Facebook prompts more thoughts. . . .

This Facebook thing continues to be fun. The reason is rather simple. . . . I’ve connected with my old youth group kids from the 80s and we’re rekindling loads and loads of memories. . . . many of which, unfortunately, have been documented in posted photos. Then there’s the opportunity to connect with new friends, most of them involved in addressing matters of faith and culture, leading students in youth ministry, or some combination of both. It’s rather amazing. For those of you who have grown up in a world where this type of technology is normal, remember that I used to fall asleep with a 9-volt battery transistor radio glued to my ear as I either listened to my beloved and perpetually disappointing Phillies, or one of the two local Top 40 am stations. . . . WIBG and WFIL. Thus, my amazement. Speaking of 9-volt batteries, I felt pretty good about teaching a young friend how to test them the other day. If you don’t know how to do it, get ahold of one and stick the terminals on your tongue. Just don’t do it while you’re sitting in the tub.

So one of my wonderful youth group kids was one of the first to join our growing online reunion. His name is Jeff. I loved this guy back then and I love him now. Jeff reappeared on my map one Sunday morning a few years ago, rather unexpectedly. We were sitting in worship when my wife gave me the old elbow. I wondered if I was singing off key, again. I wondered if some article of clothing was askew or improperly affixed. That’s usually the case. This time she leaned over with a smile on her face and she said, “Look over your shoulder up into the balcony where the choir is sitting. Is that Jeff Caddick up there?!?!?” I turned and looked. Yep. It was Jeff. At least a good dozen years had passed since I had seen him. We bee-lined up to the balcony after the service and began what’s turned out to be a great reconnect. I discovered Jeff was now a man, married, and a dad. I was suddenly old. Now I see Jeff and his family almost every week.

Jeff’s one of those guys who’s a computer whiz. It wasn’t surprising to find him on Facebook. . . or maybe he found me. He’s also a very funny guy who has posted some hilarious captions on the growing arsenal of photos that have been uploaded to our page. I think Jeff has to be hilarious, as most of the photos of him in his high school days capture the hilarity of his personality. . . . and his wardrobe choices. . . .which sadly, were much like the choices the rest of us were making. Having a sense of humor serves to deflect the pain.

Being a computer guy, Jeff is also a blogger. A couple of weeks ago he posted some of his memories of his own high school years. . . . memories that were prompted by those photographic time capsules. He blogged about the conflicting pressures and experiences that combined in his life leaving him – like all teenagers – wondering who he was and what the world might think of him. Jeff’s posting got me thinking about teenagers today. This stuff of the teenage experience has never changed. Kids still struggle.

Over twenty years have passed and Jeff’s done great. He’s walking with the Lord and married someone who’s doing the same. That’s what I prayed for all those kids. Now, he’s blogging about wondering what his little girls will grow up to be and experience. I’ve been there with that with my own four kids. In fact, when I had one eye on Jeff and his peers back in the 80s, I had another on my kids, wondering and praying about what their lives would be like in the future that’s become today.

Back then, I didn’t know what Jeff was thinking. In my mind, he was a kid who had no reason at all to lack confidence in himself. We set out as a youth ministry staff to unconditionally love Jeff and his peers in our group. We always encouraged them to do the same to each other. I prayed then and I hope now that we did a good job at it. If we did, it was in spite of ourselves and purely by the grace of God.

Still, there’s a lesson in there for all of us who are working with and ministering to kids. You don’t always know what they’re thinking or what they’re going through. We need to pray for them, love them, accept them, be the hands and feet of Jesus to them. . . . and encourage them to be and do the same to each other. Being a teen was rough back then. I think that when Jeff looks at his wonderfully cute little daughters he knows that it’s only going to be much more difficult for them as their teen years approach. Jeff and his wife will love and nurture them. They’re already doing that. Hopefully, there’ll be some understanding youth workers who will come alongside and do the same. There can never be too many of us who love Jesus who also commit to loving kids. That’s a message I hope to communicate to all my new Facebook youth ministry friends.

This Looks Cool

Yes, this is another preview for another Marvel animated movie. Hulk vs. Thor.

Reading Books

The other day a friend of mine made a comment that irked me. We were talking about reading books and I mentioned how I read plenty of books, and he followed that by saying I only read "junk books."

At first I thought he meant comic books, but after a minutes I realized he meant my books were junk because they are fiction. Really? This year I have read a good amount of books, almost all of which were fiction. I guess George Carlin's book would be sort of non-fiction?

Apparently, reading non-fiction makes my friend feel superior to me. Personally, I do not try to put myself above anyone for what they read. I feel that reading is something everyone should do, no matter what subject. Unfortunately, it seems non-fiction folks always like to set themselves atop a pedestal.

Naturally the argument went to what kind of fiction I read, and he felt his point was validated because I said fantasy as one of the genres. It did not matter that I read other genres, that was the one he wanted to focus on.

Anyways, not a whole lot of a point to this post, just wondering if other people ever get that kind stupidity from folks.

Fantasy Baseball Weeks 16 & 17

I will not really talk about week 16, since it was only like three days long because of the All-Star break. Needless to say I lost 2-7-1, but oh well, because it ended up being a wash because I beat James the next week 7-2-1. Honestly, they should just combine these two weeks, but whatever.

I swept every hitting category against James, and my three Pirates players almost beat him themselves. My big hitters were Bay, Dye, and Braun. They seriously crushed the ball, but the rest of my team did not hurt me either. A .327 AVE is nothing to laugh at. Hitting wise, I pretty much crushed James.

Pitching was a bit close, we tied in wins, he beat me in saves (obviously) and ERA (how do you lose that one with 2.89?). Get this, his WHIP was .95, which is phenomenal, but still lost to my .93.

I made a trade, Adam Dunn for Huston Street. I know that Dunn crushes homers, but I rarely use him, plus I really need a closer. I am now in fifth place, and I believe I can make up some ground these next few week.

Watchmen Movie Stuff

With all the Dark Knight stuff going on, like breaking every freakin' record in the movie biz, I forgot to talk about the Watchmen trailer.

The trailer had me so pumped up that I could have sat through anything and pretty much enjoyed it. Some of you will not understand how fantastic the graphic novel was, nor will you probably read it before the movie comes out. Let me just say this, if Snyder sticks close to the book, like he did with 300, then it will be an amazing film.

