Sadly, there are people out there who just want to ruin the movie. My oldest now has friends who are working ago and one works at the theater. She told me that her friend said people were leaving the theater in tears because there is a very emotional scene near the end of the movie. Unfortunately I worked out exactly what happened based on passing comments people made. They didn’t think it would “spoil” the movie … like it wasn’t an inside joke people who didn’t see the movie wouldn’t possibly be able to understand.

Well, that might be true of some people, but my daughter and I both tend to predict major plot points in the movie, even without hints. I remember when Sixth Sense came out, and this was way back before everyone was online. I didn’t watch it right away because I wasn’t really that interested. Everyone kept telling me it was “so good” and there was a “OMG BIGGEST PLOT TWIST EVER!!!!!” and that I’d never see it coming. After a few times I got kind of tired of how people who had seen it seemed to feel they knew something I didn’t and just wanted to dangle this big plot twist in front of me so the next time someone tried to goad me to go watch the movie because of the plot twist I looked right at them and said, “Bruce Willis dies at the beginning of the movie but you don’t realize it till the end and he didn’t think he was dead but the boy knew and talked to him.” They asked if I had seen it and I told them all I ever saw was the preview. When they asked who spoiled it I simply said it was them and everyone else who went on and one about the plot twist. That was enough to spoil the movie for me so I never got to experience that plot twist.

Though to be honest, when I finally did watch the movie I couldn’t comprehend how anyone didn’t figure that out in the very beginning. It was pretty blatant.

Anyway, back to Infinity War. Before going to the movie I had a talk with my youngest. He gets really into these movies and loves his super heroes. If something bad happens to them it makes him angry or sad. So I warned him and said this wasn’t like the other Marvel movies. There is a part 1 and 2 so things aren’t going to go well for the heroes and a lot of his favorites might die or be hurt very, very bad.

Basically I was giving him a chance to not watch it, and he thought about it but decided to watch it anyway.

Well, it was intense, right from the start. I kept watching him and he was really into it but it was clear parts of it bothered him quite a bit. I talked with him after and he is angry at the person who made the movie. I did reassure him than in part 2 things will probably get a lot better and the heroes will win in the end. I asked if he was glad he watched it or wished he had stayed with his Nana and Papa. He admitted he was still glad to have watched it but was still mad.

For me, I really enjoyed the movie but not as much as Black Panther. It was great seeing so many characters from the MCU in a single movie. I feel they did a good job of bringing in aspects of each individual part of the franchise too. Like when they switch to the Guardians of the Galaxy for the first time, they are playing music like you’d expect from one of their movies.

They also added a lot of great comedic segments, which helped to counter balance the darker elements.

I think if I didn’t know some of what was going to happen it would have been a true emotional rollercoaster. Unfortunately some of that effect was lost on me.

There are certain things that didn’t fully make sense. I suspect it could be related to cast availability but they didn’t have certain characters and they basically said “oh, they can’t make it…” I mean the reason was a little more specific but I feel like it would have been good to at least give some effort there. It’s like how Thor wasn’t in Civil War. Granted that wasn’t an Avengers movie but pretty much everyone but Thor and Hulk were in it including new characters like Spiderman and Ant Man. We know what Hulk was up to after Ragnorak and Thor was probably busy with other stuff, but it is still disappointing they didn’t have a little more about that in the movie.

Maybe they’ll do something in the upcoming Ant Man and the Wasp movie. There is clearly some major happening that they will have to acknowledge in that movie.

Anyways, I’ve talked for a while and hopefully if you ended up on this page you have seen the movie, but if not I’m going to warn you that there is a spoiler ahead. Like the next paragraph I’m going to start talking about something specific in the movie, not just my experience and feelings about it. Before I jump to the spoiler I will say the movie is a solid A, not an A+. Might have been an A+ if I didn’t see certain things coming. Either way I can highly recommend it.

Ok, you were warned. My favorite part of the movie was actually a casting decision. As you probably know, Thor’s hammer Mjolnir was destroyed is Ragnorak (they show it in the preview which I think was a real disservice). Well, in Infinity War he seeks a new weapon. He goes to the place where Mjolnir was forged and it is a dead hulk in space. Then he is attacked by a giant. When the motion stops for a moment you clearly see the giant’s face. Turns out that space dwarves are about twice as tall as an average human but are played by people often cast as dwarves or halflings. The dwarf that towered over Thor was none other than Peter Dinklage. I lost it.

