I know I’m a few days late on this one, so I feel silly posting it now, but I can’t help myself. Check out these shots of the new “Batpod.”
And then…
I’m left pretty speechless as these are the first pictures I’ve even seen of what’s been titled “The Dark Knight”. Batman Begins still ranks in my top 5 if not my favorite superhero film of all time. It was so good, even my wife enjoyed it.
Suddenly I realized my title has two meanings. This weekend, we went to Pella to celebrate my Grandparent’s 50th anniversary celebration. That wasn’t what I was referring; that is in fact the second meaning. The anniversary celebration was great. I was chosen to MC, so I put on a nice suit and a smile. We had performances from the grandkids and great grandkids, a funny skit from my Dad and his brothers, singing, and plenty of laughing. And of course, we can’t forget the amazing display of food set before us. I ate so much I wasn’t positive that I would be able to stand up and MC after all, but it all went according to plan.
My grandparents, I must say, are really an inspiration to me. I really hope that my marriage can be as good of an example to my children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren as they have been to all of us. They both came from tough circumstances and together formed a great family. They’ve both lived lives of continual service, from traveling around the world to help those in need to correcting tests and papers to help with the local prison ministry. They are really one of the greatest examples of a godly marriage I know of.
The title was really in reference to one of my cousins I got a chance to hang out with this weekend. As we talked and counted off on our fingers, we realized we hadn’t seen each other in around seven years. Which is strange because before that time we saw each other at family gatherings almost annually. Since then he’s had two more kids, who I’d never met before. His youngest son has to be about the funniest, cutest kid I’ve ever met. Needless to say, I decided we shouldn’t wait as long to meet up again. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to visit them where they live at some point.
There was some stress in the weekend. I can’t deceive you into thinking it was the most amazing weekend ever. When you get that many family members together in one place, that’s kind of how it works. But it was a good time. And a great primer for the massive reunion in two weeks when we’ll see most of them and more. I better start bracing myself now. It’s gonna be a wild ride.
Overtime. That’s what I’m talking about. On the one hand, you get paid extra, and not just extra, time and a half. Which is nice, especially when you’re working with a tight budget. Of course, the bad part about working overtime is that you’re working overtime. Take today for instance. I ended up stuck at the station later than usual because severe weather hits. I used to hate severe weather (i.e. tornadoes) because it meant I had to go in the basement, and that just wasn’t a fun place to be. Now, severe weather bothers me because it puts me at risk of having to stay late. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. But one of the reasons I love my job is because it’s a little something different every day.
Radio is like that, you can talk about something else or come up with some other crazy idea that you can use on the air. My worst nightmare is a factory job. Factory workers, I have nothing against you. In fact, I admire you, especially if you love your job. I just wouldn’t like it. I need an outlet for my creative. So imagine needing an outlet for your creative, and suddenly, you have to use every break, maybe even add extra ones to say “A severe thunderstorm warning is in effect for….” or “A tornado warning is currently in effect for…” until the warnings end. We provide a service in keeping listeners up to date on the weather. It’s important, and it needs to be done. Otherwise we wouldn’t be a good station, and I wouldn’t be a good DJ (which is questionable enough as it is). All I’m saying is, it doesn’t really rank high on my favorite parts of the job.
I’m not talking about the channel mind you, just the genre in and of itself. I love sci-fi: lit, movies, radio dramas, it’s all good. But I’m not sure I can qualify myself as a junkie. I would love to be able to. But, whenever I try, I think of a few things sci-fi I’ve never seen or read or heard, and then I think, “Well I can’t be junkie. Those things are staple sci-fi and I know nothing about them.”
Of course, as I write this, I can’t think of anything I haven’t read off the top of my head. There’s a movie or two I haven’t seen that are sci-fi that I’d like to see, for example “Children of Men”. When a movie is advertised as the “Blade Runner” (which I have seen) of the 21st century, I feel instantly attracted.
As to why I feel like a sci-fi junkie, well, I don’t know if I should start a list. It might either be long or embarassingly short. I love watching Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Lost, and recently I’ve started to get into the classic Babylon 5. I have the full Robot Trilogy by Isaac Asimov on my shelf at home, and I really need to get around to re-reading the Foundation series one of these days. I love Ender’s Game and the subsequent books. I find The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy absolutely hilarious in movie, book, and radio drama form (all three forms I own). I also enjoy Star Wars, The Matrix, and other similar films. That’s not everything (it makes the list sound bigger if I say that) but I hope it gets the point across. If anyone has any great suggestions for all things sci-fi that should be seen, heard, or read, feel free to post in the comments box. I’d love to hear them.
