To kick off Joy Church's Sunday School Summer Festival 2013 - which uses the "Sidekicks Reloaded" theme (of Vacation Bible School 2013) - we performed our set of covers of "Sidekicks Reloaded" songs (which we had already made a video recording of prior the Summer Festival).
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
07-14-13 Dynamic Worship Special Number
As a special number for the dynamic service, Joy Music Team performs "Everybody Ought to Know"...
An Old Footage of a Rehearsal
Found this year-old footage. This was from the general rehearsal for All Coming Day 2012 (to watch videos of that event, CLICK HERE).
Saturday, August 17, 2013
The First Rule of Leadership
“First rule of leadership: everything is your fault.”
Besides, a good leader is always rewarded by good subordinates. And good subordinates, whenever the organization falls short, are willing to take the fault to themselves to shield their leader from damage.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Top 20 Kobe Bryant Photos
When you are a fan of someone, stuff
associated with him or her, no matter how mundane, gains your interest. Like photos.
I am a Kobe Bryant fan, and here are my 20 favorite photos of him (not from screen shots and not ‘shopped), picked from a pool of about 40 photos:
I am a Kobe Bryant fan, and here are my 20 favorite photos of him (not from screen shots and not ‘shopped), picked from a pool of about 40 photos:
20.) MERCIFUL TO THE ENEMY
I can’t remember when this
happened. Fighting the Lakers’ mortal
enemies, the Celtics, you would expect Kobe to ruthlessly annihilate them. So it’s a bit weird seeing him help Rajon
Rondo up. Still, I like this photo since
it’s weirdly out of character of Kobe, who is a cold-hearted assassin in the
basketball court: showing niceness to a Celitc!
19.) MVP (MOST VALUABLE PIANIST)
This picture was posted by Kobe
in his twitter account. According to
him, he taught himself how to play “Moonlight Sonata” by ear! As a Kobe fan (and as a self-taught, amateur musician
myself), learning that he had thought himself to play the piano came as a
delightful surprise to me because this added another interesting dimension to
my hero’s already fascinating personality.
18.) CHALLENGING JORDAN AND
PIPPEN SIMULTANEOUSLY
Young Kobe driving against Jordan and Pippen, two of the greatest defenders in history, is pretty epic.
17.) LOCKDOWN
In the past, up until two or
three ago, Kobe Bryant has consistently been one of the greatest defenders in
the league. It’s pretty amazing that
before Ron Artest joined the Lakers, Kobe had been guarding the opposing teams’
best perimeter player every night while also being the Lakers’ main offensive
option! Kobe’s intense and suffocating
lockdown D has awed me a lot and inspired me to love the defensive aspect of
the game.
This photo is my most favorite
photo of Kobe in a defensive stance – coolly, focusing on his mark and the ball.
16.) WORLD’S FINEST
Looking at this photo, it’s as if
the feud between them never happened. With
this wacky pose, it appears as if they were the closest of pals.
I consider Kobe and Shaq as the
greatest duo in NBA history. Yes, even
greater than Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
While Pippen played the sidekick to Jordan, there was never a sidekick
figure in the tandem of Kobe and Shaq – they share equal standing of “hero”
status. MJ and Scottie had a “Batman and
Robin” relationship, while Kobe and Shaq were more of a “Batman and Superman”
team-up, the so-called “World’s Finest.”
15.) “SUPER TEAMS”
The Lakers’ consistent capability
of assembling a “super team” – having an ensemble of several All-Star/Superstar
caliber players – is pretty cool. And
the pictorials of a Laker “super team” after its off-season formation never
fail to make me excited for that upcoming season.
Kobe has been part of three Laker
“super teams.” None, unfortunately, ever
won a championship.
14.) COACH KOBE
This is the photo of an injured,
sidelined Kobe that convincingly illustrated to me that he should be a coach
someday because he looks fantastic in a suit by the sidelines.
