Book Review: "The Christian Atheist"

"The Christian Atheist" by Craig Groeschel was loaned to me by a friend several weeks ago.  I'm glad they loaned it to me.  It's a fast read, which is unusual for many Christian books.

Written by Craig Groeschel, a Pastor of a fairly large Protestant Church, "The Christian Atheist" tackles the topic that many of today's Christians face.  We say we believe in God, but live our lives as if we don't.  We worry constantly, we rely on ourselves rather than God and we take part in many activities that we shouldn't.  Groeschel points out his own Christian Atheism and then provides practical strategies for overcoming it.

I found this book to be pretty good.  It wasn't overly complicated...in fact Nuke described it as a light read.  I'd agree with that assessment.  The best part of the entire book was the afterward when Groeschel explained the 3 lines of Christianity.  When you cross line 1, you profess your belief in Christ, but don't really change anything.  Crossing the second line means that you follow Christ and modify your behavior when it is comfortable for you.  The third line is when you give your life completely over to God.  To me, the afterward would make a really interesting book...maybe Mr. Groeschel will take the time to write that book.

I think this would be a good read for anybody who is lukewarm in their faith, or is currently a first liner.  Overall, I don't feel like it was a waste of my time, and it probably won't be a waste of yours.

Top 5 Movies to Use for 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

A fun game that we used to play in college was Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.  The game is that anybody can be linked to Kevin Bacon in six steps or less through film or TV roles.  Basically, you have to be in a film or on TV for this to really work, though because I'm a nerd, I linked myself to Kevin Bacon, through a friend who knows a famous person.

As I used to be awesome at this game, I quickly figured out the key movies to use to link to Kevin Bacon.  Here are the top 5...sometimes it helps to start at a Kevin Bacon movie and work backwards.

5 - "Animal House" - Kevin Bacon's first movie.  You can make links through John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen and Donald Sutherland to name 3.  This one is great to use when trying to link an older actor.  You are golden if you get to Dan Akroyd, who was in "Blues Brothers" with John Belushi who was in "Animal House" with Kevin Bacon.

4 - "Mystic River" - Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Laurence Fishburne and Laura Linney are some of the top links you can make through this 2003 hit.  For example, let's connect Wil Smith to Kevin Bacon.  Wil Smith was in "Bad Boys" with Martin Lawrence, who was in "Nothin' to Lose" with Tim Robbins, who was in "Mystic River" with Kevin Bacon.  This is such a fun game.

3 - "JFK" - Oliver Stone's conspiracy buff movie gets you Kevin Costner, Tommie Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek and Walter Mathau.  As we all know, Tommie Lee Jones is in everything, as is Kevin Costner.  You can use Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau to connect to older actors if you need to.  A must have in the arsenal for any serious Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon player.

2 - "A Few Good Men" - "You can't handle the truth!"  Well, maybe you can, and the truth is, you have to understand that you get Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollack and J.T. Walsh.  You may not know who the last two are, but trust me, they are in a lot of movies.  You would know them if you saw them.  This is a key one to linking actors like Alan Ruck, who was Cameron Frye in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."  Here's another freebie...Cameron Frye was in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" with Jennifer Grey who was in "Dirty Dancing" with Patrick Swayze, who was in "Ghost" with Demi Moore, who was in "A Few Good Men" with Kevin Bacon.

1 - "Apollo 13" - One name...Tom Hanks.  You can easily get to Tom Hanks via his many winning roles.  One potential pit fall of "Apollo 13" is that it also has Gary Sinise, who was in "Forrest Gump" with Tom Hanks, but the sheer power of Tom Hanks carries the day here.  Well, add in Bill Paxton and Ed Harris, especially Ed Harris who is also in everything, and you have the best movie for linking Kevin Bacon.  This one is so powerful because it makes it easier for movie novices to play the game.  You have lots of big name actors, and a very popular movie...it's a no brainer.

Bonus - if you really want to dazzle your friends...link to Kevin Bacon through "Tremors," which has a fairly obscure supporting cast.  The key is to find a way to get to Fred Ward.  Fred Ward was in "The Right Stuff" with Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Dennis Quaid and Sam Shepard.  So...just for kicks, let's link the pig from the movie "Babe" to Kevin Bacon.  The pig was in "Babe" with James Cromwell, who was in "Secretariat" with Scott Glenn, who was in "The Right Stuff" with Fred Ward, who was in "Tremors" with Kevin Bacon.

That's all the secrets I'm willing to give away tonight. 

The Greatest Ever???

This is my 500th blog post.  This obviously makes me the greatest blogger ever!!!

Ok, not really.  I'm exaggerating to prove a point.  Too often these days, especially in the sports media, I hear the term "greatest ever" thrown around.  Sports fans love to debate the greatest quarterback ever (it's John Elway by the way), or the greatest golfer ever, or the greatest basketball player ever.  The media loves to declare Obama the greatest orator ever (I may be exaggerating again).  A while back, I think some in Hollywood were ready to declare Tom Hanks the greatest actor ever. 

Really???  In the entire history of mankind, everything that is happening now rivals the greatest thing ever?  The term "greatest ever" is really starting to bug me.  If I hear it one more time, I may puke. 

I've been on this earth a little over 30 years.  In my lifetime, I can honestly say that I've only seen 2 "greatest evers".  Well, 3 if you count John Elway, but I'm willing to admit I'm biased there.  So, we'll go with 2...for now.  Based on his performance in the last 2 Olympic Games, I think we can honestly say that Michael Phelps is the greatest all around swimmer ever.  The guy is unbelievable, having won 14 Olympic medals and countless other competitions worldwide.  Throughout his career, he's held 39 different world records.  Seriously, check out his record sometime...it's ridiculous.

The other "greatest ever" in my lifetime is Rush Limbaugh.  Based on the success of his radio show, Rush Limbaugh is inarguably the greatest radio talk personality of all time.  The guy gets over 20 million listeners a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.  When his national show started in the late 1980's, AM radio was nearly dead...over 20 years later, AM talk radio is a huge industry, and it's mostly due to Rush Limbaugh.  Even if you don't agree with him, you can't argue with how sucessful Rush has been as a radio personality.

So, that's it, that's the list in the last 33 years.  What drove this?  Last night I watched the movie "Secretariat", and I realized how fortunate people were in 1973, because they got to witness the greatest American racehorse ever.  Secretariat's records at Churchill Downs (Kentucky Derby) and Belmont still stand today, nearly 40 years later.  And, if not for a timing malfunction, he would likely have the record at the Preakness as well.  "Secretariat" is a great movie by the way...review to come soon.

My only point with this blog is to urge people to start practicing a little self restraint.  Next time you hear someone proclaim something the "greatest ever", pause for a moment and consider if it really is the greatest ever.  My guess is, that with a little perspective, we will all realize that just because something that just happened was really neat, it doesn't mean it was the greatest thing that ever happened.

Thanks for hanging in there for these 500 blogs...here's hoping I can watch enough movies, read enough books, and come up with enough random stuff to write another 500.