What a blessing that we can take so for granted the depth and richness we have in Christian fellowship. Do we realize what we have when at any time we have dozens of close friends willing to jump into any gap when we find ourselves under a storm cloud? That we have counselling, consoling, and encouraging friends in any crisis?

Don't get me wrong; Church is about the worship of God, but to be with so many people who realize that worship takes so many forms. Do any of us comprehend the vast resources free for the asking, that the world has to hire at premium costs?

You all are an incredible blessing to me. Thank you for your fellowship.

Started my weight management program today. Can't give too many details in a public forum, but this is the program of one of my clients. I've been looking forward to this for awhile. I could have started last Monday, but with my 16th anniversary and V-Day last week, today seemed better.

I got my bow-flex cleaned up yesterday. Swallowed a handful of supplements and drank a big glass of water. Took my mile walk with Lynette this morning, did a little muscle training (not really, I'll learn the right way soon; for now I just did a few sets for arms and chest). And I enjoyed my first meal replacement shake for breakfast.

It wasn't bad. A little gritty, but the taste was good. I got a brain freeze with the first sip, then it went down smoothly. I don't know if it does what it says it will, yet. I've rarely eaten breakfast, so I don't get hungry normally until lunch. I'll have another shake for lunch after a mid morning snack and a lot of water. If I'm not hungry at two, then I'll know if it really works (but I'm sure it will. I've got a ton of confidence in my client).

My goals are pretty simple. I bought a pair of 501 jeans a year ago that fit for about two weeks. My goal is to fit in them again.

My body comp said I need to lose 40 pounds and gain 20 pounds of muscle for a net loss of 20 pounds. Motivation has always been my downfall, but this program addresses that through knowledge - more so than any other plan I've seen. It's already working for a number of people, so I'm excited to see what it will do for me. More important than the physical dimension is the mental component. My memory has been slipping, as well as my reasoning abilities. This program should give a lot of that back.

Can't wait. :)

Conviction from a ten-year-old...

We had the son and daughter of some good friends over yesterday. Ben played the daughter a game of chess with her little brother watching. Ben was winning, and the little brother - who doesn't know the game - was giving advice to his big sister on every move. Unfortunately the pieces couldn't move the way he wanted them to, so the advice was never taken.

Not once did his big sister bark at him, tell him to stop, tell him to go away, or yell at the top of her lungs. She either ignored him or patiently told him why that wouldn't work.

This little girl passed a character test that I would not have if the little brother had been one of my kids or a sibling. Ben and I discussed it after they'd gone. We both decided she was an amazing girl with fantastic parents and a healthy helping of the Holy Spirit.

I'm blessed to have a lot of older friends (and a few younger) that I can be inspired and challenged by; it's humbling to have ten-year-olds who can do the same thing.

I know the outlaw said he'd review Facing the Giants, but I saw it last night and wanted to say a few words.

What a great movie!

We were cruising through the listings of movies the other day and very few looked any good (Copying Beethoven will be a DVD rental in the future; we did see Night In The Museum, which I'd recommend as a fun family film, though explaining the whole "why don't the mom and dad live together and how does mom having a boyfriend work" ((it's great having friends with kids who really don't know anything about divorce)). Finding movies I like has become more and more difficult.

I didn't have high hopes for FtG, because the Christian movies I've seen have been pretty bad. The Left Behind movies are terrible and the good ones tend to be done by secular studios. We borrowed it and set about watching it. I loved it. It was inspiring, the camera work was good, the acting was uneven, but it was a great script and solidly directed. It was evangelical without being preachy (well, it would be to unbelievers, probably, but it was an extension of the coach's faith, not the director's).

Movies, by their nature, are predictable. It's the journey, not the goal. You knew they'd get all their hopes and dreams, but HOW they got them was the game and it worked well.

We'll have to make one. Makes me want to rework my rom-com-dram into a Christian rom-com-dram. Should be easy to shoot, too. Hmmmmm....

