E3 Expo starts on June 1st!

Yes, it’s that time of year again my video gaming friends.  E3 where dreams are dashed, promises broken and rumors finally die….. no wait…. reverse that… dreams are full-filled…. promises are exceeded and rumors come true!!

Notes of interest for the Keynote speeches:

Microsoft : June 1st

10:30am PST

Nintendo : June 2nd

9:30am PST

Sony : June 2nd

11:00am PST

G4TV.com is supposed to be airing over 22 hours of the event both on their channel and on the web.  It’s currently unknown whether or not it will be in High Def. but keeping our fingers crossed.

If you want up to the minute news, follow E3 over on Twitter.  Also keep an eye on my Facebook page/Twitter page as I will be posting up links to the streaming conferences when they hit.

More on this later….

Text, phone, face to face or email?

Makes you wonder what the preferred method of contact is. The boys and girls over @ Gizmondo have been taking a survey of which is the preferred contact method, looks like Texting and Face to Face is tied. *sigh*

Just when you thought Hollywood couldn’t get any more dumb… ‘Alien’ franchise being rebooted?

I really have no words for this as this is one of my beloved all time favorite movie series (and home to my favorite movie [Aliens] )—- but alas…. It seems that some people want money? Cinematical has broken the story that along with the ‘Predator’ remake, Fox is contemplating pushing for a new taste of the Aliens franchise.

Quite frankly…. I think they need to leave it alone… besides the fact that Ridley Scott has said he’s on board for doing Alien 5 (more or less) I think this is a terrible decision to make.

More here

Large coke + Movie = bathroom break right?

Fortunately there is a website that is (awkwardly) setup for those wanting to know “when” is the right time to go to the bathroom during this summers hottest blockbuster movies.

More at the link here

Tech nerds rejoice…. SATA 3.0 is here!

Oh those crazy guys… SATA 3.0 kicks SATA up to notches unknown to mankind…. well not really. It’s basically double what SATA 2.0 is. *yawn* right? More at the link: Slashdot Sata 3.0

Brutally honest review: Terminator Salvation

So let’s just admit it…. deep down in all of us we secretly wish that somehow the Terminator franchise was real right?  All of this economic junk going on between Democrats and Republicans, world hunger, Aids, genocides etc. would be a thing of the past if we just had one common enemy… the machines.

Well I got a chance to go see Terminator Salvation with some late birthday money from my Aunt (thanks Trina!) up at Cinetopia in High Definition no less.

For those unfamiliar with the “Terminator Canon” (meaning the story of how the first 3 movies went) let me bring you up to speed.  In 1984, James Cameron set the movie screens ablaze with “The Terminator”.  A machine that has traveled back through time in order to kill a woman who has a son that leads the resistance against the enemy known as “Skynet”— leader of the machines.  In 1991, James Cameron again lit up the screens with “Terminator 2 : Judgment Day” which quite honestly— is one of my all time Top 10 movies for its shear brilliance in both art direction, cinematography and cast.  This time, a newer machine made of liquid metal came through time to kill John Connor (remember, the unborn son who is now 10 or so in the movie) and hopefully end the future hope of the resistance.  This time, Arnold (the first Terminator) is sent back through time to protect him from this new liquid metal terminator.  Confused yet?  Either way, Arnold saves the day… John is safe.  Fast forward to 2003….. Then comes “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”.  Finally… the long awaited Terminator trilogy would be complete right?  Well sort of.

There are many fan boys out there that *HATE* the Terminator 3 movie simply because they consider it a cheap joke next to the first 2 James Cameron movies.  While I do admit it does lack the punch of the first two movies, it’s in no way shape or form a bad movie nor does it detract from the “Terminator Canon” of which was my biggest concern.

Nick Stahl as John Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

So we get a decent action movie, Arnold comes back again to save John Connor from (guess what???) an even MORE advanced Terminator! (gasp I know!)  The story line shows us the origins of how Skynet becomes to be and how the machines start taking over.  The end of the movie shows the inevitable “Judgment Day” that has been talked about now for 3 movies… and you feel like… Okay… now what’s going to happen?  Fast forward again to 2009 and we have Terminator Salvation.  Here we go….

