For Barry (and any other hunters)

I saw this on cnn.com today. If any of you readers are hunters, be inspired!

July 12- last day

Here it is. The final blog entry reviewing my trip to Taiwan. I know it's been a long process, but this has been really helpful for me to relive the experience and relearn some of the things God taught me along the way. Thanks again to Becky and the kids for supporting me on the trip and to my dad for inviting me along an amazing journey. Well... that pretty much covers all my readers, on to the story!

I set my alarm for the ridiculous time of 5:30am on Sunday. I really didn't want to be up that early, but I wasn't sure exactly how long it would take to get to the airport and how long it would take to get through customs, so I figured I should err on the side of early rather than late. Oh, my departure time? 9:30am.

I got up and packed and walked out of the hotel by 6 and walked about 4 blocks to the bus station. They had buses leaving every 20 minutes to the airport. I happened to board a bus just as it was leaving, so that saved me 20 minutes at the station. I also wasn't sure how long the bus ride would be; my guess was about 1 and 1/2 hours, but it only took about 45 minutes. And there was almost no wait to go though ticketing, security, or customs. Yeah, I was seated at my terminal at about 7:45. I really wished I had my hour and a half of extra sleep, but it was better than being late. As the flight ahead of mine boarded I couldn't believe the number of people who ran up in the last 15 minutes.

I ended up flying back the same way I came to Asia. The flight from Taipei to Tokyo sat on the tarmac for quite a while before we left and there was a lengthy walk to my connecting flight so when I got to my gate I walked right on with only about 10 minutes to spare. I was a bit nervous because I didn't want to sit in a foreign airport and try to figure out the mess of getting home, but I would have liked a chance to check out Tokyo. Next time, I guess.

The flight back to Detroit was Loooong! The problem with a 12+ hour flight is that you try not to look at your watch for as long as possible, and then when you feel like you are almost home and you can't stand to be in your seat any longer you look to see that only 6 hours have gone by. It was tougher because I finished all the books I brought along and the movie they were showing were totally lame chick flicks... and we were only halfway home. I tried to sleep on the plane to help with the jet lag, but I wasn't tired much even though I didn't get much sleep the night before. We arrived a bit early in Detroit (about 45 minutes ahead of schedule) but only one set of the doors worked on our 747. Of course, I was seated near the back of the plane so it took FOREVER to get unloaded. Back on American soil, I got a ride home (it is so nice to live within 10 minutes of the airport) and then drove 3 and 1/2 hours to spend time with Becky and the kids at her parents place in Indiana. It was great to see them and get some huge hugs from all the kids and Becky.

And it only took about 3 days to get my body and brain back on Detroit time. Then I went led a youth trip to Washington, D.C. the following week. Whew!

It was an amazing adventure and I really hope to go back someday.

July 11

My last full day in Taiwan. It was bitter-sweet to think about that fact as I woke up that morning. It was Saturday and all there was on the agenda was for me to speak to some of the youth from the mountain villages and then Ben and I would return to Taipei. Dad, Foster, and Kelsey would stay in Taiwan until Monday and then spend a couple days in Hong Kong.

It was really cool to wake up and step out into the streets of the village of Tuban. It looked like something out of a movie or painting: the mist hanging low in these jungled, mountain peaks. It was breathtaking. I'm not a morning person, but I would enjoy mornings a whole lot more waking in that environment.

MeiMei prepared an amazing breakfast for us. The table was filled with assorted breakfast foods and fruits. MeiMei asked me if I wanted some mango juice and then picked up some fresh mangos off the table and dropped them in the blender. Wow, it was sooo good.

We decided that since we had plenty of time before I needed to speak that we would drive down the Taiwan coast and visit one of the popular local beaches. We didn't really have enough time to swim, but we thought it would be a cool last place to visit. We loaded up the van and... grind, revvvVVV! Matthew was stepping on the gas, but we weren't going anywhere. So we all stepped out as he kept shifting in and out of neutral all the while he starts rolling backwards down the sloped street. He eventually reached a point where he had to back into a wall/fence or else he has going to back off cliff. We started praying (and laughing) really hard and finally Matthew got it into first and rolled around town for a bit at 50,000 rpm to warm up the engine. It goes without saying that we were a bit unsure about getting into the van, but there was no other choice.

We ended up at a beautiful beach on the southern tip of the island. It was at this point that I really wished I had a swimsuit on because the coolness of the morning had faded and the water looked really refreshing. We followed up our brief visit to the beach with a stop at McDonalds. Oh man, I'm not a huge Mickey D's fan, but it tasted sooo good. I had a hard time going back to chinese food after that meal.

We were a little bit late arriving back at the first mountain village, so we had to walk in after the service had already started. Fortunately there was a group of four seminary students from England who were also there and they started off with a game, a few songs, and a short devotional. Having them start helped me to not feel as nervous and I shared with the students the lessons that they need to be active in teaching to their home churches. There were around 50 Paiwan students there, and we recognized some of them form the week of camp, so it was nice to feel like I could relate to them a bit. I had a great translator in Caleb, a native Taiwanese who is studying at Asbury seminary.

After I spoke, Caleb, Ben, and I headed back to Khaoshuing to take the high-speed train to Taipei. I ended up back at the YMCA hotel at around 11pm and ran into trouble.

They didn't accept the credit card that I had on me, I didn't have enough Taiwanese "new dollars", and the couldn't accept the American cash that I had on me. So I walked the downtown of Taipei all by myself from about 11pm to midnight looking (unsucessfully) for an ATM. I even had the desk clerk draw me a map to an all night money changer, but it was a dead end (and I know I followed the map correctly). I texted Becky for help and fortunately she happened to answer and was able to get me a different credit card # that I could actually use.

It was actually pretty cool to wander the streets alone. It's a really nice city and I'd love to go back someday.

With my hotel paid for all I had to do was go to bed for the last time in Taiwan.

Kids these Days

Evan completed his first week of school today. And he's doing great!

Obligatory 'leaving the house/first day of school' photo

He seemed to do good emotionally for the first couple of days, but on Thursday night of last week he became very sad and didn't want to go to school the next day. I asked him why and after a bit of working him he told me "I don't have any friends". My heart broke for him. I did my best to encourage him that he's a great kid and everyone is new, that he just needed to ask some kids to play; but what I really wanted to do was hold him in my lap and tell him that he never had to go to school again...ever:)

When I picked him up on Friday he had a big smile on his face. I asked why and he said "I made a friend!" I was soo happy to hear him say that. Then I asked what his name was and he had no clue, haha:) Becky thought it was a bit strange, but I told her that's just what to expect with a young boy. He probably won't know any other kids name that he plays with, and even if he might learn it by chance, that's all he'll know.

