Another day on the water.

Day #2 without Marcela began at 350 AM. My dad and I headed out to pick up my friend Tony and his nephew to head out for a day of fishing. It’s great to have my folks living in town. The last time my dad went fishing, we had a great trip to Key West and caught lots of snapper and grouper. This should be a very productive day!

Sunday Life Pointe Talk Soup 2.0

• Arriving at the theater (Church) this morning, I found Jesse, David C., and my mom (Anne J) already kicking things off. David was working hard putting out the signs and flags. Props to the set up guys for their dedication.
• I had to fix my own coffee and bagel today, since my wife who volunteer in the coffee department is out of town. She will be in Idaho and Wyoming for a while visiting with her parents.
• I had to do a little searching for power and direct box since I was on the keyboard this morning. I also brought the miniKorg in order to midi some retro sounds. That set me back about 20 or more minutes just to find the pieces.
• Jesse took a Sunday to step back, observe, and push others into leadership. Alex, Reina, Julie, and yours truly led songs this morning.
• Alex was on acoustic guitar, Bill was kickin it on the bass, I played the keyboard, Mike was rockin the drums.
• The 9:00 attendance was strong, but the music seemed to miss the flow at times.
• The 10:30 service was packed. The vibe was intense, and the music was on target.
• We started out with Reina singing Trading My Sorrows, then Alex led a new song “Devotion” that was just very heartfelt and dynamic, the Julie led “You Are My King (Amazing Love)” for communion, and I led “Life Song” to end. After we were finished, we sang a little piece from Coldplay’s Viva la Vida while people shook hands. I loved the music this morning.
• The videos were outstanding!

1. First video was of last week’s baptism. The comments from those attending and being baptized were beautiful. As people were brought up from the water, the screen went from black and white to color.
2. Second video was a pitch from the youth (they actually created the video) to help raise funds for Youth Camp. It was in the form of a news show.
3. Third video was the intro video for “Got Funk: The Funk of Humility”. Chris Day starred as a not so humble guy on his first date with Venus. WOW he was totally arrogant, but it was funny. Venus couldn’t get a word in edgewise. There were also some characters from previous videos like Alex’s mustache man (wah wah wah), Gio on the phone, and Nathan reading about super sized kids. At the end, it seemed obvious that there would be no second date. The blooper/outtakes were pretty funny too.

• At 2pm we met in the church office for the Web 2.0 seminar. We discussed the potential of social networking to bring people together and introduce them to LPC.
• We discussed Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, Flckr, MySpace, and other social networking tools.
• There was a brief tutorial on setting up a blog, “link-love”, web searches, categories, and what things you would want to avoid putting on the internet.

Saturday Top 5: Comedians

You could say that I am a connoisseur of laughter. I enjoy both laughing and making people laugh. To me, comedy is not exactly a science. There is no formula for it. You just kind of say or do something, and if people laugh, you do it more. The men in my list are or were naturals at the art of laughter. In their movies, TV’s, and stand up routines they let their true self shine through, even though many of them had problems with vices, arrogance, or personality disorders. It is difficult for me to narrow down my choices to only 5, so I included several “honorable mention” candidates who were worthy of consideration.

Honorable Mention
Chris Farley – One of the funniest men ever to walk the face of the earth, Farley’s brand of humor was loud and physical, but not the deepest intellectually. His straight man was usually David Spade (who was also a funny man in his own right). Sadly his life was tragically cut short due to an overdose. His funniest movies were Tommy Boy and Black Sheep.

Richard Pryor – Pryor’s unique humor was hip. In stand up, he was one of the best. His movies were so funny even though he usually played a lovable loser. My favorite Pryor movies are Stir Crazy, The Toy, and Brewster’s Millions. All that said, his fame grew because he used some seriously foul language. It’s hard to find anything he has done that didn’t have tons of profanity. He also was famous for being the first bigtime comedian to use the “N word” in his routine. That’s not a good legacy.

