So, I was able to get home for Christmas to be with my parents (and grandmother). Friday (Dec 23), I was just way too tired to drive home, and I would have been leaving at 1:00 pm at the earliest, really too late for a 7-hr drive. So I left Saturday morning at 5:30. I was still tired, but I was able to get more than two hours of sleep.
It was great to be able to be here with my parents, especially after hurricane Katrina. My father took me around Monday showing me all the destruction (still)around, and it truly is a miracle that my parents got essentially no damage. The water rose up all around them (150-200 ft away), but did not get into the house or vehicles. I'm so thankful that they're still around. Entire houses had been submerged, at least over the ceiling. A former neighbor lived in a raised house (raised an entire story), and he lost his steps into the house. For a while, they had to use a rope and ladder to get into the house. They have steps now, but wow!
The beach in Ocean Springs (we didn't even try Biloxi or Gulfport -- Hwy 90 just opened up last week (I think) in Biloxi, but it's only two lanes total rather than the four it used to be. Entire apartment complexes gone, houses demolished and completely wiped out, a foundation being the only sign that the house existed. One house was skewed about ten degrees from vertical, as though a storm surge smashed against the house (very likely). When I get back to Texas, perhaps I'll post some pictures (if they come out okay).
Back to Christmas...
Christmas is about Christ, period. And I see nothing wrong with giving gifts. They shouldn't be payback or "equal". They're given for the enjoyment of giving out of love and affection for the recipient. I don't care if I get any gifts for Christmas (or on any occasion, for that matter). But I love to give gifts (yes, I know, I'm selfish usually, but when I give gifts, I really enjoy it). My favorite Christmas times are when I can give great gifts. (And it's not the amount of money I spend.) This year, I was able to give my mother a DVD player so she can watch some of the DVDs I've given her in the past few years (she can't sit in the chair in the family room where previously lived the only DVD player in the house). I'm excited for her. My grandmother loves clothes, but she can't really go out any more, so it's extremely difficult to get her anything. I got the bright idea when walking through the 75%-off book store to get some audio books. (but they had sold out of the particular title I intended to get, so that was a problem). Of course now, her only problem is that she can't see well enough to operate the cassette player, and I'm not sure she could figure out a CD player at all, though it's possible it might be easier for her. And I gave my father one of my old DVD players for his bedroom (yes, my parents' sleep patterns interfere with each other).
So, all in all, it was quite nice.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Friday, December 16, 2005
King Kong
Wednesday, I got to see King Kong. For free. At night. What an engrossing movie. It clocks in a tad over 3 hours, but I didn't really notice because I was so engaged.
The character of Kong, played by Andy Serkis of Gollum fame, was amazing. He truly looked like a giant gorilla. He acted like a gorilla, too (at least as much as I know from seeing footage of gorillas in action and reading about them). He was not human and did not act human. Yet, I can still relate to him. Peter Jackson walked a fine line in how to treat Kong, and I think he did an outstanding job.
The technology behind creating this creature is stunning. We are truly near the age where we can put on screen anything we can imagine. I really look forward to one day seeing the book, Childhood's End put to the big screen. The visuals in that book are amazing, and I don't think it could have been done before now.
Yet, the movie was not about the special effects. They served to aid the story, not be the story. Technology in and of itself, while extremely cool (me being the techno-geek would say something like that), is really useless unless put to good use.
(sorry for my jumbled thoughts here; I'm not feeling too well today, but felt I needed to put something up about Kong before too much time went on.
The character of Kong, played by Andy Serkis of Gollum fame, was amazing. He truly looked like a giant gorilla. He acted like a gorilla, too (at least as much as I know from seeing footage of gorillas in action and reading about them). He was not human and did not act human. Yet, I can still relate to him. Peter Jackson walked a fine line in how to treat Kong, and I think he did an outstanding job.
The technology behind creating this creature is stunning. We are truly near the age where we can put on screen anything we can imagine. I really look forward to one day seeing the book, Childhood's End put to the big screen. The visuals in that book are amazing, and I don't think it could have been done before now.
Yet, the movie was not about the special effects. They served to aid the story, not be the story. Technology in and of itself, while extremely cool (me being the techno-geek would say something like that), is really useless unless put to good use.
(sorry for my jumbled thoughts here; I'm not feeling too well today, but felt I needed to put something up about Kong before too much time went on.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia is a fantastic movie. I look forward to reading the book now. Yes, I'm uncultured. I have never read any of the Narnia books. I did recently purchase the big thick compilation book from Sam's, with stories presented in Lewis' preferred reading order, and I've read two pages of that.
