Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Trailer Review

Here is my review of the new Harry Potter trailer for The Half-Blood Prince. The trailer is embedded at the end of this post, or you can download a high-quality version here.

My overall reaction to the trailer was extremely positive. (Unlike my reaction to the new Star Trek trailer, but that‘s a different story.) However, the very first line spoken by Harry was pretty ridiculous. Dumbledore says, “You are, of course, wondering why I brought you here tonight.” Harry replies, “Actually, sir, after all these years I just sort of go with it.” What? Where did that come from? Yes, I realize it’s an attempt at humor, but I really don’t think it was in-character at all. Harry would never say that.

Next we see Harry and Dumbledore Apparate, although the next scene that they show is clearly out of order because we see Dumbledore leaning on Harry after Harry had Apparated the two of them back to Hogwarts. (Though technically they should have gone to Hogsmeade first, but I understand they cut it for time.)

Professor Slughorn isn’t quite what I imagined, but I still think that Jim Broadbent was a great choice and I’m sure he’ll do very well. In the scene in his classroom we see Hermione’s hair looking very different from the previous movies. At first I thought, “What, are they finally making her hair bushy? Isn’t it a bit late for that now?” Later we see her with normal hair again, so maybe it was just the steam from the cauldron making her hair frizzier. Who knows.

Next is the scene where Ron is head-over-heels for Romilda Vane because of the love potion. Of course all the Rupert (Ron) fangirls think he was brilliant in this scene, but I’ve heard that some people found it kind of dumb. I personally enjoyed the dialogue and thought the delivery and timing were pretty spot-on. So I definitely didn’t think the scene was dumb, but unfortunately I can’t say that I find either Rupert or Dan (Harry) to be “brilliant.”

Next we see Luna in her spectrespecs. Ok, so the effects for the spectrespecs was slightly cheesy, but I didn’t really care because I absolutely adore Luna. I’m tempted to call Evanna Lynch brilliant for her flawless portrayal, but if you’ve seen any interviews with her you know that she practically is Luna, so I’m not sure how much actual acting is involved.

Ok, what is it with all the head-smacking in these movies? Last time it was Snape smacking Ron and Harry, and now we have Hermione smacking Harry with what appears to be a folded-up newspaper page. I am personally at a loss to know why the filmmakers are apparently obsessed with this form of comedy, but oh well. I thought Harry’s response to the smack made a much more amusing moment than the smack itself.

The most amusing (not in a good way) scene of the trailer is a short clip of Hermione crying, wearing what looks exactly like a Gryffindor fan t-shirt that you could buy online. Seriously. It doesn’t look anything like what you would ever see a Hogwarts student wearing. It looks like a freaking fan shirt. Is this a ploy to sell more merchandise? I think so.

I’m really interested to know how they handle the whole Harry/Ginny thing, since we get basically zero lead-in in any of the previous movies. It’s only in the last one that they figured out they needed to give her more screen time. Hopefully they’ll get it right.

The island in the cave with the Inferi does not look like I expected. Rather more treacherous with all the crystal-looking things sticking up all over the place. Still, I have confidence that it’s going to be an amazing scene. Just thinking about it makes me want to go re-read the book.

In fact, the whole trailer makes me want to go re-read the book, and I’m taking that as a very good sign. It means that so far it looks like they’re going to properly capture the spirit of it, which is really all I can ask at this point.

Witnessing for Christ

I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but I had a long discussion with the guy sitting next to me at work about religion. I work as a video game tester, so there is just row after row of people testing games, and conversations aren’t exactly private. The guy I was talking to is interested in learning about different religions, but doesn’t know which one he wants to follow.

I thought it was really cool that we had this big long public discussion where I was able to talk about why Christianity is different from all other religions, some of the reasons why we can know it’s true, and various theological points that he had questions about. Apparently he’s had a lot of negative encounters with Christians, such as judgmental and condemning churches and people whose whole explanation as to why they believed in Jesus was “because I do” or “because I was raised with it.”

I was able to hold my own quite well during the conversation and came up with intelligent responses to his questions. I think I was able to provide him with a really positive example of a Christian who knows what they believe and why they believe it.

