Today's installment of how to bore your friends with your MINI obsession, or my new working title, Honda's are boring (I can say that. I own a Honda and it's a cool one), I give you this. And this.

Just got back from seeing The Italian Job at a preview tonight and, although I'm biased because of the role the MINI Cooper plays, I have to say - GO SEE THIS MOVIE! I had low expectations going in, but was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. All four in our party gave the film thumbs up. Granted, I always recommend that you take any movie review with a grain of NaCl (for those unschooled in the sciences, that's the chemical symbol for Nackle), trust me, you'll enjoy this movie. The Italian Job fits nicely into the category of heist films which include The Thomas Crown Affair, Oceans Eleven, and Heist. If you're a fan of any of those, you'll enjoy this. The dialogue was real and not over the top like most action films. There was little or no foul language (not that I care, but it was refreshing) and the pacing of the story was seamless. My only criticism is that too much is given away in the trailer, but that's a whole other rant. If you want to be entertained, this is your film. And if you don't like it, you're not getting a ride in the MINI.

If you haven't read over at Dino's or Tim's blog, there's a glitch in the comments feature of our blogs.

We're trying to track down the problem, but you never know, this may be the start of the machines trying to control us.

It is beginning...

Ok, so here's the video of the MINI stunt driver in KC on a promotional tour for the upcoming film The Italian Job.

I'm sure the film is nothing more than a glorified ad for the MINI Cooper. If you want one, I recommend ordering it before this film comes out because word on the street is that the waiting list will go from 4 months to nearly a year after the movie is released. Paramount is allowing anyone driving a Cooper into a special screening tomorrow on the paramount lot at 5555 Melrose. All I can say is I hope the movie doesn't suck. I've got my advance screening tickets for this Sat. courtesy of the KC MINI owners club! Review to follow...

I just finished ripping Blonde on Blonde so I can finally have some Dylan on my iPod. However the CD doesn't belong to me. It's borrowed. From the library. I got this idea from a friend who will remain nameless, but it got me to thinking, is this legal? Or ethical? Yes, I've got dozens of songs I downloaded from Napster in the heyday of the great .mp3 file swap, but truthfully, many of those files were songs I already owned - on vinyl. I already paid for the use of them. I went out and purchased many CDs after sampling the tunes hi-jacked from other users, but not all of them. Anyway, I was just left wondering...

Got the call this morning that our new car has been ordered. Well, sort of. The order has been placed at the factory, but the actual production of the Cooper will begin mid June. I now have a number that gets me into the official MINI owners lounge at miniusa.com. I also heard that this coming Monday, May 19, there will be a stunt driving exhibition of MINI Coopers at Metro North Mall. Expect some video from me to be on-line later next week.

In the more than two months since we ordered the car, I've tried to be patient and not think about it much, but now, I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. Only 60 more days...

When I was at KU, oh so long ago, my friend David Foo taught me how to spin a pen around my thumb. I recently ran across this site with further information and training videos on how to do this. Bookmark this for some rainy day fun. Everybody needs a hobby.

Andy Warhol theorized that we all get fifteen minutes of fame in our life. Well I think I experienced about two or three of mine last week. I was standing in line at a store and the checker said to me, "Hey, don't you play percussion at Jacob's Well?" I said yes and introduced myself.

I felt a little exposed but I don't know why. I think I was just caught off guard. Like earlier tonight, I was with Tim Keel at O'Dowds up on the deck enjoying a couple of cigars. As Tim walked by a table of young women, one of them said, "Hey, it's pastor Tim!"

These couple of events made me think of two things:

1.) How cool it is to run into people from JW outside the bounds of a sanctioned church event. I'm realizing that there is no longer a division in my life between my "church life" and some other "secular life." I'm who I am 24/7 and for the first time comfortable with that.

2.) Running into people from JW on a regular basis makes me feel in proximity to my community. I mean, there are about a million and a half people in the greater KC area and what are the chances of running into any one of a couple of hundred of them - regularly?

Anyway, I'm left wondering who I'll run into tomorrow...

Apparently there are 292 ways to make change for a dollar...

Wisdom from the underside of a Nantucket Nectars orange juice lid.

I'm really reaching now aren't I?

Clearly I have run out of things to say. Not really, I've just been busy working like a dog. Last week I worked until 3 AM one night and since then my body's been telling me that I'm not 22 anymore.

I've also been spending my spare time - all five to eight minutes a day of it - downloading music from Apple's new iTunes Music Store. If you haven't heard the news, Apple sold over a million songs in the first week the service was available. I'm sure a lot of that was my fault. If you're lucky enough to have access to this service you know what I mean. Sure the music store has its critics, but at this rate, nobody can hear them over the sound of ringing cash registers in Cupertino. Apple stock jumped thirty percent over the last week. I guess time will tell if this is too good to be true, but for now I'm having a hoot uploading new tunes to the 'ol iPod.