Why do I write stuff and never post it? This was written back in the midst of the Wii release sometime in November of 2006… about 6 months ago. Oh well… here it is… in all of its incomplete grandeur:
I saw Casino Royale last (last) Friday night. It was pretty enjoyable, from end to end. I highly recommend it as a theater-going experience. Definitely fun to see with a bundle of your friends. Great action! The movie kicks off with an awesome sequence intercut between Bond’s two pre-double-0 status kills. The first is him beating the living snot out of some baddie in a dank bathroom in Prague… the second has him smoothe, collected, and suavely offing a bigwig with a signature Bond one-liner. Then we’re introduced to his inaugural mission as a newly-minted 00 agent… by one of the most awesome on-foot chase scenes I’ve ever seen! It’s truly a fun, fast, and whip-smart movie from end to end.
Saturday I worked, afterwards had ice cream with Rebeckah Skoog. She introduced me to the truly amazin’ chocolate+peppermint blizzard. It looks pink, like a fruit-flavored one, because of the pepeprmint, but it is oh so minty and cool… just how God intended ice cream to be. I missed The Press Gang… which is okay since I found out I would have had to pay extra moolah to see them thanks to whatever the headlining band was. After this, Jared, Michael, Justin and I decided to make a half-hearted attempt to attend the Wii launch at Wal-Mart. Upon our arrival, we discovered that the Wiis were all but claimed, and that Zelda was all-but sold out. So… being of sound mind and spirit, we drove to Meijer… where we were greeted by the sight of numerous people streaming out of the supermarket cursing loudly. This directed us to understand that the Wiis had been all-but raffled off. The truly stinking news (and the reason for the rampant vulgarities) was that one family had purchased THREE systems. Balderdash! Anyways… Michael scored a copy of Twilight Princess and we retired for the evening. The elusive Nintendo Wii remains, for the moment, out of our collective grasp.
Sunday I did overheads, then went over to Susanna’s apartment to have ‘birthday’ luncheon with people… Michael, Jeff, Ian, Joliece, Chelsea, Jessie, and some other girls whom I met and regrettably cannot remember their names (I’m just bad with names!). Before church began, though, I met a guy named Robert, I remember his name because Mike Shaffer introduced me to him and encouraged us to hold a “3 questions” session, in order to get to know each other. It worked. I’ll remember his name for all time. After lasagna goodness at Susanna’s place, (I was spotted through the window by a random classmate of mine, too) I think I went home intending to do homework… instead I…
And there it ends.
I have not been writing very much here for a spell. There is still so much to write!
News:
- I think I shall leave Panera within the next few months, definitely by the time I move into town with Michael.
- I have been writing… just not here
- I have not been using my mind as much as my body
- I have not yet found a replacement door for my van… and the ratio of duct tape to plastic continues to rise.
- I feel really, really great right now (due, mostly, to the massive consumption of pleasure-inducing drugs, of course)
- I have a lot less debt than I did in December… but still quite a bit of debt, meh.
- I am blessed.
- I won a game of Cataan purely through the over-exuberance of my competitors for the game to be over and done with, finally.
- I think that Super Paper Mario might possibly be one of the most enjoyable games I have played in a long, long time.
- I think that the Cold War Kids are one of the best new bands I have heard in a long, long time.
- I have been cooking more lately.
- I know something that you don’t… and I’m not telling… ever. Period. So don’t ask me what it is… because you’ll never know… because I won’t tell you.
- I think that this song by The Twilight Singers is amazing:
I think we’re lost, don’t worry, I’ve been here before
I’m sure I thought I knew the way
Out of here yesterday
Dove cuesto, mi dolce?
Your driver called, it’s time to go
Your driver’s waiting for you
And I caught a fever
A holy fire
Til I was crawling on the ceiling
Come out of your hole
I know you know
You know I know
I wanna go
Such a pretty thing, i’ve never seen
Someone so perfectly deceived
I loved her smile
And her beguiling way with me
She smelled exciting, I wanted some
Your drivers’ gone
Like everybody
And that’s why I need ya
To catch on fire
I want you to burn me til I feel it
I know you know which way to go
I wantcha to show me
So I can steal it
Where should we go?
Where should we go?
I know you know that I’m gonna need it
I know you know which way to go
I know you know
I wanna go
Just about nothing in this world compares to the ecstatic high we get from doing something we are truly supposed to be doing. I know that I am moving toward my calling… I have this sense. I do not know exactly what it will look like… when I am installed in the profession I desire to excel in (film entertainment). All I know is that my gifts will be used. Use me. Good times.
Dec. 20, 1984
Dear Joel, Although you will not remember, your visit to Grandpaw here in the ICU of St. Vincent’s brought joy that I will remember throughout eternity. It is my prayer that you will grow, as did Jesus, “…in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” You are indeed a privileged child to born into a Godly home - honor and obey your Father and Mother and you will not only please them but God will bless you beyond all imagination. I feel certain that a part of that blessing will be the ability to love Grandmother in a very special way.Love,
Grandpaw
22 years ago… my grandfather wrote this letter to me in the ICU of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toledo, OH. This was after he had said goodbye to the family that had gathered to pray for him before he went in to have his first aortic surgery. He would live on for many years after this first surgery, through several more procedures, even past the age of 70 (his own father passed away from a heart attack mere months after my dad was born).
I never got this letter. Until today. My grandmother discovered it tucked away in a book along with another letter, one addressed to my father.
…
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
~ 1 Peter 1:3-5
Dad and gramps discussing a news clipping. I must have snapped this one on my old 35mm Vivitar point-and-shoot film camera sometime circa 1990. I miss him… quite a bit sometimes.
I wonder what family looks like in heaven? I wonder what sort of lineage will be traceable in the hereafter… I’d like to think that the distinctive families of earth are all adopted into God’s family in heaven… but does that mean that you lose the identity of your family? Family has a powerful ability to bond people together… or shred them apart. All are one in Christ. And the communion will be a family feast that has no earthly comparison.
I’ll be excited to see grandpaw again. The resurrection is real… it has happened… it is happening… it will happen. Philip K. Dick saw the crucifixion ahead, as well as behind. Time on a broken tape recorder loop. He is risen. He is rising. He will come back again. Alleluia, people.