Harry Potter and How It Should Have Ended

This cracked me up.  And for the record it's this logical progression that I have always considered The Prisoner of Azkaban my least favorite of the Harry Potter novels.

Gotta Type

I've been neglecting this blog of mine for some time now.  And the weird thing is that I really enjoyed blogging when I was more regular.  So I'm not entirely sure as to why I've not been as disciplined with it lately as I was once in the past.
Obviously, the rise of Twitter has certainly stolen some of my attention.  Those stupid little thoughts that pop into my head that I used to write down in a daily "should blog about" list, are now quickly fleeing my cluttered mind through the occasional tweet.  Which you might think would bring about some sense of peace and quiet for a mind that over thinks everything, and fixates on random nothings, but that's not necessarily the case.  While I love the communication that can occur with Twitter the constant demand to share something interesting, or relevant, or funny is kind of a burden.  Especially for that person who will debate for an hour whether or not to actually hit the 'tweet' button.
But then again, Twitter may not be the problem.  Because I do over think and over analyze and over critique and over complicate almost every idea and thought that I generate.  There have been numerous blog posts in the past couple of months that I have begun, only to find myself distracted by some other shinny object or found myself lost in a rabbit hole of a thought which leads me to an alternate conclusion or...or...or..., and what happens is I never finish.  And then there are blog post that I have labored over, only to find myself deleting rather than publishing.  Even with this post I've struggled a few times to just keep typing.
I suppose I could blame my lack of blogging on the fact that I've been real busy lately.  But I'm not even going to use that excuse.  Although it's true.  I suppose.  I'm sure if I tried hard enough I could find the time.
Whatever the reason for my lack of blogging discipline, be assured I'm going to be working harder at publishing.

School Takes A Lot

This is a great Target commercial.
Also I love that the hamsters are named Lewis and Clark.

Album: Burlap To Cashmere

I'm loving this album.  I've only given it a few listens but I love I already love it.
Steven Delopoulos is perhaps one of my favorite songwriters.
You can buy Burlap To Cashmere's album at their website, here.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Super excited. I thought Sam Raimi did a fairly decent job with the first Spider-Man, I loved the second, and was really disappointed in the third. I knew that Hollywood could do better. And the early peaks at The Amazing Spider-Man are looking great. I think this is going to give that other superhero a run for his money.

Greatest Pep Talk

Some days you just need a little inspiration to go out and dominate your 'to-do list'.  Here you go!



And if you've never seen Friday Night Lights, well, what's wrong with you?

"First try!"

This is perhaps one of my most favorite Calvin & Hobbes cartoons ever. I remember when it was first published and I cut it out of the paper. I bet if I look around I still have that clipping; probably faded and stuck in a book.

Growing Up in 1 Minute

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Grocery Shopping

Waiting time into shopping time.  Brilliant.

re:Build Joplin

We left Sunday at noon and drove through the night, arriving in Joplin MO early this morning.  We'll be here for the week to serve alongside Operation Blessing, doing whatever we can.
Please don't let time allow us to forget all the homes that were destroyed or damaged, or the numerous lives that were lost, or the families that have been displaced, or the jobs that have been lost.
If you would like to financially contribute to help rebuild Joplin this is a trusted church/organization I would recommend.  And this is an additional organization I trust.  Joplin could use help in one of two important ways: manual labor and financial support.  Would you pray and consider both?
Consider this $20 t-shirt.  $15 goes to towards efforts in the community.

Piper Interviews Warren

Here is a great interview between John Piper and Rick Warren.  It's a little over a hour long (98:28) but it's worth a listen.  Below is a brief intro to the whole video.  To watch the whole video click HERE.

Video: Kindergarten Guitarist

Yeah but can they play Stairway to Heaven?