Clive Cussler is suing the producers of Sahara. They're suing back, of course.

The movie cost 160 million smackers and took in 68 mill domestic. Because it was a bad, boring, slow, flat movie. I looked forward to it coming out, because it looked like a fun adventure story. It wasn't.

Cussler disowned the movie (though he made 12 million dollars off of it). He corrected several scripts, approved four of them, and then the producers commissioned someone to write a completely different movie. The director, meanwhile, couldn't decide if it should be an adventure movie, a shoot-em-up action movie (which is darker than an adventure movie), or a mystery. So he took the worst aspects of all of them and threw them in a blender.

Did I mention it was a sad, terrible movie? Good actors, mind you, but everything else was awful.

This is the danger of selling your story to Hollywood. Normally, I'd happily laugh my way to the bank over such a disaster, if I were the writer, but Dirk Pitt is a franchise movie. Now, personally, I'd be happy with 12 mill, but Cussler has written dozens of DP novels, all of which can be made into movies. Sahara was a franchise killer, and lost him several hundred millions in future earnings. He says it's about the story, which I can understand, and probably it is. You have to love a character to write that many books about him. Cussler has so much money that the future earnings aren't that big a deal, but not getting his stories to the screen? That could be a big deal. It's just when you're talking so much money, it gets surreal quickly...

I was listening to 4Him's "Great Awakening" and thought how cool it would be to experience a revival? Not where a person or two come to the Lord, but thousands. A Peter-on-the-steps-of-the-temple kind of revival. An Edwards or Finney kind of revival. The kind where you look out the window and people walking by spontaneously break out in song, dancing in the Spirit, prophetic proclamations. Business meetings turn into prayer and confession; everyone extolling praise for the Lord.

Then I look honestly at myself and question if I would truly find it cool or not. New believers, especially thousands of new believers, exhibit a zeal that I could find threatening in my complacency. I realize I need revival as much as any unbeliever. Within all of us exists unbelief that God wants to revive into solid belief. We're all potential for revival. A great awakening among the wakeful dozers.

Now THAT would be cool.

Fear of Failure.

I'm not alien to the concept, of course. As a freelancer I'm always wondering if I'll be able to support my family. I try not to let it paralyze me, though, yet in the past I have. In a conversation with a person of EXTRAORDINARY talent, fear of failure was raised as a reason not to move forward.

Shall we examine fear of failure? Back before "getting it 0ut there" was my means of earning a living, I would write, say, a screenplay and never send it out. Part of it was not being sure of the process, but most of it was confidence that no one would pick it up any way, so why try? That's defeatism, though, not fear of failure. I've had a book picked up by a publisher only to have the publishing house sold and my property not sold with it. Again, not my failure.

I've written things people have hated. Poor deranged people, I can live with that. What about the the thought "What if it's no good?" Well, it's incumbent on people who say "that's no good" to also say "this is why." So it can be improved...

Your thoughts on fear of failure, please.

Superbowl Sunday

Believe it or not, I like watching football - at least the big games (and any game at M&M's). This one, though, while a blast because of the company I was priviledged to share it with, was dissappointing.

First, Billy Joel's grandpa sang the national athem (they said it was actually Billy Joel, himself, but I know what Billy looks like and this wasn't him).

I loved the first quarter. I was rooting for the Bears (because I think any group of guys from Chicago should be able to beat anybody in any other city. Anybody remember Capone? Probably not the best rational, but I used to pick the team by who had the coolest looking helmet - so the Rams and Chargers should have been in every Superbowl). A touchdown off the kickoff and I thought I had a sure thing. No such luck, but fumbles were fun to watch.

The best thing about the Superbowl is supposed to be the commercials. There were only a couple (Rock, Paper, Scissors with a real rock, and the Doritos commercials). To be fair, we skipped the GoDaddy commercials because who needs filth on a Sunday (or any day?)?

