My Top 10 of 2010

Here is my list of top 10 favorite movies of 2010. I wish I could have movies like 127 Hours and The King's Speech on here but Saginaw likes to be dumb and not get good movies. These are kinda in order of favorites, some could definitely be moved around a bit, but who cares really…

10. How to Train Your Dragon: This is such a beautiful animated film, the visuals are stunning, and the music is soaring. Of course being for kids it has it’s fair share of cheesiness, but nonetheless, it pulled me in.

9. Book of Eli: For me this was one of the most important spiritual movies I’ve seen in a long time. The movie is about a guy who’s memorized the whole Bible and is trying to take it to safety. It really made me think and reminded me about how much we take it for granted.

8. Kick Ass: This film was the epitome of awesome comic book movie. It’s hilarious, has a quick, witty script, great acting, insane sequences of violence, and is exactly what the title suggests.

7. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: For those with ADD, this is for you. Every scene has a bazillion visuals, frenetic action, and more sound than your ears can take, but that’s why it’s awesome, and oh so much fun.

6. Toy Story 3: The film that makes grown men cry…for me Toy Story has grown up with me, I saw the first one when I was 6, and now as Andy goes to college and grows up, so do I. For my generation this film signals the end of an era, we’ve come of age, and so has this movie.

5. True Grit: I’ve seen the John Wayne version and this one wins, hands down. Jeff Bridges plays Cogburn so much better than Wayne, cause Bridges can actually act. The best thing about this movie is the actors, Matt Damon, newcomer Hallie Steinfeld, and others. This is up there with O Brother for best Coen Brothers film.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: I was completely blown away by this movie! Especially the acting by the trio, the biggest improvement was Emma Watson who has FINALLY learned to act without moving her eyebrows. I loved how dark and ominous this movie was, a far cry from some of the previous Potter films.

3. Black Swan: This was the most uncomfortable, disturbing movie I’ve seen all year. It’s about a ballerina’s descent into madness as she starts to become her role, and the descent is not pretty. Natalie Portman will for sure take home the Oscar, it was truly haunting. Plus Darren Aronofsky just knows how to make amazing, compelling, yet horrifying movies.

2. Social Network: At first I was leery about seeing a movie about Facebook but I’m glad I did. It was so interesting and compelling to see what people will do to gain fame and how they will stab each other in the back.


1. Inception: Christopher Nolan did it again, he’s made another masterpiece! I can’t really say anything about this, I’m sure you’ve seen it so there really isn’t a point. If you haven’t then watch it now…like right now. Go!


And here are my 5 worst films of 2010:

5. Robin Hood: No this wasn’t poorly made, it just was a tremendous disappointment to me, very dull, and very boring.

4. MacGruber: I love the SNL sketches, but draw it out for 90 minutes and it becomes painfully unfunny.

3. Nightmare on Elm Street

2. Resident Evil: Afterlife: Huge, epic failure. Not that I expected greatness (especially now that it’s in 3-D!), but I did expect it to at least be cool, but nope, not an ounce of cool in this film, just boring clichés and annoying monsters.

1. Grown Ups: I had big hopes that this movie would be funny, being a huge Adam Sandler fan, but it was horribly, horribly, awkwardly, not funny. I laughed maybe twice.

Honorable Mentions go to Karate Kid, Due Date, Tangled, Let Me In, The Town, Iron Man 2, Shutter Island, and Alice in Wonderland. Whew, I’ve seen a lot of movies. Now what are your thoughts? Am I completely off on any of these? Are there any I’ve missed that I MUST SEE?

Identity

I find lately I've been ranting and raving so much about Facebook and other social networks. Lately I've had such a contempt towards these sites, and I'll explain why: I feel as if Facebook has become mine, and many others, identities. We edit our profiles in such a way to make ourselves look our very best. Nevermind if a lot of it is fake simply to make others like us. We carefully choose what to put on our profiles and our status' that would most make others like us.
This is the epitome of selfish. People say all the time that Facebook is a way to stay connected with old friends, I say thats crap. How is checking your facebook 20 times a day, and reading everyone's status's keeping in touch? It is mearly a way to make yourself look amazing in front of mostly complete strangers you would never even talk to in real life. The more friends you have the more popular you seem though.
All this ranting is getting somewhere :) I'm such a facebook addict, and it's ruining me arguably. I've seriously considered deleting it, and its something I'll have to pray about more.
What I really am getting it is our identity and love, we've made it all about what our profiles say about us, and not what God has done through us. We've lost so much love and relationship with facebooking all the time. This is just my rant, I'm going to write on love, selfishness, and more on identity later, this is just the set-up. I know you can't wait for more! I can feel it! :P

Savior King

Never have I ever seen a video more inspiring or chill/tear inducing. It never fails to amaze me how blessed Hillsong is in creating such beautiful music praising God to share with others.

