Random Thoughts

So I just heard that Chewbacca got arrested. No, not that tall british guy. The poorman's Chewbacca in Hollywood got arrested for getting into it with an Asian tour guide. The funny thing about this is I've seen several run in's that this guy has had. In case you don't know, there are a bunch of random people dressed up in front of Grauman's Chineses Theater in Hollywood. They are all horribly cheap imitations of people like Batman, Marilyn Monroe (who i think is played by a 65 year old), Gandolph, Michael Jackson, and other creepy people. One time I was walking over to the bathroom and there was Capt. Jack Sparrow and Chewbacca having lunch and I had to walk by Marylin Monroe on a smoke break and used the bathroom next to Charlie Chaplin, who was apparently with Marilyn. When I came out there was a security guard with two Asian guys talking to Chewbacca. Chewy was apparently up to no good again and had 'assualted' the older Asian guy who didn't speak English. Its just a surreal sight. So I was interested when i heard that he got arrested for another run in with another Asian guy. You all have to go if you come to SoCal.


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There were some good commercials during last nights game. Now i didn't get to see the whole game since we had to leave for birthing class. The one I liked the most was the Robert Goulet commercial. It was just weird and brilliant. the snickers commercial really creeped me out.



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Lost back this Wednesday. Time to hop up on caffeine and be alert after 10pm.



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the little lady was watching a few minutes of Friends and it was an episode where Rachel (is that her name?) was pregnant. Now that I'm familiar with the whole process, I saw how ridiculous it was. She was very early on in her pregnancy and she felt the baby move and she put another guy's hand on her stomach and he felt the baby immediately. Then it got ridiculous as the next day she started having big pains and they took her to the hospital and it turns out she was having Braxton Hicks contractions. so she started having the contractions within 24 hours of first feeling the baby. that's so stupid.


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we had our Invisible Children night on Friday night and it ws really good. we had quite a few people here and it was nice chatting with the team. it turns out that it looks like they'll be releasing a new movie with 90% new footage and it will be released into the theaters. and from what I hear, they will not be welcome back into the country by the government after they reveal what they have found out. When i had first seen the movie, they had a section in it where they got bribed by a high government official, but were told that they better take it out or they will not be welcome back into the country. Well, they decided to take it out, get things going in Uganda, and burn the bridges later. It was nice to hear that they have been making huge pogress in Acholi-land. They also said that they will be turning their attention to Burma next. Burma has the highest amount of child abductions in the world. So stay tuned!

Random Thoughts...

- An update on Leah and the Baby- we have movement! The kid is apparently doing some inutero training for a stellar gymnastics career. Either that or its going to have the gift of 'interpretational dance'. No way is it going to be a cheerleader. On friday we'll be finding out what our little ball of energy is, Lord willing. Pray that it takes a nice pose for the camera.

- Another note on a California election worth sharing. Our present Lt Gov., Cruz Bustamante, is running for insurance commissioner. And his basic platform, I swear I'm not kidding, is this: "I was fat. I promised my family I would lost 70 lbs. I kept that promise. As your insurance commissioner I promise to lower your insurance rates." This platform has breathed life into the previously deemed 'dead' political careers of Anna Nicole Smith, Kirsty Alley, and Jared from Subway, who are now scrambling to form a base to run on in two years.

- Couldn't help but notice John Kerry's latest 'oops' took place in Pasadena, about a mile down the street from where I live. He's in trouble. Now everyone's calling him and saying, "Hey John... So... How's it going? Oh, yeah, I heard about that hulabaloo in Pasadena.... Well, hey, I'm calling just to let you know that we're all set here and don't need you to come out to my rally. It turns out Michael Dukakis was available and happened to already be here, so we said, "hey, you're here, why not save Johnny the trip out here!" To make matters worse, even Mrs. Hillary Clinton is condemning him. Here's a pic I saw. Good to know that the dumb troops still can laugh at themselves.


- So Leah and I are eating out for breakfast on Saturday morning and there were kids walking around, trick or treating. A group of about five of them walk in to the place right before we leave, and we watched them as we were eating at a table in front of the establishment (that's right NH, we're still eating outside). As we go to pay our bill, a lady comes and puts out the candy and says something like, "Oh, here's the candy, it was in the back." Leah, blinded and made deaf by the presence of chocolate, gets really excited, declares, "OOOH! Candy!" and helps herself to the bowl. and all of the waiters and waitresses just sat there, stunned, staring at her, until one of them says, "That's for the kids!" Constantly being on my toes, I said it was for our child and that was the only way it could get it. As we walked out she was totally embarassed, not realizing she was stealing candy from the kids.

