The Batman Complex

The Batman Complex is a fan-edit comprised of footage from The Dark Knight Saga, Inception, The Machinist, Shutter Island, and others films, usually starring Christian Bale or directed by Christopher Nolan, to form a fake trailer for what seems to be a completely different film. It's truly a work of genius, combining the plots of the various films in a way that is both original (for a fan-edit) and compelling.

The Batman Complex, created by YouTube user themanbatman, tells the story of a mentally ill Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) who believes that he is actually Batman. His therapist introduces Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team to perform an inception to apparently remove the ailment from his mind. But they'll have to deal with a militarized subconscious in the form of the Joker, Ra's al Ghul, and Two-Face, plus the Batman personality itself. Meanwhile, Cobb himself is slowly descending into madness as he and his team go deeper into Bruce Wayne's troubled psyche.

I'm blown away by this trailer every time I see it. It's typical of the work of themanbatman, who has made extensive trailer campaigns for a Marvel/DC crossover film series (titled Who's Side Are You On?), plus a very effective trailer for The Dark Knight using the track "Mind Heist." Warning, there is some swearing in the trailer, and it advertises a movie which is admittedly very freaky. There are also two other trailers for The Batman Complex, available on themanbatman's YouTube account, and I gladly point you to his work. The only other thing I can say about it is that I so very wish it were real. I'd pay money to see it! At the very least, in only makes me want to see Inception all the more.

A Man in a Hole

Yesterday in church, in the main service, we were treated to a video titled simply "A Man in a Hole." It showcases the basic, fundamental position of Christianity, and what it's all about and what makes it unique in comparison to other religions. The pastor used a fitting anecdote involving C.S. Lewis to conclude that the presence of grace is what makes Christianity unique. This video illustrates this point perfectly.

Guardians of the Galaxy

A few days ago, the first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy was released on the internet. I have absolutely no background with this relatively obscure Marvel property, but let me tell you, this trailer looks all right. We've got was looks like an all star cast which includes Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, plus James Gunn, the director of Thor: The Dark World, in the director's chair. I see that his trailer goes for the cosmic adventure story feel, something of a sci-fi adventure dramedy. The trailer looks funny, sort of cool, and I kind of want to see it. If it's as close to resembling Firefly and Star Wars as I think it does, then I definitely want to see it. Until then, the trailer!

Addendum: After further consideration, I am now having second thoughts about my initial enthusiasm for this film. Chris Pratt's Star-Lord could easily be turned into a clone of Seth Rogen's Green Hornet. This is not a good thing. Frequent readers of the blog may know my reasons for starting this blog was partially in response to the 201l The Green Hornet movie. It was, to use the words of Roger Ebert, "A horrible experience of unbearable length." (I believe he was referring to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in that case.) I just hope that a film with the Marvel pedigree doesn't descend into such awful depths. 

The Bill Nye and Ken Ham Debate

Last night, I finished watching the recent debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham on YouTube. Taking place at the Creation Museum, it was a fairly decent debate, though it's only the second debate of any sort that I've seen. Predictably, I found Ken Ham's points to be well organized, finely argued, and clearly expressed, while Bill Nye's arguments were pedantic and circular, to say the least.

Mr. Nye repeatedly misrepresented Mr. Ham's position, referring to creationism as "Ken Ham's creation model," no doubt in an effort to distance Mr. Ham and his fellow creation scientists from the wider academic community. Mr. Ham actually addressed this problem at length in his statements, where he took the position that Biblical Creationists can be great scientists, such as Issac Newton, or Raymond Damadian, the guy who invented the MRI machine. Mr. Nye thoroughly misrepresented the creationist viewpoint as "magic" as opposed to "science." He is clearly completely ignorant about what Creationists actually believe, speaking in a way that is so utterly pompous and patronizing that I wonder how he manages to have any following at all, least of all in Kentucky, where the even takes place.

Mr. Nye also committed multiple logical fallacies, such as argumentum ad populum (If many say so, then it is so), oversimplification, and several appeals to emotion. Furthermore, he insisted on harping on how ancient civilizations like that of Noah couldn't possibly build a wooden ark larger than any of his examples of the largest wooden European ships. What he blatantly ignored (as Mr. Ham pointed out), however, was that the Chinese had been building huge wooden ships called junks for many years before the construction of any of the ships he mentioned. Mr. Nye seems to be one of those "scientists" who think that we are so much smarter than our ancestors, who were so obviously complete idiots because they didn't have cell phones. Of course, he didn't address the quite apparent phenomena that without our precious technology, we modern civilized people would be (and are) helpless. I found myself asking as I watched the debate, "Good grief, did he listen to anything he said?"

Despite my frustrations, I remember from hearing somewhere that the true purpose of a debate is not for one party to refute the other, but to get the audience thinking. This debate certainly got me thinking. You can listen to the whole debate down below. Mind you though, it's nearly three hours long.

New Year's Eve 2013

Tonight is the final night of 2013. Tomorrow will be 2014. New year celebrations have been celebrated by all cultures around the world, whether they used our Gregorian Calendar or not, such as the Jewish new year celebration The Feast of Trumpets, or the Chinese new year (which also goes by a lunar calendar) celebration, which takes place next year on January 31. New Year's Eve/New Year's Day celebrations are typically celebrated by holding parties where people engage in the consumption of alcoholic beverages, sometimes accompanied by loud music and dancing. There are also fireworks in some areas, including the one in Dubai this year which aspires to be the biggest fireworks display ever to go on record.

