Wedding Pictures

So you can see some great wedding pictures here (as mentioned earlier) or you can see some other pictures here. These are about all of them, I think (this is where I ask Christy if she's nearby 'are these all of them?'." Alas, she's not here.

We also have some good pictures up on Christy's facebook page of our honeymoon trip to Hawaii. If you aren't friends with her, you can search for Christine Johnson Cape or do it from my page or however that works. The honeymoon trip was great. In a nutshell, we flew out early Monday morning and arrived 3pm Hawaii time (9pm Central). Needless to say, jet lag issues for awhile. The next day was relaxing on the beach (beside a rare seal) and snorkeling. The next day was an excursion up to the northern part of the island, along the way which we saw waterfalls, caves, mountains, passed over many one lane bridges until we reached the actual end of the road, a beach. Here we snorkeled and relaxed, it was great. We had about 20 or so huge fish around us at one point. The next day we kayaked, the next day we took a catamaran to the Na Pali coast, which was beautiful. It was so beautiful that Christy and I got seasick and could hardly sit up for it. But we snorkeled here again and I got to see a large sea turtle. The next day we went up to the western side and into the rainiest area of the U.S. It was a sweet drive with gorgeous views, and then we went to Wal-Mart and then home.

Pop Goes My Heart

Okay so it's from a chick flick called "Music and Lyrics" (which is actually pretty funny), but the intro scene should not be deprived from the world. If you know anything about 80s MTV, I hope it blesses you as it's blessed me:

So...

a few things have happened in the last couple of weeks.

One, I got married to the beautiful Christy Cape. She is wonderful. It was a great ceremony and we had a lot of fun at the reception. We were thankful for all of the family and friends that came out and showed support.

Two, we went to Hawaii to the island of Kauai. We have some good stories and pictures that will eventually make it up.

As I struggle with jet lag, I just wanted to get something up. I'll blog more about the wedding and honeymoon this week. In the meantime, you can see some of our wedding pictures at http://erinjohnsonphoto.blogspot.com/2008/11/christy-robbie-married.html.

The Edge

One of the best scenes in a movie ever. Anthony Hopkins and Alex Baldwin are plane wrecked in the woods and a bear is after them. They are now planning on how to stop running and kill the bear. One particular phrase in this scene is awesome and I use it all the time (hint: not the last one)

Expelled

So I just watched the documentary "Expelled." It is about how many scientists, atheists and theists, have been fired from their jobs for bringing up the idea of "Intelligent Design." Their thoughts...that the idea of evolution hasn't been perfected and some of the answers may be found in intelligent design (or found out to be false). It's funny...it's something I've noticed for some time that intelligent theists have been counted non-intelligent for not believing in evolution, I'm glad someone did a movie on it. The movie goes as far as showing the major relation that evolution takes to de-valuing of humankind, even showing it's connection to Hitler, concentration camps, etc. It is a good point, one to investigate further for the average American, but one you can't even discuss if you can't discuss the cons of evolution at all. I don't think that you can't be a theist or God-lover and macro-evolutionist at the same time, I just think it's something that should be able to become calm conversation and discussion and not taboo (like bringing up abortion or capital punishment opinions at the dinner table). Point: it's worth checking out.

I've long considered some of my arguments of things to exist in the arena of what isn't as well as what is. Example, one of my favorite phrases to say is "You are what you are, and you are what you aren't. You can't hide either." So I hate bringing up an argument arguing for what can't be seen. But if we are supposed to have begun evolving around 300 million years ago (wikipedia), and recorded human history is only 6,000 years or so old, what the heck were we doing for the other amount of time? Blink, now blink again, now blink again, written human history was the first blink, now you need to blink, let me bring out the PC calculator, yep you need to blink 50,000 times to similate the human origin. Why is just the last blink recorded? Why have humans just started going nuts...did we spend 100 million years on the wheel and iron to one day (in half a blink) figure out space travel and the iPod?

Expelled trailer in case you've never heard of it before:

Tim vs Dwight

Some of the best Office memories:

I love mice

So this last weekend, starting Friday night, we were upgrading our email server. We hit a few snags but nothing big, and then Saturday night late I had to run into the office to help finish our last big update. There was an issue...the keyboard and mouse stopped working 5 seconds before the screen where we needed it. So we basically spent the entire weekend and today down because of bad programming that won't let me use the keyboard or mouse. Wow.

