Whose Line

Last month I described a Youth Group "Comedy Nite" in the style of Whose Line Is It Anyway? that was to take place April 10. Well, it took place! And it was pretty good, too. Lots of fun was had by all, and even though there were a dull moments (most notably, the anti-climactic finale: a game of Irish Drinking Song that broke down repeatedly because SOMEBODY!!!!! didn't know how the song was supposed to go), they didn't overshadow the funny parts after all. As I said, some games were bad, some were good. I assume that next time we do this (I don't know when it will be), we'll keep the good games, ditch the bad ones, and try out new ones in the same vein as the good ones. If that makes any sense.

Yellow Chicken: Have you thought of Podcasting your posts?

The thought has never once crossed my mind -- until I read your e-mail, of course. I was going to say that I don't even own a 'Pod, but I realized that it's not necessary to have one. Anyway, it's not the best idea. What am I going to do, just read everything I post? It would be about as pointless as books on tape. Anyway, I don't have a good choice of audio format. Any audio file the length of a post is bound to be too expensive when it comes to bandwidth and storage. And finally, few people read this; imagine how few would actually take the time to listen to it.

That said, I may consider it in the future. You never know with these things.

Have you ever expressed an interest in philosophy but never felt like reading those big, boring books by the philosophers? Squashed Philosophers may be just the thing for you. The site offers condensed versions of philosophy's most influential documents. It also tells the percent to which each work has been "squashed," and about how long it takes to read. From Plato's Republic (12%, 61 min.), to Hitler's Mein Kampf (6%, 31 min.), you can catch up on what the site describes as "[t]he books which defined the way The West thinks now." Interestingly enough, my history teacher was just lecturing today on Machiavelli's The Prince (24%, 31 min.). I'll have to tell her that we can go a little more in depth with it at this site.

In a similar vein, here's an explanation of Einstein's Theory of Relativity in words of four letters or less. But Squashed Philosophers has that one too: at 8% of the original, you can read it in 20 minutes.