New Friends from Down Under

We had a great visit with houseguests Rick & Marcy Paynter this week.

Rick is a pastor in Melbourne, and they are friends with my mate Steve. Check out their website. Marcy is a Creative Arts lover, so she and K!Mberly shared some drama. They introduced us to a great learning resource from Mars Hill Church in Michigan, USA, called Nooma.

Zeroing In on a Hundred

UCLA has set the standard in US collegiate athletics, and are about to be the first team to reach the milestone of 100 team championships.

They were a relative newcomer when they won their first championship in 1950, more than fifty years after Yale won the first NCAA team title. However, since then they have passed up every other school by a wide margin.

"The Bruins are No. 1 in No. 1s and are on the cusp of a milestone.

The women's water polo team notched UCLA's 99th NCAA team title on May 14 — toppling USC in the championship game, no less. Stanford is second with 92 titles, and USC is third with 84, with a huge margin over fourth-place Oklahoma State, which has 47."

Coaching Your Best People

Here's some practical help from Marcus Buckingham's book, "First, Break All the Rules" on how to attract, retain and develop top performers.

"Gallup narrowed the material down to 12 questions that proved to be effective tools to measure the core elements needed to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees. Here they are:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?

5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my work is important?

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

10. Do I have a best friend at work?

11. In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?

12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

According to the book First Break All the Rules, questions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 are linked to retention."

The Fictional Defense

"It's just a story" say the movie makers, but they take the Davinci Code details so seriously.

"Given this kind of dialogue, it's impossible to take the filmmakers seriously when they say that their movie makes no historical or theological claims. Why did they feel the need to add details missing from Brown's book, or to correct some of its errors, if the historical claims didn't really matter? And would they have been just as pleased with a closing scene in which Langdon said Jesus is the divine Son of God who became man to show us how to become the fully human beings we were originally meant to be? Somehow, I doubt it."

A Maniacal Focus on Talent

I love what this article has to say. Basically:

It's the people, stupid!

While most organizations may say they agree with this value (our people are our biggest asset), most don't actually act like it.

Perhaps it's because they don't know what to do. Finding and cultivating talent isn't easy. It's a soft science, which most of us aren't good at.

Or perhaps they don't really have the vision for it, assuming that top performers will develop themselves without corporate guidance. They may question whether the time and effort spent by organizations to develop their people really pays off.

But some companies like those studied in this article, have developed systematic approaches to finding and developing their top performers.

Who should be leading the way in developing people? Churches!

"All leading firms display this one obsessive characteristic: a maniacal focus on getting, developing and retaining the best talent. Their attention to human resources is pivotal to their performance: staff stay with them and grow to become great leaders, and good leadership leads to superior financial performance. A veritable mantra for success."

Laughable "Code" Kicks Off Cannes

Didn't anyone else feel this way about the book?

I can't understand how it became such a hit, except that people love a conspiracy theory.

Pedantic, polemic, arrogant, clumsy, plodding.

"Da Vinci's overreliance on exposition drew jeers on several occasions toward the end of the screening and even prompted a few walkouts, as it faithfully went through the motions of translating Brown's elaborate puzzler of a book to the big screen.

'At the high point, there was laughter among the journalists. Not loud laughs, but a snicker, and I think that says it all,' the Associated Foreign Press quoted Gerson Da Cunha from the Times of India."

How to Become an Expert Performer

In a word, practice.

And a word of caution: If you're going to spend enough time practicing something to become great at it, you had better pick something you like to do.

Which is why people don't often become experts at things they don't like - they are not willing to spend the time practicing that is necessary to become an expert.

"Their work, compiled in the 'Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance,' a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.

Ericsson's research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't like to do things they aren't 'good' at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better."

What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?

This NY Times article lists 27 books. How many have I read? Zero. Most of the authors I've never even heard of.

Wow, it's a little sobering to realize how out of touch I am with what is considered great literature.

I read good non-fiction books, but the fiction I read is pure entertainment: John Grisham, David Baldacci, etc.

Maybe I should try a few of these for a stretch.

Universal Library

I remember reading in the 90s that the future was digital. This prfoundly influenced me to realize that what I had in digital format was useable, and re-useable.

But it was really in the 00s that Google led the way in teaching us that what was digital was searchable, making it useable to others also.

"When Google announced in December 2004 that it would digitally scan the books of five major research libraries to make their contents searchable, the promise of a universal library was resurrected. Indeed, the explosive rise of the Web, going from nothing to everything in one decade, has encouraged us to believe in the impossible again. Might the long-heralded great library of all knowledge really be within our grasp?

Brewster Kahle, an archivist overseeing another scanning project, says that the universal library is now within reach. 'This is our chance to one-up the Greeks!' he shouts. 'It is really possible with the technology of today, not tomorrow. We can provide all the works of humankind to all the people of the world. It will be an achievement remembered for all time, like putting a man on the moon.' And unlike the libraries of old, which were restricted to the elite, this library would be truly democratic, offering every book to every person.

But the technology that will bring us a planetary source of all written material will also, in the same gesture, transform the nature of what we now call the book and the libraries that hold them. The universal library and its 'books' will be unlike any library or books we have known. Pushing us rapidly toward that Eden of everything, and away from the paradigm of the physical paper tome, is the hot technology of the search engine."

'Da Vinci Code' Now a Tool to Win Christian Converts

This article recounts some of the approaches Christian churches across the US are taking to dialogue and answer peoples' questions about the famous book and upcoming movie.

As I was listening to a good sermon about DaVinci Code last Sunday, I thought "Christians are going to learn more about the reliability of the Bible and early church history than ever before."

I also thought, this movie is going to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff. No thinking person could be dissuaded from believing in Jesus because of the fabricated statements in the book - but it will give ammunition to people who are looking for an excuse not to believe.

"His sermon, like many on 'The Da Vinci Code,' was no fast-paced romp through the novel's intrigues. It presented historical, archeological and theological evidence about key elements of Brown's conspiracy theory: The Gnostic gospels, the Council of Nicea, the Roman Emperor Constantine, the Priory of Sion.

In recent years, evangelical pastors have shied away from such dense sermons, preferring to preach practical self-help messages instead. 'The Da Vinci Code' has prompted a renewed interest in basic theology — to many scholars' delight."

Let's Othercott Da Vinci

This writer makes a lot of sense to me.

While I applaud Christians' intent of engaging culture and using interest in DaVinci Code to talk with people about the historical facts about Jesus and the impact of his life, I don't want to contribute a cent to the success of the movie.

I threw the book in the rubbish bin and was sorry I had bought it.

"This film is based on a book that wears its heresy and blasphemy as a badge of honor, and I intend to stay far away from it."

UCLA Wins Another Title

"Steve Klosterman and Damien Scott helped UCLA win its NCAA-record 19th volleyball title Saturday, leading the Bruins to a 30-27, 30-27, 30-27 victory over Penn State. "

The Suspense is Over!

We can now get back to work for another five years, as Singapore's nine-day election distraction has come to a resounding close.

"Final results showed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's People's Action Party winning 82 of 84 seats in Parliament, including 37 seats it captured automatically before the election because the opposition did not contest them.

The breakdown of seats — with two for the opposition — is unchanged from the outgoing Parliament. The result was widely expected, but the percentage of votes won by the ruling party dropped to 66.6 percent from 75.3 percent in the last election in 2001, indicating that more Singaporeans want new voices in government."

