Still here.....

Believe it or not, I'm still alive.

Things have been really insanely busy for a while, so I haven't had much time to sit and reflect. Well, that's not entirely true. I've had time to reflect, I've just been too darn tired to sit at a computer and organize those thoughts into a cohesive narrative. So some updates:

Me: Busy as can be. Union negotiations have gone longer than expected. The auditors have popped by for interim work. And I'm in the middle of budget season. Yeah, life sucks sometimes. I had to give some stuff a backseat. Like this blog. And the Romans bible study I had joined for the Fall/Winter. Just not enough brainpower to go around. But I'm surviving. Just keep plowing ahead one step at a time. On the positive side, I have the floor down and the walls painted in the new baby room. Over Christmas holiday I plan on getting the closet organizers and installing those. But first......must survive to Christmas.

Julie/baby: Julie is doing well. She's busy and tired as well, but we're coping. We're somewhere around 18 weeks now and she's finally gotten past the nautious stage. Yay!!! No more opening the refrigerator door in fear of retching!!! She's just now starting the job search. This weekend I'll be helping her get her cover letter together. On the positive side, we know there are programs that are interested in family practice docs with OB experience. She'll be quite the catch. Baby Phillips is doing well too. Over Christmas holiday we're going to have the ultrasound. Boy??? Girl???? Bets anyone?

My Dad: He's definately improving. In a little over a week or so he'll be coming home for good. He's really frustrated with being in the Assisted Living right now, which is good, but it just makes more stress for the rest of us. Ah well, soon he'll be home and all will be well. He'll have some home health care for a while, which will annoy him no end, but I seems like the best alternative.

Bill and my Mom are doing fine. Life goes on. Bill is still getting married next summer. My Mom is still going through her routine.

So no promises on updating this regularly. But as I find energy I'll try to find a way to get back out here (like taking a mental health break here at work today) ;)

God bless, all

And on the eighth day, God said, "Let there be Baseball!"

I'm still here. Tired...brain dead....but still here. With all that's happened this year (work/stroke/pregnancy), I'm barely hanging on by a thread. But I have a mighty good grip on that thread. My biggest emotional crutch this year has been watching the Tigers play ball. I purchased an eight game package this year to go with my Dad, Bill and my father in law. I figured it was a last ditch attempt to do something with the family relatively close together. Next summer Bill gets married and moves downriver while Julie and I were suppose to move north. Now the wedding is still on, but my Dad had a stroke, Julie's pregnant and plans to move are on hold for the forseeable future as we see how this all shakes out.

So here we stand. The world is chaotic, the Tigers are in the World Series and, it's hard to describe, but they hold all of my emotional hopes right now. Watching Rogers pitch with the intensity he's shown has been nothing short of inspirational. I watch these games yelling and screaming like a madman (vocabulary 80% clean right now, seven months or so to keep working on it). Here's my favorite quote from Mitch Albom's column this morning. Click on the link and get lost in the excitement.

Remember, this isn't one of those "Who are the Beatles?" kids on the mound. This is 41-year-old Texan, a guy who Saturday was answering questions about whether he'd considering retiring in spring training: not this spring training, three years ago!

"At that point my mind-set was that I probably wasn't going to play anymore," he said.

Thank goodness somebody called him and offered him a job. That was several jobs ago, of course. He has bounced around a lot in his long career, but, man, has he found a home in Detroit. I don't want to say Comerica Park has been very, very good to Rogers, but if he does this one more time, they might not only rename the stadium, they might rename the bank.

An Exclusive.....

Here's an exclusive for my loyal readers.

Your first look at....."Baby" Phillips. Personally I think the little thing is taking after Julie, but it's kind of hard to say. ;)

Playoff heartbreak

Oh we're still in it. But Leyland had to break the news as to who's on the roster and who isn't...

Maroth, Clevlen and Tata aren't going.

Shelton is probably in. Ironic since he's been running with the Mud Hens for the end of the season. Here's hoping my boy get's his hitting groove back.

Playoff baseball in Detroit. Whod've thunk it?

Whew...

So I don't really have time to rest lately. I'm a little crazy, I'm really tired. But life goes on....I'm slowly adjusting to the whole Dad with stroke thing and the whole Julie being pregnant thing. I just need to sit down awhile.

I know I haven't mentioned it lately, but just so you don't think I'm slacking on the important news:

THE TIGERS MADE THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!

Woo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're in the playoffs, we're in the playoffs, we're in the playoffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my. This has certainly been a welcome reward to a hard-played season. And maybe I'm one of the few who remember it but, "Bless You Boys!" It's great to have baseball back in Detroit again...

Update on Dad

Well, we've finally gotten him out of the hospital and over to a rehab facility. There's alot of work ahead, but he's already made so much improvement that I have no doubt he'll get through this just fine. It just goes slowly.

I have to admit that I have no great reflections on what has gone on recently. Between the stroke and the pregnancy I'm just, for lack of a better term, numb. If anything I've learned to just slow down and concentrate on what's important.

If have havn't called some of you to talk about this, please don't take it personally. I've talked this whole topic to death. I've called most all of the relatives, spoken with most friends and left messages for others. My brain is fried as far as this subject is concerned. But we shall survive.

Life Lessons...

These last few weeks have truly been messages from God. What those messages are, I'm not quite sure. I'm pretty sure that it's something along the lines of, "Jim, get your shit in order, you've got work to do" or something like that. Being God there's probably a few more thee's and thous's in there somewhere.

It started a couple of weeks ago when one of my accountants, out of the blue, turned in her 2 week notice. I was instantly going into coping mode...planning and planning. I made plans, arranged a transition, reorganized a department, created a new job posting and got it posted. It was alot of something I really had not started out thinking I would have to deal with around the holiday. But I dealt with it.

This week, my Father suffered a stroke. He's making progress each day, but it's forced me to assess my priorities. To rearrange, shuffle and make plans to take care of my mom and my dad. As the oldest son I feel it's my duty to take care of this and I'm happy do what needs to be done. With Bill and Julie we'll get this all taken care of. Sure does cause you to look at life differently, though. I'm not even close to done processing all of this yet. There's going to be a lot of work ahead of us, but we'll do what we need to do.

God throws it in there. I deal, I grow. Happens to everyone.


Oh yeah.....Julie's pregnant, found out this morning....

Enough lessons God, I'm getting the point. Really. :'D

Prayer Request

For any of you so inclined, please add my father to you lists of prayer requests. This morning he suffered a small stroke and I've spent most of the afternoon and evening at the hospital. There have been some good signs...he's self-aware and he tries to answer questions, but his mouth and brain seem to rebel. He has full motor control elsewhere, but it's slow. I'm optimistic, but I'll think he'll be fine in the long run. Anyway, I've been making calls to relatives all day and I'm kind of out of steam for storytelling.

Just pray. This is too damn early for me to ever have imagined dealing with this.

The Crocodile Hunter is dead....

Steve Irwin dead at 44. Injured by a stingray.

No joke. Take a look here:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20349888-2,00.html

Weird. I can't say I've ever been a huge fan of his. But at the same time how could you not be a fan? The guy had a lot of passion for working with animals. Just seems a little sad.

Update

Believe it or not I'm still around and kicking. It's been a busy couple of weeks (and weekends) around my house. The last few weekends I've spent catching up with friends, performing band concerts and generally trying to keep the house in some state of orderliness. It's a hard fought battle. So I'll get around to actually posting stuff of interest on here soon. I have a few things in the queue:

1. I'm working on the essay I've said I do for a while not detailing some of the reasons I gave up "being Baptist" and decided to "become Lutheran". This will probably be in essay form and I'll link to it from here and/or thorugh a new page on the main site. Speaking of which...

2. I'm working on a new section to the main site. It will center around religious themes and will contain most of the handouts I've used and created while teaching small group, sunday school and the youth group. Most of them are ok. I'm not really intending them as the final word on anything, they'll just be available for anyone who would like to download them to modify for their own use.

You'll notice on my blog that I now have a Library Thing account. Using this in conjunction with my Readerware software, my intention is that my friends will be able to browse my library in order to see if there is anything they'd like to borrow. Right now all I have in there is my downstairs bookshelf and a couple of boxes of books I have in the basement. I hope to have much more in there in the coming weeks.

Anyway. Much work to do. Talk to everyone later.

Ah-Ha!