Here is the trailer, not the best quality, but if you want great quality go here. Also check out the official site.

Language Quiz

I took this quiz off Cynnie's blog. Obviously, I am awesome.

Your result for The World Languages Test...

Language Savvy

You scored a 210 out of 400 on language knowledge.

Congratulations! You know your stuff! You've scored higher than most people would and you probably have taken a linguistics or cultural science class to boot. Most likely you are bilingual or even multilingual. You are also probably fascinated by languages and want to learn more of them in the future. When you travel to a foreign country, you make a point to learn some of the language instead of imposing your own. It's people like you who help promote the exchange of languages worldwide. Keep it up!

Take The World Languages Test at HelloQuizzy

Pirates Trade

As some of you know, the Pirates traded Nady and Marte to the Yankees for four minor league players (three pitchers and one outfielder). That link talks about the players and whatnot. That is not what I want to do with this post.

After reading tons of blogs, message boards, and listening to the radio, the general consensus about the trade has been fairly negative. As usual, when everyone is negative about something, I become positive.

I am okay with the trade, especially with Tabata, since he is super young and already playing at the AA level. The pitchers look to be somewhat better than any of our guys at the AAA level, and some of the guys in the majors (JVB, Beam, Osoria...)

Anyways, the thing I am thinking about is this: if the Pirates settled on a trade with the Yankees, is it possible they had a plan? Bear with me for a second. The Rays wanted Nady, but instead he goes to the Yanks, who are inching closer to the Sox and Rays.

Apparently the Pirates wanted too much from other teams, maybe the Rays were that team. Now, they can offer Bay to the Rays and say something along the lines of "hey, you want to stay ahead of the Yankees, you need outfield help, we got that help, will give you Bay, but now we want what we wanted for Nady, but with a little more."

I know it is all just a wild theory, but come on, it sounds like a pretty good one. Any thoughts?

Very Long Comic Review

I came home from work today with the intention of taking a four hour nap then getting up and going to the bar. Sadly that plan fell through. Instead of waking up at 8 p.m., I woke up at 3:45 a.m. Needless to say I am wide awake, and moderately bored (reading about the Pirates trade kept me busy for awhile). I figure I should write about some of the comics I picked up during vacation.

I had not purchased them in awhile, so my list was pretty full, and it cost me around $135. I do not plan on reviewing each book I bought, but instead just want to comment on a few. There may be a few spoilers in here, so if you read some of this stuff, I apologize.

Craptacular
Final Crisis #2-I am trying to read this series with some hope that it will end being pretty good, but as of now, all I get from it is boredom.

The idea of all the villains joining together has been done already, like 3432 times in the last three years, by DC alone. This issue had some rather crappy lines, such as: "You must be supercool to proceed." or "We still have a God-Killer at large, but if i don't show my face as Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, I blow my secret identity out of the water."

That second line almost caused me to close the issue and toss it in the trash. Sounded like something from back in the 70s. Seriously, a reporter could not come up with an excuse why he missed a staff meeting? Especially one that lives in a world with superheroes?

Oh, and Barry Allen returns at the end. Thank god, another Flash, which means he or Wally will die at the end of the series, and it will officially be another Crisis book. Good thing Clark made it back to the Planet as well, since Clayface detonates a bomb, which appears to have killed Lois Lane. I can bet money that she did not die though, although if she did that could be interesting. A pissed off Superman who just snaps and goes out and kills Luthor and the rest of these guys...

Anyways, I will stick through this series, only five more issues to go, for nothing else than to laugh at more idiotic lines.

Almost Craptastic
The Invincible Iron Man #3-Zeke Stane uses Iron Man tech to turn himself into some kind of part human, part machine super weapon. He destroys a Stark building in Taiwan, and it causes Pepper to get injured.

Guess what? Her injury is something like Tony's original injury, they cannot remove debris because it is moving too close to her spine, so Tony does to her what he did to himself. Could we see an Iron Woman soon? Ugh.

Oh, and Zeke Stane makes a suit of his own because this internal energy he can blast causes his skin to burn off. Yeah, this story sucks and is getting dropped immediately. Sad too, I like Matt Fraction's work.

Scratch My Head Book
The Ultimates 3 #4-The story so far? Well basically Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch left the book after the conclusion of Ultimates 2. Jeph Loeb and Joe Madureira took over. So far, they have given us the death of Scarlet Witch, Magneto taking her body, and blah blah blah.

This issue goes to the Savage Land. The Ultimates fight the Mutants. Things are going well, there are creepy moments, like Pyro and Mastermind taking down Valkyrie, well Mastermind makes her think it was all a dream. Then Pyro discusses whether they should rape her.

Back at the mansion in NY, Wasp realizes that Iron Man is a robot, Cap saves her with this classic line, "Come with me if you want to live." Then Hank takes him down and we realize Cap was also a robot.

This leads me to believe that the Black Panther that went to the Savage Land, who Wolverine questions last issue, is probably the real Captain America. The issue ends with an awesome moment: Magneto vs. Thor. Mutant vs. God. It is not even a fight, Magneto says to Thor:

"As I suspected, you Norwegian dolt. Whoever forged that trinket used a bit of iron. Just like there's metal in your body armor. You lost this battle before it ever began. Imagine. A god bows before me."

As usual Magneto gets to say the cool things.

Unfortunately, the book did not end there. Hank and Wasp go deep into Tony's mansion, and we see robot Ultimates led by a robot Hank, this is what he has to say:

"They think of us as toasters, alarm clocks, and vibrators. But when the war between man and mutant is settled--and most of the human population is dead, only then will they realize--THE MACHINES HAVE ALREADY WON!"

Wow.

Could Be Great
Batman #678-Grant Morrison's R.I.P. storyline has me very intrigued. The Black Glove crime organization is trying to destroy the Batman.

The issue opens with Robin reading some of Bruce's casebooks, which show Bruce trying to understand the Joker. Bruce indicates in his writing that it could be causing his mind some serious damage to be going alone such a dark path, but luckily he has Robin to help him find his way out. Robin then gets attacked, but gets away.

He contacts Nightwing about meeting up at one of their checkpoints and warns him about the Club of Villains, who work for the Black Glove or something. Unfortunately Nightwing gets attacked by them, and by the end of the issue we see a doctor holding his mask and saying that he is full of sedatives. They believe he is some crazy villain.

