I finished reading:

"Across the River and into the Trees" written by Ernest Hemingway. 308 Pages.

21st book for 2011, 6288 pages at an average of 299 pages per book.

-Richard

Well, obviously, last MST3K night didn't go off as planned because of the short notice and the tornadoes. (Actually, Weekend of the Tornadoes sounds like great bad-movie fodder.) So we've rescheduled for Saturday, June 18, at 7 PM. The poll listed below is still open, so vote early and vote often!

MST3K Episode Synopses

It's that time again -- for MST3K on April 16!

I've allowed the ones that got votes (but not enough to win) to be entered back into the running. Go to this survey and let me know which movie you'd like to see!

The Unearthly

A mad scientist is obsessed with finding "the 17th gland" that is, apparently, the source of eternal youth. His research subjects are people without families seeking a cure for depression; they tend to become zombies. This is a very short movie, so it's accompanied by two moralizing shorts that are entertaining in themselves ("Posture Pals" and "Appreciating Our Parents").

Teenagers from Outer Space

Aliens with a zest for killing and torture plan to colonize Earth as a place to farm their enormous lobsters (excuse me -- "gargons"). Suspiciously-sensitive Derek runs away and falls in with some Earthlings. Truly cheesy '50s sci-fi at its best, including waving lobsters in front of the camera people can run away from them.

This Island Earth

This was the MST3K movie released to theaters, and as such has often served as a more gentle introduction to the series. Scientists who receive a strange package and assemble its contents successfully are taken to another planet, where nuclear war has devastated society. But in spite of that, not much happens, and it doesn't change the characters in any discernible way.

"Manos": The Hands of Fate

This is consistently ranked very highly on fan sites. A family on a car trip deep in the sticks of Texas takes refuge at a "lodge" that turns out to be the secret headquarters of a deadly cult. Contains a short ("Hired!", part 2) in which a sales manager gets career advice from his handkerchief-wearing dad.

The Giant Gila Monster

I had to include a great big monster movie this time. A thirty-foot lizard is loose in the woods near some rowdy, dancin', hot-roddin', rockin'-and-rollin' teens. It knocks over a lot of stuff that resemble models of stuff.

Time of the Apes

Japan saw our successful Planet of the Apes movie and apparently decided that they wanted one, too. Instead of Charleton Heston, though, they have a female scientist and two kids. And instead of making a movie, they stitched together two episodes of a TV show and released it as a movie.

When "Sword Drills" Get Literal

I love me some fantasy and sci-fi. I really do. Which brought me to this. It piques my curiosity, that's for sure. If you want to speak in a relevant way to the culture, you need to understand what unites them, including their stories.

The question Sunday during Community Time was:
"Have you ever thought you understood a problem or issue you were facing only to discover that it was were facing only to discover that it was something different or bigger than expected."

It's my life at work as a software programmers, I experience this on at least a weekly basics. I have been doing this work for decades, when there is a problem I immediately look for something in my experience that is similar. Normally I find something even if I have to force the current situation to fit. I do not want to discount experience, but many times especially in a world as fast changing as high tech, experience sends me down the wrong track. I jump to the wrong conclusion, spent hours looking in the wrong place, maybe along the way blame other programmers or the users for the problem. Then I realize what I am doing is not working, stop and go back the the basics of troubleshooting a problem. Then normally I am able to solve the problem.


Unfortunately the same thing applies many times in my walk Christian. I start thinking about all the situations, that I have experience in my Christian life. Start jumping to the wrong conclusion about what God wants me to do about the current situation. When in fact as Fred said quoting Micah.


This is what the LORD requires from
you:
to do what is right,
to love mercy,
and to live humbly with your God.
- Micah 6:6-8

As a sort of follow up to this morning's conversation I want add a quote that follows along with what Matt was saying.

"A Christian can lose the Christ-life which has been put into him, and he has to make efforts to keep it. But even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam - he is only nourishing or protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts."

Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis

Just for Rusty....

I haven't found a Church we're happy with yet...but...the local Rugby Club is less than 10 minutes from my house :) They are however, no where near as good as Raleigh.....









