In 12 hours I will begin my new adventure...wish me luck...and a few prayers couldn't hurt.


andrew+seely personal

A mere 17 1/2 more hours, until I stare at the largest incarnation of yellow so far.

The Simpson's Movie premieres at 12:01a.

I will be there.


the+simpsons movie the+simpsons+movie

Let's start this one with a rant and end it with some goodness.

< rant >
It seems to me that it is getting harder and hard to find good movies at the video store (and yes I do consider myself a snob when I say "good movies").

Yes, yes, I should join the 21st century and join an online movie subscription service. But here's my dilemma, I'm an impulse kind of person. I decide I want to watch a movie and I don't want to wait for my "queue" to catch up with my impulses.

It seems that more often or not when I walk into my local purveyor of cinematic stories, I leave empty handed and dismayed, because they not only don't have the movie I want in stock, but they no longer even carry that movie. Prime case in point, one of my favorite directors Paul Thomas Anderson or P.T. Anderson, has a movie called Magnoila, it is one of my favorites, and upon wanting to check it out I find that due to a "certain policy" having to do with "late fees" that someone has now "purchased" that movie because they felt it was within their ability to be a delinquent renter and rob the world of the movie that they had enjoyed but decided it was easier to pay the 12.99 or whatever to keep the movie instead of returning it to the store so that others may enjoy what they had enjoyed. And on top of that, the busters of block find it unnecessary to restock those items which have befallen the curse of laziness.

LAME!!!

Now an open letter to video procrastinators:

For the love of God, I know you are already late returning your selection, but please use the .1% of strength it takes to return the movie and just pay up, instead of thinking to yourself "I already owe X, what's another Y to own this movie". You should have just bought it in the first place. Or do us all a favor go and buy the movie then donate it back to the store. Please treat the video store like a library, a valuable resource, and continue to allow it to operate because you return things, they don't even have to be on-time, just returned. Oh wait, no one goes to the library anymore. Never mind the whole thing. I'll amass a huge collection of movies I like, and no one can borrow them.

Thank You.

AS.

< /rant>

Now for some great news.

I finally own my favorite movie of all time.

I can't really say why I haven't ponied up and gotten it til now, it's probably I just wanted to live in the allure of the desirable, just out of reach. Now I can grasp it anytime I so desire, even though I only really watch it once a year.

It was a hard one to track down, even just to walk-in and buy a copy, neveryoumind trying to rent it.

But I now own

Doctor Zhivago

If you haven't seen it, then make a point to. It's an epic classic, with all the best of everything, acting, directing, story, characters, cinematography, score. Guess that's why it's on AFI's top 100 and won 5 academy awards (stupid (well not really stupid) Sound of Music won best picture).


movies Doctor+Zhivago movie+rentals rant

Here's an interesting article that I found the other day.

link

At this point I don't have time to make any comments but it brings up some things to think about. Both socially, politically, and religiously.

I'll try to find some time to get some thoughts down, but for now, please use the comments to express your thoughts, one way or the other, I'll try and be participatory there, maybe in lieu of making my own post.


christianity ring pre-marital+sex promise+ring

On Monday I did something that I don't do very often.

I won something on the radio!!!

I know I've talked about KCRW before and I can't tell you how much I love this station.

89.9 in LA and they have transmitters all over so cal so even if you don't live right here you might be able to get it, and they even have a web stream, so basically you don't have an excuse not to listen. And like 90% of their stuff can be podcasted. The only reason you could have would be that you don't have internet, but if you are reading this then that's probably not the case.

Anyways, during the summer they give away tickets for the hollywood bowl every day (you have to be a member to win ticket giveaways). They are pretty much the hardest tickets to get all year and they only take caller 10.

For the last 2 weeks I have been trying to win, no matter who is performing, since they are hard to get and you get tickets for 4, dinner for 4 and parking and sometimes wine too.

Every time all I got was busy signals, and was thinking that I'd never win.

But monday, the impossible happened, I got ringing, then a voice appeared and said "you are caller 3", "oh crap" I thought to myself, now there's no way I'm going to get back on the line and get picked up before caller 10, a few busy signals later I heard ringing again, then a voice said "have you won anything in the last 90 days?", I quickly replied, with a bit of pretentiousness, "no, no I have not won anything in the last 90 days!", I then went on to explain how I was just caller 3 and didn't think I could win, to which she replied something in a bit of amazement as well.

