Leap of Dave

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Jimmy Carter's eulogy for Gerald Ford

I scheduled thispost to coincide with the beginning of President Carter's National Funeral Service. Jimmy Carter gave a Eulogy at President Ford's Funeral service. It is eloquent, homespun, and humorous. In that it embodied many of the traits of both Presidents.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Wordless Wednesday: Deconstructed Rootbeer Float

For More Wordless Wednesday at Comedy Plus, click here.

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Weekly Writer's Workshop: For God So Hugged The World

Here are the prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop:

Write a post based on the word hugging.
Write a post in exactly 13 sentences.
How do you cope with days where you’re stuck in the house due to bad weather?
What are your favorite food items to order online?
If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self?
List your five most recent favorite things.

I am combining 2 prompts today, #1 and #5. It's not exactly one from column A and one from column B, but it gets the job done.

For God So Hugged The World

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

My older sister asked me once what John 3:16 meant. So, I told her what the verse said, and her reaction was, "That has nothing to do with football"

I saw my sister right after Christmas as I was at the wedding of my oldest niece, her daughter. There was an hour or so between the end of the wedding and the reception. So my family being who we are, took a side trip to a local library between gigs. While we were there my daughter Lucy emerged triumphantly from the lobby to say that she had found a 1984 Thesaurus in the free stuff bin, She spent the next few days of the trip regaling us with synonyms from the book. I have asked her to read me the synonyms for hug. Here goes: embrace, hold, clasp, press to the bosom, hold close, clutch, squeeze, cuddle, snuggle, nestle, and (wait for it) cling together.

As I contemplated the meaning of John 3:16, especially what it meant for God to so love the world, I thought of hugs. I thought of a child who seemingly gave up on physical expressions of love to their parents initiating a hug with me for no particular reason. I thought of how hugs show one's love for another but also leave room for a reply.

I thought of Jesus in that sense as a hug from God. To put it back in the context of John 3:16, our sins had separated us from God. We were on a path to perishing without a chance to have that relationship mended. God reached out to us, extending his Son as a way to eternal life. We must reach back to God completing that hug by accepting Jesus as the only way to God.

This brings me rather clumsily to prompt 5: If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self?

My short answer is no. My core beliefs and my sense of self, emanate from my understanding of biblical Christianity. Larry Norman a pioneer of Jesus Music broached the subject in the bridge of his song U.F.O.

And if there's life on other planets

Then I'm sure that He must know

And He's been there once already

And has died to save their souls.

Those lyrics have always resonated with me. I have never meant much of a subscriber to the notion of life on other planets. I like the science-fiction element of extraterrestrial life but that's where it ends. However farfetched I might find it, if confronted with proof that there is life on other planets, I would lean in on Norman's thought process. To extend my previous thoughts on John 3:16, I can imagine the Lord of the Universe loving other intelligent life so much that he would reach out and hug them through the person of his Son as well.

Just like I don't jettison my faith when difficult times come my way, I plan to always trust in God no matter what other things may come to challenge my world view.

A Snapshot of the pioneering christian rock musician Larry Norman taken following concert in Defiance, Ohio on October 20, 2001.

By Ekiledal - http://upload.wikimedia.org/, Public Domain, Link

Thanks to John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing for this week's prompts. To participate more in this Week workshop click here.

Monday, January 6, 2025

16th Blogoversary Post

16 years ago, George W. Bush was in the final days of his Presidency, Illinois Senator Barack Obama was about to become the 44th President of the U.S., the Chicago Cubs were nine months away from going 100 years without winning a World Series and a little blog called Home School Dad published it's first post, Why We Homeschool.

That little blog still exists, in fact, you are reading it. Its name has changed since then and may change again, as I mentioned in my last post.

In the inaugural post, I answered the title question with 2 pictures and 7 words. The words were: Three precious reasons: Lucy, Emma, and Charlie, and the pictures were of the aforementioned children. The post did not go into further detail but one of the main reasons why we home-educated our children was part of a concerted effort to build into our children a Godly character.

Those reasons are all now adults and the youngest is 5 years removed from her last homeschooling, unless you count her Freshman year of high school where she was having school at home because of COVID. At the moment, all 3 of our children are at home until the youngest goes back to Champaign later this month.

In the past few months, I have had sufficient opportunity to evaluate the character development of all our kids. Each of my children has talked with me or my wife or both of us recently about individual issues they are going through. I'd detail them here, but it wouldn't make it through the vetting process. They are handling these issues in a mature and Godly fashion. After we talked to one of them yesterday my wife reminded me that their response was a specific answer to prayer she had sent to our church just a few months ago. I can also see the beginning of adult friendships taking place between them. We just came back from a trip out East to a family wedding and most of the family squabbling was relegated to me and one of my siblings who accompanied us on the trip.

I don't look back at our home school adventure as a qualified success. However, on the 16th anniversary of this blog, I am glad to look back and see that God has at least used it to help meet some of our purposes for it.