So, where is the Batman? Well, in the last issue, the Black Glove stormed the mansion at the moment when Bruce's girlfriend said some weird word and caused him to have a seizure. The leader of the gang has Alfred beaten and tied up, and he says that when Bruce returns, he will allow him to be his butler.

Bruce wakes up in an alley with no memory. The leader of the Black Glove says in a flashback that they are pumping him full of heroin and crystal meth. A homeless junkie just mistakes him for another junkie, but realizes he might be a good guy to have around.

They go on a weird spiritual/drug seeking journey, where Bruce deduces that he is not some poor person because of his appearance. Then it gets weird, apparently the guy who is helping him has been dead for a few days. The last few pages we see Bruce, with a needle and thread saying the word that put him into a seizure, zur-en-arrh. He dons a mask, and says that he is the Batman. When we see the full costume, it's very bizarre, made from crazy colors and kind of homemade. Guess the colors yet? Purple, red, yellow...anyone else wear lots of purple? The Joker? Could Batman have awoken, but more on the path like the Joker.

I am sure the Black Glove did not intend for this to happen. Yes, they wanted to break the Batman. They want to possibly control him and have him weak. However, if he becomes a complete nutjob, like the Joker, but still has his physical strengths, and his fighting ability, then you just made an impossible to stop murderer. Uh oh.

So why do I say this book Could Be Great? Well, this all depends on how the story ends. If it just peters out, and nothing really comes out of the storyline, then this issue just comes off as weird.

Freakin' Awesome
Anna Mercury #2-The last issue came off very nicely as a weird futuristic spy story. Then it turns out that Anna is in contact with the British government, and that she is in another plane of existence. Crazy right?

Well Warren Ellis keeps it going. The new prime minister of Britain is being briefed about what is going on. The director explains that in the 40s scientists discovered nine different earths in orbit around our earth, but not inside our space-time. We can visit them, but only for small amounts of time. Anna Mercury is on the one planet because one time we accidentally sent a battle ship to their planet and it basically wound up in the middle of one of their cities causing all kinds of panic and people to think the end was near and what not.

The explanation at the beginning had me hooked, but then the action with Anna got me super excited for issue three. She gets to the moon, where there is a giant gun aimed at another city on earth. The art is fantastic, the writing is excellent. The idea is crazy and fun. I wish more books were like this.

Consistently Good
Conan the Cimmerian #1-The entire fifty issue run of Conan was very good. Each issue left me pretty happy and usually wanting just a little bit more. The series moves into a new direction as we return home with Conan and already he is greeted with friendliness, such as being attacked.

The book ends and someone tells him a story of his grandfather, and the issue ends on a great cliffhanger. Like I said, I have no doubts that this book will continue where the last series left off and make happy each issue.

Trade Show
Walking Dead: Volume Eight-Robert Kirkman's tale of what happens after you survive a zombie takeover is probably one of the best zombie stories ever. That includes movies, books, short stories, whatever.

This collection does not fail to deliver. The Governor and his people attack our familiar friends at the prison. At first Rick and his people hold them off, but the Governor goes crazy and just drives a tank through the gates. He already killed Tyreese (chopped his head off and forced Rick to allow it to happen), and now he wants everyone dead. His people believe the prison folk are crazy and they came to their camp to cause trouble.

During Rick and his families escape, Lori is shot and killed along with her newborn baby Judy. Rick and his son are alone in the world, and as always, this book reminds you that, no one is safe. Rick's son, Carl, has grown up in this world and some of his remarks about death can be somewhat scary. He does not seem to be bothered by it anymore. He knows that everyone is going to die, and he has accepted. He also believes his father will make it through anything because of the number of shitty things Rick has been through. Very interesting.

Anyways, the lady who shot Lori and the baby realizes what she did and turns on the Governor, because she feels shitty for killing a mother and her baby, and shoots the Governor then pushes his body towards an oncoming zombie horde, hey no more fences, the prison is kind of useless now.

The book has me so excited for Volume Nine!

Well there you go, my thoughts on a few of the comics I have read the past few days. I know that none of you will read any of this, but whatever. I had fun rereading some of them, and writing this post. That is all that really matters. And now I will put up a picture of a hot girl. Maybe that will cause some of you to be confused and actually read this entire post, hoping to understand why there is a picture of a hot girl...

The Godless World

As I mentioned in the previous post, I would be putting up my review of the two books I finished while on vacation. The books are the first two in a series called The Godless World by Brian Ruckley.

Winterbirth
The first book, called Winterbirth starts the series out with a little history of the people in the book. The story goes that after kingships began to fall, small Thanes rose up and formed an alliance. Over time a woman came about who believed in something called the Black Road, which is a path to getting the Gods to return to the world.

The book starts out extremely slow and at times becomes very confusing because it takes awhile to understand what is going on. As the story slowly gains momentum you begin to realize something quite brilliant: their are no real bad guys in the story. Ruckley will take a character from a previous chapter, who you absolutely hated, and tell the story from their point for a few chapters. It gives you insight into what they are thinking and how the world is not always black and white.

The battle scenes in the book are quite bloody and very action packed. Once the ball starts rolling, you can barely put the book down. It ends on a fantastic cliff hanger, with a huge, scary threat looming over everyone.

Bloodheir
The second book, Bloodheir, picks up right where the first one leaves off. This book takes the threat from before and makes it real.

Ruckley also starts explaining more things that happened at the beginning of the first book, stuff that seemed out of place and kind of boring. Now those elements are fit in and we see why they were important.

There also begins an explanation of the era when the gods were present and the differences in the five races inhabiting the world. As always though, the action shadows everything. The battle scenes are great, putting you right there and never giving you the idea that everyone will be okay. Most books when telling a story from a characters POV, usually do not have that character die in the telling, but Ruckley does that quite well.

If you check out Amazon, they recommend this to fans of the Abercrombie books. I liked both books and eagerly await the third book.

Youth group. . . .

So now I’m on Facebook. I had an account for several months but never did anything with it besides setting it up. My profile picture was that generic blue question mark. From time to time I’d get emails informing me that so-and-so had requested me to be their Facebook friend. Because I had forgotten my password and the steps necessary to access my account I never responded to any of those requests. . . leaving me feeling guilty that people might think I was avoiding them. But youth culture continued to change and I figured it was high time I get with it and get networking.

