Movie Recommendation

Be Kind Rewind

One of Handsome’s colleagues recommended this movie to us, and we were NOT disappointed. I haven’t laughed so hard or so consistently at a movie since . . . hmmm . . . let’s see . . . not recently.

The story-telling was clever and many of the gags were subtle and intelligent. It’s fun to find a movie that doesn’t insult its audience with the “I saw that one coming a mile away” stunts or potty-humor. There were several scenes that we rewound (heh) just so we could laugh again.

On the family-friendly side of things, there was no nudity, I can’t remember hearing any F-bombs, and there was no gratuitous violence or bloodshed.

Please, I’m Begging You . . .

. . . please don’t cut your fingernails at the office. That’s pretty gross. And the clip-pause-clip-pause-clip sounds are making your friendly neighborhood neurotic even more insane than she already is.

Perplexing

Handsome and I have noticed a disturbing trend among our married Christian friends and acquaintances. They all seem to be separating and/or divorcing. Most of these couples have been married for years, many have children, and almost all of them have held positions of leadership within their churches.

What the heck is going on?

While one’s faith does not magically divorce-proof one’s marriage, it IS supposed to inform one’s worldview. If marriage is established by God as a lifetime commitment through better and worse (excepting adultery and abuse), then divorce is not an option. How (and when) did divorce become the antidote to disappointment, frustration, or boredom?

If the Christian community at large so willing rejects one of our fundamental beliefs – the foundation of family – then we really can’t complain when the secular community tries to redefine marriage. Without a compass, what else would a lost man or woman do?

**Update: United States Divorce Statistics, Religious:

33% of All Adults have been divorced at least once
32% of Born Again Christians have been divorced at least once
38% of Members of Non-Christians Faiths have been divorced at least once
30% of Atheist or Agnostics have been divorced at least once

Source: The Barna Group, 2008 Marriage and Divorce Statistics

Bizarro

I’m still not feeling well, but I thought you all would enjoy a weird dream I had this week.

I was a 10-inch tall version of myself chasing chickens around a Dali-esque landscape. I was doing my best to scare them, and scare them I did. Scared them so bad they laid hard-boiled eggs.

It’s Gonna Be a Rough Day When . . .

You dream about taking four Advil and a Zyrtec.

Suburban Safari

At first, I thought it was a siren of some sort, and Handsome thought I was hearing things. I was hearing things. Well, thing. A LOUD thing. And that’s when I opened the back door to see what the ruckus was.** And there it was, sitting in one of the cedar trees yelling at us. LOUDLY.

An owl, probably a screech owl. With the loud screeching.

I snapped a shot with my iPhone, but I’ll spare you that image. You’d say, “yep, there’s a fuzzy, out-of-focus thing in your fuzzy, out-of-focus tree.” It’s really not worth the embarrassment to post that photo is what I’m saying.

Anyway, the probable-screech owl screeched at us for a few minutes before taking off into the night. Probably lighting on one of our neighbor’s trees to screech at them, too.

**Note, if this was a horror film, I’d have been dragged into the yard and eaten by the loud thing.

Know What I Think?

I think Trampoline and Water Polo are the two stupidest Olympic sports ever created.

Pieces of Me: Mosaic Meme

How to play:
If you want to play too, type your answer to each of the questions below into a Flickr search. Using only the first page, choose your favorite image, then copy and paste each of the URL’s into the Mosaic Maker (3 columns, 4 rows). Leave a comment if you play, so I can have a peek.

The questions:

1. What is your first name? (Jennifer)
2. What is your favorite food? (tomatoes)
3. What high school did you attend? (Oak Ridge)
4. What is your favorite color? (blue)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Joseph – a total rock star)
6. Favorite drink? (wine)
7. Dream vacation? (Paris)
8. Favorite dessert? (cookies)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (the boss)
10. What do you love most in life? (husband)
11. One word to describe you. (reserved)
12. Your Flickr name. (knighton – I used my Blogger name, because my Flickr name had no results)

Note to Self

No, people (most people) don’t do things only for money. There’s usually a minimum threshold that gets someone to pick a job and stick with it, but beyond that, the things we do are expressions of who we are and what we love and the impact we wish to make, not selfish acts designed to earn a few extra bucks. (No one paid you to read this post, I bet).

All other things being equal, people pick what pays the best. All other things being equal, people buy the cheapest one. Fortunately for marketers, all other things are rarely equal. People don’t all sign up to work at Goldman Sachs. Most of the meaning and activity in our lives comes from the things we do for free, or the choices we make about work, not the financial exchanges we do to support ourselves.

Next time you catch yourself following the money, it’s worth another look. Follow the non-money first.

–Seth Godin

Common Household Gecko

Outside Voice writes, “How the hell did a GECKO get in my dishwasher?”

I’ll go one better. “How the hell did a gecko get in my OVEN?”

And of course, we did find out AFTER he was all crispy. And stinky.