For New Year's Eve this year, I decided to take the day off from school, plotting out my schedule for the rest of the week and editing the final chapter and the epilogue of my book. I plan to do much the same tomorrow (that is, take the day off), only tomorrow I'll be going over to my buddy Caleb's house to watch Empire of Dreams. Anyhow, in the late afternoon, we, two of the Rajaos, and my cousin Noa went down to the theater and watched Frozen, after which we went out for dinner. We pigged out on pizza at a certain establishment named after a tobacco using primate. I for one am still full.

All in all, I think that 2013 was, in the words of Frank Sinatra (and later Ray Charles), "a very good year." I got my cell phone, returned to Appalachian Bible College, enrolled in Bellevue College, earned my second degree black belt, got baptized, and got my purity ring sized. I'd say it myself, but I think that Ray Charles can say it better:

Yeah, it was a very good year. Here's hoping that 2014 will be even better! Happy new year, one and all!

Addendum: Also this is my 200th post! How convenient!

Bible Verse Sunday #54, LMA Christmas Party, and Christmas Shopping

Today's verse is 1 Samuel 10:6:

"Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man."

The ESV Study Bible has this to say about the verse:

"In 1-2 Samuel, the phrase "the Spirit of the Lord" appears only in connection with his anointed ones, i.e., Saul and David (1 Sam. 16:13-14; 2 Sam 23:2). Th eexpression The Spirit of the Lord will rush upon (someone) appears only in Judges and 1 Samuel, ending with David (Judg. 14:6, 19: 15:14; 1 Sam. 10:10; 11:6, 16:13). It always speaks of god's Spirit coming suddenly on someone to equip and empower that person to serve the interests of God's people. The onrush of the spirit of the Lord upon Saul is predicted, but not nanipulated as in Canaanite practices; it is necessary in order to dispel any doubts Saul might have about his choice and as a public demonstration that he is now the "prince" (10:1). It is related to his election as king, and does not mean that he is becoming a prophet (cf. v. 11). be turned into another man. Not by losing self but rather by being equipped with power to play a new role (see Judg. 6:34; 11:29). Cf. "another heart" (1 Sam. 10:9)."

EDIT: Forgot to recap the sermons! In the main service, Pastor Nick continued in the series on Isaiah, looking over Jesus' titles as detailed in Isaiah 9:6. This week, he discussed the title "Mighty King," detailing how Jesus is a powerful ruler who wants to make a change in your life. In the High School service, after a brief discussion of Bethlehem, we sang Christmas songs. Then Pastor Wes continued in his series on Romans, talking about Romans 2 where it talks about judging.

Woof! that's a lot of text. Anyhow, last night was the LMA Christmas, party, and it was a happy occasion filled with lots of food. Dressed in my finest (and only) suit, I saw friends that I hadn't seen in a while, and we all made merry, talked and laughed, and ate a lot of food. Near the end, awards were given to outstanding students, parents, and families, and we had a toy drive for Communities in Schools of Renton. Also, Mr. Driver gave a speech summarizing 2013 for the dojang, and I was asked to read my black belt paper to the attendees. Before that, however, I was asked to tell a joke, and I told them the joke about the mime in the gorilla suit. Everybody laughed (If you want to hear what the joke is, look my number up on Facebook, call me, and I'll tell you). Moreover, since my paper has been so well received, I have elected to post it both here and on Facebook within the week instead of just linking to it. I'm sure that you all will like it.

Today, my dear old dad and I went Christmas shopping after church. Of course, we already did a lot of Christmas shopping on Black Friday, so our Christmas shopping trip basically meant sitting around the print shop looking for good deals on Amazon. But nevertheless, I can't wait to receive all of the stuff and give my gifts to people! Yay! 

In other news, my dear Aunt Naomi and her daughter Noa came over for dinner. We ate tacos and we're planning on watching a Doctor Who? Christmas Special later this evening, as soon as I finish this blog post... Also, the latest episode of The Joker Blogs - Series 2: One Bad Day just got posted yesterday! Go check it out! It's awesome!

Noah - First Trailer

The first trailer for the long anticipated Noah film, directed, co-written, and co-produced by Darren Aronofsky and starring Russel Crowe and Emma Watson, was released sometime last week. My research indicates that after some testing with Christian and Jewish audiences with an earlier script (Noah was apparently going to be some kind of environmentalist), they scrapped that idea and went down the route that resulted in this fantastically epic trailer. Despite some concerns, I feel that we've got a good one coming our way. With a crew of A-list actors and a director to match (Aronofsky directed Oscar-winning film Black Swan, and was nominated for best director), it's almost guaranteed that this film will be a commercial and critical success. Will it stay in line with the the Bible? We'll just have to wait and see, but the trailer seems to make that look like a probable outcome. Noah will be released in theaters on March 28th, 2014. I eagerly look forward to it.

An Explanation

A reenactment of my workday yesterday. Not a pretty sight, huh?

I haven't posted anything on this blog since my big birthday post on Sunday. For the entire week I have gone dark on my readers. I will now amend this. Why have I not been posting anything? To put it simply, I was really, really busy and really, really tired.

As you all know, I am currently attending college at Bellevue College as well as regular High School at my co-op. I have five classes at the co-op, one class at BC, plus, I'm on the Bible Quiz Team. This all makes for a very, very crowded schedule on my part. Can you believe it? Seven subjects! I just about wore myself out yesterday, trying to get everything done, not to mention sucking it all up and going to Master's Club at my Taekwondo school. We're learning Kenjutsu this month. In short, I'm one tired guy. I had an essay to write, questions to answer, chapters to read, tests to do, verses to memorize, vocabulary to study, brainstorming to do, and this blog to write a post for! Gaaaaahhh!

