Fireproof

Last Friday, on its opening night, Syl and I went to the theater to see FIREPROOF, the new movie from the makers of Facing the Giants. (If you haven't seen Facing the Giants, then we highly recommend you do!) FIREPROOF is an excellent movie. It stars Kirk Cameron, and has a very wholesome message. A successful fireman has a failing marriage at home, and he and his wife are ready to call it quits. But a wise father comes beside his son, and challenges his son to a 40-day love dare.

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Click on "WATCH TRAILER" in the image below

to see the trailer for FIREPROOF.

I highly recommend this film. It is action-packed and funny, but it's also very serious and does really wrench at the heart. It has a clear presentation of the need for a Saviour. We loved it! Do what you can to go see it.

Time for A New Freezer

Praise the Lord for allowing us to see we needed a new freezer!

The freezer shown above was our old freezer.

Time for a little story...
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We have some girls who come to clean at our house every Friday or two. (They are the sweet Smith girls, whom you can find in blog posts gone by.) Now these girls have been coming to clean for a couple of years (less a summer or two), and they almost always have to empty a bucket in the basement tub. So each week, one of them goes downstairs, passes by our chest freezer, and empties the bucket in the next room.
Last Friday, Leah Joy went down and emptied a bucket just before they left. After she returned upstairs, she mentioned to Sylvia that it looked like the freezer might be unplugged. Sylvia thanked her, and the girls left. A few minutes later, Syl went to check on the freezer, and found it plugged in. We surmised that the cord pictured above was mistaken as being connected to the freezer. This coiled wire has been beside that freezer for years, so it was odd that it was noticed only now. Syl, just to be sure, opened the freezer...only to find water pouring off the lid, and the items inside thawing!
In August we purchased over $600 of beef (a whole cow), which was all stored in this basement chest freezer. After calling Jon at work, and after some further investigation, Sylvia found that only the top items - which happened to be the liver, which we didn't plan to use - had thawed out, and the beef below was all still frozen. The freezer had died! The freezer had to be over 30 years old. We got it after Syl's grandmother passed away over 9 years ago, and she had it long before that. Syl and the kids immediately went into action. All of our beef was squeezed into the freezer upstairs and our neighbor's freezer.
That Friday night turned into a very hectic night. We had an AWANA conference Saturday morning, and had to leave the house by 6:15 am. Friday night we farmed all the kids out to different houses. The Blackwelders picked Julia up, which eased the stress. So I came home from work, we ate dinner, sent Jules with the B's, drove to three other houses and dropped kids off, then headed to the mall. Sears closed at 9 PM, and we raced around and got there at 8:25 PM! We looked at what they had, waited for them to see what they had in stock and selected one. Syl was paying for it at 8:55 PM while Jon went out to the minivan and started dropping down the Stow-N-Go seats and clearing the massive amounts of kids' junk that had piled up since Jon last cleaned it (the June trip to Michigan). Syl came out, and we went around to the pickup area. I've never seen Sears bring out a product so quickly. They had that thing out in 30 seconds after we arrived at the door! I was still trying to clean up and drop seats!
Well, we got it in the van, got it in the house, and managed to squeeze it through the basement door...uh, somehow...and slid it down the stairs. (How many engineers does it take to get a freezer in the basement? LOL) We got it up and running, let it cool down overnight, and stocked all the meat into it Saturday! And the above picture is what it looks like now. (Ever seen that I Love Lucy episode with the sides of beef???)
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So all is well now.
We have a new Kenmore freezer.
The Lord was gracious to us and let us not lose 280 pounds of beef.
And thanks to the Smith girls...glad you came to clean Friday!!

Not So Scrabulous

Personally, I am extremely disappointed with Hasbro over the removal of Scrabulous from Facebook. And now for those of you not familiar with any of these names, here's a brief summary...