But right now there's hope, we're pretty close to getting things up, it will just be amazing to see. What should have been about a maximum of a few hours of my time has turned into about 21 so far. Nice. Welcome to the tech world, hope you enjoy it.

Jesus is my friend

Georgia's Rankings

So after this weekend the Georgia Bulldogs drop from 3 to 10 or 11, respectively. Right...Penn State, BYU and Texas Tech are better teams than USC, Florida or Georgia. Georgia State can go undefeated also, maybe they should be ranked up there?

I realize that the beginning of the game looked really, really bad, but they did come back to rally with 11 (41-30). If the game would have been 30-27 and then Bama scored 2 TD's, would the Georgia ranking be higher? I mean, Alabama looked like #1 Overall good, but Georgia didn't become a slouch all of a sudden.

Georgia is not #1 material this year, I was hoping they would be but they are not. They are too young and have too many injuries. 3 freshman on the O-line, that's bad news in the SEC no matter how good they are. Injuries-Knowshon is hopefully only out of the next week, Stafford got hurt, killer LB Ellerbe got hurt, TE Trip Chandler, who isn't that great but is our best TE, is out. Before the game our stud FB Southerland is still not playing FB yet and I believe our best offensive lineman, a junior, is out for the season.

Georgia may surprise, but they are still a good team with tons of talent maturing. I hope Knowshon and Stafford stay because next season would be ridiculous.

History

I love history. Recently I've been reading about early American history in The People's History of the United States, great book. Then I got to the section around the time of the first Presidency and George Washington. Then I got to hear about a slave of his, Oney Judge. Then I thought, wouldn't it be cool to hear her story from someone whose drunk? Then luckily I found it online, phew.

I had tickets to the Super Bowl Jesus!

Simple Weekend

This weekend Christy and I went camping before it gets too cold. It was cold at night still, but less than it would be in a few weeks. The leaves have begun falling and it was very beautiful at William O'Brien Park on the St Croix river. We did some bike riding which was very nice, but one hill particularly wiped us out. While coasting down the hill, my mind and my legs were in a shouting match, one saying "this is so fun" and the other "you idiot." It was a tough go getting up the hill but we're here today, so must have been alright.

We then got up early Sunday morning and went to the Vikings game. It was Christy's first NFL game, as well as Olaf and Amy's (who went with us). It was pretty fun, top row and all (remember those days Jer?). I didn't see high-five guy or short-shorts guy though. I'd love to have a picture of them or a recording of their political arguments with those who came to see the game, but I don't. Until later

In Wedding Reception dance planning...

I thought I'd check out the latest dances. Besides being able to do the African Anteater Ritual, I can also do the following if given enough beer:

Welcome Lucknow!

You thought LuckNow was what I desire in poker when I flop I flop a set and someone stays until the river with the 4-2 of diamonds and hits the flush. Bad joke. But really LuckNow is a city in India that is my first overseas visitor to my blog. I have no idea who it is or why, but welcome! In your honor, I will show everyone where you are from and link to information about LuckNow.

Knowshon

Knowshon Moreno is the running back for the Georgia Bulldogs. He's amazing and so fun to watch. I know Georgia is number 2 overall and has maybe the toughest schedule in the country this year, so going undefeated will be insanely difficult. But this is the truth: any team with Knowshon on the field has a chance. He's that good.

Nice little Vince Carter action...you don't take the chance of hurting your goodies if you know you're not going to make it...

Weddings

This last week I was able to go see my friend Michael and my brother Lan get married in Alabama and Georgia. Both were special in their own way. Michael was able to add his little touch to his wedding (asking the pastor to repeat the first vow because it was too long). And Lan, well, it's Lan, talking about Heather's "sexy eyes" during his vows. Both very good. I can't believe that both are married now, especially Lan.

May God bless them both.

My uncle put me on to this wedding...very different from theirs...

You thought your work environment was bad...

