Leading Worship, Creating Flow with Paul Baloche

Here's the story behind this. Our church is merging two worship services, and we hired a worship consultant to help us with the transition. In his report afterward, he said that both services needed to work on this concept of "flow". This means that if you have a song set, there should not be several seconds of silence as you switch between songs, because that is awkward silence for everyone. He strongly recommended to watch this DVD "Leading Worship: Creating Flow, with Paul Baloche".

Paul Baloche is most known to me as the guy who wrote "Open the Eyes of My Heart" (link of Paul Baloche explaining the song).

The DVD starts out with Mr. Baloche sitting on a little pedestrian bridge over a flowing river. He expands on the idea that all of nature is flowing, so our worship should also flow like a river. It also shows Mr. Baloche at a Chinese buffet where he makes the claim that our worship should have a lot of variety. The rest of the DVD shows Paul with his guitar and a worship band in the background, teaching or playing examples.

He covers the choosing of songs. Songs should transition smoothly with keys. The key should transition upwards if possible. Instead of ending and having seconds of silence, there should be smooth transitions with the keyboard. At the end of the song, sometimes there is extended vamping where the worshiper can just stay "in the pocket", and not leave the moment. Some other ideas are to encourage your congregation to integrate of the types of praise in the bible - clapping, hand raising, for instance.

Of of the influential things to me was that to be a good worship leader, you should be a worshiper during the week, not only in song, but by immersing yourself in the Scriptures.

I was shocked that he picked songs like "As The Deer" and "Majesty" and "Victory Chant". I had rejected and left those songs long ago, because of their overuse in the 90s. But they sounded fine, and I respect his ability to make singing them a worshipful experience.

Book Review: Experiencing Prayer With Jesus, Henry and Norman blackaby

I regret my review a little bit. Partially, it's because I do believe that systematization of facts is a valid and useful tool for understanding the Bible. I think my biggest objections are that it was very boring, and that the authors came from a position of superiority.

But I'll leave my original review here just for fun.

----------------------------------------------



Brent Ahs lent me this audio book, completely unsolicited. But I would hate to return it to him and say that I didn't listen to it, so I did over my lunch hours. I don't have a big commute, and no CD player in my car, so i don't listen to audio books when I drive.

It was read by a professional reader, but without any enthusiasm. I kept thinking that if someone read the proceedings of a city council meeting, it would have sounded more exciting.

The interpretation was incredibly modern rather than postmodern. The modern era was the time of invention and machines. It was a time of rationalism. Where x + y = z. This time period affected people's view of Scripture interpretation. If Scripture says this here, or this there, then God always has to act a certain way. As a result, we have a God that is not much more than a math equation, instead of an artist or a Being. For me, I'd really love to worship something wild and real, rather than a machine. If I do X and Y, the reaction of God is not necessarily Z.

And that is my problem with this book. It is an encylopedia of prayer, a systematic theology. If God wanted the Bible to be a list of ways to pray, he would have written it that way. Instead it is a collection of stories that do not appear in a systematic order. The Bible's purpose is not to be instructions for the machine of life. This approach caused the authors to become professors who have everything together, and it was an academic exercise more than a spiritual one. This may be a big problem with our seminaries, although I haven't attended one.

I think the best thing for our era is to drop these systematic theologies, and dictionary approaches, and really dig into the story ourselves and let the Spirit speak to us. I love our current pastor's preaching. His preaching is not academic or systematic - it really speaks to the heart. This book primarily spoke to the mind, and did not have many words for the heart.

Been blogging for a while

My previous post was my 500th post in LostLifeFound.

My first post was March 14th, 2006. It is titled "Lost life found" and says "Matthew 16:25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."

I have created a post every 2.38 days in the 39 month life of LostLifeFound.

The highlight was when Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, sent me a book and a personal note after he read my blog review of his book.

Best of May 2009

May and June have flown by. Partly because of Corporate Challenge events - softball, track. Next I have bowling and swimming. I also would rather spend time renovating the house than blogging, and we are finally getting some traction on painting and decorating.


Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time:I did not see a movie that I liked - only saw two.

Best Book I Read: Didn't complete any major books

Best Life Happenings:

• Took the Bades to see Devin at the Improv. Then they took us to lunch at Hereford House.
  
• Vince broke a string and hit himself with his guitar.
  
• Led worship at church in the absence of Tim and Vince. It was the first time I led worship in the sanctuary, and it went really well.
  
• Emily's wedding - my solo went well
• Ran into 2 people I hadn't seen in over 6 years at Chipotle, and from two different worlds in my history, in the same visit. They didn't know each other, and were sitting right by each other.
  