Watching this video I was reminded of all the other believers out there, that stadium full of people all praising God. It reminds me of all the people so on fire for god, so on fire to reach the unreachable, so on fire to help those who are lost and hurting. All I can hope and pray is that I too will be on fire.

Let now our hearts burn with a flame
A fire consuming all
For Your son's holy name

Technology

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation...tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation. ~Jean Arp

Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it. ~Max Frisch

I like my new telephone, my computer works just fine, my calculator is perfect, but Lord, I miss my mind! ~Author Unknown

I don't know about you, but I have been so conflicted lately about technology and all the aspects that come with such great technological advances. The quotes above speak volumes about what I'm talking about. Take the first quote; it talks about how we are turning our backs on silence. And we totally are. Can you even remember the last time you were completely silent? The last time you just sat and pondered the sweet song of birds, or the rushing sound of the wind away from all distractions? The quote says the absence of silence is robbing us of our essence of life, and I couldn't agree more. More so, hearing the voice of God. I believe the more bells and whistles we put in our lives, the less and less we can hear God's direction for our lives.

The second quote involves something I've talked about before, how we are using movies, books and the like to live our lives for us instead of making our own stories great.

I've been so conflicted lately about how much technology I've been consuming. I've found there have been times where I'm on Facebook, watching a movie, and texting all at the same time! I walk down the halls of school and see everyone's faces buried in their phones, oblivious to the other human beings walking the halls along with them. Has technology made us even more selfish than ever?

How much are things like Facebook and texting hurting our social lives? We opt for technology as opposed to face to face time. I am so guilty of all this. For so long I've been trying to back off the use of so much technology, and for so long I've been failing. And I wonder why it's hard to hear God's direction for my life, it's cause He's being drowned in noise.

What are your guy's thoughts? How can someone so into technology back off a bit? It's so in our culture now that you could never totally get rid of technology! No, that would be terrible, technology is a great thing, though in moderation. But how does one back off enough to, as Jean Arp put it, get back into the essence of life? As the third quote so aptly says, "I miss my mind..."

Punching Holes in the Clouds

Ever since I was old enough to know what skydiving was I wanted to do it. I would say every summer that this would be the summer I would do it, but always put it off, be it money or lack of nerves. But finally last Sunday...

I did it!

There is no feeling in the world quite like it, it's totally unique and completely exhilarating. My brother Dave and I went to Mt. Pleasant to do it. We received only about 10 minutes of instruction before suiting up in super uncomfortable jump suits. They were tight in all the wrong places.

Before we knew it we were headed for the plane, this tiny, cramped thing that looked like it could barely make it off the ground anyway let alone with us all in it. Dave and I, along with our two instructors, squeezed onto the floor of this plane and off we went. I admit, I was N.E.R.V.O.U.S. There is no way you can mentally prepare for something like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, therefore my nerves were pumping. After an agonizingly long 17 minute flight we reached 11,000 feet and WHOOSH! there goes the door.

The wind whipped through the tiny plane as Dave and the instructor he was strapped to inched to the door. One second they were sitting there, the next they were gone. This did nothing for my nerves. We inched our way to the door, and put my feet on a step over the wheel and suddenly my mind registered that I was going out of the plane, to plummet thousands of feet to the ground. I had a moment of clarity while Scott goes 3,2,1! And out we go!

I couldn't even register what was happening we were falling so fast and the wind was so loud! I felt a rush of adrenaline unlike any before, and in that moment I had never felt so alive. It never one registered in my mind the thought of, "Uh oh!What if my parachute doesn't open!?" All I felt was pure excitement like never before. After 30 seconds of shooting to the ground our parachute opens and I got to experience the biggest wedgie known to man. For the next 5000 feet we coasted to the ground while trying out some twists and turns which made me feel quite ill so we stopped that.

