Holy Week

I was sitting here on Good Friday evening, debating whether I should blog about movies or Holy Week.  I settled on Holy Week, which I think was the right thing to do.  I've got an excellent Top 5 movie list coming up, and a couple of movie reviews.

As of this Easter, I will have been a Catholic for 8 years.  Each year, Lent and Holy Week have become more important to me, I enjoy them more each year and I feel like I grow in my faith more each year.  This year has been especially good, and it will culminate with the Easter Vigil tomorrow night.

I was explaining the Easter Vigil to a non-denominational friend of mine.  I was going on about how beautiful it is, with the symbolism, the incense, the chanting, the transition from darkness to light that signals the Resurrection of Jesus, and this friend said that stuff just wasn't that exciting to them (or something like that).  Personally, I love the symbolism all throughout Lent, and especially now during the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil).  The holiness, symbolism and ceremony of the Catholic Holy Week helps me feel a closeness to God that grows every year.

Last night, our family went to Holy Thursday Mass, where we celebrated Jesus instituting the Eucharist (communion).  At Holy Thursday Mass, there is also foot washing, to follow Jesus' example at the Last Supper.  I didn't participate in foot washing, and neither did my wife, but both of our boys did.  In fact, my older son washed my younger son's feet...I have to admit, I got a little choked up.  I was very proud of him.

Today was the Veneration of the Cross service.  I had never been to this service before.  I definitely want to go again.  It was very new to me, so I'm sure I missed something.  I enjoyed the solemn beauty of this service, and was really able to reflect on the Christ's Passion and see that it was the ultimate act of love in a different way than I had previously experienced.  And, tomorrow night at 8:30 pm, we will go to the Easter Vigil, which I just love.

This is just such a terrific week.  It's wonderful to see so many of my fellow Parishioners attending all 3 masses of the Triduum, making the time to recognize the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and what that sacrifice really meant for all of us.  And then we wrap it all up with Easter, celebrating His Resurrection 2000 years ago.  I can't really describe what I'm feeling, and I'm not overly good at these "reflection" posts, so I'm just going to stop.  I pray that all of you are having a fulfilling Holy Week and are looking forward to celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

Distraction or Useful Tool?

I now have a smart phone.  I am the owner of a Blackberry Curve 9300.  Mine is black, not any of the fun colors shown there on the web page.  A friend of mine, who I think has a droid phone, congratulated me on going with 2005 technology.  The Blackberry phones don't have all the apps that you can get with a droid or an Iphone, but so far, I really like it.

Where I get worried though is that this will become a distraction for me, rather than a useful tool.  My hope when I bought this phone was to make it a useful tool in my life.  Five days in, I think it is a useful tool, though I've bordered on obsession with it.  I'm using it for my e-mail, and I've also gotten some apps that are useful for daily things.  Here's what I've picked up so far:

-A golf range finder GPS app - this was the first one I got.
-Blackberry traffic - this is a map application that provides directions.
-Weatherbug - this has been very helpful for getting the forecast, checking the radar, etc.
-Sports mobile - now I don't have to go to ESPN to get the scores
-A scientific calculator - because I'm an engineer
-IBrevieary - this is a Catholic Resource with prayers and such.  I'm hoping to make more time to pray during day, and hopefully this will help me.
-Olive Tree Bible Software with a New American Bible - This is the only app I've paid for.  I had to buy the Bible, but I thought it would be good to have with me as I try to make time to pray during the day.
-FatSecret Calorie Counter - I really want to lose 15 lbs or so, even 20 wouldn't hurt.  A friend used this and lost 50 lbs.  I started today and can still eat about 30 calories before bed.

That's all I've got for apps.  I'm trying really hard to avoid getting time wasters, like games and such.  Like I said above, the goal is useful tool, not distraction.  Hopefully this will prove to be a very useful tool.  If anybody has any suggestions of other apps that might be good to have on my phone, please let me know.

A Change in Direction

Today was the 15th Annual Catholic Men's Conference of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.  This is my 6th year of attendance.  I am so thankful to God that the Diocese I live in has an event like this every year.  It's such an uplifting experience and I look forward to it every year.

I learned many things today, but two things stick out.  The first is from the Keynote Speaker, Curtis Martin.  The theme of the afternoon keynote was that we Catholic Christians (and all Christians in general) need to have a Christ-centered world view.  The second theme that sticks out comes from Deacon Sean Smith, who gave a presentation on Proclaiming the Gospel in a Digital Age.  If you read the post, you'll see that Sean pointed us to a message from Pope Benedict addressing the use of new technologies in proclaiming the gospel.  The short of it is that we should use the technology today to further the Kingdom of God...everything else is just for fun or a time waster.  Fun doesn't have to be a bad thing, but our end must not be fun.  As Curtis Martin hit on in the morning keynote, fun is comfort, and we are not made for comfort, we are made for greatness.  Ok, I guess that is three things that stuck out for me.