The market is actually located right on the train line. Apparently, market vendors remove their wares and stalls to make way for each passing train and then rapidly re-establish themselves after it has passed. The area is so cramped and packed with goods and equipment that the train carriages actually pass over the top of produce left on the outside of the tracks. Bangkok.

Christian the Lion

These two guys reared this lion from a baby in England but the authorities would not allow them to keep it once it reached maturity so they were forced to give it up, they took it back to Africa and placed it in a wildlife sanctuary, a year later they went to see it and were told it would not remember them...

Him Too

He's Good

MotorWorks

The new 2008 MotorWorks commercial, starring Jake Ladd

Rare Ferrell shows

So I've been looking for some more rare Will Ferrell clips, and I've found some amazing ones. Below is him crashing a live show called Power Lunch, enjoy.

Oh Manny

Thanks for my friend Jer for pointing out this Manny video. It is a remake of the Barry Manilow song "Oh Mandy"

Lil' Brudder

My lil' brudder Lan is getting married in 25 days, wow. He's getting married before me. Of course our entire family almost got married before us...anyway, he's doing well. Has to be stressful (I of course have no stress), so pray for him. Also, here is another lil' brudder clip. The first minute or so explains the rest of it. Enjoy!

Friend of God

So I was thinking about what it takes to be a friend of God. I do not think that once you believe in Christ you are all of a sudden "a friend of God," since that phrase is not thrown around in the Bible and personally I have many acquaintances but good friends are always tough to come by and to keep.

So my first thought directed me to the idea that most people are friends with those that are similar to them. Similar ideas, similar backgrounds, similar approaches to the world, someone who doesn't cause a lot of conflict simply because of their different worldview. Sure, sometimes we have friends who are not a lot like us but I would think the majority are similar to us. Then I applied that to God. A friend of God is someone who is like God and actually wants God to be his/her friend. Why would I want God to be my friend if God is so way different than me? Why would I seek that out, especially if God views poverty, the human condition, politics, homosexuality, the need for urgency, etc differently than I do? (just examples) I would be the one, then, who is not putting forth the effort in the relationship as I am choosing who I want to be.

But then I thought about Jesus. Jesus was labeled "a friend of sinners." Hmm...how can a friend of sinners be a friend of God? Maybe it isn't fully about human personality traits and opinions that make someone a friend of God or not. I think Jesus was a friend of sinners because he honestly cared for them. How can he, being so holy and so different? I think he valued and cared for each person (maybe minus those who refused to stop being hypocrites - Pharisees, for example), and maybe he saw God's image in each of them (take a second to think about that). This gives me hope, as I can be a friend of God one day and not have to be exactly like God (yes!, I don't think I'm going to acheive that). Boy, there are a million thoughts on where to go on from here.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

And we made Him in our image...

I think one of the reasons why we have a hard time "spending time" with God is that we have made God to look like us and let's be honest, sometimes who wants to spend time with us? For example, let's say that you aren't the best friend. When a friend of yours is in need, you know that sometimes you're there for them and sometimes, well, something just comes up or you just feel weak and choose not to help them out. This may be from a ton of psychological or sociological reasons (or genetical if you're into genetics), your mom bathed you too long or didn't hug you enough, etc. No matter the reason, it seems that we cannot picture Someone who is not like us. Someone who has the ability to be faithful. Someone who has the ability to love you no matter what. Someone who doesn't judge you for your appearance or background. Someone who is very encouraging and thinks your idea is good.

I tell you what, I want to be around that person! Problem is, I have trouble not picturing God like myself as well. How many times have we said "Well, if I was God I would have..." when we saw that flood or typhoon on TV. In other words, in all of your wisdom God should be like...such and such...

Here's our problem, God is not like such and such. We have an inner voice I believe that tells us what God is like (made in the image of God, Holy Spirit, conscience) and we have the Bible. I have a tough time with some things the Bible is absolute on, but I have to allow it to speak about who its God is and allow that to transform my imagined God. This isn't so easy. Man, it would be sweet to not have a God like me!

