I haven’t gone to see Avatar yet (though I got to watch several scenes at the Nokia Theatre in LA back n October), mostly because I never go to see a movie until it’s been reviewed by the Vatican newspaper (because, whether it’s about movies, science, or just plain how to live my life, the Vatican’s opinion is the one I really trust and respect). Well, now the review is in, and let’s just say the Vatican is not impressed. Apart from calling the story bland and sappy, the biggest problem the Vatican’s seems to have with the movie seems to be that it somehow encourages the worship of nature. Apparently this would threaten the worship of an invisible man in the sky who creates imperfect beings in His image and then drowns all but a few of them in anger when He finds them to be less than perfect. This from a Guy who tells Abraham to sacrifice his own child just to see if he’ll do it, turns Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt just for “looking” (but apparently was OK with Lot offering up his virginal daughters to be raped by an angry mob, who (the daughters, not the mob) then take turns getting their father drunk and having sex with him, eventually getting themselves knocked up; hey, nothing wrong with a little incest, eh?), kills the first born sons of Egypt (even if they’re just innocent infants or working slobs, and we won’t even get into the deaths of all those innocent lambs so their blood could be splattered all over the doors of the “true believers” to save their kids), gets pissed off at Moses and makes him and his Jews wander around aimlessly in the desert for 40 years, and engineers the torture and murder of His “son”; gee, made in His image – I wonder why we turned out so “imperfect.” Plus, from what I’ve read, there isn’t a funny hat in the shape of a Turkey’s butt anywhere in the movie. I say go rent “The Bells of St. Mary’s” instead. That’s when movies were movies! Now, I eagerly await the Vatican review of the “Bad Girls 3D” system.

Today is the day I’ve been dreading all week – the biweekly “team” meeting with our Director. I genuinely dislike these things anyway, but today I’m being forced to demo a couple of things that aren’t really done yet and – to make things worse – scuttlebutt has it the CIO will be coming to the meeting as well. I haven’t been able to figure a way out of this (calling in sick came to mind, but that’s a little bit obvious, as did paying somebody to dress like the Unabomber and pull the fire alarm at a strategic time, or maybe even taking the server down), but alas, it appears I’ll just have to buck up and get through it. On the bright side, I should be much happier (and hung over) tomorrow.

Now, a quick trip to the mail bag. Brian from Everett wrote me again to tell me that, while he’d prefer to go to the Maron thing on Thursday, he can go on Friday and Saturday, too. He can take a bus to the show, but they don’t run after hours, so he’d just need a ride back home. I can pass his phone number along to you, if you’re going (I’d be tempted to leave a message on his answering machine, but I’m nowhere near as funny and talented as he is).

Also, Kevin (not Kevin from the great state of Florida) writes to say he has a blog post and illustration of Maron, which you can check out here.

Well, time to go pluck my eyebrows, put on my makeup, and get myself ready to face the day. Have a good one.