Spy Hunter commercial

In a brilliant marketing move, Pontiac has made a commercial for their new Pontiac G8 based on the popular 1983 arcade game Spy Hunter. I'm not one to admit being motivated by commercials, but this one did have an effect on me... I have a nostalgic place in my heart for Spy Hunter.



P.S. If you liked this one, you'll probably get a kick out of Honda's Tron commercial.

Favorites of 2007

In keeping with last year's tradition, here are some of my favorite things from 2007:

Events:

1. Ethan's birth
2. Moving back to Arkansas
   
3. Completing my dissertation
4. Attending the Cowboys vs. Redskins game
5. Graduating with my Ph.D.

Photos:

It was hard to choose just a handful... Ethan is one photogenic kid!




Commercials:

1. Nike Leave Nothing: Makes me want to put on pads and hit someone.


2. Batman - Dark Knight trailer: Gives me goose bumps.


3. Huckabee - Norris ad: "My plan to secure the border? Two words: Churck Norris"


4. Dude and Bugger.
   


5. K-Fed's Nationwide: Life comes at you fast.
   

Movies I saw:

1. Amazing Grace: The true story of how God inspired William Wilberforce to help end the slave trade in 19th century Britain.


2. 3:10 to Yuma: Great story of a father's determination to care for his family.


3. The Greatest Game Ever Played: The true story of 20-year-old Francis Ouimet who faced his idol, Harry Vardon, in the 1913 US Open golf tournament.
   


4. Spider-Man 3: Venom is one of my favorite bad guys.


5. Glory Road: The true story of Texas Western coach Don Haskins who led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the 1966 NCAA national championship.

Books I read:

1. Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn: We used this book in the YMCA (Young Maturing Christian Adults) Bible class early in the year. The book had a strong influence on how I view and use money.


2. The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey: Perhaps one of the best books about Jesus I've ever read.


3. Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson: A very useful guide for a new dad.
   
   
4. Sacred Parenting by Gary L. Thomas
   


5. Kingdom Come: Embracing the Spiritual Legacy of David Lipscomb and James Harding by John Mark Hicks and Bobby Valentine: I haven't completed this book yet, and it's not exactly my favorite, but I've enjoyed learning more about James A. Harding from whom Harding University takes its name.
   

End-of-the-year lists:

1. Wired News' 2007 Foot-in-Mouth Awards
2. Time's Top 10 Quotes of 2007 (#1 is the best)
   
3. Time's Top 10 Editorial Cartoons
   
4. Wall Street Journal's Best of Ads, Worst of Ads
   

Something encouraging (and something not)

This morning in chapel, Andrew Baker announced a Day of Encouragement to be held on September 12, 2007. From the website:

The idea for a National Day of Encouragement began in June 2007 with high school students at the National Leadership Forum in Searcy, AR. The students broke into groups and discussed what they believed to be the biggest problem facing today's high school students. The groups came up with the usual answers — alcohol, drugs and violence — but one group surprised everyone with their answer. They said that the lack of encouragement was the biggest problem, not just in their schools but also in society. When asked how they thought the problem could be dealt with, one high school senior suggested having an official Day of Encouragement. Since then, the Institute for Church & Family formed a committee to develop a Day of Encouragement. It is our goal the people all across the nation will spend a little extra time encouraging on this day. It doesn’t take much. It can be a kind word or a simple note to encourage someone. We are encouraging people everywhere to get together with friends from school, places of worship, community organizations and family to do something that encourages other people.

The Institute for Church & Family is also trying to get the day nationally recognized, and according to their blog, they may be making some progress. I'm not sure if encouragement would have changed the events of 9/11 or the VT massacre (maybe discouragement would have been more effective), but I admire the goal of getting people to encourage each other more often.

And not so encouraging... I caught a commercial the other night for the Cheaters Detective Agency for Little Rock. It featured a man in his office telling his wife over the phone that he was going to be working late; later he meets up with a cute blond, and together they laugh about deceiving his wife. Talk about a depressing commercial and a poor way to drum-up business.

Honda's Tron commercial

I’m a huge Tron fan, and apparently someone from Honda’s advertising agency is too.

You'll see why 2008 won't be like "1984"

If you’re a fan of Apple’s 1984 commercial, you’ll want to see this. Obama says he has nothing to do with the skillfully developed Clinton video.

Dungy & company: Super Bowl champions

Last night the Indianapolis Colts played an impressive game, knocking off the Chicago Bears 29-17. Becky and I had a great time watching the game (and celebrating her birthday) with a large group of friends over at the Reaves’ home (now that I’ve seen a Super Bowl in high-def, I don’t think I can ever watch it in low-def again ). I was pulling hard for the Colts since I wanted Manning to get his first Super Bowl ring, and because of the tragedy that the Dungy family had been through the previous year.

This was a momentous Super Bowl because it was the first time either team (in this case both teams) had a black head coach. But that distinction wasn’t what Dungy thought was most important. Here’s what he said during the trophy ceremony:

I'm proud to be the first African-American coach to win this, but again, more than anything, Lovie Smith and I are not only African-American but also Christian coaches, showing you can do it the Lord's way. We're more proud of that.

Dungy and Lovie are both roaring lambs, guys that exemplify Christ in a demanding, stressful job. There's a website that talks about their story and their search for something "beyond the ultimate." Now if only we could get one of them to take the head coaching job in Dallas...

Best Super Bowl commercial? My votes go to Kevin Federline ("Federline! What? Fries!") and the slap commercial.

