This Little Stone
It wades in the river.
The Water rushing across its surface
Making it smooth, and refined.

One day, scooped up from its bed,
It’s tossed against the waves;
Bouncing against the current-
No control and blind.

—

A storm is brewing,
And the heavens begin to circle.
Darkness falls
And rain pours down.

Lightening crashes
Against the water.
And into the water this little stone sinks
To the river’s lowest ground.

—

This little stone,
So little and frail,
To no avail it waits
In the deep dark water.

So deep that
No light can reach it.
It sits in the abyss
Where it’s colder than hotter.

—

On the surface it’s chaos,
But in the deep it’s still.
The Blackness is empty,
Yet peaceful and tranquil.

Fathoms below where the sky touches the water,
This  little stone abides.
Safe from the tides and winds above.
Here time seems unreal.

—

But once upon a time,
Maybe eons later,
A lone fish scavenges for  food;
Eating in mass.

It scoops up algae,
Along with dirt and gravel.
This little stone trades dark water
for the belly of a bass.

—

The fish carries the stone
Higher and higher.
Against some force
The fish tried and fought.

But this little stone’s time in the water
Was coming to a close.
The fish arose out from the water.
By a fisherman it was caught.

—

He takes his catch home,
This fisherman,
Thinking about how he
Might prepare his dinner.

Unaware of
This little stone’s troubles,
Or that it was even
In his tenure.

—

And so he filleted his catch
With experienced  skill.
Still, this fisherman noticed
Something is odd.

What’s this?
A rock?
A little stone
Buried in fish and sod.

—

He pulled out the rock,
This fisherman did; cleaning off all the muck.
The slime, the grime, the filth and dirt.
He washed this little stone over an old bucket.

And as he scrubbed and polished
His eyes could not believe the sight.
This wasn’t some ordinary stone,
But a bright gold nugget.

—

What could he buy, this fisherman wondered.
He was richer than the day before;
Pondering all the many things,
All the  possibilities he had in store.

So he put this little stone
In his shirt pocket,
Where it was dark like the water;
Unsure what is would be used for.

—

So this fisherman went back to the river
to catch the new day’s meal.
This little stone sat quiet in his pocket
As he caught many more fish.

Day after day in the dark,
This little stone traveled with this fisherman,
Wondering what would become of it.
With this little stone this fisherman could buy a big delicious dish.

—

As time passed on this fisherman grew old,
But never did he spend the gold.
Within his pocket it rested,
Between his heartbeat and stitches sewn.

Safe in the dark of soft linen,
Where it would never again be alone.
It was much too precious to this fisherman to sell,
So he kept it all his days, this little stone.

© 2010 Daniel Pitner. All Rights Reserved.

If you, or someone you know has a business in need of web presence or maybe just wants a personal website, tell them to go to http://www.danielpitner.com where I will be happy to make their web dreams come true.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Enter ‘Wii Transfer’ from Riverfold Software. Wii Transfer includes a built-in lightweight web server for sharing your movies, music, and photos to your Nintendo Wii over your local network. Besides streaming content to your Wii, you can also transfer your Miis back to your Mac as a picture, as well as backup your saved games via an SD card. Photo sharing is accomplished using your existing iPhoto albums which is great for seeing your pics on your big screen television in the living room.

The movie streaming is solid, however, the encoding takes a while to process. They’re converted into FLVs (Flash Video) and then streamed through the Internet Channel (which you’ll have to purchase, but what’s $5.99 these days anyway?).

You can download the free trial here: http://www.riverfold.com/software/wiitransfer/

If you dig it you can buy a license for only $19.99.

Bottom Line: The Wii isn’t exactly made to be a media server when compared to the likes of the PS3 and the Xbox 360, but it gets the job done, and what it does, it does well.

I would like to take just a moment to spell out my ever-evolving beliefs I find to be the most pressing in my life currently.

CHRISTIANITY I believe in God the Father, The Holy Spirit, and His Son, Jesus Christ who came and shed his blood for the remission of my own sins, as well as the worlds. It is as much a personal thing as it is universal.

THE HOLY BIBLE I believe in the stories told from the beginning with Adam and Eve clear through to the book of Revelation. I believe all of it. I also believe there are misinterpretations peppered throughout the Protestant movement. This isn’t said to discount those things, but merely to say that there are portions of the Bible that are subject to a person’s interpretation.

For example, I have a big problem with the Council of Nicea, centuries after the resurrection of Christ, and them using their [flawed] judgment to determine whether or not I should take a piece of ancient scripture as divine or not. Where are these books? Can I read them for myself and make my own determinations of what is and is not “valid” in the Kingdom of God?

ALCOHOL Ah, this is a very touch one, especially amongst Pentecostals. I believe Jesus drank wine, not grape juice, but fermented delicious wine. Observe:

Luke 7:33-34
Because John the Baptist has come neither eating bread nor drinking wine, yet you say, ‘He has a demon!’ ³⁴The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look! He’s a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

I would love for anyone to please comment on this particular section. Because to me, it is obvious by this scripture that Jesus drank wine. Why can’t so many ‘old-timers’ understand this? The only thing I can come up with is that they were “raised that way”. The problem with this logic is that many white supremacists were raised to be full of hate toward anyone not white. So we shouldn’t say anything because they were just “raised that way.” Nope, I don’t believe that. I am a truth seeker. I don’t want to just believe something because it’s the way I was brought up. There is truth and I intend to find it, and to do so you must question things. Something many in places of authority in the Christian realm strongly dislike.