And now... I've got some time to myself. In addition to writing reviews and general updates about my everyday life, I am now contemplating writing on news. On what type of news, you ask? All kinds. International news, comic book news, movie news, local news, science news, the whole shebang. Of course, that is but a mere possibility at the moment. As soon as the current pole has expired, I will put one up asking whether or not I should cover news. Speaking of the pole, I haven't really said much on my blog's new look. In addition to the pole (and seriously guys, please answer it, I'm begging you!), we now have a list of my favorite links, a news feed, a section on popular articles, a device that allows you to follow this blog by email, an archive bar, and a blog post archive. The color scheme is also different, and the background is changed. It is, quite plainly, completely different.

I was going to write a review for Batman: The Black Mirror this week, which I started reading in April and finished a month or so ago. But I just haven't been able to get to it, what with the review backlog and schedule slips and all. I usually try to write a minimum of three posts per week, but with my current schedule, that goal has been all but impossible to meet. I've been stretching myself too thin, like too little butter over too big of a piece of toast. I was thus unable to meet my minimum goal of three posts per week, and have resorted to writing bookends of the week, like I am now. Therefore, from now on, when I am unable to write a minimum of three posts a week, I will writes two posts a week- one on Sunday and one on Saturday. I will also no longer be listing large swaths of specific upcoming reviews or topics, unless it is through a pole. I find that such publicly stated goals are more of a hindrance than a help to me.

But now, I finally have some time to work on stuff for the blog. Good stuff is coming, I'll say that much. And when it does come, I sincerely hope that you all will love it. Please pray for me, that I won't succumb to exhaustion and overwork. Most of all, I hope and pray that I may impact lives through my writing, both academic and creative, and reach as many people as possible, both reached and unreached, of every nation. Amen.

"A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory."
 -Proverbs 24:5-6, English Standard Version, from biblegateway.com

God's Not Dead

The following trailer is the upcoming film God's Not Dead. It's a Christian film based off of a book of the name, and features the Newsboys, my favorite band. It tells the tale of a Christian college student who is put on the spot in his Philosophy classroom when his teacher bluntly declares that "God is dead." How will he defend himself? Can he be an example to others? And why does his misanthropic philosophy teacher, who looks like a cross between Tony Stark and Dr. House, hate God so much? (I'm guessing that it has something to do with the speech he gives at the beginning of the trailer about the 12-year-old boy who had to watch his mother slowly die of cancer) I'm anticipating this film, but I remain wary of the quality of explicitly Christian films such as the absolutely awful Courageous or even Seven Days in Utopia (review forthcoming). Anyhow, feast your eyes on the trailer! The movie is due out Spring 2014.

"I Have a Dream" Speech - 50th Anniversary

I wasn't going to write another post until tomorrow, but I just went over to Google and saw that today is the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech. That's right, fifty years! I'm not an expert on the Civil Rights movement, but from what I understand, the "I have a dream" speech was the turning point in the Civil Rights battle. In it, King discoursed at length on what I presume was his favorite topic; the right of people of all races to freedom, as well as calling for a general halt to racism.

King's legacy will doubtlessly be remembered forever. He was indeed a great man. Here are two links to some important videos regarding King and his views. The first is a link to a recording of the famous "I have a dream" speech. The second is a dramatic reading of King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, which my history teacher Kirby Wilbur said is a good summation of his worldview and philosophy. I greatly respect Martin Luther King, Jr., and hope to find a good biography on him someday. He was a truly great man.

Image courtesy of history.denverlibrary.org

Review: Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn

I've written about Halo before, and I wrote there that I wasn't sure if I'd review Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn or not, but now I feel that the world deserves to know about this study in contradictions. Is it cleverly and professionally produced online series, or low budget sci-fi flick? Is it a definitive story of the origin of the Human-Covenant War, or a spanner in the works of an otherwise airtight continuity? Let's find out.

Originally released online in serialized form, but now combined into a ninety minute movie, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn tells the story of the cadets at the Corbulo Academy of Military Science. The principal character is Cadet Thomas Lasky (Tom Green), who doesn't really want to fight. His friend Chyler Silva (Anna Popplewell), on the other hand, is apparently very much for fighting the "innies," that is, insurrectionists. The other cadets have their own stories, but most of the focus is on Tom and Chyler, with a little time spent on the others. But just as Tom is beginning to step up as a leader, who should show up at CAMS but the Covenant. They proceed to blow up the school, until only Tom and a small group of other Cadets are still alive against a force of Covenant troops. But they're not alone. Master Chief shows up! Yeah! Will Chief and Tom and company get out safely, or will everybody get killed to death? If you've played the Halo games, you probably know that it's a combination of both.

I call this series/movie a study in contradictions because I got a very different reaction watching it in serialized form online than I got from watching it as a movie. In serialized form, there was suspense and cliff hangers every week, and our investment in the characters was built up as time went on. I'm no film major, but I know that serialized shows and full length films are built very differently, and the movie version suffers for it. Granted, the movie version has extra scenes of the cadets introducing themselves at the beginning which gives them a little more depth, but that's about it. Also, all of the mini-cutscenes with Cortana and Master Chief were shunted to the front of the film or to the back. Of course, this film was made in order to promote Halo 4, so that may be a sign of it's quality.

To get to the point, Forward Unto Dawn simply doesn't work as a film, both for the reasons previously stated and for other structural flaws in the story and characters. But there are some good things about it. The acting is really strong, particularly on Tom Green's part, and the action scenes are really cool. The characters are also all likeable, even if not all of them get a lot of character development. We at least get some motivation for most of them, and we've got some good supporting characters in the form of Colonel Mehaffey (Ayelet Zurer, who played Jor-El's wife Lara in Man of Steel) General Black (Michael Dopud), and, of course, Master Chief (Daniel Cudmore). In hindsight, I'm kind of confused on why they had a different actor provide Master Chief's voice. I was thinking they could have gone with the Darth Vader approach and put some big guy in the suit while having Steve Downes, his voice actor from the games, do the voice. That said, Cudmore is still pretty good as Master Chief. I'd also like to offer high praise to the emotional depth that this series manages to pull off. Despite its flaws, that's the one thing it has in common with the games.

