Late January Rush

     This has been a very busy last couple of days.

     Sunday  the weather was absolutely beautiful; just right for doing anything outside, so it was a pleasant walk both to and from church. Then played guitar for about an hour sitting on the porch before coming reluctantly inside to do homework. (That was before the wind started and the cold front moved in. Seriously, only in Oklahoma can you have a high of 71 degrees one day, to have a wind chill of 2 the next morning.) Nobody could sleep because of things rattling off the windows and the wind slipping through the numerous leaks, so at least it was a new topic to complain about.
   
     Monday had Latin in the morning, which went pretty well, other than being cold. Raced over to the Underground for some lunch, then raced back to Seminary for Comm, which was interesting, full of snarky comments by students and the following quote from the instructor; "Don't ever corner an armadillo. They can get really mean. And they carry leprosy." Studying most of the afternoon, then grabbed some food in the caf, while trying to dodge the far-too-numerous people on my way out I narrowly avoided being run over by a herd of Tri-Sig sorority girls moving along in a pack like they always do.
     The full gang was together for SWAT practice Monday evening; it went pretty well, we're still scrubbing the rust off the edges in order to get things all polished and shiny again. Then we quickly ran through our narrations after practice was over, piling onto the couches almost on top of one another in the living room with all the other people killing time before the meeting began.
     That went well, and afterwards I got a ride from Zach to basketball practice. Much like the state volleyball tournament, there's a state basketball tournament for all the BCM chapters from each college around the state, held sometime early March at OBU in Shawnee...and I may end up making the team because there were only six guys to show up. Again, like volleyball practice, it was at the First Baptist-Tahlequah gym, divided up by guys and girls, tryouts for the first couple weeks and then more intense prepwork leading up to the tournament. I'm guessing the girls' team will probably do well in the tournament; the guys not so much.

     Anyway, woke up Tuesday and went to MMP, then ate lunch in the caf and met up with Zach at Flo's for our weekly Bible study, looking at Ephesians 2. Stopped by the CCF house about 1:30 to help Javier get things set up for their meeting that night, more studying about 3, then watched a rerun of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and went over to the CCF meeting. Jav had just been promoted to assistant minister under Tom, it was neat to hear him teach.
     Got an email from a lady asking if I was willing to be interviewed for a story she was writing for Oklahoma Living magazine, that was cool, doesn't happen every day.

     Wednesday didn't get much sleep, and woke up extremely tired. Finally found out the difference between satire and sarcasm in Latin, Dr. Faulds explained it well. Comm was all right. Spent the afternoon studying, took a shower and froze with the air-conditioning, watched Jeopardy, got an advertising quiz out of the way(not as well as I'd hoped, but it'll do, I guess). And the Thunder absolutely destroyed Miami(in Florida), so that was pretty awesome.

     Heard from Daniel, that was good. My Netflix queue is a weird mix of superhero movies, 70s/80s detective shows and Disney movies. The Rockford Files is good, been watching that recently. So is Columbo, also been watching that. And of course MacGyver. When I remember they're on, Full House reruns, and basketball and hockey games.
     Reading The Princess Bride again, since I can't find the movie, thinking maybe I should try to learn how to play that theme song. Also been re-re-re-reading(that'd be "reading for the fourth time") Lucy Maud Montgomery's The Golden Road on my Kindle app, just remembered it was there a couple weeks ago.

     Thursday morning the writer called; it was interesting being the one answering questions. Had lunch with Mallory, it was good to catch up on how classes were going and talk about basketball. Worked on homework and got a Comm report typed up and printed. Spent the night watching Netflix and doing a little bit of Bible study. And the chain on my braces popped loose, that's a little irritating and painful, but at least it's easy to fix with ibuprofen. (They should hopefully be removed this Thursday.)

     The writer needed some pictures to go with the story, that was interesting, and a little awkward. (I'm not much a fan on having my picture taken.) But hopefully she got some good shots. Showed up late to Latin because of that, but at least I was there, and it let out early today. Comm did, too; it's just sort of a gray, slow day. Lots of students yawning and nobody very talkative, except about the Thunder. Now a report to work on for Monday in Comm and a quiz in there on Wednesday, that's the weekend's main homework objectives goals for the weekend(apparently "objectives" refers to long-term milestones to reach, while "goals" is the preferred short term. Things you learn from marketing/advertising textbooks.) And another goal would be deciding who to root for in the Super Bowl.

Super Commercials - Updated

     This is basically the same post as "Super Commercials" from last year, only hopefully the links will be viewable in a less-clunky manner.

    Only at the Super Bowl would people watch the game for the commercials. (And I'm one of those people this year. Yipes. Well, and I'm also hoping for a blizzard, that'd be fun to watch.) And only Super Bowl commercials could be far more memorable than the actual games themselves. This is a list of my all-time favorite Super Bowl ads. (Beer companies have the best marketing/advertising people, so that's why this list will be heavily dominated by those.)

1999 Budweiser City  - Maybe it's the song, or the montage of  fast-moving clips showing everyday life in the city. Either way, this has always stuck in my head as an example of a very good ad.

1998 Skyboarder/Goose Pepsi  - This looks almost painfully CGIed now sixteen years later, but that was awesome technology then. And it is a terrific commercial. I love how the Pepsi stream flows sideways because of the gravity. And then the way the flock of geese fly in the shape of the Pepsi logo....so cool.

2010 Doritos Shock Collar  - Go, Dog, GO! This is one of the better Doritos ads in the last ten years.

1979 Mean Joe Greene Coca-Cola - Could this possibly NOT go on the list?! Widely regarded as the best Super Bowl commercial ever, it's awesome. Just awesome. How many commercials do you know the behind-the-scenes story of? That become legendary? It was filmed over two days at this tiny stadium somewhere in Pennsylvania, and he had to drink that whole bottle in one gulp. It took seventeen takes for that one shot. And the fantasy aspect....how amazing would it be for your favorite player to toss your his game-worn jersey right from his back?

1993 Larry Bird/Michael Jordan Big Mac Shootout - MICHAEL JORDAN!!!! Trick shots! Larry Bird! A huge delicious burger! This one has it all. (So good, in fact, they made a sequel the next year, with the tricks getting wackier and Charles Barkley tagging along. And a remake from 2010 is pretty great, too.

1999 Budweiser Dalmatian Twins  - Lost in the Clydesdales' hulking shadows are the Dalmatians, who starred in some pretty terrific ads of their own. (And the Frogs weren't bad, either.)

2007 Rock, Paper, Scissors Bud Light - It's not the commercial of the decade, but it's close. And by far the best ad that year.

2000 Budweiser "WHAZZZZZZZUPPPP?!"  - This was the commercial of the decade.

2013 Hyundai Making the Team - The stuff dreams are made of. Which is the recipe for an amazing ad.

2007 Bud Light "Dude."  - Amazing how effective one word can be, and how flexible.

Broken Elevator Tostitos  - One of those commercials that sticks with you. (And I'm always reminded of it just about every time I ride the creepy elevator in our dorm.)

1995 Clydesdale Football  - BY FAR THE BEST COMMERCIAL EVER FILMED. EVER.  I can watch the dirt fly, smell the horse-sweat, hear the thunderous crash of their bodies slamming into each other....the ball as it gets snapped and then placed for the kick.....and then the football fading off into the distance over the power line is one of those shots that will never be topped, like that last scene in Back To The Future where the DeLorean's tire tracks are in flames in the middle of the road as the rain starts to come pouring down. And, of course, those two lines of dialogue at the end are wonderful.

Life in a Deep Freeze

     It is REALLY COLD OUTSIDE. And inside. Even more so than usual, and so the chorus of complaints is louder than ever. Like, seriously, when I checked the temp a couple hours ago it was 18 degrees with a wind chill of 3 degrees. High of 22 expected, low of somewhere between 2-5 degrees. And we're talking Fahrenheit, not Celsius!
     And my Kit Kats have been frozen rock-solid. That's not quite so bad as stone-hard Snickers, or fossilized Reese's, but it's still not exactly enjoyable. (Welll...okay, it's chocolate, so obviously it's enjoyable. I just mean that it would've been a little better if it could warm up to maybe room-temperature a bit or something.)

