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Posted by: theTRu at 6:25PM EST on June 29, 2008
Happy Sunday... i've been doing a little bit of work and such here as i try not to melt away in the heat, but i thought i'd take a quick time out to chat up the two books i finished reading yesterday... hopefully, i'll have a chance to talk about a few other things tomorrow or the next day - we saw Wall-E and there's plenty to talk about - but today it's all about the books... off we go...
I had been looking forward to reading this book for a while now and once i started, it was hard to put it down... a large part of the book talks about how Gov. Huckabee became the governor of Arkansas and it appropriately begins in the midst of the action which is where character is revealed... it also talks a lot about the factors that effect and tend to squash the development of character in the world today, as well as Huckabee's thoughts and policies regarding them...
I'd say that the book is a cross betwen a biography and a societal self-help book and it proved to be enjoyable and easy to read... reminded me several times of why i supported the Governor's bid as a presidential candidate...
SPREADING THE WORD
to the tune of Word of Mouth - John ReubenThe Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II, by Dave Balter
This one is more of a nerdy book, but since it was a free PDF download and since i seem to have marketing and advertising in my blood somewhere, it piqued my curiosity and i feel somewhat rewarded for having read it... It did seem at times as though the author was simply trying to prove that Word of Mouth Marketing really is a viable form of marketing, and that he was trying a little too hard to establish himself as a pioneer in the field, but there were plenty of gems tucked away in the pages including a nice explanation of the shared community experience, the history of the Top 40 Charts, post purchase effects and the challenges of reaching a global audience...
I can't say that i know exactly when or how this information will come in handy, but it was really presented effectively and in such a way that it didn't feel like a textbook or an encyclopedia...
Updated list for Mark Lee's Summer Reading Club... four down so far... on to my Father's Day present this year.. Boys Should Be Boys...
- It All Goes Back in the Box (Ortberg) - Deadly Viper Character Assassins (Foster & Wilhite) [audiobook] - The Word of Mouth Manual (Balter) - Character Makes a Difference (Huckabee) - Simplicity (Salomon) [about 70 pages left]
- The Parent You Want to Be (Parrott) [about 150 pages left]
- New Way to Be Human (Peacock) [about 200 pages left]
- Boys Should Be Boys (Meeker) [about 220 pages left]
- Wide Awake (McManus)
- At the Crossroads (Peacock)
- Deliver Us from Evelyn (Wells)
- The Two Towers (Tolkien)
- Quiet Strength (Dungy)
- UnChristian (Kinnaman & Lyons)
- Prince Caspian (Lewis)
- Searching for God Knows What (Miller)
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Posted by: theTRu at 11:58PM EST on June 20, 2008
FRIDAY!... word up... it's the weekend... and hey, food fight!... more on that later... i promised to try and get a few somethings written up today and here i am... trying...
Anyway... i'm pretty happy that it's the weekend and i don't have much planned... a possible barbeque to attend... a few chores around the house perhaps... but mostly lounging, wrestling with the littles, kicking back, writing?, trying to stay cool in the heat... and of course they will be reading... (my updated reading list is below)... for today, before i start the relaxation, here's a handful (five fingers, five topics) of items for the old blog... on we go with the program...
Coldplay released their new album, Viva La Vida and i've been listening to it... mostly in the background of my normail work noises (keyboard clicking, chairs scraping, etc), but i've managed to get a pretty good feel for the album... and i like it... it's a clear step forward for the group and i think they've broken out of the mold that they cast themselves in on the last few albums... "Lost!" particularly stands out to me as one of the defining tracks for the album... the lyrics are pretty intriguing on that song, too... my only complaing is that it feels like the album blows by even though it actually clocks (get it?) in at about 45 minutes...
I guess this falls into the catagory of books, but it's probably considered cheating for a book club... anyway, Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite have written a book and started a campaign for character... They called the book Deadly Viper Character Assassins and you can get a free audiobook version of it on their site, DeadlyViper.org and while you're there, check out the blog and the videos to see more of what it's all about...
personally, i opted for the audiobook since it was free and immediate, but i plan to pick up a hardcopy of the book at some point to, because it's definitely one to keep handy... besides the great content of the book itself, there are some interview tie-ins that add to the conversation and enhance the message... i've decided that i'm going to try to get an interview set up with one or both of these guys to further explore this topic a bit... i'll keep you posted...
so... the food fight... yeah... i'm watching Camp Rock which is the new Disney movie starring the Jonas Brothers and... hey, shut up... nothing wrong with laying up once in a while... we don't all have to tin-cup every hole... anyway, the movie runs about an hour and a half after commercials are fast forwarded and i'd guess that the script writing process took about half that time... okay... it's not the best script... it's not the best plot... it's predictable and makes you groan over and over... but it's the Jonas Brothers and i have nothing but good things to say about them... they're good people and they always put a smile on my face...
i still think back fondly to the first GMA Week i went down to Nashville for... i was a little nervous and such and wondering why i had agreed to interview the then 13, 16, and 18 year old brothers... turns out that they were the most enjoyable interview of my time down there that year... very down to earth and i'd interview them again in a heart beat... (seriously, imagine the traffic i'd generate with a Jonas Brothers interview... guys, hook me up)... anyway...