But remember those structural flaws in the story and characters that I mentioned? Yeah, we're going to have to talk about that now. Let's start with Chyler Silva. Despite being played by great actress Anna Popplewell, who I loved as Susan Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia movies, she's kind of a flat character. We're told through expository dialogue what her motivation is, as opposed to, say, an emotional reveal. I think the creators were trying to play up the contrast between the Lasky's wild card nature to her straight laced demeanor, but it only partially succeeds. The end result is a completely implausible romance. What do these two have in common that makes them bond? We are never told.

And then there's the other cadets. Sure, we're given some background on a few of them, but the potentially interesting ones, like J.J. and Vickers, are only given so much time to shine. I don't want to spoil anything, but even those that make it to the end of the movie aren't given much background and character. April (Enisha Brewster), the commanding cadet officer, in particular, is really underused. She's easily the coolest of the bunch, but she gets the least character development, though she still has some great scenes.

There's also the issues this story raises for just how the Human-Covenant War got started. I haven't read the Halo books, but from what I understand, the war began when the Covenant invaded the planet Harvest about a year before Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. I think it's implied in here that the whole alien invasion thing was being kept secret from the rest of humanity, but I find that a pretty hard bite to swallow. I also read somewhere that it was stated in one of the books that humanity didn't run into Elites and Hunters until sometime later in the war, yet there a Elites and Hunters in this movie. If there are any Halo book readers in the audience, I would like to be enlightened.

On the whole, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn isn't the best thing I've ever seen, having serious flaws. I want to like it, and again, I loved it serialized form, but as I said before, it just doesn't work as a movie. What's good about it though is that it's still available online, free to watch, albeit without the extra footage at the beginning. For this reason, if you're a die hard Halo fan, then you might want to pick it up on DVD, or at least watch it on Netflix. Otherwise, though, just go see it online. You'll have a lot more fun watching it that way; I certainly did. Mind you, however, this is a movie based on a first person shooter, so there's some gore, but not a lot, mixed in with a one or two cases of severe swearing. I'm actually surprised at how tame it was compared to the actual Halo games, which by themselves are pretty tame for a first person shooter.

RATING: 6.5/10

Image courtesy of itunes.apple.com

Halo

I'll be honest; I'm not a very big video game guy. Sure, I've played through the first two LEGO Star Wars games and Batman: Arkham City, and way back in the day I used to play LEGO Island, Liberty's Kids, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, and various Winnie the Pooh learning games, all of which I have fond memories of. Heck, I even tried taking up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic not to long ago, before I decided it was a waste of time, even for a video game. But there's still one game I've played only a little that I follow very closely. Truth is, I'm terrible at this particular game, have little taste for it's genre, and have never owned a single copy of any of the series' installments. Yet, I am deeply awed by the detailed story, emotional depth, stellar visuals, and cool characters.

That game series is, of course, Halo.

Beginning with Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001 and going through seven more installments, the most recent being last year's Halo 4, the Halo saga follows the adventures of various heroes of the United Nations Space Command in their desperate war against the ultra-destructive, fanatically religious alien alliance known as the Covenant. The main hero of this first person shooter series is Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Spartan John-117, most commonly known as Master Chief. A Spartan-II super soldier, Master Chief has to fight not only the Covenant, but also a parasitic race of space zombies called the Flood. In the most recent installment, Halo 4, you get to fight against the Prometheans and the Covenant, but not the Flood, and there are no Brutes. In Halo 3: ODST, you fight against just the Covenant, but there are no Elites to fight. Master Chief is assisted by his A.I./girlfriend Cortana, who provides helpful instruction in all of the games that Master Chief appears in save the majority of Halo 3, and gives Chief someone to talk to in Halo 4.

Backed by his easily killed Marine followers, Master Chief later teams with the Arbiter in Halo 3 (you get to play as the Arbiter in some parts of Halo 2). The Arbiter is a Sangheili, better known as an Elite, a Covenant holy warrior turned de facto leader of the Elite people after the Elites broke away from the main Covenant to Ally with the humans. In Halo 3: ODST you play as an assortment of characters in an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) squad. These characters include "the Rookie," known by some studious research at the Halo wiki as James D. Also in the squad and available to play as are Buck, Dutch, Mickey, and Romeo. In Halo: Reach you play as Noble 6, a Spartan-III who is customizable by the player, including the character's gender. Halo Wars is a noticeable departure from the other games in that it is not a first person shooter, but a real time strategy game, kind of like Age of Empires. It's the only Halo game that I have not watched a YouTube walkthrough of. And really, that's the only way I know so much about Halo. I haven't read the books or comics, but I've learned a lot about Halo through the glory of the internet. One day, I will read the books and the comics, and maybe I'll watch the animated series, Halo Legends. I've seen Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn in both episodic web form and compiled movie form (the former was much better), and I've watched my share of videos at Halo Waypoint. And I will continue to gather information about Halo.

My favorite game of the series in undoubtedly Halo 3: ODST, which I believe is an underrated gem. It has some degree of unpopularity among gamers due to its short campaign and lack of new maps. However, I find it to be my favorite because of its many references to the Divine Comedy through a side story called Sadie's Story and it's deep character portrayals. I have a soft spot for Halo 2 because it's the first game of the series that I ever played, and introduces my favorite character, the Arbiter, but I would one day like to play Halo 3: ODST. If I could just get my mind around how the controls work, I'd be groovy.