13.) NEVER BACK DOWN
I can’t remember when was
this. But it’s pretty awesome and
funny. A play finds Kobe switching to
guard the 7’5 Yao Ming, but Kobe appears to be unyielding, despite finding
himself in a mismatch. But that’s just Kobe for you – never backing down even
in the face of big challenges.
I don’t know what’s the result of
this play. It’s likely that Yao
successfully posted up and scored. But I
won’t be surprised if what happened was actually the other way around, that
Kobe had been able to hold his ground and made Yao miss his shot.
12.) MIB (MAMBA IN BLACK)
An argument can be made from this
photo of the awesomeness of an alternate black Laker jersey. They could use the black jersey on Friday
road games, as what the alternate white jerseys are during Sunday home
games. Lakers’ promotion can hype it as
“Black Fridays.” Lakers management,
please make it happen soon.
11.) THRILLING GAMEWINNER OVER D-WADE
During the 2009-2010 NBA season,
Kobe hit six clutch gamewinners. The
first was during the Lakers’ December 4, 2009 meeting with the Miami Heat. With 3.2 seconds left, the Heat had a two
point lead. On the Lakers’ last play, Artest
inbounded the ball to Kobe. D-Wade put
good defensive pressure on him. Kobe dribbled
a bit and then shot a tough three-pointer over D-Wade. The ball would bunk in on the buzzer. It was such a beautiful, thrilling sequence.
The photo above fantastically
captures that moment when Kobe was about to shoot. Notice Kobe’s elevation. Notice his pretty shooting form. And notice the slithering tongue of the Black
Mamba.
10.) FIRST FINALS MVP
Shaq would win every Finals MVP
award of Kobe’s first three championship experiences. But with his fourth championship (something
he won without Shaq), Kobe would finally win the Finals MVP for the first time. He rendered an electrifying image of triumph when
he raised his Finals MVP trophy and the Larry O’ Brien championship trophy at
the same time above his head.
9.) MASKED MAMBA
In the 2012 All-Star Game, Dwayne
Wade broke Kobe’s nose after a hard foul.
That required Kobe to wear a face mask.
He looked so awesome in it that I was almost sad to see it go. Above is what I think as the most badass
photo of Masked Mamba.
Trivia: The Lakers’ only victory
over LeBron’s Heat was when Kobe was the Masked Mamba (the record, at this
point, sits at 1-5).
8.) MY FIRST KOBE POSTER
It’s long gone now. But this was the photo of my first Kobe
poster, which features Kobe’s dynamic athleticism during his younger
years.
7.) KOBE WELCOMES DWIGHT TO THE
LEAGUE
Kobe’s welcome present to the
rookie Dwight Howard was a thunderous facial.
That dunk is one of Kobe’s most famous dunks in his career. It’s not his greatest dunk nor is my most
favorite. But the photo of it is so
awesome, totally capturing the nastiness, that it’s my most favorite photo of
Kobe dunking on someone. The more
popular photo of the dunk is the one taken from the baseline’s perspective. But I like the bird’s eye photo more because,
for me, it emphasized the damage done.
6.) PASSING OF THE TORCH
6.) PASSING OF THE TORCH
This is my most favorite photo of
Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, who is considered the best player that ever
played the game. Kobe has significantly patterned
his game to Jordan, and admitted as much that he had looked up to him
In this photo, Kobe was in his
second year in the NBA and Mike is in his final season (as a Bull). I like this because this gives us another
illustration of Kobe’s competitive and intense personality. Kobe, even while still young, doesn’t shy
away from taking opportunities of greatness, even boldly challenging Michael “God of Basketball” Jordan himself. Kobe didn’t want the torch to be merely passed
to him, he wanted to take it. And though
Kobe hasn’t surpassed Jordan’s greatness, Kobe has earned the honor of being
part of the few that are in the same pedestal of greatness where Jordan belongs. Just as Jordan had been the best player of 90’s,
Kobe would succeed in being recognized as the best player of the following
decade (the 2000’s).