I had been avoiding spoilers or information about the movie as much as I could so I had no idea he was in the movie. When I realized they cast him as a dwarf but made the dwarf a giant I had a hard time breathing I was laughing so hard.

In my mind there had to have been a conversation something like this:

casting director: Peter, we have a part we think you’d be perfect for.
Peter Dinklage: You’ve got 30 seconds to wow me.
CD: Space Dwarf
PD: Ok, I’m interested .. but not wowed. 25 seconds.
CD: Space Dwarf that forged Thor’s Hammer out for revenge against the Titan who mangled his hands, killed his people, and broke his forge.
PD: …
CD: …
PD: You’re losing me. Dwarves, forges, seems a bit played out. 15 seconds.
CD: Did I mention the Space Dwarf is a giant?
PD: You mean like tall for a dwarf? Maybe average human size?
CD: I mean like twice as tall as a tall human.
PD: You had me at Giant Space Dwarf. Peter out!

If that conversation didn’t happen I’m still going to pretend it did. It feels like something right out of an SNL skit only it happened for real. That scene alone was worth the price of admission.

So that’s my review and I hope you already saw the movie if you’ve made it to this point. If not, there is plenty of other stuff that happens in the movie that makes it worth your time to go watch it.

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Getting some more headway in the remodel. We’ve got a ceiling and have the walls painted. It looks nice and sharp if I do say so myself. Props to my wife for picking the color. 

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Last year about this time we had to bid farewell to Tyler, our faithful lab mix. He was the best dog and my oldest son still says, “Tyler was my best friend.”

It was a difficult time and I really struggled with it for a while, but back in January we got a new puppy. The family decided to call him Link since there is a dog in the neighborhood named Zelda and you must have a Link to go with Zelda

He was born on Thanksgiving, so it is easy enough to remember his birthday. I thought he would be a great pup. His siblings were either all black or all yellow but he was black with some white spots. That made him special. I felt super excited when they let us bring him home.

The first month was tough. He didn’t kennel well to start with but we kept working with him. After a month of taking turns sleeping next to him we got him comfortable sleeping in his kennel by himself. Now he sleeps through the night and does a really good job letting us know it’s time to go potty.

Anyway, here are some of the pics we took with Link so far.

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Last week was camp; it was a lot of fun. I got very little sleep, and did lots of stuff. Yesterday was my daughter’s 8th b-day. We went to the amusement park. It was lots of fun. We played very hard on very little sleep. Ever notice how the more fun you have the more you want to stay in bed for a long time? Seems unfair if you think about it.

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The official title is The Bare Facts: 39 Questions Your Parents Hope You Never Ask About Sex and it was written with Erin Davis.  I didn’t know who Erin Davis was before this book came in the mail, but I had read a couple of things by Josh McDowell and took my students through a BlueFish.tv series by him as well.  Of course, the real reason I couldn’t pass the book up is because of the topic.  Let’s face it.  Sex sells.  I’ve written on the subject a fair many times here, and they tend to be the most visited posts on my blog.  I talk about sex, and write about it, because media does so much to influence out culture with very destructive sex messages.  It is important to try and get good, uplifting messages on the subject of sex out there.  We just plain can’t hide it under the rug. I try to talk about this for at least one series a year, and I’m actually in the middle of that right now.  I’m going through another BlueFish.tv series, The Truth About Sex, with Doug Fields. I’ll be writing about that later. For now, let’s check out this book.

Just the Facts

As Joe Friday always said, just the facts. The book addresses 39 questions over the course of 126 pages. It is a reasonably quick read cover to cover. It is broken up into 6 sections by study questions, which are included at the end of the book. There are no pictures, but the publishers do use typography to set apart specific quotes, similar to the way a newspaper or magazine does. The book says “no question is off limits” and does deal with almost everything I’ve tried to answer for my students. It talks about abstinence, purity, and love. Often as far as any Christian book on the subject goes. It also discusses the real facts on STDs and “safe sex” as well as the emotional and mental response to sex, not just the physical. It even addresses anal/oral sex and other sexual practices commonly used to “preserve virginity” today and pornography and masturbation. I think the only think not really covered is same sex attraction.