I get asked about Facebook, social networking, and new technologies all the time. Now that I’m a four-week Facebook vet, my opinions have changed somewhat. On the one hand, I still think that kids today need to get outside and play with flesh-and-blood friends for numerous reasons. I know that with my own four kids the changes in culture-at-large have been reflected in their age-descending tendency to spend less time in real relationships, and more time poking their fingers across keypads of varying sizes as they relate digitally. My youngest (at 16) spends more time with technology than his older siblings ever did. . . . mostly because he’s living in a world filled with more technology to spend time with. Sure, the nature of community is changing for kids. My son can strap on a headset connected to an Xbox360 and the Internet and play games while chatting in real time with “friends” around the world. . . . who, by the way, he’s never seen or touched. But as an old-timer I’ve got serious reservations about what this new-fangled type of community will do to our kids’ ability to relate long-term. And, I’m sure there will be fall-out for the way we do church and experience Christian community. . . . and I’m not sure it will be better.


But on the other hand, there’s some Facebook community fallout for those of us who are older that I think is pretty amazing and good. I grew up in the world of face-to-face community. I did youth ministry in that world as well. From 1985 to 1990 I served as the youth pastor at a church in the suburbs of Philadelphia. On July 1, 1990, I followed God’s call away from a community of kids, leaders, and families that I had grown to love deeply. That’s when we started CPYU. In the time since I endured the grieving that comes with leaving a group of people you have loved and spent time with for so long. At some point the grieving stopped and I just accepted the face that in God’s great plan, we’ve gone our separate ways. Our community had become a memory from “back then.” Oh, there’s been the occasional phone call, email, and visit with those “kids” (I think the first one turns 40 next week!). When those moments come we pick up right where we left off – a sign of true friendship. But they have spouses, children, and lives of their own. They live all over the place. And, we never, ever get together as a group anymore. Until I started hunting them down on Facebook. . . . and an amazing thing happened. One by one our youth group is re-connecting on a Facebook page I set up just for us. We’re starting to share our stories. Over 250 photos from those years have already been posted. . . . most of them rather hilarious. The photos are like a historical recounting of 80’s youth ministry. The pictures don’t lie. Yes, we regularly used the Youth Specialties’ games books, and it seems that at many of our youth group activities, the guys dressed like girls. What was going on back then?!?!? The commentary on those photos indicates that none of those kids has outgrown their sense of humor. So now we’re laughing, talking, and planning a reunion sometime in the future.
As of today, 47 of our original group have come together to reconnect and rebuild that wonderful community we were experiencing twenty years ago. More are joining us regularly. None of this would have happened without Facebook and the phenomenon of social networking. The very thing that might undermine real community for the emerging generations, has rekindled what was real community for those of us who have grown up (or at least we think we’ve grown up).

If you wind up being my Facebook friend, you’ll see that my profile picture is one that makes a statement. It melds my childhood face with the most advanced technology of my childhood. . . . a doomed-to-fail attempt to prove to my kids that somehow I’m technologically hip. It will never happen.

But I really don’t care. I’m trying to do the best I can with the technology I’m learning (slowly, I might add) in the hope that I’ll experience community at a deeper level with some old friends who were a gift from God then, and – I’m discovering – are a gift from God now.

Vacation

From Saturday (12th) until Sunday (20th)I was at home on vacation. It was freaking great to just spend days doing nothing. I know that most of you are dying of anticipation to hear exactly what I did the entire time. Would I honestly chronicle my entire vacation? Of course I would...

Saturday
The day was spent at my mom's house doing laundry, reading a book, and getting some sun. I picked my mom up from the Heritage Day's parade and then met Kacie over in State College.

Saturday night started out with Kacie and I having a pitcher of beer at Champs then going down to Artsfest to check out the bands. Unfortunately Kacie never checked the schedule and the last band was Velveeta at 10 p.m. We then headed on over to her friend's place. Alex (a girl) said we could hang out there and maybe play Monopoly, and drink.

As some of you know, rum and coke can have an adverse affect on me. Apparently after a few of those my night turned into a haze of stupidity. Highlights include throwing a glass off the balcony or eating toast off the floor at the restaurant we stopped at.

Sunday
Did I do anything Sunday? Oh yeah, Kacie and I went to my mom's house. Later my brother came up and we sat around and played rummy. Adam and I then decided to eat two pints of blueberries by tossing them to each other while trying to catch them in our mouths. Our record was something like 14 in a row...we are awesome.

Monday
I think Kacie, Alex, and I hung out at the pool at Nittany Crossing. Kacie went to work and I went back to my mom's. Adam and I then went to see Hancock, review coming in a little while.

Tuesday
Hung out at my mom's for most of the day, came close to finishing a second book (reviews coming shortly as well). Later that day Adam came up and we took a ride to Tyrone and then to State College so he could run some errands.

After awhile I headed on over to Champs to drink some beers and watch the All-Star game. The game started out very boring, but once the extra innings started it became very exciting, also Nate McLouth's throw was awesome.

Wednesday
Ryan came upto State College and a bunch of met at Friday's for dinner. Then, Ryan, Kacie, Ryan's friend Susan, and I went out to Boalsburg to the Boal Barn to see West Side Story. I have not been to many musicals, but this was not bad. I need to explain the awkwardness of my seat though.

I guess this year they added another seat, basically an office chair on the aisle. As the main character busts into one of his solo moments he stands right beside me, his crotch practically on the arm of my chair, I look over at Ryan (we all sat in different sections) and he is laughing at me. Then the dude sits down beside me and sings for a few minutes. Very weird.

After the show, Kacie, Ryan, and I went to Stef's house and drank beer and played Cranium. Ryan and me kicked the girl's collective asses twice. We rocked and rolled.

Thursday
During the day, Adam, Kacie, and I went out to my grandparent's house. Pap cooked us some delicious trout. After the food, we played hold 'em. I won the first two games, and won about $20.

That night we headed to State College to see The Dark Knight, which by my previous post, you know how I felt about it. Anyways, we got there and the place was already packed, which sucked because we were early. Luckily we ran into James and his roommate Benji, and they had two seats beside them. Adam and I took those and Kacie 'n Alex took the seats in front of us.

After that we went back to the restaurant where I made a fool of myself, and ate some food and discussed old times and how great the movie was.

