I took a quiz on the names of the States in the US. I got 112 out of 150 (I guess that means I got about 37 right). They give you three shots at each State which is helpful but there’s still a bunch I don’t know at all in the south-central and eastern states because I’ve never been there. See how you do and post your scores.
Congrats to the US on passing your health care reform bill – hopefully that makes things better for the masses.
YVR > SJC - kind of a zany concept but it works relatively well, not a great boxing movie but not too bad.
0.3
This movie came well recommended to me and it was a good, strange and profanity laced comedy. The main character was profound, confusing and yet remarkably consistent and believable. Some good lines in there and a nice change of pace from an action movie loaded with action to this one which seems to try to avoid it at every turn.
0.3
When a movie with a plot as benign as MLB drafting and trading using statistics instead of scouting intuition is this entertaining, you know they did something right. Great story that had both Heidi and I riveted to a sport that we really know and care very little about.
0.3
MSP > YVR - Solid acting in this action-drama, decent story, pretty good fight scenes and sympathetic characters. All in all, nicely done.
0.3
Ugh, this Christian movie was not worth watching. While it followed the plot of the Prodigal Son story closely, it seemed to lack all the great details that we had been learning about in the Prodigal God book study that we were going through. The acting was poor, most of the characters were poorly developed and the dialog was very local (to Texas) and didn't sound very natural to my Canadian ears.
0.3
There’s some things that just seem wrong to a person that seem to click so easily for everyone else. For Heidi, it’s facebook (and to an extent, email); for me it’s Purell. I didn’t have any science to validate my feelings, I just felt it was wrong. I don’t like the idea of being so clean or of always washing after I shake people’s hands; I’m just not that sanitation conscious.
Turns out there are lots of reasons not to trust in Purell too much; it kills the good germs with the bad and now it turns out that most flu’s are passed through air germs and not physical contact anyways. Based on that fact-let, maybe the physician/drywaller’s face masks are going to catch on in North America next (I won’t be wearing one).
I had a lot of fun playing Blosics 2 and trying to maximize my score (previous post), I eventually made it up to 8204 and I think that I’ll leave it there. I feel that I understand how I could get a higher score (I estimated that I could get up to 8293) but it gets tiring trying to get the perfect shot and then get a lucky crumble or explosion.
Overall, it’s a really fun game and I gotta thank Andy and Eddy who spurred me on to get a higher score (Andy crapped out in the low 8000′s and Eddy beat me by getting up to 8238). Fun times but I gotta stop playing this one (where were you on this challenge Eric? Working?!)
For Lent this year, I’ve been trying to consume more Christian material; I started with Meeting House messages (amazing!), then I read In His Steps and am now going through some Genesis.
In His Steps was a book written over a century ago by Charles Sheldon (from whom I take my middle name) and is credited with the WWJD movement that had gained popularity recently.
I found the book at times to be very dated and at times to be extremely relevant. Some of the things that seemed dated were the influence of the saloon (I think TV would take it’s place today), the problems they had with boxing matches, and the influence of great singers (perhaps it is true though).
The places the book seemed very relevant was when it described the struggles of everyday people with no special abilities to deny themselves and follow Christ. Those were amazing stories.
I often hear preachers half-lamenting that we as a church are not suffering which is a good thing because, who likes suffering but a bad thing because it doesn’t increase our reliance on God. I feel that this book blows that line of thinking out of the water. It would say, if you aren’t suffering for Christ, you’re not walking in his steps.
I’ll let the book speak for itself with some quotes that were very convicting to me:
Is it any sacrifice for a man who is worth ten million dollars simply to give ten thousand dollars for some benevolent work? Is he not giving something that costs him practically nothing so far as personal pain or suffering goes? Is it true that the Christian disciples today in most of our churches are living soft, selfish lives, very far from any sacrifice that can be called service?
If our definition of being a Christian is simply to enjoy the privileges of worship, be generous at no expense to ourselves, have a good, easy time surrounded by pleasant friends and by comfortable things, live respectably, and at the same time avoid the world’s great stress of sin and trouble because it is too painful – if this is our definition of Christianity, then surely we are a long way from following in the steps of [Jesus].
People outside the church certainly see this as well; this is how we as Christians are seen, from funnyjunk (somewhat edited for content)
Each week, millions and millions of upper middle class American citizens put on expensive dress clothes, and load themselves into SUV’s and drive past homeless shelters, orphanages, prisons, missions, and halfway houses on their way to a very expensive and nice church, where somebody tells them how to be more like Jesus.
I’ll admit though, it’s incredibly hard to leave the cushy life for something more challenging even though it will likely be much more rewarding. I have a bunch of good excuses too; I don’t have time, I don’t know what I’m doing, I can’t relate, My wife or kids would be uncomfortable, I’m scared. I’m usually even too scared to ask God to put me in situations where I need to do these things because I know He will.
I think that this is one of the biggest things that Christians and myself very specifically need to work on to be relevant to the rest of the World. Only when the world sees Christians doing things that are so counter cultural as denying-yourself for the sake of the less fortunate will we gain any credibility for the gospel of Christ.
Closing quote from Gandhi:
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
A few months ago I wrote about the Bayne’s and how they were struggling to get their kids back from the MCFD (Ministry of Children and Family Development) who had taken all their children away from them almost 3 years ago after a misdiagnosis on their youngest daughter of having SBS (Shaken Baby Syndrome).
Today, in Chilliwack, a garage sale and lunch in their benefit was going on and Heidi and I were able to make it out to buy some stuff and even meet both Paul and Zabeth Bayne for the first time. I was amazed by their demeanor; you would expect bitterness to be very evident or at least buried loosely under the surface but in the conversation that I had with them, they were not victims, nor were they bitter. They struggle to understand God’s plan in this and how he will be glorified in this but they unceasingly bring the conversation back to the goodness of God and how He will take care of them. I am amazed at the lack of pity they have for themselves and their strong faith in a God who has a plan for their lives.
I was learning how to use a new tool that does analysis of timing and though punching in the timeline of Genesis may be a good way to learn some of the in’s and out’s. There were some neat things that I learned from this as well:
It made me wish that there were a lot more recorded stories for all these other guys that really only got a name mentioned; I imagine there are some good stories outside of the main ones of Adam, Noah, Abram and Isaac.