So, between Curtis Martin and Deacon Sean, I felt a bit convicted about my blog.  While the original purpose of this blog was a man diary started out of the frustration of the 2008 Presidential Election, I feel like it needs to be more now, I'm being called to make it more.  I've been trying to change my blogging ways recently.  As some of you may have noticed, I've quit blogging about politics, or at least slowed way down.  As I've been spending more time on my faith, the political back and forth has meant less and less to me.  Additionally, even though I do not agree with our President on anything other than Golf is really fun, it doesn't help anybody if I waste my time ripping on the President on this blog.  From today on, I plan to keep my political blogs to a minimum, and when I do comment politically, I plan to look at the political issues of the day from a Christ-centered world view, rather than a Republican point of view.  After all, I'm a Christian first and that's how I should be looking at these things.

I don't plan to stop doing movie reviews, book reviews, posting recipes or talking about sports.  After all, fun is ok, as long as fun doesn't become a god.  Remember, we aren't made for comfort (or fun), we are made for greatness.  I am, going to make an effort in all my blogs, to take a Christ-centered world view.  For example, if a movie is wholly immoral, I'm going to make sure that is included in my review, so my Christian friends can make appropriate decisions.

I pray that all my friends who currently read my blog will continue to read this blog, and hopefully get a little more out of it going forward.  I feel that I've moved beyond the need for a man diary, and really want to get into some more in depth sharing with my friends on this blog.  But, for those who worry that it'll lose it's random charm, don't worry, it's still my random ramblings because I think I have undiagnosed A.D.D., so random thing pop my head all the time, and some of those things continue to be blog worthy.

Top 5 Movies Where the Bad Guy is Cooler than the Hero

You've all seen them.  They are the movies where the bad guy is actually a much better character than the hero.  You may still root for the hero because that is what seems right, but the bad guy is just better. 

I think you'll agree with this list, and if not...well...it's my blog.

5 - "Superman Returns":  Brandon Routh was wooden as Superman, while Kevin Spacey was a complete lunatic as Lex Luthor.  While this is not a great movie, Kevin Spacey finally plays Lex Luthor the way he should be played.

4 - "Demolition Man":  Wesley Snipes is Simon Phoenix, and he's a way better character than Sylvester Stallone's John Spartan.  Snipes is funny yet decidedly evil. Add in Nigel Hawthorne as the evil Dr. Raymond Cocteau and Dennis Leary as the misunderstood Edgar Friendly, and you have a fun movie.  One of my favorites from the early 1990's.

3 - "The Usual Suspects":  I don't want to ruin this one for you if you haven't seen it.  Just watch it and then tell me if the villain wasn't the best character in the movie.

2 - "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves":  Alan Rickman is a fantastic bad guy.  He was terrific as Hans Gruber in "Die Hard", but the problem is, John McClane (Bruce Willis) is maybe the greatest hero (of the non-super variety) ever created.  As the Sheriff of Nottingham in this version of Robin Hood, Alan Rickman shines.  He's the best character in the movie...granted, he was opposite Kevin Costner, who is a better actor than Keanu Reeves, but well, uh...never mind.

1 - "Star Wars: A New Hope":  The original movie in the "Star Wars" franchise, and I think we can all agree that Darth Vader is by far the coolest character in the movie.  Let's look at the heroes:  Luke Skywalker is whiny, Princess Leia has weird hair, Obi Wan Kenobi is old, Han Solo is cool in a dirty sort of way and Chewbacca is, well awesome.  But, Darth Vader has James Earl Jones' voice, that freaky breathing and can choke people with his mind...plus he has a light saber.  There's no contest...Vader is the best.

Consider it All Joy...

My friend Nuke, who probably thinks I'm stalking him, likes to quote from James 1:2, which says "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials."  I don't know about you, but I think that is really, really, really hard!

Today was a busy and rough day at work.  E-mail was flying in like mad, and there's a key milestone approaching for one of the programs I'm working on, so I spent a lot of my day fighting fires there.  Now, the weather outside was just about perfect today...upper 60's, sunny and not much wind.  So, around 2 pm, I left a message at home asking if I could golf tonight.  I had planned to play a few holes tonight after supper, but with it being so nice, I was hoping I could get 9 in.  I knew my wife and kids were having a play date with another family, so I thought they could order pizza and I could golf.  My wife thought this was a great idea.

This really brought me joy...very easy to Consider it All Joy at this moment.  I got to the golf course at 5:00 or so and tee'd off right away.  As I was walking to the green on hole 2, my wife called to say that the other family had to leave, but that they were going to ride bikes downtown, hit the awesome pizza place down there and then go to the library.  So, more joy for me...everybody was having a good time.

As I got to the tee box on the 6th hole, my phone rang again.  It was my wife again, and this time, our 7 year old was having a melt down and I needed to come help.  Now, our 7 year old is autistic, so melt downs are not uncommon, but they have been more rare lately.  Angry now, I headed for the car, angrily threw my clubs in the back and headed to the library, which is only about 4 minutes from the golf course.  At this point, I was not doing very well with considering it all joy.  Amazing how easy it is to be joyful when the good times are rolling and how hard it gets as soon as the trials pop up.