My all time favorite Halo character is the Arbiter (also known as Thel 'Vadam), because of his interesting backstory and unique characterization. I hope that in future Halo games the creators will reveal what exactly happened to him after Halo 3. I haven't read the Kilo-5 series for more information on this, but I've heard bad reports about it. The author, Karren Travis, isn't exactly on my scope as an author worthy of my attention. I've heard really bad things about her work in the Star Wars universe. Yikes. Other favorite characters of mine include Commander Miranda Keyes, Lord Hood, Chips Dubbo, Sergeant Johnson, Rtas 'Vadum, the Rookie, Thomas Lasky, Mickey, and, of course, Master Chief himself.

In sum, Halo is a grand saga on the level of Star Wars, and I would heartily recommend the books and comics for your reading pleasure, but I have not yet read those books and comics, so I am unable to.  However, when I read them, I will be sure to recommend them if I find them worthy of that honor. It is also one of my inspirations for my writing, and I will readily look to it when I write a science fiction story some day. Thusly, I hereby recommend the Halo games, with the exception of Halo Wars because I haven't watched a walkthrough of that movie yet, to all of you gamers out there who like to play semi-gory first person shooters (I say "semi-gory" because most of the blood in Halo is blue, and not entirely excessive), which, as Sergeant Johnson would say, is wrapped up in an epic science-fiction story which is so freaky, it gives me shivers just thinking about it. So, go read/watch/play some Halo!

Image courtesy of t3.com

IFCA Youth Convention 2013

All right, let's get to it. Last week, I took a short hiatus from my blog in order to attend the IFCA Youth Convention. This convention plays host to Christians from all over the nation, from my home state of Washington to West Virginia, where this year's convention was held, at Appalachian Bible College. ABC was also the place where my first IFCA Youth Convention was held, some five years ago. There, people gather to attend classes, listen to sermons, engage in Ministry Training Areas, participate in Bible Quizzing, partake in sporting events, and to worship. I covered MTA's in a previous post, but I'll say here again that it includes everything from music to preaching. There was also puppetry, drama, and a whole host of others. But let's start from the beginning.

We departed Seattle on a Saturday night, flying to Cincinnati. From there, we drove via rental car to Appalachian Bible College. We usual spend a few days getting from where we landed to the destination, stopping at an amusement park or something along the way (in my first year, it was King's Island, last year it was the Creation Museum), but not this year. Due to costs, we drove nonstop over the course of a single day. The five-odd hour journey wasn't exactly grueling, but the heat combined with the minor monotony was something to behold. When we finally arrived at ABC, we checked in and lugged our comparatively sparse luggage (costs meant that we could only take carry on luggage, plus a communal luggage bag) to the dorm rooms. I stayed with my dear old dad, who had also come, at McCarrell Hall, where the majority of the male population of the convention attendees were quartered.

Throughout the following week, I attended classes taught by Richard Stepanek, listened to evening sessions where Freddie Coile gave sermons, quizzed my heart out in practice, tournament, and "fun" quizzing, and did my preaching MTA. Now would probably be a good time to mention that the convention's main theme was being prepared to proclaim the gospel. I examined the convention's theme verse, Ephesians 6:15, yesterday in Bible Verse Sunday #30, which had a simple enough message to it, but it was greatly expanded upon by Mr. Coile's sermons. He even hosted an evangelism class at the convention, but unfortunately I missed the third session of his which I would believe dealt with the method part of evangelizing in order to attend a class on using one's gift of writing in the church. I've read up on evangelism techniques, but I feel, like I'm sure many young Christians do, ill-prepared to share my faith. I've read Way of the Master by Ray Comfort, as well as learning back at Regionals about how to ascertain a person's spiritual state, but I still feel only partly prepared. I hope to remedy this problem in the future.

At any rate, most of the classes were informative, aside from one guy's somewhat strange views on rock music, and the main speaker, Mr. Freddie Coile, was engaging and powerful. My only beef with him was that even though he drove home the core tenants of Christianity for me, he didn't really give me any practical instruction on sharing my faith. On the other hand, he may well have covered that at one of his classes, but I'd have to ask. If you were at the convention and know if he did so at one of his classes, comment below and let me know.

The main event at the convention for me, was, of course, Bible Quizzing. My team participated in the the Senior division, in a double elimination tournament. We were quickly eliminated, but we only went down after a climactic battle with my dear friends over at Independent Bible Church, who had won Nationals in both divisions last year, beating out even Alderwood to win the prize. They didn't win this year, but they still did pretty good. The honor of victory in the Senior division goes to the team known as Grace - Ohio (I don't know their church's full name), a three man team hailing from Michigan who emerged as the once-defeated-champions of the tournament. Victory in the Novice division went handily to Alderwood, who went undefeated. They also placed third in the Senior division. I'm not sure where we Highlanders placed, but it was probably near the bottom of the list of the sixteen teams that were in the Senior tournament.

During this convention, I attempted to do the Fred Emery Quoting Challenge, a challenge wherein the quoter attempts to quote all of their material within 45 minutes with a maximum of 12 helps. I had been practicing all year with my quoting partner, Mrs. Lickey, but all of my preparation came to naught. Sure, I tried and worked hard, but I just don't think I have the raw talent or even the huge work ethic required to beat the challenge and win the scholarship that goes with it. I got to 1 Thessalonians 2 before my time ran out. On the other hand, I did manage to get a Division 1 in my sermon, which, though not perfect, was still good enough to earn me some kind of scholarship. As soon as I get the video back from Mr. Wendt, I will post my recorded sermon on Facebook, along with all of the pictures I took of my trip.

