Book Review: Beginning SQL Server 2005 Administration

I am realizing that I'm really strange that I read these tech books all the way through. There is really no point to do that, other than getting an information blitz. This has some nice info about how SQL Server 2005 works behind the scenes. I also got some great info about emailing messages from a SQL script. Otherwise, it was more for a full-time administrator. I am technically more of an ETL programmer at this point.


These book covers are horrible. I think the middle guy's beard is photoshopped, otherwise it is impressively full.

Restaurant Review: La Fiesta

For the sake of how I always do this on my blog, I thought i'd mention that we went to a restaurant named La Fiesta in Manhattan. It was an average Mexican restaurant

Book Review: The House that Love Built, by Bettie B. Youngs

The founders of Habitat for Humanity, Millard and Linda Fuller, sent me this book after reading my previous blog post about a previous book that Millard wrote. Here is my original post Linda got into contact with Courtney through some links on my site, and they sent me a personal letter and a free book by surprise!

Their personal letter stated "you may not be aware" that they are no longer part of Habitat for Humanity. Indeed I wasn't. They said that the book explained how that happened.

As I began reading the book, I was happy that it included a bio of Millard and Linda's early life. Millard was a total entrepreneur, and he and a business partner thought of many great ideas. Before the age of 30, they were millionaires. Meanwhile, Millard and Linda's marriage was suffering. They made a faith decision to give away all of their money and assets and to see what God had for them.

The book then goes into detail about how Habitat for Humanity started, and I don't really want to go into all of that on the blog. Habitat for Humanity grew exponentially as a ministry from the 80s into the turn of the century.



In the early 90s, there started to be some power struggles within the Habitat corporate office. Habitat attracted a lot of corporate minds, who started to take offense at Millard's spiritual approach. They wanted higher executive salaries, offices in Atlanta, and to try to manage the growth instead of continuing to expand quickly. They may have had good points, but instead of discussing the issues at hand in a mature way, they tried to bring down Millard by accusing him of things. And then in 2004, the Fullers were eventually fired in a very disgraceful manner from the organization they lovingly started and grew. Habitat changed all of the locks immediately, and put guards at the door, as if the founders were criminals. The Habitat affiliates around the world had no idea what happened. This book was to get the record out. It also made me angry and upset - although that is not the intention of the book, it is probably a natural response to it. Since I got so emotional about this, it made me wonder if I should be involved in some sort of housing ministry.

The Fullers went on to form the Fuller Center for Housing, which raises money for housing projects (including Habitat) and they have some of their own building projects. I would be more inclined to support Fuller Center than Habitat after learning more about the situation. The Habitat International Board did in fact hire a new CEO with a lot of corporate experience and not much apparent ministry experience.

Manhattan Trip Top Ten

10. Ice Cream at Call Hall
9. Seeing the Union Station Parking Garage under construction.
8. Time with the family at Mark and Susie's for Grandma's birthday
7. Watching K-State womens volleyball team slam Texas Tech with Mark and Susie. I almost wished they'd struggled so that we could be there longer than an hour!
6. Nav Night - open mic for students about their experiences at the Main Event conference
5. Disc golf at Tuttle Creek with excellent weather.
4. Piano Concert with an unobstructed view of the pianist's hands about 6 feet away - A K-State prof played Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and Prokiev. All memorized. Incredible. G&G also loved it, and said it would be a good memory for them.



3. Visit with the Satzlers at their acreage. Catching up with them. Going down to the creek. Randomly meeting Doug Peterson -friend of the Satzlers. Come to find out he went to Shawnee Mission Northwest in 1982, then come to find out he grew up in Colony Woods, then come to find out he lived on Rosehill 2 houses down from the pool. Imagine that!
2. Hang out at the Deavers
1. Randomly running into people we didn't expect to see (Gavin and Janice, Chris Morton (3 times) + girlfriend, Becky Szcezny, Rachel Thornburg + boyfriend, Courtney Jensen.


Worst part of the trip Top Three?

3. Trying to play disc golf on a tree course. The trees weren't labeled and we couldn't figure out the map. We couldn't get through even 2 holes!
2. The sound of springs at slightest movement in bed
1. Oyster stew concentrated, mixed with soy milk.

...For more pictures see Courtney's Facebook!...

Voting Thoughts

For local elections, my main question is "what is this job anyway?". I don't even know the roles and responsibilities of a county commissioner, or an education board person, or a sheriff.

That will be my ambition before the next election- to find out what these things are anyway.

The second question I have is, does Republican and Democrat have anything to do with this person's job? Instead of being partisan, can I find out who is more qualified? Does it matter if someone is pro-life on the county commission board?

Third, there isn't much non-partisan information out there. Finding out more information is a chore.

Manhattan Trip 2008

We just returned from a wonderful visit to Manhattan KS... I can't write about it right now, because I am de-packing while listening to baseball.

Movie Review: Patton

This Best Picture Winner of 1970 was kind of a monologue - not too many other people had lines than Patton! Patton prayed on his knees and cussed like a sailor, and believed in reincarnation. And he was really full of himself. That makes for a really interesting character study.

The pre-computer age of special effects were impressive. Dozens of tanks were blown up, so it seems. The movie was not graphic in terms of blood like Saving Private Ryan.

This was not really my favorite movie, but I think it is a good war movie. Best picture winners continue to provide for some of our historical education.

An interesting thing is that Patton was reprimanded for slapping a soldier, and almost kept out of the European Front because of it. I wasn't aware that political correctness went back to 1970. Not that I condone what he did. I love the line from the German official, "Don't believe their newspapers - they would never keep their best general out of the war just for slapping a soldier." And eventually Patton got back into it, because they needed an aggressive general to press into Germany.

Book Review: Presence-Centered Youth Ministry, by Mike King

This book is the only book I've read that is written by a friend of mine. Mike King is the President of YouthFront, who is the employer of Courtney. But YouthFront is much more than my wife's employer, because it is an integral part of our spiritual lives. When Courtney no longer works for them, we will continue to be involved with YouthFront.

Mike is an easy-going guy, always bringing a smile to my face. Also, he is very deep and smart, and I admit I can't understand everything he says. However, this book, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry doesn't use too many big words.


