American Idol Update

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

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

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

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

KCCC 2nd place

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

Video of the Day Link

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

American Idol Auditions in KC

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

What do you think?

Death Penalty and the Supreme Court

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

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

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

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

The Lawrence of Arabia of Christian books

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

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

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

Movie Review: A Man for All Seasons

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


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

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

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

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

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

Jackhammering

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

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


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


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

Movie Review: Prince Caspian

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

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

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

Buckets of Babes

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

Movie Review: Rush Hour 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapman, KS

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

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

Mary Visit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A few other helpful facts

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

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

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

Restaurant Review: Waldo Pizza

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

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

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

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

My other family:

Best of May 2008

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

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

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

Corporate Challenge Softball

Sunday Update: We lost two games on Sunday and received Bronze medals.

Saturday:
Our softball team has clinched a medal, winning 3 straight games, and we play up to 4 games tomorrow to decide who gets what color. Courtney has been a faithful fan, just like she was at volleyball.

We came from behind in an unlikely "overtime" victory, ending at 12:30 AM. In between some games, I spent time at the Bades, since they live a mile away from the park, and on TV I watched the Royals break the losing streak.

Just like volleyball, we have a team that is going above expectations, and that makes victory so much sweeter.

IOU and This Week update

May is coming to a close, but I have some posts coming up that will be in the running for Best of May 2008.

• Restaurant: Waldo Pizza (gluten-free is actually printed on the menu. It was incredible.
• Book: How to Read Genesis, by Tremper Longman

I may accompany the book review with an extended post of my thoughts about the Book of Genesis. It would likely take me a very long time to do, considering the vastness and complexity and importance of the book. But I think it would be worth it.

More things:

• Softball is coming up with our tournament starting this Saturday.
• Edit: we went to the Royals Thursday and got on the kiss cam.
  
• We are headed to the Royals game again tonight - we are wondering if we will see the game that ends the losing streak (12 games).
• I ran a 5K on Monday, and beat my time from a few weeks ago by 30 seconds
• On Monday we finally opened up our Lord of the Rings DVD trilogy that we received as a wedding gift. The Fellowship of the Rings was the same movie we watched before our first kiss, the same day we officially became a couple on September 24, 2004. But unlike those dating days, we stopped the movie after an hour to get to sleep at a decent time.

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

I wasn't sure to expect with this one, because I had never seen any of the Die Hard movies from 20 years ago, and I don't plan on seeing them. I was 100th in line at the library, and miraculously it became available to me the same weekend that Courtney is staying out at camp. It's a movie I think she wouldn't mind missing.


It was actually pretty good. It is the first movie I've seen which is about terrorists taking over the computers of the nation. Even though the computer geeks are their main weapons, there are still plenty of guns in the movie. They take out the transportation systems and the financial markets, and the city/nation is in chaos. They have plans to wipe out basic utility services.

So our hero, Detective John McClane gets a call in the middle of the night to pick up a computer geek, who the terrorists are trying to kill. The computer programmer obviously will be useful to stop the terrorists. McClane helps to rescue the geek, as they are being attacked with guns and bombs. The geek happens to be played by the same person who is in some prominent Mac vs. PC commercials.

The screenplay suggests that government can't stop this attack.
McClane: So the government has a plan for this (expletive) , doesn't it?
Geek: Of course not. It took FEMA five days to get water to the Superdome

So we get the strong suggestion that these two guys will thwart the plot all by themselves. Even Jack Bauer has CTU, but these guys will be it. You gotta love that kind of stuff. Plus, there's even a copy about the bad guys going after his daughter. there is the strange absence of any mention of the executive branch of our nation, it's all about the DoD and other branches of military and enforcement. The movie is also strange in that in mentions "the streets are gridlocked" several times, but whenever our hero needs to get anywhere, the roads are clear.

McClane is a likeable character. Quiet, funny, and has an attitude. The dialog was too crude at times.

Letter from Millard Fuller!

When I got home on Monday to get ready for our volleyball championship run, I received a package. It was from the Fuller Center for Housing. My first thought was that it was junk mail. But when I opened it and read the personal letter, I was amazed. I cannot post the letter here, because it would be rude to post a letter, but I can quote a lot of it, and I may end up being rude by doing so. I feel that it's difficult to share my excitement without telling exactly what was written.

"Dear Dan,

Your dear wife, Courtney, sent your address to my wife Linda. She had written asking for your address because she saw your blog about a month ago concerning my book No More Shacks!"

OK, this is the great thing about it. As small as my blog readership seems to be, the reach of it is surprising. I get so excited when an unexpected person reads my blog. In this case, my excitement was through the roof, because this was a non-form letter from someone who founded an amazing organization.

Then it goes on

"I was touched by what you wrote in your blog and I'm so pleased that you visited your church library and picked up that book that was written all those many years ago"

"By separate mail, I am sending you a complimentary copy of this new book..."

"God bless you and your wife, Courtney. You are obviously a man of faith and you are also a good writer. I appreciate you doing that blog about my book, No More Shacks."

"Thanks again for your good blog. Millard Fuller (dictated, signed in his absence)"


Here is my original post: http://lostlifefound.blogspot.com/2008/04/book-review-no-more-shacks-by-millard.html It has a picture link that is no longer valid, in case you were wondering.


Also here is the book that I received in the mail today:




Linda and Millard, if you're out there, thanks so much for blessing me, as I have blessed you! I'll read your new book, and you can find a review right back here!