During my time at the convention, I did some socializing with my friends, namely Abel and Alex, hailing from Faith Bible Church in Montana and Church of the Open Door in Kansas, respectfully. Abel is a quizzer and Alex is a puppeteer. I also wanted to compete in the soccer tournament, but my team only had two people on it, including me, and the tournament was cancelled anyway due to the field being too wet. I thusly sought to pursue indoor activities, such as attending classes or playing Star Wars Miniatures. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish a full game a miniatures. I started two games with two similar groups of people, and finished neither. I really wish I could have finished those games, and that I had taught certain people the workings of the game. That would have been a lot more fun. But, what's done is done, or rather, what's not done is not done.

Finally, after a huge, student led worship service on our final night there, we departed last Saturday in the reverse manner that we had arrived in; drive by rental car to Cincinnati, where we arrived just in time to grab some food before boarding our flight. From there, we flew to Salt Lake City, had dinner and picked up a souvenir shirt for my sister Naomi (she's really into giving gifts, so my dad figured we ought to get her something), and then boarded a flight home. We finally arrived at around 11:00 PM, after which we went home. It had been a pretty good week, but all good things must come to an end. By this logic, I suppose that all mediocre things must come to an end as well. I'll admit, the trip wasn't bad, and was actually better than most of my past nationals, but I wouldn't have minded if some things had been different. But I digress. After all, there's always next year...

RPG Group 2013 - Session #3 & Life Updates

Today was the third session of my RPG Group, and what I believe was the first longer session. We went on a real adventure. We started off by meeting with a member of the Free Telos Army to talk about ganging up on the Empire. We then planned and executed an assault on an Imperial base, where the FTA members caused a distraction while we snuck inside and stole some kind of information container thing. Something that would help us track troop movements or something. Anyway, the party then exited by another way, stealing an imperial airspeeder, which had a grenade launcher. My character was the lookout during this entire operation, keeping an eye on our exit route. Also, Captain Veemo of the FTA went out of contact after the battle. He and his guys are probably all dead.

We rendezvoused at a parking garage where my character used his knowledge of technology to get rid of the stolen combat airspeeder's transponder, and then we split up- Embar took the more subtle airspeeder we had taken earlier to go to a library from where he could use the thing we stole to hack into the Holonet in order to access info from the Imperial base, while we took the combat airspeeder to go back to the base. Unfortunately, another combat airspeeder of the same make and model came across us even after we had ripped out the transponder and began to tail us, no doubt waiting for back up. We tried to lose them, but my character kept rolling poor pilot checks. Stupid plastic sewing board. Anyhow, what followed was a lengthy speeder chase/fight through the streets of Terrovae. During this engagement, both of the speeders were damaged, but we managed to escape after I finally rolled a fifteen, which combined with my +8 pilot skill, plus a -2 on pilot rolls due to damage, allowed for a nice 20. After making a stop by this campground to check our speeder for any homing devices, we went back to base and applied some kind of paint we had lying around over the imperial markings. Then we called Embar to see how he was doing. Turns out the library he was at had been taken over by Imperials, and they were searching everybody. So we ran down to the library to see what we could do, and just before we had to end the session, Torin, Linnae's character, threw a grenade as a distraction. Hopefully, my good friend Nick will be joining the group next session. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend next week's session, due to me being at Nationals. Which brings us to our next order of business.

Today, I finished writing the rough draft of my book, worked on the front garden, practiced my sermon, quoted 1 Thessalonians 5 to my mom, and answered 12 quiz questions. After going to the RPG group meeting, I went home, after which I sat around not doing much of anything. At 7:00, I went to the church to participate in a meeting of the church library ministry staff, which I have recently joined. We discussed various ideas for helping to promote the library, make the library look nicer, and other stuff, but I failed to take notes. I will divulge that we are interested in setting up a sort of book club, which I will be taking polls about and asking around about as soon as I can. After I came home, I decided to watch Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. I'm not sure whether I'll review it or not.

In other news, last night was the last Bible Quiz Team practice before Nationals, which will take place at the IFCA Youth Convention this coming week. We depart Saturday for West Virginia. It will be a long and involved effort, during which I will probably be unable to update my blog. So be prepared for a full blogout. I for one am partly excited and partly nervous about going on this trip. On the one hand, there's the usual hassle of going on the airline and what not, but on the other, there's the possibility of returning to where I went for my first Nationals, for which I will be coming full circle. It's something one thinks about, I imagine.

Black Belt Extravaganza VI

Today was the Black Belt Extravaganza VI, a biannual ceremony in which several taekwondo practitioners in the Seattle area test for black belt. This one took place at the illustrious Carco Theatre, and began at one o'clock, lasting for about ninety minutes. I went there with my dad and recorded much of the event on video, as well as taking pictures, which I posted on Facebook. On this particular occasion, those testing for first dan (first degree black belt) included Josh Gumabao, John Lestock, Kelly Malleck, Corvin Costache, Lucky Hand, and many more besides. Jessica Malleck tested for second dan (second degree black belt), a rank which she richly deserves after her many years devoted to this awesome sport. In this glorious spectacle, we witnessed demonstrations of kicks, punches, poomses, sparring, and of course, board breaking. One particularly notable board break involved little Tylen Bell taking a board, preparing for a knife hand, and then grabbing the board and breaking it over Instructor Driver's head! That was good for some laughs. Yes, there's nothing like a good round of slapstick physical violence to lighten the mood. We also were given the privilege of viewing Kelly and Josh break bricks! Bricks, I tell you! And finally, after all of that, a select few of the prospective first dans read the essay that they had written on their ascension to first dan, as is required as part of the testing parameters. The extravaganza ended with the testers being presented with their belts, and a certificate certifying them as certified first or second dans! It was all very great and grand. I heartily salute all of the new black belts, as well as those who helped out at the test by holding boards and other such things. Those included Harley Anderson, Michael Tzeng, Tom Dean, and Bella Driver. Our instructors and masters for the event include Instructor Geofrey Driver, Master Robert Morrison, Master Joe Whitworth, and guest starring Master Tae S. Lee.