If you know me, you knew I just couldn't let this pass when I saw it. I always knew it was something:

Redheads 'have more sex than blondes or brunettes'

Geek alert

Ok, so I said I was off. Quick alert to all geeks if you haven't seen it:

Doctor Who

Season 28

Sci-Fi Channel - September 29th

So What's New?

Another weekend here....whew. It's been a busy week. Not only did I have financial statement close, but we had issue exchange for union negotiations as well. I forgot how much "fun" that can be. This early in the process my main goal is to attempt to keep my mouth shut as some of the issues are brought forward. Some of the demands just get crazy. I personally think that the fact that I don't say "Are you guys out of your f'ing minds???" is a great step forward in personal growth....mainly because I don't say it.

I'm thinking it, just not saying it (we're still working on facial expressions).

Julie's been working quite a bit this week. We've just sort of passed in the night. She's had a lot going on with her research project and just long hours. This weekend she's working the night shifts. We just got in from breakfast....off to sleep she goes.

One thing that's been helping alot is that we've both been working out lately. Julie joined Curves and I joined a athletic club up by work. I just finally decided that I needed to make working out part of my regular work day. So every morning I wake up at 4:45, brush my teeth, throw on some clothes, grab my coffee and protein bar and hit the road. By 6:00 I'm working out and I'm usually at the office by 7:30/8:00. I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now, 5 days a week and I'm really liking the changes. I've had more energy during the day, it's really kept my stress levels down and I'm making friends with muscles that had gone away on vacation for a little while. I decided that I wasn't going to focus on weight anymore. It makes more sense to focus on health and fitness....weight will take care of itself. So I get with my personal trainer, watch my diet for reasonableness, hit the gym each weekday and I'm going to look damn good by the time we get to Bill's wedding next year. Ok, so it's a gym, not a house of miracles so I suppose we'll qualify that last statement by saying that I should be in significantly better shape by next year.

Alas, I have people to do and things to see this morning, so I must be off. A good weekend to all....

Go Tigers!!!

Ok, so here's my little bit of randomness for the weekend. Not only did the Tigers sweep Cleveland, two of those come from behind wins, but I also got to meet Joel Zumaya this evening. For those of you who's life doesn't revolve around baseball or the Tigers (until this year the two words have not been synonymous), this is one of our outstanding relief pitchers. Oh yeah, he also has a pretty wicked (and consistent) fastball that has been clocked around 102 mph and is, on average around 100 mph. The boy has an arm. So when I found out the sport card/comic book store by me had him coming by, I bought my ticket and made sure I was there. Poor Bill is in Tennessee with my folks, but I made sure to get his jersey signed as well. Ah well....random fun. Back to work tomorrow.

Daaaaaaaammmmmnnnn!!!!!

Here's the picture....

Bottom of the ninth. Tigers down 3-2 to Cleveland. Two outs. Polanco on first. Pudge at bat. Jim in recliner. Very tense.

Pudge hits first pitch foul.

Pitcher winds up again.....

throws beach ball down the center of the plate.

Pudge knocks the hell out of it. Two-run home run.

Tigers win!!!!

Much yelling and screaming in the Stadium.

Much yelling and screaming in the basement.

Cats come to investigate. Big cat dances around the basement with Boris in his arms. Boris gets annoyed. Big cat places Boris on ground. Continues happy winning dance!


God bless baseball!!!!!

Tomorrow night will be getting Joel Zumaya's autograph. This is a season!!!!

Blog-itis (and other things)

As I sit here taking a break from my busy and semi-(un)productive time alone, I got to thinking about how the internet has added a new level of stress to my life. Like most people, I created a website and a blog as a way of keeping in contact with my friends and family. Kind of a way of creating my own little slice of home in the grand wilderness of cyberspace. The funny thing is, though, that once you have something going you also gain an almost irresistable pull to maintain and update it. In alot of ways that feeling is good and productive. Imagine being a homeowner and not working at all to maintain any level of upkeep on your house. It doesn't take much when you're trying to keep the house neat to mess it up, how much worse when you let it go. But what about all of these other things? In my lifetime I've seen the invention of the mobile phone. It's gone from a briefcase sized gizmo that you carried in your car (literally a "car phone") to something that you can keep in a pocket or attached to your ear. Instant connection from anywhere. News, data, and infomation all at your immediate beck and call. And the internet. I remember in college when having a 32k modem connection at home was the big thing. Hell, a guy from the computer labs got me the software for the e-mail client (line editor, thank you very much) and the winsock connection on a few floppies. Nowadays I get my cable and my internet from the same line coming into my house. Times change and they move fast.

But is it progress?

Now I sit and ponder about things to write about on my blog. Can't get to half of them, real life keeps getting in my way. Lots of things I'd love to do with the website, just haven't had time to really sit and fiddle with the software to figure out what I need to do to get it done. I can't even leave the house now without feeling a bit of stress if I forget to grab my phone. Once upon a time you could go shopping and no one could get ahold of you. Now you can't even sit in a movie theatre without some idiot blathering on to someone who's not there, over the most trivial of subjects.

But I feel like it's not just an organizational problem. It's a stuff overload problem. Things, data, information. I'm allowing alot of it to dictate my life.

Ok, maybe I'm just cranky today. Julie's out of town for the weekend. My parents and Bill are out of town for the week. And despite the fact that I'm an introvert at heart and cherish my alone time, I'm just not feeling it this weekend. Maybe it's because Julie has been working nights for the past two weeks and we just haven't seen each other. But I was thinking about all the stuff I have around here and how I shouldn't be bored, or lonely....but I am. And at the same time I just feel like a million little things around here need to get done and I'm being pulled in by all of them. Then it got me thinking about an interaction someone once had with Jesus..

Luke 18:18-25
18 A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
19 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good-except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
21 "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." NIV

Woah. Could I give it all up?

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:

Lord, please help me to refocus my gaze on you. Don't allow me to be swayed and turned aside by what I have around me. Help me to reprioritize my life. Allow me to reconnect with what is important. Allow me to feel whole and completed in you and in your body. Let your grace pour over me and through me.
In Jesus name.
Amen.

Just when you thought it was safe to go to sleep

Just as I was planning on going to bed, Craig Monroe crushed a two run homer to put the Tigers up 7-6 over the Indians in the bottom of the 8th. My cheering caused Boris to jump off the recliner. Damn! I love baseball!!!!

p.s.- here comes Jones......hold on to your hats, boys and girls.

To be a Phillips

If you know me or Bill, you know that our typical family stance is to stand there with our arms folded and either an annoyed, or amused, look on our face. I would just like to point to this picture as a frame of reference as to where we got it from. Notice my Dad sitting next to my Uncle Harold at a ballgame in Johnson City. My first thought after Bill sent it to me was, "I am so my Father's son..."

Ooooooo...the rollercoaster is back

I just watched the Tigers give up six runs in the eighth inning to lose the last game in the series to the Twins. While I'm not squemish enough to panic about this, it does bring back bad memories of seasons past. Yuk. Fortunately, on a whole, we're playing much better than the one inning we gave up.

Who'dve ever thought I'd get emotionally invested in the Tigers again? I don't think my heart can take this kind of beating.

One Book Meme

Thanks, Josh. Dang. Got hit by one of these. That’s what you get for hanging out on the internet without protection. By protection, of course I mean two large guys named Guido pushing people away from you.

A nice, quick diversion from work here:

1. One book that changed your life:
Philip Yancy, What’s So Amazing About Grace.

[I think that everyone hits a point in their lives where a book challenges your thoughts (or lack thereof) of what Christianity is suppose to look like. I don’t know if it’s the best, but this was mine]

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring.

[In my crazy high school/college days, I would read the whole trilogy each summer]

3. One book you’d want on a desert island (assuming that How to Escape from a Desert Island with Two Coconuts, Bamboo and a Couple of Fish is checked out of the desert island library):
Frank Herbert, Dune.

[The irony of the choice didn’t hit me until I finished typing it]

4. One book that made you laugh:
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens.

[It was all I could do not to crack up hysterically when I would read this book at lunch. It was a miracle I never got kicked out of resturants]

5. One book that made you cry:
John Grogan, Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog.

[Ok, so I have a thing for pets. Some days I think I like animals more than people]

6. One book that you wish had been written:
How to accomplish everything you want to do in life in 15 easy minutes a day.

[‘nuff said]

7. One book that you wish had never been written:

Anything with “Purpose-Driven” in the title (ok, a slight deviation from the question)

[Questionable theology + questionable social relevance = does anybody really need this? How did the Church ever survive before Rick Warren decided that it needed a purpose?]