And Prince. Remember when he could sing? No? Maybe my memory's bad, as it is with everything else. Again, to be fair, it was raining. No one was electrocuted, which I'm sure dissappointed the Bears...

Before the game we saw a little bit of basketball. Better known as snoreball. Baseball is all-American, football is romanesque in a gladitorial kind of way, and basketball is just plain booorrrringgggg no matter where it's played.

Is it ironic that God, for whom time is an option, is a God of timing?

Wayne spoke elegantly last night (as always) of "staying on mission" and doing all that we do in light of pleasing God. And this morning potential for opportunity presents itself that, without that timely word last night I could easily, in my always persistent flesh, focus on the wrong aspect and get excited by the wrong thing.

It is through such things that God presents Himself with a smile and a wink. "What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" Or more colloquially, "Don't get ahead of yourself; take My hand and stroll in My pleasure." May it always be so, Lord.

This is especially poignant now because back in Seattle, a bright and beautiful 15 year old girl lies in a coma, experiencing horrible seizures whenever they lessen her medication. Her parents don't yet know the Lord; and yet even in that, while the bigger picture leaves us wondering, God inserts little moments of His precious timing that says "Even here, I AM."

Those incidents of God's obvious presence and timing must sustain us through the difficult times when God is not silent, but we are deaf. Our ears must turn inward to the voice of faith. For this, too, pleases God.

I attended a masterful sales presentation yesterday. Stores Online is a company that helps an individual build an Internet business. They have a good system, great tools, and moreover they were completely open and honest. It was billed as an Internet Marketing Workshop and they delivered. As far as I can tell, they never lied, stretched the truth or did anything shifty. They laid everything out, said every time they showed a website that was theirs, they'd inform us.

What I'm about to discuss is not a slam on Stores Online. They have an excellent product, offer great support, and they are very reputable. All I'm discussing is the sales technique, which was impressive.

Understand that their target market is aware of the Internet but not web-savvy. The people who buy in are people who would NEVER be able to do this without them. Their prices seem a little high, but not excessive. It's a good company.

Without ever hiding the truth, this is what they did. To the average non-tech person (and I'm not all that advanced, but I've got a little knowledge) they set out to overwhelm you with information. They told you that's what they were doing.

Many of their tools are actually free websites they don't own. They just link their Merchant Services to them. They did not say it wasn't their website (remember, they said they'd identify which are theirs, not which are not, so they were totally fair and open). They even gave us the website addresses - the uninitiated wouldn't know it was not their website. There was only one tool that was proprietarily theirs, but it is an analysis tool that you can do yourself in the same amount of time, and if they have it now, someone will offer it free in a year.

Whenever they talked about building websites, links, embedding keywords, they called it "programming" which it is, but it's a perjorative word (programming sounds difficult). They were totally up front that you had to provide your own graphics, without mentioning that graphics and design are the hard part (it's okay, they provide tech support).

And it was overwhelming. A couple of us, in our own informal private groups, dismantled it into key parts. None particularly hard to do, you just had to know it and do it (easier said than done). For every person there who bought, the thought running through their head was "I could never do this on my own, it's too hard, too much." And they were probably right.

Further, the company owners never hyped it. They gave you cold facts, well presented, and had a customer do the bulk of the instruction and he did some hype (but always balanced it with truth). All testimonials were at least 4 years old, an eternity on the web. Could their success be copied now? Maybe, probably not - at least not in those areas.

It was masterful, ethical, honest and fair sales work. People outside their target audience saw the man behind the curtain, but the buyers didn't. It was a little bit like watching an illusionist who tells you what he's going to do, does it, but you don't know how. Those taken in don't see the wires; those that do, don't buy.

Equally impressive is that they knew who was who. They didn't waste any time on Bill H. or myself, or the people we were sitting with. A questionaire I'd filled out before with very mild questions "do you have a product, a current website, did you build it yourself, are you experienced with the web?" Yes to all and I wasn't bothered by anyone. I'd even signed up for a consultation, but they didn't call me down.

