Green Lantern

I also got to see Green Lantern. Two movies in two states. For free. Boo-yah.

Anyway, I know this movie didn't get the best reviews. What comic book movie does? People need to remember, this is a comic book movie. It is a DC, like Batman and Superman, but lesser well known. It has all the great elements of a Comic book movie, like his dad died, he's reluctant (even quiting at one point), he has a girlfriend that knows his secret identity only later to become endanger so that he has to rescue her. Ok, slightly predictable, but again COMIC BOOK MOVIE.

The movie is funny, but do we expect any less from Ryan Renolds? And Michael Duncan Clarke voices an alien. You gotta love him. It also had some random chick who was a good actress (unlike Natalie Portman. See Thor.). And we finally got to see what came of Andy Dufrane after he escaped from prison, and bore a son who turned into an evil scientist.

The CGI, well, it looked awful on the Green Lantern costume itself, but everything else was great. So if you're nerdy like me, enjoy this movie. If you're not nerdy and/or have no taste, I think Hangover 2 is still in theaters. Please excuse me while I try to remove this shiver from my spine.

Pirates: Stranger Tides

Went on vacation last week. While I was there, I got to see the latest Pirates movie. It was actually good, though somewhat predictable. It was definately better than Pirates 2 and 3. If you don't believe me, Ask a Ninja.

Anyway, let me highlight some of the movies good points.
1) Barbossa. Screw Johnny Depp. Barbossa is the best pirate. I love his laugh when he's doing something crazy.

2) Story. This one had one, which was a nice change from the last two.

3) Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly. This movie lacked them. Major bonus.

4) Vampire mermaids. Many people were corrupted by Disney's The Little Mermaid, but this movie had what mermaids really were in ancient lore. They started to sing, luring the men down, then pulled them under in order to eat the flesh from their bones. Besides shooting webs like Spider-man, they were viciously cool. By the way, I watched this with my cousin who is also a single male. I could not resist making a joke. After watching them viciously attack men, I whispered to him, "That's pretty much my view of women." He thought it was funny, which is good because I could not resist.

Anyway, if you enjoyed the first pirates movie and despised the latter, I highly recommend this movie.

Treasure in Clay Jars

Do you ever think about how strange God is (at least by our feeble minds)? I mean, think about it. If I were an all-knowing, all-powerful God, I wouldn't have created humanity. We treat God like crap. He knew that we would. He knew that we would rebel. He knew that we would betray Him. And He created us and gave us the free will to do it. That's just strange.

And how would you have come to these people? Would you speak to a select few people to speak on your behalf? No, I would have flattened the globe out like a paper wad, then yelled at everyone until the either soiled their shorts or died in fear.

And how would you appear to these people? Would you have sent God the Son as a baby, or as a conqueror? As a peasant or a ruler? As a poor person, or as a king? Would you walk among humanity like one of them, knowing the world would virtually miss it? Would you have died for people that hate you to teach them of your love, or would you have massacred them for talking back to you?

I fear most of you would have done what I would have, which was the opposite of what He did. You know, I have said for years that I don't understand everything about God (or hardly anything for that matter, at least in the grand scheme of things) and that gives me great comfort. If I could understand everything about God, that would mean that He is like me, and that's a scary thought. The more I get to know Him, the more I understand how little I understand of Him.

What got me thinking about this today is how He still chooses to work. Again, if I were Him, I wouldn't send others to work on my behalf. Well, maybe the angels. But I would probably do it myself instead of relying on the most unreliable creatures on earth-us.

I think this astounded the apostle Paul too. 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, 5-7 says, “Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God… 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

The greatest treasure on earth-the good news that God loves us so much that instead of allowing us to die for our sins, sent Jesus to die for us so that if we will love and trust Him, can live forever with Him in heaven-yeah, that treasure He leaves to us. Is He crazy? Not according to Paul. According to Paul, God is merciful. God choses to work in us and through us. Wow. God is strange. But I love Him for it.