He was glad to have the weekend off and has seemed to like school the last couple of days as well. With a little encouragement he even found out the names of some of the kids he plays with (Joseph, Peyton, and Liam). We're also excited that a girl who goes to our church (Ella) is in the same class with him also. She's a fun, outgoing girl and I know that helps him through the day.

The strangest thing about him going to Kindergarten is that I have almost no idea what he does for 3 hours during the morning. I've always known what he's up to and now I can barely find out what he does. All I know is that between 8:45 and 11:45 he has recess, practices counting, and eats lunch. I have a lot more sympathy for my parents trying to talk with me about what happened during school hours. Sorry mom:)

I do think it's pretty amazing that Evan says they are learning to count to 30. Thirty! Kindergarten ain't ABC's and counting to 10 no more.

He also came back sick after the second day. It's like a germ factory in there. But he seems to be getting over it pretty well.

July 10

Friday. The last day of camp. After a long Thursday I was glad to be done, but sad because our time was over. It was tough to connect with students because of the language barrier, but it was fun to be with them and it was sad that our time together was coming to an end.

We started Friday with one last service. Before the service, Dad had asked me to say one more thing during his 30 minute sending message, but fortunately he didn't call me forward. I just didn't have any idea of what to say other than "thank you".

The camp ended after the service; to send everyone out they did a really cool balloon drop. Then we took another hundred pictures and said our good-byes to the students. Then we (our team of 8) drove back into the mountains and "enjoyed" another beautiful/terrifying drive.

It was even scarier than last time because we had all our luggage with us (adding a couple hundred pounds to our rear end) and we got stuck behind a semi-truck hauling rebar. If you've ever seen a rebar truck before you know that the steel hangs several feet off the end of the truck. So we are winding back and forth, going up hill, with 8 people and our luggage, with cliffs on our left and the "trench of death" on our right, in the rain, and Pastor Matthew is tailgating the rebar truck like he's in a NASCAR race. Our windshield could not have been more than a few feet away from the truck on many occasions. I sat mildly terrified in the back seat of the van, but my Dad got a great look at it from the passenger seat. There were times when he was literally hanging on to his seatbelt with both hands as a nervous reaction to our proximity to the huge truck in front of us.

We made it to the mountain village that we had visited earlier in the week (wednesday) and dropped off some of our luggage to make the trip further into the mountains a little easier. After the drop off we drove across the bottom of the country to end up driving back up north along the coast along the pacific ocean. We turned off the highway and across a one lane bridge (but not a one way bridge) and headed up to Tuban. This is the village where Pastor Matthew recently accepted an appointment from the Taiwanese FM conference.

I need to take some time to comment on how Pastor Matthew, his wife MeiMei, and daughter Cindy were fantastic hosts during our week together. They are warm, friendly, inviting, energetic, charismatic, fun-loving, caring, Godly people. They live in a tiny 3 room apartment attached to the church (2 of the rooms are bedrooms) and have little of the comforts we are accustomed to here at home. Still, they offered us everything they had and were very generous, I really enjoyed being with them.

We arrived at the village late in the afternoon and had some time to walk around the community and meet the people. The mountain villages in Taiwan are small, poor towns inhabited by the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. Tuban is home to people from the Paiwan tribe (the other major group is the Rukai). We met a young man named "Tennis" (with a T) who gave us a ride though the narrow winding streets on a scooter. It was fun to have a second motorcycle ride. The excitement made me really want one here at home. That night Dad gave another sermon, bringing his weekly total to 7 different messages in 6 days! It was amazing to listen to how God lead Dad's messages to be uniquely fitted to each congregation and audience; I know if it were me it would be really tempting to just give the same lesson 7 times, but Dad really poured out his heart and listened for what God wanted to say to each group.

That night I stayed up to prepare for the message that I would be delivering to a group of students the next day. I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted to do, but after listening to Dad all week the bar had been raised. Plus I knew with speaking through a translator I would need a better outline since I would be constantly pausing and I didn't want to lose my place. We went to bed that night on the floor in the apartment. It was a rough night not just because of the hard wood, but also the sweltering humidity. I was also excited because there was just one day left in Taiwan!

July 9

Let's pick up where we left off in Taiwan, shall we?

Thursday was the roughest day. There were definitely some fun and interesting moments, but it was a tough day emotionally.

Like Tuesday, the day began with my dad leading 2 back to back teaching sessions. In the first session I led the students in a battle of "we love Jesus yes we do, we love Jesus how 'bout you!". For those of you unfamiliar with this Christian arena competition, a group of people yell out that phrase and then point at another group/section on the word "you". Then that new group repeats and returns the phrase a little bit louder and a little bit worse. They caught on pretty well; we did it in English since I can't lead it in Chinese:)

The second session was all about encouraging the students to go out and make a difference. I shared stories about the things that the students I work with are doing in Dearborn to make a difference. It was really cool to stop and think about all the ways that these kids are involved in the church and community. Once again I led the band with "How Great is our God" as Dad led an altar call to pray for students who wanted to be blessed to take a new step of faith.

Dad "bringin' it"

Then we went out to lunch with the ministry leaders who put together the conference. We went to a Japanese restaurant. I had never been to a Japanese restaurant, but I'd already tried just about everything else, so why not, eh?

It was a really nice time to share with the leaders of the Free Methodist youth in Taiwan (most of them were youth pastors in the conference). Pastor Craig, who was the main speaker in the evening, shared with us that he has made it his mission to start 30 churches in his lifetime (he's currently started 5). The food was fun as well; the first first thing we had was sushimi... raw fish. I first tried Black Tuna sushimi, an expensive fish, which was actually not that bad. It wasn't slimy like I thought it would be. It was firm, moist, and flavourful, I'd probably eat more of it. Then I tried some swordfish sushimi, which was just ok. There was some other food that I tried but I can't remember as well a huge breaded shrimp that was pretty good. I has some wasabi on something... too much wasabi. HOT HOT HOT! One of the last things we had was a strange coffee- flavored jello. It looked just like regular jello, but it tasted like regular coffee.

That afternoon we just went back to our rooms to crash. We were all tired and needed a break from the constant travel, but sitting down gave me a lot of time to think about how much I missed my family. Becky took the kids with her to her parents house where she could have some help wrangling all 3 of them around. We couldn't talk on the phone because mine isn't enabled for international calls, plus it wouldn't do us much good anyways since there is only a tiny window to make those calls happen with the 12 hr time difference. We were able to chat on facebook a couple times and we sent a few texts, but I was really missing the kids and especially Becky.

Not only was I tired of being apart from family but I was getting tired to the food. I had been doing my best to try new things and stretch myself, but I just wanted "normal" food. The food issue was ever more difficult because as an honored guest I was offered everything first; it was getting hard for me to face plate after plate getting shoved in my face. I couldn't just refuse everything and sit unnoticed in the corner, and I wanted to be sensitive to the cultural differences and expectations as well. I don't want to be too negative about the experience, they were all great people trying to welcome me to their culture and some of the stuff I tried I liked, but I was getting tired.

