Here and Now

Obviously not mine :) We went to see The Hobbit  last night.  We caught it in 3D - 48 fps, for those who care about such things. It was stunning - I never care about 3D, but I highly recommend seeing it in this format. It was only $6.25 each for the matinee, no upcharge for 3D (Tinseltown in Erie) so we were pretty satisfied with that - same price as seeing it in 2D...  And, yeah, everything is super clear and bright and...well, don't you want that in a film? I know it doesn't LOOK like other movies.  Who cares? It's not other movies. It's something new. New technology. And it really works.* But that's not the point, here. I went in kind of skeptical not of the technology (which, obviously, I'm ready to embrace) but of the story. How do you take a 300ish page children's book and make it THREE movies? Really? But...well, Jackson did a great job. First of all, young Bilbo is Watson from BBC's Sherlock  - which I didn't pay attention to going ...

I don't care who really said this, this is true. And since it's not JUST a picture...it's worth some extra words... :)

Merry Christmas! Let Linus tell you what today is really all about:

Just found this and couldn't resist :)

From Morguefile So... this is what the future of publishing looks like. Well, one of many futures...: To Be or Not To Be A guy posts a kickstarter to try to raise $20k to publish his book on Hamlet* and raises (with 3 days to go) nearly $400k!  Are you kidding me? Really? That's awesome on so many levels. Oh, he has to deliver now. And the stretch goals are pretty cool, too (they better be, when you top your goal by- what is that - 1000% or something...). But there are a thousand other books sitting on kickstarter that won't get funded. Why this one? Who knows. In some ways, kickstarter can democratize the publishing business. Backers can decide AHEAD of publishing whether or not something will be, as this, a "bestseller" or a no go. And no warehouses full of books that didn't sell**. Authors and publishers and distributors know from the getgo how many, how much, and where to - well, with the initial run. I guess there could be subsequent printings. And ...

Nothing to see here at the moment, but yesterday's message is posted at  Let God Speak...Here And Now...

...yesterday :) I posted the weekend's sermon yesterday. I created the site a week or two ago, but got the first message posted yesterday. I cleaned it up in a more or less "as preached" version - with a couple links (video clip and scripture passages). Not sure what else I'll do with links - depends on how much (if any) time I have to devote to upkeep. Anyway, the link is on the side: Let God Speak...Here And Now (pretty original, huh?) Also, link  Here  it's just beattysermons.blogspot.com Should be easy enough for even me to remember... :) And, the audio for sermons at Otterbein church is located  Here Newest content is at the bottom of the page (not sure how to do that otherwise, I don't update the page). She's usually a couple days into the week before she gets the newest message audio on the page, please be patient.

We don't have the trees for it, and I wouldn't want to broach the subject with the board of trustees here at the church, but every once in a while my girls - for like no reason at all - say, "Daddy, can we have a treehouse?" "Um, no. We don't have the right trees for it." And that ends it, usually, but sometimes they say, "But if DID have the trees for it, could you build one?" "Well, I could. " I'm such a hedger... But, well, I could. I wouldn't want to...but, yeah, I probably have the requisite skills... Then the brains start working. "And it could have a deck. And lights. And two stories..." And off they go... And it becomes clear that what they have in mind for a treehouse is something like this: Just found online.... And, okay, I admit I couldn't do THAT. I mean, I could do SOME of that...but that's a HOUSE...on a tree. Not what I had in mind, of course. I remember treehouses when I was a...

Everybody has buzzwords - business has theirs, the entertainment industry has a lingo, in sports, and in church work we have ours, too. Dilbert the other day had the pointy haired boss try to lead via catchprhases: copyright Scott Adams I have threatened to make up "Buzzword Bingo" cards for Annual Conference. You know, put words like "Holy Conferencing" and "Inclusiveness" and "Core Value" and, oh yeah, "Jesus" on the card and when you get five in a row you can jump up and yell "BINGO", or maybe "Holy Spirit" I don't know... We're not allowed to play bingo, so we definitely shouldn't yell out that word. Maybe if I had people yell out "Hallelujah!" when they got 5 in a row, the powers that be at conference would just assume that the person was powerfully moved by the point being made.* But we would know - and would secretly give them a prize.** The point being that we like to use the t...

