Corporate Challenge Softball

Sunday Update: We lost two games on Sunday and received Bronze medals.

Saturday:
Our softball team has clinched a medal, winning 3 straight games, and we play up to 4 games tomorrow to decide who gets what color. Courtney has been a faithful fan, just like she was at volleyball.

We came from behind in an unlikely "overtime" victory, ending at 12:30 AM. In between some games, I spent time at the Bades, since they live a mile away from the park, and on TV I watched the Royals break the losing streak.

Just like volleyball, we have a team that is going above expectations, and that makes victory so much sweeter.

IOU and This Week update

May is coming to a close, but I have some posts coming up that will be in the running for Best of May 2008.

• Restaurant: Waldo Pizza (gluten-free is actually printed on the menu. It was incredible.
• Book: How to Read Genesis, by Tremper Longman

I may accompany the book review with an extended post of my thoughts about the Book of Genesis. It would likely take me a very long time to do, considering the vastness and complexity and importance of the book. But I think it would be worth it.

More things:

• Softball is coming up with our tournament starting this Saturday.
• Edit: we went to the Royals Thursday and got on the kiss cam.
  
• We are headed to the Royals game again tonight - we are wondering if we will see the game that ends the losing streak (12 games).
• I ran a 5K on Monday, and beat my time from a few weeks ago by 30 seconds
• On Monday we finally opened up our Lord of the Rings DVD trilogy that we received as a wedding gift. The Fellowship of the Rings was the same movie we watched before our first kiss, the same day we officially became a couple on September 24, 2004. But unlike those dating days, we stopped the movie after an hour to get to sleep at a decent time.

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

I wasn't sure to expect with this one, because I had never seen any of the Die Hard movies from 20 years ago, and I don't plan on seeing them. I was 100th in line at the library, and miraculously it became available to me the same weekend that Courtney is staying out at camp. It's a movie I think she wouldn't mind missing.


It was actually pretty good. It is the first movie I've seen which is about terrorists taking over the computers of the nation. Even though the computer geeks are their main weapons, there are still plenty of guns in the movie. They take out the transportation systems and the financial markets, and the city/nation is in chaos. They have plans to wipe out basic utility services.

So our hero, Detective John McClane gets a call in the middle of the night to pick up a computer geek, who the terrorists are trying to kill. The computer programmer obviously will be useful to stop the terrorists. McClane helps to rescue the geek, as they are being attacked with guns and bombs. The geek happens to be played by the same person who is in some prominent Mac vs. PC commercials.

The screenplay suggests that government can't stop this attack.
McClane: So the government has a plan for this (expletive) , doesn't it?
Geek: Of course not. It took FEMA five days to get water to the Superdome

So we get the strong suggestion that these two guys will thwart the plot all by themselves. Even Jack Bauer has CTU, but these guys will be it. You gotta love that kind of stuff. Plus, there's even a copy about the bad guys going after his daughter. there is the strange absence of any mention of the executive branch of our nation, it's all about the DoD and other branches of military and enforcement. The movie is also strange in that in mentions "the streets are gridlocked" several times, but whenever our hero needs to get anywhere, the roads are clear.

McClane is a likeable character. Quiet, funny, and has an attitude. The dialog was too crude at times.

Letter from Millard Fuller!

When I got home on Monday to get ready for our volleyball championship run, I received a package. It was from the Fuller Center for Housing. My first thought was that it was junk mail. But when I opened it and read the personal letter, I was amazed. I cannot post the letter here, because it would be rude to post a letter, but I can quote a lot of it, and I may end up being rude by doing so. I feel that it's difficult to share my excitement without telling exactly what was written.

"Dear Dan,

Your dear wife, Courtney, sent your address to my wife Linda. She had written asking for your address because she saw your blog about a month ago concerning my book No More Shacks!"

OK, this is the great thing about it. As small as my blog readership seems to be, the reach of it is surprising. I get so excited when an unexpected person reads my blog. In this case, my excitement was through the roof, because this was a non-form letter from someone who founded an amazing organization.

