Misc Articles... Still Planning on an Epic Post Before England
The first news is not an article, but some of the best news I've received in a while. Verizon Wireless (my cell phone carrier) has an International Rental Plan... whereupon one may rent a phone to take with them abroad. Long story short, I will be able to receive FREE INCOMING calls while in England. That, in conjunction with call forwarding from my phone to the international phone, and one may call me for FREE for both of us on a night or a weekend while I'm in England. I think that's the coolest thing ever. So I'll call my folks when I land and then they won't be worried about me (like I know they will) because they can call me whenever they'd like and check in. I don't expect them to... but I know how huge a piece-of-mind it is for them to know they have that possibility. I leave Chicago on Wednesday of this week!!!

Is 616 the actual sign of the beast? Here's an article saying that new technology has shown that the Bible script referring to the sign of the beast is actually 616 instead of 666. First of all, there should be no doubt now that Satan lives in the greater Grand Rapids, Michigan metropolitan area. Secondly, and most importantly, this makes me wonder what other interpretations of the Bible that we've messed up. And all those Bible purists... those fundamentalists... everyone who thinks that the Bible is God's law without question... I hope they see this article. I hope they start to question how fallible the Bible might be... as it is a human book written by human hands. Interesting to think that we may have gotten some of the teachings wrong... that something important may have been misinterpreted. It's something to think about...
Here's a story about a Time Traveler Convention at MIT. I wanted to be the first to break this story... but on SNL's weekend update, Tiny Fey brought it up. She said that no one will show up because the people from the future already know how lame the party is. That's probably a much better joke than I would have come up with. So that's what we're sticking with.
All childhood memories of R2D2 are now tainted. The article which I linked talks about how the actor who was stuffed inside R2D2 was complaining about, well, being stuck inside a small robot for long periods of time. What did the props department do to appease him? They stuck pictures from pornographic magazines inside the costume. In defense of the actor, Kenny Baker, he IS 70 years-old now. In defense of our childhoods, it only talks about Episode III being tainted by the inner-costume-porno pictures. In a blatant attack of Baker, here's an article about his arrest for drunk driving. In an attack of Christine King (casting director of Episode III), do we REALLY need the original R2D2 guy? He IS 70 years old... why couldn't we get someone younger and equally 'vertically challenged'? Someone a little more willing to climb into the R2D2 costume? Hell... I'd do it. If only to be so wonderfully close to Natalie Portman *swoon!*