There’s another photo of Kobe
matching up with Jordan in another game that season – which was on the Bulls’
floor. But I like the photo above more,
the game on the Lakers’ home court, because the Lakers won in it while they
lost in the other one.
5.) BEST MVP PHOTO
This is a very heartwarming photo
of Kobe with his wife and kids. I love
how this photo implies that when Kobe won his MVP award, the first thing on his
mind, the first thing he wants to share it with, was his family.
That charm of the photo above is
magnified when you consider this other photo:
I’m sure every Laker and Kobe fan
in the planet had been ecstatic when Kobe won his MVP award back in 2008. But Kobe’s “number one fans” – his family – had
been probably more so.
4.) WHAT YOU LOVE AND HATE ABOUT
KOBE
On a Christmas game against the
Bulls, with the Bulls leading by one, the Lakers had a chance to take a
gamewinning shot. As expected, the
Lakers went to Kobe to make things happen.
Kobe drove, and four Bulls players enclosed on him! Kobe took a close-range shot, but was blocked.
Lakers lost. That is the story of this
photo.
It summarizes what one would
probably love and hate about Kobe. One
could criticize Kobe as too selfish, costing his team a win because of his
tendency to take ill-advised shots, just like that one against the Bulls. Teams understand what Kobe can do. He’s so dangerous that he can singlehandedly
overwhelm them offensively. He commands
so much respect that opposing teams are willing to double, triple, or even quadruple
him to stop him from scoring. But (more
often than not) Kobe would still decide in taking that difficult shot in a tight
crowd of defenders rather than opting for a pass to a teammate that has been
left open. That frustrates us.
But, in another light, that
actually what makes us love Kobe. He is
fearless. He embraces pressure. He doesn’t care of future consequences. What only matters to him is the present. He is not bothered by the backlash he would
receive if he misses an important shot (or if he takes too many shots). He will shoot no matter what because it will
bother him more if he didn’t shoot on a particular critical “moment of truth” scenario. He doesn’t want to think of “what ifs” in the
future. Whether he makes it or misses
it, what is important to him is he tried.
And that attitude is worth admiring.
Those two aspects of Kobe –
negative and positive – are perfectly demonstrated in this photo.
3.) THE “KING” BOWS DOWN TO THE
“KING OF KINGS”
Totally love this photo. Kobe is just helping LeBron get to his feet,
but it gives the illusion of LeBron humbly bowing down to Kobe. There is no doubt that LeBron James is the
best player in the NBA right now. But
this photo has to remind us that there was a time when Kobe has been superior.
2.) THE GUNSLINGER
One of the most awesome things about Kobe Bryant is, as a basketball competitor, he embodies the quality and
intensity of a cold-blooded Wild West gunslinger. This is the only photo I have ever encountered
of him performing the simulation of a gunslinger blowing away the smoke off a smoking
barrel.
1.) LEGEND
After winning against Celtics in the 2010 NBA Finals, Kobe would proceed towards the announcers’ table, stand on
it, face the fans, and simultaneously share and bask in the glory of the moment
with the entire Laker Nation. It was truly
magical and electrifying. When I saw
that on TV, I said to myself that the photo of it is going to be epic.
And I was right. Ever since I encountered this photo, it has
become my most favorite photo of Kobe Bryant, because it depicts him in his
most glorious moment. It defined him as
a legend.
Monday, August 05, 2013
Top 10 Odd Detectives in Fiction
In a way, this could be an
extension of the “Top 10 Fictional Detectives” list I wrote about three years
ago. But this time around, those that
made this list are detectives that have an “odd factor.” What do I mean by an
“odd factor”? There should be an aspect
or element in them that makes it unlikely for them to succeed as detectives but
has been so; they aren’t what you expect as detectives. Or there is a peculiar feature about them
that makes them interestingly unique from the archetypal fictional detective. The “odd factor” seems to be a vague
standard, but, in short, the “odd factor” is primarily about having a remarkable or wacky characteristic that significantly adds to the character’s dimensions.
