Derus' Blog

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:29:17 GMT

The Internet

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:05:17 GMT

Sometimes I wonder why God lets us get away with it. He culturally nuked Babel for much less. But alas maybe I am too much of an old world thinker. Until he does intercede I'll enjoy the benefits of real time communication with friends in England, Brazil, Thailand and Bangladesh.

Updates

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:56:14 GMT

Hey Everyone,

I haven't died or anything. I looked at my June calendar and saw that i only updated three times that month. Which is lame. I wanted to tell you the reasons I have been so quiet lately. First off I spend a week of June Houseboating on Lake Shasta. Secondly, I have started blogging at davidjderus.com. And while I am going to most likely keep the personal posts here the random ones about culture and such will be over there. It is not an ideal situation and I am looking at correcting it. But how cool is it that I have my name .com?!

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:40:04 GMT

Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/07/ufo-turns-out-to-be.html
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7489457.stm

Police in South Wales, UK, were dispatched to respond to a 999 emergency call to investigate a "bright stationary object" in the sky above a concerned citizen's home. The BBC News posted a recording and transcript of the conversation between the control room, the caller, and the police:

Control: "Alpha Zulu 20, this object in the sky, did anyone have a look at it?"

Officer: "Yes, it's the moon. Over."

I choose freedom fighter

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:55:53 GMT

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:28:33 GMT

Yest there is a part one and a part three. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

Open Letter

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:05:30 GMT

Dear Barack Obama,

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

- Leo Tolstoy

I Might Have To Start Paying For This

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:55:52 GMT

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/17/associated-press-exp.html

"In the name of 'defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt" the Associated Press is now selling 'quotation licenses' that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles. The licenses start at $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words. The licensing system exhorts you to snitch on people who publish without paying the blood-money, offering up to $1 million in reward money (they also think that "fair use" -- the right to copy without permission -- means 'Contact the owner of the work to be sure you are covered under fair use.')."

My Favorite Quote: "Welcome to a world in which you won’t be able to effectively criticize the press, because you’ll be required to pay to quote as few as five words from what they publish."

How is this even legal?

I am Back, For real

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:29:20 GMT

Before I left for Brazil I was on a blogging kick. I created a few more accounts to tell some stories and promote my writing. When I returned, about two weeks ago, I felt no desire to write posts at all. Furthermore, there was no desire to make youtube videos.

I feel that writing needs to be primed. The more often I write the more likely I am to write again. So this post is a slug fest. The purpose of this post is simply to exist. Because the very fact that it does exist allows me to write more amazing posts in the future.

I will leave you with this. It is a short video that I made with some footage I took from Brazil. It is over at about minute 2:33. But the music keeps going until the end of the song. Just a heads up.

Environmentally Friendly Bombs

Wed, 28 May 2008 15:57:27 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080527/sc_livescience/environmentallyfriendlybombsplanned

A concern for the environment and a blatant disregard for humanity. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Wed, 28 May 2008 02:45:34 GMT

Hello Everyone!

I am back from Brazil. I have been traveling for the past few days. I am going to keep this short. I have bit of culture shock and jet lag. I am aware that the more I type the worse my chances are of making sense.

Brazil was amazing. It was a quiet time where I could rest and listen for God. It was a time of adventure. It was an opportunity to help others and make new friends. I am still processing many of the take home points from the week. One stands a head above the rest. I thought it would be nice to share. This is a primer to the series of posts that I will most like do on the trip.

For the past ten days I have been on a boat with 29 other people. In the words of Sid from Ice Age, “We [were] the weirdest herd I have ever seen.” It was a group of people thrown together for a common cause with not much in common; a Bolivian doctor, a Brazilian teenager, pastors, mechanics, entertainment executives, and me an out of work writer. It was close quarters. A third of the people were not American. Half of the crew did not speak a word of English. What developed was a make shift community.

I miss them tonight as I sit in my bedroom. The micro society on the boat made me think about how communities are formed in Los Angeles. Everything is so optional here. All of our interactions are matters of convenience. If a friend does something against us we can cut them out. If a church isn’t to our liking we can go to another one. Even our families have certain level of flexibility to them. We are never forced to confront each other or work out our differences.