     Classes are going...taking everyone a while to get up to speed, it seems. Media Management and Planning(MMP) might go a little easier than we expected. (Note the might.) Somebody said before class Tuesday, as we were all frantically trying to prepare for a quiz over the syllabus, "Why does this feel like we're taking a final and it's only the second week of class?" Lecture was on the importance of proper product placement in advertising, pretty interesting and easy to grasp. Talked to this older guy who sits next to me named Ron for a while about photography after class let out.

     Monday was a study-day, because of no classes scheduled for some reason because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It really came at an odd time this year, because we started so late. We don't need a break after one week of school! Why couldn't it come in February or something instead?
     Quiz in Comm/speech yesterday, which was somewhat nerve-wracking, and a short little report to whip up for tomorrow.
     Latin is going pretty well, a little faster than we'd probably like, but it's all right. I was able to read(and understand!) what the extra-credit sentence said yesterday even before we'd begun dissecting it. (It was the Vulgate translation of Matthew 5:3, if you were wondering.) That was awesome.

     Finally used some of the high school graduation gift certificate from GBC to Grace and Truth Books, it's only taken like nineteen months, haha. (Just wanted to make the best use of whatever I purchased, y'know?) And I still have half of it left! Got a book by Paul David Tripp called War of Words, a gospel-centered look at communication issues. It's fantastic, was studying a couple chapters last night because I couldn't sleep.
     It was good to visit home for the weekend, lots of homework and cat-petting and video games, in about that order.

     Super Bowl is next week...and then the Olympics. And I should hopefully get my braces off February 6. Besides the Daytona 500, those are all the highlights, most likely, from next month. Other than that it'll just be cold gray skies, rain, maybe a little snow, tests and group projects and mountains of homework and wild-eyed students close to snapping from stress and anxiety.

     Songs of the Day this week: All weekend long I had the theme song from Friends running through my head. (But at least I figured out that opening guitar riff, which is like one of the songbites of the 90s.) And Brad Paisley on Tuesday; "Two People Fell in Love", "Letter To Me" and snippets from several others. "Jesus Paid It All" and "Be Thou My Vision" have often been running through my head here the last few weeks. This morning it was a handful of Eli songs.
     Quote of the Week would go to Maria von Trapp(Julie Andrews' portrayal, not the actual lady) from The Sound of Music, from the "I Have Confidence" scene when she finally comes up to the gate of the von Trapp estate: "...Oh, help."  (Still annoyed about that song getting cut from the Carrie Underwood play version...Side note, it seems like everyone is doing that play this semester; it's been about the only thing on my Facebook news feed this week.)

     Trying to study today, in addition to just staying warm. And watched several episodes of Full House. Back to the textbooks I go....

     (After studying a little more, I listened to two David Platt sermons on angels and demons and spiritual warfare. And as for the cold, my cousin Logan said the high temp in his slice of Illinois was 5 today, with a bunch of snow. Probably worse up along the Minnesota/Canada border, I'd have to ask Jessica about that, though.)

Trying to Live in a Roman World

     This world is falling apart really fast. And just when you think it can't get worse, well....Murphy's Law to the max. And that's to be expected, but still - it's really frightening.

     Jesus said if we follow him, we'll be persecuted just as he was. In the Roman world, Christianity was illegal, and you could be executed for being a believer. It's apparently a lot like that still today, in some countries, according to Voice of the Martyrs. So far here in the U.S., we haven't had to worry about that yet. But....well, it's coming at some point. And that's really scary, to be honest.
     But I'm reminded of a story someone from GBC once told, about how she was driving one night through the worst thunderstorm she'd ever seen, and she thought for sure the car was going to flip or be swept away by floodwater or hit by lightning or something. And that was terrifying. But then Mrs. Rusco got to thinking about how if that was what God had planned for her that night, well, then, that was that. In some way, it would bring glory to him, and if she died, that meant she was going to meet him all the sooner. And it was only a thunderstorm, out of all the huge, vast number of events in human history that have been and will be until the final chapter of time is concluded. How small is one thunderstorm, compared to a God who handles perfectly every single event in the universe? It's nothing to be afraid of, really. It will be all right.
     Gun control, Obamacare, the Aurora shootings, Sandy Hook, the Boston bombings, gay marriage, the NSA...it's all scary. But, you know, maybe they're just thunderstorms, too. Or tornadoes. Those are extremely destructive and harmful, but they have some purpose that we don't know about, in the big picture. It's one of those times when all you can say is the lyrics to one of Steven Curtis Chapman's songs. "God is God, and I am man/And I'll never understand it all/For only God is God." What I need is to remember that He is the King of the Jungle.

     Oklahoma's been in the news recently, as a federal judge is trying to overrule our state's ban on gay marriage, saying it's "unconstitutional". My thought on seeing that? "We're doomed." And yeah, we might be. But again, God's in control. I believe the Bible, and so I think homosexuality is a moral perversion(Romans 1, which I'll get to in a second; Ephesians 5:5, many other places I'm too tired to look up right now, it's a school night) If you're gay, well....I think it's wrong, but you're still a person. I don't like it when you shove your values down my throat, but most people don't enjoy that, no matter what the subject is. I'd rather not hear about it, okay? Just keep some activities to yourself, whether gay or straight.

     Paul wrote to the Romans a very lengthy letter, because he couldn't visit them in person. In the first chapter, verses 18-32, he writes, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
     "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and birds and animals and reptiles.
     "Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen.
     "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women have exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were infatuated with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
     "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, they invent new ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents, they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these things but also approve of those who practice them."

     One of our senators, Tom Coburn, will be resigning after this year. I'm not really sure of all the details, but he's one of the only honest politicians I've ever heard of; one of those ordinary citizens who came to serve their region for a time, did the best they could, and then went back to their ordinary lives afterwards. THAT is how politics ought to go all the time, what our founders envisioned.
     I'm not just saying that because he's Dad's uncle, either. He's just a man who's spent his life trying to make the lives of others a little easier, a little better. The way I usually think of him is on the day of Grandma Joy's funeral, at the graveside. It was a cold, overcast and windy November day. He was standing off alone by himself, coat wrapped tightly, staring off into space. Just a man grieving the loss of his mother, wondering how to keep going.

     So, yeah, coming back to this Roman world we live in....it's dark for now, and that's all right, ultimately. But it also means we need to fight, spread the gospel and drop good teaching whenever we can, in order to light this world. And that involves being bold, which is not something I'm very skilled at. However, Bennett, Laura and Callie don't have a problem with this; going so far to create their own website to encourage Biblical thinking principles and ideas for ministering to fellow teens. It's called The Ignition Project, highly recommend y'all go take a look. (They're also on Twitter @TheIgnitionPrjt) They love their crew of rappers, something called 116 Clique, made up of Lecrae, Andy Mineo, Trip Lee, Derek Minor and others. They're not my style of music, but are in your face about the message of Christ and dealing with sin. And that's not that different from what the guys from DC Talk were always singing about.
     It's sort of a 1 Corinthians 12 type of thing. "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. (verses 4-6.) So they may be working in a different way than I am, but the end result will, Lord willing, be the same; the further glorification of God and growth of the believers. So let's keep on going, whatever than role may involve, wherever that road will take us.

     Time is ticking away....

Language and Language

     You know how someone might say while recommending a book or a movie or something, "This is really good, you ought to read it sometime. There is some language in it, but it's still really worth reading." (Non-book example, but Back To The Future works well here.) Well, I would hope there's language in it....else there wouldn't be any book, you know? If there wasn't language, made of words and letters and, depending on the style, punctuation or infixes, strung into sentences, we wouldn't be able to communicate very well. If we couldn't communicate, well, that would be unthinkable. So it's really a good thing that the Phoenicians invented writing.

