Between Christmas, travels, and being sick the last few days, it’s been quite a while since I wrote anything. Rather than giving you pages and pages of dribble to read though, I’ll just summarize a bunch of the random thoughts that have been running through my head for the last few weeks.

Charlie Bartlet

While laying around the house sick yesterday, I watched Charlie Bartlet which I’ve had on my Netflix queue (along with about 50 other movies) for a while. It’s about Charlie Bartlet (tada!) an affluent high school student who makes friends at his new school by becoming an amateur psychologist/drug dealer specializing in anti-depressants and stimulants. Billed as a comedy, it is genuinely funny and most of the acting (Robert Downy Jr and Kat Dennings especially) is decent, there are a couple problems I had with the movie. Namely, that while the message in the end (be yourself, world be damned) is good, the excessive use of drugs without medical supervision is treated as more of a comedic device than the felony it actually is.  In the end, it’s worth a few good laughs but Varsity Blues and Grease are far better movies about what being in high school is like.

Gaza

Wow, what a mess. I would describe myself as generally pro-Israel but the Israelies are quickly eroding their moral high ground in their fight against Hamas. To be fair, Hamas isn’t doing anything to help their own cause in giving reason for Israel to continue their offensives. But as the death toll continues to mount, sooner or later Israel will run out of the political capitol and friends in Washington they need to stave off foreign intervention from the UN or Arab League.

Mariner Baseball

Mariner fans have quickly gone from despair to optimism about the 2009 seasons and beyond as new GM Jack Z-somethingsomething has moved to quickly rebuild the farm system destroyed in the disastrous Erik Bedard trade and move the club from a strict scouting oriented organization to one which gives equal time to scouts and stat heads. The fact that he and new manager Don Wakamatsu are talking about the importance of team defense is a massive improvement over the last group who stressed chemistry. Now, if we could just sign Griffey to a cheap farewell tour contract we can really have a party!

Grad School

While I still haven’t received the actual letter (seriously? USPS, fail!) I have heard from the Admissions people at Northwest University that I’ve been accepted to the International Care and Community Development program. If you read my blog, you probably already know this because I know most of you (but maybe not, shout out to anyone new!), but since I realize I haven’t written anything here yet, I thought I probably should. The plan right now is that I will move back in with my parents in Edmonds and start school in the Fall. Hopefully between now and then I will be able to find a job that pays somewhat decent wages and ideally at a non-profit that does international relief work. My long term goal is to find ways to help missionaries and aid workers tell the stories of the people they work with.

5D Mk II

Hopefully after I get my tax return and a stimulus check (though I hear rumors the package includes just tax cuts, no checks like last year) and continued savings I will be able to go forward with my plan to buy the aptly named “Jesus camera.” While $2700 is quite a bit of quid to drop on a camera, when you consider the fact I could easily spend $1500 on a first gen 5D and another $2000-3000 on a good HD camcorder, it’s actually quite a good deal. And while the 720p D90 Nikon came out to much fan fair and then fizzled somewhat, the 5D Mk II seems to have pro shooters drooling all over themselves. And who can blame them with the quality of the demo footage shot by guys like Vincent LaForet.  I could always keep waiting for whatever Red has up their sleeves with their Digital Still and Motion Camera (aka DSMC) but while that will likely be an equally good value, it will probably end up more in the $5000+ range, which is definitely out of my budget.

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Anyway, that’s most of what I’ve been up to in the last few weeks. I had a great Christmas with the fam back in Seattle in the snow and a pretty anti-climactic New Years back here at Mount Hermon. I’m off to make a stop at Safeway and then figure out what I want to eat for dinner since I had a late lunch. Later!

Filed under: life, photography by Jonathan