Today Google announced an exciting new tool for Firefox users called Blogger Web Comments . This fantastic little extension for the firefox browser automatically searches Google’s blog search service for posts that link to whatever page you are currently viewing. Then it displays a notification window in the bottom right hand corner of the browser window that shows the most recent blog posts that link to the page. If you click on any of the listed posts, it opens them in a new browser tab.
Human Puppetry: Matrix Ping Pong Video
I helped found the Maxed Out Puppet Comedy Troupe about seven years ago, and have been performing puppetry ever since. We performed two holiday shows on Saturday, and another one last night.
It is always fun to see what other people come up with in the realm of puppetry. Sometimes real people can be used as puppets. In one of our first puppet related skits, I played the part of a puppet. With that background, I was blown away by this video of a Japanese “human puppet” act.
The puppeteers are dressed all in black, and stand right on the stage while they manipulate their living puppets and the inanimate objects. Hilarious and absolutely amazing:
Watch the video:
Matrix Ping Pong (Windows Media)
Original Poetry: The Christmas Tree
I have posted this previously elsewhere, but seeing as it is Christmas once again, and I have this new blog, I thought I would post it anew.
The ancient Scandinavians envisioned the Universe as a giant ash tree they called Yggdrasil or Mimameidr, the World Tree. Yggdrasil was described in the poems of the Poetic Edda1 as “ever-green” (Voluspá2 19).
A few years ago, I stepped back from our just-decorated Christmas tree to admire it in the dimly-lit room and suddenly this Scandinavian universe-as-tree imagery came pouring into my mind. I found myself looking at a small model of the cosmos, full of stars, and worlds, and beings, and sap; of chaos as well as order—each branch a fractal image of the whole.
This impression remained with me for many days afterward and I sat frequently gazing at the tree and thinking about the new symbolism that the tree could be given. At the time I had been reading a lot of poetry by John Milton3 , John Donne4 , and Gerard Manley Hopkins5 and I was inspired by them to try to capture my impressions in verse. While the resulting poem is far from perfect, it endows the Christmas tree with a new symbolism that still moves me, regardless of my imperfect attempts to communicate it.
Merry Christmas everyone! May the Lord bless you and your loved ones as we celebrate His Holy birth.
The Christmas Tree
Miniature universe, great world-tree,
Whose lofty branches the firmament form
Adornéd with lights as through God’s own decree
All hung from celestial bows, stelliform.
Here are the heavenly hosts signified:
Thrones, Principalities, Powers, all set;
Reflecting in glorious spheres, simplified,
The cosmos in symbolic rev’rence here met.
Lo! Here’s a seraph! And there, cherubim!
Who sing the glad tidings in a worshipful song,
As they fly through the sap-smelling, heavenly scheme;
_‘Mid the twinkling lights and celestial throng._
And affix’d at the top a new star shines forth laud;
Announcing salvation: the Condescension of God.
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Category: original poetry
Tagged: christmas, creative writing, literature, medieval, poetry
Category: original poetry
Tagged: christmas, creative writing, literature, medieval, poetry
Movie Review: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Name: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Rating: PG
Grade: A
Having read both the Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings at a very young age, it has been difficult for me to read most other fantasy novels as they are inevitably compared, unfairly perhaps, to these towering standards which have been ingrained into my very being since childhood. My standards for a good movie rendition of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe were clearly quite high.
I am happy to report that the new movie lived up to nearly all of my expectations.
Note to the “Bloggernacle”
If you have no idea what the “Bloggernacle” is then just skip this post.
When I started blogging again, I told the few friends I chose to tell about sixteen small stones that I continue to have no interest in participating in or being even marginally affiliated with the so-called “Bloggernacle.” Well, I have been reviewing my referrer logs and, to my dismay, I have already been both discovered and linked.
Know then that my feelings about the loose association of LDS blogs that calls itself the “Bloggernacle” have not changed in the slightest and I continue to stand by the words of my final post at the Millennial Star.