Mike leading a time of prayer when Courtney went to Israel


The concepts put forth in this book are not entirely new to me, because I have been around YouthFront, but to many people they would probably be shocking. The book decries how our youth workers, instead of being spiritual guides, have become event coordinators, comedians, superstars, and the like. (I know that when I was the Youth Intern at CCC in 2002, it saddened me that we did not talk much about spiritual things. But that is usually the nature of summer youth ministry.) We did not provide youth the space to experience God for themselves. We just told them what we thought we should say, or told them to be quiet while we were talking, or entertained them.

Mike's desire is to connect kids with spiritual practices that are centuries old - time of silence and solitude, imaginitive Scripture reading, various postures, ancient prayers of the saints. And Mike doesn't encourage suddenly introducting these to youth. He encourages adults to practice these for themselves and slowly integrate them into the youth group. I know that when I was a youth I would have loved this format, and would have invited my friends to youth group. I think it's a great way to go.




This book has impacted me, because I have started to pray at least once daily now. I have been practicing silence and solitude. When I wake up I find a comfortable place to sit. I softly sing a worship song. I think of a topic and spend time in prayer, praying for myself, others, and/or needy people around the globe. I would like to add a liturgical prayer to end my time, but I don't know any. I would like to do this 2-3 times per day. It was easy for me to understand the process, because I have experienced this at the Altar and other events with YouthFront. I have already been blessed by doing this, by having my thoughts of the day beginning with God. I connect with the Lord, and with the needs of others.


I have been burned out by thinking spiritual disciplines had to look a certain way. Mike's suggestions have brought a renewal to my spiritual life. I find that I never read books more than once, but I might peek back at this one for more inspiration.

Weekend of Rebekah's wedding

The weekend was surreal, overwhelming, and satisfying. I disposed of my rocks with Dad, Martyn and Lindon. Had many family gatherings. Attended a beautiful wedding ceremony. Had ice cream with Courtney and went to the office complex where music plays with a fountain. Had church in Theater in the Park with the entire congregation. We had our first Sunday with Pastor Johan as our official Senior Pastor. Watched Courtney sign to "How Great is Our God". And had lunch with the church family. Worked out at the gym and watched baseball. Then I pretty much slept the rest of the weekend.

Book Review: Football for Dummies

I enjoy watching football, but do not really talk about it Even this weekend, people were rattling off their opinions about various college football matchups. I didn't even know who K-State was playing until Friday afternoon. I can K-State's coach and the quarterback and one receiver, but that is all. So I pretty much have a surface level interest in football. I like to know who won or lost, and how badly.

I thought maybe if I knew more details about football, I would be more interested. Football for Dummies is written by Howie Long, who played on defense in the NFL. So this book is pretty good at describing defensive schemes and players. I really got a lot out of the defense section.

It is good to know more about it, and I truly have enjoyed watching it a bit more, now that I have read more about it. But I don't think I be able to discuss much more when people are chatting about it, because I am still not passionate about the sport.

Restaurant Review: Grandstand Burgers

They serve pretty much the greasiest food available, as evidenced by the menu http://www.grandstandburgers.com. The building is the smallest I've ever seen for a restaurant. There is not any room to eat or stand in line. If you don't want to wait, call ahead. I went with some coworkers and we ate in the park.

But it was pretty much the best bun-less burger I've had in a long time.

Political doom

I have been following politics closely for only about 4 years, and I have become more patriotic and knowledgeable during this time. Talk radio has been a useful tool, not for indoctrination, as some may think, but for a source of well thought out knowledge and opinion.

Anyway, for the first time in that time frame, I feel a sense of doom for my side. McCain, after getting a boost from the Republican convention, has made many missteps, and has frankly made a fool of himself. The ultimate foolishness was threatening to cancel the debate, and then suspending his campaign until the fiscal crisis was solved, and then changing his mind on both things. And then he has had pretty much no visible impact on the financial crisis.

Best of September 2008

We only watched one new movie this month, but I managed to finish 5 books.

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Midnight Cowboy

Best New-To-Me Restaurant: Maui Express

Best Life Happening: The Altar 2008

Best Book I Read: Doctor Zhivago

Honorable Mention Book: Messages
Best online video I watched for the First time: Derek Paravacini - The Musical Genius




Picture(s) of the Month by Courtney. Actually mom took this, but it was our camera! Taken on 9/1/08 at Family Labor Day.

The Altar 2008

Courtney and I attended a contemplative retreat at YouthFront Camp South called The Altar. You may have heard about this before, because I have attended 4 times now. The weekend has gotten long for me in the past, so this time I drove down on Saturday morning, and stayed until Sunday.

The theme of the weekend was modern day slavery and fair trade, and how being Christians means that we should think about these things. We had regular times of solitude and prayer, and the Scripture read in that time was from Isaiah. It told from God's point of view that he doesn't appreciate as much as we do our religiosity and worship, and the real kind of worship he would like is to see us freeing those in chains, feeding those with hunger, etc. This was convicting. But I still struggle with what exactly I can/should do about this.

We had a speaker that told us that God only expects us to offer up our limited resources. The boy with the fish and loaves offered them up, and God was able to use it. So I would like to inventory what skills exactly I would have to offer.

For more details check out Mike King's blog inthe links on the right.

New Pastor of Community Covenant

99.2% of the congregation voted Yes to call Johan Tredoux to be our Senior Pastor. I was among those who have voted yes. He is wise, mature and is a good leader. And he is also reaching out to others, and we interact with him on Facebook. Also, we will be one of the only churches in town with a native of South Africa as our pastor.

Any redeeming thing about this?

My wife came across this publication.

I have many questions about this

• Could this be used to instruct someone how to get to heaven, and facilitate their salvation decision moment? If yes, is it worth the damage that could be done by this publication?
• Is this publication inappropriate?

This is probably the most inappropriate page to me, showing the kids suffering in hell.

Smoking represents sin here. What would you have chosen? I think it's funny that the cigarette is pointing the wrong way, and the cigarette box is bigger than his abdomen. Well I suppose the cigarette is facing the right way if he is offering it to the kids.




My overall opinion about this is that even though most of the message is true, it is provoking and not culturally appropriate. Plus it uses fear to pressure people to make a shallow decision to believe in Christ. A convert will believe just enough to escape the flames of hell, but not undergo any significant heart change. My theology of hell is not completely clear . I am not sure that there will be huge flames and kids. That is where I question the truth of the material.

Book Review: Auto Upkeep: Basic Car Care, Maintenance and Repair

I wanted to learn more about some car parts. I am primarily a book learner, and I don't really learn much elsewhere. So I thought I'd check out a book
I am not sure who exactly the intended audience is - a high school class? It repeatedly has an introduction, then the meat, and then conclusion, just like all of those textbooks from high school.

