Year in review...

I think it's time to reflect on what I consider to be some of the finer points of the last year. You may notice that a few items with release dates in 2006 slip into the mix. Sometimes I'm slow catching on, so gimme a break.

Movies Worth Watching...
Reign Over Me
Wild Hogs
Meet the Robinsons
Live Free or Die Hard
Ratatouille
Transformers
Mr. Bean's Holiday
Enchanted

Music Worth a Listen...
The Cobalt Season "Unified Theory"
Dave Matthews & Time Reynolds "Live at Radio City"
David Crowder Band "Remedy"
Jon Foreman "Fall"
Raine Maida "The Hunters Lullaby"
"Once" Soundtrack

Concert I Attended That Was Worth Every Penny (and then some)...
Eric Clapton live in Seattle.

Books I Didn't Feel Like throwing Out...
Dan Kimball "They Like Jesus But Not The Church"
Christpher Moore "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal"
Sarah Cunningham "Dear Church: Letters From a Disillusioned Generation"
Andy Stanley "Communicating For A Change"

Blogs Additions...
Matthew Good
ASBO Jesus
Worship Guitarist
Dan Kimball

TV Shows That Must Return...(and return quickly please!)
24
The Office
Rules of Engagement
Chuck

Boxing Day deals...

The best discovery yesterday was to find Manchester United top of the EPL table thanks to Chelsea's 4-4 debacle with Aston Villa and Arsenal's failure to produce at Portsmouth.

As for the rest of the last few days, it's been great. Great times with family. Great laughs. Great food. Great gifts. Ah yes...the list goes on.

Yesterday Aidan played in his first official soccer tournament at BC Place. His team lost their first game on a goal scored by a kid who was definitely not onside (but hey, they are only 6 years old). Then they won their second game and making his semi-unprofessional debut as a keeper, Aidan recorded his first career clean sheet! I'm biased, but he was stellar!

Today there is snow on the ground and we need to head back for game 3 & 4 of the tournament before grabbing a bite to eat with the rest of the family.

Until then I will probably play with Lego, race cars and maybe my guitar...if I'm lucky!

The kids are excited...

My wife is too. Me? I'd like to go back to bed. How lazy am I?

And just in case you really want to have some fun with your kids, you may want to keep track of Santa's progress by visiting Norad's Santa Tracker. Apparently Santa just left Baghdad.

Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas! May you enjoy time this season with friends and family!

Merry Christmas...

I'm still itching to find my way to the IMAX to watch "I Am Legend" for the primary reason that I would get to see a 6-8 minute clip of the Joker from the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight". But in case you've missed what's happening, here's trailer that apparently appeared along with it.

A better quality version can be found here.




And I'd be curious to hear what you think about the look of the new joker. I thought Nicholson did a good job but sometimes came across almost too goofy. I nearly choked when I heard they got Ledger, but what I've seen so far looks good.

Thoughts?

Online TV...

As you are well aware, most TV networks stream their shows online. And I think that's part of the problem that contributes to the writer's strike. (I don't attempt to understand all the issues so I won't even begin to write about it. But at this stage I'm all for writer's getting paid more. Anything, as long as it brings back Jack Bauer!)

Anyways, as I was doing some reading about the strike I learned about a site called Hulu. It turns out that, with the aid of an invitation, you can watch a pile of shows and movies from a few different networks like FOX, NBC and SCI-FI, to name a few.

Apparently the only catch was that the content was only viewable in the US. So, what did I do? Signed up anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. So if you happen to like your TV watching, why don't you give it a try and see what happens.

Go here to check it out.

If that doesn't work, you can always access a public site at OpenHulu. Someone figure out how to embed the videos from Hulu on their own site so everyone can play. But it's only a matter of time before they likely get shut down.

I have sinned...

You can't tell my wife about this next part. I broke a huge rule/law/commandment that exists in our house around Christmas time. The rule says something like "thous shalt not ever buyeth stuff for yourself under any circumstance in the time that cometh before Christmas". But I bought myself some music yesterday on iTunes.

I had seen this new album "Fall" by Jon Foreman (lead guy of Switchfoot) floating around on the web. I like Switchfoot but wasn't in a big hurry to buy this EP, as I'm not a huge fan of EP's. I tend to think I'm getting ripped off when theres anything less than 12 songs on a CD. I guess I'm a consumerist...

Then I started seeing the album mentioned in a few more places and then it showed up in a few emails. And then Kerry went and put it in his Best Albums of 2007. So I caved and bought it. And I am glad I did. It's a gooder.