Friday
Another fun night. Imler came back to State College and we hit up Champ's and shot pool for awhile. Then Stef, Kacie, and James showed up and we continued to drink, shoot pool, and bullshit.

Saturday
I spent the day at my mom's house reading my comics. Later, I picked up Kacie and we went to dinner at Olive Garden, where I ran into an old friend, Bonnie. She wanted me to go out, but I honestly did not feel like it. Especially since I hate driving back to Pittsburgh with a hangover.

Sunday
I came back. End of story.

To recap, I drank beer, read two books, an assload of comic books, saw two movies, went to a musical, played cards, shot pool, and most importantly hung out with some great friends. Oh, and I grew a beard and got a suntan.

The Dark Knight

Where do I even begin? Let me first start by saying that the movie was absolutely incredible. Better than the first one, and probably up there as one of the best comic book movies ever. Remember awhile back when I had the poll up for movie you were most excited for? I chose Iron Man, and I guess I should really explain the reasoning behind that choice.

I knew that Christopher Nolan would make a good movie. I knew Dark Knight would be as good or close to the Batman Begins. Iron Man had me excited because it could either suck or be fantastic. I loved Iron Man, but then last night I saw what a comic book movie could really be. You can make changes the characters, but if you understand their core, it does not matter. Dark Knight outdid my expectations, which were already pretty high.

That being said, with all the marketing for the movie, I started to get nervous that it might be really bad. Or that my expectations were getting too high, like they did for Spider-Man 3. Again, Nolan and his team did not let me or anyone else down.

Anyways, let us get to the nitty-gritty of the film. Let me just say that I have nothing negative to say about the film. If you have not seen the film, you might want to stop reading then because I will probably have a few spoilers throughout.

As most people have already said, Heath Ledger was incredible as the Joker. He turned the character into something dark and scary. Everyone loved Jack Nicholson's version, but if you read the comics, you can see that the Joker is much more than someone who laughs a lot.

The Joker needs to be scary, sick, and twisted. The only person who gets the joke, is himself. Ledger pulled that off remarkably. The little things he did made the character seem very real, such licking his lips or telling the stories of how he got his scars. Also, no silly origin setup about the Joker was great. He just comes out of nowhere. We never learn who he is, nor does Batman, goes with the way he is in the comics. I know someone will say that in The Killing Joke, Alan Moore created an origin, but at the end even the Joker admits that he could be lying about it.

Aaron Eckhart's performance was also very good as Harvey Dent. They changed the back story a good bit about Two-Face, but for once, this fit the movie much better than the comic's version.

Eckhart's ability shows through during the dinner scene where Harvey defends the Batman to Bruce Wayne, Rachel, and the Russian Ballet dancer. The tone of his voice goes from uplifting and very light hearted, to quickly dark and edgy when he says about living long enough to see himself as the villain.

Question for everyone, did Two-Face die at the end? I thought he did, but then after discussing it with Adam, I agree with him that they probably hauled him off to a secret padded room in Arkham Asylum.

The sad thing about the film is that Christian Bale will receive almost no recognition for being such a great Batman. In the first one, most critics said he was the best actor to play Batman. He was just as fantastic in this movie, if not better, but Ledger and Eckhart stole the show.

Another thing I love about the movie franchise is the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox. In the comics or even the Animated Series, Fox was always the guy who led Wayne Enterprises, but had no clue who Batman actually was. Having Fox in there as someone who also knows and actually helps out, completely strengthens the plot. It does not hurt that Morgan Freeman is a great actor.

Did anyone purchase Gotham Knights? It is set in between the two films, broken into six separate stories and basically explains how Batman becomes even more badass. Anyways, I watched it the other night and one of the best parts of that little film, was of Bruce going to India to learn how to focus his pain.

They used that during the film, such as when Two-Face shoots him and he still manages to get up and escape. Or when guys just mercilessly beat him with clubs or bottles and he moves through it without notice.

Without going on forever, I just want to say that everyone should see the film, and most likely go see it again. Tell me what you thought.

Comic Book Movie Grade: A+

Mentored. . . .

When it comes to faith, none of us is ever too old, too smart, or too good to be mentored. I am increasingly convinced of this fact. But when I look back over the course of my life and the path of faith God has had me walk, I realize that there was a time when I was too young, too stupid, and too bad to consider the need for a mentor(s). In other words, I saw myself as having it so together in my faith and ministry that I thought, what was there, if anything, that anybody older and more seasoned could teach me? I see now that I was embracing a poisonous blend of pride, arrogance, and self-deception.

Sadly, this reality rears its ugly head from time to time in my own life. I’ve got enough years behind me that a look in the rear-view mirror confirms that I’ve invited this “ugly head” to pop up from time to time. Equally sad – and certainly not a justification for my own behavior – is the universal tendency of followers of Jesus and people in youth ministry to be doing the same. I’ve seen it more and more in recent years, particularly as we’ve been a part of the shift from a world that is less and less modern, and more and more postmodern. Potential mentors are disqualified because their age leads us to assume that they and the modern culture they inhabited are passé. In other words, what – if anything – of value would they have to teach or tell me? This tendency is especially prevalent among those of us in youth ministry who are closer to our first year of ministry than we are to our last. . . . that is, those of us who are young.

This fact has been confirmed by one of the great advantages of keeping a foot in the virtual community inhabited by fellow bloggers and social networking fans. One of things I most look forward to during my frequent visits to youth ministry bloggers and Facebookers is the list of books that are being read and have been read. Because I love to read, I’m always looking to discover new suggestions for that next book to add to my “to read” pile. . . . . which by the way, has gotten so overwhelmingly out-of-control that I now call it my “hope to read” pile. Again, an analysis of what many are reading shows a lack of balance. Most everything is new. . . . stuff which of course is important if we are going to read widely. But absent from many lists are texts from older saints – both living and dead – who are our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Could it be that our pride, arrogance, and self-deception has led us to believe that these folks have nothing at all to say to us? I hope not.

These thoughts were sparked this morning as I finished reading John Stott’s The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor.
Several years ago – knowing that Stott’s health was beginning to decline – I tried to set-up a meeting with Dr. Stott for the purpose of picking his wise and experienced brain. I was hoping to assume the posture of a Timothy on behalf of all Timothy’s in youth ministry, hoping to get to ask a series of questions that would get this modern-day “Paul” to pass on some final words of wisdom that would help us as we endeavor to live for the King and His Kingdom in the 21st century. That meeting with the man who has served as one of my greatest mentors through his books never materialized. So I’ve been happy to recommend his writings to anyone and everyone.

