Ladies and Gentlemen

Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please welcome Miss Halle Danielle Needham to my extended family. She was born yesterday afternoon to my sister and her husband. I am very excited, but I had really hoped my sister might have her while I was home last week. :) Now I have to wait until Thanksgiving to see her. Alas, I must show patience.

Jane Eyre, again

Okay, I know I have not read the book, so that much is granted. I am speaking only out of ignorance of the book, and a single watching of the movie. But I very strongly stand by what I said earlier as my assessment of the movie. I am open to opinions, but I have yet to see convincing evidence that returning to Mr. Rochester (thanks for the name correction, Deb) was a good decision.

Granted, he may have changed into a softer person that had learned a great deal about life and loss, but Jane did not know that when she went back to him. She went before she even knew that he had changed (any change in Rochester's character was very poorly shown in the movie, by the way).

As for Jane leaving Mr. Rochester the first time, to me it seemed that her decision to leave was because she had just been confronted with Rochester's current wife. That's right folks, he was still married. His wife had gone insane, and he kept her locked up in a tower, never telling Jane that he was married, until it came out at the altar. Then, when they spoke, Rochester was manipulative with Jane, claiming that their love was this great and amazing thing, and that if she really loved him, she would stay. But that love was based on a lie. Jane had been deceived in a terrible way. Sometimes loving someone means leaving them. Jane was certainly right when she left. That was the part of the movie I liked. I just could not believe she returned to such an awful situation. It seemed that Jane just wanted to be needed.

I would be happy to hear a redeeming character trait that Jane was in love with. Something that reveals quality in his character.

But I certainly admit that sometimes a movie just hits me wrong. Just in the wrong mood to like that particular movie.

Entry posted by byscuits at 12:16 PM | Comments (1)

Taxachusetts.

License to Drive

I just got back from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. It wasn't such a bad wait, at only about 35 minutes. I got a bit of the runaround about getting an out of state license converted, but finally got approval from the manager. None of this was much of a surprise to me. DMV's are notorious for absurd waits and abysmal bureaucracy. None of this experience was out of the ordinary, except when the man said, "That'll be ninety dollars," (Yes, that's no typo, there's a niner in there). I looked at him in stunned silence for a few moments, then double-checked the price the man quoted me. His shrugged response was, "Well, this is Massachusetts.".

How right the man is. In Missouri and California, my license was in the $10 range. Massachusetts requires an order of magnitude more cash for a license! I guess I should have expected that kind of a price. Unfortunately, I live in a state where the common man must save just to get enough money just for a simple driver's license. Other states almost consider it a right of the common man, while Massachusetts seems to consider it a right of the elite. This, to me, seems wrong. Not a great and terrible injustice, but just a small one. Guess that's part of why they call this place Taxachusetts. :)

Black and White Robots

I developed my first roll of film last night in my photography class. It's kind of a fun process, but my goodness, it was a long process. It was my first time, granted, but it took me about two hours just to develop a roll of black and white. I chose not to stick around for the 1-2 hours it takes for the poor thing to dry. My appreciation for digital has was greatly increased last night.

Speaking of my education, I decided to take 6.270 this January at MIT. That's the lego robot contest. You and a team of another two peple build and program an autonomous robot out of legos, and it goes head to head against another team's creation. A course 6 (electrical engineering computer science) sophomore in my Next house Bible study (Hi, Chris!) asked me to join his team, and I accepted yesterday. I am really stoked. I had a lot of fun in 2.007 (the mechanical engineering robot contest), and taking 2.007 was a big part of why I went to MIT. I didn't win, but my machine came out quite good. So I really want to do well in this contest. I think the contest is programmed in scheme, so I need to get to learning that language.

Anyone have advice for the contest?

Upgraded Dork Status

As a nerdy sidenote, I recent attained "Excellent Karma" over at Slashdot.org. That means that any of the comments I post are now automagically at a +2 rating.