8. One book you’re currently reading:

Aaron Allston, Betryal (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force).

[Woo-hoo! Love Star Wars!!!]

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Hans Kung, Justification: The Doctrine of Karl Barth and a Catholic Reflection

[Not that I know much detail about Barth’s theology, nor Kung’s. I just thought it would be interesting to read a take on reconciling the Protestant/Catholic divide. Frankly it’s been sitting on the bookshelf mocking me. I need to get through a few more lighter fiction books before I decided to tackle this.]

10. Now tag five people:
I don’t even know 5 people with blogs that haven’t been hit with this. Sorry, folks. Not trying to be difficult.

Inside joke for the geek guy...

Here's a little chuckle I ran across in the new Star Wars hardcover, Betrayal (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force):

After an assasination attempt on Han and Leia, a security officer runs in to see if they're alright. Seeing only Leia, the conversation was as follows:

Tycho asked, "Is Han--"
"He's fine," Leia said. "Han shot first."


Heh...I'm such a Star Wars geek...

Heh...

There's nothing like a war to bring people from the opposite sides of the political spectrum closer together.

With my sarcastic sense of humor fully intact, I can say I have to agree with this blog entry here. Peter David is a writer of novels, movies and comic books. His politics tend to float slightly to the liberal side where mine tend to float slightly to the conservative, but I especially enjoy his writing since he seems to carry much of my sarcastic wit about on his person. Check out his July 18 blog entry at the link to see what I'm talking about. I know as a Christian I'm trying to improve my vocabulary and show some restraint and compassion to others.....but Peter just sums up my feelings so well here.

July 18, 2006 - Y'KNOW, AS MUCH AS I DESPISE BUSH...

....really, really must go to bed now...

Somebody, please let me off the short bus.....

I'm almost to the end of a book I started over a month ago, Diarmaid McCulloch's The Reformation: A History. I like the book. It's expanded on my relatively low knowledge base of "facts" regarding the Reformation and all of the surrounding players. I'm not saying I can repeat the facts of the book to you verbatim (much too dense), but it gives me a better feel for what was occuring at that time. To tell you the truth, it tends to make me somewhat disgusted at the conduct of all the players at that time. But that's for another discussion....

My point to all this is that I started this book over a month ago. I'm not a dumb person. I read a great deal. A little about my reading habits. I subscribe to/buy and read anywhere from 6 to 8 magazines/journals a month. Each week I buy a healthy stack of comic books. That sort of stuff tends to take up my evening reading time. I have this annoying job thing that seems to take up a good 10-11 hours during my day. Therefore that only leaves me an hour or so at lunch to sit and read any book I have available during the week. I tend to do a lot of reading at lunch and sometimes I juggle my evenings to spend some quality time on the couch reading away. But the past month has been kind of busy and I really haven't had alot of time to take lunch. Not to mention the fact that the book of choice (see above) is history and a little dense. Therefore reading came in small sections. Sometimes a chapter. Sometimes a part of a chapter. When even my staff notices that I've been carrying the book for over a month...well...it's been too long. I have about 60 pages left. With any luck I'm going to sit down tonight and finish. Julie's working "mole" and I have the house to myself. Once I feed the kitties they will nap and leave me be. Just me, my book and the kittie of choice on my feet. Then I can move on to the newest Star Wars hardcover.

I just have to finish...I just have to finish...I just have to finish...

Superman Returns

I'll be talking about some spoilers in here, so if you want any surprises you may not want to read.

Over my "break" I was able to get out and see a few movies. My favorite that week was Superman Returns. Initially when I heard about this sequel/reimagining I have to admit that I wasn't overly excited. I don't really know why. I like Superman, I've collected Action Comics and Adventures of Superman for most of my comic collecting career. But Superman has always been the loyal stalwart among superheroes. Not much changes. From the iconic Earth-1 Superman and his grandfatherly icon status among those heroes to the "new" Earth-2 version, he'd always been the rock of the DC Universe. Truth, justice and the American Way. There's only so many ways you can mess with this character before he's no longer Superman. That being said, here are a couple of views on this movie (and they're both out of my mind....kinda schizo, eh?):

Comic Book Geek

I really liked the way the screen writers worked to blend and incorporate the "traditional" origin of Superman developed by Segal and Schuster (Earth-1, as evidence in the original Superman movie) with the eventual recreation by Byrne in the Man of Steel mini-series (Earth-2). Singer directed this movie with an eye toward the iconic image. Many times during the movie there were little nods and winks toward the geeks in the audience. I think my favorite was seeing Jimmy's photo of Superman putting the car back down. It's modernized, but definitely a nod to the original Action Comics #1 cover where Superman was introduced.

Kevin Spacey was perfect as the narcissistic Lex Luthor. Personable, yet psychotic. This is the man that could maintain the positive public businessman image, could become President of the United States, yet could be a stone cold killer. I was buying him in that role.

Kate Bosworth made a good Lois Lane, but not great. Frankly, I've never thought she was that strong a supporting character...even in the comic book. All of the other married characters seemed to have a relationship with their wives that was necessary to them. Jay Garrik needed Joan, Barry Allen needed Iris, Wally West needed Linda (ok, ok...I'm stuck on the Flash and their wives). Heck, Peter Parker needed MJ. But Superman doesn't seem to need anybody. Most of the emotional drama they've ever written for him has centered around the misuse of his power, but rarely have I seen a story about his "need" for Lois that hasn't just seemed like a dues ex machina for the latest story. It never really felt "organic." In the movie it felt like they finally gave her a little more of a hold over Superman than I've seen before. It also helped that they made her more unattainable than in the past. Maybe it's the comics that have messed up? Maybe the marriage of Clark and Lois in Earth-2 (made to coincide with the Lois & Clark tv show) was just a little too forced?

I can live with the whole Superman's kid thing. I thought it was an interesting twist to the movie. Using my mantra, "The movie is not the comic book" helps. Although to tell you the truth, they eventually incorporate all this stuff into the comics anyway. I'm sure this will be popping up sometime soon.

Religious interest

Alot has been made of the "savior" aspects of the movie. In a way I get it. It seems like we want to have someone to come save the day...to help the good guys win in the end. What guy doesn't want to be the hero of his own story? But I think the connections of a savior/hero in Superman and some kind of messiahship have been way overblown. Yeah, I think Singer got a little carried away with his symbolism. Especially the picture of Superman floating with his arms outstretched in the outer atmosphere as he appears to be sacrificing himself to save Earth. I don't necessarily get offended by such things, but I don't take much teaching from them as well. As I reflect on "No greater love has a man than this, that he sacrifices his life for his friends" I don't find myself falling for the gospel of Superman. Get a grip folks, if I'm looking for teaching on the Christian way, Brian Singer is not the teacher I look to. I can understand the story for what it is and nothing more. It's ok. I have yet to confuse him with Jesus. And if myths of self-sacrifice and heroism are told in the popular culture, I can live with that too.

Overall

I like. I really like. I just let myself float away with the story and didn't concern myself with all the crazy little inconsistincies (like how Lois didn't wind up dead and plastered all over the plane as she was out of her seat while the shuttle was reaching speeds that would allow it to break the atmosphere). Just relax. Enjoy. Sometimes good gets to win the day.

By the way...anyone who didn't get a chill each time they heard John Williams' Superman fanfare just didn't deserve to be there....

Happy 4th of July!!!

Well, we made it. At this point I think I need to get back to work just so I can get a break. It's been a productive week and a half, but busy. Just to give you an idea:

Friday (6/23)- I came home from work and decided to move the remaining furniture in the bedroom and begin to tear up the carpet. Nothing says fun in an evening than moving furniture.

Saturday (6/24) - Dad and Bill came over to assist in preparing floor for new flooring. Good time had by all in pulling up staples. That night went to Tigers game and came home early due to extreme tiredness.

Sunday (6/25) - Church and rest for Monday.

Monday (6/26) - Started flooring. Fat man getting up and down off the ground continuously all day long was a sight to see. My thighs and knees were killing me and we didn't make nearly as much progress as I had hoped. Bedroom still not finished. Sent Julie out to have dinner with friend as food was just not that appealing at the time.

