More changes

Either I'm really fickle or God is doing some vast changing in my life. I've decided to pretty much drop this blog and focus on the joint blog with Brandi as well as the blog I created that focuses on my creative writing. The former blog will be about us as a family as well as ministry related things with some Rock Hill related posts thrown in as well. The later blog is new and is a place where I can post various writings and get feedback and hopefully start conversations.

www.thejourneyahead09.blogspot.com

www.thefoxywriter.blogspot.com

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

A delayed Christmasville video

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The first time I read The Chronicles of Narnia was right before the first movie came out. I was blown away by both the books and the movie. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, though it differed some from the book, kept the feel and theme of the book which I've come to realize is more important than getting the book on film word for word.

The second time I read through the chronicles was right before the second movie came out. Again, the books were fantastic, but something was lacking from the movie. I've finally decided that as a sequel to the first movie, Prince Caspian is not bad, but as an adaptation of the book, it's not very good. Additional scenes and kisses aside, it didn't have the same feel that the book had.

Some of the things I'd heard and seen that were related to the newest movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, made me question whether this movie would go the way of Caspian rather than LWW, but after seeing a couple of trailers for the movie, my excitement was resurrected. And I wasn't disappointed. Again, the movie didn't follow the book to the letter, but the magic that made LWW great was there. If you haven't seen it yet, you really need to for two reasons: 1) It's a great movie and 2) If this movie doesn't make enough profit, there may not be any more Narnia movies. I can sit here and tell you the things that I would have done differently if I had made the movie (I would have kept the Dufflepods original back-story for example) but why focus on what they should have done instead of focusing on what they did, which was make a great movie based on a great book.

Have you seen it yet? What did you think?

What to do when there's nothing to do

My wife and I try to go on a date once a week. Many times this consists of dinner and a movie. But we'd been doing that a lot lately and, to be honest, there isn't anything playing right now in either the main theater or the $2 theater that interested us. I had supper planned out, we went to Nishie G's which is always fantastic, but I didn't know what we would do after supper. I checked Rock Hill website to see what was happening, but there wasn't anything for us to attend. I started thinking about various places around the Thrill that we hadn't been to in a while and the Galleria came to mind.

Being that Rock Hill is quickly becoming a suburb of Charlotte most people, including myself, don't give the Galleria a second thought as there are larger malls just a little farther north. But I remembered seeing on the news that a new frozen yogurt place had just opened up in the food court and I figured that would be a good place for dessert.

So that's where we went and I must say, neither of us were disappointed. The yogurt was delicious (you really should go check it out) but more than that, it was nice the just walk around the mall. I kind of wish that we would give this place a little more credit. Maybe then, there would be less empty stores and more places to check out.

As a side note, I'm serious about the yogurt place Yo-Yo's Frozen Yogurt - check it out.

Relient K and more Christmas Carol Misunderstanding

I haven't been to a Relient K concert in a few years so when I found out that not only would they been in Columbia, but in Columbia on my birthday, I decided my Relient K concert drought was over. Brandi and I went down to Cola last night and, despite that fact that we were probably the only people over the age of 20 that weren't chaperons, employees of the tavern or part of the band, it was fantastic!
They spent the first part of the concert playing their regular songs and the second part playing their Christmas songs. When they played "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" I remembered another misunderstanding that I used to have. Two years ago, I wrote about how I don't always understand the lyrics that we sing during Christmas (update: I finally learned what "laud" means). This new misunderstanding, however, was completely my own doing. The lines

From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same:

I used to think the line was "brought tidings of dismay" possibly because the word "dismay" is used earlier in the song, possibly because I didn't know what "dismay" meant...who knows? Either way, it happened but I now know and knowing is half the battle....or something.

The White Horse

Even though The White Horse is a Rock Hill staple, it wasn't until the Spring of my junior year at Winthrop that I first ate there. I don't remember much about it though. I remember it was on Valentine's Day and I was taking Brandi there. I remember buying a flower for her from whoever was selling them in the Winthrop cafeteria that year. I also remember having said flower crushed by the time I gave it to her because it was in the inside pocket of my jacket.
I also remember that my grandfather had died earlier that morning. That last fact is probably one of the reasons that I don't remember much else from that night.

