Saturday, January 26, 2008

Mental Poohsticks

Let's just throw some stuff off the bridge (my brain) and see what comes out first:
  • I saw U23D last night (with Aaron & Margaret and Tim & Sarah - why, yes, I did feel like a 5th wheel, thanks for asking.) I have one complaint about the movie - it was too short. At roughly 90 minutes, I wanted at least a 1/2 hour more of music. The 3D effects were, for the most part, pretty subtle - of course, Bono is never terribly subtle, but that goes with the territory if you're a fan of U2. It's a pretty amazing concert film - coming from a band with a history for amazing concert films.
  • For the record, I don't mind Bono's Coexist headband - the one using the Muslim crescent, the Jewish six-pointed star, and the Christian cross. I think we should coexist. I do think his chant in the film, "Mohammed, Jesus, Jew, all true..." betrays either an overblown sense of the theatrical (likely - it's Bono!) or an appalling lack of knowledge about the individual truth claims of each religion - who have decidedly different views about the nature of Jesus. (I did find a blog entry from Paul Myers that suggests what Bono says is "it's true... all sons of Abraham," - which makes more sense. If you want to see a picture of what I'm talking about, head over to his blog.)
  • Speaking of Christianity & Islam, you need to read Barack Obama's interview over at Christianity Today. And if you're reading this and have been sending e-mails about his involvement w/Islam, you seriously need to repent & and send retractions. Come on, people, I'm not telling you to vote for the man, but for the love of all that is holy, don't lie about him!
  • Thanks to Church Marketing Sucks, I found a really interesting post on church marketing from Seth Godin (who is NOT a church marketing guy). Anyone interested in church life needs to take a look at what he has to say.
  • Brian Bankler's The Tao of Gaming won Best Blog in the 2007 Board Game Internet awards... check him (and the other winners) out. (I mention this because I actually nominated Brian...)
  • Shari & I played a real blast from the past last night - Rail Baron. (My copy has root beer stains on it from 30 years ago, thanks to many late night games with Jim & Tom Trerise.) It actually moves pretty nicely w/two players, though it does still have the problem of a lull in the middle of the game. (With 4+ players, I've previously reviewed this classic rail game as "30-45 minutes of fun at the beginning & end of the game... with 2 hours of tedium in between.") We played where you ran free on your own lines, $1000 on bank lines... and the upgrade from Express to Superchief is free (but takes a buying turn). Oh, yeah, Shari won... but it was close!
  • Hopefully, fans of Chuck didn't miss the "Chuck Sandwich" Thursday night - the final two episodes of Chuck that were finished before the writer's strike. Hee & double hee... what a delicious mix of nerd/geek humor & over-the-top spy antics. Think if you mixed Alias and, oh, Freaks & Geeks, I guess.

7 comments:

Robert said...

Thanks for the link to the Barack interview. Good stuff

Conservatarian said...

while I have defended Obama among my friends on the Muslim issue, frankly his church affiliation makes me plenty nervous about him. He belongs to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Check it out here:
http://www.tucc.org/about.htm

I read this as saying by implication, "No whites welcome." Judge for yourself.

ironcates said...

Rail Baron with two!? It seems like you'd never have to take an opponents line outside of a monopoly city.

I discovered that my Tivo caught those Chuck episodes, SWEET!

Mark (aka pastor guy) said...

Again, I'm not telling any of you to vote for Barack and/or to support his particular brand of Christianity. I would be cautious, conservatarian, of "judging by implication."

What I object to with every fiber of my being is people who claim to follow Jesus & spread lies about others - and that's happening to Barack Obama.

Conservatarian said...

I said nothing about "judging" by implication. However, to me the message of this church is all too clear. It does not explicitly say that whites are unwelcome, but what what it does say is that it is making no attempt to appeal to whites as well as blacks.

In the last two years, I have been to more predominately black churches than to predominately white churches. With one exception, I was made to feel welcome. I have one black pastor friend who was chased out of his church because he baptized too many whites. Trinity's message seems clear to me, and it is not one of inclusion.

Mark (aka pastor guy) said...

I'm not sure I understand. Your last comment said:

I said nothing about "judging" by implication.

Yet your first comment said:

I read this as saying by implication, "No whites welcome." Judge for yourself.

Maybe I'm not clear on what those words mean. I dunno.

nashbabe said...

U23D...loved it. Yes, two hours would have been nice. I'm going back again, even though it's thirteen smacks.

you have been tagged; if you wish to play, see my blog. :-)