Moneyball

I've seen a lot of comments online in the last few days about the movie Moneyball. I can only assume it's because of the movie's recent release on DVD. Whatever the reason, I thought it might be a good time to give you some of my thoughts on this movie. Spoiler Alert (if something that has already happened historically can be considered "spoiled").


I'll start with this: Moneyball is a very good movie. It's witty and very well-written (to be expected from Aaron Sorkin). It's much funnier than I anticipated. Brad Pitt's fantastic. Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman are also great. The story is engaging and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the movie, and would recommend it to others.

BUT. I find the movie to be factually inaccurate and historically misleading. Now, before you roll your eyes and tell me how every "based on a true story" movie is inaccurate, let me make my point by pointing out some other "based on a true story" sports movies and their relation to reality.

Movie: Miracle
Main point: The United States hockey team pulled what is probably the biggest upset in sports history by defeating the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Movie: Remember the Titans
Main point: A newly integrated Virginia high school must overcome a racial divide; the school's football team comes together as friends and wins the state championship.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing (well, I guess I can't confirm that anyone on the team was friends with anyone else, but they did overcome their racial differences to win state).

Movie: Rudy
Main point: A small, athletically and academically limited young man works his tail off to get a spot on one of the greatest college football teams in the country: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Movie: The Rookie
Main point: A high school math teacher & baseball coach in his 30s tries out for the major leagues. Against all odds, Jim Morris's arm gives him the opportunity to fulfill his dream of playing professional baseball.
History tells us: Exactly the same thing.

Obviously, each of these movies takes liberties with the truth. Reality was probably not as dramatic, or as funny, or as entertaining. But the main points of each of these movies is absolutely in line with historical reality. On the other hand, you have...

Movie: Moneyball
Main point: The GM of the low-budget Oakland A's changes the game of baseball when his team succeeds after he employs new techniques for evaluating players & finds a way to put together a winning team with one of baseball's lowest payrolls.
History tells us: Not really.

The film opens at the end of the 2001 season, as the A's (who had gone 102-60 that year) lose in the first round of the playoffs. In the offseason the A's lose a couple of their stars to big-money teams, and GM Billy Beane is forced to fill those gaps with very little money. He teams up with stat-keeping nerd Peter Brand and together they go against all the team's scouts and its team manager and hire misfits & nobodies who, they determine, are undervalued but can help them win. At one point in the 2002 season, the A's win something like 22 straight games to set a major league record (which is true, by the way). But then near the end of the movie, you watch as the A's (who had gone 103-59 that year) lose in the first round of the playoffs. So what did the "moneyball" strategy accomplish? Well, the A's won exactly one more game with it than without it. And they got just as far in the playoffs.

Of course, then the Red Sox try to hire Beane because they're so impressed with what he did with his Oakland club. So maybe in the long-run the "moneyball" strategy is the way to go? Well, Beane stayed with Oakland and here's what went down over the next decade:

2001 (year before Moneyball): 102-60, lost LDS

2002 (year of Moneyball): 103-59, lost LDS

2003: 96-66, lost LDS

2004: 91-71, no playoffs

2005: 88-74, no playoffs

2006: 93-69, got swept 4 games to 0 in ALCS

2007: 76-86, no playoffs

2008: 75-86, no playoffs

2009: 75-87, no playoffs

2010: 81-81, no playoffs

2011: 74-88, no playoffs

So, perhaps "moneyball" isn't the silver bullet the film makes it out to be?

Tellingly, the movie never mentions the fact that the 2002 Cy Young winner, Barry Zito, played for Beane's team. It also doesn't highlight that year's league MVP, Miguel Tejada, who also played for the A's. It focuses on the undervalued "misfits" like Chad Bradford and Scott Hatteberg, who were far less instrumental in the A's success than Zito, Tejada, and two other great pitchers, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.

The biggest problem I had with the stretching of the truth, however, came at the film's closing when a written sentence on the screen claimed that two years later (2004) the Boston Red Sox won the World Series "using Beane's philosophy." The claim is a boldfaced lie, and it disappointed me. The 2004 Red Sox had the second-highest payroll in the league (behind only the Yankees, who basically swim around in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck). Their roster included big-timers like Derek Lowe, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield (and that's just the pitchers), Jason Varitek, Orlando Cabrera, Nomar Garciaparra, Kevin Youkilis, Johnny Damon (one of the stars the A's lost to the Red Sox after the 2001 season), Manny Ramirez, and David "Big Papi" Ortiz. If that's the "moneyball" strategy, then the movie does a pretty poor job explaining it.