It was a really wonderful experience to be able to be an ambassador for Christ like that. God has really been preparing me for this situation and hopefully similar situations in the future. Being used as a witness for God has given me even more of a hunger for his word, and I’m going to continue to pray that he will use me to accomplish his will.

Harvest Crusade 2008!

I went to my first Harvest Crusade today! It was wonderful! It's late right now and I'm tired, so instead of trying to write a full report, I'll just make a few random observations.

1. Greg Laurie is awesome.
2. Leeland's "Tears of the Saints" is beautiful and never fails to make me teary.
3. I really need to get a Marty Goetz CD.

On to the pictures!

Waiting in line.

In the stadium with David's mom.

Pastor Greg speaking.

The best part: 3,704 people came forward to accept Jesus tonight! (The total for all three nights is 11,084!)

Grafted In

I used to see Jesus and what (relatively) little I knew of the Bible through the filter of my own experience and culture without even knowing it. It would never have occurred to me that it might be good to learn about Jewish history and culture. After all, what's the use of that in the here and now, right?

However, at that point my knowledge of God's word was somewhat less than intimate. I had heard sermons all my life and had memorized some verses for Sunday school, but that was basically it. Now I'm only about a month away from finishing my first full reading of the New Testament. (And then I can't wait to get started on the Old Testament!) I like topical messages in church as much as the next person, but it just doesn't replace actually reading the Bible all the way through in order. For me, reading it through makes it less about what I want to get out of a particular passage and more about what the author is really saying. When you're looking at it from this perspective, it becomes obvious that the more you know about the history and culture that the Bible deals with, the deeper your understanding of God's word will be.

In his book The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey says,
"Alone of all people in history, [Jesus] had the privilege of choosing where and when to be born, and he chose a pious Jewish family living in a backwater protectorate of a pagan empire. I can no more understand Jesus apart from his Jewishness than I can understand Gandhi apart from his Indianness. I need to go back, way back, and picture Jesus as a first-century Jew with a phylactery on his wrist and Palestinian dust on his sandals."

In addition to the fact that understanding the Jewishness of Jesus will lead me to a better understanding of Jesus himself, my interest in this subject is also inspired by what the Bible says about Gentiles being "grafted in" with the people of Israel to receive God's promise to Abraham and his children.

Romans 11:17 (NLT)
"some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—-some of the people of Israel—-have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree."

I like how this site puts it:
"The words ‘Grafted In’ memorialize the affirmation of our true identity as a people, Jew and Gentile, securely rooted in the finished work of Yeshua HaMashiach. If you believe in Yeshua, you are Grafted In!"

I even got a new necklace because I'm looking forward to learning more about these things.

Music!

Some of my favorites...

Bands/Artists












Julie Andrews
Favorite song: She's my favorite singer of all time, but I have no clue what song is my favorite.

Fireflight
Favorite song: Unbreakable

Lifehouse
Favorite song: Everything

Big Tent Revival / Steve Wiggins
Favorite song: BTR - Please Forgive Them / SW - Adoni

Spoken
Favorite song: September

Styx
Favorite song: Renegade


Musicals












The Sound of Music
Favorite song: Edelweiss

The King and I
Favorite song: Hello, Young Lovers

West Side Story
Favorite song: Tonight

My Fair Lady
Favorite song: Without You


Soundtracks












Indiana Jones
Favorite track: Theme

Hook
Favorite track: Presenting the Hook

Star Wars
Favorite track: (I can't decide!)

Lord Of The Rings
Favorite track: (Not sure)

More than a dork?

It's been a while since I've been a complete and utter spaz in front of someone, but today I managed to pull it off. The question is, do I resign myself to the idea that I'm just a dorky loser, or do I rise up and take it as a challenge to show people that I'm capable of more than what they expect of me?

Here's hoping I choose the latter.

Little Rushed Entry

Right now I'm working on balancing being away from home 13+ hours a day (working and driving to and from work) with still having interests and hobbies. And also cleaning, which is always important. Poor Leora is by herself all the time now.