After the extravagant extravaganza, a bunch of us gathered at a Mexican restaurant called "La Hacienda" and ate food while hanging out with each other, congratulating the new black belts. I hung out with Josh, Marcus, Malcolm, Aaron, and Colton. I also chatted with this second dan visiting from Georgia named Jason. They're all a bunch of cool guys. After working at the shop for a while, dad and I went home. It was a full day for both of us.

Bible Verse Sunday #27, (Belated) Geek Pride Day, Bible Quiz Team Tea Party, and New Feature Announcment

Today's verses are John 15:18-20:

"'If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours."

The ESV Study Bible has this to say on these verses:

"15:19 therefore the world hates you. Christians should not be surprised that unbelievers in the world hate them. It follows a pattern seen in the world since Cain murdered Abel (see Gen. 4:8, Heb 11:4; 1 John 3:12), and it is seen in the world's reactions to Christ himself (see John 15:18)."

In the main service at church today, the pastor talked about how the prophet Hosea was the last prophet to prophesy in Israel before the Assyrian takeover, and how Hosea proclaimed God's message of a "total recall" of Israel. That is to say, God intended to punish Israel because they "...no faithfulness ...no steadfast love [and] ...no knowledge [of God]." In the High School service today, which I paid much better attention to that last week, the youth pastor there talked about importance and method of evangelism, and our motivation and duty to do engage in it. There was a hand out, and in it we were given a list of categories of unbelievers (e.g., family, school, neighborhood, etc.) who I know, and wrote down names on that list (you people know who you are, ha ha ha). I forgot to meet with the church librarian about a position in the church library, but she said in an email that I could meet with her next week. After that, I went home and ate lunch, after which I went to the Wendt's house and had a little tea party with the rest of the Bible Quiz Team. I know tea parties are supposed to be kind of a girls' thing, and I was one of only two guys there, but hey, I was invited and I like tea, so don't judge me. Anyhow, I chatted with Mr. Wendt about my writing, and he gave me some very enlightening advice to me concerning a story of mine which involves the country of Somalia. Very complicated stuff, which has led me to be open to the possibility of making that particular installment of The Ultras a sort of political satire. Of what, well, you'll just have to wait until the graphic novel comes out.

At the end of the tea, scones, and Yorkshire Pudding part (I helped make the scones by pealing the grapefruit skin shavings), we played the game Apples to Apples, of which I won the descriptor card "Fat & Sassy." I had to go before we could finish the game, however. My mom and I then went to the store buy most of the stuff we need for the Memorial Day dinner/barbeque we're holding tomorrow. A lot of our family will be coming over, though not all of our family, as we don't want to overwhelm poor mummy. I'll also be going to see Iron Man 3 at the theater tomorrow for the morning matinee, with my dad, my sister, and possibly my good friend Nick Towne. I think it will be a very awesome movie. No spoilers, please!

I would also like to take the time to announce a new feature on my blog: Ask Levi! For those of you who are familiar with my Facebook-based vlog series, Ask Levi! is a feature where you ask questions and I answer any that I darn well please. Questions are asked via the comments section, meaning you have to post your questions by posting it a comment below. You can ask questions on everything from religion and philosophy to technology of any type, cats and dogs and other animals, comic books, movies, television, video games, heck, food even, and just about anything under my area of expertise, which is just about everything. I will not answer questions that any fool (no offense) can look up on Google, such as what the circumference of a circle is, or how to properly use the word "whom." Questions that are harder to answer, which require deep research, these I would love to answer, such as what is the difference between authoritarianism and totalitarianism, or if Batman is effective as he could be. So, post them below, and if you don't, I'll be forced to either make up my own questions, which would be dishonest, or discontinue the feature before it even starts. So please, ask away!

Also, Geek Pride Day was yesterday, not today, as I originally thought, so I only celebrated that blessed holiday by working yesterday. Oh well, Happy birthday, Peter Cushing (he's the guy who played Grand Moff Tarkin, though he's been dead for 19 years now), and happy 30th anniversary, Star Wars Episode V1:  Return of the Jedi!

Also, I would like to wish everybody a blessed Memorial Day weekend. I wore a suit to church to commemorate the occasion, a black tie event if I ever saw one. I will post a more detailed entry on Memorial Day tomorrow evening. In the meantime, I hope everybody has a blessed, fun memorial day weekend.

(Belated) Bible Verse Sunday #20

I totally spaced off yesterday, and forgot to post for Bible Verse Sunday. Well, better late than never. Today- err, that is, yesterday's verse was Luke 11:23, taken from esvbible.org:

"Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

The ESV Study Bible has this to say about the verse: 

"This verse combines the metaphors of fighting (with me . . . against me) and farming (does not gather with me scatters). Neutrality with respect to Jesus is not possible (see note on 9:49-50)."

Yesterday, the pastor spoke about how Jesus instructed the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them. In the High School service, the youth pastor talked about pretty much the same thing, about how we as Christians should be the "salt of the earth."

