I am a huge Transformers fan.  I don’t care what you say or what you thought about the recent movies.  I loved them.  We saw the first one in the theaters 3 times in the first week it released.  We don’t do that.  But for this one we did.  About 20 minutes into the movie, my wife had to take her had away from me because I was squeezing it without knowing it.  I was that into the movie.  We saw Revenge Of The Fallen a couple times in the theater too, but she was preggo at the time and it was quite difficult to sit through anything that long.  So yeah.  Transformers.  Love.  Them.  I used to play with the toys when I was growing up.  And as we all know, I haven’t grown up, so…yeah.

As I was doing…well…probably nothing on YouTube the other day I stumbled onto this channel for HISHEdotcom.  HISHE stands for How It Should Have Ended.  They animated their own version of the ends of many popular movies and this one was one of my favorites!  So here you go!  Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen…How It Should Have Ended.

If there is one thing I love it is animated movies.  Disney is one of the best.  My parents raised me well and prepared me for a life with kids.  Robin Hood.  Aladdin.  101 Dalmatians.  Jungle Book.  The Little Mermaid.  Beauty And The Beast.  The Lion King. And that’s just a few of my absolute favorites!  But there is one thing that they all have in common (outside of Disney, animation, stolen stories, etc.).  They all have exceptional music (probably why I was so disappointed with The Princess And The Frog).  Song after song. Movie after movie.  They all have amazing soundtracks.

In my preparation to become a father of enough kids to watch these movies for the rest of my life, I already have some of the songs on my iPhone.  Yesterday a song from Beauty And The Beast called Be Our Guest came on during my evening commute.  (Imagine with me if you will a guy in a Jeep Wrangler with the top down and doors off driving through Orange County listening to Be Our Guest at full blast.  Ha!)  I have heard the song a million times but a few of the lines hit me this time.

Life is so unnerving for a servant who’s not serving
He’s not whole without a soul to wait upon
Ah, those good old days when we were useful
Suddenly those good old days are gone
Ten years we’ve been rusting
Needing so much more than dusting
Needing exercise, a chance to use our skill

Obviously if you have seen the movie they are servants in a castle who are going to waste and not using their talents.  What hit me, though, is that so many of us (Christ followers) are just like that.  We have amazing gifts and message that we have been given.  We start out strong, but something happened a long the way, we got distracted and stopped being a servant.  We start viewing Christianity and the Church as something that is for us (consumers) and forget that following Christ is a call to serve!

When we became Christ followers we were given gifts of the Spirit and called to live our lives in service to those around us.  Jesus gave us the example to follow throughout His life.  Some followers understand that and are living it out, but many of us have forgotten that.  What about you?  Are you really serving those around you?  Are you really loving them as Christ loved us?  Find a way to serve.  Greet at church.  Mow a lawn.  Change a tire.  Hang out at a nursing home.  Love your neighbor.  Follow the example of Christ to serve.

It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.

Galatians 5:13-14

SPOILER ALERT: I’m not going to ruin the movie for you.  I’m not going to tell you what it’s about or how it ends.  If you wanna know that you can find out for yourself.  But I am going to briefly talk about the book.  So if you don’t wanna know, stop reading now and come back when you have seen the movie.

The Book Of Eli is the story of a man, Eli, who is in possession of the last Bible in the post-apocalyptic world.  He is in search of a place that the Bible will be safe and shared with everyone.  As in all movies, the hero encounters obstacles and bad guys along the journey.  But this post isn’t about the movie.  It’s about learning from it.  It’s about realizing something that we often ignore.

As the hero in the movie, Eli knows the power of the book he carries.  He reads it every day and night.  He protects it with his life.  He is determined to share it with the needy world.  But the thing that hit me was that he understood the importance of the Scriptures.  He refused to let anything happen to it and did not take it for granted.  In a world of death and darkness, he held on to the light for all it was worth.

Think about the world we live in.  It is quite different than the world portrayed in the movie.  Even in times of need there is abundance.  We have more than we deserve.  We have a tendency to take the important things for granted because we don’t realize how precious they really are.  We have Bibles all over the place.  Maybe you are like us and have several in the cabinet, a link to an online Bible on your computer and an app on your phone.  We even stock them in hotel rooms (thanks to the Gideons)!  We are more interested in the newest Harry Potter book that we are the Bible.