Tuesday (6/27) - Finish bedroom, father in law tore carpet out of hallway and stairway. Move some furniture back in to bedroom. Since people were going to be in and out on Wednesday, give everyone Wednesday off to relax and come back fresh. Still tired, go out that evening to watch Eric play indoor soccer. Go back to Eric's place and attempt to watch movie on small tv. Give up at midnight when falling alseep in chair.

Wednesday (6/28) - Go out for breakfast after early morning wake up call by hungry kittie. Suprisingly kittie not made into throw rug despite the fact that she has done this every day this week. Came home from breakfast quickly when realising that Superman Returns opens. Take Julie to early mainee to see movie in Imax 3-d. Go to comic book store. Chill rest of day.

Thursday (6/29) - Work on hallway and stairs. Finish to first landing. Only need to complete bottom set of stairs on Friday, but not so bad since fathers won't be able to make it on Friday. Bill wants to go see Nacho Libre that night, take Julie with me.

Friday (6/30) - Wake up early knowing that no one is coming out and I just want to finish stairs. Murphy's Law kicks in when the guide on the table saw breaks. After appropriate amount of cussing determine that I'm just going to have to measure and free cut the remaining boards. Even though the cuts look as though they were made by blind, drunk midgets after an all night bender I am fortunately able to hide those deficiencies with appropriate molding and slight of hand. Make vow to self to be useless for remainder of holiday. Julie and I stay in that evening and watch appropriate amounts of tv.

Saturday (7/1) - Get up, take Julie to breakfast and fun time date at the Ypsilanti District Library (who says we don't live on the edge). Take Julie to early matinee showing of The Lake House. Cute movie. Parents and Bill come over in the afternoon. We take them out to dinner and, afterwards, pack up my father's tools for their trip home.

Sunday (7/2) - Church. Lounging around reading comic books and napping. That night, Julie and I go to DTE to go see Chicago w/ Huey Lewis and the News. Great concert, fun time.

Monday (7/3) - Julie gets up early, goes to work. Fortunately feeds kitties so they don't wake me up (again). Get up and go get breakfast and read for a while. Then head to Barnes and Noble. That afternoon, go to Livonia to meet up with Bill and Roy. Head to Toledo to have dinner at Tony Pacos and then caught a Toledo Mud Hens' game. Lots of fun. Got home before the rain started.

Tuesday (7/4) - WE SURVIVED!!!! Have had breakfast, read some comic books, read my book for a little while. Now I'm just killing some time until we go to my parent's house for food this evening.

So that's been my exciting vacation. I don't think I'm even this productive at work. I need a break. Everyone have a great holiday. Click here if you want to see final pictues of the flooring work.

Bye bye, Stevie Y

Hmmm....sad day in Red Wings history. I'm sitting here watching Steve Yzerman's press conference announcing his retirement. Lot's of good memories here. Here's a few web pages to check out the announcement:

Detroit Red Wings
Detroit Free Press
Detroit News
M-Live.com
Sports Illustrated

The end of vacation

So I disappeared for a few days....sorry. I finally got the floor finished on Friday and decided I was going to be as useless as possible for the remainder of my vacation (I don't go back until Wednesday). I really need to go eat dinner but tomorrow I will post the finished pictures of the floor. It was a good project and really makes the condo look much better. As for tonight Julie and I need to eat so we can get out the door. We're going to go see Chicago w/ Huey Lewis and the News out at DTE tonight (Pine Knob to the ol' timers). Now that is going to be fun! I'll also post my mini-reviews of all the movies I saw this week:

Superman Returns
Nacho Libre
The Lake House

Ow

Oh do I hurt. We've completed day one on the flooring project and I am feeling the pain. It's been taking a little longer than I thought it would, but we're making good progress. The floor is down in the bedroom...tomorrow we'll put in the closet floor and trim the room. Then we move on to the hallway....and the stairs. We got our first little surprise. They used stairnose lumber on the stairs themselves. Kind of makes it hard to use stair nose molding over it. We'll have to find another way to complete the stairs. Ah well, I have chugged my ibuprofen and I'm going to sit for a while. I was going to go to dinner with Julie and Andy but heavy italian food just doesn't sound too appealing right now.... :)

If you want to laugh while I'm working on this, look at the pictures on my website. You can get to them here.

Random ramblings

• I've read this two or three times this week so I just need to vent a moment on this subject. I've seen where people have been rallying against this notion of Sola Scriptura as if to imply that the people who hold to it mean to say that they need Scripture and nothing else. Now I'm not sure about others, but I've always held to the view that Scripture is the sole normative rule of faith for the Christian life. To unpack that a little, Scripture is the one, definitive source of God's speaking to mankind. When other things enter the picture they are held to a scriptural standard. That's not to say that I don't use those other things (traditions) to bring me closer to God, but that I have to ensure that those traditions are in line with God's verified revelation. It seems that when I've seen this rallying against sola scriptura, it's usually against someone who appears to have developed an isolationist view of their faith. Me and God and the Bible.....nothing else. Without getting into the ridiculousness of the idea of a life without "tradition" (can't happen), does anybody actually know people who hold to this radical view of scripture alone? I always get a little peeved when I see it because I've never held to this thought and I don't believe that historically anyone has held to that belief. Yet when I see discussions from a Catholic viewpoint this is the perspective I see. Then some poor soul tries in vain to correct that misinterpretation to a more moderate view of scripture alone and usually wastes quite a bit of time. Anyway, I don't think I've ever seen anyone hold to that "isolationist" view and it always seems like a waste of time (a minority view) when I hear someone argue against it. Anybody have any stories for me?

• You know that Lester girl that tried to run away to marry her "true love" over in Israel? Well someone put two and two together for me this morning (as slow as I am) and pointed out that her father (who was on Good Morning America this morning) works for our company down in Sales & Service. How weird. He's a quiet guy anyway, this thing really made me feel for him.

Welcome to the land of the surreal...

• This upcoming Monday I start installing the new laminate floor upstairs and in the hallway, down the stairs to the living room. Here's hoping I don't cut anything off. Good thing my Dad will be there to help keep me on the straight and narrow.

Alias fever!!!!

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Julie and I just finshed Alias Season 1. Now admittedly it's taken a little while to grow on me, but I figured that I could never go wrong watching Jennifer Garner in the evening. But the way JJ just ended up the season.....it was worthy of a BTVS season ending. Damn....he's got me hooked. Now the big question. We're going to switch over to Monarch of the Glen for lighter, easier fare for a little bit. But once I'm done...what next? Do I go to Alias season 2 or go as planned and start Battlestar Galactica season 1. This is truly one of the greater dilemas we've had to face. It's giving me a headache. My mind is still blown from the ending.

A Christian response...

Like many I know I gained a certain amount of pleasure in hearing that the US had finally gotten a tangible, indisputable victory somewhere in Iraq. As I was enjoying the news, though, I always felt like something was wrong. Wrong with me and wrong with the world we live in. I stumbled across this blogger that was able to so perfectly put into words what I was feeling about the situation that I'm not even going to try to elaborate on it. Please just take a moment to click here and read the brief words he had to say. I don't know who he is, I don't know what he's about but I do know when I hear God's Word.

And we're back.......

Yeah, another Monday.

Thrilled to be here. I was able to pick up Julie last night, so she's back from Ithyca. Weekends while she's gone can either be the most productive times of my life or the most lethargic. This was a weekend of lethargy. I even forgot to turn on my alarm for Sunday and overslept and missed church. That sucked. Ah well, it's the start of a new week. Julie got up early with me today to work out. Hopefully this is the start of a new trend for us. We've got to work something in here. BTW, my weigh-in this week is:

Monday 6/5/2006 weigh-in: 300.0 lbs.

Misc. news:

1. Continue to pray for Julie's Aunt Pat. It seems to just be a matter of time now, but like I said, it could be months before anything happens.

2. Here's a little bit of not so serious news I like. Someone has finally optioned Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern" series for a movie. This is the series I really got into starting in junior high and I've loved it ever since. They've teased us with this sort of stuff before, but the tech may finally exist to pull this off now. See the press release here.

Sport's Nirvana

The Tigers beat the Yankees last night 7-6. I didn't see the game (they were losing when Julie and I went to bed last night) but I was listening to the summary this morning. What a team!!! They won it in the 9th by coming back from one run down. Damn....this is a baseball team again. I know you can't see me, but I'm doing my little happy baseball dance here in the office before work. It's a happy dance.