Private Eyes

Per request, I have found a clip of a Don Knotts and Tim Conway classic "Private Eyes." It is a family classic. Maybe you will be able to enjoy some of the random and dry humor, hey, that's my style. The movie was filmed at the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, NC which I visited around 6th grade and got to see the secret passages a little bit first hand. The killer wrote a bunch of mystery notes that are great when read, examples:

I said when I died, that I'd come back. If you believe in ghosts, you're on the right track. I'm out of the grave, and roaming the moores. If you want to be safe, you better lock all the windows and screens. Also, In this house, it's hard to survive. Some'll be dead, who are now alive. Mr. Uwatsum is gone, 'cause he knew too much. Bye for now, but rest assured we'll keep in constant contact with each other. Also, If Jock could talk, he'd give you a clue. But now that he's dead, what can you do? He deserved what he got, I don't regret it a bit. By the way, you're standing in bull ca-ca.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0tpAcItmdSo Someone was able to put together a few highlights, you'll want to starting at about 1:10 in.

There is a time to cry...

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?' The father, who despite having a heart condition, says 'Yes'.
They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together.
One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.'
To which, his father said 'Yes'.
For those who didn't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island .
Father and son went on to complete the race together.

Neil!

So Christy and I were able to go to another concert we normally would not have bought tickets for...Neil Diamond. The only thing I knew about Neil Diamond was his song "Coming to America" and that Will Ferrell had played him on occasion. We went with Olaf and Amy (Christy's roommate and her fiance) and Heather and Charlie. It only took about 4 songs and Olaf and I were ready to go. It was definitely a crowd that we weren't a part of (we did not have elbow patches on our coats). Olaf did provide a bit of humor throughout though. The 3rd song in, Neil, who is very much an old school performer, said, "I'm lonely here up on the stage, without you up here" (or something to that affect) and then proceeded to say "I'm here tonight...to make love to you..." At that moment Olaf immediately stands up and leaves. Good stuff. I would not give you a video to watch of Neil, because that's just wrong and a little like making your GF watch Sanford and Son with you, so here's Ferrell doing Neil in a quick clip.

ibeatyou.com

So I just found this new web site and it's awesome. Maybe you've heard of it but it's ibeatyou.com and it's all about competitions online. There is some hilarious videos there, well worth checking out regularly. And if you upload something in a competition or start one, let me know! Here's an example from "The worst trampoline fall" competition. To see the funniest one, click the up button on the bottom right and choose number 1, the one with Craig Kilborn:

The New Church

What if instead of labeling ourselves as Christians doctrinally we labeled ourselves as those who love Jesus? Imagine a church based on the love of God and not whether or not you believe a certain doctrine. Imagine...you can be an active member if you have differing opinions on free will or predestination, homosexuality, abortion, etc. You get to worship right beside someone who strongly disagrees with you.

I hate to break it to you, but this is the only way our generation is going to work. We are not only dealing with a generation shift, we are dealing with a paradigm shift. We're talking a whole new way of thinking that is going on in the, say, 50 and younger crowd. We need modern churches for those who are modern, and postmodern churches for, let's say, everyone that is being born basically. But we have way too few.

I met a man at Solomon's Porch who said the reason he just started going there was because he believed differently than those around him, but he felt welcome. My heart lifted. That's the right spirit. I believe quite strongly in the need for discipleship and biblical and theological teaching, but in the end I believe that it is more important that we are brothers and sisters.

More will be coming on this thought I can tell you that.

My Father Figure

So Mark and I got to go see George Michael in concert last week for free. Trust me, if it wasn't for it being for free we wouldn't have gone but we both had a good time. We had two extra tickets which we sold to the first scalper we saw for $20 each. Later we found out that he resold them for $75 and the average ticket price was $180-240! Whoops...well, you live and you learn...but we ate for free and didn't have to pay for parking, a very free and fun night. Other than being scared to be in the bathroom for a long time it was fun.

Man Weekend

So this weekend was Man Weekend. Women love to laugh when I tell them I'm going to "Man Weekend," but that's what it is. Mark is the ringleader who got 6 of us together to go up to Duluth and hang out for the weekend. It was a whole lot of fun. We went camping on Saturday afternoon but left early after it rained on us for a few hours. The best was when one of the fellas put this huge log into the nearby small river and rode it down the river holding on for dear life (it wasn't that dangerous). It was amazingly funny. All of the guys there called me Big Lanny since they knew Lan from the last man weekend. They also called me Big Robbie, Little Lanny, and by the end I had to answer to simply Lanny. We returned early on Sunday and I was able to catch the end of Christy's United Way sponsored event "Live United." The band The Last Goodnight was playing (song "Pictures of You"), and Christy got to know the lead singer because of PR stuff. We almost threw down when he reached to give her a hug, jk, but seriously...