One thing I am maintaining is my daily Bible study. We always get to work early and David and I both read our daily chapter in the morning. By the end of next month I will have read the entire New Testament for the first time! I'm really excited about that, and I'm also eager to start reading the Old Testament.

Well, it's late and I have to get up super early again tomorrow so I don't have time to write anything thoughtful. This entry was rushed. Like I said, I'm working on balancing. In the meantime, I'll be updating Twitter, which is easy because it doesn't require any thoughtfulness whatsoever. I also replaced my photo slide show with my TwitPic badge, so at least those things should get updated regularly.

Messy :(

It's pretty sad how messy everything gets when I work all week. I leave the house at 6:30 and don't get home until anywhere from 7:30 to 11:00, depending on if there's overtime. Today's project is to clean up. The first thing I tackled is my desk. Check out the before and after pictures.

Picture Time!

Twitter is so addicting. I wish I knew more people who used it. Add me if you have a Twitter! (If I know you, that is.)

Here are some random shots from the last few days. David's mom colored my hair today, as you'll see from the last two pictures.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

You must watch this trailer! Do it now!



If for whatever reason the widget isn't working, you can watch the teaser here.

I'm serious, did you watch it? Doesn't it look fantastic!? Joss Whedon is a genius, no question. Even though this isn't online and I haven't purchased it on iTunes yet, I've heard some of the songs. I loved Doogie Howser when I was younger, but I had sort of forgotten about Neil Patrick Harris until this came along. Let me tell you, the man can sing. He is so cool. *fangirlyness*

Edit: Dr. Horrible is available to watch for FREE on Hulu! Go watch it! But don't forget to buy the DVD when it comes out to support the project! For more on why you should care, read this page.

Makeover!

As you can see, my blog has just gotten a makeover! I really wanted the background (the part that's currently gray) to be light pink, but there doesn't seem to be any way to change it. But other than that, I'm really happy with how it looks. Much nicer than before, I think.

I was playing with the settings and it says I can have up to 10 e-mail addresses notified when I make a new post. So if for some reason someone out there is interested in something like that, leave a comment or send me a message with your e-mail and I'll add you to the update list.

Edit: I figured out how to change the background color! You can't do it the normal way, you have to change the template code directly.

I officially have a job!

Today I passed training for Activision. (It was Vivendi Games, but they just merged with Activision.) Starting Monday, I'll be working full-time, plus overtime when my project gets farther along. At most of my previous jobs I worked between 20-25 hours a week, so this is going to be a big change for me. On top of that, I'll be spending almost 3 hours in the car every day getting there and back, so I'll almost never be home except on the weekend.

But still, it's going to be way better than any customer service job. It's pretty laid back here as long as you're getting your work done. I'm sure time is going to pass much more quickly here than at most of the places I've worked in the past. Plus I'm excited that I have a job where I don't have to wear a uniform.

And the best reason why this is a good thing is: we should finally stop running out of money mid-week!

Goodbye Living Room Study?

I've been a Christian all my life. I've never walked away from God or had any serious doubts. Growing up, almost everyone I knew was a Christian. There's never been a period in my life where I didn't go to church every week. When I moved out, I married a Christian and got involved in a great college age group at a great church.

So why, if I've been surrounded by such good examples my whole life, did I not grow very much deeper in my faith? I never studied the Bible on my own or looked into the reasons why Christianity is right and other belief systems are wrong. I'm still not sure why I didn't do those things, but I do know that ever since I started coming to The Living Room Study, something clicked. I found myself getting excited about reading the Bible on my own and about learning how we can know Christianity is true and how to defend it. Thanks to my dad, I've begun building a collection of books on apologetics.

If I can pass training, I'll have a job as a quality assurance tester for Vivendi games in El Segundo, which is also where David works. It's about an hour and a half away, which means that I won't get home in time to go to The Living Room any more. QA testing is just a temporary job because you get hired for a certain project and when the project is over they'll either keep you on for the next one or let you go. If I'm let go, then I'll be back at The Living Room in a few months, but if not, David and I want to try to move to El Segundo by the end of the year.

