On Giving Thanks and Calling Fools Out

In which thanks are given, future events considered, and fools called out.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  I don't know when that happened.  Sometime while I was a college it just sort of became one that I loved.  Part of it, I am sure, is that being away from home made me appreciate my family that much more.  So the long weekend spent at home became that much more precious to me.  Watching movies with my dad.  Eating home cooked food.  Playing with the dog.  Disc golf with Sarah.  Long talks with mom.  I am so thankful for my family.

Getting to see my family was not the only catalyst for Thanksgiving moving up the ranks of holidays.  I think another big reason came in the fall of 2002.  At the time I was living with Nick and Tim (Street not Felton) and we decided that we wanted to have all of our friends over for a Thanksgiving dinner of our own.  So we moved furniture around, brought in some extra tables, bought a huge turkey¹ and told people to bring a side dish and come on over.  It was a blast, there was so much food, we were packed in elbow to elbow, and it was amazing.  This last weekend I went over to my friends Jodi, Laura and Julia's for the seventh annual Thanksgiving dinner (see picture below). 

Seven years, that's pretty crazy.  By my count there were four of us there that were at the original dinner, and yet it was still going strong.  I love and miss all of those friends that were at the original Thanksgiving, especially those that I don't see often or have fallen out of contact with.  But at the same time I love all of the new friends that I have made over the last few years of being back in Bloomington.  I am thankful for my friends.

Speaking of huge holiday parties the Sunset Hill community (the Feltons, Roses and myself) went back and forth about having a Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves.  We decided to wait and instead have an epic Christmas potluck before we all head out of town².  Our hope is to pack the house with our dearest friends, eat way too much, laugh a ton, and maybe watch a Christmas movie³ and/or sing Christmas carols.  We already have our turkey waiting in the deep freeze, and I will start collecting paper to cut up for telephone-pictionary.  Our hope is that this party is so big we are finally forced to spread the good cheer to the upstairs annex (if for no other reason than to force Tim and Carrie to clean their dang room).  The last four month of living in an intentional community has been such a blessing.  This Christmas party will hopefully paint a great picture of how we want to live, loving and caring for each other and having our doors wide open to those who want to come.  I am thankful for this community of believers.

One group of people I would love to see join us for the Sunset Hill Christmas Potluck Extravaganza are the members of my small group.  I have loved spending time with them Thursday evenings, getting to know one another as we investigate the book of Genesis.  Even more fun was hanging out [read: playing telephone-pictionary] with them outside of small group, and I hope that that happens more often.  Like at a giant Christmas potluck.  They are all so awesome.  I am extremely thankful for my small group.

Speaking of abrupt topic shifts, you may have noticed that the last seven blog postings of mine were all uploaded during what most people would consider "work hours."  The reason behind that is simple, they were all written while I was at work.  I'm even at work right now.  This sentence...written at work.  But that will all change in about two and a half weeks.  I am leaving the cushy, yet low paying, job of in-school suspension monitor so that I can take over for a counselor at Eastern Greene middle and high schools who is going on maternity leave.  What will that mean?  Certainly less reading will get done, my fantasy football team will probably not get as much attention, I will not be able to answer emails with as much frequency, and my blog may become less frequent.  On the upside (though you may consider some of those things on the upside already) I will actually be utilizing the masters degree that I worked for 3 years to obtain.  I am thankful for the job opportunity that I had at Jackson Creek and the people I have met, but I am also thankful for the opportunity to return to Eastern.

So the best part of this whole blogging thing is that I get to see updates about my friends Sarah and JC and their super funny son Luke.  I have been terrible about making it up to see them and this way I am a least a little connected to them.  That's the wonderful part about the internet, staying update about friends' lives, thoughts and reflections.  With the in mind, welcome to:

The Great Blog Call-Out of 2009.