Motivation of a Winner

Al Scates is the dominant presence in the US collegiate volleyball scene, having led his UCLA teams to NCAA championships 18 times in 43 years, named Coach of the Year 5 times, developed many of the greatest players in US volleyball, and won 1,100 matches.

What keeps him going after seemingly accomplishing everything there is to accomplish in his profession?

"'He takes pride in finding the perfect spot for each player so the players can have their optimum performance on the court, and makes sure the players are confident in their roles,' [UCLA assistant coach] Rofer said. 'He gets excited when the team starts to play well, and its great to see him do what he loves.' "

Now that's the definition of a great manager, and a great coach. He is motivated by bringing out the best in people, and creating the most effective team. What gets him excited is not the winning per se, but seeing the individuals and the team reach their greatest potential.

Singapore Record Falls

Which record, you ask? The World's Longest Chain of Bras!

Do you know how many records Singapore holds in the Guinness Book?

I'm not sure, either, but certainly more than our fair share. Last I checked, we still held those for largest Tea Party and Duck Race, and longest Line Dance.

But will this new development signal a downward trend? I'm sure the Government will think of something, so we can keep our place among the great countries of the world (at least among those following these kinds of records!)

"Their success will shove Singapore, which had held the record since 2003 with 79,000 bras, off the top spot in the Guinness Book of World Records."

A Tale of Two Kids

Wednesday night I was driving my 13-year old son, Tyler, to guitar class, and we were admiring the small sports car next to us.

"Dad, have you seen the body shape of the Jaguar? It's really cool."

"Son, the only Jaguar you'll ever drive is your uncle's (the lawyer)."

Smiling smugly, "Just give me time, Dad."



This morning my younger son, 8-year-old Cameron, was leaving for piano class with his mom. I was quizzing him on highlights of his week.

"What's your favorite thing to do?"

"Praise God."

"You mean like worship?"

"Singing, reading the Bible, praying."



He's also the son that wants to go to work with me when he grows up : ) The older one wants to be an actor, or an artist, or a musician, or a Marine - thanks to his new favorite computer game "First to Fight," where he is learning all about warfare tactics and has a new admiration for soldiers.

Laps Are the New Desks

Lovin' my laptop!

For 4 years now, my laptop has been my primary computer. For me, the reason is that I work from office AND home AND on the road.

This article gives a few other reasons why laptops have outsold desktop computers for the past few years. (starting in May 2003 or May 2005, depending on the source)

"This is due to three major trends: First, laptops have become more advanced, and the technology they contain finally rivals that offered by desktop PCs. Second, laptops have become dramatically cheaper over the past few years. Companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard are currently offering models for around $500, with rebates. But the third and probably most important reason laptops have been selling so well is the remarkable spread of wireless technology. Airports, hotels, coffee shops, college campuses, convention centers and almost anywhere business takes place or people simply have to stop and think, Wi-Fi is there."

Broadcasters Worried

This article doesn't proclaim the death of TV, but it does claim that attention is shifting to the internet for people satisfying their entertainment needs.

Will the internet one day replace broadcasting? On-demand instead of everyone at the same time?

As the choices in media explode, it certainly seems that the world is moving toward more and more tailored/personalized consumption of media content.

"It's not entirely clear yet they can cash in on the growing shift of advertising dollars and eyeballs to the Internet, but local broadcasters have no choice but to try."

The Gospel of Judas and Gnosticism

Pointing out the historical and theological inacurracy of "the Gospel of Judas" and the media manipulation of it's release.

"The Judas Gospel:

Suppose that sometime around the year 3,800 A.D., someone wrote a newspaper that began: 'According to a recently-discovered document, which appears to have been written sometime before 1926, Benedict Arnold did not attempt to betray George Washington and the American cause, as is commonly believed. Rather, Benedict Arnold was acting at the request of George Washington, because Washington wanted Arnold to help him create a dictatorship of the proletariat and the abolition of private property.'

A reader who knew her ancient history would recognize that the newly-discovered 'Arnold document' was almost certainly not a historically accurate account of the relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. The reader would know that the terms 'dictatorship of the proletariat' and 'abolition of private property' come from a political philosophy, Marxism, which was created long after Washington and Arnold were dead. The reader would also know that the most reliable records from the 18th century provided no support for the theory that Washington or Arnold favored a dictatorship of the proletariat or the abolition of private property.

This Friday's coverage of the so-called 'Gospel of Judas' in much of the U.S. media was appallingly stupid. The Judas gospel is interesting in its own right, but the notion that it disproves, or casts into doubt, the traditional orthodox understanding of the betrayal of Jesus is preposterous.

In the March 2 issue of USA Today, ancient Egyptian documents expert James Robinson correctly predicted that the owners of the Judas Gospel manuscript would attempt to release it to coincide with the publicity build-up for 'The DaVinci Code' movie, but explained that the 'gospel' was part of a genre of pseudo-gospels from the second century onward, in which the authors simply made up the stories. In contrast, virtually all serious scholarship about the canonical gospels (Matth"

Gospel of Judas and Theology 101

My friend Randy writes about the media frenzy over "The Gospel of Judas." Nothing new there, and nothing true there, but a choreographed media story to create more attention, not to shed more light or truth.

"I personally find the interpretation of Judas' actions in the gospel really interesting. Wow, talk about a spin job. You can see the prefiguring of gnosticism in some of Plato's work, and in contemporary forms of Buddhism. The idea that the body, or the material world, as a prison, is a long and distinguished doctrine, but historic Christianity cut it off at the knees through the doctrine of the incarnation. In saying that God became material, became a part of the physical universe, Christianity redeems the material world, and all of the pleasures that go with it. This is why theology 101 is really important."

Learning Their Lessons

Failure can be a huge motivator. It can also be a trap. I once took a graduate leadership class in which all the students were asked to introduce ourselves by telling of one of our failures.

What really counts is how we respond to failure and success.

This article points out that UCLA's players and coach are taking the disappointment over their championship loss and funneling it into motivation for the hard work and dedication that will get them back into the final game next season.

That shows a lot of character. Great lessons that are helpful in all of life

"'We have to remember this hurtful feeling and learn from it,' Afflalo said. 'We're not going to forget losing this game. Experiences like this, I think, allow me to work hard and try to get better. This is going to be there for a while.'"

Gotta Believe

Wow! I don't believe it.

The UCLA basketball team had a great comeback win tonight. Trailing Gonzaga the entire game, by as many as 17 points, they scored the last 11 points to win 73-71.

Great team effort, reminiscent of comebacks last season of the football team.

In this tournament, one of the signs of greatness, destiny, is a team that wins a "miracle" game. Like the '95 Bruin buzzer-beater by Tyus Edney over Missouri. It shows heart. UCLA has been coasting until their close game with Alabama, now with a "miracle" win over Gonzaga, is their anything that can stop them from the championship?


Bruins (28-6)
On Court PTS REB AST PF
J. Farmar 15 0 7 3
A. Afflalo 15 2 1 4
L. Mbah a Moute 14 10 0 4
R. Hollins 12 7 0 2
C. Bozeman 4 4 4 3

100 Most Influential NCAA Athletes

The NCAA is celebrating 100 years in 2006, and this article lists the most influential student athletes during that century.

Quite a legacy from my alma mater of not only oustanding athletes, but also outstanding people.

"UCLA heads the NCAA list with eight of the 100 Most Influential Student-Athletes in History. Two Bruins, Jackie Robinson and Arthur Ashe, rank No. 1 and No. 2"

The Power of Affirmation

I don't know if this story is true or not...but I know the principles are true.

