Category: media

i saw this google map and thought it was an interesting election tool for following everything.

the family and i love central wisconsin but there are a few things that w do miss about baton rouge – our friends there, the food, and the movie culture. people in central wisconsin don’t watch many movies. in baton rouge pam and i would sneak off in the middle of the day sometimes to go and watch a movie. you can’t do that here because there are no theaters open until 4 p.m. that makes it hard for us to preview movies before taking adam or noah to them. sometimes we are just not sure about the content of a movie being right for our kids and when that happens it requires that one of us go see it first. that’s a little harder to do when it has to be at night.

juno is one such movie. pam and i just weren’t sure about taking adam to see it. therefore, we’ve been trying to figure out when we could preview it and decide about taking adam to it. for the preview to happen the kids had to be doing something else and that had not happened until tonight. pam and i are kidless tonight because both the boys are spending the night at other people’s homes. so we decided to go see the movie. it was great. i don’t think adam would really think it was that funny but pam and i loved it. i thought it did a great job of handling the messy situations that necessarily made up the plot of the movie. as a matter of fact the only problem i had with the movie was some of the lines from the main character which were way to thought out (what teen would know who soupie sales is). the movie really was incredible.

SIDE NOTE – i am so much slower than i used to be. i ran in the point bock run today and finished in 51:49. that’s a lot slower than i used to run 5 miles (pre calf tear). this also means that i have incorrectly measured my current running distances because i have been getting better times than this on my local runs. the good news is that i throughly enjoyed the race and i now know what a bock is (it’s a strong lager which has origins in the hanseatic town einbeck, germany). once tapestry is started i’m going to really encourage the group to sponsor a run.

this is a pretty cool graph on which cities in america rank the highest on the 7 deadly sins. new orleans and birmingham rank in the top ten in a couple of times. interesting.

i’ve been listening to al franken’s audiobook “lies and the lying liars who tell them: a fair and balanced look at the right” and it’s been pretty funny. of course, it’s by no means “fair and balanced.” he pretty much does the same thing that his opponents on the right do – take something, consider all the “facts” that support their case, and then present it as though it is the only sane way of interpreting things. as a moderate i find myself enjoying franken the same way i enjoy rush limbaugh – i laugh at what’s funny and then laugh at him when he is just being partisan and stupid. thankfully franken is funny a good bit within this book. i didn’t think that franken was very good when he was on air america radio (in fact, i quit listening to him because i thought he just wasn’t very funny) but he really was funny in this audiobook. it wasn’t as enjoyable as stephen colbert’s “i am america … and so can you” but it was still pretty good.

the most ironic thing for me within the book was the chapter in which franken tells about his visit to bob jones university. the entire visit is a farce and franken and his colleague have come up with an entire back story so as to effectively coordinate their lies concerning why they are really at bob jones university. i’m no fan of bob jones, in fact i think many of their believes have been embarrassments to my LORD, but i do think it’s pretty low to go and lie to a group just so you can make fun of their religious beliefs (even if they are misguided). i think jehovah’s witnesses and mormons are off base on their beliefs but i would never go into their churches just to make fun of them. anyhow franken ends the chapter by saying how beaten down all the lying he had done during his visit and he wondered how all the “real liars” (he means by this “republicans”) could handle doing it. i guess this is supposed to show that he’s not really on the same level with them.

even with the lying chapter it was pretty funny overall.

two other chapters stood out:

• supply side jesus versus new testament JESUS was money. i’ll probably end up using it sometime because it was really good.
• imho, the story of franken doing a “w” impression and “joking” that he would lose the election to barabara bush while on a place together is just plain rude. if someone, even jokingly, trashed on one of my sons in my presence i would quite possibly punch them in the face. i’m a little surprised mrs. bush didn’t.

there are a few chapters with some pretty serious language in them that i would have been very happy if he had left out. the language that is.

i finished “the shack” last night and i have mixed feelings concerning it.

it’s mediocre.

i don’t really think it’s the earth shattering book that i have been told about by so many. part of this may be that i heard way too much about how great the book was before i read it. eugene peterson (whom i greatly respect) said the book may well be this generation’s “pilgrim’s progress“. i really do respect eugene peterson but i have to disagree with him. “pilgrim’s progress” is a classic and is still earth shaking after over 400 years. in my opinion, “the shack” won’t last a twentieth of that time. it’s not written well enough or profound enough to last like “pilgrim’s progress.” in fact, i almost quit reading the book after finishing the second chapter. it read like a first year literature student’s work (instead of walking across an icy driveway the character he traverses across a mini glacier). i continued reading the book because of some friends of mine love it.

with the above said, the book got better after the second chapter and i do understand why this book is connecting with so many people. for some it really helps them to begin to see how wholly other (holy) the love of GOD is. for that i’m grateful. for me, however, i connect much better with the fictional portrayal of JESUS found in aslan. the image of CHRIST found within the chronicles blows “the shack” away.

the irony is that i was much more profoundly effected by the description of JESUS found within the book that i finished before “the shack” (which was “the jungle”) than i was by the description of JESUS found within “the shack.” “the jungle” forced me to consider how the love of CHRIST would interact within the world and fight for the weak. “the shack” focused on how the love of GOD would cuase me to think about myself. “the shack’s” message is a great thing but i was much more impacted by “the jungle”‘s message.

i would be intrigued to hear how one of my atheist or agnostic friends would review the book.

okay, friends. i know that some of you love this book so you are now welcome to correct me.

SIDE NOTE – the last pages of the “the shack” absolutely drive me crazy. it’s actually not part of the story. the last pages of the book discuss “the missy project” which is the publishers desire to get people to help them spread the message of “the shack.” how are you supposed to help spread the message of “the shack”? according to these pages within the book you buy copies of the book and give them away. you write friendly reviews on every website you can. you specifically talk to people of influence and encourage them to say positive things concerning “the shack.” when you do all of this the film industry will take notice and produce a film based on “the shack” and the book’s message will be spread. is this really what we’ve come to? not only am i bothered by this concept but the name “missy” comes from a child within the book who is kidnapped and murdered. do we really want to connect the name of even a fictional character of suffering with a plea to sale a book?

my run for the day
distance – 5.0 miles
time – 48:49
pace – 9:46/mile
weather – 17º/snow flurries