Favorites of 2006

Here are some of my favorite things from 2006.

On-line laughs:

1. The most-viewed YouTube video of 2006: The Evolution of Dance by Judson Laipply
2. Possibly the worst recording of O Holy Night, ever
3. David Brent's Microsoft training video
4. The Iraq Report with subtitles
5. Two sons try to take a Mother’s Day photo (these guys must know my brother and me)

TV commercials:

1. Liberty Mutual "pay-it-forward" commercial
2. LA County Fair - "Duh, Ashley, all wool comes from a cow..."
3. “That should kill him…” Ameriquest doctor commercial
4. Peyton Manning supporting his team

Movies I saw:

1. The Prestige - It had me on the edge of my seat the entire time
2. X-Men: The Last Stand - I hope this won’t be the last of the series
3. Facing the Giants - Created by a church with no professional actors, it's a very moving and inspirational film
4. Invincible - Almost makes me want to be a Phily fan
   
5. Casino Royale - A little on the violent side, but probably the best Bond yet
6. Flags of Our Fathers - War is tragic
   

Books I read:

1. The Language of God by Francis Collins - Collins does a great job of distilling the myth that evolution = atheism
2. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - Some interesting things to think about
3. Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas - Rather than make us "happy", marriage is designed by God to make us more holy
   
4. Finding God at Harvard by Kelly Monroe - A series of encouraging stories from various Harvard alums about their path to faith

Websites I love to visit:

1. Wikipedia.org – Sometimes you have to sort through a lot of “truthiness”, but it’s an extremely useful tool for answering the question “What is X?”
2. YouTube.com – It feeds my addiction for funny commercials
3. Google Scholar – OK, I don’t love to visit this site, but it's probably the #1 reason why getting my Ph.D. will take less than 4 years. It’s much larger and faster than Citeseer and far easier to use than Windows Live Academic

Rainy Friday

The Hampton Roads area is currently being doused by tropical storm Ernesto. Regent, ODU, and practically every school in the area has shut-down due to the flooding. I attempted to drive over to ODU just for fun, but I was stopped at every turn as the photos belowillustrate. It's just the beginning of a beautiful Labor Day weekend. :)


. . .

View it while you can: Microsoft UK commissioned Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to produce a couple of spoof training videos with Gervais playing David Brent, the boss from the UK’s The Office series. For some reason, Microsoft apparently didn’t want these videos to ever be shown publicly and have started an investigation as to how the videos were leaked. The videos still remain on Google Video, so watch them while you can… they are hilarious!

. . .
Agassi- you are a stud. How far can he go on his final tournament stop, the US Open? More importantly, can I get Becky to go along with naming our future son (if it’s a boy) Agassi McCown?

. . .
Thanks, Elrod, for taking some photos of the new chapel at Harding. It looks great!

. . .
Congratulations to Becky on being awarded Regent University’s Employee of the Month. She received a choice parking spot for September, a little spending money, and a letter of recommendation signed by Pat Robertson (you can’t have too many of these sitting around the house). Becky also was awarded the School of Education’s Staff Member of the Year last May.

An employee will go home and ask his neighbor, "Hey, did you get an award?" "No man. I mean I slave all day and no one notices." Next thing you know, he smells something funny from his neighbor's house. Neighbor hanged himself due to lack of recognition. - Michael Scott (The Office)

Funny Commercials

One of my hobbies is “collecting” commercials. I know that sounds odd. What I mean is I am a big fan of commercials, and I like to download or keep “pointers” to commercials that I think are really hilarious, entertaining, or just plain fantastic. Google Video and YouTube are two of the best sources for commercials. In fact my favorite commercial this year is the Liberty Mutual “pay-it-forward” commercial which is now available on YouTube:



When we got home from church last night, we caught the “World’s Funniest Commercials” on TBS. In general I was disappointed by the crassness and message of many of the commercials, but there were a few gems:

LA Country Fair – "Duh, Ashley, all wool comes from a cow..."
1-800-Got-Junk – “Rat Advertising Trial (R.A.T.)”
Avis: Gansta Rap – “Gotta get that money made”
Solo Mobile: Housewarming – “You are a legend”

Honorable mention: Pacman Puppet Show

All the commercials can be seen in high quality at veryfunnyads.com.

Google Video

I did a lot of playing with Google Video yesterday. It’s a service that came online in 2005 and allows users to upload and view free video as well as commercial video. Their price point of $1.99 per video matches iTunes. Neither service offers “bundling” (yet) which would make it cheaper for users to purchase large collections of video (you have to pay $1.99 for each video in The Office Season 1 instead of, say, $9.99 for all six episodes.)

In Feb 2006, it was announced that the National Archives was teaming up with Google Video to allow “researchers and the general public to access a diverse collection of historic movies, documentaries and other films from the National Archives via Google Video as well as the National Archives website.” This is sure to give Google Video even more momentum and legitimacy.

My favorite thing about Google Video is that they tend to have many commercials available. I was able to find Apple’s classic 1984 Super Bowl commercial, Terry Tate Office Linebacker, and the Outpost.com commercial where they tattooed their insignia on toddlers (no actual toddlers were tattooed in the making of the video ;) ). They also have a cool feature which allows you to embed a Google Video directly into your web page and stream the video from Google.

One feature that is noticeably absent is a filtering mechanism. Although Google’s policy is to reject video that is pornographic or obscene, there are quite a few videos that are certainly as close to that line as possible. I would like to be able to filter out the trash although I realize that would create a lot more work for Google.