and Happy Boxing Day!
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." - 2 Corinthians 8:9
Monday, December 26, 2005
By the way...
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!
and Happy Boxing Day!
and Happy Boxing Day!
The End of an Era
Tonight's game between the Patriots and the Jets is going to bring to an end a tradition that has endured for many seasons: Monday Night Football on ABC. The good news is that there will still be Monday Night Football next season. The bad news is that I will be unable to watch it. It is going to air on ESPN, a station I do not receive since I only have broadcast television. It will be sorely missed and Monday nights will never be the same again. I like it! I love it! I want some more of it!
In other news: The Bears clinched their division last night when they defeated their arch enemy the Green Bay Packers and will be going into the playoffs! It hasn't been too bad of a year for Chicago sports teams...well...at least for the White Sox and Bears.
In other news: The Bears clinched their division last night when they defeated their arch enemy the Green Bay Packers and will be going into the playoffs! It hasn't been too bad of a year for Chicago sports teams...well...at least for the White Sox and Bears.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Celebrate the Times, Come On!
In honor of my anniversary I decided to celebrate by going nostalgic.
A year of blogging in review: It all began with a post in which I declared I would take over the world. Since then I have waxed eloquent on subjects ranging from politics to books to movies to religion to science to everything in between. I have had my good months when I was a good little blogger and wrote much. Then there were those other times (like last month) when I got busy and nothing seemed suitable to write about. I have gotten comments from people I know, people I have never met, people I will never meet, and people I'm just not so sure about. I have enjoyed this past year and hope to enjoy another good one.
I have been glancing over my 130 or so posts of the past year and have discovered that I received comments that I never knew about! I love getting comments and reading them today brought a smile to my face. Please comment away. You have know idea how receiving a comment makes my day that much brighter, even if it is a comment that completely disagrees with what I have said. I just like knowing that there are people out there and I like receiving feedback. You can even comment just to say hi or on some random thought.
Here's looking forward to another great year in the blogosphere!
A year of blogging in review: It all began with a post in which I declared I would take over the world. Since then I have waxed eloquent on subjects ranging from politics to books to movies to religion to science to everything in between. I have had my good months when I was a good little blogger and wrote much. Then there were those other times (like last month) when I got busy and nothing seemed suitable to write about. I have gotten comments from people I know, people I have never met, people I will never meet, and people I'm just not so sure about. I have enjoyed this past year and hope to enjoy another good one.
I have been glancing over my 130 or so posts of the past year and have discovered that I received comments that I never knew about! I love getting comments and reading them today brought a smile to my face. Please comment away. You have know idea how receiving a comment makes my day that much brighter, even if it is a comment that completely disagrees with what I have said. I just like knowing that there are people out there and I like receiving feedback. You can even comment just to say hi or on some random thought.
Here's looking forward to another great year in the blogosphere!
IT'S MY 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
Which means...I should be seeing some paper gifts soon, as they are the traditional present for the first anniversary. Paper 10s and 20s are nice. ; ) Just kidding. I hope that any of you out there who have read this blog sometime during the past year have enjoyed what you have read or at least been given something to think about. The traditional gift for second-year anniversaries is cotton. Did you know that here in the U.S. paper money is about 75% cotton? Just thought you might find that interesting...
btw...I just ran this post through Blogger's spell check, and the word "blog" is not in their dictionary!
btw...I just ran this post through Blogger's spell check, and the word "blog" is not in their dictionary!
Sunday, December 11, 2005
The Tale of a Lion
The new Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie was much better than I expected. I have been raised all my life with the Chronicles of Narnia stories, from having the books read to me as a young child, to seeing the BBC versions, to reading the books for myself as I got older, to listening to the stories as radio dramas put out by both BBC and Focus on the Family. I would have to say that I am quite familiar with the stories, and because I am so familiar with them, especially the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, they have become rather blase and...well...boring. But seeing the new movie really breathed new life into the story.
First of all, I must say the it is more than a thousand times better than the old BBC movie version (referred to from now on as the BBC MV), and, if you have seen that one, disregard it and forget it ever existed. The acting, the casting, the effects, and the scenery were all quite bad, but in the new one they are just about perfect. In the BBC MV, I really disliked Mr. Tumnus, the faun. He was so wooden, cold, and had no depth to him. I didn't feel sorry for him at all when he was betrayed by Edmund and arrested by the White Witch's secret police. I could really care less. However, the new Mr. Tumnus is quite a different story. I felt like I knew him and could feel for him and the things he was going through from the moment Lucy screamed upon meeting him. Instead of being a character of no consequence like in the BBC MV, he quickly became my favorite. I must admit that I rather liked the added scenes with Mr. Tumnus as they added so much more depth to his character. (I must also now go into hiding as no self-respecting Narnia purist would allow me to get away with writing such blasphemous thoughts.) In fact, I think that the director and writers did a good job with the most scenes that they added to the story as they made the characters, the children especially, more dimensional and endearing.