July 15^th, 2009 - Jon
August 3^rd, 2009 - Seth
August 10^th, 2009 - Colleen
October 1^st, 2009 - Dan
October 28^th, 2009 - Sara
November 10^th, 2009 - Kristen

This was the last time these people posted.  Kristen has only been absent for two weeks, so that's not too bad.  But the rest of you are on notice.  I am especially disappointed in one Seth "they call me death" Rowe, who claims to enjoy writing, but I think he just says that to impress people (it doesn't Seth).  So share something with us, a thought, a poem, a recipe, a picture, something.  P.S. Good work Carrie for posting furiously over the last week.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

 ¹The next year I learned two things.  One, the only huge turkeys you can find are frozen, and two, you can defrost a huge frozen turkey in a day if you keep it in a bathtub full of water.
²The festivities will be help at our house on Sunday December 20th, if you are in town, or want to come into town for the fun let me know.
³My vote would be for the greatest of all Christmas movies, Die Hard.

On Top Fives, Part II

In which a list is completed, a task finished, and readers that know me may find themselves surprised.

 Welcome to part two of top fives.  What an odd sentence.  Anyway, back to finish this list up, which, in all honesty, has become a lot bigger than I originally invisioned.  Oh well, hopefully the five of you that read this have enjoyed it, if you missed part one check out the end of the paragraph.  Please note, most of the items on these lists are not in a particular order (with the exception of Shawshank, East of Eden, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay)

Books:

4) American Gods (2001) - Written by Neil Gaiman (who wrote Stardust, Coraline, and Sandman) this book follows protagonist Shadow after he is released from prison.  Once arriving home Shadow meets up with the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, who offers him a job.  The book follows Shadow as he travels around the county helping Mr. Wednesday along the way.  We learn, along with Shadow, that our world is populated by gods, any god that has ever been worshiped in America has appeared on earth and survives only based on what belief there is in them.  This book appealed to me mainly because of my religious studies background, there are a lot of interesting 'religious¹' figures that pop up throughout the book, but also because it is a very intriguing story.  It's a quick read, not too dense, but I highly recommend it.

5) Lamb (2002) - I went back and forth over what book to have in my fifth spot.  There wasn't one that immeadiately jumped out at me.  Finally I settled on Lamb, or as the whole title reads: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.  This is a book written from the perspective of Jesus best friend growing up Biff, and the adventures they shared.  The majority of the story fills in the time before Jesus arrives on the scene at 30, we follow Biff and Jesus as they travel east to find the three wise men.  The best adjective for this book is irreverent.  But it is also hilarious.  We learn that God sounds a lot like James Earl Jones, that Jesus said "knock and the door will be opened to you" because he was forced to wait outside of a monastary for days on end, and that the disciples weren't always the brightest bulbs (okay that you can get from the Bible itself).  So fare warning, if you lack a sense of humor about your faith don't read this book, you will most likely come away from it very offended.  But if you want to read a funny work of fiction and may force you to think more about what Jesus was like when he was a boy, or just hanging out, then give Lamb a look.

Television:

1) Futurama (1999-2003/2007-Present)  I didn't enjoy Futurama when I first watched it.  I was a Simpsons fan when it started and I never really gave it a chance (which was dumb because it is made by the same people).  Years later, during the "Summer of Seth & Josh" I got in the habit of watching reruns on Cartoon Network's [adultswim].  Suddenly it was as if my eyes had been opened for the first time.  Here was a show that had layers of jokes, from very simply physical humor, to deeper more thought-out, to jokes that I only know about because they talk about them in the commentary.  When people tell me that they don't enjoy Futurama it is almost certainly because they haven't really given it enough time yet, this is a show that will grow on you (which you will find to be a theme for many of the shows on the list).  To sum up, there are two positions that I will not waiver from.  A of all, if you watch the episodes "The Luck of the Fryrish" or "Jurassic Bark" and at the very least don't have tears form in your eyes you are a soulless monster.  B of all, Futurama is much, much, much funnier than Family Guy could ever hope to be, if you don't agree then you either don't have a sense of humor, or, more likely, you suffered a traumatic brain injury (okay maybe that's not more likely).  In conclusion, Futurama is intelligent and hilarious, Family Guy is simplistic rubbish.

