X-Oriente

The Original American Superhero

My friend Justin  does web work for the George Washington Masonic Memorial , and we were just conversing over Skype. I was trying to help him find some portraits of GW to use on the web when I suddenly remembered Horatio Greenough's 1840 sculpture. It was commissioned by Congress to commemorate the centennial of Washington's birth. It was pretty much ridiculed once it was displayed. Greenough modeled GW after Zeus, but people were scandalized by the father of our country's lack of clothing. It is now on display in the Smithsonian's Museum of American History.

I remember seeing the statue as a little kid (I used to live near DC, so trips to the Smithsonian were a regular thing) and thinking how weird it was, especially the idea of GW's sandals. Now I find the sculpture hilarious, mostly due to the cognitive disconnect between GW's 18th century old-man hair and his unbelieveably buff body. This father of our country works out! 

I thought it would be cool to have a comic book superhero based on GW. In the story, Washington is placed under a curse and returns to the earth righting wrongs, fighting for freedom and generally embodying the spirit of 18th century Enlightenment values in a 21st century world. He is assisted by his vast network of Masonic brethren, who command the kind of resources (think huge underground intelligence complexes and submersible rocket planes) found only in episodes of the Thunderbirds. Of course all he wants is to be left in peace to farm his land, but there are Al Qaeda butts to kick and drug cartels to disrupt. 

He has a love interest in Martha, a reincarnation of his beloved wife (see the new Michael Deas portrait of her as a young hottie) who now works for the Justice Dept. in Washington as an attorney: Martha is kind of in love with Super-George, but thinks his hair and vocation of superhero is seriously weird, so it is a slow-burn romance. I thought of all this in the space of a few minutes, and quickly mocked up my vision of GW as a superhero. Anyone interested in collaborating on a GW comic book? It could be hilarious!!!

035: The Widows Sons

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(Photo by Ted Hogan)

It's here it's here! I've finally been off my bike long enough to finish the episode! It's riding season and I've been spending a lot of time on my incredibly fuel efficient (51MPG city) fast (100MPH +) and cool scooter. It got me interested in the biker lifestyle, specifically biker Masons, so I thought I'd visit some and discuss the biker lifestyle, Masonry and the intersection of the two.

I spoke with W. Bro. Ted Hogan, president of the 3-5-7 Brotherhood Chapter of the Widows Sons International, a Masonic Motorcycle Association. And I learned a lot about what biker Masons are, and what they aren't. And at the end of the day I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of Masonic content they offer their members. If you are interested in joining the Widows Sons, you can  find a chapter near you here. Ride Safe!

What if God used Facebook?

Oh, this is good. 

In the beginning, the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved over the waters. And the Ego of God realized that creating a universe would lead to the Best Status Update Ever. And so the divine Voice rang out: 

Trust me, it is worth the click. Hi-larious.

034: An Evening With Brother Hodapp

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In this episode, some discussion around the goings on at the annual communication of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota and the motion to investigate the goings-on in West Virginia. Also, I managed to catch up with my friend and Brother Christopher Hodapp, noted Masonic author of several books including Freemasons for Dummies, The Templar Code for Dummies and Solomon's Builders: Freemasons, Founding Fathers and the Secrets of Washington D.C. I caught up with Bro. Hodapp at the Valley of Chicago's Scottish Rite Degree day on Feb. 21, 2009 at the Shriner Hospital in Chicago and managed to record his talk.

Skype is being released for iPhone

One thing I noticed when I was at Masonic Week in DC was the astounding number of iPhones I saw. SO for those of you guys who are endowed with the iPhone, you should know that my information is that tomorrow Skype will be available on iTunes. What that means is that if you have a Skype account you can talk to tother Skype users for free and make domestic and international calls much more cheaply and not use your mobile minutes. You do need a good wifi connection, as Skype will not work over EDGE/3G.

Still that is pretty good news for those of us who like to use Skype to keep in touch with our brothers. I discovered Skype right about the time I started X-Oriente and found it so good, that I use it as my primary business phone too. There are a couple of things that I did that made my Skype experience better. One is that I use hardware from a company called IPEVO. IPEVO makes inexpensive hardware meant to work with Skype.

I use an IPEVO S0-20, which looks like a small cell phone and allows me to access Skype from any open Wifi network. It doesn't require a computer, just a wi-fi connection. It doesn't have a browser unfortunately so those hotspots that require browser authentication will not work with it. Still it is nice to have around the house and at most cafes or if you want to have a personal phone in your office. (get your IT admin's permission first. I don't want you getting in trouble at work!)

I also love my IPEVO TR-10, which is a USB powered, speakerphone for Skype. Call quality is as good as those Polycom conference room phones that cost around US$600, but the TR-10 can be had for around US$80. It also records calls at the push of a button which is great for us podcasters.

I have no relationship with these guys other than as a happy user. It really makes Skype much more viable as a communication platform.

Skype is one of those tools that is an X-Oriente essential and is a powerful addition to the Freemasons' 21st century working tools!