So, i was totally wrong about the NBA Finals this year... if you remember (and if you don't it's a few entries down), i predicted that the Laskers would win in seven... well, they lost in six and they seemed pretty fortunate to have made it that far... in my defense, when i made my prediction, it was predicated on the assumption that Kobe Bryant was the game's best player... clearly he is not... and clearly, all these references to him being "as good as Jordan in his prime" are absolutely ridiculous...
Does it seem like i'm being too harsh?... sorry, but the best player in the game does not disappear in the NBA Finals... Kobe was a waste throughout the finals and, even though the Celtics defense deserves a lot of credit, MJ would've figured out a way to win because he actually was the best in the game when he was playing... perhaps you can say Kobe is the next Clyde Drexler... anyway...
Okay, so here's the thing... i forgot to mention that Barack Obama came within three miles of my house a while ago... He had recently locked up the nomination and was stumping at a first come first serve free for all venue that made me nervous about traffic... it crossed my mind that it might be neat to see this man up there on stage repeating the same speeches he's been repeating for eleven months or so... mostly, i realized that it would be empty words from a cardboard cutout of a man, just like pretty much everything else related to politics...
I know that he's running as the candidate of change and the candidate for hope and that it's resonating with lots of people, but i'm not buying it... i think the most interesting thing about his campaign is how well it's exposing how bad our society has gotten... we're so discontented with everything that we have, we so don't appreciate the blessings that have been bestowed upon us, that we'll (as a nation) jump at the very promise of something better... all you have to do is put it in a pretty package and tell us that it's better and we'll start drooling at it like it's the new iPhone or the latest fashion accessory...
The problem is that the President of the United States is NOT a fashion accessory... nor is he (or she) the messiah... it's sad to see how many people buy into the same old rhetoric time and time again... it hurts more everytime you are failed... it deadens your ability to truly trust... it makes us more cynical, more skeptical, and more scarred... we are worse off for it... i have more on this, but you'll have to wait until i have time to finish up the next Left to Write...
Updated list for Mark Lee's Summer Reading Club... i keep adding more titles, but hopefully i'll get to cross some off...
- It All Goes Back in the Box (Ortberg) - Simplicity (Salomon) [about 110 pages left]
- Character Makes a Difference (Huckabee) [about 175 pages left]
- Searching for God Knows What (Miller)
- New Way to Be Human (Peacock) [about 200 pages left]
- At the Crossroads (Peacock)
- Deliver Us from Evelyn (Wells)
- The Two Towers (Tolkien)
- Quiet Strength (Dungy)
- UnChristian (Kinnaman & Lyons)
- Prince Caspian (Lewis)
- The Word of Mouth Manual (Balter) [about 90 pages left]
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Posted by: theTRu at 10:54PM EST on June 19, 2008
okay, so i was wrong... the Celtics really showed the Lakers who was boss... more about that a little later... it's been a busy week and a half or so... i'd like to say that i was on vacation like some people, but that's not the case... we did call that thing last week a retreat, but it wasn't exactly restful... i ended up sleeping in spurts of maybe 30-45 minutes at a time and getting worn out during the day...
Anyway, i've been back since Wednesday night... last Wednesday night, working a lot, went to the lake and got some primo sunburn... did church... headed back to work and yadda yadda yadda... it's already late on Thursday evening and i don't have much to show for the week... so here's a few somethings and we'll see if i can't do better tomorrow...
have you ever started reading a book and wondered why you hadn't read it before?... as i'm reading through these pages, i can't help but think of all the time it spent on that silly bookshelf over in the corner waiting to be read... and i think to myself, man, this could've been the second or third time i've read this instead of just now being my first time through... i'm resonating with a lot of the questions raised, nodding along to the lessons learned and anticipating the next chapter... i'm currently about halfway through and there are no signs of me slowing down...
also worth noting, this is apparently the LAST WEEK that it will be available at the Relevant Book Store for FOUR DOLLARS... i'll probably end up changing the link the next time i update depending on where it ends up being cheapest...
so i think i need to keep track of the books that i'm reading for the sake of Mark Lee's Summer Reading Club... i have a feeling i'm going to get smoked in this thing, but who knows... anyway, here's a list of what i'm currently reading and what i'll hopefully be reading soon...