What if we actually lived our lives knowing that the words that we have are sacred?  What if we knew the Scriptures like Eli?  What if the Bible wasn’t just a commodity?  What if we lived as though spreading the words to those that needed to hear them was the main goal?

I bet our world would be quite different then.

Our wedding anniversary is February 29th.  That date doesn’t seem to come around that often.  So we generally celebrate it on February 28th/March 1st.  This year we decided that there is a good possibility that we might not be able to do that, what with the baby coming sometime around there.  She isn’t due until March 12th, but who really wants to run off and do something fun at 38+ weeks preggo?  I wouldn’t (but thankfully I’m a dude and we can’t get preggo).  We also wanted to go on some sort of “babymoon” for the last time (for the next forever years) as just me and my wife before our little baby girl comes in and tosses our lives into complete chaos.

So, Priceline it is.  We have headed down toward San Diego (didn’t quite make it all the way there since we are actually in Carlsbad) to explore and have a little no stroller, diapers, bottles type of fun.  We came down yesterday (and assuming you are actually reading this, we haven’t had any crazy “James family adventures” that we are growing accustomed to on our vacations) to spend Friday and Saturday and just play.  I think we might head to the beach, sit by the pool, sleep and I think I heard something about a outlet mall or something (good lord).

Good times.  You stay classy, San Diego (and Carlsbad)!

Alright.  2009 is gone!  It has been an amazing year filled with all kinds of crazy ups and downs, trips, babies, apparently a little bit of sex, concerts, game shows and so much more!  Here is a look back at 2009 things from the year 2009.  Ok, well maybe it’s not 2009 things.  That would be just way too long.  I wouldn’t even think about reading that.  Maybe I’ll do that next year.  How about 109 things from 2009?  That seems much more doable at the moment.  I’ll shoot for 2010 things next year.