There are several characters in the
abovementioned original “Fictional Detectives” list that have this “odd
factor”, but I won’t be including them here again so that there will be more room for other characters to be featured in this list. (Unfortunately, the Hardy Boys – which were the
earliest detective characters I encountered – fail to make this list again, for
they have no “odd factor” and are very much closer to the generic model of
fictional detectives)
10.) TOM SAWYER
Yes. Tom Sawyer has been featured as a
detective. Some might even be unfamiliar
of this fact. In Tom Sawyer, Detective, he and Huck Finn got the chance to play
detective – not as a make-believe role-playing game as they had done with being
“pirates” or “robbers”, but actually doing legit deduction for a legit
mystery. The story is another example of
Mark Twain’s versatility as a storyteller as he was able to mimic Conan Doyle’s
tone and narrative style, and was able to create a terrific parallel of Holmes
and Watson with Tom and Huck.
9.) MISS MARPLE
Jane Marple, more popularly known
as Miss Marple, is one of the two famous fictional detectives created by Agatha
Christie (the other being Hercule Poirot, who was part of my previous top 10 detective list). What makes her
remarkable as a detective is her age – she’s already an elderly spinster. The archetype dictates that Miss Marple
should be a fragile granny figure that is satisfied by spending the remaining
years of her life having tea and knitting; we assume unintimidating old ladies as
uninteresting and weak characters. But though
she does possess many of such qualities associated with elderly ladies – like
the tendency to be a long-winded talker – she, however, as a character is
neither idle nor boring. She is shrewd
and intelligent and fearless, giving her the capability of solving difficult
mysteries – usually murder.
8.) MYSTERY, INC. (THE SCOOBY
GANG)
I assume that everybody (especially
those that were born prior the 21st Century) knows and loves the
Scooby Gang – Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphney, and Velma. The cases that they find themselves in share
the same elements: the mystery would appear to be supernatural in nature, they
would investigate (with Shaggy and Scooby providing comic relief), the climax involves
the “monster” chasing them around but would eventually be apprehended by them –
usually accidentally – at the end of the chase sequence, then they would unmask
the “monster” to reveal that he is merely a man that dresses as a monster to
further a criminal cause.
7.) MARY RUSSELL
The Mary Russell series by Laurie
R. King – which I adore – features the adventures of Mary Russell and Sherlock
Holmes. This is, of course, a mere
reinvention and is not canon. Still,
this Sherlock Holmes reinvention is one of the best that has ever been done, in my
opinion. The portrayal in the series of
the Greatest Fictional Detective of All Time has been somewhat accurate to how
the character could have behaved. Thus,
the awesomeness factor of Sherlock Holmes’ presence in this series still
counts.
When Mary was 15 years old, she
would first meet Holmes, who was by then retired from his London practice and
was now residing on the Sussex countryside.
In this first meeting, she had greatly impressed Holmes with her strong
personality and raw deductive power. In
their next meeting, he would then proceed to train Russell as his protégé. And through his training, Mary would grow
into as close to a “Sherlock Holmes Version 2.0” as possible. Eventually, they would come into an agreement
of partnership and would go and solve cases together (though, I find Holmes
still being the more significant contributor and factor in their success).
When Mary turned 21, her partnership
with Homes blossomed into a “negotiated marriage” between them. Yes, the unthinkable happen to Sherlock
Holmes: romance ensued! And it’s kind of
creepy considering that the age gap between them is 32 to 39 years! Still, this development has been delivered by
the narrative in a logical, compelling, and enjoyable way that the creepiness
factor of it was reduced to “minimal” or “none” levels. The relationship between them was a sort of “non-romance
romance”; though the affection between them was real, the romance had been
notably secondary to their partnership as detectives. The behavior of their relationship remained
the same as their pre-marriage partnership’s; true to his character, Holmes
rarely showed his affection to his wife, and this was fine with Russell because
she understands Holmes’ character.
