Movie Review: Lawrence of Arabia

Since this movie took about 4 hours to watch, I will only take 4 minutes to write a review.

I failed to see the reported greatness of this 1962 Best Picture Winner.

I felt that it was slow and hard to follow. A few things were interesting or captivating, but overall I would have rather spent my time watching something else.

Movie Review: Sweet Nothing in My Ear

Sweet Nothing in My Ear is the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on Sunday night. (Click on link for official synopsis and pictures and cast interviews). It featured Jeff Daniels, star of Dumb and Dumber (1994) and of Gettysburg (1993). It also had famous deaf actress Marlee Matlin.

The movie title is a nice play on words about deafness, because that is the main subject of the movie, but otherwise the title has nothing to do with the plot.

I must say I wouldn't have watched this if it didn't have to do with deafness. Even with the interesting subject, it did get overly weepy (not us, the actors).

It was excellent though as an basic overview of deaf culture, highlighting some things that Courtney told me. When a hearing person marries a deaf person, it is considered to be a mixed marriage. There is tremendous debate about whether deaf people should receive a cochlear implant, which involves drilling into the skull, and thus be able to hear. Being able to hear would cause the deaf person to lose his/her identity, but may also open up more opportunities. Many deaf people don't see themselves as being disabled, and they would prefer to stay as God naturally made them.

So basically, this movie touched upon all of these issues. The main plot was that the hearing father becomes convinced that his 8 year old son should receive a cochlear implant. The deaf mother is opposed, and so are her deaf parents. The kid has no opinion about it, because 8 year olds aren't usually thinking about big decisions. It eventually leads to their separation, and to a custody battle in the court room. They were happily in love apart from this disagreement. The father is probably going to win the case, but then before the judge's decision, he finally realizes that he'd rather be with his wife than get his way. The movie is not in chronological order, as the court room scene is inserted about 5 times throughout the movie, and in between they show how it got to that point.

Shed #2 Demolished

Shed #2 has always sat in the shadow of its big neighbor, "The Shed". It is a small quaint white shed, useful for storing junk. It had about a year to prove itself since The Shed was removed, but it did not get used for anything, only an empty metal trash can and a broken seeder . The disgusting floor and smell probably had something to do with it.


Over the weekend I was reading the Shawnee newsletter and found out that "Big Trash Day" is Saturday. With the nice weather arriving, it was the perfect time to demolish Shed #2 and put it on the curb. So immediately on Monday I recruited Dad to help me tear down Shed #2.

We were accompanied the entire evening by the white boxer next door. He happens to be deaf, so during the noisest part when we were tearing down the walls, he was just looking inquisitively.


Most of the screws on the exterior were filled with paint, and were not removable. But we got up on the roof and removed that first, as you can see. We found that Shed #2 was very well built. Not a screw was loose or missing. It was reinforced by all kinds of special panels. There were screws in the remotest corners of steel. With the especially stubborn ones we eventually slammed with the dull end of an ax.

The most fun part was taking down the walls with crowbars. It was extremely noisy and physical.

Here are some more pictures:

Only the concrete remains, and we hope to remove that with a non-pain-inducing power tool. I don't know yet if a jackhammer qualifies for that. Actually I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

Happy wedding anniversary to us!

Two years have gone by quickly. I love you Courtney, my faithful wife and blog reader!

Here is an article where a guy stole my idea of proposing to you using the game Bejeweled. He had a better way to keep score, but I bet he didn't sing songs!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120ap_odd_programmer_proposal.html?source=mypi

Book Review: No More Shacks!, by Millard Fuller

On Easter Day, after the 9:30 church service, we had an hour to sit and read before our family celebration in the fellowship hall.

So I went down to the library, and for the first time in my 20 year history at the church, picked up and read a book from the shelves. I came up with a book about Habitat for Humanity, and it seemed interesting enough. It was written in 1986, but still taught me more about Habitat than I knew before.

Habitat actually has a distinctive history. At the time and place it formed, it was a culture that was against racial integration. And there was a special group of Christians who lived on a farm, and believed in racial integration, along with other Christian beliefs. Millard Fuller, and others had the vision to provide housing for their poor Black neighbors by building new homes, and only charging for materials and no interest. I hadn't been aware that Habitat came from this background of combating racism. Also, I didn't know Habitat was so Christian. There are many pages of this book that quote Scripture, and it is/was completely faith based. I also didn't know that Habitat has always been worldwide.

