Happy Holyween!

Or, "How Christians Celebrate Halloween Without Feeling Guilty!"

Halloween is one of those holidays that Christian parents and churches struggle with because it's (supposedly) related to dark forces of evil, yet holds the utmost appeal for children. Growing up in various churches, I thought I'd seen it all. We had Fall Festivals, Harvest Festivals, and Bible Character Costume Parties. However, by performing an informal survey I've learned there are many other names churches attach to their non-Halloween festivities:

- Happyween
- Trunk or Treat
- Neewollah (yep, that's Halloween spelled backwards!)

and my new favorite "Holyween" which I saw on a church sign just the other day.

Of course, the alternative to having actual Halloween festivities with costumes, candy, and the like, is to have a Judgement House. This is sort of like a Haunted House except instead of just trying to scare you, they're trying to scare you out of Hell. I've never been to a Judgment House, but just thinking about them actually makes me ill. I mean, I'm all about being honest about the eternal consequences of not believing Jesus was the Son of God, but are we really going to throw out "Judgment" like that? People already believe that Christians are judgmental enough without centering an event around the concept.

So, there really is no conclusion to be drawn here other than to say whatever you do today, I hope you have a safe and happy time. And with that, I'm done.

I hadn't heard...

...that Anne Rice had become a Christian. Her new novel will be about Jesus as a child. Interesting.

The Three Non-Grunge Artists of the 90's I Miss Most...

I'm excluding grunge bands because we all miss Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, and many others. Those are no-brainers. These are the ones I miss in addition to those...

1. Cake - I just heard their song "Long Jacket" on the radio yesterday and realized how much I miss that guy's low, monotonous voice backed by cool guitars.

2. No Doubt - You could arguably group them in with the grunge/alternative crowd, but I'm including them anyway. I love Gwen Stefani, but I miss No Doubt.

3. Third Eye Blind - I can't help it, I always loved them!

4. Shania Twain - The Queen of Crossover Country has been conspicuously absent for way too long.

5. Christney and the N'Street Boys - Perhaps I was the only one, but I quite enjoyed the Return of Pop in the late 90's. I miss Mouseketeers as pop stars! I loved Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, N'Sync, and the Backstreet Boys in those early days and miss those fun catchy tunes.

Who or what do you miss from the 90's?

Elizabethtown...It's Garden State for the masses!

In the movie Garden State (which came out last year and starred Zach Braff and Natalie Portman), the main character (Braff) heads home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for 10 years. When he gets back home, he runs into a quirky girl (Portman) who challenges him to think about life, love, and family. Garden State had one of the best soundtracks ever and was a great movie for those who are quarterly-aged.

I saw Elizabethtown (starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst) last night with Donna. It's about a guy (Bloom) who heads to his father's hometown after his father dies. He hasn't seen this side of the family in at least 10 years. On the flight home, he meets a quirky girl (Dunst) who challenges him to think about life, love, and family...starting to sound familiar, right? Well, E-town also has a great soundtrack and is a pretty good movie for those who are quarterly-aged. Weird, huh?

E-town was pretty good overall. Orlando Bloom is growing on me as an actor (and he sure is easy on the eyes!) and does well in his first contemporary role. His interactions with the Kentucky side of the family provide some of the best material. And the last few minutes (don't want to spoil the ending!) show that he just might be able to carry a movie on his own, after all.

Kirsten Dunst is overly cute and giggly, which gets a bit annoying towards the end, but she has great chemistry with Bloom. She's supposedly from Nashville (a completely irrelevant and unnecessary detail) and fails miserably at affecting a Southern accent. It's intermittent at best and only comes out in the long "i" sounds and short "u" sounds. You know..."I've never seen anything like that in all my liiiiiiiiife"...."But what do I know, I'm just a suhhhbstitute." Ugh. That is one of my biggest pet peeves. If you can't do the accent right, just don't do it. It wasn't important for her to be Southern and her trying to do the accent was way worse than her just being Southern with no accent. This must be how the English felt after seeing Kevin Costner in "Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves." :)

Anyway, E-town was worth watching, but Garden State handled the material better. However, it also had a lot of cussing and some random alcohol and drug use. In my opinion, Garden State is the better movie, but if you want to see a tamer version with better-known actors, E-town is a fair substitute.

What the....

Possible ALIAS spoiler.

The Numbers...