Worst Life Happenings:

• Tried to sell awnings, but only got one email of interest. Ended up giving them away to the people who drive around and pick up trash
  
• Ran the KCCC 5K - resulting in almost the exact same time as last year! I was hoping for some improvement since I'm in better shape. Granted, the course changed and that confused me a bit.
  

Best online video I watched for the First time: Persistence Hunt





Picture(s) of the Month by our camera.


Sophie at the brunch in Manhattan

Restaurant Review: C. Jacks Sidewalk Cafe

I went to this new place with Courtney for lunch. I basically picked a location on the map (69th and Mission) that is somewhat between our work places, and found a restaurant there, and that is where we went. I picked a place that Courtney would like - basically with a lot of bread. That was a sacrificial option, because I can't eat bread, and I was left to eat a salad.

Now, normally at restaurants, the salads are filling. The salad I got with turkey and ham did not have enough meat in it. I left feeling like I had snacked on some lettuce. Actually, I think I was robbed, because when I eat salads at Panera or Wendys, I am quite full afterwards, and I'm pretty sure those places were cheaper.

The place also had weird acoustics because it was so small. With just a handful of people in the restaurant, I felt like I was at an indoor swimming pool, where the sound bounces of the walls and you can't hear anything.

We walked around the shopping area a little bit afterwards. Overall it was nice to see somewhere new and to take my wife out to lunch. I enjoyed my drive to the place, which was a path that I had never taken before.

I stopped by Toon Shop afterward. I didn't remember how awkward of a place that was. It was completely silent, when I walked in, the workers looked at me as I was the only customer all week, and people repeatedly asked me if I needed any help, of which I needed none. I am rather picky with music store employees. They should just leave you alone in my opinion, and if you need help, they need to be available. It doesn't help that many music store owners seem to be on the brink of not making a profit, and probably put pressure on their employees. Toon Shop does have a good selection of sheet music, but I'd much rather visit the Mountain Music Shoppe with its laid back atmosphere and nice selection of instruments.

Movie Review: Night at the Museum

This 2006 movie is about a museum of natural history in NYC, where all of the statues of animals and people come to life. A new night guard, played by Ben Stiller, was desperate for a job, and is initially daunted by the surprising task to keep the museum in order. He only keeps working to impress his son, and then has to save the day from the enemy - which is surprisingly the previous guards.

I loved the cast, especially Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney, who play two of the previous night guards. I also like Robin Williams and the actress who was Audrey in 24. But the story fell flat for me. I think if I was 9 years old, I would have really loved this movie. The movie was funny, but the end really was poor to me. The night guard (Larry)'s job was to keep all of the creatures inside of the museum. Of course they are all outside at one point. The final climax of the movie is going to be how to get all of them inside. But then all it takes is for the Pharoah to say a little spell, and then they all go back to the museum. And then it's all wrapped up nicely. The son and the hot museum tour guide love Larry. And so do all of the animals and living wax figures. Even his boss loves him, because visitors come streaming into the museum because of the previous night's antics. And he will apparently spend the rest of his life working $11.50 as a night guard, just because it's that good.


The special effects were very good. But as a whole, the movie fell short of my expectations.

Movie Review: Shrek the Third

This movie is worth watching for the special effects, if nothing else. Several times in the movie, it looked like it was actually filmed. The way that nature acts, or that hair flows in the wind, are all depicted just like reality. It's notable that the movie does not take place in a real world, but that the laws of gravity and nature are usually the same.

I don't usually read online reviews, but I needed a little help on this one. I liked a review that said that the movie plot is basically a repeat of the first Shrek. In the first, Shrek goes and gets Fiona and they argue along the way, and then become close by the end. In the second, it's the same thing, except Shrek goes to get Arthur. Also, Shrek gets rescued by the cast of fairy tale characters in both. the reviews also claimed that Shrek the Third relies too much on body humor again, and that inserting rock songs is too cliche now.

I think reviewers tend to be overly cynical. I love the humor in the movie. I didn't like the new character of Arthur, because he didn't have a consistent personality at all. Is he a wimp or is he tough? Is he nice or mean?

An exciting arrest next to our house

Here is the story of when the police called in a SWAT team to retrieve our neighbor from his house. A couple of weeks later, the guy was back mowing his lawn. I guess when you want to arrest someone, you really want to do it, regardless of how long they will be jailed.



I opened my blinds while I ate breakfast as usual, but this time there was a police officer with a rifle pointed at my neighbor's house. So I woke up Courtney and we watched the situation unfold.



Then I looked out the front door, and could see officers there with guns pointed at my neighbors house. Check out this guy in camo, with our Jeep in the foreground.