As I closed the pages on Stott’s The Living Church, I realized that what I had just read was most-likely what he would have said to me and our youth ministry community if I had been fortunate enough to meet with him face-to-face.

My challenge to you is this: allow John Stott to mentor you. This Godly and brilliant servant of Christ has much to say to those of us who follow Jesus and are calling kids to do the same.

And while we’re at it, do you have any mentor or book suggestions for me? I’m always looking.

Fantasy Baseball Week 15

Even though I am on vacation, spending my days in the beautiful beaches of San Marco, I have decided to post my results of this past week. I will take a moment from my drinking and fornicating to let you all know about the awesomeness of my team. I will tell these two hot girls with me to give me a moment while I type this up, to fetch me another drink and to make sure they are ready for round three...

Anyways, this week I took on Ryan, who is in second place. I beat his ass like, well it was bad. 7-2-1. I am now one game under .500 going into the All-Star break. The tides are changing. I can feel my team rising up. Soon fifth place shall be mine!

That's all I have for you today. Back to my debauchery.

Yeah, I hit that last night...in my mind.

The Court Situation

Today I had to go court over the whole jumping. After waiting at the magistrates office for like 2 hours, the cop comes in and tells me that the kid's lawyer postponed it for two more weeks. Nothing worse than waking up early for nothing.

Many of you might be asking, "so wait, the caught the person?" And the answer is obviously, yes. He is in for a good amount of jail time, especially since there is a witness.

I do not want to go into many details because who knows how long this will take, and if I am even allowed to mention this kind of thing on here. I am sure revanstrife could weigh in on this for me.

1,000,000 words. . . . . .

The old saying goes, “a picture’s worth a thousand words.” The picture of the magazine cover you see below is worth a thousand times that. If you work with kids, parent kids, minister to kids, love kids. . . . you need to “read” this picture. Then, you need to talk about it. I think this photo – more than any other I’ve seen in a long time – captures the essence and reality of today’s youth culture.

If you’re in youth ministry, don’t plan anything for this week’s gathering. Instead, put the photo up on the big screen. Get into some small groups. Then, have your students discuss these questions:

- Does this picture make any suggestions on how to think, talk, act, or live?

- What does the picture say about the way the world is?

- What does this picture say about the way the world ought to be?

- Is there right and wrong?

- What’s portrayed as right?

- What’s portrayed as wrong?

- What do the Scriptures say about the values, attitudes, and behaviors portrayed in this picture?

- How does God call us to live out His Kingdom priorities in the midst of the world depicted in this photo?

Twitter

So I am attempting the whole Twitter thing. It's on the sidebar to the left. For those of you who have twitter let me know, so I can follow you. I guess that is what the cool kids do, right?

**UPDATE**
Let me try to explain what twitter is. Well I am not 100% sure, but I guess the best way to describe it is like the myspace or facebook status updates. Unfortunately since I use both and it is a pain to try and update at any kind of constant rate, I end up never updating. This way I can try to update constantly, and hopefully enough of you will start using it to actually form some kind of group or something.

Marvel Animated Movies

I have been a huge fan of the Marvel animated movies which have come out recently, i.e. Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers 2, Iron Man, and Dr. Strange. It looks like the next one will be pretty badass as well.



Hulk vs. Wolverine!

Haircut Day

In the previous post I mentioned that I had a very good morning so far. Let me explain, I worked until 7 a.m. and proceeded over to the Toyota dealership for an oil change and to have them look at my Yaris because the maintenance required light was on.

I only sat in the lounge for like 15 minutes when the guy came in and said my car was ready. Oil was changed and the light was on because of something or other, I am not a car person so I zoned out, but they fixed it. The oil change was more than I usually pay, but the warranty paid for the part they fixed.

On the way home I decided to swing into Robinson and get a haircut at Sports Clips. I highly recommend going there. Hot girls cutting your hair while a ton of TVs are turned to ESPN. It is like heaven.

Today I decided to splurge and get the MVP. That is a haircut, shampoo/head massage, hot face towel, and a neck massage. It was $22 which is outrageous for a haircut, but let me just say, I was sore and tired and sick of working midnights...it was definitely needed.

I walked out of there with a spring in my step, wide awake, and ready to take on the world. It also did not hurt that my girl looked like this:

Fantasy Baseball Week 14

Holy shit! I am posting the results on a Monday and not like Thursday. It must be the great morning I have had so far, more on that in a minute.

Anyways, I took on the Champ, or in other words I played Gideon's team this week. I am pretty sure he talked a good amount of smack, and as usual, had nothing to back it up. I crushed his team, 6-3-1. I made his team look like a bunch of silly girls.

Okay, not really. Going into Sundays games, I thought for sure I would be let down once again by my team. Every category happened to be quite close. If Joba could actually win a game, I might have put up a 7th win...Anyways, I knew that the pitching stats were in my favor since I had aforementioned Joba pitching today and Gideon had no one starting for him, but those things can work against you. If my guy blows up and costs me WHIP and ERA then I am utterly screwed.

Not really going to try and figure out who my big star was for the week, maybe Carlos Lee. My big move was picking up Hairston again, and moving Renteria to the bench. Very wise decision.

Interesting note about our league. Singer and Ryan own the top two spots, each with over 70 wins, the next three spots all have around 67 wins, and I lead the bottom five spots, but it is very close with 61 wins. What is my point? Well it is still a close race. I could easily drop down to last place, and Offord, the current basement dweller could climb to the top.

This week I take on Ryan, and hopefully move above .500.

Why does God? . . .

Josh hopped onto our bed late last Wednesday night. He had a question. “Why does God allow someone so young to die?” We’ve had these discussions before with our kids. I’ve had them numerous times over the years with other kids who have lost young family members or friends in tragic, unexpected ways. This time it was a 22-year-old high school classmate of Josh’s, Matt Garber, who had drowned in Costa Rica while spending his summer doing missions work.

Matt was one of four kids in a local family we’ve gotten to know over the years. Our kids are all close in age, and Matt’s three siblings have all been classmates, teammates, and friends with my kids. Matt was looking forward to starting a career in nursing in just over a month. . . . once he returned from his missions trip.