Let me preface this by saying that I enjoyed the movie (as I did the 3rd Terminator movie… but there are some very glaring issues with the franchise of which I’ll talk about in a bit).

The movie starts out in the year 2018.  We are thrusted into the characters almost without any hesitation from the direction “McG” of who I will give credit for using some quality lens’ on some of the shots he got to help emphasize the mood.  The resistance is infiltrating a Skynet base in a remote location to gather intelligence in order to help them fight the machines better. It’s here that we see some of the origins of the first designs of the T-800 model (the model that Arnold was) but are somewhat incomplete.

The action then picks up as they get attacked and leaving John Connor as the lone survivor.  Of which…. I just have to get this out of the way.  Christian Bale…. great Batman (aside from the stupid…. stupid Batman voice) but unfortunately, he is NOT my John Connor.  Nick Stahl which played the part of the Anti-Hero to a freaking T was perfect and I was sad that he didn’t come back for the series.  Christian Bale…. is just your A

Christian Bale acting surprised that he was cast as John Connor?

typical action hero of which I believe he should not have been cast as John Connor for that very reason.  See (I’m going off on a rabbit trail here for a bit) —- John Connor is a nerd.  John Connor uses a gun but doesn’t like that he has to.  John Connor has the weight of the entire world on his head at all times but still manages to be a normal guy at the same time wanting to not think about that weight.

Bale plays the over accented action star by carrying the gun how an action hero should, by acting tough and macho… but that’s not John Connor.  That… and somehow Bale manages to sneak in the “Batman Voice” into Salvation of which made me want to punch him or throw something at the screen each time he went into one of those… “Deep Breath… YOUUUuuuu CANNOTTT DEEFFEEATTT USSSssSss” moments… .SHUT UP BALE… SHUT THE FREAK UP!  Anyways…..

The real star of “Salvation” in my opinion is Sam Worthington. Sam is a character who you meet as “Marcus Wright” of which… without ruining the plot line (like they did in the trailers…) let’s just say he ”helps” John Connor and company out in their fight against the machines.

He does a very impressive job playing the part (more so than Bale as Connor) and I really hope that there is some more of him in the future Terminator movies.    Anyways… back to the plot…. The resistance is trying to fight Skynet… and apparently one of their big factories is in a blown up post-war San Francisco of which they plan on attacking.

The movie does a great job of keeping the tensions high, the action good and the story on track for making sense with the “Terminator Canon”

So… now for the glaring faults of even the most talented of movie directors…..

I can’t help but think that it was a mistake for Bale to play John Connor. The script was actually re-written believe it or not for Bale to play John

McG Director of Salvation

Connor instead of him playing Sam Worthington’s role of “helper” to the resistance.  I wonder how the movie would’ve been different if the roles were reversed.  Who knows.  I do give credit to McG for making the story fit within the somewhat fluid timeline of the movies’ timelines.  Now for some of the absolutely stupid things…. One… Bale talking as Batman in this movie.  McG shouldn’t grabbed the guy by the balls and told him… “Look you talk like Batman in my movie one more time and I’m going to terminate you right here…right now.”  That would’ve fit within Bale’s going off the deep end to the lighting director earlier on in production and maybe would’ve gotten Bale to actually act the part right instead of just trying to push himself as a macho war hero.  Second…. If you go see the movie… notice around Skynet…. all of the shooting flames.  Call it a cliché or just “eye candy” but why the hell do the machines have flames randomly busting out of the ground or from vents?  Do they have a gas problem in the future that we’re not aware of?  Thirdly— I didn’t like how the movie actually started/ was cut.  I’m not sure if the Blu-ray or DVD release (I.E. Directors Cut) will be any different but out of the gate I did not like the flow of the film for the first 10-15 mins.  ****SPOILERS***** *****STOP READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED****** It basically starts out with Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) on death row, and his option for giving his body to Skynet for research (hence… they wanted to develop the T-800 model) and the scene…. like I get it for the background story… but later on in the movie, Marcus has some flash backs of which I really wish they had just visited that part of the movie in the flash backs and not at the beginning of the movie since it screwed with the flow. ********END OF SPOILERS HERE*************

Fourth— McG cut nearly 40 mins of footage.  This leads me to believe that the “Directors Cut” will most likely be the better version of this film simply because they left out quite a bit of stuff.

