Desert Island Movies

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Jason

Last night’s Academy Awards got me thinking about all of my favorite movies. Sunny and I don’t get to watch as many as we did back in the day, but we still love watching movies. And I have several that would make my list of all-time favorites. (I wrote about my Top 10 Comedies a few years back; probably time to revise that list.)

So here’s the question: If you were stranded on a desert island and you could only take 5 films with you, what would they be? And yes, you have DVD capability and power and all that stuff. Just play along. And no boxed sets. You can’t take the Star Wars set as one movie, even though it’s boxed up in a life-size replica of Darth Vader’s mask. Five movies, that’s it. What’s on your list?

For me, Gladiator would have to be on that list. I think I could seriously watch it over and over. Crowe’s Maximus remains one of my all-time favorite characters as he fights to avenge the deaths of his son and wife. And who could forget Joaquin Phoenix’s creepy portrayal of Commodus?

Epic.
Emotional.
Romance.
Action.
A powerful score.
A great cast.
What more do you need?

This one’s definitely on my list.

With the action genre squarely covered, I’d have to move to some comedic fare. I mean, it is a desert island, right? I’d have to go with O Brother, Where Art Thou? for sure. And I couldn’t survive out there for long without the make-me-laugh-till-I-cry antics of Monty Python & the Holy Grail. I submit to you my absolute favorite scene from this classic:

Gotta go with Field of Dreams, too. I know it’s cheesy, but if you’ve ever played catch with your Dad in the yard, you know why it’s on my list. I have a little ritual where I watch this one every spring just before the season starts. Maybe someday when my kids are older I can get them to watch it with me.

Man, this is hard. With my last pick, I’m going with Raiders of the Lost Ark. Or Airplane. Or Fletch. Ahh, flip a coin, I can’t decide.

Posted in Movies | 11 Comments

Premature March Madness

Posted on February 23, 2008 by Jason

I don’t know if I’ve ever been as stoked about a college basketball game in February. Frankly, I usually don’t pay attention until I fill out my bracket in early March. But it’s a half-hour before tip-off and I’m ready to go. I love Bruce Pearl and what he’s done for the basketball program at Tennessee. If he wasn’t our coach, he’s one of those guys I probably wouldn’t like. But thankfully, he IS ours. I’m hoping he cracks out the orange jacket tonight. I gotta get one of those for church. Anyway, #1 vs. #2…how can you not get hyped for this one?

Go Vols, baby!

Posted in Sports | 5 Comments

It Is Not Rude

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Jason

I hung up on a telemarketer last night.

I could tell as soon as I answered the phone that it was a telemarketer. I could hear the sounds of phones ringing and other people talking in the background as soon as I said, “Hello.”

On the other end of the line, a voice said, “Uh, yeah, is Mr….(shuffling of papers in the background)…Bybee there?”

Maybe I just didn’t feel like summoning up the energy to politely listen while he went through his whole spiel. Maybe it ticked me off that he didn’t know my name right off the bat. Maybe it was a combination of both. But as soon as he finished asking for me, I just hung up on him.

And as soon as I did, you know what popped in my mind?

“It is not rude.”

1 Corinthians 13:5.

I’m not sure if I’m doing any better with this whole resolution thing, but I will say this: I’m becoming more cognizant of the times when I get it wrong.

Posted in Scripture, The Resolution | 3 Comments

But Do They Come With Gum?

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Jason

In a stroke of marketing madness and in an attempt to wed two of America’s favorite pasttimes, Upper Deck has released its “Presidential Predictors” series of baseball cards. Each card depicts one of the current candidates on a baseball card, equating them to a famous baseball player or event.

It seems that someone at Upper Deck is a GOP apologist. Fred Thompson as Babe Ruth, John McCain as Ted Williams and Barack Obama as…Jermaine Dye? What gives? At least he fared better than Senator Clinton, whom Upper Deck portrayed as Morganna, the Kissing Bandit. Yikes! Thankfully, Upper Deck pulled the Hillary / Morganna card before it circulated. But can you imagine how much that baby would fetch on EBay? Move over, Honus.

You know, I had a Michael Dukakis rookie card when I was a kid, but I put it in the spokes of my bike and now it’s worthless.

My question is: what kind of stats do they put on the back? “Last season, Senator Clinton led the league in appropriations for energy and water development. And triples.”

Posted in Baseball, Humor, Politics | 2 Comments

Top Ten: Things I Wish Would Go Away

Posted on February 19, 2008 by Jason

For those of you who check in here frequently, I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Over the weekend, Sunny and I decided to tackle a major project: painting our den, kitchen, and playroom areas. Our house has a fairly open floor plan, so all of these rooms are kinda connected. The people who lived here before us had this dirty looking, faux textured thing going on and it covered the whole den / kitchen / playroom, so painting over it was quite a job.

Along those lines, I submit to you a Top 10 list of things I wish would go away. Starting now.

10. Do-it-yourself home repair shows that inspire people to spend every waking moment of spare time on fixing up their homes (no surprise there, right?). My to-do list is about a mile long now.

9. The extra weight I gained over the holidays. Christmas was 6 weeks ago. No reason for me to still have this weight. I have a feeling this one is directly related to…

8. My Mountain Dew addiction. I consume dangerous amounts of Mountain Dew every day. This has to stop. (As I write, the withdrawal-headache is killing me!)