And Erin, if you are reading this...it's Kerry's fault!

Tuesday...

It's a blah day. It could have something to do with the fact that I'm recovering from some bug that kept me on the couch all of yesterday. It could be because of the rain, which doesn't apparently ever stop. It could be that I have no "official" youth ministry responsibilities this week...which could also mean that I am bored.

So, here's a few random things:

• I'm two chapters into "An Emergent Manifesto of Hope" and immensely enjoying it. I'm considering doing some posts in the New Year about what I'm reading in it. If any of you have a copy and would be interested in conversing about it, let me know. Maybe we could cover a chapter a week or something.
• My greatest movie watching enjoyment lately has come from two G-rated movies: Mr. Bean's Holiday and Enchanted.
• I believe that my Christmas shopping was officially complete as of last Friday when I spent many hours in a car with nothing but my thoughts and a jazillion Christmas songs (none of which were N'Sync Brad!).
• This week is becoming busier than I originally imagined or intended. I believe that tonight was my only night completely free and that disappeared due to an email I received earlier this morning.
  
• I need to carve out an evening where I can wrap some gifts and watch one of my favorite Christmas movies ever. (Come on Bryce, you know you love this one too!)
• I think the current list of blogs on my Google Reader is going to go under the knife before the New Year. If you'd like to stay on my list, please do something memorable in the next couple of weeks! But, no pressure. ;)
  
• I'm feeling challenged lately to be more relational. I'm an introvert. People can drain me. My default is to stay home at night and watch TV. Jesus didn't call me to live like that, so I'm trying to think about what I'm going to do about this.

Ok, that's all for this Tuesday afternoon. I may see you around sometime this week. If not, then have a very Merry Christmas!

The one function of the church...

So I was strolling by Pagitt's blog and was directed towards this interview on Crosswalk.com between Paul Edwards and John MacArthur. It was the following quote by Monsieur (that's for my French friends) MacArthur that really struck me:

MacArthur: "I’m going to seem anachronistic if not an outright dinosaur at this point. I believe the church has one function, and that is to guard the truth, to proclaim the truth and to live the truth. So you take the Word of God, you teach it, you proclaim it, you protect it, you defend it, and you live it, and that’s a church. The Word of God rightly divided, rightly understood."

Teaching and proclaiming the Word? Yes.

Living it (or attempting to...hey, after all we're not perfect)? Yes.

But protecting it and defending it? It almost makes me seem like I'm some sort of gatekeeper that swings a sword to keep the evil forces of the world at bay.

Does God need me to defend Him? Does He need me to protect His Word? Am I charged with guarding the truth? Am I really the last line of defense? Am I really any line of defense?

It seems like there is a growing number of people who somehow believe that all of church history and every part of the Christian faith will get flushed down the toilet if they don't declare themselves the only true defenders of Truth and stomp out anyone voices that, by their own accord, are contrary.

Is it really the place of the church to protect and defend the Word of God?

It's worth it if...

I would imagine that most of you have heard this comment at one time or another about various church "outreach" events.

"Well, it will all be worth it if one person gives their life to Jesus"

Is that statement even accurate? Or is it just something people tell themselves so they can sleep better at night? Is it worth anything that we would or could do? Or is there sometimes a higher price (which is no doubt unseen by most) that gets paid out in the name of "numerical evangelism"?

Writer's strike...

I'm still hopeful for an end to this strike which will bring back my TV. Rules of Engagement, 24 and The Office...life just isn't the same without them.

It seems like the "in" thing to do is for the writer's to occasionally bombard YouTube with their current material. I'll admit that I'm getting a kick out of some of them. Anyways, here's one. Be warned that it's probably a PG-13 rating.

You gotta be kidding me...

I've been having nothing but problems on my home PC lately. It started with Mozilla Firefox which put me through endless headaches of uninstalls and reinstalls before I finally figured it out. Then a few weeks ago I had problems with iTunes. Now I'm having problems with Firefox again. But this time instead of not opening, it's only refusing to access certain sites, like my Google Reader. And to top it all off it won't play certain media files, which means I need to listen to my hockey games via Internet Explorer.

#@#&#!

I can say that here right?

Seriously, I like a great deal of stuff about Firefox, like it's ability to correct my spelling as I type and it's AdBlock feature. But this is becoming ridiculous.

I've tried some online help forums but i haven't found anything that helps. Any ideas? Is it time for me to head back to IE?

Official arrival of Christmas...

It's here. (Is it ok to decorate now Brad?)