Facebook is a social networking platform on the internet, designed to allow people to interact with friends across the globe. People can send notes, post pictures, play games and more with people they add as friends (often relatives, coworkers, friends, and long-lost school acquaintances). There are over 90 million Facebook users, and over two-thirds of those are here in the US.
Scrabulous is an application loaded into Facebook by brothers Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla. They wanted a way to play Scrabble against each other, so developed this application to play online. They loaded it into Facebook, and it has since become a social phenomenon. The game is essentially Scrabble; the board, the tiles and the rules are all identical to traditional Scrabble. In this online variation, you can take your turn whenever you want, minutes, hours, days or even weeks apart. There are over 2 million people who play Scrabulous on Facebook. Yes, over 2 million. Over 500,000 people play Scrabulous every day. (I am one of them!)

Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble in the US and Canada. Mattel owns the international rights to Scrabble. Hasbro struck a deal with Electronic Arts to create an electronic version for online use. Mattel struck a deal with RealNetworks to create an international version. Hasbro last week filed a lawsuit against Scrabulous for copyright infringement. They waited a long time to file this suit, waiting until EA was ready to lauch their version of Scrabble for Facebook users, attempting to give Facebook users an alternative.

And now for my superfluous opinion...This is a very foolish move on the part of Hasbro. They have a world-renowned game called Scrabble. People played it occasionally when I was growing up, but I haven't seen anyone pull out their Scrabble board in decades. Scrabulous put this game back on the map. I have seen countless stories of how people have gone out to buy the board game after getting hooked on the Facebook version. In fact, I myself had considered going to purchase one until my lovely wife informed me that her family has some Scrabble games in Michigan, and we may take one.

Now there are millions of Facebook users who woke up yesterday morning to find the following notice when they attempted to load their Scrabulous games: actually, I went to grab a picture of the notice, and they have removed Scrabulous entirely from Facebook. Wow! All gone. At least this morning it still appeared there was some glimmer they would come back. Well, anyway...

Literally thousands have jumped on the bandwagon in anger at Hasbro, joining online petitions, groups, etc. Some have called for a boycott of Hasbro. Will any of it do any good? Probably not. Hasbro has every right to file a lawsuit against Scrabulous. They have every right to demand removal of the game from Facebook's site. In fact, many wonder how Scrabulous endured so long. Perhaps it was only because Hasbro wanted to tap these Facebook users for themselves, and waited until their own Facebook application was ready for launch. Unfortunately for them, that was a catastrophe. Many couldn't load the new application, probably because Hasbro/EA's app wasn't ready for the onslaught of 500,000 people that Tuesday morning. Those that were able to load the program were extremely disappointed in the quality. I myself went to the app home page and said "forget it" after reading only horrible review after horrible review. I even refreshed the page and found only more anger from users. I had several games (probably 10) going at the time.

The Agarwalla brothers, creators of Scrabulous, did not originally create the game to make money, but now earn about $25,000 a month on advertisement revenue through Facebook. Do they deserve this money? Maybe not. However, getting your product to an online market, and having it be such an addictive product - that's pretty valuable, especially in these days. Hasbro has missed this. Or perhaps feels they can just grab it, as if it was their idea all along. I'd be ecstatic if I could get 2 million people to see my product once, let alone have 500,000 trying to use it daily. Did I mention that Scrabulous is the most-loaded game application in Facebook? It is. Hasbro should have struck a deal with these brothers, and I predict they will regret this move. Using heavy-handed (but clearly legal) tactics was a poor decision. Even if this turns into profit for Hasbro, I submit to you that it would have been more profitable to work out an amicable deal with Scrabulous. I may never be able to prove it, though. Hats off to Hasbro...Way to blow a big opportunity and ruin your potential relationship with millions in this new generation!

All Things Superficial

We all need entertainment at some point, don't we?
So instead of posting something about what our family is doing, we're going to review a few of this week's more interesting entertaining moments. Yes, these things are...
Superficial.

Up first...the dazzling Detroit Red Wings!

Last night they swept the Colorado Avalanche in impressive fashion, with an 8-2 bludgeoning of the sixth-seeded Avs. A small slice to show how impressive the Wings are is shown in this clip of Henrik Zetterberg's goal to put the Wings up 5-1. Just watch this:
Henrik Zetterberg's Amazing Blind Spin Backhand Goal

I played this over so many times, even in slow motion. I couldn't believe it. The man takes a shot, which is blocked by the goalie. As he begins spinning, the puck rebounds off the goalie toward him. He completes his spin, taking a blind backhand swing at the puck, lifting it up and over the goalie's left shoulder. Absolutely unreal. As the announcer says, "does he see this puck?" If you play it frame to frame (I did), you can see it looks like he truly sees the puck as it rebounds toward him, so he completes his spin quickly, and it looks like he actually sees the puck before he takes his backhand shot.