All I have to say now, is you MUST experience this for yourself! You MUST!! There is nothing like this and I can describe it all day long but you won't truly know till you've felt the wind in you face and seen the ground rushing towards you at 100s of miles an hour. It is insane to say the least.

Now go forth, and punch some holes in clouds yourself...

Why We Are Here

"As long as I see anything to be done for God, life is worth having; but O how vain and unworthy it is to live for any lower end."
-David Brainerd

I read this quote earlier this week and have been dwelling on this for a few days now and really felt compelled to write in this long forgotten blog of mine. I really do miss this ol' thing, it's nice to write my thoughts out, despite if anyone reads these ramblings or not.
This is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. The idea that everything is meaningless unless done for God or for the love of others. If you really start to think about it it's so mind blowing to realize that nothing we do here on this earth will last after we die. All the money we acquire, the cars we own, the big house we buy, the movies we watch, all these things are meaningless.

I've realized that the only things that will truly matter are what we do to further God's kingdom. Sharing the gospel with the unreached, helping those in need, loving people, and living with a outward focus. I've learned something very valuable in these months since leaving Americorps, that the only time I'm truly, genuinely happy is when I'm helping others and serving God. As soon as my focus turns inward everything starts to fall apart.

This life is not about me at all, it's about what I can do to serve God. And this is exactly what Mr. Brainard was saying, and it resonated so greatly in me. Coupled with the fact that I'm reading Ecclesiastes which is all about discovering the meaningless pursuit of material things, and how great a life can be merely when you turn your focus upwards. It's so crazy to think about how material and selfish I am and how much I really need to change. There is so much pain and hurt all over the world and I'm worried about what shirt to wear that makes me look better. That is so embarrasing.

This quote by Nate Saint sums this up nicely and also sucker punches you:
"I would rather die now than to live a life of oblivious ease in so sick a world."

wow...

Sorry Screen, but you just might be ruining me!

What I'm about to write may seem hypocritical, being that I am a huge movie buff, but I'm not saying I'm good at this, that I also should change. Ok, hear it goes:
Lately I've been thinking that perhaps we may be too entertained as people. Do you ever find yourself sacrificing time that you should be doing homework to instead play on facebook? Do you ever stay home and watch TV instead of hanging out and cultivating relationships? Do you ever wonder if your brain is wasting away to nothing as we sit in front of a screen showing things that other people have written?
We watch as other people live glorious lives of adventure. As people go through trials and hardships only to come out on the other side unscathed and a better person. We watch as the people on the screen LIVE their lives. Why can't we do this? Why do we have to watch others take risks, make mistakes, and pick themselves back up? We often wish that real life could be as cool as movies or tv. Well, I believe it can be. Only if we decide to stop watching other people live and instead start living ourselves.
Let me ask you; take any movie: In it, are the characters ever shown just laying about watching TV, or playing on the computer all day? No! They're out having adventures. If they are shown doing that, then its to get the point across that that character is either lazy or sad and lonely.
We are spending far to much time in a fake world and not enough making our own stories great. I'm not saying tv or movies are bad! Heck, I LOVE movies. Everyone needs to escape sometimes. I'm just saying that sometimes there is too much of a good thing. I've found lately that I'm not doing certain real life things just so I can laze about and watch someone else's life. I need to change, I need to start making my own story something worth "watching". See, I think God has a hard time using christians who are so conditioned to be entertained. We as christians need to be out in the world, helping others, and witnessing all the splendor of the earth! Not dying in front of a box.
Anything I've ever read from people on their death bed have always said they wished they had spent less time watching tv and more time with family, friends and enjoying life. Perhaps we should start living that way now, and not wait to regret it when we're dying.
So let's start creating our own great "movie". And like any great story you'll need your own call to adventure, the point when you cross the threshold into the unknown, you'll need your own tests, and climax/battle, you'll need to get messy and make mistakes. It won't be easy cutting back on screen time, but I guarentee it will be worth our whiles. Cause through this all we'll come out better people and more useful in God's kingdom, more ready to do his will, and maybe, just maybe, you'll live a story so grand, they'll make a movie about YOU someday, to inspire generations to come to live a great adventure.