Republican Debate at the Reagan Library

Last night I watched the Republican Debate from the Reagan Library on CNN.

Disgusting.

While there were four candidates, CNN obviously thought two didn't really matter much and decided to give Arizona Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney a 1 hour 30 minute outlet to bicker with each other.

Meanwhile, our country falls deeper into recession. But I digress.

I counted while watching and Texas Rep. Ron Paul had no more than 4 opportunities to speak during the entire thing. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to Paul's right had maybe two more opportunities.

However, even though Paul definitely had the least time to speak, he still managed to come out looking better than both the smirk riddled jerks to his left. 

Here are the highlights from Ron Paul's side last night:

Hopefully enough American voters saw this last night to realize the top two candidates in this race are full of themselves and not very many good ideas.

David Shribman speaks at Gorgas Library

Executive Editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discussed the bright future of "the papers"

In our on-demand world, as technology continues to advance and the internet continues to grow, more and more people are getting the news from cell phones and computers, while less and less are getting it from an actual newspaper.

In fact, many think the newspaper business is dying.

Just don’t tell David Shribman.

The executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette spoke Tuesday night at Gorgas

Library on, according to Shribman, the bright future of newspapers.

He began, however, with the past.

“When I started in this business we set our type with hot metal and wrote our stories with typewriters,” Shribman said.

Shribman noted how much things have changed since those days, telling the audience about his granddaughter who calls the typewriter Shribman has kept after all of these years “grandpa’s old printing machine.”

Now, with the luxury of computers and e-mail, many reporters don’t even need to step foot into a newsroom to get their stories to an editor.

But Shribman said the internet will never drive newspapers into extinction, noting the Post-Gazette’s Web site only garners four per cent of the paper’s total profit.

This isn’t to say no one visits the site. In fact there are quite a few Pittsburghers who get their news from the online edition of the paper. According to Post-Gazette.com, every month 2.8 million users generate 40 million page views.

However, some things never change. The business still makes those who practice it very busy people and Shribman said he has a lot of responsibility to worry about. But Shribman said good editors are supposed to worry.

“And I must be a damn good editor because I worry a hell of a lot,” he said.

Shribman said newspapers are and always will be around because those who rule our nation, its people, need information to continue making proper decisions. Newspapers go out and get that information for them.

But in giving the people this information, many see newspapers and the media in general, as a group of skeptics overly critical of the government. Schribman disagreed.

“We’re not skeptical because we don’t believe in the founding principle of our country,” he said. “We’re skeptical because we believe in them utterly.”

However, Shribman said finding information is not all newspapers do.

“The role we play in this society is not only as hunter-gatherers,” he said. “We’re cultivators…We’re cultivators of an endangered way of life that deserves to survive.”

As the talk progressed, Shribman said the newspaper business is in the middle of a crisis of confidence.

He called for a reforming of what the business does and for those in it to remember the other industries which went through the same kind of period and have survived.

Shribman said he encourages his staff to embrace the future.

“We have to be open to the future and open to its challenges,” he said. “We’re not in the newspaper business, we’re in the news business.”

Another Shift in the Making?

I found it very odd when the "hot topic" in the Republican debates shifted from Iraq to the economy after Ron Paul had consistently owned the other candidates on the war topic. 

Yes, the economy is a huge topic, but we cannot just sweep Iraq under the rug. The best way to handle the two would be to realize what Dr. Paul has realized.

When the moderators of the debates have chosen to let him talk, Paul has consistently spoken on the economy and the obvious recession (that many over at FOX News continue to ignore) we are currently in. That is because he feels Iraq and the economy are inseparable. Our recession is a direct effect of the awful decisions we have made in invading another country. As the dollar continues to go down, the price of OIL continues to rise with our continued involvement in the Middle East since they control these prices.

Anyway, Dr. Paul released a new economic stimulus plan and it is good stuff. According to RonPaul2008.com, the plan is based on four points:

  

"The four areas that the plan covers are:

1. Tax Reform: Reduce the tax burden and eliminate taxes that punish investment and savings, including job-killing corporate taxes.

2. Spending Reform: Eliminate wasteful spending. Reduce overseas commitments. Freeze all non-defense, non-entitlement spending at current levels.

3. Monetary Policy Reform: Expand openness with the Federal Reserve and require the Fed to televise its meetings. Return value to our money.