Lou Costello – The main reason Costello did not make my top 5 was due to the fact that he was practically always paired with straight man Bud Abbot. To watch Costello in the old black and white movies like Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein is quite a treat and truly makes you laugh out loud. His routine “Who’s On First” is classic smart humor that really gets me going.

Gene Wilder– To me, his funniest work was Young Frankenstein, Willy Wonka, and Stir Crazy. He did several movies with Richard Pryor. He was married to Gilda Radner of SNL fame.

#5 Peter Sellers – One of the most underrated actors, Peter Sellers was a genius in the art of comedy. His role as the goofy yet lucky Inspector Clousseau from the Pink Panther (A Shot in the Dark) movie franchise of the 60’s and 70’s is one of the funniest performances ever. His multiple roles from Dr. Strangelove demonstrated his ability to portray the subtlety of a British Commander, the hidden lunacy of a German madman, and the leadership (or lack of such) of a President all with highly intellectual humor that in my opinion was the peak of his comedic and acting skills. What most people may not realize is that Sellers played the role of James Bond 007 in Casino Royale from 1967.

#4 Steve Martin – This wild and crazy guy was actually one of the major iconic heroes for the #1 on my list. His work on SNL was brilliant and helped launch that show to prominence. His all around talent was remarkable. In stand-up, his timing was impeccable.  He had the ability to translate that humor to the big screen and not all great stand up guys can say that.  He could also sing and dance as demonstrated here in my favorite Steve Martin moment (My Little Buttercup) from my favorite Steve Martin movie, The Three Amigos.

#3 Bill Murray – His dry arrogance in movies like Groundhog Day and Kingpin combined with goofy looser humor from movies like Stripes, The Man Who Knew Too Little, and Caddy Shack. To that add his work from SNL as part of the dream team from the classic years and you have one of the greatest comedic actors and skit comedians. Of course he is downright annoying to many people, but he is one of the best in my book.

#2 Bill Cosby – What sets Bill Cosby apart from the others? He was as funny as anyone, yet he was clean. You didn’t hear him use foul language! He was every character on Fat Albert. As a stand-up comedian, he was the king. He ruled TV’s ratings on his self-titled show as Dr. Huckstable. Remember this? And he is truly a genius!

#1 Jim Carrey – What can be said about this talented comedian? He could do stand-up that included physical humor, impressions, and wacky off the wall thought-provoking humor. He could contort his body and face to positions that seem physically impossible. He must be totally insane and brilliant at the same time. He made his big break on Carson, like many comedians, but he had some great work on TV’s “In Living Color” and in movies such as Ace Ventura, The Mask, Liar Liar, and so many other great comedies. He has depth as a serious actor, but that is not the criteria here. He was just plain funny!

So you may ask “Where is Bob Hope? What happened to Rodney Dangerfield? Why didn’t you include Jackie Gleason, Chevy Chase, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, or Jerry Seinfeld? ” They were great comedians, but my answer is simple; you make a list and blog about it! 🙂

Friday’s Greatest Hits

I plan on making this a regular blog entry every Friday where I review some links to news, sports, and some of my favorite reading of the previous 7 days. I was inspired by the quick hits that several other bloggers use and Chris Day‘s Friday Night Blogroll Review.

I loved reading Trav’s Sunday recap with the baptism pics. I wish I could have been there myself.

The Major gave us the heads up on the new stores being added to the Homestead pavilion at Campbell Drive and the Turnpike.

Billy Barue gives his 10 most influential guitarists in an entry titled “Guitar Heroes Part II.

Jesse put up a great picture of Master Blake and Master Diego. These two are going to do something great!

Kelly put up a couple of cute videos starring McKenna and Kourtney. My favorite is Kelly discovering Trav with Blake in the crocodile infested waters of Biscayne Bay.

Marcela made a guest appearance with The Life Pointe Talk Soup this week. She will be gone for the next 3 weeks, so I will have to find someone to fill in for her.