Then it goes on

"I was touched by what you wrote in your blog and I'm so pleased that you visited your church library and picked up that book that was written all those many years ago"

"By separate mail, I am sending you a complimentary copy of this new book..."

"God bless you and your wife, Courtney. You are obviously a man of faith and you are also a good writer. I appreciate you doing that blog about my book, No More Shacks."

"Thanks again for your good blog. Millard Fuller (dictated, signed in his absence)"


Here is my original post: http://lostlifefound.blogspot.com/2008/04/book-review-no-more-shacks-by-millard.html It has a picture link that is no longer valid, in case you were wondering.


Also here is the book that I received in the mail today:




Linda and Millard, if you're out there, thanks so much for blessing me, as I have blessed you! I'll read your new book, and you can find a review right back here!

Volleyball medalists!

For corporate challenge, we got together a bunch of random guys to play volleyball, and we weren't really sure if we were good. It is really fun, because there are referees and electronic scoreboards.

On Saturday night, we lost our first game, and then won the 2nd one by forfeit. In the 3rd game, we were losing. So, we were pretty sure that we were a bad team. Then, something happened, and you could say that we found our groove, and we came back to win the 3rd game, and we won our 4th game. So, that qualified us for tournament play on Monday night. With a 3-1 record, we got 1st place in our pool.

On Monday, we played other teams that got 1st or 2nd in their pools, to the best of three games. With the first team, we came back to win two straight. (Are you starting to hear "come back" as a theme here? Most of are games were very close). So that meant that we qualified to play at least two more teams, and we reached at least 4th place.

Then we played a game to see who would go to the championship game, and we lost two in a row. So after waiting in the parking lot for about 45 minutes and drinking Pat's Blue Ribbon ( I didn't partake), we played in the game at 9 PM to decide who got 3rd place. It ended up going to three games, so we were playing to 15. We had the ball near the end, and I hit a serve into the net - it was actually the most pathetic serve, and felt horrible about it. I thought our loss was going to be my fault, because shortly after, we were down 14-11, one point away from losing. With the rally point scoring, even if we hit a bad serve, it would have lost the game immediately. We got the serve back, and one of my teammates Elton kept serving it into play, and we "showed nerves of steel" and scored 5 straight points to win 16-14.

The rush of adrenaline of victory is something I haven't felt in a long time. I've written here before about how I've been on very bad sports teams all my life. Every one of our team members was way excited. Here is a picture right after our victory:

Blog-worthy events

Two major blog-worthy events happened yesterday.

The first involves my Corporate Challenge volleyball team, which was in tournament play last night.

The second is how I got a personal letter from the founder of Habitat for Humanity.

The combination of the two kept me awake last night. Stay tuned for more details!

Movie Review: My Fair Lady

Oscar Best Picture 1964 brought us My Fair Lady,featuring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison

I've had an internal battle about which is better: West Side Story or My Fair Lady? (Feel free to pitch in) I feel that I would watch it again before I'd watch West Side Story again. The lyrics and the plot and the characters and the acting in My Fair Lady are much more entertaining. However, West Side Story wins on the side of art and music complexity and definitely dance. So they are two totally different movies, but still I need to decide which one is "better". My Fair Lady will definitely be on my Must See list that I'm giving you at the end of this.

The funniest thing was that in the middle of the movie Courtney and I realized that there is a Simpsons episode that we have seen several times (named My Fair Laddy) that loosely follows the plot and songs of the musical. In it, Lisa tries to make Groundskeeper Willie into a "proper gentleman".

For the plot of My Fair Lady, a linguistic professor, Professor Higgins, is studying people on the street, and comes across a dirty flower girl (a low profession), Eliza Doolittle, who has terrible English and rude manners. And he meets another linguist right there and boasts to the new guy that he could turn Eliza into a lady. Anyway, she eventually shows up at the professors house and wants lessons, and she ends up living at the house. the Professor makes it his project to train her and present her at the Imperial Ball, to win his bet with his friend. And Higgins ends up winning the bet, but Eliza rightly feels like an "object"and that she is not treated like a lady, now that she is one. Another gentleman named Freddy falls in love with Eliza. Then Higgins, who by the way has been full of himself, gives in and realizes he "has grown accustomed to her face", meaning that he will miss her. The movie ends, not specifying where any romantic feelings are going.

