13 Best Cd's of 2008

13. Anberlin--New Surrender
12. Various Artists--Juno Soundtrack
11. Children 18:3--Children 18:3
10. Family Force 5--Dance or Die
9. Capital Lights--This is an Outrage
8. The Briggs--Come all You Madmen
7. This Beautiful Republic--Perceptions
6. Jack's Mannequin--The Glass Passenger
5. Search The City--A Fire so Big the Heavens Can See It
4. Sum 41--Underclass Hero
3. Flogging Molly--Float
2. Weezer--The Red Album
1. E for Explosion--Reinventing the Heartbeat

Top 13 Movies of 2008

I'm going to do a "Best of 2008" series over the next couple of days. I'll do the best movies, best cd's, and best books of 2008. Some of the movies may have been released in 2007, but I didn't see them until 2008. This is only my preferences.

13. Burn After Reading. I only put this one on there because it was one of the only movies that I saw in a theater. Brad Pitt did a great job, and the last 5 minutes were awesome. Other than that it was a disappointment. I usually like the Cohen Brothers movies. But this one had a lot of possibility, because it was a great idea, but it just didn't deliver.

12. Fireproof. Come on, it's got Kirk Cameron. Actually it was a pretty good movie. It was a feel good movie. It also made me want to be a fireman.

11. Tropic Thunder. It could have just been Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr., and it would have been worth it. They were hilarious. I just wish it hadn't been rated R.

10. Lars and The Real Woman. This was an awesome movie. It was so funny, and so happy. It was very weird though.

9. The Pirates who Don't Do Anything. We like the Veggie Tales and Parker loves them. It was a good story and had some good songs.

8. Juno. I liked this movie a lot. Jason Bateman is becoming one of my favorite actors, even though he was kinda jerky in this one. The slang from the kids got annoying in the beginning but it evened out after a while. But the story and the characters were great.

7. Kung Fu Panda. I think this was hilarious. Jack Black is funny even when you can't see his face. Plus it was a great story.

6. Iron Man. I know most people would make this number 1 or 2, and it was great, but there were a few I liked better. But it doesn't take away that I liked this movie a lot.

5. Cloverfield. I liked this movie a lot. I thought it was cool how it told the story. It was incomplete because it was from one guy's point of view, mostly. It had a lot of holes in it and it left a lot for conversation afterwards.

4. 21. This made me want to play Blackjack and go to MIT. I read the book first, which was way, way, way better than the movie. But, it was still a pretty cool movie.

3. Hancock. I thought this movie was awesome. Most super hero movies focus on the powers. This one focused more on his personality and the powers were a secondary component. Again, Jason Bateman was in it and had a cool role.

2. Dark Knight. I was skeptical of this movie at first with Heath Ledger being the Joker, but after watching it I became like everyone else who thinks he did an awesome job. This would have been a mediocre movie without him and his character.

1. My favorite movie of 2008 came out in 2007, but I didn't see it until January. It was "I am Legend." I loved this movie and could watch it over and over. I just like the idea of what would I do if I was the last person in a city and had to kill some zombies.



Runners Up: Dan in Real Life, Step-brothers
Movie I didn't like at all: Semi-Pro
Movies of 2008 that I hope I will never see: Mama Mia, Sex in the City

Catch Up

A lot has happened since the last post I made over a month ago. I had been thinking about whether or not I should keep the blog going, and now have decided to go ahead, but maybe with a little different purpose. The purpose was for parents to see what was going on in Jr. High Ministry at Harvest Fellowship. Here's some update to why that needs to change.
The Thursday before Thanksgiving, I was pulled into the executive pastor's office. In there with him was the senior pastor and the high school pastor. I had a great morning, and we had a great Wed. night the night before, and I was in a great mood. I knew the church was having some financial problems, so when I was called into his office, I knew it was probably going to be bad. I was preparing myself for a 10% pay cut, which they had done to me 2 years earlier. I was in such a good mood, that I really wasn't too upset about that.
The first thing they said to me was that they were having to lay off 4 people, and that I was one of them. I couldn't believe it. The junior high ministry was basically one of the only ministries in the church that was growing and the only one doing any kind of ministry outside of the walls of the church building.
The second thing I couldn't believe is that they let me go instead of the high school pastor who had only been there 2 months, who has no experience as a youth minister. He was a volunteer, and he's great, but he has no experience in youth ministry and leading a group the size of the youth ministry at Harvest.
Needless to say, I was pretty hurt by this and angered by it. I disagreed with a lot of the things the pastor was doing, and instead of speaking up, I kept quiet and focused on youth ministry. I think that was my downfall, because many of the other people didn't know me. The men who made the decision to lay me off didn't know what I had been doing for the last 3 years. The new high school pastor had been at the church for 10 years and knew everybody, and everybody liked him.
The crappy thing is that the pastor was responsible for the financial problems due to some poor decisions on his part. The executive pastor is just as responsible because he was just a glorified "yes man" who tried to make the bad decisions work instead of fighting against them. Because of their work about 25 people have been laid off in the course of a couple of months, because they closed the school down in October.
So, now I am looking for new ministry to be a part of. I think this is actually going to be a blessing because I'm getting out of there. It's been a while since I trusted the senior pastor's leadership. And really should someone be on a church's staff when they don't trust the senior pastor. I had been struggling with that for a while. The only thing is that I can't imagine a better group of youth or of youth workers. They were amazing. I know God is still going to bless the youth ministry because of the workers that are there. I'm going to miss the kids and the volunteers a lot.
So, now I'm a stay-at-home dad looking for a new ministry to become a part of. We're praying that God will lead us back to California. We haven't heard much yet because churches are super busy this time of the year with Christmas extravaganzas, so I imagine the job search will heat up after the New Year.
I'm going to keep this blog up, mainly for myself, to give me something to do. I'll talk about the job search and the things Parker and I get ourselves into. If you are reading this, I hope that you will become a follower of the blog, just so I'll know if anybody is ever reading the stuff that I post.
Hope you guys are having a great Christmas so far.