Pam and I saw more movies in 2011 than I thought. Here’s the list of 2011 releases that we saw (though a few we saw on video). They are ranked, with my favorites first.
Today, January 21, I ran my Troybilt snowblower for the first time this year. Or this snow season. Those mysterious Almanac people always predict a harsh winter ahead, and this year was no different. “It’s gonna be a tough winter,” we were told. But not until today did we get enough snow to require revving up the snowblower. And already, the temperature is heading toward 40 degrees.
Actually, I’ve not been anxious to use the snowblower. Not because I dislike snow (though I do), but because I wasn’t sure it would work.
The last time I used the snowblower, last March of 2011, here’s what happened.
I always clear the snow from my neighbors’ driveway. They are an older couple. Doesn’t take but a few minutes. But last March, I sucked up a newspaper buried in the snow on their driveway. The paper lodged tightly in the blades, up in the auger, and the machine wouldn’t run. I left their driveway partially cleared and pushed the Troybilt back to my garage.
I tried everything I could think of to remove the newspaper. Screwdrivers, knives, heavy pliers. I removed some parts. Nothing worked. The newspaper was wedged so firmly, it was practically a solid. Like a block of wood.
I messed with it for probably an hour, frustrated. Then I had an idea.
Paper burns.
I considered the fact that gasoline remained in the engine, that I was doing this inside my low-ceilinged garage, that maybe–I didn’t really know–the contraption might just ignite and explode and burn down the whole house. But I was cold, frustrated, and well on the road to beyond caring.
Fire it would be.
I tipped the snowblower on its side, and lit a match to the jammed newspaper. The snow and general wetness didn’t cooperate. A little flame would take hold on a corner of paper, then it would go out. I went through a bunch of matches. Finally, a small flame seemed to take hold. It grew, spreading slowly in the compacted newspaper. And then….
Whoosh!
Flames shot up the plastic chute, where snow comes out. I wasn’t really expecting that. It happened fast, and it happened large. Fortunately, in my one single attempt to Plan for the Worst, I was holding a bottle of Ice Mountain water in my hand. I threw the water on the fire, and it went out, mostly.
My heart was beating pretty strong at this point. “That was stupid stupid stupid!”
I looked into the snowblower. The vexing newspaper was almost completely gone. A few blackened pieces remained, which I easily removed.
I also removed the black plastic snowchute, the bottom of which was melted way beyond redemption and barely clung to the machine. A few other plastic pieces were gone, and the inside of the snowblower auger was blackened. But hey, that doggone newspaper was gone. And fire didn’t touch the part of the snowblower which housed the gas tank and engine.
But I wouldn’t be running the snowblower any more that year. That was clear. Fortunately, I didn’t need it.
I think it was many months before I told Pam what I had done.
I ordered a replacement chute and a few other parts. I finally put the thing back together in September. I started the machine up, and it came to life. But would it throw snow? Were there other little plastic pieces inside, vital parts, which had burned away without my knowledge?
I’m glad to report, today, that the snowblower worked great. Phew!
To this day, I haven’t thought of another way to have removed that newspaper. My marginally-controlled fire did the trick. But no way would I want to do it again.
“Legend” rocks. Plain and simple. Couldn’t stop reading, and didn’t want it to end.
The setting is a dystopian society in the western United States, called the Republic. Something happened–war? plague? natural disaster? simple economic collapse?–to turn Los Angeles into a wasteland of sorts. There’s a post-apocalyptic feel to it. Much of the population lives in poverty, is besieged by an ever-mutating plague, and is subject to an authoritarian government whose leader is now in his 44th year in power. The Republic is at war with the Colonies (the eastern US), and a rebel group called the Patriots battles the Republic from within.
“Legend,” published in November 2011, is told first-person, in alternating chapters, by two 15-year-olds, June and Day. Their lot in life is totally different. June aced the Trials, which every 10-year-old must endure, a way the Republic weeds out the weak. She’s a prodigy from a well-off family who fully believes in the righteousness of the Republic, and intends to be its premier soldier.
Day, on the other hand, was born in poverty. But he’s a different kind of prodigy, a master criminal, Number One on the Republic’s Most Wanted list. He navigates the devastated world with Tess, a 13-year-old girl he rescued, always keeping a low profile and doing what he can to survive. His main priority is watching out for the remnants of his family–mother, and two brothers, one of whom is very sick. The Republic doesn’t know Day’s identity, so they aren’t aware of his family, and Day wants to keep it that way.
