Just in time for your Memorial Day picnics (at least it would be in time if my damn web server was live right now), here's another one of Those 70's Recipes that should cool you off on a nice hot day. I tripple dog dare any of you to try making this one and serving it to your friends!

Although I'm posting this right now (Monday afternoon), who knows when anybody is actually going to see it? My web server has been down since Friday and my hosting company has been telling me that "it will be back up in a couple of hours" for several days now. It would seem that they started doing some server work and then split for the long weekend before it was done. I even got an email from concerned relatives asking if everything was OK because the site was down. Anne and I also split for part of the long weekend for a little overnight stay in Marin. We explored the mountains and the little towns and had a great time! We also saw Mean Girls and Tina Fey is now one of my new favorite people in the entertainment industry. Besides that, I've been doing a lot of work on the blog. I've been feeling the need for a redesign for a while, and I was inspired by one of the greatest album covers for one of the greatest metal albums of all time, as well as by current politics. I've also decided to bring back comments. I removed them a while ago because I was having some trouble getting my rollover buttons to work with the old system I was using, but I decided to go with Haloscan as it seems to work much better (at least the offline testing of it seems to be working). The forum that came with my hosting package didn't really take off as a replacement, though some great stuff has been posted there and I encourage all of my readers to visit the forums and get your talk on. Also, please test the comments so I can make sure they're working correctly.

I've finally found an audio file of one of my all time favorite prank calls. It's a segment from Howard Stern about this prankster named Kidd Chris. It starts with a series of pranks to OJ Simpson (which are also really funny), then at about 3 minutes in, he does one pretending to be Ricardo Montalban calling George Takei (Star Trek's Mr. Sulu) which is just brilliant.

I've been noticing a big spike in traffic to this blog in the last few days. A lot of people have been searching for some combination of "Washington," "Interns," "Blog," and "Movie." Is this because it's the end of the school year and people are looking to intern in Washington? If you have reached this site because you are interested in some sort of political or governmental internship in Washington, please do not go there until you have seen my film, Washington Interns Gone Bad. If you contact me and send me a scan of your student ID, I will give you a special discount.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNE! That's right, today is my wife's birthday. If you know her, or even if you don't, and you want to send her a birthday greeting, just use my contact page and I'll forward all the nice ones to her.

Hey Al Gore, maybe if you hadn't waited 3 years to give speeches like this one, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. I'm glad that after such a long career in politics, you're finally getting a clue during your political retirement on how to energize the base. Too bad you couldn't pull that off in 2000.

Want to bring down the Bush administration? Who doesn't? While it's your duty to bring about regime change with the ballot this November, you can get your kicks doing it with a bullet with Hulk Hogan, Mr. T and He Man in this fun flash game! (via metafilter)

Wondering how the republicans are going to crack down on the massive protests of their upcoming political exploitation of 9/11 convention? Wonder no more. "Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Wednesday new information indicates the threat of a terrorist attack, possibly connected to high-profile events such as dedication of a new war monument, an economic summit and political conventions.

I suppose we need to have some extreme entertainment to distract us from things like Bush's ridiculous speech today, decapitation videos, soldier porn and all the talking heads blabbing about it. But what have we become as a society when we have beauty pageants for plastic surgery? We've been watching it for the last hour and a half, and it's a freakish spectacle to behold. As if beauty pageants aren't the most plastic thing in the world already, when you add the whole reality show element of dragging out every cheesy dramatic pause while playing that annoying reality show dramatic pause music, make half of the show taken up with reality show recaps, kill the song and dance numbers, paint the contestants up in drag queen makeup to accentuate all of the surgery... you are left with The Swan Pageant.

You can bet that they didn't serve this dish at the wedding we went to this weekend... See past recipes that you won't find served this side of 1978 here.

What? You mean to tell me that it's illegal for the White House to hire actors to stage news reports and try to pass them off as the real thing? But this administration would never do anything illegal, right?

Nancy Pelosi lays the smackdown on Bush in the press: "The emperor has no clothes. When are people going to face the reality? Pull this curtain back. The situation in Iraq and the reckless economic policies in the United States speak to one issue for me, and that is the competence of our leader. These policies are not working." She goes on to directly call Bush incompetent. No surprise, this has republicans both foaming at the mouth and conveniently forgetting the sorts of things they were saying in public about Bill Clinton on a day to day basis for 8 years.

Photos from our 48 Hour Film Project shoot, by Thomas Vincze. This one is of me using my homemade steadycam.

Just a reminder to film fans in the Bay Area, tonight is the first screening of films from the 48 Hour Film Project, including the one which I shot 2nd camera on. It's called Dogged, and it's a mystery. WHERE: Roxy Theater, 16th & Valencia, San Francisco. WHEN: 7:15 and 9:30 - get their early if you want to get tickets because it will definitely sell out.

Today I came home from work to find my copy of Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers: Best of Blogs waiting for me. It felt pretty cool to see something that I had written in a real book from a real publisher. I'm still just amazed to even be in there. There are so many great posts from so many great writers on a variety of subjects, so if you enjoy reading blogs, be sure to pick this one up.