It has a section on purchasing a car, on fueling a car, as if the reader dropped from a different planet. It has a small section describing floor mats, with a picture. It has a picture of a chammy and one of a gas cap.

But it did have some descriptions of car parts, as I was looking for. I am not sure if I will remember all of it, but it did help.

Restaurant Review: Mr. Gyro's

For the first time, I went to that restaurant I've seen so often on the corner of 83rd and Metcalf. We went with some friends, and would have otherwise never gone. They don't have anything in terms of gluten free food, but I ate the contents of a KC Strip Steak gyro. Courtney ordered something that took about 20 minutes to make, but they said 10 minutes. So that was kind of disappointing. The food was average. Price was pretty good.

Afterwards we went to Foo's Fantastic Frozen Custard around 95th and Mission. We shared chocolate with chocolate fudge and chocolate chips. It was excellent. I would go again.

Book Review: Ministry Momentum: How to Get It, Keep It, and Use It in Your Church, by Wayne Schmidt

We read this book as part of our Community Covenant round table discussions. It also accompanies Pastor Johan's sermons on the book of Joshua.

The book wasn't really interesting to me. It was not targeted toward a specific type of church, so it tried to cover every angle. The author had a lot of wisdom though. It just wasn't really impactful. Is my life going to be different, or am I going to think differently about things now? Not really. This book may be more for pastors or the power leaders of churches.

Character-less sports moves

I think it is wrong to fire a successful manager with 12 games left, just because a team might get close to the playoffs for once, but actually not make the playoffs. The Milwaukee Brewers did this recently. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3589405. He is now robbed of any chance to see the fruit of his labors.

Plus, it's not cause and effect anyway. As if a manager being fired will suddenly cause a team to win.

This also happened with Nebraska football when Frank Solich was fired during a successful season. It was just less successful than Nebraska tradition. His replacement was much worse, and has now been fired. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1674143

Sonseed found!

http://dougsploitation.blogspot.com/2008/09/dougsploitation-news-exclusive-sal-of.html

US government irresponsible

The US govt should let the free market take course. Companies that have made very bad decisions and have failed are essentially being saved by the government.

If no one else wanted to help these failing companies because of common sense, why would I want tax dollars doing this? The economy would have adjusted after a period of time. I'm not convinced that period of time would have even been very difficult. Most importantly, companies would learn from their mistakes and not have an enabler in the US govt. We need a true conservative in the White House, who is sadly neither of the candidates nor the current President.

Mike Sweeney retires

Here is a good article about Mike Sweeney's last day as a professional baseball player:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080909&content_id=3444178&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Movie Review: Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1969.

It was quite creative, and was emotionally powerful. It made a lot of use of the flashback (or dream sequence) technique. I felt that even though these were filmed well, it sometimes was not clear what was happening. There was a lot of nudity, more than I'm used to seeing in films - maybe the most I've seen, but only a couple of the instances might be called gratuitous.

The two principal actors were great - Jon Voight playing Joe Buck, and Dustin Hoffman playing Ratso. Joe Buck is pretty much an idiot that leaves his dishwashing job in Texas to be a hustler in New York City. Later in the film, we find out that he has dealt with the lack of a father figure and with scarring memories of a rape situation. He goes to New York City to be a prostitute. I had misread that he was a gay prostitute, but he was actually heterosexual, or wanted to be. He doesn't really have success, and ends up living with a sickly con artist in an abandoned building. The con artists becomes his manager, but they don't have much success.

I didn't like how there were basically 2 songs in the movie. I was ready to not be hearing them by the end. I didn't like the scene with the religious wacko. That was weird. there were some parts with really good humor. And parts where I was very tense.

I thought it was a good picture of the lowest of the low in our culture - you don't even see their pain or know them. They're hanging out in abandoned buildings in total poverty. It's not for the faint of heart though, so take caution if you are sensitive to nudity or sexual themes and scary sequences. I have mixed feelings about wehre this will go into my movie ranking.

Book Review: Doctor Zhivago

I don't know how I originally heard about this one, but I'm glad I picked it up. Only at the end did I realize that it was sad the whole time. But it was quite poetic and interesting throughout so and the tragedy of it didn't bother me.

It starts out with the principal characters as children, and pretty much progresses through their entire lives. Early on they are happy, and then sad, and then happy again. Then a war takes place, which disrupts everyone's lives. Then the Revolution takes place, which is initially welcome, but then socialism didn't work out according to ideals.

Ultimately, it's a story about how bad everything got during the Revolution. People went to the barter system, because money was worthless. People had to hide their crops to keep it from going as a quota to the government. Arrests were made just for disagreeing with the government. And there was unbelievable violence.

It is very well written, even though it is a translation. I have a few other Russian books to read: Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace, and the Communist Manifesto.

Labor Day 2008

We had the Gras Labor Day get together in Hoyt KS. I never seem to want to write at length about it afterward, maybe because most of my blog readers were there. Also, it would take a lot of time to completely describe the weekend.

I uploaded pictures to Facebook. I've been struggling with finding the best way to display large groups of pictures on the blog. It seems to be the most practical way to display them on Facebook, even though I can't use it to put a slide show on my blog. But here are a couple of my favorites:

Book Review: QBQ!

This was kind of inspiring. Instead of asking questions about Why and When, instead ask questions How and What. Such as "What can I do about this situation?" QBQ stands for the Question Behind the Question.

Many of the chapters are 1 page. It was apparently written for people with extremely short attention spans. There were a few good stories about people who exhibited personal responsibility. None of those people had read the book QBQ, thus proving that the book is not really necessary.

But still, it has challenged me when I have caught myself asking the wrong questions.

It is a very short book, but still has 20 chapters. It is actually more like a pamphlet than a book.

Some people I have worked with in the past have had an attitude of blame and they asked many Why or Who questions. And they are not here anymore, because it was not possible for them to thrive in an environment where personal responsibility is necessary. We are a lean hard working machine.

Aunt Jean's Gelato

We met some friends for gelato at Aunt Jean's Gelato in downtown Shawnee. It was nice to be supporting our new hometown of Shawnee. We are developing a loyalty to Shawnee for no apparent reason. We live less than a mile away from Lenexa and less than a mile from Merriam.

The gelato is great. You should go there sometime!

