Movie Review: Help!

Kenny Bade recommended this movie, and it is the Beatles 2nd movie. The Beatles go around in a slapstick comedy. If you want a plot, go here.

They were a little difficult to understand, so we turned on subtitles. In the special features, we learned that the Beatles were smoking marijuana the whole time, and they remember it as a happy time in their lives.

The movie itself was funny in a slapstick kind of way, and featured a few full band performances. But don't watch it unless you are interested in the Beatles. Since we are fans, it was fun to see the footage of them.

Movie Review: The Guns of Navarone (1961)

Once again, when Courtney was gone, I picked up a movie. This one is a war movie, so thought she wouldn't feel like she was missing out. It was nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture in 1961, the year that West Side Story won. Judgment at Nuremburg and The Hustler were also nominated that year.

The Guns of Navarone features Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn. David Niven had a disappointing performance - I think it was actually a miscast. These were all supposed to be rough characters in my mind, but he was cheery. I couldn't see him outside of the personality he played in Around the World in 80 Days (1956). The acting appears to be really bad overall, but I realize now it's just the way that movies were written back then. I'm sure they acting well according to the style of the day. The characters are just not believable today.

The story is not really believable either. The characters are British soldiers embarking on a quest to "take out" (remove) some huge guns that are guarding a coast. They are able to do it eventually after many trials. I think fiction is not as good as movies based on real life. In this case, the time period and geography are in real life, but not the story itself.

But apart from the bad elements, I did enjoy the special effects. The soldiers have to climb a huge cliff in the rain, after being shipwrecked. As you can imagine that is pretty cool. Then there are a lot of tanks and heavy weaponry in the movie. And there are lots of things being blown up. So I think that is really impressive.

Here's a trailer if you want a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpMonrArlHI

Movie Review: Bullitt

This is my 100th movie review in LostLifeFound. It's kind of hard to believe that I've watched that many movies. I think it comes out to about 2.5 movies per month. Before marriage, I was kind of a casual movie watcher, very rarely watching them, and strictly for entertainment. Now, it has become more of a hobby. I see movies as works of art, because they really are. Something that looks simple on screen often has taken a lot of planning and thought in the background. Something that looks difficult on screen has taken a ton of money and even more time. So that is, in the end, really entertaining to watch.

I heard about this film while watching the special features of The French Connection. They were talking about how the French Connection succeeded in outdoing the car chase scene of Bullitt.

So when Courtney went out of town for CHIC, I was looking for movies that I'd like to see that she wouldn't like to see. So I picked up this Bullitt.

Basic premise: A detective (Bullitt, played by Steve McQueen) is asked to protect a special witness to a trial, and the Chicago mob is trying to kill the witness. There is a politician that is putting pressure on the cops to protect his star witness. So it's kind of a suspenseful movie where the mob is trying to sneak around and kill people, and the good guys are trying to sneak around to protect themselves. Then there is a car chase scene where they finally meet each other.

In the end, the story does not make a ton of sense. But it is still enjoyable. Bullitt's girlfriend, played by Jacqueline Bisset, doesn't move the plot along at all, but is just there to personalize Bullitt. The politician is completely inhuman and only cares about his power. He threatens to slander the cops if they don't protect the witness.

The late 60s sound track was fun...with the jazzy orchestra type of music that adds to the suspense.

July through the years

Courtney decided to make an effort to lose weight in the summer of 2008. Look at the difference between 2008 and 2009, then leave a comment if you wish.

2005 - about 2 months before engagement:

2006 - July 4th Freedom Run:

2007 in OKC:

2008 - July 4th at Hope and Jeff's:

2009 - July 4th at Hope and Jeff's:

Best of June 2009

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: Kramer vs. Kramer

Best Book I Read: The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

Best online video I watched for the First time: I saw a lot of good videos

1. Flight of the Conchords - Something for the Ladies
2. Red Green Show - A Handy Computer Desk
3. United Breaks Guitars
4. Perpetuum Jazzile - Africa


Picture(s) of the Month by our camera.
I like these family pictures. We'll call it a tie.








Life Happenings:

I didn't keep track very well last month...busy times though. I'll come back and edit it

The Cause of Global Warming

Michael Jackson thoughts

Micheal Jackson passed away as we all know and here are my thoughts.