We all crave affirmation, and what others tell us shape our own self-image.

In turn, our self-image shapes how we behave.

I'm a sucker for stories like this...

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper,and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each student his or her list.

Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?"she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most of the comments. No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam. His teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who had acted as a pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's maths teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "Yes." Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognise it?"

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home. "Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album." "I have mine too!" Marilyn said. "It's in my diary." Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't even know when that one day will be.

Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

May Your Day Be Blessed, And As Special As You Are.

I'm a Polished Arrow in the Hands of the Lord (Isaiah 49:1,2)

Criticisms of The Da Vinci Code

I started reading Da Vinci Code two years ago without knowing what it was about. Two-thirds of the way through, I threw it away, disgusted by its fabrications, arrogant tone, and poor writing. This wikipedia article lists 44 false claims in the book.

"Many of the complaints center around the book's speculations and sometimes deliberate misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity and the history of the Roman Catholic Church, with many other criticisms being generated by the book's inaccurate descriptions of European art, history, and architecture."

UCLA Basketball peaking at right time

Wow, the Bruins are on a roll. They finished the season strong to win the Pac-10 regular season championship, then won 3 games in 3 days during the post-season conference tournament to win that championship.

They are playing their best basketball of the season right now, which is a good sign: a team that is improving in its play, not just coasting on its talent. A sign of teamwork rather than just good individual players.

This is what was lacking in the Lavin era - players and the team never seemed to get better as the season wore on.

Fun to see this team and these players develop. Now 26-7, they are a testament to good coaching by Ben Howland. Bravo!

Now three weekends of basketball to go in March Madness!

"The Bruins moved up six slots in the Associated Press poll to No. 7. It is their first appearance in the top 10 since Jan. 2002"

Americans' highest priority

That is the topic of this survey by the Barna Group. Check out the link for the complete article.

The following two sentences particularly caught my attention as the pollster tried to reconcile people's verbal affirmations of faith, then choosing other aspects of their life as more important when asked to rank them.

"It seems as if God is in, but living for God is not. Many Americans are living a dual life – one filled with good feelings about God and faith, corroborated by some simple religious practices, and another in which they believe they are in control of their own destiny and operate apart from Him.”"

How to Read A Book

Thoughts from Mortimer Adler:

"Reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself
in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book." "And best of all, your marks and notes become an integral part of the book and stay there forever." p. 127

"Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author."
"Learning doesn't consist in being an empty receptacle. The learner has to
question himself and question the teacher. HE even has to argue with the
teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying." p. 128

The Principled and Self-Aware Life

Insight from BOOK SAVVY by Cynthia Lee Katona:

WWID "What Would I Do?" "A strong sense of "What Would I Do" in any given situation is what is largely missing in many Americans' lives. People
scramble from crisis to crisis, without any self-awareness or rock-solid
principles to guide them." Where do such helpful principles and
self-awareness come from?" p. 20

Churches and good literature.

The Best Picture Misses the Big Picture

This LA Times opinion piece facetiously thanks the Motion Picture Academy and makers of the movie "Crash" for opening his eyes to the real LA: a powder-keg of racial hatred.

In doing so, he points out how news and entertainment media tend to sensationalize social trends and paint society according to their point of view.

I'm looking forward to seeing the movie and wonder if I will have the same reaction.

"I used to think we could all get along, more or less. I believed that despite its many flaws and obvious divisions by race and class, Los Angeles was one of the more successfully integrated cities in the world. And so to me, 'Crash' felt like an artless, dated and manipulative morality tale on the evils of the sprawling metropolis, shot with a long lens from behind the bars of a gated seaside community."

The Decline and Fall of Europe

Pretty strong words by a respected columnist.

The thing is, in the world we live in, where economies and politics are interrelated around the world, we all depend on each other to do well. Although economies compete with each other, we don't want the other countries to fail, because ulitmately everybody suffers.

"Europe is in deep trouble. These days we all talk about the rise of Asia and the challenge to America, but it might well turn out that the most consequential trend of the next decade will be the economic decline of Europe."

Helping the Healthy

Here are some insightful observations regarding the Prodigal Son and his Elder Brother. You know the story, right?

The Prodigal goes off and wastes his inheritance in wild living, then returns home repentant to be embraced and forgiven by his father. Meanwhile, the older brother, who has served his father faithfully the whole time, is angered by the injustice.

As in many of Jesus' stories, the point is about grace and a loving father. The point of Christianity is not to obey all the rules, but to love the Father.

Christian leaders need to look at those around us not as people needing to serve God harder, but in desperate need of his loving embrace - maybe especially the most responsible ones.

"Those who have not broken the rules may be farther from the Father's arms than those who've broken most all of them. Sin is anything that separates us from God, and nothing does that quite like not feeling the need for mercy. Again, the point isn't to be good. The point is to get into those arms, and grace is the only way there.

This means preachers are called to peel back the veneer of spiritual health in the elder brothers, and help them to see that beneath all of those years of careful living lies a soul that is as dangerously parched as that of the prodigals. Their right answers, dedicated volunteerism, beautiful families, and well-marked study Bibles can keep them away from the love of the Father just as much as the prodigals' wantonness."

When lovable doesn't work

Someone told me today, "I have discovered that there are some people who don't like me. Even though I am so lovable. They don't like my lovability."

Most of us figure out styles that work for us. They may be extremely effective, but there aren't any styles that work all the time, even being lovable.

We need to recognize that our default styles can be helpful much of the time, but still not work some of the time. At that point, our own success can be a liability because we can get stubborn, insisting that this way ought to work. We cannot conceive there is something wrong with us, our approach. It must be them.

But we all need flexibillity and an attitude of constant learning. We need to understand and adapt to our situations and to others' cultures and styles.

After all, lovability is in the eye of the beholder.

Disappointment hits hard for Kearney

"She bit her lip and walked away, her goggles trying to hide the tears.

That was an Olympic moment, too. Sometimes, the medal contenders do not stand on the podium with smiles and tears of joy. Sometimes, tears of frustration, sadness and disappointment mark the day when years of hard work do not yield the desired result. There will be more athletes in Kearney's shoes than there will be athletes adorned in gold, silver and bronze. They had dreams, too."

So true. In all of life, when it seems things DO NOT go our way more than they DO, an essential skill is learning to deal with disappointment and defeat.

I think it is important to acknowledge the emotions, not hide them, then evaluate the situation - what should I LEARN from this, how do I adjust my understanding of myself and the world and God's perspective better, and then move forward with new insight and confidence in God's purposes for me

Things People Said: Courtroom Quotations

Lawyer: 'Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?'

Witness: 'No.'

Lawyer: 'Did you check for blood pressure?'

Witness: 'No.'

Lawyer: 'Did you check for breathing?'

Witness: 'No.'

Lawyer: 'So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?'

Witness: 'No.'

Lawyer: 'How can you be so sure, Doctor?'

Witness: 'Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.'

Lawyer: 'But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?'

Witness: 'Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.'

Christian Film Reviews

Here's an interesting site with hundreds of film reviews in the archives.

Healthy Leaders Are Built in Community

The older I get, the more I realize that a leader's example is his most powerful tool. This seems obvious to us, but how many of us get caught up in spending our time working and trying to accomplish things instead of developing our character and building the people around us?

One area where we can see this disconnect is in the area of mentoring. We may believe in the importance of but still succumb to the temptation of outsourcing the mentoring of our followers to others (professionals), because the fact of the matter is that mentoring is time-consuming.