I’ll admit that this one sounds like a nice big rationalization for me drinking. And while it does serve purpose for me to “defend” myself, it should also be a wake up call to stubborn Christians believing something because it’s simply what was taught and not what they studied and read for themselves. I see the merit in not drinking excessively, but to tell someone that it is forbidden is Pharisaical. More souls are lost in a battle over the small details that didn’t seem important enough for Jesus to spend much time on, if any at all.

Perfect!

Danny McBride. Enough said really, but I’ll go into detail. The Foot Fist Way is a comedy starring Danny McBride and directed by Jody Hill about a Tae Kwon Do instructor who is a bit ego-maniacal and extremely self-appreciating. Everything seems to be going well for Fred Simmons (McBride). He’s got a strip-mall Tae Kwon Do studio and lots of students who look up to him. But it all goes awry when he finds out his wife cheated on him. Craziness ensues as Fred picks up the pieces and tries to put them back together again the only way he knows how; by throwing himself into his work. This takes him on the journey of going to see his “best hero”, Chuck “The Truck” Wallace, who turns out to be a severe douche bag. Just watch it because you will not be dissapointed.

This was kind of a cool site to do. I got to design some cool flash. Callaghan is definitely a departure from my usual design “style”, but that’s part of being a designer I guess.

• Launch Project

Great

Let me just start off by saying how much I love cop drama/action flicks. I went into this movie without any real expectations except for the fact that Collin Ferrel and Edward Norton have got to be two of my favorite actors in the biz.

Overview
Pride and Glory is a movie about a family of cops (Ferrel’s character is married into the family as a cop) that take pride in their history. The head of the family, played by the great Jon Voight, is a 30-year veteran of the force. The whole shabang gets started off when four of their own are killed in what looks to be a bust gone wrong. In light of this tragedy, Voight asks his son,Norton’s character to get back on the task force and help solve the case. After a little prodding it works and Ed’s ready. However, the deeper he digs questions begin popping up that just do not make sense. Eventually, he uncovers police corruption and gets stuck between a rock and a hard place with what he should do.

Full Review
If you saw any of the trailers then you already know that Ferrel’s character is a corrupt cop, but he’s the classic anti-hero in that he loves his family. Just watching the movie you realize the versatility that Collin Ferrel has in his ability to be anyone (with the exception of that ghastly role in Daredevil as ‘Bulls Eye’). He always looks the same, but he’s never the same person. His ability to create accents based on his character are astounding; especially for an irish dude with a thick accent! His role in the movie was awesome and he really added so much to the flick. Edward Norton never dissapoints and this movie was no exception. Ever since Fight Club, Norton has been one of my faves. He’s sort of the opposite of Ferrel in that he doesn’t use accents, but man can he change his persona on a whim. And of course there’s Jon Voight. His role is more peppered throught the film, but everytime he’s on screen you can help but love he guy. He’s an amazing actor and added so much to the movie.

Now for the movie itself. This movie was long. It seems to be the trend among these sort of movies, but I personally think it was a bit too long. Now having said that, I will say that this was a very good movie. Even though you already know who’s corrupt and who isn’t, there are still shades of grey in the characters. One of my favorite characters was Francis the brother of Ray (Norton). He was played by Noah Emmerich who really surprised me. His “corruption” only goes so far. His squad he oversees are definitely on the take, and he looks the other way. But when the big bust gone bad goes down he begins to change his tune. It was cool to see his transformation from a guy that let’s his ‘boys’ do whatever, to a man that takes responsibility for his actions in the end. Overall, this will be a great movie to own on BlueRay, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be paying $10 again to see it in theaters.

Fable 2

my rating: 9.5 out of 10

This has got to be on of the most addicting RPGs on the 360. My wife and I both have been playing for weeks now and there’s just still stuff to find, quests to complete, jobs to do, and people to kill. To date, and I’m including Halo on this, Fable 2 is one of my favorite games on this console.

Overview
Fable is an RPG/Action-Adventure game that delivers everything it promised. You start of as a young boy, and even at that age you get to decide which way you lean; toward the good or toward evil. I of course took the evil route simply because it’s always more fun. Basically you have three set of leveling up you can do, Strength, Skill, and Will. Strength includes Physique which build your muscles physically in appearance as well as the amount of damage dealt with each blow of your melee weapon. Next you have Toughness that

determines the length of your health meter bar. Then there’s Brutal Styles which with each level up you receive a new way to attack enemies. The Skill settings consist of Accuracy which helps your aim with projectile weapons. Speed is my favorite since my favorite weapon is the largest hammer you can buy. Speed obviously speeds up your ability to react faster with the swing of melee weapons as well as your reload time on projectiles. The third Skill is Dexterous Styles increasing your ability to avoid enemy blows. Then, probably the most important is the Will category. There are so many different types of magic that you should just check it out. My personal favorite is Inferno. Destroy the enemy with blasts of powerful magic. It can really help you out of a jam.

Purity
Just as the original, as well as many other RPGs, you can determine whether your character will take the route of evil, good, or neutrality. It all depends on the kind of decisions you make within the game. My character is so evil that he has red skin, horns protruding from his forehead and tats all over. Probably my favorite part of the game.

Conclusion
This is a game to definitely own. The idea that I can just turn off ’safety mode’ and start killing innocent civilians makes this game that much more excellent. You must check it out, and be prepared to go to some sort of addiction meeting, because it will consume you.

pros: Beautiful visuals, great music score, awesome open-world gameplay
cons: weird camera action, sounds bugs out occasionally
replay value: High