Priveledge... Again

The most read post that I have written was called Priveledge, where I ranted about people who believe that they above everything, that they deserve whatever they want. Well, unless you absolutely refuse to acknowledge that there is news media in various forms, you have probably heard of Anthony Weiner.

Representative Weiner became famous when a picture of male genitals appeared on his twitter. He claimed that he had been hacked, someone making a joke about his name. He even named a conservative blogger who he claimed did the hacking. One question remained. "Is the picture of you?" He just kept repeating "I already answered that." Only he hadn't.

Finally he did. It was. He posted it. The blogger was innocent. He had been sending sexually explicit texts to a dozen women them, at least one is underage. He was trying to send the picture of his penis as a private message to a woman, and accidentally posted it to everyone. These sexual text messages (called "sexting") are his habit. At least one woman admitted talking to Weiner on his congressional phone, and one woman said that he called her offering to send a congressional PR team to spin the story.

Aren't you glad to know that your tax dollars have been spent to have, then cover up, cyber affairs? Just like President Clinton was impeached for committing pergury for his affair with an intern, so Congressman Weiner is also in trouble. Both Nancy Pelosi and the DNC chair have called him to step down. Only he's decided to pull a Charlie Sheen, and enter a joke of a rehab. (You want to talk priveledged? Charlie Sheen thinks he's... duh, winning, but has to innoculate himself from feeling with a steady flow of booze and drugs.)

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Weiner is one of the many who falls to the subtle temptations that accompany the sin of pride. It is a warning to all of us, but especially to anyone in any position of leadership. All leaders (myself included) can begin to believe all the nice things people say about us. Shortly after, then we can believe that we have earned the right to indulge in a little sin.

Biblically, this is when Moses sinned, losing his chance to enter the promised land. This is how Samson began his series of relationships and violate his vow, resulting in his loss of strength. This is how David had his affair with Bathsheba and murdered her husband to cover it. This is how Solomon was led to idol worship, as did the kings to follow him. This is what led Peter to chastize, and later deny Jesus.

May we never forget that we are equals. We have all sinned. Jesus died for each of us. We are all deserving of hell, and offered the same grace. As leaders, we are not to think our selves superior, but have greater responsibility. Leaders are not to be lords, but servants.

The A21 Campaign - Natalia's Story

If this doesn't get to you, nothing will.



We have to do something about this. This us unacceptable. And this isn't a third world problem. This isn't an Asia problem. This isn't a Europe problem. This is our problem too. This happens daily in the US. Many of those disappearances off the news, or those "Have you seen me?" mailers, or the lost pictures in WalMart, and boys and girls who were kidnapped from their homes and transported around the country were they are sold as slaves and used as prostitutes. We have to so something.

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day. As we participate in cookouts and the like, it is important to take a moment to recognize how blessed we are, and those that sacrificed for so much. I am so thankful that despite all the friends that I have who entered the service, none do I have to remember today.

I know that everyone has their own traditions. Mine is usually simple. I stay home and watch channels like AMC and TMC which air movies honoring the fallen, like Sands of Iwo Jima, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Midway, and especially The Longest Day. I also have DVDs like The Great Escape and The Great Raid. I've also repeatedly watched Band of Brothers. You may notice a theme, World War II, the Greatest Generation. So much darkness in the world from both Germany and Japan. Many don't realize that the Japanese were more brutal, more racist than the Nazis.

Anyway, these are things that I use to remember those who sacrificed everything for the ideal of freedom. I highly recommend the same to others.

100th entry

I've been told that it is customary for the 100th blog entry to be something special. In preparation, I went and reread some of my previous entry. I really did wrestle with this, wanting to hold to this custom. I thought about looking back at my first entry. I also considered looking at my most viewed. I also considered a synopsis of my entries.

In the end, I thought I would tell a story.

