7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol #8

- 1 -

Dad of the year. That's right sweetie, its a PS3 controller.  FUS RO DAH!!!

 - 2 -

First Child turning 1: I thought people were exaggerating when they talked about how much your life would change once you had kids.  I really did.  As a guy who never thought much about babies I never seriously thought through the thousands of diapers, the nights you stay up at 2am and 4am and 5:30am, the constant supervision required, trying to figure out why she's crying, worrying about an oncoming illness, losing most all free-time, and being truly and honestly exacerbated and flabbergasted multiple times per week.  I never counted on my life changing so much in one year.  I thought people were crazy.

I also thought people were crazy when they talked about how much love was added and how much the changes were good.  I was wrong there too.

- 3 -

The nice thing about parties for a baby:  You get to pick the party theme, their cake, who to invite.  Funny how my daughter's party is going to be beach themed (which her parents love), she'll have an ice cream cake (which her parents love) and everyone coming over is a friend of ours or a family member (whom her parents love... most of the time).  This will be a far cry from her birthday party in about 5 years, where she'll pick her own theme (by that time it'll be space-age iPod ninja fairies), she'll want her own flavored cake (a space-age iPod ninja fairy decorated bubble-gum and sour patch kids flavored cake) and she'll want to invite her little friends over (including the snotty-nose kid who is too old to not be potty trained and too young to know the cuss words he uses).  

I'll enjoy this while I can.

- 4 -

Bat-Plans:  As much as I want to watch the Dark Knight and Bane duke it out, some things are more important.  My daughter's first birthday is one of them.  Hopefully I will catch The Dark Knight Rises sometimes in the next week.

- 5 -

Multiple Super-Villains:  I've read that Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow is appearing in TDKR. Kinda cool to see him appear in all three movies.  That got me thinking about how Nolan has handled multiple villains in his Batman films compared to last Batman film series (Batman 1989-Batman and Robin). Especially in regards to Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, the villains had to have equal screen time, they had to "team up" and generally they just never appeared as threatening. 

Nolan has done a great job balancing all of the villains in his movies. In Batman Begins, Ra’as al Ghul is a great, if often shadowy, main antagonist. But throw in Jonathan Crane and Carmine Falcone and you've got a thick world with multiple villains occupying different strata, all threatening, but none of them have that cookie-cutter feeling to them and it makes the main nemesis appear that much more threatening by comparison. The same goes for The Dark Knight: the Joker is a sick, psychopath... and he shines all the brighter against the mob bosses (especially that weasel, opportunist Maroni), Lau, the corrupt cops and (in limited fashion) Jonathan Crane again. Heck, the Joker is incredibly sinister as he had a hand in bringing down Harvey Dent. And Harvey Dent, while perhaps not the menace the Joker was, was way more frightening to me than Two-Face was in Batman Returns. 

Nolan knows how to layer multiple villains and I think he will do a great job again with (what I'm sure is limited screen time for) Jonathan Crane, and any flashbacks/involvement with the League of Shadows/Ra'as al Ghul/Talia al Ghul.

Oh... and Catwoman (whom I imagine will just end up being an anti-hero hero).

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Article of the Week:  Great article discussing the themes of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, and how they relate to the writer's prediction (as he had not seen the movie at the time of writing the article) that Batman would be killed in the last movie.  The article, "Why Do We Fall?  Speculating Batman's Fate in the Dark Knight Rises" is a well-written and insightful look at this series and worth a look.  

I promise, next week I won't fill my 7 Quick Takes with Batman write-ups.  I also promise to try and figure out why my fonts aren't working correctly???

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Joke of the Week:  Removed... before the picture police arrested me.

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol #7

- 1 -

We’ve officially got a walker! Our 'almost-one-year-old' has been taking steps for nearly a month, but our daughter could crawl faster than she could walk so she didn't bother to walk much.  Then one day this week she just up and decided walk everywhere instead of crawling.  This walking phase will last two weeks... followed by the running phase.  

 - 2 -

Turning 30 didn't make me feel as old as my daughter turning 1. For some reason, my child reaching milestones makes me feel older than when I hit milestones.  Anyone else feel the same way?  

- 3 -

The sky is falling, the sky is fal-  Oh, wait, that's rain... its been so long I forgot.  Middle Tennessee wasn't alone in the recent heat wave as we broke record after record in two solid week of (practically) triple digit heat.  However, we've also been in the midst of a pretty severe drought.  My grass turned brown, two of my maple trees were shedding leaves, my veggie garden stunted (despite two daily waterings) and even my two pine trees we're going brown (when evergreens stop being ever green, you know you have a problem).  Thankfully we caught a break in the heat and also got some much needed rain. Hope others have caught a break too.