6.) JACQUES CLOUSEAU
Chief Inspector Clouseau is the
hero of the Pink Panther series. The
character was played by Peter Sellers in the original movies and by Steve
Martin in the remakes. While Peters is
indeed the better Clouseau, Martin’s portrayal has been hilarious as well. I laughed with Martin as Clouseau as much and
as hard as I laughed with Sellers.
Clouseau is a bumbling,
incompetent French police detective. He
is prone to making idiotic observations and decisions in his investigations. But despite of all of these, he seems
oblivious of his limitations and shortcomings.
He is tremendously pompous and egocentric; he maintains the delusional
belief that he is a brilliant detective.
However, the remarkable thing is, despite of his stupidity and
clumsiness, Clouseau would always successfully solve a case by accident and
luck.
5.) THE QUESTION
In the DC Universe, Batman is the
World’s Greatest Detective. And the one
that comes second to Batman as a superhero detective is either Elongated Man or
The Question.
I include the Question in this
list over Elongated Man because he is a more fascinating character. Like Batman, he has no superpowers but relies
on his superior intellect and high proficiency in hand-to-hand combat. As an investigative reporter in his civilian
identity, his great detective skills don’t come as a surprise. What makes him a deep character is his
fondness of philosophy and, in some depictions (especially in the DC animated
universe), conspiracy theories. But even
as a paranoid conspiracy theorist, his deductive and investigative skills
remain sharp and outstanding – his paranoia and obsessive character are no
hindrances. This aspect makes the
character quite amusing and enjoyable.
4.) LEROY “ENCYCLOPEDIA” BROWN
In my “Top 10 Fictional Detectives” list – particularly on the entry of the hero of Donald J. Sobol’s
Two-Minute Mysteries (the most fun brain twisters out there), Dr. Haledjian – I
acknowledged that I had not read any of Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown books
yet. But since then, I was able to
finally read the book series and be familiarized with the boy detective.
Leroy Brown is very intelligent
and he retains massive amounts of facts from the books he read. He was even likened to “a complete library
walking around in sneakers.” For that he
was given the nickname, “Encyclopedia Brown.”
With his intelligence, he always wants to be helpful to others. As a walking encyclopedia, he graciously
answers whatever questions are thrown at him.
But he always waited a moment to answer – pretending to think – since if
he answers too quickly, he is afraid that people will not like him for sounding
too smart.
Possessing a rich range of
information and facts comes highly invaluable to Brown in solving his
cases. He easily finds significance on
seemingly mundane details of a case but are in fact vital for its
solution. He has shown versatility in
handling cases of different kinds – ranging from petty offenses and
misdemeanors (particularly between children) to those serious and criminal in
nature.
It is even implied that it was
because of Encyclopedia Brown that criminals are always caught in Leroy’s town,
Idaville. His father is the chief of
police in the town. And during their
family’s dinner time, Chief Brown would present his hard cases to his son. Before they leave the table, Encyclopedia has
already provided the solution.
3.) SIMON ARCHARD
Simon Archard is the hero of the Ruse comicbook series and is one of my most favorite comic book characters. He
is a master detective that is basically based on Sherlock Holmes. The primary difference between Holmes and
Achard is that Achard lives in a Victorian setting in which steampunk and
supernatural elements very much exist.
Like Holmes, Archard is extremely intelligent and versatile. He is considered a hero in his town,
Partington, for criminals greatly fear him and his mere presence keeps the
crime rate low.
Archard makes use of an
intelligence network, consisting of agents of different personalities and
status in life, for information. In the
recent mini-series, it was revealed that even Queen Victoria is one of his
agents. He also has an assistant – or
partner, as she insists – in Emma Bishop, who keeps the fact the she is
actually a sorceress a secret from Archard, though it implied that Archard is already
aware of this.
