The seventh edition of the Carnival of the Godless is available today — head over to The Frozen Texan to check it out.

One post that caught our eye was A Positive Christian Atheist from Radical Russ' site. The post chronicles a journey of critical thinking that we suspect many here have taken, though usually without the inclusion of a guy who balances stuff on his face. We imagine that many aspects of life could be made vastly more interesting through the simple addition of such a person, but alas, that skill is in short supply it seems.

Head on over to the Carnival and check it out!

Thanks for the trackback! And what, you mean not everybody has had a positive experience with someone who can balance things on their face? Tsk, tsk, the hardships some must endure on their path to enlightenment.

My critical thinking friend was more than just a face-balancer. I first met him as he was challenging the band $5 each to find something he couldn't balance on his chin. A trombone, a music stand, a full-size orchestra double bass, a sousaphone, all were suggested and he picked each up, put it on his chin, and balanced it the required eight seconds (figuring that if a bullrider must last eight seconds, so must a face-balancer.

So I, being aware of the physics of the feat, offered my suggestion: a paper clip. He eyed me as a magician would eye someone who's giving away his trick. But he tried anyway, and failed. I won $5.

Other talents of my friend: he was a master juggler. We're talking nine pins or thirteen tennis balls at once. Mad skillz.

Oh, and he was a genius-level mathematician, was writing operating system software for Hewlett-Packard by age fourteen, authored some of the very first 3D graphic rendering software (back in the mid-80's when Donkey Kong was state-of-the-art), was an all-state level tennis player, and was a damn fine alto sax player. Some people just can't be satisfied with one or two talents, huh?

On the other hand, he was somewhat "Al Gore" in his speech and mannerisms and very intimidated in the presence of "the ladies". My non-existent supreme deitty likes to balance things out, I suppose...

--"Radical" Russ

Well, at least he wasn't an overachiever at all... !