Guy Gains 100 Pounds in 4 Hours

How? By donning 155 t-shirts.



You may think it's silly, but he just happened to set a new world record for the number of t-shirts worn at once.

Another stunning example of human ingenuity.

Mea Culpa Regarding Your Missing Comments

For those of you who dropped by once or twice and happened to have left a comment, you will notice that those comments have vanished. Sorry, but they are gone and won't be coming back unless you retype them.

If you look more closely, you may also notice that the URL has changed. If you got here by clicking on a link or by manually typing "leeshelton.blogspot.com" into your browser, you would have been automatically redirected here.

I thought about leaving it as it was, but I may be consolidating a few sites in the future, and I thought keeping that URL on hand for that purpose made more sense. So, there you have it.

Again, my apologies to all three of my readers. This site won't be moving again.

Carry on!

Should Language-Butchering Be Outlawed?

It looks like some government officials in Malaysia must have read my "If I Were in Charge..." article and taken it seriously:

Malaysia to Levy Fines for Poor Speech

Malaysia will levy fines on those incorrectly using the national language, and will set up a specialized division to weed out offenders who mix Malay with English, news reports said Thursday.

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Rais Yatim said fines of up to 1,000 ringgit ($271) can be imposed on displays with any wrong or mutated form of Malay, the Star newspaper reported.

The move was to ensure "the national language was not sidelined in any way," Rais said, according to The Star.

Poor speech, bad spelling, and horrible grammar have always been pet peeves of mine. But do we really want linguistic laziness to be against the law? Isn't that going a bit too far?

Hmmmmm...let's see.

I'm now imagining an America where people are fined for saying "reeluhtor" instead of "realtor," "supposably" instead of "supposedly," and for using non-existent words like "irregardless."

I'm also picturing how a law like this could affect (note how I used "affect" instead of "effect") cyberspace. Its (note the correct way to not use an apostrophe) effect (note how I used "effect" instead of "affect") could be positive. Truth be told, I wouldn't mind running across a blogger who actually knew to type "definitely" rather than "definately." It's (note the correct way to use an apostrophe) always good to avoid misspelling (note the correct spelling of "misspelling") words, and following Malaysia's lead might be the answer.

I can see a world in which poorly, constructed run-on sentences, riddled with, unnecessary puctuation!!! SCREAMING AT ME IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS are replaced with crisp, clean sentences that get right to the point and don't ramble on incessantly without actually saying anything, but just making it seem as if the author is trying to meet some sort of word quota so that it looks like he knows what he's talking about, but in reality is just a pompous, cynical jackass who thinks he's better than everybody else because he has discovered the world of blogging and has nothing better to do with his time than to just sit at his desk and type until he's pulled away from his computer screen by a rerun of Seinfeld that he's already seen 37 times.

Sorry. What was I saying?

Oh, yes: banning desecration of the English language. Now that just might be a totalitarian policy I can get behind!

Get LOST!

The TV series, that is.

Let's face it. LOST is one of the best TV shows to come along in recent years. But just in case you haven't discovered it yet, you might want to start from the beginning:

Once you've gotten through those, you'll be ready to watch the Season Three premiere.

Having a Ball

I just love simple, yet captivating, commercials like this:

I'll bet clean-up wasn't nearly as fun.

If you're wondering how they did it, here's a behind-the-scenes look:

For the full effect, you'll want to see the high-res, extended version of the commercial here.

Fun stuff! But I guess the commercial's first shooting didn't go so well...

Walking Has Never Been Sillier

Everyone with a sense of humor has seen, or at least heard of, Monty Python's "Ministry of Silly Walks." But just in case you haven't, here it is:

Now you can use the Silly Walk Generator to create your own. This is sure to keep you kids busy for hours.

Have fun!

When Squirrels Attack

A four-year-old boy was attacked by a squirrel last week in Cuesta Park in Mountain View, Calif. (Full story here.) According to the report, the boy is still getting rabies shots. Apparently, this kind of thing is becoming an increasing problem.

Far be it from me to find fault with our furry, feral friends from the forest, but something needs to be done. Am I suggesting that we grab our shotguns, run outside, and hunt them to extinction? Of course not. All I'm saying is that there's a slight possibility that I might be a little slow to react when I see one of those things dart out in front of my car.

Squirrels, I'd be extra-cautious out there if I were you. You know, just in case.

Seeing Sunspots

The following picture was taken in Normandy by French astrophotographer Thierry Legault with a digital camera and a seriously pimped-out telescope. Note the tiny speck on the left-hand side. Is that a sunspot? A speck of dirt on the lens? A UFO?

Nope. That's the Space Shuttle Atlantis sidling up to the International Space Station. Orbiting the earth at an altitude of 250 miles, these tiny, insignificant objects are silhouetted against the sun, which is about 93 million miles away.

Click on the picture for a closer look.




Cool stuff!

How Much of a Star Wars Fan Are You?

When I used to mention to people that I remember seeing a Star Wars Christmas special on TV when I was a kid, they would look at me like I had just given birth to a litter of Jawas. In fact, I even started to doubt it myself. Was I going crazy? Had I just dreamed the whole thing?



Sadly, no. Thanks to the Internet, those horrifying images will live on forever.

In 1978, the original cast of Star Wars reunited for what could only have been an attempt by George Lucas to kill the franchise at the height of its popularity. Why would he do such a thing? To this day no one knows.

The Star Wars Holiday Special opens with Han Solo trying to get Chewbacca back to the Wookie home planet so that he can celebrate Life Day with his wife, Malla, his son, Lumpy, and his father, Itchy. Still think I'm making this up? See for yourself.



But surely the whole show couldn't have been that bad. I mean, just look at that all-star line-up! Well...



Perhaps the only bright spot in the show was a poorly written (and even more poorly animated) cartoon that introduced pre-"Special Edition" Star Wars fans to the enigmatic character of Boba Fett.



And just how special would a Star Wars Holiday Special be without a rousing musical finale from Princess Leia?



How any sequels got made after this embarrassment is anyone's guess. And how the actors went on to star in anything else is even more of a mystery - especially considering how the nightmare still haunts them.



As you can see, it really happened. I guess the only thing that makes me crazy is the fact that I saw this and remained a Star Wars fan.

If you're in an especially nostalgic mood, you can go back in time and watch the commercials that aired during the special. (Actually, these are much more entertaining!)





Can't get enough Star Wars? Be sure to check out the following websites: The Star Wars Holiday Special, Star Wars as Seen on TV, The Nitpicker's Guide to the Star Wars Holiday Special, and Star Wars Caught on Tape.

If you feel the Star Wars Holiday Special is something you must either relive or experience for the first time, you can see the first 51 minutes of it on Google Video. But if you can find a bootlegged copy of the entire show on DVD, you just may want to share it with others.

Come to think of it, that would make a great gift idea. After all, Life Day is just around the corner.

And Now Something Worth Watching...

Have you ever wondered where George Lucas got his inspiration? Check out the critically acclaimed short film George Lucas in Love.



Now everything makes sense.