…for the 5th graders in children’s ministry that is.  What?  Did you think I meant I was done with this blog?  Today the 5th graders made their exit from children’s ministry.  In a couple of weeks they will officially enter student ministries as junior high students.  Being Memorial Day weekend didn’t help though as there were a few who didn’t make it due to traveling, though fortunately not too many.  The Junior high pastor (I think? I don’t remember the other one leaving) came in with a couple other leaders and spoke with them about the welcome night, things to expect in junior high, etc.  The kids were prayed over and given certificates- a sort of graduation I guess.  Of course, some won’t really be in junior high/middle school if they go to a public school in the area where 6th grade is still elementary, but at the church 6th grade is junior high even for them.

So, kids I have been working with for the last two years are now gone and in two weeks the third grade moves up to take their place.  They should recognize me though, at least Saturday night kids, as I have been in the kid’s drama.  This is supposed to be the time then to heavily advertise camp, but the early bird discount will be over by then as camp is one short month away, and unless things change significantly, yours truly will be joining them for the week.  I have said before that that one week last year was very powerful for me spiritually, and I hope it will be the same for me this year- and for whoever will be in my cabin this time around.

Going back to drama, the headline applies here as well.  It is done for the season, not to start again until next fall with a new theme.  My usual exit line, to tell the audience to be sure to tune in next week, reflected this as well, instead telling them to be sure to trust Jesus since He’s the only one who can make us super human.  I also added a line for the third graders- that they would see me (“someone who looks like me”) in two weeks.  Heh, heh…  So at the end, we added cast bows, and on reflection, I should have walked over to the puppet as well, since the puppeteer couldn’t very well step out and take a bow too.  Oh, well.

Batman has undergone several transformations in the 70 years of his creation. One of the most debated is the television series that ran on ABC television from 1966-1968. It was an all-out camp version of the Dark Knight that at first delighted fans and was an instant smash, in fact it spawned a theatrical version that did not do well. Stars Adam West and Burt Ward were forever typecast in the roles of the dynamic duo.

The formula for the first season of Bat-episodes was the same throughout. One of Batman’s colorful adversaries would commit a heinous crime. Commissioner Gordon would use the red bat-phone to call the caped crusader for help. Bruce Wayne and his “youthful ward” Dick Grayson slid down the batpoles to the mysterious Batcave in the catacombs beneath Stately Wayne Manor to instantly change into the crimefighters. Then would race in the Batmobile to police headquarters and learn what problems had befallen the good citizens of Gotham City. Shortly thereafter, the heroes would follow the clues to the hideout of the villain of the week which usually led to a cartoonish Bat-fight full of “Biff”s, “Bam”s, and “Crash”s. Then, the villain would place the duo in a seemingly unescapable trap and leave. TO BE CONTINUED. In the conclusion, the heroes would escape the deadly trap with the aid of their utility belts, hunt down the evildoers, and stop their dastardly plot.

By the mid-point of the 2nd season, the formula was becoming weak, the creators of the comic book were becoming increasingly embarrassed by the campiness. Batgirl was introduced, but she did little to improve things (although Yvonne Craig did fit the costume very well, thank you very much) and the series was soon canceled.

The best thing about the series was the rogues gallery of supervillains who would attempt to bring chaos and destruction to the fair metropolis 😀 . The Riddler, The Joker, Catwoman, and The Penguin were the main adversaries carried over from the comic book adventures. During its heyday, several stars of the 60s wanted to cash in on the series popularity and new (often forgettable) villains were created. Dastardly nogoodnicks like Egghead (played with egg-cellent deliciousness by Vincent Price), King Tut, Shame, Bookworm, and Liberace (?) as Chandel are but a few of the one or two time villains of the week.

Then we had the ridiculous phrases uttered by the Boy Wonder… “Holy (…), Batman!” Some of the more ridiculous utterances:

Holy uncanny photographic mental processes

Holy one track batcomputer mind

Holy priceless collection of Etruscan snoods

Holy interplanetary yardstick

In total, the Boy Wonder made 356 of the goofball, but at times timely, observations.