Book Review: The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis

The speaker at the men's conference I went to mentioned this book by C.S. Lewis. Even though I don't like theology books much, I did enjoy this one. Most of them are so dry, but C.S. Lewis, as you could imagine since he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, infuses good stories with an engaging writing style. The back cover calls him an intellectual giant. They weren't kidding. There is so much logic in this book on the topic of religion, and it took me through thoughts that I had never thought before. Written in 1940, it applies to today's situation as well, and beats any more recent theology books I've read.

Pain is called a problem in Christian theology, because if we take the premise that God is loving and good, then why would he allow his creatures to feel pain. And why do animals suffer, even though they "neither deserve pain nor can be improved by it"? Hence this 160-page book seeks to explain this problem.

I'll go chapter by chapter and try to summarize

Preface: C.S. Lewis explains there are better materials out there on this issue, and says this book is his humble work.

1. Intro: This basically had some proof that Christianity might be correct (aplogetics), and not so much on the problem of pain.

2. Divine Omnipotence - if God is all-powerful why does he allow pain. C.S. Lewis explains that in a world where two souls meet, there is bound to be some physical contact And "the permanent nature of wood which enables us to use it as a beam also enables us to use it for hitting our neighbor on the head". God does suspend these things with miracles, but to have everything be a miracle the world would not be the world, like a chess match where the players can do anything.

3.Divine Goodness - if God is good why does he allow pain. Our definition of good may not be the same as God's. Deep down we wish God was a "senile grandfather" who let's everyone has what he wants. Lewis uses the analogy of an owner and his dog. The owner will want to change the dog from its natural tendencies to please the owner, and then the dog may benefit as well, now that it has gone through pain to change. And with a relationship of a father and son - a good father "uses his authority to make the son into the sort of human being he...wants him to be".

4. Human Wickedness - This shares that the responsibility for sin sits squarely on the shoulders of the sinner, and refutes many ways that we pass on the blame.

5. The Fall of Man - Lewis expands on the idea of free will of man, and how they were able to choose sin. "this may raise the ridiculous idea that the Fall took God by surprise and upset His plan....in fact, of course, God saw the crucifixion in the act of creating the first nebula" This chapter was so good, but I don't recall everything in it, as is the case when I read theology book. I'll read it again sometime.

6. Human Pain. Expands on the idea that pain is a tool that God uses to bring humans closer to himself. "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

7. Human Pain, Continued - various thoughts about human pain

8. Hell - Lewis explains that hell is morally correct. He explains a self-centered human in detail, and then asks if that man "should continue, for all eternity, to be perfectly convinced that the laugh is on his side?" "Even mercy can hardly wish to such a man his eternal, contented continuance in such ghastly illusion." But I also appreciate that Lewis shares my thought that "I detest the doctrine from the bottom of my heart" and "thre is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this...But it has the full support of Scripture" he goes on to share more thoughts about Hell, but I didn't understand it all.

9. Animal pain - Lewis shares that we do not really know if animals are conscious or not, meaning that they know they are experiencing pain or a series of pains. And he shares what he things about animal after life. This chapter was not as interesting as it sounds, because of the complexity of it.

10. Heaven - this is the most beautiful chapter I've ever read in a theology book. It's like poetry, explaining that our deepest dreams, that we may not be able to explain, will be fulfilled in heaven, and that heaven is a place where we will throw away selfhood and joyfully obey.

This book was monstrously good! I will read it again sometime.

Book Review: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL, by Ken Henderson.

Yes, I am now including my tech books on my reviews. After months of starting tech books, and never finishing them, I'm starting to make an effort to finish them. I came across this one somehow at work. Transact-SQL is the name of the programming language I use at work. I am already, and have been one of the most knowledgable people about SQL at work, and I know most of the basic tasks. It's the more obsure things that are sometimes useful to know.