Yet how much impact will that mentoring have when the followers see that the leader doesn't have time for it himself? How important can it be? When you get to be the leader, it is not a priority?

Again, the truth is that lessons are more caught than taught. The example of the leader is his most powerful tool.

"existing leaders themselves must participate in the teaching and developing of emerging leaders. They should not merely delegate this role to others. Leaders must personally act as coaches, role models, teachers and mentors. They must share their lives with those around them – their mistakes as well as their victories. True leaders are builders of leaders."

Christians Fear Amid Worldwide Muslim Demonstrations - Christianity Today Magazine

In predominantly Muslim countries around the world, minority Christian populations are bracing for violence in retaliation for cartoons published in Europe that are offensive to Muslims.

Six Christians were killed by angry Muslims in the Philippines. In other countries like India, messages are being spread encouraging violence against Christians.

"Iraq's Christians are bracing for attacks on their ancient community, fearful that deadly bombings of their churches last month were linked to Muslim fury over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published in Europe (Reuters)"

Evolution of my exercize

In 2001, after nearly two years living in Singapore, I decided to start exercizing.

From '97 to '99 in China, I felt I lived a pretty healthy lifestyle. We ate fresh vegetables and no processed foods for just about every meal, and I walked a lot and rode my bike every day. We also lived on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator, so went up and down the stairs several times a day.

When we moved to Singapore at the end of '99, I still kept walking a good deal because we had no car and I used public transport to commute to the office everyday. Walk to the train station, walk to the office, etc. But we also began to eat more processed foods, and the weather was so hot and humid that I didn't want to do any other kind of exercize like sports.

I realized I was getting lethargic. I'd sit on the sofa in our living room feeling hot and lazy. At that point I decided I needed to start exercizing in order to spur my energy.

First Stage

At first I started going to the gym near our house two days a week to lift weights. I wanted to gain energy and strengthen my bones so that as I got older I wouldn't get feebler. I noticed two immediate benefits. First, my energy level did improve, and second, I didn't have backaches when I woke up in the morning.

Second Stage

In 2002 after pretty regular exercize for a year, I decided to up my regime to three times a week. In my mind I set a standard of twice a week meaning that I was staying even, once a week meant slipping backward, and thrice a week meant improving.

Third Stage

When I first started exercizing I went by myself. Along the way a neighbor started joining me, and at some point Kimberly started going also. It made it more enjoyable and gave me accountability and support for going. However, if they were not able to go, it also created an excuse for me to skip exercizing if I didn't feel like it. In 2003 I decided I couldn't depend on them to join me, I needed to decide when I was going to exercize and if they could join me, fine. But I wouldn't interrupt my routine if they were unavailabe.

Fourth Stage

In 2004 my physical checkup showed a high level of cholesteral for the first time. I made a couple of dietary changes, and also ddecided to start making aerobic exercize a higher priority than weight training. I really don't like aerobics. I've never been a jogger. I don't like it, and I have bad knees. Two surgeries on my left knee took out most of the cartilege and it gets easily swollen if I run on it. But our gym has an elliptical trainer, like a cross-country skiing thing, and that gave me a good workout without putting too much pressure on my knees.

Fifth Stage

After a year of aerobic, I started paying more attention to my breathing and decided to always breathe through my nose, keeping my mouth closed. That was hard at first, feeling I wasn't getting enough oxygen! But it gave me more focus and discipline in my exercize.

Sixth Stage

In late 2005 I decided to add stretching to my exercizing. I am so inflexible! Always have been. I hate stretching. I'm too impatient for it. But now I'm taking time after elliptical and then situps and backrises to do some stretching before weights for my shoulders and arms. Still aiming for Monday through Friday, 5-6pm.

Name that stadium

One of my favorite tools is Google Earth. Amazing! Endless fun and somewhat educational.

With the Super Bowl coming up, here's a fun Google Earth trivia game. See how many of the stadiums you can identify.

Anger Over Cartoons of Muhammad Escalates

Wow, I am hearing this interpreted as a clash of civilizations. What does it say about how these civilizations view the world?

The contrast is protrayed in the media I've read as freedom of speech v. religious zeal.

I see more contrast between individualism and collectivism.

Muslims cannot understand how western societies can allow denigrating portrayals of Islam. Westerners look at individual freedom of expression as integral to human rights, and cannot understand how individuals in collective societies can allow political oppression of those individual freedoms.

Could it be that exporting individualism is what the west means by spreading democracy?

And could it be that people in collective cultures are not willing to trade away the security and other benefits they enjoy in their societies for the freedoms of expression that westerners cherish and want them to accept?

"'Neither the Danish government nor the Danish nation as such can be held responsible for drawings published in a Danish newspaper,' Rasmussen said following the meeting with envoys. 'A Danish government can never apologize on behalf of a free and independent newspaper This is basically a dispute between some Muslims and a newspaper.'

The prime minister added there could be 'unpredictable repercussions' if the protests escalate.

The Egyptian ambassador to Denmark, Mona Omar Attiah, indicated that Rasmussen should do more to diffuse passions. 'I want the prime minister to speak with Jyllands-Posten about getting them to give a real apology,' she said after the meeting."

Digital camera revolution

OK, the revolution's over. Digital has won.

We weren't early adopters. In fact, we're probably early wannabes in everything, but too cheap to buy technology until it is widely accepted.

We got our fist digital camera three years ago. And it has totally changed the way we handle photos.

In that relatively short span of time, it's amazing to hear that companies are totally abandoning the film camera market.

"First, there's the astonishing collapse of the film camera market. By some tallies, 92 percent of all cameras sold are now digital. Big-name camera companies are either exiting the film camera business ( Kodak, Nikon) or exiting the camera business altogether (Konica Minolta). Film photography is rapidly becoming a special-interest niche."

Happy Groundhog Day!

To celebrate, we watched on of my all-time favorite flicks, appropriately titled...Groundhog Day.

The main character goes through a profound transformation over the course of the film, and the key truning point in his life comes when he recognizes the virtue in a woman he's been trying to woo unsuccessfully. He stops trying to win her and starts trying to become like her, with dramatic results.

A funny film with a good moral and a great lesson about the power of a role model.

The Shrine Next Door

This review points to a book that looks very helpful in understanding Chinese religion.

For Christians, two aspects of particular importance:

One, we need to understand how other cultures perceive God and human relations with God. The Chinese understanding starts from a very different reference point from the Christian understanding.

It would be easy for a Chinese person to adopt the outward forms of Christianity because they see it working for other people, while at the same time their inner understanding of who God is and what he wants from them has not really been affected.

Understanding Chinese religion gets us to the inner motivation of how they perceive their relationship with God so that we can communicate the meaning of Jesus' life more effectively.

Two, learning about the history of religion and its practices in China will help us understand the Chinese government's attitude towards religion. My experience is that the government is not particularly anti-Christian, but is afraid of any kind of secret movement, and especially suspicious of religious ones.

"One stark continuity with modern China strikes those who have heard about the persecution of house church Christians: Government leaders have always feared popular religious movements. Not only because Buddhist- and Daoist-inspired uprisings have on several occasions nearly toppled the throne, but because local religion resists government control."

Christian Audio

"Thoughtful Christian Audio"

Just found this great website that offers a free Christian audio book download each month.

Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist...

According to this article, there are some "surpirsing findings" here.

"there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left,"

And they mean nearly ALL of them!

Of 20 outlets surveyed for their coverage over the past ten years, 18 were found leaning to the left, 1 centrist, and 1 to the right!