- It All Goes Back in the Box (Ortberg) - Simplicity (Salomon) [about 120 pages left]
- Character Makes a Difference (Huckabee) [about 200 pages left]
- Searching for God Knows What (Miller)
- New Way to Be Human (Peacock) [about 200 pages left]
- At the Crossroads (Peacock)
- Deliver Us from Evelyn (Wells)
- The Two Towers (Tolkien)
- Quiet Strength (Dungy)
- UnChristian (Kinnaman & Lyons)
- Prince Caspian (Lewis)
- The Word of Mouth Manual (Balter) [about 110 pages left]
and the list goes on, but if we're rational and reasonable, i think we all realize that i'll be fortunate to finish two or three of these in the next three months... FULL LIST HERE...
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Posted by: theTRu at 10:15PM EST on June 8, 2008
Well, it's Sunday and i've managed to complete another wonderful training / instructional manual... i'm turning into quite the technical writer while still maintaining the normal duties of my actual job title... i'm still pretty tired and all, but i'm glad to have those both behind me for now... i'm sure there's more coming and all, but right now there's something of a lull... a break in the action... a chance to catch my breath... and, since it looks like i'll be completely offline for the next three days while we frolic and play at the all-staff retreat (really sit around and listen to an endless string of presentations only to retire to a shared room assignment with none of the comforts of home), i'm imagining that my day job will be pretty slow at the beginning of the week...
So what on earth will i do with myself if i have no access to the grand old internet and no television and no privacy?... well, hopefully, i'll manage to get a number of interviews transcribed, get a number of other things written, get a little bit of reading done and, hey, maybe even sleep... i'm actually trying not to think about it too much, since it begins early tomorrow with a four-hour car ride with three coworkers...
Anyway, it's Sunday and, since i'll be out-of-pocket the next few days, i figured that i should get a few things written down to have something to show for myself in my absence... playing behind me at the moment is an episode of Mrs. Columbo which is a bonus feature of the Complete Third Season of Columbo... pretty fun... i love me some Columbo... but now let's move on...
So, we'll start with some music... i got the new Superchic[k] album the other day and have listened to it a few times... my boys actually enjoy it quite a bit too... they've even informed me that the song "Hey Hey" sounds very much like the modern version of "Cruella De Vil" from the 101 Dalmations DVD... could be... anyway, it's a pretty fun album and everything you'd expect from the group, but part of me thinks it could've been better...
so, i wrote this heading in the other day and had no idea what i was supposed to write about... but now i remember... TobyMac is taking a cue from U2 and hitting the big screen... apparently, tomorrow, the Alive and Transported video will be playing limited engagements in theaters... around here, there's one showing at 7:30 PM... but check your local listings if you're into that sort of thing... it's probably a cool idea... my boys enjoy the DVD a lot and it's better for their ears than a live show...
i for one am really excited about the upcoming movie version of Get Smart... i think that Steve Carell is a great choice for Agent 86 and i always enjoy a good dose of The Rock... not so sure about Anne Hatheway or the lack of the 70s era, but i think it's going to be great... until it's ready though, i'm going to sit back and enjoy one of my latest silly acquisitions... the entire original series on DVD, complete with a collector's box that opens in three different directions like the command center of Control...
So, the NBA Finals are on and man, can they draw games out or what?.... i finally ended up watching game one between the Lakers and the Celtics the other night and i'm pretty tired of hearing about what a storied rivalry it is... great, i get it... i saw some of it growing up... and none of those guys are playing in this series... now, THAT might be something interesting... anyway, it looks to be a good series and i say that as someone who rarely watches the NBA anymore because it's just, i don't know, off... as i see it, it had it's hey day and that's now in the past... doesn't seem to be reviving itself anytime soon... i'll watch these games - all on a DVR delay - and i'll probably enjoy it... and i'm picking the Lakers in seven... (tonight they'll win by about 17)...
IT'S POTTY TIME...
Mute Math is working on a new album (cheers all around)... and they seem to be recording a lot of it in the bathroom... i guess we all potty break the same... (har-har)... anyway check out this preview video...
When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg... Well, i finally finished this book... actually i finished it maybe a week and a half ago, but i'm finally wrapping up this coverage... the final section of the book tells us how to win... it reminds us that we need to focus on collecting the right types of trophies and then, in the last chapter it tells a story about a painting... the painting is called "Check Mate" and the story tells of a chess expert perturbed by the painting's title because, "the King has one more move"... (of course, there's a typo in the chapter title as it's printed on the page headers - "the kind has one more move")...
this really stood out to me because i was playing a game of chess at work and i was informed with a great deal of pride and boasting that i was in check mate... now, i hadn't paid much attention to the game up to that point because there's been a lot of things going on at work and chess wasn't exactly the most important thing to worry about much less strategize for... but, something about the snideness of this guy's voice... "check mate, but you must've known that was coming"... all of a sudden, something within me wanted to win... i had been resolved to lose and chalk it up to distraction... but now... oh, i wanted to win... suddenly the game mattered... and fortunately, when i went to check out the board, i discovered that he was wrong... there was another move... in fact, five moves later, i had taken his rook, bishop, knight and queen... and two moves after that, he conceded to defeat... check mate... that was music to my ears...