But I had a chance to get out of my funk when we met up with a friend from when I grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (yes, that is a real place). I hadn't seen Melissa Wriston in about 15 years, but we both grew up in Lakeview FM church as kids. Melissa has lived in Taiwan for about 5 years teaching english and living as a light for God in Khaohsuing. It was crazy to think about catching up with her after so many years... on the other side of the world!

Thursday evening we attended the evening session eld by Pastor Craig. This was the first evening session we attended since Monday and it was similar in many respects (loud, charismatic worship; powerful preaching) but at the end of the sermon there was an invitation for the students to come forward an receive the Holy Spirit. I have been at services before where there was laying on of hands and people falling, or being "slain", in the Spirit, but only a couple of times. At least half of the 500 students came forward and I was sitting front row watching it all happen. I should include that I wasn't sitting next to anyone who could translate for me, so at the time I could only guess as to what was going on. I'm not about to begin a debate about the theological/doctrinal implications of those expereiences and whether or not God can work in that way, but it really pushed me out of my comfort zone.

Then the hammer dropped. All of the sudden I recognize that Pastor Craig just said my name. He called my (and my Dad and one other guy) up to the front. I had no clue what was going on. I tried to ask my dad what was going on, but we couldn't really talk about what was happening and I started getting really uncomfortable. Then students start coming forward and lining up to be prayed over. I finally got the information that these were students who wanted receive a special blessing as they felt called to go into ministry and it was up to us to pray for them. WAAAY out of my comfort zone! I did not want to be the next Benny Hinn and I wasn't sure what to do, it's not like I could back out. So I prayed a prayer for me and then went about laying hands on the students as they came to me. It was even stranger because I was praying for them in English with no translation, so they had no way to know what I was praying. I put my hand on their forehead like Pastor Craig had done, but I didn't push anyone. Some fell, some didn't. But I just didn't feel right about it, mostly due to just being thrown into the situation without being asked or warned.

After the service we took about 1000 pictures with various students and leaders. I'm sure there are a whole lot of facebook pictures of me out there that I'm totally unaware of.

Finally we [the 8 of us, plus Laura (the head honcho), Melissa, and a couple others) headed to a local night market. During our late night adventure they tried fish head soup and stinky tofu soup. I was in a bad mood at this point (I hate to admit) and didn't try any of it. However, Kelsey tried the stinky tofu soup and ate this cube of something. The something turned out to be congealed pigs blood! Gross!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!more exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!

What a way to end the day.

Where did the last 5 years go?

I know I need to be more consistent with reviewing/revisiting/reliving my Taiwan trip, but there is something HUGE happening in our lives right now. Evan is going to Kindergarten tomorrow!

Our tiny baby boy is going to school.

It really hit me hard last night and I started freaking out. I felt like I had done nothing in the past five years to prepare him for this day. All of the sudden I was cramming data into his tiny ears: this is how you make friends; this is how you treat your teacher; don't take a ride from someone you don't know; don't talk with strangers, but it's ok to talk with the kids you don't know in your class; etc. I had to stop myself cause I didn't want to freak him out, or maybe because I didn't want to freak myself out anymore.

I'm so proud of who Evan is. I think he's probably better prepared for this experience than we know, but you can't help but panic when you think about the radical changes that are headed his way.

Several months ago I blogged about the options that we had been debating regarding half day vs. full day K. We decided that Evan will attend the local public school (Snow elementary) for half days for the first few months and then evaluate a transition to full day after that. I think it's a good option for us and for him, but it's definitely one of those landmark sad/exciting days that are unfolding in our lives. Good Luck Evan, we'll be praying for you.

July 8

Wednesday at the conference is sports day. During the other days they have various team-building activities and workshops, but midweek they put all that aside and have a series of sporting competitions (we saw sprints and 3-on-3 basketball). When we woke up it was already overwhelmingly hot and muggy... I was very glad not to be participating (although, for the record, I would have totally came in last at every event).

We stayed around the campus for the morning, taking some time to mingle with the students. The conference was at what appeared to be a private school campus. The buildings were quite old, but they had everything we needed: dorms, auditoriums, a track, and basketball courts. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the campus; for all the video and pictures we took it seemed like there was so much more that we missed.

After a morning of mixing it up with the students we headed out to lunch where I ate some of the worst food during the trip (no offense to the lovely people of Taiwan:). I tried pigs ear (which had a light bacon flavor) and this is me trying stinky tofu:

It doesn't do it justice to see it in video form. Stinky tofu is called "Stinky Tofu" for one reason... it reeks!!! It's tofu fried in some devilish blend of spices and ingredients which combine to create a super nasty blend (similar to how your powers combine to create Captain Planet, only instead of enviro-powers he makes stuff smell and taste horrible). I barely got it down.

After narrowly surviving lunch we headed into the mountain county. The country of Taiwan is an island (duh) where the urban, metropolitan population lives along the flat coastlands. The center of the island is comprised of a ridge of mountains that divides the country north to south. The mountain range is beautifully covered by dense jungle forests like a living emerald canopy; fog would hang down like a fantasy landscape painting or digital dream. The mountains are where the native peoples of Taiwan live in tribal villages.

On our van ride we stopped along the way at a small village where we picked up about 20 boxes of fresh mangos. Pastor Matthew then sells those mangos to vendors in the city and passes the money back to the villagers. Microeconomics at work!

To reach the villages in the mountains it becomes necessary to leave the highways and drive up and down the local roads. That was an adventure! The roads are an endlessly labyrinthine trail that weaves through the volcanic hills; two lane roads barely wide enough to be labeled as two lanes. On one side, cliffs and bluffs that fall hundreds of feet; on the other side...well, a feature that we affectionately called the "ditch of death". Instead of a right hand shoulder, like we have on our roads, there was a 3 feet deep, 1.5 feet wide concrete walled trench. I assumed it was designed to carry the runoff which sweeps down the mountains, but all we could see was a hole that was seemingly designed to be the exact size to swallow a truck tire. our van tires. It was a frightening ride on more than one occasion.

That night we visited Tuban, a native Rukai village. My dad preached a fantastic sermon for the people there. It was funny having Dad preach in english, and then having Pastor Matthew translate into chinese, and then the pastor of the tribal church would translate the chinese into the Rukai dialect. Double translation ftw!!

Oh, and the Tuban church served us a native feast, which only means one thing... even crazier food!