Even so, they delivered what they said. I learned a lot, it was worth my time, and I wish them and their clients well. I'm sure many of them will make a lot more money than I ever will on the web.

Sorry, this simply has to be said:

Bowling is not a sport.

All those reports saying bowling is the fasting growing sport in high schools around the country are wrong. It. Isn't. A. Sport.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with bowling. I'm sure setting up and knocking down pins is at least as much fun as watching cars drive around an oval. (And, yes, NASCAR is indeed a sport.)

Bowling is a game. For it to be a sport, the other player would have to stand on the lane and try to stop the bowler from hitting the pins. Which might actually make it more interesting to watch.

Golf is a game. Chess is a game. Ballroom dancing isn't even a game, let alone a sport, so why it's in the Olympics, I couldn't tell you.

Track and field events are "athletics" but they aren't sports either. Tennis is a game. Ping-pong: game. Darts: Game. Poker: Game.

A sport must have a defense as well as an offense, otherwise it's just a compitition; may the better player win. In sports you must overcome the other player not just obtain the objective faster or better. It's mano-a-mano (or womano-a-womano, I suppose). It isn't enough to achieve, you must prevent the other guy from achieving as well.

Sports are the offspring of war. Games are the offspring of whatever the noblemen were doing when they weren't making war.

It had to be said.

The Illusionist

Now this was a good movie. Great complicated script, great complicated directing, wonderful acting... I know you're all waiting for the other shoe to drop, but nope, I really liked this.

The director made a couple of wonderful choices that made the movie work exceptionally well: Eisenheim wasn't flamboyant and it wasn't his story. The cop was the main character, the protagonist, the one who changes. While I saw most of it coming (wouldn't be much of a movie if it went anywhere else) it was still a great show.

My only complaint is with the DVD extras. I'm assuming the consulting magicians didn't allow the practice sessions to be filmed, but it would have been great fun to see Edward Norton learn sleight of hand. Most of the illusions were digital tricks, but he had some real sleight of hand in there as well. I'd also like to know if the illusions could be, in fact, be done without camera effects. They had the compelling problem of normal magic tricks being ho-hum to the sophisticated viewing audience, and without the flamboyant persona, regular tricks that would still thrill an audience back then, wouldn't now. So they "pushed" the tricks further digitally. Or so I assume; can modern magicians do these tricks? I don't want to know how they were done, but it would be cool to see "real" magicians do the same tricks for the extras. Edward Norton wasn't even in the extras.

Really good stuff. Lynette even liked it.

Why is it the sound of crickets that suggests there's nobody out there? Why not mice tittering or owls hooting? How about the little man in the moon whistling a long mournful wail at being alone... all alone... so very, very alone...

Hark! Was that a tree falling in the forest?

Here I stand, clapping with one hand...

...alone...

...all...

...alone...

No regrets - well, not many...

Okay, folks, come clean. If you could go back and learn something as a kid that you didn't the first time around because you didn't think it was worthwhile, what would it be?

For me, music and math.

I would have stuck with the trumpet, keyboard, bas and guitar that I only flirted with (ok, keyboard was actually a full-blown relationship for three years, but then I quit and now I can't play a note. Same with bass; I was in a garage band that was truly awful, but a lot of fun when we weren't fighting).

And drums. Drums are the height of cool. You can even wear a British flag diaper and look cool playing drums (ask your Dad, Sherlock... and no, it wasn't him...) I can't help but think worship would be a whole 'nother experience if I could be playing as well as singing badly.

As for math, if I hadn't been lazy, worthless and all around shiftless, I would have applied myself and learned the kind of math you don't do on your fingers. Nothing worse than sitting in your college Chemistry or Physics class, realizing that this was the way to understand the universe... then getting hopelessly lost when I found out a mole wasn't only a blind, black mammal tearing up the front yard. Science, my first love... the class that never even hinted at math in High School, is founded in the math I couldn't understand because I never pushed myself to learn anything difficult. Could have, but didn't.