From Morguefile I've considered publishing my sermons here - I don't know that anyone would be interested - but it's a place where I could keep a semi-permanent record of what I've done and the occasional time when someone has said, "Can I read that message" I could just email them a direct link. I had a really, really, really long message this past week - and I thought about posting it here - but I don't know - maybe another blog, just for that? That might be a better fit for me - using this space for - well - what it is, and if you want to check out the sermons, well, they'll be posted on the other blog. I could post a link every Monday after I preach or something here... Here's the thing, I love reading Michael's sermons  on his blog  -along with his reflections on life, ministry, stuff going on. If you haven't checked out Michael's blog, really, why not? But this isn't a plug for Michael (though, he deserves a plug now and...

Found online***** When Rachel was very little - like 2 or 3 years old - we taught her to play hide and seek. She was terrible at hide and seek.* Not that she couldn't find good places to hide - she actually often found clever places to hide - even in fairly open rooms like the big fellowship hall at the Warren Church. Probably because she was so small and could fit in little places.  She was actually pretty good at finding places to hide. But then I would finish counting, turn around and take two steps and say, "Where are you?" and two more steps and say, "Where are you?" and she would jump up giggling and yell, "Here I am!" She didn't want to stay hidden. She wanted to be found. She wanted her daddy to come and pick her up and hug her and laugh and spin her around and love her. She wanted to be found.** But as kids get older we teach them to hide better - to stay hidden. We play a whole different kind of hide and seek. We hide our emotio...

I would think they would play very quickly :)

Surely you've heard by now that Disney bought* Lucasfilm and Star Wars.** They're going to make Episodes 7,8 and 9, or so they say. I hear good and bad - people unhappy with what Disney did with what Disney did with Tron and the fourth Pirates movie (which I haven't seen yet, so I can't comment on it). And I hear the naysayers talk about John Carter of Mars - but I liked it - and the "real fans" would NEVER be happy with any adaptation of the classic ER Burroughs book anyway... Here's a link to a clearinghouse page on the news:  http://www.theforce.net/topstory/story/SWcom_Posts_About_Disney_Acquisition_148648.asp *** But I digress. One thing that I didn't think of is alluded to in this week's Dork Tower comic: from  http://www.dorktower.com/ Lucas did a bit of litigating to keep Star Wars his. But Disney has a pretty solid track record of protecting its intellectual property by suing anybody who violates it. And by anybody.... Clic...

I'm usually the first to give people the benefit of the doubt...but how do mess this one up? How many acronyms can you come up with for this one? Stop On This Spot Sign On The Pole Step On The Pedal (that's REALLY lame - save me, please!!!!!!!!)

From  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irony I realize there's a subtle irony in the fact that my  penultimate* substantive post  was about writing and how this blog is a place where I practice my writing...and then I stopped writing :) Yeah, irony might not begin to cover it...heh. But the reality is I have  been writing. A LOT. I discovered Google Drive - and a place to keep some documents that I can edit wherever I am without carrying them. Loving the "cloud" as it were. But what that has meant is that while this was my mobile "writing practice lab" for a long time - since I could log in wherever I was, now I can access those documents and work on stories, sermons, you name it wherever, whenever I want. So...updates have been...well, obviously, um, sparse. Just the robo-updates of the signs that I loaded up months ago and will end in a couple weeks... I WILL have content here, but not likely the 3-6 posts a week that I had going for a while. An...

Where I feel like I live sometimes...

Is that MPH or KPH?

Wherever you go, there you are...or, something like that....

