Random Thoughts 5/31/13

• Earlier I received a breaking news alert over my phone: "Tornado Watch issued for Oklahoma."  That was national news this afternoon?  Of course, "watches" only mean the possibility of a tornado, which here in the Midwest we also call it "every single day from April thru July."  A tornado watch in Oklahoma is not news but it is taking advantage of a real tragedy that links the words "tornado" and "Oklahoma" in the minds of low-information news consumers for a few weeks.
• Vacation Bible School is next week, Monday thru Friday, 9am to Noon.
• Disney has released their animation schedule for the next five years, including Pixar films, which you can see listed here.  My little girl will be five years old when Disney releases Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy; I might as well buy tickets now.
• Is it really any surprise that director M. Night Shyamalan's new film, After Earth, is getting bad reviews? He hasn't done anything great before or after 1999's Sixth Sense and he hasn't had anything with a passably good review for over a decade.  But the blame for this one might go to Will Smith.  This film was his idea for his son Jaden to carry and, by all accounts, the vanity project did not work.  It's the lowest-reviewed film of Will Smith's career.
• The 2013 World Series of Poker began this week and will run thru July 15.  I keep track of the results at Wikipedia, though there are dedicated poker news sites too.
• Tomorrow is my 17th wedding anniversary.  Thank you, Lord, for giving me such a wonderful gift with which to share my life.
• Unfortunately, we don't have any plans for this anniversary.  I'm working, Shannon is working, we have a wedding to go to, and we have responsibilities to tend to.  Oh, well.  For our 20th we need to save up and do something big, maybe a cruise or something.