- and Rush has completely blinded himself against humanity for the sake of the Republican party. Attacking Michael J. Fox for not using medication before filming a commercial is wrong. Yeah, we wouldn't want to show anyone the severity of a disease. He was using his disease to win people over and showing them the effects of it. That's human, not wrong.

- Recently there was a Baywatch reunion to celebrate their DVD set being released. David Hasselhoff, aka 'The Hoff' in his little known rap career (seriously), had this to say, explaining the shows success:
"I think the secret of its success was that is was always about saving lives, not taking lives."
Yes, David. That's exactly what it was.

Randomness....

When you're in a waiting room and there are two of you together, does it drive you crazy when people who are there by themselves are sitting in the chairs that have two or three together, instead of the seats that are by themselves? So you and the person you are there with are forced to not sit next to each other so that mrs. allbyherself can sit in the middle of three seats by herself.


Just a thought, but I think that recycling should mean more to the Christian. Its an incredibly easy way to show you care about the world that God gave you. You don't have to stop driving your tank to work, you don't have to stop using AC or aerosol. Just get a bin to throw recycling in and you're good. they will even pay you to recycle in California. .04 cents a bottle or can.


Is it sad for the Beach Boys when the crowd cheers more for a guy who was in a sitcom 15 years ago than they do for you?


I noticed that a lot more places have the 'No shirt, No shoes, No service' in NH than they do in California. Any reasons for that?


Jen still has not come and visited us.


Another sign that I'm living in the real 'New Mexico', I called the bus company to make reservations for a camp and the lady that answered the phone answered in Spanish. I paused and thought, what number did I just dial? I said, 'I'm sorry, I don't really speak English." and she just started speaking in English like nothing happened. It reminds me of when I was in college and I called 'Papa Johns' and the guy answered 'Papa Juan's'.



So we're playing volleyball at church on Tuesday night and Leah and I were on opposite teams. On a serve the ball happened to go to Leah. It wasn't a hard serve, it was a nice lob. Well, she just stares at it coming down, and at the last second decides not to attempt to hit it, but to try to avoid it instead, thinking its dodgeball. Well, she turns and the ball hits her and suddenly I'm the bad guy. How does that work? it wasn't like I spiked it at her. It wasn't like we weren't playing volleyball and you eventually you have to hit it. Thankfully, she got hit with two hard spikes by other guys so no one remembered when the ball that I served hit her.


Why don't people get upset at 'Mother Nature' when the weather strikes and blame God, but don't say God brought good weather instead of Mother Nature?


While I was in NH I bought a car taxi like video game and Leah and I had been playing it. I came home from work one day to find that the playstation was on. I thought I had left it on, and asked Leah if she had played it. she admitted that she was playing video games to relax. That's right folks, I married a gamer.


Is it normal for the husband of a pregnant wife to also experience some minor morning sickness? That's right. Leah's pregnant.

this is the world we live in...

I've recently run across a few things that have surprised even me. The more time passes the more irrational people become.

Check out this story. Apparently talking about God makes a movie 'dangerous'. but while i'm on this story, i don't know if this is the bext example of God working in people's lives. The description of the movie at the end might raise a false hope of God working in situations. just weird all around.

I loved the commentary on this story.

If you've ever wanted to run someone off the road, don't worry. It wasn't a sinful issue in your heart. It may have been Intermittent Explosive Disorder.

How much more people have to die or get raped before we deal with sex offenders differently? A sad ending to this story.

random thoughts

Glad we finally found out that Bush knew Katrina was going to be bad. He's the president, he should have stopped the hurricane. Maybe if our army wasn't in Iraq and Afghanistan it could have fought the hurricane. He at least could have said something ahead of time to let people know that they should leave the city.

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Seriously, though, I can't believe Bush came out and said that the cartoons shouldn't have been published. What is he expecting to gain by sucking up to the Arabs like this? They're still rioting and burning him in effigy even though he didn't print them. That got him nowhere.

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Did you hear about that Ferrari Enzo (a price tag of $1 million) that crashed in Malibu after hitting a pole going 162 mph? This German guy owned it and said that he wasn't the driver and a guy named Deitrich owned it and ran away after the crash. Uh huh.... But Stefan the owner and purported 'passenger' was legally intoxicated and had a bloody lip. It seems that the passenger air bag lacked a spot of blood on it, but the drivers side did. So, Stefan, you're telling us a guy got up and ran away after crashing at 162 mph? To make it even more odd, a couple guys showed up after the accident and showed police badges, claiming to be Homeland Security. It turns out they weren't. Good luck, Stefan.