High Marks

I have to give praise that they address some topics that I haven’t found much Christian writing on. For example, Hey Look Another Red Warning Post, where I ask if “fingering” is ok. I did a lot of searching and could find any Christian perspectives on this issue and others, which are in this book. I also like the way the book is broken up into chapters based on the questions. It makes it much easier to find specific answers. Curious what the most common STD is? Try the chapter “What is the most common STD?” It is also very important that the book uses frank and specific terminology. It doesn’t talk about weewees or hoohoos. This isn’t a “sex ed” type book, but they address real information factually. The discussion questions seem to be pretty solid, and are open ended, meaning better group discussion. The questions are formed like

In your opinion, who pays the highest price when sexual activity is not saved till marriage?

See, first you see that this is a question to opinion, allowing for a difference of thought and open dialogue. If you are looking for it, they avoid saying “sex” which might be limited to intercourse or having a partner. By saying “sexual activity” they are targeting a much wider range of thought and activity.

Needs Improvement

This book will make a great resource for groups planning on discussing this. There is a built in 6 week series. This book is not really written to appeal to teens in and of itself. I can certainly see myself using this as a resource, and if a teen asks a question I’m happy to give them a copy after talking with them, but I don’t see them really reading it. Part of this is because most students I know just aren’t into reading, and partly because those that do read, don’t read stuff like this. the look and presentation kind of remind my of my teen study Bible from 1992. I don’t mean it looks like something from the 90s, I mean it looks like that Bible looked to me back in the 90s. Like something made by someone trying to appear hip and cool. Maybe something in more of a magazine type look would help, but even then I just don’t think a huge number of students will really read this cover to cover. That said, I think they love to read and think about sex, and they will read key sections. They might wonder, “Isn’t it better if we live together first?” and open this book up to read that section. Like I said, this is a resource.

It might have helped if there were more “stories” in the book, not just “The Bare Facts.” Of course, then they would have to change the name of the book.

Plays Well With Others

As I said before, I’m currently going through a series with my students, and this book would make a great companion piece to the Truth About Sex series with Doug Fields. Of course, it would also go well with some of the past series I’ve done too. It addresses many of the same topics in similar ways, but with more facts to support what Doug Fields and the interviewed students are saying.

In Closing

I’m clearly not a good preacher, I had 4 points, not 3. Something must be wrong with me here. In any case, I would recommend this book to any leader that wants a simple resource for their own shelves or for small groups. I’d say get a few copies to give away to questing students. I’d also recommend to parents. It will help get you in the know about some stuff you are probably totally ignorant of. Seriously, the statistics will shock you, but you need to get a good dose of reality. Finally, if you are a student and want to know the answer to some really big questions about sex, but are afraid to ask your youth leader or parents, then don’t let me scare you away. This book is definitely for you too.

Oh, and one more detail, I have 2 copies to give away. If you want a copy leave a comment.  If more than 2 comments get left I’m going to use a highly scientific approach to choosing the winner. First, I’m going to randomly sort all the comments, then do eenie, meenie, minie, moe. Or maybe just go with the comment that makes me laugh, who knows.

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Just gave the boy a haircut. He’ll be pretty comfy at camp. Now I’m wishing I had sometime to get mine sheered off. Oh well, at least my hair is long enough to put up for camp. Combined with my new shoes I ought to be plenty cool and comfy.

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I spent the day at the Apple Blossom Festival. I just want to say that spending all day looking at crafts is not in my top 10, not even close. Normally I will do pretty much anything to avoid it. However, spending all day with my family is in my top 10, even if it means looking at crafts all day.

The day was just gorgeous, 70 degrees and sunny. My oldest son was at another event and my youngest daughter was with someone else for the first part of the day, they got there shortly before we had to leave, so mostly this was time with some friends and my oldest and youngest.