2) Arrested Development (2003-2006) - What's it all about, lucky for us they start every episode telling you.  "Narrator: Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. It's Arrested Development."  Arrested Development is sitcom that follows the dysfunctional, once wealthy, Bluth family in a pseudo-documentary² style.  Much like Futurama I didn't really discover this show until it was almost off the air.  Also, like Futurama, this is a show that rewards viewers that stick with it. There are call back jokes and inside jokes aplenty.  This is a show that I can watch over an over again and laugh every time.  If you want to check it out you are in luck, Hulu has the entire first season online for free.  And as a special gift to you dear reader:


3) Band of Brothers (2001) - Do you remember the first time you watched the Normandy Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan?  How big it all was?  The sheer amount of work, and people, and pyrotechnics that when into it, and the rest of the movie, was mind boggling to me.  By the third episode of Band of Brother (a ten episode mini-series) the special effects department had used more pyrotechnics than in the entire movie.  Band of Brother follows the exploits of a company of para-troopers from their training before Normandy through the end of the war.  Over time we see them grow closer together, rely on one another, fight with one another, and mourn for one another.  Also, the show introduced me to Major Richard Winters, who is joining Ginny Weasley in my certified bad-ass club³.

4) Chuck (2007-Present) - You have no idea how excited I am that I get to write "present" instead of "2009" in those parentheses.  Chuck came very close to being canceled last season, the blame for this falls squarely on the shoulders of NBC and Jay Leno, fortunately fans of the show wrote letters to the network and show sponsors calling for its return.  Here is the premise of the show, Chuck Bartowski is forced into the world of espionage when he unwittingly opens a computer files that embeds the NSA and CIA's spy secrets into Chuck's brain.  A CIA and a NSA operative are sent to protect Chuck, and as often happens in televison show, wacky hijinks ensue.  Now I can hear your eye's rolling from here, I know that the idea is very absurd.  But think about all the other shows out there for a moment and you will realize that most shows have very flimsy ideas behind them; it's what you do with the stories and character that make lasting shows.  And in that realm Chuck has few equals, especially when it comes to the supporting cast, all of whom show incredible depth.  The third season won't start until after the new year, so there is still time for you to get caught up.  Go out and get the first season DVD and watch it and I gaurantee you will be hooked⁴.  *Important addendum: Chuck has been slated to return for it's third season on Sunday January 10th, there will be two back-to-back episodes and then one on it's regular time Monday at 8:00.

5) The Venture Brothers (2003-Present) - You want to talk about a ridiculous premise then look no further than The Venture Brothers.  What if Jonny Quest grew up, how would he deal with the pressures of being his father's son?  Or deal with all the traumatic situations that he dealt with as a kid?  That is basically what The Venture Brothers is all about.
Rusty Venture is a failed "super-scientist" who is trying to raise his two teenaged sons (one of whom dressed like Fred from Scooby Doo) Hank and Dean, along with their bodyguard Brock.  This show lives in the ridiculous, it thrives in it.  And because of that is unbelievably funny.  Also, it throws pop culture references around like it's its job.  Examples: Jonny Quest, Scooby Doo, The 6 Million Dollar Man, Voltron, Sasquatch, 2001 A Space Odyessy, David Bowie songs, The Fantastic Four.  This show is over the top, vulgar, violent at times, certainly not for children, but man do I laugh when I watch it.

So here we are at the end of the lists.  I am sure that there are those of you out there that were surprised, especially when it came to the TV list⁵.  Hopefully none of you are offended by what made the list or didn't.  And if you are offended I would ask you kindly to get over it.  Most of all though, I hope that if there are things on this list that you have never seen or read or heard of that you would take some time to check them out, because I do think they are all worth the time.  Stories are important to me, and a well told story is a rare thing these days, but I feel like all 15 of these books, movies, or shows do just that.

Also, I'd love to hear about your top fives, so leave a comment below.
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¹Religious is in quotes here because the characters aren't the normal religious figures you may expect, some examples include: Anansi, Czernobog, Anubis, Eostre, Odin, even a leprechaun.
²Thanks Wikipedia 
³Both gingers, if you can believe it.
⁴Gaurentee void everywhere.
⁵TV shows just missing the cut off include: SportsNight, The Simpsons, 24, Firefly, Studio 60, 30 Rock

On Top Fives

In which we enter into the world of film, literature and television.  Just maybe not all at once.