I could go on but even now I feel the last drops of attention drain from my finger tips. I’m going to start rambling. I can tell. I will leave you with this. Being part of the community on that boat and seeing similar relationships in the villages we visited was a highlight of my trip. I want that to take place more often in my life. I don’t want to just know what people are doing because of twitter or facebook. I want to be an active part in people’s lives not just a voyeur. I don’t know how that will be possible. I don’t know if it will ever happen. But it is something that I got a taste of last week and I want more.

McCain

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:10:30 GMT

What a Friend i have in Jesus?!

Tue, 13 May 2008 22:53:38 GMT

I guess Jesus is living in L.A. Go Figure.

http://whatafriendihaveinjesus.wordpress.com/

The Traveling Apothecary

Tue, 13 May 2008 18:42:17 GMT

I went to breakfast this morning at a local bakery. I was enjoying my bagel and newspaper when one of the other patrons turns to me.

“Do you know anyone who is friends with Phil Jackson?” the gray haired lady asked.
“Can’t say that I do.” I replied.
“I feel bad for the French player, you know the one with the goatee.”

At this point I am lost. I know nothing about basketball. Why did she start talking to me? Apparently he had an injury. She went on talking about this miracle cure that she kept in her purse. It would heal any problem. She wanted to get some to the team.

But this person gets so much more interesting. She is a self described traveler. She said she was commissioned by a group of Japanese guardian monks in the seventies to spend 1000 days walking the holiest locations on mother earth. It has been forty years since, apparently she doesn’t have to do the 1000 days in a row. She is setting her sights on Greenland next fall. At that point I am hooked. I move over to the seat next to here. I have no idea if any of this is true or not but I know whatever story I was thinking about writing today will pale in comparison to the story being spun by the woman with the blue eyes.

She tells me about her exploits across Europe as a young woman and how she plans to walk among the reindeer. There is a generous portion of New Age jargon coupled with stories about the victories and failures of here immediate family. But when she started talking about releasing my fat to the universe I was ready to leave. But before I did she wanted to give me some of her miracle tonic. By this time I was expecting her to have a glass bottle with a snake in it or maybe a monkey brain. She pulls out a small yellow bottle and I get nervous. I really don’t want to ingest any medicine this lady gives me. But the label reads Dr. Scholls and I am feeling a little better. She grabs my hand and starts to poke around with her thumbs looking for a “stress point.” Finally she decided that my elbow is in need of immediate care. A few drops and the smell of mint chocolate fills the air. I rub it in. I thank her and I get the heck out of there. I get home and wash the stuff off but even now as I type I smell strikingly like a Girl Scout cookie.

So thanks Megan the traveling apothecary. You made my morning.

What have I been up to lately?

Mon, 12 May 2008 22:05:50 GMT

A general question with specific answers.

The biggest thing on my plate right now is Brazil. Today has been a lot of planning and prepping. In six days I will be leaving. I have posted before about this trip so I will not go into great details. When I get back I might do a few posts about my experiences. The newest turn of events is that a friend of mine has a fairly successful Youtube channel and he wants me to make a short documentary I for him. I am looking forward to that.

Today I packed up. I have all my medications. I am ready to roll! Boo ya!

Mother's Day Story

Mon, 12 May 2008 17:37:48 GMT

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. I took my mom out to the book store. We have a standing tradition for holidays. We go to Borders and we browse for as long as we like. When we are done the person being celebrated, my mom in this case, picks out a book and the other person buys. Then we have a cup of coffee and talk.

Here is the story my mom told me:

Last night she was walking to the drug store to get some medicine. Outside the store sat a homeless man. She didn’t want to be bothered. Even if he did ask for money my mom does not have much to give. As she passed he did not beg. He simply said, “I miss my mom.” This stopped my mom in her tracks. He said again, “I miss my mom.”
My mother turned to him and replied, “Me too. I think about her every day.”
He said, “It’s hard.”
She replied, “I know.”
Then they hugged.

