Are you playing as Alliance or Horde?  Which server are you on?  What type of character did you roll?

Reason I ask is 'cause I'm on a ten day free trial of WoW and want to see if we can meet up.  Let me know.  If you don't get this soon enough, by my standards, I'll just probably call you.

Hi Janine - Whoo Hoot time again.

1.  Have reached our limit with our first month of Broadband and have another 5 days to go but the speed is still speedy and faster than dial up.

2.  Aaron passed his power point presentation and at a farewell meeting at school last night Andrew got told by Aarons teacher just how well he is doing this year.  We have heard it before but its still nice to hear it directly from her without going to a parent/teacher meeting.  The presentation was all about lung cancer and he had some rather disgusting graphics to go with it.

3.  Went aquajogging and didn't die.  Just huffed and puffed my way round and losing my voice.  But at least the arms and legs were working.

4.  Alexia got more NCEA credits in both science and maths.  She is doing so well this year and it has given her a real confidence boost.

5.  My friend Heidi has a new blog - check it out here.

6.  New sketch up at Little Shop of Sketches and here is my take on it this week.

En esta temporada los personajes, la isla, los otros, y la gente de Widmore han cerrado algunas líneas de relato y a su vez han abierto otras.

RESUMEN (traducido al español por Gaviota (RM)):

En los flashforwards, los Oceanic Six - Jack Shephard, Kate Austin, Sayid Jarrah, Sun-Hwa Kwon, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes y el bebé de Claire Litterton, Aaron, llegan a Honolulú en donde son recibidos por los padres de Sun, la madre de Jack, y los padres de Hugo. En la conferencia de prensa, los Oceanic Six dan una historia falsa a numerosos reporteros de todo el mundo. Saliendo de la conferencia, Sayid se reúne afuera con Noor Abed "Nadia" Jazeem, su antigua novia. Tiempo después, Sun visita a su padre en Corea y le dice que él es uno de los culpables de la muerte de Jin, su esposo, y en venganza, utiliza la compensación que le otorga Oceanic Airlines para comprar una parte importante de las acciones de su empresa. En Estados Unidos, los padres de Hurley, le organizan una fiesta de cumpleaños sorpresa a su hijo y le regalan un Camaro antiguo. Hugo está feliz con su regalo hasta que descubre que el odómetro muestra los Números, los cuáles le ocasionan un ataque de pánico y escapa corriendo. En el flashforward final, Jack da un discurso en el funeral en memoria de su padre, Christian Shephard. La madre de Claire, Carole Litterton, le confiesa a Jack que Claire es su media hermana.

En la isla, Jack y Kate siguen la señal del teléfono que arrojó desde el helicóptero Frank Lapidus. En el camino se encuentran a James "Sawyer" Ford, Aaron y a Miles Straume; Kate toma al bebé y a Miles de regreso a la isla. Jack y Sawyer se encuentran con Lapidus, quien ha sido esposado al helicóptero; están a punto de irse cuando deciden rescatar a Hurley de los mercenarios. Mientras tanto, Sayid regresa a la playa en una balsa justo cuando Kate regresa. Sayid y Kate van por Jack y Sawyer pero son capturados por Richard Alpert y los Otros. Daniel Faraday empieza a transportar gente de la isla al barco; Sun, Jin, Aaron y otros tres sobrevivientes llegan al barco, para descubrir una gran cantidad de explosivos C4 abordo.

En su afán de mover la isla, Benjamin Linus, John Locke y Hurley llegan a la estación Orquídea, de la Iniciativa Dharma, que está encubierta entre un invernadero. Ben envía a Locke a la parte "real" de la estación y se entrega a Martin Keamy y a los mercenarios, que habían llegado previamente. Ben no está preocupado ya que él "siempre tiene un plan".