Google Analytics

Very cool site. It allows you to see who is coming to your site, their operating system and internet browser, what page people look at, where they start, where they leave, average time on the site, etc. They also let you see where people are from who come to your site. Looks to me like Minnesota people have checked it out, Kristi, Lan and Mom in Georgia, Jer in Texas and Chris and maybe Michael (?) in Alabama.



ps-I'm in IT. I love this kind of stuff.

Scoundrels

So yesterday was my birthday and Christy and I spent the evening celebrating. It was a low key evening, what the doctor called for. I had been wanting to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels again for some time so Christy and I rented it and grabbed some ice cream. That movie is amazing. I'd like to leave you a little clip. It is about 2 con artists trying to get $50,000 out of the American Soap Queen. Steve Martin is faking being paralyzed from the waist down and Michael Caine is, well, you'll see. It gets really good about 3:00 in, fyi.

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

by Marianne Williamson, quoted by Nelson Mandela

There are two pieces of literature that highly encourage me outside of the Bible, the Practice of the presence of God by Brother Lawrence and this simple paragraph. How true, and how adultish we are, when we allow fear to control us. I think it's about what you get used to. Once used to living in fear and shrinking, it is hard to imagine anything else. But once you get used to the light, it is hard to imagine anything else. Lord, help us to approach the light boldly.

You're the Best (Around)

I heard this song in my iTunes and decided to see if the scene from Karate Kid was on youtube and wala! it was. Karate Kid makes me think of this babysitter Lan and I used to go to when we were younger. They had it on VHS and this one kid would watch it all the time. He ate bananas and drank Coke nonstop and because of that he always had some mouth rash. Very strange.

Manny being Manny

My good friend Chris Susi sent this link to me, it's too good not to post. MLB will probably take it down as they are nazis about anything baseball related not bing on their site, so enjoy it while it lasts!

First Blog

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I am starting a new blog. I have never done one of these before for personal use, and to be honest am a little excited about it. It is also strange to me to say "Hey, read what I have to say" and then think that people may actually check it out and keep up with it. Well let's see if that happens.

The blog will have a number of random thoughts on it as I normally think about a number of random things throughout the day.

I will begin with a short and concise life update. I am living and working in Minneapolis, just south of downtown. I have a condo there (which is up for sale, if you're looking). I am now engaged to Christy Johnson, a fabulous young woman who puts up with my shenanigans and can create her own. She is from a town called Alexandria which is about 2 hours northwest of the Twin Cities and works in PR at United Way. She is very much a blessing in my life and I look forward to life with her. Recently we just finished up co-facilitating a meal group (small group) at Upper Room in Edina, MN. I coach a softball for YouthWorks (where I work) on Monday nights and Christy and I play mixed doubles tennis on Wednesday nights. It is now summer here which means, in Minnesota, you better go nuts and do all of the outside things you can before winter comes back, so we spending some time camping and riding bikes as well.

Kristi, my sister, just turned 22, which makes me feel old. She is in her 14th year of college (jk Kris) and moving to Rome, GA to go to school in August. But hopefully she comes back to the Atlanta area sometime soon after that. She has a BF as well who I hear is a swell guy.

Lan (aka Lanyard, Lanwanita, Lenny or Jonathan) is also engaged. We decided to be single for about 28-31 years and then get engaged on the same weekend. I don't know if there is a "normal" Cape out there. He just bought a home and is now working at careerbuilders.com. He's a good kid.

Then there is Spencer. Spencer was born with the part of the brain missing that is required to play cards well (jk Spence). He's still in high school and is driving. Wow. He's also a good kid (as far as I know). He also enjoys getting whipped in ping pong by his oldest brother and father.

Okay, that's it for this post. I will come back with some more topics soon. And please post comments to them! I'd love to see who is reading and if it has any bearing on anything in anyone's life whatsoever.

Robbie