My Top 10 Movies for 2008

On this site you can see the Australian Box Office takings for 2008. Here’s my top 10 from this list.

1. Quantum of Solace – everything I’d hoped and more!
2. Kung Fu Panda – funny, heart warming, action packed and fun!
3. Australia – amazing, thought provoking, epic
4. Dark Knight – phenomenal acting and plot
5. Iron Man – stacks of fun!
6. Juno – incredible acting… and Allison Janney!
7. The Bucket List – pulled my heart strings and made me laugh!
8. Body of Lies – incredible plot, drew me in, captivating
9. WALL.E – for storyline and CGI depth and creativity
10. Wanted – action, bullets and fun

Others I also enjoyed were Get Smart, Sex & The City, American Gangster, Step Up 2 The Streets, Charlie Wilson’s War and Eagle Eye.

Worst movies I saw in 2008 were Fools Gold, What Happens in Vegas and Four Holidays (it was ok!).

I still want to see Street Kings, The Bank Job, Madagascar 2 and In Bruges!

What are the best movies you saw in 08?  What didn’t you like?

Christmas Day Car Trouble

So on Christmas Day the Chapman family was travelling to Sydney on the freeway when the car quickly overheated, a light came on and a beeping noise was heard. 20 seconds later the car lost power and I had to find a place to pull over very quickly.

Opening the bonnet we noticed some steam coming from the engine (not a surprise – I was thinking a hose had come loose) but when the NRMA turned up he mentioned one of our Welch plugs on the side of the engine had corroded. He proved it by filling up our radiator overflow with water then we watched it pour out of the side of the engine, several litres ending up on the road very quickly!

We were stuck… about 10kms from the end of the Freeway to Sydney. We’d have to get the car towed. Traffic was a problem though. We’d already waited about 45 minutes in the car with the kids and no A/C! What an adventure!!

Ben and Glenn ended up picking us up (and presents and the kids new bikes!) which was awesome. The tow-truck showed up only 20 minutes later and we went to a petrol station in Wahroonga with a workshop.

THEN I noticed they were opening on 5th January. Not good! That’d mean no car for about 2 weeks plus we are on holidays on 3rd. The driver made a couple of phone calls then gave me the option of going to Hornsby where a workshop could look at it on Monday and we might get it back by Tuesday! GOOD NEWS!

So that’s what happened, just in case anyone was after any more info. It was a BIG day. We ended up staying at Ben and Yvette’s in Sydney overnight then Marg and Al rescued us yesterday. It was a huge couple of days and we’re thoroughly exhausted!

Christmas was worth it though. The time with family was priceless, a wonderful (yet mildly chaotic) time. I love Christmas!

Don’t Wait For The Magic

‘Magic Happens’ was the New Age sticker response to the profanity laden comment handed out liberally and regularly by the average Joe here in Oz. You know what I mean (‘#$% Happens’)

But what I’m finding wherever I go is that PEOPLE ACTUALLY BELIEVE IT! Even today while talking to a few people I discovered their brief elation at the remote prospect that suddenly the smallest piece of magic was going to drop in their lap and bring untold amounts of serious, real deal, actual blessing!

Can we PLEASE get out of this mentality?! Can all our hopes start to rest on something a little more significant? A little more substantial? Solid? Surely our experience in the past hasn’t led us to ACTUALLY believe that hoping for a tiny piece of magic is going to radically transform our day, our sales targets, our marriage, our inner world? Surely we’ve been let down by vain hopes enough to look for something deeper?

Apparently not.

I think that if we have nothing to base our hope on or if we lack any level of true hope, we’ll attach hope to anything that might bring some level of relief or peace. We’ll even do it with a totally unsubstantiated, utterly ridiculous basis. For this poor guy I ran into today, my brief spruik had the potential to lift his business’ sagging afternoon and bring about the retail version of the 2nd Coming.

Let’s not put our hope in random occurrences lifting us out of the depth of personal hell, marital pain, business/financial turmoil. Instead, trust God and pray that through faithfulness, understanding and some real, actual, powerful help from heaven, that things are going to turn around for the better. Our faith must be in the God who works all things together for good, who promises never to leave us nor forsake us, who promises to bring us through to completion and who has a prospering plan for us… not in some random act of randomness to lift our dreary day/life out of the pit.

