PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — What is the sound of no hands clapping? It's a Zen koan worth contemplating as Wes Nisker works the crowd on the stark bare stage at a park lodge here where L.A. Dharma, a Buddhist meditation group, is host to, of all things, a night of comedy. [more]Once again, this really is a part of legitimate research for a message I'm giving Sunday on eastern worldviews in our culture.

This is the funniest thing I've seen in at least a week. Dave Barry wrote an article about the National Do Not Call List:Ask not what telemarketers can do to you. Then because of some crazy things that happened, he wrote this follow-up:So what's their hang-up?This second article is sweet irony. Stick it to 'em, Dave!

This morning when I sat down at my computer there where two MS windows alert boxes open. The window title said "Messenger Service." They looked like legitimate error messages until I read the text. They were both ads for online scams. I googled the phrase and found a page with instructions for diabling this stupid feature of Microsoft Windows. Apparently your computer comes out of the box with the ability for anyone on the internet to send you one of these messages. Linux looks better and better all of the time.

In my sermon Sunday I included a poem by Steve Turner called "Creed." It's a satirical postmodern creed illustrating some of the absurdity of naturalistic worldviews. Below is a postscript for that poem, also written by Turner, as heard on a Ravi Zacharias mp3.If chance be the father of all flesh,disaster is his rainbow in the sky.And when you hear "State of emergency,sniper kills ten, troops on a rampage, youths go looting, bomb blasts school,"it is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.

I regret to report that one of my fish has died. She was a female platy that would have been delivering babies any day now. The stress of the pregnancy, combined with poor tank conditions and the fact that one of the swordtails kept taking bites out of her tail, finally got to her. I tried to get some help on Tropical Fish Forum, but it was too late. You can read the sad thread here.

Kazoku sorrote no seppuku ga yokatta.I loved the part where the whole family disemboweled themselves.Nihonshoku o tabesukete inai yabanjin desu.I am too barbaric to eat a Japanese breakfast.Ebi no idaina saigo desu!How honorably shrimp struggle as they choke to death!If you like these, read some more.ps. This is a legitimate part of my research for a sermon.

I'm downloading my first song from MusicMatch's new legal download service. Like Apple iTunes, you can dl individual tracks for a buck and burn them to a cd or listen to them on your computer. This is all totally legal and it's a pretty cheap way to get some new music. It's free to download the latest version of MusicMatch Jukebox and it's free to create an account for the downloading service. Then you're just charged $0.99 per song. My song is now at 13%. I'll have more later when I decide if this was worth it.

Last week we went to Applebee's for lunch and when Emma saw the sign she said, "Apple-poopies." She can say it right, but it just came out that way. Funny

First of all, I think my sermon turned out alright this morning. Later on I'll post some recommendations for futher study in the subject of the Christian worldview, but first I need to tell you about something cool I saw this morning.We meet at the church at 7:30 am on Sundays to pray before the 8:00 service and this morning I was ready to go by about 7:10, so I thought I would flip on the TV. I stopped at TV Land because Happy Days was on, but as soon as it came up I saw a youthful Robin Williams, dressed up as Mork. When I was younger I used to watch Happy Days and Mork & Mindy, but I never knew that there had been a crossover episode. I sat enthralled for the next 20 minutes as Mork threatened to take Ritchie with him to Ork, Fonzie defended him, they proceeded to duel with their magical powers, Mork won, Mork decided to take the Fonz home instead and then Ritchie woke up and it was all a dream.Well, I did some research and (as I assumed) Mork & Mindy was a spinoff of Happy days (I probably should have known this, but I wasn't born until 1980). The bit on Happy Days was one of Robin William's first big acting jobs and the character was so popular that it spun off into a fun (but short-lived) series. I also found out that Laverne & Shirley was also a spinoff of Happy Days. And there was a crossover episode with the two spinoffs! In my research I found an interesting site. The Crossover and Spinoff List has all the goods on how your favorite shows have interacted. I finally found the name of the Married with Children spinoff that I had been trying to think of. I've tried to tell people about it before and they didn't believe me. Now I have proof.If only all days were as education as this one.

Some guy in England is trying to sell an air guitar on ebay.