new blog to check out

Hey, I just added another blog to my 'lil list over there on the right. Jason Howell is my neighbor and he's also about to finish up his Master's of Divinity in Advanced Biblical Studies. We have fun talking about our studies and movies and all kind of stuff. I really encourage you to check out his blog - it's devoted to discipleship. Really cool stuff. Oh, here's an action shot of Jason hitting a ball at our last small group fellowship night:

Jet Li and a Mirror Mask

Well I wanted to update my comments on Jet Li's newest movie Fearless. This is supposedly going to be his last martial arts epic - but not his last movie. In fact, it sounds like he's already got another movie in the works. I got most of my information from this article. I can't wait for this movie, and if I understand the sites and information correctly, it should come out on August 4th, about two weeks from now.

Also watched an interesting movie my best friend Brian lent me. It's called Mirrormask. My wife asked me if you needed to be high to appreciate it - yeah, it was a little weird. But I found it really interesting. More artistic than anything else, the special effects were phenomenal and, according to Brian, dead on as far as the artwork in the book the movie was based on. If you're someone who enjoys stuff that's a little out there, you might enjoy this. If you like your movies to be realistic...um...don't watch this movie, because you'll just complain.

LoTR music and a Pirates movie

Well, Terra and I had a really fun weekend. Through CarQuest I was able to acquire tickets to see the Raleigh Symphony perform music from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. The music was awesome, though it was a little hot and humid to be outside...overall, though, it was awesome to hear the music performed live. Here are a few pics:

Yeah, just a couple people showed up...

We happened to sit directly in the line of fire for a couple of lights - as you can see right here.


And this blurred picture is the symphony getting ready to perform the second two movements during the intermission.

So that was lots of fun last night, and this afternoon we went to see Pirate's of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was a lot of fun, though it lacked the novelty of the first one. I guess the first one was such that nothing like it had never been seen before, and so that one had a special "aura" or "tone" about it. But I would definitely say that this new Pirate's movie was a lot of fun, and if you enjoyed the first one, you'll definitely like this one (and the reverse would be true as well). It was a bit darker and more violent than the first, and it left you hanging at the end. And if you stayed until the end you got to see a little fun, but stupid, clip.

Also, we got to see some neat previews, one of which got me really ecited: Jet Li's Fearless. during the preview it was touted as Jet Li's "last epic film" - I just hope that means Jet Li will be doing some more less than epic films...but I have a feeling that it means he won't be doing any more movies. Which would be sad, because I love Jet Li films. Oh well, I guess I knew that sometime he'd get too old to be doing the martial arts stuff.

Here's to Jet Li and some of his great movies.

These are my favorites:
Hero
Fist of Legend
Once Upon a Time in China
Kiss of the Dragon

A fun book

Well, I just finished another thinking blog. This one was an outflow of some thoughts I've been gathering in my mind as I've been reading John Piper's Don't Wast Your Life. I highly recomend the book. It centers around the concept that the glorification of the crucified Christ should be the purpose behind our lives, and that anything less is a tragedy.

In other news...I just finished reading a really fun book entitled The Excaliber Alternative, by David Weber. I've been enjoying quite a few of his books lately. He specializes in Military Sci-Fi. I just really enjoyed this book because it had a great "What if..." concept, and I really enjoyed how he explored the potential of the "What if..." I won't go into any details, because I'd hate to spoil the treat for anyone out there who'd like to check it out.

For those of you who were wondering what our new couch looked like, here ya go:


Terra likes to call it "Rosa". I guess that means I should refer to it as a "she" and a "her". So I will say that she is a very comfortable couch.

New thinking post...

Hey just wanted to drop a note and say that I've finally started back on my Thinking Blog - check it out sometime! This one came as I've been reading through C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, as well as Ted Dekker's The Showdown. Both of which I highly recommend.

If ya hadn't noticed the time on this post, I've gotta head off to work...

Independence Day!

July 4th is here - yay! I guess...I mean, you would leave it to American's to celebrate their independence by blowing up probably millions of pounds of explosives. Makes you kinda wonder about our priorities as a nation....

Well, Terra and I are throwing a little cookout for some friends tonight - she's been cooking up really awesome smelling stuff all day, and I've been psychologically preparing myself for the flames because I'll be grill-master tonight. Fun stuff, I tell ya!

Hope everyone out there is having a great 4th! In the words of a friend, "If you choose to blow things up, please keep your appendages away from the TNT."

Now, guess who gets the illustrious job of cleaning the bathroom...

new couch!

Hey hey hey - Terra found an awesome deal on a new red couch! That's right, red! It's micro-fiber, so you can spill stuff on it and the spill will just wipe right off. Cool, huh? And at the moment we're watching a Twilight Zone episode on while relaxing on it. The couch is very comfortable, but the twilight episode is a little psycho...about a little doll...not that sweet, it's more like possessed or something. This'll be interesting.

Anyone else out there gotten any new furniture lately?