I can't remember everything, but there was squid and a strange mushroom things (which I tried). And the number one, strangest thing I tried during the entire trip is featured here:

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Yeah, that's a fish. The whole fish and nothing but the fish. Head, scales, bones and all. It was cooked so it was crispy and crunchy. And I actually thought it wasn't that bad; I even ate another!! Then they told us it's an endangered species. Yummy:)

July 7; Tainan

Dad was the main speaker for two sessions on Tuesday and Thursday morning. One of the main reasons I went along was to help speak during these times to break up the rhythm since it could get pretty rough to speak to 500 students in back-to-back hour long sessions. During the first session I lead a tournament of "rock-paper-scissors" that we adapted to "comet-planet-star" to fit the theme. It went really well considering the size of the group and the language/translation barrier. Many of the students spoke simple english phrases, and there were a few who spoke english quite well (those tended to be the older students), but most students only knew "hello" and "bye bye".

During the second session I shared the story of Evan's birth (keeping the c-section description intriguingly detailed, yet age appropriate). I talked about the wonder and blessing that they are in my life... it's not hard to share that:) At the end of the second session I led the worship team with "How great is our God". It was another challenge to lead the worship team because only the keyboard player understood a word I said, but fortunately they were a really talented group.

After the morning sessions we went with Pastor Matthew, his wife Mei Mei, and their daughter Cindy to Tainan. I love those guys. Pastor Matthew is a Taiwanese FM pastor who has a really warm and captivating presence. They were a ton of fun and gave us the VIP treatment everywhere we went. So the eight of us (Dad, Foster, Kelsey, Ben, Matthew, Mei Mei, Cindy, and I) drove in their church minivan to the urban city of Tainan. Tainan is one of the oldest modern cities settled by the Europeans when they "discovered" Taiwan. There were some fantastic historical sites we can across including:

These beautiful statue/shrine/attractions.

I had a hard time capturing the scale, but these are several stories tall.

We were going to go to the Taiwan history museum, but for some strange reason it was closed so we went to the Taiwan Poetry Museum. Here I am, listening to a reading of Taiwanese poetry.

And it was at the poetry museum that we met John Wayne. The story of John Wayne is too long to fit in blog format, but ask me about him sometime.

Dad and his new friend, John Wayne.

Tuesday, July 7th also happened to be a ridiculously hot day. I didn't remember the actual temperature, but I'm pretty sure it was 1 billion degrees. And Taiwan is also EXTREMELY humid, it may technically be underwater. So we walked up and down the streets of Tainan nearly melting when we found a sparkling oasis in the form of an Iced Mango drink. I never really liked mango, but this was the beginning of a new and beautiful relationship.

Waiting for iced mango drink.

(not pictured, face-melting heat)

As we explored the streets of Tainan we also came across many food stands featuring native Taiwanese cuisine.

As identified by my friend, Justice Hung-

from left: pig faces(pig ears),duck wins,

duck necks with heads, and the bottom are duck lungs.

the things right dish are pig skin.

And I nearly forgot! Near the end of the day we walked past one restaurant that was filming a commercial and Dad was lingering trying to see what they were doing. Well, the director turns around and they asked him to take a sip of the drink and smile for the camera. Seriously, watch for Glenn Teal starring in a Taiwanese wine commercial. It was so funny to watch the whole thing unfold. Another great day!

July 6

Sorry it's taken me so long to fill in the rest of the blanks on my trip. It's been a busy couple of weeks. I hope to finish the outline of this trip before the memories start to fade away... so let's get back to bidnas:

Monday was the first day of camp. It actually was more of a conference than a camp, but I'll get into those details in a few paragraphs. We got up early in the morning (around 6:30 i think) because we had to find our way through the underground central rail depot in Taipei to the high speed train to Kaohsiung. Fortunately we had a guide in Pastor Dinh (from the previous post) and his son, Ben. Ben is a high school student who joined us for the week. He was born in Vietnam, but was raised in America, so he speaks English and Vietnamese, but very little Chinese. He came to Taiwan a few years ago when his Dad felt called to minister to the Vietnamese in Taipei. I think it meant alot to him to have some Christian Americans to relate to, and it was great for us make a new friend and have him along.

The high speed train was very cool. I've never been on a "fast" train before and it was definately a fun experience. You may be asking yourself, how fast did it go? close to 200mph. Oh Yeah!

We arrived in Kaohsiung and rode by car another hour to the campus. There were 5 of us in a tiny car with all our luggage, so I sat in the middle with my suitcase on my lap. I couldn't see anything but canvas for the entire ride.

As mentioned earlier, the "camp" was really a conference. For you Free Methodists, it was like IYC, just on a smaller scale. It was a conference for all the Southern Taiwan FM middle school and high school groups; a total of over 500 students!

The conference opened on Monday night with incredible and exciting worship led by Taiwanese college students a powerful sermon by Taiwanese Youth Pastor Craig (who was the main evening speaker).

Another great day!

July 4-5

I forgot to mention in my previous post that we decided to visit the Shilin night market late on Friday. Yes, we were still tired, but in a foreign country you never want to miss a chance to visit something exciting.

And we weren't disappointed. It was really cool. Vendors on every side, on every corner, using every inch of available space. I would say that a large majority of the stuff for sale was clothes: hats, shoes, jean, shirts, accessories. The next most common goods were food: corn on the cob, squid on a stick, duck hearts, pig ears, all kinds of other crazy foods, and mango. I've never really liked mango before, but after a week of amazingly fresh mango it's grown on me. It was loud, smelly, and crowded... Just my kind of place:)

Saturday was another sight seeing say, we went to the Taiwan National Museum and the Taipei 101. The national museum was amazing because it basically holds the national treasures of China (taken as many Chinese fled to Taiwan during the 1949 revolution). There are plenty of items that we got to see that are just too beautiful to describe [no photography allowed:(] My faves were the 30 meter long paintings and the unbelievably intricate ivory carvings.

The Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world. The observation deck is at nearly 400 meters. The view was incredible. You could see for miles and miles. Here are a few pics:

After those amazing sights we crashed at the hotel for a bit and then I went to speak with a college group at one of the Free Methodist Churches in Taipei. It went pretty well. I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked and it was my first time speaking with a translator. Luckily the group was really friendly and they were excellent hosts. The highlight of that day was the ride I recieved back to the hotel. The streets of Taipei are crazy! Super crowded streets and thousands of motorcycles flying everywhere in between. My new friend Justice gave me a ride through the city streets on the back of his motorcycle and it was too fun. I hope to have the video up soon.

Late Saturday evening we welcomed Foster Chase and his daughter Kelsey to Taiwan. The Chase's attend my Dad's church and it was great to get to know them throughout the week.

Then Sunday morning, we Teal's went back to the same FM church where my dad preached (proached?? praught??) a great sermon. We ate lunch with the church and had tea at the Grand Hotel with our friend James. Then we met back up with Foster and Kelsey and attended a Vietnamese FM church which meets once a month in Taipei. That was an experience:)

I could tell Dad was quite a bit worn out from the day, but he gave a fantastic evangelistic sermon translated by Pastor Dinh. It was fun to listen to him translate. We all seemed to sense that he was helping my Dad out a bit, adding and explaining things in a better way. And that was a good thing, after the invitation about 10 people came up front to accept Christ in their lives. Whew! Praise God.