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Speaking of Ferrari's, Dr Phil's is on sale. And the license plate says 'Dr. Phil', just in case somewhat thought it was another tall, bald guy in a Ferrari.

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When did people start believing that the Bill of Rights gives them the right to say anything anywhere? Don't people realize that if they are working for someone their employer can tell them not to say something? People get so upset if they get fired from a radio station or teaching job, but the employers set the rules. No one is saying you can't say those things in your own time, you just have to follow the wishes of your boss.

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On that note, censorship. John Milton wrote a very good piece on censorship and I think that this word is being tossed around a bit too much. Censorship isn't someone deciding not to run your movie, print your book, air your words, or remove your art. That is their freedom. Censorship is someone changing your words, editing your movie, or repainting your art. Censorship is a post-production change to your product apart from the artist/author's wishes. Seems like everyone loves to cry wolf about someone not running their piece, but they don't realize it isn't their right.

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There are no good movies out. Beth called me the other day, saying she wanted to go to the movies and asked what was good to see. I said, "that's presuming there IS anything good out." She asked about 'Transamerica' and if that was good. I said, "Other than it being about a guy becoming a female?" I sort of wish I told her it was great and she needed to see it.

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Only in L.A.

A couple quick things you all might interested in hearing...

Last Friday night I heard some interesting news. My old roommate, Brian, has been selected to be apart of the next 'Real World' on MTV. At first i thought, wow, that's interesting, and then I thought again and am less excited. He was only at master's for a year because the coach didn't renew his scholarship. He played at Baylor, then moved to Master's then on to another college in Washington. While in Washington he got to know a guy named Shawn Alexander, who happens to be one of the best two running backs in football. They ended up going to the same church and he got 'discipled' by Shawn. After graduation he worked for Alexander's charity organization. And now he's going to be on Real World. For those of you who don't know, Real World is one of the original reality shows on MTV where they put a bunch of 20 somethings in a really nice house in some city. Pretty much every person has some personality quirk that would clash with someone else. For example, a southern boy made to live with a gay guy. or a person with a racist attitude thrown in with a loud black girl. They put people in the house with hazerdous habits, like drinking too much and excessive partying.

so basically, I'm going to tell him that I don't want to see him in the hot tub with a bunch of topless girls. I don't know what this means for him. He'll be recognized everywhere he goes and if he ever tried to get a job at a church, this would affect that a lot. I'm just concerned for him.


another 'only in L.A.' thing. on the plane on the way home for Thanksgiving, we saw Earth, Wind, and Fire on the plane. We were going to Atlanta, and I recognized at least one of the guys. I'm not sure which one he was, or how many were there, but I know one of them was.


tonight we have our Christmas party. We're having a Mexicali Christmas party where we're having a burrito bar and having Santo Clause come. He's the Clause from the south pole. My mexican friend dresses up in a costume and its really funny. His gifts are cheaper, but more prolific because he takes advantage of cheaper labor and cheaper working conditions. He requests Frijoles instead of cookies. then we got a Pinata and some games. Should be a good time. right now we got about 35 jr highers signed up. good times.

how about more of those random thoughts?

so i heard on the way into school this morning that Barry Bonds is saying he's going to lose 40 pounds before next season and will play for the US. Glad to see he's so obsessed now with being in shape. of course i doubt not being on steroids would help drastically losing 40 lbs... that's what i like about Barry. he's proactive. you go out and say that you'll lose it ahead of time so its not such a shock when you come in looking like you've been on TrimSpa all winter.


i like tropical skittles.


so this guy named Tookie Williams is supposed to be executed out here and all these people are coming out to save him because he's made such a change. They had a rally at San Quintan and even Snoop Doggy Dogg (as my mom would say, i swear, you had to be there. Almost as funny as hearing her say 'rolling on dubs') came out to lend his support. If i'm ever in trouble, please don't have a convicted felon with questionable connections come out and vouch for me. Anyways, he starts talking about how he was convicted in a time when Blacks didn't have representation. it was 1981, not 1881. And he's been through all the appeals, even somewhat confessed at one point, and is now saying he didn't do it. And all his supporters are taking a shot at revisionist history and making up things that never happened. I heard Jim Brown being interviewed on it and even he realized that the thing that is hurting Tookie is the fact that he still isnt admitting to the 4 people that he killed. Oh, by the way, he founded the Crips gang.


go to savemanny.com to sign a petition to keep manny in Boston. Like it would help.


have you heard of this reality show in Great Britain about convincing these people that they're going to be shot in space? they've secluded them at this supposed Russian Cosmonot place, and are going to use a shuttle that was made for the movie "Deep Impact". they have a couple actors among the group to help convince the others. high comedy.


