old Nav friends

We hung out with some couples last weekend. All of them went to K-State except for Courtney! Only one of the K-Staters was not involved in Navigators - Ben's wife. Also, later on a couple came that went to KSU Icthus and KU Icthus. Courtney was honored to be my wife in front of my old friends.

top row: Ben, Jambo, James, Emily B, Marissa, Emily E, Jacob, Tony

bottom row: Jenny, Maris, Dean, Nathan, me, Courtney, Katie, Derrick

We learned a game called Settlers of Catan. It's not easy for beginners! Katie won.

Restuarant Review: Felitzas Italian Cuisine

Occasion: Ben and Maris Deaver coming to KC to visit

Location: Eastern Wyandotte County

Price: about $15 per entree

Taste: great

Gluten-free items: a nightmare. first of all the menu has a lot of typos. And it is also not great at listing the contents of the dish. I managed to order a non-breaded chicken breast, but in wheat-laden sauce. But I survived with merely an upset stomach.

If you like Italian places, it's worth a visit

Movie Review: Cavalcade

Oscar Best Picture 1933

This movie depicts a family that goes through the Boer War, Titanic sinking, and the Great War (World War I), and then the swinging 20's.

The portion on the Titanic was really lame. After showing some dialogue of two newlyweds, they walk away, and the camera shows a life saving device that says "Titanic" on it. And that is the end of the scene. There is no sinking, and only one mention later that it sank.

Also there was a very annoying depiction of World War I. They showed soldiers marching and closeups of men's faces as they died, while one by one the year flashed on the screen. That went on for 2-3 minutes.

Then there was also a weird depiction of the swinging 20's. The movie seemed to look down on the loose culture of the day. Unusual for Hollywood to do that.

Overall, the movie was "okay". The acting kept us more interested than some of the other old movies did.

Book Review: Prophet, by Frank Peretti

This was possibly the most suspenseful book I've ever read. So it does enough to merit being the book I give Courtney to read for my birthday.

At first I had some qualms about it. There are many anti-abortion, anti-liberal-media, anti-liberal-politics elements, and I thought it may be kooky. But it ended up being a normal objection to those things in society.

John Barrett, a TV anchorman, and his family and friends team up against all of the liberal forces that are against the truth about an abortion clinic cover-up.

Movie Review: Grand Hotel

Academy Awards Best Picture 1932

This was Courtney's favorite old movie so far. And mine also. The plot was interesting, and the character development was well done. We also became more familiar with old-time movie stars such as Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, and Joan Crawford.

Music Worth Listening To

The following records endured the toughest Dan Gras criteria for being "good". (That was a horrible sentence).

Anyway, these CDs must be able to be listened to over and over again. They can be listened to twice in one day, and every day for 2 weeks.

I have 3 to share with you at this time.

1. Shawn McDonald - Simply Nothing

A teenager who Courtney worked with died in a tragic accident after his 16th birthday. His name was Tylor Tarien. This is the CD that was on full blast when the emergency medical workers approached the accident scene.

Tylor's parents distributed copies of this CD to all of his friends. We later bought a real copy when we saw Shawn McDonald in concert. Some songs have references to "leaving this world" and it is an emotional album. I definitely listened to it over and over.

2. Paul Simon - Graceland

This album has South African musicians, and is heavily influenced by South African music. There are excellent lyrics and many cool bass lines. I later found out that it won a Album of the Year Grammy in the 80's. My favorite songs are 'Graceland' and 'You Can Call Me Al'

3. Elvis Costello - The Delivery Man (2001)

This was so creative in both music and lyrics. The lyrics were poetic and were made into great melodies. Elvis Costello is a master at the guitar. I don't know what else to say, except that it is amazing.

Cold Calls

If any of you think it's hard to have conversations with me now, try making a cold call to me. An acquaintance from high school called my parents' house. I have never talked to this guy, was never friends with him, and had no activities with him. Everyone (including my sister and brother in law who were in town) were begging me to call him, because we didn't know why he was calling. Maybe he found Jesus, or was inviting me to a reunion. My dad said he was probably trying to sell me something. Here is the description of the call. I tried to be nice.