When she told me this I almost cried. What a touching interaction between two strangers. In the middle of a city the keeps to itself in was a rare connection. I know mother’s day is over. But if you missed it, be sure to give your mom a call. They won’t be around forever.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:03:00 GMT

Over Connected

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:46:02 GMT

Is there such a thing as over connected? Because if there is, I think I might be a contender.

Derus internet stats:

I have 63 friends on myspace
... 151 Facebook Friends
29 Youtube Subscribers
I write two blogs
I follow 23 blogs in my google reader

Bad Doctor

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:01:51 GMT

As some of you might know, I am going to Brazil soon for a short term mission trip. Because it is the middle of a jungle I needed to get a bunch of vaccines so I don't die. I don't have health insurance or a doctor so I just called around trying to find someone. The guy I found charged me way to much and it was an all around unpleasant experience. Little did I know how bad of a judgment call it was.

I googled his name just to figure out what his phone number was because I needed to call him to check up on something. You know you have a bad doctor when the first web site that comes up when you type in his name is TMZ. (http://www.tmz.com/2007/02/14/the-doctor-who-scored-methadone-for-anna-nicole/)

Here is a quote from hollywoodgossip.com, "[He is] Anna Nicole Smith's shady, evil doctor. We simply do not trust Dr. Sandeep Kapoor."

In a way this makes the whole thing very funny to me. Talk about bad picks.

Forgetting Sarah Marshal: Movie Review

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:19:48 GMT

I've been busy at the theaters lately. Last Saturday I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshal. I liked it. But there is a certain type of person that is going to find this movie funny.

Forgetting Sarah Marshal focuses on the rebound of a young Hollywood composer after his famous actress girlfriend breaks up with him. Wanting to get out of town to clear his head he takes a trip to Hawaii only to find that his ex-girlfriend and her new rockstar boy toy are spending the week there as well. Awkward. I don't want to give away anything more about the plot. But it is safe to say that hilarity ensues.

It is not the perfect movie the premise is far fetched and the plot lot meanders along. But it is a fun ride filled with interesting characters.

In a movie where the main character is dealing with major heartbreak it is easy to make the ex look like a heartless bitch. But Peter, Jason Segel, is equally as flawed as Sarah Marshal, played by Kristen Bell. By the time you throw in Albus the rock star and Rachel the resort concierge and local hottie you have a core cast of likable characters played by capable actors.

Did I mention is was raunchy? It might be best not to go to this film with your parents. Brief frontal male nudity and thinly veiled sexual references run through out. But that is to be expected going into an Apatow film.

I have been a fan of writer/producer Judd Apatow ever since the short run television show Freaks and Geeks. He has gathered a group of young actors and writers whom have pounded out movie after movie recently. (SuperBad, Knocked Up, Anchorman, and Talidega Nights to name a few) His works are keyed into the psyche of college and post college guys who are trying to figure out what life is all about. Forgetting Sarah Marshal was produced by him but written by the lead actor Jason Segel.

The greatest compliment I could give this film is the fact that I honestly have not laughed so much at a film in years. Great humor permeates every scene.

Expelled: Movie Review

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:33:03 GMT

:Warning May Contain Spoilers:

Last night I saw the new Ben Stein movie Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed. It is in a genre I like to call Docu-ganda or a documentary with an agenda. If you have ever seen any Michael Moore films you know what I am talking about. I like this genre because even when I disagree with the premise of the individual movie it usually draws out interesting conversations about controversial topics.

At it's core Expelled is about the theory of intelligent design (ID). The movie follows Ben Stein around the world as he interviews scientists that have lost there job for giving credit to the theory. Ultimately the movie makes the case that by disallowing the theory of intelligent design from intellectual circles we obstruct the scientific right of free inquiry. It ends in an uncouth comparison between the modern American scientific community and Nazi Germany. I liked the topic and I would agree with the general premise. However, there were a lot of problems with this film.

