I’ve been following a few new blogs and wanted to link to them here. Check them out if they sound interesting, and definitely let me know what new blogs you’re reading.

The Search Brett is a Christian thinker and writer of pop culture. Also an unashamed fan of Coldplay… I wanted to write this (I, too, think their new album is fantastic), but he wrote it better.

Joe Posnanski is a sports writer from K.C. who tackles everything from Death Cab to Tiger Woods to BBQ.

Biscuet One of the teachers serving with my organization (whom I met briefly back in February), “Biscuet” loves people, China and blogging. Check him out if you love any of those things, too.

I’m not a particularly good “journal” blogger, which I’m okay with–but I did promise pictures from our fishing trip a couple of weeks back. Turns out I’m also not a very good fisherman. That minnow was the biggest thing I pulled out of the water all day–as you can see from Andy and I’s empty gunny sack. (He at least had seasickness to blame for his zero fish.) As you can see, though, I still had a fun time (and lots of other gunny sacks were quite full–so I came home with some fresh fish)–and I have Tanya (a fun friend and a great photographer–in red) to thank for these photos. You can see more of her fishing photos, if you’re interested, from her album here. Thanks, T!

Highlights of the trip: awesome fresh seafood, including a lobster dinner the night before, fish tacos right after we landed back in Ensenada, and a fishy feast a few nights later at Gary’s (he grilled, we ate). Also, my awesome sea legs. A few folks got sick even with motion sickness medicine and I rocked it medicine-free and upchuck-free. If I’d actually caught anything, I might be tempted to think I’d missed my calling.

If you’ve read Moneyball, you recognize the name Paul DePodesta. DePodesta is a former assistant to Billy Beane of the Oakland A’s, served and was fired as the GM of the Dodgers, and now serves as an assistant to Kevin Towers of the Padres. In Michael Lewis’ awesome baseball book, DePodesta is portrayed as “the computer guy,” the stat-cruncher, the new-school baseball person.

And the cool thing is, DePodesta is now blogging. I thought this was great just in general–to get such unparalleled insight into the way a baseball team is run and decisions are made–and it moved from great to must-read over the past few days as DePodesta has given a look inside the thinking behind and execution of San Diego’s draft: preparation and picks. With the Pens season over my focus is now squarely on baseball, and DePodesta’s blog is fueling my baseball nerdiness like nothing else. If you similarly love baseball and blogs, check out Paul DePodesta’s.

I wear my heart on my sleeve–if you know me, you know this. And the past few weeks my heart has been tied closely to the fortunes of Pittsburgh’s hockey team. It cheered me up a bit when this morning I got this “sympathy card” from two of my friends from work:

In inter-office mail no less. And, the card was from the batch of miscellaneous greeting cards that sit behind my cubicle. Bri came down this morning to look through the cards (as she does every so often) and asks, “Jon Dodd, are there any sympathy cards here?” Another thing that’s always been true about me: I have ridiculous/awesome friends.

Let’s see, also, today at work we had a Root Beer Tasting–and yes, that’s what you think it is. Over our lunchbreak me and 15 other co-workers sampled a dozen-and-a-half root beers, from diet to generic to craft-brewed. It seems I have the palate of the masses, as my top three root beers were also the consensus top three: Jackson Hole’s “Buckin’ Root Beer” and a couple of names you might recognize, Mug and Shasta (yup, I was shocked, too). Mug was actually my favorite–scored so for its nice blend of sweetness and rootness.

And I have a new theory about my scores lining up exactly with the winning point-getters (we assigned point values to every root beer and came up with a consensus top three), and how this might relate to the inner struggle I had a few months ago when I first discovered Stuff White People Like. All of the sudden there was this list in front of me that chronicled many of the things I do indeed like. I felt exposed. I felt embarrassed. But most of all (and worst of all for white people), I felt wildly un-original.

Today, though, I wonder if instead of me being the ultimate conformist (as I believed/feared after seeing certain aspects of myself chronicled at SWPL–”but to take it to the pinnacle of whiteness, you need to put the Apple sticker in the rear window of your Prius, Jetta, BMW, Subaru 4WD Station Wagon or Audi”–I’m not kidding when I say this rocked me to the core), I’m just amazingly normal. Average. Typical. And yes, perhaps this = boring.

