HIMYM Finale
Last night we didn’t have our weekly small group (which Pam and I love – if you don’t regularly meet with a group of friends to talk with concerning faith and life I would highly recommend that you do so. If you want to join us as we finish reading through Brother Lawrence’s book “The Practice of the Presence of God” you would be very welcome) so Pam and I ate chili dogs and watched some mindless TV.
Part of that mindless TV was finishing the last season of How i Met Your Mother. We started watching HIMYM as a family during its last year (2014) because Noah introduced us to the series. While I don’t agree with many of the morals displayed in the show I loved the camaraderie of the gang. As messed up as their relationships usually were (and they were seriously messed up), they loved each other as a group and we loved that. BUT THE SERIES FINALE SUCKED!
Actually it didn’t completely suck. I thought most of the finale was nice. It was the last five minutes that drove me crazy. Before those five minutes it was a wonderful show. I loved it. When Ted ends his story by finally saying “And that kids is how I met your mother” it is a beautiful moment of telling a spouse telling his kids the story of how he and their now deceased mother met and learned to love one another. It was great, but then they had to go and ruin it by turning the whole thing into an attempt to get his kids’ permission to date their “Aunt” Robin. ARGH! Why did you have to go and do that HIMYM?!?!?!?!?!
It has been three years and this is still one of the worst finales ever and I am still mad about it. Not as mad as I was about the Lost finale but still mad.
Hello world!
This was WordPress’s start up blog post that I am now using to say that I am trying to reestablish my blog on my own server. My blog was over on the Tapestry’s sever but we had a problem with that server (i.e. it crashed) and I had to reinstall everything for the church. I had been wanting to set up my own url again and decided this was the time. Only problem is that I am having a hard time migrating all of my blog over to the new site. The SQL database backup wants to send everyone back to sptapestry.org.
I have installed, uploaded the backup, experienced the problem, erased everything, and started back from scratch three times. I have even tried importing a modified sql export file into my old blog over on wordpress.com. No dice. It has been very frustrating. But I will endeavor to persevere.
I think I have figured out another work around that I am going to try next. I am going to establish a temporary blog on the church server for the purpose of importing my backup sql database into it. I think this might work since the problem with sql database backup file is that it leads my blog to point back to sptapestry.org in an endless loop where i can see the content but can’t reach the blog admin page and thus can’t add anything new to the blog. We’ll see what happens.
You’ll know if this works by the fact that this post is still here and the post below it will no longer be from 2009 (which is the case right now). Of course, noone knows that my blog is here now, so you probably won’t know if this works or not till I start re-posting my blog posts in various places (i.e. Facebook & Twitter).
The How I Met Your Mother Finale
I was late to liking this show. HIMYM is one of those shows that has made me think Netflix is the greatest thing around for media. I believe we started watching it because of Noah, though I am not completely sure. What I know is that it became a show that we watched as a family. Even with the screwed up morals in the show, it was a show that really connected with us. I think the reason for this is that for all the relational bingo that happens within the show it is still focused on the value and importance of a strong marriage/relationship. Ted wants what Marshall & Lilly have and he is telling a story to his kids which has as its trajectory the achievement of such a relationship. The group’s relationship fits into this too. Robin & Barney might stink at dating relationships but they are tight with the group. The entire time I’ve been watching the show I’ve felt like Ted was telling the story to his kids with the hopes that they would one day achieve the loving relationships in their lives that he has in his. I guess that is probably my main problem with the ending. It felt to me like the ending turned the story from a joyous focus on others (i.e. Ted’s hope for his kids for a spouse like his wife and true friends like his, and his need to brag on how great the kid’s mom is and how worthy she was of all the struggle) to another selfish explanation concerning why Ted wants something/someone.
Here are the other things that drive me nuts about the ending:
- Robin – the end turns Robin into an object that is basically passed around between Ted & Barney. The ending kind of fakes being romantic. Ted goes and grabs the blue French horn trying to bring everything back full circle. Of course, we have been through this scenario several times before. We know the plot line. The only reason that this ending seems romantic is because the story stopped, but if you think about it you will probably admit that Ted & Robin will most likely go through the same process they have gone through before and their relationship will become destructive once again. As a matter of fact, when I think through the continuing story my imagination has Robin going back and forth between Ted & Barney kind of like Sisyphus
with his stone. I really liked Robin’s character throughout most of the series. The end kind of reduces her to an object.
- Ted – the story arc of HIMYM is focused on the strong relationships in Ted’s life. In the finale pretty much all of those relationships are no longer around. The story of each of the main relationships in Ted’s life is “finalized” and then kicked out of the script. Marshall becomes Supreme Fudge & Lilly is preggo with baby number three and then they are wiped out of the story. Barney’s life is changed by finally meeting a girl he really loves unconditionally, his daughter,and he is wiped out of the story. Ted’s kids agree to Ted going after their “aunt” and they are wiped out of the story. In the end Ted ends up standing on the street, rather than in one of the many familiar places of relationship in the show (Ted’s den, the bar, etc), staring up at Robin, a woman who has also basically been wiped out of the story too. That’s not a real Robin that Ted is staring up at, not a flesh and blood character of depth. That character was pretty much written out of the script when she became engulfed in work, too busy for the group, and merely briefly came back for Ted’s wedding. Nope Ted is staring up at an idealized, romanticized object. The series ends with Ted alone with his fantasy rather than surrounded with the strong relationships he has been bragging about for the rest of the series.