Jack y Sawyer van a la Orquídea en dónde se reunen con Hurley y Locke. Jack y Locke discuten sobre la isla y John le suplica a Shephard que no se vaya porque no ha completado su misión en la misma. Cuando Jack lo rechaza, entonces le dice tiene que mentir sobre la isla en cuanto se vayan para protegerla. Mientras tanto Keamy, los mercenarios y su prisionero Ben, regresan al helicóptero. Kate, Sayid y los Otros atacan a los mercenarios, a quienes matan, excepto a Keamy, quien finge estar muerto. Los Otros intercambian a Ben y permiten que Kate y Sayid abandonen la isla en el helicóptero. Ben va a la Orquídea, en donde le dice a Jack que se vaya lo más pronto posible, y toma un elevador con Locke.

Dentro de la cámara subterránea, Ben, molesto por las preguntas de Locke, le dice que vea el vídeo explicativo de la Orquídea. En lo que Locke lo mira, Ben pone todos los artículos metálicos que encuentra dentro de una cápsula, cosa que consterna a Locke porque el vídeo explica que no se debe de hacer. El vídeo comienza a discutir sobre el viaje en el tiempo y la videocassetera se descompone. Locke de nuevo le pregunta a Ben y este último no le responde nada. En eso Keamy entra a la Orquídea y le dice a Locke que si él muere, la bomba en el barco explotará porque el detonador se activará si el monitor que lleva deja de detectar su ritmo cardiaco.

Ben, enfurecido por la muerte de Alex, mata a Keamy sin remordimiento alguno por los que están en el barco. Ben le dice a Locke que sea el líder de los Otros, y le indica dónde puede encontrarlos. Se despiden y los Otros dan la bienvenida a casa a Locke.

Ben sella la cápsula dónde ha colocado los artículos metálicos y la enciende, generando un agujero en la parte trasera del compartimento. Después de ponerse una chaqueta, Ben baja por el agujero y llega a una cámara congelada, y descendiendo, se hiere un brazo. Después da vueltas a una rueda de metal, para iniciar el proceso de mover la isla. Cuanto termina de rotarla, suspirando y aparentemente arrepentido de su acción, una luz blanca envuelve a la isla. (En el episodio de The Shape of Things to Come, Ben aparece en el desierto del Sahara vistiendo esa chaqueta y con el brazo herido).

Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, Hurley y Frank Lapidus abandonan la isla en el helicóptero, pero descubren una fuga de combustible, ocasionada por la balacera que tuvieron los mercenarios y los Otros. Para aligerar la carga del helicóptero, Sawyer salta al mar, no sin antes susurrarle algo a Kate en el oído y besarla. El helicóptero alcanza a llegar al barco, cargarle combustible, arreglar la fuga, recoger a Desmond, Sun y Aaron e irse antes de que explote, aparentemente matando a Michael, Jin y al resto de la tripulación. Antes de la explosión, Christian Shephard se le aparece a Michael diciéndole "ya te puedes ir". Daniel, quien está llevando un grupo de gente de la isla al barco, se da la vuelta. Sawyer regresa nadando a la isla, en donde encuentra a Juliet tomando ron, viendo tristemente el humo causado por la explosión del barco.

La gente del helicóptero decide regresar a la isla, pero en lo que se acercan, ven que la isla desaparece enmedio de una luz blanca. No teniendo en dónde aterrizar, se quedan sin combustible y son forzados a saltar al mar. Estando en la balsa inflable del helicóptero, Hurley comenta que Locke tuvo éxito moviendo la isla. Jack se molesta y le dice que no está de acuerdo. Por la noche, son encontrados por un barco propiedad de Penélope Widmore. Jack les dice a los sobrevivientes que deberán mentir acerca de lo que pasó en la isla para proteger a los que se quedaron. Desmond y Penny al fin se reúnen. Todos están de acuerdo en mentir y hacen un plan para que los Oceanic Six lleguen a una pequeña isla de Indonesia con una historia sobre cómo sobrevivieron después del accidente aéreo. Se despiden de Desmond y Frank y llegan a la isla de Mumbata, a unas 3,000 millas de dónde fueron encontrados.

