Is a blog too much time to invest? When I started this blog, topics raced through my head. I would write several a week. Then it was one or two a week. Then once or twice a month. Now I just feel like it's too much time to devote. 

What's wrong with me. I'm turning in to more of a "Jon Michell IS..." Facebook kind of guy. You know, one quick sentence, and peace out. 

But it's not just my blog world that has been effected by my shortened attention span. All sorts of areas have been affected.

I'm satisfied with watching trailers on Apple.com rather than spending two hours in the theatre. Talk Soup is a better way to catch up on a weeks worth of TV viewing. I find myself shoving food in my mouth over the kitchen sink instead of sitting down with the kids for a meal. I've become a text messenger; I now know what LOL, ROTF, WTH, and LMAO mean, and actually use them. I don't need to listen to an entire album, I'm satisfied with hearing fifteen second clips at the iTunes stores. When people send me email jokes I scroll down and read the punch line first to see if I want to invest in reading the entire joke. 

We live in an instant coffee, microwave, cliff note, no foreplay right to the good stuff kind of world. 

What happened to long walks on the beach? The Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain? Where's the great poets of our time? The wonderful conversationalists? What happened to the LP, the mini-series, or the seven course meal with the thirty minute chocolate souffle that has to be ordered be for you even get your salad?

I'd like to vent more about this but my Hot Pocket is getting cold and I gotta check out the last three episodes of Project Runway I DVR'd in the next forty-five minutes before I go to bed.

I think Tigger put it pest when he said, "TTFN."  

Last Spring a friend at church, who had a son a year older than Dylan, kept talking to me about Cub Scouts. He was the Tiger Scout leader and his boy would be advancing in rank to a Wolf that following summer. One of his jobs was to recruit a leader for the incoming Tigers. So every Sunday we would drop of the kids at Sunday School and he would see me and mention Scouts. I definitely thought about putting Dylan in Scouts but someone else would have to lead, that was a given! What did I know about scouting? I was in the scouts for one year when I was in second grade. All I remember was making a Pinewood Derby car with my dad and drawing a lot of pictures for craft time at the Den Mother's house. I also remember being taught the proper way to apply a band-aid, but that was about it. I never continued. I never asked my parents why.

I went home and looked for some online information about scouting and this Pack in particular. What really got me was that this Pack, Pack 1 was chartered by our church, First Christian Church of Huntington Beach. And it was the first chartered Boy Scout organization in Orange County, California. I felt that there was some providence in God bring our family to Huntington Beach, then FCC, then Huntington Christian School, and now this Pack. I knew this was where my son would be. That fact that in this organization we could be free to be open about our faith was really important to me. Here is a quote from the Pack 1 website...

"we consistently and intentionally look to Jesus Christ as the model for our lives. The intention of our Pack is to connect boys to God and establish values for Christian growth, so that they may worship God and serve others through their character and leadership. We achieve this by pointing to God's presence, His creation, and His desires for the conduct of our lives as spelled out in the Bible. We believe that Jesus is the source of the strength and wisdom necessary to live up to our Promise and Law. We welcome all Cub Scout-age boys as members and it is our hope that through our program and leadership, every boy will be influenced to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ"

Finally at the end of that spring the Scout Pack had a open house for prospective joiners. Dylan and I went. It was really cool. They made rockets with two liter bottles of soda and Mentos candies. Dylan had a great time and I thought this is what every red-blooded American kid needs. At the end of the meeting we filled out our paperwork and I saw a sign up for the Tiger Den Leader which had still not been filled. I told them to keep me in mind if no one else signed up.

Our first activity was that summer at family camp. We spent the weekend camping at Rancho Las Flores, a Boy Scout run camp on Camp Pentleton. It was awesome! We had a flag ceremony everyday. Campfires at night with skits, stories, and s'mores. There was a bb gun range, an archery range, and a tomahawk range. We made more rockets, this time with water filled two liter soda bottles and a bike pump. We even went on a snipe hunt (nobody caught a snipe, they said they rarely do).