After the service was over Dad became a celebrity and became surrounded by the vietnamese people as they took picture after picture. Here's a couple of my faves:

Then we finished of the day with taking Foster and Kelsey for a visit to the Shilin night market.

And this is just the beginning:)

July 1-3: Taipei

I flew out of Detroit on a direct flight to Tokyo. Yes, you read correct, a direct flight from Detroit to Tokyo. I left Wednesday at 3:20pm and I arrived at 5pm on Thursday. Over 12 and a half hours on the plane plus you lose 12 hours with the time change. That will mess you up. That messed me up.

I met up with my dad in the Tokyo airport and after a 2 hour layover (just enough time to get through security) we had a 3 hour flight to Taipei. We arrived in Taipei late Thursday evening exactly 12 hours ahead of home. We were met at the airport by Jimmy Tsai and his friend Do-do. Do-do is a college student who's mother is a music teacher (his brother's name is Rey-rey. no kidding).

The flight wasn't too bad. I had an aisle seat and there wasn't anyone sitting in the seat next to me. So I had a bit of extra elbow room plus I could get up and stretch whenever I needed. I never got stir crazy, but your brain shuts down after about 6 hours.

When in Taipei we stayed at the YMCA hotel. It was nice and conveniently located right in the heart of downtown next to the MRT (subway system), bus depot, and high speed railway. We pretty much just spent friday recovering from jetlag, but I did have a food challenge on that first day.

As a reader of this blog, you probably know me well enough to know that I am a picky eater. I knew going into this cross-cultural experience that I would be challenged, but I hoped to have some time to ease myself into this new food experience. So when given a few restaurant options for lunch, I chose Italian, what I beleived to be a safe bet. What I didn't know is that the "Italian" served by Cafe Grazie is just chinese food on top of spaghetti. I really struggled with that meal (especially the lettuce wrap appetizer). It was especially difficult since, as an honored guest, we were offered all of the goodies first. yum.

more stories tomorrow:)

Catching Up

As mentioned in my previous post, July has been a very long and very exciting month. I've spent the past week reconnecting with family and ministry, as well as attempting to recover from some very demanding days.

Part of my recovery has been spent on thinking about what to do with my blog; should I review the past month, or do I just move forward?

I think I'll try to review my journeys not only to keep you in the loop, but I hope it will be a tool for me to keep my experiences fresh.

July.

July is going to be an awesome month. July is going to be a crazy month.

On July 1st, I fly from Detroit to Tokyo. non-stop. Then I meet up with my dad and fly to Taipei, Taiwan. From there we take the train to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. We will be speaking at a week long youth camp (he's doing most of the speaking; I'm there to support, learn, and share a little). Then I fly back to Detroit and have a short visit with my family (who will be staying with family in Indiana).

5 days later I lead my youth group on a week-long misisons trip to Washington, DC to minister to a group of inner city kids.

I hope to share pictures and video of my adventures as well as many stories of the amazing things that God is going to do. But as you may have guessed, I'm going to be quite busy. If you don't see a post for a while, just keep praying that God would continue to speak to me and through me.

Don't Break the Ice

I had a chance to play "Don't Break the Ice" with Evan and Aaron tonight. What a ridiculous game. Who came up with the idea that this would be a great game for kids to play??


For those of you who aren't familiar, Don't Break the Ice is a game for kids where plastic white cubes are placed inside a plastic blue frame and the only thing that keeps the whole thing from collapsing is the pressure of each piece pushing against the others. The point of the game is to use a small plastic hammer to strategically knock out the proper blocks to not cause the platform to collapse on your turn but on that of your opponent. It's a bit like Jenga, but you don't but the blocks back on top. And you don't work together. OK, It's nothing like Jenga.

The problem is that kids don't understand the concept of strategically plotting your opponents downfall. They don't even get the idea that you should try to keep the blocks standing as long as possible. All they see is an opportunity to knock something apart in about 5 seconds. Did I mention it takes about 8 minutes to reset everything?

We had a great time, but they should really change the age rating to 12+.

Eight plus Kate with occasional guest cameos by Jon

Tonight marked a sad day in the history of the Gosselin Family. This hour long episode of TLC's prized reality show ended with Jon and Kate announcing their separation (with the closing credits confirming the legal filing for divorce). It was a really painful episode to watch. I kept hoping they would pull a switcheroo and edit the episode to create tension and end with a Jon and Kate announcing a recommitment to their relationship. But it wasn't so.

In a previous post, I've already shared my opinion that Jon and Kate would love their kids most by investing in their relationship. It just seems like they keep talking about how much they are "there" for their kids without realizing the pain and heartache that they are leading them though; without seeing the contradiction between the lessons that they are trying to teach and the their actions. Both Jon and Kate have issues to deal with in their individual lives and as a couple, but I think that Jon has more blame in the decay of this relationship.

He needs to grow up, act like a man, and take responsilbility for the committment that he made to Kate and to God to always love her, no matter what. Yes, Kate is hard on him. Yes, it must be ridiculously difficult to raise a family of 8 kids. Yes, the pressure of the papparazzi/media/and fans has got to be nearly overwhelming. But that's what being a man is all about; taking on the challenges that would seem to break us.

And as I was reminded in church on Sunday, you can't do it alone. You need other men. You need a supportive and encouraging wife. Above all, you need a powerful, loving, and relentless God. Let's pray we can learn from Jon and Kate.

Bloggin bout Blogs

My good friend Robbie just sent me a link to Stuff Christians Like.

It's a fantastic blog which humorously explores the often ridiculous world of American Christian culture. As often is the case, there is alot of truth and insight in these entries as well. We should take our journey with Christ seriously, but in a way that is intentional and persevering, not in a way that prevents us from being able to laugh at ourselves.

I've only read a fraction of the entries, but here are a few of my favourites so far:

#17- Unspoken Prayer Requests
#71- Calling Things Postmodern
#93- Riding on the Cool Van in Youth Group
#560- Writing Twitter Messages that sound 14% Holier than you usually are (can also be applied to facebook status updates)

God texts the ten commandments

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.

2. dnt wrshp pix/idols

3. no omg's

4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)

5. pos ok - ur m&d r cool

6. dnt kill ppl

7. :-X only w/ m8

8. dnt steal

9. dnt lie re: bf

10. dnt ogle ur bf's m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl.

ttyl, JHWH.

ps. wwjd?