The downside to this book is that it is from 2000, and the code snippets are no longer available online. Also, since this book was written, there is a new Microsoft SQL Server product called 2005, that this book doesn't talk about obviously. However, our company still uses SQL Server 2000 a lot anyway.

I don't recommend this book, because I really only got a few tips out of it. It's not suited well for a beginner or advanced user. It just kind of covers the whole range. And it's time to move on to books that use the latest software.

Book Review: The Cat Who Blew The Whistle

This book was one of the most boring book of the series. Or maybe it just was because it took 4 months to read it. I ran out of library renewals for the first time. Was it boring because of all the time gaps, or were there time gaps because it was boring? Makes me think of one of my favorite quotes: "If you read one page a day from your favorite author's new book, would you enjoy it? No. Then why do we read the Bible that way?" ~Keith Ferrin

I have included a summary of the book below, but I will first share my own opinions. I enjoyed how Qwilleran's new friend Celia (who appeared in previous books) went undercover at the Trevelyan house to find out things about the family. We also enjoyed the train-related imagery. One of the themes was that Qwilleran's lady friend, Polly, was obessed with the building of her home, and she bored Qwilleran. So she bored us as well. I hope that she will get written out of the series. I think about 6 things happened in the book, and then there was lots of filler between each one. So I think that contributed to our boredom - or maybe just since this is the 17th book of the series (?), we are bored with it.


Here is a good synopsis from the Amazon.com page for this book (taken without permission):

Dennis Phillips "The Book Friar" (Bulls Gap, Tennessee USA) - See all my reviews The 17th entry in this series finds Jim Qwilleran and his two cats happily ensconced in their apple barn home in Pickax City. What with Qwilleran's tendency to change domiciles like most people change socks this in itself sets this book apart from the others. To make things even homier, Qwilleran's love interest; Polly Duncan is building a house just up the driveway from the apple barn having decided that her apartment on the campus of the new community college just wasn't going to work out. The main plot of this book involves Floyd Trevelyan, the owner of a credit union and a train nut. Trevelyan has just refurbished an old train and on the day of Old No. 9's maiden run state auditors descend on the credit union and Trevelyan disappears. Of course everybody naturally assumes that Trevelyan has run off with his depositor's money but Qwilleran just can't imagine that someone who loves trains as much as Trevelyan does would willingly leave behind his new toy. To add to Qwilleran's concern, Koko does his little death dance on top of a newspaper photo of Trevelyan and Koko's dances have never been wrong.

The secondary plot that runs through this book is the building of Polly's new house, which is tied to the first plot by the fact that her carpenter is Floyd Trevelyan's son. As for Polly, she worries so much about every little detail of the construction that Qwilleran is gravely concerned about her health, especially after her cat Bootsie gets sick. All the while Koko is acting more and more oddly as he tries to give Qwilleran clues as to what has happened and who caused it to happen. One of the added features of this book is that you aren't really sure just what crime or crimes have been committed until the very end. If you pay very close attention to Koko however you will get most of the clues that you need.

This book is more mystery oriented than many of the other books in this series and the mystery is worthy of any mystery book ever written. I doubt that even the great Sherlock Holmes himself could have solved this one without a little help from a certain feline detective. The final piece of the puzzle is so out of left field that it might have caused Dr. Watson to hyperventilate, but Koko knew the answer all along and spent most of the book trying to enlighten Qwilleran. Adding even further laurels to this book is the return of Celia Robinson, a terminally happy grandmother from Down Below who was a major player in one of the earlier books in this series and who plays a major role in this book.

Movie Review: Tom Jones

Tom Jones is the 1963 Best Picture winner. It is situated in England in the 18th century. "It is an adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), " (Wikipedia) Not to be confused with the awful 60's singer Tom Jones, or celebrity Tommy Lee Jones.

I have mixed feelings about the movie. On one hand, it used several camera techniques that seemed new to Oscar Winners. On the other hand, I can't say that I enjoy those techniques. They include speeding up the film so that it feels like fast forward, pausing the film for the narrator, using the 4th wall to speak directly to the audience.


