In Pursuit of Kleenex

Just got back from Will Smith's "In Pursuit of Happyness", it was a tear-jerker. Smith plays Christopher Gardner, a San Francisco medical supply salesman who's barely making ends meet for his wife and son. The "bone density" machines he sells are like suped-up Xray machines, and no one seems to need them as much as he needs to sell them. Late rent, no taxi fare, no child care, etc etc Gardner gets an in with an investment firm and puts it all on the line to land an actual paying job.

The plot is based on a true story, and the real dude makes a low-key cameo at the end. Smith son plays the little boy and if he was any cuter I might have actually exploded. There are so many moments (which are almost all exclusively close ups of Smith holding little Smith) where the movie makes you realize how easy you have it, and how hard the world is.

So, IKOTM reccomends this movie but bring some tissues. Guys, bring some tweezers to pull some nose hairs if you want to impress your date. I am a huge Will Smith fan, and this just continues to show how good he really is at everything. Movies, add this to the list. TV, Fresh Prince one of the best shows ever. Music, maybe his weakest suit, but I still rock Big Willie Style on the iPod...bouncin in the club when the heat is on...Great movie!

New Years

I think the "coolest" new years i've ever had was in 6th grade...we stayed up till midnight and banged pots n' pans outside. I think it was cool because my friend Craig's sister had some friends over, and we snuck watching part of "Interview With A Vampire".

Since then I guess it's been a little "lackluster". We'll see what happens in the next couple days. I also don't really understand what Auld Lang Syne is about, even after reading the lyrics and description.

Does anyone have any new years traditions, or at least cool stories? I really hope at least a couple people answer, no body likes an unresponsive blog question.

There was a cool post about resolutions/lists over at Spitbox (check out the link to the right).

More soon I guess, it's nice to be home with fionce and family.

Leave a new years tradition/cool story/reaction! Do it!

Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone. Gettin ready to sit down to some Christmas dinner. It's good to be with family. Here's the present highlights of the day:

electric blanket
ESPN Scene It
"How Then Shall We Live"

So now it's two days of eating and wii'ing before my betrothed one arrives and we have Christmas Round 2! It's good to be me.

Here's something to ponder: Whats the meaning of a gift these days? Do you gift card or not? Some say the gift card doesn't reflect any time or effort and is thus a copout. I say you're just lettin them pick out what they want. Discuss...

Christmas continued...

(If you want to avoid irrelevant musing, skip this paragraph, thanks) Sorry for that last post, I was frightened. I've been away for like, 2.5 weeks now and IKOTM has suffered. So i'm really gonna make an effort to get my blog posts in December up around 15-20. I'm like Def Lepperd coming out with a new album- it's been a while but they'll have lots of material!

This month has just not seemed "Christmasy". There are few who love Christmas music more than me, and I haven't really fired up my iPod that much. We had snow, went sledding, had staff Christmas parties at church, adopt-a-family with youth group, put up the tree with my family, put up Sarah's tree with her family, oh ya, and I GOT FREAKING ENGAGED AT A CHRISTMAS ORCHESTRA CONCERT! But still, no Christmas tingly feeling inside. No wide eyed wonder or dreams about sugar plumb faries. (If anyone could send me a link to some sugar plumb faries that'd be cool, I don't really know what they are.)

So whats the problem? We're 4 days out from Christmas, I should be feeling festive! I've participated in all the "stuff" but it hasn't spurred my yule tide feelings. Is my heart stone like, nay, Scrooge like? Am I shallow enough to not be excited because there are no big ticket presents i've asked for this year? I don't think so, at least I hope not.

The problem is growing up.

The transition from childhood/student life into adulthood is pretty hard. I've found that holidays are a big indicator of this. Anyone remember their first Halloween just sitting at home watching slasher movies on TBS rather than being out scoring pounds of candy? It was devastating. Another milestone was the first Christmas you woke up at 7am, then wanted to go back to sleep more than rush downstairs to open presents. What started in 10th grade has come to full fruition at 22.

Adulthood makes Christmas harder. Now instead of just signing all my parents cards for other people and getting "credit" for their gifts that I didn't help pay for, i've got to get people my own, cause I have a job now! Now, instead of having nothing to do for 3 weeks while home from College, you work the whole time! Now, instead of drooling over the thoughts of action figures and nintendo games Christmas morning, I open up new towels or luggage.....AND I LIKE IT! Function has trumped action, practicality rules. I'll still cling to my stocking candy and the fact that I can mooch off the free food at my parent's house.

I'm thinking Christmas will be a lot more fun when you're married...but then the most fun of all is when you have your own kids, especially once their brains are developed enough to start to understand whats going on.

But I think the reason Christmas is harder as an adult is you think about more than just yourself. You get past feeling good about putting 75cents your parents gave you in the parking lot to put in the red kettle when you were young to thinking about how much people still need help in July too. You think about the fact that you bought a Nintendo Wii and yet you helped a family who didn't have heat. Then you feel bad because you don't feel as bad as you think you should. Re-read that last sentance, see if it makes better sense the second time.

You think about how you don't want your parents to get older, how you hope your Grandma can see her Grandkids well into their lives. You think about the fact that we have no real basis other than tradition to base Jesus brithday on December 25. You think about how lucky you are to have such great people in your life all together at once for Christmas, and you think about how you should keep in touch better the rest of the year.