Habitat as an organization expanded quickly, and had the vision of eliminating poverty housing from the planet, and becoming the conscience of the world regarding housing.

This book has a love affair with Jimmy Carter, who is also from Georgia, and who picked Habitat to be his #1 charity. He raised funds and provided a lot of publicity. If you look at the Habitat web site today, Jimmy Carter is on the front. But it truly is good how Jimmy Carter and family gave themselves to this ministry. He in fact had some experience with carpentry. And he was a committed Christian as well, which I wasn't really aware of. But to be fair, this book has a love affair with Jesus first, and then Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

I didn't really care for the blitz of personal stories in the book. For example, when "Bob Jones sprained his ankle, but then kept being a volunteer on many more projects". But I did enjoy learning about the heartfelt vision of Habitat.

According to the "library card" in the back of the book, the last time someone "checked out" this book was May 29, 1989, when I was still in Canada. So I put my name on there and wrote April 10, 2008. Maybe in another 20 years, someone else will read it.

Youth Worker Appreciation Dinner

Courtney and I attended the Youth Worker Appreciation Dinner at YouthFront. It is an evening to honor and entertain the area's youth workers. See Mike King's blog for more info and pictures.

I am not a youth worker, but I am married to YouthFront spouse, so I got to be a part of it.

I especially enjoyed playing Rock Band and practicing home runs on the Wii. There was also an inflatable bungee racing thing, and sumo suits, and games on each table.

The meal was catered by Outback Steakhouse.

Book Review: Adrenal Fatigue

Wow, I finally completed a book - first one since March 7. It got pretty lengthy and boring, but one week I decided to knock it out. It is Adrenal Fatigue, by James L. Wilson, N.D., D.C., Ph.D.. The long list of degrees the author has - 3 masters and 2 doctorates - caused me to trust his knowledge. But I do question the sanity of anyone who wants to be in school for that long.

But first I need to backtrack and explain why I'm reading such a random book. The reason is that I have experienced difficulty in recovering from exercise and any kind of exertion. My legs feel sore, and it takes me a while to bounce back. It may be a symptom of getting a bit older and sitting in a cubicle all the time, but it seems to excessive even with that. I seem to have gotten a little better by getting back into exercise at a slower pace. But anyway, I googled some stuff, and came up with this thing called Adrenal Fatigue, and thought I'd get the book.

In reading the book, I became convinced that I have adrenal fatigue. It's an alternative medicine diagnosis by the way. Someone could tell me it was called "brain fatigue" and I would believe them . I'm just saying that I have many of the symptoms the author describes as being related to adrenal fatigue.

Adrenal fatigue is usually caused by many stressful events or ongoing overexertion, causing the adrenals to not work as well. Looking back, I really did have a stressful life my jr year of college, struggling with many things.

• not able to do well in school despite trying my best - wondering if I would succeed in a computer-related career
• struggling with what ended up being wheat, which I ate constantly at the time
• grappling with some new theology that had been introduced to me unlovingly (Calvinism - I still hate it for confusing me)
• Navs friendships fading away, without me wanting them to - getting disconnected
• working in addition to school (even though this job was one of the best things that happened to me in college, it took time to do)
• disillusioned with living in the Lighthouse - I thought it was going to be some utopia, but half the guys who lived there gave me the creeps, and it was a dump

Even though things have worked out since that time, it actually is viable that all of those events could have affected my health in a way that still lingers.

Here are a few symptoms from the book that I have (again, I realize that an author could make up a syndrome just by picking these symptoms)

• continuing fatigue not relieved by sleep - "refreshed is a foreign word to people with adrenal fatigue"
• Craving for salt or salty foods
• Lethargy (lack of energy)
• Increased effort to do every day tasks
• Mild Depression/Less enjoyment or happiness with life
• Symptoms increase if meals are skipped or inadequate
• Thoughts less focused, more fuzzy
• Decreased tolerance - people seem a lot more irritating than they used to

The book then goes onto some ways to help with Adrenal Fatigue . It talked about psychologically reframing situations and lifestyle choices - it was kind of a self-help book at this point.