Man...Tigers baseball grabbing my interest, and next week starts the World Cup elimination rounds. I'm really going to have to be planning out my next couple of weekends of tv viewing. Won't be able to keep my butt in the chair all weekend but I've got to see a few of these matches. Maybe I'll try to keep up with the US & England. Anglo-centered, I know, so sue me.

Yaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnnnn

Go Tigers!!!! So they're on a 4 game losing streak. Big deal. They're still playing very well. It was a long night last night, though. As part of my 8 game Saturday package we received one Yankees game. That was last night (Wednesday). There was also this storm of biblical proportions that decided to blow through town last night, so after a rain delay of approximately one and a half hours we finally got the game going. It's funny how you can tell the baseball fans from the "social" (drinking?) crowd. Those of us that were really there to see the game brought our ponchos and foul weather gear. We were few and far between. For everyone else the delay wasn't so bad....we all had to hang in the concourse so there was as much drinking as they could handle anyway.

The game was closer than it sounds from the score. I think it ended up 7-1 Yankees, but at the time we left, after the 5th, it was only 2-0 Yankees. Frankly the Yankees wouldn't have had at least one of those runs if the ump hadn't have been helping them all night. An incredibly inconsistent strike zone and being out of position to call crucial plays really was not endearing him to the crowd.

This is still the most fun I've had in a while with the Tigers. What a year to get a game package, eh?

A Monday-like Tuesday

I have eaten like a hog. I have skipped my workouts. I have slept, seen movies and sat around. It felt darn good. But now it's time to get serious again. Fortunately it appears that the amounts I thought I was eating were just baseline with what my body could handle. So I'm doing ok (running like a madman at racquetball on Friday probably didn't hurt either).

Tuesday 5/30/2006 weigh-in: 299.8 lbs.

Over The Hedge

Funny, funny, funny.

Not a laugh riot from the very beginning, but it builds on you. By the end I was really cracking up. The weird thing about it was it kind of didn't feel like a kids movie. The "intended violence" in it seemed a little intense. At one point in the movie (you'll know which one if you see it) a little girl stood up and said "Teddy bear!" in something of a concerned voice. It just seemed like they could have made a few changes to it that wouldn't have made it so intense for little kids and it really wouldn't have concerned the adults at all. I'll let you know which category I fall in to when I figure it out.

All that said, the last third of the movie is really worth it. I haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a while.

Just remember, don't over-caffinate the Hammy.

X-Men: The Last Stand

I have seen, I have enjoyed.

Ok, I'm going to go into some bits and pieces of the movie here so if you haven't seen it yet I'd just skip on over this entry. If you have seen it let me know what you think. With that in mind......







I went into this one with all of the spoilers in mind. I've read most of the previews and they've been negative for the most part. If you're going to see it I would go in with the mantra I had, "The movie is not the comic.....The movie is not the comic." Once I got that going through my head I really enjoyed myself. Now then about the movie...

Cyclops got a raw deal. Out pretty early. But as Bill and I discussed after the movie, no body, not necessarily dead. And the whining I've heard on this has driven me nuts. Characters like this (yes, even "important ones") come and go in the comics. They disappear for a while (like Cyclops did at the end of the Phoenix Saga) and they come back later. Hell, Jean Grey has died and lived so many times it's become something of an inside joke for comic fans. So just relax.

I do like this "realistic" view of the team. It actually one of the reasons I buy into the whole Phoenix as a schizo representation of Jean as opposed to the cosmic entity it was in the comics. I mean really, do you think they were going to introduce the Shi'ar Empire for the third movie? I don't even think they'll do it if they make a new trilogy. This verision is very earth bound and earth centered. Problems just don't have that cosmic feel to them yet. I did like the image they gave her as everything was consumed around her. She was one scary redhead.

And when Wolverine killed her in the end was anyone else thinking of the ending to "Spiderman vs Wolverine"? It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid and the imagery just seems to be in inspiration. It was also kind of cool to see the Ultimate Wolverine imagery of his flesh being ripped/burned away and growing back. They don't play that up as much in the 616 universe as they do in the Ultimate universe.

I really loved Kelsey Grammer as the Beast. I thought he pulled him off very well with the intellectual sound yet the animalistic look. Only once did I ever think, "Fraiser?" And come on, they even slipped in "Oh my stars and garters." Cool.

Kitty Pride looked age appropriate at the beginning of her run with the team. I thought that was cool. I was kind of dissappointed that they went with the whole love triangle story with Iceman and Rogue. She really needs to be with Colossus (or to quote Wolverine in Whedon's AX-M run, "It's about time").

Speaking of Iceman.......HE PUT ON THE ICE ARMOR. I damn near pee'd my pants when I saw that. Just a cool touch.

Overall I thought it was a good story. It's funny that while the comics are really in a deconstructive storytelling mode, the movie tried to cram as much as it could in the time it had. If anything that would be my gripe with it....it felt too short. I would have loved for this story to be longer, but maybe there's hope for that second trilogy. Anybody else see it? What'd you think?

Tired

This has been an exhausting week so far. I've passed over the humps I needed to get to, but I'm pretty worn out now. Mentally exhausted. I have the following prayer requests. I will be sharing these with our small group, but I thought I'd share them with extended family as well:

1. Pray for Julie's Aunt Pat and Julie's family. The cancer seems to be progressing steadily but we're still at a phase where she could go on for six days or six months... No one really knows.

2. Pray for Julie. She's entering the final year of her residency and this is where the work really gets going. Decisions over the future and uncertainty are harder on her than they are for me. Just pray for her in this decision making time.

3. Pray for me in relation to Julie's decisions. Along with that there will be decisions and work to be done on the condo. I know it seems like a year is a long time, but it really will go by quick. I just want to get stuff done this summer so I'm not rushing over the winter and spring.

4. Pray for me. It's been a long week. A couple of work projects are nearly completed, but the work at the end is always harder than the work you put into getting it going. My fuse is shorter, I can tell by the colorful vocabulary I'm redeveloping. I'll have to discipline myself out of it again. It'll help to just get out this weekend and goof off. You can pray for wonderfully constructive goofing off time. Racquetball is always a great way to start the weekend and work off some of the physical energy/frustration you've stored up during the week.

Hope all is well with everyone else.

Geek Heaven

As a serious comic book fan, I really believe that I am in geek heaven. This holiday weekend I am going to force myself out of the house to hit some movies. I must see X-Men: The Last Stand. I must see Over The Hedge. X-Men looks fun. I'm hearing mixed stuff on it but what little bits I have seen have made the inner fanboy drool. So the Fastball Special isn't 100% accurate. I'll live. I just need to see all the mutants going at it. Interesting twist on the story too. In the original Dark Phoenix saga it was Scott that couldn't kill Jean, now it looks like they're giving Wolverine that role. Over the Hedge just looks funny. If you can't appreciate the irony of William Shatner playing the possum....well.....I just can't explain it to you. And I just saw the international trailer for Superman Returns. Now admittedly I was not totally excited about the new Superman movie. I am now excited. Very excited. Check out these trailer links:

X-Men: The Last Stand
Over the Hedge
Superman Returns

Let the inner geek rejoice!!!

Ugh...what a weekend

Wow. It was fun, but busy. A wedding held in Grosse Pointe Woods with a reception in Sterling Heights kept us tied up all day Saturday. The residual sleep deprevation kept me lounging around on Sunday. Dinner with friends on Sunday night just put the perfect ending of a week of horrid eating habits. Not my best week. But hey, the Tigers & the Pistons won. Life can't be all bad.

Monday 5/22/2006 weigh-in: 300.2 lbs.

Can we please just stone Pat Robertson now......?

....Please?

Maybe I'm just cranky because I left my office keys and palm pilot at home?

Maybe I'm just cranky because the Red Wings didn't seem to care and got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs?

Maybe I'm just cranky because the Pistons appear to be suffering from the same malaize in the second round of their playoffs?

But will someone please just shut Pat Robertson up? I see news stories like this and I really wonder why anyone listens to him. Gee.....he predicted storms against the US. It's not like the US Meteorological Service hasn't been predicting an upswing in storms for a year or so. He's also saying that "God told him" there may be a tsunami heading our way in the Pacific Northwest. Pat's not sure he heard God right. Maybe he ought to go ask Ms. Cleo for advice. Will somebody please ge the snake-oil salesman off of tv?!? It really feels like people like this are making a mockery of God. As though having a "personal relationship" with God is something akin to having an inside stock tip so you can make a little cash.