it doesn't really relate to the book, but it made me happy... anyway, i thought the book ended rather abruptly, but it's not like the ending was a surprise or anything... it was a good book overall...
so, i've already begun the next book and i'm not sure how much opportunity i'll have to blog about it, because methinks that i'll be done with it rather quickly... i'm about 50 pages in already and i'm totally hooked... and what, with my downtime coming up this week, i may just plow through the whole thing... also worth noting, it's available at the Relevant Book Store for FOUR DOLLARS... normally, i'd be using an affiliate link to try and poach a few pennies from anyone kind enough to buy it, but it's such a good deal and Relevant is such a good place to support that it's the link i chose...
I'm also using those two books as my entry into Mark Lee's Summer Reading Club... it's supposed to be really laid back and i don't have much of a clue what the rules are, but since i stumbled upon it and i have a hard time saying no... i'm IN...
AND WITH THAT...
it's time to go... but wait... there's more... a quick glance at the front page will reveal a splendid little interview with Paul Alan... thanks for peeping that...
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Posted by: theTRu at 5:30PM EST on May 13, 2008
i promised myself that i'd write again before it was time to do the whole American Idol thing and yet, here it is again... Tuesday staring me square in the face laughing at my lack of discipline... mocking me with my own voice... well... anyway... it is Tuesday but it's not time for Idol... not just yet anyway... and i've not been idle in the meanwhile... in fact, i've been so busy that i'm ready to burst...
in the past week (though it feels like one long day), i worked on building out a new site for my brother and sister in law, i transcribed a lengthy interview, i wrote two feature articles, i wrote a couple reviews, i did a walk TRu, and i sketched out some work on a few other projects i have whirling around in my head... all this on top of my day job, the duties of which have exploded over the last five days or so... this is going to be one hectic week, i'll tell you that much... so much so that i missed out on having a sabbath this past weekend and i'm a little discombobulated... anyway... my time is probably short, so let's go ahead and dig in...
Well, i finally got around to watching the third installation of the Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and all i have to say is woah... not like a Keanu Reaves, Matrix, "woah"... a serious, have i taken a single breath this entire movie, woah... i normally try to do some work or whatever on my laptop while the movies are playing, but not while Jason Bourne was on... i had a tough time taking my eyes off the screen the entire time and that's how an action movie should be... if i'm watching an action flick, i want to be completely taken in by it... i want the little boy in me to be acting out the fight scenes for the next few days after watching it... bottom line, The Bourne Ultimatum gets a 4.5 out of 5 from me...
So i've realized that i don't talk music enough here on the old blog, which is genuinely odd since this is primarily a music website... if i made any bread and butter, you could say that music is where i've made it... and since i enjoy the older stuff too, when i saw this headline... dc Talk Reunites. . . i naturally had to check it out and share it with you all... i knew we'd all be excited together... (note: yes, i realize that it is what it is)...
And now for perhaps some more serious musical news... hot new band Tenth Avenue North who's debut record is set to release next week has released a video for their lead single... the video for Love Is Here seems to pay a bit of tribute to The Beatles and U2... or maybe i'm reading into it too much... anyway, the song's really good....
When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg... Well, i've moved onto the final section of this book, which means it's time for me to talk about Hazards (the second to last section)... the first chapter in this section jumped off the pages to me... "BEWARE, THE SHADOW MISSION" discusses what i'm far too familiar with... distractions... distractions keep you from accomplishing your mission... shadow missions seem like worthy causes sometimes... like, hey, can i really beat my previous high score in that game?... but they occupy your time and prevent you from making progress on what actually matters in the long term... it's somthing that i can honestly admit to struggling with just about every day...
the rest of the section is good, too, reminding us that competition isn't necessarily a bad thing... more stuff will never make us more of an actual success... and what's really important in terms of our physical existence is how we react to, cohabitate with and most importanty love those around us... all in all, a number of good lessons in this book so far... and as i've rounded the last bend as they say (i have about 20 pages to go), it's earning my recommendation more and more with each page turned... stay tuned for the finale sometime (most likely) next week...
PEEP INSTEAD OF SLEEP
okay and there are a few things to check out over on the main page... first, a Walk TRu of WOW Hits [1]... part two of my GMA Reflections and Responses... and an album review of Meredith Andrew's debut album, The Invitation... right around the corner, you can expect some more reviews, 2 interviews (Salvador and Stephanie Smith), an iTRunes playlist and a handful of other things...