4. Regulatory Reform: Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley regulations that push companies to seek capital outside of US markets. Stop restricting community banks from fostering local economic growth."

All of this makes me wonder if the "hot topic" will shift once again as Dr. Paul owns his opponents once again on this issue.

You can check out the whole plan here.

CNN Coverage of King Day

For me, one of the neat facets of the King holiday every year, is the attention it receives from the media. Each year, I usually end up learning something new about Dr. King and the message he died fighting for.

Maybe it was just me, but this year, I didn't see very much coverage of the holiday, at least on the TV end of things. 

However, CNN did have good coverage of the day including a great piece by one of their reporters Soledad O'Brien that aired a few times. The piece was just done well from every aspect, the writing, the shooting, everything.I tried to find a YouTube video for that but was unsuccessful. I would check to see if it is coming on again as it was very, very good.

In addition, many of their regular programming that day were themed around the holiday.

Here is a video made possible by a really cool feature CNN has called the i-Report which regular watchers to upload their videos of important events to the CNN website which CNN then airs for a unique point of view. 

i-Report on Parade

And how can we forget about, the Democratic debate that aired on CNN that night? Before Obama and Clinton went for each other's throats that night, they and Edwards spoke that day about Dr. King. Here is footage from the CNN site.

Democrats on King

Off the television, CNN put together a very cool section of their website in honor of Dr. King. It is called the Road to Equality.

There you can find many stories on the holiday as well as iReport videos from viewers.

There is also another portion of the site dedicated to the King papers here.

All in all I have to say that CNN takes the award in covering the holiday. Not only with the stories they ran on TV, but their website holds some very good and very well organized information for anyone wishing to learn more about Dr. King.

Macworld 08... Thinner Air

Hi-ya. 

Being the unabashed Apple fanboy that I am, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the announcements from Apple CEO Steve Jobs's keynote at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this past Tuesday.In the keynote he made four announcements, so for the sake of organization, we'll use that format to discuss them.

1.Time Capsule

In short, a very, very cool idea. Steve explained it best during the keynote as a less annoying companion for Time Machine than your wired external hard drive. It utilizes Apple's awesome Airport Extreme 802.11 N wireless technology to wirelessly back up your system and comes in the impressive 500 GB version and the you'll probably-never-need-this-much-space 1 terabyte version at $299 and $499 respectively. On top of that, it's also a full Airport base station. Those are pretty great prices for very big hard drives and when you factor in the wireless feature, you can't help but say hats off to Steve and the guys at Apple for this one. I personally don't use the Time Machine feature because I don't have a real reason to do so, but this is certainly the way to go in my book if that appeals to you.

2.iPhone and iPod Touch Software Updates

For iPhone owners, this isn't a very big deal. You all get a free software upgrade of the already 

awesome features that came with your Jesus Phone. The Maps application now uses the phone's GPS capabilities to pinpoint your exact location to make finding your way to places easier. A new feature is the web clips capability that is similar to the one that was introduced with Leopard's version of the Safari browser. It allows the user to essentially create their own widgets out of sections of their favorite web pages and, on the iPhone, post these widgets to their home screen. Speaking of home screens, the latest update allows users to customize their home screen and flip through up to 9 different ones.

It's iPod Touch owners, like me, that have reason to be excited about the update. That is, if you can justify the $19.99 price mark Apple has placed on it. The update adds the Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes and Stocks applications to the iPod along with the new customizable home screen feature and Web clips. Personally, I have been waiting for this update for a while mainly for the Mail application because it by far my favorite native Mac application. Maps is a cool application as well, I just don't know how much I can say for its overall worth in terms of use because you will need to have the Wi-Fi connections in order to use it. Of course, that goes for all of the iPod touch's internet features, but any maps program would be better suited if it could be used anywhere on the go.

The Weather app will also be cool but is also limited by the need for a Wi-Fi connection. I will never use the Stocks app. But I am excited about the Notepad app. I've wanted that for a while as well. The customizable home 

screen feature should have come standard in my opinion, but I will use it.

3. iTunes Movie Rentals and AppleTV "Take 2"

I think this is a huge step in the rental industry, albeit a late one. When Apple first released their AppleTV a year ago, it was done very sloppily with very little hard drive space and almost zero push for the product. After nearly falling flat on its face the AppleTV is back with an all new software update bearing the name "Take 2," allowing users to stream content directly from the internet AND rent movies in standard definition and HD. Of course you can also rent movies for use on your computer or iPod too, but this move is one step closer to the end of movie rental chains and the dreaded late fee.