So maybe minor gripes…. but we’re also dealing with a franchise here that is going to be going on for quite some time most likely.  Now don’t get me wrong, I will definitely be buying this movie when it comes out on Blu-ray and watch it a couple more times because I loved it as an action movie, the characters in that were great for their roles and the characters really…. that McG setup… makes me want to watch more of thesemovies… but I just hope that Bale gets his act together and ditches some of the stupid “super hero” mentality to his acting profile in the next couple of movies.

So in looking at the box office numbers…. Salvation took in $43.1 Million which was below ‘Night at the Museum’ $53 Million take.  So does that mean that the series is doomed because it had a slow opening weekend?  I don’t think so.  Terminator Salvation will most likely gross over $150 Million domestically (here in the states) and probably even more outside.  Beyond some of dings in the armor, Salvation creates a believable world where it’s Humans vs. Machines for the fight to live and survive.  Who knows what the future brings…. to close…. “There’s no Fate… but what we make.”

Terminator Salvation gets ** 1/2 out of ****

Uhhh Houston… we have a Twitter…. In space!

First tweet from space:

“I’m going to put my spacesuit on, next stop: Earth Orbit!!” Massimino posted on Twitter on Monday morning before the launch.

More over @ CNN

In Soviet Russia…. Car drives you!

I find it funny that in America…. one of the biggest things that we somehow size people up by is what car they’re driving.

Case in point:

You drive a Hybrid vehicle— You’re a tree hugging, hippy smoking environmentalist that recycles to make the planet a better place.

You drive a Diesel Truck— Not only are you insecure about your manhood, you need a lift on your car to feel dominate over everyone else on the road.

You drive a Honda— Sure, you could’ve bought an American car but you choose Honda for it’s ability to blend into the crowd and not draw a lot of attention; oh and it gets great gas mileage too!

You drive a Toyota— Same as the Honda but you have a bit more of ” ‘tude ” when it comes to your driving.  I’m moving forward alright, now out of my way!

Audi— Ahhhh the car that will always have a niche market.  Granted the people that buy these now are either over 50 years old and paid cash for them or you’ve got the 20 yr old crowd of which their parents bought them the car; the other 20-50 year crowd that wants to look like they have money and appear “smart” for “leasing” it to avoid the depreciation of the car, but end up looking like a dolt who spends probably on average $450-700 bucks a month to drive a German car with 4 rings on it.  Go ahead… keep thinking I’m impressed.

BMW— Somehow BMW has actually been outclassed by Audi (strange I know) and you think that BMW owners would be pissed…. magically though, they’re not.  Not only are they driving a German car and paying about the same as the Audi folks, but they appear to be less… “cocky” than the Audi drivers.  Oh the times have changed.

Sports Car (Porsche/Ferrari/Lambo etc)— Obviously us peons are too stupid to understand the dynamics of paying well over $60-$100k+ for a car and don’t understand the finer things in life.  While we appreciate just the ability to see YOU drive YOUR car, we wouldn’t understand the “fluidness” of owning a sports car.

(Note: Above was simply mock stereotypes of which our culture has today…. follow me to the point below….)

Now while most of the above is pretty nonsensical, it’s also sort of true isn’t it?  We size people up by the cars we drive.  Sure you could have a 103″ Plasma TV in your 10,000 sq. ft home and have a 100.1 surround system and a 20 car garage…. but then it hits you… you start to ask… “What is in the garage?”