And so they wait for their opponent, which will be either the Dallas Stars or the San Jose Sharks.

(Bring on the Stars!)
I added this image as a bumper sticker on facebook. Feel free to become my friend on facebook and see it for yourself.

Up next: the genuine Brooke White
Sadly, Brooke was sent home from American Idol (Season 7) this week. She was a wonderful artist, but even those of us who love Brooke could see that she wasn't performing at her best the last couple of weeks. I think we all saw this coming on Wednesday night.
So long, Brooke. We hardly knew ye.
Beyond that, I have five AI things to say:
1) David Archuleta and David Cook are the final two.
2) David Cook is hands-down the most talented, and deserves to win, but Archuleta has that teeny-bopper fan base to buoy him.
3) Syesha Mercado should definitely go into stage musicals/acting.
4) For all my loathing of Neil Diamond songs over the decades (though when I hear one, I'll usually be humming it for days), I was very impressed with the man on Tuesday and Wednesday. Especially the song he performed. Can anyone tell me if this man is a Christian?
5) How on earth is Jason Castro still here?! Someone please tell me. Who is going to pay money for a ukulele rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow??? Listen folks, as my wife has said, you cannot buy his smile! All you get is a photo (awkwardness included), maybe some lyrics, and a lot of lousy music. Ugh!
OK, I'm done. Just let me step down here and...yah, the soapbox goes right over there...thanks.

And finally: An E-mail. About feet. And the number 6.
Have you heard about this? If not, you've got to try it. I tried it and was so frustrated, I had to send it on to my co-workers. It likewise frustrated them. It looked so easy on paper (or the computer screen, in reality). Can't believe my own body won't do what I tell it to.
Here's the e-mail:
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HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT?
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You have to try this, it takes 2 seconds. I could not believe this!!! It is from an orthopedic surgeon...........
This will boggle your mind and you will keep you trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't. It's pre-programmed in your brain!
Without anyone watching you (they will think you are GOOFY......) and while sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.
I told you so!!! And there's nothing you can do about it! You and I both know how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you've not already done so.
Send it to your friends to frustrate them too.
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OK, I tried it several times, and it was true every time. In fact, I even found that my foot changed direction when I started thinking about drawing the number six in my head (no hand involved)! That's when I gave up. At one point (and this happened to a co-worker also), I thought I'd done it, thinking I'd outsmarted my own brain. Then I realized my foot had been going the wrong direction the whole time. Kinda, weird isn't it?
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That, folks, is all for today.
Superficial stuff, but entertaining to us.

American Idol Season 7 - Top 12

Tonight we see what happens to the top 12.

Okay, Sylvia and I have become hooked on this program. We've never seen any of the previous seasons, except for commercials and snippets here or there. To us this is all new, and we're thoroughly enjoying it. We both love music, so we should've realized earlier that we'd enjoy this show, but we never gave it a shot. Now that we're hooked, we've come to the final 12 with some expectations and with some predictions. So here are my (Jon's) predictions for the final 12 and their eventual exits from the show:

#12 Kristy Lee Cook
Kristy has gotten a bad rap from the judges for weeks, and I just haven't seen what they've seen. I think she's done a great job with her songs...until last night. Last night was laughable. Her country version of that Beatles tune was awful. She has shown herself for what she is: a girl who can sing well, but who has no musical talent. And to boot, she has released recordings previously, and has failed to become successful, being dropped from her label twice. I say she'll go home tonight.

#11 Ramiele Malubay
This little girl showcased a powerful voice early on, but has really petered out of late. Last night's performance was pretty bad, from start to finish. I have to completely agree with Simon - the stair view was bad to start out, and the entire performance was boring. She won't last, and I predict she'll go next week.

#10 Jason Castro
I have been predicting this guy would go home for weeks. I just don't see what they've been seeing. I think he's so boring every time, has no stage presence, and looks so uncomfortable on stage that I can't bear to watch him. Last week I finally thought his poor performance wasn't as bad as others and thought he'd stay. But I don't think he'll make it through the next three weeks.