When renting through iTunes you download a movie from apple and once it has completed at least 30% of the download you can choose to begin watching. If you choose to wait, you have 30 days to begin watching, but once you hit play you must finish within 24 hours. Also, within that 24 hours, you can watch it as many times as you want. Once your 24 hours are up, the file disappears from your computer automatically. I'm not sure how that works on the iPod front, but I'm guessing that the next time you sync it, it takes it off.

Like I said, I am very much for this and at $2.99 for SD and $3.99 for HD, the prices beat or match that of the big rental chains, and hey, you don't have to drive to get them or wait to they come in the mail. Thanks, Apple.

4. MacBook Air

Weighing in at only three pounds and measuring in at 0.76 inches at its thickest point and 0.16 inches at its thinnest, this 13-inch laptop dropped jaws when Jobs slyly pulled it out of its manilla envelope. This little guy surrounded Mr. Jobs's keynote with a considerable bit of buzz. The rumors were flying for months in advance about what Apple's new ultra-portable laptop would thrill us with and much of those rumors turned out to be true. 

There was one rumor however that didn't turn out true, and it was the one that we all held most dearly. Early on, it was said that Apple would attempt to price the Air competitively with Dell at around $750. So when Steve broke the news that this piece of art would put us in the hole a cool $1799 at the base price, our hearts broke. 

Another big rumor that did come true was that about the solid state hard drive not unlike those that power the iPhone, iPod touch and iPod Nano. Basically these are very tiny hard drives with NO moving parts, making them extremely more durable and perfect for on-the-go use, not to mention the boot time with a solid state drive is next to nothing because they are lightning quick. However, some of us neglected to think about how new the technology is and how much something like this costs. At its base price, Air holds a regular 80 GB hard drive, but the consumer can opt for the $999 upgrade to the 64 GB solid state hard drive. All in all, if you want the the solid state version of the Air, you're looking at spending about $3,000. Wow is right.

On top of all this is the sheer fact that this is not a very practical laptop. I paid about $1700 for my nearly maxed out MacBook, which boasts a 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 120 GB hard drive. Without the solid state hard drive, the Air would be a downgrade that would COST me $1300 bucks.

But it isn't all bad for the Air. Since there is no included optical drive with the Air, the guys at Apple brainstormed and came up with two great ideas. The first is the ability to use the optical drive of another computer on the same network be it PC OR Mac. All you do is install the software on the other computer you want to use and its drive is now yours. This is mainly for software downloads and installations and I don't know if it would work for watching movies or not. The second option is the super slim SuperDrive that allows you to both view and burn DVDs and CDs. Best of all it's only $99. Wow. However, for those hoping to score a cheap burner for their existing system, it ONLY works with the Air.

Overall, the Air is really for rich Apple supporters who want an oversized PDA when they're on the go to do their work on. But don't dismiss the Air yet. As with all successful Apple products ( iPod, OS X, AppleTV, etc.), it will need time to reach its full potential. Until the price drops and more realistic reasons to buy the thing surface, marvel at the sheer beauty of its design and the mere fact that it actually exists and REALLY is that thin.

In my book, MacWorld went pretty well this year. Three hits for Apple, and only one slight miss. I'm going to end up definitely using two of the announcements and in regards to the Air, its probably a good thing it ended up being so expensive in that it saved me from buying another computer 6 months after buying the Mac I'm on now. 

Basically, yeah, the Air is expensive, but get over it.

Hugh Davis Farm Journals, UA Digital Collections

During class Monday, we had the pleasure of meeting the fine individuals who who manage and add to the UA Libraries Digital collections. Essentially what these people do is take many, many pictures of old artifacts, including portraits, old UA yearbooks, and in this case, farm journals from 1849, and scan them into an online database for research purposes.

Hugh Davis kept journals of his exploits on the form to keep a record for future reference. Below is an image scan of one of the pages from his 1849-1854 journal.

You may not be able to read the writing, but this entry is a "Sick List" showing when members of the Davis family got sick, what they had and how many days of work they missed. It seems the measles were rampant at the time.

The director of the Digital Collections said these journals would serve as a good look into  the weather patterns of the South when scientists studying Global Warming need to research a date preceding the forming of the National Weather Service. Interesting stuff.