I know I sound like a "scrooge" of some kind myself. But like I said above, I would recommend this movie for anyone who likes to be entertained, or anyone who thinks Brad Pitt is good-looking (*ahem* Elizabeth *ahem*). Its success, however, seems to play largely on the general population's unfamiliarity with the truth about recent Major League Baseball history.

Schwarzenegger

This is a video of some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's  DVD commentary from his movie Total Recall. I don't know if this was the first (only?) time he's ever been asked to provide commentary for his movies, but it's absolutely hilarious. He simply describes what's going on the whole time. And his accent just makes it even more amusing to listen to.

Viewer's Warning: there's a brief bit of female nudity at about 2:21, and a fairly grotesque (though obviously fake) image of a guy's eyes bulging out of his head around 3:55.





It makes me want to ask Rob Reiner if I can do the commentary for The Princess Bride DVD and just say things like, "...this is a wonderful scene, it's where the man in black is trying to climb the Cliffs of Insanity and Inigo offers to help but the man in black doesn't know whether or not to trust him. And this is when he decides to trust Inigo and gets pulled up to the top."

You Can't Handle my Top 5 Courtoom Movies of all time

I love a good courtroom movie, so today I'm bringing you my All-Time Courtroom Movie List.

#5 12 Angry Men
You may think it unfair of me to include a movie in which not a single scene takes place in a courtroom. The entire film (and the play on which it's based) goes on inside the jury deliberation room. All I can say in my own defense is that my criteria for "courtroom movies" should probably be called "court movies," but that lacks a certain something.

This classic could very easily be ranked higher, but I've only ever seen it a couple of times (the most recent being years ago), and it hasn't stuck with me as the most intense of cinematic court battles. Still, it's a fantastic film that has a lot to say about the art of persuasion and the dangers of being completely close-minded.



#4 Rules of Engagement
Samuel L. Jackson is on trial for ordering his Marines to fire into a hostile crowd demonstrating against the U.S. in Yemen. Tommy Lee Jones defends him. Really great stuff.




#3 From the Hip
This is a little known film from the 80s, and I'm tremendously thankful for my dad who got me started on it. It stars Judd Nelson, Elizabeth Perkins, and John Hurt. The movie covers two trials. For the first one, Nelson's character, fresh out of law school and desperately wanting to argue a case, pulls some questionably unethical strings to put himself in position to defend one banker guy who punched another banker guy. This trial (roughly the first half of the movie) is quite comical and light-hearted. After his success in the first case, he gets assigned a no-win murder case in which he is supposed to defend an obviously guilty murderer. The second half of the movie is much more dramatic, and not nearly as funny. Both halves, though, are excellent, and putting them together makes for a very good, though not terribly popular film.



#2 A Time to Kill
Look at the cast of this movie: Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson (on trial... again), Sandra Bullock, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Charles S. Dutton, and Chris Cooper. Even if the storyline was awful, that group of actors would make it pretty good. Of course, the storyline is not awful. It's based on John Grisham's most popular novel. I tend to enjoy Grisham's books quite a bit more than the movies made based on them, but, ironically enough, I think this is the exception. The book is great, no doubt, but I think the movie beats it in this case. (The money line from Jackson comes at about 2:14 in this trailer. Fantastic movie.)



#1 A Few Good Men
Speaking of impressive casts: Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollack, J.T. Walsh, Christopher Guest, Wolfgang Bodison, Noah Wyle, Cuba Gooding Jr., and even Joshua Malina. The movie was directed by Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride, anyone?) and written by Aaron Sorkin (who even makes a cameo appearance). Given just the information in this paragraph, I'm not even sure it would be an earthly possibility for this movie to be something less than spectacular. Sorkin has an unbelievable knack for writing serious dramas about deadly serious topics while still including some of the funniest jokes I've ever heard. This movie is more hilarious than most comedies I've seen in my life. It's got fantastic acting, an incredible script, beautiful cinematography, and of course, one of the most iconic quotes in the history of cinema: "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!" I watched this movie two nights ago, and this trailer makes me want to turn it on again right now. Unbelievably good movie.