I got to the library, loaded my son and his bike into the van and told him that we were going home, we were going to eat supper, he was going to take a shower and he was going to bed.  I also explained, somewhat angrily (ok, quite angrily), how his actions were adversely affecting every one's night.  This broke his heart and he started to cry.  But I was seething, so I still wasn't the nicest dad in the world even after he started crying.  When we got home, my son went inside and I got the mail.  When I got inside, he was sitting on the steps crying, and my heart melted.  We talked for a little bit and I told him that I forgive him and that I loved him.  I explained that he still had to go to bed early because that was his punishment and we talked about how he could do better in the future.  He's very smart, so once he's calm, you can explain proper behavior to him, and little by little, it seems to be sinking in.  Then we proceeded on with our night.

As I was getting supper on the table, "Consider it all joy..." popped into my head.  Well, I failed miserably at that tonight.  I really should have embraced my job as a father tonight, rather than focusing on my own selfish desire to play golf.  Well...message received, loud and clear.  I wonder if I'll remember this the next time I'm given an opportunity to consider it all joy in the face of a trial.  I pray that I will, but knowing my nature, I'll probably fail again, but maybe next time I'll remember how I'm supposed to behave sooner.  I know I can't be perfect and that I'll always slip up, but hopefully, little by little, I'll learn proper behavior too.

They Get it Right Every Year!

Today was the final round of the 75th Masters, arguably golf's biggest tournament.  Played at Augusta National every year, fans are familiar with the golf course which adds a lot because we know what's coming up and it builds anticipation.  In fact, it's rated the #1 Golf Course in the country in the latest Golf Digest rankings.  Yes, I get excited about golf tournaments and golf courses!

Augusta National is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.  I think there are roughly 300 members, and it's a course that is only open for play from October through May.  Bobby Jones, one of the greatest golfers in history, built Augusta National to be a Winter Golf Club for it's members.  Many of the rumors about Augusta make people think it's a stuffy, old boy's club.  I'm not even going to speculate on that.  That isn't the point of this blog.

The point of this blog is that the members of Augusta National put on the greatest golf tournament in the world.  Every year they set the golf course up in a way that makes for an exciting tournament and a thrilling finish.  Additionally, they insist on limited commercials during the broadcast, running 56 minutes of golf for every hour of coverage.  This is so great...when you watch the US Open, it seems like you get typical network coverage, which means ~15 minutes of commercials per hour.  The British Open and PGA Championship are similar to the US Open.

The course setup though is everything.  Augusta National is always set up in a way that a player can make birdies and go win the tournament.  The US Open is a survival contest, with few chances for birdies and players often struggling for par.  The British Open is great, but it's a bit too reliant on the weather.  The PGA Championship comes the closest to the Masters in terms of course setup, but falls short on tradition and nostalgia.

Today's final round was no exception.  Rory McIlroy started the day with a 4 shot lead, but struggled mightily with an 80.  This brought a lot of players into the mix, and at one point, 9 players were within 2 shots of the lead.  The winner, Charl Schwartzel of South Africa shot a 66, and birdied the last 4 holes to win by 2 shots.  Australians Adam Scott and Jason Day finished tied for second, and shot 67 and 68 respectively.  Tiger Woods also put up a 67 to finish in a tie for 4th.  There were birdies and eagles to be had and it was a riveting tournament.  This is what we get from the Masters every year, and even in a year like this one, where none of my favorite players were in the mix, I still enjoyed every minute of the Masters final round.

Movie Review: "Secretariat"

"Secretariat" is definitely the best movie about a horse I've ever seen.  Better than "Seabiscuit", better than...um...well, I think "Seabiscuit" is the only other horse movie I've seen.

Disney did a great job with this story.  From what I can tell, they did take some liberty with the timing of events, but it appears they were very true to the actual horse racing.  In 1973, Secretariat won the Triple Crown of Horse Racing, setting track records at the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, and a disputed track record at the Preakness.  Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths...and Disney did an excellent job with this race, especially with the reaction of the rival trainer.  Disney seems to have the "sports" movie genre nailed.

Diane Lane portrays Penny Chenery, who took over her father's horse farm due to his illness and her mom's death.  Against pressures from her brother and husband, she continues to run the farm, based on the hope of this big red horse on her farm.  In the movie, Secretariat was her only "big-time" horse.  As it turned out when I did research on Wikipedia, there was another great horse at the farm too.  Anyway, what I struggled with is the fact that Chenery sorta left her family to run this farm.  As a mom with 4 children, I thought Disney sort of glossed over how hard this would have been on the family.  Some of the reading I've done states that it was much harder on the family than Disney showed.

Because I had a hard time with the story of a woman sort of leaving her family, I knocked this down to a 4.5 star movie.  It's still a great movie, but I just struggled with that part of the story.  As a movie, it's really a 5 star show, and maybe I should have rated it that way since it was based on true events.  I don't know...do with this review what you will.