They got it right on one, finally!

The US Supreme Court rules in favor of the individual with regards to the 2nd Amendment RTKBA. With this decision they struck down the DC ban on handguns. This ruling is common sense.

Thought Salad

-Marcela is going to Idaho and Wyoming for almost 3 weeks to see her mom and dad. I will be “baching it” for that period.

-I foresee a couple fishing trips in my future. I believe I will be heading out to either Islamorada or Boynton Beach Monday morning.

-If all goes well, I will have a mess of snapper and grouper, or I will have some dolphin, wahoo, and kingfish.

-Fresno State became the first regional 4 seed to win the CWS ever. That is about the same as a 16 seed in the NCAA basketball tourney winning the championship. They are a true Cinderella story; they almost missed the tournament completely and made great comebacks in the regional, super regional, and CWS.

-Fresno St also hit the cover off the ball. They may have set a record for most homeruns in the CWS.

-Two nights ago, my mom and dad joined Marcela and me for fresh dolphin tacos. Marcela and I drove out to Robert is Here and another local fruit stand to get some fresh tomatoes, jalapeños, cilantro, tomatos, and avocados for the tacos and some mangos to go on the side. We had a blast.

-I don’t what the deal is, but those jals were some of the hottest I have ever had. I actually had to ask Marcela to remove the seeds and membrane for the salsa to cool it down a little.

-My mom and dad made banana icecream that night, too. It was great! We had quite a bit leftover but it’s all gone now.

-We played the Wii for a while after dinner and had a great time. My mom beat my dad in one of the shooting games, but my dad’s pretty good.

-I will be at church alone Sunday. Music should be fun, but I will miss Marcela.

-Something is going on with my internet connection at home. I thing that it is either my DSL modem or my wireless router. The connection just resets every 10 minutes or so.

-The interruptions are not noticeable unless I am playing my Wii online. It boots me out of the game. Just before I kill somebody on Medal of Honor 2.

-Blog traffic has been spiking and dropping just about every other day. It looks like a stock ticker with peaks and valleys. Based on the web search traffic, I assume it is going to take off very soon.

-This blog started at the request of Travis who has been pushing the blogging concept as long as he has been down here in Homestead (from what I can remember).

-I can’t wait to attend the Life Pointe Web 2.0 Seminar this Sunday afternoon. I’m going to call and reserve my spot this morning if there is anything available. I think Chris is going to be there and hopefully Bill, too.

-Maybe we can get Chris to start twittering, too.

Wednesday Quotable

“Never answer an anonymous letter.”
-Yogi Berra

I share the same birthday with Mr. Berra, and I love to read his uncommon sense.

This one is a little dated considering that anonymous letters are a little more feasible these days with emails and internet. But as my brother has said, anonymity on the internet is really a misnomer. Everyone leaves a trail!

Robert is where?

If you need: fruit from the ordinary stuff like strawberries, oranges, apples, bananas, and watermelon to exotic fruits like mango, mamey, jackfruit, star fruit, papaya, sour sop, and guava; fresh produce; home made milkshake with exotic flavors like Mamey or Black Sapote; to feed giant tortoises, emus, goats, turkeys, parrots, and iguanas; experiential knowledge and information about all types of exotic fruits; or just some good conversation about old Homestead… Robert is Here is where you need to go.
This fruit stand opened just before 1960 when Robert was a little boy selling his dad’s produce.  Now it is as famous as anything in the Homestead area.  Sometimes they even have live musicians pumping out great rock and roll hits with a country flare.  If you need information on exotic fruits, Robert will give you a taste of just about anything he has and explain its growing habits.  Much of the fruit and produce is local and some of it is grown on site.

In the back of the produce area, you can get an up close and personal look at giant land tortoises, emus, goats, chickens, turkeys, parrots, iguanas, and water turtles.  The fruit stand will bring out buckets of the old produce to feed the animals.  The emus scare most people, but I haven’t seen anyone get bit… yet.

