In the World

Since mid-2003 the daily operations at Destiny Image have been managed primarily by my younger brother Don Jr., Nathan, and myself. Over the past several years this management team, in cooperation with Don Nori Sr.,  have been putting together and executing a succession plan for Destiny Image.

Last Thursday, we announced the official leadership changes and new positions. Eventually we’ll get around to doing an official press release, I guess. Publishing is a fairly small world, and naming a new president, vice-presidents, and officers is a fairly big deal.

This is very exciting time for Destiny Image. Most companies don’t survive the transition to second-generation leadership, especially family-owned companies.

Destiny Image is also greatly blessed. At a time when many publishers are scaling back and laying off employees, we are expanding and hiring. Our biggest problem is having enough time and people to execute our ideas.

We have a great team, Godly authors, and a clear mission.

And officially? I’m vice-president and chief operations officer. 

Woo me.

Who watches the Watchmen? Unfortunately, I did.

Last Saturday, my wife, sister-in-law, best friend’s wife, and a couple other girls had a sparkly-boy party. So a bunch of us guys (myself, two of my brothers, my best friend, and Tyler) got together at my house for beer and video games.

After a few rounds of Street Fighter 4 (in which my past expertise at Street Fighter 2 failed to translate into present-day fighting prowess), a few rounds of Soul Calibur 4 (destructible armor FTW), and some Halo 3 on Slayer (Hammerzeit or Rockets, anyone?), we decided to go catch a late showing of Watchmen.

I didn’t review the movie right away, because I wanted to make sure my “first reactions” were valid. Sometimes, when I’ve had a chance to mull a movie for a few days, my opinion changes. Also, I haven’t read the graphic novel (I’m more of an Elseworlds guy, since I like the iconic heroes of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and the rest of the original JL team; also, The Tick!).

My opinion of Watchmen hasn’t changed much.

Watchmen is not the cinematic triumph that the professional review and criticism society would have you believe.

I can understand its appeal to that group, though. Watchmen is morally ambiguous at best. The heroes are villains and the villains are heroes. Moral relativism plays a big role in Watchmen.

I’m not going to do a thorough review of the movie here, because honestly, I think I’d rather take the time to do that with a movie I actually liked. I will discuss a few things, though, that made the movie ultimately unpleasant.

And the movie is gritty. Dirty, like the real world. Filled with familiar places, sights, and sounds. But nothing is right. The rules of right and wrong don’t seem to apply; at least not in the same way they apply to other superhero movies.

I suppose that’s some of the appeal. Asking the question of “what would superheroes do in the real world?” But that’s why we love superheroes. They don’t live in our world. they help us aspire to make our world better than it is.

Also, for a superhero movie, the only hero whose powers are ever really discussed is Dr. Manhattan (who is a Green Lantern + Captain Atom I think) . This is somewhat annoying, as we are left to “figure out” what the other superpowers are in the movie. Night Owl (2?)= Batman. Silk Spectre (2?) = Catwoman + Canary + Wonder Woman. Comedian = Punisher. Ozymandias = Rahs al Ghul + Vandal Savage. Rorschach = ? (but just WHAT is his superpower, anyway? The ability to move stains around on a white cloth? Ooooh!)

In any case, I’d suggest skipping Watchmen. I wouldn’t bother renting it either. It might be worth watching on television, but only once.

As always, this is IMHO, and YMMV.

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So what do you think of the new look?

Yeah, I can’t take credit for it. Tyler knows more about CSS than I ever will, I fear.

But I will probably play with customization a bit this weekend, if I get all my data entry done.

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Do you remember in the Bible where Jesus said that we should have faith like little children? (Yeah, I know I’m paraphrasing; deal.)

Well, I’m no greek scholar, but my buddy Webster tells me that “faith” comes in many different forms.

My daughter illustrated one of them to me yesterday by JUMPING OFF THE TOP STEP OF A STAIRCASE AND TRUSTING THAT I WOULD CATCH HER EVEN THOUGH I WAS FIVE STEPS BELOW HER (and carrying a plate of waffles).

Backstory: According to my Munchkin-creature, I am the “mostest best person in the whole world forever,” execpt maybe for Blossom, depending on the day. She likes it when I carry her up and down the stairs. We live in a ranch-style house, with the kitchen at ground-level and the living room/playroom/tv room in the “basement”. So in the morning, we get breakfast, and I carry her (and breakfast) downstairs to watch cartoons.

This particular morning, I had a plate of waffles in one hand and my boots in the other. I figured I’d make a quick run downstairs and then come back up and get Offspring when she was done washing the butter and syrup off her hands.

I was halfway down the stairs when she realized I was headed down, and she jumped off her stool and ran full-speed across the kitchen and launched herself off the top step of the staircase.

I saw this happen in slow motion, the way you see most bad things happening.