For whatever reason when I got up this morning I decided that I would write today about my favorite movies, books and television shows.  I know that it is kind of a copout and not really that creative but that is how it goes.  Maybe I will try to spice things up as I go along.

Movies:

1)  The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - All the other movies on this list will be difficult to determine, both if and where they appear, but not Shawshank.  In high school I loved watching movie (I still do) my friends and I would go to the theater more often than I would like to admit, it didn't seem to matter how good the movie looked we will still go.  And other than a few notable exceptions, I'm looking at you Godzilla, Event Horizon, and Wild Wild West; I found enjoyment in even the dumbest movies¹.  Something about The Shawshank Redemption was different; there was something powerful and beautiful in this movie.  From the moment I first saw it in high school I knew that it would be something that I would never forget.  It's a movie that I know so well, and yet can watch again and again, I even wrote a paper about it in a class in college.  If you haven't seen this movie before do yourself a favor and rent it, or borrow it, or buy it, just find a way to watch it.  Or, if you live in Bloomington call me up, I'm about due to watch it again.

2)  Amistad (1997) - Historical fiction based on the real life slave revolt on Le Amistad, a slaving ship.  It's got great acting from Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman as well as introduced me to Djimon Hounsou, who has the most powerful scene in the movie.  Much like Shawshank this was a movie that, upon seeing it in high school, I knew I had seen something special.

3) Hot Fuzz (2007) - Made by the same guys that did Shaun of the Dead this action comedy is a spoof of the "buddy cop" genre of action movies, but not a spoof in the sense of Scary Movie, or Date Movie, or Stupid Generic Cliché Movie (releasing summer 2010).  Instead Hot Fuzz has an actual story line, clever jokes, and great action.  If you have ever seen Bad Boys (or any Michael Bay movie) you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

4) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - I enjoy all of the Star Wars movies.  Some, though, are better than others.  Here is my order from favorite to least: Empire, A New Hope/Return (tied), Episode III, Episode II, Episode I.  It should be noted that The Empire Strikes Back is leaps and bounds ahead of the others.  Empire has got the heart that the prequels are missing, solid directing, and does not rely on Muppets (with the exception of Yoda).  It creates a real sense of menace in the villains, and has some great character development.  All of this from a science fiction movie, who would have guessed?  P.S. The prequels would have been much better if Lucas had kept his hands off of them.

5) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) - So this is the point in my movie list where things get a little...shifty.  The other four movies are pretty well locked in, but this fifth spot changes more readily.  Anyway, Life Aquatic was directed by Wes Anderson, who is a very quirky filmmaker.  He is always very intentional about the choices that he makes.  This is certainly true about this film.  But the one moment that really stuck out to me was this one:

What really blew me away was the fact that they had built this giant half of a boat so that they could shoot this long continuous shot.  Life Aquatic gets a bad wrap for being a little on the slow side, but if you have the patience there is a lot of beauty to be found in it.

Books:

1) East of Eden (1952) - I first read East of Eden in high school for a Biblical literature class my senior year.  When we were first handed the book it seemed rather daunting, I had always enjoyed reading, but hated being told what to read.  There was something different about this book though.  Right from the very start it grabbed me, and I was hooked.  If you've never read the book it was written by John Steinbeck and follows the lives of two families from Salinas Valley California.  In the midst of this Steinbeck ponders the ideas of natural and learned behavior and whether our parent's mistakes follow us to be our mistakes.  All the while the characters in East of Eden parallel the lives of many Old Testament figures.  It is the best book I've ever read, and if that is not enough of an endorsement then I will let the author speak for himself.  "It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years." And, "I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this."

2) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000) - This book is ranked second on my all-time favorite list...but not by much.  The only reason that it does fall to second is simply because I read East of Eden first so it has a longer hold on me.  K&C is the story of two cousins living in New York city just before America enters WWII.  Joe Kavalier is a young Jewish boy who escapes from Germany controlled Prague to live with his family in NYC.  Sammy Clay is Joe's cousin who has huge aspirations but a bought with polio when he was young crippled both his legs and his confidence.  The novel explores themes of escapism, guilt and family through the lens of the boys' aspirations to join in on the comic boom of the early 40's.  This is a beautiful story with absolutely gut-wrenching scenes that almost always bring a tear to my eyes.  I would let you borrow it if you want, but Nick has been reading it for over a year...the jerk².