- 4 -

Cow Appreciation Day:  This major, national holiday just about snuck up on me!  For those of you may not know, Chick-fil-a celebrates Cow Appreciation Day once a year.  Dress up as a cow, go to Chick-fil-a, get free food.  Simple as that.  A full costume gets you a free value meal, a partial costume gets you a free entree.  You can check out the Chick-fil-a website for details, costume ideas and even a downloadable Cow Starter Kit... meaning there's still time to get decked out as a moo cow even if you don't have a bovine costume hanging up in your closet.

- 5 -

Intermediate Batman Theory. With all of my excitement over the Avengers, I overlooked the upcoming release of The Dark Knight Rises, the last in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.  But something happened this week... I got bit by the "bat bug" or something, and I'm genuinely looking forward to TDKR and plan to watch the two earlier films over the weekend.  At an online message forum I was part of a discussion with some real comic book nerds (a term of respect, not an insult) called Advanced Batman Theory, where they all talked about and guessed at some of the plot lines.  Me, not being quite so knowledgeable, I've made a few predictions myself (hence, titling this "intermediate").

• The biggest plot issue for me... Ras al Ghul.  Ghul was Liam Neeson's character in Batman Begins, leader of the League of Shadows, the man who trained Batman.  He apparently lost his life in a train crash.  
• However, in comic books and in cartoons, Ras al Ghul makes use of something called the Lazarus Pit which, basically, adds years back to his life, bringing him back from near certain death many times. 
• Liam Neeson is part of the cast for this film.
• Liam Neeson, on IMDB, Neeson is listed third.  Very often, credits are done in order of character importance and Neeson's (Ghul) is listed just behind Bale (Bruce Wayne) and Hardy (Bane), and before Hathaway (Catowman), Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) and Freeman (Lucius Fox).  
• Now that in itself means nothing as what is on IMDB is not guaranteed to be the order of the final credits.  But "not guaranteed" doest mean "it can't possibly be so."  
• It makes me think there is something important about his character, not just a short flashback.
• Ghul's daughter, Talia, is a character in this movie.

• Then there is Bane himself.  I cannot now find it, but in one of the movie interviews I read he is described as an "idealistic terrorist."  I found this to be a very interesting description for several reasons..
• After the excellent job Ledger did with the Joker in The Dark Knight, the crew for Dark Knight Rises had to come up with another excellent villain, and he couldn't be the same "style" as the Joker.
• The Joker was, for lack of a better word, a complete and total psychopath.  He was a type of terrorist, but he is the complete opposite of an idealist.  He did it purely for pleasure.
• So what better way to contrast the Joker than with someone who is a terrorist for some mistaken moral reasons.  Hence, we get Bane.
• But, when you compare Bane to Ras al Ghul... they are eerily similar.  Ras al Ghul was also an idealistic terrorist.  He tried to rip Gotham apart because of its moral decay.  Odd, that the first villain and the last villain in a trilogy should be so similar.  Which made me wonder what exactly would make Bane "different."
• There is a comic book storyline where Bane and Ras al Ghul do work together, though I don't know many of the details.
• And there is also another character in the movie who gets a lot of attention named John Blake, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  
• Some say he could be Robin (or Nightwing or Azreal or...) a young guy who takes up Batman's mantle if he dies in the film.  I think this is a good idea.
• It would seem like too many heroes to fight only Bane.  Batman, Catwoman, Commissioner Gordon... and non-combatants like Lucius Fox and Alfred.  Add one more hero to the mix and... well it would be a little crowded.
• I think he could somehow be connected to Ras al Ghul and the League of Shadows.  Perhaps the son of Ras al Ghul (his daughter Talia is already cast in the film) or perhaps a younger version of Ras al Ghul (Ghul had access to the Lazarus Pit which made him younger)
• And of course, the plot details we already have seem to favor a deep connection with Bane and the League of Shadows and/or Ras al Ghul.
• It seems that Bane knows Bruce Wayne is Batman... he could have learned it from Ghul (the only villain who knew this).  
• This film is supposed to bring the story "full circle."  What better way to tie it in with the first film?
• One thing Ghul taught Batman was to have some sort of 'theatrics' working for him, to get into the mind of his enemies.  It looks like Bane might have some element of that as well, though in a different way from Batman.  
• It seems that Batman is taken captive by Bane to watch Gotham crumble.  Of course we do expect Batman to somehow escape and eventually to save the day.  It just seems like a rather slow, predictable storyline without some connection to the League of Shadows, "Batman has Gotham pretty well cleaned up - Oh look, a new powerful villain who beats up Batman and takes him hostage - This could be the end of the caped crusader and Gotham city, folks - Look Batman escapes and then has to face this new nemesis once and for all - Batman saves the day."  It just sounds... predictable, even it if is well done (and it will surely be well done).  It sounds more like the plot of one of the old Adam West Batman TV shows!  
• So what do I make of all of this...
• Catwoman turns hero (even if she isn't too heroic... she may be).
• Bane has some connection with the League of Shadows.  I'd be very surprised if they just up and brought Ras al Ghul "back to life."  That seems to supernatural for this trilogy.  Maybe he didn't really die, maybe there is some chemical that can change him back to youngster (perhaps that has some connection to Bane's mask).  I rather doubt it.  Still, I'm banking on there being some connection between Ras al Ghul's League of Shadows and Bane.  I'll guess that Bane was perhaps trained by Ghul to be the 'replacement' Bruce Wayne after Wayne left the League.  Something like that.  As much as I'd love to see Ras al Ghul come back from seeming death, I just don't see it happening... but there is some connection.
• I'm going to call it... I think Bruce Wayne makes the ultimate sacrifice in this movie.  No other recent, blockbuster superhero movie has ever done this to their hero and I'll call it now.  
• ... I fully expect to eat crow on at least one of my guesses... maybe more.  