(minor spoilers) God was really speaking to me throughout the entire film. In particular, the conversations between the witch and Edmund, the younger brother of the four siblings, stuck out to me. And when she confronted Aslan (the lion, or should that be The Lion?), several things became clear to me. Relative to the story, she had taken the facts and twisted them to suit her desires. Edmund didn't set out to be a traitor. A traitor is someone who deliberately betrays friends/Romans/countrymen in order to meet their own goals, however noble or low they might be. Edmund mentioned Thomas the Faun in passing, not realizing to whom he was speaking (ooh, how formal!) or the consequences of said speech. If he had known, I'm sure he would have kept his mouth shut. He was also trying to protect the fox in the second incident.
What other malevolent being do we know of that likes to twist our words, pervert the cause of our actions, and just generally wreak havoc? I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count. I'll wait while you guess. la la la (a little music to pass the time) Okay, just to be sure we're on the same page, the answer is: "satan". Like the witch in Narnia, satan twists everything we do around, instilling doubt and second-guessing within us. And he makes it seem like it's our very own thought.
And God spoke to me that all these things I hold against myself, none of it is an original thought of mine. It's all deception from Satan (it also helps that we talked about this in small group Thursday night, so I was questioning these things anyway). I do not—and cannot—deny that I have sinned in so many ways. But these things do not condemn or make me unworthy (that word appeared out of nowhere&mdashit's my trigger word for self-condemnation). Yes, they are wrong, but God forgives me of those things (I've asked, don't you know), and He does NOT condemn me. Why should I?
(minor spoilers) God was really speaking to me throughout the entire film. In particular, the conversations between the witch and Edmund, the younger brother of the four siblings, stuck out to me. And when she confronted Aslan (the lion, or should that be The Lion?), several things became clear to me. Relative to the story, she had taken the facts and twisted them to suit her desires. Edmund didn't set out to be a traitor. A traitor is someone who deliberately betrays friends/Romans/countrymen in order to meet their own goals, however noble or low they might be. Edmund mentioned Thomas the Faun in passing, not realizing to whom he was speaking (ooh, how formal!) or the consequences of said speech. If he had known, I'm sure he would have kept his mouth shut. He was also trying to protect the fox in the second incident.
What other malevolent being do we know of that likes to twist our words, pervert the cause of our actions, and just generally wreak havoc? I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count. I'll wait while you guess. la la la (a little music to pass the time) Okay, just to be sure we're on the same page, the answer is: "satan". Like the witch in Narnia, satan twists everything we do around, instilling doubt and second-guessing within us. And he makes it seem like it's our very own thought.
And God spoke to me that all these things I hold against myself, none of it is an original thought of mine. It's all deception from Satan (it also helps that we talked about this in small group Thursday night, so I was questioning these things anyway). I do not—and cannot—deny that I have sinned in so many ways. But these things do not condemn or make me unworthy (that word appeared out of nowhere&mdashit's my trigger word for self-condemnation). Yes, they are wrong, but God forgives me of those things (I've asked, don't you know), and He does NOT condemn me. Why should I?
New Music -- and a movie
Last night, I splurged and ordered some music. I was able to get all of these for $5.99 a piece, and since I ordered 5 or more (at that price, it's kind of hard not to), shipping and handling was FREE, baby! So straight from the order confirmation and with my patented (ha) anticipated-enjoyment rating system with one (1) low and ten (10) high, I give you:
One thing I've noticed with my ratings of things is that they skew toward the high end (movies included). I always concluded that I was non-discriminatory in my listening between "good" and "bad" (I'm sure many would argue that I am buffoon for my choices). Then, while typing this up, it dawned on me that I pretty much have culled out my garbage from even entering the fray. If I've heard snippets of songs and they don't grab me, or the description of a movie isn't compelling to me, then I don't bother wasting any further time on it.
Random Hearts is a good example of my system gone bad. My anticipated enjoyment of this movie was a 7; it had Harrison Ford in it, and I always enjoy his movies (though I refuse to watch Six Days Seven Nights — this movie has zero appeal to me). Twenty minutes into it, I knew I was in trouble. So was the movie. I just checked my Netflix rating, and I gave it 1 star. Which is as low as you can give. Their 1-star rating means "Hated It", but this does not do justice to how much I disliked this movie. (and I suppose this is a pretty random tag-on to my music post; though it does show that I'm not perfect in my expectations)
| # | Artist | Title | Anticipated Enjoyment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Tomlin | Arriving | 8 |
| 2 | Chris Tomlin | Not to Us | 8 |
| 3 | Building 429 | Space in Between Us | 7 |
| 4 | Newsboys | Devotion | 9 |
| 5 | Audio Adrenaline | Until My Heart Caves In | 8 |
| 6 | Fatboy Slim | Better Living Through Chemistry | 7 |
One thing I've noticed with my ratings of things is that they skew toward the high end (movies included). I always concluded that I was non-discriminatory in my listening between "good" and "bad" (I'm sure many would argue that I am buffoon for my choices). Then, while typing this up, it dawned on me that I pretty much have culled out my garbage from even entering the fray. If I've heard snippets of songs and they don't grab me, or the description of a movie isn't compelling to me, then I don't bother wasting any further time on it.