Only the theatrical Batman movie has ever made it to DVD. However, if you follow one of these two links, you two can have hours of entertainment or at least a few laughs at the campiness that was Batman of the 1960s.

https://youtube.com/embed/user/MondayNitroIII

https://youtube.com/embed/user/FanOfBats

Your one stop shop for Batman, Superman, and more – WBShop.com!

What NOT to do after getting pulled over:

Cops: Niles Man Backs Over Squad Car After Getting Ticketed

Illinois: Police puzzled over driver who drove up and over a squad car.

A man who had been pulled over and ticketed by police ran backward up and onto a Buffalo Grove squad car Friday morning, apparently in his haste to drive off.

Henry Raskin, 70, of Niles had been pulled over by a Buffalo Grove officer on the 400 block of Dundee Road around 11:30 a.m. Friday for driving 58 mph in a 35 mph zone, Sgt. Scott Kristiansen said.

The officer wrote the ticket and returned to the car, and Raskin got ready to drive away. Except he went flying backward.

“(He) apparently was going to pull away at a high rate of speed, but the only problem was that he was in reverse,” Kristiansen said.

He said Raskin was not happy about getting a ticket. He said police are reviewing the squad car videotape to see what Raskin might also be charged with.

Raskin was taken to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights as a precaution.

Kristiansen said police don’t believe Raskin has any medical conditions that could have led to the crash. Raskin’s age also didn’t seem to play a factor, he said.

The officer, a 20-year veteran of the Buffalo Grove department, was not injured, but his car will be out of service for a while.

“He ended up with the left rear wheel of the car coming through his windshield, about 6 inches from his face,” Kristiansen said. “Luckily, he was not injured.”

The squad car suffered significant damage to the front end, including the windshield and the hood.

Kristiansen said the police investigation so far shows the officer initiated the traffic stop properly. He said officers are trained to treat every stop as if it isn’t a routine procedure so that they are aware when unexpected circumstances like this one take place.

“The officer stopped the car properly and positioned himself properly,” he said.

From the dailyherald.com

My second daughter is the one most like me. She wanted to do the things I did, and wanted a working tool set when she was younger. Somewhere between then and now, she grew up and became a young woman, wife and mother. She just had a birthday. She lives many states away. I couldn’t be with her.

I called her “my little girl” from the moment she was born. While her sisters wanted Mom, she wanted me. I was the one to put her to sleep when she was a cranky baby. I looked after her early cuts and bruises. I carried her on many outings. Her sisters think that she is my favorite child. In that they are mistaken. I really don’t have favorites (surprise girls!!). They are all very near and dear to me for reasons as unique as they are. The thing is, K will always be Daddy’s Little Girl, no matter how old she gets.

I hope she had a happy one.

I was planning on writing something about each daughter some time around a birthday. That would take until December to finally get to the last one. I think I’ll just pick a random daughter tomorrow and write again…. And then around each birthday, I can write something different. Maybe this can give them more insight as to how their old man thinks… If they read this at all

The first Indiana Jones movie was released 19 years ago. My wife and I didn’t go to movies often. At that time we had 3 daughters at home the youngest was 1 1/2 years old. Somehow we got to a movie theater to see this one. When we did go to movies, they were usually action movies. My wife was hard of hearing, and she felt she got more out of the action movies, because she didn’t need the dialog. On this movie, she said she was wrong. We waited for the movie to come to the cheaper theaters just to see it again, so she could watch the lips an pick up more dialog. Then when they came to video, we actually bought them to get the closed captioning. Except for the 2nd movie, we watched these shows over and over again. Our children grew to like them too (something about brainwashing could go in here, they were just repeatedly shown 2 of the Indiana Jones Movies).