The tree arrived last night. The snow arrived this morning. The annual purchase of some Christmas music on iTunes has begun...or maybe it has ended. Erin bought some music but I didn't get any. I'm not bitter. But I am playing one of her most favorite Christmas albums ever.

So, just what do you get a Wookie for Christmas when he already has a comb?

And what's your album(s) of choice for the Christmas season?

Looking for toys...

I apologize for the shameless advertising that will follow, but I've been nominated with the family task of finding new homes for some of the kids' toys. Apparently we need to make room for the new arrivals that will show up in our house next month.

Or maybe it has more to do with the fact that the kids just don't play with these anymore.

These things will likely end up on Craigslist or eBay later today but I thought I'd post it here first. If you're interested, or want some more info, let me know.

Read that blog...

Ok, so what makes you read a blog?
Do you appreciate random tidbits of a person's life?
Are you drawn to well articulated posts about the bigger issues in life?
What's your favorite topic to read about?
Do you prefer long posts or short posts?
Do you like pictures?
How many of you use an RSS feed to keep up to date?

That's a funny looking cat...

For months we've been under the impression that our neighbor's cat has been into our garbage. Tonight while watching TV we hear the garbage bin get knocked over. Upon looking out the window on the door what do I discover? That my neighbor has one of the funniest looking cats ever. And it's apparently hungry, and not entirely camera shy.

So, will an airsoft gun take care of this or will I have to upgrade my firearm of choice?

Nerd alert...

Ok, is this not one of the coolest things out there?

I believe I have fully nerdified myself.

What's that stuff on the ground...

I'm told it's called "snow". It's kind of cool looking. But it put the satellite out of commission, so now I'm watching a CNN special called "God's (Christian) Warriors" which has me swearing at the TV. I don't think that's healthy, so I may have to work on my student ministries retreat video. At least until the power goes out.

Go Blue...

The time is here! Go Bombers!

How about a guitarism...

It's been a while since I added some guitar stuff, so check this guy out. It's just plain cool.



And if you want to see some crazy capo usage, check this one out.

Soundtrack of my life...

I got tagged by Kerry so I shall comply. I shall also retroactively tag Ben as he already did this. And I shall tag Bryce and Brad. I'm staying with the letter "B" today.

Here it is, The soundtrack of my life. * As decided by my iTunes. * The Rules:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button

*Editor's Note: Because I just added a bazillion Christmas songs this week and I share the iTunes with my wife, I decided that I may opt out of any Christmas tunes and anything that obviously "belongs" to my lovely wife.

Opening Credits
Kim Carnes "Bette Davis Eyes" (Too funny. I love this song but it makes me feel like my life story is going to be based in the 80's.)

Waking Up
Goo Goo Dolls "Slide" ("I wanna wake up where you are")

First Day of School
Riley Armstrong "A Lot Can Happen in a Year" (No kidding!)

Falling in Love
U2 "Walk On"("And love is not the easy thing")

Fight Song
Gin Blossoms "California Sun" (If the fight was with a girl, this might work)

Breaking Up
Toby Mac "Ignition" (This one was a swing and a miss.)

Prom
Red Jump Suit Apparatus "Cat and Mouse" (Fitting if I consider the "cat and mouse" I played with my date at my grad. She spent the whole evening with my best friend.)

Life
Toby Mac "Suddenly" ("And suddenly all of it's behind you/ And I'm here to remind you/
That yesterday is gone so say goodbye")

Mental Breakdown
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam "Lost in Emotion" (Yup...I'm having a mental breakdown as we speak)

Driving
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds "Lie in Our Graves" (I'll admit that there are better Dave songs out there for driving, but I'll take it)

Flashback
Skillet "Your Love (Keeps Me Alive)" (With those creepy, whispery vocals, I could envision a flashback to college days when this song came out)

Getting Back Together
Mat Kearney "Walking Away" (I was thinking it was another miss until I pondered the chorus and the phrase of "walking away from yesterday". It could fit.)

Wedding
Sarah McLachlan "Building a Mystery" (Ummm...she can sing at my wedding, but not this song!)

Birth of Child
U2 "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (If we're talking about peace and quiet, then yes.)

Final Battle
Audio Adrenaline "Clap Your Hands" (Repetitive. It's got some kick.)

Death Scene:
Matt Costa "Wash Away" ("Sun sinks out of view/ Stars they shine changing hue")

Funeral Song
Spirit of the West "Home for a Rest" (Hilarious! Please play this at my funeral!)

End Credits
Dashboard Confessional "These Bones" (Hmmm...I'll take Dashboard for a closing song. Not my first choice of songs, but it's workable.)