Restaurant Review: Maui Express

I had wanted to go to this place for a while, because it is clearly gluten-free. But I hadn't really had a good opportunity to try it out. Dad and I went together during lunch break. I wasn't sure if they would have a place to sit, but they did, and there was Hawaiian music playing in the background. The cashier was wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

It is similar to Chipotle, but specializes in bowls. The bowls have grilled vegetables, rice, and meat and a mild sauce. The portion is smaller than Chipotle (which is good for you), and the price is lower. The sauce may have had gluten but I didn't worry about that, because there was not much sauce and it wasn't a thick sauce.

I could see myself going there a lot. Maybe it will rival Taco Bell as my favorite quick restaurant around work.

Best of August 2008

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Poseidon

Best New-To-Me Restaurant: Kyoto

Best Life Happening: Burlington IA Trip

Best Book I Read: The Hobbit

Honorable Mention Book: It's Called Work for a Reason
Best online video I watched for the First time: The Artist With No Eyes



Picture(s) of the Month by Courtney. A picture from Crapo Park in Burlington, IA. I think it's an excellent angle and zoom. A larger view of the picture is more effective.

Book Review: Messages

This was a nice book on communication skills. It really tackles the subject in a realistic way. I felt like I learned a few things, but might benefit from reading it again or by buying the workbook.

Home Ownership

The cost of owning a home has sunk in with me. With repairs and improvements, it takes a lot of time and money. The most recent thing is a water spot on the kitchen ceiling. The shape of it is quite funny, and I don't feel at liberty to display it yet. I guess that is a redeeming thing about a water spot - it makes me laugh most times that I see it. The other thing is that our lawn is huge and is being overtaken by weeds (and large Cicada killer wasps!). So I am trying to learn as much as I can about lawn care (fertilizers, seed, weed killer, etc). I find these things to be quite annoying. But I will treat them as learning opportunities, and I think that owning a home should come out ahead financially over renting, over the long run. And the fact that I am learning hopefully makes it worth the time.

Cicada Killers

Has anyone ever heard of cicada killers? They are big wasps that live East of the Rockies, including in our front lawn.

We have several holes that they have burrowed. They prefer lawns that are not full. That is sad but true about our lawn.

They sting and paralyze cicadas and bring them to their young underground. I actually saw one carry a cicada underground.

They live about 2 months. The best way to get rid of them apparently is to hit them with a tennis racket. They are not harmful to humans.

Prayer and Work

On Friday I was asked to do a large project, and to try to have it ready by Monday. It involves loading about 315 files. Previously, this would have taken days of personal attention to each file, but I've been reading, and due to some new technology, I felt that it might be possible to kick it off, and that the technology would just load every file in the folder. At the end of the day I saw that my idea had failed. The computer had run out of memory in the "buffer" whatever that meant.

I came home, and tried it again. At dinner we prayed that God would help it to work. We came back and it had failed - the exact same error. I was miffed, because I wanted to give attention to Courtney instead of to work, but she said I could go ahead and try to figure it out. I tried a few things, and researched some things, and I eventually stumbled across a setting for the "buffer", and I placed it on a bigger drive, and increased the "maximum rows". At the end, I'm not sure what exactly made it work. After 12 hours, it is still running. (That's a good thing. Even though it's slow, at least I didn't have to pay attention to it)

So I want to give glory to God for helping it to run successfully. It's more complicated than that, because I had to do all that reading, which helped me to know about the shortcut, but I don't really want to dissect the theology of it right now. And if I dissected it, I wouldn't know if I was right - it might be speculation. I mostly see Him in the area where I stumbled across various options, and I feel that somehow in His divine power, He led my eyes and hands to those options.

Movie Review: Poseidon

This was a recent remake of the 1972 movie The Poseidon Adventure.

0. Basic Plot
1. Character changes since 1972
2. Special Effects
3. Inconsistencies
4. Fergie
5. How much I liked it

0. A cruise ship on New Years Eve gets hit by a rogue wave and capsizes. As most of the initially surviving passengers are in denial, they stay in "the top" of the boat. However, a handful of characters try to travel to the bottom of the boat (now the top) to safety
1. The characters are almost completely different than 1972. But I'm not sure if my readers really want to know the details. I was ok with the changes. Richard Dreyfuss plays a homosexual, and that explains the gentleness of the character, but it really doesn't play a part.
2. Special effects were great. Would there really be so much fire underwater? I guess so. There is fire in the entire movie. The deaths of the passengers are more graphic and "creative".
3. A main character had his legs stuck under some big metal structures, and it took 3 people to get him out. And then he walks, runs, and swims normally in the rest of the movie.
4. Fergie is in the movie as the cruise ship singer, and I thought it was going to give the movie a "trying to prove we're cool" feel. But personalities eventually did not have that feel to them, and it was ok.
5. It was heart pounding. I recommend it.

Movie Review: Twins

This 1988 movie had the makings of a great comedy:

1. Good 2 main actors
2. Good storyline

Swarzenegger and DeVito are both great actors, and they cracked me up. The plot was great. They were two twins separated at birth, and they couldn't be any more different. Julius has spent all of his time on a desert island and is clueless about modern society. It's funny how he learns new terms. DeVito steals a car that was meant to be delivered illegally for $5 million, because of what was in the trunk. They go and look for their mother, and also deliver the car.

It gets bogged down in the cheap romance and fake emotions in the middle of the movie. And then it has a lazy ending where the acting turns bad. It doesn't come close to my favorite comedy - Dumb and Dumber.

Book Review: The Modern Gladiator (Audio), by Hyrum Smith

I picked this up to listen to on the trip to Lincoln. The premise sounded very cool - and promised to tell me how to manage my work like a gladiator! It compared the modern office worker to a Roman gladiator. The author describes the violence that the Roman gladiator encountered - swords, arrows, wild animals, and then compares it to emails, people dropping by, and phone calls. It was quite a joke. And then it ends with talking about products that he is selling.

I like this review from someone on the Amazon page:
Here's the short version: 1. Life used to be much more simple. 2. Soldiers used to use long swords and shields until the romans introduced the short sword and shield. 3. Use whatever tools make you effective in business and check out my website to buy them. the end.

Maybe I'll have a Worst of 2008 Award, and this will get it.

Movie Review: Eragon

We watched this in an outdoor movie at a friends' house. The previews looked horrible. so we would have never seen it if someone else hadn't chosen it. Turns out it is based off of some popular books.