Why is it that we care so much about what we drive?  Call me weird…. but ever since I’ve gone from driving a Subaru, to a Honda now to a Volvo, I have people look at me differently.  It could be because I’m wearing shorts, flip flops, a beanie and a vest on a day where it could start down pouring at any given moment…. but seriously… what gives?

So why this post? Why this blog?—- Here’s the thing.  I have gone from owning a ‘72 Chevy Nova which leaked water, breaks couldn’t stop for crap…. had a near life experience with how rear wheel drive is fun… but also should be feared right after it rains, to a ‘91 Audi which broke about every 200 miles, to a ‘05 Subaru RS… totaled that… into another ‘05 Subaru RS, sold that… Into a ‘03 Subaru Outback into a ‘05 Subaru Legacy GT, sold that, into a ‘93 Honda, gave that back, now into a ‘95 Volvo 850 Turbo.  I’m sure you’re thinking… ‘ That’s great Aaron, why the history lesson? ‘ well it’s simple really.  The last two cars listed I have been given with the only stipulation that we pay for insurance, gas and oil changes.  No car payments.  None what so ever.  We still have the ‘03 Outback of which we’re paying on and if I still had a job… the damn thing would be paid off…. but my point is this to anyone who reads this….

You do not NEED an expensive car to be my friend.  You do not NEED an expensive car payment to feel important.  There will always be someone out there that has something bigger and better, faster and louder than anything we could buy.  I played the dance of keeping up with the jones’ in the car modding world and I have to say…. it sucked up and consumed my life.  My free advice is don’t let this American culture or even friends judge you by what car is parked in your garage.  Superficial BS is all that is and my challenge to myself and others is this…. As I was given some great advice from a good friend….

“A car is just a car…. think of that car after owning it for a week…. a month….. 3 months… and then a year…. It is simply a tool to get you from point A to point B.”

Amen to that.

Church Service—- how that phrase means something else completely. (part 2)

So as I mentioned, this was going to be an ongoing conversation about some of the things that I have happened upon here in the past oh… 10 months or so.  This blog speaking specifically to the phrase “church service” and how that literally is taken out of context in most cases each Sunday.

When you look at a quote “normal” church service in the Anglo community today, what is the first things you think of?  I think of church on Sunday, hymns, choirs, dressing nice, some sermon about how the Bible is speaking to us to get us out of our rut and back to living with some purpose, sing some more songs, give some money and then go home.  That sound about right?  Does that fit into the stereotypical response that if you went out on the street and asked people…. those seem like reasonable responses?

So with that…. we take a look at the modern church today.  It could be a church of 20 people or a church of 20,000 and I think many of the churches today fall into these stereotyped, boxed up, tidy and clean Christianity that we have somehow come to accept as what is “normal”.

In the conversations I’ve been having, in the reading I’ve been doing and the experiences in life I have been living…. church can’t be further from most of these things that are seem to keep church contained…. keeps it clean… keeps it un-messy.

When you say the phrase “church service” there is a root word buried in there which is “serve”.  So the literal phrase would be “church serve”.  What’s even more batty, is if you happen to reverse that phrase and make it “serve church” and that gives a more accurate portrait of what I have been discovering.  Most of the discussions that people have when they’re in the hunt for a new church is “what can I get from the church? – what services do they offer? – do they have something for my children? –is their music good? — do the people seem happy and cheerful?”.  Now don’t take me wrong, I’ve got several friends actually in the hunt for a new church of which these things are actually at the complete opposite end of the spectrum but humor me for a minute.  When we go into our church hunt, we’re looking for what satisfies us.  We’re looking for what serves our needs and our requirements.  My thought to that is where is the focus shifting to?  Now I know most of that in which I listed seems shallow but a large majority of people are asking those questions in deciding in where to call home.

What if though…. what if we shifted that from “What can I get?” to “….What can I give?”.  Think about that for a minute.

What can I give church?  What can I give friends? What can I give family?

