What've I been up to?
I've been away again, what'd I do?
- Last Thursday, Mexico Missions training. I think the team is starting to come together, and definitely not a moment too soon, since it's coming up quick! Lessons learned so far: it's easier to spiritually prepare yourself for short-term missions when you're not the co-captain in charge of logistics. Still, I'm looking forward to it.
- Youth group - spoke from 1 Corinthians 6 and 10 ("Everything is permissible...") passages about freedom in Christ. More thoughts to come in a subsequent post related to Sunday's message and the idea of independence vs. freedom.
- Saturday morning - browsed at the flea market, didn't find any new CDs to purchase, but bought a bunch of escapist action-adventure novels (Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler)... I know, not exactly high art, but darned if it ain't entertaining. Plus you can't beat the price of $1-$2/book.
- Saturday afternoon - Batman Begins! Some thoughts (minor spoilers, skip down a few lines):
Katie Holmes talks/smiles out of one side of her mouth disconcertingly like Drew Barrymore does.
I wish the fight scenes weren't all filmed so closely. I could never tell what was going on, and I like seeing competent action.
Christian Bale was Bruce Wayne. I was less impressed with his voice and look when he was in the Batsuit.
Stellar acting performances all around (Morgan Freeman looked like he was having a blast), but Michael Caine (Alfred) stole every scene he was in. "Some of us haven't given up on your future."
Interesting to consider that in a movie intentionally about Batman alone, there were no "superstar" villains to steal screen time or character development away from Bruce Wayne. Now that Wayne is fairly well established, the next movie can now expend effort developing backstory for villains.
It's a wonder to see what a good script will do for a movie. It was internally consistent, witty, and never sacrificed story or character for special effects. See that, George Lucas?
- Saturday night - Andrea's birthday shindig. Welcome to the late twenties!
- Sunday morning - marvelously thought-provoking sermon/Sunday School lesson from Dr. Samuel Chiow. More thoughts to come in subsequent post.
- Sunday afternoon/evening - hoops from 2:30-5:30, then watched most of "Saving Private Ryan" on TNT and went up to my uncle's place in the hills to watch the fireworks over Great America.
- Monday - more hoops from 10-12:30, then monster BBQ at the abode of JT/Walter/Andrew N/Eon. 50+ people. Highlights included the flank steak, my friend/coworker Garfield busting out the turntables and providing ambiance music for the entire evening, tossing a football around, and playing ball with 2-year old Lucas. He's gonna learn stellar hand-eye coordination even if I have to keep bouncing passes off his chest!
- Wednesday - dinner and sendoff for longtime reader Andrew W, who will be heading to the missions field for a year. Godspeed, bro.
Two opinion topics for discussion:
1) From Thursday before training began - trying to pinpoint at what point does a relationship become "icky", i.e. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (16 year gap). For example, is the Harrison Ford and Callista Flockhart (20+ year gap) pairing icky?
2) From Saturday at the birthday shindig - taking into account the holistic lifestyle, which one of the X-men/Superman/Spiderman/Batman would you want to be? Not only would you have combat powers, but you'd also have psychological traumas, secret identities, etc. to make life complicated. For example, Wolverine is cool, but you'd have to deal with rage attacks, amnesia, and psychological trauma from the past. Batman has the gadgets and the bling-bling, but he's a pretty dark, unhappy fellow without too many friendships outside his own house. At least Spiderman has a semblance of a normal life, with a job/wife, even if he's not as powerful as some of the other guys. I think we concluded that psionics would probably have it best because no one would be able to tell they had powers.
I've been away again, what'd I do?
- Last Thursday, Mexico Missions training. I think the team is starting to come together, and definitely not a moment too soon, since it's coming up quick! Lessons learned so far: it's easier to spiritually prepare yourself for short-term missions when you're not the co-captain in charge of logistics. Still, I'm looking forward to it.
- Youth group - spoke from 1 Corinthians 6 and 10 ("Everything is permissible...") passages about freedom in Christ. More thoughts to come in a subsequent post related to Sunday's message and the idea of independence vs. freedom.
- Saturday morning - browsed at the flea market, didn't find any new CDs to purchase, but bought a bunch of escapist action-adventure novels (Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler)... I know, not exactly high art, but darned if it ain't entertaining. Plus you can't beat the price of $1-$2/book.
- Saturday afternoon - Batman Begins! Some thoughts (minor spoilers, skip down a few lines):
Katie Holmes talks/smiles out of one side of her mouth disconcertingly like Drew Barrymore does.
I wish the fight scenes weren't all filmed so closely. I could never tell what was going on, and I like seeing competent action.
Christian Bale was Bruce Wayne. I was less impressed with his voice and look when he was in the Batsuit.
Stellar acting performances all around (Morgan Freeman looked like he was having a blast), but Michael Caine (Alfred) stole every scene he was in. "Some of us haven't given up on your future."
Interesting to consider that in a movie intentionally about Batman alone, there were no "superstar" villains to steal screen time or character development away from Bruce Wayne. Now that Wayne is fairly well established, the next movie can now expend effort developing backstory for villains.
It's a wonder to see what a good script will do for a movie. It was internally consistent, witty, and never sacrificed story or character for special effects. See that, George Lucas?
- Saturday night - Andrea's birthday shindig. Welcome to the late twenties!
- Sunday morning - marvelously thought-provoking sermon/Sunday School lesson from Dr. Samuel Chiow. More thoughts to come in subsequent post.
- Sunday afternoon/evening - hoops from 2:30-5:30, then watched most of "Saving Private Ryan" on TNT and went up to my uncle's place in the hills to watch the fireworks over Great America.
- Monday - more hoops from 10-12:30, then monster BBQ at the abode of JT/Walter/Andrew N/Eon. 50+ people. Highlights included the flank steak, my friend/coworker Garfield busting out the turntables and providing ambiance music for the entire evening, tossing a football around, and playing ball with 2-year old Lucas. He's gonna learn stellar hand-eye coordination even if I have to keep bouncing passes off his chest!
- Wednesday - dinner and sendoff for longtime reader Andrew W, who will be heading to the missions field for a year. Godspeed, bro.
Two opinion topics for discussion:
1) From Thursday before training began - trying to pinpoint at what point does a relationship become "icky", i.e. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (16 year gap). For example, is the Harrison Ford and Callista Flockhart (20+ year gap) pairing icky?
2) From Saturday at the birthday shindig - taking into account the holistic lifestyle, which one of the X-men/Superman/Spiderman/Batman would you want to be? Not only would you have combat powers, but you'd also have psychological traumas, secret identities, etc. to make life complicated. For example, Wolverine is cool, but you'd have to deal with rage attacks, amnesia, and psychological trauma from the past. Batman has the gadgets and the bling-bling, but he's a pretty dark, unhappy fellow without too many friendships outside his own house. At least Spiderman has a semblance of a normal life, with a job/wife, even if he's not as powerful as some of the other guys. I think we concluded that psionics would probably have it best because no one would be able to tell they had powers.
posted by Bob at
11:58 PM
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