      Through the Tower of Babel, whatever the dominant common language existed in the world disappeared and separate language-speakers migrated towards the same areas, which explains how humans scattered all over the world. Over time, certain languages came to the forefront, like Aramaic, replaced by Greek, which fell in time to Latin. Latin, of course, stayed the dominant language for somewhere over a thousand years, gradually evolving into Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. French became the main language and gradually a strain developed into English, which has taken a little bit of everything and mispronounced it to create the crazy mishmash of our native tongue.

     This language can be made into millions of words with specific meanings, that change over time, just due to the nature of the way language works. Some of these words have unpleasant literal meanings, which sort of explains why unimaginative people use them when they can't think of another synonym. Of course, they probably don't think of this; but the ones who first started the practice of insulting people with those terms might have. We call these types of words "(awkward cough) well...language", "swearing", "cursing" or "cussing".

     This isn't exactly the right terminology, exactly, for some of those terms, but they work. Swearing is an oath of some type. Cursing is strongly wishing punishment on someone. And, of course, they both can mean using offensive words. It's a little hard to tell, exactly, why some words/terms are offensive; it's just not something society in general tries to figure out. It's not a good habit, using these types of terms regularly and heedlessly. It shows a lack of imagination and decency. But there are some situations where it seems like it would be all right; like in extreme provocation, or to highlight an inflection or a meaning in a way that wouldn't be possible unless you did so.

     There's a great article on this topic from Focus on the Family's movie-and-pop-culture-review site PluggedIn, they say it a lot better than I can. This is something I've been pondering for a while now, just living in a campus bubble, trying to figure out what it was about that power that words contain that can make life miserable, and that link pretty well covers what I'm thinking. This article offers good Scriptural arguments against using profanity. All words have power, really; and we should use that power wisely, because it's a great responsibility.

Galloping Hoofbeats

     After being cooped up in the starting-gate of the dorms, the starting bell went off and the gates shot open and the race of this new semester was on; as the student-horses launched themselves into the routine of school life, mental hooves pounding wildly as they expend the effort necessary to meet their goals.

     Huh? Oh. You're sure this isn't a horse race? Well, that would make it a lot more exciting, at least....

     The first week of classes is halfway over with. It's going to be a long semester, I'm thinking. Sort of feeling pretty overwhelmed. The Latin II class is made up of eleven students, I know about half the people, that's going well so far.
     Saw lots of faces I recognize from other classes in Media Management and Planning yesterday, it was moved at the last second from Leoser 127(the Strat classroom) to Seminary 207, which is also where my speech class is meeting. Anyway, I guess it'll be about advertising, planning marketing strategies or something, sounds intimidating. Most other people had no clue what to expect, either, so that helps a bit. Mostly it's PR folks, with some VisComm(Visual Communication; photography) people, a handful of journalism people and maybe three advertising people. Should be informative, to steal Mr. Shamblin's favorite word.
     Needed to take Fundamentals of Oral Communication at some point, so I figured now would be as good a time as any(besides, it saves me from having to take those dreaded science courses this semester). Asked around about teachers, Elizabeth said her teacher was all right, so that's who I went with. He has a Duck Dynasty type of bright red beard and is always wearing an orange Thunder baseball cap, seems like a cool enough guy. Though everybody calls the class "speech", we only have about three real speeches, the rest is quizzes and tests and things, it seems. The first of the three speeches was of the loathed "Introduce Yourself or a Stranger to the Rest of the Class" variety. So the awkward interviews were done Monday, and trying to encapsulate the personality of a complete stranger in sixty seconds was handled this afternoon. I was trying so hard not to snicker at some of the phrases used.....
     "My pet peeve is: that I'm not a cat person." (That's not a pet peeve....at least, not the way you worded it. Try "My pet peeve would be cats in general" or something.)
     "He doesn't like bugs with eight legs." (Then what you meant was that he doesn't like arachnids; spiders, ticks, scorpions, things like that. Insects have six legs.)
     "His family's pretty normal....mom, dad, brothers, sister - He's the oldest of all of them." (....Do what? I know what you meant; but the image is so absurd and outlandish....It could work in talking about the cast of a play or movie, though. That's the case of our SWAT skit "The Parable of the Big Push", Elizabeth and I are both actually older than both of our onstage parents, Bubba Jacob and Susan. We were all quoting the skits to thin air over the break, without people around who could catch the references.)
     My speech went about as well as could be expected, got through most of the relevant information gathered about the guy I interviewed and wrapped up with eight seconds to spare. I sound nervous on playback, and need to work on writing conversationally on paper so it will translate well into spoken words.

     No SWAT practice this week, much to nearly everyone's extreme disappointment. We kind of wandered around campus Monday evening wondering what to do with this suddenly-spare time, eventually one-by-one dropping in at the BCM for the first meeting of the semester. The worship team was blasting a bunch of gospel-style songs like "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", which was awesome(and really made me wish I'd brought my mandolin). The video message was mostly the Duck Dynasty people giving their testimonies, which was somewhat interesting, and probably would've been better if I followed the show.
     After that there were some snacks in the basement, so everyone tromped down the stairs and caught up with friends and compared notes on the upcoming courseloads and things like that. James talked a friend of his into visiting for the first time, and we tried to be friendly, but probably terrified him instead by constantly yelling over the top of whoever was already talking and slapping each other.
     After that was over, I suggest a coffee run to Bubba Jacob, it quickly becomes a SWAT reunion, as us, Elizabeth, Susan, TJ and James all decide to head somewhere to catch up. It was way too cold to hike anywhere, so while trying to figure out whose car to use, a couple of us suggest we just pile all into one car. "We could fit....we're all small. Well, except for James, but..." The guys jump into James' red Firebird and the girls hop into TJ's car, both were playing the radio and everyone was talking at once, so it made coordinating the meeting-point interesting. We beat the girls to McDonald's and stand there waiting like Brad Paisley until they burst in dramatically, exclaiming about the miracle of getting green lights all the way down Muskogee Avenue. We were the only people there, probably entertained the McDonald's employees. It was two hours of six people crammed into one booth, complaining about the government, about school, trading unsolvable Hobbit riddles, debating which of us could successfully pull off a murder, mountains of Princess Bride quotes, scheduling a list of movies we need to see, even a mock proposal.  (After that, well...what else CAN you do but spontaneously (automatically?) sail into Impressive Clergyman mode? At least that's what I thought. And Bubba Jacob. And Susan. And Elizabeth. All at the same time.) It was fantastic, a great way to catch up with everybody. At one point somebody says, "Man, it's getting late. I've got a class at 9:30 in the morning." "Me too." "Me three." "Me four." And nobody makes any effort to get up and leave. We needed that. Susan said the next morning, "That was the best reunion I've ever had!"

     Went to Grace Baptist on Sunday, that was good. (I just wish there was some type of directory or something so I could start to remember which names go with which people's faces.)
     American Idol is starting tonight; I may watch some of the auditions, but I don't think I'll be watching. It just wouldn't be the same, watching it all by myself. Because even though I did that most of last year, watched literally alone here in my dorm, we had email to talk about the episodes. I just can't stand to listen to Jennifer Lopez's irritating giggle for a while nother season. And Harry Connick Jr. was always really annoying as a guest mentor, so I don't think I'd like him being a judge. And RANDY is the new mentor, replacing Jimmy?! So even though Keith is back, just doesn't seem worth it. Always said I'd try out at some point....still might, but I can't really see that happening anytime soon. Maybe I have a better grasp of life now, see how ridiculous it seems, I don't know. Most people aren't meant to be famous, and Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, Scotty McCreery, David Cook and the others are the extremely rare exceptions. We started watching in Season 6, Season 13 is starting now. That's over half the show's lifetime; Amy's been around it since literally before she was born.
     The girl next to me in Latin got hit by a car today on her way to class; that doesn't happen every day. Went down to Morgan's Bakery for some cookies and saw a Hiland Dairy truck parked in front of Ned's bar, which was also unusual. And as I was on my way to the UC to get some dinner, I heard a guy walking the other direction whistling the theme song from the Disney version of Robin Hood. 
     I tried watching a bit of Idol, and all I could hear was Quinton's line "That was the most overly egotistical, pompous presentation I've ever had the misfortune to witness" on constant repeat. (It came from a musical we did in middle school called "The American Ideal") The judges just....I don't know. Something just didn't click. And nobody sounded good.
     So I've been playing guitar for a bit, watched a couple Blimey Cow videos, think I might read To Kill a Mockingbird. No classes tomorrow, so it'll probably be a study-day. Like, even more so than usual, especially since we won't have class on Monday(arrrggghh.)