En los flashforwards, Kate, Jack y Walt comentan ser visitados por Jeremy Bentham, el hombre a cuyo funeral asiste Jack. En Londres, Sun se encuentra con Charles Widmore y le dice que tienen intereses en común. Sayid mata a un tipo en el manicomio y convence a Hurley a irse a un lugar seguro... no sin antes darle jaquemate en un juego de ajedrez imaginario con el fallecido Mr. Eko (pobre gordito, lo perdimos con tantos eventos). Kate tiene un sueño en dónde Claire le dice que no lleve de regreso a Aaron a la isla. En el flashforward final, Jack regresa a la funeraria en donde se confronta con Ben, que dice que la isla no permitirá que Jack regrese sin todos los que salieron de ella, incluyendo al difunto John Locke quien supuestamente ha estado contactando a los Oceanic Six con el alias de Jeremy Bentham.

¿Cuáles son sus teorías, mis queridos fanáticos?

MINI RESUMEN EN VÍDEO:

Sobre el pectoral:

Será cuadrado y doblado, de un palmo de ancho y un palmo de largo, lo guarnecerás de engastes de pedrería, poniendo las piedras en cuatro filas: en la primera fila un sardio, un topacio y una esmeralda; en la segunda fila, un rubí, un zafiro y un diamante; en la tercera fila, un jacinto, un ágata y una amatista; en la cuarta fila, un crisólito, un ónice y un jaspe; todos engastados en oro. Las piedras corresponderán a los nombres de los hijos de Israel, conforme a las doce tribus. Y llevará Aarón los nombres de los hijos de Israel en el pectoral del juicio sobre su corazón. Y pondrás en el pectoral del juicio Urim y Tumim para que estén sobre el corazón de Aarón cuando entre delante de Jehová; y llevará siempre Aarón el juicio de los hijos de Israel sobre su corazón delante de Jehová. Éxodo 28:29-30

Psalm 29:2 "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name."

God is worth our time, our efforts, our best, our minds, our hearts, our bodies, and our all.  Today's church has reduced this to something very strange that is called "worship", but resembles that of a Saturday night program on the Las Vegas strip.  The church has so diluted "worship" that true worship seems strange to most people.  The "seekers" certainly do not know what true worship is, because in these Emerging or similar churches true "worship" has never existed.

If you are at all concerned about the about truly honoring God in "worth-ship" worship, then read on.

In Leviticus 10:3 "Then Moses said to Aaron, 'This is that the Lord spoke saying, 'I will be sanctified in them that come near Me, and before all the people I will be glorified...then Aaron held his peace.'"

This was what Moses told Aaron after Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu were struck down by God in the temple.  Why did God strike the two upstanding young men to their death?  They entered the temple and worshiped with "strange fire".  The sin these two committed according to all we find in scripture is that they offered upon the burning alter "strange fire".  THe command was that the alter would burn constantly without going out...the same fire all the time.  Now, in Exodus 30:9 we see that they were forbidden from offering strange incense, but nothing concerning "strange fire".  Could it have been the strange incense that created the strange fire?  The claim is they brought the proper incense to the fire, but the fire was not right.

God had never warned these two men nor can we find anything concerning this prior to this account.  God simply made His judgement known on the spot when the "strange fire" emerges from the temple.  What could this strange fire have been I have often wondered.  Is God this specific about worship towards Him that He will kill someone for worshipping Him in a wrong way?  Is this Old Testament account obsolete with the ushering in of the New Testament?  What does God think about the so called "worship" that goes on in many churches today?  What is true worship anyway?  Is God really this serious about how we worship Him?  If God an orderly God or does He just allow us the freedom to worship Him however we see fit?

God has told us here in the Old Testament that "I will be sanctified..."  The Greek form of this is "hallowed" which is "holy".  He alone is to be worshiped.  He is to be worshiped correctly, not by any means we humans think we want to worship Him.  He is not immused by the entertainment styles of worship today.  He is not amused at all in the entertainment musicial worship of today's churches.   So, how are we to worship as to not create this "strange fire" in the prescence of God Almighty?  We need to be very careful in our quest to be relevant in church services.  Creating worship services that are "user friendly" or "seeker friendly" is not biblical from what I can find.

"I will be sanctified."  This means that God will have His people demean themselves and carry themselves so as to hold forth their acknowledgement of His holiness, so that by their  carriage God may appear to be a holy God.  If we are not willing to sanctify God with our worship, if we are not willing to make God's name appear to be holy, and if we are holding back His glory due Him, then God says He will demean us and carry Himself towards us so that by His actions He will make it very clear what a holy God He really is.  God is not willing that we go through life living unholy lives while supposedly worshipping Him as well. 