(source)

Eye of the Tiger

I like to root for the underdog. It's something I picked up from my dad. Unless it's a team or individual that I closely follow, I'll almost always cheer for the little guy. That's why I want the Lakers to lose. That's why I don't like Lebron. But lately, there's one big dog (actually, a big cat) that I can't help but cheer for ... Tiger Woods.

As I said earlier, I picked up the habit of cheering for the underdog from my dad. He could never want Tiger to win. not once, ever; but I can't help but be amazed and inspired at Tiger's recovery following surgery last year.

For me it started last year when Tiger won the the U.S Open with one leg. One Good Leg. How bad was his other leg? He had season ending surgery on it 9 days after he won. And he was out of the game for nearly a year following the procedure. Now sure, it's not like he didn't pick up a golf club during that time, but for over 8 months he had no competition to compel him, no tournaments to keep him sharp. Despite that fact, he's won 2 of the 6 tournaments he's played in since he came back.

That's just ridiculous. Nobody should be coming back from major surgery at the top of their game. and I can't help but obsess about what is driving him to succeed. He didn't have to come back. What motivates the most dominant athlete in the world?

I don't know, but I'm sure it's not money. Like he could really use an extra $1 million... or $20 million. He could have had his surgery and then sailed the seven seas for the rest of his life, played video games all day, and never trained or dieted again. But he came back.

Maybe it's cementing his legacy, or his ego, or something else, but something drives Tiger Woods enough to bring him back day after day. I found this quote from him online:

“No matter how good you get you can always get better and that's the exciting part.”
(source)

You would think the exciting part for a guy like him is all the stuff he gets as a result of winning: Money, fame, anything. You would think the exciting part is being lauded as one of the best players of all time. But he says that the exciting part is getting better. Improving one detail at a time. Let me put it another way, the excitement is in the journey not the destination.

Now that's something worth thinking about. That's something worth trying. That's something you can cheer for.

It's alright 'cause...

Becky heard about this on TV today and although we didn't catch the original airing, the beauty of the internet means we're all able to catch gems like this anytime, anyplace. If you watched nbc on saturday mornings in the late 80's/early 90's you need to watch this:

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

I loved Saved by the Bell. But as big a fan as I was (am?), my sister Angela was (is!) a huge SBTB fan. I'm sure she knew those interview questions easily and with no studying would totally dominate in a Saved by the Bell trivia contest.

I hope Jimmy Fallon succeeds in the Bayside reunion. That's what I call Must See T.V.

Eh, Steve!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 may be a day for the history books.

Steve Weibe will make a live attempt at the Donkey Kong World Record.


Don't know who Steve Weibe is? Rent/download/watch the documentary "King of Kong: a fistful of quarters" (I'm watching it right now!). Steve is a regular guy, a middle school science teacher, who happens to be one of the top Donkey Kong players in the world. His rival is Billy Mitchell, a cocky, hot sauce mogul who has battled Steve for the DK world record over the past few years. I won't spoil the movie for you, because it really is worth watching.

This week is Electronic Entertainment Expo (or E3), which is one of the largest video gaming conferences in the world. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and most of the third-party developers all make big announcments about upcoming new releases and unveil new games.

As part of the conference, Stride Gum has decided to offer Steve a chance to not only claim the record, but will reward him with $10,001 in quarters if he can beat the current top score of 1,050,200 (source).

I'm really rooting for him. He seems like a the kind of guy you'd like to be your friend.


Good luck Steve!

Detroit vs. Pittsburgh 2: frozen boogaloo....

...and this time, it's personal!

Tonight is the first night of the Stanley Cup Finals. In a rare occurrence, the two competing teams are the same teams that played in the finals last year. Detroit won last time 4 games to 2, using their experience to beat the younger Penguins (led by "the next one" Sidney Crosby). It's a similar story this time around, but with one difference that I hope gives us the edge... Marian Hossa.

Hossa played for Pittsburgh last year and became one of the most sought after free agents following the '08 season. He turned down multi year, multi-multi million dollar contracts with other teams (including Pittsburgh) to sign a one year, 7 million contract with Detroit. He picked a team that he thought he could fit well with and win a Championship, and the Penguins will want to make him pay for leaving them.

Marian Hossa as a Penguin, putting the hurt on Detroit in 2008.

Marian Hossa with a new look in 2009

But I think that gives him extra motivation to step up and prove that he made the right choice. Watch Hossa tonight, I think he's going to be one of the keys for Detroit to win (along with some more great goal tending by Osgood).

Zoo Review

Our family went to the Detroit Zoo today and we had a great time. The weather was nearly perfect, but we happened to pick the same day to visit as every elementary school in metro-detroit (or so it seemed).

Pros: Reasonable price
Plenty of animals to see

Cons: Dated facilities
Lots of walking between exhibits and main entrance
Sparse restrooms

I've never been to the Detroit Zoo and I wasn't quite sure what to expect... it is, after all, the Detroit Zoo. Part of me expected to see most of the animals running around free range and they just pass out tazers at the door. I was pleasantly surprised by our experience. While the zoo facilities were quite dated (it's not like Detroit has much money to spare) the enclosures were all in good repair and clean. I didn't feel like the animals were trapped in unsafe or inhumane conditions.

But the bathroom facilities were few and far between. You notice those things when you take 3 small kids with you.

Would I recommend it? Yes and No. I would not recommend it as a one day experience. The cost for our family for a one day pass would be about $35 (including parking) which is a decent deal, but the Toledo Zoo isn't much further away and I would say that it is a better one day value.

But I would recommend it if you are willing to purchase year round membership ($64 for us). It not only covers all family members for a year, plus parking, but it they have a reciprocal program that allows our membership to cover zoo fees at dozens of zoos across the country (including the Toledo zoo and the Ft. Wayne Children's zoo); so as long as you visit more than once it's a great deal.

What 2 watch

Longer days, shorter nights, and a new American Idol can only mean one thing... the summer T.V. schedule has begun! Back in the '80s and '90s, this meant no original programming outside of soap operas and syndicated game shows. Then reality T.V. was born (or summoned from the depths of hades) and we were overwhelmed with quality programming like Big Brother and Temptation Island.

But there is one show actually worth watching this summer: Wipeout.



Ripped off from Japanese "reality t.v." it features people competing to win $50,000 in challenges designed to make people fall in hilarious ways. [It's mXc that the whole family can watch]. They just had the first episode and I can't wait to watch the rest.

However, there are two T.V. disappointments. Psych is another show I'm looking forward to, but it doesn't start until August. and there's no American Gladiators. How did that show not get picked up?



Wondering how the season premiere of Jon & Kate plus Eight fared? An amazing 9.8 million viewers. (source) That's double the season 4 finale (which had been the most viewed JK8 episode). I'll probably watch that all summer too (cowering in fear, peeking between my fingers)

Go Wings!

The Detroit Redwings just scored a thrilling goal in overtime to take them to the Stanley Cup Finals.