CALLER: Hey, so what are you up to?

DAN: I just live around here, and I'm working.

CALLER: So where do you work?

DAN: I work at a small business with computers. What do you do?

CALLER: I'm taking care of a kid I inherited from my girlfried.

DAN: (grunt)

CALLER: Yeah (laughs). So are you currently in college or after college?

DAN: I'm after college. What are YOU up to?

CALLER: I'm trying to give people opportunities who want to earn a little money on the side. Would you like to make money in your sleep?

DAN: No.

CALLER: Wow, you're the first person whose said that all day

DAN: I am kind of unique.

CALLER: Are you sure you don't want to make some money on the side?

DAN: No, I'm all set.

CALLER: So you're into computers. Did you know so-and-so did that?

DAN: No.

CALLER: Yeah, he works with computers.

DAN: Well, good luck!

CALLER: (silence)

DAN: Maybe I'll see you in a couple of years (at the 10 year reunion)

CALLER: (click)

So my dad was right about him selling something . Good job dad! I'm not sure this person received good training, or was following it. I am somewhat a paranoid person, and right out of the gate, he started asking personal questions. This immediately made it awkward for me. He should have explained himself first. Thoughts?

Neighborhood Meeting and Charlie Hall Concert

We went to a neighborhood meeting on Wednesday. We met in a local elementary school. About 10 people were there out of 400 possible households. (I kind of knew that would happen).

The planner (from the City of Shawnee) in charge of our neighborhood looks to be about my age. He opened it up to listen to our comments. Then for the next hour at least, we listened to gripes - some good and some bad. One lady was particularly hilarious. She was mad that people 3 miles away get a city pool, but WHERE'S OUR POOL? Like it's so difficult to drive 3 miles down the road. Another gentleman had very valid concerns but continued on and on after already making his point.


Fast forward to Thursday. I went to a Charlie Hall concert at the church across the street. Here is a picture of him with his excellent facial hair. He spoke about half the time, which I tried to be patient with. And I liked about half of the songs. I enjoyed the songs that were really original.

The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare

This book had pretty much no suspense, and was one big sad story. So it is near the bottom of my list of The Cat Who books.

Sexual and Violent Fiction at the Library

I have recently been browsing the library book shelves for good fiction. I found our beloved "The Cat Who..." series by browsing, and thought I could find some more good books. I was shocked to find that most of the fiction is extremely sexual and violent. It is almost impossible to find a work of modern fiction that is readable. So I decided that I will have to hear about good clean fiction by word of mouth. If you read any good books with no explicit sex scenes and no grotesque depictions of violence, please send them on to me. This is no criticism of public libraries, by the way.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to comment on "Christian fiction". I don't believe in being an isolationist. My solution to the above problem is not to find all of my books in Christian catalogs or stores. I think Christian fiction can be very good (I read 3 Ted Dekker books already this year). However, I do not want to limit my range of reading.

Restaurant Review: A Taste of China

Occasion: To eat

Location: 79th & Quivira - where restaurants never make it

Price: less than $6 each

Taste: great

Gluten-free items: enough. you have to guess, but when you're experienced like me, you can do it.

Service speed: Really fast, but it wasn't exactly rush hour

It was another hole in the wall Chinese place, just like the rest of them. There were 3 pieces of art - 2 paintings of apples, and one photograph of running horses. But the taste was maybe above average. I also wondered how many restaurants have the same name.

Hallympics

Last Friday, my work (StrategicOne) participated in Hallympics. We went around and did competitions such as the Stare-Down, Paper Rock Scissors, the key toss, and paper football field goals. But the funniest things were the Fact or Fiction quiz and the Bizarro.

On the Fact or Fiction quiz, I tied for 1st for the number of people who guessed mine wrong. Only 5 people guessed this correctly.