This is a real geek accomplishment. I hope some of you are able to appreciate that. :)

Entry posted by byscuits at 01:59 PM | Comments (2)

Jane Eyre

I just finished watching the A&E version of Jane Eyre. I cannot believe it. It was an awful story, and I feel lessened for having seen it. I hope it was just the movie, because if the book is this utterly terrible, then I cannot imagine why anyone would like the story. Perhaps I have missed the entire point. I will spoil the story just now, so if any of you don't want to know what happens, skip the next few paragraphs.

The story is about an innocent girl, Jane Eyre. After a very rough childhood, she finds work as a governess in the house of Mr. Rochester. He is a much older man, and uses jealousy and deceit to get her to fall in love with him. When they are at the altar to be married, it comes out that he is already married. His wife is mad, and he tells Jane, "Our love is so great, I was willing to commit bigamy for you!" The next several minutes are filled with such selfish drivel, and finally to my joy, Jane leaves. She travels ceaselessly to get away, and finally collapses after several day's journey.

When she wakes, she finds herself in the house of a brother and sister, close to her own age. She finds work as a teacher in the school, and after several months, the brother tells her of his affection, and asks her to go with him to India as his wife to serve on the mission field. She flatly refuses, hearing the haunting of Mr. Rochester's voice, and runs off.

She makes her place back to the Thornfield manor, and finds it burned to the ground. Upon further discovery, she finds that her beloved Mr. Rochester is indeed not dead, but has only been injured in the fire that killed his mad wife. She then tells him she will never leave his side, and the next thing they have two kids and it all ends.

I hate the story. I hate it. Jane falls in love at an early age with an older man who really has nothing going for him except he is an older man. He is selfish, deceitful, and lies to her. After being blessed to be free of the man, Jane finds another man. He is kind, loves God as she does, unlike the beloved Mr. Rochester. He is young, near to her own age. He is attractive. He sees the strength in her, and wants to marry her.

But she is so blinded by her irresponsible infatuation that she cannot see what is just before her. I hate these kinds of romances. It furthers the idea that you cannot control whom you love, which is a total crock. Romantic love is something you feed. If you feeding it, it will grow, just as the converse is true. It is entirely within your control and your reach. Love is a choice.

I have no patience for a story such as this right now. Silliness. Jane Eyre is a silly girl. Ask me in person what I really think of it.

Did I just miss the point?

(Okay, I was misconfused (yes, I realize that is not a word, Miss English) on the last name. It is not Thornfield, but Rochester. Duly changed).

I will be back in Boston late Sunday night. It will be good to be back to the place really has become home. Missouri has been good, but somewhere along the way, Boston has become my home. The people, the Wilson House, my job: all of it has become home. I miss the people there, and I have really missed church at Grace Street. Unfortunately, I get back so late on Sunday that I will have to miss the second week in a row.

And why am I missing church? Why am I returning home so late that evening? Why, it is the fault of the worst airline, American. I originally had a flight Sunday morning at 6 am, which would give me enough time to get back into Boston, go to church, and rest a little before work on Monday morning. I got a message on my voicemail. It was American, telling me of a "schedule change." When I called to find out what happened, I discovered that they had just decided to cancel the flight. I was now on a later flight in the late afternoon. My other option was to fly out at 6 am on Saturday morning, which was tempting. But I had already made plans to spend time with friends, so this was not an option. Unfortunately, American is the only airline that flies into my hometown, so they are really just about my only choice.

They say the definition of insanity is when someone keeps doing the same stupid thing, expecting a different result than the time before. I must be mad. :)

Listening to Avril Lavigne, I'm With You

isn't anyone tryin to find me
won't somebody come take me home

it's that damn cold night
tryin to figure out this life
won't you
take me by the hand
take me somewhere new
i don't know who you are
but i
i'm with you
i'm with you.

Entry posted by byscuits at 03:15 PM | Comments (8)

going home

my grandmother passed away this morning, so i am going home to missouri for a week. please be praying for my family.