Then came today. Since 1989 a lot has changed. My children grew up, the baby at that time is now 20. My youngest is 16. Two other daughters are married. I have grandkids. I am a widower… This was the first Indiana Jones Movie I did not see with my wife. There is a piece missing to the show. That after show conversation, trying to fill my wife into some of the dialog. Her squeezing my hand when something in the show startled her. Her say how good looking either Harrison Ford or eventually Sean Connery was. Complaining about all the new characters, the story, or just whatever. Who we liked, who we didn’t. And after the first two movies and the Alan Quartermain spoofs, watching the third, saying when will we see the new Alan Quartermain??? There never was a 3rd Alan Quartermain. By the time the last Indiana Jones rolled out, the lead in Alan Quartermain was looking like Indiana did in this last movie. No, there won’t be a spoof following this one, unless its by the same people who brought us Scary Movie and the Superhero Movie. That might be fun.

So today was a fun day, since I got to see the newest Indy, but at the same time there was a bit of a shadow over the whole thing.

I wore my Indy outfit (Brown slacks, beige shirt, boots and Fedora — too warm for the leather jacket) to the theater today, I’m not sure how many noticed. Funny thing, while I got an “Indiana Jones” Fedora a couple of Christmases ago, it was just one of the brown fedoras I’ve had. I started wearing one shortly after the first movie. My lovely wife said it looked good on me, and I needed something to keep the sun off my face during our summer vacations (usually hiking somewhere). I lost my first hat, but I still have the second (not as nice since we couldn’t afford a good one at the time). Now I have the hat my daughters bought me for Christmas. I can never thank them enough for that gift. As they can tell you, I wear that hat often. Most of the winter, and summer. I don’t tend to wear it in the spring or on windy days. In the spring, I’m looking for as much sun as possible, so all hats are off my head.

Strange what watching a movie will make you think…

No, I am not posting about Annie, but rather when FedEx gets over here tomorrow with my new computer. My old one died last year, hard drive failed again making think there is something wrong with the controller as it ended its life in the same way as the one it replaced. Second hard drive worked all the way through. Fortunately I was able to get a final backup of critical data before it stopped working altogether. I have been using someone else’s computer ever since, but it will be good to have my own again. Which reminds me, I will need a wireless router now so I can use the computer anywhere, after all what good is a laptop if I can’t surf the net from the bathroom? 😀 Time to join the new millennium, eh? I’ll probably pick one up on ebay.

Well, second day of second grade. Different school, different class, different experience. I actually got to do some teaching today, though only in math. They seemed to be a few sections behind the other school interestingly enough. Basic multiplication facts. That can kill the joy of math for many… They did get to draw at least rather than just writing numbers. They would draw arrays, like a 4 by 6 array for the problem 4×6=24. Aside from math I went over answers, did some reading aloud about how a movie is made interjecting my own thoughts as well as getting theirs on the process, and, well, that’s about it for the teaching I guess. The rest was more or less babysitting and trying to learn their particular routines. And no specials for this class today by the way. Aside from recess and lunch I was with them constantly, though like the class yesterday they had computer lab time where someone else was at least in charge even if I didn’t get to put my feet up in the lounge.

The lounge- what a tiny room to be crammed so full of teachers. There was just enough room for three long tables pretty close together with just enough room to walk around them. It wouldn’t ordinarily be so bad as teachers tend to go out for lunch, but today they had a cookout with grilled steaks and chicken, and baked potatoes. I’m not sure who all was invited to the cookout, but I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know about it. So instead of going out, they all got their food and came into the lounge crowding around the tables. I felt sort of like this:

It didn’t help much that half the table space was taken up by three large cakes (someone’s birthday- don’t know what the other two were for) as well as a couple of miscellaneous snacks of which I did partake. 🙂

Well, aside from a 5th grade band concert in the afternoon, it was pretty much a normal day I would say. Good group of kids though a bit talkative and some would move about without permission. And now a long three or four (hoping just three) day weekend. Two districts are off on Tuesday so I may be out of work that day as well as Monday…

By the way, 100th post for me!

