October is probably my favorite month as a kid. Not only could we go trick or treating at the end of the month, but the TV stations were at full swing airing scary movies. Although I get pretty easily scared, I've always loved watching scary movies. There's something about the vampire/werewolf/zombie mythos that was really appealing. On the other hand, I was never really into the Jason or Freddy movies. For example, Freddy Krueger was pretty much unstoppable. He wasn't all built like Jason and he didn't have a huge machete, but he had the crazy disfigured face, the clawed glove, and he basically attacked you in your dreams. How could you defend yourself? Have you ever tried running in your dreams? I don't know about you, but when I run, I feel like my legs are trudging through quicksand or something -- I can never run in my dreams. There's nothing I can do to stop him because I have to sleep. Anyway, I'm not into those kinds of characters. Too creepy. Vampires you can take out with a cross and garlic, that was always kind of comforting to the Christian in me. Werewolves were harder to kill because you needed a silver bullet, but at least they didn't attack you in your dreams. Zombies were always a tricky to me. How do you kill a zombie? If you cut off its head, the body still walks around. If you cut off its arm, the hand can still latch on to your ankle. Where does it stop? Not sure. Well, I think I'll end this now. I wanted to share this video I saw on Youtube....
In honor of the upcoming live action Transformers movie, I leave you this clip, from the 1980s classic animated film: Transformers: The Movie. This clip seriously epitomizes my childhood. To me, the 80s were about cartoons and toys. The 80s is the undisputed era of great cartoons. Although there were some pretty cool cartoons in the 90s (Batman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs, to name a few), the cartoons out now are just so out there, you have to have special kid sense to understand what they're about. Just give me some good, masculine heroes, they could be robotic cars (Transformers), soldiers (GI Joes), they could even be humanoid cats (Thundercats) and throw in a few real evil villains, like Skeletor or Megatron and have a few sneaky bad guys like Starscream and Cobra Commander, toss in some laser guns, energy blasters, swords, nunchuks, make a cartoon out of it, and then mass produce toys for them. Unfortunately the mystique and appeal of old 80s cartoon is all but lost nowadays, and all we have is YouTube to experience it again. Check out this clip: it shows you why Optimus Prime is the boss. The Transformers cartoon had several seasons and it spawned many more cartoon series after that. In what is probably 100s of episodes, the Autobots continue to fight but never defeat the Decepticons. In this movie, Optimus Prime single handedly does it in no less than 3 minutes. Jack Bauer takes 24 hours to finish the job. Optimus handles his business in 3 minutes (sort of -- junky Hot Rod).
"who do you say I am," asked Jesus. looks like James Cameron has the answer. he has been promoting a documentary proving that a certain tomb found in Jerusalem belonged to Jesus, his wife mary and their children. this puts him in the same vein as dan brown and other theorists who are trying to disprove the deity and resurrection of Christ. this kind of thinking has really been proliferating, and there are times that my faith is challenged with doubt, but this time i'm just really, really ticked off. they set themselves up into a position where they are diametrically opposed to the very truths of the Bible, and to hold press conferences, write books, make movies and documentaries about it, it just causes a feeling of indignation in my heart. even though archeologists and professors are saying the findings and theories are far fetched, this attitude and belligerence toward christianity is very real. there is something about the name of Jesus. it causes some to build the church, and others hear it and want to destroy the church. his name can spark a society and ignite very strong convictions and we'll be in constant friction with the world. james cameron, dan brown and co can say whatever they want about Jesus, but through it all Jesus has one thing to say to them: "I'll be back" (heheh). Oh yeah, and: "Come with me if you want to live".
edit: looks like i screw up w/ displaying some of the pictures... i think its fixed now.
i've always been a bit
of a city slicker. i never really had any aspirations to
travel all that much, or see the world. i figure i got all i
need here, so i never really wanted to go all that far.
interestingly enough, i just got back from my second trip to
europe. the first one was to the netherlands, in
may. i didnt even have a passport when i was sent, because
before that i never needed one. about a month ago, i was
asked if i could go to germany and after talking it over with helen, i
accepted the trip at work. after much planning, i left for
germany and helen would join me mid-trip. below are a few
select pictures from the trip... enjoy.
after 16
hours of travel, i landed in friedrichshafen, germany. this
city is located in the south of germany, near switzerland. it
was pretty cold and foggy, but good thing my car had seat
warmers...
there was a crack in my
windshield, so the rental agency asked me to drive back and exchange
the car the next day. she said she'd have a stationwagon
waiting for me. i was secretly hoping it would be an audi or
bmw station wagon, but when i got there the next day, i was surprised
to see a 5 series bmw waiting for me....
this is me ridin' dirty in
deutschland to the city center
work was at a
facility on the fifth floor overlooking Lake Constance and the Swiss
Alps.
this is a
picture of me playing minesweeper
on the first weekend i was there, i visisted a city called konstanz. it is located across the lake, about a 45 minute ferry ride. during winter, germany is in full swing with the christmas markets, which are festivals in the city where local merchants set up small shops. the air smells like spices in one area and grilled sausages in the next.
my obligatory street food shot... one of the many brautwursts i had
eating this waffle fresh off the iron in 40 degree cold was extremely satisfying
more food
inside this gothic church
on sunday, i took it easy and drove around the lake, stopping by random towns on the way. this is a shot of meersburg and another sausage i ate.
the following friday, helen
joined me and we had a chance to check out some more stuff.
saturday we took a train ride to check out munich.
the train was really crowded, and since we didn't know any of
the tactics to find a good seat, helen and i had to sit out in the
aisles, sitting on a small fold out chair
the christmas
market was in full swing in munich. this is a shot of the
glockenspiel
on sunday, we visited
neuschwanstein, this beautiful castle built by mad king ludwig.
this is the castle that disneyland model it's look
after
the weather was pretty much perfect, as the sun was up, but everything was covered in last night's snow
congrats to guh-guh warren. welcome ava jane ng....