Slow Down!

A massive step for me recently was to hear God tell me to slow down and then to actually start doing it. I’m a fast paced kinda guy. I get an idea and I want it implemented yesterday and the results showing today already! I normally hate slowing down.

But now that I’ve done it I’m actually starting to enjoy it. When the 50km/hr zones were introduced in most residential areas here in Newcastle I was adamant that I wasn’t going to abide by them (Romans 13 then hit that on the head!). 50 was too slow. There was no way I could do it. Very soon, Beck challenged my perspective on it. “Think of it as a nice relaxing, casual drive instead” she said. Taking on that view changed the whole thing! Now 50 zones have a pleasant almost holiday feel to them!

Our life can change for the better just by slowing down. By learning how to be faithful in the small things we’ll inevitably rise into bigger and better things… in every area. In your walk with God, don’t think you need to read 3 chapters a day to learn something. Just slow down, take it easy and let God speak to you. Even a few verses a day can change your life. The point is to be growing and establishing your foundation, your planting in God much much deeper.

Sit. Stop. Read. Journal. Pray. Listen. Grow.

Favourite Sci-Fi Movie?

So tonight I hired out Blade Runner and Total Recall as I had never seen them and Beck’s away for a couple of nights at Everywoman.

It’s hard to define my top 5 movies of all time but I can probably list my top 5 Sci Fi movies (not including hero movies like Iron Man)

1. The Matrix
2. The Fifth Element
3. Transformers
4. Equilibrium
5. WALL.E

Some others worthy of mention I think are T3, Independance Day, Wanted, Dark City, Minority Report and Demolition Man!

Here’s the top 50 Sci Fi movies rated at IMDB.com

What are your top 5 Sci-Fi films? Here’s a pretty good list to get you going… and my first poll!!!!

Greed hits Aussie economy

Hans Redeker head of foreign exchange at Europe’s biggest investment bank has made several accurate predictions about Australia’s economy in recent history and makes another sharp prediction in this article.

Are you worried about Australia’s economy?

What about faith?  Do you trust God to provide for you even when the economy is under severe pressure?

How can we be people who’s faith grows in times like these?

I trust that God allows these things for a reason.  Plus the people of God need to be praying for our leaders!

Have a read of the article and post your comments.

Love & Connecting

We have a mandate to spread God’s news around and help people come across the line of faith into the kingdom of God. This is called the Great Commission. However, this mandate is only possible when combined with the Great Commandment which is to love God (with all our heart, mind, soul & strength) and love those around us as ourselves (Mark 12:28-34).

Love is our calling. It is our distinctive. With God’s love in our hearts (Romans 5:5) we are unlike any other organisation in the world. We are the people of God with the heart of God called to love Him and others.

Love is our reputation. Jesus said that our love for one another (in the church) would cause people outside the church to know that we are his disciples… essentially that people would see Jesus in us. The world should know that Christians are people who love more than any other thing.

Love is our attraction. God’s love is the most powerful, attractive force in the world. No one can resist unconditional love. We love others and give to them not to gain love in return but to show people the power of God’s love. Jesus even told us to use our money to win friends so that they might see God’s love in us and together we’d be welcomed into heaven (Luke 16:9).

Go and love some people and show them God’s love inside you!

I love my kids

I know kids can be hard but parents need to keep thinking of the good times and feelings our kids bring us.

This weekend Beck and the kids were at Crescent Head at our sister in laws 30th weekend away.  They had a great time at the beach, checking out rock pools, riding their bikes and watching whales.

As they were coming home last night Beck said to the boys, ‘Ok boys, say goodbye to the beach’.  Jed and Tom were in our car (Ethan was with Beck’s parents) and Jed says, ‘Goodbye beach, goodbye Aunty Nat’ then Thomas says, ‘Goodbye cruel world.’

Where does he get this stuff?!!   Very amusing!

Quote Unquote

Said this the other day:
“Being pentecostal is like being with Telstra… it’s going to cost you more but the service is excellent!’

What amusing or poignant quotes have you heard recently?

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And now for something completely different…