HELLO EVERY PEOPLE!!!!! I a return to this town in OHHO country to a see this strange person at the food shop. I a see this woman who a tell me she a like Morat when he was at the school in Edgertown, OHHO when he read a the Liswathistani stories of The Three Wooly Sheep and Morat and the Three Bears to the little people for the “PTO Family Night.” The woman say she enjoy very much the accent of Morat and say he a very funny person. Strange man person he just stood ans hook his head. Why he do that I not know.

As I a cover for news next owner America country, I a still not get to speak to the woman who I do not think will be new owner. I try and try but every time Morat get close to her, these funny looking man persons with things sticking out of there ears come and chase Morat away. I a not understand this at all. I a just humble person who come to find America country. I a come close to speaking to Medulla Oblongata, but he no speak to Morat, too. So I say, VOtE For MORAT. What was a that crazy movie I saw Vote For Pedro… Bonaparte TNT? AH…. Napoleon Dynamite. OK… I like Liswathistan name better. Very big in Liswathistan right now… number one movie for 2 days.

I also watch final of America Idol show. Two Davids? Only one Morat. Little David lose to old David. I think Simon helped vote for old David when he said young David won before vote. Morat sill say he should be America Idol. I sing the Livin’ Viva Loca better than anyone. EVERYONE WINS!!!

Get tickets to the American Idol Tour at TicketsNow Homepage

Before last night, I had never seen an Indiana Jones movie.  So when the opportunity presented itself to view Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on its opening day rather inexpensively via email coupons from Fandango.com, I couldn’t resist the temptation to see what all the fuss was about.
I walked away entertained, but still a little bewildered about why the character is SO popular.  The people I saw the movie with (both have seen all of the movies in the series) said this was not the best of the Indiana Jones movies.  Not that it was a bad movie, but I would have chopped off about an hour of it.  A few of the chase scenes ran a little long, and there was a little too much hokeyness in my opinion.  Before I went, I was hearing critics talk about the Indiana Jones movies and how they are a throwback to the adventure movies of the 1930’s and 40’s.  I thought this might be a good explanation for some of the cheesy action; for example, characters swinging through the air and falling exactly where they need to in order to avoid certain death or to land the perfect punch, etc.  I can deal with hokey action sequences.  What was a little hard to swallow however, was the origin of the movie’s namesake, the crystal skull.  Since I’m at risk of spilling some major spoilers here – and don’t read any further if you’re worried about learning anything about the movie you don’t want to –  it will suffice to say that I did not appreciate the supernatural element they gave the fourth Indiana Jones movie.

The acting wasn’t anything Oscar worthy, but that is to be expected in this type of movie.  I didn’t see Shia LeBeouf as the kid from Disturbia, so he must have some diversity in his acting.  Cate Blanchett was really good as the villianess, and I found it funny when I read that when people heard she was in the movie, they just assumed she was Harrison Ford‘s love interest.  People were so critical that an older man’s love interest was going to be a much younger woman, then they had to eat their words when it was leaked that she was playing the part of the evil enemy.  Indiana Jones’ actual love interest in the movie was a character played by Karen Allen that had been in some of the previous movies, which I liked.  What I didn’t like is that there were 2 characters in the movie who were supposed to be former friends of Indiana Jones, however, my Indy experts tell me that neither of them were in the previous movies.

I was entertained throughout the entire movie, and there were funny jokes and interesting characters.  Also a few plot twists anyone with half a brain could see coming from a mile away.  During most of the action sequences, I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching a video game.  I was really appreciating the components of the quest to obtain the crystal skull, at least until the supernatural element came into play.  Parts of the movie also made me envision a Universal Studios ride – it would probably be really cool, maybe a splashdown ending…  I didn’t fall asleep during this movie, but as you just read, my mind did wander a bit, probably because of the lengthy action sequences.    Overall, I’d say the movie was exactly what I was expecting, perhaps even a wee bit better.  And hearing from 2 experienced Indiana Jones viewers that this was not the best movie makes me willing to give the others a try – providing they are not over 2 hours each, of course – that’s just too long to sit through an action movie in my opinion!