7. Insipid reality TV shows. Sure, I watch American Idol, just like everybody else. And I’ve come to grips with the fact that there is a market out there for Are You Smarter Than A Fifth-Grader? But My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad? Please. Thank goodness this writer’s strike is over.

6. Hannah Montana. My daughter has already started asking if she can watch. Sigh.

5. The phrase, “It is what it is.” Tune in to any sports talk station in America and I guarantee you’ll hear this phrase from a coach or player. “Coach, can you describe how you felt after that terrible defeat?” “Well, it is what it is.” That’s like saying something is reduntantly redundant. Every time I hear “it is what it is”, I wanna scream, “Was there ever a time when it was what it wasn’t?“

4. While I’m at it, I’m ready for the phrase, “Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee” to go away. Huckabee’s like the basketball coach that keeps telling his players to foul when they’re down by 20 with less than a minute left. Give up the ghost, dude.

3. Winter. I don’t care about the groundhog. After about two weeks of cold weather, I’m ready for spring.

2. The Roger Clemens / HGH / steroids scandal. Nobody had his reputation sullied by the Mitchell Report more than Clemens. And last week’s episode on Capitol Hill probably did even more damage to his legacy. Thank goodness spring training is upon us and we can talk about what’s happening ON the baseball field.

1. Negative Top-10 lists. There, I feel better now.

Posted in Random, Top 10 | 8 Comments

Pitchers and Catchers…

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Jason

…report today. And so did Joshua and Jackson. Jackson is ready to go to his first Cardinal game now that Joshua has shared his old Cards cap with him.Go Cards!

Posted in Baseball, Kids, St. Louis Cardinals | 6 Comments

Finally….

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Jason

I thought this day would never get here.

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day.

Posted in Baseball | 4 Comments

Legalism Is In My Blood

Posted on February 12, 2008 by Jason

Legalism must be in my blood.

I had this thought the other day at Wal-Mart. As I stood in the Express Check-Out line, I actually took the time to count the number of items the lady in front of me had. When she exceeded the 20-item limit (she had 22!), I secretly hoped the clerk would refuse to ring up her final items. I envisioned a loud siren going off and the cashier’s drawer locking up and the clerk saying something catty to her like, “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m unable to ring up your final two items. As you can see from the aptly-positioned sign over my head, the Express Check-Out is only for purchases of 20 items or fewer. You’ll need to go to the end of the line if you’d like to purchase these additional items.” I pictured the woman having to walk dejectedly to the back of the line with sunken shoulders while the rest of us rule-abiding consumers watched in quiet adjudication. I was half-surprised when the clerk didn’t even seem to notice this customer’s gross violation of the 20-item ordinance and rang her up with nary an objection.

Like I said, I think legalism is in my blood.

Somebody said the covenant God established with Israel had something like 630 laws. Or 730, I can never remember. But they say the oral law associated with Torah was even more detailed. Safeguards were established to keep Israel from even coming close to breaking the rules. Somewhere along the way, the line between safeguard and Torah seemed to blur and legalism ran rampant.

In that kind of setting, Jesus is asked to designate the greatest command in the Law. In Matthew’s gospel, the whole thing appears as a trick question of sorts. The Pharisees and Sadducees are plotting ways to “entangle him [Jesus] in his talk,” (Matt. 22:15). And so this question comes up: which commandment is the greatest?

And he said to them, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:37-40)

Love God. Love others. Hundreds and hundreds of laws condensed to two simple principles. And yet, my natural inclination is to gravitate back toward legalism.

But I’m pretty sure of this: love is the better way.

Posted in Devotional, Humor, Jesus, Scripture | 4 Comments

Joshua’s Sports Song

Posted on February 9, 2008 by Jason

At the conclusion of Tennessee’s (narrow) victory over LSU today — which Joshua and I watched on TV — my son spontaneously started singing this song (to the tune of “O How I Love Jesus”).

Tennessee is good
Alabama is ba-ad
The Titans are also good
And so are the St. Louis Cardinals

I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud.

Posted in Kids, Sports, St. Louis Cardinals | 6 Comments

10 Things I Am Learning From Being A Dad

Posted on February 9, 2008 by Jason

My friend Adam tagged me in his recent post “10 Things I Am Learning From Being A Dad”, so I thought I’d play along. As you know, I play Daddy to 3 year-old twins and an 8-month old. Needless to say, I’m learning quite a bit from being a Dad. But here goes.

1. Boys and girls are different. I know…real newsflash there, Jason. But almost immediately, Sunny and I could pick up on the profound differences between Joshua and Abby Kate. With regard to nature / nurture, I’m going nature.

2. I need Sunny more than I realized. I couldn’t imagine trying to do this without her.

3. I make an extra effort to be accessible to my kids, no matter the circumstances. That tells me a lot about my Father.

4. When trying to decide between the 4-piece and the 6-piece Chicken Nuggets meal, always go with the 6-piece. Like I always say, it’s better to have one nugget too many than one nugget too few.

5. A 5 hour plane ride with two two-year-olds is just about the tipping point for both child and parent.

6. I was never much of a worry-er until I had kids.

7. I was never much of a pray-er until I had kids.

8. I know how important it is for my daughter to hear me say I think she’s beautiful.

9. I know how important it is for my boys to hear me say I’m proud of them.

10. I’ve learned that the grace of God takes many forms. And I’m especially thankful for the conduits of grace and love that my children are to me.

Posted in Blessings, Devotional, Family, Fathering, Kids, Top 10 | 3 Comments