Day is nearly captured while trying to steal medicine from a hospital. In the process, a soldier named Metias–the brother of June–is killed. June is unleashed to find Day, and she launches into the mission with vengeance front and center.
In many dystopian novels, the central character believes in the rightness of the society, but doubts arise and eventually, the protagonist turns against the society. Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” is a famous example. “Matched,” by Ally Condie, is a more recent example. “Legend” is another.
The reader knows, from the beginning (and from the promotional blurbs) that June and Day will run into each other, and that by the end of the book, enlightenment will come to June. That all happens. But how it all happens, and what happens in between–well, it’s a fabulous ride.
Marie Lu, before going fulltime as a writer, was art director for a video game company. She lives in Los Angeles. Lu got the idea for “Legend” after watching “Les Miserables” and imagining how that basic story–a master detective pursuing a notorious but good criminal–would play out in a contemporary setting.
“Legend,” though definitely juvenile fiction, is best suited for older teens. Bad things happen to people, cold-blooded things. It’s not graphic, but still.
“Legend” provides an interesting and believable world, a superb plot, an engaging structure (the alternating chapters), and well-drawn protagonists with plenty of depth. I eagerly await Book Two.
“Crossed” (Nov. 2011) is the sequel to Allie Condie’s acclaimed 2010 book, “Matched,” which tells the story of Cassia, a girl coming of age in a dystopian society. I loved “Matched,” and wrote a glowing review in March 2011. Condie presented a truly interesting dystopian world, dribbling out pieces gradually to help the reader better assemble a clear picture.
The book ends with Cassia’s mysterious friend, Ky, being sent to the war-torn Outer Provinces. Cassia takes off after him.
“Crossed” begins with Ky and other boys, placed by the Society in a deserted town, being shelled by the faceless Enemy. Boys die. Ky is thrust into leadership. Cassia is soon put on Ky’s trail.
“Crossed” takes place entirely in the Outer Provinces, in a desert-like landscape. There is very little contact with the Society, and no contact with the Enemy, except for the night-time shelling. As a result, we learn very little to add to our knowledge from “Matched” about this world. You could guess that Condie wanted to give more attention to relationships…and yet, I didn’t see any relationships advanced. Well, I guess we learned more about Xander, whose role in this book was fairly small.
Stuff happens, but often mysteriously, senselessly, without explanation. I found myself fighting frustration the further I plodded into the book.
And frustration is what remained after I turned the last page (or whatever you do on a Nook).
“Matched” was very good for Condie, a former high school English teacher, a Brigham Young University graduate who lives with her husband and three children in Salt Lake City, Utah. Disney picked up the film rights for “Matched.” I’m happy for her. “Matched” showed that she’s a talented writer with a great imagination. The third book of the trilogy will be released in November 2012.
But if, with “Crossed,” Condie hoped to leave me wanting more, she failed. Tired of being left in the dark, I just wanted to move on to a different book. Unfortunately, the book I moved on to was “The Scorch Trials,” the second book in a dystopian trilogy by James Dashner. It proved to be more of the same–things happening for no apparent reason.
For the past several months–since October–someone at my church has given a testimony every Sunday. Each one builds from the statement, “Because of Jesus….” Each is a story of life-change.
Anchor Community Church is located in a low-income neighborhood near downtown Fort Wayne. Lots of dysfunction, lots of messy backgrounds. Eighteen registered sex offenders live within a half mile of the church. People from shelters and half-way houses find their way to us. Too many of our people live in survival mode, struggling to get by day to day. These are the type of people who come through our doors and find what they need spiritually.
These people are also some of the most genuine, unassuming people I’ve known. And so, when they give their “Because of Jesus” stories, they don’t sugar-coat anything, or try to make themselves look good or admirable. They just put it all out there, unafraid to tell people, “This is who I am, warts and all.”
In these stories, I’ve learned so much about the people who worship with me each Sunday. Stories of addictions, of abusive childhoods and abusive marriages, of losing jobs, of abortion, of cutting, of poor choices galore, of losing loved ones way too early, of life spinning hopelessly out of control. And then, because of Jesus….
Almost every Sunday, I have tears in my eyes. That was the case with the most recent story, from an older lady. She became acquainted with Anchor when living in a homeless shelter. Her story moved me deeply.
I need to hear stories like this. I need to know that God is working in people’s lives. Intellectually, I know he is. But I need to see it, and see it regularly.