Maybe I’m just the kind of guy who knows what root beer people like, not because they like it, but because I like it. Blind taste test like it. Anyway, this is all a bit of silliness ignoring a much larger, deeper and broader discussion which I hope we can have sometime–but not tonight. I’ve got another day of work in the morning (which means I need to get to sleep)–doubtful it’ll be as ridiculous as today’s.

I’m leaving this afternoon for Ensenada in Baja California (Mexico) to do some deep sea fishing tomorrow. This means two things: I’ll be eating amazing seafood all weekend (lobster tonight and fish tacos–made with the fish we catch–tomorrow) and I’ll be missing the LOST finale tonight. This will be my second trip into Mexico since I’ve lived in Southern California, and my first to actually eat any Mexican food while I’m there (the first was a quick one-day trip to an orphanage in Tijuana, and we packed our own lunches). Awesomely enough, this trip is with folks from my office–it’s an annual trip, and unfortunately, this will be the last annual trip since an excursion from Colorado would be a little harder to pull off.

Other random facts: In four months I’ll be living and working in Fort Collins. Four months!

If I could travel to the future, LOST: The Complete Series would be the first FutureDVD I’d buy. It’ll be hard for me to miss the finale tonight, but at least I’ll be away from spoilers, eating lobster and catching tons of fish in the Pacific Ocean. Anything less awesome would not have pulled me away.

Hope your weekend is just as stellar as I hope mine to be! Stories and photos Saturday or soon after.

My expectations for the film were all over the board over the course of past few months, but thankfully they were pretty tempered by the time I actually saw the film last Thursday (and then again today). Buoyed by mostly positive reviews from Rotten Tomatoes (it sits at 78%), I hoped for a good movie but realized it wouldn’t be the return of Raiders of the Last Ark (which I’d give a 9 or 9.5). I was realistically hoping for something in between Temple of Doom (6 or 6.5, I’d say) and The Last Crusade (8 ) and came out pretty satisfied. Without giving anything too specific away (because I know not everyone’s seen it), I’ll try to explain what I liked and didn’t like about the return of Indiana Jones.

First, what I didn’t like:

The “nostalgia,” as in the hokey, let’s wrap up all the missing years of Indy’s life and make it end in a nice neat package. I didn’t and don’t care much what happened to Indy in the missing years of his “life,” and I felt like the film tried to fill me in on too much. Just tell a good story for the two hours we do see him and forget about the fact that you should’ve made the movie 10 years ago.

The dialogue. Really Saturday morning cartoon at times… I felt as if I was watching “Where In the World is Carmen San Diego” during some of the slower-moving, let’s explain the crystal skull legend/figure out the clues parts. Indy had a few too many “Indy” lines at for me, as well as too much “professor.” His character came off as a caricature (of Indiana Jones, mind you) at times. These first two dislikes mainly came together in the scenes with Marion. Too forced. Didn’t care. Moving on.

The “realism.” Sure it’s a movie. Sure it’s an Indiana Jones movie. But three waterfalls?? Three? And she drove the car off the cliff onto a tree and drove it into the river? And he survived a freaking nuclear explosion??? I’m sorry, but George Lucas thinking a shot of Indiana in front of a mushroom cloud would be really cool did not justify putting it into the movie. It’s a shame that at multiple moments (other than the ones I just mentioned) I cringed and wished they just hadn’t done that.

The story line/the MacGuffin. I really hated everything about the crystal skull–from the time they spent explaining it to its powers to what it really was, plus the whole ending. Yes, Indy movies always have a bit of “hocus pocus” and somebody’s face always melts, but (spoiler alert) aliens? I guess I should’ve known with Lucas and Spielberg, but I didn’t like it for an Indy movie. Maybe you thought it was cool and in that case you probably liked the movie a lot more than I did.

Here’s what I did like:

The chase scenes. Indy movies are known for their chase scenes, and the jungle chase joined the ranks of the best–right there with the tank and sidecar scenes in Last Crusade and the original jeep chase in Raiders. Spielberg can always put together a good chase scene, and you should seriously see the movie for this if nothing else. Awesome stuff (if you can ignore the fact that right after the sweet sword duel Mutt swings through trees with monkeys).