Bleeding idiot....

Another weekend gone....

Well, I've survived another weekend. I spent most of this weekend either moving, setting up or destroying. Friday I took apart the couch in the basement, dragged it up to the truck and dumped it in the back. Saturday was spent throwing out the couch, going to get the recliners from my folks and setting up the projector and screen in my basement. Sunday was spent enjoying the fruits of my labors.....every show feels like a movie experience now. It's very cool. Even Julie, who was initially skeptical of this purchase, is very impressed. And now she can watch Alias in supersize... ;)

The cats have acclimated to the recliners. As usual they assume these were brought in for them. I'm always moving cats out of my way to sit down, they get even by sitting on me. It's the great circle of warmth.

So with all the work I did this weekend, I also ate pretty heavy, so not much of a change this week, but it is going down.

Monday 5/15/2006 weigh-in: 298.8 lbs.

Cute Boris stories

Ok, so I have to tell this story. Last night Julie and I were on the couch watching tv. After we had finished I got up to use the computer and Julie continued to sit there reading her book. As per usual, Boris seized upon the opportunity to move up to the "Head Cat" spot and sat down in my spot on the couch. Ok, nothing new there. At the time, we left the tv tuned to PBS and the Michigan Out-Of-Doors show was just coming on. Tonight's episode: Turkey hunting. I was sitting there minding my own business when I hear Julie whisper, "Jim, look at Boris." There, in my spot, was a cat who was totally transfixed. I've never actually seen any of the cats watch tv before, but Boris couldn't peel his eyes away. He was amazed and mystified. Somewhere in that little fuzzy brain of his you could just hear him saying "What is that bird doing in my house?!? Must attack!! Must think out plan!!! Must be sneaky!!!" Boris slinked off of the couch and slowly made his way up to the gobbling fowl on the screen. Coming at it from the side he inched forward, never taking his eyes off the bird. When he got to the screen he looked up, stretched out a paw and placed it on the screen. "Hmmm.....no bird" you could hear him say. Never one to give up, he jumped up on the speaker and peaked around the back of the tv looking for his prey. Frustrated he jumped back to the ground and sat in front of the tv pondering new ways he could get that rotten bird he could hear all around him.

At this point Julie and I were just cracking up. Poor Boris. He may be the King, but there's a reason why we're the dominant species.

Oh well, tomorrow we set up the projector. 80'' widescreen in high-def, here we come!!!! Boris may drool at the turkey, but Jim will be drooling at Star Wars!!!

Monday weigh-in

Hmmm....through no fault of my own I appear to have lost a pound this week. I had kind of a bad weekend just eating little junk the whole time. I must have offset that with the racquetball and the work I did around the house on Saturday. Oh well, time to refocus and not get lazy.

Official 5/8/2006 weight: 299.2 lbs.

Happy Monday

Whew....another busy weekend over with. I'm happy to be at work.

I came to a realization a month or so ago that I have a little over a year until Bill's wedding. Coinciding with this realization, Julie and I recently had our pictures taken as part of a new church directory. Now I'm not really complaining about the pictures, I thought they were really good. But I couldn't help but look and say, "Who's the big guy?" Ok, so I'm acutely aware of my weight, but it takes on a new dimention when you can actually see yourself. So I'm moving back to the "eat better and get some exercise in" routine. I'd definitely like to get down again before we have photos for Bill's wedding. I won't go into all the boring details of the plan I'm putting together and how I'm going to accomplish this (maybe some other time. But I've been at it a few weeks and have actually lost 10 pounds, so I'm on the right track. Anyway, as part of my accountability I'm going to be posting my weight each week on here so I can see my progress in a "public" forum. I weigh myself each Monday at work, so if you don't see a post here, or I disappear and hide, send me a message and let me know so I stay accountable.

This week's magic weight: 300.2 lbs (yuk, but still better than it was)

Wings update....and a story

Ok, for those of you still interested the Wings are now down 2-1 in the series against Edmonton. We're going to get knocked out in the first round. I can feel it. It's like reliving high school all over again....

And speaking of such:

Those who know me know that I'm not one of those people who is worried about my age. I'll be turing 32 this year and frankly as long as I can still be immature I really don't worry about getting old. I seem to have that goal well in hand. But every once in a while I get these subtle reminders that time marches on....

Last night at band we had a guest conductor in who is a student at Wayne State and is working with us on a song because she needs the experience. Given that she's a student I can respect the fact that she's not going to be very good. Given a little time she'll be a respectable conductor, I'm sure. For the moment though, it's truly a struggle to follow her. We're all watching carefully but it's really becomes more of an exercise in mindreading than anything else.

Now someone must have told her that she must be assertive and take control of the band from the start. After a rough reading of one of her movements, she was looking a little frustrated. Frankly we were a little frustrated too, but that's beside the point. She proceeded to tell us, "You really need to follow me. That's all I can tell you. You have to watch and follow."

We now cut to the internal monologue in my head:

"Hon, I've been playing longer than you've been alive. Trust me I'm following. I've seen more conductors come and......

Hold on....

Let's think this through.....I started playing in 5th grade, so I was about 11. I'm going to be 32 this year.

She's an undergrad music student conductor. Worst case, she's 18, probably she's 19 or 20.

Damn, I have been playing longer than she's been alive.

Damn...."

All hail Joss Wheadon....

So I was having a conversation with a friend last night and I'm happy to say I have made another convert. I have said it before and I will say it again....Joss Wheadon created three of the greatest shows to ever hit tv. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. I know there are some non-believers out there but trust me, just sit and watch (in sequential order) any of these shows and feel the mastery of Joss for plotting and character interaction. The man is also the master of glib, fascitious comments. Right up my alley. I'm thinking it's time to reintroduce the "Buffy quote of the month" to my website. One more thing to add to the list of things to do, I suppose. Maybe I'll put it right on the front page. So really, go sit down in front of the tv. Start with Firefly to ease yourself in. It's unrelated to Buffy and Angel, it's short (only 13 episodes and one movie) and watch them all the way through. You'll be hooked...

Oh, any by the way....

Jewel (Kaylee) if you ever get tired of that loser...I mean that guy you married....call me. I'm available. Julie knows all about my redhead thing. I think I get a free pass. Besides she never reads this blog anyway..... ;)



Ok, so I'll be in trouble later. It's worth it. Really...call me....................sigh...............

Go Red Wings!!!!!

The Red Wings are in the playoffs!!!! Ok, so it wasn't much of a stretch. After a while you just begin to expect these things. To tell you the truth, I haven't really been following hockey much this season. Not that the Wings aren't an excellent team, but I kind of feel like the hockey they brought back after the lockout isn't really like the hockey I know and love. I still enjoy the sport, but it just seems a little different. This "family-friendly", offensively fast game just doesn't feel the same to me. Maybe it's just the team I grew up on, but I want to see a couple of teams duke it out. The scoring doesn't even make sense anymore. Scoring use to tell you a little something about the other team. If your team scored more than three goals in a game, then you knew that the other team really sucked and probably needed to go back to their knitting circle meetings. But now you get these higher scoring games because "America demanded a faster paced game." Does tradition mean nothing? Do we have to tailor everything to the ADD / MTV generation? I mean 6-3 is not a hockey score, it's a player's height. But not anymore. And this whole shootout thing being exciting....Huh? A breakaway is exciting because it occurs during the game and is usually the result of either extreme skill or extreme luck. Hell, if I just wanted to watch someone skate from the midline and shoot on goal to decide the game, why don't they just do that at the beginning and quit wasting my time. Now get through three or four overtimes when everyone is exhausted, then a shootout might be interesting, but this? Nah.

The fighting isn't even really worth talking about. I've never wanted to see anyone get seriously hurt, but most of the guys in these fights jumped into them of their own free will...adreneline influencing them or not. And don't even think about checking too hard or the whistle will get blown before you even get done thinking about making the hit.

Ah well, maybe I just need some time to adjust. Now that I've got it off my chest maybe I can sit and enjoy the playoffs. But I can't be alone. Last I heard there are still playoff tickets available for Friday's game.

Playoff tickets available in Hockeytown.

That just doesn't happen.