The second time that I went to The White Horse was tonight, again on a date with Brandi. We walked in and were immediately greeted and led to the back of the room, through a short hallway into the further back where it was a little more secluded. Actually, one of the things I enjoy about the restaurant is that they have tall seat backs. I didn't feel like I was having to share dinner with the people behind me. Service was quick and friendly and the food was delicious. I tend to judge a restaurant by the quality of its burger and The White Horse passes the test.

If you haven't been there yet, or been there in awhile, you should really go.

Deatlhy Hallows Part 1

I have to agree with Brandi, there are really no movies that are worth going to a midnight premiere of. What are we really gaining if we see the movie at midnight instead of going opening weekend or opening week?
"Dude, what's wrong with you?"
"Watched the midnight showing of (insert new epic movie here) movie last night. I didn't get to bed until after three. It was awesome though!"
We're begging for this response, "Yes well, I can still function correctly. I'll be watching it this evening. We can talk about it tomorrow."

That said, I've been known to go to midnight movies on occasion. The first one that I saw was in high school with some friends. We went to see the second Matrix movie. We also went to see the third one at midnight as well.
Harry Potter 6 and now Harry Potter 7 part 1 I can add to my list of midnight movies.

So, what is the point of staying up past an unreasonable hour to go see a movie? Because my friends go. Because now, not only can we talk about how great the movie was, we can also talk about our friend that got a free ticket. We can also talk about how when the guy was talking to us before the movie started his walkie-talkie went off quite loudly announcing "Theater 3 has no sound" followed by someone in the crowd yelling, "Which theater are we in?" (We were in 10 by the way, so no worries). We can talk about all of the people that dressed up. Heck, some of us even dressed up.
We can also talk about the awesome trailers that we got to see before the movie (like this one).

Also, we can now joke about how out of it were the day after, sort of like a midnight movie hangover. So, maybe the movie itself, though fantastic, wasn't worth staying up late, but hanging out with friends was.

One Big Table

When it comes to meeting college students, I've come up with a fool-proof plan. It involves a bright orange shirt with a spork on the back (I even met my wife while wearing that shirt). But when it comes to meeting older folks, I tend to freeze up. And if said older folk has any sort of fame attached to them, the more awkward I can be (the phrase "You're number one in our book" comes to mind).
And yet, Friday night, I found myself at Erin's Restaurant torn between enjoying my dinner and wondering what I was going to say to Molly O'Neill when she finally showed up. She's spent the past ten years traveling around the country in an attempt to determine whether or not America really has stopped cooking for themselves (thankfully she has come to the conclusion that it hasn't). The result of her travels is a cookbook containing 600 recipes. Weighing in at 5.5 pounds this is quite possibly the most intimidating cookbook ever. I mean, I wouldn't want to meet it in a dark alley at night.
After my food was eaten and the bill was paid I made my way over to her table and we began to chat. Well, mostly she asked me questions about myself and Brandi (who wasn't there at the time, but she signed the cookbook to her). All in all, it was a good experience. Brandi ended up being able to meet her towards the end and after quasi-swapping contact information we parted ways.
Who knows, maybe this positive experience in meeting a semi-famous person and not making a fool of myself will lead to other opportunities. There is a Relient K concert in about a month....

Was I jumping to conclusions?

I posted last night about the people who came onto Winthrop's campus yesterday to preach. My initial reaction was of disgust and dismay that once again there are people out there giving Christians a bad name.
But I watched a video from that the school paper posted on youtube and I've got to say that it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. Then I started thinking about the people who were telling me what happened yesterday and that I'm not sure that either of them are believers. And if they aren't believers than how can they be reliable sources for retelling something that may have involved the Gospel.
At the same time, that video was only two minutes out of the something like five hours that they were on campus.

So, tell me, if you saw or heard anything yesterday what was it? Is it as bad as what I was told or were they just warning people of the consequences of sin?

Winthrop never makes it in the news for something good

I love Winthrop, I really do. But can we please make the news for something other than our President being involved with hit and runs or a fraternity getting caught partying it up in a U-haul going down Cherry Rd.
In Winthrop's defense it wasn't their fault the people hater's that call themselves Christians came to campus.
I must say though, by all accounts, the true believers on campus really stepped up to the plate and called these guys to the carpet. Or at least they got up and preached the Gospel of love and redemption instead of hate and hopelessness and that is exciting to me.