More Strange Dreams

     Had another strange dream  last night(this morning? (Woke up fifteen minutes ago at 4:32 a.m. on 11-13-13.)

     I was either on my way to or somewhere in Canada, and was hungry and looking for some cookies at this mall that turned out to be even more abandoned than Promenade, full of escalators and shut elevator doors and dried-out decorative water fountains on the first floor.
     So I take an escalator up, following a bald man in a suit, where I find myself in a bustling airport, and somehow end up inside a mammoth plane about to take off. People are complaining about there being a problem with the Internet, and it's cloudy and stormy, so they'll have to touch down for several hours soon. I need to get out of there quickly, cause I have to be wherever it was I was going, and I get this text from Ja Li Si. It says, "Will you please use your extreme professionalism and smack the crap out of someone for me? I've tried talking to him, that hasn't worked..." "Haha, sure. Who do I need to beat up?"
     I squeeze out of the plane just in time, find this grocery store that's a bit like somewhere between K-Mart  and Homeland. I'm looking for some cookies, ask this random dude who's shopping there where the snacks are and if he has any suggestions on what to get. He recommends and picks up a package of Reese's Pieces trail mix, with hot peanuts and raisins inside, and then goes on his way. Next to the candy are several Cardinals baseball caps, I try some on, hoping to find one that looks good. Another text from Ja Li Si. "You know how I mean....it's like he's using us all. I'm leaving the team." I start to reply, "Just give it until the end of the semester, all right? After Sunday we'll see how things are before we regroup in spring."
   And then I wake up.

   Most of the dreams I've been having for the last couple months are very stressed and complicated, too much so to remember what's happening what I wake up, but it pretty much always involves S.H.I.E.L.D. in some way.

     11-28-13, dreamed that I was like a permanent babysitter-type person for the five young kids of this pastor and his wife. It was set in Broken Arrow, but the library was the church instead where the pastor worked, and it was our house in Beggs post-fire on the inside.  It was kinda stressful, but interesting.

     12-19-13, There was this long, elaborate dream that I was getting married. I'm not really sure who the bride was, but she had dark brown hair. Anyway, there's this montage of wedding-preparation over several months, Father of the Bride type thing, the bride is planning, I just kind of nod. The rehearsal goes fine, the church is Trinity in Morris, but with the sanctuary of Tahlequah's Grace Baptist, and the church is set where the Haworths used to live, with our house in Beggs right across the block. We get there on the day early that morning, maybe another rehearsal? Whatever it is you do on the mornings-of-wedding-days. Only there was this MMA fight on the stage, complete with referee and ring girl and judges, so we had to wait for that to finish. Then the guests started arriving way early, so we had to welcome the. Grandpa was there, bunch of people from GBC, not sure who all else. Then, even more strangely, Maddie's dad and her brother Caamen walk in. That's about when I realize, "Oh, this is seriously happening" and begin to panic. My stomach starts getting upset, the wedding's in like, four hours, and then I wake up.

     12-20-13, School's started back up again, and I have no idea where my classes are, or what times they are. It's scary. And for some reason they all got moved to the halls of TCC's Southeast campus, so I was running eighty miles an hour with no idea where I was going. It was STRESSFUL.

     12-21-13, not really sure what was happening, but it was some kind of game show set with lime green and pink walls, and involved miles of leopard-print duct tape. It was also stressful, trying to beat the clock and win the challenge.

    1-12-14, I was watching as some of the Sesame Street Muppets(I spotted Elmo and Rosita, and someone just out of camera range that was enormous and reddish who looked a little like Snuffy, Zoey was coaching) were playing pickup football against the Monstars from Space Jam.

     1-13-14, One of those long, complicated, very interesting dreams that last most of the night, it was shifting back and forth from first-person to third-person. It began by trying to win the affection of the Jensens' dachshund Mercy. Then a bunch of us gathered around to listen to a story, told by Lazarus(yeah, that Lazarus), he'd just gotten back from some spy mission where he was being held by a bunch of rats(think ROUS-scale). He was able to escape by impersonating several cats, and there were several other parts that I unfortunately can't remember now. Somehow a new apartment that was being moved into came into the tale, and Thanksgiving, maybe? A big meal was being eaten, so it was some sort of holiday.

     1-25-13, I was playing volleyball at sunset on this beach, possibly the Lake Keystone/Arkansas River beach outside Sand Springs? Anyway, there were waves from the water crashing up onto the shore, it was beautiful. The players were like a mix of camp and college people; I spotted Ash and Jed, my neighbor Steven F. .and his fiancee Allison and our RA-ish person Olivia. Then it switched to observing from left field during a Little League baseball game played at Dewar High School, the team on defense wore yellow jerseys with blue lettering/numbering. From there became a Full House episode where Danny, Jesse and Joey were all having various mishaps as they were trying to earn the right to be the new mascot of the Charlotte Hornets.

Pixar Personality Testing

     So we found that personality test online in November, and I just wrapped up my ranking of Pixar movies. Well, today I came across this: A Pixar personality test.

     "Let me explain - No, no, there is too much. Let me sum up: Based on my top five favorites, these could be some of my personality traits." (Not Pixar, but....when you have a chance to throw in a Princess Bride quote....take it!!!!) My ranking(s) are in parentheses.

     Monsters University - (6) "A true MU fan is highly dedicated. You appreciate what it's like to put out as much effort as humanly possible to achieve a dream.  But you also might know that doesn't guarantee that you'll achieve that dream the way you've always imagined. If Monsters University was right up your alley, you've probably got an amazing work ethic, much like young Mike on the first day of school. Maybe you've also got a hint of a competitive streak."
     Pretty much....and my high school drama teacher said Mike reminded her of me. If I'm not a little green eyeball with legs, then I'm probably Rex the anxious green dinosaur made by a smaller company that was purchased by Mattel in a leverage buyout. And one of the meanings of "Orin" is Irish for pale green. And green is one of my favorite colors...so, yeah. Where were we?

     A Bug's Life - (5) "A little bit quirky, a little bit of a dreamer, a little bit of an innovator, you are an idea person. When other people see routines or obstacles, you see opportunities. You're probably an underdog rooter as well, tending to side with the little guy."
     Not so good at seeing opportunities, exactly; and I'm not sure about being an innovator, but the rest fits. And yes, I know it's a rock. DON'T YOU THINK I'D KNOW A ROCK WHEN I SEE ONE?! I'VE SPENT A LOT OF TIME AROUND ROCKS!

     Up - (4) "A lover of Up is a lover at heart. You are definitely a romantic and a dreamer. You probably have a lot of plans about the future: romantic getaways, adventures all over the world and outlandish occupations. While others might sit back and say "Wouldn't that be nice?", you're one of those brave souls who can put a crazy plan into action, because with enough balloons and the right attitude, life can be an adventure."
     Ha...I wish... It definitely is an adventure, though. And as Louis L'Amour said, "Adventure is just a romantic name for trouble." Of course, there's also that G.K. Chesterton quote: "An adventure is merely an inconvenience rightly considered, and an inconvenience is merely an adventure wrongly considered."

     Cars - (C1 3, C2 9) "You'd love nothing more than to go on a long road trip, because, after all, life IS a highway, and.... Not much for fancy frills, you're good at appreciating the little things in life like a tasty milkshake at a diner, a field full of cows to be tipped, or a beautiful landscape on the open road. Like Mater, you've learned that all your dents are valuable, as they all represent a fun memory you had with good friends."
     I would LOVE to go on a road trip somewhere! Don't really like fanciness much at all, and I like the little things. Dents are valuable, which is why we keep 'em.