Now this is no surprise to me and my wife, who used to have the bumper sticker "I Don't Believe the Liberal Media."

My Take on Broken Flowers

Kimberly and I saw this movie last night. It was my choice, I really like Bill Murray.

The ads for this movie made it seem to me like a blend between Lost in Translation and Sideways.

And it was. Slow, not much dialogue, kind of washed-out cinematography, a repetitive jazz track, very mundane. With no explicit moral.

I really liked it. Kimberly really didn't like it.

"Is that all? What's the point?!!" she wanted to know when the credits ran.

But the movie was interesting. It kept me wondering, what's going on inside his head? What is he learning from all this? How is he changing?

It's very understated, so you have to read between the lines.

Here's my take. It's a commentary on a life of dissipation. He's lived for himself, making no commitments or lasting attachments, and seems to not care about anything or anybody.

By the end of the movie, there's a kind of realization that he really wishes he had some connection. But he's wasted his life so far, and can't do anything about all of those years that he might have invested in building meaningful relationships.

His life is really shallow and uninteresting.

A great commentary on the value of investing in relationships, especially family, and a real indictment on the culture of me, that ultimately ends in emptiness.

End of the Spear Recommendation

A friend just wrote me with this recommendation -

A major film, called End Of The Spear, will be launched January 20. I believe God will use it in a big way. It depicts the effects of the grace of God in very powerful and spectacular ways.

The story begins in 1956, when five Christian missionaries (Jim Elliot was among them) gave their lives in an Ecuadorian jungle, attempting to bring the gospel to the Waodani stone-age people. At that time they were the most violent tribe on Earth -- and yet they became the most loving and peaceful!

The missionaries made friendly contact, but something went terribly wrong. The Waodani speared them to death. A tragedy? Yes, but God turns everything to good, for the blessing of many and for His glory, and this was no exception.

God used this tragedy to motivate more people to become missionaries than any other event in modern history -- perhaps ever. He also used two women to complete the work of the five martyred missionaries, bringing the Waodani to himself. So the deaths of those five men did more to advance the kingdom of God than their lives ever could.

God’s ways are so great!

But the story doesn’t end there. It seems God is about to use the tragedy that happened 50 years ago to help others know Christ in our day, using The End Of The Spear. It is a major motion picture (production cost $12 million) that tells the story of God’s grace from the perspective of the Waodoni.

Making it even easier, great resources are provided. A Google search for “End Of The Spear” will yield several excellent web sites, including www.endofthespear.com . Then there is a special web site for Christians at http://www.daretomakecontact.com/. It offers lots of helps to help us promote the film and make it a huge success. You’ll really get the flavor of the film by watching the trailer.

By the way, the producers of End Of The Spear is Bearing Fruit Communications http://www.bearingfruit.org/About/. They have more plans in the works to advance the gospel through similar means. Find them on their web site.

ChristianityTodayMovies.com: Christian Movie Reviews, Movie News, & Film Commentary

Here's a helpful website, reviewing movies from a spiritual standpoint.

Words for the Year

No, not podcast (ha!).

The Lord has given me a couple of words for my life this year: organization and communication.

I'm a pretty extroverted person and most of my work involves building up people. I'm good at facilitating groups and coaching individuals.

However, my time with people could be more effective if I was better organized. And my communication would also be a lot more effective.

So I'm going to devote more attention this year to building my organizational foundation and increasing my communication so that I can be more effective in serving God and people!

Merry Christmas!

With prayers for God's blessings!
K!Mberly, Tyler, Cameron & Jim

Fastest Growing Websites

Wow! Things can change so quickly with the state of modern technology. 2005 is the first year I've been blogging, listening to podcasts, and posting photos on the internet.

At least I thought I waskeeping up. Now I realize that I haven't even heard of the fastest-growing websites.

"Comparing all sites with at least 1 million visitors in November, the PhotoBucket photo-sharing site saw the largest growth — a 16-fold increase to 15.6 million visitors, from 983,000 last year.

Social networking sites MySpace and Facebook had the second- and third-highest growth, respectively."

Poll: Americans Need High-Tech Gadgets

Can anyone relate to this statement: "The Internet connection is my lifeline."

Haha! I feel like that! I thank God I live in an age when I can learn more about the world than anyone ever before. I can live anywhere and be a citizen of the world.

What we crave - simplicity

Anybody else think "It's about time?!" I am frustrated with increasingly bloated software programs that can do 999 things I don't know about or care about, and which make it so hard to find the way to do the 3 things I really want to do.

"Think of it as option fatigue. Why fumble with one of five remotes when you can press one button, and voil�, it works! Simplicity is the latest buzz in management and design. With the need to work faster and better, who has the time for owners’ manuals?

"Thus a new premium is being accorded to ease of use. The iPod nano nails it. Complexity has become a hazard in pushing products. The new trend is to strip things down to their basics and make products intuitive. In 2005, less was more."

Fascinating Football Facts

USC really has an incredible combination of talent in its two star players. They could accomplish something that has never been done before in college football.

"If Bush wins the award, he and Leinart will become the third set of teammates to win the award in consecutive years.

The last were Army's famous Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, in 1945-46.

And the two USC stars could become the first Heisman winners to play together in a college game when USC (12-0) meets No. 2 Texas (12-0) in the Rose Bowl for the national title on Jan. 4.

Or if Young wins, the national title game will be a matchup of Heisman winners for the second straight year — and the second time ever.

Last season after Leinart won the award, USC played Oklahoma and 2004 Heisman winner Jason White in the
Orange Bowl, marking the first Heisman showdown in college football."

Putting Christ back in Christmas

"For the third year in a row, Christians nationwide have mobilized to put the holy back in the holiday. And they are winning battle after battle."

And the word of the year is...

podcast, which has really come a long way during the year, from infancy to almost mainstream. I started listening to podcasts in March (my favorite is the maccast) but after Apple included it in their iTunes software, lots of more professional quality content appeared, including many network-broadcast shows.

"The term 'podcast' has been declared Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

The term is defined as 'a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player'."

Fooling Ourselves

This week the USC-UCLA football game gave me a reminder of how hard it is to get an objective evaluation of ourselves.

We can take our successful results and mix them with wishful thinking and praise of fans and over-rate ourselves, ignoring our weaknesses. Lots of times we don't really want objective evaluations, because they can be painful.

In sports, blissful ignorance can't last too long, because sooner or later you will come upon a really good team. However, in other areas of life, it is easier to go on deluding ourselves.

"I remember a famous writer, I think it was Salman Rushdie, was on the David Letterman show a few years ago. When Letterman asked Rushdie what was the one thing he had learned about human existence, Rushdie said, “The extent that humans will go to fool themselves.”"

Singlish can, lah!

Here's a hilarious example of Singlish from local blogger Mr Brown:

"Aiyo! Why you say me until like that? You so clever you write yourself lah!
.
I tells you first hor, it is not 'Singlish Complain Columns'. In fact, you should say 'Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) Complaint Columns'.
.
Don't anyhowly say, wait, people say your England not powderful.
.
Anyway, you think any mother's-son can write in Singlish meh? You are very the wrong, can?
.
First you must know what is the rules of England. And then you must know what is the rules of Singlish (yes, actually Singlish is also got grammar one, ok?).
.
Then when you write that time the Singlish then got pattern."

Olson became rallying point

Quarterback Drew Olson of UCLA has been the heart and soul of a team this year that has played above expectations and above its talent level.