Courtney had to teach Sunday School. And it was weird to go outside while there were guns drawn. She didn't know if she was allowed to leave the house, but we asked an officer to make sure. I stayed behind to see what happened. Then a big armored vehicle pulled up to the house. It used loudspeakers to negotiate with the suspect.




Then nothing happened for about 30 minutes. I tried to do other things while keeping an eye what was happening. Eventually the SWAT team (called STAR team here!) showed up and began preparing for action. I was being discreet, basically opening the front door slightly and taking the picture.



Then around 10:20, they suddenly stormed the house, so I started taking a video. I've never taken a video with this camera before. At the end you'll see that the rescue vehicle drove up and parked in exactly the wrong spot.



The rescue vehicle blocked my view of the guy surrendering, but I took an interesting picture of the officers on the side of the house.



Finally, the man surrendered and in this picture he is in the police car. The STAR team is packing up. Notice the police dog?




Here is an article about what happened

http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2009/apr/05/police-respond-after-man-barricades-himself-shawne/

At 6:39 a.m., police responded to a physical disturbance between an unmarried couple at a house. The woman escaped to a neighbor's house and called 911. When police arrived, the man locked himself in the residence, where a standoff ensued.

Movie Review: The Deer Hunter

This movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1978.

It is a fictional story about some guys who play Russian roulette. The Vietnam War is chosen as the reason for this behavior, since the war was very popular to dump on in those days.

The original cover art shows what Russian roulette is all about:

(removed it because I was tired of seeing it)

http://www.kenwyatt.co.uk/images/the_deer_hunter.jpg


But honestly, the brutality of Russian roulette is not my objection with this movie. The Russian roulette scenes tended to be well performed. My main objection is the way that the plot drags on and is unclear. First of all, the wedding scene at the beginning is pretentious - by the end of the scene, the length of a normal movie has almost passed. Even though a few key things happen, the scene causes the movie to get off to a slow start. Then the deer hunting scenes don't seem to be significant enough to call the movie "Deer Hunter". Robert De Niro plays the deer hunter, but the movie seems to not really be about him, but about the friendship between all of the guys.

The first war scene is terribly unclear about what is happening, and then after that, the viewer doesn't really know what the characters are thinking, or what has happened to them. Toward the end, I was mostly rooting for the movie to be over, and didn't care anymore.

Here is the altered movie cover on the DVD that we had, which I think further confuses the viewer that the movie is going to be about deer.



But I will grant to you that there were several memorable scenes, and several scenes of good acting. I also enjoyed seeing Meryl Streep in an early movie.

Book Review: The Little Brown Book of Corporate Advancement

This gift from Michele contributed to the hilarity on my birthday at Waldo Pizza. You know, the whole place singing happy birthday and making my face red. Then getting this funny book was a nice added touch. The tag line is "The Employee Handbook for Brown-nosing Your Way to the Top".

The book is really not naughty or anything - most of the advice in the book is actually quite reasonable, but with a little sarcasm and some wit.

One of the first parts I read was also one of the funniest. It is Possible Hallway Greetings. Here a couple of them.

"How's It Going?" There's another human being in your vicinity! You can't register anything more specific

"There He/She Is!" Useful for when you really can't remember their name, but it's pretty clear what gender they are.


I also enjoyed the part about office sports. "If corporate softball is 'a chance to have some fun', why does it seem to matter more than anything else?" "Clearly, if you don't have it in you, you can't be a great softball player, but it would be a nice gesture to record the team's stats on a spreadsheet which you update every game so the boss can carry it around on his personal organizer"

The book explains common acronyms and jargon like "circle back", "downloading", "leverage", and "ping". It even has a jargon generator...I chose the word "Mission" from Column A, and mixed it with "Specific" from Column B and I have my new jargon "Mission Specific". I'm totally going to make up some words and start dropping them on people.

I also like the part where it pokes fun at popular business books, such as the ones that I've read : "How To Win Friends and Influence People", "Who Moved My Cheese", and "Freakonomics". "...if your boss or colleagues read them and start to apply what they learn. This can be incredibly disruptive: Clearly the law of averages and common sense suggests that at least a percentage of these works are written by charlatans who have nothing wise to say and no idea how to run a business. If your boss applies their ideas the result is likely to be chaos."

Overall, it was a fun and easy read, and I'll share it with some other people.

Running towards the goal

We are training for our annual Fourth of July Freedom Run.



My dad is the crazy one in the corner. Click on the picture to see his face!

Weddings are happy

We will be celebrating my cousin's wedding this weekend.