     Toy Story - (TS1 2, TS2 8, TS3 1) "If you love yourself some Toy Story, you probably have a big heart and a head full of memories. You were probably that kid who stuffed all your stuffed animals into your bed at night. And we're not saying you cry at the drop of a hat, but you can get a bit teary-eyed when you take a stroll down memory lane."
     I guess so... And yeaaahhh, that didn't happen very often, but there were a few times when I'd pile all the Beanie Babies on my bed and burrow somewhere underneath them. Sometimes our dents aren't so pleasant, but they're still important. And yes, some bring back memories that are so amazing you can't help but tear up a little.

Here We Go Again...

     Well, winter break's over. So I'm back in Tahlequah, got my books yesterday afternoon. Had to get a new backpack to replace the one I'd worn out, so naturally I got as close to a clone as I could find, and attached the Snoopy keychain into place. My student ID card had worn out after a year and a half; so had to run over to the CASE building earlier today and get a new one.

      Been doing a bit of studying to pass the time, and Netflix-watching. Campus is really creepily dead right now....it's freaky. And my CD player has apparently bit the dust. That's not cool.  

     Things just feel different right now - it's always weird, the calm before the storm of the semester, but this isn't normal. This'll be my fourth semester, I've given directions to three different people today. It's almost like starting college all over again. Maybe it's just that realization that after this semester I'll be about halfway done with classes, Idk, but it seems like this year will be full of changes and events. Every year has those, of course, just some more than others.

     Reading through Ephesians as part of this saturation idea that a bunch of people from GBC are trying this year, it's been interesting, and making a lot more sense about the content.

     Slept about four hours last night...not cool. I even made up for it by taking a nap this morning. Further strangeness.

     The Jeopardy nationwide audition test was last night, I get more nervous about those than any real college tests... Of course I won't make it on the show, the odds are so microscopic, but it's fun to try. 

Backyard Kids - Where Are They Now?

     It's a snowy day here in January, and as Sunny Day would have said, "It looks like a winter wonderland!" And with the ranking of Pixar movies and the NHL's Winter Classic both happening recently, that naturally led to reminiscing about the "Backyard Sports" video games, and a fake-news post about what they might be up to now, sort of like this post somebody wrote about the Wishbone cast. (This BuzzFeed article totally applies to my life, haha.)

     "There are those friends you've known forever and talk to nearly constantly. And there are those that you don't hear from often, but are still in contact with. Then there are the type that just seemed like they fell off the face of the earth, and you wonder, "What happened to them, anyway?" The last option is why we decided to catch up with the Backyard Kids and see how they were faring in their young-adult lives.
      Everybody remembers Sunny Day, the polished, loquacious announcer of the neighborhood ball games. She stopped calling the games just after the skateboard craze to focus on school and went on to major in broadcasting at Tech State University, serving as radio voice of the Fighting T-Squares' hockey games. She could not be reached for comment on this story, but sent a polite email saying that she was very busy developing a TV series about Spy Fox.
     Her longtime color commentator, Vinnie the Gooch, can often be found hanging out at Mark's Burger Joint, where Dante Robinson and Kimmy Eckman work, or riding motorcycles with Tony Delvecchio. They hung out a lot together in high school, and more or less graduated. Angela didn't have this problem at all, she took valedictorian honors her senior year, giving her speech with her tassel constantly flopping into her face. She retaliated at the cap by throwing one of her fireballs with it afterwards, spinning it neatly into the aisle where she picked it up on the way out, almost tripping over it.
     "Ricky Johnson continues to play soccer and football in his spare time, and also took up skateboarding. He now works at Mom and Pop's Skate Shop.
     "Annie Frazier is currently working as a cashier at Weasel Barn while she is studying for her bachelor's in education, she stated that she will be interning at Scheffler Elementary next fall.
     "There are a lot of the kids now in coaching; Jocinda Smith is coach of the Hammers basketball team, Stephanie Morgan leads the Hornets in the Backyard Baseball League, Chuck Downfield is staying involved in the gridiron action as an assistant for the Bombers, Ricky and Annie both coach soccer, for the Wombats and Fishes, respectively, and Buddy Cheque is is trying to teach the Polar Bears how to play hockey out on Duksana Pond.
     Some moved away over the years, like Pablo Sanchez. "He just kind of disappeared one day, nobody's exactly sure what happened to him. We sure miss him, he was a good guy, and a fantastic athlete," said Kiesha Phillips. "The Webber twins were going after careers in pro tennis last I heard. They were great people, even if I did have trouble telling Ashley from Sidney. Mikey Thomas moved during fifth grade."
      According to Frazier, a lot of people attended Billy Jean Blackwood and Marky Du Bois' wedding last summer, music was provided by the Khan brothers' band. "It was fun to see everybody again, great to get to catch up and see how friends were doing."
     . Always known as Jabberjaw growing up, a trait for which most people tried to avoid her, Gretchen Hasselhoff's bubbly personality is now put to use in her job as a tour guide at Shark Belly Shores amusement park. "Oh, yeah, I haven't heard from a bunch of people in a couple years, well, more like three or four, actually, but, anyway, there's Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff. The Boss is in management at our sister company Walter Weasel World, actually....it's a pain sometimes, but what're you gonna do, you know what I mean?
     "Kenny and that science-y kid put their super-smart brains together and built more robots like Mr. Clanky, pretty awesome if you ask me, that company is probably gonna get super rich, and here we were growing up with the original!
     "Course, not everybody's doing quite as well. Kimmy sort of got into trouble a few years ago, she's working at that restaurant in town, I think. And there was Ronny's whole deal..."
     The field that once was Eckman Acres is now mostly a flower garden, and Dirt Yards is no more, briefly becoming the Paveway and now housing the Squirrel Creek Shopping Center. This well-documented construction is still looked upon with disfavor by many. Pete Wheeler works as a groundskeeper for the Parks Department, mowing the grass, mainly. He's set a local record as the only person to get a speeding ticket on a Snapper lawn tractor. The police officer who gave him that ticket? None other than the Mad Dog herself,  Lisa Crockett.
     The gang occasionally gets together for a pickup soccer or baseball game, but those times are rare; everyone is busy going their separate ways and with their lives. Some have kids, some are in college, some have done well, others have had harder times. But they've all been part of some great memories, and provided countless thousands of hours of highlight clips on the Junior Sports Network and YouTube. We can't let their performances on the field define their entire lives, though; instead they ought to have a chance to be ordinary average citizens of the community."

What Cynthia Coppersmith Doesn't Love

     If you've never read Jan Karon's Mitford series, the following makes no sense. If you have, however; what follows is a detailed list of every time in the series she rattles off several things she doesn't like. I marked down every instance this happened while re-reading through the series for about the third time. (I think I'm in the middle of my sixth-plus time right now, but not sure.)
     Karon captures the details and small joys and frustrations of everyday life so vividly; especially considering the world comes to eventually contain something like 800 characters. They're all so full of personality, each with their own quirks and mannerisms. These things Cynthia doesn't love, though she enthusiastically loves almost everything else, mesh together with her personality and make a great character. They're usually listed in threes, I just made it one continuous stream for easier listing.

     "What don't you love, Cynthia?" he asked her curiously.
     She thought a moment.
     "People who are never on time; garden slugs; artificial flowers; loud music; stale crackers; cursing; complaining; soggy mittens; chocolate without nuts; a man who can't find it in himself to hold your hand when it's sticking out there in plain view; never being asked out to dinner, not even once; exhaust fumes; movies made for TV; cakes baked from mix; daytime TV; pickled onions; cheap ballpoint pens; age spots; stress; stress; stress; grits without butter; dust balls on ceiling fans; grumpy husbands; fading eyesight; creeping forgetfulness; calendars with no room to write all the day's events; husbands who can't talk about their feelings; sand in the bed; maps that won't refold properly; taxis that go 90 miles per hour in midtown traffic; pantyhose that are a size too small; age spots; labels that scratch at the back of my neck; size 8 jeans that don't fit anymore; baked potatoes without sour cream; 25-watt bulbs in reading lamps; cats that throw up on the rug after devouring a mouse; age spots; jeans without Lycra; lug soles on barn shoes; any sitcom more recent than M*A*S*H; shopping malls at any time of year, especially Christmastime; flea shampoo that does nothing but attract a new colony of fleas and roasts that cost a fortune and then cook out dry."
     The last time this happens, in Light From Heaven, the ninth book in the series, Father Tim responds, "Every time I ask you this question, you always have the answer right on the tip of your tongue. How do you do that?"