So there you have it. My Top 5 Courtroom movies. Did I miss any big ones? What are your favorites?

Wanna know about our Christmas festivities?

Pam does.

On Thursday, December 16, less than an hour after I finished my last class of the semester at Denver Seminary, Elizabeth and I hit the road for a weekend trip to Iowa to celebrate a friend's wedding (Elizabeth was the bride's personal attendant), and an all-too brief family Christmas with my in-laws.

We did a short leg of our trip on Thursday evening, and then drove the rest of the way to Fort Dodge, IA on Friday. Friday evening we had the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was fun to see some friends from college we hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday morning Elizabeth got to spend some one-on-one time with the bride-to-be over coffee. Then we got ready and headed to the church for photos. After the wedding was the reception -- some more fun with old friends and lots of laughter (and LOTS of COOKIES). We said our goodbyes and headed back to the home in which we were staying (the bride had hooked us up with some family friends who were incredibly hospitable and made our stay in Fort Dodge very comfortable).

Sunday morning we grabbed some breakfast and then headed a couple of hours south where we met up with Elizabeth's parents and brother in Des Moines. We went out to lunch and then headed to the Des Moines Civic Center where we took in a production of The Nutcracker. It was fun! After the show we all went back to the hotel where we hung out for a bit and ate some more REALLY good cookies, baked and brought by Elizabeth's folks (cookies were a big part of the weekend -- and probably much of the reason Elizabeth's been sick for the last week!).

On Monday we drove all the way back home here to Denver (along the way, I swear to you we saw Santa Claus driving a semi truck through Grand Island, Nebraska).

Last week was spent with me working more than usual (the other admin assistant in the church office was out of town for the holidays), and Elizabeth working more than usual (working retail around the holidays is typically not a lot of fun), and both of us trying to purchase a few presents for the other. Elizabeth had to work on Christmas Eve and so was not able to join me at our church's candlelight service, but she didn't have to work too late.

Christmas morning we slept in (until, as Cliff Huxtable would put it, our eyes just POPPED open!). We opened presents. We watched a little bit of A Christmas Story (because I'd never seen it -- verdict? I agree with my wife: it's one of the more obnoxious movies I've ever watched, and I only watched about the first 35 minutes). We made a huge brunch (biscuits, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, etc.) which tasted delicious. We watched White Christmas (our annual movie tradition, inherited from Elizabeth's family). We pretty much hung out and relaxed. In the evening, we watched the Cowboys game. Then we went to bed.

Any questions?

A (Toy) Story of Jealousy

So, I've been a fan of Toy Story since I was 11 years old. I love the movie. I love the sequel. And I love the third installment which was recently released in theaters.

Elizabeth and I went to see Toy Story 3 a few weeks ago with a movie theater gift card we had been given. We shared the theater with about a hundred elementary school kids. It was still summer, and it was a matinee, so I wasn't at all surprised. But I couldn't help thinking about the fact that most of these kids have no idea how great the original Toy Story was (is). They weren't even alive when it was made. They don't have a 15-year connection with Woody and Buzz. They've probably never even played with a Mr. Spell, or a Mr. Potato Head.

Now, I walk through the store and see some of the coolest Toy Story-related toys ever! Stuff that's way cooler than what they made when the original film came out. Of course, as much as I'd LOVE to have Toy Story-themed toys, it'd be kind of weird for a 26-year old with no kids to buy the Buzz Lightyear pillow cases and comforter.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that all these little kids today don't know the half of why Toy Story is a fantastic story (from the first film all the way through the end of the third), but they have access to all the greatest Toy Story toys, and I'm jealous.

(Elizabeth did let me buy a Buzz and Woody kite at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. We haven't had a chance to take it out for a spin yet.)

Art

I believe that there is actual truth in the world, and that some things are good and some things are bad regardless of what an individual might think about them. But when it comes to art I'm completely in the dark.

I have no idea what makes some art "good" and some "bad." A year or two ago I saw a couple of news stories about some 9-year old "prodigy" who completed these "brilliant" and "beautiful" paintings that sold for thousands of dollars. To me it looked like the kid had used paint to scribble on a canvas. If I had painted the exact same things, mine wouldn't have sold for 10 cents at a garage sale.

