...which is considerably different from the first.
I remember reading a verse I liked during my QTs this afternoon but I couldn't remember exactly what it was. I'm going to look it up right now and type it.
~finding time~
Ok so it was in Acts 4, but Peter and John quoted it from Psalms so I'm just going to write that verse.
Psalm 2:1-2
Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the LORD
and against his Anointed One.
It can kind of be discouraging being a believer in today's times. Morals are thrown out the window and people just generally do what they want. Sometimes it seems like everyone is just ignoring and rejecting any semblance of meaning for whatever feels good or what the hot new trend is.
And yet, this Psalm was written way back in the day in King David's time. Then it came to fruition years and years later in Jesus' (<-- there's a grammar lesson to be had but that's neither here nor there) time. That the world rejects God's salvation is not some new issue that our generation is stuck with, but something that's been going on for a long, long time. Realizing this reminded me that there is a real sense of urgency to advance the Gospel instead of just sitting and waiting for who knows what.
Monday, April 5, 2010
A Totally Random Thought...
...that I just had while making a cheat sheet for a SCM test tomorrow.
I wish "ballin!" was still cool to say. And with the hand motion too. For sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2JfY-nVaqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGt-Wcyhg3o&feature=related
I wish "ballin!" was still cool to say. And with the hand motion too. For sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2JfY-nVaqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGt-Wcyhg3o&feature=related
Friday, April 2, 2010
Quick Hits: Clash of the Titans
Went to go see Clash of the Titans earlier tonight. The trailers looked pretty dumb so I had my expectations firmly set at around 300ish levels. As long as it provided some sweet action scenes and good fight sequences, I'd be satisfied. Anyway.
- They didn't actually botch the Perseus myth as badly as I thought they might have. Of course, a lot of things weren't as according to the original myth but it was excusable.
- There was a lot of dialogue, not enough fighting. There were really only a handful, and they weren't that great.
- None of the Titans make a single appearance. They only get one mention in the entire movie and that's during the opening voiceover when it's explained that Zeus and the Olympians overthrew the Titans. Strange that they're not a part of the film at all considering it's called Clash of the Titans.
- Everyone hoping for an epic battle with the kraken, you can forget it. This was probably the only part of the movie I was actually disappointed with. There's really no fighting at all, just an extended sequence of it rising up. What happens after that is extremely short.
- The gods really weren't in it much at all either. Zeus and Hades play a big role, but beyond that, pretty much only Apollo and Poseidon have lines at all.
- They didn't actually botch the Perseus myth as badly as I thought they might have. Of course, a lot of things weren't as according to the original myth but it was excusable.
- There was a lot of dialogue, not enough fighting. There were really only a handful, and they weren't that great.
- None of the Titans make a single appearance. They only get one mention in the entire movie and that's during the opening voiceover when it's explained that Zeus and the Olympians overthrew the Titans. Strange that they're not a part of the film at all considering it's called Clash of the Titans.
- Everyone hoping for an epic battle with the kraken, you can forget it. This was probably the only part of the movie I was actually disappointed with. There's really no fighting at all, just an extended sequence of it rising up. What happens after that is extremely short.
- The gods really weren't in it much at all either. Zeus and Hades play a big role, but beyond that, pretty much only Apollo and Poseidon have lines at all.
- It was pretty hard for me to take Mads Mikkelsen as Draco (not Malfoy) seriously. When he first came out, I thought it was the Rock, but then after I recognized who it was, I wanted to shout out "Le Chiffre" every time he came on screen.
- The Perseus/Io dynamic was...odd. I'll leave it at that.
- Can we officially give up on Sam Worthington as a leading man? I've seen him in Terminator Salvation, Avatar and Clash of the Titans. Avatar was the only one out of the three that was decent, and that was more due to the concept, cinematography and computer graphics. Put that aside and those three movies were pretty brutal, especially from an acting standpoint. To me, he seems more fit as a "grunt" character, maybe a secondary hero/villain who just kicks butt and doesn't say much.