Confession: Navy Seal

Before the rumors go any further I want to make a confession: I was never a Navy SEAL.
Now it's obvious to me why many would mistakenly assume that I have been; my MacGyver like ingenuity, the strength I demonstrate every time I hammer a disc on the disc golf course, or even my ability to run really fast errands. But it would be a lie if I said that I ever served as a Navy SEAL.
Now if people were to suggest that I once served as an Air Force Special Forces that would be a different story.  Same ending, but a different story.
And because I don't want to end up as a cautionary tale on Yahoo News I'd like to be clear that I was also never an Army Ranger, or a Green Beret, or a Delta force team member, or an AF Air Commando, and not even an elite Para Rescuer.
I'm sure that some of you are still doubting my confession.  I can hear your conspiracy theories now: "Trevor must have been involved in some highly classified operations that require he deny all his training and service in our nations military."  But it was just not true.
It is true that I have seen the movie Navy Seals, starring Charlie Sheen, and it was '80's awesome!'.
I also have seen Under Siege, starring Steven Seagal (which apparently the pastor in the story to the left used as the source of his fake Navy SEAL back story- click on picture to take you to the Yahoo page).  Which begs the question: if you were going to create a fake history to your life, why would ever steal plot lines from a Steven Seagal movie?
If I was going to lift ideas for my fake identity from movies and I needed some military combat experience, I would 'borrow' from Red Dawn (which also starred Charlie Sheen and it's remake will release sometime this year).  Primarily I would borrow from this movie so I could run around and yell "Wolverines!" whenever I wanted.
Nope, while I am a pastor (sadly in the article someone is quoted suggesting that it's pastors who most often lie about military careers and receiving military honors), I have never trained for, or seen combat.  Unless you count those elementary school bus stop battles.
My only military service was as a civilian, as a child care provider for AF daycare.  But between that and serving as a youth pastor, (and my extensive movies-about-war watching) I've seen and done things that are too gruesome to share on this here blog.  So why would I ever need to lie about who I am?
However, now that I think about it, it's time for someone to bring back the Steven Seagal ponytail.

Fairy Tales

“Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.”

G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

Unbroken

I had a friend recommend to me Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  Have you read it?   It's the true account of Louis Zamperini.  Louie was an Olympic athlete who would later serve in WWII.  I'm currently only halfway through this book and already Louie has shaken the hand of Hitler after his remarkable race and survived a brutal 47 days lost at sea, fighting hunger, thirst, Japanese fighter pilots shooting from the skies, and vicious sharks leaping at him on his raft and is currently enduring P.O.W. captivity.
Here was passage I read the other night that really struck me:

"The crash of Green Hornet had left Louie and Phil in the most desperate physical extremity, without food, water, or shelter.  But on Kwajalein, the guards sought to deprive them of something that had sustained them even as all else had been lost: dignity.  This self-respect and sense of self-worth, the innermost armament of the soul, lies at the heart of humanness; to be deprived of it is to be dehumanized, to be cleaved from, and cast below, mankind.  Men subjected to dehumanizing treatment experience profound wretchedness and loneliness and find that hope is almost impossible to retain.  Without dignity, identity is erased.  In its absence, men are defined not by themselves, but by their captors and the circumstances in which they are forced to live.  One American airmen, shot down and relentlessly debased by his Japanese captors, described the sate of mind that his captivity created: "I was literally becoming a lesser human being."
Few societies treasured dignity, and feared humiliation, as did the Japanese, for whom a loss of honor could merit suicide.  This is likely one of the reasons why Japanese soldiers in World War II debased their prisoners with such zeal, seeking to take from them that which was most painful and destructive to lose.  On Kwajalein, Louie and Phil learned a dark truth known to the doomed in Hitler's death camps, the slaves of the American South, and a hundred other generations of betrayed people.  Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen.  The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.  The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty.  In places like Kwajalein, degradation could be as lethal as a bullet."

(Hillenbrand, Laura Unbroken 182-3) 

This Was Delicious

Dylan, a middle school student in my youth ministry, and I both ordered up one of these before heading over to the CIY's Believe conference.  We both agreed.  This was delicious.

2011 MLB Pre-Season Picks

I wrote these picks down earlier in the week.  As always, pre-season picks are complete guess work.  Most likely I'll make some mid-season predictions as well, because these most likely will be shot by then.
Saying that, here are my MLB Pre-Season picks:

REGULAR SEASON
American League
East - Boston Red Sox
Central - Chicago White Sox
West - Texas Rangers
Wild Card - New York Yankees

National League
East - Atlanta Braves
Central - Cincinnati Reds
West - San Francisco Giants
Wild Card - Philadelphia Phillies

PLAYOFFS -
Boston Red Sox defeat Chicago White Sox
Texas Rangers defeat New York Yankees (again)

Atlanta Braves defeat Cincinnati Reds
San Francisco Giants defeat Philadelphia Phillies

PLAYOFFS - League Championships
Atlanta Braves defeat San Francisco Giants
Boston Red Sox defeat Texas Rangers

WORLD SERIES
Atlanta Braves defeat Boston Red Sox

What about you?  What are you predictions?

Ira Glass on Storytelling

(via Ben Arment)

Quote: John Green

Flowchart: What Baseball Team Should I Root For?

Flowchart: What Baseball Team Should I Root For?, originally uploaded by pcaputo1.