After church yesterday, my good friend Nick came over to help me put together a YouTube video. We want to take clips from The Dark Knight Saga and make a music video to the song "Gotham City" by R. Kelly, which is about the worst possible song you could write about Gotham City, as nice as it does sound. Anyhow, it turned out that we didn't have the right equipment for the job, so Nick offered to take my written down notes for what scenes would go with the song on paper and clip it together himself. He's a nice guy to expend his own resources to help me with this project. After that, we played Star Wars Miniatures (I won). Love that game. Pizza for lunch yesterday as well.

Pi Day

Friends, Americans, countrymen, I am happy to announce that this day is Pi Day, that is, March 14th, or 3/14/13. For those of you who are not math aficionados, you know that the number pi is 3.14, with several other numbers after it. In two years, it will be the Year of Pi, or 3/14/15.  On this day, it is generally our custom to consume pie. Get it? Pie? Pi day? Anyhow, I do hope that all of you readers out there have a fantastic Pi Day. For the occasion, I have for you this video that my sister obligingly showed me. Enjoy!

For Pi Day today, I really didn't do much of anything. In fact, I only remembered it was Pi Day thanks to my dear old mother reminding me. However, that will not stop me from celebrating it! Huzzah! Today is the day of pi!

Review: The Joker Blogs: Further Evidence

The Joker Blogs: Further Evidence is the interquel series, set in between Series 1 and Series 2 of The Joker Blogs. In the six four to ten minute long episodes, various characters who will play a role in Series 2 are examined. These character include Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, Alberto Falcone, Dr. Harleen Quinzel Kopski, Detective Harvey Bullock, Lock-Up, and, of course, the Joker. These stories are partly found footage and partly cinematic, as the creators have said Series 2 will be.

First off, I just want to say that everything that was good about Series 1 of The Joker Blogs is good here. The acting is great all around, and the production values are really sweet. Even though I think that the creators changed some of the actors, why they did so is explained in their Top Ten Questions video. At any rate, all of the new additions are altogether excellent.

Now, onto the individual episodes, which range from clever to creepy to funny. The first episode, "He Can't Because He's Dead", is enthralling in it's simplicity as it explains how the Joker came up with his plan for Series 1. The shout outs to Lex Luthor and other aspects of the bigger DC Universe (Joker name drops Clock King) are some of my favorite things about this series as a whole. The second episode, "Pull the Plug", has Dr. Jeremiah Arkham giving is some chilling backstory about his dark and troubled past, and was my least favorite episode. My feelings about the aforementioned chilling backstory aside, this episode was mainly just Arkham talking, with all of the sparse action saved for the end. It wasn't strictly speaking bad, but the rest of the series was better in comparison.

Episode #3, "Phantom Pains", gives us a look at Alberto Falcone on his birthday. The preview for this episode also introduced the Penguin, who some have said sounds suspiciously like Philip Seymour Hoffman. Anyhow, this episode was a short character study of Alberto, drug and alcohol content plus some gore notwithstanding. It was my second favorite episode of Further Evidence, garnering awesomeness points for a very awesome guest star. The fourth episode, "Under Lock-Up and Key", features an uncharacteristically goofy look at Detective Harvey Bullock and Cindy Reynolds of all people as his Skype date, which soon goes awry when Lock-Up arrives. I laughed at this episode, but it felt a bit out of place among the seriousness of the preceding episode and the mellow following episode.

This fifth episode, "The Doctor Is In," featuring show creator Scott McClure, who also plays the Joker, as Dr. Tommy Elliot, provides a window into the life of the good doctor, who is subtly implied to be psychopath, going for the Dr. Jerk angle. The reason I liked this episode so much was because of all the references to the greater DC Universe, not as many as Episode 18 of Series 1, but a lot nonetheless. A woman implied to be Selina Kyle shows up, as does our old friend Alberto Falcone and newcomer Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who I hear is actually mentioned in the novelization of Batman Begins, with Bruce Wayne just barely staying outside of the shot. The Frank Sinatra song "The Good Life" was also a nice touch. Downsides include the highlights of Elliot's sexual exploits, which are mostly played for laughs with nothing terribly graphic shown. I will say that McClure is as good in his role of the subtle psychopathology of Tommy Elliot as he is with the overt psychopathology of the Joker, and I think I like him better in the role of the former.

The sixths and final episode, "Therapy Ends", finally brings us back to Dr. Harleen Quinzel, who had changed her name to Harleen Kopski. Here, it is suggested that she is slowly losing her mind following everything the Joker has done to her, as she begins to cut herself off from all of her friends and family, seeking out the Joker to vent her anger and sadness. It seems to me that Harleen, being a therapist, would understand that she needs  to talk about her pain, not bottle it up, but oh well. One thing I didn't like about this series is the insistence on referring to Arkham as an "Asylum." I know that this comes from the comics, but "asylum" is such an outdated term that only serves to further illustrate the fault of many writers in portraying the mentally ill. At any rate, this episode had some good drama, nicely providing a set up for Series 2, which is set to finally come out in April.

In conclusion, The Joker Blogs: Further Evidence is a good prelude to what is to come, nicely studying each individual character after spending all that time with the Joker. Based on this, I eagerly look forward to the coming release of Series 2, subtitled One Bad Day, an obvious shout out to Allan Moor's The Killing Joke. Thusly, I highly recommend this series to persons 15 or older.

RATING: 9.5/10

Tim Hawkins

Tim Hawkins is quite possibly one of the greatest Christian comedians currently active. His wry humor and use of parody are brilliantly hilarious, as illustrated by the below video. He draws not only on pop culture for humorous purposes, but also on the church itself. He truly is a comic genius. This video had me rolling on the floor laughing.

Granted, I'm not an expert on comedians, but I assert that you can show Tim Hawkins to your kids without being worried about profanities and innuendo. He's one of the best, Tim Hawkins is.