In 1415, the French and English were at war. It was known as the Hundred Years War. At the time, England had territories in what is modern day France. They continually battled over there territories. Following a failed negotiation, England, led by King Henry V, invaded Normany. They besieged Harfleur. From February until September, they surrounded the city. Though they did take the city, the English lost as many soldiers to dysentery as battle.

The English were forced to flee when the french roused an army. They marched across Normandy toward the port of Calais, where they could rest safely or even flee to England proper. The french blocked their crossing of the River Somme, forcing them south. With further delay from carrying so many diseased soldiers, they were eventually surrounded near Agincourt.

Henry V camped with his troops at one end of a wheat field, with woods flanking on either side. His forces were outnumbered six to one. The French has approximately 36,000, most of whom were professional soldiers. This was the feudal age, when the Knight was the top soldier. They had both calvary, the deadliest of soldiers, and ground troops. Both were equiped with mail, made of little metal links woven together and covered with plate of armor, making the wearer nearly invincible. They also carried longswords and the cavalry had hand carved lances, each of which took nearly a year to produce. These were the special forces, tanks, and and bombers of their day all in one package. They were the deadliest soldiers on earth.

In contrast, Henry V left the bulk of his army at home. Instead, he brought a civilian force. In the feudal age, the lords, the landowners, were the professional soldiers. They believed that their position gave them the responsibility to defend those under them, so they were the soldiers. It was even illegal for a non-noble to possess a sword. King Henry V brought men of the Yoeman (middle) class. These civilians were taught to use the longbow, knife, and stave. The longbow arrows were redesigned with a square tip that could pierce armor. The staves where wooden posts, sharpened at both ends, which they would hammer into the ground. These would halt a calvary charge by impaling the horses. The knives were a last resort. If a knight approached, they would divide into teams of three to try to tackle the knight and either go for weak points or cut the leather straps holding on the plate armor. When outnumbered six to one, require three to one to get a single kill is not ideal.

To make it worse, as the sun set, it began to rain. Imagine being sick, cold, away from home for most of a year, and it starts to rain. You know shortly after dawn you will be fighting for survival. They could hear the laughter of French soldiers laughing, taunting, even pointing out which people they will kill. It was the longest most terrifying night of thier lives.

In walks King Henry the Fifth, walking through the camp to speak to his men. Shakespeare recorded his words like this. (edited)

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother...

And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap..."

This quote has been used to describe the famous 101st Airbourne Easy Company during WWII, nicknamed Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. The reason this quote was especially meaningful is because of who spoke it. This wasn't a friend. It wasn't a coworker. This was the king. He was a man of noble blood, whom they believed God had given the divine right to rule both England and France. Royalty called them brother, and thereby equal. Royalty called commoners brother.

With this in mind, they slept the night. They bravery lined up for battle. In this day, the king, waited in the back were he would be safest. Henry put on his battle crown (a helmet with a crown welded to it) and lined up the middle almost challenging the french to target him instead of his brothers. And they waited. And waited. The french lined up and started taunting. Henry bravely ordered a charge. As the French watch, the archers pulled their staves marched forward, and drove them back into the ground. Then they calmly pulled their bows, and now in range, began firing.

The French, of course, began their charge now that they were taking casualties. Here's what they didn't count on. With the rain, the heavy armor and heavy horses sunk in the mud. They were sitting ducks. The french took heavy losses, though they also inflicted some.

Henry's actual brother was killed, and the french tried to haul off the body to desecrate it. Henry ended up leaving the lines, planting a foot on his brother's carcass, and fighting off the French. This act also was an unexpected blessing, because his whole army could see him fighting, boosting their moral. Eventually the English won the day.

This story means a lot to me. It is not just the age of chivalry, but also speaks of equality for all mankind for the first time in that age. This is a powerful story. For me personally, it reminds me that the King of Kings came to fight alongside me, going out in front, and because of Him I can stand and fight. Despite seemingly overwhelming odds, my band of brothers will have the victory.