I remember almost none of the stuff I learned in elementary school art classes. What I remember the best was when we learned how to draw a person's face. We learned that a person's head is more of an oval in shape than a circle. I also remember learning that the eyes sit roughly in the middle of a person's head -- about even with the ears (as opposed to way up at the top of the face, which is where my stick-figures' eyes always had been). After I learned these things in elementary school, my drawings of peoples' faces got a lot better. But Pablo Picasso probably would have failed elementary school art, because he never really seemed to care where facial features were supposed to go. Yet he's a famous artist whose works still sell for crazy amounts of money all over the world. Why?

My ignorance of "good" art is not restricted to paintings or visual arts either. It extends to music. I like to consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about music, but at times I feel like a complete moron. I watched Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" music video the other day. Whereas most people apparently see a revolutionary and artistic video performed to a groundbreaking song and musical style, I see a complete whack-job wearing the most non-sensical costumes that seem to be designed around two objectives: 1) making Lady Gaga as naked as possible without being censored on television, and 2) ugliness (and I'm talking about the costumes, not the woman wearing them).

Let's not limit ourselves to music and paintings. What about audio-visual arts like movies? I can be just as stupid about those! When the movie Sin City first came out I went and saw it in the theater with a group of my friends from college. If I hadn't been dependent on my friends for a ride home, I probably would have walked out of it. It was awful. In my opinion it had less of a plot than if I had shot home video of a drunk guy stumbling down the sidewalk. As far as I could tell, it was mostly about sex and violence. I didn't understand it, and I regretted spending money on a ticket. But on the way home, my friends and I were discussing it. One of my more intelligent, more cultured friends tried to explain to me how artistic and creative the movie had been. I told him that I could throw mud on the wall and draw a monkey out of it and you could call it "artistic and creative," or you could just be upset that I had thrown mud all over an otherwise clean wall. I guess I don't understand who decides where the line is between a stupid waste of time and a priceless masterpiece.

Part of what's frustrating is that oftentimes I do see rather subtle things in a song's lyrics or a movie's cinematography that make me think I have at least a slight eye for artistic things. One example is the final, climactic, dramatic scene in one of my all-time favorite movies, A Few Good Men. Colonel Jessep (Jack Nicholson) enters the courtroom to take the witness stand, and the camera angle is from below, looking up at him, and through some kind of lens that makes him look almost larger than life; proud, extremely powerful, and intimidating. By the end of the scene, after Jessep has exploded on the witness stand and gotten himself into all kinds of trouble, the camera angle looks slightly down on him, making him appear weak, and almost inconsequential. In the last 20 minutes of the movie he goes from a big, bullying, tough-guy, almost super-hero to a weakened criminal who's under arrest. It's one of the things I LOVE about movies. A filmmaker can rouse emotions and responses from the audience that would not come from just the dialogue or the action. I consider it very "artistic." I can usually tell what makes one photograph better than another. I can go to an art museum and really enjoy myself, but I'll probably linger at only 5-6 different exhibits that seem to attract me. The vast majority will probably not make much sense to me, so I'll glance quickly and move on.

But surely an artistic work's "goodness" or "badness" is not simply a matter of subjective opinion, right? Is Lady Gaga a great artist only because a lot of people happen to enjoy her music and videos? I find that hard to believe. Somebody educate me.

Why the title?

I know for a fact that you have all been wondering, for quite some time now, exactly why I've named my blog "The Cliffs of Insanity." I understand that this question has basically been burning a hole right through your brain. I apologize if you've suffered any insanity of your own due to my lack of explanation.

But right now I shall try to redeem myself.

If you know me at all you know that I believe that the greatest movie that has ever been made is The Princess Bride. If you've ever seen it you also know that "The Cliffs of Insanity" is a reference to the location in the movie where Fezzik carries Vezzini, Inigo, and Buttercup up the gi-normous cliffs in order to escape the Man in Black. Once at the top, Fezzik, Vezzini and Buttercup run ahead while Inigo stays at the top of the cliffs to kill the Man in Black, who has climbed up the rope behind them. Inigo and the Man in Black hang out for a few minutes and then they have a super awesome sword fight, which the Man in Black wins.