The biggest fault that I have with the movie is the fact that they changed a couple lines so that it was the hope that the children's coming brought that was thawing the eternal winter and not the fact that "Aslan is on the move." The focus of the story was definitely the children and not so much the lion who was the king over all Narnia. They took away most of the mystery, excitement, enchantment, magnificence, and power associated with Aslan, at least as I saw it. They still did a good job, though, and I have to give kudos to the movie's makers for making such an almost explicitly Christian-themed movie. The death and resurrection scene was still powerful and moving, even if it wasn't the movie's focus.
One thing that I found really interesting and that helped me gain a new perspective on the tale was the people sitting behind me in the movie theater. They had never heard the story before so they were coming to the movie with fresh eyes and minds. Hearing their comments throughout the movie was like hearing the comments and exclamations of a little child making new discoveries in a world that has become commonplace to adults. It is wonderful to know the joy of rediscovering the familiar in new ways, and that is exactly what the new movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia has helped me do.
First of all, I must say the it is more than a thousand times better than the old BBC movie version (referred to from now on as the BBC MV), and, if you have seen that one, disregard it and forget it ever existed. The acting, the casting, the effects, and the scenery were all quite bad, but in the new one they are just about perfect. In the BBC MV, I really disliked Mr. Tumnus, the faun. He was so wooden, cold, and had no depth to him. I didn't feel sorry for him at all when he was betrayed by Edmund and arrested by the White Witch's secret police. I could really care less. However, the new Mr. Tumnus is quite a different story. I felt like I knew him and could feel for him and the things he was going through from the moment Lucy screamed upon meeting him. Instead of being a character of no consequence like in the BBC MV, he quickly became my favorite. I must admit that I rather liked the added scenes with Mr. Tumnus as they added so much more depth to his character. (I must also now go into hiding as no self-respecting Narnia purist would allow me to get away with writing such blasphemous thoughts.) In fact, I think that the director and writers did a good job with the most scenes that they added to the story as they made the characters, the children especially, more dimensional and endearing.
The biggest fault that I have with the movie is the fact that they changed a couple lines so that it was the hope that the children's coming brought that was thawing the eternal winter and not the fact that "Aslan is on the move." The focus of the story was definitely the children and not so much the lion who was the king over all Narnia. They took away most of the mystery, excitement, enchantment, magnificence, and power associated with Aslan, at least as I saw it. They still did a good job, though, and I have to give kudos to the movie's makers for making such an almost explicitly Christian-themed movie. The death and resurrection scene was still powerful and moving, even if it wasn't the movie's focus.
One thing that I found really interesting and that helped me gain a new perspective on the tale was the people sitting behind me in the movie theater. They had never heard the story before so they were coming to the movie with fresh eyes and minds. Hearing their comments throughout the movie was like hearing the comments and exclamations of a little child making new discoveries in a world that has become commonplace to adults. It is wonderful to know the joy of rediscovering the familiar in new ways, and that is exactly what the new movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia has helped me do.
The Other Side of the World
It seems that South Carolingian Carrie Rodgers has become fed up with the constant barrage of bad news and is trying to do something to show the other part of the world that goes pretty much unreported. Her attempts are culminating in the website happynews.com. Her site's slogan says it all: "Real news. Compelling stories. Always positive."
The downfall or giant corporations, the failing economy, natural disasters, terrorism, murders, fires, the loss of life; it's quite depressing, really. Why is it that most of the news that we are used to reading and hearing is so negative? It could be because bad news sells, while good news may be good, but it is also generally boring. People don't want to hear the good things, they want to know what bad, terribly awful and shocking things are going on. Maybe it confirms their view of the world. Maybe they just want to know if they should be more careful stepping out the door and if there are any hazards awaiting them. Maybe people just like seeing other people hurt so that they can feel better about themselves. Maybe it causes an adrenaline rush of excitement knowing the world could fall apart at any moment. What ever the cause of it, the worse the news is the more people want to hear about it, and the only real responsibility the media in America has is to make money. That is their major motivation and if they end up making people more knowledgeable that is an added bonus. Thus, bad stories become sensationalized and at times blown way out of proportion and the good things that happen are buried or just go unreported. People are given the view of one side of the world, while the other side is hardly ever glimpsed.
Just thought you might want to hear some bad news about our news-reporting media. ; )
The downfall or giant corporations, the failing economy, natural disasters, terrorism, murders, fires, the loss of life; it's quite depressing, really. Why is it that most of the news that we are used to reading and hearing is so negative? It could be because bad news sells, while good news may be good, but it is also generally boring. People don't want to hear the good things, they want to know what bad, terribly awful and shocking things are going on. Maybe it confirms their view of the world. Maybe they just want to know if they should be more careful stepping out the door and if there are any hazards awaiting them. Maybe people just like seeing other people hurt so that they can feel better about themselves. Maybe it causes an adrenaline rush of excitement knowing the world could fall apart at any moment. What ever the cause of it, the worse the news is the more people want to hear about it, and the only real responsibility the media in America has is to make money. That is their major motivation and if they end up making people more knowledgeable that is an added bonus. Thus, bad stories become sensationalized and at times blown way out of proportion and the good things that happen are buried or just go unreported. People are given the view of one side of the world, while the other side is hardly ever glimpsed.
Just thought you might want to hear some bad news about our news-reporting media. ; )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