The Trouble With Football

     It seems kinda like every single post of Facebook has been about football the last couple days. Now, I know that's not exactly true; but there have been a lot of people talking about the bowls this week. Everybody was reasonably polite during the OU-Alabama game in the Sugar Bowl, and then lost it during the OSU-Missouri Cotton Bowl.

     I halfheartedly listened to the Sugar Bowl on the radio, and even (gasp!) sort-of-cheered for the Sooners. Although actually I kind of wanted both teams to lose, but since that's not possible...anyway, it was surprising.
     Bennett and Elizabeth were giving play-by-play accounts on Twitter, those were fun to watch. I was cheering for both teams, Caleb and Courtney started yelling at me for doing that, said it was against some rule. It is, really, disobeying the Edict of Unquestioning Loyalty to a Sports Team, but that kind of grows weaker as time goes by. And I know a lot of Missouri people who are Tiger fans, I've explored over the Mizzou campus, and it has the best journalism school in the country. Those are all good reasons to like them, right? On the other hand, I've grown up an OSU fan, and Dad went there for a bit, and you just can't go with the flow of crimson...so there's that, too. Watched the fourth quarter, that was a wild finish. A great one, and at the same time awful. Both teams had great seasons; and it was a terrific play at the end, it was just one of those times when one team has to lose, y'know? So I was glad for the Tigers and those I knew cheering for 'em, and at the same time wondering how on earth the Cowboys could possibly lose the two biggest games of the year back-to-back on plays like those.
     There were lots of Facebook posts I saw full of emotion after both games, either exulting in OU's victory or OSU's loss, or howling about officiating and how they were robbed by those blind zebras. And snippy comments back and forth in those other fans' direction. It's just a game, you know? Sometimes you'll win, other times you won't. That uncertainty and drive is what keeps you going, that hope of coming out on top. There's no reason to blow up afterwards...The world won't end either way the scoreboard turns out. If your team wins, I'll try to not complain too much, if you'll do the same.

     The NHL's Winter Classic was Wednesday, watched all of that very attentively. It's the closest thing hockey has to a Super Bowl, and they do an amazing job with it. Held in Michigan Stadium this year, the spectacle of hockey outdoors, with over a hundred thousand people watching live, and snow falling....and then going into a shootout finish as darkness was closing in....wow. Just....wow. And two of the Original Six teams in Detroit and Toronto, who just happen to be fighting for playoff position in the Eastern Conference, even better.

     I just can't really watch football very much anymore. Well, that's not quite true. I can watch it, but I get bored easily now. And it really takes something to make me enjoy it. (This is horrifying and incomprehensible to five-year-old Wesley, or ten-year-old Wesley, or fourteen-year-old Wesley.) But everything just seems so cynical, everything is driven by money, college and pro both, and things like history and rivalries and geography have been thrown by the wayside. Athletes are jerks and ESPN lobbies for certain teams and players while completing ignoring the fact that there are other media outlets in existence, it's disgusting. I mean, the Cotton Bowl was almost completely ignored in coverage this week on their website because it's on Fox, when that's the best bowl this season.
     And guys like Johnny Manziel, Tom Brady, Cam Newton.... The rule changes designed to in theory promote safety are destroying the game; and besides that, it's just...really violent. It's always been like that; but sometime you start to wonder, "Why am I entertaining myself by watching guys destroy their bodies for their employers to make inconceivable amounts of profit, when those employers will just find new employees next week to replace the current workforce when they wear out?" The last time I really paid attention to the NFL was the 2011 season after the lockout, where Tim Tebow took over Denver and everybody in America went crazy in one direction or other in response. And I wasn't even really paying close attention to the league as a whole at that time, was busy with senior-year stuff and other things. The NFL, everything's so, like...sexualized, with the cheerleaders and sometimes-racy commercials and halftime shows and stuff, that can't be healthy, spiritually, can it? College is a joke; basically seems like if not quite slavery, then Chinese-export manufacturing. If thousands of young adults are going to sacrifice four years of their lives for their universities and everyone else to profit, shouldn't they be paid? And the "Rah-rah, go RiverHawks! So proud I go to school here!" that's expected if you force yourself to watch the misery of NSU games...
     We haven't done the Thanksgiving betting pool on the Cowboys game for the last two years, nobody really cares enough to make an effort to bring it back. I've spent the last couple Super Bowls rooting for the commercials to win, chatting with Amanda and playing Scrabble with the Galdamezes.
     I don't know. Maybe it's just that sports should be an escape from life, and don't function too well as a life in themselves.

     I can watch and enjoy high school sports, though. In any sport, those players are playing for their towns, for their schools; parents and little siblings and people from church. Maybe there's a college scholarship out there, but probably not. Life's going to go on after the season, there will be other sports to follow. It's a key part of the rhythm of small-town life.

Errand Run in Okmulgee

     Run into Okmulgee today to run some errands, that was a good way to end the break.

     Mom had some library books to drop off, so we ran by there before it closed for the day. I love that library. It's such a beautiful building; and there's so, so many BOOKS! No telling how many thousands of books I've checked out and devoured, I've gone there since I was six, I know the librarians, there's the book sale in September, that was where my high school speech class met...it's home. Maybe not "home" like where your cat is, or a house, but in a way a little like home plate. It's the place you start from on your way through the basepaths of life and return to as much as you can. And the glass display case was full of Beanie Babies this month, so I had to look at all of them, and pick out the ones that I had. About half of them had once been part of my collection, and they'd played football and done all kinds of things in my bedroom in Broken Arrow or the living room in Morris. 

     From there we went to Southern Cross, Courtney was getting some strings for that bright orange guitar that I got after the ice storm, she's going to try learning to play. It was great to see Dale and Glenda again, their kids were in town for something and a couple grandkids, too. Just a real family-like atmosphere in there, the clutter of instruments for sale and those dropped off for repair, the smell of wood and polish and air-freshener. It was where I learned most of how to play guitar, where I've gotten my picks and had just about everything music-wise else over the years. I got a gig bag-case for my mandolin Summertime, I needed one, and some new cat-tongue- and fingerpicks. They asked about how school's going, the gentle teasing of good people to be around.   

     Then to Wal-Mart for groceries, I had to get a new stick of deodorant and a case of Diet Coke. It's been the place where we've shopped for groceries ever since we moved to Morris; where the lady who worked at the McDonald's that used to be there would save the new Hot Wheels cars that came in for the Happy Meals for me, where the homeschool group would ring the Salvation Army bells. 

     Drove past the YMCA, where my soccer and basketball games were held; past Sonic and Hopper's junk store and First Baptist, where we'd meet every week for choir and drama practice; Coleman's Bakery, Pat's Archery, the Best Western we stayed at just after the fire. I've spent a lot of time in Okmulgee. 

Pixar's Greatest

    ...Okay...I'm gonna try this. A ranking of Pixar's films from the absolute, ultimate, surpassing-all-other-movies peak of computer-generated cinematic animation excellence, to the merely very good(well, okay, there are a few exceptions that can be labeled "very poor").

     They started, of course, with Toy Story in 1995, followed by A Bug's Life in 1998, Toy Story 2 in 1999, Monsters, Inc. in 2001, Finding Nemo came along in 2002, The Incredibles burst onto the scene in 2004, Cars fired its engine in 2006, Ratatouille in 2007, WALL-E took orbit in 2008, Up was in 2009, Toy Story 3 FINALLY came to theaters in 2010, much to high school and college students' delight; Cars 2 was in 2011, Brave in 2012 and Monsters University was the Class of 2013.

