Archive for April, 2004

Five or so years ago I picked up a book on open theology by Clark Pinnock et. al. because one of my teachers who liked to talk theology with me — go figure — was talking about reading some secret, not yet published manuscript about the topic. I glanced over the book, thought it was heresy, figured nothing much would come of it, put it on the bookshelf and pulled it out when I wanted to show off.

Last night Jenn had a bunch of hens over from her old work. Apparently it wasn’t as fun as she was expecting, but they left four bottles of Sleeman’s in the fridge — but it’s low carb, so it hardly counts. Anyways, I made myself scarce and before I settled in at Drumlin’s— it’s a nice, quiet, local place — I went to the book store. My treat for exiling myself from the house was a book.

I picked up a few books, including Philip Yancey’s newest and flipped through them to see if they’d win the prize of going home with me. I ended up getting a book refuting open theology. So far it’s a really good read. It seems that it’s a very cunning heresy though and I can understand how “today’s Christianity” could slip into it.

Since the late 90′s I’ve heard that Pinnock has changed his position on the omnipotence of God, so he might be back in our camp now. But it’s worth looking at. The book is called Beyond the Bounds.

When I posted the other day that I didn’t feel like I needed to see TPotC anytime soon, like Robin, I wasn’t trying to insinuate that he didn’t like the movie. I think I liked the movie — because it made me think (and feel a bit too.) It certainly was intense, but I don’t think it added a whole lot to my Christian experience.

I remember reading articles just after the movie came out where people were saying things like “The Passion changed my life.” After seeing it myself I wonder if it affected them the same way really good music at an intense worship service affects others.

I don’t want to belittle the movie or people who found it really moving. You know how music is a very powerful, emotion stirring thing? Perhaps the movie was like that for some folks. Good music has been mistaken for the Holy Spirit in the past. But that doesn’t mean that the real God can’t use a Mel Gibson movie.

In any case — if you’re not partial to blood, bruises, torture and meanness, you might want to pass on this movie. If you can handle some harsh punishment for a good 20–30 minutes and meanness throughout the two hours, you might find it thought provoking and moving.

Oh, and did anyone else find the end where Jesus got up and walked out of the tomb (sorry if I ruined the end for anyone) odd? I did. I was expecting him to do something supernatural. Oh wait, he did…

By the way, did anyone else notice that there was a Muppeteer in the credits?

You might not notice it, but I’ve made some small changes. Instead of explaining all the in’s and out’s of the big one, I’ll just gloss over it. You can ask me for details if you’d like.

I changed my layout so that I can have multiple posts from the same day and have it look the way I want. As a result the post previous to this has shifted around in time a bit over the last couple of days.

This blog is also RSS ready, so watch for my syndicated blog on the news any time now. Yeah right.

As requested (by Robin) there’s a new commenting system for those of you who wish to leave more than a one liner and engage in some discussion. Take a look at the end of each post. You are still encouraged to leave one liners on the main page too.

The service that provides the comment system also offers a trackback service. So, if you blog and one of my entries inspires you to post, please trackback me. Ooh, noun and verb.

Finally, iTunes is sending info about the music makers I’m listening to. Get down!

I saw The Passion of the Christ this afternoon and am still digesting the film, but I have a few thoughts and a few questions — feel free to answer them if you’d like.

First of all, the gruesomeness of the film. We’ve all been warned that it’s bloody and violent. I was actually expecting a good hour or more of torture — so, I felt that I got of a little easy. But to be fair, the scourging scene was harsh and hard to watch. Maybe it didn’t last forever, but it was pretty brutal. Also, I wasn’t expecting the violence to start so quickly. The religious leaders who “captured” Jesus in the garden started beating him more or less right away and it kept up in some way or another almost throughout the film.

Segueing to my next observation, the Roman soldiers (the ones who were just carrying out orders,) the Jewish guard and the people in Herod’s court were absolute idiots. They seemed like caricatures to me, carrying on, laughing, being overly foppish (in Herod’s case) and being violent just for the sake of meanness. I felt sorry for Pontius Pilate the way he was portrayed. He at least seemed human.

I also think that I missed out on some of the things that the film was trying to show me, because I don’t know much about Catholic traditions. When the Mary’s were cleaning up Jesus’s blood after his scourging I think I missed something there. At first I thought that’s where one of these shrouds of Jesus came from, but that showed up later when Jesus was carrying the cross to the crucifixion. And how about that raven who plucked out the one theif’s eyes — where did that come from? Also, the Satan imagery was lost on me. He/she was around a lot, especially in the background, but what about that bald midget he was carrying in the crowd at one point? For what it’s worth, I thought Satan was being portrayed as male-ish, if not male — I know he was played by a woman.

There was also some scary stuff in the film just for the sake of fright, I thought. I’m thinking especially of the demon towards the end of the garden scene and the children/demons who were tormenting Judas.

I was glad to have a little chat in the washroom with a man who asked me what I thought of the film. I wanted to talk with him about it some more — as I think he did too — but was still a bit overwhelmed and digesting a lot of it. There were probably only a dozen or so people in the theatre. I found it especially odd how most folks just got up and left as the credits started. I suppose I get a little more sucked in and need to just relax and come back to the present reality slower than others.

I’m sure that I’ll have other comments later. Maybe we can discuss them in the comments section. But, like Robin said to me earlier today, I don’t think I need to see this film again anytime soon.