You think about what you thought Christmas was about when you were young. Then you think about how much more you know now, but really how much less you know. Like how you could discuss the different theories about the magi but really not begin to explain how God made himself into a human, born to a virgin. You think about the fact that baby Jesus had first words, and poopy diapers, just like you did. Then you giggle when you think about Will Farrell's prayer in Taladaga nights, haha, sorry. You think that the story you grew up with isn't just a story, but history. You think about how unbelievably scared Mary and Joseph had to have been. You think about how you can take God's gift to people, not just for a month in December but your whole life until the day you die. You think about what your good friend Steve said, that Christians should be "experts at Christmas". I like that.

Maybe i'm feeling Christmasy after all.

The roof the roof the roof is on fya'

Right now i'm typing on my laptop in a hallway in my apartment. There's many large men working on the roof, and they've taken off our skylight. Thus exposing my sleepy self directly to their unhindered glances. I live upstairs in the loft, and so these guys could literally watch me change or read or pray or whatever it is i'm doing in my room at the time. Ok, my roomate is up and i've moved into his room. Yikes, that was close. I did overhere some Van Halen "Jump" a second ago from the stereo blasting from the roof directly into our living room as there are no fixtures to dampen the sound, that and the fact that our roof won't leak anymore are the only plusses so far.

I guess this could be a good segway into a deep reflection about the passage of scripture where the dudes lower their friend through the roof to have Jesus heal him, but I won't. I'll just say I can understand if the owner of the house was mad about it. They didn't have boom boxes back then though, so I dunno.

It Is Finished.

Hello all my blog people.

Sorry I haven't posted pretty much all of advent. I think you'll forgive me though.

I'm engaged.

Tuesday, December 19. Powell Symphony hall at the Bach Society Christmas Candlelight Concert following a lovely meal on The Hill (area of town, not an actual geographical feature, although it's that too...)

I'd never seen Sarah so happy, or felt so happy myself. So, more on other topics soon. But for right now that's whats goin on!

Check out the ice.

Christmas Prayer

Oh God, we have come into your presence together tonight, wanting to connect with you. The season of advent is often busy and we pause tonight to thank you for the ultimate blessing when you came down and became one of us. It is hard for us to grasp that you, the God who created all that is in this world, the one to whom all good things point to, are the same God that has given us so much to be thankful for this year, the same God who has brought us joy, and brought us through despair and hurt.

Your word tells us about the coming of your son; most of us have heard the stories, God we’ve heard the facts but we’ll never fully understand the mystery. Just as the magi followed the star we’re following your spirit because without your real presence here among us, this is all just decoration. We set up models of a manger scene, even some that light up but we confess that we really have know idea what it took for your very word to become flesh, not as a mighty warrior or a benevolent king, but as a humble servant, born miraculously to a virgin in a trailer park.

God again we have come to thank you for all that you’ve done, all that you’re doing, and all that you’re going to do. God if it pleases you may you do your work through us, your people. We thank you that we have spare change to put in the red ringing buckets. We thank you for the wealth we have to wrap up signs of our love and care for another in shiny pretty paper. We thank you for your grace that fills in our misunderstandings and carries us through this advent season and into the coming year.

God as we move into this time of preparation, may you be with us in very real ways. May we see that ornaments, Christmas carols, holiday movies, home décor, real and artificial trees are all so much fun but they’re not the point. As we proclaim the Christmas season, give us the wisdom and strength to continue to proclaim the coming of your Kingdom here and to come as your very Son did. Come into our hearts, prepare us to once again receive the gift of Jesus. Amen.

Casino Royale/Snow Storm

We have a winner! The new Bond movie is worth all of the $7.50 it cost to view. I would see it again today.

The new dude Daniel Craig...I was a little skeptical about. I'll come out and say it, i've been a Pierce Brosnan fan since Mrs. Doubtfire. But he's the new Bond for sure. Craig has some gnarley looks, yet cleans up well. I'll let other female viewers go into more phsyical observations, but he had the "i'm so smooth I could kill you and not even wrinkle my tux" effect down nicely.

I'm not much of a critic, so I won't go into detail. Let it suffice to say that I own multiple Steven Seagall movies, so i'm fairly easy to please. I'm a sucker for some explosions, fighting, chases, and a couple one-liners. "Casino" had all of that...plus..*gasp* an actual plot, character development, suspense, and witty dialogue! It re-casts the series a la "Batman Begins", another recent favorite. I'm more familiar with Bond spoofs Austin Powers than I am the actual series itself, but Casino had a good mix of obligatory omages (sp?) to the series while also taking it in a newer, more you-know-what-kicking direction without being cheesy. Not to compare too many times, but the last couple Batman movies were parodying themselves, and the Bond series was headed that way too (invisible cars? c'mon.) All the gadgets and product placement were still there, but the movie was still taking itself serious enough.

The other part of yesterday was that we got a ridiculous shot of winter weather. Me and me buddies were 3 of probably 45 people in the mall total, and on the way out we helped push some kids out of a snow drift. They had tried to take their Camry "off roading" in the snow-piled parking lot and had gotten stuck upon entry.

So not only did we see a great movie, but we saved someone a call home to Mommy. Just like Bond would've done.