It was there at that camp I decided, I want to be a part of this. This was cool. This is what I wanted scouts to be about when I was a kid. This is what my scouting experience was lacking. So I told them to sign me up. I would lead the den. It was actually perfect, because since I work odd hours and most weekends I could make sure that all our activities could fit in to my schedule.

Well, it's been about a year since that first family camp. The next one is in a couple of weeks. I can't wait. This year we bringing the girls along. I've had so much fun this year in scouting. Mostly because of the kids. They have taught me so much about myself and boys and patience. It's been very special to have one on one time with Dylan, engaging in a common experience. I've learned how a radio station works, how to make a Pinewood Derby car and a Raingutter Regatta sailboat, I've learned silly songs, solemn oaths, and how to make Indian talking sticks and square knots. God has brought eleven very special boys into my life and allowed me to help them learn about themselves and each other while gaining character and always to Do Their Best!

Here are some highlights of the last year...

S'MORES

SCRAMBLED EGGS IN A BAG

FLAG CEREMONY

DYLAN ON THE B.B. RANGE

NICE SHOT!

DYLAN ON THE ARCHERY RANGE

DYLAN WITH A TOMAHAWK

HE DID IT!

RAINGUTTER REGATTA

DEN MEETING - INDIAN TALKING STICKS

MEETING BLUE THUNDER AT THE MONSTER TRUCK SHOW
SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!

WEEKEND OVERNIGHT ON THE
U.S.S. MIDWAY

PINEWOOD DERBY
DYLAN'S CAR IS THE LIGHTNING McQUEEN
FRONT ROW - 5TH FROM THE LEFT

CHECKING OUT THE COMPETITION

PARTICIPATION RIBBON
(NEXT YEAR WE'LL PLACE!)

VISIT TO THE HUNTINGTON BEACH POLICE STATION

OUR RONALD REGAN CAKE FOR THE
BLUE & GOLD CEREMONY

ADVANCEMENT CEREMONY
TIGER TO WOLF

SUMMER DAY CAMP

WOOD WORK AT
SUMMER DAY CAMP

PACK 1 - DEN 3
MY GUYS!

My son Dylan loves the computer.

Mini Clips is one of his favorite sites.




It is filled with tons of free games.

Magic Pen is one of the coolest games ever.

Careful! It's addicting!

Awesome movie! Pixar knocks it out of the park again! Visually stunning, with a real feel of lighting and camera movement.

Characters were very cute and likeable.


I loved the nod to 2001 Space Odessy's H.A.L.

And Wall-E looks a lot like Short Circuit's Johnny 5.

When we left the theatre, I asked Gina what she thought. She said she wasn't really into science fiction. What? It was totally a love story, I said!

About a year ago, right before Easter, I was at home sitting in front of the computer on a Tuesday afternoon. I looked out the office window and saw the swarm. We were under attack. Jehovah's Witnesses making their way up down the street. I had two options...fight or flight. I could close the shades and slither from room to room on my belly hoping to not be seen. Or I could answer the door and deal with them. I quickly minimized the screen on the computer and Googled "how to witness to a Jehovah's Witness". I started reading over several articles, all stating that subtlety was the key; confrontation would do no good. I read that they believe that Jesus is actually Michael the Arch-Angel, and while He is the son of God, He is not God in the human form and not to be worshiped as God is. "Hogwash", I said to my self! Then their was a knock at the door.

I decided to play dumb. I answered the door and a nice woman in her mid fifties asked me how I was doing. After a few pleasantries back and forth, she asked if she could share something with me. I said sure. She pulled a bible from her purse and read something from Revelations about how bad the world was, but how it would all be better one day, and people who believed, would be with God. Sounded good to me. Then I started to probe. Somehow we got to the topic of Jesus and I explained that I heard that they thought Jesus and Michael were one and the same and not actually God in human form. She tried to explain that a bit. My questions were now coming rapid fire and she was getting tripped up on some of the answers. She then gave me a book. It was like their field guide to witnessing. It was full of their beliefs and common questions people might ask them and the response they were supposed to give. I thanked her and she left and said she would be back later to check on me.