Going back to elementary was quite a difference from the last several days, in more than one way.  First, going from age 12-14 to age 8.  There is a world of difference between teens and second-graders.  Second, going from the specials to the academics.  The last week has been dominated with Industrial Tech and PE, with a short break in ELS (also quite different from second grade even though some of the material is similar…).  Finally, working with a single group of kids all day instead of over a hundred.

I didn’t actually do much teaching today.  They really have a routine down with language arts centers so all I had to do there was introduce what they would be doing and then help here and there when some didn’t understand something or other.  Math was just an end-of-year assessment (didn’t need to be reminded of this- the lean season known as “summer” is nigh upon me).  They had a handwriting worksheet I only needed to introduce, again, and computer lab in the afternoon where someone else pretty much ran the show while I helped.  I did get to start a book for read aloud, a Mexican Cinderella.  They are on a unit apparently about Mexico, including learning some Spanish.  Across the room were their attempts at making the Mexican flag which I had to duck under every time I crossed the room.  The teacher I subbed for must be much shorter.

Well, it was fun and I did at least get to work with a class I have worked with once before so there were less surprises- I’ll tell you subbing in an elementary classroom requires a lot more work than in a middle school classroom.  Breaking routine can be difficult with younger students, whereas older ones just take in stride and adapt.  Therefore, studying the routine from the plans takes up some time.  Well, enough of this blathering on.  On to bed and then a different second-grade class tomorrow.

I was giddy as a school boy (inside) all day after I received two phone calls at work from a great friend informing me that he and his wife wanted to go and see THE MOVIE with me this afternoon. I was soooo excited… work just dragged by until 3.30 when I was allowed to leave a half hour early to make the 5pm showing. I cannot believe that it has been 19 years since Indiana Jones last graced the big screen and it really did look as if it were going to be the last time as Indy and his companions rode off into the sunset in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. From what I gathered on screen, I believe that Spielberg, Lucas, Ford, and company wanted to tie up some loose ends.

Without giving away too much, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was an entertaining movie but at times it was a bit too hokey… even for someone who still watches the three movies at least once a year (and when and why did Raiders of the Lost Ark become Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark?). The year is 1957, 20+ years after World War II and Nazis. This time, the enemies are the Russians and seeds of McCarthyism are seen in the beginning of the movie. We learn a little about what Dr. Jones has been up to since that time.

All of the elements of the previous films are here: the quest to find the MacGuffin, keeping it away from the villains, the creepy crawly creatures…. yes there is at least one snake involved, the big action pieces, and above all Harrison Ford’s unflappable portrayal with all the dry wit one comes to expect from the action star. The most pleasant surprise is Karen Allen’s return to the fold as Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The chemistry and magic between the two leads was unmistakable from the moment they resumed their bickering which was a highlight of the first film.

After the movie, we discussed one scene that would make a fantastic water ride at an amusement park. I have often though that the mine car chase/battle in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom would be the basis for a great rollercoaster.

There were more times in this film that the action was slowed down and you kept wanting something to happen. It was very slow to get going but once it did, it kept us entertained. As we discussed, it may be that we might just be revisiting something from our youth and not being as captivated by it as adults. I admit that seeing the newest Star Wars trilogy kind of had me feeling that way, but there was just something missing in this Indy adventure.

The supporting cast of new friends for the archaeologist were unfamiliar. Gone were Marcus Brody and Sallah. In their place were a teenage James Dean type school drop out, a kidnapped colleague of Indy’s, and a greedy man who apparently had adventures with Indy following The Last Crusade.

So, while not as memorable as the three previous chapters, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is an entertaining film that any fan of the original blockbusters should see. By the way, be sure to look for one of the treasures Dr. Jones uncovered in the previous movies in the warehouse segment at the beginning of the movie… blink and you may miss it. And anyone who can tell me where the shooting star seen in all Spielberg movies is, will be rewarded handsomely.

Overall, I give it 3 out of 5.

Indiana Jones tickets on sale now!