Yeah so I’ve been using Twitter again….more.  Randomly as it should be used, but that’s the beauty of it.  It’s the quickest way to get an idea online.

Check it out.

I’ve posted a bunch of photos from my trip to California. I’m in the process of putting more up, getting them loaded up to groups and geotagging them on my map. It’ll take a few days, but be sure to go see them. There are a lot!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lch4

So I’ve been spending the week in San Diego, California.  Last week, Kevin Capehart and I flew out here to visit our friends Caleb and Carrie.  We’ve had a tremendous time here!  It’s beautiful out here and the people are great.  We’ve seen all sorts of sites and people, gone down to the Mexico border, was interviewed by Mexican reporters, and almost stepped on a rattlesnake! We got to see the beauty of the Pacific Ocean, and rode up to Los Angeles for a day where I met a cousin for the first time.  We did the stops at the Griffith Observatory, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach.  At Venice Beach there were all sorts of odd folks.  The perfect spot for people watching.

The weather here is blissful, no humidity to speak of, temps from 65-75 degrees, and a nice breeze off the ocean. 

I’ve taken hundreds of pictures, many are on flickr now, but many many are not and will make their way on there when I get home.  The ones online have also been geotagged, so you can get an idea of where I’ve been.

We fly back tonight, our plane leaves at 8:50 pm (PDT) and we fly all night to New York where we connect for our flight back to Richmond.

I’m anxious to get home to see my family, I’ve missed them a lot and I’ve also missed my cats and my house.

It’s been great here though and we were extremely fortunate to have such good friends to be our hosts for the week.

One of the most highly anticipated movies for me this year was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I’ve been waiting for this picture a long time….a long time.  Finally it has arrived!  I went to the midnight permeire of the film last Wednesday/Thursday and let me just tell you that I thought it was great.  Some critics didn’t care for it much, but you know what???? Too bad for them.  If you enjoy Indiana Jones then you’ll enjoy this film.  If you enjoy fun films, you’ll enjoy this film.  If you breathe oxygen…..you’ll enjoy this film.

Is the whole thing great?  No.  There are parts I could have done without (involvin swinging from branches), but the overall film was enjoyable.  I’ve come to the conclusion that one must not nitpick a film because you have to think about it like this:

Think of it as a person you’re close to.  Sure they’re good people, but there may be a few things you don’t like that they do.  But you’re not going to not like that person for those small, insignificant reasons.  So it is with Indiana Jones.  Don’t let the few slow, pointless scenes spoil the whole film.  Enjoy it! Have fun!  It’s freakin’ Indiana Jones for crying out loud and it’s been 19 years since the last one came out.

Go see it, many times.  You’ll be glad you did.

This guy did a decent job considering it was done in 2001 before LEGO Indiana Jones.

From YouTube…

Seven of the past eight days have been overcast and rainy.  The prospect for sunshine won’t occur until Thursday.  Maybe we forgot to pay the light bill and that explains the absence of sunlight.  Either way, I’m grown weary of dreary weather.  Not to mention it has dampened my plans for outdoor work around the house.

I think in Alaska people there are sometimes prescribed those light glasses that help them get over the problems that occur during the six months of darkness.  We need those here.  Yeah we do.

That is all.

Found this thanks to Trekmovie.com…

…two great shows have come together.

street scene in London, UK. 

Peckham, an innercity neighborhood in London has planted palms and yuccas in the streets.  Outstanding!  These palms would do just fine here in Richmond as well.  Makes you think….

 well, it makes me think.

check out the article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=447463&in_page_id=1770

I caught the program last night about the guy who went out searching for the Ark of the Covenant.  No, not Indiana Jones…it was Dr. Tudor Parfitt’s journey in search of the elusive Ark which has not been seen since sometime around the take over of Judah by the Babylonians in the Old Testament.  No word of the Ark’s fate exists.

For centuries people have wondered what’s become of the ark.  Where is it? Who took it? Is it still intact? Is it still powerful?  As seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark the Nazis opened the Ark and were destroyed.  Those who know about the Christianity know that if the Ark was around today, it probably would not have the same powers because the Holy Spirit resides in followers of Christ.

Dr. Parfitt’s journey took him to Jerusalem and then his journey went to Egypt, Yemen and into the wilds of Africa.

He claims to have found the latest incarnation of the Ark in a Musuem in Zimbabwe, made of wood and used by a tribe on the South African/Zimbabwe border for hundreds of years.

Dr. Parfitt’s quest for the Ark amount to me leaving home telling you that I’m going to go buy a new car…and then returning with only a ham sandwich.  One has nothing to do with the other.

What is interesting is the retracing of the steps of some of the Jews as they fled Judah as Nebuchadnezzar was about to break the walls in Jerusalem.  These Jews, mentioned in the Bible as the ones who fled to Egypt, worked their way south into deep Egypt and eventually deeper into Africa.  Another group arrived in Africa via Yemen. 

Centuries later, reports came out of an African Tribe that somehow practiced the Jewish traditions…though Israel was some 3000 miles away.  This tribe ate kosher, followed the laws of the Jews and even carried around their own “Ark” like object into tribal war.  What’s really interesting is that DNA test show that they are in fact kin to Jews in Israel…so there is validity to the fact that the Jews who fled Nebuchadnezzar somehow ended up in modern day South Africa.

As for the Ark…if it does exist, it is lost somewhere or hidden somewhere very well.  Some say Israel has it hidden somewhere, others say the Muslims have it hidden somewhere, some say it’s in Ethiopia under heavy guard.  It would be astounding to find it, but maybe God does not wish for us to find it as we may be tempted to worship that and not Him. 

But we all know that really the Ark of the Covenant is locked away at Area 51 after being found by Dr. Henry Jones.

Mr. Harry Landis of Tampa, FL died at the age of 108.  Mr. Landis is one of the last known American Veterans of World War I.  A Mr. Frank Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia is now the only surviving veteran of World War I.

Mr. Landis enlisted in 1918 and trained to go to Europe, but never got the chance to head overseas.  The war ended before his unit shipped out.

The Associated Press (via the Richmond Times-Dispatch) has an article about Mr. Landis.

Mr. Landis was born in 1899.  His life spanned three different centuries.  When he was born, William McKinley was President of the United States, and the Spanish-American War had just concluded the previous year.

In his life the world transformed from the industrial revolution to what we have today.  Amazing.

It’s always weird when you think about how close we are to distant times.  Mr. Landis was born in 1899.  Let’s say there was someone of the age that Mr. Landis was in 2008, 108.  That person would have been born in 1791.  And if we continue that equation…a person who by chance was 108 in 1791 would have been born in 1683.

So three people could have spanned the time period of 325 years.  Astounding!

We can put it into more personal contex…I know a gentleman at church who’s grandfather was alive and present at the Battle of Cold Harbor in 1864.  He remembered riding out the day after the battle and being told to keep his head down and not look out, but he could see through the boards of the buggy the bodies strewn along the ground.  So there is only one person between me and the Battle of Cold Harbor.

It’s weird when you think of it like that, because these things seem so long ago.

Ramblings