Welcome to the new NHL

Music, music and more music

Ok, so I really intended to blog today on subjects both serious and timely. Eh...so much for that. Last weekend I bought Julie an iPod. Since then I've taken it upon myself to get my music collection on my computer as soon as possible. Those of you who have seen the "wall o'cds" know that this is no small feat. And for Julie's sake I did cheat a little bit. I rushed through some cds that I know she's been listening to a lot lately. So I've got the thing synched and loaded. But now I'm working the way through the rest of my collection. I'm up to the C's. I should be done sometime in the next lifetime. So sometime soon, I promise, serious writing about what is going on with us.

Play it again, Sam

Spring

I love spring. For some reason it just brings me back to life...along with everything else. As the sun has been coming up earlier, so have I. I feel like I can start eating better, can start moving a little. My attitude has improved immensly. I really need to find a way to beat this next winter. But for now I'm good. Believe it or not I've been using Julie's "Yoga for Dummies" dvd for the past week or so (try not to let the imagery of me doing yoga throw you). I figured I needed to start with something "easier", more stretching and core body strengthening rather than trying to go with more radical, traditional exercising with this body. And I do feel good. Yeah, I know...I cycle through this weight thing all the time. But if you don't have a tendency to be a "big" person, I don't think you get it anyway. But I'm making some changes this time. We're going to be much better off by the time of Bill's wedding next year. Ah well, I'd sit and chat, but I have to move on to a few things today. I'll try to get back on tomorrow to review a few things I've read and listened to lately.

Bye

Sunday

Phew....another weekend over. Personally, I can't wait to get back to work so I can get a break. For some reason it was one of those busy Sundays. Church in the morning, bible study, go to lunch, back to church for meeting, over to WCCC for my concert (trombone trio) come home and collapse. I am tired. I have to admit, though, I'm happy to start seeing the sun again. It's nice to have it coming up as I wake up in the morning. I'm starting to feel a little life again. Who knows....maybe I'll be able to start working out again. I almost feel like I have enough energy. I do hate the winter funk. Ah well....I'm just venting. Everyone have a good week. I'll come up with something more interesting later.

Jeremiah/Romans

Hey there folks, I'm still moving. It's been kind of a busy week...we wrapped up field work with the auditors and I finally feel like I can get moving forward again. Anyway, this post is a response to a question I got last week from someone in a class where I was substitute teacher for the week at church. Since learning comes from interaction with others, I'm curious to see what any of you think of my response. Here you go:

The question presented was, “Why does Jeremiah 31: 34 appear to conflict with our study in Romans 1 regarding whether people can be culpable in having knowledge of God? Romans 1 makes the claim that no man is ignorant of God and instead chooses other than God, Jeremiah seems to make the claim that there are people that do not have knowledge of God and are told by their brothers about Him.”

Assuming that I have summed up the question correctly, I would offer the following as a possible response to your question.

I think there is an assumption that the two passages are attempting to make similar (or at least closely related) arguments and that the “people” involved in each discussion comprise the same universe of people. In the passage we were studying in Romans, Paul was discussing the righteousness of God against a people that have rejected Him. Paul starts his argument in chapter 1 against the pagans/heathens in the society around him that have rejected God. His argument will then expand in chapter 2 to include the Jews who proclaim to follow the Law and who don’t act/judge righteously. Effectively he is condemning the entire world, the Jews and the Greeks (barbarians). It is important in reading this not to impose our erroneous view of the church on Paul’s argument. Paul is arguing as a Jew who saw the completion of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ, his “Christianity” is not a separate church from the Jewish people. His focus here is why God is righteous in judging man. Remember, his overall argument is for the glory & righteousness of God as revealed in the Gospel.

Jeremiah 31 deals with a promise made to God’s people, Israel, to bring them back from their exile. Right off the bat, there is a difference in the universe of people being dealt with. You mentioned that you read this as a messianic passage and I do believe that you are correct in assuming Christ is being shown in the passage. Amusingly, of the commentaries I had around here they either dealt with it as a strictly historical prophecy (completed with the return of Israel) or else glossed over the section without laying out any substantive discussion or premises to review. I believe that as with most (all?) prophecies given through the prophets, there is usually a dual context; and seeing Jesus in this passage is correct, as all scripture is properly interpreted through Law & Gospel and that Jesus Christ is the revelation of that Gospel. That is not to diminish or overlook the historical relevance of the prophecy, but I believe we are correct here in looking at it here from a messianic viewpoint. In this context, Jeremiah says that He (God) will place His Law within His people. They will no longer need the external Law; they will live within the Law as completed by Jesus. This passage is speaking about how God’s people will interact with Him and with each other, not with how guilty they are before God. The will walk together through the internalization of the Law of God, not an externalization (e.g. - the 10 Commandments as written in stone).

I believe entirely separate conversations are taking place in each area that when placed in context form a complementary view of life in Christ and don’t contradict one another. Man is depraved before God and He is entirely righteous in His judgment upon us. Fortunately, we are adopted sons and daughters through faith in Jesus Christ and as such live with His righteousness imputed to us and His Holy Spirit living within us.

Thoughts? Comments?

The cutest book in the world

I've just finished a book you have to read if you've ever:

1. Owned a pet
2. Currently own a pet
3. Are thinking about getting a pet.....well, I guess get the pet first then read the book.


Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan is about the sweetest book I have read in a while. Sugary sweet maybe, but if you've ever owned a pet you'll get it. It's a quick read, I spent my lunch hours the last few days alternating between histerical laughter and being on the brink of tears (definately a scary thing when you're eating out in public.) This retrospecive of the author's (and his family's) 15 years with his faithful companion is just irresistable.

Good night all....I'm up way past my bedtime... ;)

Music and the Church (AKA - too much time on my hands driving around)

I don’t take a lot of time on this blog to write about the “deeper” thoughts that go running through my head. I’m not sure why that is, except that writing has never been my strong suit. In high school I was in AP everything, except for AP English. I think I just disliked writing papers. Eh, eventually I learned to just write in my own voice and that’s usually what you “hear” when I write (grant you, sarcasm never seems to translate well.) That little aside behind us, I thought I would try every once in a while to share some of the stuff that goes through my brain on a semi-random basis.

Today, for instance, I was thinking about contemporary Christian music (ccm) and the way I’ve seen it change over my lifetime. Some of those changes have been good, others not so good. In particular I was contemplating the trend toward “praise” music that’s been going on for the past few years. Admittedly I’ve never been a fan of the new “praise & worship” trend. I’ve always felt that the purpose of song in worship was to pull you closer to Jesus and His Word. A lot of the songs I hear just seem to want to make me feel good about me (insert broad paintbrush here). Or they use “Christian-esque” sounding language without any meaning (yup, getting a good coat o’ paint on the ole house of cards today). Or my personal favorite, spiritualizing actual events or types without really proclaiming to the people the physical realities (“Days of Elijah”, anyone? Yes, he is coming on a white horse. No, he hasn’t come yet). Maybe I’m just turning into a grumpy old man, but there seems to me to be something different about the whole situation now. What used to be loudly proclaimed as a musical ministry to those outside the church suddenly turned into an industry with its own target market right inside the sanctuary. Where songwriters used to find ways to share the Gospel through music, now it feels like we share personal experiences and stories instead. Is that bad? Not necessarily, but I feel like it winds up being somewhat fake. It’s as though we use it as a substitute for relationship…for community. It’s easier to identify with the thought or feeling in a song rather than with a person. Rather than using that communication in a didactic way, we try to use it as a substitute for an intimate connection.

So in an attempt to fake my own intimate connections with people, do you have any comments? Am I totally off the mark? Hitting some points? Help me formulate some thoughts on this. In the meantime I’m going to go back and listen to some vintage Petra and Steven Curtis Chapman and revel in the glory days that were the 80’s. ;)

Changes

So I've got some of the first round of changes up on the website now. My goal is to make this something of a website about Julie and me, but also to put news and info about things I find interesting out there as well. Kind of a one-stop shop for all my interests. If you happen to be one of my scientifically calculated half-readers, let me know what you think. What stuff could I improve? Anything you'd like to see? I hope to keep working on the pictures section soon.

Jim

www.jimsweb.us

Hmmm...ok

I know I just posted. Two in one day would be kind of weird. But here's a somewhat surreal bit of news I just read:

Chicago is getting to release Chicago XXX (March 21)......cool

Said record is produced by Jay DeMarcus. Bass player for Rascal Flatts. Oh yeah...the rest of RF also contributes on the album......huh?

