Tag: movie

A Night Most Treasured

James HoganLeave a comment

Happy Friday, friends!!! Just a few words as I soon conclude this wonderful Friday evening. Such a peaceful night of rest and joy!! After a long week…oh how wonderful to come home and have a nice dinner and simply enjoy the gifts my God has given me. I am ever so thankful for the mercies of the Lord. Dinner of a nice thick bean soup and a spinach salad(perfect dinner for this cold weather!!)…then finished up watching “State of the Union”, a remarkable and moving movie – Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn starred. Hepburn was a firebrand, paragon of truth and integrity!!! Loved it so much. And now I’m watching the Buffy Thanksgiving episode(“Pangs”) in honour of soon coming holiday. And yes it is unnecessary for me to chronicle this, yet I simply want to offer all thanks to the Lord my God for the simple pleasures He has granted me this night. My love – my heart – is His.

Peace and love, dear friends. Always.

Neon Haze

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Morning, all!! Quick update time. It’s a wonderfully sticky Monday morning here in Houston and as the day slowly lightens, thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to lately as I sip on my peppermint mocha…

In actuality, this weekend was a nice and calm one, which I appreciated much. Friday night, went with Sammy to a random church’s young adult group meeting, where he was engaged to preach. He was much blessed by God and preached mightily on 2 Samuel 11 and the effects sin has on us. Powerful, convicting and encouraging – God be praised! Saturday, I got many random errands done, then went to Natalie and Andrew’s engagement/wedding party in the afternoon, where it was awesome to celebrate their soon marriage!! Sunday was church and afterwards, I went straight home and did various household chores before finally sitting down and having my dinner of leftover lasagna and a tomato salad. And…with my dinner, watched Return of the King. It’d been far too long. And even more fun was me and Maryanne watched it in sync, so we got to text each other random comments back and forth as we watched. Fun times…just wished we lived closer so we could watch in person!!! Alas. Oh! I also was much engaged in writing yesterday afternoon…got a powerful urge to put a story to paper, even though I am now doubting my literary powers and ability to do the themes of this story justice. I’m about 2200 words in and halfway done, but it is most rough so far and I am unsure whether it will get to where it needs to be. We shall see. I need to fly now, but shall leave you the opening…sorry to be such a tease. Love you all, my friends!!

A window stained, spattered with raindrops and grim in both general aura and appearance. Thunder rumbled in the far off distance and the harsh neon lights glared into the window, through the rain streaked plastic and into the cramped room. The room, mean in appearance and dim lit with a single lamp beside the bed, had a singularly utilitarian appearance. A bed, a sink and a mirror. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing more was needed. Nothing less was used.

A Note

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Hello friends…and happy Monday!! I don’t have time to write long, but thought I should dash down a few words here, even though I can’t properly chronicle the weekend! Alas. Still, a good one was had(even though I was busy every night and didn’t quite get in a relaxing rest night like I had planned!) Still, I can only thank and bless my God for all His goodness, for all His love. I was able to sing praises to my God in a hymn-sing that John put on, Friday night…oh so joyous!! And then dinner and good chat with new friends(plus John!). Saturday involved a quality coffee morning and many more conversations at the Maresh’s, followed by watching the new Jason Bourne movie with Julie(it was a good movie…but definitely not up to the standards of the previous three. Oh well. Still awesome seeing Matt Damon be amazing on the big screen!!) Then I had a craving for lasagna so of course…had to go home and make that for dinner!! Julie came over to help me eat it and we watched so many good Olympics events(and had some good chat interspersed!). Saturday night was an excellent Olympics night…Mo Farah taking the gold(again!!) in the 10k – so thrilling, especially as I remembered watching it from my Calsayseat flat four years ago!! – then Michael Phelps dominating in the pool one last time…Sunday, many more fun things happened, but I simply don’t have the time to write about them now!! Sorry for this poorly constructed, somewhat rambling entry, but just wanted to write these things down so that I always point back to them and…remember the goodness of the Lord. Be well, my friends – take courage and live today for the glory of our God and Father!!

Behold the Day

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Hi friends!! Happy Christmas Eve!!! I’m posting a quick entry from Tampa home! I have been meaning to write more this break(I’ve been here for five days now!), but alas, an abundance of good times with family and friends has prevented me. Alas indeed. But no complaints whatsoever! And now I find myself faced with the problem of too much to write about. Well, suppose we shall bounce back to Friday night, shall we? One of my favorite nights of this whole past year, I can confidently assert! Went with a group of friends(had fourteen of us!) to see Handel’s Messiah at Jones Hall in downtown Houston. It was a grand evening with simply wonderful friends. We were pretty snazzily dressed up(if I do say so myself!!) and after we finished our dinner at Bombay’s Pizza, we made our way to the hall and then enjoyed a marvelous few hours hearing and seeing the Houston Symphony perform the Messiah. I may have said this before, so pardon the repetition, but this is my favorite piece of music ever, and every time I hear it…it delights my soul. And hearing it live – oh joy!!! I really wish I could properly convey the feeling at being there, but my skill with words is not sufficient to the task. But hearing God be praised via the words of the Scripture(Isaiah! Malachi! Psalms! Luke! and more!) by so many beautiful voices…oh gorgeous. Just a little piece of heaven. And again, hearing that with some of my dear friends, thinking on the deep and wonderful mysteries of God Almighty, Saviour of my soul…I cannot express my heart. ’tis wonderful.