If you're a LOST fan, you can probably say "the numbers" by heart now (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42...good!). There's so much speculation about what the numbers actually mean. The new trend is to put them into Google Maps and see what happens. If you type the numbers in one long stream (4815162342), you get this location in Los Angeles. Oh, please, please, please let this be a real clue!!!

Also, here's a website that tracks all appearances of the numbers on the show. Pretty interesting!

It's about to get interesting...

So, if you're like me, you were probably a bit disappointed with the summer and fall movie seasons. Don't get me wrong, there were a few good movies in the mix, but nothing major. However, I'm really looking forward to the next few months. Here are the movies I'm excited about...

OCTOBER
14 - Good Night, and Good Luck
21 - Shopgirl
21 - North Country
28 - Legend of Zorro

NOVEMBER
4 - Jarhead
11 - Pride and Prejudice (although, Colin Firth will always be Mr. Darcy for me!)
18 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
18 - Walk the Line
23 - Rent

DECEMBER
2 - Aeon Flux
9 - Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
9 - Memoirs of a Geisha
14 - King Kong
16 - The Producers
21 - Fun With Dick and Jane
25 - The New World
25 - Rumor Has It

There aren't any Christmas movies that I'm really excited about, but I now own "Elf" on DVD, so I can watch that whenever I want! :)

What movies are you looking forward to?

Mid-term Jingle...

(to be sung to the tune of "My Favorite Things")

Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio
Reliability, Validity, Deviation,
Sample Error, Confidence Interval,
These are the things I will study some more!

Median and...Mode and Range and...Don't forget the Mean!
Dispersion and...Variance and...Central Tendency!

I'll try to remember Methodology,
And then I will see....an A!!!

Rest in Peace, Michael Vaughn...

I've postponed writing this post for a few reasons...

- I wanted to make sure all those who cared got to see Alias before I spoiled it for them...
- I wanted to make sure Vaughn was really dead (it's been an issue on this show before!)...
- And, frankly, I had to come to terms with it myself before I could write about it. :)

Alias has been one of my favorite shows since it first came on a few years ago (it's currently in its fifth season). The second season was by far the best, and it's lagged a bit in recent years. However, I have high hopes for this year, despite them killing off one of my Top Five in the premiere episode. I do think that killing off such a central character as Michael Vaughn could prove really interesting and I'm (cautiously) excited to see where it goes.

So, though I'm not bitter about the death of Michael Vaughn, I am still hoping he's only mostly dead. Until we know for sure, here's something pretty to look at...

Deserted Island...

If you knew you were about to be stranded on a deserted island for the rest of your life, what would you take with you? You can pack the essentials (water, sunscreen, etc) and a few luxury items:

* 3 books (in addition to the Bible, because, hey...everyone should take the Bible!)
* 5 movies
* 5 cd's

I'm still thinking. I'd want to find a good balance of challenging stuff, fun stuff, and relaxing stuff. One book would definitely be Pride and Prejudice...it's my all-time favorite novel. I would also consider something by CS Lewis...something that would take a while to work out, you know? Movies are just too hard! I'd want to represent all genres so I'd always have something that matched my mood...The Matrix would be pretty high up there. Also Never Been Kissed for the guilty pleasure/silly romantic comedy category. Probably Pirates of the Caribbean...just for the fun of it! Music also represents a challenge. Jimmy Buffett's "Greatest Hits" for sure...I'm on an island for cryin' out loud. Then, Blindside "Silence", Copeland "Beneath Medicine Tree", hmmm...two more. More thinking required.

What would you take?

Here's What I Think...Tom and Katie

Tom wakes up one day and thinks, you know, the only thing missing in my life is a biological child. He turns to his youthful bride-to-be and says, "Kate, you know I've had problems conceiving in the past. Would you be willing to talk to the doctors about having a baby of our own?" She says, "Oh, Tom, you know I'd do anything for you. I'll do whatever it takes to give you a baby!"

They go to the doctor. The doctor agrees it could be a difficult process. Tom suggests in vitro fertilization. The doctor says, yes, that may be just the ticket. Katie goes in for her part and things go as planned. Tom goes in for his part and slips the doctor some money under the table. He knows he can't really father a child, but needs to be able to point to something and say, "LOOK, I'm not gay, it was all Nic's fault that we couldn't conceive!!" So, he asks the doctor to find an anonymous donor, someone who bears a striking resemblance to himself. The doctor agrees because hey, it's Tom Cruise, and it's good money. He finds a viable donor, works his magic, and voila, Katie's pregnant!

Disclaimer: This is just a theory. It's meant to be funny. Don't sue me, Lee Ann Devette!