Tuesdays with Muerte

*Now go back and HOVER YOU MOUSE OVER EACH PICTURE for a special message.

When attending church, I can't seem to escape it. It doesn't matter which class I attend. I'll sit down in a distraction-free area, and then immediately after the opening prayer, two people directly in front of me will go at it. Someone always ends up scratching the other one's back; girl-girl, girl-guy or visa versa (rarely guy-guy, unless it's a particularly boring Elder's Quorum lesson). Back-scratching is like a pervasive pandemic in my ward. Once a couple sees someone else doing it, they join in the commotion. Within minutes, there is cacophony of nails scratching against suit coats and dresses permeating the classroom or chapel in near-perfect 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound. Parishioners seem appear out of nowhere to distract and taunt me. A few weeks ago, Felicia, a girl my roommate and I met through volleyball, surprised me by driving all the way across town to attend sacrament meeting with me and my roommate, Scott. The three of us casually visite

Single men, at my age, are either ultra-ashamed or ultra-proud of their chest hair. Growing up, however, most of us were ambivalent. We either didn't have any chest hair to be proud of or, if we did, we didn't have any pressure to feel one way or another about it. The typical factor that starts guys thinking about body-hair grooming is girls' opinion . Guys will subtly bring up the question in casual conversation. For example, "Speaking of break-dancing, do you think girls generally like guys with chest hair, or not." Girls are often quick to respond with their opinion. If that special someone thinks body-hair is "manly", it flows free. If the hair is "nasty" it gets nipped in the bud. (I wonder if girls are truly oblivious to the purpose behind the question?) Rarely do you find an diamond-in-the-rough, like this guy, who is proud to not just rock their body hair, but sculpt it as well. Chest hair sculpting is a long-lost art. T

This is serious.  emember, Demons are not funny. They are very nasty.

My Neighbor Totoro is one of my favorite Japanese cartoon-movies (or Anime).  I doubt that any one of those people waiting at the bus stop have either seen or heard of Totoro before. Instead of appreciating this scene for this perfect cosplay performance for what it was, they all probably thought the local hockey team's mascott was late for the game. This beautifully directed scene by Hayao Miyazaki has only limited dialogue for four minutes; unheard of in American cartoons.  There are many cognitive and cultural themes and issues presented in this scene, but I'll save that for another post. What I'd really like to have seen is a cat-bus pull up and take Totoro away before the real bus arrived.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds [middle] of "Firefly" fame was briefly glimpsed on ABC's "Castle," when Nathan Fillion dressed up as his old "Firefly" character for a Halloween costume. For a second there, since it was the very first few seconds of the show, I thought I was back on the Firefly . ABC , stop playing with my emotions. Seriously. Favorite Quote "Didn't you wear that 5 years ago? ... Don't you think you should move on?" "But I like it." - Castle's daughter, in secret reference to the Firefly series, taken off the air in December 2002. Second Favorite Quote "But you have to go [trick-or-treating] with me! You, are my candy-beard ." - Castle to his daughter who is definitely too old for trick-or-treating.