It is so nice to have a weekend of nothing. Well, mostly nothing. Saturday was a great day of relaxing. I got to sleep in, hang out with Amy, play some computer games. I also got a chance to get out on the bike and make my way around town a bit, something I don’t do often enough. It was rough (not as fit as I used to be. I need to get used to having a bike again) but it was good for me I think. The only bad part of the day was finding out how much are car repairs were going to be for the mirror and door handle. Then that night, our friends Nathan and Theresa came over to celebrate her birthday. We watched “She’s the Man” (her choice) and it didn’t actually turn out to be that bad. I laughed quite a few times anyway. Then, much more to my choice, Nathan had brought the Xbox 360 and rented “Gears of War” a sinful delight of sorts. While quite gory and unfortunately chock with a good fill of “coarse” language, the gameplay is addicting and the graphics are amazing.
Sunday was another pretty relaxing day. Nathan came over and we finished Gears, I played some C&C Generals while Amy napped. Then we went to church in the evening (which we don’t do often), gave our testimonies, and were accepted as members of our church. We’re both pretty excited as it’s the first time we’ve ever been full-fledged church members other than by association with our parents. I hung out at Matt’s a little last night for some Babylon 5 and almost fell asleep during the second episode. All in all, a good weekend.
It has definitely been one of those days. It actually started last night. In the process of bringing some friends home I back out of the garage and took off my drivers side mirror. That’s two things on the left side of the car that need to be fixed now. That was frustrating enough. Now I have to chase down parts and pay for repair: not fun.
Then I got to work this morning and found out one of my coworkers was sick. Normally not a big deal except that we’re in the process of hiring someone else and the guy who called in sick is filling in for someone else on sick leave for a while. Needless to say that since January the extra things on my job kind of keep accumulating. It’s not a large business though, maybe 4 of us here at a time during the day, so it’s to be expected. It just makes me tired is all. I guess I’ll make it. I usually survive. I need a nice relaxing evening tonight with a nice hot meal, perhaps a board game with my wife and a lot of nothing. That would be nice.
So I noticed today on YouTube that there are going to be “CNN-YouTube Debates” for the Presidential race in 2008. I’m just not sure what I think of this. First, you’ve got the issue that a lot of people who use YouTube aren’t really old enough to vote. I realize that’s a generalization. Many of the common “vloggers” appear to be voting age. I’m just saying that there is a good contingent of younger viewers.
I should explain how it works. YouTubers (as they’ve been named) can submit questions for the candidates via video blog and then those questions will be posed to the candidates, in their video form, on a specified date. Which brings me to another problem. I don’t know if you’ve ever spent any time watching video blogs on YouTube; I think that there is a serious problem in our culture (which is demonstrated by the videos) with learning to keep our mouths shut. We’re almost out to offend other people and get into shouting matches with them. I can just see some of the questions being submitted going along the line of “I think Hillary is wrong and Obama is right on this issue, etc.” (Ok, that’s not a question but you get my drift.)
Part of my frustration with the whole thing is the YouTube phenomenon. Here is this “community” that has formed online between people who video blog. I’m not saying it’s evil or it’s bad. I’m just curious as to whether it’s really a community and relationship among people. Or have we created this false sense of community and “closeness” when in fact we’re becoming more self-centric and seperated from everyone else instead?
On a final note, something about Anderson Cooper bothers me. I’m not sure what it is. Just something weird tickling the back of my brain…
Perhaps I should just continue to make new blogs. Generally, I start a blog, I write on it for a while, and then it sits and collects digital dust. I may come back to it occasionally. Then I’ll move to something else and write on it for a while. From LiveJournal to Xanga to Blogger to this. It’s been quite the road and a strange one to say the least. I want to be able to commit and be consistent, but I seem to always get distracted or I don’t feel like it and it falls away. Huh, I sense some parallels to the Christian life…
Well, regardless, I’m here for a bit, as long as I can keep it up. The trick’ll be coming up with things to write about on a regular basis. I tried just sounding smart and talking on political and other such topics. I think I’ve decided I’ll have better luck if I just try to chronicle life and insert my interests at the same time. We’ll see where it all goes.
There were a couple items I wanted to touch on today though. First, I saw the trailer the other day for “I Am Legend“. Due in December, it looks to be an action/horror flick, which is not usually up my alley. However, the movie stars Will Smith, one of my favorite actors. After “I, Robot” and “The Pursuit of Happyness” I just don’t think I’ll be able to pass this one up. In order to prepare myself, I found out it was based on a book of the same name. I also found out there have been two adaptations of that book made into film already including a Charlton Heston film, “The Omega Man”. Rather than go watch potentially bad films (which could be additionally cheesy), I decided to pick up the book. I was rather surprised to discover it’s a vampire book. Now I’m really intrigued, not because I like vampires (I generally don’t), but because it makes an interesting twist.
I also just found out today that J.R.R. Tolkien released another book while I wasn’t looking, “The Children of Hurin“. Yes, I know Tolkien is dead. The book was edited and assembled by his son Christopher. Including the tales of Turin Turambar and more, this book was instantly added to the “must purchase list”.