Back to back baby!

Jon & Kate plus... hate??

"So what do you think of the whole Jon and Kate plus 8 stuff?", Becky asked me as we were driving home from visiting her folks over the weekend. I said that I thought things were probably being blown out of proportion; that it certainly must be extremely difficult to raise such a large family; and hopefully the new season would show a clearer picture of what is going on in their lives. Becky added that they are Christians so not only should they have their faith to rely on, but that they would also have people giving them Godly advice/assistance as well.

Then we watched tonight's Season 5 premier of Jon and Kate plus Eight. Oh my. It looks bad. Like really, awkwardly bad. (if you didn't see it, here's a pretty accurate review of what happened) I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the show, but I've followed it over the years. Becky watches every episode and I've seen most of them with her, and full disclosure, I read their book (multiple blessings) when she borrowed it from the library. I've become less and less interested in the show as it has changed from "how this couple handles the real life challenges of marriage and parenting" to "jon, kate, and the kids go on product placement adventures". But no matter my feelings of the show, it was really sad to see the poor status of their relationship.

Obviously there has been alot of public attention surrounding their family and the tabloids/paparazzi/scandals regarding jon and kate and their marriage. I know that I am not in their shoes and it has got to be incredibly difficult to keep that family together and raise those kids in a loving and responsible way, but both Jon and Kate appear to be totally missing the point in their family right now. Both of them, repeatedly, said that they are totally focused on the kids and they will always love them, but someone needs to tell them that they need to show their kids what love really is by loving each other. Love does not mean giving everything to one person or group at the exclusion of another. You don't teach your kids anything by telling them about it, you teach them by living it. Loving their kids should mean showing the kids how to love another person when times are tough.

I really hope Jon and Kate can save their marriage. So they can teach their kids what love really is. So they can learn what love really is. So America can see what love really is.

At The Red House!

This is the best commercial I have ever seen. I may drive to North Carolina just to buy something from this store.

See more funny videos and Funny Videos at Today's Big Thing.

It's not fake, check out the Redhouse website.

Denim Impossible

I went jean shopping again today. (you can read about my last jean shopping experience here)

I thought it would be really easy this time since I had synthesized the correct jean formula last time out, but i forgot about two critical components: brand and size. Unfortunately during this season, most stores are stocking up on shorts so the jean selection is a bit thin. The jean identification key that I had formulated only works with one particular brand and there were only a few pairs of that label available... and none of them were in my size. So I had to start from scratch with a new brand. Trying the clothes on in the fitting room became an even bigger chore when Evan and Aaron started play-cagefighting in the cubicle we were in (Aaron has some MMA potential). Thankfully, Becky was able to take the boys, but I ultimately left the store emptyhanded.

Just when I think I've got clothes shopping all figured out...

Movie Review - Star Trek

I really liked it.

I should say up front that I am a fan of the 'Star Trek' universe, but I wouldn't categorize myself as a trekkie or trekker or whatever they call themselves. I've only seen a handful of episodes from the original series, but I've seen all the original 6 movies. I've watched alot of 'The Next Generation' and a couple of those films, but I haven't followed 'Trek' outside of that. I probably fit right into the demographic this movie is targeted at (male; 18-35; fiction fan, but not too hardcore).

To my surprise, I found myself really sucked into the film during the first 10 minutes. They did a fantastic job setting up the characters while still progressing the story (unlike xmen:wolverine) and there only a few moments, as a whole, where it dragged. It felt fun, but not too lighthearted; I was invested enough to ignore the logical jumps and criticisms that can often pop-up in movies like this (I'm looking at you, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Waste of Two Hours).

I continue to be impressed by director J.J. Abrams. He has a great feel for action and skillfully telling a complex and compelling story. He has mastered working with ensemble casts (LOST, Mission Impossible III, Cloverfield) and does a fantastic job of casting the right actor for the right characters (Alias, LOST, Fringe). Here in Star Trek, each character feels right and gets a few moments of screen time that fit both this film and the established history of the franchise.

I think that was what stood out to me most as I watched the movie; it felt uniquely 'Star Trek' (as opposed to Star Wars, or other "space" films) but it still felt fresh and exciting. If Abrams and the cast are on board for sequel... I'm there.

the Incident

WOW!


LOST was at it's mind blowing best last night. Just when you think you've figured out where this show is going they throw in new tricks and twists that make you even more excited about what's happening; it's what LOST does best. I loved last night's season finale and I'm so amazed at how the show has evolved over the past 5 seasons.

Season 1 was a character study about each person: who they are, what they did prior to the crash, and how those events influenced their choices and actions on the island. We were introduced to the mythology and history of the island, but the focus was always on the motivation of each character.

Season 2 explored the struggle between faith and science. How can a person (Locke, Desmond, Mr. Eko) believe in something that they've never seen? How can a person (Jack, Sayid) disbelieve something they've never seen? The focus began to change more to the mythology of the island with more revelations about the stations throughout the island and a good look at the smoke monster.

Season 3 was about relativism and morality. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? Who chooses which group or individual is good or bad? Each different clan (crash survivors, the others, the dharma initiative) saw themselves as good and right. The show explored much of the history of the island as we found out more about the others and the dharma initiative.

Season 4 looked at destiny and fate. Where they meant to leave or meant to stay? Or similar to season 2, was there no meaning at all, just action and reaction? This is where the show fully embraced the sci-fi underpinings with the introduction and use of time-travel.

Season 5 lead to, and ended with, Free Will vs. Determinism. Do you have the freedom to choose? or has your destiny already chosen? Time travel and mythology take central roles as the story moves forward.

The show has morphed and changed over the years (while maintaining and continuing to add to a gargantuan cast), but it still retains the same intensity and excitement and heart that it had in the beginning. 2010 cannot come fast enough.

cubism

Have you ever see a car that you thought was just plain ugly? Which models/makes are on your list?

I'm not old enough to has seen such classic disasters such as the Edsel, but there are plenty of vehicles on the road that I think are design failures: PT Cruizer, Chevy HHR, and the worst offender, the Pontiac Aztek.

Early Aztek Engineering Design

Now there's a new polarizing design on the horizon... the Nissan Cube. It is reminiscent of the boxy styling of the Honda Element or Scion xb. The windows have rounded frames and the rear hatch opens via side mounted hinges.

Forward design or huge mistake?

Where a kid can be a kid

I just uploaded a couple hundred photos from our camera when I came to the realization that waaay too many of them are located within Chuck E. Cheese. Someday our kids are going to look back through all these pictures and think that they were raised inside of one.



It is one of our family's favorite places to go, especially when the weather is cold or rainy. You can sign up on the chuck e cheese website to get a "buy 40 tokens get 60 free" coupon which really sweetens the deal.