It took a long time for Gina to forgive me.

You see Gina is home most of the time and I'm at work. My new friend would check in on me once a month, only to discover I was not at home. At one point, doubting my absence she craned her neck around Gina to see if there were any signs of me in the house. As if I was belly crawling from one room to the next to avoid her. (I only did that once, it was in my short-lived college days and I was avoiding the paper boy that I owed several months of subscription money, but that's another blog altogether.)

Well, last week we were finally reunited. She came with back up this time. The two of them came to the door and once again shared a verse about how only the saved would avoid the gloom and doom of the last days, to which I retorted, "Amen!" I returned her book and she asked me if I had any questions. I told her that I found it very interesting but I had some strong disagreements with their beliefs that Jesus and God were not one in the same.
She was quite for a moment. I don't think that was the response that she was expecting.
I gave her a piece of paper with some scripture that I believed made my case and told her to read them and pray on it.

She had a gleam in her eye and very excitedly quoted John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." She explained that this was often misused to claim that Jesus was the Word and that the Word was God. Instead she explained that it was a mistranslation and should read the "Word was a god". I stopped her and said that wasn't on my list that I handed her. She seemed disappointed. You see, this is their biggest argument.

She then quickly turned to the back of the book, and pointed out a chapter that was all "misused" scripture that people used to attack Jehovah's Witnesses with. I told her that the passages I gave her were not among those in the book.

She turned white and began to stammer. "We're not here to debate", she said.

I asked her to open her bible and turn to 1 Timothy 3:16 while I got my Bible. I then asked her to read it aloud.
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.

There was silence. She then started to flip through the pages to look for another verse to combat the last. I stopped her and said, "We're not here to debate, just read through those on your own and pray on them."

She tried to talk more as I nicely said good bye and shut the door.

Now I don't think that she'll be showing up at my church on Sunday and making the altar call.

But, I think I'm off her list and she won't be visiting anymore.

This truly is the greatest game ever played. And so much more exciting than Lakers! Down to the wire yesterday! And just two men and 18 holes to determine the champion today. Amazing! I'll take Tiger over Kobe anyday!

DreamWorks is finally showing itself as worthy rival!

We saw Kung Fu Panda last night. It was great! Now I'm on record as never liking a computer animated movie unless it was made by those geniuses over at Pixar. I own all the Pixar movies; Bug's Life, Toy Story 1 & 2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille. I have found all other attempts to create a movie as well as those has fallen short. I hated Madagascar. The characters were horribly drawn the voices didn’t work for me and there was a lot of potty humor. Don’t get me wrong a love potty humor, Benny Hill is one of my all time favorites, I just don’t want it in my computer-animated movies. Over the Hedge had some plot problems, The Bee movie was poorly drawn…I could go on and on.

But Kung Fu Panda had it all. They even animated the DreamWorks title shot in the same theme as the movie. The opening dream sequence was beautifully drawn with rich textures and had a Kabuki look to it. The characters were well drawn and their movements worked well. There was the proper felling of weight and mass with each one. The lighting was as good as anything John Lasseter has done. The slow motion shots rivaled any Ang Lee movie. And the Kung Fu sequences look like Bruce Lee choreographed them. The voices were perfectly cast. And the landscapes were gorgeous. Great plot with a couple of nice little messages that did not seem trite or hit you over the head. Jack Black was very funny in a subtle way; they didn’t let him go too far with it. This wasn’t a showcase for any of the actors’ usual shtick.

Great movie! I would gladly purchase the DVD and let it sit on the same shelf as my Pixar collection