When I was growing up in my sheltered environment, I didn't really know who Michael Jackson was. In fact, I kept trying to remember if Jackson was the singer and Jordan was the basketball player, or the other way around. Think like 9 or 10 years old. What little I knew about Jackson I heard mostly from my friends, who made fun of him by twirling around and then grabbing their crotches and making a high pitched noise. I think I was also aware that he was a guy who was trying to look like a woman. I only knew two of his songs, and those were "Bad" and "Beat It". In 1993, Michael Jackson was in the Super Bowl halftime show. And this only confirmed that he was the guy who twirled around and grabbed his crotch, and looked like a woman.

Michael Jackson songs are never played on the radio. I don't know if that is because of copyright laws or because no one wants to hear his music. He had really good songs, but they didn't pass the test of time. Look at classic rock, on the other hand, which is still popular today.

I think he did influence music a lot, and I think his music was really good. And his dancing is really fun to watch. But when the media cites Justin Timberlake as the main person that he has influenced, I think that is a sad legacy. I hate Justin Timberlake's music, if you want to call it music.

I think the media coverage has been appropriate. It is the biggest celebrity death in my lifetime so far. For people who complain about cable media coverage, just turn your TV off, why are you watching news shows that you hate anyway?

But overall I do enjoy Michael Jackson's music and personality, that is, how he was in the 80s.

Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged)

This was over 1200 pages of book, and I completed it in approximately 10 weeks! So I guess that is about 17 pages per day. It was really good, so that wasn't tough to do. Plus, I didn't read much Bible during that time!

The book was originally written in French. There are still French words used like Monsieur and Le Comte. But the translation I read was in English. I wonder how the movie treats this. The actors I'm sure will be speaking English. Will they have French accents? I also wonder how the movie treats the length of the story. I'm sure it does not cover half of what happens in the book. I've also wondered about the abridged version, and what was cut out of there.

The first 300 pages were really riveting...but in the remaining pages the plot slowed down, because. his revenge is quite elaborate...but I'm getting ahead of myself since I want to explain some plot.

Edmond Dantes was a bright and talented sailor. He arrives back home in Marseilles at the beginning of the book. His captain had died during the trip, and he was sure to be promoted. He was excited to see his dear father, whom he saw first, and then his fiancee, whom he decided to get married to the next day.

Dantes' captain had given him a letter when he died, that he was to deliver to an island. He was quite naive and didn't know the contents, but it happened to contain news of a Bonapartist conspiracy. One of his rivals, Danglars, wanted to be captain of the ship, and he had a plan to get Dantes in trouble. Another rival, Fernand, was in love with Mercedes, Dantes' fiancee. So Danglars knew about the secret letter, and told Fernand that he could write a letter to the authorities reporting that Dantes had a letter of interest.

So Dantes was all ready to get married, when the authorities showed up and took him into custody. He would have been found innocent, but there was another twist. The main authority, the crown persecutor, was Villefort. And the letter had some incriminating information about his father. This information would have ruined his own career by association with his father. So he overreacted and put Dantes in jail, in the lowest dungeon, just in case he knew anything about this. Dantes never got to say goodbye to his father or his fiancee.

So probably no one is still reading my review. But I shall continue, but with fewer details.

Dantes meets an old wise man, Faria, who is a prisoner digging through the dungeons. Faria is an academic and an inventor, but the prison guard thinks he is insane. Faria teaches Dantes everything he knows. I won't say how, but finally, Dantes escapes the prison after 14 years, and finds the hidden treasure that Faria told him about on the island of Monte Cristo . From this point on, he is the richest person imaginable in the world, and he plots revenge against the three men that put him in prison.

No one recognizes him because they all believe he's dead, plus he has aged and is pale from being in the dark for so long.

The revenge is quite elaborate, and it's what the rest of the book is about. The book is also about Dantes, now called the Count of Monte Cristo, and how he has become a very smart man, able to come up with elaborate schemes. He has become very talented at everything, including spending his money lavishly. He buys horses that he sees by offering way too much, and rents out an entire hotel, orders fish from across the globe, and many wacky things. A lot of this is to impress all of the people he is trying to get revenge on, because they have all become rich as well. But he makes them look poor in comparison. He wears costumes and plays different roles to trick people.