And now I feel I can’t really get back to writing about the rest of this week…but it’s been an amazing time with the family – Dad, Mom, Laura, Maryanne, Caisson…eating so much delicious food, watching fun movies(Jurassic World – Maryanne’s choice! Alice Adams, a classic Katherine Hepburn movie – Mom’s choice! Star Wars: The Force Awakens – All of our choice!! And if I took time to write a review of that movie now…in all its space-rollicking-adventure glory splashed across the cinema screen…this would be far too long of an entry!). And now it is Christmas Eve, and Dad is resting on the couch, Maryanne’s making her oven-roasted potatoes(lots of them!), and Laura and Caisson are shortly going to be cooking the steak and asparagus…while I laze about and type on this keyboard. And oft-times, I feel so unworthy of all these blessings…my thoughts and emotions whirl about within me in frantic currents and I doubt my place…yet then I think back on what God my Father has given me, and who He is. My Father, my God. My Love. And I rest in His loving arms and I fear no more. All glory be unto Him, forever and ever. Amen and Amen.

Now, time for me to contribute to this Christmas Eve dinner in some fashion. Maybe I’ll do some of the dishes here. Peace, my friends. Peace and love, forever and always.

Rockets

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Evening friends!! It’s a quiet Wednesday night here and all is well. John is chilling here in the living room with me as I watch the Rockets/Clippers playoff game on TV…and check in for my flight tomorrow. Because yes – I am flying home to Tampa tomorrow!!! It’s going to be an epic weekend of awesomeness…starting off with seeing Mom and Dad tomorrow night…then driving up to Gainesville to pick up Laura whereupon we will immediately drive to Orlando for a rocking Nightwish adventure!! And yes, I’ve seen them before(back in Glasgow with Jackie in 2012)…but I’ve always really wanted to see them with Laura. And now(less than two months before she marries Caisson!!) me and her will finally get to see the the beautiful symphonic metal band that is Nightwish…together. And it will be awesome, I do declare. And of course, the best part won’t even be the show, but just all the sweet time I’ll get to hang out with Laura and talk and be together. I do love her so…and still can’t believe my baby sister is soon to be married.

Now, I didn’t quite mean to finish this entry without mentioning some of the events of this past week, as I’ve been running around like a madman. Tonight has been one of my few nights of rest in a long time, and I have been heartily enjoying that. Last week, me and Daniel went to a Needtobreathe concert(much fun and rocking out was had! Needtobreathe live is so good!)…then on Thursday night, me and Daniel went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron(where again, much fun was had, even though somehow we went to a 9:20 showing…terrible idea on a work night, let me tell you…still – an epic comic-book adventure. Well done indeed)…and I’m pretty sure I did more awesome things over the weekend, but it’s been such a long week already that I honestly can’t remember anymore. Hah! And you can probably tell from the rambling nature of this post that I’m a bit tired even now…which means I should probably stop writing. Think I’m going to read some of my church history book and drink my tea. Chase is about to play some Skyrim – so figure I’ll watch that a little as I read! Be well, my friends – think on all that our God has done for us and rejoice. Peace and love – always!!

Agora

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Happy Saturday y’all!! I’m sitting here in Agora coffeehouse in Houston enjoying a beautiful day…and I really have been trying to write something semi-creative, but alas – my muse has fled me(at least for the time being). Anyways, I’ve successfully gotten some other tasks done and so I thought I’d write a quick post here. I woke up a bit later than normal today, but I have a good reason for that…yesterday didn’t get to bed until past one o’clock! That was totally my fault though. Got home about midnight, and then instead of smartly going to bed, I read for an hour. Ah well. My book(current one – Worthing Saga by O.S. Card. Classic) was worth it and I still got enough sleep. Oh and I forgot to explain why I was up so late last night! Me and Daniel went to the movies – met up with a bunch of other people(Matias, Jonathan, et. al…) and then had a time of awesomeness watching Furious 7.