Coming up

Blog posts coming up:

• Review of The Little Brown Book of Corporate Advancement (thanks michele!)
• Review of the 1978 Best Picture winner The Deer Hunter
• STAR Team pictures. I realized I never made a blog post about that
• An inevitable post about Emily and Alan's wedding
  

Restaurant Review: Rice House

I'm kind of tired of writing reviews for Chinese take out places. This place at 87th & Lackman, in the old Dairy Queen, is just the same as all of the others. Ugly pictures of the menu above the counter, a picture of some Chinese landscape on the wall, cheap furniture, boxes stacked up in the corner. ( By the way, why did Dairy Queen go out of business? There are no other ice cream places around there. )

When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was the gold pot-bellied dancing Buddha on the counter. Or whatever it was. The person taking the order made a decent attempt at being friendly. The food was not as good as Taste of China, which is near 79th and Quivira. The portions are large, but I did pay for it as well - around $8.

Movie Review: Saturday Night Fever (1977)

This movie was recommended to me by one of my favorite coworkers. He is definitely the best at what he does. ( And he reads my blog). He reminded me on several occasions to watch this movie, saying that it a movie about a person putting aside his childish ways and becoming a man. Plus, the music is awesome. ("Bee Gees rule! he says")

I totally agree about the music - I had it in my head for a couple of weeks, and I realized disco is not that bad. But the plot left a lot to be desired. What I thought would be an entertaining movie about dancing, was more about a teen (Tony, played by John Travolta) who hangs around the wrong people, including having a bad family situation. So the gang he hangs out with are not good guys - lots of cussing, sex in the back of cars, fighting, drinking, drugs - and this goes on the entire movie. This was kind of a surprise for me - I guess I thought it would be more of a family film, or at least more mainstream, since it is a famous movie. In the 70s they made a PG version so that more people would see the movie, but our library has the original rated R version.

Tony's family treats him like dirt, and thinks his brother who became a priest is the best - it actually was interesting how this brother leaves the church, and this makes Tony feel better about himself. Tony is rude to his current dancing partner, who really likes him. He then leaves her for another partner that is not part of the gang. The new partner shows him that he can have a future, because she has gotten a job in Manhattan. But apart from his mad dancing skills and job at the painting store, he is pretty much not getting ahead, until the last 2 seconds of the movie where he decides to leave his old ways behind.

Best of April 2009

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Annie Hall

Best Book I Read: A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLaren

Best Life Happenings:

• BDay at Waldo Pizza
  
• Played Simon & Garfunkel songs for the RFKC talent show
  
• The police situation outside our house, where they stormed the house with a SWAT team. Only good in the sense that it was exciting
  
• Finished trim in living room, then we moved furniture back. Hung some doors back on
• Arkansas Trip
  

Worst Life Happenings:

Didn't really write down any

Best online video I watched for the First time: Lucky's Funeral




2nd place: Kite Aerial Photography


Picture(s) of the Month by our camera.
SWAT Team and my car in the foreground



Pierces


Shelby

Book Review: A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLaren

A New Kind of Christian is a story of a pastor who is beginning to question the current way of doing things, and his new friend, who is a human encyclopedia about church history and church issues. Together, the friends discuss how the church can become something new.

For the sake of making things easier, I will refer to the characters by their first names. The pastor's name is Dan. The new friend is named Neo.

Pastor Dan's problem in particular is he is becoming detached from what is expected of him. He explains to Neo, "It's not just burnout. It's more like I'm losing my faith - well, not exactly that, but I fell that I'm losing the whole framework for my faith. I keep pushing things into....the little systems I got in seminary and even before that....But life is too messy to fit"

I love Neo's response. "Daniel, I think you're suffering from an immigration problem...You have a modern faith you have developed in your homeland of modernity. But you're immigrating to a new land, a postmodern world. You feel like you don't fit in either world. You can't decide whether to settle in a little ghetto or to move out into the new land. But you can't make the transition to the other side alone"



In their next meeting, over coffee, Neo explains that the Modern era began around 1500, and Neo claims that era is ending and being replaced by postmodernism. Some characteristics of the modern age are secular science, objectivity, analysis, machines, individualism, consumerism.

After this meeting, Dan writes in his diary that the phrase "God is in control" must have meant something completely different before the age of complex machines. He writes "we run the risk of importing and imposing our modern conceptions of clockwork, operation, mechanism onto [God]"

Christianity has interpreted the Bible in a scientific, mechanistic way, as if it is "God's encyclopedia, God's rule book, God's answer book". Neo summarizes "I think when you let go of the Bible as God's answer book, you get it back as something so much better....it tells the family story...a book that tells us who we are and what story we find ourselves in so that we know what to do and how to live". "I wonder what would happen if we honestly listened to the story and put ourselves under its spell, so to speak, not using it to get all of our questions about God answered..."