Entry posted by byscuits at 12:57 PM | Comments (1)

Take Me

Take Me - Waterdeep

And their hands aren't gnarled, they're in love with the earth
And they're dying to go there again
We say the essence of life is strong in our youth,
Slowly buried under wrinkles of skin

But there's God in the way that life comes to an end,
In the way that it draws to a close,
In the saying of soul to the house of the skin,
You're too weak now to really oppose

Singing with me
Take me
Take me
Write my name in the most Holy Tome
And when it's my time
To assume the sublime,
Take me to my promised home

Waterdeep has somehow always been there for me. I was listening to this song tonight, and it took me apart. Some of you know that my grandmother is very sick right now. Her husband passed away earlier this summer, and her will is drawing to an end. Please pray for my grandmother and our family during this time.

I wish you could hear the song the way I did tonight.

Entry posted by byscuits at 09:08 PM | Comments (1)

Crazy mad busy

I've been mad crazy busy this past week, working on the launch of the Real Life Boston website. I have been helping out to bring a lot of elements together, and we are still working on adding quite a bit more content. I would love for you all to check it out and post some comments with any feedback you have, as outside perspectives really help. Also this week, we have advertising up in the Red Line trains, in several Green Line T-stops, and even something in the Boston Metro newspaper. We were able to hire a professional graphic designer for the logo, ads, and website design. Very cool.

Today I signed up for a photography class this semester at Mass College of Art. The first meeting is next Tuesday, and I am stoked. It's an introductory black and white film class, so I expect there will be plenty of the composition basics along with film developing. In the past, I have avoided film like the plague, but I think I will learn a lot from the class that will help when shooting digital. I need to pick up a film camera soon...

tlc sent me an article today, written by Derek Webb of Caedmon's Call fame. He talks about the role of Christianity in art and what the church seems to think about art. Webb says:

"...people I know who are Christian artists say, 'Man, we have a mission to cross over and to get into that discussion but they don't want to hear what we have to say. It's 'cause we're Christians.' They talk like they are martyrs. It is not because we are Christians that the world won't listen to us. It is because we make bad art."

Until about middle of high school, I was only allowed to listen to Christian music. When I hit college, I started listening all kinds of new stuff. When my roommate first started playing Smashing Pumkpins, Depeche Mode, and Portishead, I hated them. Thought they were eeeevil. By the start of my sophomore year, I owned music from all three. Once I was forced to give them a chance, I learned that I loved their music. I also learned something else: most Christian music is terrible.

Webb sums up his thoughts with another statement:

"...the Christian life is very literally the process by which we are killed."

I like this guy.

Entry posted by byscuits at 02:34 PM | Comments (2)

Speaking of

I started a new project in early August, and it has been pretty slow since then. I really don't like going into work and having nothing to do, so it wasn't much fun this past month.

But two days ago things kicked back into high gear. I've been able to pick up a lot of new things pretty quickly, which has been exciting. I love having a new project to tackle, so these past couple of days have been a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun, I fly to LA in 5 hours. As I now avoid American Airlines (did I mention they are the worst airline?) like an alleyway in the middle ages, I checked every other airline first. I found a good deal with Jet Blue. I look forward to the six hour flight with DirectTV right at my fingertips. Unfortunately, I will likely be sleeping. I got up 3 hours earlier than normal this morning to do a bit of packing and make it to an early morning meeting. Lots of coffee and sugar in my veins right now. Anywho... here is the flight info for anyone that'll be around. If you want to hang out, give me a call.

There:
09/03/04 - JetBlue #489, Boston -> Long Beach (6:00pm - 9:40pm)

Back again:
09/06/04 - JetBlue #482, Long Beach -> Boston (8:10am - 5:00pm)

Unfortunately, I know a lot of people in LA tend to be out of town for Labor Day. At least I get to be there for church on Sunday.

And speaking of church, this summer I started going to a great little place in Harvard Square called Grace Street. It is the first time since moving to Boston that I actually look forward to church on Sunday! I really love the people there. I finally feel like I have found a place that I can plug in and invest. Since most people won't be around for the holiday this weekend, they decided to cancel church. Honestly, if they hadn't cancelled it, I wouldn't have even considered going out to LA for the weekend. I like it that much. :)

Hope you guys are doing well, and look for some new photos online when I get back.

Entry posted by byscuits at 12:57 PM | Comments (3)