1. I wish our families didn’t live 1400 miles away.
2. The nearest Braum’s Ice Cream to us is 1,077 miles away.
3. We have a new President.
4. We had our one year anniversary!  Can’t believe she still puts up with me.
5. Las Vegas is pretty cool.
6. Blowing out a transmission in the actual middle of the dessert on the way to Vegas sucks!
7. I got to be on Wipeout!
8. Wipeout is much more difficult and painful than it looks…well maybe just as painful as it looks.
9. Counting calories is pretty annoying but works really well.
10. Losing 35 lbs. is great for the soul.
11. Toby and Stephanie added Taelyn to the family.
12. Kosher means grosser.
13. 12+ hour flights are NOT for me.
14. Bet She’an and Masada are incredible!
15. I’m not sure there is a city in the world more amazing than Jerusalem.
16. After a week of Middle Eastern food, Pizza Hut will taste like the best thing ever.
17. Christians, you are more Jewish than you know.
18. Did you know that Delta sucks?
19. Did you know that the Atlanta airport sucks?
20. Finding out you are gonna have a baby is an incredible feeling!
21. Finding out you are gonna have a baby doesn’t mean you can’t go back to sleep since it’s 6:50 AM.
22. Babies are expensive well before they get here.
23. Having a little girl that I now have to take care of is a little scary.
24. Pregnancy is not fun for everyone.
25. I am married to the most amazing woman.
26. After hitting the year mark of my blog, I think I’ll keep going.
27. Blogging every day is rather difficult.
28. There are a lot of people that look for things about Star Wars on the internet.
29. Lots of people search for the Now You Got The Chills/Shiveries rhyme online.
30. Driving 5 MPH slower makes a difference in a Jeep.
31. My wife started working at House Of Blues.
32. Getting into concerts for free because your wife works for Live Nation is awesome!
33. OK Go, The Dan Band, and Poison are great in concert.
34. Def Leppard is amazing in concert.
35. Steven Tyler falling off the stage and breaking himself is not good for my one chance to see Aerosmith for free.
36. I started working at Kingsfield Church.
37. Kingsfield Church sold the building and moved to Aliso Viejo and into theaters.
38. I am still not a morning person.
39. Winters in Southern California are pretty amazing.
40. Missing out on the snow storm does not suck.
41. Christmas in Southern California is amazing.
42. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen was almost as amazing as Transformers!
43. Free HD is pretty awesome.
44. I miss my poker boys!
45. Macs are still way better than Windows.
46. The iPhone is one of the best inventions ever!
47. Warehouse sales are where it’s at!
48. Hearing the waves crash all night is pretty freakin’ sweet.
49. Neighbors smoking outside really sucks.
50. Basketball once a week (most of the weeks) just isn’t enough.
51. Dislocating a finger sucks pretty bad.
52. Dislocating a finger on the left hand for a guitar player is not helpful.
53. Dislocating a finger on the left hand for a guitar player is not comfortable.
54. Family Guy, 30 Rock, The Office, Modern Family, and Community are amazing shows.
55. I can’t wait for 24 to start again.
56. I’m sad that Prison Break had to end…although our marriage is a little stronger now that Michael Scofield is no longer on our TV every week.
57. It’s nice to actually have the owner’s furniture out of the house.
58. Tuesday morning gardeners are really annoying.
59. Surfing is fun.
60. Surfing is exhausting.
61. Dolphins don’t mind swimming past surfers.
62. Church Online is a great way to still get to see many of our friends back in the Southwest.
63. Todd and Wendy are pregnant!
64. Jenny  and Josh are pregnant!
65. Nate and Jenny are pregnant!
66. Jeremiah and Nicole are pregnant!
67. Jonathan and Monica are pregnant!
68. John and Mariah are not pregnant.
69. Seems like almost everyone we know is pregnant.  Must be something in the water.  Right Cayce?
70. Chris and Randi got married!
71. Thanksgiving is only complete when guns are fired after the meal.
72. I still don’t understand why people even leave the house on Black Friday.
73. Cyber Monday is GENIUS!
74. Catalyst is an amazing conference and recommended to EVERY church leader.
75. The West Coast timezone is a little difficult to get accustomed to.
76. It’s weird that Monday Night Football has already started by the time I get home from work.
77. It’s really nice to have an office to work from.
78. I still really hate PCs.
79. The Price Is Right is a fun show to go on, but Drew Carey is funny but is no Bob Barker.
80. Cade Collinsworth is going up way too fast!
81. I still don’t like Christmas music.
82. Our baby has a name!  Wanna know what it is?
83. Old Navy makes the worst commercials.  They make me not want to buy Old Navy.
84. Watching the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach is pretty sweet.
85. Watching a hometown boy win the US Open of Surfing is amazing.
86. Got to see the Angels pull off an insane come back against the Yankees in the ALCS!
87. I turned 29 this year.  I guess I’m starting to get old since the next one is 30.
88. I missed college football!
89. Southern California really doesn’t care about college football much.  That’s one thing I miss about the Southwest.
90. I have missed Pro Tools.
91. I’m really not OK with the government wasting time worrying about the BCS when there are so many other things that need a ton of attention.
92. Have I mentioned how amazing my wife is?
93. I miss our families.
94. My parents and sister moved to Anchorage, Alaska.
95. It’s really cold in Anchorage, Alaska.
96. I’m glad I don’t live in Anchorage, Alaska.
97. We have been Oklafornians for a year now.
98. I like being the guy that helps load stuff up after showers and not being the guy that has to go to them all.
99. I don’t like having to pay to get my vehicles worked on.
100. God is much more faithful than I give Him credit for.
101. God is always in control.
102. I still suck at taking time off.
103. I still don’t know why frozen grapes are SO much better than normal ones.
104. Yogurtland is awesome!
105. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about Disneyland.  Not that fun.
106. Wee Man is really short.
107. I learned Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
108. I wonder how much of these people will read.
109. At least it’s not really 2009 things!

Did you make it?  What are your favorite things from this past year?

I love you, man!  Really I do.

So I have made a claim before and I want to see if it is true.  Back in March I wrote a blog post that I called The Saga Continues.  I just thought it was a funny title with the blog post being about our car problems on our trip to Vegas for our one year anniversary.  If you don’t know that story, go back and read it.  It sucked at the time but is quite entertaining now.  Anyway, I am just about to finish up my first year of blogging and looking back I am noticing that one of the trends may possibly be correct or it may have been a fluke.  So I am going to test it again.

Prior to writing that post the hits on my blog were averaging a little over 60 per day.  Not bad for my first year, right?  Well then The Saga Continues hit.  I don’t know if it was because of the title or because of the Lego Star Wars picture, but the month of April nearly doubled my daily average with almost 125 per day.  Wow!  Did I all of a sudden become awesome at blogging?  Doubtful.  I wasn’t sure what was going on.