Knowing that this might possibly be my last time coming, I took my camera to the study tonight. I've moved so many times that I've become a bit obsessive about taking pictures of places before I leave them. I was too shy to take many pictures with so many people around because I thought it might look a little strange, but I found a picture online of the room where we meet. Here's that one, plus the two that I took tonight.

The Coffee Depot Baggage Room
In the bathroom
Steve Wiggins, Bible study leader

Edit, some weeks later: I haven't had much overtime at all, so I've been able to come late. This may change when my project has more overtime, though.

Drinking?

I don't think that it's sinful to have a drink. The Bible says don't get drunk with wine, not don't ever drink wine. I had wine on my wedding night and I've had a few drinks since then as well, but not for many months now. I am often in the company of a person who is known to not only drink, but to get very drunk. Because of this I have stopped drinking all together, even though I don't think there would be anything wrong with me having one once in a while. I feel like if I have a drink, my witnessing tool is gone. I think I can be a much more effective example if I never drink at all.

However, it's not the easiest thing in the world. At this moment there is a case of Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade in the fridge and it's calling my name. I've had it before and it's SO good! It's pretty difficult to resist taking one. After all, will my not drinking really do that much good?

I'm a little confused on that point because it's not like my behavior has actually influenced anyone's thoughts about alcohol, and I kind of feel like if I wasn't around someone who had a problem with getting drunk then it wouldn't be a big deal if I had one. Then again, alcohol is really one of those things that can easily become an addiction and it's probably better to just not touch it no matter how much control you think you have. Besides, even though I said I don't think my behavior has influenced anyone, you never know what effect you might have on someone without even knowing it.

Darn you, Mike's! *pout*

Leora Pictures

Here are a couple pictures of Leora sitting in the sun. For the rest of them, click here.

Christians: no one path to salvation?

According to a new survey, 57% of people who identified themselves as evangelical Christians agreed with the statement, "Many religions can lead to eternal life." I was absolutely dumbstruck when I heard this. I mean, I know that a lot of people are into the idea of "tolerance" (or at least today's society's definition of that word), but I had no idea that it was so widespread among the Christian community.

If you aren't sure why this is such a big deal, think about it this way. In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." As a teacher I know often points out, Jesus doesn't say he is a way or a truth. He says he is the way and the truth. And if that wasn't enough, the second part of his statement leaves no room for doubt about the exclusivity of Christianity. It is the only way and if you believe that you can be saved by any other means, you are not in the truth and therefore have not received salvation.

So wait a minute. What about all those Christians out there who say that there are other religions that can lead to salvation? It's pretty clear from what the Bible tells us that the issue of whether or not the Biblical Jesus is the only way is not a side issue. It's a core principle essential to salvation. You can't be a true Christian and also believe that Mormons or Buddhists or whoever will also be saved through their religion. Christianity isn't something that works for some people and doesn't work for other people, and everyone just has to find which religion works for them. That is in direct contrast to what Christianity teaches. How many people are there out there who claim to be Christians but really aren't? It's scary to think about.

Don't Judge Me!

Don’t judge me!
A closer look at one of the most commonly quoted verses in the Bible.

“You shouldn’t be judging me! Don’t you know that Jesus said, ‘do not judge’?”

How many times have you heard that? Those kinds of statements are becoming more and more common, by believers and unbelievers alike. If they have a way of making you stop in your tracks, it’s because that’s often what they’re meant to do. It’s an excellent conversation-stopper. After all, you don’t want to make yourself look like you’re disagreeing with Jesus.

The problem is, that verse, Matthew 7:1, is one of the most commonly misunderstood verses in the Bible. For one thing, the meaning that the verse is given in the argument mentioned above is self-refuting. The very statement, “you should not judge” is itself a judgment. That person is judging that you are wrong to judge their behavior, and therefore they are guilty of the same thing they just accused you of.

People will often quote verse 3, which says, "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” but you will rarely hear anyone continue on to verse 5, which says, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.” When Jesus instructs us to take the speck out of our brother’s eye, he is telling us that we should point out that person’s sin. But doesn’t that mean we have to judge them, even though verse 1 said we shouldn’t do that? Jesus isn’t contradicting himself here. By reading verse 5, we can figure out what the real context of the verse is. Jesus is only speaking against one particular kind of judgment.