He has a God complex and claims that God has given him authority to punish those who have done wrong - he truly thinks much of himself, and is a different person than the jovial young man he was at the beginning.

So that's the end of my plot summary...I don't like to share the end, and I'll be watching the movie with Courtney. The writing was quite poetic, and that is possibly more enjoyable than the plot itself. This is another odd thing about it being a translation. Was it more poetic in French, or is the English about the same effect? I'm guessing the same.

In conclusion, I can't imagine writing a book this long, but I HAVE read one! Maybe pick up the abridged version. It's probably decent.

Movie Review: Kramer vs. Kramer

1980 Best Picture Winner

Towards the middle of this movie, I realized I had already seen the end. I don't know when or why, but it was a long time ago, and I remember not liking the movie at all. I was shocked to find out that this was an Academy Award winner. My least favorite types of movies are 1) family conflict and drama, 2) courtroom drama, and this movie has both. But thankfully, there are a few funny scenes in there too that make it better.

The story is about a mother (played by Meryl Streep) that suddenly decides to leave her husband and her son. And then the husband (Dustin Hoffman) had just gotten a promotion that day, and now has to juggle his busy job with raising his young son. And then the father and son bond, but then the mother wants the child back, and there's a custody battle. Courtney cried at the conclusion. I did not react to it, because I knew the whole time what would happen.

I like parts of the movie. There is great acting by Dustin Hoffman and the child actor. There are several funny parts. I can relate now to the husband trying to work at the same time as having family responsibilities.

I like the character played by Dustin Hoffman. At first we think he's a workaholic. But then we learn that he has more of a heart for his son than for his career. And he's a really great guy, and he may not have been good at marriage, but he didn't deserve his wife leaving him.

Trailer:

Book Review: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict, by Mitchell Bard

The name of the book is a misnomer, because I don't know any idiots that would take the time to read a reference book about Middle East conflict. So the name of it is no more than a marketing tool. It is also misleading, because the book is mostly about the history of Israel's conflicts, and not about other conflicts. It is also written from a heavy pro-Israel bias.

That being said, I enjoyed learning about the history of Israel and the other Middle Eastern nations. People complain about US involvement in Iraq, but in Israel war and violence with other nations has been a constant, and residents just have to live with it. Israel has offered some amazing concessions to Palestine, but the Palestinians have turned them down, preferring to wish for the extermination of Israel. There have been fewer attacks since Arafat passed away. Also, every time Israel has won wars and won land, they always give the land back, but still their neighbors constantly want more. Israel constantly improves infrastructure and quality of life, and welcomes people of all races and religions.

I thought to myself that after all of my education up until the age of 23, I was still ignorant about all of this. And today the Middle East is one of the most important areas in our foreign affairs. There is something wrong with our education, don't you think?

Louise and Jeff's wedding

We danced until the end. This was really strange and fun because the only other wedding we've danced at was the Simpson-Fehr wedding. In that one it was impossible not to dance because of the live blues band. We didn't even dance at the wedding in Iowa where I knew absolutely no one. I totally could have had some fun with it. Courtney and I had our first ever conversation at a wedding reception when EVERYONE was dancing except us.

So this is where I found out that Courtney could dance. And she looked hot!

It was the environment (outside), the people that helped us to dance. Once we got to 11:45 pm we knew we could make it to the very end. I know I'm cheesy, but that's how it is.

Someone brought out glow sticks, and we wore them around our necks, wrists and ankles. We danced to standards like Love Shack, Ice Ice Baby, and some other songs I hadn't heard before

I saw a different side of my cousins, who I grew up with, but have been across the country (or continent) since 8-10 years ago. I was surprised that they knew the lyrics to all of these dance songs. Christian kept ordering the DJ what to play next and chiding him for poor song choices like MJ's "Rock With You". The end.

Daniel Sock

I had to throw away my Daniel socks, since the elastic is worn out and there is a hole in the heel. I originally thought I bought these in Australia in 1999, but now I am not sure. Maybe it was a gift from one of my sisters.

These have been my favorite black socks for 10 years.

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.

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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.





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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.


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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:


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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.

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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.


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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.

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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.