Then around the middle of April I wrote a post about my new findings called Star Wars (The Secret To Blowing Up Your Blog).  Once again, I am not sure if it was the title or the pictures or something actually helpful (again doubtful).  I almost doubled the previous month which had been my biggest by far!  For this month I averaged just under 200 hits per day.  Now for some of you that is no big deal.  You get thousands per day.  But I’m not that cool.  I thought I was doing amazing to get 50 a day!  May dropped back down a bit and June was right back up again.  This was crazy.

If you look at the phrases that people searched for the most and ended up on my blog you would see a few things at the top of the list with the next nearest thing waaaaaaaay back in the distance.  Star Wars as a search item killed everything else!  It was 4 of the top 5!  The next closest things were puppies and Disney.  Awesome.  So what the heck?  Is Star Wars really the key to writing a wildly successful blog?  If so Brian Bruss needs to get on it!  I guess I will see what happens in the future.  Maybe one of these hundreds of people will stumble onto my blog looking for something Star Wars and find a post that will hit home just right.  Who knows?  I’m just glad God is in control of my blog, too!

How many times do we hear people whining about movies saying that they are all the same?  It didn’t end any different than every other movie.  The good guy always wins.  The couple always gets together.  The dog always dies.  The family always reunites.  On and on and on.  And we always look at movies and TV and say that they are the corruption of our youth.  I think I disagree.  I think they are the reflection of our culture.  Why do the movies all end the same?  Because that’s what we pay to go see.  Why do the same stupid reality shows keep getting recreated?  Because we sit in front of our TVs and watch them.  Why do they make High School Musical 3?  Because they are just responding to the overwhelming actions by us.  We spend good money to see these movies and they see that we are interested and make more.  But if we really don’t like it (Gigli, Catwoman, Constantine, etc.) we don’t see it and they stop making them.

I think it is for the same reason that we always see and love and get inspired by the same characters over and over in movies too.  Whether you want to admit it or not, we love it when the nerd gets the girl.  We love it when the humans defeat the aliens.  We love it when the USA beats…well…just about everyone.  That’s just how it is.  We pay to see these things.  I think that is why I won’t lose hope for America and leaders and the church and society in general.  Look at the things we celebrate in movies.  Yes sometimes we are a little off base, but look at all the good things.  There are always certain qualities within the main leaders.

The leaders that we love

• are honest.
• are decisive.
• are inspiring.
• are not self-centered.
• sacrifice for the greater good.
• are willing to give their lives.
• lead by example.

Here are just a few that pop into my head.  Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars.  Whether you liked the movie or not he is a huge leader in it.  He sees the potential in Luke and sacrifices time, money and even his life to teach and save Luke.  Optimus Prime from Transformers.  Leave it to the 80′s cartoons to really teach us life lessons.  The leader of the Autobots fights to save a primitive race in the humans.  He is noble, honest, and sacrificing giving his life for the salvation of others.  President David Palmer from 24.  Even in politics we love these guys.  Palmer is the leader that America has been searching for.  He is honest and doesn’t play politics.  He risks his life.  He has a heart.  He doesn’t stop fighting for America or the good.  President Thomas Whitmore from Independence Day.  I don’t know that I have ever known anyone who isn’t completely revved up by the speech he gives before they launch the final attack against the aliens.  He leads the men into battle with his own life at risk.  He is admits when he is wrong.  He fights for the good of others and not just himself.

The list could go on and on.  Indiana Jones.  Wyatt Earp.  Harry S. Stamper.  Jack Ryan.  Jack Bauer.  Batman.  Superman.  It just doesn’t end.  Our world keeps recreating this story over and over.  When will we finally catch on?  The world really does want someone respectable, honest, sacrificing, etc. to save them.  I think we need to learn from this.  I’m not sure I have ever heard this before, but I think we need to learn from the movies.  This is just a small list of leaders and characteristics that we can learn from.  I think we can learn to be better leaders, better husbands, better dads, better pastors, etc. from these guys.  Funny how the secular world is so right on sometimes.

Finally the time has come for our journey to Israel to begin!  After a few days in Oklahoma with the In-laws the day has finally arrived.  Our flights out of OKC didn’t leave until 5:16 PM on Monday so we weren’t rushed.  We made our way through the check-in lines and then through security and into the massive OKC airport!  The first leg of the flight was to Atlanta and then on to Tel Aviv.  The total trip time was about 16 hours not counting layovers (I believe).