More profound thoughts from Neo
About sharing the gospel: "If Christians would take all the energy we put into proving we're right and others are wrong and invested that energy in pursuing and doing good, somehow I think that more people would believe we are right" A memorable section that I can't find relates that being friends with someone just to share Christ is not real friendship, and ultimately cheapens us and our message.

About other religions: "I'd have to say that the world is better off for having these religions than having no religions at all, or just one, even if it were ours. I wonder if these other religions might have a role much like Paul described for the Old Testament law back in Galatians - they serve as tutors or caretakers that preserve a culture until Christ can come to it with his good news. They aren't the enemy of the gospel, in my mind, any more that Christianity is the enemy - though of course, sometimes it is" (If you don't get this point, talk to me. Most people my age understand this concept of Christianity getting in the way of Christ.)

The rest of the book is not necessarily as captivating; it was perhaps written for people further along than me in thinking about these things. It's a good book - I want to read it again sometime. It was Courtney's birthday book to me, meaning that she gave it to me on her birthday for me to read. Her previous birthday books have scored #1 and #2 on my Best of the Year Lists.

Arkansas Trip - Wedding Anniversary 3

Arkansas got chosen as state #3 because it was within driving distance. Sure, we could have flown somewhere with low cost. But we didn't consider it. It turned out to be good because we spent time with family. Next time around I think I'll be ready for more adventure in some random state far away.

The lesson learned in this trip is to completely discuss all plans with your family ahead of time. It is not ideal to search the Internet for stuff to do WHILE in that town! It all turned out fine, but I can go without the stress. And to further reduce stress, we will definitely buy GPS before our next driving trip. I think I have always gotten lost on the way to places, but I didn't really notice until I got married and had someone get impatient with me for getting lost. To me, a main goal of trips should be to have low stress. I feel that having GPS and planning ahead are things I learned for next time.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

I am a very slow packer and reluctant to leave the house, so the fact that we left ahead of the planned time was an accomplishment. Courtney drove the first part of the way, all the way to Springfield. Along the way we made a stop at Osceola Cheese. When we drove up I said "I thought it would be a lot classier." The outside look didn't matter. They have hundreds of cheese samples it seems, and a lot of creative flavors, such as Taco, Pepperoni, Spicy Garden Vegetable, Hickory, and so on. We chose a gift for Uncle Paul and Aunt Martha, and settled on the Basil Tomato Cheese and we also got a summer sausage.





o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

As you drive into Arkansas from Branson, it gets really curvy and hilly. The scenery is beautiful, and I saw some camping areas that I'd revisit if I ever get into camping. A few hours later we reached Bradford, AR, the home of my aunt and uncle.


o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Paul and Martha live in a house with a long driveway. They have two dogs - one black one that barked at us the whole time, and didn't get close to us. He "took his job seriously". Then they also have a golden retriever that wanted lots of attention. Uncle Paul was mowing and welcomed us in, and Aunt Martha was visiting her mother, who had fallen recently and was in the hospital. He cut up the sausage and cheese we brought, and we caught up. Aunt Martha came later and we had a nice dinner together. Then we talked in the living room and caught up some more.


Me and the nice Golden Retriever


This clock is in their kitchen


The next day we went out and played disc golf, especially because rain was in the forecast for later that week, and we wouldn't get the chance later on. Uncle Paul went along. The course was in a town about 20 minutes down the highway. We got turned around and had to ask for directions at a gas station, and no one knew where the road was. And they pulled out a map, and it happened to be about 2 streets down. We couldn't find the first tee, but a shirtless middle aged man (it wasn't hot outside) sitting in a car told us all about the course. We had fun completing the course, and headed back to town. We had dinner with the family again, and packed up and headed down to Little Rock.

Courtney captured this stunning photo in Bradford, next door to their house:


o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

At the Ramada hotel we were greeted by a sign printed that said the pool was closed - sorry for the inconvenience. We didn't bring bathing suits, but we believe there should be some accountability for hotels and travel sites to communicate about broken amenities. The person at the desk was not really that friendly - and I signed a couple of things and gave a card for incidental damage. It was just not that welcoming. But the only thing that matters in hotels is a comfortable sleep, and we got that.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

In the morning we picked up Jennifer (got slightly lost along the way, even though it's a mile away from the hotel). She directed us to the Big Dam Bridge. There were two 5Ks ending, so we had to park a ways away, and we walked to the bridge




We headed down to the Clinton Presidential Museum. It truly is partisan and self-aggrandizing. I mentioned this and Jennifer said, "Are you really surprised?" The silence on the issue of Monica Lewinsky was screaming out in my opinion. But it is a good museum in the sense that it chronicles a lot of the political and cultural events of the 90s. It also has an impressive collection of gifts to the president from many countries.