So what connection is there between a location in a movie and my blog? I can't believe you haven't discovered them on your own. Here, I'll help you out:

The Cliffs: For Vezzini and his merry men (and kidnapped Princess), the Cliffs of Insanity are (believed to be) a safe haven.
My blog: A safe haven for all of you (or so it would seem...)

The Cliffs: Only Fezzik is "strong enough" to climb them.
My blog: Only I have the ability to post here (cuz none of you know my password).

The Cliffs: Often coincide with the use of the word "inconceivable."
My blog: While I don't often use the word, my blog could accurately be described as such.

The Cliffs: Rock-climbing and sword-fighting.
My blog: Rock-climbing and sword-fighting.

The Cliffs: Awkward conversations + nobody that has six fingers on their right hand.
My blog: Ditto.

The Cliffs: The Man in Black has to empty rocks from his boot.
My blog: Sometimes I get rocks stuck in my shoe.

The Cliffs: "I am not left-handed."
My blog: "I'm not left-handed either."

The Cliffs: Inigo has to get used to disappointment.
My blog: If you've been reading for any length of time, you probably already are!

The Cliffs: Mistrust of Spaniards.
My blog: Mistrust of Spaniards.

The Cliffs: Amazing feats of strength, athleticism, and skill (during the sword fight).
My blog: Okay, bad example.

The Cliffs: Man in Black knocks out Inigo so he can't follow him.
My blog: I don't like it when people follow me either (except on twitter).

Not an exhaustive list, but it should give you an idea of why I chose the title I did.

Nothing special to report

I watched olympic hockey yesterday. I'm no hockey fan, but it was a great game. Canada beat Team USA in overtime of the gold medal game. Again, I don't know much about the sport, but I'm pretty sure that a silver medal is still pretty good for the US, and it was fairly clear that the better team won the gold. Congratulations to the home team Canadians.

Elizabeth and I bought The Little Rascals on DVD yesterday too. It was in the $5 bin at the store. I had a coupon from my Christmas Coupon Book that she gave me for Christmas that was good for one $5 item of my choice at the store. We both decided The Little Rascals was worth $5. We haven't watched it yet, though, because we've played the free Redbox game two nights in a row now. Last night we watched Imagine That with Eddie Murphy (well, we didn't watch the movie with Eddie Murphy, he just stars in the movie itself). It was cute. We enjoyed it. Tonight we watched Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn. It definitely had its sexually inappropriate moments, but it was cleaner than I had anticipated. It wasn't anything super special either, but worth watching (for free).

(The above is what happens when it's bedtime but your wife says, "Babe, you should blog.")

Redbox

For more than a year now Elizabeth and I have "played the system" regarding Redbox movie rentals. Each Monday Redbox would send out a free rental code. What we found out was that Redbox tracks the use of the code by the credit card you scan, so if you have more than one credit card you can use the code for each card. That means that on any given Monday night we would have up to four Redbox movies to watch (which aren't due until the next night at 9 pm, so we could watch some on Tuesday too, if we had the time).

Unfortunately, Redbox must have come to its senses (I wonder how many people only ever used the free rentals and never paid for one, like us) because they have discontinued the free movie Mondays and have replaced them with a free rental code only on the first Monday of each month. So we watched one movie last night and have three more at home that we'll try to fit in before 9 o'clock tonight!

That's my whole story.

The Shining

I just finished watching The Shining. You know, the Stephen King movie that stars Jack Nicholson as some creepy family killer. I've been wanting to see it ever since our visit to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park over Spring Break (the Stanley was King's inspiration for the movie). They actually have a channel on the TVs at the hotel that just loop the movie over and over again. But due to the fact that A) I didn't think it was a great idea to watch the movie for the first time while staying in the hotel on which it's based... during the biggest snowstorm of the year, and B) that Elizabeth's not into those kinds of movies anyway, I decided to wait and watch it at a later date. Which I've now done.

It's a pretty stupid movie, if you ask me. I mean, Nicholson is brilliantly demented in it... but I personally don't think he has to try that hard to be a sick, twisted creep.

Attractive celebrities

A couple of weeks ago Elizabeth and I watched Nights in Rodanthe with our free Redbox Monday night rental. It's a chick-flick kinda movie that stars Richard Gere. Elizabeth told me early on that even though Gere's getting older and is quite grey in the movie, she finds him "very attractive."