A New Age?

Welcome JN 325!

In the past, this blog has been a creative outlet for me. There are a lot of poems and prose on here dating all the way back to my senior year in high school. However, I thought it might be interesting to go ahead and revamp things on this page a little with the content that I will be posting for JN 325 at UA. Hopefully my visits to this page to post 325 content will force me to begin re-posting the material this blog housed originally. I must say I have missed the discussions this blog used to generate.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wayne

Confident in my Disclosure

Confident in my Disclosure


I'm trying to
re-place myself.

This one part of me
just knows
that a change in scenery
will prove beneficial.


I'm wanting to see it.

You.
There.
With me close behind.

I'd do my best
to hear your whispered conversation...
and fight my mind
from wandering
back to conversations
regarding obvious responsibility
with my father.

So much of our word barter
derived its quality from
how my nervous ears
interpreted
(so do aesthetics come into play now?)
his tone.

That can't be what this is like.
(I won't let it.)

Covering myself with branches,
(I don't want you to know I'm watching.)
that impulsive side
tickles my ear canals
with the "guarantee"
of positive results--
full of themselves
and thoughts
of futhering me in this
struggle.

Confident in my disclosure,
I decide for a better view.

I can feel your tension.
(all the way from here)

If you would allow it...
I would rush from my entrenchment
and gather those
crimson sprinters
(following the gun-shot protocol)
escaping from your pores
into these tiny
cotton balls I found
and
squeeze

them into this

broken baby

bottle.


And that's when the party will start.

(I hope to God that's lipstick on your cheek.)




Good Providence

As You Wish

HEY!!!
here's a poem.

As You Wish

And so it's a beautiful day in Tuscaloosa...
So why can't I see it?
It's because my mind is where you are...
I've spent so many hours(days,months,years)
thinking of what you might be seeing,
hatefully jealous of whoever it is
you're seeing it with.

Darling,
where are you hiding?

Tears seem to be attracted to my eyes
much like heavy magnets,
stuck, but destined
to fall.
Words,
(that I would use to bring you to me faster)
have not found this attraction.
It seems that they are
not aware of me, my
guilt and obvious need are obviously
not
obvious enough.

In dreams I am tormented by
possible forms,
(my brain is eager to assign your eyes a curve, a color, a smile)
but as soon as I am awake
I forget even the imposters.

(If I can't hold you, I would settle for your likeness,
protected by gloss.)

Where ever you may be,
I can feel how protective of me you are.
You know me better now,
than I will ever know myself in the future
(and this includes my weaknesses)
aand for that,
my love is owed to you in the heaviest measure.

My sword is sheethed in a finer
metal than its body,
etched with memories of you
that I have yet to grasp.
In battle,
it is quick to find destraction from this conquest,
and quickly end its life,
cutting in precise angles.

Its role as weapon will cease
on the day it is laid at your feet
as tribute to the promise.

But still,
I am smitten by your eminent beauty,
racing toward me as sure as
forgiveness.


And that is why I wait.



Good Providence

Pssst....I'm Right Behind You

GREETINGS!!!!

Wow. Been a really really long time huh?

Well this is a little post to let you know that I'm back...
and better than ever.

Now that I have my WWW conncection back I'll be bringing this dilapidated blog back to life.

So keep stopping by and I promise to have stuff to read for you.

Love you guys,
Wayne



Good Providence

Louder Now...Louder

So what I meant to ask was
"How Does It Feel To Be a Ghost?"
I just wanna get the fact across that I never wanted to be a "Liar."
I'm gonna "Makedamnsure" it can't ever happen like this.
But you know what we're "Up Against".
"My Blue Heaven" Looks so far away from here...
Sometimes it seems the "Twenty-Twenty Surgery" that comes only from the miracle of hindsight is the only thing worth holding out for.
And meanwhile we "Spin"...
In these days and times "Divine Intervention is a must
or the entire world will end up on "Miami" beach...
Because most of us will end up with a title that resembles something like
"Error: OPERATOR."
Thankfully,
and lucky for us, we hear a familiar voice...
"I'll Let You Live."

Happy Taking Back SunDAY

poem...
really soon

With Every Year We Live, We Live Through the Day We Will Die...And Have No Clue of It's Power

Hey everyone...
Hopefully I'll have a poem for Easter up on Sunday...
But for now here's some Emery to get you started...
They really get the Christian life...
Awesome stuff and incredibly encouraging for Good Friday...
Happy Good Friday by the way...
The story comes to an end on Sunday...
It finishes anyway.



