It's worth your time to check these blogs out

Supposedly, there are 152 million blogs on the internet. "What in the world is a blog?" you might ask (please don't ask what the internet is). It is basically a way to share information. That's a pretty short, unsexy definition, but it works.  

Blogs can be a way for people to record their daily ongoings and feelings, or they can be a means for corporations to share about their products and vision. There's pretty much a blog out there for any area of life, and any nuance is passionately detailed and received by those who care. 

I follow about 135+ different blogs. Some are written by people that I know, most by people I've heard of. Some have to do with ministry, some with culture, some with techie news, and some are just for fun. Here's a breakdown of some of the blogs I follow that would be worth your time to check them out: 

My list of movies that should not be remade

Heard the other night that Hollywood is going to be remaking the movie Scarface. Was a little hard to believe. In fact, I secretly question the producers sanity for making such a decision. Why in the world try to fix something that's not broke?!?! 

It seems there are SO many older movies being remade lately. Add these to all the sequels and it's hard to believe that Hollywood could come up with an original concept. 

Some classic stories are retold again and again. Dickens and Shakespeare stories have dozens of reiterations. You'd need the fingers of both hands to count how many different people have played Scrooge. You'd need a bookshelf to hold all the different versions of Hamlet. But in both cases it is the stories themselves being retold in different ways from different artists. Each movie is different. This is good.

But why take someone's retelling of a story and then try and redo that?!?! Scarface is complete - it doesn't need to be remade! If someone wants to dive into the Tony Montana character and attempt a new retelling of the story, OK, that might be interesting. But retell it, don't remake it. 

A perfect example of what I'm talking about is Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He retold the story, he didn't just go in and try to reproduce what had already been done. Though obviously close together and compared, there was still a separation between the two.

So this got me thinking of other movies that shouldn't be remade. Those that should have an edict of protection put around them so Hollywood can't mess them up. 

The list is just my opinion because they are movies that I love. I've stuck with only mentioning movies before 2000. To make the list I wrote a ton off the top my head, and then skimmed through this list and this list. 

Yes, there are some movies that need a remake! But in my opinion, these movies are fine just the way they are. Hollywood should use them as inspiration, but don't mess with them!

Critiquing Criticism: a lesson from The Smurfs movie

Transformers. G.I Joe. He-Man. Mask (come on - who remembers Mask? It was a-maze-a-zing!). Thundercats. Voltron. These were my favorite cartoons while growing up. But I must be honest, I must confess: I also watched the Smurfs. Yes, yes I did. Papa Smurf, Jokey Smurf, & Hefty Smurf were my favorites. Smurfette was dumb and annoying (young guy's perspective). Yes...I am a closet Smurf fan.

The idea then of a live Smurf movie was a mixed bag for me. It could be cool or it could be horrible, there didn't seem to be a lot of room in-between. But, having a 4yr-old and a 2yr-old that can be taken advantage of to see kid's movies without losing my mancard, I was willing to give it a chance.

And then the early reviews came out.

Is anyone else as cheap as I am?

Last night we traveled two hours north of New York City to Bard College in Annandale, NY. This was our first venture out of the five boroughs, so we were in need of gas.  Making it through the Lincoln Tunnel into New Jersey, after the skyline was behind us, I started looking for a gas station. 

The first couple stations were passed by because they didn't look to have much of a food/beverage selection. Finally seeing one that seemed to have plenty of coffee, I pulled in. Upon stopping, a guy came up to the car and asked, "How much?"

"Oh, I can do it myself. Thank you though." 

His look let me know how dumb he thought I was. "It's full service. You can't pump it."

The 4yr old terrorist

While going through airport security tonight, in front of me a cute little 4 year old girl traveling with her grandparents was randomly selected to get a pat down search.

Go back and read that sentence again.

If we were at a Chuck E Cheese, Baylee would have run up to this little girl and asked if she wanted to play in the tubes with her.  I doubt Baylee would have been afraid the girl was packing.

The little girl had to wait by herself in the glass area for a TSA officier to come and perform the "additional screening." Her grandparents weren't allowed in with her, they had to stand outside, separated by the glass.

Having been right behind them, I was gathering my stuff when the TSA officer came and asked her to step out for the enclosed area.  As she exited he said, "How are you?"

Misunderstanding him, she lifted up four fingers.

"Oh...you're four."  And apparently still a potential travel risk.  Maybe it was because she had blonde hair and blue eyes.  Always good to address potential Aryans before they grow up.

I don't think the TSA officier performing her pat down thought it was really funny that as I walked by I said, "Thanks for protecting us from the dangerous ones."

I'm sure someone can give an apparently logical defense as to why this is legitimate and necessary, but as a father of an incredibly awesome little four year old, it still bothers me.  I will be honest though, I'm not sure what the alternative would be.  So I'll end with the acceptance that it is a necessary evil.  Along with that though, I will indeed also claim the satisfaction that comes with knowing that when the bell went off to randomly pick the girl, that I said out loud, "Gonna bet she's clear."

And I was right.

Score one for common sense.

Free Money on the Ground

Why reinvent the wheel when someone else has nailed it. This guy pretty much sums up my feelings of the popular "Money Tract" that Christians use: "Creating Tracts That Look Like Money"

So...my two cents (my thoughts, not a coin tract).

The church needs to be creative, needs to be innovative - I'm 110% behind those concepts. More importantly though, the church needs to be faithful in being like Jesus and telling other about Him.

That being said...good intentions don't equal effectiveness. Just because a room full of Christians think something would be a great idea to "reach the culture" doesn't mean it is. Sometimes it is a recipe for embarrassing disaster.

It's like this: I love seafood; my favorite. Say my wife's birthday is coming up and I decide to take her to Red Lobster, or better yet, an actual really nice seafood place for the occasion. I'm all about surprising her, so she doesn't know where we're going. The suspense reaches it's peak when we pull into the parking lot. Can you guess what the first words our of her mouth are? It's easy: "Why are we here?"

She hates seafood.

When it's her birthday I'm supposed to give her a gift, and I would have given her a horrible one. My good intentions won't save the night because in reality what I've done is appeased my own preferences rather than really trying to give her a gift in a manner she would best receive.

If we'd have gone to Connie's Pizza - then I would have given her a REAL gift.

Doesn't matter how many Church people think something's cool, think something's neat. If those who are the target audience think it's dumb then the verdict is in - dumb. If people are going to get mad at getting tricked by fake money on the ground - then the greatness of the tract's message doesn't negate the great ineffectiveness of the tract.

Disclaimer #1
I'm not saying churches shouldn't do events or use materials. What I'm saying is that maybe the people in the room coming up with the ideas should gather some insight from others outside the room, outside the building.

Disclaimer #2
I'm not talking about the essence of truth, the gospel, or any of that. I'm talking about the MEANS by which we communicate it.

Bottom line in my mind: get to know people simply for the sake of who they are, not because they have a gospel target on their shirt. Be a good neighbor. Help people when they need help. Live in a way that shows you believe in Jesus, and then talk about Him to others whenever you are able. People need to see us living Him as much as they hear us talking about Him - and they need to see us living normal, every day life for Him. That's the real gift. That's the pizza.