I have heard it often put this way, "He will be glorified in our life or He will be glorified in our death..either way He will be glorified."

God is sanctified by the holiness of His people in their actions and worship towards Him by holding forth the glory of God's holiness.  Remember that the saints of God snactify the Lord in their hearts by fearing God as a holy God with reverence to Him as a holy God. 

God also sanctifies Himself in ways of judgement on those who do not want to sanctify His holiness or His name in holiness.  Read Ezekiel 28:22 as God speaks.  God wants His people to draw near to Him which is far better, but He will draw near to us as well in order for His sanctification to be fulfilled.

Now, dealing with worship in church these days we must realize that we are there to honor a most holy and righteous God.  We are not there to feel better!  We are not there to worship in whatever manner we fill we can!  We are not there to let loose and be ourselves!  When at worship we are there to lift up the holy name of God, Elohim and Adonai.  We are to approach the throne of God in holy reverence with the highest fearful respect that God requires and deserves.  God is not to be mocked, yet many thinking they are worshiping God are merely mocking the name of Christ with the entertaining games, rock n roll music, and flipent ways of worship.  Music is not exclusive to worship.

You can worship in praise music, you can certainly worship in hymns, you can worship with only the message of God presented by the pastor, you can worship simply in prayer.  Music is not the only act of worship.  This seems to be an issue with churches today as the music must take up an hour of the service, then leave about 15 minutes for a very surface topical message that does little to sustain the listener for more than a one hour lunch on Sunday. 

Something everyone needs to understand is that God killer two upstanding young men that were the sons of Aaron and Nephews of Moses for worshipping with a "Strange Fire"...what would we think if God treated those worshipping in the church today this way?  We have the Word of God to stand firm upon.  We do not have to wonder what direction we are to take.  We do not have to wonder what the truth is.  We can rest upon the truth that is found in the Holy Bible from our youth into eternity.

Be very careful presenting ourselves before God in holy worship to Him.  Although Aaron's sons came with the right incense to present to God, but it was the strange fire that God was not accepted by God.  Worship is not to be altered to be more seeker friendly folks.  Worship is about God not the worshiper per say.  Worship is our expression of bringing holiness to the name of God because He is worthy.

Each week we can go to church to hear glorious music, sing glorious music, and hear a wonderful message.  Is it near the same "routine" each week?  That is perfectly fine.  There is nothing wrong with it being similiar week in and week out. 

Worship:

-Music

-Instruments

-Expository message each week

-Glorious Special music in service

-Focus on God not seekers or believers

Draw  near to God and He will draw near to you.  Worship in truth-worship in faith!

-Scott Bailey 2008

Hey everyone:)

So, last night was a new episode of "The Next Food Network Star." I don't know about you guys, but I had a good time watching it. So, in this episode it was quite the deal. There was actually a lot of people that I would have sent home last night, but nonetheless we now have five finalist. It was a fun night last night and there was a guest judge. It was Iron Chef Cat Cora. I really like her a lot. Although she is a perfectionist as a chef, she seems like a very nice person and that is a plus.

Alright, so for the first challenge all six contestants were given a basket. Inside the basket was six ingredients and they were told that they not only had to make a dish out of it, but they also had to describe it to the camera. That is actually a little harder than it seems. So, everyone went to work making their dish and at the same time trying to make up what they were going to say about their dishes. I don't know about you guys, but Aaron's shortcake looked really, really, really good. The twist was that once they made their dish Cat Cora had them switch places in front of dishes and told them that not only did they have to describe a dish, but that they had to describe another person's dish.

Shane did really good talking about the flavors and really giving the home audience a way to taste the food. He was the one that won that challenge. Aaron didn't do so hot, because spent about 10 seconds of his time tasting the dish. That would not be cool with the home viewer. Jennifer did terribly poor, because she kept saying "what is this?" Not the best thing to say to an audience. Plus, she didn't even know what the food was. Not a great idea.