Also the use of humor was different, though I give up trying to put into words why it is different.

The sexual aspect is much more liberal, as is the most obvious thing when watching these in a string. The previous movies that had main themes about sex somewhat were The Apartment (1960) and From Here to Eternity (1953) and a few others touch upon it . I guess Gone with the Wind implies it. Clearly I am not speaking about a comfortable subject right now. Anyway my point was that this movie has slightly more nudity than other movies, and it is basically about a guy who sleeps with oh 3,4 or 5 women throughout the movie. The movie allows the viewer to think that Tom Jones slept with his mother for about a minute, and that was disgusting. So this is pushing it, but not really for the 1960's. I know there will be more towards this trend (and I'm somewhat dreading it).

But alas, my opinion. I somewhat enjoyed Tom Jones, although I don't recommend it. It was kind of hard to understand the British accents and sayings, and the DVD didn't offer English subtitles. And for half the time, we were thinking "This movie is weird". The other half I thought was funny.

Best of April 2008

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Lawrence of Arabia
Best Life Happening: Youth Worker Appreciation Dinner
Best Book I Read: Chasing Francis, By Ian Cron

Book Review: Chasing Francis, By Ian Cron

This book is a favorite of Courtney's, so I will have trouble writing this review!!!

We met the author at a YouthFront event, and he signed Courtney's copy of the book. The author's face was actually about 3 inches from mine as he was staring me in the face, imitating an ape that he encountered on a wild safari. Courtney lent the book out to someone at our church, and he said he was weeping while reading it. Everyone had such rave reviews. So it was kind of like watching a popular movie about 5 weeks after everyone else saw it.

Anyway, my stupid deluxe mouse has these buttons on the sides, and one of them means "Back", so I just lost what I wrote about this.

So here goes again.

A current day US pastor named Chase Falson, becomes burned out and disillusioned. At the end of himself, he takes a trip to visit his Uncle Kenny who has converted to Catholicism and is living as a Fransican friar. Kenny and the other friars teach Chase about St. Francis and his radical way of living out his faith. Here are a few of my highlights:

The pastor, Chase, meets a woman named Carla. Her parents disapprove of here being a professional musician, because they think she should have gone into "the ministry". The book then explains the importance of Beauty and art to us, and in medievel times.

Another scene that sticks out is when Chase bathes a man who is dying of AIDS . Afterwards Chase says "I think I just became a Christian".

Another memorable part is when Chase casts his vision for his church, which is deciding whether to keep him or not.

Overall, I am impressed with the author's knowledge of literature and music. You can't write something you don't know about already. If I wrote something it would be quite simple. It is well-written and kept my attention. It added to my faith and added to the picture of what it should look like.

This week

I owe you all a review of "Chasing Francis" by Ian Cron.

We are continuing to train for our respective events. Courtney has been swimming for lifeguard training (this and next weekend), and I have been running for my Corporate Challenge 5K (on May 10). Tuesday, our pool was being cleaned, so we drove to 119th and Metcalf to swim at the largest 24 Hour Fitness in town. It was a big movie theater back in the day and now it's a really nice gym. The architecture is fun. The bathrooms are probably old theaters. Where Courtney swam there was a nice fountain on the wall. It would be interesting to me to see a before and after. The same day, dad came over and sprayed our entire lawn for weeds, and I helped out. And I had softball practice last night for Corporate Challenge. It was really nice out.

Also, I almost forgot to mention that my car on Wednesday morning suddenly sounded like a motor"sickle" when I pulled out of the driveway. People were turning their heads as I drove, to check out the loud noise. I took it to Dr. Kwan (with help from mom and dad), and it turned out that my flex pipe was broken. This part as its main purpose apparently allows the engine to move around slightly. It also turned out when I went to pay for it, that it is the 2nd most expensive part, about 10% of the worth of my car! So it makes me wonder, what's the most I would pay for a repair percentage-wise?

image of flex pipes