We found a place to park and a place to eat at the River Market - Big Whiskey Bar and Grill. We really got to get to know Jennifer better. Then we *should* have walked down the street and gone to the Old State House museum because it was still open, but we did visit Ten Thousand Villages and some girly store. Then we went to Jennifer's apartment and played some Settlers of Catan. And we had dinner at Caruso's and continued to hang out with Jennifer, and then we took her to get her car from the shop, and headed back to the hotel.


o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Sunday was my favorite day of the trip, because it was the least filled with uncertainty about what we were going to do. This has to do with how Courtney researched things to do and wrote down directions to everything.

First stop: the Central High School museum. This is right across from the high school and chronicles when the 9 Black students showed up to the integrated school and were greeted by a mob. And the military came in to help the students go to class. Just imagine how they were treated on the inside. This museum is spectacular.



Second stop: Riverfront. We didn't really find the "art on the riverfront" but we had fun walking around. We eventually went inside the hotel there and looked at the trained ducks that they have in the lobby. We took a ride up and down the elevator.

We went next door to the Old State House museum. This was the previous state capitol building until it deteriorated in the early 1900s. The first area had documentation on how they made the building a museum. "A museum about the museum." But there were better things, like recreated rooms with original style of furnishings, and first lady of Arkansas inaugural gowns.

Then we drove across the river to get a tour of the Inland Maritime Museum. It's an old submarine that is sitting in the harbor.




We left the submarine museum and headed West, then North through the scenic route through the mountains to Fayetteville.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

When we arrived at the hotel in Fayetteville, the receptionist said, Mr. Gras? I asked how he knew, and he replied sarcastically "We're really busy." We watched the Simpsons, and then decided on a place to eat. Then we cruised around the U of A. It is really compact, and has less green space than K-State. I'd say it's not impressive looking for a major state university. But the sports complex is right on campus, which is nice.

In the morning we decided to go to Devils Den State Park, which is 30 minutes South of Fayetteville. I really enjoyed it. I think the most fun things Courtney and I have done on trips are the outdoor/ hiking things. We took a nice hike and looked at caverns and waterfalls. Then we headed back home. state #3 down. Happy 3 year anniversary!!

Movie Review: Annie Hall

This Woody Allen film had the distinction of beating Star Wars for Best Picture in 1977. It was actually one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. But not more deserving of Best Picture than Star Wars.

The opening scene was very good:



The "free love" and drug cultures were portrayed really well - I expected to see more of that in the 60s movies, but I guess the 70s is the time for that too. I wasn't sure what to expect from Woody Allen, who is generally known as a perverted old man. And his character was quite obsessed with sex, but came across as very endearing, funny man. The one-liners he shoots out are terrific, and it was a very good acting job, it almost looked improvised. Diane Keaton did a great job in her role, adding a lot of stuttering to the speech and clumsiness.

Paul Simon plays a role, and a young Christopher Walken has a very funny scene.

There are many creative film making methods in the movie, it seemed like they threw everything in there, such as freezing the frame as Allen's character speaks to the camera, or showing him as an animated character, and many other memorable things.

Book Review: 48 Days to the Work You Love, by Dan Miller

I checked out this book because it is recommended by Dave Ramsey, and quite honestly there was a scare several months ago at work, and I became interested in career books. The book is so popular at the library, that I waited 3 months to get it, and I had to read it in about 3 weeks, or else I was going to wait another 3 months to finish it. The fear and died down and things have settled, but I was still interested in reading the highly recommended book.

• I recommend it for Christians, because it speaks to issues that Christians have. It particularly addresses the misconception that you can sit on your butt and wait on God to provide for you. You should go out and work hard for the career that you want.
  
• Addresses the changing workplace. Due to changing technology, most of us will be doing jobs in 7 years that do not currently exist.
  
• Otherwise it is a typical career book - tries to apply to every career - and never written by an IT person -mostly directed readers who are unhappy in their careers or unemployed and has a section on starting your own business - sections on finding a career, changing careers, and applying for jobs, and interviewing. Along the way, it has lots of inspiring anecdotes and stories.

I recommend it as a one-size-fits-all "find a career book". By the way, the name "48 days" has nothing to do with the book. They just wanted to make the title catchier.

Good videos

I am posting some videos outside of my Best of the Month posts, because I came across a few good ones.

These are all thanks to Kim Komando's Video of the Day - see my Video of the Day link on the right-hand side of my blog.


What would happen if your local bank failed? Scott Pelley and ''60 Minutes'' were given extraordinary access, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation moves in to take over a failed bank in Chicago.