Synopsis: A boy gets chosen by a dragon to be a dragon rider while the (medieval?) world suffers from an oppressive king and evil sorcerer.

It turns out that it's not bad. And Courtney saw some true parallels between the dragon and Christ.

When the credits rolled, an out-of-character song played - Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne. Imagine hearing a rock song at the end of Lord of the Rings - it was that ridiculous.

Restaurant Review: Kyoto

The Japanese steakhouse is a unique type of restaurant. I hadn't been to one in at least a decade. The chefs cook the food right in front of you. I ordered some sushi, and enjoyed it. It had cooked shrimp in it. Then Courtney and I shared a chicken teriyaki meal.

We were with our friends Devin and Lynn and Nell and Erik. And this was Nell's choice.

The food was great. And the portion was large for the price.

The cook/chef had some nice tricks and it was a good time. But he went over the line with some sexual innuendos. I don't really even want to get into the details of it.

It's a good place to go for a special event. Try to take a kid with you, and your special rice formation may be a Mickey Mouse out of rice instead of a naked woman and the cook saying "Titty!"

Poem about my car on its 150,000 milestone

I came up with this poem this morning

150,000 miles in my car
We haven't driven very far
Manhattan (KS) and Lincoln
-the furthest places we have been

My right leg it takes a toll
Because there is no cruise control
"Give me a break" says my back
Soft and comfort it does lack

Six years of driving it, I sure am tired
Most people would yell out "You're fired!"
But since I am conservative
we'll see how long that it will live!

Book Review: GI Joe and Lillie, by Joseph S. Bonsall

This was the Aunt Janice Christmas gift to me. I read it in its entirety on the day back from Burlington.

The author is a member of the singing group called the Oak Ridge Boys. I'm not sure who they are but judging by the guy in the fantastic white beard I'm pretty sure it's not my favorite music style. The author is the one on the left.

The Oak Ridge Boys

The forward is by Barbara Bush. George Sr and she are friends with the author.

The author displays much knowledge about WWII throughout the book. He focuses on one couple. The man (referred to as GI Joe) got through D-Day when he was 19, but was badly injured in D-Day minus 50. The man had recurring nightmares from his experiences for the rest of his life. The woman served in Women's Army Corps (WAC). They met in a hospital, and tried to make it through life together. Shrapnel continued to come out of the man's body, until he was tired of going to the doctor, and one piece eventually caused a stroke. The man was paralyzed in half of his body and could hardly speak the rest of his life. It is a story about sacrifice. I kept wondering why especially the author focused on this couple, since this type of story may have been common.


At the end, the author reveals that the story is about his parents. It should have been quite obvious, with the author's name on the book cover being the name of GI Joe's son. but I was quite thick headed. It is unusual for someone to write in 3rd person about himself, so that is what threw me off. It makes sense now how the author knew so much about this couple.

I thought this was a quaint book. But I would have been more inspired by a collection of stories about people who sacrificed, rather than a detailed story about this couple. But I appreciated the book.

Book Review: It's Called Work for a Reason!: Your Success is Your Own Damn Fault, by Larry Winget

I first saw this at Barnes and Noble, but ended up checking out at JoCo Library.

It is an entertaining and in-your-face book about work and customer service.

Here's a few nuggets that made me think:

• Superstars will always leave you. And they make their own rules
• 20/60/20 rule - the top 20% will move on. The bottom 20% performers should get let go. After those people go, the remaining 60% can go up or down into the other 20% percentiles.
• fire people who don't perform
• they pay you for results - if you're great at sales, you shouldn't be bogged down by all the required paperwork
• Let people perform in their individuality. Instead of focusing on "team" focus on how that person can get things done in their individuality.
  
• Beware of self-professed team players. They mostly just want to hide behind a team because their work sucks
• Casual days are the worst idea ever - days where people can look like a slob and work like one too.
  
• Take the crap off the cubicle walls - make the office look like a place where people work
  

This book messed me up for a week, because I tried to work harder than usual, by working through lunch or trying to be perfect. But it upset the equilibrium that I had perfected. I realized that my instincts have served me well. I already have a good work ethic.

Overall this book was entertaining and insightful, and I recommend it. It's not overly academic or without personality like most personal development books. I like this guy.

Burlington IA & Justin's wedding

We trekked to Burlingon IA last weekend. It is a 6 hour drive. Burlington is in SE Iowa next to the Mississippi. It was affected by flooding - the couple had to change the location of their reception.

Anyway, I really like the Iowa countryside, more so than Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, or South Dakota - all places we've been to the past month. The highways were pretty much deserted, and it made me wonder if the Iowans get out much. We stopped by the same town (Albia) for lunch both ways - Subway for Courtney and Hardee's for me - the only two restaurants available. We went straight to the church and got to see the groom and talk to him a little while before he had to rush and take another picture.

Here are some pictures. The church had plastic deer in the very center of their small lobby. We said that it was blog-worthy, so here it is.



The reception had a dance, and we naturally did not participate. I only saw three people I knew the whole weekend - and that is the groom (who I met at our wedding), Courtney, and me. Which made me question the sanity of making such a trip. But I enjoyed it overall. We sat by ourselves at the reception table. The main perk is that we got 8 nice cookies, not that I can eat them. I got to drink out of 5 water glasses, and had the salt shaker to myself.



On Sunday we worshiped by enjoying the nature at Crapo Park. Despite the name of it, it is very nice. There is a trail that leads to a little waterfall and a cave, and we saw some kittens. We also walked along the riverfront.

Book Review: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

I am happy that I thought about reading this book. It was better than I expected.

Tolkien wrote it for his sons, and the style seems to be for children. But it really is well written. It was a memorable book. Bilbo, Gandalf, and 12 dwarves go on an adventure to kill a dragon and take back the gold and plunder.

It's also kind of a prequel to the Lord of the Rings. Characters that appear in both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are Gandalf, Bilbo, Gollum, and Elrond. It gives the history behind how Gollum lost the ring and how Bilbo found it. But the ring is not connected to evil yet, it is just a magic ring that makes Bilbo disappear.

Coming up

Happy B Day again Michele! Is it really 30?

I have finished 3 books in the last 3 days. Actually I read one small book completely today as we were traveling. So I will be writing those soon. They include The Hobbit and It's called Work for A Reason! - your success is your own damn fault.

Also, I'll need to journal on our recent trip to Burlington IA. I have a lot to say about it, but due to busy-ness of life, I may have to write a short snippet about it.