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Posted by: theTRu at 5:12PM EST on April 10, 2008
well, i'll be... it's Thursday... i was all set to do a Wednesday post which according to this new schedule which i'm not sticking to very well would mean that i talk about stuff that i've found and enjoyed on the web... well, not today... today is Thursday and if any one knows who snuck in last night and stole my Wednesday, i'd appreciate the opportunity to give them a beat down, film it and become famous by posting it on You Tube... scratch that, people get arrested for acually trying that... yes i think to myself... what a wonderful world... excuse me while i escape reality for a bit and tune in to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Definitive Hits...
So, i watched the Idol Gives Back thing last night... kind of... we watched what the DVR caught with much fast forwarding... i'm not much for award shows or telethons and i tend to pick and choose which performances to watch and such... i was also really looking forward to the grand finale, which i had gotten a brief press release about yesterday, a few hours before the airing... befuddled as i was, i knew that the contestants would be singing Shout to the Lord, the popular worship song, to close the show...
I couldn't for the life of me understand why they were going to sing it - it still seems like quite a random selection - but i was curious as to how it would turn out... and then my DVR did me in... the show ended for me with a video of African children getting moosquito nets to the soundtrack of Daughtry's What About Now... once again, the network had overrun it's time slot and left me hanging with no closure to the show... fortunately for me and all my TIVO and DVR buddies across the globe, it's available (for now) on YouTube and, for now, right here...
now here's where it gets a little hairy... (that's such an odd phrase)... anyway, i know that i'm supposed to be outraged by this performance as so many other "good Christians" currently are... the biggest buzz about this performance today seems to be wholly focused on the first four words of the song... well, really, just the second... the producers chose to substitute "My Jesus" with "My Shepherd" for the on-air performance... CENSORSHIP!!!!! certainly... but i'm going to be honest for a second... i've probably sung or heard that song about a thousand times and i had NO IDEA that "Jesus" was even in the lyrics... i mean, i know the lyrics, but when someone told me that they had taken "Jesus" out of the lyrics, i couldn't remember where exactly it was in the lyrics... however, it's still quite clear as to whom the song is referring...
So, my feathers weren't entirely ruffled by that, and maybe that makes me a bad person to some extent, but, just as i didn't get my dander up about Veggietales coming to NBC with the agreement to take out "God made you special and He loves you very much," i don't really see why i should get all hot and bothered by this... for those of you who did get upset or are still currently upset, DUDE, they just had a little church service on the HIGHEST RATED SHOW OF THE YEAR, reaching 17-18 MILLION viewers...
this should ease the tension a little bit as well.. i went ahead and bought the single from iTunes since i had a credit still and it's for a good cause and all... and i'm going to strongly recommend the single... it's, as they say, a HOT one... it's just under 5 minutes in length, a studio version and, yes kids, there IS a Jesus on this version... it's unedited and spectacular... possibly the best version of the song i've heard... so that's that...
I'm jumping back over to Ephesians because it's been a while and because i can... i feel like i've been ignoring it for too long and it seems like the comparisons that were so clear to me before are fading slightly because i haven't gotten through the first chapter here... so onward we go...
the first three verses here really kick you in the gut... here's the gist... you were dead... you are sinful... you were just like the rest of the world... you were following the devil... you were a son of disobedience... you lived according to the passions of your flesh... you were marked by your wrath... just like the rest of the world... (ouch)...
BUT... that's right... BUT GOD... this is one of those very powerful "But God" moments... Biut God, who is rich in mercy, who loves us with the an unbelievable amount of love... reached down to us, picked us out of the gutter... lifted us out of the grave.... and sat us down next to Him... in Heavenly places... and through Jesus he's saved us... by this thing called grace... and He has plans to show off the "immeasurable riches of His grace" through the kindness he shows us... It's this grace that's saved us... it's this grace by which our faith seems mortared to our salvation... we can't really fathom it and that should remind us that we didn't have anything to do with it... "so that no one may boast"... amen...
So this section covers five chapters that talk about some of the rules of gameplay... Play by the Rules deals pretty intensely with issues of integrity and some common misconceptions about integrity including a bit about sin avoidance and how that's not the full extent of integrity... the next chapter talks about priorities and what activities and such should fill our lives... followed by a chapter about taking risks and really laying things out on the line, including an interesting step-by-step guide of being called by God...
following that is probably my favorite chapter of the section... and not just because of the Lou Gehrig reference, but that helped... anyway, the chapter is about grattitude and how important it is to live our lives with a sense of grattitude... towards God and towards others... and the last chapter talks about finding your mission in life and it includes a quote from Fredrick Buechner:
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet... that's a lot to think about
Next section: HAZARDS...
OUT
and with that, i'm heading out for the day... i wish i had some links to give you, but i've been slack in my writing lately... i have been working on some behind-the-scenes improvements to the site, but i know that i need to get some stuff written... soon... soon... 'til then...
