On the way to Sedalia

The Sinclair station at Highway 50 and Lover's lane is an interesting place. Its interior resembles a grocery store and they still sell Decade cigarettes, according to the sign out front. The cash register has a conveyor belt, and there are public restrooms behind the cash register. When I came there, they had plastic over the cold case. This is not a great place for getting sausage egg biscuits, but the locals probably stop there for groceries regularly. There was an algae covered pond behind the store, which was kind of unusual.

An open letter to Hank Hannagraaf and CRI

There has been a failure of communication. After I heard the Bible Answer Man program that advertised a magazine that condemns the movie Avatar as occult, I knew that your organization was using the wrong method to correct the problem. Christian groups that do protests like this only advertise the thing they intend to warn people about. When Christian groups protested Ozzy Osbourne and Marilyn Manson and Golden Compass, it only made these people richer. You are cursing the darkness instead of providing a light. I made a suggestion that we make a product to combat the problem. A novel that is like Avatar, but Christian. I wrote it back in 2006 before the movie came out, but it's similar enough to be a good response. "Send us the review," you said. You did not read my message carefully. I was not suggesting yet another review cursing the darkness. I was proposing that we try to lighten the darkness by doing something proactive instead of reactive. So I sent you my manuscript. A pitiful spark in the very darkness you were cursing. Your response was that you didn't have time to read the manuscript. Sure, you have time to waste on things like watching Avatar and telling us how occult it is, but you don't have time to read my manuscript despite my note that I am willing to wait for a thoughtful response. I would have even published it through Lulu had you even bothered to look at it instead of making me think you actually wanted to do something about the problem. You didn't even give my novel to someone else to review, which would have worked for me just as well. Instead you told me to send it to a major publishing house. This is like telling a man in a wheelchair to take the stairs to your office. I have been trying to get published for some time, but the novel is too Christian for the mainstream and too science fictiony for Christian publishing houses. This is all to say that you should stop moaning and griping about the movie Avatar. You are doing nothing but advertising it, and you're a little slow on the uptake for criticizing it now instead of when it came out. I think you are just jealous of James Cameron's money, and you like how the blue creature's face makes the letters stand out on your pamphlets.