Then came the second challenge. It teams of two they are supposed to take a dish that takes a really long time to make and make it accessible to the home viewer by creating a version of it in 45 minutes. Shane and Kelsey picked the beef wellington and then Shane designated the other two dishes to the other parties. That chicken stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside a turkey thing was absolutely huge and I feared for Lisa and Jennifer. They then had to present it to the judges and a board of editors from "Bon Apetit" magazine. The award for winning this challenge was that they become the featured recipe in the next issue of "Bon Apetit."

Adam and Aaron were up first. I don't think that I would want to be in a team with Adam. He has a problem cooking food. He was cooking bone in chicken that would take way more than 45 minutes and then decides during the last 20 minutes that it is not such a great idea so he begins cooking the fillets. The problem is that their plating looked so awful. I mean it was so sloppy.

Lisa and Jennifer just do not go together. I mean they don't. Lisa is a perfectionist and Jennifer hardly knows about food. They were doing just fine and half way through cooking, Jennifer tried to open the apricot juice for her side dish and begins tapping it on the counter to open it, when the glass and everything explodes on the grill. If you have ever cooked you know that you have to throw out everything on the grill including Lisa's Duck comfit. It was awful, but Lisa was very nice about it although upset. As you can imagine, it didn't go over well with the judges and they thought the turkey was bland and needed a sauce (also Jennifer's fault).

Now comes Shane and Kelsey who won the challenge. They did a very good job. The only thing really bad about the whole thing was the plating. The colors were definitely not that appealing with each other. They did a great job though. They had the pastry, beef, and beautiful sides for the beef wellington. They worked well together and the judges and editors loved the food. Yay! They are the two youngest in the competition too. The only thing the judges had to say was that Kelsey has to stop saying she just came from culinary school. Home cooks want to see an expert and not someone who just graduated.

The elimination round was very intense. Obviously Kelsey and Shane were safe and they got to leave the room. Who was left was Jennifer, Lisa, Aaron, and Adam. The first person they let go back to the room was Lisa. She has extraordinary expertise so she was left to go back where Shane and Kelsey were. Then they let Aaron go, because they gave him a lot of advice this week. He definitely has to open up a little more and look less scared. It's the truth! So, he went back to the room. Then there was Adam and Jennifer. Adam has had a terrible record with food, but they love his personality. Jennifer has had a terrible record of apologizing and making mistakes like she did with Lisa, but they love her warmth. Jennifer ended up going home and I say rightly so. I do wish her the best of luck. Alright, well, 'til next week!

I'm off to make my terrific day!

Have a good one:)

As far as setups go on Lost, that was a pretty satisfying one.  At the end of the finale the writers put in a scene in which Ben, the Mastermind, and Jack, the "Leader" (I still think he's an awful leader, but that's his favorite role), come together and join forces to accomplish one thing: Getting back to the island.  They have two obvious hurdles in doing this.  First they have to convince "all of them" to go back.  And then they have to find the island.  So we have to questions: Who? Where? & How?  (Where and How are very similar so I'm grouping them together)

Who?

I guess what they were doing here is leaving season 5 very open ended.  By saying all of you have to go back, Ben left the possibility that he was only talking about the Oceanic 6 (and Locke) or maybe everyone who left in the finale (The Oceanic 6 + Desmond, Lapidus, maybe even Jin, Daniel, & Walt).

I think having it open ended allows the show-runners to have more freedom with the casting.  For example Jeff Fahey the actor who played Frank Lapidus was a guest star all season (this actually led many people to believe that he would die).  But since he doesn't actually have any serious commitments to the show it is unlikely that he'll come back full time, there are a lot of actors like that.  I mentioned in an earlier post that Henry Ian Cusick might not want to come back full time either (Updated, see comments below, I was way wrong on this, luckily).  So who really knows what's going to happen.  But who cares about the Hollywood side of Lost let's get back into the mythology.