-Richard

MST3K Movie Synopses

Here's a quick list of the movies that I listed on the poll here. You can feel free to add in your own, of course, but if you need a leg up, here's a plot breakdown of the ones I explicitly listed.

Fair warning: If I don't see a clear leader in the polls, I'm going with Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. :) (It inevitably makes the list of Ten Best on various fan websites.)

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
The Martians have become upset that Martian children have become obsessed with TV shows from Earth that mention a mysterious figure known as Santa Claus. Their solution is to kidnap the jolly old elf and force him to work on Mars.

Laserblast
Alien creatures kill a different alien creature in the desert; the latter leaves a laser gun and its power source to be discovered by a mopey and confused teenager. The power source causes the teenager to mutate, and he goes on a rampage; local police and the FBI give chase. The first aliens get wind of what's going on, kill the teenager, and forget their gun again. Notable because Eddie Deezen plays a bully (you'll know him when you see him; he's horribly typecast and looks like a Revenge of the Nerds regular).

The Unearthly
A mad scientist is obsessed with finding "the 17th gland" that is, apparently, the source of eternal youth. His research subjects are people without families seeking a cure for depression; they tend to become zombies. This is a very short movie, so it's accompanied by two moralizing shorts that are entertaining in themselves ("Posture Pals" and "Appreciating Our Parents").

Time Chasers
The main character, a physicist in faded jeans, creates a time machine out of his airplane and a Commodore 64. Shot with a budget of about twenty-seven dollars, and with the help of a Revolutionary War re-enactment troupe. This may be the only film in the world that features a dystopian future Vermont.

Teenagers from Outer Space
Aliens with a zest for killing and torture plan to colonize Earth as a place to farm their enormous lobsters (excuse me -- "gargons"). Suspiciously-sensitive Derek runs away and falls in with some Earthlings. Truly cheesy '50s sci-fi at its best.

Space Mutiny
A pilot is the only one who can stop a confused mutiny on a spaceship that looks like the original Battlestar Galactica on the outside and a windowed, concrete-floored, brick-walled industrial building on the inside. Notable for a bowling-alley-polisher chase, an improbably well-built pilot, and lots and lots of railings.

Philippians 1:3-4
Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.
Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy,

The people God has surrounded me with at this time in my life, are not there by accident. They are there to teach and help me grow in Love, Grace and patience, or just maybe to bring joy. God has put them in my life for a reason (and vice versa!) I give thanks to God for these people and pray for them.

My first post from Texas. I will try and do it regularly to keep my BOB friends up to date with my Spiritual Journey.

How many Churches?

Ok, so here in Texas we have started looking for a new Church. Ok, it's going to be tough following on from Connections, that friendship, sharing, BOB and the woman's Bible Study for Jenn. So far after two weeks we have struck out.

What has been staggering is not the number of Churches, but, how many big Churches there are. One claims to have 17,000 attendees. One we tried had about 3,000 at the service we went to and that was the second service of two etc.. etc.. etc.. So, if this holds true this whole area should be full of Bible believing Christians living a Christ like life. I guess it's going to be interesting finding out!!!

I believe God will provide a place for us to serve ans worship. This quest goes on.

-Richard

Touched by Sunday's Message

When John Eldredge quoted the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia. I was deeply touch by the words.

"Aslan turned to them and said: You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be. Lucy said, We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often. No fear of that, said Aslan. Have you not guessed? Their hearts leaped, and a wild hope rose within them. There was a real railway accident, said Aslan softly. Your father and mother and all of you are--as you used to call it in the Shadowlands-- dead. The term is over, the holidays have begun. The dream is ended, this is the morning. ' And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever in which every chapter is better than the one before."

The Chronicles, The Last Battle
Closing lines, in Ch. 16 : Farewell to Shadowlands

“Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard. No mind has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love HIM.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

How would you guys feel about March 5th for our ,,,,,,,,, what shall we call it,,,,,,,, big Breakfast?

Geek Pic of the week

Welcome

Hi, and welcome to the CNX Men's Breakfast Blog

We meet every Wednesday morning at 6:00AM in Bob Evan's Restaurant

in Crossroads Plaza, Cary NC. This is not a structured Bible study just friends

having breakfast and trying to become better men.