So I guess you want to know what I won.

Well I get 4 tickets to the Hollywood bowl on Aug 29th, to see Nancy Wilson's 70th birthday celebration, hosted by Arsenio Hall (whoot, whoot, whoot). Dinner for 4 from Deano's gourmet pizza and free parking at the bowl. I found out later where our seats are, and they are some kick ass seats in the Terrace Boxes which aren't too shabby, which you can see if you click on the link.

Pretty cool day.

I can't tell you how cool it's been to be a KCRW subscriber. The station has already given more back to me than I gave to it to it to become a member. Other than the great programming. In regards to becoming a member, "I highly recommend it. It is so choice." To quote a good movie.

I'm definitely going to re-subscribe next year, and the Kels and I have been talking about going in together at the higher level too.

Well in case any one from KCRW gets to see this, thanks and here's some free promotion, and keep up the good work.

---------
update 7/19
1:32p
Oops, I hope none of you tried calling the number for KCRW, since in the title of my post, it should be 1-877 NOT 1-800.

The title now reflects the right number.


kcrw hollywood+bowl Nacny+Wilson

Well here's a timeline of what has led up to the big event that I am now announcing.

Thurs 7/12 11:40pm - Browsing internet.

Friday 7/13 1:00a - First email sent.

Friday 7/13 9:30a - First phone call received.

Friday 7/13 11a - First phone call made, and first conversation.

Friday 7/13 4:30p - Left to work in order to talk face to face.

Friday 7/13 5:15p - Arrive at location and hold conversation.

Friday 7/13 5:40p - Conversation ends and possible conversation is scheduled for mon 7/16 by 5p.

Sat 7/14 7:30p - Phone rings again, in reference to original email sent.

Sat 7/14 7:31p - Phone call ends, leaving decision to be made.

Mon 7/16 9:30a - Phone rings again inquiring about decision.

Mon 7/16 2p - Call made to announce decision.

Mon 7/16 2p-5:30p - Phone tag is played.

Mon 7/16 5:30p - Phone tag is ended and final decision is confirmed.

Mon 7/30 Time TBD - Andrew will start his new job as an assistant manager at Panera Bread. He will train for a while then help open the BRAND NEW Northridge Store.

It's all pretty crazy and when I started looking I was really just "looking" and never would have expected to have a job offer and a different job by the end of the weekend. But I really feel that God has opened a door for me and this is a step in the right direction.

So that's the big news. No I'm not getting married, no Kelsey is NOT pregnant (shame on you for thinking that), no I am not quiting on youth ministry entirely, and yes I am excited about this cool opportunity. I'm looking forward to what lies ahead.


Andrew+Seely personal new job new+job Panera panera+bread

Here are some great thoughts by my friend Aaron about what we think of when we hear the term "emerging church"...click here.

---------
Don't worry the big thing is coming later today. Come back after 7p.


aaron+flores church emerging+church emergent

Tomorrow I will be making a fairly important announcement...

stay tuned...


Andrew+Seely personal announcement

While cooking dinner tonight, of Trader Joe's Potato Cheddar Pierogi over Trader Joe's Wild Mushroom Risotto with a side of garlic butter corn, which now that I think about it, the corn was from TJ's too, I had a thought.

Well actually more of a realization, that more often than not, I cook shirtless.

Which in case you didn't know, is NOT A GOOD IDEA!!! Cooking with your shirt off is bad, or at least dangerous.

Then I thought that "Cooking with your shirt off" would be a good name for a cooking blog, or at least a journal of what I cook from day to day.

I even went as far as looking to see if the domain name was available, which it is, but then I realized that it would be a waste of my 8.95 and I probably wouldn't ever keep it up.

So cookingwithyourshirtoff.com will remain up for grabs. If you want to be extra nice you can buy me the domain name and hope that I might actually do something with it.

that is all...


Andrew+Seely dinner blog cooking shirtless

It feels like one of those times where you just can't do anything right.

Sorry it's been dead around here.

There are some things that I just need to work through right now.

Will be back later...

could use some prayer


Andrew+Seely personal