Why does everyone need to go back to the island?  does the island not accept single people back onto the island?  Do they really need to go back as a group?  And who are those that have to go back?  I tend to believe that when Ben says you all need to go back, he means only the Oceanic survivors.  That means Jack, Kate, Sun, Hurley, Sayid, Locke.  There are three other people who are in a sort of gray area for me: Ji Yeon, Walt and Aaron.  I'll go through all of the characters separately (and backwards!).

Aaron

The stuff about Aaron is terribly confusing.  All paranormal signs advise guardians of that child to keep him in LA, and away from his blood relatives, I really don't know what to make of this.  I think we should obey them simply beaus whenever signs appear it usually means that death is around the corner.  So I doubt he'll be going back to the island, probably he'll stay with Kate's mom.

Walt

As for Walt, I believe it's his destiny to live on the island.  And I bet Jacob really wants him to come back too, or else he really doesn't want him to come back, in which case I think he definitely will go back (I like the way I think).  I'm not entirely sure what was happening with Walt in season 1 & 2.  I know there was some kind of brainwashing, that was shown in the Missing Pieces, but I don't know if The Others kidnapped Walt because they just liked having slightly psychic children around or if it was because Jacob asked for The Others to take Walt, (maybe he was on Jacob's List).  Who knows, I just want Walt to come back, as I mentioned in my earlier post.

Ji Yeon

I don't think Ji Yeon will be coming back.  I think since she wasn't conceived until they got onto the island and she wasn't born until they left, she isn't terribly important.  If you noticed, in the scene with Sun and Mr. Whidmore, Ji Yeon was said to be with Sun's mother.  I think that was a setup to imply that Sun could easily spend time away from Ji Yeon.  Not that I think that's a good thing, but it's an important story element.

Tomorrow I'll talk about more important people (namely adults), stay tuned.

- Izi

In Mosiah 27:34, we learn that king Mosiah has four sons, and it names Ammon first, then Aaron. So, it seems that Ammon is the firstborn, and Aaron is the second. This way of giving birth order happens at other times: with Lehi's sons, with Alma the Younger's sons, and with Helaman's sons, for example. However, there are a few things that make me wonder if Ammon really was the firstborn, or at least conclude that there's more to the story than what is written.

Many people point to Ammon's being the leader of the missionary group (Alma 17:18 ) as extra evidence of his being the firstborn; but this is a church calling, not something that has to do with age or birth order. In addition, being called the people of Ammon has to do with religious things, too, as does being high priest over them (Alma 30:20).

I see three hints that Aaron might be older:
1. while Ammon preaches to the lesser king/ prince Lamoni, it is left to Aaron to preach to the king of all the Lamanites; is that the Nephite prince teaches the Lamanite prince, and the rightful Nephite king teaches the king?
2. when the Lamanite king wants a new name for his converted people, he consults chiefly with Aaron (Alma 23:16; 17-18). Perhaps choosing a new name is more of a political decision than a religious one; consulting with the heir king and getting his approval is more appropriate. Also, the two verses afterwards, are political matters.
3. the people ask that Aaron be king, and king Mosiah says it's Aaron's right to be king (Mosiah 29:1-3, 6). When king Mosiah speaks about potential future problems with the right to rule the kingdom, including the possible return and oath dismissal by those who had a past right to rule as king, he speaks about Aaron--never Ammon.

So, why would Aaron have the right to rule if Ammon were the firstborn?

Was Aaron really older than Ammon, but played a less prominent role in the spiritual aspect in the Book of Mormon? Or maybe Ammon swore he would never be king. (But if that had been the case, wouldn't king Mosiah also have spoken about that in Mosiah 29?) Could Ammon have done something much earlier to lose his right to rule, to lose his right of the firstborn--something that Aaron hadn't done? (But weren't they all in it together?) Was a mistake made in the writing? Was the name placing in Mosiah 27:34 done for some other reason? I don't know.

At least, I think it would be much better to say they are brothers, than to say that Ammon is definitely older than Aaron.

Any other insights, scriptures?