When I was growing up, I saw it regularly in altar calls. I don’t want to be one of those persons who acts as if methods used in earlier days were always better. But, I’m just sayin’, it impacted me when I saw a grown man or woman walk down the aisle, in full view of everyone, and kneel humbly at the altar. It told me that God was speaking directly to people’s hearts, and that here was a person whom God had grabbed during the service and shaken up. The person just had to go make things right, and didn’t care who was watching.
Could he/she have made things right by staying in the pew? That’s what we do today. With “all heads bowed and every eye closed,” we invite people to quickly raise their hand to signify a life-changing commitment. Only the pastor sees. Is that better than asking someone to walk to an altar in front of everyone else?
I can remember various times, growing up and as an adult, when I came under conviction during an altar call, and wrestled with the idea of getting out of my seat and trudging to the altar. I would usually tell myself (if the speaker didn’t emphasize it), “If Jesus died on the cross for me, why can’t I muster up the courage to simply walk down to the church altar?” Yet, it could be a mighty struggle. I’ll bet you’ve experienced the same struggle.
Sometimes I made the walk, sometimes I chickened out. Would I have responded more often if I could have just raised my hand quickly, so that only the evangelist, God, me, and assorted peekers would know? Probably. Would that have been better? Most certainly not. Maybe it’s my background, but simply raising a hand, with nobody seeing, trivializes the idea of making a commitment or taking a stand for God.
It’s not only good for the person making the commitment. It’s good for everyone else in attendance, because it shows them, “God is working in people’s lives.” As a child, I regularly saw people making decisions for Christ. But as an adult, with our enlightened secretive methods, not wanting to put anyone on the spot, I rarely see this.
Which is why these “Because of Jesus….” testimonies mean so much to me. God is working in the lives of these people with whom I worship, some of whom have been broken in unfathomable ways. I need to see God grab people by the lapels and shake them up. I know that he does it, whether or not it involves journeying to an altar. But seeing it and hearing about it sure pumps me up.
A couple years ago, after having used Safari as my web browser since the day it was introduced, I switched to Firefox. I was running into problems on too many websites with Safari. Firefox, I discovered, worked great nearly everywhere. I really liked it. I didn’t have trouble making the switch.
Then Chrome came along. I switched to Chrome a year ago. It’s fast, looks great, and has lots of add-ons. But the killer feature is the single field for typing URLs and doing searches. In both Safari and Firefox, the search field is on the right, and the address field on the left. Chrome combines them both. Very user-friendly.
This morning I saw a chart which shows how the various browsers are doing. Both Internet Explorer (not surprising) and Firefox (surprising, to me) are losing market share. But Chrome has grown from 15-27% share during the past year, and has now passed Firefox.
You can now receive new posts to SteveDennie.com by email. No need to visit the site at all. When I publish something new, you’ll get a copy in your inbox.
It’s done through Feedburner, a free Google service. I’ve used Feedburner for several years with the denominational news site I administer. It works great, and has been quite popular. (And in case you’re wondering, no, you don’t get spam.) One reader suggested I add Feedburner to this site, so I did.
Just–
James Dashner wrote the very popular young adult “Maze Runner Trilogy.” It starts with a book published in 2009 called “The Maze Runner,” and concludes with the 2011 book “The Death Cure.”
“The Maze Runner” begins with a boy named Thomas–our central character–rising in a box and emerging in a huge open area called The Glade, populated by a group of about 60 other teenage boys. Like the other boys, Thomas’s memories have been wiped.
The Glade, it turns out, is the center of a huge maze. Outside the glade, in the corridors of the maze, hybrid animal/machine creatures called the Grievers keep everyone terrified. A small handful of boys, called runners, spend their days running through the maze and mapping it out. They know there’s a solution, but after a couple years of effort, they’ve not been able to find one. Meanwhile, boys die–often at the hands of the Grievers–and a new boy arrives, like Thomas, every month. Along with a weekly selection of supplies from the unknown maze creators.
Thomas becomes a runner, and a leader. Then one day the next new arrival comes–and it’s a girl, named Teresa. And Thomas and Teresa are able to communicate with each other telepathically. It’s clear that they knew each other before arriving in the Glad, but they can’t remember anything about it.
So anyway, that’s the situation. They need to figure out the puzzle of the maze without getting killed by the ferocious Grievers.
“The Scorch Trials” finds the group out of the maze, in a world where solar flares have killed a huge portion of the world population and left the planet hot, very hot. Scorched. Plus, a plague called The Flare infects most people, gradually turning them crazy. The boys are released into this world for a new set of test–yes, the maze was a tests–and it’s gotten more demanding.