Children, take note!

So sorry, more political stuff...

I've been reviewing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and I've come to a few conclusions. Probably not popular ones, either.

Both the Left and the Right are correct. Both of them.

The Left believe we should never have gone into Iraq. They figure we don't have real reasons to go in (nevermind that everyone thought they had WMDs). We should go it, they say, because the whole Middle East is a powder keg. Once you go in, you can't get out. There is no exit strategy. They're right.

The Right says let's get in there and take out an evil man. Let's establish a beachhead of democracy in the Middle East and see what happens. They are correct, also.

Saddam H. was an evil despot. His sons were worse. He SHOULD have been taken out, he was, and it was us who did it. It was the Correct Thing to Do. It may not have been politically correct, but it was CTtD.

Now we're stuck there, the Middle East is still a powder keg waiting to explode, and you know what? That's okay, too. It's taking longer than expected to bring the Iraqis to a place where they can take care of themselves, but as soon as they do, we should step out.

It's a little bit like teaching another person's child to walk. The parents haven't, the child is arguably ready, so you hold their little hands up and when the kid thinks, "okay, I can walk now" you let go. The kid may start walking or he may fall on his butt. You gave him the opportunity he wasn't getting, maybe the parents have learned something and maybe they haven't. You aren't obligated to help that child any further.

There are native people who want democracy in the Middle East. We've held their hand and when they're ready to give it a try on there own, it is not our responsibility to make sure they succeed. Get this, IF DEMOCRACY FAILS IN THE MIDDLE EAST IT IS NOT AMERICA'S FAULT!

We should have gone in there Because It's The Right Thing To Do. When we leave, we can do so with clean hands, in my opinion. If Iraq ends up falling to a Civil War, that's their fault and their problem. If the Middle East doesn't take this opportunity to join the Civilized World, that's their problem, not ours.

The kid analogy falls apart because Iraqis are not children. They're adults and responsible for their own choices. If they don't like freedom and give it away, it's on their heads, not ours. They were given a platform, by us, to make a free decision (inasmuch as I don't believe in Free Will, of course).

If they make the wrong one, no skin off our nose. Really.

Wow! Saddam has been executed. That was far quicker than I thought it would be. To be fair, he didn't crumble at the end. The guy was evil by any measure, but that doesn't mean he would be simple to understand. How does someone justify to themselves what he had done? By every account, his kids (the psychopaths) and grandkids (not so much) describe him as an excellent father and grandfather. How can this be? How can a person perpetrate such evil and then go home and bounce the kids on his knee? Is that massive rationalization, or is evil so innate to man that we can section it off like an orange? The latter, I suppose.

Gives one chills...

Senator Siplin, who for some reason is still in office (don't ask me why), is sponsoring a bill to make it legal for felons who have served their sentence to be able to vote again. Self interest on his own felonious self, or just a good idea?

Maybe both. Recitivism aside, large segments of poor communities are peopled by ex-felons, and in a few, overwhelmingly peopled. Between illegal aliens (who shouldn't have the right to vote ever) and felons, poor communities - who most need a voice - don't have a legislative voice. I'm not sure what the fear is for ex-felons voting; do they have an agenda that we don't? I'd think those that do wouldn't vote anyway.

They've served their sentences, so give them back the ability to vote.

Your thoughts?

Christmas is an amazing time. Nothing blunts the spirit. Not the year I was whipping up our traditional enough-food-to-feed-a-third-world-nation breakfast, and as I was cooking, the kids start throwing up, then Lynette follows, leaving me the sole person able to eat this monstrous breakfast... that was 2003, and it was still a good Christmas (even the rest of the family enjoyed it once they felt a little better).

This year we spent the day at SeaWorld... well, part of the day. It began to rain and even our rain slickers didn't keep the wet off. Still, we had a great time, came home and made a fire and played the game of Life while pigging out (a Christmas constant). The kids said "this was the best Christmas EVER" like they do every Christmas.