Best of July 2008

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Best New-To-Me Restaurant: The restaurant at Mount Rushmore despite price gouging? It beats out the cheap and good Chinese food place in Alliance, NE for no particular reason. I filled up on free burger toppings Best Life Happening: Nebraska & South Dakota trip despite my cold Best Book I Read: The only book I completed in July was The Divine Conspiracy Best online video I watched for the First time: Crow and Kitten are Friends

Picture(s) of the Month by Courtney. Both from the 4th of July. One of them I thought was a very nice portrait of Hope and Jeff.

1600 year old version of Bible goes online

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25785089/


I agree with this quote from the article:

"I think it's just fantastic that thanks to technology we can now make the oldest cultural artifacts — ones that were once so precious you couldn't show them to anyone — accessible to everyone, in really high quality," said Schneider.

Movie Review: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

I came into this movie expecting good things, because the Paul Newman - Robert Redford combo worked so well in The Sting. It was The Sting, I believe, that inspired us to watch all of the Best Picture winners. See my review for The Sting here from January 2007.

I wish this one had won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1969, because it would rank pretty high on my ranking of winners.

This movie was pretty impressive at first viewing. It's really artsy. There is a long sequence in the middle that I grew impatient with, and that is one of my questions with it. There is also an acappella song that I didn't like towards the end of the movie. But overall it makes a great movie.


The music was composed by Burt Bacharach. And they took a big risk by composing a song named "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" for a certain scene. It's a risk because it really has nothing to do with the movie, and it is a totally different music style than the rest of the movie. But it works. And I don't think I'll post the clip because it probably would take away from the experience to see this clip before seeing the movie, but you can search on YouTube if you want.


I think this movie is great because of the acting, because of the creativity that saturates it.

Sabetha, KS

We took a day trip to Sabetha, KS yesterday to go to a wedding. Sabetha is 1 hour north of Topeka. So we basically drove a big square. West to Topeka, North to Sabetha, then East to St Joseph, and South to home. I like a little variety.

It was in a large church in Sabetha that you could basically fit the entire population of the city into. People come from neighboring towns to go to the church. At the reception we were at the rowdy table of YouthFront workers, and we downed 4 bottles of sparkling grape juice.

We walked into the church 5 minutes before the wedding started. That is already an unsettling feeling when you're in town. But when you're travelling, it prolongs the oh no we're going to be late feeling.

Then I also had my first almost ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere experience after the wedding. I had this plan in my head to drive to Missouri, because of the famed lower gas prices, but it so happened that we had 25 miles to go to St. Joseph, and the tank was pretty much empty. We made a U-turn and stopped in Highland, KS (home of the oldest college in Kansas - Highland Community College chartered in 1858). So basically I got lucky that there was a town right there when we needed one. (I say "I" because it was completely my fault). So I'm happy to get out of that, and I will take the gas situation a little more seriously next time.

We watched a movie after that - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - from 1969. Great movie. Review coming up.

Then today (Sunday), I led worship for youth from the piano, and played bass in the worship service. Then we came back at 4 PM to discuss the topic of worship in "roundtable discussions", which are really on rectangular tables. I led a group of about 5 other adults in the church. It was a low key group, and we got through the questions quickly. Courtney led a group that had 10 people, with a number of jokers and laughers in the group, and they were by far the rowdiest table, and I turned to look at them several times, especially when I heard Courtney laugh across the gym.

Book Review: The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard

I finished the book The Divine Conspiracy. It was a marathon read - 400 pages of deep thoughts. Willard occasionally makes a funny remark, or has a burst of good humored sarcasm. But those are even in context of very serious points. It was like listening to a boring professor break down the fine points of the Christian life. Some people would love that - and many people have enjoyed this book.

The nice thing I got out of it was that the Beatitudes are not additional laws. Jesus did not come to make us more legalistic. His Beatitudes seek to explain what type of person lives a godly life. It's the person who gives away his cloak, or turns the other cheek. The examples listed are not meant to be a comprehensive list of rules that Jesus wanted to communciate while he was on earth. It's important to get to the heart of what he was saying - the heart of the person.

Imagination

I appreciated Mike's post on Imagination

http://king.typepad.com/mike_king/2008/07/imagination.html

Nebraska, SD Trip

Courtney made some friends at camp back in 1999. They still get together for reunions. One of them, Adam, is a youth pastor in Alliance Nebraska, so we went and visited. I went with Brian and Karen to pick up Courtney at Covenant Cedars Camp (Hordville, NE), and then on to Western Nebraska.

As part of the trip, we went to Rapid City, SD, and saw Mount Rushmore and a Reptile Museum. Then we played a 2-round disc golf tourney until 1:30 AM, and crawled into bed at 5 AM.

I was sick the entire time we was there with a bad combination of a cold and allergies. I am still recovering, but it was at its worst point during the trip. So that was a bummer. Here is a slideshow! Click on it or here to reach larger and slower versions. There are also 2 videos available if you click on it and see the ones of the guy wrestling the alligator.

War in Iraq - Alternative Point of View

I tend to agree with conservatives about the War in Iraq - how it was just - and has been successful. Here is a video of our candidate sharing his opinion. He is not as eloquent as I would like, but eventually gets his point across

Random Pictures from Summer 2008

Random Pictures from Summer 2008 (All by CG AKA Wifie)



Me holding cute baby














Sweet fireworks picture!













A birds' nest I discovered whilst pruning branches.













The result of jackhammering












The yard without sheds or hard surfaces

Midnight Cowboy dilemma

If you know me well, you know I am quite picky about movies. For example, if I'm going to watch a rated R movie, it has to go through some strict filtering, the main one being that it is in very high acclaim. The main reason is that I am easily offended, so I always left my movie watching experience feeling frustrated (referring to early college days). Being married to Courtney, who is not really offended in those ways, has helped me to be more like her, but I still am picky.

Anyway, I knew that in our Best Picture Winner quest, this would cause a collision eventually. And I knew it would begin with Midnight Cowboy, the winner in 1969. I first heard about it when the Bades warned us to not watch it, and said we should skip it. And they said it was weird.


I later found out that it is about a homosexual male prostitute and his sickly friend struggling to survive in the big city. I also found out that it was rated X at the time in 1969, until they changed it to R in 1970. Of course, ratings were different back then.

