heath and i had quite a busy weekend, but it was a lot of fun. friday night, i treated heath to a nice dinner at vermilion to celebrate his birthday (a day early). saturday, we lounged a bit in the morning due to a change in the plans. heath's parents were planning on visiting, but the weather was pretty icky that day, so they're going to try to come a different time. so, we cleaned a bit, and i finished up making our tree skirt. i think it turned out really good. an unfortunate step in the process, however, was having to walk to the fabric store. in the sleet. i figured it wouldn't be too too bad, but by the time i got there, i was soaked. ick. i made it back with the supplies i needed, and finished things up.
later, heath noticed that the local movie theater was playing the golden compass. it isn't supposed to come out until next friday, but they must have had some advanced screening. there's been a fair amount of controversy surrounding this film because the books it is based on were written by an atheist and apparently have a very anti-church (especially catholic church) message. there was pretty much no mention of religion in the movie. there was an anti-authority message, a message that people should be allowed to make up their own minds, and an entity that could be interpreted as sort of a religious body (the magesterium), though they never made reference to anything religious. it was quite an entertaining movie, and definitely did not wrap up at the end, thus leaving it open to sequels (and potentially encouraging viewers to read the other two books to find out what happens, which may be a source of some of the outcry from christian groups. personally, i didn't see anything in this movie that sent a message of there being no god. it didn't say either way, but i suppose i may be naive and if one were looking for that kind of message, he or she could probably find it if they looked hard enough (as with anything else - see: confirmation bias). i'm curious to read the books myself to find out what all the drama is all about. much to the surprise of some of the critics, i won't be transformed into an atheist simply by watching this movie or reading this book. much as i don't think that there is really a hogwarts or ministry of magic. i know this is a bit different, but in my humble opinion, there is nothing wrong with exposing yourself to diverse points of view and belief systems. if you are secure in your faith, then why be afraid to learn about others. ignoring the other viewpoints won't make them go away. feel free to disagree and say that i shouldn't be supporting these messages by seeing the movie or considering buying the books, but i honestly see no harm in finding out for myself what the big deal is, rather than basing my understanding of the situation and my opinion on some inflammatory email written by somebody with an agenda (for either side). okay, end of rant.
so after the movie, we came home, which was great because the weather was still fairly nasty. yesterday, we hung out a bit, then went to the gym to work out. we played 1 on 1 basketball, which was interesting since i hadn't played in years. i actually gave heath a run for his money and he was looking a little worried for a while there. he hit some big shots from the outside to beat me, but said he was surprised by how i played (yay go me!). it was fun, but it beat me up. we grabbed lunch at potbelly's and headed home to shower.
then we went to see the trans-siberian orchestra at the allstate arena. drama ensued. first, traffic was insane. the ramp to get to the arena is incredibly poorly designed so we were going to be late for the 3pm show. we finally got to the arena at 3:05, hustling to get in without missing much, and when we had our tickets scanned, they stopped us. oops. tickets were for the 7:30 show. well, crap. we had already paid our $15 to park (highway robbery), and now we had 4 hours to kill before our show. luckily there was a target nearby, we browsed a bit, then walked to chili's for a very unhealthy dinner. back to target. bought me a sweater. then we ended up going over to krispy kreme for donuts and something to drink. at about 7pm, we wandered back to the arena (brrr!), and enjoyed a really fun show. they definitely entertain. lots of lights, electric guitars, fire, etc. very cool, though. there were a number of songs that they did that i was very impressed with. of course they do their christmas songs, but they also did their interpretation of a number of classical songs (flight of the bumblebee, canon in d, etc.). i thought they did a great job with those. we ended up getting home pretty late, so we're beat today, but it was a lot of fun!
later, heath noticed that the local movie theater was playing the golden compass. it isn't supposed to come out until next friday, but they must have had some advanced screening. there's been a fair amount of controversy surrounding this film because the books it is based on were written by an atheist and apparently have a very anti-church (especially catholic church) message. there was pretty much no mention of religion in the movie. there was an anti-authority message, a message that people should be allowed to make up their own minds, and an entity that could be interpreted as sort of a religious body (the magesterium), though they never made reference to anything religious. it was quite an entertaining movie, and definitely did not wrap up at the end, thus leaving it open to sequels (and potentially encouraging viewers to read the other two books to find out what happens, which may be a source of some of the outcry from christian groups. personally, i didn't see anything in this movie that sent a message of there being no god. it didn't say either way, but i suppose i may be naive and if one were looking for that kind of message, he or she could probably find it if they looked hard enough (as with anything else - see: confirmation bias). i'm curious to read the books myself to find out what all the drama is all about. much to the surprise of some of the critics, i won't be transformed into an atheist simply by watching this movie or reading this book. much as i don't think that there is really a hogwarts or ministry of magic. i know this is a bit different, but in my humble opinion, there is nothing wrong with exposing yourself to diverse points of view and belief systems. if you are secure in your faith, then why be afraid to learn about others. ignoring the other viewpoints won't make them go away. feel free to disagree and say that i shouldn't be supporting these messages by seeing the movie or considering buying the books, but i honestly see no harm in finding out for myself what the big deal is, rather than basing my understanding of the situation and my opinion on some inflammatory email written by somebody with an agenda (for either side). okay, end of rant.
so after the movie, we came home, which was great because the weather was still fairly nasty. yesterday, we hung out a bit, then went to the gym to work out. we played 1 on 1 basketball, which was interesting since i hadn't played in years. i actually gave heath a run for his money and he was looking a little worried for a while there. he hit some big shots from the outside to beat me, but said he was surprised by how i played (yay go me!). it was fun, but it beat me up. we grabbed lunch at potbelly's and headed home to shower.
then we went to see the trans-siberian orchestra at the allstate arena. drama ensued. first, traffic was insane. the ramp to get to the arena is incredibly poorly designed so we were going to be late for the 3pm show. we finally got to the arena at 3:05, hustling to get in without missing much, and when we had our tickets scanned, they stopped us. oops. tickets were for the 7:30 show. well, crap. we had already paid our $15 to park (highway robbery), and now we had 4 hours to kill before our show. luckily there was a target nearby, we browsed a bit, then walked to chili's for a very unhealthy dinner. back to target. bought me a sweater. then we ended up going over to krispy kreme for donuts and something to drink. at about 7pm, we wandered back to the arena (brrr!), and enjoyed a really fun show. they definitely entertain. lots of lights, electric guitars, fire, etc. very cool, though. there were a number of songs that they did that i was very impressed with. of course they do their christmas songs, but they also did their interpretation of a number of classical songs (flight of the bumblebee, canon in d, etc.). i thought they did a great job with those. we ended up getting home pretty late, so we're beat today, but it was a lot of fun!
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