A few nights after that we watched First Knight, which stars a much younger and, quite frankly, much studlier Richard Gere. Multiple times throughout the movie I caught my wife with a glossy-eyed look on her face as Richard Gere (or Lancelot, as he's known in the movie) did something manly or romantic.

Tonight we were watching American Idol (which is not normal for us) and Carrie Underwood performed live with Randy Travis. I think Elizabeth caught the same glossy-eyed look on my face a time or two.

That's all.

Don't believe the critics!

Partly because we decided to skip out on Christmas this year (in terms of giving each other a bunch of gifts), Elizabeth and I treated ourselves to the newly released Marley and Me at a theater this afternoon. We had a rough time getting in, first of all. The first place we went was sold out about 20 minutes before showtime (right about the time we got there), the second place was sold out 35 minutes before showtime (right about the time we got there), and the third place (which was actually the first place revisited... for a later showing) surely sold out shortly after we got our tickets (we were about 50 minutes early for that one).

All the seeking and frustration paid off, though. Marley and Me was fantastic. Owen Wilson gave a heartwarming, charming, and funny performance. Marley himself was one of the prettiest and most likable dogs I've ever seen in a movie. It wasn't a movie just about a dog either. It was about marriage and family and hardship and the pressures of life and work too. The movie is based on a book, and now I want to read it. I would recommend this movie to all of you who read this blog. Mom and dad, it'd be great for the kids too (I think). It's rated PG because they make a few comments regarding Marley's "fixing," and because Jennifer Anniston takes off her clothes and jumps into the pool at one point (they don't show anything except her bare back for a moment).

Anywho, I heard that the critics weren't fans of this movie, but Elizabeth and I were (she's blogging about it right now too, I think)... so if you trust our opinions over old men who sit in theaters for a living, go see it!

Catching up

There are about 15 things I've been wanting to blog about lately.  I don't remember what most of them were.

First, let me tell you about the awesome (though budget-crunching) deal we got from the Apple Store last week.  We'd been planning to buy Elizabeth a MacBook computer for awhile, we just hadn't found the right one, or the right time.  Then we found out that if you buy a new MacBook with your student discount (which saves you $100) then you can get up to a $299 rebate for a new iPod... which happens to be exactly what an iPod Touch costs.  So we have one of those now.  Along with Elizabeth's new computer.  AND, with the purchase of a new MacBook, you can get up to a $100 rebate on a printer too.  So now we have a new computer, a new iPod Touch (which is really fun, by the way), and a new printer/scanner/copier/fax machine.  All for the price of less than a new MacBook ('cuz of the student discount).  That's $400 in total savings.  Not too shabby.

Next, let me say a few words about the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight."  It was good.  That's all I'm gonna say, because it seems everyone and their brother (including my brother, in fact) has recently blogged about it.  Greg Boyd and Ben Witherington (two prominent Bible scholars) have both written very good posts about it.  They both tie in some awesome niftiness (it's a word) about the theology and philosophy of the movie too.  I'll just say that I agree with everyone's assessment about Heath Ledger's phenomenal performance as the world's greatest villain, the Joker.

My two-week intensive theology class ended last Friday, which is kinda nice.  It was a great class, giving me some much-anticipated knowledge about theological stuff I've always felt like I should know (like what the real differences between Calvinists and Arminians are, and what big words like supralapsarianism mean).  I still have a little after-the-fact work to do for the class, but the really tough stuff is finished.

Last week's Sports Illustrated had some awesome triva-type information about the U.S. athletes preparing to participate in the Beijing Olympics.  Last week's Time magazine had some similar entries, but they were under the heading "100 Olympians you should know about" or some other similar-sounding title.  The Time section didn't focus solely on U.S. athletes, but on many of the notables from around the world.  I'm really excited for the olympics.  They're fun.

Ok, I know there was a lot more to write, but I'm gonna end it right there because I can't remember anything else.  If and when I do, you'll hear about it.

Pacifism

I cried a few minutes ago.