The secret to that overwhelming spirit of Christmas is, of course, no matter how much goes "wrong," no matter what tragedy befalls us, we start from such a high platform of blessing that any response other than "best ever" is an exercise in futility. Imagine the most prolific blizzard ever, snow drifting to continental levels... that's our level of blessing.

Christmas, the commemoration of the blessing of all blessings, the babe in a manger, is also a reminder to look back and forward and exult in our God's goodness and mercy.

"Embarrassment of riches" is one way to say it, but that embarrassment forgets that these blessings aren't accidental happenstance, but intentional gifts from on high. That transforms embarrassment to wonder and awe, the proper response to every day, not just Christmas.

(Another blessing of Christmas, I forego my usual rants for gentle musings...)

As you age, your memory turns into swiss cheese (which isn't to say my brain has become holy, but holey). I'd forgotten my password, but really I'd forgotten my username, which is different than my screen name, which Lynette wants me to change because she doesn't do the blogger thing and feels the same way about blogging that I do about Christmas lights. (Anybody now how to change the screen name?)

So I'll be back to posting soon, I think.

Perhaps about Mannheim Steamroller, who puts on a GREAT concert and props to my in-laws for being unbelievably generous! What a fantastic night! All the kids want to play instruments now (and this big kid).

I've figured out why I like MS so much but not other Christmas music. Mannheim gets rid of the sentimental sappy stuff and fills it with innovation and power. I LOVE seeing talent infused with brilliance infused with passion.

:)

Somebody explain body piercing to me, please.

Ear piercing is vaguely okay, I guess. Silly, but okay (though I think people with pierced ears can't complain about body piercings as "immoral" as some have. Ears or naval, what's the difference?).

Nose studs are simply disgusting. It's like a sparkly zit. Look, noses are necessary items, and a bad honker can be a real bummer for the owner, but really, noses aren't supposed to draw attention to themselves. A nose stud says "hey! Look at me! I produce snot and mucus, so can you imagine what the other side of this stud looks like?" And what happens when you sneeze? Does the person beside you suddenly get shot by a snotty stud? And when you have a cold, it's bad enough to have things running out of the two natural holes, why add a third?

Eyebrow rings or barbells anywhere: things that get crusty should not be impaled on your body. This applies to bellybutton rings, too. Exactly why do you want people looking at your midsection? Does naval jelly really need to be stapled in?

Tongue jewelry: I don't need this explained. I don't WANT this explained. It's a form of advertising I can do without.

Restaurant owners - have your servers remove all piercing jewelry before they come to work - accept maybe earring studs (there is a difference with ear studs. They don't draw attention to the ears unless only one is worn or it's really gaudy. They subtly frame the face and are therefore acceptable.) I, for one, find them grotesque and they put me off my feed... good for my flabby tummy, but not for your revenues.

Tattoos can be okay as long as they're subtle and out of the way, and if the wearer takes into account skin drift so they don't end up somewhere strange or misshapen. Big ones, multiple allbody ones or rude ones just advertise the wearer is shortsighted. Same rules for necklines should govern tattoos: think about where they draw the eye. "V" shaped tattoos point the eye down; if your sure you will always want people looking at your butt - even when you're fifty years old - then go ahead at your own risk. Tasteful tattoos of small size that will fit EVERY occasion that they are seen for the rest of your life are okay. I've seen a few that are quite pretty, normally ankle tats of a rose or other tasteful flowers. I saw a Tweety bird ankle tat at a formal meeting once that seemed inappropriate for the occasion, so choose wisely if you choose at all.

If you DID have a tattoo, what would it be? I once told my nephew that he should pick something that applies to him now and would always apply. At his age, I would have picked either a Superman symbol or a Comedy/Tragedy mask. Supes would be out of place too often, but the masks, if in a subtle shade on my shoulder would be cool. Even the changing size of my skin there could have an interesting effect. I'd probably do it if Lynette wouldn't mind, but she does so I won't. You?