He has led his team to an impressive 9-1, four of them incredible come-from-behind vicotries, while playing with good but not great offensive linemen and receivers and a poor defensive line and average linebackers and secondary.

"Olson has a better completion percentage, passing-efficiency rating and touchdown-to-interception ratio than any of the past eight Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks"

However, he won't win the Heisman, because he is not leading a national championship team nor has he set records for total yardage or touchdowns. All he does is play the position more efficiently than anybody else and lift a mediocre team to near-greatness.

I think he's had an incredible year and deserves recognition as having the best season of any college football player in the country this year. Certainly if there was a college MVP award, he should get it.

George Washington and Thanksgiving

Author Paul Johnson, in his book on George Washington, says that Washington sanctioned the first amendment because he opposed the government setting up a national church like the Church of England.

However, he would have been horrified to know that the first amendment was used to eliminate religion, and especially Christianity, from public life. He saw the Christian religion as underpinning civilized society.

Johnson pointedly observes:

An America without religion as the strongest voluntary source of
morality was to him an impossibility.

It is significant that the day after the House of Representatives passed the
First Amendment, on September 25, 1789, it also passed, by a two-to-one
majority, a resolution calling for a day of national prayer and
thanksgiving, and asked Washington to appoint the day. The Resolution
reads: ‘We acknowledge with grateful hearts the many signal favours of
Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peacefully to
establish a constitutional government for their safety and happiness.’

Appointing the national holiday of Thanksgiving, Washington replied, in
words equally significant: ‘It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the
providence of Almighty God, to obey His Will, to be grateful for His mercy,
to implore His protection and favour... That great and glorious Being who is
the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that ever will
be, that we may then unite in rendering unto Him an sincere and humble
thanks for His kind care and protection of the people.’ (pp. 102-104)

Narnia: Up from the church basement

Columnist Cal Thomas makes a few good observations about Christians' engagement with society, particularly in the realm of the arts:

"This is an important film because it offers a better strategy for Christians and conservatives than Hollywood-bashing."

"Most conservatives and Christians, rather than advocating for better movies, have been content to boycott films, make really bad ones, or criticize what was being produced. This approach has had minimal influence on the film industry and has contributed little that was positive to the culture wars."

He applauds the new "Chronicles of Narnia" film for being a wonderful movie that appeals to the spirit without pedantically spelling out a gospel message.

Can we applaud Christians for making really good films, music, art, etc, that are not explicitly "Christian?" To skillfully portray biblical values and worldview and then leave it up to the viewer to decide what they are going to do with the message?

Absolutely! Wow, I think we need so much more of that. A subtle communication of the values we believe in and the implications for our lives. Isn't that how non-Christians have shaped culture for decades? Not with overtly anti-Christian messages, but with TV shows and advertising and movies and music that are thoroughly humanistic and hedonistic. Though churches may still be teaching orthodox doctrine, the media of our society have captured people's hearts and shaped our opinions.

Let's patronize this movie and clamor for much more entertainment like it.

Thanksgiving - the rest of the story

Chuck Colson gives us some background on the life of Squanto, who befriended the Pilgrims and paved the way for the first Thanksgiving celebration.

"Who but God could so miraculously convert a lonely Indian and then use him to save a struggling band of Englishmen? It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Joseph, who was also sold into slavery—and whom God, likewise, used as a special instrument for good."

High on Sky High

I left the movie theater with that kind of euphoria I got from the original Matrix and the older Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

My two boys were busily repeating their favorite lines.

I was wondering if I just saw my favorite movie of the year.

The recipe for Sky High's success? It was funny, adventurous, romantic, family-oriented, and extremely likeable. With clear-cut good guys and bad guys in a teenage-drama setting, it managed to be a fantasy film that was very human and not too cartoonish.

I loved it, my family loved it. Ranks up there with 13 Going On 30 and The Incredibles.

K!Mberly stars!

My beautiful talented wife is a guest star at a special Arts Festival Gala tonight.

She is even more fun and creative and delightful today than when she captured my heart on our first date 264 months ago tonight.

By the way, that night we ate Chinese food and went to a play. The ride since then has been wonderful, and it keeps getting better...

Segregation - the rest of the story

This article points out that neither governments nor businesses are wholly good. Both need checks and balances because, ultimately, people are behind all of them and people are not always good. In fact, they are mostly good when it is in their interest to be good. Otherwise, they will tend to exploit for their own advantage unless restrained by an outside influence.

"It was politics that segregated the races because the incentives of the political process are different from the incentives of the economic process."

Pride & Prejudice - Review

We really loved the A&E miniseries version years ago with Colin Firth. Now I'm looking forward to seeing this version.

"Along the way, it serves a continuing banquet of high-end comfort food perfectly cooked and seasoned to Anglophilic tastes. In its final minutes, it makes you believe in true love, the union of soul mates, happily-ever-after and all the other stuff a romantic comedy promises but so seldom delivers. For one misty-eyed moment, order reigns in the universe."

Ahhh... I love movies like that.

Gartner: Ignore Vista until 2008

I expect I'll be ignoring Vista long after that. After migrating through every Windows itineration (except ME - was that an itineration?) from 3.1 to XP, I became a switcher this year, and am enjoying the Mac OS for several reasons, but primarily because - IT WORKS!

"The majority of improvements in Vista, the update scheduled to arrive in 2006, will be security-related and most of this functionality 'is available via third-party products today,' Gartner analysts said in a research note published on Friday."

Zorro Redux

We really loved Zorro a few years ago. Great drama, great characters, good action, good romance, a happy ending. And gorgeous actors. Very well done.

So we were disappointed after watching Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones reprise their roles in the current movie. Still very pleasant to look at, but gone were the drama and character development. The action had turned into A-Team like stunts, lots of bodies flying around in a cartoonish way without anybody ever getting hurt.

The precocious son of Zorro has become a focal point of the movie and the parents have devolved into good-natured but somewhat bumbling heroes. It reminded me a lot of another Banderas movie, Spy Kids, but not as original or endearing.

It still managed to entertain, but was not memorable.

The Case of Behe vs. Darwin

My experience has been that academics are some of the most closed-minded people I've met.

Rather than exploring for truth, they seem bent on lining up evidence to prove their conclusions. So it wouldn't surprise me if the majority of the scientific community were actually wrong, and had followed the crowd rather than actually following the evidence.

"Denton argued there was little physical proof of Darwin's evolutionary theories, despite widespread support for his conclusions. Behe began to wonder.

'I checked research papers, and I was shocked to find that none of these things had been explained,' Behe said. 'I came to realize that a pillar of my thinking [in believing Darwinism] was supported not by evidence but by sociological factors, what other people think.'"

Rocky never dies

Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, on Sylvester Stallone, 59, planning to film Rocky VI: "Historians are calling it irrefutable proof that mankind has officially run out of good ideas."

If You Play With Fire . . .

You're gonna get burned, baby! Ouch!

UCLA spotted Arizona a 31-7 halftime lead, then a 52-7 fourth quarter lead. Their miracle comeback this week mounted to only 7 points, losing badly, 52-14. Spanked! I mean totally routed! Ouch again! Mama!

In the previous three comebacks in four previous games, it seems the Bruins were getting more and more daring, falling behind by greater and greater margins. We thought no way they'd come back against Cal, then we knew they had lost to Stanford. Still, they told us to just believe.

But look at the stats. Like that '98 team that couldn't stop an opponent, every running back was having a career day against the Bruin defense this year. So it's no surprise Arizona rushed for 320 yards! Even though they had (up till now) the last-place running game in the Pac 10.

