Best of June

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: The Wizard of Oz
Best Life Happening: Shed Removal
Best Book I Read: The Heavenly Man

June saw the lowest number of posts in 2007! :(

Book Review: The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts

This was on of the better of the Cat Who Series by Lillian Jackson Braun. I appreciate how the main character refuses to believe in ghosts and UFOs even though the people in his town do believe in them! This book sees the death of one of the favorite characters Iris Cobb, who is a great cook and friend. Qwill moves in to take care of the museum that Mrs. Cobb was managing. His next door neighbors annoy him, and another one down the street he has a crush on, so to speak.

Anyway, the conclusion of this includes underground tunnels and searching for buried treasure, and a really good mystery. blah blah blah. if anyone is still reading this, thanks!

Nightly Camp

I believe I will be at camp every night this week. The 5 night perfect score. Of course a requirement is that Courtney spend every night at camp. Also, I must not have any evening activities (worship band practice, for example). I even spent an entire day there yesterday. And I will blog about that later.

Then next week I will not see Courtney from Sunday morning to Friday night, because she is going to Covenant Cedars in Nebraska with our church's middle school youth. So I am filling up with her presence before I miss her next week!

Book Review: The Heavenly Man

This is a touching book about a Chinese Christian, Brother Yun, who was/is greatly persecuted for his faith.

Caution, major plot spoilers ahead!

As a teen he prayed for over a year for a Bible, and finally received one, and he memorized a lot of it. He was sent to preach in various areas near his hometown. He was arrested and miraculously escaped from prison.

He continued to preach a lot, and eventually was arrested again. He went through horrible torture, and then he voluntarily went through a miraculous 74 day fast w/o food or water.

Then I think he got out again, the details are fuzzy, but then he had his legs shattered. Then he walked out of the prison eventually in a miraculous escape. He was able to flee to Germany, and then waited for his family for a while. He actually spent more jail time in Burma trying to retrieve his family.

He now is involved in a movement sending Chinese church members to evangelise the Buddists and Hindus and Muslims between China and Jerusalem.

This was a touching book about someone who was incredibly passionate about Christ, and who did not ever deny him. He does not wish for persecution to leave China, because he fears then that the church would become asleep like it is in North America. I recommend this one. It challenged my faith and my ability to listen to the Lord.

Father's Day pics

Movie Review: How Green Was My Valley

This film won Best Picture in 1941. It was the least entertaining in the previous 4 years. Plus, it was in Black and White. And it was really long.

Interestingly, this movie beat out Citizen Kane, which the American Film Institute ranks as the best movie of all time.

It was an interesting memoir of a boy growing up in a Welsh coal mining community. He had 5 brothers and a sister. Part of the story involves his sister's love of a preacher, and that is a relationship that doesn't work out. Also, a couple of people die.

It is a movie about people starting a coal mining union, and there is some unemployment. The boy tries to get educated and gets made fun of and beat up, and he has to learn how to fight. Overall, I guess I fail to see the supposed greatness of the movie. I vote no to recommending this movie.

I should also mention, however that there were many Christian and Scripture references. There are several church members who the preacher accuses of attending only out of fear of wrath, and they do not show the love of Christ. The preacher helps the boy to walk again, and encourages him to have faith. He tells the boy that his sickness was a blessing, because he could spend the time forming his inner identity and his faith. Plus, the reason the preacher declined to court the daughter was because he felt he was called to the ministry and did not make much money, and he could not bear to see her in poverty.

Movie Review: The Wizard of Oz

Yes, I've finally seen the Wizard of Oz! After 17 years of living in Kansas! I still haven't seen a tornado though.

The movie was better than the Theater in the Park version, which is four and a half hours trying to get comfortable on a blanket. This movie was only about 100 minutes, which was really short especially for an old movie. It was also the first old movie we've seen in color! It was actually not a Best Picture winner. GWTW beat it out.

So, what did I think about the movie for which the Kansas City Wiz soccer team was named? I must say that Judy Garland and the Scarecrow turned in superstar performances. I didn't really like the Tin Man character. And the Lion's vibrato on his "courage" solo was horrific. The songs were all good though.

We were impressed by the Special Effects. There was a tornado and a house that flew around inside of it and flying monkeys. Mo said that the Wizard of Oz series gave great hope and inspiration to those who lived through the Great Depression. I also see it as a funny and imaginitive kids story. I'd also like to point out that it was the first time my sister Monique had seen it, and I found out that my dad has still not seen it.

Here is one of the best clips from the movie:

English errors

I cam across a site full of common English errors

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

I think it's worth a read!