So, my current inclination is to watch it, because I don't really want to say that I skipped a Best Picture Winner. But I approach with fear! But I do also approach expecting to see some good movie making. I haven't talked to C about it yet since she is in Nebraska.

Oscar Winner: Oliver! 1968

This movie was charming, and I recommend giving it a chance.

It started out with a few songs that were just ok, and I was a bit worried, and wondered how it possibly won Best Picture. But then I enjoyed the songs that came up, namely "You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two", "Consider Yourself", and "I'd Do Anything".

Then the plot took over and drew me in...

There was a great mix of serious themes and comedic ones.


Here's one of the scenes I enjoyed. We found out that Olivers voice was dubbed by the music director's daughter, and you can hear it.

Divine Conspiracy - 90% complete

360 pages/ 400

Not like anyone cares!

Tennis and Golf - usually boring, but not now

I had the privilege of watching two great sports moments recently in sports I do not normally watch.

The first was about a month ago when Tiger Woods hit a long putt on the 18th hole on the final round to force a playoff round. See video below.

The second was yesterday, when two guys duked it out for the Wimbledon title. Rafael Nadal defeated 5-time-in-a-row-champion Roger Federer. The only boring thing about men's tennis is that it is fairly predictable. The person serving wins the sets about 90% of the time. The key to victory is to score a "break" - to win the set when the other player is serving. I didn't know tennis ever got this close: 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7: Nadal wins epic Wimbledon final...

Think About It Video

This is pretty much my favorite video right now. Thanks to Mike King for showing it on his blog!

Movie Review: In the Heat of the Night

This 1967 Best Picture winner was quite refreshing, I think mainly because it is set in recent times. The previous 5 Best Picture winners were from historical decades or centuries (Man for all Seasons, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Tom Jones, Lawrence of Arabia).

Also, notable - this is the first time an Oscar Winner has an African-American in the lead role. And sadly, it is one of the first times an African-American even appears in a Best Picture winner!

The other thing is that there is modern music. The movie begins and ends with Ray Charles singing "In the Heat of the Night". Quincy Jones arranged all of the music in the film.

So, when viewing a lot of older films, as we have, this one is refreshing.

An African-American man, who is the head of the homicide detective division, in Philadelphia, gets involved in solving a murder in a small, Southern, racist town. The racism is so bad that it is almost funny at times. The nonsensical hate really makes the haters look very stupid, and that is what makes me chuckle. But at the same time I am sad, because I know that is probably an accurate depiction of some areas during that time period. Maybe such racist small towns still exist.

The African-American actor, I failed to mention, is Sidney Poitier. The character reminded me of President David Palmer, the fictional character from 24.

The plot is good. The movie is really good. The police chief was constantly chewing gum. We weren't sure why the director allowed such an annoying trait throughout the entire movie. I'm not sure that I would watch it again, because now that I know what happened, it takes a lot of the fun out of it.

Best of June 2008

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: A Man for All Seasons
Best Life Happening: Jackhammering
Best Book I Read: How to Read Genesis by Tremper Longman III

American Idol Update

I decided to only try out for American Idol if the following were true:

• I have a chance of making it
• I have a desire to make it
• I have a desire to be a professional singer

So, the answer is no. But I hope someone I know goes and tries out at the Sprint Center.

Although I feel I am a good singer, my range is limited. I believe I am average looking, but don't have the right kind of "pop singer" look. Also, I have no desire to change my current career, or to change it to music. If I wanted that, I would already be trying to perform semi-professionally.

KCCC 2nd place

My company placed 2nd out of 30 teams in our company size division, in the overall standings of KC Corporate Challenge. I was a part of this with all of my own efforts as well.

Video of the Day Link

I strongly suggest that you visit my Video of the Day link daily. Those videos are a constant source of amazement to me and Courtney.

American Idol Auditions in KC

Auditions for American Idol will be at the Sprint Center on August 8. I'm looking forward to hearing about people I know trying out. For me, this has always been a hypothetical question - would I try out for American Idol, to which the answer has been "no" for the most part. I would have no chance, and wouldn't want to spend the whole day waiting. But then, it would be fun to look back and say, "yeah, I tried out for that", and to see the three judges in person. As long as I don't get on the segments where they make fun of people. But even in that unlikely case, I would be on national TV, which may be fun.

What do you think?

Death Penalty and the Supreme Court

I don't believe that death is "cruel and unusual punishment" for someone convicted of raping a child.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080625/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_child_rape

I'm not saying that if I were a judge or on a jury, I would lay down a death sentence for the crime. I am saying that I don't think this punishment is unconstitutional on the grounds given.

In fact, I would guess the Constitution doesn't say punishment should be "proportional punishment" for the crime committed. It's another case of the Supreme Court ruling with their personal views instead of interpreting the Constitution.

The Lawrence of Arabia of Christian books

I am thinking about doing the unthinkable. I am halfway through The Divine Conspiracy, and I am considering giving up. Turning it back in - to my dad who got halfway through and gave up. I did get further in the book than dad, because I am about 60% through the book.

It's just so....long and dry. It's like watching Lawrence of Arabia. (sorry to bash your favorite movie Steven) Yeah, it's a great work...but it's soooo long, and has so many boring parts. I need an oasis!

We'll see if I can persevere...just 160 more pages.

Movie Review: A Man for All Seasons

This was a good biographical sketch movie about Thomas More, and the winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1966.


It is based on a play of the same name. This was a very interesting time in English history (16th century). You have probably heard of King Henry VIII. This movie is about how Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his first wife Catherine. Thomas More, on conscience, thought that this was the Pope's decision to make.

King Henry VIII, in short, declared himself to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. This was offensive to Thomas More's conscience, as it would be to any good Christian. The rest of the court, however, went along with King Henry out of fear.

King Henry VIII is nearly insane in the film, in a good portrayal by the actor.

The character of Thomas More is very deliberate in speech. He never says anything casual or without purpose. This would be very annoying in our present time, and I think he did annoy other characters in the film. However, his intellect and conscience were inspirational. Unfortunately, I learned in the Wikipedia article that Thomas More persecuted Christians, mainly the collaborators of William Tyndale, who published Bibles. So go figure.

A quote from the film:
God made the angels to show Him splendor, as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of his mind. If He suffers us to come to such a case that there is no escaping, then we may stand to our tackle as best we can, and, yes, Meg, then we can clamor like champions, if we have the spittle for it. But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to such a pass. Our natural business lies in escaping.