      These are just my opinions, feel free to argue and lobby for different arrangements if you wish. And if I included all the wonderful quotes and cross-references and everything, this would be a 400-page Word doc, so I'm going to (try) to limit myself to just one from each movie. Although I'm groaning like Andy, "...Just ONE?" They make us laugh a lot, they make us cry often, and they make us think. There's sarcasm and frustration, loneliness and pleasant times, races, fights, sharks, disguises...
     I'm thinking if I have time, I'll gonna have to whip up a bunch of individual posts. Okay, here goes:  

14 - Brave - A frizzy-haired princess named Merida outshoots a bunch of would-be suitors and thus escapes being forced to marry somebody(or anybody) for now, accidentally turning her mother Queen Elinor into a bear somehow involving an enchanted  cake while trying to get her to understand her point of view. A real bear that chomped off her father's leg is eventually killed and her mother returns to her human self after the curse is repealed by repairing a tapestry.
     It's a beautiful film; as far as the scenery goes, and it has a brilliant score or soundtrack or whatever you call the musical section, all Irish-Scottish and all, but there's no plot. It's clear as a diamond where this is going in the first ten minutes, and you can't understand a single thing anyone's saying. And even worse, there aren't even any good one-liners to redeem it even slightly.
Grade - 64, D- 

13 - Ratatouille  - A culinary-minded Parisan rat teaches a young restaurant employee how to cook. The evil owner of the restaurant nearly kills the rat and fires the boy, but doesn't; and the unpleasant food critic is won over, mice in the kitchen is unsanitary, and everyone winds up living happily ever after. Pllyeahhh.
     It was the first Pixar movie released after the takeover by Disney, and it feels like a cheap, badly-made Disney CGI-animated flick. And the soundtrack is in French.
Grade - 64, D- 

12 - Finding Nemo  - (I've got a feeling this will be an unpopular selection for this spot.) After his wife and most of their eggs are killed by a barracuda, clownfish Marlin is a little bit overprotective of his son Nemo. Okay, a lot overprotective, the sort of dad that makes Danny Tanner look ordinary by comparison. Nemo explores out to the drop-off his first day of school, getting picked up by a Sydney dentist named P. Sherman and installed in the office fishtank. Marlin sets out across the Great Barrier Reef to find his son, meeting a neurotic blue fish named Dory, who suffers from "short term memory loss", or perhaps has anterograde amnesia, a condition where new memories can't be formed. Nemo escapes from the tank, Marlin and Dory eventually find him after a host of adventures, and thanks to a group of sea turtles, they're reunited.
     This is a very serious movie, more aimed at parents than kids. As such, I can't really appreciate it as well as ought to be appreciated. Also, I don't really know (or care) much about fish and ocean wildlife. Though I do like the Australian accents.
     Quote: The Tank Gang's incantation of "Sharkbait! Ooh ha ha!" makes a great volleyball rally cry.
     Grade - 74, C 

11 - Monsters, Inc.  - A gigantic 8-foot tall monster named James P. Sullivan and his small green eyeball pal Mike Wazowski are scarers at Monsters, Inc., the city's biggest energy-collection company. And they're some of the best at terrifying children, which is how their world gets energy. It's a high-risk job, since children are toxic, but...well, somebody's gotta do it. A little 3-year-old human girl named Boo somehow gets trapped in the monster world, and Mike and Sulley have to take care of her and foil the schemes of Sulley's rival scarer Randall and CEO Mr. Waternoose.
     No one particular shining quotes, but many, many, wonderful Billy Crystal one-liners in response to something somebody else said.
     Grade - 78, C because of the rushed pacing. The entire plot takes about 36 hours from the start to the plot's climax. Great music, though.

10 - The Incredibles - This is the only Pixar movie to not have the Pizza Planet truck somewhere inside, but it does have a cameo of Doc Hudson. Anyway, it has loads of superhero references scattered throughout; the story is of the family of retired superheroes Bob and Helen Parr and their children Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. They have to band together to thwart a real villain's schemes, and hopefully not kill each other in the process.
     It's about the importance of family, even if they are hard to deal with sometimes.
     Quote: "I know, I know....freeze." Frozone rolls his eyes and then makes the police officers arresting him into ice sculptures during a vigilante mission with Mr. Incredible.
     Grade - 84, B 

9 - Cars 2 - After winning his fourth Piston Cup, Lightning McQueen returns for the offseason in Radiator Springs, only to get drawn into the World Grand Prix, a transcontinental race featuring some of the best racers in the world, including sports car Jeff Gorvette, Brazillian and Japanese Le Mans cars, a French rally car and Italian F1 champ. Meanwhile, Mater accidentally gets drawn into a world of espionage working with British agents Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell.
     It's not perfect, but it's fun. And there's a ton of great music.
     Quote: Mater is talking to Holley: "For a second there, I thought you were trying to fix my dents." She says she was. "Well, no thank you. I don't get these dents buffed, pulled, filled or painted by nobody. They're way too valuable." She expresses surprise. "I come by each one of 'em with my best friend Lightning McQueen. I don't fix these. I want to remember these dents forever."
     Grade - 87, B 

8 - Toy Story 2  - Woody's arm is ripped while playing a little too rough, leaving him at the house while Andy goes to Cowboy Camp. Trying to save a fellow toy from a yard sale, he gets picked up by Al of Al's Toy Barn, who intends to ship Woody and a bunch of other collectibles to a toy museum in Japan. Once in Al's apartment, Woody discovers he was the star of an early 50's TV show called Woody's Roundup, and begins to get to know his fellow castmates Bullseye the horse, Jessie the cowgirl and Stinky Pete the prospector. Meanwhile, Buzz, Slinky, Rex, Mr. Potato Head and Hamm all go on a rescue mission to save Woody and get everyone home again before Andy gets back.
     The weakest of the trilogy, but still, that's a pretty high bar to set. More of the favorite characters we love, and it features Geri the cleaner from the chess game in the short before A Bug's Life(also appearing are Flik and Heimlich, and Al's car looks an awful lot like Flo).
     Quote: Woody: "You're right, Prospector....I can't stop Woody from growing up. But I wouldn't missi t for the world."
     Grade: 87, B 

7 - WALL-E- I've only seen this once, but it was amazing. It's almost a completely silent film as far as dialogue goes, yet it's so powerful and compelling... In 2805, Earth has been vacated for centuries due to toxic levels of pollution and trash, with (apparently) only one trash-compactor robot left and a cockroach. Meanwhile, humans are living in spaceshipssuch as the Axiom and are basically controlled by robots, as they've lost the ability to think for themselves and regressed mentally to an infant state while becoming morbidly obese. This lone WALL-E-class robot finds a little plant growing, which is later found and captured by EVE. She and WALL-E return to the Axiom, the Captain decides to turn the ship around to Earth again, which the Autopilot refuses to comply with, having previously been ordered to never return. Eventually humans repopulate the Earth, and the seedling grows into a mighty tree(that possibly could be the one on Ant Island).
     Grade - 94, A 

6 - Monsters University  - Mike Wazowski has always known the fringes; not quite cool enough to hang with or scary enough to be admired. When he goes off to college at Monsters U, well....it's college. So it's pretty awful. In fact, he gets expelled after his freshman year. Sulley coasts through his Scaring 101 class, relying on his natural talent and family history in place of studying. He predictably flunks the course, and in a last-ditch effort to redeem himself, he teams up with a reluctant Mike as they make friends with a bunch of goofy, utterly un-scary frat guys who live in the basement of one guy's mom. Oozma Kappa surprises everyone in the Greek competition of the Scare Games, though, of course, Mike and Sulley are expelled from school and go to work in the Monsters, Inc. mail room.
     Captures pretty well the feel of a college campus, which is equally amazing and awesome that they could do that reasonably-accurately and still keep things clean. It doesn't end happily ever after which is great. Because life doesn't usually end that way. And sometimes you do all you can, and it still isn't quite enough. The minor characters are even better than usual(which is saying something), and the scenery is breathtaking. You kind of have to have experienced college life to fully get this movie, which captures this basic truth of campus living: College is harsh and hard to deal with.
     Quote: From Art when sneaking onto the lot of Monsters, Inc.: "I can't go back to jail!"
     Grade - 87, B 