So – I must confess – I’ve never seen any of the previous “Fast and Furious” movies, so I’m a novice to this world, as it were. And it didn’t matter. I much enjoyed!! Was the movie moderately ridiculous, full of physically impossible and logistically ridiculous stunts? Yes. A thousand times yes. Was the movie exhilarating and awesome and just really super fun? A million times yes. Watch the trailer and you’ll get a sense of how ridiculous(ly awesome) this movie is. The characters were all well played, by actors that seem to have a lot of fun just hanging out together. The movie was very well shot, in that all the action and stunt scenes, I could actually follow every bit of it, never being confused by what was on screen. Classic lines of dialogue and great combat scenes and…a lot of heart. That was what maybe surprised me the most. One of the main actors(Paul Walker) died last year in an unrelated car accident, and so this movie is is his final film. And truly, it was a tribute to him in a lot of ways. Movingly so. I actually got close to tears at the end, as they had a scene with Walker’s character and family playing on the beach as the rest of the cast looked on. It was beautiful. So as much as this movie was full of fast cars and big muscles and sweet hand-to-hand combat…it was really a movie about family. And that your truest friends are truly family. And you can’t ever let that go. Good film.

And after – we all just hang out for a while outside the cinema and acted goofy and chatted and enjoyed the beauty of the night. (Actually…there were a ridiculous amount of people there, so it wasn’t that quiet or beautiful. So. Many. People. All there to see F7 too, apparently!!) Eventually it started raining so me and Daniel headed home. But that’s why I didn’t get home ’til midnight. I say it’s a good reason. Don’t dispute me on that.

Now Hotel California is playing in here…it’s really hard not to sing along. Really hard. I have to say, this place is awesome. This has to be the first ever coffeeshop I’ve been in…with a jukebox!! I’m now going to attempt to write a little more…if no piece of poetry shows up here later, you’ll know my muse is indeed hiding well. Peace y’all, have a day of awesomeness.

Passion

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Good evening, friends!

I only have a couple of minutes tonight, as my dinner is almost ready. A bit of a late dinner, but hopefully worth it. Mom’s homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs! And a cucumber salad on the side, for good measure. It’s smelling delicious in here, gotta say. And I have ‘Rudy’ playing right now…one of my favorite movies. “He’s so little!” Love it! We might not all have the most natural talent(be it physical, intellectual or otherwise…), but that’s no barrier to us being used by God. Remember that. Playing football for Notre Dame may be pretty awesome(I wouldn’t know), but serving God is what we live for, my friends. Remember that.

Now, my dinner awaits – spaghetti and meatballs, delish. And a sweet night relaxing in the love of my Lord Jesus. Peace, friends.

Sky of Violet

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Good morning, my friends!! I am very shockingly sitting here at Beans this morning, mocha in hand. Well, actually it’s not in hand, it’s sitting on the table. But you know what I mean! I thought I’d dash off a quick entry before my omelette arrives. Once it gets here, I’ll be much more interested in it and far less excited about writing!

But yes, it’s a Saturday morning and it feels so good to sit here and just rest after a long, weary week. And this morning has already been decently productive, what with getting my car serviced and a shop done at the farmer’s market. So I feel this breakfast is well deserved. And truly, it just is good and proper to rest after a grueling work week. It is good to work, but it is also good to rest.

I possibly stayed up a little too late last night. Was at Christina’s apartment, where a few of us had a fun movie-watching night! I was very proud of the fact that both movies chosen were my contributions. “What About Bob?” YES. And “Inception”. I always forget how intense that one is. Quality. But intense.

And now my omelette has arrived. Possibly I’ll write some later? Possibly. But don’t count on it. Have a most wonderful day, my friends. Peace and love.

Son of Gondor

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Lasagna almost ready to eat and Fellowship of the Ring almost at its conclusion. What a beautiful evening! Every time I see this movie, I’m reminded why it’s one of my favorites. To see the veritable clash between good and evil. Darkness is out there – yet we fight. I just saw one of the most moving scenes in cinema history, the farewell between Aragorn and Boromir. “I would have fought with you, my brother…my captain…my king.” Oh love.

And so with one of my favorite movies winding to its end(Sam and Frodo sailing across the river together!), I just thought I’d post quickly this Saturday evening before I eat my lasagna. All good things come from the Father of lights, and it is Him to whom I offer my thanksgiving this night. Farewell my friends! Now, it’s lasagna time for me. Mmm delicious. Peace and love.

Buffalo Gals

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So – I’ve really been meaning to write a proper Christmas entry, but I’ve been procrastinating dreadfully! Yes, it’s been a simply lovely and most fabulous day here with Dad and Mom and Maryanne and Laura. And yes, I really will write more at a later time(possibly tonight!). But now, it’s family time and we’re about to finish watching It’s a Wonderful Life. Good night, my friends!!

And – Merry Christmas!!!!