Costa Rica, Here We Come.

See all these people? This is me with my family, and we're attempting something this summer we've never attempted before:

We're going to Costa Rica on a missions trip.

Are we nuts? Maybe.

But, we are planning to go, and we're planning to go as a family. We're excited about the possibilities this brings forth, especially for the kiddos, most especially for Emma (the pony-tailed one in the back row whose head is next to mine), who felt God call her to be a missionary when she was only five years old and who has already had some deep theological profundity well up from within. We believe God's going to do some crazy stuff in our kids' hearts while on this trip, while simultaneously bonding us as a family and (maybe?) launching us into a new means of ministry. We can't put our fingers on it, but something grand is going to happen to one or more (or all) of us. So we're going.

However: we can't go for free. So we're in the midst of a giant fundraising campaign to try to earn enough money to get there. That's where you, dear Dregs reader, come in.

Please visit the link to our super-awesome fundraising page, hosted at www.firstgiving.com/palmertribe. If you'd like to donate, you can do so there. If you want to get behind our efforts and mention us on your blog, well, that'd be swell. Leave me a link in the comments section and I'll give you a mention on here.

Thanks for your help! Sorry for the shameless plug; I'm planning on posting another Writing Is Easy entry soon (as soon as I write it -- it's so hard!).

Spider-Man: Now With Soul.

Today I typed the last words of my newest to-be-published endeavor, The Soul of Spider-Man, a sequel of sorts to Taming a Liger, except this time, instead of one movie (i.e. Napoleon Dynamite), my illustrious co-author and I are tackling three movies (i.e. the Spider-Man trilogy). It feels good to have the first draft finished, though it won't be hitting bookstore shelves or Amazon warehouses for at least another year. Such is life in the publishing world.

In the meantime, I'm going to sit back, relax, and watch a movie--any movie--that isn't Spider-Man.

Who Cares That They Haven't Built One Yet?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present what could be considered the world's first green sports car.

Here's a rundown from the linked article (which has a ton of photos):

...four in-wheel motors generate 553 lb-ft of torque -- that's about as much as the tire-shredding Dodge Viper SRT produces -- and 120 kilowatts apiece (for a combined total of about 643 horsepower, putting it in the same ballpark as the Corvette ZR1). Lightning [the company who designed it] claims the car will do 0 to 60 in 4.0 seconds and hit a top speed of 130 mph. Range is 250 miles.

The car features an aluminum honeycomb chassis, carbon-kevlar bodywork, regenerative braking and 36 kilowatt nano lithium titanate battery the company says will charge in just 10 minutes and maintain 85 percent capacity after 15,000 charges. Look for a full slate of features, from anti-lock braking and traction control to air conditioning and leather.

Pretty awesome idea; here's hoping they can make it work.

Also, they're saying it'll cost $300,000. You could make this Oscar-winning movie three times with that amount of money.