3) The Road (2006) - I still want to devote a whole post to this book, but I want to write about my reaction to the movie as well as the book.  Since the movie doesn't come out for another week and a half we will just have to wait on that.  I was talking too Carrie a month or so ago when she was trying to come up with books for a book group³, this was one of the first suggestions that I gave.  "I've heard it's too depressing" was her reply (or something to that effect).  I don't agree with this in the slightest.  It is certainly not a happy-go-lucky story of rainbows and puppies, but there is so much hope to be found in this story.  This book is, simply put, a love story between a father and his son.  Don't believe me?  Check out this great interview that the Wall Street Journal did with Cormac McCarthy, the author of The Road, here is a link for your convenience.


To be, let me finish, continued...

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¹Examples of beloved cheesy movies include both The Fifth Element (Bruce Willis at his finest) and Starship Troopers.  These movies embody the very idea idea of super-fun yet ridiculous.
²Just kidding Nick, you aren't a jerk.  At least not for this reason.
³ How's that book study going Care?

On Telephone-Pictionary

In which a game is introduced, misunderstandings arise, and Nazis stop by to say hello.


Have you ever been in a room of 8-12 people and wondered aloud, "What is an activity that we can all do and, more importantly, enjoy?"  I know when my friends and I find ourselves in this position an old standby is the wonderful game known as "Telephone-Pictionary."  This is an incredibly simple game that requires only pens, quarter sheets of paper, and your imagination¹.  Here is a quick introduction to the game.  For this demonstration imagine that there are 8 individuals playing.  Each person has in front of them 8 quarter sheets of paper and a pen.  Everyone writes a phrase of their choosing on the top sheet (often movie lines or song lyrics), once done you pass the entire stack of paper to your right.  The next person reads your phrase and must draw a pictorial representation of the phrase on the next sheet.  The stack is then passed again to the right and the next person must write a phrase based on what they think the drawing is this pattern of writing and drawing continues until the stack returns to the originator of the phrase.  Then everyone shares with the group the journey their phrase took.

A couple of additional notes.  Firstly, there are no winners or losers, so the game has a low level of pressure.  However, if you suck at drawing prepare to be mocked.  The purpose of the game is not for your phrase to make it all the way around, it is funnier when thing go awry.  Oh, and did I mention that the rounds are timed²?  Because they are, so draw quickly.

So this all may seem complicated to read about.  But no worries, I've got your back with an example from this very weekend.  Please note: all names have been changed to protect the innocent and terrible artists.

This is the phrase that starts off the game for this stack of papers, it was written by "Jack."  Once Jack writes this phrase he passes to the right to "Liz."  Liz then draws...

Not too bad Liz, we've got someone leaving and the other person is crying because of it.  Liz then passes the stack to "Jenna" who looks at the drawing and writes...

Alright, I can see where Jenna is got this, she then passes the words to "Tracy" and Tracy draws...

So we've now got Tracy's drawing of the Von Trapp family singing and waving goodbye, the stack is passed and "Topher" writes...

Whooooops³, looks like Topher kind got kind of confused, looks like that Nazi flag threw him a bit.  Well nothing to do but press on and see what "Cerie" drew...

Nicely done Cerie, those are some nice looking Nazis you've drawn there.  What does "Kenneth" have to say about all of this?

Yes, that does look like a shrinking Nazi, what wonderful art can "Frank" come up with based on this phrase?

Nicely done Frank.  And there you have it, from "Can't stand losing you" to "Shrinking Nazis" in eight easy steps.  So next time you find yourself sitting around thinking what you should do with yourself give Telephone-Pictionary a try, you won't regret it.

Well, you might regret it, especially if Jecca is playing...she is a little "wang obsessed."

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¹Imagination not included.
²The times are completely arbitrary.
³