The Bible talks about three kinds of judgment. The first is judicial, like the kind of judgment made by a court of law or by the church. One example of this is found in 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, where Paul is writing to the church about a man who is living in sin with his stepmother. He says, “As though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church…Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.” The Bible commands that these types of judgments be made.

Another kind of judgment is a rational evaluation of the facts. Nobody can go through life without making this kind of judgment. I think that almost anyone would agree that going on a killing spree simply for the fun of it is wrong. Anyone who agrees with that is making a judgment. This kind of judging is also commanded of us. Matthew 18:15-20 says, "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” So if you look at the facts (Person A is doing X), make a rational evaluation (The Bible says that X is sin so therefore person A is doing something wrong), and tell that person why what they are doing is wrong, you are doing exactly what the Bible says you should do.

The kind of judging that Jesus tells us we should not do in Matthew 7:1 is hypocritical or unkind judging. If we confront a person for committing the very sin that we ourselves are involved in, we are being hypocritical. Of course, we can’t wait until we are completely free from all sin before confronting someone else because that would be impossible. If you want to warn someone else who is involved in the same sin that you are currently struggling to get out of, you aren’t being a hypocrite. However, if you are making no attempt to get the sin out of your own life, you have no business telling someone else that they should. Also, if we approach people with condemnation, we are guilty of a sinful attitude. We should always approach people with a desire to help them remove the sin from their life, with a kind and compassionate attitude.

So if someone tells you that you shouldn’t judge them because Jesus said so, help them understand the self-refuting nature of their understanding of the passage, and explain to them what Jesus was really talking about.

Can't Stop the Serenity

Last Saturday, David and I went to Can't Stop the Serenity (OC), which is a charity event where we watch the movie Serenity, have prize drawings, and sometimes have costume contests, depending on the location. Serenity is a sequel to the TV show Firefly, created by Joss Whedon. CSTS raises money for Joss's favorite charity, Equality Now. Dave and I got there early to help out.

I stupidly forgot to bring my camera, but other people took pictures and I managed to find a couple online that have David in them. Here he is working at the merchandise table.

Nice Things

Wondering why I haven't written in a while? (That was me suspending reality for a moment and pretending someone actually reads this thing.) It's because 1) almost nothing worth writing about has been happening and 2) the few "interesting" things that have happened are not good things and would probably end up sounding like complaining, which is never enjoyable to read.

So I'm going to make a list of nice things that are going on right now.

• I love and adore my husband.
• I'm going to a very good church and I just got my pastor's autobiography, which is supposed to be really great.
• David just bought me LOTRO so I don't have to feel left out when he plays video games.
• I recently discovered an awesome radio show/podcast called Stand To Reason.
• My kitty is really cute.

New couch and chair

We picked up the chair and couch last night. They're both really comfortable, especially the chair. We have now gotten four free pieces of nice furniture! (Also the entertainment center and my desk, which is nice except for the keyboard tray.) Now when we finally move into our own place, we'll have a pretty nice setup!

I like green tea!

Today I discovered that I do like green tea after all! Before this morning I had only ever had Arizona cold green tea, and I thought it was pretty nasty. But today I tried the jasmine green tea that I got for Christmas, and I loved it! I was sad when I thought that I couldn't appreciate green tea, so this makes me happy.

Ok, so that's a pretty boring post. So what else? David and I are going to get a couch and a lazy boy chair! The Wiggins family is getting a new couch, and they're giving us their old stuff! That means that when Dave and I are finally in an apartment on our own again, we'll have a comfy place to sit! I'm so excited! We'll probably be moving it on Thursday. I'll try to post pictures. Of course it's just going to go sit in the garage until we move because there's no room in the guest house. We might be able to squeeze the lazy boy in here, though. Maybe.

Sobe Wiggins

The Wiggins family let me look after their alligator lizard named Sobe while they were away for the last two weeks. He's pretty darn adorable, even if he is a tiny bit boring. He was very good and sat perfectly still for me while I did a little photoshoot for him (first picture), but of course that didn't allow for much variety in the pictures. Luckily when I took his box outside he became a little more interesting (second picture).