The focus shifts from self to others.  One of the BS lines that was feed to me growing up in this culture was: “It’s all about me… Me… Me… ME ME ME ME ME ME ME….”  We’ve seen in that in the stock market, we’ve seen in that in corporations failing due to greed, we’ve seen that in high standing officials that decided to have an affair;  They were chasing the smoke vapors… looking for what was “next….” and ultimately where trying to satisfy the voice deep down in us that says… “Hey…. Aaron…. it’s okay… it’ll make YOU feel good… just go out and buy that…. who cares about making a flirtatious comment, it makes YOU feel good and it doesn’t hurt anyone.”  When the focus is on us, it can and will in time consume us.

Now take that mind set of which we have Monday to Sunday and we enter church having this expectation of being served in the same fashion as we have been served at work… at Starbucks…. at lunch… where ever…. are you starting to connect the dots a bit?

One of the great comments my worship pastor made this weekend was back in the earlier part of…. lets say the 90’s…. just to be fair….  he said “Leave your baggage at the door and come and worship God without any of that junk…” of which he thought sounded great and spiritually deep….. but then said “that’s not who we are…. we have junk and we need to give that up to God.”  In that same way…. we need to think hard about how we have long done “church” in these days,weeks,months and years ahead.

Are we coming to a “service” on the weekend at any church…. and asking “What can I get from this church?”  or are we coming with the mindset of “What can I give to this church?”

These are tough questions but also powerful questions.  My journey is still ongoing on discovering what to serve the church means… looks like and how I can get others to partake in what I think is one of the greatest joys we can experience on this plane of life.

With that, I think I’m going to hold off for a bit on Part 3 and Part 4 which I will drop some hints on in my coming posts here later this week.

See everyone on Facebook and Twitter.

-A

So really…. what is Church? (part 1)

I know I know, I played a mean trick earlier by asking that question without really any reflection on it… so here’s my attempt.

Let me preface this with the fact that these posts are most likely going to be spread across a bunch of smaller ones.  Who knows what people may think about this or what conversations will come out of this but my goal here isn’t to ruffle feathers nor condemn one way or another…. but to give you my perspective on how things are indeed changing.

The Church is a Mission.

First and foremost, understanding that we the people who profess Christ as our savior are the church body,I have come to find that we the church are on a mission.  We’re on a mission to engage with people, serve people and love people.  Some of you know that I am involved with helping out the new emerging service at Village and some of the questions we’re asking is how do we engage a culture that quite frankly doesn’t want to know or doesn’t know what to think of church and it’s relevance in our society today.  The relevance that I keep going back to is the people.  People are relevant, people have needs, and people need each other.  In that I also see the mission as I mentioned above of people serving each other, people loving each other and people engaging in each other’s lives.

All of that to say is… the mission are the people.

How do we get there?—- a question I’ve been hearing and one I’ve been pondering lately.  The response I keep having is going back to Christ.  Christ was about one thing on his time here on earth…. himself.  Might sound funny but bear with me through this.  He was about being himself, loving others, having community with those who society rejected, feared or mocked… and from that I glean the perspective of the long used term of being “christ like”.  From following his example, the out flowing of loving, serving, engaging and supporting people becomes natural… it becomes a desire.  Moving from a “I can check this off my list as serving the church or doing this good deed this week” to a committed servants heart not wanting a single thing in return for their time, effort or finances.  Now don’t hear me wrong, I’m not saying that people who are busy that do serve the body in volunteering by fitting something into their schedules are wrong, but what I’m saying is when your abundant desire is to serve , your schedule revolves around that and everything else becomes the busy work in-between the times of serving.

With that…. moving from church being a building you go to on Sunday…. a “service” you go to or attend, to becoming the church body that is working everyday of the week; that comes together once a week to hang out with each other in a big group versus smaller ones…. to continue the drive to seek after God in both song and speech.  The words might be a little different…. the music might be a tad more different but the mission… the mission is the same.

For part 2, I’m going to look at the root word of “serve” which we take for granted in calling a church “service”.  I hope this is interesting and spurs conversation as by this topic… I have in no way shape or form “found” what church is but I’m getting to re-discover it again.

More later.

-A