"Under Serious Attack"

(the Bold parts are the focus)


you've taken this too far
now it has to stop
you've taken this too far

once again
the table's turned
and i'm behind
picking up the pieces from the night

my face is scarred
sometimes
i feel that i can't trust myself at all

and every time the sky
(every time the sky)
breaks open with sunshine
as streaming swords collide
(streaming swords collide)
it takes me back in time

i float away
to another place
where heaven is waiting
right outside

this is war
can I take it anymore? (can I take it anymore?)
i'm falling faster and bleeding more
than i have bled before
certain death (this blade will carve a purpose)
lingers on the other hand (and make you feel defeated)
but i will fight you
and victory will be mine in the end

circumstances mean nothing
when it's over
we will be
heroes constantly
pushing forward without any fear

if i erased the line between
forgotten days and memories
i'd never change

resolution made in vain
to face (to play out) the day
life is yours to save (save it)
or take (take it) away

Dang It Feels Good To Be a Gangsta

...

My. ears. won't. stop. ringing.
I smell like beer...
but I didn't drink any.
My HEAD IS POUNDING.
It's three two nine a,m,
I'm slightly damp from sweating...
and I just stood around.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon will rock all nite


long.

To Robert Baldwin Rose in Appreciation in Affection...

To Robert Baldwin Rose in appreciation in affection...




"Friends,"
Romans,
"Lend me your ears."

Gather 'round.
I want everyone to see this.


This skin,
attatched to this arm,
attatched to this hand,
that has finger painted in the style
of crime scenes,
held in mind with
the afterthought of
form, the history of
image...

I play the part well...
I only recently began acting.

Maybe its the taste
this lipstick water gives
(Death)
that makes me act like this...

Why do I entertain the thoughts of
failure, hopelessness, and shadows?

Why do I question?

Why,
with your sovereignty,
do I find the strength in my limbs to,
over the course of
19
years,
find a gun,
load it,
press it to my
peripheral
(perception. what a joke.)
and flirt with the trigger

like a drunk with a virgin?

Why do I care?

Why am I here,
alive in this bed,
at this second,
with a front row seat to
the rest of my life?

My life=
The longest death scene
the business has ever seen.

Why do I question?

And seriously,
what's the point?
You know.
Of guilt?

What is the point of guilt
when it can be so easily
overcome by the prospect of
murdering again?

Why are You with me
but not my vision?

How can You hold me,
but not my hands?

How can You acquit me,
when my heart is the
incriminating evidence?



Incompatibility is the name of this game.

Love does not equal nature.
Grace does not equal earned.
Faith does not equal logic.

How can You speak
to me
when I am doing all
of the talking?




This was the sound of my heart attempting suicide.

Mistakes Disguised as Goodbyes

Hi everyone.

I deleted my last post:
1. Because I was in no state to post ANYTHING at the time that I posted.
2. Because I let my emotions get the best of me.
3. Because I let a form of self-expression, or a way to vent for myself, be posted as truth.
4.I let down poetry.

That last poem was not Good.

There was no absolute Truth and there was no Beauty of any kind in this poem. I hurt this site when I put the thing up. I thought that maybe it would be read as a point of view and not truth. But as a Journalism student who knows that people usually believe what they read, I should have known better. And this is not the readers fault by any means.

To be perfectly honest, I wrote that poem when I was angry and used this blog as a weapon.

And that's wrong.
No matter what happened beforehand, if I was really wronged and completely justified in everything I said (which I wasn't) no one deserves to be attacked in the fashion in which I attacked.

What is even more sad is that I used my words as a dagger. Which as everyone knows, are the sharpest of small swords.


Bottom line. That poem was not the whole story, which on any other occasion, would have been my first priority to tell. It was unfair to the parties involved and for that I am truly sorry.

I feel that what I wrote is not my real feelings. But they seem to be the only feelings I am aware of. But that's only becuase a lack of communication. But instead of just calling and talking to my friends or saying these feelings to thier faces, I took the easy way out and put that thing up.

I acted out of the fear of things never being fixed. I guess I see this as a cry for help for our friendships. People took notice and now that we have hit the absolute bottom of things, we can start to rebuild. I just wish it could have happened another way. But there's no use in that becuase things only happen ONE way.