My two options were:

• I went on a date during college
• I spent a summer in Jamaica on ministry staff

On the Bizarro quiz, next to an outlandish statement, people could write anyone's name.

I won the most votes (7) for "Most likely to be a future American Idol winner"
And I tied with 4 votes for "Most likely to be a superhero (right now) using their job at S1 as a front"

I also received 2 votes for "I would be most afraid of this person if they turned into a werewolf"
I received 1 vote for "This person would be the winner of a StrategicOne cage fighting tournament"

Book Review: A Painted House, by John Grisham

Since this is the first John Grisham book I've read, it is ironic that I chose the only one that is not about lawyers. This is about a 7-year old boy growing up on a cotton farm in rural Arkansas. His family employs hill people and Mexicans on the same day. The rest of the book is about funny or freakish events that happen. Also, it is a good life piece about a farming lifestyle.

Also very cool is how the boy likes baseball. And his uncle is in the army in Korea. I thought my dad would like to read it since he grew up on a farm, likes baseball, and went to Korea. But I don't think my dad is into fiction that much!

I'm still debating whether or not to give this to Courtney as my birthday book. As part of our agreement, I can give her a book to read for my birthday. In fact, I went and picked this one up because I am frantically looking for a book to hand off to her! In summary, I enjoyed the book, and made me thankful that I didn't have to pick cotton all day as a 7-year old.

Movie Review: Cimarron

Academy Best Picture 1931

The sound was horrible. We couldn't understand what anyone said in the first 5 minutes. It had some good racial themes for 1931. A hero was an African American boy. An American Indian was married into the family. A woman became a member of Congress.

It was also a good history lesson about the wildness of the Oklahoma frontier.

I can't wait to see a Best Picture in color though!

Best of February

Best Movie That I Saw: Freedom Writers
Best Book I Read: Red, by Ted Dekker
Best New-To-Me Restaurant: Fronteras, at 79th and Quivira

Throwing Chickens

I never knew about a chicken-throwing tradition at KSU until I read this article.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/6516612

I think the animal rights activists are weird to be concerned about chickens and their intelligence. But I agree that throwing any object on the basketball court is questionable.

Keeping out the Pens

I just want to say that I think KCTV5 and I are responsible for keeping the Pittsburg Penguins from relocating to Kansas City. When team officials heard my opinion on January 4th that "hockey isn't that interesting to watch on TV", they began to have second thoughts about moving to KC. I have no regrets about my opinions and its consequences.

Restaurant Review: Oklahoma Joe's (Olathe)

Occasion: Going out to eat with a client from Washington DC

Location: 119th area in Olathe

Price: I didn't pay!

Taste: great

Gluten-free items: Not so good. I think I got sick.

Service speed: We stood in line for 20 minutes. Not so good.

Movie Review: All Quiet on the Western Front

Oscar Best Picture Winner 1929-1930

Some plot details may follow.

Told from the German point of view in World War I. This movie was banned in some countries, because they viewed it as anti-war. It describes the atrocities of war, and points out the stupidity of it. These German soldiers did not really even know why they were fighting.

This is a movie where everyone dies. When one soldier dies, another one is excited to take the boots of the one who died. They are very nice boots, and the soldier says something along the lines of "Wearing these boots I'll be happy, even on the front lines." Then a couple of scenes later, he is shown with a huge smile, marching in his boots. And then he is shot and killed. Then that is repeated with another soldier wearing the nice boots.

Then towards the end, the main character tells another soldier, "You're the last thing I've got". then within a couple of minutes, his friend is killed by shrapnel from a bomb. Then, finally the movie ends when the main character is killed.

Another memorable scene is after the Germans have been starving in these makeshift underground places while they are being bombed. A couple of them go insane. Then when the bombing stops, then go out into the trenches and gun down the Allied troops that are charging them. The Allied troops one by one are killed by the machine guns.

This is probably the best old movie we've seen so far.

Funny Video: Me Worship

Thanks to courtney for tipping me off to this:



"This amazing collection is great to share with friends, if you have any"