The original reason was because I watched one of my favorite movies which is called Tears of the Sun.  It stars Bruce Willis, who plays a Navy S.E.A.L. Lt. who has orders to extract an American missionary from a war-torn part of Africa.  The missionary won't leave the mission without the indigenous Africans who live there with her, and Willis and his team basically have to opt into saving these people from certain slaughter at the hands of rebel troops.  It's a pretty graphic movie, but incredibly moving.  It's also the movie I talk about when I'm describing to people why, even though I try very hard, I cannot be a pacifist.  (Please feel free to try to change my mind.  I often feel like I ought to be "corrected" on this issue of pacifism, so I welcome any challenges to my views -- of course, there are like 1.5 of you out there who read this... so I might not get anything.)

I kept crying because after the movie I looked at some pictures of my 6-month old nephew, who's adorable.  Thanks to my sister-in-law, Pamela, who does an amazing job of posting pictures of her little guy all the time so that those of us who can't see him very often (sad!) can at least see him in photos.

Expulsion, comedy, and feminism

Tonight I translated a couple of verses from 2 Thessalonians from Greek into English.

It kind of wore me out, so I thought I'd write a little.  Also because it's been awhile.  Tomorrow there's a movie coming out called Expelled.  It's a documentary by Ben Stein that sounds pretty good.  From what I hear, it's connected to the Intelligent Design debate.  The movie's viewpoint, I guess, is that Intelligent Design proponents use the same science as evolutionists, but are still being shut out of scientific scholarship for their views... or something.  I plan to see it, but not tomorrow.  See, my wife and I are in the midst of what we've dubbed "No Fun April."  During the month of April, we have vowed to spend not a single dime on recreation of any kind (eating out, going to or renting movies, etc.).  We haven't really ever had the means to do a lot of those things anyway, but I just spent over a thousand dollars on a new computer last month, and there are only a few things in our budget that we have absolute control over... so we're hoping it helps us out a little.

There's a comedian I really like named Demetri Martin.  He says stuff like,

"Swimming is a confusing sport.  Because sometimes you do it for fun, but other times you do it to not die."

and

"I bet drowning is a horrible experience.  But I bet it's a little less horrible if right before, you're really thirsty.  It'd be like, 'Man, I'm thirsty.  Ok ok ok OK OK OK I'M GOOD I'M GOOD!'"

Anyway.  You should youtube him if you've got the time.

Oh!  I wanted to blow off some more steam about this too:  Today in my class on methods of New Testament study, we talked about feminist and queer (GLBT) interpretation of the Bible.  I left the class pretty mad, because we seemed to focus the whole time on all the positive things we can learn from these criticisms, and nobody stated what I thought was glaringly obvious:  They're wrong!  I'm not even saying that feminism or homosexuality are wrong (we can talk about that, though, if you'd like).  I'm saying that the agenda-driven interpretation of Holy Scripture by those practicing feminist or queer criticism is wrong.  It'd be equivalent to me deciding that I don't want to give money to the poor, because I really REALLY like all my cars and video games and my movie collection and my iPod, so when I read the Sermon on the Mount, I'm going to interpret it as though Jesus is saying, "God loves people who have lots of money and hoard it all for themselves."  It's just BAD interpretation, and it made me upset that no one in my class, including the professor, ever mentioned that.  K, I'm done.  Stepping down from my soap box (now there's a phrase I've never fully understood).

Weekend

Easter weekend was quite a rush. We had some friends visiting on Friday afternoon from Arkansas, so we took a tour of the Coors brewery. Then my folks with their four foster boys arrived Friday evening to stay for a couple of nights. Eight people living in a 1-bedroom apartment is kind of interesting, by the way. We had a lot of fun with my family, though. They left early on the morning of Easter, which was also my birthday. It was a good day. Elizabeth and I went to the early service at church, and then made red velvet cake when we got home. We went out and saw The Bucket List in the afternoon, which is a very good flick. I would recommend it to you. It was the first movie we've seen in a theater in almost a year (since we got married last July).

My wife got me a Jason Witten jersey for my birthday, which is super sweet. It's one of the throw-back jerseys the Cowboys only wear on special occasions. She's a sweetheart. I also bought a computer yesterday. It should be arriving in the mail later this week, and I'm excited.

Today is the first weekday of spring break, though it hardly feels like it's gonna be a "break." My wife and I both have tons of schoolwork to do this week, as well as multiple other tasks to take care of -- and I'm still working all week long. We might get out of town a couple of times for a few hours this week, but that's about it.