The Nellie Spot

Allison and I went to see "The Phantom of the Opera" tonight. I have to admit, I really liked it. I'm a big fan of music and my tastes are pretty diverse. The cinemaphotography of the movie was really spectacular, especially the transitions from current time to the main story in the past.

The vocals were pretty great, too. Emmy Rossum (who plays Christine) is truly remarkable in acting and vocals. The Phantom's voice got on my nerves a bit, but everything else made up for it.

I have wanted to see The Phantom of the Opera (stage production version) for roughly 10 years now. In high school, I went to Germany in an exchange program. I had the opportunity to see a stage production of the Opera in Munich, about 1 hour away from where I was living. It would be in a historic, old European opera house, which would have really had some atmospheric emphasis on the production! Unfortunately, we couldn't make it in time to see all of it, so we decided not to go. :( Instead, I bought the German soundtrack and have listened to the whole opera in a foreign language for 10 years. Now...I didn't speak German all the well, but could understand the language enough to not get killed (which thankfully, it never came to that). I understood about 15% of what the music was saying, so I really didn't have much of a plot-line understanding of the show.

Well! Now that I've heard it in English, it's a freaking GREAT show! I won't go into my emotional stuggles on whether or not I like the Phantom, but suffice it to say that I really like him, not matter what his crimes or flaws.

If you liked Moulin Rouge and Chicago, be warned: Phantom is not like those. It's very much an opera. I liked it and hope many other do, too...but I can see where many will not enjoy it.

If anything, it's worth going to see the cinemaphotography and hear Emmy Rossum sing.

Emma's into Hide & Seek (a really watered down version that is closer to "Chase Me!"). She'll chase after me, then I'll duck around a corner and act like she "found" me. This is the "I FOUND YOU!" look. That is one happy face.

This past Sunday, I went to the Fellowship Student Ministries service to see my cell group guys. Brian Pope spoke about the discipline of fasting and gave an example of his fasting from talk radio. In lieu of his talk radio, he got some sermons in mp3 format and was listening to them instead.

Now I'm a huge fan of my mp3 player (even though it's not an iProduct...it's better!), and I have a 25 minute commute to and from work (total of 50 minutes/day). So, I got inpired (and then it turned into a downright hankering, then into an addiction) to download as many audio sermons as possible to listen to while commuting to work. This isn't a radical change for me, as I usually listen to Christian apologetics and teaching in the car (90.7 in South NWA, 101.5 in North NWA). But I figured it's all good stuff to have and switches up the normal routine.

What I discovered was this: there's a TON of Christian audio sermons out there! And they're all FREE! Here are a few of the sites I've hammered with downloads:

1) John Piper's Desiring God: incredible sermons mainly based on Romans. Reformed pastor.

2) SermonAudio.com: cool stuff from older pastors like Moody, Tozer, Spurgeon, etc.

3) SermonIndex.net: similar to SermonAudio.com.

4) Fellowship of Northwest Arkansas: Murray (and possibly Miller) helped put the audio features on the site, and it is really great. Though it's weird to think that I have my brother-in-law's (Sam Hannon) talks on my mp3 player .

5) Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvery Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA. This guy is incredible! He's one of the founder of Calvary Chapel, a mega church based in California and now all over the place. Calvary Chapel owns CSN (Calvary Satellite Networks) and controls the radio station I listen to all the time in the car (90.7 / 101.5). I just found this list of all his sermons that cover 90% of the Bible!!! It may take me a while to download them all (323 sermons), but I'm making it a life-goal for 2005!

I would highly recommend trying this out for a while. It's amazing how it has changed my attitude throughout the day and fills you things of God instead of John & Jenn in the Morning (though I'm pretty guilty of loving them).

Emma has been really fun to interact with for the past 2 or so months. She's really getting that Nelson personality (scary, but cute in a girl form). She's yelling constantly (her form of talking...us Nelson's have loud voices), walking all over the place, and communicating much better (she can at least point at what she wants now...then yells in case we don't see her pointing).

My favorite thing to do as of late is simply lay on the floor while she's playing with a toy. She'll turn around, smile, then come to me as fast as she can and begin climbing all over me! She'll climb up onto my stomach and just sit there smiling and laughing at me. It's so super fun, words can't describe it! It's nice being a human jungle gym. It's also nice that she feels like I'm fun to hang out with.