And speaking of films that should be seen, the screening of the short that I worked on this weekend is going to be this Wednesday night at the Roxy cinema on 16th St in the Mission. As part of the 48 Hour Film Project, this will be screened with 11 or 12 other 4-8 minute shorts which were written, shot and edited within 48 hours this weekend. The one I worked on was a mystery and I got to shoot 2nd camera, using my new homemade steadycam for some of it. It was a great shoot with a top notch crew and a large cast of talented actors. The screenings are wednesday night at 7 and 9 at the Roxy.

I SO cannot wait to see this film!

First off, I'd like to welcome John Griffiths back into the blogosphere. If you saw Washington Interns Gone Bad and wondered just how the hell we managed to make a camera fly around a moving DC metro car, John is the man who made that happen with some great 3D modeling. His post on the Nick Berg beheading video is possibly one of the best takes I've seen on the subject. Secondly, as this weekend I'll be very busy with the 48 Hour Film Project, assistant directing with the Distinct Creature team, I won't have time to post a recipe. Fear not, adventurous kitchy cooks, I've decided to post this week's delicacy tonight. This one could be confused with the Abu Graib torture photos; something that Lynndie England might force feed to a naked Iraqi while grinning at him with a cigarette clenched in her teeth. As always, if you make one of these recipes, please contact me with any photos or reviews. See a collection of all the recipes posted so far here.

I am hopelessly addicted to a silly little online RPG (that's Role Playing Game for those of you who don't speak geekish) called Kingdom of Loathing. I heard about it a while ago on MonkeyFilter, but have only really been enjoying it the last week or so as I've reached a higher level. My character, GoneBad, is now a 5th Level Pastamancer. In the Kingdom of Loathing, the graphics are hand drawn, the text is silly, and the currency is meat. This morning my character drank about 12 beers, ate a few batwing kabobs, and adventured his way through Degrassi Gnoll collecting parts to build a meatcar. If you're a friend of mine and you want to play, let me know once you've reached 3rd level and I'll help you join the Lords of Monkey Filtration clan. Edited to add several links to sites with tips, recipes and other Kingdom of Loathing info: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Today has been a particularly bad news day. I am so glad I was late with my cable bill and it was off today (except that part of me kinda wanted to see this despite the horrible reviews).

Looks like Rick Santorum got a warm welcome when he came to give a commencement speech at Cheyney University. (via Exit Stage Left)

Culture jammers The Yes Men infiltrate a Heritage Foundation conference posing as a crackpot right wing think tank. Their previous antics include attending conferences pretending to be representatives from the World Trade Organization and releasing Reamweaver, the tool to hijack and alter somebody else's website. Soon to be a book and a major motion picture!

I just got an email from a reader of this blog pointing out that another website also has the same recipe cards that I've been posting. There are some duplicates to what I have posted and still plan to post, but be assured, I have some that are exclusive to this site.

Just in time for Mother's Day, another one of Those 70's Recipes! While you're making Mom something tasty to eat, why not have something delicious, nutritious and colorful to drink, like this...

Don't you just love how our partners in the "War on Terror" are so much better than the fundimentalist muslims we're fighting against? (via metafilter)

What does Rush "hillbilly heroin" Limbaugh have to say about the Iraq prisoner torture scandal? "I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?" -amongst other wonderful things. I wonder if he thinks the soldiers involved should be given prescription painkillers for the emotional scars inflicted upon them by the evil liberal media. (via freakgirl)

Got a minute to do something important? Click here to write your representatives demanding the firing squad for of Donald Rumsfeld.

I've finally built myself a homemade steadycam, using modified version of these two sets of plans. Since it uses threaded pipes and can be easily taken apart and put back together, I have different lengths and different weights. The next project is to build an inverting bracket to shoot low to the ground. I'll post some pictures and footage of it in action sometime soon.

The news has been particularly ugly lately. It's gotten to the point where I just don't even know what to say about it anymore. I'd rather post another 70's recipe card way ahead of schedule than talk about this ridiculous mess of a war in Iraq and the people who have gotten us into that mess (but I will restrain myself and wait until the weekend to post that). As the election cycle is heating up and moving quickly toward the conventions, I'm just filled with dread. Part of me wants to just unplug the TV and the DSL, stop listening to Howard Stern on my way to work, immerse myself in creative projects and completely ignore the news at least until election night. But part of me knows that I just can't bring myself to it. I can't seem to explain why I obsessively follow current events which fill me with such fear and loathing. What's a news junkie who hates the news to do?

Check out Media Matters for America, a new site monitoring and reporting on right wing media distortions and lies, created by a guy who used to get paid to lie and distort for the right wing before he got himself a conscience and wrote a tell-all book about his experiences as a professional smear artist.

You know what time it is? It's time for another one of Those 70's Recipes! This week's selection is as easy to make as it is politcally incorrect to eat. As always, if anybody actually makes one of these recipes, please contact me with reviews and pictures to post.