Where were all these african american protestors who hate the death penalty when that white guy was executed earlier this year? The radio station i listen to went to the rally and interviewed people. These kids were talking about how Tookie should be spared and every other second they were saying 'youknowwhatimean?' they kept saying he was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, which he isn't. he was nominated, which really means nothing. You can tell they totally did that so that they could say he was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee later on down the road.


I saw the Hollywood Parade the other night. sad, just sad. They had all these old b-list celebrities on like David Hasselhof (or The Hoff as is his street name), some guy from Smallville, Mickey Rooney who wouldn't let his wife take the microphone from him (high comedy moment), Kathie Griffin, a host of celebs that i didn't know or recognize plus a poor band that traveled all the way to Hollywood for a parade they probably thought was going to be huge. Hollywood is always a disappointment. Every year they have a microphone with some celebrities and talk to them, but it hardly ever works. Every year the people either can't hear the hosts or the microphone doesn't work. It usually results in the person just saying "happy holidays!" or "I love this parade!" talking to the people has to be one of the worst ideas. Then if everything does go well, they are a washed over celeb who is just trying to get a plug in to make a buck. ahhh, i love the Hollywood Christmas Parade.


Speaking of Hollywood, Gregory Peck's star was stolen from the sidewalk. Apparently, someone came with a cement saw and just cut it out. The funniest thing is that they don't know when it happened. They've narrowed it down to a five day stretch. Gotta love Hollywood.

time for quick comments...

so Monday night leah and i were so excited to go through our first Halloween. I've lived in a back house for the past two, so I was excited to live somewhere where the kids could come up. So i went out early in the morning to get good candy. I didn't want to be the house that only had laffy taffy and slim jims left to give to kids. Then I made sure I got home early enough and opened the door, turned the light on, and placed a nice big bowl next to the door. I made sure to keep count of all the kids that came by, so I would know how much candy to get for next year. So after a few hours of trick or treating, guess how many kids I counted? ZERO. NO KIDS! Not ONE child came to our apartment! Aren't apartments the goldmine for trick or treating? i mean, there's 9 doors 20 feet from eachother. We even have one little kid in the building and HE didn't even come by. After a little while I retreated to my desk to do some work and after a little while Leah came in all excited, telling me that she heard trick or treaters next door. I came running out, all excited to give candy out and THEY DIDN'T EVEN COME TO OUR DOOR! So what's the deal?! Did people ignore our apartment knowing we're Christians, thinking we think Halloween is the Devil's Day? Did some Halloween Scrooge live here before us? now i have 364 days to think about what went wrong.


The celtics season begins tonight. there are reasons to be excited and reasons to think it will all be the same. I'm excited about a couple of the young guys we have and seeing if they finally trade Pierce. one good thing is the fact that it is again 'the Gahden' that they're playing in.


did some meddling with my plans for the rest of seminary and with some summer classes and a winterim class, I will be able to finish on time, in a year and half. We're very excited about this because it looked like I had to go an extra semester in the fall, and that would have extended seminary eight more months than it should. so that's exciting.


if you guys are checking out Phil Johnson's blog that I have linked on a daily basis then your missing out. Its turned into maybe the best blog around. Just great stuff on there on a daily basis.


the temperature is finally going down around here. A little odd for it to be in the 90s on Halloween. now its in the low 70s which is a nice temp to hover around for awhile.


Burce Demarest's book, "The Cross and Salvation" is one of the best books that covers the theological aspects of salvation. just a great great book. It goes through the issues, discusses the historical thoughts on the subject and then fully discusses what the Bible says about it, and then how to apply it. just a great book. Would be a good book for a Bible study trying to do some theological pondering.


speaking of such theological pondering, i think i'm now leaning towards a post-millenial position.


so i've been inspired about the project that went on in the N-H with the extreme home makeover and i think we're going to start doing little things with the older people in our church with the Jr High. We'll call it "Extreme Home Makeover: Jr High Edition". we'll be doing something once a quarter and hopefully it will help get the kids eyes off of themselves and give them a better frame for what we're teaching them.


just kidding about the post-millenial thing. just seeing if you're actually reading this.


i'm going to my favorite bookstore today for their fall sale and i don't know what to get. i have a gift certificate to spend and I don't know what to spend it on. so stressful....


well, that's all for now. until later, peace out!