- The Perseus/Io dynamic was...odd. I'll leave it at that.
- Can we officially give up on Sam Worthington as a leading man? I've seen him in Terminator Salvation, Avatar and Clash of the Titans. Avatar was the only one out of the three that was decent, and that was more due to the concept, cinematography and computer graphics. Put that aside and those three movies were pretty brutal, especially from an acting standpoint. To me, he seems more fit as a "grunt" character, maybe a secondary hero/villain who just kicks butt and doesn't say much.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Introducing Mr. Gomi
I'm pretty excited for UFC Fight Night tonight. I actually haven't been keeping up with MMA much lately, but I should be able to catch this one.
One of the main reasons I'm looking forward to tonight's card on Spike is because the main event features the debut of The Fireball Kid, Takanori Gomi. I'll wait while you watch some highlights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJzKhhT8ww0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9OX2IUdDTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a51VjFdm2uw
A veteran of the sport, Gomi was considered one of the best, if not the #1, lightweight fighters in the world in his days fighting with PRIDE, especially since the UFC didn't have a lightweight division for many years. He ran that division for years, and it was even rumored that their lightweight cutoff was 160 lb just so that he could make it (which isn't entirely true since he made the cut to 155 for his UFC debut). Eventually, he won PRIDE's first lightweight tournament to become their first (and only) lightweight champion, defeating a tough slate of fighters to get there.
Strangely, since his victory over Mach Sakurai for the belt, he's been inconsistent with a couple poor showings against Marcus Aurelio and other losses to fighters who really shouldn't be on his level. Maybe he was bored or uninterested or perhaps his skills just fell off. He chalked it up to laziness, so hopefully that was all it was.
He's going to need to be motivated and ready to bring it tonight against Kenny Florian however. Florian is a solid all-around mixed martial artist who is good in all phases. The Gomi of old, the one with dynamic wrestling and explosive striking skills, should be a slight favorite over Florian. But it's hard to know if that guy is going to show up. One thing I know about Kenny Florian, he always, always shows up to fight and is ready to go to war. I don't know if Gomi will be equally prepared, but if he is, this fight should be a fast-paced, exciting bout.
One of the main reasons I'm looking forward to tonight's card on Spike is because the main event features the debut of The Fireball Kid, Takanori Gomi. I'll wait while you watch some highlights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJzKhhT8ww0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9OX2IUdDTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a51VjFdm2uw
A veteran of the sport, Gomi was considered one of the best, if not the #1, lightweight fighters in the world in his days fighting with PRIDE, especially since the UFC didn't have a lightweight division for many years. He ran that division for years, and it was even rumored that their lightweight cutoff was 160 lb just so that he could make it (which isn't entirely true since he made the cut to 155 for his UFC debut). Eventually, he won PRIDE's first lightweight tournament to become their first (and only) lightweight champion, defeating a tough slate of fighters to get there.
Strangely, since his victory over Mach Sakurai for the belt, he's been inconsistent with a couple poor showings against Marcus Aurelio and other losses to fighters who really shouldn't be on his level. Maybe he was bored or uninterested or perhaps his skills just fell off. He chalked it up to laziness, so hopefully that was all it was.
He's going to need to be motivated and ready to bring it tonight against Kenny Florian however. Florian is a solid all-around mixed martial artist who is good in all phases. The Gomi of old, the one with dynamic wrestling and explosive striking skills, should be a slight favorite over Florian. But it's hard to know if that guy is going to show up. One thing I know about Kenny Florian, he always, always shows up to fight and is ready to go to war. I don't know if Gomi will be equally prepared, but if he is, this fight should be a fast-paced, exciting bout.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
I've got a bad feeling about this
I might have actually talked about this in a blog post in a past lifetime because it is one of the grammatical things that bothers me the most. When I hear/see this error, it makes me cringe a little on the inside.
Anyway, I thought about this mistake because I heard it several times over the past week, notably in class and from the Georgetown coach after their first round loss to Ohio.