- Barney – Barney’s character grew a lot during the show. His character is one of the best parts of the show. Yes he is comic relief but he also developed a ton. Which is why the quick fix that happens in the finale drives me nuts. The guy who struggles on his wedding day, claiming that he has a better tie (a corn flower blue tie) at home and tries to climb out the window to escape his wedding day, holds his daughter for the first time and everything is fine. End of story. The real fun would have been seeing how Barney handles a whining female who he can’t dismiss from his apartment in the morning. Or watching the maker of the playbook develop parenting styles. Can you imagine how much fun Barney’s “plays” to protect his daughter from jerks like him would have been? So HIMYM spends all but one episode of its final season focused on the wedding day of Barney & Robin, a relationship that will end after three years because neither one of them is really changed by it, and 2 minutes on the relationship that supposedly really changes Barney. PLEASE.
- Marshall & Lilly – I don’t have a big problem with the ending of their story. I’m really just more surprised that since HIMYM was messing up all the other story lines that they didn’t decide to screw up Marshall & Lilly’s also. I’m surprised that the show didn’t decide to have Marshall cheat on Lilly and reduce Lilly to a weak, quivering blob of a woman. Two things that wouldn’t fit their characters. Why not be consistent HIMYM? If you were going to mess up everything else, why leave out Marshall & Lilly?
I know this has been a long post, but I thought the ending really stunk. It was almost as bad as the Lost finale, and I am still really mad about that ending. HIMYM was such a good show and it deserved a better ending. I know that real life doesn’t always work out nice, but I wasn’t watching HIMYM for real life. I was watching it for entertainment and a reminder of how important good relationships are important. Instead HIMYM trashed all that in the last season and tried to redeem it by going all “Sixth Sense” on us with a surprise ending in the last few minutes of the finale that would supposedly change everything that had happened in the show before the finale. Well it did change everything, just not for the good.
Learning from a Kickstarter Campaign
I have a participated in a few kickstarter campaigns. For those who don’t know, kickstarter is a wonderful way of crowd sourcing the funding for a project. The campaigns I have participated in have primarily been for friends or artists that I enjoy. Typically the way a kickstarter campaign works is that you contribute a certain amount to the project and receive benefits/rewards in return for your contribution. It is kind of like Public Radio fundraising without all the nagging.
Anyway there is one campaign that I am presently in that I believe can serve as an example for anyone doing a project and asking for support. I mentioned in a earlier post that I am participating in Steve Taylor’s kickstarter campaign to fund his first new studio album in 20 years. Steve has run this campaign better than any other fund raising campaign I have ever seen or been a part of. He has sent just the right amount of updates. He started the campaign in November and has sent out 19 updates since then. These updates have not only been informative concerning what is happening in the project but HIGHLY entertaining. Seriously folks these things have been funny all while letting everyone know what type of work their contributions have been funding. I saw someone comment on one of the updates that the updates themselves were were the contribution. This unknown, to me, commenter is completely correct. The fact that I get a copy of the album at the end of the project is just gravy now.
Here is what I have received for my $8 contribution thus far:
*19 entertaining updates
*a “thank you” phone call from Steve Taylor himself.
*a free lossless copy of Steve Taylor’s last studio album “Squint” (I had this already but it is the thought that counts).
On top of the above I receive a copy of the new album before it is publicly released. This really is by far the best kickstarter campaign I have participated in. I might start sharing this with friends who start their own kickstarter campaign. I have help fund a few campaigns that never sent out an update at all. Seriously, I helped fund one campaign that went 18 months without a single update. I know through sources I found on accident that this person is working on the project.
In this end if you are doing a kickstarter campaign learn from Steve Taylor. Do more than people expect, rather than less. Not sure we can go wrong with the mindset in much of life. It would work in our businesses, churches, lives, etc.
Do more than people expect when they help you get started. I hope I normally live like that.
Pomplamoose Pharrell Mashup
Jesus as Threat
Pam and I have recently begun watching “The Good Wife.” Please don’t spoil anything for us because we are only in the second season right now. One of the things that I have found most interesting about the series thus far is how the concept of faith has been dealt with in the show. A couple of the main characters (bouncing off the title I would refer to them as “the bad husband” and “the do the wrong thing daughter”) have had close encounters with Christian faith and the response of the family around them has seemed to be to view the possibility of these discovers of faith as a threat to their political ambitions and way of life. This might change in future episodes, like I said Pam and I are only in the second season right now. All I know is that I love this portrayal of faith as a danger to the present power. I believe it is honest.