The supporting cast. Shia LaBeouf made a good to great sidekick and Cate Blanchett a scary mind-reading Russian chick. I didn’t care much for the return of Kerry Allen, as I got into above, and I would’ve rather seen Salah make an appearance, but overall a good rag-tag group of people who needed Indy’s help at some point during the movie and most likely yelled his name (my definition of an Indy sidekick). Per the final scene, if LaBeouf picks up the hat and the series, I’d be okay with that.

Harrison Ford. This is where my biggest doubts lay previously, because obviously it would be a crappy Indy movie with a geriatric Dr. Jones. But even at 65, Ford could throw and take a punch, and he looked pretty darn good doing it. He was a completely believable aging Indy, and he really made the movie for me.

The hat. Whether it’s River Phoenix or Harrison Ford, anytime anyone puts on the Indy hat, I love it. I would’ve seen this movie if it showed up with a 15%, so I’m glad the critics and I agreed that it’s much better than that. And since I’m revealing all my Indy ratings (I meant to do a whole post on the first three before this one came out), I’ll give Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a 7. A solid send-off for our hero, and a decent summer movie.

A list of what I “accomplished” over my great Memorial Day weekend:

Welcomed Ashley and Brandon, meal at In ‘n Out

Saw Indiana Jones (review to come, maybe)

Visited the San Diego Zoo

Dinner in downtown SD, the Gaslamp Quarter (cool area near the ballpark)

About 6 innings of a Padres-Reds game at Petco Park, complete with rain delay

Ocean kayaked in La Jolla (seriously amazing)

Walked along SD’s pier district, toured a U.S. Coast Guard boat

Drove through Point Loma, dinner and watched the sunset + a couple periods of the Pens game in Ocean Beach

Sunday, amazing Thai food in Pasadena + Pinkberry (of course)

Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica

Disneyland and California Adventure on Monday

Known to most as Brandon and Ashley Zangus, my best bud from high school/college and his awesome wife are in town for the weekend and I’m pretty stoked to be hosting them in Southern California! It’s Brandon’s first time to the Golden State and Ashley’s second (first as an adult) and we have a full lineup of awesomeness ahead of us:

Today they took my car out to the desert and Joshua Tree National Park, which should be really cool. Tonight we’ll hit up Pasadena, Pinkberry, and hopefully Indiana Jones!

Tomorrow I’m taking the day off work and we’re heading down to San Diego for the zoo, the beach, snorkeling, kayaking perhaps, checking out the city (which I hear is awesome), and if we can convince Ashley: a Padres game.

This, of course, will spill into Saturday, and we’ll head back to L.A. in the evening for some more fun times (Santa Monica, most likely).

Sunday will be church (Brandon has mentioned Rick Warren’s), some more L.A. sightseeing and, of course, the Getty, all before they fly out on the red-eye.

They’ve already had their first In-n-Out burgers and there will be lots more delicious food to come. I’ll be posting pictures, updating our adventures on Twitter and telling you any ridiculous situations Zeke gets himself into (and you know there will be something).

Peace out.

At 2:28 p.m. Beijing time today (which was 11:28 p.m. last night here in L.A.–I finally figured that out), all of China paused for three minutes to remember and grieve for those lost in last week’s deadly earthquake. The loss of life is expected to reach 50,000 souls.

First, Joann recommends a few places to give and places to read more. Check that out, and do consider giving. If you don’t know me well, I lived for a year in Beijing and work for a company that sends Christian English teachers to Asia. God has given me a deep love for the Chinese people and it saddens me beyond words to see the loss of life in China reported over this past week, especially knowing how many of those people did not know Christ. Similarly, it’s heart-breaking to hear about the three minutes of mourning in a country that has no base for suffering. No knowledge that there is a good God in control of all things.

On a different level, it’s absolutely mindboggling for me to think of the entire nation of China stopping, pausing, and being silent. My memories of Asia will always be of a mass of people moving and living–more often than not, noisily. I can hardly remember any quiet moments in China–even parks in China play Kenny G through their loudspeakers. The amount of people everywhere is something I still struggle to explain to people, so a moment of silence (three minutes-worth) across the nation is quite a thing. This only serves to continue to impress upon me the magnitude of what happened in China last week–especially in the minds and hearts of Chinese people.