Meanwhile, the Arizona rushing defense, who was next-to-last in the Pac 10 (behind guess who?) somehow held UCLA to a measley 85 yards rushing on 35 attempts.

Man, do we need some help on the offensive and defensive lines! Let's put as much recruiting emphasis as we can there.

Turnovers and big plays had saved UCLA so far this season, but not this weekend. Arizona had a fumble recovery for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown, two of the staples in the Bruins perfect record up until now.

Ouch! The letdown is even more painful after you've started believing.

How Little We Know

It's fascinating to read about discoveries in science. And it's amazing the conclusions we make from our limited knowledge.

In this story, we are told "The Big Bang, the explosion believed to have created the universe, is thought to have occurred 13.7 billion years ago. About 100 million years later, hydrogen atoms began to merge and ignite, creating brightly burning stars. Just what these stars were like wasn't clear."

Then later in the article we are told "'That's why this (study) was so exciting — for the first time, we're looking at potential evidence of how the first starlight was produced and when it was formed,' Loeb said."

I'm not dissing it, but I bet that our conclusions will change in another decade after we've made more discoveries "for the first time."

Get Smarter with New Handsets

All the choices in new "smart" phones makes me feel dumber.

I like my gadgets, but differentiating the options is getting too difficult for me. It seemed like new handphones just came out last week, now there's a news release about new designs?

Yikes, they all have more and more features, so what's the difference!?

Fireworks Promised on 'West Wing' Debate

The first few season of the West Wing have been my favorite TV show. Intelligent, fast-paced dialogue on dramatic issues with great characters.

However, I tuned into one episode of this season's show and didn't like it at all. The only holdover character I saw from earlier seasons was Josh, and all the shots were on the campaign trail with the two candidates. One of my favorite aspects of the series has been the rich decor of the West Wing offices - beautiful places that would be fun to work in.

I guess the show hasn't done so well since Aaron Sorkin left two years ago, and now they are resorting to gimmicks like this live show this week. Sounds fun anyway, if not the high-quality of past seasons:

"'We could get it completely wrong. You might be able to only hear Alan Alda and not hear Jimmy because the mikes don't work (or) the camera goes out; some crazy thing happens with the equipment. Certainly, the actors can lose their way.'

'There's just nothing more fun to watch than that kind of train wreck. If I wasn't involved with the show I'd be turning it on just to see: OK, how do they screw up,' he said."

The Function of Leadership

A quote from the book "The Leadership Challenge" -

"Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen." - Alan Keith

Are you focused on making something extraordinary happen? That alone is great. Are you creating ways for others to contribute? That is leadership.

Growing older

Ha! My friend shared a funny and insightful perspective on growing older today.

Neither of us had shaved, and he remarked on a column he had once read. The writer said that he knew he was getting older because when he didn't shave, his stubble no longer looked cool; he just looked like a wino.

You Are the Message

Great quote I heard at Rolling Hills Covenant Church this week:

"The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a person."

-Robert Oppenheimer

Bruins Evolve in Game to Beat a Better Team

Here it is again - the inner game. You can do a lot when you believe in yourself.

"'We're going to face teams that are better than us, as far as on paper,' UCLA's Justin London said. 'But nothing replaces heart — and we've got lots of heart.'"

The New Music Download Battle

Another interesting battle over music downloading - this time not about piracy, but about the pricing of Apple's popular iTunes. Record companies are putting pressure on Apple to charge more than 99cents a song.

Here's what John C. Dvorak at PC Magazine says:

"The goal is to kill iTunes and any online music service not directly owned by a label. The record companies don't like these systems for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that they work, proving that downloading music was a good idea from the beginning. I'm sure that still irks them, since it represents a decade-old 'I told you so!'"

It also reminds me of another old saying - killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Bruins Upset Bears in Rose Bowl Brawl

I was following this by internet and it was exciting.

Down 14-0, 27-14, 40-28, somehow UCLA kept coming back and finally won.

Cal outgained them by nearly 200 yards. They ran at will and had two runners with over 100 yards rushing each. Their freshman receiver had over 150 yards.

Meanwhile, UCLA's star receiver had one catch for 6 yards and star runner had 16 rushes for 64 yards.

Yet UCLA won and beat the spread (they were a 1-1/2 point favorite)!

A weak defensive line, a suspect offensive line, yet a lot of poise and maturity and a will to win.

A timid and tepid pick by Mona Charen

Interesting statistic mentioned here for all of us who moan about partisan politics:

"I heard an NPR host a couple of weeks ago describing the nomination process as 'polarized.' Some professor agreed that liberals vote only for liberals and conservatives only for conservatives. Nope. Conservative senators have, for the most part, voted to confirm liberal justices. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by a vote of 96-3. Justice Stephen Breyer was approved by a vote of 87-9."

Retreat by Charles Krauthammer

"For a man whose presidency is marked by a courageous willingness to think and do big things, this nomination is a sorry retreat into smallness."

Good line from an opinion piece about President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. It is disappointing to me that he picked a political ally rather than a judicial expert. As George Will said in another opinion piece, if 100 experts were asked to choose their 10 top Supreme Court prospects, she would not be named in any of the 1,000 spots on the list.

White Sox Top Red Sox 5-3, Sweep Series

I'm a hometown fan - Dodgers and Angels all the way!

But it's hard not to cheer for such a hard-luck team as the White Sox, or the Red Sox last season.

The Angels will beat the Yankees and face the White Sox in the American League Championship Series to see who gets to the World Series. Whom to cheer for?

Ah, this is where sports becomes so fun - waiting for those magical moments when heroes emerge and legends are made.

The 400 Richest Americans

Now look at this list. 4 of the top 5 are technology fortunes, and 5 of the top 10 are from one family.

How things change and yet stay the same.

1 William H. Gates
2 Warren E. Buffett
3 Paul G. Allen
4 Michael Dell
5 Lawrence Ellison
6 Christy Walton
7 Jim C. Walton
8 S. Robson Walton
9 Alice L. Walton
10 Helen R. Walton

Top Movies

I love lists. All kinds of lists. To-do lists, popularity lists, lists of statistics.

This is a list of imdb.com's top 250 movies as voted by members.

What are your top movies? Mine (as I try to gauge their impact on my life, not necessarily the movies I would most like to watch):

1. Brother Sun, Sister Moon
2. Groundhog Day
3. It's A Wonderful Life
4. The Wizard of Oz
5. Star Wars
6. The Deer Hunter
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
8. The Princess Bride
9. Rocky
10. Ordinary People
11. Lawrence of Arabia
12. Young Frankenstein
13. A Shot in the Dark
14. Saving Private Ryan
15. The Incredibles
16. 2001: A Space Odyssey
17. Forrest Gump
18. Patton
19. Chariots of Fire
20. The Seven Samurai
21. To Kill A Mockingbird
22. The Bridge on the River Kwai
23. The Great Escape
24. How the West Was Won
25. Tora! Tora! Tora!
26. Terminator
27. The Matrix
28. Gone With the Wind
29. Raiders of the Lost Ark
30. The Sons of Katie Elder
31. White Christmas
32. Little Big Man
33. True Grit
34. Twelve Angry Men
35. The Godfather
36. The Sting
37. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
38. Glory
39. The Killing Fields
40. The Parent Trap

Pacific 10 Makes Grade

I love articles like this that cross disciplines - in this case, testing the intelligence of football players.

Of course, it helps that it demonstrates the superior intelligence of UCLA student-athletes.