Then there is a large section on food. This is what I was poking fun at the other day. The author doesn't seem to be satisfied with any kind of food that can be bought conveniently. But I am keeping several things in mind:

• Salting my food more - helps the adrenals - though I'm not using "sea salt"
• Eating eggs for protein - though not raw as the book suggests
• Eating more slowly and chewing my food more
• Eating more and a larger variety of vegetables
• Try not to eat my lunch standing up, but in a relaxed way.
• Avoid bananas and OJ in the morning
• Number of things I was already doing, like not drinking coffee and soft drinks

The book also explains various vitamins or other herbal remedies. The book then ends on an explanation of the anatomy and physiology of the adrenals. It was semi-interesting but not really necessary for me. I just read it to say that honestly read this whole book.

So, in summary I appreciated the book, and am taking some suggestions in mind, but I am not diving into the alternative medicine world. And I am always praying that I will feel 100% soon.

Champion KU Jayhawks

It's nice to have a national champion in town. I just realized that I haven't seen one since living here, except for the Blades (minor league Hockey), the Wizards (soccer) and possibly the Explorers (tennis). And none of those were any time recently.

I wasn't really supposed to root for them as a K-State fan, but I did. They're actually really tough not to like, because there is no superstar, it's just a collection of 10 really good players who would all be starters if they played somewhere else, and 7 other guys who play in the last minute of most games, one of which slightly resembles our friend Evan.

the guy we call "Evan"

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston, the star of 3 of the Oscar Winners we watched, passed away over the weekend. I am thankful for the good values he brought to Hollywood. His life wasn't totally screwed up at least. He and his wife were married for 64 years.

COR Men's Retreat 2008

It's kind of strange that I went to the Church of the Resurrection Men's retreat. But my new manager is an active part of men's ministry, and invited me to go. The topic was "How to Be a Man of the Word" - which sounds good to me.

Our speaker was Dr. Bob Beltz. Friday had special guest musician Paul Clark. Both are old buddies of the guy who runs the COR ministry, name doesn't matter. But even though they are buddies, they are really pros.

The speaker spoke less about application than I wanted/expected. But I got a very good review of the Old Testament and NT and Revelation. I know much more than I used to, and I'd say I understand the Bible more than I did before. So that is good. Also important is just "getting away" to think more about God. I would go again.

Anyone who can give a summary of the Old Testament in one hour is pretty amazing. That's basically what happened on Friday evening. but I was still wondering, how does this apply to me? I'm never going to become that guy.

Movie Review: Superman

When Courtney was away, I tried to pick a movie that she would be least interested in seeing, so that she wouldn't feel bad about missing it. I could have also hung out with people, but uh, yeah, I didn't. There's a time for everything. Anyway, this is supposed to be a review of Superman.

This is a 1978 movie I had never seen, because I guess I didn't watch movies growing up or something. The way it opened with the credits, I thought they were copying off of Star Wars, because it had moving text over a galaxy. The orchestration is also similar to the music in Star Wars. The beginning part was pretty strange like a weird sci-fi movie, but the story was interesting about how Kal-El (Superman) comes to Earth.

Then the movie is very nice showing Clark Kent (Superman) grow up in Kansas, trying to grapple with acceptance and self-control. I thought that the rest of the plot was very nice with the romantic story with Margot Kidder (Lois Lane). One of the problems I had was that it wasn't very resolved. It's because they wrote it to be both Superman and Superman II. So now I have to watch Superman II.

The other thing I didn't like was that Superman "told all" in a newspaper editorial, which then gave Lex Luthor the necessary knowledge to fight him. So apparently Superman is really stupid and wants to give the enemy all of his secrets. Also, I didn't like how switching the direction of the earths rotation made the past reverse itself as well. I don't think time is dependent on the direction the earth is going, but the rest of the movie is "believeable". The fact that most of it is believable is really a compliment to the movie makers.

It has a nice cast list of Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, and several other previously "unknowns" such as Christopher Reeve. By the way, Christopher Reeve did a great acting job as both Clark Kent and Superman. I couldn't think of someone else, especially over other names that were at first considered: Arnold, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Newman??

Best of March 2008

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday special!

Here is my Best of March

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: West Side Story
Honorable Mention: The Diary of Ann Frank
Best New-To-Me Restaurant: don't recall any, help me out if I forgot
Best Life Happening: Easter
Best Book I Read: Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers

My pace for movies and books is much slower than last year, but hopefully I can pick up the pace