My discussion with Josh on the bed took the usual course. I explained that there are many things that happen in life that we just can’t understand or explain. When those times come, I hold on to the things I know (my list of “This I know’s”). I believe in God’s love, grace, mercy, and sovereignty. I also know that our world is polluted by sin. I know that God has begun and will finish his plan to undo all that’s been done.

As you can imagine, Matt Garber’s death is the big news in our town. Sadly, the Garber family has in one month gone from the joy of celebrating Matt’s older brother’s selection in the major league baseball draft and Matt’s college graduation, to coming together for a funeral. All last week we prayed for the Garbers. We prayed that eventually Matt’s body would be found so that some small sense of closure could come.

On Saturday morning, I went for a bike ride on a local trail. As I oftentimes do, I was praying while riding. This time, I spent time praying for the Garbers. Not coincidentally, I was a mile from the end of my ride when I skidded to a stop to talk with a jogger. It was Matt’s younger sister Janelle. She’s a good friend of my daughter Bethany. I said her name and she looked at me bewildered, not sure who it was who was stopping to chat with her. Once I took off my sunglasses and unbuckled my helmet she recognized me. It was an emotional moment as I asked her, “Janelle, how are you doing?” We stood there together and talked for a long time. We talked about what had happened to her brother. She told me they had just found his body. She spoke about her brother’s faith in Christ. She talked about how she was doing. When I finally rode away, I had been ministered to by a young lady whose deep pain, hurt, and grief were being experienced in the context of her deep faith in Christ.

Without the “This I know’s,” I’m not sure how people get through tragedy. It is a mystery of grace, but it is a reality. Last week in worship I reached into the hymnal rack and pulled out a little supplemental book of hymns written by the late Dr. James Boice. I’ve grown to love the words of #5. . . . and I think the text of this simply titled “Hallelujah” brings great light and hope in the midst of grief and questions.

What can separate my soul
From the God who made me whole
Wrote my name in heaven’s scroll?
Nothing. Hallelujah!

Trouble, hardship, danger, sword
Brought by those who hate my Lord?
Slander here? Or no reward?
Nothing. Hallelujah!

Angels, demons, now or then?
Wickedness dreamed up by men?
Persecutions come again?
Nothing. Hallelujah!

Victors we’re ordained to be
By the God who set us free
What can therefore conquer me?
Nothing. Hallelujah!

We face death for God each day
What can pluck us from his way?
Let God’s people every say
Nothing. Hallelujah!

July 4th

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, which was pretty uneventful since I had to work the late shift. During the day I read for awhile and then began to lament about the ghost of 4ths gone by.

Back when I was younger I went to my mom's family to watch the parade and do all sorts of fun stuff. You remember my mom's family from this post. Anyways, this kind of thinking got me to reread that entire post with all the comments and I started to wonder something.

What if I really was the cold/heartless one? I thought about this for a good seven seconds and proceeded to laugh my ass off. Yes, I may be heartless. Yes, I may be cold. Hell, I am most definitely an asshole. But, at the end of the day, I would never say this to one of my children (if by some freak miracle I have one): "I wish you would have died instead of my wife." Yes, that is what my grandfather said to my mom about 2 or 3 months ago.

Cold? Check. Heartless? Check. My feelings of indifference towards that side of the family absolutely founded? Check.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Let me know what you did that was fun and exciting.

**UPDATE**
Apparently, my mom's family constantly proves to be the bigger adults in this entire situation. My cousin, Kayse, tried to get a guy to beat my brother up on the 4th of July. Nothing says HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! like a good old fashioned family blood feud. I have decided that it shall be a blood feud, because that sounds so much cooler than Family Feud.

**Minor Update Part 2**
Also, I have to laugh at my aunt for a second because she said that her kids were not allowed to use myspace (even though this blog is not myspace, I can understand the confusion) except that a quick search, showed that her kids do in fact use myspace.

Anyways, I promise that tomorrow will have a real post and real things. Any ideas on possible topics?

Porn Parents

I was moderately bored today and decided to watch some YouTube clips and found a few odd ones. Interviews by Primetime or Dateline with various pornstars. The one I found the most interesting was about Sunny Lane.



I love how the interview makes the parents come off as money hungry pimps, but I am sure if you change some lighting, do a few more close ups of them and change the sound effects to something lighter, they would come off sounding somewhat smart.

That is generally why I hate shows like that, they are absolutely worthless. The producer decides which way to make the interview and no matter what answers people give, they can change or edit it around to make it seem like these people are monsters.

Oh yeah, my thoughts on Sunny Lane. It is a bit weird that her parents are her managers, but how is that worse than most of the other pornstars? Their parents disown them, they end up doing mass amounts of drugs, they make poor decisions, and end up with a bunch of STDs. At least Sunny Lane has decent people looking out for her, and not (hopefully) having her star in a movie where she gets taken on by 15 guys or something like that.

Actually that last bit about the 15 guys, I would probably watch it, but not pay for it, so she would end up getting screwed for nothing. That is one of the worst puns ever. And the top photo is Belladonna, who I would, well I would make some joke, but I am all out of good ones after that fantastic pun...

New Teen TV. . . .

Last night I watched the premiere of the new ABC Family Channel series, The Secret Life of The American Teenager. I hadn’t seen any of the previews so I really had no idea what to expect from this new show from the producers of Seventh Heaven. Even though the first hour left me feeling like the show is a bit hokey, over-acted, and somewhat lame, I do believe there’s some potential. . . most of which lies not in the show’s plotline, but in the possibilities the plotline present for discussion with a certain – yet to be determined – group of kids.

First, the story. . . . which is at this point fairly simple even though it’s headed quickly into the realm of teen-targeted soap opera. All the campus stereotypes are present, and during the first hour they had some interesting interactions designed to lay the groundwork for further plot development. Fifteen-year-old freshman good girl Amy Juergens plays French horn in the band. She suspects and discovers she’s pregnant, the result of her first-time (and nothing good about it) sexual experience at band camp. The father, Ricky Underwood, is the band’s drummer. Sexually abused by his father as a child, Ricky now lives in a foster home, regularly attends therapy, and is obsessed with having sex with every girl he meets. . . . including Amy. In this first episode, Amy reveals her pregnancy only to her two best friends, who offer advice, but she has yet to tell her mom and dad. Incidentally, Amy’s 13-year-old sister Ashley is an emerging Goth whose search for identity is leaving her family dazed and confused.