This YouTube video is about an unusual photography technique. A photographer can snap pictures from the ground. And a plane can carry a camera high into the air. But that leaves an interesting low-flying area in-between.

This is where Architecture Professor Chris Benton likes to take photos. And he has some unorthodox methods. He uses customized kites equipped with a camera control rig. Benton builds this equipment himself in a basement workshop.





Here’s a look behind the scenes of home foreclosures. When a bank takes a home, the occupants have to go. They are given time to make plans and move. But many residents end up leaving in a hurry.

Few actually clean the home on their way out. In fact, some barely move out at all. Foreclosed homes are often left full of abandoned belongings. Cleaning out these homes has become a lucrative business.

The men hired to do this work are called trashout squads. But what is it like, throwing away other people’s things? Follow a Trashout Squad in this video.

Restaurants of Arkansas

We visited 3 new restaurants in Arkansas.

Big Whiskey's Bar and Grill Located in the River Market Area of Little Rock, right down the street from the Clinton Presidential Museum, which we visited immediately before. It offered a smoke free environment and good food - I had a loaded baked potato - good stuff. Jennifer (cousin) treated us to the meal - I was going to pay for her - but that was so nice! It started pouring when we were inside, and we ended up running in the rain to the shops nearby.

Carino's Italian Located in West Little Rock and was really great Italian food. You know what, they had a gluten free guide online! I had the lemon rosemary chicken, and it was better than that sounds - it was stronger on the lemon, weaker on the rosemary. It was a nice environment with good service. And it provided for a good evening activity and one last time spent with Jennifer. (Found out while writing this that one of these is by the Legends in KCK)

AQ Chicken House We were cruising around Fayetteville looking for a place to eat. The original planned place looked like a dingy bar, but down the street we found the AQ Chicken House. The inside is decorated in a weird way - the wallpaper on the ceiling, golden borders, chandeliers - I am not an observant person, but I noticed that the decor was wacky. I wasn't sure if I could eat anything. The waitress plopped down a basket of buttery rolls at the beginning - kind of the chicken house version of chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant. But there were several possiblities on the menu - I had the lemon catfish on rice. I enjoyed it.

Busy week - renovations, Easter, friends, and Arkansas trip

My strong desire is to document our trip extremely well on this blog. With many pressing things to do, that probably won't happen. But I will get pictures posted somewhere. Until I can get something better here is my sketched out notes about our week

4/11/09 Finished trim in living room, then we moved furniture back. Hung some doors back on

4/12/09 Easter at CCC. Andrew Taussigs visited our house. Then we spent the evening with the Bades.

4/13/09 Went to Audrey's parents' house and played Blokus and Rock Band

4/14/09 BJ and Natosha stayed at our house and we ate at OK Joe's and toured the Plaza.

4/15/09 Took the day off but spent most of it doing finances which I hadn't touched for March and April

4/16/09 Left on time for Arkansas. Stopped at Osceola Cheese. Drove through Branson, through mountains, and arrived in Bradford. Talked with Uncle Paul, and Aunt Martha arrived later. Aunt Martha's mother had fallen and gotten a fracture. I was really tired (look at the 5 previous days), so we didn't do much in the evening.

4/17/09 Walked around the property. Played disc golf in Searcy (I need GPS). Had dinner, and drove down to Little Rock.

4/18/09 Picked up Jennifer (got lost - need GPS). Walked on pedestrian bridge. Went to Clinton Library. Had lunch afterwards at River Market. Went to Jennifer's apartment and played Settlers. Had Italian dinner. Took Jennifer to get her car. Went to hotel.

4/19/09 Visited Little Rock Central High School museum, across from the high school. Visited riverfront, while it was raining. Took picture by the river. Visited Peabody hotel with the ducks. Visited Old State House next door. Visited submarine museum. Drove to Fayetteville - took scenic route on 71 Hwy.

4/20/09 Went to Devil's Den State Park and hiked a trail. Stopped by Fayetteville National Cemetary. Went home. (Wrote this post!)

Waking up Canadian

I found it interesting that Canada changed some laws, and now some people "woke up Canadian" today. It is of special interest to me since I am a Canadian citizen. My citizenship was never in doubt since I was born there.

This ad that they made to spread the information seems to make fun of Canada


The government web site here, to see if you are Canadian: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules-citizenship.asp.

arkansas is beautiful

Arkansas is beautiful, and Paul and Martha's house/acreage is as well. The property goes back about half a mile, and the house is back from the road, with a long driveway. We are going to play disc golf with Uncle Paul. He had never heard of it before. But there is a course in the town where Martha's mother lives, about 30 minutes away. It's really warm, so I might wear some shorts. It's going to be rainy when we are in Little Rock, so it is good that we are playing disc golf now, in case we don't have the opportunity later.