5 - A Bug's Life  - A colony of ants is terrorized every season by a grasshopper gang, forced to gather food for the oppressors every year before gathering their own supply. Eccentric outcast Flik is evicted from the community for his inventions causing trouble all the time, and on his travels in the city comes across a troupe of recently-fired circus performers in a bar. Misunderstanding their role in a fight, Flik thinks they're a band of warriors, recruiting them to save the colony from the grasshoppers. This deception leads into further mishaps, leading into the climatic showdown.
     Quote - Rosie the black widow, looking at the Blueberries' mural of the circus bugs killing the grasshoppers: "Oh! Look at all the...beautiful...colors of the blood." There's a lot of great quotes from this movie.
     Grade - 95, A+ 

4 - Up - Carl Fredricksen knew that "Adventure was out there...somewhere." One day this quiet boy meets Ellie, a talkative and imaginative girl, and they become friends, eventually get married, and never quite have the money to go to Paradise Falls, which has been where they've wanted to go for always. Just when they're about to leave, Ellie grows ill and dies. A grieving, crabby widower now living alone in their house, one day Carl accidentally injures a construction worker, forcing a court to order him moved to a retirement home. To avoid this, and also to keep his promise to Ellie, Carl turns his house into an airship with thousands of balloons, intending to go to Paradise Falls. A young Wilderness Explorer scout named Russell is brought along by mistake, but they eventually get close and encounter a giant bird named Kevin and a talking Golden Retriever named Dug. Dug's master turns out to be Carl and Ellie's childhood hero Charles Muntz, obsessed with finding a live bird of the same type as the skeleton his reputation was ruined on. That live bird turns out to be Kevin, and so then Carl, Russell and Dug have to protect her(as Russell finds out incredulously, "Kevin's a GIRL??")  from Muntz and his pack of dogs. Muntz falls to his death in a chasm, the house is left sitting at the Falls, and Carl gives Russell the "Ellie Badge", a bottle cap he'd kept all his life, which she gave him the day they met.
      This is just an absolutely brilliant movie, about grief, about how to go on with life, about how to grow up, so many different things.
     Quote: There's lots of great dialogue all through, but the best line is from Ellie: "South America...it's like America, but south!"
     Grade - 98, A+

3 - Cars -  Lightning McQueen is a rookie headed for history: The very first first-year racer to win the Piston Cup. Blown tires ruin that opportunity, creating a tiebreaker race the next week with his two main rivals, "The King" Strip Weathers, in his last year going for one final title, and perennial runner-up Chick Hicks. He gets stranded in a little town off Route 66 called Radiator Springs, and jailed at the impound after wreaking havoc along the main street. He's sentenced to community service by repairing the road, along the way learning to slow down and enjoy the little things in life; wild times with friends, doing things for others, time with that special someone, appreciating history and learning from it.
     I could go into extremely in-depth detail about the whole thing, but that's certainly another post. It involves racing. It has Paul Newman, Owen Wilson, Darrell Waltrip, Bob Costas and Richard Petty in it. There's music by Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley and Sheryl Crow. So many tiny little details all adding up into an amazing world; the tire-tracks left by the jets, the VW bugs flying around, the great dialogue, the expression of the characters.
     Quote: Lightning, surprised to hear Doc's voice on his radio in the tiebreaker. "..I thought you;d said you were never coming back." Doc sighs. "Well, I didn't really have much choice. Mater didn't get to say goodbye." Mater, shouting: "GOODBYE! Okay, I'm good."
     Grade - 100, A+ 

2 - Toy Story - Andy Davis' sixth birthday is next week, and his family is moving then. So his mom throws him a party a week early, which all his toys are a little nervous about. There's Woody, Andy's favorite since kindergarten, Slinky Dog, Rex the fearful dinosaur, Hamm the wisecracking piggy bank, Bo Peep and Mr. Potato Head, plus others. Andy gets a new Buzz Lightyear action figure, who quickly impresses the other toys with more gadgets than a Swiss Army knife, deposing Woody as Andy's favorite toy. Hoping to be taken on a trip to Pizza Planet, Woody attempts to knock Buzz behind the desk, but instead he falls out the window. The other toys, led by Mr. Potato Head and Hamm, accuse Woody of trying to murder Buzz and shove him out the window, too. Both toys latch onto the car, getting into a fight at the Dinoco gas station and falling out of the car, leaving them stranded. They jump into the Pizza Planet truck, but then Buzz jumps into a rocket-shaped claw machine, thinking it will take him back to his home planet, instead of aiming for Molly's stroller. Woody reluctantly follows, and they get taken by Sid Phillips. Inside Sid's house, Buzz discovers he is just a toy through a TV commercial, he and Woody becomes allies as they hatch an escape plan. All of Sid's mangled toys rise up and scare the daylights out of him, presumably changing his destructive ways. Woody and Buzz chase down the moving van by riding RC, missing the truck and falling with style into Andy's mom's car. At the new house at Christmastime, the toys listen as Molly gets a Mrs. Potato Head and Andy gets a puppy. Woody and Buzz share a nervous look, and then credits roll.
     This was the first full-length movie to be made completely through computer animation, and it seems impossible not to love it. My generation grew up with it; no telling how many times I've watched it. How many movies can still have merchandise constantly in production and selling 19 years after they premiere in theaters? How many movies have this much impact on culture? (The Princess Bride, It's a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music, Star Wars, Napoleon Dynamite, and probably others.)
     Quote: Mr. Potato Head rearranged his face. "Look! I'm Picasso!" Hamm: "Eh...I don't get it." "You uncultured swine!" Hamm walks away. "What're you lookin' at, ya hockey puck?"
     Grade: 100, A+ 

1 - Toy Story 3 - The movie millions of high school and college students grew up waiting for. Andy's headed to college, and he's just going to take Woody and leave everyone else in the attic. The toys haven't been played with in years, starving for attention. They're okay with this plan - well, kind of. It's sad, but they're putting a brave face on things. Mom thinks the trash bag they're stored in is trash, taking it outside instead of up to the attic. Molly was donating an unwanted Barbie to Sunnyside daycare, so the gang decides to escape the trash bag and ride along with her. Woody follows and tries to explain it was all just a big mistake, but nobody really listens. Instead, they're enthralled with Sunnyside, thinking it looks perfect. Woody attempts to get back to Andy, while Buzz, Jessie, Rex, Slinky, Bullseye and the Potato Heads choose to stay. Woody is found by Bonnie, who picks him up and carries him home to her group of improv-loving toys. Sunnyside isn't quite as advertised - Lotso Huggin' Bear is a dictator, imprisoning most of Andy's dissenting toys and resetting Buzz back to his default space ranger mode. Woody learns Lotso's background story, much like  with Jessie and Emily,  and goes back to Sunnyside to rescue the gang. They escape, accidentally setting Buzz into Spanish mode, but he re-allies with Woody and again falls in love with Jessie, helping them. Lotso and his gang corner them in a trash truck and the fight continues to the dump, the toys resigning themselves to being burned up by an incinerator. However, at the last minute they're saved by the little green aliens, and Lotso is captured to serve as a hood ornament on a bulldozer. The gang catches a ride on another trash truck back to Andy's, where they hop into their assigned places. At the last minute, Andy decides to give them to Bonnie so they'll still be played with, they play together with all the toys in her yard for a while, and then Andy drives off to college.
     Quote: Andy, to Bonnie: "Now, Woody...he's been my pal for as long as I can remember. He's brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special, is he'll never give up on you...ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what." And to the toys, driving away, Andy just says, "Thanks, guys."
     Grade - 100, A+

     How would you guys rank them?