I know it's a little bit silly of me to write out "Sobe Wiggins" in the subject line like he's a person and that's his full name, but my family was always big on treating pets like family members. I once had a dog who even had a middle name!

Be sure to view the pictures full-size! :)

Update on life

David has a new job as a video game tester for Vivendi Games, the company that brought you World of Warcraft. It's in El Segundo, which is about an hour and a half away from where we live now. That's quite a commute, not to mention the fortune he'll be spending on gas. He would like for us to move there, but we just can't afford to move right now. I would need to get a job and work there long enough for us to have the money to move, and then I would have to quit and find a new job in El Segundo.

I would like to move there, I think. I don't want Dave to have to drive so far and I would love to live near the beach. The only thing is that Harvest is the best church I've ever gone to, and I've been to a lot. I would be extremely sad to have to leave. Also there's The Living Room, which is unlike any Bible study I've ever been to and has done so much for my walk with God and given me a passion for the Bible. Plus there's Come Reason, which is the only apologetics class I've ever seen in a church. Still, I'm sure we'll find a nice church if we move out there.

This is a little embarrassing to write, but only 2 people actually read this blog, so it's not a huge deal. Another thing David's work is close to is a college that I would love to go to. (After I make up for my horrible high school grades at a community college, of course.) I say it's embarrassing because I don't know if I would be able to succeed in college. If I could, I would love to go to Biola and get a Bachelor's degree in Biblical & Theological Studies.

I suppose that's really all the updates on life that I have at the moment. I'll probably post a little bit later with some pictures of the houseguest Dave and I have had for the past two weeks.

Roses!

David gave me a dozen red roses yesterday! ♥ Here are some pictures.

My church is going to Israel

For the next two weeks people from my church will be taking a tour of Israel. I wish I could have gone too. Granted, I don't know as much about the places they're going to visit as the people probably do who are actually going. They're probably very familiar with the Bible and know exactly what took place at all the different locations. So maybe in that sense I wouldn't get quite as much out of it...but I would love to learn. Maybe I can work on becoming more knowledgeable and then if Harvest does it again, maybe there will be a way I can go. You know, if David and I suddenly strike it rich somehow. Ok, so maybe it's impossible. But it sure would be incredible.

Singing Kitty / Dave's haircut

Here's a video of Leora singing, also known as Cat Yodeling. Also David being silly with me. Don't you love his new haircut?? And he finally shaved! :)


Here's a picture of my incredibly handsome husband! ♥

Random Stuff

I'm such a dork. Last night David was asking me why I don't talk more when we talk to people. I told him I never know what to say. Then when I finally did have a comment, I said something totally idiotic. I was pretty embarassed. Technically, the person I was talking to didn't give me any funny looks or anything, but I'm pretty sure I sounded really stupid. *facepalm*

Anyway, I do have a few other things to talk about besides my inability to form a coherent sentence when faced with an actual human being instead of a computer screen.

I looked ahead on The Living Room's reading calendar and found out that on September 21 of this year, I will have read the entire New Testament! I'm so excited!

I got a new purse/bag/thing. I keep wanting to call it a purse but I guess it's a bag. Anyway, it's cute. I got it at Anchor Blue at the mall while I was job hunting. I bought it with money from our last yard sale.

Click for full view. I guess I don't have as much to talk about as I thought. I'm a pretty boring person right now.

Things aren't looking good

I would love to make a really interesting update, but I can't. Things are just kind of stinky right now. I can't find a job. Our situation is really serious. I'm pretty stressed out.

Still, there are two bright spots in every week that I'm able to look forward to. One of them was yesterday, church at Harvest, and the other is tomorrow, The Living Room. If I wasn't able to get out of the house (for a reason besides job hunting) and be able to have those enjoyable times, I'd go nuts.

Digital Scrapbooking

This is my very first attempt at digital scrapbooking. All the elements are separate and I put them together in Photoshop. The pictures are from March 11, 2006 when Calvary Community Church's college group took a trip to California to visit Six Flags, the beach, and Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Tell me what you think! More to come.


