Movies That Need To Be On Blu-Ray

Yesterday, I saw a cool piece of news regarding Jurassic Park video games being made by Telltale Games, the creators of the new Monkey Island episodes as well as the critically acclaimed Sam and Max series. Even though I’ve already expressed my love for this, I can’t overstate how giddy it made me to read that. The idea of playing an old school adventure game in the world of Jurassic Park has a definite draw for me.

Needless to say, all this nostalgia made me want to watch the movie again. But then I remembered… it’s not out on Blu-ray yet. I’ve never really considered myself much of an audio or videophile, but lately I’ve become obsessed with Blu-ray. The switch happened when our new TV arrived, and now I’ve been hording whatever Blu-ray I can get a hold of, like some kind of technology pack rat keen on depriving the world of its disc-ish goods. Continue reading →

Rabbit Hole of Geek

Rabbit HoleFor most of my life, I have been called a geek. And honestly, I can’t even remember when this started. No, it wasn’t when I got those glasses with the rubber handlebars that locked them behind my ears. And no, it wasn’t when I wore my MC Hammer pants to school on a day that was not Halloween. It wasn’t even when my brother and I showed up in matching outfits.

In elementary school, I remember every kid on the street having a Nintendo. It was the normal thing to do. Nobody cared that it was nerdy. Or perhaps nobody had decided that’s what it was called yet. When you’re young, these things are mostly normal, but at some point, everything changes. At some point, a switch is flipped, arbitrary social lines are drawn, and people align themselves where they think they will be happiest. Around this time is when I suppose the whole “geek” thing started for me, even though I wasn’t doing anything differently than I had done it before. Continue reading →

Why I Write: The Power of Story in the Human Narrative

Years ago, when I was traveling to different churches and seeking a job as a youth pastor, I ended up at a fairly conservative Baptist church. I don’t mean to pick on that denomination, but while there on my interview, I was put into a bit of a bind by a particular question I was asked in front of a group of parents and students. “Do you think it’s OK to watch rated R movies?”

The reason this question proved to be so awkward was that it’s loaded with assumptions, and implications for the wrong answer. It also is the kind of question that makes people look at Christians all goofy. Continue reading →