I can say I learned a few things. First, I need to take more time with my family. I try to spend time with the kids every day, but I don’t often have a whole day with the family. There is so much that needs to happen, church stuff, design and development, and stuff around the house. That kind of stuff just eats up time.

Second, it is hard to focus on my family. I think this is related to the first thing I learned. The whole day I was fighting those things that say “hey I’m super important, don’t forget me.” I wanted to get work done because I’m already behind, but I did try to stay in the moment. Part of how I did that was taking lots of pictures.

I mean LOTS of pictures. You can see them below.

As far as the day goes, we got up there and started looking at crafts, I’ll admit there was some really cool stuff. I didn’t take pictures of the crafts though, that isn’t what I was interested in. The only thing that really stood out to me was a woodworker booth. He had tons of wooden toys, trains, boats, cars, firetrucks … I really thought about buying a couple for the boys, the prices were really reasonable, but I’m not sure they are ready for something that nice. Then I got to looking at the rubber band guns. I don’t’ know if you remember the old school ones, with a couple of clothes pins to hold the rubber bands back till you are ready to fire. Well these are significant upgrades that can hold multiple rubber bands and use a rotating firing mechanism. There were pistols, rifles, and several other options, including a massive gattling gun with a rotating crank capable of firing over 100 rubber bands.

I was told no, then we looked at more crafts, bought the kids a few small things, and then took them down to the park next to teh event for a break. It is one of the nicest parks ever. We’ve taken our kids there a few times, and it seems like they keep adding new things.

Then we went back to the craft show for a bit longer, got some treats, and headed home. Please enjoy the images.

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We also found several that were black, and I really didn’t want a black vehicle after the last one. I really didn’t like the fact that you could wash and wax the car and have it looking dirty in minutes. There were some around that were great deals, but priced closer to $30k, which we could afford but I just didn’t want to spend that much on a car at this point in my life.

A few days ago I had all but given up hope. I did the math on the fuel savings and just couldn’t justify the cost we would have to pay for the hybrid, so I began a search for the regular highlander, figuring I’d start researching fuel economy again and wanted to use that as a base comparison. Then I saw 3 vehicles returned with the hybrid engine on the regular Highlander search. All 3 were in the price range, one was white, not the worst but not the best, one was black, which I skipped automatically, and one was blue. The exact color I really wanted. I know that color is the least determining factor, but the mileage was well under my max (52k) and the price was great ($21k) so I contacted the dealer to verify it had the third row (once before I though I found the perfect vehicle, but it didn’t have the third row as advertized). Oh Happy Day! It had the seating we needed. Teh car fax was available and all maintenance was done at the dealership and recorded. This vehicle sounded perfect, so we drove over 2 hours just to look.

Fortunately we found everything to be exactly as we required, maybe not every bell or whistle, but everything we needed. It took forever to get the paper work done, with drive time it took nearly 12 hours to complete the purchase and return home, but we have a new to us vehicle. Here are a few pics I took this morning when the sun came mostly out of the clouds.

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Anyways, this post isn’t about alliteration or my laziness, it is about my kids.  Well not just mine, I’m also including my students in this as well.

We watched the show “Lemon-aid Mouth” with my kids the other day.  One of the main characters gets in trouble because she is wearing a shirt that says “Challenge Authority” and actually follows her own advice. This led to a discussion with my wife about how we should handle that.  She wasn’t too interested in the conversation because she assumed I would encourage this type of behavior and didn’t think she could convince me that I shouldn’t.

I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I don’t want to raise kids that are sheep.  I don’t want rude or rebellious kids, but I want them to be passionate and follow truth, not authority. Of course a lot of the time following truth means following authority.  Most laws are fair and just, they should be followed, but not all laws. If a rule needs to change for the betterment of all I want my children to know they can stand for right.

I want them to be the revolutionaries of their generation. Not in a violent way, more in the sitting in the front of the bus, standing up when everyone else sits kinda way.

I think the hard part is teaching them to express themselves in a way that promotes change but not hate. To help them find real truth and to follow that.  To encourage them to challenge authority, but not be rebelious.

Is this something parents should encourage in their children or should they teach them to keep their heads down so they don’t get cut down? How would you encourage right minded protest?

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