I have heard reviews that say this movie was an argument for Intelligent Design. They are greatly mistaken. Little time was spent on the actual theoretical concept it was all about the people who have gotten kicked out of the science community. It would have been a stronger film if they spent more time to define Intelligent Design. Ten minutes of diagrams and commentary about Intelligent Design in the beginning of the film would have helped. It also did not spend much time reviewing Darwinian evolution. The interviewed scientists talked about the elegance of evolution or the gaping holes but no one ever explained what they were. This made it hard to follow the debate that was at the heart of the film.

Also, It wasn’t funny. A keystone to a good docu-ganda is humor because it differentiates the film from a dull college lecture. Ben Stein usually portrays an intellectual comedian. He is the one that gives the film credibility. Going into the flim I was hoping for a lot of his dry wit. There were numerous attempts at humor but they all fell flat. Primarly the film would punctuate it’s arguments with clips from 1950’s newsreels and movies. It was an attempt at a funny retro feel for the movie. What it did instead was vilify the Darwinians in an unfair manner. They were compared to things like Frankenstein and Communism. These attempts on humor back fired. They made the audience feel that this movie was simply mean spirited.

The movie lacked direction. I do not mind a few rabbit trails along the way if the issue is interesting enough. Exposed never built toward anything. Sicko called for health care reform. Inconvienent Truth was an argument for environmental action. Walking out of the theaters for those movies you could talk about reducing carbon emissions or establishing national healthcare. You would suppose Expelled would be a call towards more scientific freedom of inquiry but what does that mean? It never drew a picture of what the world would look like if the premise of the movie was universally accepted. It never gave the viewer a direction to go after the show was over. Application points are key and if you are going to make a movie that is challenging authority you should have a better concluding thought than “I don’t know what’s next.” Which is essentially what this movie said.

This movie makes me want to watch a better movie about the subject; one that is not sloppy with its themes or reckless in it comparisons.

Slang from my Youth

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:49:22 GMT

Recently I have been thinking about words that people don't use anymore. Specifically words that I do not use anymore. As an adolescent you pick up words that you would never repeat later on in life. Here is a sample of just a few from the late twentieth century. "Back in my day" as they say. I would document some phrases from my youth before they disappeared forever. If you want to add on to the list just post a reply.

Bomb: Something Extraordinarily good.
Example: "That movie was the bomb"

No Diggity: An expression of affirmation beyond any doubt.
Example:
Person A: "Did you ask her for her number?"
Person B: "No Diggity!"

Psych: A response to an impossible self proclamation, usually as a joke.
Example:
Person A: I once fought a pirate!
Person B: Really?
Person A: Psych!

NOT: Similar to 'psych' with the exception that the opposite true as a case of sarcasm.
Example:
Person A: Wow, you are a really good singer! NOT!

Grub (Noun)/ Grubbin' (verb): Good food. To eat good food.
Examples:
"Mom, that meal was grub"
"We were grubbin' at In n' Out last night."

Everything with Cheese: The Bagel Adventure

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:11:25 GMT

Today has been an interesting day. I spent the morning working with my dad for some much needed cash. For lunch I went down to my favorite bagel place. Since it was well into the afternoon I was the only one there until an older Englishman sat down near me. A few minutes later he was met by a grocery clerk.

The English guy started to rip the clerk apart. He was talking to this middle aged man the same way a mother would scold a five year old. The clerk seemed to sit there and absorb it as though he was thankful that he had not yet lost his job. But after everything the English guy said the other man would reply, "Yes Peter. No Peter. I had not thought about that Peter." Each time he said Peter's name it was like he was trying to use it as a weapon against him. It said, "I resent your power over me." Since it was just the three of us in a quiet cafe I felt like I should have leaned over and asked them if they wanted me to leave. Instead I buried my head in my paper and pretended like I did not hear anything. It was painful to listen to. But I could not stop eaves dropping.

Nerd Humor

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:48:31 GMT

Insomnia

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:36:56 GMT

I have been having an epic battle of insomnia lately. It's like I will lay in my bed for hours before I fall asleep. It is 1230 right now. I know sleep is so very far away. INstead i troll the internet looking for things to do. Arg. Any insomnia home remedies you guys know of?

-=Dave=-