The Elly Awards

Being involved in the production of "Man of La Mancha" at San Joaquin Delta College was reward enough. But I got a surprise today that made it even more rewarding. I was informed that I was nominated for a 2005 Elly Award. Sadly, I did not even know what the Elly Awards were. But I discovered they are put on by the Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance (SARTA). And upon searching the PDF of the nominations I found myself in the Supporting Actor: Musical category. Other "Man of La Mancha" nominations in the musical category include:

• Supporting Actress - Nicole Halberg
  
• Lighting Design - John White
  
• Set Design - John White
  
• Overall Production

The Award Ceremony will be held Sunday, September 25th at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento. Dunno if I can go, since I'll have a performance earlier that day and tickets might not still be available. But like they say, it's an honor just to be nominated.

Amazon Marketplace

Selling things on eBay takes effort. I have a lot of items sitting around that I kept thinking I'd auction off on eBay as soon as I had the time to devote to doing so. Ha. So I was definitely intrigued when I read you can sell items on Amazon.com in their Marketplace. What makes it incredibly easy is that Amazon already has the product page with pictures, specs, user reviews, etc., so you don't have to do a lot of work. You basically just hit the 'Sell Yours Here' button instead of the 'Add to Cart' button.

In the last ten days, I've put ten items up for sale and have already sold five of them. Impressive. Granted, I usually undercut everyone else's price, but those things were just sitting in our home taking up space. Plus, I don't have to deal with the buyer AT ALL, which can be a major headache on eBay. This is the kind of thing I'd write a column about for the East Oregonian if they still had room for me (and I still had time to write for them). It's been less than two weeks, too, so my opinion could change later.

The drawbacks are that Amazon's shipping credit is pretty measly and they take a larger cut of the sale than eBay. But that seems only fair, since, again, I didn't have to write any information about the product or post pictures. Of course, you can only sell items that Amazon is aware of, so that limits you to the last decade of CDs, DVDs, books, computer software/hardware, etc.

I've put a link to the list of items I'm selling in the right-hand column of this page, but please don't judge.

Was it something I said?

I got an e-mail today from EarthLink noting:

We're writing to let you know that your free EarthLink Web site
http://home.earthlink.net/~meged has reached 75% of its monthly traffic
limit of 1GB.

Checking out the provided monthly traffic reporting tool, I see the following graph for 2005:

What place does pure evil have in films?

In a time of dismay and dread, is it admirable for filmmakers to depict pure evil? Have 9/11, suicide bombers, serial killers and kidnappings created a world in which the response of the artist must be nihilistic and hopeless?

An introspective response by film critic Roger Ebert. He gets more space than usual to tackle this interesting topic, and to good result.

San Diego Comic-Con photos

I uploaded some photos from our time spent at San Diego Comic-Con last month. We also went to some other places in San Diego, and we should soon have those photos posted.

What? A long blog post about our entire trip? Believe me, I'd love to, but I've gotta memorize a few lines...
http://homepage.mac.com/ehargreaves/PhotoAlbum33.html

Museum exhibits a creationist viewpoint

"If we lose Genesis as a legitimate scientific and historical explanation for man, then we lose the validity of Christianity. Period."

Why does a rock star get it right and this guy get it so wrong? God's love is not contingent on whether or not dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark.

Over the River and Through the Woods

A more detailed page has been posted to the Stockton Civic Theatre's web site.

Over the River and Through the Woods abounds in love, guilt, matchmaking, unsolicited advice, and endless offers of food. With his parents retired and moved to Florida, Nick, a single Italian-American guy from New Jersey, keeps family ties by seeing both sets of grandparents every Sunday for dinner. But the family routine is upset when Nick announces that he's been offered his dream job. The job he has been waiting for - a marketing executive - would take him way from his beloved, but annoying, grandparents to the other side of the country. Thus begins a series of schemes to keep Nick around. How could he betray his family's love to move to Seattle for a job, wonder his grandparents? Well, Frank and Aida and Nunzio and Emma do their best, and that includes bringing to dinner the lovely, and single, Caitlin O'Hara as bait.

The show features a special $10 per seat public preview on Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. An opening night reception will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, September 9. Performances continue through October 1 on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, $15 for students, and $8 for children 12 and under.

The theatre is located at 2312 Rose Marie Lane, Stockton. For tickets, contact Stockton Civic Theatre’s Box Office Tuesday through Friday, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. at (209) 473-2424.

Microsoft frowned at for smiley patent

"I would have expected to see something like this suggested by one of our more immature community members as a joke on Slashdot, and probably would have chuckled at the absurdity of the notion. We now appear to be living in a world where even the most laughable paranoid fantasies about commercially controlling simple social concepts are being outdone in the real world by well-funded armies of lawyers on behalf of some of the most powerful companies on the planet."

™ Microsoft Co.

WB Waxes the Frog

The WB has fired Michigan J. Frog, the nattily attired singing-dancing 'toon that's served as mascot since the network's inception in 1995.

Okay

The (Television Critics Association) members, usually a hard-boiled bunch, uttered a collective sad sigh.

Um, Why?

Jinxed computer users might be sending out a bad vibe

"There are some people who seem to have a natural rapport with computers and other complex machines, and there are other people who seem to manage to break everything even without touching it..."

Hillary vs. the Xbox: Game over

I'd like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids — a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing. I'm talking, of course, about high school football.

I'm no fan of the Grand Theft Auto series, but Hillary Clinton needs to be taken to task for trying to get on a moral high ground while at the same time wasting $90 million. She says she's on the side of families, but really she's on the side of families who purchase M-rated computer games for their children. Prior to the revelation of previously-unknown pornographic material in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the game was labeled as containing Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs. So, basically, Hillary wants the vote of bad parents. Unfortunately, it seems to be a large constituency.

Bono gives an explicit confession of being saved by Grace, not Karma

Is Bono, the lead singer and songwriter for the rock group U2, a Christian? He says he is and writes about Christianity in his lyrics. Yet many people question whether Bono is 'really' a Christian, due to his notoriously bad language, liberal politics, and rock star antics (though he has been faithfully married for 23 years). But in a new book of interviews, "Bono in Conversation by Michka Assayas," Bono, though using some salty language, makes an explicit confession of faith.

Though not entirely original, this is one of the best explanations of God, Jesus and Christianity and puts the lie to the secular wisdom that 'all religions are the same.' Christians that criticize Bono for using swear words should be pulling the plank out of their own eyes rather than notifying everyone of the speck in his.