So true :) Found online And blogging would be, what, many paragraphs saying, essentially, nothing about donuts to, well, no one... :)

Actually it IS funny :)

Wait...hazardous plants?  What, like this:

Found online So we've been noticing these little reward offers on products. EVERYTHING has some kind of reward. The backs of receipts have "complete this survey and you might win a thousand dollars." Sheesh... Last thing was on some Pampers wipes that we keep around ('cause we are messy people, okay?). So there's this little code on a little coupon you have to redeem for point. Okay. Wait, you have to join the rewards points tribe or circle or community or something. Sigh. Okay. I'll use Lori's email address (after all, she handed me the coupon). Password has to be between 8-14 characters and contain at least one letter and one number...argh, that's a 15 letter password. No you can't have my actual birth date, but I'll give you something close, sort of. Okay, ten minutes later and the click submit code...oops, missed a letter on the code...argh. I can't just insert a letter? I have to type it again...sigh...  Okay, there we go. 30 po...

I got nothing better :)

Not so little anymore...

From Morguefile I subscribe to  A Word A Day  emails - I get a "new" word every day - it's about 50/50 whether or not I've encountered the words before, but I enjoy the definitions, the little explorations of meaning, the reminder that some of these words exist. Most weeks the words are on a theme - like nouns we've made verbs ("Google that for me" anyone? or "Friend me"). A while ago it was Eponyms - words derived from someone's name (yeah, I had NO idea that "mentor" came from, what, Telemachus's adviser from The Odyssey ? Who knew? Well, okay, probably lots of people knew that... I  didn't, however). In the intro came this kind of unrelated bit: Actors act, curators curate, and orators orate. But doctors don't doct * , victors don't vict, and pastors don't past. Such is the English language. And we certainly don't want ancestors to ancest, traitors to trait, or gators to gate. I loved that post ...

These are the coolest pair of signs ever.  I mean, I don't know why Dr. Seuss is making road signs, but this is AWESOME!

From www.imdb.com Today's my day off and while doing a few other things around the house, I managed to watch most of two old movies I hadn't seen before.   Turner Classic Movies  has been honoring  Elia Kazan  because today's his birthday.  I knew some of the big stuff he'd done, of course, On The Waterfront, Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden*  and so on.  A couple years ago Lori and I stayed up late and watched  Sea of Grass  with Tracy and Hepburn - decent enough movie, but miscast I thought. Anyway, this morning started with a movie called  Boomerang!  a "based on a true event" story about a murder of an episcopal priest and the subsequent investigation into the murder.  The State Attorney General has some doubts about the state's case against the man they arrest, there's politics (and dirt, too - shocking, I know) and an interesting glimpse into late 40s police procedures (fictionalized, of course).  It's a me...

I'll take it :)

What could a Cat Oven even be?  Yeah, I'm too lazy to even Google it...

A couple weeks ago  I  kind of went off about the news being all about the salacious and titillating and sensational - and that that's what we, the general public, must want or why would they give that to us...  And today I was surfing a couple news websites and here's what I see: Click to see all of this - Fox News.com 08-23-12 Now, granted, that's Fox News, I get it, and it's not the "headlines" per se, but it's, well, that's a lot of garbage for two lines of images and text.  Let's see... Deadly sex, Kidman getting naked, Nudity on TV... Not to mention a health threat and a celebrity threat and...geez, MS "kills" Windows Logo (I know, I know - it just means "gets rid of," but still...) And I was this: Click to see all of this - CNN.com 08-23-12 CNN.  Really?  THAT is the headline you're going with?  And the picture?  Sigh... So... Is that what we REALLY want to see?  I mean, *I* don't.  I want some...