Example:

HIV VIRUS

“HIV” stands for “human immunodeficiency virus,” so adding the word “virus” to the acronym creates a redundancy. “HIV” is the name of the organism that is the cause of AIDS, not a name for the disease itself. A person may be HIV-positive (a test shows the person to be infected with the virus) without having yet developed AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). HIV is the cause, AIDS the result.

PRODIGY/PROGENY/PROTÉGÉ

Your progeny are your kids, though it would be pretty pretentious to refer to them as such. If your child is a brilliantly outstanding person he or she may be a child prodigy. In fact, anything amazingly admirable can be a prodigy. But a person that you take under your wing in order to help promote his or her career is your protégé.

Movie Review: Rebecca

We skipped 1939 and Gone With the Wind and watched Rebecca (1940), which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David Selznick.

I think it is an awesome movie, because it depicts such a wide range of human emotions. The biggest ones are shame, anger, love, fear, loyalty, bewilderment. It is just a really good psychological suspense movie.

Oscar Best Picture 1940

The movie is based on a book named Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The book was a best seller at the time.

Shed Removal!!!

Here is a slideshow of Jeff and Heidi and family taking down our shed! He has a lawn care business and needs it to store his things. We really enjoy our view of the backyard! We have a nice big spot with no grass, and a slab of asphalt, but it is an improvement! I can't express how big of a deal this was.

Result of the Dave Ramsey Live Event:

It's not 72.3% of the month's income...it's 72.3% of spending. We spent more than our income.

Best of May

Best Movie That I Saw for the First Time: You Can't Take it With You
Best New-To-Me Restaurant: Aloha Chopstix
Best Life Happening: Dave Ramsey Live Event
Best Book I Read: Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America

May saw a tie for the the number of posts in one month!

Rainbow continued

For a better explanation of the rainbow I talked about in the previous post about camp, follow the "Mitchum" link on the right.

Movie Review: Fletch

This movie is from 1985. We rented it on Memorial Day. It was on my list of movies to watch.

It was funny. Hey, I kind of have to leave, and go to camp, so sorry for the bad review! This was good to watch for pop culture's sake. But it we weren't really rolling with laugther. There are two scenes which were particularly funny. Where he is a patient and then dresses up as a doctor and when he dresses up as a airplane technician.

Camp adventures

Camp is definitely a different lifestyle. I've driven about 4 hours the past two days, rather than my usual under 1 hour. I had breakfast with teenagers this morning. And I ate sausages and fruit instead of cereal. All of my stuff fits into a travel bag. Every day I ponder the question "Should I go down or stay here?"

We dedicated the prayer chapel at YouthFront Camp South. It was kind of a long "service" which explained the background of the chapel, but at the end it was raining and the sun shone out at the same time. Then the sun shone specifically on the prayer chapel. Then a rainbow appeared over the chapel. It was really amazing.

June Newsletter

Courtney's June newsletter is available if you follow the link on the right...

Flagpole dedication

This Sunday after church, we all gathered in the parking lot to dedicate our new flag poles. One of our members wore a flag shirt, similar to the one on the left, and he sang "I'm Proud to be an American" to a music track. As he sang, some veterans raised the American, Kansan, and the Christian flag. Then some youth read the names of all of our veterans. My dad was listed. Then some trumpet players played taps. Then there was a potluck, which I opted out of.

Courtney got back from camp, and asked me who the flagpoles were dedicated to. I said I wasn't sure, but I guessed America. We also discussed how much we don't care for/about the Christian flag.

Grissom "our" cat

Here is our neighbors cat, who we would be willing adopt. He comes over to us for attention, and he gets it! We call him "Wussum", because he startles very easily.


Photo by BJ Anderson

Forming my one-man band

It's 9:30 AM Saturday, and I've already spent significant time playing all of my 3 instruments

1. On bass, I played through Rob Thomas' "These small hours" - click here for the vid.
2. On keyboard I spent time learning Oscar Peterson's "The strut". That was way fun. The OP book was from Courtney on my birthday
3. On guitar I learned Shane & Shane's "Name's Sake". The Evening With Shane & Shane DVD has an instructional area where Shane B teaches the songs. This song required a short cut capo, which Courtney got me for my birthday. The DVD was from a previous birthday from Courtney!

So definite thanks to Courtney for enabling me to make the tour-de-instruments with birthday presents. Not to mention the keyboard was given to Courtney a long time ago for lessons, so I got that too.

Camp

Camp is back!! I was separated from Courtney Tuesday night, because I had some things to take care of in town. Tonight, I am going down there to spend the night. Please pray for a great summer for all!