Random Hearts is a good example of my system gone bad. My anticipated enjoyment of this movie was a 7; it had Harrison Ford in it, and I always enjoy his movies (though I refuse to watch Six Days Seven Nights — this movie has zero appeal to me). Twenty minutes into it, I knew I was in trouble. So was the movie. I just checked my Netflix rating, and I gave it 1 star. Which is as low as you can give. Their 1-star rating means "Hated It", but this does not do justice to how much I disliked this movie. (and I suppose this is a pretty random tag-on to my music post; though it does show that I'm not perfect in my expectations)
Monday, December 05, 2005
Ticked
Man, am I ticked! And of course, I should have done my homework more thoroughly before making a purchase, but come on, people, this is absolutely ridiculous.
People have long complained about buying a DVD only to have another edition come out several months later. Well, for at least two DVD releases this fall, the studios have "solved" this problem: They release not just fullscreen (gag!) and widescreen versions of a movie on the same day, but they've also release two-disc special editions on the very same day at a MUCH steeper price.
The first movie I noticed this on is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The second movie, for which I have already bought—in ignorance—the widescreen version, is War of the Worlds. In my defense, I can only say that Wal-Mart really screwed me over on this one because they had zero copies of the two-disc special edition of WotW.
Grrr!
People have long complained about buying a DVD only to have another edition come out several months later. Well, for at least two DVD releases this fall, the studios have "solved" this problem: They release not just fullscreen (gag!) and widescreen versions of a movie on the same day, but they've also release two-disc special editions on the very same day at a MUCH steeper price.
The first movie I noticed this on is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The second movie, for which I have already bought—in ignorance—the widescreen version, is War of the Worlds. In my defense, I can only say that Wal-Mart really screwed me over on this one because they had zero copies of the two-disc special edition of WotW.
Grrr!
Friday, December 02, 2005
So much to comment on
The past few days I've thought of so many things to comment on, and I can't remember any of them.
Oh, the 1,000th criminal was executed since the death penalty was re-instated in 1977. His lawyer's reason to not execute him? He's a changed man now, and would never do again anything like what he did.
I have no doubt he's a changed man, that he "found" Jesus (though I'm sure Jesus did most of the searching), and that he is in heaven today praising God with all the other saints who have gone on into glory. And perhaps, his impending execution caused him to think seriously about these things and where he would stand with God when Face to top-of-head-from-bowing-in-shame (the posture I imagine all of us will assume when faced with the awesome majesty, purity, and Truth of God/Jesus/Spirit). Better late than never.
However, our actions have consequences, and just because we learn our lesson and make a change for the better doesn't mean we can get out of suffering the consequences of our actions. My heart breaks for the man and his family, but my heart also breaks for the family of his victim(s). Through no fault of the victim, their loved one is ripped from their lives in a horrific manner by someone who made the
I have great sorrow that we have the death penalty, but I have even greater sorrow that we as a society have individuals that commit crimes that are deemed punishable by the death penalty, that the nature of their crime is so horrendous and so violent that their execution is the only way to get the point across that this behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
Oh, the 1,000th criminal was executed since the death penalty was re-instated in 1977. His lawyer's reason to not execute him? He's a changed man now, and would never do again anything like what he did.
I have no doubt he's a changed man, that he "found" Jesus (though I'm sure Jesus did most of the searching), and that he is in heaven today praising God with all the other saints who have gone on into glory. And perhaps, his impending execution caused him to think seriously about these things and where he would stand with God when Face to top-of-head-from-bowing-in-shame (the posture I imagine all of us will assume when faced with the awesome majesty, purity, and Truth of God/Jesus/Spirit). Better late than never.
However, our actions have consequences, and just because we learn our lesson and make a change for the better doesn't mean we can get out of suffering the consequences of our actions. My heart breaks for the man and his family, but my heart also breaks for the family of his victim(s). Through no fault of the victim, their loved one is ripped from their lives in a horrific manner by someone who made the
- choice
I have great sorrow that we have the death penalty, but I have even greater sorrow that we as a society have individuals that commit crimes that are deemed punishable by the death penalty, that the nature of their crime is so horrendous and so violent that their execution is the only way to get the point across that this behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
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