I saw this morning that director  Tony Scott committed suicide  by jumping off a bridge in LA.  I enjoyed many of Scott's movies - I mean, who didn't watch  Top Gun  or  Crimson Tide  back in the day? - and some of his work on TV, too (Lori and I were avid fans of the show  NUMB3RS  when it ran - I think we've seen every episode). I just saw a report that he may have had  inoperable brain cancer  which might explain his motive...a bit, I suppose.  Some yesterday hinted  that being in his brother  Ridley Scott's  shadow might somehow have contributed...* Several articles had tweets from famous people regarding Scott's death: In a tweet Sunday, director Ron Howard said, "No more Tony Scott movies. Tragic day." Director Jon Favreau tweeted, "Such sad news about Tony Scott. Heartfelt condolences to his family and friends." Really?  Tweets?  I find that to be...just wrong somehow.  "Hea...

So, you can come in and sit at a table and talk.  But that's it.  Wow - take away the talking and it could be church :) 'cause, you know, no food...or...nevermind...

I saw this on Facebook the other day: Of course Mark Twain  never said any such thing ,* but it's a great quote nonetheless.  And I chuckled out loud when I read it.** Last week I was at the  Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit  simulcast at a nearby church.  One of the presenters was  William Ury ***, co-author of a book called  Getting to Yes  and famous Harvard guy who has been involved in handling negotiations from corporate mergers and union strikes to war in the Middle East and conflict in Northern Ireland.  So, yeah, he knows something about conflict... You can read some notes on his session at GLS  here .  A couple things stood out for me: Conflict is natural.  We negotiate things all the time, every day.  All major decisions of our lives require at least some negotiation and many, many small decisions.**** In negotiation, separate the person from the problem.  This is HARD - but abs...

From Morguefile I was eating lunch at a local restaurant in Tidioute when I overheard part of a conversation that troubled my spirit - because it was, in a small part, about me, though the people wouldn't have had any way of knowing that. Last week I was asked to pray for a "blessing of the bikes" for a  dice run  heading out of Tidioute on Saturday.  So I asked one of our guys who is a part of the regional  Christian Motorcyclists Association  for some pointers, showed up early and, at the appointed time, prayed - for the bikes to work like they were supposed to, for the road to be clear, for the bikers to pay attention and for other drivers to pay attention to them, for God's blessing to be on the riders.  That's what I can remember of it, anyway.* I joked just before they left that I would pray for no rain, too.  And I did.  And it rained on me on the way home.  But, I thought, no big deal, they were going in a big loop around the ...

So this was in my inbox.  I smiled because of the new twist on the classic,  Nigerian scam  and the updated  Lotto scam  that's been popping up in my inbox.  This one is so ridiculously unbelievable that I couldn't help but read it and then wonder, "Who would reply to this?" Click to read the whole thing Sadly, someone might.  But...really?  Somehow two metal boxes verified by the US government as containing actual cash in the amount of 16.5 million dollars is sitting unclaimed at the airport in Atlanta that FINALLY came in from those darn scammers from Nigeria (apparently) or somewhere.  I and, only I, one would assume, am the lucky one to have beat the actual scammers and have been contacted by directly by Homeland Security's Frank Navarro - not via an official email, of course, but via his "live.com" account. Sounds legit to me. Tell you what, Frank.  I'll just drive down to Atlanta and claim the boxes in person, okay?

From Morguefile I was at a  conference   last week (via satellite) and after some of the speakers, one of the hosts would step up beside the speaker and pray with them.  We always knew when the host would be going to pray, because a keyboard would begin playing softly in the background. It was most telling for me when a  woman from India  spoke about her work rescuing people from  slavery and human trafficking .  She finished with a call for response from us mixed in with her own testimony.  It was powerful.  But as our host (it might have been  Bill Hybels *, I think it was, but I'm not sure) stepped up on the platform, for me, the power of the closing of her message was destroyed by the upswelling of the "prayer music" as the host "unpacked for us" what the woman had said and then prayed for her.  I remember the prayer being a powerful prayer, heartfelt and authentic, don't get me wrong.  There was nothing wrong wi...