I'm praying that event though I have done something wrong, something good will come of this.

Reconciliation mostly. And a better line of communication to my friends.

What is happening to us guys?

I can remember when we thought this sort of thing would never happen to us and now here we are on the verge on NEVER talking.

But nonetheless, this one was all me. I did something wrong and now I'm apologizing. And I'm hoping, but certainly not deserving of, a little grace.

I made a mistake but I promise that by the end of this week I will have done everything in my power to not only fix this, but fix the cause of all this.


Regardless of anything that happens.

I love my friends. I would do anything for them. Haha. Even admit that I'm wrong. Which, for me, would definately be a bigger fear for me than taking a bullet for someone anyday.

I know we're not in high school anymore and that things can't be the same as they used to be.

But I still want our friendships to be as strong as they used to be.

We have come through alot of stupid things together. The fact that we came out of high school with our sanity in tact is attributed to the fact that we STUCK TOGETHER.

I have never cared more about a group of people more than I care about you guys. I have shared the happiest moments of my life with you and this poem came out at a time when I saw all of that going away.






and I'm sorry.

Asprin for a Younger Generation

Long time no see huh?

My bad.

Asprin for a Younger Generation

1989.
The Rubix rage is all but over.
And I,
a child
hadn’t a clue.
Fumbling around with my
Rainbow box
(promises are a large part of an infant life)
having no idea of its purpose,
it seemed to me that my
cube was perfect
as it was
in its unsolved state.
Not perfectly square,
with its rounded plastic corners
from constant
falling
from my immature grip
on the situation,
each side of my
puzzle
had lost some of
its meaning with
each scratch infested
colored square.
Twisting and turning,
my small hands,
convinced they were
mastering the cube’s
weakened joints,
only to find another
thousand turns necessary;
my fingers would run
along the ever-shifting
dusty canyons
that gave the box its face.
Faces.
Red and Yellow,
Blue and White,
Trials of all colors,
Colors my flesh would
come to know as “friends.”
Colors rubbed faded
by greasy little hands
which had been
God

Knows

Where.

Good Providence

Correction

WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I changed my mind about where I'm hosting the new blog...

It's not at that ugly Xanga thing.

It's here...

Harbors of Contention

Evaluation

poem...

Everyone Is Trying To Kill Me
(and I'm not just making that up.)

Everyone is trying to kill me.
And I'm not just making that up.
It is the

God is Honest

truth.

They disguise themselves as these
things called "friends"
and then convince you that
they're yoUR best.
(well, if you're my best, go ahead and pull that trigger cause I don't wanna live to know an enemy.)
But, these are things you've never had before
so you figure they can't be worse than many.

But you've underestimated their artillery.

Ever since a friend kissed his brother on the cheek
(usually, in their day, a simple hello)
the most famous and horrible goodbye in our history
would be served...
and the weapons grew one by one.

These weapons are many but very much the same.
You'll never see them coming because they start
with knowing the person's name.
Memories are the biggest gun that this army packs,
they'll bring them out in the biggest battles
and use them to organize secret attacks.

They make the past an enemy camp,
(once you get there you're surrounded)
and they make the future one big mine field.
(always "Watch your step.")

Casualties number greatest there.
There,
where you know you've already stood.

....................

ATTENTION!
I AM MAKING A NEW BLOG AND FILLING IT WITH ALL OF MY FAITH OBSERVATIONS THAT I HAVE BEEN WRITING DURING MY QUIET TIMES AND HOPING TO UPDATE IT EVERYDAY. FOR THE TIME BEING THAT SITE WILL BE MY XANGA SITE THAT I HAVE LINKED ON HERE...

www.xanga.com/waynegrayson

Good Providence

I AM A Lazy Blogger

Hey.

Sorry for not doing anything for about a month but I have a dial -up connection at home and it was too much of a hassle to post...

anyway...

So for the report on Narnia...

I don't really want to say too much in case you haven't seen it (if you haven't drop what you are doing and go see it right now) but here goes...