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Posted by: theTRu at 4:06PM EST on March 24, 2008
I'm a finger down... playing hurt... fighting through it... yeah... here's the deal... i was rationing off a chocolate bunny on Saturday... by the way, i didn't get a chocolate bunny this year - very disappointing - i'm going to have to raid the clearance aisle or something... anyway, i'm rationing off this bunny, which is a nicer way of saying that i'm lopping off the ears to help manage the resultant sugar high... and i also managed to lop off a chunk of my left index finger... since then, i've been bandaged and i feel rather gimpy... you wouldn't think that the left index finger is all that important to a right-hander, but yeah... you do notice...
Anyway... i'm trying some new things starting today... we'll see how they work... let me know what you think...
So our Easter went pretty well... i mentioned earlier that we went over the Easter story a few times with the littles and they seemed pretty taken by it... so that went well and we did the church thing... the littles and i all wore full-out suits and they totally showed me up as they were supremely handsome... Before church, though we did a treasure hunt which involved eight treasure maps that led one to another until the big payoffs which were the Easter baskets... they LOVED it, but apparently, i could've drawn the maps a little better... shows what happens when you scrawl things out at 1 in the morning...
We had hoped to bring our neighbors to church as well, but that didn't work out for a variety of reasons that i'm not completely aware of and some that i am... so, after church, we had a laid-back lunch, sent the littles to their rooms for some down time and i watched a movie which i'll talk about later... and then, when they came back down, we did the egg hunt thing and shared a splendid lamb dinner... all in all, a very nice Easter Sunday and i think we covered all the traditional bases...
So there's also this little business of the NCAA Tournament going on in the background... and i performed my duties as a guy and filled out a bracket and joined a challenge group... and on Thursday, i watched a couple games via the online video players... and caught some games on Friday and Saturday as well... and it didn't take too long into the process to remember why i never put money on these things... outside of the NFL, i'm so disconnected from the sports world these days... i enjoy occassional games from pretty much every sport, but i don't follow it nearly like i used to... so, despite a strong early showing on Thursday, my picks all died away rather quickly and i'll be lucky to finish in the top 7 of the 7-person pick 'em group i joined...
It is sad for me to see Georgetown, UCONN, Duke and George Mason get booted so early, despite my bracket, but that's life... from what i've seen of the tourney so far, it seems to me that UNC is going to run over everyone the rest of the way through and probably win in the championship game by 15 or 20 points... then again, what do i know...
So one of the first things i want to do to change things up is to get on a better schedule... so, depending on the day of the week, there will be some regular "features" to look forward to... the first that i'm unveiling is Movie Monday... since i happily subscribe to Netflix, it seems that i always have a movie to talk about, and this week, i'll talk about two...
first up is Horton Hears a Who, which we took the littles to see on Friday... yes, it's in theaters and no, it's probably not worth seeing before it's available on DVD through, say, Netflix, perhaps?... anyway... most everyone is familiar with the gist of this story, an elephant discovers a speck of dust that contains an entire civilization and he vows to keep it safe... Horton faces a number of challenges, in this case Carol Burnett's mean-spirited kangaroo... on the flipside, the mayor of Whoville has to convince a world of people that are so caught up in their own comforts that they need to take action or see their world destroyed...
There's a number of themes that can take you in a myriad of directions... on Horton's side you see the importance of imagination, loyalty, and faith as well as facing persecution and defeating "the man"... and in Whoville, you see the question of God's existence as well as the intentional disregard of the world around you... common themes betweeen the two worlds seem to be faith, character, ridicule, and being brave...
And all these themes can relate to something in everyone's life, however, the movie doesn't completely develop any of them which is somewhat annoying, though the humor and entertainment level for children is pretty great... my main problem with the movie is the name-calling... there's lot's of "idiots," "morons," and "boobs" thrown around - in fact, i think they said "boob" about 10 times in a minute... and it's not that these are terrible words, but i really don't want the littles running around calling people boobs and idiots because they heard it in a movie and don't understand that it's not nice or appropriate... Overall, i give Horton a B/B-...
The second movie, i want to talk about is called The Final Inquiry which was apparently first released in Spain, but tells of a Roman soldier commissined to investigate the rumors of about the resurrection of a man named Jesus... there's mystery, intrigue, some fight scenes, romance, Dolph Lundgren, cover-ups and a lot to like about the film...
It's actually a pretty compelling movie - even with Dolph - and it's an interesting perspective as you see the current Caesar conducting a secret investigation and you get to follow all the evidence as it comes to light... There are some conflicts of timing and such, but nothing terribly distracting from the main thrust of the film and certainly not fom the conclusion... it was particularly interesting to watch around Easter time and i enjoyed it in lieu of reading The Murder of Jesus by John MacArthur which i appear to have misplaced... Bottom line, i give The Final Inquiry a solid B+
WORD OF THE DAY
Joshua 6: 22-27
Promises Fulfilled and then...