Credits:
"Boardwalk Collection" by Sara Carling
Downloaded from Scrapbook Bytes

Things I Like

Inspired by this post by Greg Laurie, I decided to do my own list of things I like.

Books
I've always loved to read. From elementary school up until about 11th grade reading was pretty much all that I did. (I actually had somewhat of a social life my senior year.) Some of my favorite books are: Sherlock Holmes, I Robot, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Princess Bride, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lord of the Rings, Anne of Green Gables...


Musicals
I've always been a big fan of musicals, thanks in large part to my dad, who introduced me to Rodgers and Hammerstein. It's one of my favorite film/theater genres, and it's my favorite type of music to sing. You know...if there's nobody else around.


Fandom
I'm definitely a big fandom geek. My favorite fandoms are Star Trek (Original Series, Next Generation, and Voyager), Star Wars, Back to the Future, Firefly, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc.




Tea
I really like coffee, but I like tea even better. Especially English tea. I think my favorite is Earl Grey...and not only because it's Picard's favorite!



Animals
I'm a huge animal lover. Practically all types of animals; dogs, cats, rats, snakes, doesn't matter. My favorite animals are the big cats, especially lions. Absolutely gorgeous. I've always wanted to be a big cat handler. (Among other equally far-fetched dreams.) No wonder The Lion King is my second favorite Disney movie.


Apologetics

The thing I'm most interested in studying is the Bible, and more specifically, how to defend the faith. I love going to Lenny Esposito's Come Reason classes, listening to my Dad's online apologetics class, and reading books like the one on the right.

Sleep-Deprived Rambling

I'm having one of my infrequent but nevertheless obnoxious bouts of insomnia. It usually takes me a while to get to sleep at night, but I almost never end up having to get up because of it. Tonight my brain just wouldn't shut up.

So I'm lying there trying to convince myself that it's time to sleep, and all the while stuff is running through my mind and I just can't make it stop. Now, if the things running through my mind were intelligent and profound, I would thank my insomnia for keeping me up and giving me a chance to think all these wonderful thoughts. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

One of the things keeping my brain up was a desire to write something, anything. Preferably more of my lame "super heroes" story which still remains untitled. Unfortunately my villain is being extremely stubborn right now and is not allowing me to write any of his scenes. As a result, I skipped ahead a few days ago to start writing the scene where my two main characters finally get together. This brought me to the realization that there actually is someone in the world who is capable of writing worse romance dialogue than George Lucas. How embarrassing.

Anyway, I opened my story document and nothing came to me, so I decided to blog instead. (I know by now you're all wishing I had just stayed in bed.) You know what I haven't done in a long time? Written poetry. If you can call it poetry, that is. I should probably just call it Weird Stuff That Kind Of Rhymes. I've only written a handful of poems in my life, and most of them are Star Trek poems. (Yes, I said Star Trek poems.) I think my favorite poem is called "Jim" and it's about the end of Star Trek: The Search for Spock, after the fal-tor-pan ritual. Such a great moment. Kirk and Spock are my all-time favorite fictional duo.

All right, enough of my sleep-deprived rambling. Good night.

PS: I can't think of a tag for this post besides "my day," but I only really talked about my night, so here's a summary of my day...

Read Acts chapter 3
Watched Voyager. Janeway rocked.
Went on the computer.
Stopped my cat from destroying the bathroom.
Went on the computer again.
Took a shower.
Went to The Living Room. Heard awesome music and teaching.
Went to bed. Couldn't sleep. Wrote random nonsense on Blogger.

My Kaylee Parasol

This is a parasol I won at a Shindig when I lived in Arizona. It's made to look like Kaylee's from the show Firefly. The colors are a bit off because of the lighting (the pink is actually red), but you get the idea.

Disneyland

I found out at the last minute that my cousin who works at Disneyland was able to get us some free tickets, so Dave and I were able to go with his family yesterday. It was fun. I haven't been in a very long time. I didn't take as many touristy kinds of pictures as I would have liked, but maybe some day Dave and I will go by ourselves, and that will allow us to go more slowly and take lots of pictures. Here are a few of the ones I took yesterday.