Chicago will be touring this summer with Huey Lewis & the News......cool

So I'm full of mixed feelings. I love Chicago and I'm looking forward to hearing an album of new material. And they're touring with Huey Lewis & the News. I like that. More than a 70's/80's thing, I just always have a lot more respect for working musicians that have made a living. Much more than these flash in the pan well-marketed karoke singer (I mean vocalists). But this whole thing about it being produced by the guy from Rascal Flatts? Well, I guess we'll just have to see.

I'm Still Alive

One of the biggest problems with having a blog is that you need to keep it up. You stop writing on it for awhile and even the writer begins to doubt his own existence ("I blog, therfore I am?") So for the one person who actually reads this on a regular basis* here's all the news that's fit to print:

• Julie went to Washington DC this weekend to go visit some girlfriends. Fortunately she got in before the snow hit the area. From what she's said it isn't too bad, she should be able to fly back out without a problem this week.

• A side effect of Julie's trip is that I'm at home alone with the cats. It's not all that bad, I'm catching up on some projects I'd been wanting to work on: filing away comic books, working on website changes, getting a couple of things finished for work. The bad thing is that we just started the kitties on their diet. We're only feeding them twice a day. Normally it's not too bad, but today I'm getting the BIG EYES. They're driving me nuts. I fed them this morning. We're just trying to go a little longer before I feed you again..... quit looking at me. QUIT LOOKING AT ME!!!!!

(Ahem....ok, I'm better. I must admit, I've never been so loved as I have been since we started the twice a day feedings)

I had a first practice yesterday with a couple of other trombone players from Ypsi. We're trying to get a trio together for an ensemble concert we have coming up in a month or so. Should be fun. We selected a couple of pieces to work up. I forgot how nice a "choir" of trombones can sound together.

Since I'm working on comic books here's the news that's grabbed my interest:

• Dark Horse is jumping the Star Wars universe 100 years into the future from A New Hope. They're already running series based on the Knights of the Old Republic, as well one set during the Rebellion. They figure this gives them a nice playground that is safe from the Del Rey book series. I'm still in Star Wars geek heaven.

• Grant Morrison is taking over writing duties for Batman. Hmmm. Hmmm.

One final note, Fox aired the last four episodes of Arrested Development on Friday night. What a show. I still say that is one of the funniest shows on tv. I only hope someone comes to their senses and picks it up. I lieu of AD, I do get to watch This Is Wonderland on CBC. If you have a chance, catch this show. It cracks me up. I love the tagline on the season one boxset, "Law & Order without the order."

Alrighty, a happy Sunday night to all. Simone says "mrrrow"**



*note - audience size scientifically estimated on possibility of accidental selection of random link that forwards the surfer to this page. No guarantee is given that said surfer actually reads page or really even cares at all.

** "mrrrow" - roughly translated "Feed me now, chunky man". My mistake, I thought it meant "bye"

And another weekend gone....

Wow. It's hard to believe how fast these things go by. I'm really not kidding. I go into Friday night all excited because I get to play racquetball and I have a whole weekend to rest. Then I lift my head again and it's Sunday evening. I don't know where it goes. Anyway, here's some random stuff that's grabbed my attention lately. Check it out if it grabs yours:

1. AICN has some reviews of X3 and some leaked picks of Famke Janssen. Check it out here. I'm not sure how I feel about the review. I really want to like this, but I'm getting nervous. Not sure how I feel about the Dark Phoenix outfit either.
2. Happy "Sweet Sixteen" Birthday to Liz. We ran into her yesterday and found out it was her birthday today. Then we found out she's sixteen. Gawd, I'm getting friggin old.
3. We ran into Liz while we were at a memorial service for a member of our prior church who had died recently. It was interesting see all his family and friends there and to find out some detail of his private life. I really got me thinking how little we ususally know about each other even though we're all members of the same church. The fact that this man played checkers in nationwide competitions was a total surprise to me. It's really got me thinking that within my new church we really need to take the time to get to know each other. Relationship is so much more than just saying hi to each other on Sunday.
4. Roy had forwarded me this article about the latest rumor in the saving of Arrested Development. Come on Showtime, pick it up. Surely someone must have the brains to see how funny this show is.
5. Julie and I finally finished Lost: Season 1. Arrrrrgh. Can ABC just go into immediately reruns so we can catch up with Season 2?

Ah well, time to move on. God bless 'all. See you later.

Rest

Finally the Tasha drama is over. Now I'm just kind of chilling again. But through it all, I think Roy had the best quote from the whole thing:

"Note to Tasha: What happens outside the condo, stays outside the condo"

It's kept me cracking up for a couple of days now.

Tashawatch - Day 7

The Princess has been recovered....repeat......The Princess has been recovered.

At 1830 hours the trap was deployed by Agent Jim. Agent Jim then returned to the house for dinner and Bible study. 2000 hours: Agent Jim goes downstairs to watch tv. 2030 hours: Agent Jim observes the trap from the window and sees potential bogey caught inside. Agent Jim donned gloves and exited the house. Confirmed identity of captured bogey as Natasha, aka Tasha, aka The Princess. Natasha was brought into the house, checked over for any immediate wounds and an attempted sponge bath was given. At this point love and petting were also administered. Agent Jim calls wife and family to inform of capture. At 2100 hours, Natash was secured for transport to Animal Emergency Clinic for checkup. After numerous tests (and one rather awkward temperature taking) it was determined that the Princess had bloodied her paw after splitting a claw and was a little dehydrated but was essentially ok. Fluids were administered and the Princess was secured for transport home. Instructions have been left for Agent Julie to continue care in the morning. Report was filed and the case was closed.

[Wednesday, January 11, 2006 (12:31 am)]

'night y'all. Somehow I have to get up for work in the morning.

Jim

Tashawatch - Day 6

We're getting closer. Here's the report:

A live trap was set out to apprehend Tasha (aka -the Princess). Agent Julie came home from a recruitment dinner around 2200 hours, saw Tasha on a neighbor's porch and attempted to follow and apprehend. In the darkness, the Princess spotted our agent and proceeded through a series of evasive manuevers, eventually leaving behind Agent Julie. Agent Julie returned to HQ and after a short debriefing, proceeded with an evening of R&R. Agent Jim took over survelience of the trap. At 2300 hours a final check of the trap was made. Trap was found to be empty. Agents Jim & Julie retired for the evening. At 0300 hours Agent Jim awoke via pre-set alarm to check on the trap. A review of the trap indicated the involatary confinement of a white long-haired cat with black patches along the body - it was not the Princess. Agent Jim proceeded to open the trap and release the detainee. Resetting the trap, Agent Jim returned to bed. At 0600 hours Agent Jim awoke and rechecked the trap. The trap was empty. Agent Jim proceeded through his morning routine and at 0700 hours, brought the trap in for the remainder of the day. Agent Jim then headed off to work. Agents Boris & Simone are conducting reviews of the trap to ensure that no detainees could escape the closed box. They appear most interested about the food that is found in the trap. Report is expected upon return to HQ.

"Operation Tasha-in-a-box" will recommence at 1900 hours.

Agent Jim

Tashawatch - Day 4

Ok, so now God and Tasha are playing a joke on me. I see that now.

So for the weekend Julie and I have placed some bowls of food outside where we can see them from the house. On Saturday Julie was out and I was on watch. Around 8:00 or so I look outside and see a fuzzy little butt with cute little white mitten paws trotting away. I rush around to grab my coat and a flashlight, but by the time I get out there...she's gone. However she has eaten the bowl of food so I guess we're doing ok.

On Sunday we get a different idea. The food is still outside, but we lock away the other two kitties upstairs and we sit in the house, in the dark, with the front door wide open. And we sit. And we watch. We see a couple of kitties, a couple of possums but no Tasha. Finally about 9:00 we give up. It's been two hours, we're cold, we're tired and we just want to rest. No problem. We watch an episode of Lost. After it's over I start to head upstairs. I stop to look out the observation window and what do I see? Tasha sitting there eating. I open up the door and Tasha bolts. So what do I do? I bolt after her. No coat. Jeans and a sweatshirt. In my bare feet. In the middle of winter. Unfortunately she was moving quick and was gone. I lost her around a corner. So, I have to think smarter, but at least we know she's ok and she must have a hidey hole somewhere. Sigh....she just needs to come home before it gets too cold.

Natasha

So somehow over the last day and a half, or so Tasha somehow got free and left the house. Can't find her, don't know where she went. I suppose God was taking care of her before we got her and He'll keep taking care of her now, but I miss my poor Tish-Tosh.

this sucks