#9 Syesha Mercado
I like her attitude and smile. Her singing is okay, but it just isn't great, and I think she'll go home in the next four weeks.





#8 Amanda Overmyer
I liked her early on, but she was downright awful for a few weeks in there. Last week she was back on her game, and last night she was okay, too. But her style is so repetitive, and her smile is fake, and she has some really bad nights. I think she's still here thanks to VFTW, and will go home in the next five weeks.


#7 David Hernandez
This boy can sing, and has a good stage presence. Maybe from all that time as a stripper. Good grief! With the gossip surrounding this guy, he won't last until the top 6. He was not good last night, but not really bad either. He's part of the bottom seven unless he has some stellar nights in the near future.



#6 Michael Johns
I thought this guy was great the first several weeks of the show. He can sing well, I like his voice, and he has musical experience (supposedly having time "in the studio" as he said). But in the last two weeks, when he "showcased" his musical talent, it was...well, not there. Why doesn't he add some life to these songs? Does he not know how? If he doesn't show a lot more spark, he'll be first to go in the top 6.

#5 Chikezie
I have liked Chikezie from the outset. From a return contestant who matured enough to make it into the top 24, to that smile on his face. He seems real. I have liked what he's done so far, until last night. I loved what he did last night! Last night when that Beatles song started, I thought it was neat, but different. But when he turned it into a great rock song, I thought he was phenomenal! He rocked! He showed musical talent! He owned that stage. And he will be there for weeks to come, because he is consistent. Whether he can make it into the top 4 remains to be seen. So for now, I'll put him at 5. Great job, Chikezie!

#4 David Archuleta
This Boy Wonder (as they call him) has an incredible voice. But two weeks ago, with the Phil Collins song, he seemed flat. He added no life to the song. Then last night, he truly showed he has some growing to do. Give him a break, though, he's what...12? Okay, 17 I think. He was born in the 90's? Man that makes me feel old. I think he needs to have some fantastic nights to move ahead of the top three.

#3 Carly Smithson
This girl has some pipes! I have loved her renditions of Heart and the Beatles song. She has truly nailed it the last few weeks. And unlike Simon, I think she's been singing the right songs for weeks - unlike some weird Carly video going around the net (ugh). Yes, this girl has released an album before, as she has admitted. I hear there is something fishy about her, that she's been planted in the competition, but I read one article too many on VFTW (and that's the only one I read). She will be in the top 4 for sure, and I suspect the top 3, but we'll see.

#2 David Cook
I would guess most people think he'll make top 8 or so, but no further. But watch this guy. He has talent. If you've seen what he's done with the last few songs, you can see he has a great mind for musical composition. He can make a rock song out of anything, I say. I love his voice. I love what he does with the tunes, and I think he'll be a surprise entry into the top 4 for sure, but maybe the top three. I'm only putting him at #2 because of the "controversy" surrounding Carly.

#1 Brooke White
Brooke, Brooke, Brooke. America loves you, Brooke. She is the genuine article. She is very talented musically. Guitar. Piano. Songstress. Slice-of-America looks and personality. Sylvia, my wife, - a pianist, mind you - spotted the bare feet after she played the piano last night, so we were rewinding on the DVR to see if it was so. Then as we played through, Ryan pointed out the bare feet. She is so normal! I put her here at #1 because I know she'll make top 3, and at number one because that is what I hope. Whether she'll make it to #1 remains to be seen.

That's all I have to say about American Idol Season Seven right now. We'll see if Kristy goes home tonight. I borrowed these pictures from americanidol.com, so check that site out if you want to see the real info. I may have to update my take (or create a new one if I'm all wrong) on the contestants in another month. Now this was fun!

Michigan Loss Equals More Free Time

Unbelievable! That is what I had to say.

Michigan opened its season with a pathetic loss to Appalachian State.

Appalachian State...they're in...uh...where are they from?

So much for a "tune-up game." So much for building on last season's momentum. So much for bringing back three potential NFL stars and an historic coach to get one more shot at the championship.
Michigan lost to Appalachian State.
Michigan lost to Appalachian State!!