Jackhammering

I will put up a picture sometime of the big pile of rubble that we produced. I basicially have the same problem now (cement and asphalt in my yard), but it's in a nice pile instead of in slabs. I will be looking into renting a dumpster or something.

A jackhammer is the best tool ever. It does almost all of the work. In fact, if you put your weight into it, it hinders the tool from working properly. The toughest part about it is lifting it up. It must have been 75 pounds, so by the end of a few hours, my body could hardly hold itself up. I was stumbling around trying to find my balance. And my arms started to collapse near the end. Surprisingly today, I feel fine - better than after I played softball.


But we got it done. It took the entire 3 hours.


We had a nice lunch at the place Dad likes to call "Los Rios". But it's really Dos Reales. Then after lunch we came back and moved some of the rubble. Just one more exciting thing we've done on our house.

Movie Review: Prince Caspian

After a day of yardwork, we spontaneously decided to watch this, and then rushed out the door.

This movie was very dark and depressing, and I don't think that reflected the whole picture of the book. The characters were more negative than in the book, especially Peter who is not likeable at all in the movie. Lucy is portrayed as a nearly perfect child, and that is not true to the book either. the romance was added to it as well. And I think a 20 minute battle scene where they storm the castle was not in the book either, but I am not sure.

On the other hand, this movie was amazing after recently watching Rush Hour 3. The animations of the various Narnian creatures were amazing. I was reminded of the downside of seeing movies in theaters - mostly that my throat was parched through the entire 2nd half, but I didn't want to leave the seat. It was our first time at a theater since August 2007.

Buckets of Babes

Some YouthFront friends of ours made a song Buckets of Babes "because of the unusually high concentration of cute girls we kept running into at the grocery store". Here is the much awaited video:

Movie Review: Rush Hour 3

This is one of the worst movies I have seen in a while. The plot was weak, and I suffered from "parents in the room" syndrome during the inappropriate scenes, even though it was just me and Courtney.

I had seen the previous Rush Hour movies and enjoyed them, so I thought I'd enjoy the third. I waited on the list at the library for a couple of months.

I enjoyed the addition of the French cab driver who drove Chan and Tucker around, who at first hated America, and then "got hooked" on the violence of American culture, and began to think he was a super spy. It's so ridiculous that it is not offensive.

The action sequence at the end of the movie on the Eiffel Tower is probably the best scene of the movie.

Realistic is not an adjective to describe this movie. The plot seemed to have just been thrown together during an all-nighter writing session.

You'd have to have the maturity of a 13-year-old boy to love and appreciate the scenes with nudity. It is simply gratuitous.

The character that Tucker plays, even though he is generally hilarious, seems to make fun of the mannerisms of Black Americans, and he also exaggerates some stereotypes to the point of embarrassment.

Chapman, KS

A friend of mine in college grew up near Chapman, KS, and his wife grew up in Chapman. Here are videos of his wife's parents house which was destroyed.

Since this house is about the same size as ours, I'm struck by how "this could have been me".

Mary Visit

We did get to hang out with Mary and the girls and Mo over the weekend. We headed to Shawnee Days and afterwards ate at Mi Ranchito. Here is a slideshow:

Book Review: How To Read Genesis, by Tremper Longman III

Once, IVP Book Club bought a mailing list that I was on, and in response to that acquisition campaign, I joined the IVP Book Club, and I'm still reading a lot of those books that I got at first. I have now quit the club.

One of the books I got was How to Read Genesis, by Tremper Longman III

Genesis can certainly be confusing, so that is why I was interested.

The first point of this book is that "To read Genesis intelligently, we must consider...the literature and the times in which Genesis was written". Too often, modern readers expect the creation story to be some sort of proof against evolution. Although many things can be read in the text that apply to that debate, the text was not written for that purpose. There were many creation accounts in ancient times, and the Genesis text is different in that there is one God, and He created everything by himself. The other unique thing compared to other ancient stories, is that humans are valued. In other contemporary stories, humans were the by-product of gods doing evil or stupid things.

Secondly, the book speaks about the author of Genesis. It had been thought for centuries that God spoke to Moses the entire book, and Moses wrote it down. But scholars now think that there was a source that had been passed down, and Moses complied all of these sources. This certainly makes more sense. But this viewpoint still holds to the belief that it is God-breathed.

Third, and maybe most importantly, Genesis is split into 3 parts:
The primeval history - Genesis 1-11
The patriarchal narratives - Genesis 12-36
The Joseph story - Genesis 37-50

This is important, because the 3 parts are very different, and usually as I reader, I tended to plow through it, and not realize that they were completely different in style.

A few other helpful facts

• Primeval history: There was a pattern of 1. sin 2. judgment speech 3. a token of grace toward the sinner 4. judgment
• Primeval history: Geneologies sometimes skipped people so they can't be used as an accurate measure of how old the earth is

This book then is a short concise commentary on the book of Genesis. I appreciate that, because I'm not a fan of long boring commentaries at the moment. There is much more that was in the book for people who want to get into the details of Genesis.

I read Genesis two times while reading this book, so it was helpful to me spiritual to get me into the Word. I'm going to look into getting "How to Read the Psalms" and "How to Read Proverbs" by the same author

Restaurant Review: Waldo Pizza

My bro-in-law, Ryan, offered to take me out to eat for my birthday. By the time we did this, his birthday had also passed by. Anyway, he currently lives in Waldo, and I had heard of the gluten-free pizza offered at Waldo Pizza. It was the perfect time to check it out. (Waldo is a community of Kansas City MO. Ann and Nate actually live a few blocks away from it).

I was not disappointed. I got a GF pizza with sausage and mushrooms. It was an amazing taste, since I hadn't tasted restaurant pizza for about 5 years at least.

If anyone wants to head over there with me, any excuse is good.

Ryan is moving to Austin Texas in a couple of weeks, so we had a good chat about that. It's a huge step for anyone to move that far away, but it is a good time for him, since nothing is holding him down to KC at the moment. His parents don't want him to go!

My other family:

Best of May 2008

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: My Fair Lady
Best New-To-Me Restaurant: Waldo Pizza

Best Life Happening(s):
1. Getting on the Kiss Cam at the Royals
2. Getting a personal letter from Millard Fuller - founder of Habitat for Humanity
3.Corporate Challenge Bronze Volleyball Medalists

Best Book I Read: The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis
Honorable Mention: Chasing Francis, by Ian Cron