Category: personal

awhile back i saw something talking about getting free autographed photos from the people’s court. it sounded like something fun to do so i did it. the other day my autographed judge marilyn photo arrived and she said i rule. read it and weep. i rule! since i rule it is safe to say that i must therefore be king. as you king i command each of you to send me $100. do it now. remember according to judge marilyn … I RULE

my cute, beautiful, intelligent wife is away for the week working on an operation smile project in managua, nicaragua (i am very proud of her). she’s been gone since wednesday and will be gone until next saturday. because of this i am watching allot of movies and reading a good bit – not much conversation around the house when my boys go to sleep. here are a few of my thoughts on what i have been reading and watching.

• memento – movie – the language in this movie is rougher than i usually like in a movie. i am sensitive to coarse language in a movie and therefore usually avoid anything with much cursing in it. i watched this because of one of the books i am currently reading. the book referenced the movie as an amazing non-linear story. boy was it right. the movie is exceptionally well crafted. i have heard this for years but avoided the movie because of the language. i still wish it didn’t have such harsh language within it but this movie is one of a kind.
• reel theology – book – some amazing thoughts on why film is so important to our post-modern culture. i love the thought of claiming truth where ever it is found.
• antwone fisher – movie – what an amazing movie! i haven’t gone through physical or sexual abuse but i believe we all understand the desire to walk to the big table and hear someone say “welcome.”
• dirk gently’s holistic detective agency – book – i love douglas adams’ writing. it’s incredibly funny in an odd english humor sort of way.
• catwoman – movie – BORING. this movie was a complete waste of time, money, and film.
• the scarlet letter – book – i can’t believe that i didn’t like this book when i was in high school. it always takes me a few chapters to get back into the language of the book but it is an amazing book. i sometimes think that the books kids or forced to read in high school should be forced to read them later when they can actually enjoy them.

i’ve got allot more to read and watch.

Currently playing in iTunes: City Of Blinding Lights by U2

my cute, beautiful, intelligent, and wonderful wife now have access to the internet down in managua, nicaragua and is therefore updating her blog to keep everyone up to date on what is happening on the operation smile project she working on. here’s yesterday’s update. if you read it and wonder what a “complete bilateral facial cleft is look here (warning this is not for the faint of stomach).

as usual i am very proud of my wife.

[tags]operation smile, cleft palatte[/tags]

my cute, intelligent, and absolutely amazing wife left for managua, nicaragua today. for the next ten days she will be the only speech pathologist on the operation smile trip to nicaragua for 2006. for the next week she will be part of a group of therapists, doctors, nurses, technicians, and others who will be working to change the lives of kids who have cleft palates. it should be an incredible week. i am very proud of her.

if she gets the chance to access her blog she is going to update it. you can read it here.

SIDE NOTE – if you haven’t read the austin’s blog you might be interested in knowing that arnold sliced one of the muscles in his arm

[tags]operation smile, cleft palatte[/tags]

does anyone who reads this blog own the dvd series firefly? i watched the movie “serenity” this past weekend and was amazed by what a good movie it is. i’ve been told that “firefly” the television show that the movie was a continuation of is just as good. unfortunately blockbuster does not stock it. i’m not sure i want to buy the dvd set until ‘ve at least seen one and can judge for myself if it is as good as the movie or not. thus i am begging you people. if you have the set please let me borrow it. i promise to bring it back without peanut butter stuffed into the box.

[tags]serenity, firefly[/tags]

here’s the multimedia prayer i developed within swish for “the view” tomorrow night. it’s my own paraphrase of the prayer suffrage b from the daily evening prayer: rite one out of the book of common prayer. the ambient music in the background came from the “podsafe” mp3s of garageband.com. it’s from a band called “anyma.” pretty cool stuff in my opinion.

within firefox it loops for some reason that i don’t understand. it might do the same thing within other browsers but i don’t use any other browsers at my church computer so i can’t really judge that. the flash file itself doesn’t loop.

this past weekend was the second time i have done a sabbath retreat with our youth. i posted about last year’s sabbath here. here, and here. the “sabbath” is a weekend that focuses on spiritual disciplines, solitude, quietness, community, and rest.

last year i wasn’t sure how the whole thing would work. it went much better than i could ever have expected. so we did it again this past weekend and it i was once again thankful for it. of course, i will change a few things next year. the first of which is to go back to three days and two nights. this year we did only friday and saturday rather than friday, saturday, and sunday. the extra day makes a huge difference. to paraphrase the end of “animal farm” – “two days good, three days bettter.”

in a world full of electronic noise the sabbath weekend has one electronic moment. we view a film together and then discuss the spiritual implications and themes of the movie. last year we watched “a knight’s tale” – a film that was full of discussion. deciding to stick with movies that had adam tudyk within them i showed serenity for us this year. i had not heard much about this movie before. we loved it. it was great. not only was it an entertaining movie but it also led to some great discussion.

for those of you interested here’s the mp3 of the circumcision sermon i did for our church new year’s day.

i posted about this message back on january 3rd. the church did eventually receive one complaint – saying that they weren’t to happy about the topic. our church administrator told the complainant to come talk to me. i personally haven’t heard from anyone yet.

i’m not a huge fan of southern gospel music. it just doesn’t “float my boat.” so i wasn’t real thrilled when i found out that we had a southern gospel group singing for the largest part of our worship service today. in a perfect world i would at this point tell you that the group was so good that they changed my mind about southern gospel. they weren’t that good and it didn’t change my mind. still i enjoyed being able to tell that other people were connecting to GOD through the music that was a part of our worship. that was enough for me. i was able to worship GOD through the fact that they were able to connect with GOD through the southern gospel in our service. i love the fact that we have a diverse GOD.

of course, it would be perfectly okay with me if we never had another southern gospel group lead any of our services. 😉

jordan cooper posted this on his blog and it’s so funny i have to pass it on. they’re mock ads from the canadian political ads. they’re so funny that i would vote for someone if they actually ran them.

here’s the add about stephen harper’s dog.

steven harper has a dog.
hitler had a dog.
does stephen harper goose-step while he is walking his dog?
does stephen harper want to kills millions and be the emperor of poland?
we just don’t know.
we’re not kidding.
we just don’t know.
choose your candidate.

it seems like the stuff in these parody ads is about as real as some of our real attack advertisements during our elections.