Other characters offer stereotypical portrayals of how teenagers handle their emerging sexuality. Grace Bowman is the 15-year-old bubbly evangelical Christian who speaks in Christian clichés – oftentimes while a church organ plays in the background (I said it’s hokey), and is outspoken about her promise ring pledge. In teen language, Grace is “hot,” which may be why she’s so good at getting her unsaved peers to attend her youth group’s post-football game dance and party. . . . where, by the way, Grace teeters on doing some dirty dancing of her own with boyfriend Jack. Even though he’s a football player, Jack is Grace’s follower when it comes to faith. It quickly becomes obvious that all of Jack’s faith-talk (clichés and organs again) is more of an effort to convince himself to remain sexually pure, than to give in to his – for lack of better words – curiosity and horniness. After unsuccessfully trying to get Grace to engage in oral sex (“Is oral sex sex?”), viewers discover that Jack satisfies his sexual curiosity with steamy and seductive baton twirler Adrian (I told you it was going to be a soap opera!). Incidentally, it’s Grace’s downs-syndrome brother Tom (a member of Grace’s over-the-top and sticky-sweet evangelical family) who discovers Jack and Adrian locked in a kiss at the end of the first episode, leaving everyone hanging until next week.

One other character worth mentioning is Ben, another virgin freshman who wants a sex life and talks about his desire with unbelievable openness with the new school counselor. By episode’s end, Ben’s pursuit of Amy leads him to join the school band (cymbal player!) and the episode closes with Amy and Ben slow-dancing in the church gym. At some point in an upcoming episode, Ben is in for a big surprise.

That’s the story. Now some thoughts.

First, the show is simple, over-acted, and as I said before, a bit hokey. I felt like I was watching High School Musical without the music, but with a simplified peek into coming-of-age sexuality in today’s youth culture. That said, the target audience for this show is pretty clear. Late elementary-aged girls, middle-school girls, and high school girls who are less jaded (naïve) will most likely get sucked into this soap opera. I can’t imagine the typical high school kid connecting with The Secret Life of the American Teenager, but I could be wrong.

Second, I think the show will raise enough real-life issues (sexuality, sexual abuse, oral sex, etc.) that it’s value will lie in parents and their kids watching together, followed by some healthy discussion. If that doesn’t happen, the show could function as a pretty powerful mentor and map for kids looking for sexual and relational guidance.

Finally, I’m guessing the portrayal of Grace and her family will have lots of Christian’s buzzing with anger this morning. I can understand that. . . . I hope that I never come across that way to the watching world. (I can assure you that my life looks nothing like the smiley/bubbly/sugar-coated lives of the Bowman family). But the reality is that the portrayal flows from a watching world that has all-too-often seen Christians live shallow, cliché-filled, unrealistic, and dis-integrated lives. What the show reflects back to us shouldn’t make us angry at the writers and producers, but should make us angry with ourselves. I don’t think the stereotype would exist if we didn’t fuel it. . . . . which just might be the best discussion point coming out of the first episode of The Secret Life of The American Teenager.

So do we watch next Tuesday at 8pm? Or do we find a good book and lay in the hammock? It all depends on who else will be watching. If it catches on with the kids – and I think it’s destined to do just that – then we should be watching too. Then, we need to do some talking as this is one show that will help open doors for discussion on a variety of real-life issues, each of which the Scriptures speak to in liberating and life-giving ways.

Chasing humility. . . .

If I remember correctly, it was while watching the old Romper Room TV show that I learned at a young age to “do be a do-bee” and “don’t be a don’t-bee.” The meat on the bones of those little songs and rhymes were character lessons on virtuous behavior.

My kids grew up without Romper Room, but television fed them lots of lessons on character and appropriate/acceptable behavior. As a dad, I quickly learned that it was important to be looking over their shoulders to see how what they were watching was schooling them for life. Sadly, looking over the shoulder has become more and more necessary, as the “do’s” and “don’ts” have become quite muddled since shows like Romper Room went off the air. It’s become harder and harder to find good positive role models whose lives evidence positive character and virtue.

While the only consistent model for our behavior is Christ, we can from time to time point to examples of people who go against the flow of the status quo to model in a breath-of-fresh-air sort of way character that is worth aspiring to. A couple of weeks ago our local paper ran an article about one of those people and the valuable life lessons he learned from his Dad which continue to inform the way he lives today. According to the way most high-profile sports superstars live self-absorbed “look at me” lifestyles today, this guy just goes about his business quietly and without flair. If you’re a sports fan you no doubt know the name Chase Utley. The quiet and unassuming second basemen for the Philadelphia Phillies is such a good player that more fans have sent their all-star votes his way than in the direction of any other player. I’ve watched Utley more closely this year than ever before. Whether winning or losing, homering or striking out, or fielding or missing a ball (rarely!), Utley’s demeanor never changes. There’s never any showboating. When things don’t go his way, there are not tantrums, anger, or excuses. The more I watch him, the more amazed I am by the way he plays the game. The fact that I’m amazed is a sad commentary on the state of our culture. Utley’s behavior and approach to the game should be commonplace. Because it’s not – sadly – it stands out.

Back to Utley and his Dad and the article our paper ran on Father’s Day. . . . it seems that when Utley was a little boy playing ball in his home state of California, he complained to his father about a fellow player who did quite a bit of show-boating on the field, and bragging off the field. Utley’s dad simply shared a lesson he had learned from his high school guidance counselor. The lesson was this: “If you’re really good at something, you don’t have to tell people. They will tell you.” And so, Chase Utley focuses on pursuing excellence at his craft. You know by the way he plays. Not by what he says. What I like about Chase Utley – and what I like to point out to my kids about Chase Utley – is his humility. It’s refreshing because that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

The writer of Proverbs says that “humility comes before honor.” Jesus reminds his followers that “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” And Peter reminds Christ-followers to “clothe yourselves with humility.”

We are all sinners saved by grace. Anything good we have or do is a gift of grace. I am reminded this morning that in my home, my church, my community, and my world I am nothing. . . and if I am something, it is only by the grace of God. So with the Puritans we should pray, “Help me to humble myself before Thee by seeing the vanity of honor as a conceit of men’s minds, as standing between me and Thee.”