I heard her feet pounding the floor. I heard her yell “Daddy!” And I turned my head just in time to see 35 pounds of nearly 4-year-old take a flying leap from the top step of the stairway, 6 feet above me.

Thanks to my catlike reflex, I caught her AND didn’t spill one drop of syrup from the plate of waffles. (I know, I’m awesome!)

After my heart slowed down a bit, I asked her why she jumped off the steps like she did. Her answer? “Because you catched me!”

And that got me thinking. There was no hesitation on her part of putting her life in my hands. She had total and complete faith that I was going to catch her.

That’s how much Jesus wants us to trust him.

Huh.

(Yeah, I should probably avoid open windows for a few days, lest I get too close to any stray lightning bolts.)

This was TOO GOOD to pass up posting.

LOLCats courtesy (if you can call it that) of ICanHasCheezburger.com.

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Usually, I try not to read the book version of a movie *after* I’ve seen the movie.

After seeing the film City of Ember, though, I had to read the book by Jeanne DuPrau The movie was…well…fairly spectacular. I would go so far as to say it is probably the most underrated and underviewed movie of 2008.

This review will focus primarily on the book, but I will point out some significant differences between the book and the movie.

SPOILER ALERT! There will be spoilers (important plot lines, character decisions, and the ending) in this review. If that stuff bothers you, stop reading now.

The premise of Ember is fascinating: An underground city, built specifically to ensure the continuation of the human race after The End. Meant to house the future of humanity for 200 years, the key to leaving the underground city is lost midway through their quarantine, and somewhere around year 250, with Ember crumbling around them and food running scarce, a couple of kids stumble on the secret that can save them all.

The first half of the book is your normal youth book fare. The adults are either self-serving or stupid, the kids are smart and knowledgeable, and most of the characters are pretty 1-dimensional. The first half of the book is where the major deviations from the book take place. The Ember in the movie is quite different than the Ember in the book, and I admit to liking the movie version of Ember much more than the book version. The characters of Clary, Loris, and Lina’s parents are also much different: In the movie, they actually play parts, and are part of the overall mystery of Ember. In the book? Little more than “adults are stupid” background noise.

But once you get to unraveling the mystery that is Ember, the book gets good. There are many, many differences between the book and the movie in the interpretation of the Instructions left by the Builders, and again I must admit to liking the movie version better. In the book, the way out of Ember was fairly hidden. In the movie, it was under the noses of the citizens of Ember the whole time, which made the discovery payoff that much more gratifying.

Where the book shines, though, is when Lina and Doon (and Poppy, of course) finally make it to the surface. DuPrau becomes more than eloquent, she becomes absolutely nostalgic in her revelation of the surface world. The rising of the sun–something that is supposed to be the high point of the movie but which happens far, far too quickly–is an emotional high that carries through to the devlishly abrupt end of the book.

All in all, City of Ember is a pretty good book. It’s not A Wizard of Earthsea or A Wrinkle in Time, but I’d recommend it. It’s a good afternoon read.

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I’ve been holding off on writing a review of Between Noon and Three for a couple weeks now, mostly because most people think I only read fluff books. They’re only mostly right.

I borrowed this book from Don Milam. We occasionally throw book recommednations back and forth. Between Noon and Three is what I got in return for Memnoch the Devil, which is one of the most incredible books I’ve ever read.

This was my first exposure to Robert Farrar Capon. I have to admit that Capon’s pseudo-allegorical style rather appealed to me. His theological exploration method was refreshing.

The last third of the book was hard for me, though. Capon spent a lot of time defending himself against accusations of universalism and eisegesis (although I’m not terribly convinced of the inherent heresy of either), to the great detriment of he narrative he was weaving in defense of grace. Also, I’m not sure I believe some of the positions he took on some matters. He spends a fair bit of time decrying complex systems to explain grace, hell, and the once-saved-always-saved theology, but builds his own complex system to connect it all.

But it’s a good read for anyone interested in just how Grace and Law reconcile. I highly recommend it, even if I don’t agree with the position that Capon takes on everysubject he tackles.

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These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise…

I can’t help it. I’m getting excited about the new Star Trek movie. I’ll probably go see a midnight showing, even.

I mean, come on, it’s Star Trek! And if you’re not convinced, watch this:

Two concerns, though:

1. Did anyone else think the music was just a wee bit reminiscent of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight?

2. The pylons really don’t look large enough to support the warp nacelles. Maybe it’s just the camera angles, but the laws of physics still apply, even in space where no one can hear your warp core breaching.

But these things don’t really matter. I’m very impressed with JJ Abrams (Cloverfield was brilliant, and LOST is, well…I’ll let you know what I think if they ever discover some semblance of a plotline), and I hope he’s really managed to catch the vision of the optimistic future that Star Trek portrayed.

So who needs midnight tickets?