The longer I am a parent, the more I realize each day how similar it is to our relationship with God. He longs for us to crawl up on His lap and hang out with Him...to have us cuddle with Him when we're tired and let Him support our weary bodies. It humbles me to think that God has put me in a role that resembles His relationship with me. The unconditional love God has for us isn't that hard to understand when you look into the smiling, tired, or sad eyes of your child.

I have so many new and existing addictions that I'm getting a bit spread thin on quality time to spend on all of them!

My latest addiction is the PGA Tour Fantasy tournament. It's a fantasy league that every other sport has, and this is my first time to do anything like this.

But now I find that I cannot quit checking the latest scores and stats on my golfing team! And apparently, I'm much more competitive than I orginally thought. I've already called a competing friend and razzed him. And it's only like 2 hours into a 4 day event!

Between Xbox, PGA Fantasy, Firefox browser (get it!!!), and soon to be DVR, I'm about out of free time. But what sweet addictions they are. (this is all outside of family, of course...they're my first and primary addiction...my daughter is stinking cute)

We have several friends who have DVRs. Allison and I sit in awe of the capabilities and freedom that DVRs offer. So, we switched!! (happy birthday to us!). The crazy cool thing about all of this: we're getting a crap load more stuff for like $4 more per month! And all this thanks to SBC Bundles! There's a commercial on the radio about comparing what you're spending on Phone, Cell phone, TV, and internet, then comparing that what you would spend if you had all SBC products. It truly is amazing! I'll throw out some random numbers to show you what I'm talking about.

Previously SBC Bundled
TV = $40 (basic extended cable)
Internet $40 (cox high speed)
Land line $50 (SBC All Distance)
Cell phone $80 (Cingular fam plan)
Total Costs = $210 / month

TV = $35 (DISH 60 channels + locals, DVR service!!)
Internet = $27 (DSL Pro Package)
Same land line plan (already on SBC)
Same cell plan + $3 discount (already on Cingular, though Sprint's call are MUCH clearer)
Total Costs = $189 / month

Now I have to admit...I find it INSANE that I'm spending that much money for all that junk. However, if I'm going to be spending money on it already, I might as well spend $20 less per month. And in my perception, I'm getting so much more, mainly in the digital satellite and TiVo services.

Wow...looking over this post, it sure looks like a shameless plug, doesn't it? But man, this is like the Gospel for media junkies!! You just gotta tell others!!

Man...if I could have more life-changing technology things going on right now, I might BUST!

First, Jason Miller starts the whole transition to a freaking MAC! Traitor. And now, with all his talk about how nifty and better-than-Microsoft it is, I'm actually considering a Mac! That shift in my life is revolutionary. If I actually switch camps, several people may just spontaeously combust.

Secondly, the whole Firefox transition. I gotta say...Firefox is freaking sweet. Now I have to blurb out the exact same thing all other Firefox users are saying:

"Why did it take me so long to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox??"

It's stinking amazing...download it now.....NOW! Do it.

Here is Emma's first swing set! She's a super big fan of it. She's still a bit too small for the steep slide, plus she's a bit dainty and doesn't like to touch the grass. But she loves the swing! Putting the thing together is a whole different blog!

Man, if you're ever looking for a job, post your resume on Monster! I have had roughly 20 responses to inteview in the past 2 months! Now most of them are for insurance salesmen positions, which doesn't interest me at all. However, I've had at least 2 serious job interviews in the past 2 months and a third coming up.

The most promising round of interviews was with a company in California doing business with Walmart. Capurro is wanting to build a full sales team dedicated to Walmart. I originally applied for an analyst position, and that interview went extremely well. The next interview with them was with the owners/partners of the company. They were actually interviewing me for the head Walmart team sales position! I told them I didn't think that would be the best position for them or for me (too much stress), but that if the analyst position is still open to give me a call. They said if the analyst position was created, I was first on their list. It would be awesome, since I wouldn't have to move and could work from home...for much more money. I'm still waiting to hear back from them. *fingers crossed*

I have a few other things to blog about, but need some pictures to assist in the beauty of the post. So keep checking back!