Among my American friends who live and teach in China, a few poignantly shared their thoughts and impressions of the events of eariler today. I’ll share their names and words, but won’t link to their posts (though they are all linked to just to the right). First, Katherine:

2:28 pm today. The discordant note of all the taxis horns mixing together throughout the neighborhood was impossible to ignore. The sound was harsh, uncomfortable, and emitted a mood akin to loud wailing. This was our indicator to stop what we were doing, to stand and to remember what took place just one week ago.

I was in the middle of my language lesson, racking my brain trying to remember the characters I hadn’t studied nearly enough. The book was put aside. My language tutors and I stood up and gazed out my window. They bowed their heads; grief etched on their faces. Echoing in the mournful wail of taxi horns I could almost hear the question of the week, why?

Three minutes passed. Lessons resumed. Taxis drove off. Life continued.

Life with a more somber color. Television entertainment canceled. Student entertainment activities canceled. Flags half mast. A cloud of grief, briefly punctuated by moments of joy as one more impossible survivor is removed from the rubble. Today, a 61 year old woman. Buried for a week. A flash of hope in a sea of despair.

But life continues. One student comments, this makes me feel weak and small. Another comments on how Chinese people depend on themselves, but now they are faced with the reality that they are not in control. I hear the faint whisper, now, yes, even now, I’m tilling the soil.

Valerie:

When 1.3 billion people go silent, the silence is deafening. I have some updates to share on the situation here.

With more bodies discovered, the confirmed death toll rose to 32,476 and the injured numbered more than 220,000 as of today. A 6.0 aftershock hit again on Sunday and more people died and were injured in the region of Sichuan. 

I read somewhere today that the magnitude of the earthquake is equivalent to 790 nuclear bombs. That is so much more intense than I can imagine. 

Something I realized yesterday that I hadn’t thought of yet was how tragic this has been for families in the South of China. Most families here only have one child. Several schools collapsed because of the quake so I can only imagine how many children died in because of this. These parents must be experiencing incredible amounts of grief over losing their only child.

There is still a lot of grieving happening here as rescue crews continue to clean up the affected areas. Another emotion is starting to emerge though- anger. Parents are asking why the schools collapsed so easily- why were they not built better? People are asking what the government will do to help people rebuild their lives. And mourners are wondering why something so terrible happened.

And finally, JP again:

The observance began today with nearly a billion people stopping at 2:28pm to observe 3 minutes of silence.  Sirens blared.  Drivers stopped their cars and blared their horns.  Everywhere people bowed their heads in honor and remembrance. I decided that the place I wanted to be at 2:28 was Tiananmen Square, the closest thing that an atheist state has to a sacred space.  There were thousands who had the same idea.  At about 2:20, the loudspeakers started directing people to face the flag, which is now flying at half-mast (something I’ve never seen in my 20+ years in China) and prepare for the moment of silence.  At exactly 2:28pm the sirens went off, and the thousands of cars and buses on ChangAn Avenue came to a halt and started blaring their horns.  It was both moving and eerie.  I bowed my head and said a prayer for mercy and comfort for the afflicted.  When the 3 minute observance was finished, people just stood around wondering what to do next.  Wanting to demonstrate their solidarity with the victims, some students in the crowd started chanting ZHONGGUO JIAYOU (China! Go!).  The crowds joined them and soon there were thousands marching around the square, waving flags and chanting.

Reading over those accounts again as I put together this blog post, it hits me again that China has nothing to rally around besides the strength of its people to overcome. To move on. There are no answers to the why Valerie poses. To go, press on, fight through the pain, to jia you (the same chant overheard at a tug of war competition, for example) is their best response. There is no one to look to besides those around you–maybe your leaders or the collective strength of a nation–but we know that these things are fleeting. I’ve prayed often for China that after the intense swell of patriotism the Olympics provide that the people of China will not look to their own greatness, but to learn that God is great. And now, even more so after the events of this past week, that He is good. And that He loves with the perfect love of a Father. It’s hard to believe and to trust that God is in control when 50,000 people lose their lives in an earthquake, but it’s so much harder to believe that He is good.

But God is good. He is good even when you’re grieving for a friend buried and never found alive, a cousin, a parent, grandparent dead, a sibling, or your only child lost when a school collapses on top of him. But in those moments of pain beyond anything I want to imagine, that’s when we must learn to say, “God is enough.”

This is what I pray for China: that they would come to know God, that He is real, the He is good, and that He is enough. Enough even for the grief of a nation 1.3 billion strong.