Together for 5 years

Courtney and I have been together long enough to have 5 years of pictures!!

Here are pictures from around April each of the past 5 years

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Movie Review: Bound for Glory, Not Blades of Glory

This movie was nominated for Best Picture in 1976. I knew it would be a risk for a waste of time, because as we know even today nominees can be not worth watching. But what pulled me in was that the movie reviews said it was a good depiction of the Dust Bowl. Courtney just read a book called The Worst Hard Time about the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, so I thought this movie would be a good bookend on our learning about that. It is also a movie about Woody Guthrie, and musicians interest me.



The movie indeed was interesting about this time period. Woody Guthrie left his family for California when the economy was suffering in Oklahoma. His journey was amazing. But the second half of the movie documented Woody Guthrie's California life in painstaking detail. This California isn't even the time period where he became famous.

Ironically you end up hating Woody Guthrie after the movie, even though it is based off of Woody Guthrie's autobiography. He left his family multiple times, and had integrity with his music and with "the people", and no integrity in other areas of his life.

I don't know if it was worth watching or not. Let's say not.

Not to be confused with Blades of Glory, which I don't plan on seeing:

Best of March 2009

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Jaws

Best Book I Read: Not any

Best Life Happenings:

• Joined a small group at church
  
• Dr. Kwon fixed my car for free - putting a bolt on a part that was loose
  
• Played bass for children's musical "It's Cool in the Furnace"
  
• Courtney made fajitas with some really nice big gluten-free tortillas!
• Watched RiffTrax to the Matrix.
• Church passed vision statement 155-17.
  

Worst Life Happenings:

• 
  
• A couple of coworkers quit

Best online video I watched for the First time: Kittens Inspired By Kittens





2nd place: Miniatur Wunderland


Picture(s) of the Month by our camera.
Ice Storm in Late March

Bday

Here are some pics from my birthday

Book Review: The Obama Nation

I finally finished this - it has been popular with library patrons, so i've had some extended times of waiting to get the book. I think I started reading it in November.

The 2nd half of the book was a real bore - I felt like I was living through the Presidential campaign all over again, and we've all had enough of that!

The 1st half was really good - explaining Obama's history from childhood to Chicago.

Short points:

• It is extraordinary how dysfunctional Obama's family was during his childhood. His father had three wives at the same time, left the family to go to Harvard. Eventually he died while driving drunk in Africa. Obama's mom then married an Indonesian muslim. Then she left Obama by himself in Hawaii to be raised by his grandparents. The one good thing that came out of it was that Obama's grandmother made a good income and they were able to send him to a good private high school. I wonder if there are any other presidents with such a broken family life.
• For a lot of his life, Obama has hung around and admired people who were Communists and socialists
  
• The author was really cocky about how certain issues were going to bring down Obama's candidacy. "...and this is why McCain will win in November...
  
• Obama was good friends with a former terrorist, Bill Ayres, starting his political career in his house.
• He won his first election by getting everyone else disqualified from the ballot, including the person who generously introduced him to people to get him started in politics.
  
• Obama was part of a church for years that is anti-American and that has strong anti-White rhetoric. Not only that, but they are kooky, thinking that the American government created the AIDS virus to hurt Black people.

On this side of things, Obama's socialist tendencies are really disturbing. We can only hope that his policies don't screw up the country too much.

Typical Chinese place and Riff Trax

I have some catchup to do here...

Last weekend we hung out with some old friends of Courtney's as has been documented many places. It snowed, as you all know.

Instead of going out to eat, we went to go eat Subway. Since I can't eat anything there, I went next door to Chinatown Restaurant. It is one of those hole-in-the-wall chinese places. It was so typical with the ghastly pictures of all the plates above the counter, and a big picture of a Chinese mountain with a tree. It was very fast - 5 minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't think it tasted that great. I should have tried Fritz's Chili which is a little bit further down.

Then Brian got a movie projector, and we watching the Matrix, except we turned the volume down on the Matrix, and also played something called RiffTrax. RiffTrax is guys making wisecracks during the movie - by the same people that did Mystery Science 3000. It's really funny - you should try it out. http://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax/matrix

Poll: Pizza

Should I get

• Sausage and onion
• Veggie: Mushrooms • Onions •Green Peppers • Black Olives • Red Peppers • Artichokes
• Or, something with Sun-dried tomatoes...

I went about 5 years (2002-2007) without eating pizza from restaurants, and then I ate at Waldo Pizza three times last year. I'm excited to go again for my birthday dinner tonight.

Here's the menu: http://www.waldopizza.net/glutenfree.pdf