Real faith in Christ is a threat to one’s present way of life. Jesus has a manner of coming into a person’s life and turning everything around. He especially likes to play around with the power dynamics of a culture that a believer lives in. That whole “first shall be last” and “when [you are] weak, then [you are] strong” thing goes against the way a society typically functions. If it is really lived out it has a tendency to really mess with people and society.
The Romans understood this about early Christians. Jesus was killed by the Romans because he was viewed as a threat to the peace of the Empire. He was handed over by the religious leadership of His culture because he was viewed as a threat to their power and possibly sparking trouble with Roman. Jesus and His kingdom were a threat to the powers of the culture of the day because Jesus’ kingdom would change everything from priorities to practice. Powers don’t like that kind of change.
Power has a tendency to deal with threats of that kind of change by trying to annihilate the threat. After all, those of us who are followers of Christ know that Jesus gave His life for sinners like me to have a relationship with God, but the Empire of the day thought they were sacrificing Him to maintain their power. From their view the only appropriate response to the threat of Christ was to get rid of Him. Caiaphas, the high priest, saw the threat Jesus’s new kingdom represented and said “it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” It made sense to them because they needed to protect the powers of that time, which they thought brought stability, from the obvious threat of instability that Jesus brought with Him.
After Jesus death and resurrection His followers continued to be a pain in the side of the powers of the day. Thus the persecution of the early church. Early Christians were killed over a theological debate but the debate wasn’t was
Some of the Anabaptist leaders that I admire the most viewed suffering and persecution as a mark of the actual church of Christ. As the Anabaptists learned from personal experience the powers of a society don’t respond nicely to people that they view as threats to their power and way of life.
If Jesus would only morph into everyone’s personal agenda then everything would be nice and cozy. He wouldn’t be a threat then. He would just be a god who wanted us to be better citizens and work within the powers of the society to make everyone nicer. He wouldn’t be pushing His own kingdom where everything that the powers value is flipped on its head.
Of course, the real Jesus doesn’t fit into other people’s agendas. He has His own agenda and that is summarized in His kingdom where the last are first and weakness equals strength. Jesus is the type of God where even those who eventually will become some of His closest followers initially respond to the threat that He is by saying “go away from me, Lord.” You don’t say that to a god who isn’t a threat to your agenda for a nice life, but you might say that to the God Who is a threat to it.
I guess that is why I like the portrayal I have been seeing on “The Good Wife.” These characters see the possibility of another character that they love encountering Jesus as messing everything up and playing around with the present power dynamics. I think they have it right because that’s is exactly what Jesus does.
For me the question comes back to whether Jesus is changing the priorities and values or my life and how I live within my culture. Is He messing with my life by changing my values into the values of His kingdom. Is He doing it in your life? Is Jesus a threat to the status quo of us and our society?
SIDE NOTE – If you are wondering about the above photo it is from “Threat Level Midnight.”
The Nook for Android App is Almost Unusable
Not really a post but I just want to comment that the Barnes & Noble Nook for Android app is almost unusable. I have quite a few ebooks from Barnes & Noble due to the fact that my first android tablet was a Nook Color that I didn’t originally root. I am presently trying to finish a book I started on that Nool Color. It is Exclusion & Embrace by Miroslav Volf. As usual Volf makes excellent points but this has not been one of his better flowing books. Therefore I have taken some time reading it. I would read and then take a break and then start reading again only to eventualy take a break again. Well I am now reading Exclusion & Embrace on my Google nexus 7 and the Nook for Android app is just heidous. It is almost impossible to highlight anything. ARGH! This is terrible. I am ready to be finished with this book so that I can swap back to Aldiko or the Kindle for Android apps which I much prefer. I’ve actually tweeted my disdain concerning the app to B&N and they never responded. That doesn’t really make me want to like the app either.
The Lion Whisperer
2 Quick Things
FIRST, tonight Adam showed Pam and I the above t-shirt that he bought from Threadless. Yeah, we are quite proud to have raised a son who has excellent taste in clothes. At least I think we’re proud of his taste in clothing. Okay, well at least we’re proud of him for lots of other reasons. 🙂 Pam worries that you can’t really see all of the above photo of the sloth in an astronaut suit so here’s a link to the full photo so you can see it in all its glory.
Celebrities + Controversy = Blog Post Reads
SECOND, the above graph shows the daily views of my blog for the past 5 years. I write a piddly little blog that is read by about 40 people per day. No complaints here. I basically write for myself. I enjoy the act of typing something out and hopefully use it to think through some things every now and then. I also write for a very pragmatic reason and that is so that people who are considering Tapestry can have someway of knowing me before they give Tapestry a try. Then two days ago I wrote a brief post on my thoughts concerning the uproar about Phil Robertson’s statements and my little blog blew up. Well at least it blew up for my standards. In two days my little blog was viewed by almost 800 new people. The only other time something close to this has happened was when Mark O linked to me years ago. Of course, today the number dropped back to 50.
Ahhhh, it feels good to be back where I belong.