March 8th, 2010
Before I even write this review, let me get a few truths out of the way:
- I love the story of Alice in Wonderland (the original)
- I like most of Tim Burton’s work. It’s dark and quirky, and I like that.
- I love Johnny Depp.
When I found out that a (new) live version of Alice in Wonderland was coming out, I was excited. There have been a few remakes in the past, and they haven’t been all that amazing. When I found out that Tim Burton was directing this new version, I was both excited and worried. Tim Burton has a way of taking a good story and making it weird, which is fine because that’s just his style. Sometimes his dark, quirkiness makes a movie awesome (Big Fish) and sometimes it makes a movie fall short (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
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January 24th, 2010
A lot of thought went into picking the name of our first baby. There’s a lot of back-story to the name we picked: Nathaniel Mac Switzer.
As soon as we found out that we were going to have a baby, we bought a book of 60,000 baby names. Over the course of a few week, Julie and I took turns looking through the book, selecting both boy and girls names that we liked. To keep from being influenced by each others choices, I built a quick little web application where we could enter the names we liked. It would then match up the names we both agreed on, and throw out the names that we didn’t agree on.
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January 18th, 2010
I’ve never done a Monday Mind Dump, but the more I read others, the more I want to do one. During the week, I think a lot of random things that don’t warrant an entire blog. The Mind Dumps will be a good way for me to get those tidbits out of my head!
So, here’s my first mind dump ever:
- Due dates come and due dates go
- Dave Ramsey says no
- Life with basic cable isn’t bad, and is $40 cheaper
- I want to hang out with Michael Cera
- I totally mistook Pat Robertson for Robert Pattinson, and couldn’t figure out why everyone was mad at the vampire
- The devastation in Haiti if heart-wrenching, but it’s amazing that people are praying for and donating money to Haiti more than ever before
- Particle Man is still an awesome song
- I am very thankful for YouVersion.com… even if some of the site doesn’t work for me, what they do is amazing and I totally respect the YouVersion team
- By buying things on sale and using coupons, we bought $135 for $77, saving $58!!
- When someone says they don’t believe in God, Pastor Mark Michael says, “Tell me about the God you don’t believe in.” When they describe an unloving, unjust God, he responds, “I don’t believe in that God either.” I love that.
- I found my lost running shorts
- … so I ran!
- Prayer works… I know this because my budget says so.
- “You’re a cheerio… I need you to be a bagel.”
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January 7th, 2010
I just wrote an entire blog entry about my resolutions for 2010. About thirty seconds ago, I deleted the entire thing.
Every January 1st, I come up with a list of goals for the upcoming year. In 2009, it was to read fifty books. I read fifty-one. This year, I actually came up with six goals. But I just threw all of them out the window. Just now. I just came up with a new resolution.
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December 29th, 2009
On January 1, 2009, I made a resolution to read 50 books in 2009. On December 28th, I reached my goal. Below is the list of all of the books that I read and my rating. If you’d like to read my reviews of the books, you can see them at http://bit.ly/6kwVLh.
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November 10th, 2009
Dear Manager,
It has been brought to my attention that since I have started working for this company, I have failed to take any of my smoke breaks. At first I thought, “But, I do not smoke. Why would a non-smoker take a smoke break?” And then from the depths of my soul, I suddenly knew the answer… “Because it is my right to take that break!”
Now, I have no desire to start the unfortunate habit of smoking, as it leads to health issues and early death. However, because this company allows for it’s employees to take smoke breaks (if they so choose), logic tells me that I (as a non-smoker) should also be granted permission to not work for approximately the amount of time of daily smoke breaks.
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October 14th, 2009
Me: Did you go to Teddy Roosevelt’s house when you were in New York?
Julie: I went to the gift shop, but not in the house.
Me: Oh, I went in the house.
Julie: In New York?
Me: … no, the traveling exhibit. Yeah, of course in New York.
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August 10th, 2009
I have been a loyal listener to Pandora for years. I even upgraded to their Pandora One service that allows you to “thumbs down” more songs per day and have no ads. Additionally, you get a standalone player so you don’t have to listen in your browser. I’ve people tell me multiple times to switch to last.fm, but I figured that Pandora had never done me wrong so why change?
I finally found my reason to change.
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July 15th, 2009
Between living in Texas for 6 years and living in Iowa for 7 years, I have a basic understanding of how farming works. When you plow a field, you prepare it for seeds… which then grows into food. So basically, you plow to prepare the field for greater things.
If there’s one thing I’ve been learning recently, it’s that I need God more than I like to admit. I just liked the idea that I could control my own life. It’s my life, not God’s. But the truth is, I’ve seen what happens in my life when I pray and put my full faith in God, and also what happens when I don’t. And the latter is not a pretty sight.
I have no clue what my future holds, but I believe that everything that happens in my life is happening to prepare me for greater things. God is my farmer, and I want Him to plow me.
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July 8th, 2009
Ever since Julie got pregnant, people have been giving us a load of information. People tell us to have a completely natural birth because the medicine they give to induce you is bad for the baby. Or that we should have an NT scan to test for Downs Syndrome so we can be prepared for it. We’ve gotten so much information that it’s hard to even know what to do, so we just do as much research as possible and try to make our best educated decisions based on what we feel is best for us and our child.
One thing we heard a lot was that Julie should take Omega-3 fish oil pills because it helps the baby’s brain and heart development. After talking to a midwife at the doctor’s office where we go, we learned that it’s the DHA in the fish oil pills that is good for brain and heart development. In addition to being healthy for the baby, DHA pills are a (supposedly) good supplement that help prevent Alzheimer’s and cancer.
You can get DHA by taking fish oil pills, but be warned… there is a horrible side-effect: burping the flavor of fish. The pill doesn’t make you burp, but when you do burp, you can taste the fish. However, you can buy a DHA supplement that is not made from fish oil.
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