God fulfilled His promise and delivered Jericho to the Israelites in an odd fashioin so Joshua, in turn fulfills some of his promises... He spares Rahab and her family and allows them to live with them as a reward for her faithfulness... and then they burned the entire city to the ground, keepinng all the silver, gold, bronze and iron into the treasury of The LORD - which i think, constitutes one of the earliest "Building Funds" in church history...
And then there's a curse... Joshua pronounces a curse on anyone who tries to rebuild the city of Jericho... he says that whoever does so will lose his firstborn son and his youngest son... they destory the place and hope to wipe it off of the face of the earth forever... now, i think this will lead to some interesting things... in fact, someone named Heil DID rebuild Jericho, during the reign of King Ahab and guess what? his first born son died as did his youngest son... should've seen that coming... i'm going to rethink signing that petitiion to save Jericho (the TV show)...
When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box by John Ortberg... Prevent Regret... This is a chapter that closes out the "Setup" section of the book... it deals with the general notion that if you don't figure out what's important in life and act on it, then you're going to experience a lot of regret... the opening story is touching and sad and reminds us that relationships have a lot to do with our priorities... the chapter talks about four common regrets that people face at the end of life and reminds us that life doesn't slow down until it stops and then it's too late to change anything... we have this point in time right now to make the most of and that's it... Next section: HOW TO PLAY...
a few nice pieces up at theTRu... posted my 2oo7 Year in Re:TRu piece last week as well as a long, lost interview with Shawn McDonald... plenty more to come your way... as long as i can stay awake...
MOVING ON
hope you enjoyed this slightly new format and will check back to see the rest of the new "schedule"...
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Posted by: theTRu at 2:26PM EST on March 12, 2008
I'm happy to report that i'm feeling better... the last two and a half days actually, have shown steady improvement in my congestion and other ailments... i'm entirely done with coughing up phlegm (yes, that IS how you spell it) and blowing my nose until all the skin comes off... to balance things out, however, my email has been pretty screwy as of late... long story short, the client that i normally use has been compromised and as such, disabled for use, leaving me with a back-up program that is really lacking in a lot of ways... so if you've sent me an email since, say Friday and i've ignored it... i might not have gotten it... or i might have ignored it...
normally, i'd have a write up about last night's American Idol performance, but in fact, i didn't watch it last night... i'll be watching it tonight and i'm sure that i'll briefly comment on it, but maybe no one will care since it's a day late... and by no one, i mean moreso than normal... so that's that on that... i need a haircut, so i'm going to try to get through this in time to go get one before the day ends... so let's move on, shall we?
THROUGH THE WORMHOLE
This weekend included Daylight Spending Day and we were supposed to lose an hour, but i'm gonna tell you a secret... i think i managed to come off of the island in tact and in fact, i may have gained an hour's sleep... see, i woke up late, thinking that i had slept in until eight... however, i quickly learned that i had actually slept in until nine... by my math, i've beaten the system and gained an hour, but i still feel a little tired which doesn't make sense...
THE EIGHT DEPRESSION???
so, our economy is really in some rough shape right now... and there are a lot of folks saying that we may be in a recession or that we may be headed towards recession, but not too many people have mentioned the "d-word"... well, i'm going to... i mean, we've recently gone through a pretty booming, one might say "roaring" time period where all of our industries and businesses were booming... it wasn't that long ago that i was hearing reports of the stock market reaching record, previously unfathomable highs... yeah, it was just about a year ago...
and now... well, now the housing market stinks... gas prices are outrageous... inflation is out of control... and it simply doesn't look good... this nation of credit is, as far as i can tell, on the verge of going bust... i realize that the Fed just pulled the stock market up yesterday and i'm certainly not a financial guru, but it seems to me that all they've done is throw a bucket of water at the gaping hole in the side of the ship... i could be wrong, and i hope that i am, but i think we're in for some tough times...
CHARACTER FLAWS
speaking of tough times... and ironically enough, Van Morrison's "Your Cheatin' Heart" just came on in my iTunes... Governor Spitzer of New York, well, former Governor, is in the midst of a pretty rough scandal right now... apparently, he's spent something close to a hundred thousand dollars on prostitutes over the last couple years... this, from a guy who's made a living chasing down the bad guys and breaking up prostitution rings... they say that most of the time, you suffer from the same character traits that bother you most in other people... they also say that whoever exalts himself will be humbled...
It's always so interesting to note the timing of things...
AND THEN....
okay, i'm cutting this short... i've got more to talk about, including the Ortberg book, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and probably American Idol, but i really need a haircut... i'm going to see TobyMac, Jeremy Camp and Matthew Wests tomorrow and i simply can't have them laughing at my hair... back later...
