsville, AL puppet festival. The set featured a boat, dock, and beach hut. The boat has a time machine on the deck and that's real sand on the ground by the hut.

The Oklahoma City area puppet festival was hosted by Crosspointe Church in Norman, OK. The entire children's church area is decorated like a castle. The theme is carried through all the rooms and hallways.

After the Oklahoma City Festival I got to stay over long enough to visit one of the LifeChurch.TV campuses in the area. These photos are from the Oklahoma City Campus (which is actually in Edmond), this is the campus that Pastor Craig Groeschel preaches from, the message then goes out via satellite to the other campuses. I made arrangements several weeks ago to get a tour of the children's church facility, so I got the grand tour.

This is the check-in area. It kind of reminded me of the self-check-in system that United Airlines uses. Parents have a card that they scan, then the computer lists all the kids on that account. They use the touch screen to check-in the kids that are present, the computer prints the name tags, and they are off to children's church.

My favorite way to get into children's church was this one. The 1st to 3rd graders enter the room via slide. Way cool! Beneath are some shots of the set.

Here's a shot of one of the pre-school rooms. All the decor was done by Wacky World Studios.

The facility for the adults ain't bad either.

Huntsville, AL Festival II

Here's a few more photos from the festival last weekend in Huntsville.

Gerbert was at the festival this year! Here he is with Pastor Norm Hewitt on Saturday morning.

We got to see a really fantastic performance by the team from The Rock Church on Saturday afternoon. Here is a shot from an interpretation of "Who Am I" using just gloved hands in blacklight to create various images.

The highlight of their performance was this blacklight robot. This has to be one of the most original puppets I've seen in a long time. Here's some video of it in action:

Huntsville, AL Puppet Festival

Here's a few pics from Friday night of the Huntsville, AL Puppet Festival.

Ventriloquist Bert Boudet is one of our instructors. He and his puppet pals MC'd the puppet song competition.

This is the Fingers of God puppet team performing "I'm Not Cool."

The van prop was featured in the performance by Kingdom Kritters of Cullman, AL

YEAH Creative Ministries Team of Sparta, TN had some cool blacklight butterflies in their presentation.

Banana Creme Peanut Butter Cups

Vegas Elvis pitches Reeses Peanut Butter and Bannna creme cups
Originally uploaded by Nuts&Gum

What was Elvis' favorite food? Peanut butter and banana sandwiches, of course. So some genius over in the Reese's wing at Hershey has come up with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups with banana creme! Slap a picture of the King on there for marketing and you've got a cool new snack. My wife saw them at the store and got me one since I am a fan of just about anything with banana in it. They were quite tasty, I thought.