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Team Saturdazzle: The One With a New Title?

Team Saturdazzle

Welcome to the 1st 2024 Iteration of Team Sturdazzle, a hopefully weekly postpourri of random thoughts and regular segments.

Occasionally I will try to curate ideas from my FB pages and share some of the comments here. Today was supposed to be one of those occasions. On Thursday night I posted the following on both my personal FB page and the FB page for my blog:

Am approaching the 16th anniversary of my blog. On Jan 6th 2009 I published the first post there http://dave-homeschooldad.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-we-home-school.html A few years ago I changed the name from Home School Dad to Leap of Dave. I’m considering changing the name once again. Here are some ideas I have for a new name:

1. Sustainable Bedlam

2. Toaster Pastries w/o A Toaster

3. Blogging, People Still Do That?

4. A Hat, A Brooch, A Pterodactyl

Let me know which one you like, or If I should stick with Leap of Dave, or perhaps make a title suggestion of your own. I'll post results and suggestions in my next Team Saturdazzle post.

As of 11:30 Friday night I had no comments on either page. I did ask 3 members of my family the same question over a rousing game of Catopoly, which I am winning. The results were mixed: my wife Amy prefers Sustainable Bedlam, my daughter Emma is a fan of Toaster Pastries w/o a Toaster, my daughter Lucy likes Blogging, people still do that?, and I am fond of A Hat, A Brooch, A Pterodactyl. Certainly, there is no consensus on the nonsensical.

I will put this post on both my FB pages again and see if I can get more votes. If you happen to be reading this, please leave a comment with which one you prefer or a suggestion of your own.

The Mountain Dew Code Red of Trailers

On January 3rd, 2022, I published a post called The Mountain Dew Code Red of Trailers about a movie trailer for The Unbreakable Boy, which was due in theatres in March 2022. The movie, based on a book based on a true story, starred Chuck actor Zachary Levi as the father of a middle school boy who had brittle bone disease and autism.

Days before the March 22 release date The Unbreakable Boy was pulled from its release schedule with little to no explanation. Fast forward to yesterday, January 3, 2025 when I was working at my movie theatre 3 years from the date of my original post. I was patrolling the theatre and ensuring all the movies started successfully when I saw this new trailer for The Unbreakable Boy:

Apparently, Lionsgate has a February 21st 2025 release date. I'll believe it when I see it.

Team Saturdazzle At The Movies

Powered by Box Office Mojo

Top 25 Films 2024

25. The Fall Guy 92.9 M 24. Red One 96.81 M 23. Bob Marley, One Love 96.89 M

22. Alien Romulus 105.31 M 21. IF 111.15 M 20. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire 113.38 M

19. Mufasa: The Lion King 128.14 M 18. A Quiet Place: Day One 138.93 M

17. Venom: The Last Dance 137.73M 16. The Wild Robot 143.19 M 15. It Ends With Us 148.51 M

14. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 151.56M 13. Gladiator II 164.55 M

12. Kingdom of the Planet pf the Apes 171.13 M 11. Bad Boys: Ride or Die 193.57 M

10. Kung Fu Panda 4 193.59 M 9. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire 196.35 M 8. Twisters 267.76 M

7. Dune: Part Two 282.14 M 6. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 294.1 M 5. Despicable Me 4 361 M

4. Moana 2 404.02 M 3. Wicked 432.94 M 2. Deadpool & Wolverine 636.75 M

1. Inside Out 2 652.98 M (Movies I watched are in bold)

10 highest-grossing movies I watched this year by rank on Box Office Mojo

90. Here 70. Cabrini 68. Unsung Hero 53. The Forge 52. Reagan 51. The Boys in the Boat 27. Wonka and the aforementioned The Wild Robot (16), Twisters (8), and Wicked (3).

Top 10 Films December 2024

10. Interstellar 2024 Re-release

9. Kraven The Hunter

8. Red One - Down 3 from November

7. A Complete Unknown

6. Nosefartu

5. Gladiator II - Down 2 from November

4. Mufasa: The Lion King

3. Sonic The Hedgehog 3

2. Wicked Down 1 from November

1. Moana 2 - Up 1 from November

Top 5 Films for 2025

5. Wicked

4. Nosferatu

3. Moana 2

2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3

1. Mufasa The Lion King

That's all I have today, for your weekly dose of Saturdazzle. Please comment especially about changing the blog's name or anything else that struck your fancy today.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

First 16 Out

10 years ago or some I curated a list of my 100 favorite films. A few years ago, I began the process of revising the list. Recently, I found a post in draft status which had a list of 16 films that after further consideration would not be making the top 100. I have a history with each of these films, and while they may not be in my top one hundred, I recommend them highly. If you click on the film,s title, you will be able to view a trailer for the film.

Silver Streak (1976)

Airplane (1980)