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Posted by: theTRu at 4:14PM EST on March 6, 2008
So there are reviews i could be writing... there is a Left to Write i could be working on... there's a few features that i could be putting together... there's a lot that i could be doing right now... but, since i'm currently caught up in listening to Tesla's Great Radio Controversy which is one of my all time favorite rock albums... and since i've promised to write more here this week... i'm here, right now, working on that... i've got a lot to cover in between my coughing fits (what's up with that?)... so i suppose we should get to it... off we go...
GOOD LUCK, HUCK
So it is official, my boy Mike has left the building... the campaign run has ended... the GOP is flooding my inbox with requests for donations to the McCain campaign... All that's fine and well... i will support McCain over either of the Democratic nominees... but since this is the first time that i really got behind a candidate, much less followed the election progress this early in the process, it's pretty sad to see this result...
Don't get me wrong, i'm not one of those one-issue, my President must be a devout Christian who can recite the Apostle's Creed and the Lord's Prayer forwards and backwards or else our country is doomed forever... i like Mike's stance on family values, i like Mike's stand against abortion, i like that Mike isn't afraid to talk about Creation vs. Evolution even though it has nothing to do with the office of the President... i like all these things and more, but that's not entirely why i supported him and would've really liked to see him become President...
I was more impressed by his attitude of humility, his commitment to character, his persistence, his practicality and his ability to balance hope and reality... Look at the remaining candidates: Obama is running on the platform of hope... audacious hope to be exact... and that's great, but the problem is that he's so far skewed towards that sense of hope (at least the character he plays on TV is) that he and the media are completely ignoring the reality that surrounds him... this makes him naive and vulnerable... on the other side of things you have Hillary and McCain, both seasoned veterans in politics and life (i think that's a nice way to say "old" actually, but it's more than that)... they're both running on a platform of experience and realism... which is important, but somewhere along the line, they lost their sense of hope... the sense of wonder that draws people by the millions to this nation... they're so skewed in the direction of realism that they struggle to inspire others around them... if it comes down to the two of them, it'll be like a civil cold war (Hillary of course would represent communism in that analogy)... Mike exhibits both a sense of hope as well as a recognition of reality... that allows him to both inspire others as well as effectively handle the problems facing the day...
As far as policies, i agree with the idea of a fair tax... i agree with his desire to restore the US military and make certain that it is always seen as an honorable force to be reckoned with... i agree with his commitment to education and more specifically encouraging that the arts aren't pushed out of the educational experience... i love how, despite constantly getting skewered as a anti-science kook for believing in Creation, his policies on energy independence call for loads of scientific research and implementation in order to relieve the strain of rising oil prices... i mean, man, there's a lot that i agree with... reflecting on all this just makes me sadder, but even more than policies, i appreciated that Mike presents them all not as a politician, per se, but more as a fellow citizen, because truly, our president is first and foremost a citizen just like you and me...
So, rather than being depressed about this, and at the risk of being called one of those Bible-thumpers, i'm just going to drop in a bit of Scripture here, which came to mind on the day i voted in my state and has run through my head during the better part of this entire process...
"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." - Romans 13:1-2 (NIV, emphasis mine)
BARGAIN OF THE DAY
here's a TRu-light special for all you iTunes shoppers... Fresh Tunes - Winter 2008... seven songs from Sparrow Records including new songs from Shawn McDonald, Delirious and Starfield as well as current singles from Brit Nicole, Daniel Doss Band, Robbie Seay Band and Josh Wilson all for less than a buck... okay, so it's one penny less, but still, 99 cents for 7 songs isn't bad... better than a kick in the teeth...
WHAT'S (HHH) BEEF?
So, my attention was drawn to this article by Wut Metaphysical about the rift within Christian hip-hop (a.k.a. Holy Hip Hop or HHH) circles... basically, there are two "sects" of HHH - those who preach to the choir in a sense and those who reach through the fire, maybe... i might've stretched that a bit to make it rhyme, but you have groups like Cross Movement, Timothy Brindle, and a host of others with the primary intention of edifying believers through their music... the other side of this "civil war" consists of groups like Deepspace5 and LA Symphony among others that focus more on creating the best art possible with lyrics that speak more about life experiences than Biblical teaching... i think that's a decent way of putting it...
While taken at face value, it doesn't seem like this should be an issue, since we are all gifted in different ways and that's Biblical...
"For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body." - 1 Corinthians 12:14-20 (ESV)
However, it is an issue since insults and accusations have been lobbed back and forth between camps and it seems like it won't ever be resolved... this article is a good background on the subject, pointing out some of the hypocrisies from both sides and offering a nice plea for reconciliation...
i would add, however, that it's not an issue that's exclusive to hip-hop... it exists within the Christian rock community, within all of CCM, and within the whol
Character Makes a Difference, by Mike Huckabee
The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II, by Dave Balter