Well, I’ve taken my time, but I’m going to go see The Passion of the Christ today. Apparently, it’s back (still?) at number one this week — at least in the States. I’ve been trying to coordinate with Tyler for a few weeks, but it’s just not working out. Jenn wants to see it, but wants the option of muting the TV and having me tell her when it’s okay to watch again, so she’s waiting to rent it.

I’ve got friends who have seen it lots and others who won’t go see it. Larry, last time I talked to him, has seen it four times. My old pastor (in Ottawa) didn’t want to see it because he didn’t want to associate the actor with Jesus when he prays — he’s a very visual person. Others have avoided it because of it’s spectacle or inaccuracies.

I want to see it, not only because it’s topical — even after being out for over a month. That’s something to say these days. I also like the almost overwhelming size of a movie screen. I’m going at 1:15 this afternoon I wonder if I’ll be the only one there. I wonder who else will be there.

Well, it was a busy long weekend for us and the week looks like it will be just as busy. We went to Sudbury on Thursday night to hang out with friends for a bit. On the way down we discovered that everyone at CFB Petawawa had a long weekend pass and they were all at Burger Royalty. Sudbury still has lots of rocks, but it was good to spend time with Dave.

Everyone seems much more friendly at church these days — maybe it has something to do with meeting in a hotel with a restaurant and wave pool? Although, the young dude who did the welcome/announcements/opening prayer who mentioned a couple times at least that “Jesus lives on in our hearts*” weirded me out a bit. Big ham last night for dinner and leftovers tonight when Tyler comes over — woo hoo!

It was nice this morning to hear weather from Thunder Bay, Kenora, Atikokan and all over on the CBC morning radio show. I like holidays for that reason — it’s like one big Ontario Today show. And speaking of holidays — there was almost no traffic on the roads this morning. It really makes a huge difference when all the government employees stay home. Even the bus stops were mostly empty.

*Hearts and Hearst are just one transposition away.

Well, it’s been a slow week for the old blog. But there’re a couple of things I can tell you. First, I’m part of the reason the unemployment rate went up a tenth of a percent last month — and not the other way around. Second, I’ve been fortunate enough to get to see the VIA train trundling across the overpass (or perhaps I drive through an underpass) on the way to Jenn’s job. I like looking at trains, especially trains in interesting locations.

We’re heading off to Sudbury for a few days this weekend — so be sure to break in while we’re out. I’ve been told that I might get to watch an iMac movie at Science North. Oh, sorry, that’s IMAX. Well, either way. Speaking of which, I got two new issues of MacWorld in the mail today, April and May. Weird.

In other news, my new resume PDF is online. And be sure to check out my online portfolio. Oh, and help me get a good job in Thunder Bay!

PS: Thanks for the postcard Tom.

Remember when I was going off about being able to come up with a story as good as “The Dark Crystal?” Well, that afternoon, I wrote down a few ideas.

The past couple of days I’ve been mulling those ideas over. Jenn told me last week that I should write and illustrate a children’s book. She’s not the first person to tell me that either. Though, she’s quite encouraging — she got me to frame my ink and marker drawings I did last August and even suggested hanging my first oil painting up (I declined on that one.)

So, I’ve kind of got the basics for the place that the story happens in. I’ve even got the big-picture for the plot (complete with a twist or two.) I don’t know how it will turn out though. If you’ve ever read/looked at Edward Gorey’s work, you might get an idea of what I might produce. Something that might look childish, but somehow isn’t quite for kids — but on the surface might be.

I’ll let you know how it’s going, and would appreciate any encouragement you might have for me. But, I don’t think I’m going to reveal too much about the story — at least not yet.

I’m not sure I remember where I was at the time, but a while ago — certainly years ago if not more — I was in the habit of saying variations on “Aw, for crying out loud!” Now that I give it some more thought, I seem to have a hazy remembrance of Chris Levin (used to call him “A Little Levin&rdquo) along with this habit.

Yup, used to say things like “Aw, for crying up the rain spout!” and stuff like that. Let’s make this a stream of consciousness thing. I used to quote the Unfriendly Giant a lot in my high school and university days too. “Up your nose with a frozen rope.” Yup those were good old days…

I used to leave Mr. Hall’s Finite class at Westgate to attend Mr. Towes’ Calculus class at Churchill. I’d meet my good buddy Ron there and we’d rehash the morning’s episode of Unfriendly. Hmm, no good web references — I should start an Unfriendly Giant radio page.

Today I went to a “Sugar Bush” — Wheeler’s Pancake House & Sugar Camp — with Jenn and Tyler. We ended up really close to where Jenn and I went last weekend, Perth.

The highlights of the trip were the animals. I kissed an Ox, Tyler petted a drooling albino cat for 15 minutes while we watched a movie on maple syrup, and all of us at pork sausages with our pancake breakfast.

On the drive home I honked the horn as we passed a heard of cows in someone’s yard, close to the road. I did it because I felt so in touch with my bovine friends, (after kissing the ox) that I wanted to say “Hi!” Jenn said that it was mean of me because I woke up the baby cows who were sleeping. Tyler said it was good for them — especially in their formative years.

Anyway, back to the food. It was excellent and they served a big bottle of maple syrup (750ml I’d guess) with it and we finished most of it. I wanted to get some sausages to go, but decided that I’d look foolish going back to get them.