I liked “The Maze Runner” quite a bit, even though not much was explained–who the creators are, what they hope to accomplish, etc. I expected more to be revealed in “The Scorch Trials,” but was disappointed. Instead, “The Scorch Trials” makes things even more confusing, raising even more questions about what the purpose could possibly be. It also brings into play a group of teenage girls who emerged from their own maze.
So now, that leaves “The Death Cure,” the third book, which would explain everything…right?
Not necessarily. I read some reader reviews, and too many of them expressed disappointment–that the third book was the worst of the three, moved slowly, and didn’t answer the questions generated in the previous two books. So I decided against investing any more of my Christmas B&N Gift Certificate in this series. I decided I was just going to be disappointed, that James Dashner had a keen imagination but hadn’t really planned out where he was going in advance. I decided to take a pass. I can live without knowing what happens to Thomas & Company.
Ryan Lizza, writing on the New Yorker’s “News Desk” blog, listed “Five People Conservatives Should Blame If Mitt Romney Wins.” All five are very insightful, but the first one was the best: George Bush. It really makes a lot of sense.
“More than anyone else, Bush is responsible for decimating the ranks of qualified Republicans who could take on Obama. A successful Presidency can produce a new crop of future Presidential candidates for the party that controls the White House. The vice president and cabinet officials, as well as governors and senators elected over the course of the administration, are historically major sources for a party’s next round of candidates. The Bush years had the opposite effect. It was unthinkable that his vice president would run for higher office and much of his cabinet left Washington tainted by the President’s unpopularity. Moreover, Bush helped sink his party in the 2006 and 2008 elections, thus depleting the ranks of potential Republican candidates for 2012.”
Lizza points out people were not tainted by the Bush presidency, but who declined to run for other reasons: Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, and others. So there were some strong candidates. But they had their own reasons staying out.
The other persons Lizza mentions:
Back in December, while writing a Christmas greeting for one of our denominational websites, I started to write, “Happy Holidays.” But I chickened out and used “Merry Christmas” instead.
This year, conservatives–and we United Brethren are mostly conservatives–made a really big deal out of saying “Merry Christmas.” Barack Obama was chastised for saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” on something or other. (Even though, as our chronicler of petty outrage, Jon Stewart, showed, all other recent presidents have done the same thing.) A governor (was it Rhode Island?) was lambasted for doing the same thing. Newt Gingrich made a point of wishing everyone–well, not everyone, but at least his base–a Merry Christmas at the beginning of a recent debate. Pander pander.
Saying “Merry Christmas” has become a litmus test of orthodoxy, a show of rising above the PC police (just as wearing a flag pin became a silly litmus test of patriotism during the last Presidential campaign). Among conservatives, it became politically INcorrect to say “Happy Holidays.” I knew that if I wrote “Happy Holidays” on a denominational website, I would find myself under assault from some of our constituents, calling me liberal or a compromiser or ashamed of my Lord’s name. Junk like that. So I wrote “Merry Christmas.” Pick your fights wisely, is my rule.
But I grew dismayed as I watched the lunacy of turning “Merry Christmas” into a fetish. The hysteria was continually pumped up by that watchdog of Christian orthodoxy, FoxNews, which was ever on the lookout for instances of Happy Holidays, just as it once zoomed in on lapels in search of flag pins.
Through it all, I realized something: I prefer “Happy Holidays.”
Why? Because it’s more accurate. “Merry Christmas” applies to one day, December 25, celebrated only by Christians. But this is a season of multiple holidays.
Obviously, we have Christmas and New Year’s, and it seems nice to wish people happiness on both holidays. Then you have Hanukkah for the Jews–why wouldn’t I want to include a wish of happiness for them on their series of holidays? And Boxing Day in Canada and the UK, and Kwanzaa for African-Americans, and Las Posadas for Mexicans (a festival surrounding Joseph’s search for a place to sleep in Bethlehem). For Swedes, St Lucia Day (Dec. 13) is a big deal. Epiphany, on January 6, commemorates Jesus being presented to the Wise Men. For whichever holiday(s) you celebrate, I wish you happiness. Not, “Merry Christmas, but for any other day, you’re on your own.”
The holiday season goes way beyond the solitary December 25. America is a pluralistic society, which works only because we gladly make room for people of all faiths and traditions. Why is it wrong for a Christian to include them all in a generic “Happy Holidays” wish?
So a retrospective, belated, and therefore somewhat cowardly “Happy Holidays” to all of you. And if you want to question my patriotism or Christianity, then may you, amidst your happiness, choke on some fruitcake.
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