It is tempting, perhaps, to skim over passages like the one from which this morning's text is taken, on the grounds that the days of tabernacle and temple worship are long past and that it can now be of no concern whatsoever to Christians what the high priest wore or what he didn't wear when he ministered before the Lord. But we miss much if we take that attitude. It is a true saying (based on something St Augustine wrote) that "The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is by the New revealed"; and there is significance for Christians in everything in the Old Testament if we will let the Holy Spirit show it to us. In my Brethren days, we called it "type and antitype". Things like the High Priest's garments were a "type" of something that would one day feature of the Christian life, and that something is the "antitype" — the truth to which the type pointed forward and illustrated.

So what is the antitype of the bells and pomegranates round the hem of the high priest's garment? What do those point forward to and provide an illustration for in my life today?

Well, first, I note that this garment with its bells and pomegranates is a garment for ministry. God's instruction was that "Aaron must wear it when he ministers" (Exodus 28.35). And it is blue — the colour of heaven, the colour of the spiritual realm (colours are of great significance in scripture — particularly in everything to do with the tabernacle). So there is the first application. God's people are now a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2.9) and as a member of that "priesthood" I am called to "minister" to the Lord and to his people; and when I do it is to be in a spiritual garment marked by bells and pomegranates.

Pomegranates are clearly fruit. So surely the presence of this fruit on the garment points to the fruit of the Spirit that must be manifested in my life as a minister of Christ? "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galations 5.22-23). Without that there can be no ministry.

But fruit is not enough. I need the gifts of the Spirit too if my ministry is to be real and effective (1 Corinthians 12). And surely this is what the golden bells are pointing to. They were to be heard when Aaron ministered (Exodus 28.35). And when I minister there should be words of knowledge, prophetic words, healing words, words that encourage and edify and in their very goldenness speak of the God who gives them.

And the important truth here is that I cannot opt for one but not the other. And I must not cultivate the one and neglect the other. It is to be bell, pomegranate, bell, pomegranate all around the garment. My life of ministry is to be a perfect balance of gifts and fruit; and both are there to bless the Lord and to bless his people. May it always be so.

Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers is having its international premiere screening in the Fantastic Short Film section of The 12th Puchon International Festival of Fantastic Film. The festival runs from July 18-27 in Bucheon, South Korea, apparently home of both the Puchon Robo Park and the Korean Comics Museum!

Into this mecca of grooviness will enter two other Canadian shorts: The Laundromat directed by David Jacombs, summarized thusly in the program: "A young woman, driven to the limits of sanity, finds refuge in an empty laundromat as the city is overrun by ravenous creatures." Nothing quite so rundown and seedy as an empty laundromat, ravenous creatures or no - and it's a world premiere to boot. Also screening is Rodrigo Gudino's The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow. This new short from the Rue Morgue founder and director of The Demonology of Desire and The Eyes of Edward James features Julian Richings of The Tracey Fragments, Cube, and Wrong Turn and looks pretty impressive from a visual standpoint.

Get more info on Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers right here and more on the festival hereabouts.

The friendly folks at the WildSound Film Festival, where Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers was awarded Best Cinematography, videotaped a Q & A session for your viewing pleasure - and put in in black and white to match the movie!

Go wordless here.

This week on The Next Food Network Star we saw Nipa's final meltdown. Nipa is a beautiful woman with an untapped genre for Food Network, Indian food, and I think that is why she managed to hang on so long. However, her lack of versatility and inability to handle criticism were her undoing. You cannot truly consider yourself of TV chef if you are scared to touch a fish.

The other thing this week's episode showed us was that there are only three people in this season's cast who actually have a chance of winning Kelsey (who has to be the odds-on favorite and has been since day one), Lisa (who is great when she stops trying to be so damned perfect), and Adam (a bit of a wild card – he is not afraid to take risks – but sometimes they do not work). Shane is easy to root for but until this week he just wasn't getting it done. A few more good weeks and Shane may become a contender. Jennifer is so sweet but I really think she goes home this week unless she can pull a 180 like Shane.

Aaron divulged that the reason he has not opened up about his family and background is that his son ran away just prior to taping. I think Aaron should be at home with his family and inside I believe Aaron feels similarly. You have to feel for the guy though - on one hand there is a serious situation within his family but on the other he has a chance to get a position that can financially take care of his family for generations. My prayers are with you, buddy.

Tyler Florence and Michael Symon joined in on the fun and were their usual liakable selves.