I wish that I could have been there to see and experience this first hand.

"Happy October!" or "Two Blogs in One Week...Crazy!"

I bought candy corn the other day. It was a mixed bag containing regular candy corn, candy corn pumpkins (my favorite in the candy corn family) and the kind-of-weird-but-still-tasty chocolate candy corn. For me, this was the welcoming of Fall, my favorite season.
I love the warm colors and the cool temperatures. Fall also means football. I've actually been able to watch a couple of Clemson games this season which is something I haven't been able to do in a couple of years.
And, Fall means that the holiday season is right around the corner (confession: Relient K's "Santa Claus is Thumbin' to Town" came on shuffle the other day and I didn't skip it). To be honest, I'm still trying to figure out my thoughts on Halloween but I will hopefully get the opportunity to get lost in a corn maize this year.
Another holiday staple that I enjoy are the shaped Reese's candies. Right now there are the pumpkins but shortly there will be the Christmas trees followed by Hearts in February and Eggs during Easter.

What about you? What is your favorite season and how do you celebrate it's beginning?

SCL: Copying Popular Fads

(This is my entry in a writing contest for Stuff Christians Like. I hope you enjoy.)

The bookstore that I work at was one of the first places to start selling Silly Bandz. In case you don’t know what Silly Bandz are (or their equivalents; Zany Bandz, Crazy Bandz, Insert Synonym Here Bandz, etc…), they are rubber bandz that have been molded into various shapes. Sounds simple right? Nothing too special? Tell that to the kid who exclaimed to me at work one day, “I’ve only got 90 of them!” as she held up both of her arms that were adorned with so many colors that Joseph himself might have gotten jealous. Because the bookstore was one of the first venders of these things, I had the rare opportunity to watch this fad grown into fruition.

I was born in the late ‘80s, so I was in on the end of the slap bracelet phenomenon. I was on the front lines of the P.O.G. revolution as well as the Tamagotchi invasion and the Pokémon card wars. Over the years, I’ve learned the pattern of fads. And I knew that, eventually, the Christian companies were going to stick their products into the mix. Sure enough, since the fad began I have seen no less than four different sets of Christian-themed Silly Bands come into the store.
I don’t think that there is anything wrong with Christians making their version of the current fad, but what if, instead of going on the defensive by copying fads, we went on the offensive by creating fads? We had the W.W.J.D? Bracelet phenomenon back in the ‘90s and that was cool, but I think that we’re long past due for creating a new fad.

What about coins that bear the faces of various Bible characters? People like Paul, Steven, David, Moses, Jesus of course; the possibilities are endless! They could take them to school and trade them with friends. And, as a bonus, teachers can’t take them away without looking like sinners.
Or what about T-shirts with fake advertisements that reference obscure Bible stories. Even though the concept of fake ad shirts isn’t new, we could make up our own.

Got She-bear problems? Call Eli @ 2SA-M224
Right-handed assassin not getting the job done? Call JUD-G315

Or, for the less morbid:

Tax troubles? Call MAT-1727 and we will help you fish for a solution.

What are your ideas?

*Edit: All of the 's's have been changed to 'z's. I should have known that the only thing that could make these rubber bands cooler is to make them rubber bandz.

Coney Island

It should be stated that I love amusement parks. And because of a venture out West that I took with a friend a few years ago with Campus Crusade for Christ, boardwalk parks have a special place in my heart. So when the opportunity came to go to New York, Coney Island was on the top of my to-do list.

The main ride that I wanted to experience was the Cyclone, which was built back in the early 1920's. In 1968, it was declared a New York City landmark and in 1991 it was placed on the National Registrer of Historic Places.

There is a legend that speaks of a coal miner who had aphonia (which means he couldn't talk). Even though he hadn't spoken in years, he screamed on the way down the coaster's first drop. As the train returned to the station, he said, "I feel sick" and promptly fainted at the realization that he had spoken.

Coney Island is also the home of the Polar Bear Clubs, those crazy people who jump into freezing waters. Why do they do it? For health reasons. Many people who have tried this say that they haven't been sick since. They believe that swimming in cold water at least once a week will strengthen the immune system and make them stronger.