Brilliant 'Get Smart'

Don Adams, 82; Fought Evil and Got Laughs as Agent 86 on 'Get Smart' - Los Angeles Times:

"It was the height of the Cold War and the James Bond spy craze when 'Get Smart' debuted on NBC in 1965 with Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for CONTROL, a Washington-based counterintelligence agency."

One of the greatest satirical series on TV. When I was an undergrad student, my roommates and I would watch reruns every night at 11:30 after coming home from the library. A comedic classic!

DVD Fight Intensifies

DVD Fight Intensifies: Microsoft and Intel to Back Toshiba Format - New York Times

Yikes! Another format war!

Does this mean we'll all have to buy two formats of DVD player for the next generation of discs?

Or, like with DVD-R and DVD+R, will every machine just support two standards and we choose on which version of the disc we buy?

Is the world we live in destined to offer a confusing array of choices? A few people figure out what they like best, and the rest of us that really don't know the difference and don't care, just follow?

I guess that's the price of not having a world dictator. Wait, wasn't that supposed to be Bill Gates? Let's see if he can make everyone else to follow his lead.

How 'Bout Those Bruins?!!

After Fast Start, Future Looks Bright - Los Angeles Times:

I don't care that the three overwhelming wins came against hapless oponents. The important thing is that the team believes in itself. They're winning the "Inner Game of Football" which is really what separates champions from also-rans. So when they face some quality opponents, they'll believe in themselves and keep playing hard, and maybe good things will happen.

Plus, it's a lot more fun to watch teams that are excited and think they are going to win. That's the one wrap against Terry Donahue. Though he built a quality program that always did very well, they never made it to the pinnacle. And you got the feeling that no matter how good they were, that they were always worried...that he was always worried.

"The last time UCLA started 3-0 was 2001 and the Bruins won their first six, reaching a No. 4 national ranking, before losing four in a row and finishing 7-4"

Now the start to that season was a lot of fun. Until the wheels fell off. A few good years under Bob Toledo and Cade McNown, though hampered by a porous defense and ultimately succumbing to scandals and team bickering.

Yorkshire Tales

Last year we started making Sunday evenings a family reading time. After having our normal Sunday evening meal of leftovers, we each pick a chapter from a current book we are reading and read them to each other.

I've been reading chapters from a James Herriot book, "Dog Stories." What a great storyteller he is! His stories are charming, humorous and interesting, transporting us to a different time and place - where he served as a countryside veterinarian in northern England 50 years ago.

My wife and I got hooked on his books 20 years ago when we were newlyweds and didn't have a TV. We used to regularly read his stories to each other in bed at night. Now we are having the fun of passing on these dear stories to our two boys.

They are also very human stories, profiling human character traits in their interaction with animals, and inspiring us to be better people.

Making the World Better

An interesting observation by this columnist on differences between the "Left" and the "Right." He says the Left focuses more on making society better, while the Right focuses more on making people better.

"Because Judeo-Christian values have always understood that the world is made better by making people better. On occasion, of course, a great moral cause must be joined. For example, it was religious Christians who led the fight to abolish slavery in Europe and America. But in general, the way to a better society is through the laborious and completely non-glamorous project of making each person more honest, more courageous, more decent, more likely to commit to another person in marriage, more likely to devote more time to raising children, and so on."

If that is true, then is there any more important work than spiritual growth and character formation?

Calculate Your Life Expectancy

This will get you thinking about how long you've got, which ought to get you thinking about what you will do with it!

"Teach us to make the most of our time,
so that we may grow in wisdom."
Psalm 90:12

I Love My Gmail

This article gives some tips for how to use your gmail account as a private online journal.

I've signed up for several gmail accounts this year, and I love them for the fact that:

1. I can use separate accounts for different projects - all the email for a particular conference I'm planning is linked to one account
2. I can use accounts as online filing cabinets. They are effectively my email backups. I use a different email account, but forward a copy of every email to my gmail account, where it will be stored for a long time (currently 2.6 GB of free storage!)
3. This article suggests using your gmail account to write notes to yourself. Great idea!
4. They come with SSL connection for connecting to your computer's email client, giving more security/privacy than other email services.

writing sensible emails

Here's a helpful article on getting your emails read and answered.

Interesting observation: only 3 kinds of work email - inform, request information, or request action.

My favorite advice: state up front what the purpose is for your email.

Lots of good other tips.

Bridget Redux

I thoroughly enjoyed the original Bridget Jones movie. Charming and witty, it was a funny and touching look at the life of urban singles.

The sequel is an excuse for spending more time with Bridget, but with no compelling story or new character development. It was reminiscent of Ocean's Twelve, a movie I really disliked, as a vehicle for tagging along with the characters. I didn't dislike Bridget II, but it wasn't very meaningful or even very enjoyable.

Da Vinci Dollars

Just another reminder of how out of touch Hollywood producers can be.

This article explores how the makers of the "Da Vinci Code" movie are trying to tone down its anti-Catholic message. They even explore using the movie to attract religious attenders:

"The phrase I heard used several times was 'Passion dollars'; they want to try to get 'The Passion' dollars if they can," said Ms. Nicolosi, referring to her conversations about the film. "They're wrong," she added. "It's sacrilegious, irreligious. They're thinking they can ride the 'Passion' wave with this. And I said, 'Are you kidding me?' "

The book has been hugely popular, and I'm sure the movie will be also. But it's amazing to think the producers believe they can tap into a religious audience. And it's scary to think that people are getting their view of religion from this novel, which is ludicrous as far as its premise, and patronizingly polemic in its presentation (all the smartest people know the truth about this, it's just the simpletons who are kept ignorant by the wiles of the church).

Searching for Intimacy

Is blogging a kind of reverse-voyeurism?

Why do people want to publicize their intimate details, like their finances written about in this article on bloggers revealing their money matters?

I think it's a hunger for intimacy in a world where we've got more relationships and more communication than ever, but less-fulfilling connections with other human beings.

Top 10 Tech Products Ever

Here's CNET's list of the products that have changed our lives. #1? The iPod (2001)

Hard to believe it's only been 4 years, they seem ubiquitous!

#2 is Tivo, which will make its debut in Singapore in December - though run by the cable company and coming with a hefty premium.

What would make your list??? Wow, hard to narrow down on what doesn't qualify - TV, radio, computer, phonograph, electricity, lightbulb?

My list for the past 25 years:
(items that have most influenced our lives)

1. Personal computer (1987)
2. VCR (1981)
3. Cell phone (1999)
4. CD player (1985)
5. Digital camera (2003)
6. PDA (1999)
7. iPod (2004)
8. Camcorder (1985)
9. Playstation (2002)
10. Gameboy (1997)

Wonka Flop, Lemony Flip

There was some wonderful imagery in the movie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The boy playing Charlie is really endearing.

But once we meet Willy Wonka the movie really dives. We lose touch with the human stories - Charlie and his family, the other kids' character flaws, Willy's aspirations.

Johnny Depp's interpretation of Willy is just too weird and distracting, and the children and their parents are made too grotesque to be really human. In the end, we find Willy as this flawed ante-hero who needs to be saved by Charlie. The innocent child becomes the hero for the scarred adult, rescuing him from his disfunctional past.

There was a good moral that comes through in the end, but the telling was disappointing.

On the other had, "Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events" really plays the exaggeration of its characters perfectly and beautifully.

The story is caricatured in a fascinating way, and the characters display total humanness in the middle of it. The surroundings and settings are extreme, but it is a very human character story, told in an entertaining way.