Unfortunately for me, I am NOT a vehicle sleeper.  Unless I am laying down flat it doesn’t happen.  So needless to say, 16 hours for me is pretty miserable.  On the first flight my wife and I were split up.  I ticket was across the aisle from my parents and next to a woman who made it obvious (passive aggressively) that she wanted my aisle seat, but I wasn’t about to give it up to her and sit in the window all by myself and let her talk to my parents!  The second flight my wife and I were next to some old lady who was across the aisle from her husband.  Bummer!  Of course we couldn’t get lucky like my uncle and have an empty seat.  He had two!  Anyway, the flight was about 12 hours ish, but the seats have small screens for movies, music, games and maps.  YEAH!  Started off great!  I watched Defiance (great movie), Gran Turino (terrible movie with possibly the worst acting I have ever seen…Clint Eastwood was awful), and started some other movie that turned out to have Mickey Rourke in it too (I turned it off quickly).  The games were fun too!  Oh, my screen was jacked and it took me 3 times to watch Defiance because it kept stopping or rebooting.  Oh, and my screen thingy finally just broke and wouldn’t turn on again.  Awesome.  Fortuantely I was next to KK for the flight.  Oh, did I tell you that there was a seat on the other side of the husband of the lady next to us?!  Yeah she didn’t move.

Finally after what seemed like for eh ver we landed in Tel Aviv, Israel!  Only a slight eight hours ahead of where we started.  So with a 16 ish hour flight and time changes it was now Tuesday evening.  I’m sure Tel Aviv was cool, but we didn’t get to stay.  It looks really sweet from the air though.  Then we headed out to Golan Hotel in Tiberias.  It is a hotel with an amazing view right on the edge of the Sea Of Galilee.  We had some dinner, got some instructions about the day to come, and went to bed!

Thank you for all your prayers!

Before you start questioning me, wait.  I know that Prison Break isn’t a movie.  I know that it is a television series.  But!  The show just came to an end and so I want to do a “movie” review on it.  It’s my blog.  I will do what I want!

For those of you that don’t know, Prison Break is a FOX show about…drum roll…breaking out of prison!  (holy crap!  I know!  Brilliant.)  It was created by the writers or makers of the FOX series 24 so as soon as they started advertising it, I was hooked.  I already had all the track marks from 24 (bit all my nails off, edge of my seat was worn down, getting used to an inhaler for living with shortness of breath, can’t sleep on Monday nights until several hours after the show ends when my adrenalin actually calms down a bit) so it wasn’t hard for me to make sure that I carved out time in my week to start watching this new show.

The first season was great!  The main character, Michael Scofield (who my wife is outspokenly in love with), gets himself thrown into prison in order to break his wrongfully accused brother, Lincoln Burrows, out before he gets the chair.  We were all hooked instantly!  Crazy ideas and tattoos.  Good stuff.  Season two saw the whole mob break out of prison but find themselves running for their lives again and end up in a equally prison-y situation.  This season proved to be great too, but just didn’t quite live up to the season before.  Now roll in the writers strike and we all get put on hold for forever and now we are all eagerly awaiting the third season!  Season three has the gang trying to track down and defeat the bad guys responsible for their whole predicament.  This is where people started really jumping off the band wagon.  But, my wife and I stayed true!  We were loyal!  We were still bummed to hear that after a break they would be coming back for the final episodes and the show would be ending.

I hear a rumor that the show was cancelled and then someone came back and talked them into finishing the show.  Good thing!  Well, it all went great until the very end.  I am not sure I’m a huge fan of the way they ended everything.  It wasn’t bad, but a little far fetched for as fast as it all happened.  But what are you gonna do when you have been cancelled and you just have to finish up?  Then they also screwed up really REALLY bad in the last couple scenes.  That just bothered me.  One guy gets shot and in the next scene, the gun shot is now on the other side of his body.  Awesome!  Then another guy has a gun shot and in the last scene (where no one changed clothes) his blood is all gone and apparently he doesn’t have a wound anymore!  AND both guys were shot in the same day.  How do we have one guy with a gun shot on the wrong side and another completely over a gunshot wound on what we can only assume is the same day!?

So, despite the complete lack of working hard by the producers at the very end, I loved this series.  It is no 24, but it has been a long time since I have been hooked on a show outside of 24!  Prison Break was great.  I highly recommend it.  Check it out!  But husbands, watch out!  Your wives may have a new crush on this Michael Scofield character!

Highlights Of The Movie – Well, since it was a series and not a movie this will be very difficult.  The tattoos were awesome.  The first season was awesome.  That’s my pick.