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Article of the Week: Well, I got so hung up working on my Batman theories that I didn't get around to posting an article... 

- 7 -

Joke of the Week: Removed... before the picture police arrested me.

Read the original at Conversion Diary.

What I Mean by 'Biblicism'

Not having a Ph.D. in Theology I cannot give you a full dissertation on the definition, abuse, applicability, fairness or use of the term ‘biblicism.’  There are many Christians who believe in the “Bible alone,” but within that group there are many different understandings of that concept.  To speak on behalf of, or in response to, that great variety is beyond my ability.  However, I have found author Christian Smith’s description of biblicism to be a helpful jumping off point and it is the working definition I use.   The comments can be found in his book, “The Bible Made Impossible” which for me was a wonderful read.

Many functional biblicists in America have not heard of the term “biblicism” or do not know that it describes them. That does not matter. What does matter are the real belief system and the practices it animates. Whether called by that name or not, biblicism is prevalent and powerful in American Protestantism, particularly among conservative Protestants... The word “biblicism” turns out to mean different things to different people. It is therefore important to be clear about the meaning I intend here.[1]

Ditto.

By “biblicism” I mean a particular theory about and style of using the Bible that is defined by a constellation of related assumptions and beliefs about the Bible’s nature, purpose, and function. That constellation is represented by ten assumptions or beliefs: 

1. Divine Writing: The Bible, down to the details of its words, consists of and is with God’s very own words written inerrantly in human language. 
2. Total Representation: The Bible represents the totality of God’s communication to and will for humanity, both in containing all that God has to say to humans and in being the exclusive mode of God’s true communication.
3.  Complete Coverage: The divine will about all of the issues relevant to Christian belief and life are contained in the Bible. 
4. Democratic Perspicuity: Any reasonably intelligent person can read the Bible in his or her own language and correctly understand the plain meaning of the text.
5. Commonsense Hermeneutics: The best way to understand biblical texts is by reading them in their explicit, plain, most obvious, literal sense, as the author intended them at face value, which may or may not involve taking into account their literary, cultural, and historical contexts. 
6. Solo Scriptura: The significance of any given biblical text can be understood without reliance on creeds, confessions, historical church traditions, or other forms of larger theological hermeneutical frameworks, such that theological formulations can be built up directly out of the Bible from scratch. 
7. Internal Harmony: All related passages of the Bible on any given subject fit together almost like puzzle pieces into single, unified, internally consistent bodies of instruction about right and wrong beliefs and behaviors. 
8. Universal Applicability: What the biblical authors taught God’s people at any point in history remains universally valid for all Christians at every other time, unless explicitly revoked by subsequent scriptural teaching. 
9. Inductive Method: All matters of Christian belief and practice can be learned by sitting down with the Bible and piecing together through careful study the clear “biblical” truths that it teaches. 
10. Handbook Model: ...although often not stated in explications of biblicist principles and beliefs by its advocates—also commonly characterizes the general biblicist outlook, particularly as it is received and practiced in popular circles: ...The Bible teaches doctrine and morals with every affirmation that it makes, so that together those affirmations comprise something like a handbook or textbook for Christian belief and living, a compendium of divine and therefore inerrant teachings on a full array of subjects—including science, economics, health, politics, and romance.[2]

Smith refers to this as a constellation of ten beliefs, however he does not believe that everyone everywhere who believes in biblicism believes in it the same way.  