First off, the movie rocked in regards to following the book. If there were a race between the LOTR trilogy and this movie in following their respective books, Narnia wins every time. There were only a few instances in which the movie added things in dramatic license such as the whole wolves catching up to the children at one point thing and Peter acting like a pansy and not killing the wolf. That is one thing that I disliked about the film. Much like how the biblical Peter is the rock of Christ's new Church, Peter is the foundation of Aslan's new kingdom of a broken table. The movie portays Peter as very frightened and shaky of his huge responsibility. And, much of the time he takes this weight out on Edmund, another exaggeration the movie made. Alot of Edmund's trechery seemed to be placed on Peter's shoulders in the film and that is absurd and completely unsupported by the book.So far I've made more negative comments than positive but I just want those who haven't read the book to understand some the discrepancies. One last negative. When Aslan returns in the book the first thing he does is tell the children to cover their ears and then delivers a deafening roar. Which he did in the movie. But then, he tells the children to "try and catch" him. This didn't happen at all in the movie. I found this very unfortunate becuase this is one of my most favorite depictions that Lewis gives us of Christ. Aslan, knowing that a battle is being fought in his name by a mere boy first plays with Lucy and Susan. Think about the necessity of this. Christ's purpose in coming to earth was to make man, an impure and fallen creature, tangible to God, a Holy and completely pure being, so that man could share an intimate relationship with God through Christ our bridegroom. Since the fall this intimacy was not possible becuase God will not defile himself with anything unholy. But God loves this creature, this Man so much that he decides to come to earth and WALK AMONG US. And not only that, but endure the most humiliating death...

just so He could hold us.

Now, in the story, up to this point there was no playfullness in Aslan and the childrens' relationship. It was kept to a very serious tone about a very serious business. But here after Aslan's resurrection, he says, "Catch me if you can." Wow. Lewis describes thier playing for nearly two pages. It's sheerly beautiful and the movie leaves it out.

Now for the cool parts. I loved the way that Adamson drew a few parallels. First, the parallel between ancient and modern warfare. In the very beginning of the movie we see bomber planes attacking London. Then in the battle scene we see the Eagles bombing the Witch's army with large boulders. Brilliant. Also another thing I saw was the way Peter held his sword. I overheard a few cracks about this by some people after the movie the first time I saw it but they were obviously stupid so oh well. I thought it was awesome the way he held his sword. Listen, the boy is growing up in London during a war. What weapon was used by ground troops in the World Wars? DUH. GUNS. NOT SWORDS. So how is he supposed to know how to hold this sword. Plus he hadn't been in Narnia long enough for the slow transformation of maturity that always occurs to children entering Narnia to take hold. He's holding that sword how he has seen soldiers hold guns. Now, isn't that awesome? The second cool parallel I found was Adamson's parallel of Tumnus and Edmund. In one scene I realized how these two are so much ailke. They are both traitors of their race. And, more importantly, they are incredibly valiant once they realize they are wrong and do two of the most graceful 180s that you've ever seen. That scene that I mentioned was when Ed steps on Tumnus' father's portrait when they find his house ransacked after his capture and I remembered that Ed went back in the house in the beginning to get his father's picture before the house was bombed.
Other cool stuff was the great detail to the battle that you really didn't get to the book and the extra attention given to the childrens' lives in London prior to coming to Professor Kirke's house. Also Aslan looked AMAZING.
If anything this movie enhances one's reading of the book. The film didn't make up things that were too out there, it only took Lewis' established ideas and went deeper into them instead of running away from the message of the book. Andrew Adamson gets a huge tip of the hat for this one.

So there was my opinion on Narnia.

I have a few poems I've been working on so they will hopefull be up shortly.

Classes start tomorrow.

Pray for me.



Good Providence

I Made A Promise I Couldn't Refuse

Hey everybody.

Sorry but contrary to what I said there won't be a report on Narnia...

Unitl I see it again.

For me to in any way start to write about the GLORY that I saw the first time I HAVE TO SEE IT AGAIN. Which I will in a few days when I head home.

Everyone, I ask that you do me a HUGE favor and pray for me because tomorrow, (Thursday) I have two really hard finals. Western Civ and Mass Communication. I will be so glad when I'm done but I will appreciate some prayer.

I'm coming home Friday around noon so I'll be in town from about 4 that afternoon til about the 9th (I think) of January.

OH YEAH.

Before I forget....

WAYNE HAS A XANGA!!!!!
(confetti)

Yeah, check it out and see if you like the color scheme.
http://www.xanga.com/waynegrayson

Anyway...Mass Com book awaits...

College is soooo....

College.



Good Providence