The most disturbing thing to come out of this week's episode is that TFN has once again sold its soul to the bane of American existence – chain restaurants. First they teamed up with TGI Fridays on the show Ultimate Recipe Showdown and this week they sold out to Red Lobster, a concept owned by Darden Restaurants who also own the Olive Garden. The OG has long had the reputation within the food industry as “Chef Boyardee without the annoying can.” The hypocrisy of TFN imploring everyone to go green and use locally sourced foods and then partnering with corporations who use mostly imported product makes for an unholy alliance.

Hey everyone:)

So, here we are again and it is another installment of "The Next Food Network Star." I love it I have to admit and the best part about it is that I can't miss it if I have work that day, because our store always closes at seven on Sundays. I thought last night was a very good show. It showed a lot of strengths and weaknesses of the players. Let's begin.

So, their first challenge was presented by Chef Tyler Florence. The challenge was that the selection commitee had chosen techniques for each of the players and it was their job to be able to show to the camera how to present that techinique in 60 seconds. The winner gets their video on the front page of foodnetwork.com. The winner of the challenge was Kelsey and she did great. Her technique was to french some ribs. Now, as we know last week she was coming off very annoying.....this week she toned it down and really brought it home. She has terrific energy. Then came Nepa. It was terrible you guys. I felt bad for her because here she is an Eastern Indian girl and they wanted her to breakdown a squid. Yeah, that didn't work out well at all. She didn't know what she was doing. Jennifer was just bugging me, because she kept apologizing to the camera that she didn't like or didn't know how to shuck an oyster. It was odd.

Then the second challenge was presented by Chef Michael Simon (I apologize if I spelt his name wrong). The challenge was to pick a fish off their table and make a dish out of it that they would put in a Red Lobster restaurant. Whoever won that challenge would get their dish put on the fish of the day menu there. Pretty good rewar, no? The second part of the challenge is that they had to pick a very odd ingredient that usually doesn't go with fish and to make a dish with the fish (it was more of an "Iron Chef" twist). The winner of this challenge was again Kelsey. Her Red Lobster dish seemed okay, but for her fish dish she chose to incorporate the ingredient white chocolate. So, she created a yummy fish crusted with macadamian nuts and white chocolate. The Red Lobster executive chef really enjoyed it. The one who definitely did not do okay was Nepa. She had no idea what to do with fish. She could barely touch them. She got a very small piece out of the trout she was working with and she made a weird grape jelly sauce. It was definitely not good and the whole thing was strange.

On top of that the players had to present their two dishes to 30 Coast Guard men and women. They had to present themselves. The two best ones were again Kelsey and Lisa surprisingly enough. Usually she seems very uptight, but she spilled a whole bunch of sauce on her in the kitchen and she came out surprisingly human. Not to mention she mentioned her brother was in Iraq. It was a very sweet and emotional moment. Jennifer and Adam did the worst at presenting themselves. Jennifer was doing fine until she got to her fruit loop encrusted fish. She started apologizing again and it was terrible. Adam.....he is really funny but he needs to tone it back a bit. He really can't be acting like a physical comedian, which is what he was doing. He triped over the door on purpose. It was not funny and not pretty. Plus, it undermined all his food knowledge.

The group of people who were in line to get kicked off were Adam, Jennifer, Nepa, and Aaron. Adam was for his ridiculousness, Jennifer because she has no authority, Nepa for her unbelievable inability to have knowledge or even feel comfortable with fish, and Aaron because his cod was gross (over cooked and all of that). Nepa went home and I definitely feel that this was the right choice. While she is good with Indian food she needs to have some basic knowledge about how to deal with other mediums of food. It doesn't mean that she has to cook with them, but if she is going to be a Food Network star she needs to know how or about these things. Poor Aaron mentioned last night that his son ran away from home right before he came down there and they still haven't found him. That was so sad. He still came to the show too, he must want to take care of his family and do this for himself pretty bad.

I am looking forward to next week, it looks like something is burning in the kitchen. That could be bad, plus it is Jennifer doing it. She could be going home.

Alright, I'm off to make my terrific day!

Have a good one:)