Aaron loves skeeball. He could play that the whole time. Evan likes the racing games. Becky is the wheel spin queen. and me? Fast Fingers World Champion!! It's a game where you trace a LED maze with your finger against a 15 second clock. I usually beat it the first or second time, but then the prize ticket count resets and it's not worth doing again. Plus it kills your finger to drag it across the surface as fast as you can more than 4 or 5 times.

But now that the weather is finally warming up we'll take some more pictures outdoors (and maybe even spend some time out there while we're at it).

I'm Baack

Hi. I hope my extended absence hasn't driven you fine readers away. I was having some serious PC troubles and it took quite a while to figure things out.

As mentioned in my previous post, my folks were in town and we spend several days in Canada visiting my Grandparents in Niagara Falls. However, just before that trip we started having some serious problems with our laptop (actually, the churches laptop). It turns out that it had become a large collection of viruses contained within a plastic shell. We got it back several days later after it was wiped clean and rebooted. Then the power cord stopped working. Since I had received the laptop secondhand the battery had very little usable life (and by very little I mean 5 to 6 minutes), but it was not a big deal because I always had the power cord in order to use it. Until now. So I had to order a new power cord, which got to me several days later. The laptop worked great for 1 day... and then it really broke. Gone. Dead. Garbage.

I spent about a week shopping around. I was really hoping to get a mac. but our church doesn't have much budget for technology and price drove us to go with a Dell Inspiron. I'm sad the mac didn't work out, but someday it'll happen.

I'm glad to be back in the blogosphere. Hopefully we can get back in the ongoing conversation that is 'the best 3 minutes of your day'.

Bloggin from work

I don't usually blog from work, but I thought I should give you all (all one of you) an update of what's going on in my life. Just a couple posts ago I talked about how I wanted to get back in the habit of blogging more consistently, but then our laptop became a virus factory. Nothing would work and I had to take it in to a repair shop who is wiping it clean. This process takes several days, of course.

We won't get it back until tomorrow and then I won't be blogging because my parents are coming into town and we're headed off to Canada to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Teal.

I'll be back soon. Promise.

Bubbles gets a makeover

Detroit is hurtin' these days. In addition to the well documented struggles of the Big Three, the Detroit public school system is shutting down 23 schools and laying off 600 teachers and staff. The D can't catch a break. But one of the city's most troubled citizens is getting a facelift this year.

Bubbles.

You may know him as the logo for the Detroit Lions.

I have no idea how or why he is named Bubbles, he just is. I first heard about this from sports insider Robbie Bolton who told me that the lions website was liquidating all the old gear. The rumor is that the new logo may be publicly revealed sometime around the upcoming NFL draft. But, it appears that a copy of the image was leaked onto the internet, so here's a sneak peak:

(new logo on the left, old one on the right. new font underneath)



I like it. I'm glad they left the colors the same and it's not drastically different from the old one, but it's one step removed from that 0-16 season. Bubbles is looking gooood.

What do you think?

graboids

Right now Becky and I are watching "Tremors" on T.V. Right away, how many of you have seen this cult classic? I mean, my mom even loves it.



I've seen it tons of times and it never gets old. Cheesy, but fun. I don't think you can really classify it as a horror film since it's not really scary. The Comcast on screen guide calls it a "good- natured spoof", but I don't think it's quite that light. Regardless of whatever section of the movie rental store you find it in (which is probably going out of business) it's irresistibly watchable. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward have really chemistry as two old buddies stuck going nowhere in a tiny town in the middle of the desert and decide to leave "Perfection" just one day too late. Monsters and mayhem ensue and Michael Gross and Reba McEntire are hilarious as gun loving isolationists.

It requires watching anytime you come across it. I find the same thing with Die Hard. If it's on, I've gotta watch it.

What movie will you watch when you find it on T.V., no matter how many times you've watched it before?

april update

Apologies to my dedicated readers for not blogging lately. No excuse or reason, just wasn't participating the global interweb community.

I actually don't have anything to blog about now; I'm just trying to get back in the habit. I enjoy posting my thoughts and web gems that I come across, not to mention reading your comments. It's widely known that one of the keys to having a successful blog is consistent updates. Consider yourself updated!

SPARTANS

Way to go STATE!! I didn't get a chance to watch all of the game but was excited that our homestate Spartans will be playing in the big game on Monday night. I must admit I'm primarily a Michigan fan, but I'm not hardcore enough that I want Michigan State to fail (unlike the Lopez's:). The way I see it, their success reflects well on all of the Big Ten. Plus Michigan certainly can use all the good news we can get these days.

Big NFL news

Jay Cutler was finally traded today to the Chicago Bears. (source) Chicago gave the Broncos starting quarterback Kyle Orton and a few draft picks. For those of you who haven't been following this story here's the short version: Cutler is a very talented young quarterback who lead the second t offense in football last year. However, the Broncos defense is horrible and they missed the playoffs. So they fired the head coach and brought in a new guy from New England to coach the team. The new coach tried to trade Cutler for Matt Cassel (who had a great year for the Patriots) and when Jay found out about it he lost it. He asked to be traded and refused to talk to the coach or owner. Now he'll be starting for one of the worst offenses in the league and I think he's totally ruined his reputation (I'm not the only one who thinks so).

Last week I was hoping the the Lions might trade for him since they have plenty of draft picks to negotiate with, but I'm really glad we didn't get him. The way that he has handled this situation has shown his selfishness and immaturity. The Lions certainly need as much help as they can get, but we also need the right guys. Jay ain't one of 'em.

Kindygarden

I hate it when people call Kindergarten "kindygarden". I try hard not to be the pronunciation police, but there are some words too annoying to be ignored. But I digress...

Becky and I have been traveling around the Kindergarten circuit in preparation for Evan's entrance into academia next fall. The state of Michigan is mandating that all schools must transition to all day Kindergaten in 2010, but the Dearborn district has decided to be ahead of the curve and the public schools are all implementing full day K starting this fall.

When I first heard about this I was pretty put off by the concept. I know that having our kids at home with mom puts us in the minority these days, but it seems like a major challenge to put kids into school all day instead of easing the transition with a half day program. Last night we went to the open house for the local public elementary school (Snow) and I have to admit that I left the meeting much more open minded about the possibility than I've been the last few weeks.

The two things that stood out to me are:
1) It give the teachers more time to teach each subject. Instead of rushing from writing to math to recess the students are able to work on each topic with greater flexibility and less pressure to power through it.
2) It allows more time for social interaction and communal learning. I think this is one of the most important things for Evan to get from Kindergarten; a full day program gives the students time to interact that doesn't exist in half day K.

So here I am, harnessing the limitless potential of the internet, asking you readers what your take is. Have any of you sent your kids to full day K? or experienced it yourself?

pwnage

Jesus Pwn3d U - barats and bereta