Evan Agee: Live from Richmond Indiana

Due to the opening of a movie rental store near my house (and the fact that they’re giving new members 50% off of their rentals for 15 days) I’ve been renting a lot of movies lately.

Last weekend I rented The 6th Man and the newest 007 game for the GameCube. Earlier this week I rented Timeline and Runaway Jury, and last night I rented Startup.com, Haunted Mansion and Inventing the Abbots. I’ve wanted to see Startup.com and Inventing the Abbots for some time, and Kristen wanted to see Haunted Mansion.

Here are some short reviews for the films I’ve watched so far:

Timeline
There was something about this movie that made it seem really cheap dispite it’s very high budget (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had a budget of $90 million, Timeline had a budget of $80 million). The acting was extremely subpar (I really think I could do better, lol). The guy from The Fast and the Furious compeltely dumbed up the entire movie. His dumb serfer voice just totally stuck out like a sore thumb against the somewhat realistic accents of the other actors. Overall, it was probably a 4/10

Runaway Jury
A wonderful movie about a gun-related killing case and the things that go on behind the scenes to make sure that the party with the most money wins the case. It had a couple of good twists and turns and was very enjoyable to watch. Overall I’d give it 7/10

Startup.com
A very interesting movie about a startup business in Silicon Valley around the time of the big .com boom. It tracks the rise and fall of an online company and gives you a very good sense of the attitude of the time and why so many venturists rode that wave to their own financial demise. Very interesting, 7/10

I’m going to try and watch the other two movies tonight (hopefully).

What a great weekend. It was the kind of weekend that only comes around once a year or so. There was plenty of fun, it felt long and it felt productive. Friday night we went out to eat at our favorite local Mexican restaurant and then we went to the movies to see the final Lord of the Rings movie (again). After that we went home to enjoy a nice evening of sleep, the perfect amount. The next day we spent most of the day working on the yard. We purchased some lawn tools, some mulch and weed killer and spent the rest of the day tending to the yard.

That evening we went out to eat to a local steak house and had a good time and some good laughs. Our waitress seemed to have taken a special interest in our hunger and told us that she wouldn’t be bringing us any more rolls because we would get full. It was quite comical really. She then made a comment about my glass “having a hole in it” because I was extremely thirsty from the long day of yard work. It was pretty funny though, and with my brother-in-law there to help make light of the situation it was pretty hilarious. Once we finished eating we went to the video store and rented a movie and a video game. It was an AHNOLD movie no less. It was wonderful.

Sunday was another good day. Most of the day we spent working on Kristen’s student teaching portfolio. I helped her out in any way that I could and we eventually got it finished early this morning. It was a lot of fun too.

Yes, I’d say it was a great weekend..

What’s going on? Not much really, but things are pretty busy. From a large volume of work during the day, some relaxation time in the evenings and some filler-stuff to do during the weekends there hasn’t been much free time lately. I’ve been working on the Quaker Life Magazine design work in the evenings after dinner and that’s been going very well. I’ve been able to stay on schedule and get finished with the various milestones on time. It’s been a very interesting experience.

I spent yesterday evening, by myself, at Friends United Meeting. The building was dark and I was waiting on an older laserjet printer to warm up and process the (apparently) huge graphics files in the magazine. I spent most of my time sipping on a ginger ale and hoping the computer wouldn’t crash and lose my unsavable PageMaker document. It was scary. Every time I’ve tried to save it, OS 9.2 keeps giving me an eternal wristwatch. It sits there and I eventually have to force quit. Thankfully, when I re-open the document it gives me the ability to open the lastest version of the document or the saved version. Kind of makes you wonder why it has you save the files at all…

I’d really love to go to Arizona this summer. We’ve never been there during the summer and it would be nice to know what the summers are life before we move down there in a few years. We were planning on going up this Thanksgiving, but I think I’d rather go in the summer and swim. We’ll have to see how money is I guess.

Life can be difficult to manage sometimes, but isn’t it worth it when you come out on the other side having learned so much? I think it is.

As most people know, last week was Holy Week. The week that is the most importatant in Christian Faith. Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter are all part of Holy Week and to most Christians it is the time when they are the most grateful for Christ’s sacrifice. However, to some people Easter is about family dinners.

One of the greatest things that Satan has ever accomplished is replacing one idea of what a holiday is about with a wholesome “alternate” meaning for that holiday. Christmas is about giving gifts to others, Easter is about the Easter Bunny giving gifts to little kids, and Good Friday is this enigmatic holiday that allows most government businesses to close eventhough most people don’t even know what the meaning behind it is. It’s really sad.

Kristen and I went to see The Passion of the Christ again yesterday and enjoyed it more than we did the first time we saw it. I was able to look past the suffering and focus more on the underlying story. I’m very happy to see if performing as well as it has been at the box office, I believe that this is a truly amazing evangelical tool.

Why evangelize? I know, today the popular thing is to be completely accepting of everyone’s religion. Most people think that Christians are arrogant because they think that their way is the only way and that everyone else is wrong. Let me put it this way and maybe you’ll understand our point of view:

You’ve seen the anti-drug commercials with the teen drowning while their friend stands their watching, right? Well, if you’re a Christian, you believe that anyone that doesn’t know Christ is drowning and part of what you’re supposed to do as a Christian (as commanded by the Bible) is spread the word of Jesus Christ and keep these people from drowning. So, it is completely impossible to be a Christian AND be completely accepting of other people’s beliefs. It’s not that we’re intollerant, it’s just that we don’t want everyone to end up making an eternal mistake. It’s about love. Honestly.

If you don’t agree with me, that’s your choice. My duty is to tell it to you and allow God to work on your heart. I won’t argue, and I won’t fight. I’ll simply tell you the truth and allow you to do with it what you want.

I’m getting ready to get started on the work for Quaker Life Magazine. I plan on going in tonight to get most of it done believe it or not. It’s going to be a lot of fun and I can’t wait.

I spent all weekend working on my car with my brother-in-law Jamie. He did most all of the work, but I was there watching. I spent around $200 on my car this weekend, but it’s running better than it has in a long time. I bought a new pipe for my exhaust and two new tires for the front.

I’ve been selling a few items on ebay and using the money to purchase some items for my computer at home. I’m planning on trying to keep my current computer when I get my new mac so I can have a network at home so I want to keep my current computer updated. I’m thinking of getting a new case for it so it will look new even though it’s not. Ricing it out so to speak.

That’s about it for now. Later!