It is almost a requirement that you grab a milkshake while you are there.  They can make a milkshake out of just about anything.  They advertise their keylime milkshake, but I tried it and didn’t dig it at all.  I do like the strawberry, banana, blackberry, mamey, sapote, and pineapple milkshakes.

Fast Times with Matthew McConaughey

I don’t know why, but this story makes me laugh. When good surfers go bad! Apparently, these gangster surfers were protecting Matthew McConaughey from having his picture taken. This was definitely not Beach Blanket Bingo.

I picture Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High throwing down. “Like dude, hauah, you know, I mean like back off from my totally tubular friend!”

Sunday Life Pointe Talk Soup by Marcela

by marcela johnson

Today’s service was full of surprises. The cafe had the usual caffeinated and decaffeinated options but in addition to different sorts of bagels and varieties of cream cheese, Life Pointers also had the option of choosing scones, muffins, or slices of cake from Starbucks.

In music, Kyle and Rebecca were welcomed into the band along with Jesse, Reina, & Julie to the following songs:

1) There Is Only You
2) Worth It All- led by Reina was very soulful.
3) You Are All I Need-was the communion song and was awe-inspiring.

This Sunday’s video focused on death. Geo, “Ritz” (David), and the other teens of “The Cure” did a great job on the video that dealt with grief and the untimely death of …a pair of socks.

Paul was the preacher in today’s sermon on “The Book of Philippians: The Funk of Death”. Pastor Paul touched on the idea that physical death is an inevitable phase in the cycle of life that is the product of the fall of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden. (Yes, ladies, we need to admit that it’s our fault too.) Pastor Paul dealt with the question: how could the Apostle Paul face death without fear? The answer is not an easy one. Paul’s purpose in life was to magnify God; he did not consider death to be the end of life. In other words, Paul was convinced that God had his back… it didn’t really matter if Paul was killed or not because the message of Jesus Christ would be proclaimed either way. (If Apostle Paul’s life was spared, he could continue preaching the Word of God and if he was condemned to death, he would be considered a martyr and would get to know Jesus on a more personal basis.) Like Apostle Paul, we need to show confidence and trust in God… that He will be our Protector and our Guide because our physical DEATH is only temporary and will lead to everlasting LIFE.

Speaking of trust and confidence in God, Ela Ortega- a faithful member of Life Pointe Church was able to attend church today at the 10:30 a.m. service. Ela is a warrior of God- if you haven’t received a call from Ela to join the Hospitality Team or reminding you of your role to in helping either of the services, you just haven’t seen what Life Pointe is all about.
Just as a side note, in the past year, Ela has lost her loving husband (who survived a kidney transplant up to two years when doctors did not think he would make it), and she is now battling a respiratory disease (among other issues). Even so, Ela keeps smiling, hanging in there, proclaiming God as her one and only Savior. What a brave soul… way to go Ela!

After service, Pastor Travis held a pot-luck picnic and baptism at Homestead Bayfront Park. About 100 Life Pointe attendees showed up to the function. There was plenty of food (hotdogs, chicken, beans, rice, and delicious homemade peach cobbler) to go around. There was definitely some bonding in football and fellowship that took place. Pastor Travis and Pastor Paul baptized about 8 new followers in Christ. (This was interrupted by a male lifeguard who “kindly” asked that we scoot down the beach so that we wouldn’t interrupt the flow of the lifeguard stand. From then on, 3 members of Bayfront Park eyed us military style with appropriate vests and radios. Watch out world, Life Pointe is a dangerous church! ) Anyway, many of Bayfront Park’s attendees were interested in the going on’s of the baptisms… we even had a group of pleasantly intoxicated men clapping every time someone was baptized!

All in all, today’s events were interesting, lively, and brought attention to what we do at Life Pointe!

For another perspective on this Sunday’s Life Pointe experience, check out Chris’s Life Pointe Church Sunday Morning Tossed Salad