Amazima Ministries International: Back to School!!

Check this out!

Amazima Ministries International: Back to School!!:       All of the Amazima children are headed back to school!         We are sure you know the drill by now...everyone lines up to collect…

Matilda, and et cetera.

Well. It's been a bit, hasn't it? I've been gone, so I should get a little grace because of that. While I was gone we went to see Matilda! The Broadway show! One of my favorites:

In the slip of a bolt, there's a tiny revolt. /The seeds of a war in the creak of a floorboard./ A storm can begin, with the flap of a wing./ The tiniest mite packs the mightiest sting!/ Every day, starts with the tick of a clock./ All escapes, start with the click of a lock!/ If you're stuck in your story and want to get out/ You don't have to cry, you don't have to shout!/ 'Cause if you're little you can do a lot/You mustn't let a little thing like little stop you…

No height jokes, now.

So, you know when you go to the eye doctor and he puts the thing in front of your eyes and says "Which is clearer, one or two?" And you answer "Two" and he says "Alright, two or three?" And you say "Two" and he says "So is two better, here's two, or four?" And then you say…
No? Just my eye doctor?
Well, you get the idea anyway. My blog is rather a conglomeration of things right now, so it will be undergoing some minor changes over the next weeks or months or however long it takes me. I'll have polls up on the side and you can say whether two is better or three or four, et cetera and et cetera.
Ta-ta for now!

50 Million Names

Her name is Naomi. Not very long ago, she was as real and alive as those who read this now. She was not a lump of tissues, not an unformed zygote; she was alive, she was human, though very small and, yes, unborn. 
She is dead; yet it seems strange to say that, dying unborn like she did. Seems strange to say she is dead as if she just disappeared and is gone. No! Just as He was resurrected, she is with Him now, this moment. One day I shall see her for the first time and tell her how I gave her her name. It's hard to believe that this isn't just symbolism; she's a baby who was murdered (so what if that sounds harsh? I'm sorry – that's what it is!!) who I had the privilege of naming through 50 Million Names.

50 Million Names Project is a grassroots campaign (a campaign that begins with ordinary people, not political officials or the like) that was started to honor the 50 million babies who have been aborted in America (though the number is more than that now) by naming them. I quote from the website, "Naming these children helps heal the wounds of family members, abortionists, and of our nation. Honoring them acknowledges the reality of their short lives, and connects Namers to their prayer intentions – for [the babies']… family members, and for the abortionists and witnesses who are now intimately connected with these babies."

Though I'm not personally connected with anyone who has had an abortion or a miscarriage, I believe 50MNP is a wonderful thing. (They still need many names, so stop by their website. At least check it out.) It feels good to know that Naomi is real and I can pray for her family and abortionist and know that she is with God.

Somewhere In Time

Somewhere in Time: A Movie Rant Review

I liked this picture best. Even though it's for the website not the movie. :)

(Please be warned: this review will be chock-full of spoilers and will be extremely biased. If you are a fan of this movie or want to see it without spoilers, you should probably not read this.)

A few nights ago, we watched Somewhere in Time (1980). To summarize: A playwright (Richard Collier, played by Superman Christopher Reeve) is approached by an old lady on the opening night of his first play who presses a watch into his hand and says "Come back to me"(It's actually a really creepy part). Fast forward 8 years, he is bored/confused in his life and decides to take a little vacation to relieve stress. He stays at an old hotel where he sees a picture of an actress (Elise McKenna by name), unhealthily begins to obsess over her, and starts on a quest to go back in time to meet her, woo her, etc.

Okay, I want to be fair with this movie. So I'll start with making a list of the things I liked.

1. The costumes. I love all the 1912 apparel – furniture, clothing, everything. It was lovely (except for the lady in corset and stockings).

2. The actors – Richard, Arthur, Elise, and William were all played very well. 

3. The soundtrack. The music is really pretty – kind of dreamy and a bit sad and romantic and rainy day-y.

4. The setting. I NEED to go to Mackinac Island. I mean, lovely view, old hotel, romantic connotations and – get this – no cars. What could be better?

I just love her hair.

There was some content – one SKIP AHEAD, SKIP AHEAD bedroom scene and a few choice words from Richard (Superman, how could you?).

There were two major flaws with the movie: the empty promises and the love story. If one of them had been great, I could have forgiven the other one.

To me, a great love story has a specific order: meet, know each other, fall in love, get married, do marriage stuff. I guess these people didn't get the memo because they fell in love, did marriage stuff, decided to get married, and then Elise says, "So tell me about yourself." Seriously. And *MAJOR SPOILERS* in my idea of a great love story they either get together or they are torn apart by some tragically romantic thing like one dying for the other or something, NOT stupidly forgetting that you put the wrong era of money in your pocketses. No, not at all.

I did really like this scene.

As I said, I could have forgiven that! I could have been won over by the music, the beauty, and just imagined that their love story had some substance. But there were so many unfulfilled parts of the movie. Like, how did William predict that "someone would come to change her life"? Does he have magical psychic powers that also allow him to be three seconds behind Elise at all times? Maybe he hypnotized himself so that allowed to see the future (yeah, it would just be him imagining the future, but then again Richard imagined he was in the past and that somehow worked, so anything goes, right?). 

The timeline of this movie was so confusing. More so than regular time travel does. Because it was like circle without a beginning. I really think they just didn't think this through. He travels back to see Elise because he traveled back to see her and he gave her a watch which she gave him so he traveled back to see her and give him the watch so that she could give him the watch and he could travel back to see her. Basically the watch doesn't exist. It has no origin. She gave it to him who gave it to her who gave it to him who gave it to her who gave it to him… (My sister theorized that there is a fairy who lives inside the watch and randomly selects people to make miserable.)

They could have rewritten it so they stayed together…. :(

*MORE MAJOR SPOILERS* And then the ending. AGH! Are we to assume he died and the magical cloud land is heaven? Or he's just imagining her? Why can't he just travel back again? Now that he believes he can time travel it should be easier, right? He won't have such a hard time convincing himself (and this time he'll either get a suit that isn't fifteen years old or just not take 1972 pennies with him). And everyone will be happy. 

But they don't explain it at all! It's just him sitting there looking as nearly dead as Luke Skywalker after he got his hand cut off (not at all the same as looking completely dead, just mostly dead…). And then they stand there in the mist, looking beautiful and handsome, respectively. And you think they're about to speak or explain. Then the credits start rolling.

I really really really wish this movie was more satisfying. I wish I could have liked it. It has potential – romantic ideas traveling across time to be together, giving up his own time for hers (plus the setting of 1912). Sorry, I can't. 

Until yesterday,