Biblicism is not a comprehensively formalized position always explicated in exactly these ten points and subscribed to identically by all adherents. Different people and groups emphasize and express a variety of these points somewhat differently. Some may even downplay or deny particular points here and there—there are, for example, highly biblicist denominations and seminaries that are unapologetically confessional. The point is not that biblicism is a unified doctrine that all of its adherents overtly and uniformly profess. The point, rather, is that this constellation of interrelated assumptions and beliefs informs and animates the outlooks and practices of major sectors of institutional and popular conservative American Protestantism, especially evangelicalism. [3]

So there you have it.  I couldn't say it any better myself... which is why I didn't.  If this topic interests you then again I would like to plug Christian Smith's book, the Bible Made Impossible.  I found it an approachable and good read on the topic.  

[1] Smith, Christian (2011-08-01). Bible Made Impossible, The (Kindle Location 198-204). Brazos Press. Kindle Edition. 

[2] Ibid. (Kindle Locations 205-229)

[3] Ibid. (Kindle Locations 231-236)

From Bull-Run to Bull-Head

While I posses a healthy imagination I admit that I have difficulty picturing myself as a soldier in the American Civil War; standing with my regiment in the midst of a bloddy skirmish whilst slowly loading an old Enfield musket as other men across the battlefield are firing bullets and canon balls at us, nervously anticipating the rush of a cavalry brigade or hand to hand combat and bayonets.  I don’t posses the fortitude to endure that; my uniform would have a permanent pee stain down the front.

One of the more dispiriting moments of my imaginary and fearful enlistment in the American Civil War would be lining up for such a battle on a particular battlefield that I had fought upon previously!  For example, there was the Battle of Bull Run (or the Battle of Manassas for my more Northernly inclined friends ;)  ) and then a little more than a year later, the Second Battle of Bull Run.  The pointlessness and futility of all their efforts that must have swept over those the soldiers of both armies along with their anxious families at home must have been overwhelming, as they came once again to places they had already fought for and suffered at.  I can see myself, the chicken-hearted solider whining  “I was lucky enough to survive last time; what in the world are we doing back here?!?!  Didn’t we just do this already?”  

7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol #6

Seeing as how I've been gone for a few weeks to the beach, this 7 Quick Takes will focus on... well, the beach.

1.  Packing Lightly:  I went hardcore light packing this year.  I fit everything into two pouches on my baby carrier backpack since we were taking it anyways.  No shoes, fewer clothes and less electronics.  So did my wife!  Despite bringing a few large needed baby essentials, we also fewer beach toys and no specialized kitchen equipment or ingredients... and it was AWESOME!  Take it from two chronic over-packers, taking a vacation with less bags meant we spent more time doing what we wanted and less time managing out stuff.  

2. Beach song of the year:  Every year we go to beach we have at least one "beach song" that somehow becomes our theme for the week.  This year it was Knee Deep by Zac Brown with Jimmy Buffett.  Jimmy Buffett's lines, particularly, might be the best lines in any beach song.

Wrote a note said be back in a minute,
Bought a boat and I sailed off in it,
Nobody's gonna miss me anyway.

My mind on a permanent vacation,
The ocean is my only medication,
Wishin' my condition ain't ever gonna go away.

3.  Where to eat in OIB:  If you're specifically headed to Ocean Isle Beach, NC we did find some great places to eat.  Places in the area we'd highly recommend:

Dockside in Calabash:  Calabash-style fried seafood with nice views on the water.  The menu is a bit simple and the prices are a tad high for my taste, but the food was well-cooked.  Unlike some other Calabash fried seafood we had, you could actually taste the seafood through the batter and it was quite good.

Provision Co. in Southport:  Its a bit of a haul from OIB, but this tiny eatery is worth the drive!  We went for lunch and it wasn't too crowded.  All of the seating is outside (underneath an awning with about 75 ceiling fans) but you order your food inside.  You grab your beer and drinks from the coolers inside and you're on the honor system to tell them how much you had.  The menu is a bit limited on seafood items, but everything we had was good.  Besides, its not everyday you get to have conch fritters for lunch.

