The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Jared and I watched, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, tonight. You need to see this movie. I've never blogged about a movie before, and the three of you that read this blog can attest to that. But trust me here, I don't say this lightly, this movie is worth the time, every time.

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Capturing the frustration in this man's life during this time period was masterful. The fact that I was completely pissed the first five minutes of the movie, proves that film can convey emotion. I love that when the movie progresses, you progress with the character. You feel what he feels. You grow as he grows. It is tedious at the beginning for us, you and the lead, to communicate anything, but as you move through the plot it becomes easier and easier. Not that it is ever simple to follow, but rewarding for sure.

Watch it.

Operation Love Bomb

I'm not a very good customer. Most of the time when I walk into a store like Best Buy, I know exactly what I want/need and go to find it. Very rarely do I go into a store, this seems to happen at Gap more than anywhere else, and ask anyone for assistance. Most of the time it'll be asking the cute girl working what she thinks of a certain color. (I know full well that 99% of the time that wont lead to anything but her typical sales pitch, however I've decided that if I ask enough 'opinions' it might turn into something... anything... maybe.)

I worked as a carney for a summer. It was a terrible job where I had to try and sell people rides on this crappy motion simulator at a mall in Houston. I hated it, and I'm pretty sure most of the mall customers hated me as well.

I bring this up because I was walking into work one day last week and I was, as the guy I work with put it, 'love bombed.' Love bombed, huh? Yes, Jehovah's Witness style aerial assault. It was a friendly looking old cowboy looking into the window's of the building where we office, I said "Hello," and continued walking, until he said, "Can I ask you a question?" The things that started racing through my mind were, "Oh crap, he's homeless and needs a ride," and "Oh, this nice old man just needs to know where a certain building is located." "Sure," I responded, really thinking nothing much of it.

Until he pulled out his folder full of Watchtower pamphlets. Quickly he asked me something about being depressed when someone I knew passed away, and how we all have a hard time dealing with stuff like that. I agreed, in a short answered sort of way, and tried to get the heck outta there, when I refused to take his pamphlet (no need in taking something that's just going into the garbage in the next five minutes I decided) he started in.

"Can I ask you another question?" Old Cowboy guy said.
"Ok," hesitant, noticeably flustered and nervous Andrew, replied.
"What did Jesus say we could look for to know when he was coming back?"
"Um... we could look to the sky right?" It took me a second to remember something that would qualify as a good enough Sunday school answer here, as I've been out of practice in answering these random questions like this for some time now.
"Exactly! When wars and rulers are coming to power, that's when we need to look to the sky to see that Jesus is near."
"Ok."
"Now take this pamphlet."
"No thanks, I've gotta go to work."
"Hmmm... well have a nice day."
(Andrew hurries off to the door to his building.)
Scene.

Why does something like this bother me so much? I should be impressed that someone believes in something so much that they're willing to go out and share it with the world (even if it's something I don't also believe in). I think it's because he has a rehearsed script, while I'm just speaking on the fly. He knows precisely what I'm going to say, and has a scripted response to just that. He doesn't really know who I am. He likely didn't even care. He was a salesman on the street trying to get me to buy into something without doing the work required.

I don't like that. I think we as Christians should work more to try and 'save' people. (Realize I'm not saying I agree with Old Cowboy guy, he's just an example of something that happened to me recently, and is good for the point I'm making here.) I don't think we see people enough when we just pass out tracks. I've only been a part of doing that once, and it was hands down the strangest thing I've ever been a part of. People were freaked out. Getting love bombed in the middle of your day isn't the greatest feeling.

I don't know where else this is going to go. That's about all I have right now.

We're drafting our fantasy league tonight. Hopefully I can keep my streak alive and beat Michael for the second year in a row. (Dude talks a lot of trash even though he's NEVER BEATEN ME, not even in a weekly game, let alone the championship. Just saying.)

Turn and Face the Change

The past few weeks have been hectic.

I moved out of the house I lived in last year, with Jared, Eric and Britt, and into a new house with Ian Nelson. It's funny how attached you can become to a physical place. I had no idea that I was so comfortable in that house until I started packing up my stuff and preparing to move. Isn't it amazing how much stuff you find that you have once you start packing? I looked around the house and thought to myself, "This is maybe a two or three trip process. Then I think I'll be done." Ha! Seven or eight trips in the Maxima later, and with plenty of help from B-rock, I was out of the old, and into the new.

A week or so before I moved out of that place, I received some rather exciting news. I applied for an MSc in Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise Management at Newcastle upon Tyne in Newcastle England. I was accepted, they sent me an 'Unconditional Offer' to attend for the 2009-2010 school year. These past few weeks have been full of me dreaming and trying to plan the logistics of how I could make something like that work. I don't know if I'll be able to attend because of how much it's going to cost, but I'm gonna try my hardest to make it happen. Suggestions? Anything will help at this point, seriously, anything.

Working out has been tough lately as well. I got back into it this morning with a routine called a Tabata. Essentially you go as hard as you can for 20 seconds, and then rest for 10 seconds. We did six different excercises for a total number of reps at 8 rounds a piece, and then did the whole thing again for 6 rounds a piece. It was tough, but it feels good to have this familiar soreness back throughout my shoulders and quads. And even though I had a terrible week of eating last week, junk because we were on the road for work, I'm still down in weight as of this morning. Hopefully I'll reach my 250 pound goal by measurements next Wednesday (I'm gonna make this thing happen!).

I have some more stuff that I'm thinking about, but it's just not ready for the world yet. More to come in the next couple of days.