Fact or fiction: feel free to decide for yourself.

photo by voigti fox behind the lens

New York , Day 1

We met some friends at a place called the Shake Shack at their suggestion. I went to their website to see what I could find out about it. It's a little place in the middle of Madison Square Park (not to be confused with Madison Square Gardens) and it specializes in burgers, fries, and of course, shakes. They even have their own beer called the ShakeMeister Ale and a couple of unique wines as well.
If you know me, then you know that, for me, there is nothing greater food-wise than a good burger. I am always excited to try new burgers and yesterday was no different. And my excitement was not in vain. The food was amazing! If you're ever in New York (or Miami) you need to make a trip to the Shake Shack.

The rest of the afternoon was spent meandering Manhattan with our friends as they showed us some good places to shop (including an awesome comic book shop). They have a nine-month old child so they left eventually to get her settled down and we went to Cafe 28 to dinner and to meet our other friend for the evenings activities.

Once she got there, we made plans to go to ground zero (which isn't really ground zero anymore) then the Staten Island ferry to ride by the Statue of Liberty and end with going to the top of the Empire State Building.

The only thing we didn't get to do was the Empire State Building because we felt it would be too cold and windy so we're going to try again today.

To make up for not going up we went to Times Square and meandered around for a while (I was slightly creeped out by the faux Mickey, faux Batman, and faux Elmo that were there for pictures). Again, we'll be returning later when more places are open.

We ended up back at the apartment and about 2 and basically passed out.

Squashed Penny Count: 2 today, 2 total

Mighty Casey

In Rock Hill, SC, there are quite a few odd statues around town. The Civitas statues represent four goddesses as well as the four pillars of the town and they act as a gateway to the city. One of the more obscure statues we have is the "Casey at the Bat" which greets the visitors to Cherry Park.

What's obscure about having Casey welcome people to a park with multiple baseball fields?

Well, Casey's statue is a reference to a poem that was written in 1888 by a guy named Ernest Lawrence Thayer about an arrogant baseball player (Casey) who strikes out and ends up losing the game.

So, why does Cherry Park bare the resemblance of a player who costs his team the game because of his arrogance?

I don't actually have a answer. I tried to do some research and find out but came up with nothing.

My first stop was wikipedia of course. Among the things I learned was the history of the poem and that Disney made a cartoon back in the day based on the poem as well as a sequel with a more positive ending (you know Disney and Happily Ever After).

But nothing that made me understand why Rock Hill chose Casey as the mascot for Cherry Park.

Rock Hill's website also didn't enlighten so the mystery remains, why is Casey at bat in Cherry Park? Like the number of licks to the center of a tootsie pop, the world may never know.

photo by voigti fox behind the lens

It's a day late, but still a classic

So, who's not with Co-Co?

So it seems everyone is on Conan's side and they have a right to be. I also think he's a better entertainer and that NBC is giving him the shaft. I follow one of the members of Hawk Nelson's blog and this is what he had to say:

"Today, the news broke that NBC is paying Conan a severance package of $32 million dollars, and his staff another $12 million.

So, let's get this straight.... NBC spent MILLIONS developing two new shows (Leno's new primetime show, and Conan's Tonight Show), then pays Conan MILLIONS more to leave the network, so they can go back to what they had before, except with Fallon in Conan's old slot. Fallon's great, but he's no Conan. So they've essentially paid millions and millions to DOWNGRADE their lineup.

Plus, they've paid Conan millions to leave, and he will most likely start a new show at some point. That means they paid MILLIONS, downgraded their lineup, and created a new competitor.... all the while making themselves look like the bad guys, and making Conan look like the witty, charming victim.

After all, he never REALLY got a chance at the Tonight Show. When you replace someone, and your predecessor refuses to leave entirely, you haven't really replaced them. People that were used to watching the Tonight Show with Leno simply watched Leno in primetime. They never had an incentive to get to know Conan. I firmly believe that if Conan had been given the years and grace that Leno was given when he started, the mainstream late night audience would have grown more fond of Conan. The Tonight Show would have continued to be the most-watched of the late night shows, like it's been for most of it's 60 years."

Way to sum it all up.

Ha!

Ken and I had the same thought.

Disney quote of the day: little girl "I like the haunted house. I saw the making of it and I'm ok with it now."

It's time for another round of The Caption Game

Here's mine: "At least I was having a good hair day"