Let's set the stage by talking about your friend and mine, the adverb. Adverbs are used to modify verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Often, they end in -ly (e.g. gladly, powerfully, loudly) but don't always have to (e.g. well, quite, always). Related is the adjective which modifies nouns and pronouns. I'm sure you all are familiar with many, many adjectives (e.g. big, red, many, inglorious). You also probably know that you can't modify verbs with adjectives. For example, you wouldn't say that you slept quiet or quick ran, you'd say you slept quietly and quickly ran.
So we come to this mistake that's somewhat common, especially among people who are really trying to use proper grammar but can't quite get there. We come to the mistake of "feeling badly." People "feel badly" often, such as when they do something wrong, hurt someone, hear of someone else's plight, and other such situations.
Unfortunately, unless their sensory abilities have been damaged somehow, they'd be wrong. For simplicity, we'll just talk about two kinds of verbs. First is the action verb which we're most familiar with. To hit, to play, to steal. Basically when a subject is doing something, an action verb is used. These are modified with adverbs. To hit continually, to play tirelessly, to steal quietly.
Next are linking verbs. These are basically forms of "to be" and "seem." Am, became, and, of course, feel. As state of being verbs, these don't take adverbs, but instead predicate nouns or predicate adjectives. I am a Sun Devil. He became an alien. You feel bad.
Really it's not that difficult. I think some people just try to sound too sophisticated. Perhaps they think if it sounds like it's wrong, it must be right. Hey, it's got an -ly so it's got to work right? Sadly, this just isn't the case. For people who don't know the rule, it just sounds weird. For those of us who do, it just lets us know that they are trying too hard to sound smart.
Is this post boring? Snobby, useless, uninformative? Probably, yes, yes, and I hope not. Still, I felt like I had to say something. I don't think perfect grammar is all that important as communication is clear. But one of the things that annoys me the most is when people try to sound smart when it's clear that they don't know what they're talking about. This is a pretty mild example, but still.
Don't be that guy.
Anyway, I thought about this mistake because I heard it several times over the past week, notably in class and from the Georgetown coach after their first round loss to Ohio.
Let's set the stage by talking about your friend and mine, the adverb. Adverbs are used to modify verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Often, they end in -ly (e.g. gladly, powerfully, loudly) but don't always have to (e.g. well, quite, always). Related is the adjective which modifies nouns and pronouns. I'm sure you all are familiar with many, many adjectives (e.g. big, red, many, inglorious). You also probably know that you can't modify verbs with adjectives. For example, you wouldn't say that you slept quiet or quick ran, you'd say you slept quietly and quickly ran.
So we come to this mistake that's somewhat common, especially among people who are really trying to use proper grammar but can't quite get there. We come to the mistake of "feeling badly." People "feel badly" often, such as when they do something wrong, hurt someone, hear of someone else's plight, and other such situations.
Unfortunately, unless their sensory abilities have been damaged somehow, they'd be wrong. For simplicity, we'll just talk about two kinds of verbs. First is the action verb which we're most familiar with. To hit, to play, to steal. Basically when a subject is doing something, an action verb is used. These are modified with adverbs. To hit continually, to play tirelessly, to steal quietly.
Next are linking verbs. These are basically forms of "to be" and "seem." Am, became, and, of course, feel. As state of being verbs, these don't take adverbs, but instead predicate nouns or predicate adjectives. I am a Sun Devil. He became an alien. You feel bad.
Really it's not that difficult. I think some people just try to sound too sophisticated. Perhaps they think if it sounds like it's wrong, it must be right. Hey, it's got an -ly so it's got to work right? Sadly, this just isn't the case. For people who don't know the rule, it just sounds weird. For those of us who do, it just lets us know that they are trying too hard to sound smart.
Is this post boring? Snobby, useless, uninformative? Probably, yes, yes, and I hope not. Still, I felt like I had to say something. I don't think perfect grammar is all that important as communication is clear. But one of the things that annoys me the most is when people try to sound smart when it's clear that they don't know what they're talking about. This is a pretty mild example, but still.
Don't be that guy.
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