Michigan deserves to fall from #5 to completely off the polls!
Lloyd Carr deserves to be fired.

Michigan football deserves all the ridicule it gets this season. There's no getting by this one, guys. This was pathetic.

But I must look on the bright side. This just opened up about 24 to 30 hours of my time on Saturdays over the next 3 months. Yes, I no longer have any reason to watch NCAA football this year. At least not until the Bowl games. Maybe. Thank you, Michigan Wolverines. If you were going to lose one, I guess you might as well do it week one, and against an I-AA team (two-time champion or not). Save me the heartache of losing to Ohio state in late November. Now I'll be able to enjoy my Thanksgiving without wondering what could have been. Now I can knock a chunk off my project list on the weekends instead of wasting my time in front of the boob tube.
GO BLUE! Hail to the Losers!

If Dogs Could...

Last Monday, as I drove to work, I noticed a particular billboard. This billboard has probably been there for a long time, and I drive this route every day, but I had never noticed it before. Why had I never noticed it before? you ask (go ahead...ask). Well, first, it is the second billboard of two, and it is the one farther from the road. So naturally I will notice the closer billboard first. Second, it is mostly obscured by trees until you get very close (as you will see in the first picture above - click on it to see a larger view). So you have to work to see it. Third, it is at a sharp bend in the highway, and personally I think it's more important to pay attention to the cars and road than to the billboard. It's a 55 mph speed limit, and we all know I, Jon, interpret speed limits as the LOWER end of the speed restriction. You will rarely catch me going below 55 mph at that bend. (Remember, Keeper always taught me to ACCELERATE into the curves in Pickle's Cordoba. That has become my driving mantra.) So it is very hard to pay attention to billboards at this bend.
It gets worse. Once you notice the billboard, it is almost impossible to read. You see the top of a lady's head with bubbles coming out of it, and in the largest bubble is something she's presumably thinking. But the print in the bubble is so small, you cannot read it until you're about 100 feet away. (Non-math majors, get out your calculators!) - (55 mph)x(5,280 ft/mi)/(60 min/hr)/(60 sec/min) = 80.667 feet per second. So at 100 feet away, you have about 1.24 seconds to read the words in the bubble! It's not gonna happen. I first spotted the billboard Monday, and was able to read "IF DOGS COULD." Tuesday I made it to "IF DOGS COULD DRIVE." Wednesday I was getting the hang of it (and there was no traffic), and made it all the way to "THERE'D BE MORE CONVERTIBLES." Ha Ha funny, now what does that have to do with SCANA (which I had recognized on the billboard earlier)? Thursday I was able to read the text in the upper right, and realized that they're saying SCANA is so dependable, they supply your gas, and you never have to think about it. So your mind is freed up to ponder things like "What kind of car would a dog drive?" So here is the final billboard in all its glory:

Great job SCANA...you're so "off my mind" that it took me four days to read your billboard, and I had to think hard about it a mile in advance so I would be ready to read really really fast. So this got me thinking. Isn't this kinda how I live my life?
At Sparks-A-Rama last week, one of the things the kids (our "Sparks") had to do was yell answers to these questions:

• Who are we? ... "SPARKS!"
• Who for? ... "JESUS!"
• What to do? ... "LIGHT THE WORLD!"

What a good reminder. We who are believers in Jesus Christ are here to light the world, to spread the light of Jesus Christ, to be that candle on the hill (Matthew 5:13-16). But too often we are that billboard by the side of the road. We don't follow the same paths as the world, but are off to the side a little, and we hope those who don't know Christ will see us and find Jesus because of how we live. Most of us (and this includes me) are the second billboard in, obscured by trees, and our print is too small for anyone to see. Yes, we are just like SCANA Energy..."IN YOUR LIFE. OFF YOUR MIND." This is not what a Christian should be. How can we ever make a difference if we don't intentionally talk to people about Christ? We need to shout it from the rooftops and hilltops. Yes, we must live like believers, but we must also GO into the world (outside our cozy homes, or at least bring them into our homes), PREACH the gospel and DISCIPLE those who come to Christ. Those are a lot of action verbs. I have squashed the Spirit for way too long.