Calabash Creamery in Calabash:  This place has been an ice-cream mecca in Brunswick County for nearly a decade.  You walk in the front door and you can smell that the ice-cream is homemade... its that good.  Get there early to avoid a long wait for your Key Lime Pie, Birthday Cake, Sunset Peach or Better than Almond Joy ice cream (or try their new Salty Dog Chocolate ice cream in a pretzel cone).

Sunset Slush in Ocean Isle:  I've never been a big fan of Italian Ice; it always seemed like a clever way to charge people too much for flavored frozen water by adding a European nation to the title.  Sunset Slush has caused me to end my suspicion.  With about 30 flavors in their permanent locations and 4-5 in their push carts going up and down the beach you can always find something to cool you down.  Their ice isn't chunky.  It isn't shaved.  It is scooped and the consistency is creamy, which you don't typically find in frozen ice.  I still love ice cream, but in the middle of the day when the temperature was recorded with three digits nothing hit the spot like Sunset Slush.  They have locations up and down the Carolina Coast; if you see one, give em a shot... they're not your typical tourist rip-off establishment.  

4.  Stuff you need on the beach:  a Coozie.  I had long ignored the value of this humble, foam drink holder... but not anymore.  When the heat index is 105 and the sea breeze blows around the hot air like a convection oven your 12oz can of Coke, Diet Sun Drop or Landshark will heat up before you finish cracking the lid and you'll wind up with a mouthful of warmth liquid, wishing you drank sea-water instead.

Coozie to the rescue!  These bad boys act like a cooler for your cans, extending the life of coolness for your drinks providing me a few extra minutes of crisp, cool refreshment.  But a word of caution... don't be fooled by thin, collapsable cozies.  They are very popular in the stores these days, fold down to save on storage and are quite trendy.  But they're not only flimsy in construction, they're flimsy in performance.  Get the thick, bulky, funky ones.  Ignore my advice about packing light and saving space... get the coozie that actually coozes.  Preferably the ones with tacky colors and out of date graphics... they seem to work better.  

5.  Stuff you need on the beach:  Backpack chair.  It is what it says it is... a beach chair that has straps that folds up to wear as a backpack.  They usually feature a large pouch for storage and they've become quite popular over the past few years.  I've used mine through five years of beach trips, days at the lake, camping trips, baseball games and five seasons of corn maze supervision; mine is still holding up strong.  I've always loved my chair but now with a little one I don't know how I could get to the beach without it.  My wife, daughter and I went down to the beach every day during our vacation and never once had to take a separate beach bag.  If you have kids and any kind of walk to the beach, get yourself a few of these... and put a coozie in the pouch.  

6.  Stuff you need on the beach:  Twice the Ice.  True, Twice the Ice is a place, not so much a 'thing.'  Instead of buying your ice at the supermarket (where they can easily charge you $3 for a 10lb bag) these little stands take your money and you can get either a 16lb bag or fill your cooler with 20lb of ice for just $1.75.  We went through a lot of ice trying to keep our drinks cold so we could put them in coozies.

7.  Better isn't alway better:  If there was one thing I learned from this year's beach trip is that always doing the "better" thing isn't always better.  Usually we cook a big elaborate meal, we try to spend as much time as humanly possible on the beach and we try to eat at too many local dives and hit too many stores.

This year we trimmed back.  Way back.  Instead of cooking the elaborate meal we prepared a nice salad and ordered out pizza.  We ended up having so much less stress and were able to spend more time with our daughter Norah.  

We did spend a lot of time on the beach (I mean, that's why we go in the first place) but we didn't overdo it.  If Norah needed a nap or was running behind, we went with the program.  The last two days the heat index was well over 105 (too hot for an 11 month old) so we spent the day in AC aquariums and stores and didn't complain about the loss of beach time.

As for for eating out too much... we kept lunch simple.  We ate lunch at home and only went to the restaurants we really wanted to eat at.  Same with all of the tourist gift stores.  Again, this gave us so much more time together as a family and so much less stress.

Its funny, I've never thought of vacations as stressful, but looking back on the years and years of going all out and doing everything we could possibly could I can't help but feel a bit sad.  Doing the bigger and better things left us more tired and less fulfilled.  My wife and I have spent a long time on the drive back talking about simplifying things, not only future vacations, but also at home in our day to day lives.  

Thanks for the lesson beach!

Read the original at Conversion Diary.