2.) RICHARD CASTLE
Rick Castle is a best-selling
novelist – his greatest works being spy and mystery thrillers featuring Derrick
Storm. After his encounter with police
detective Kate Becket, whom he had consulted for when she was tackling a case
of murders that mirrored murders portrayed in two of Castle’s crime novels, he
became mightily charmed by her. He found
it a lot of fun solving mysteries with her, and craved for more. Thus, under the charade of conducting
research for his next novel series, in which the main character, Nikki Heat,
would be based on Becket, Castle was able to get what he wanted: playing
“detective” with Becket. Since Castle is
friends with the mayor – and is a generous campaign contributor – he was
allowed by the police department, per the mayor’s instruction, to proceed on
with his “research.”
Becket was initially dismayed and
annoyed by the arrangement. However,
Castle proved to be a very valuable and compatible companion for her on her
cases. Kate would grow to appreciate him
and consider him as her partner. As a
mystery writer, Castle is familiar with the elements and structure of a mystery
and he displays the aptitude of a talented detective. Due to the necessity of researching material
when writing novels, he gained training in investigating, knowledge on a wide
range of matters, and different invaluable contacts and informants. And since he is writer, Castle’s imagination
dictates his way of thinking. When
solving a mystery, he attempts to make sense of it by applying a “what would
make a better story” perspective on it.
He thinks “out of the box”, and his theories are sometimes outrageous
and fantastic. But when his train of
thoughts is in a dialogue and is complemented by Becket’s grounded and discreet
way of thinking, Castle can soundly reason out towards a solid conclusion.
Captain Malcolm Reynolds remains
to be the greatest character Nathan Fillion has ever played. But I think the argument can be made that
Rick Castle is Fillion’s most captivating and entertaining character. While Captain Mal is indeed charming, Castle’s
own charm is more amplified – probably because it seems the characterization of
Castle is based on Nathan’s own charismatic, interesting personality. Aside from his natural charm, wit, and sense
of humor, what makes Nathan very fascinating is his awesome geekery. He is familiar and a fan of a wide area of
nerd properties. And this facet of
Nathan is explicitly integrated into the Richard Castle character. Like Nathan Fillion, Richard Castle is a
well-versed, lovable geek. Pop culture
and nerd culture themes are regularly featured in the show, which allows
Castle’s own geekery to shine. Thus, I
credit the fascinating layeredness of Richard Castle to the generous amount of his
own self that Nathan Fillion puts into the character.
1.) ODD THOMAS
(It’s only incidental that the
number one odd detective is someone named “Odd.” Or is it? Hehe.)
Ok. Odd Thomas has never been explicitly implied or
identified as a “detective” character.
However, he does do sleuthing and fight crime. And he does tackle mysteries, and had success
in piecing together information, inferring correctly, and catching the bad
guys. We can observe that those are
detective work. Thus, Odd Thomas is a
detective of sorts.
As a character created by Dean
Koontz – and his best one yet – Odd Thomas possesses the usual qualities of a
Koontz protagonist: a troubled past, smarts, heart, personality, and a very
entertaining wit.
Odd is a humble, unambitious, and charming young man with two very special talents. First, he’s an excellent, one-of-a-kind quick-order cook. Second, he can see ghosts.
That ability appears to be a
burden but Odd thinks otherwise. He
considers it a gift. He uses this
ability to help both the dead and the living.
He counsels or encourages the lingering dead to go forward the other
side, and he uses the clues given by ghosts – usually the victims – to prevent
more deaths and evil from happening. "I see dead people. But then, by God,
I do something about it," he said. He
seemingly possesses a Messiah complex since he readily assumes the
responsibility of preventing evil or capturing a criminal that he is very much
willing to go to great lengths as long as he carried out the task.
Aside of seeing ghosts, Odd also
possess another supernatural intuition power particularly called “psychic
magnetism.” Psychic magnetism allows
Odd, while moving around, to get drawn to the location of the person he really
wants to find or encounter.
With his psychic abilities, Odd
has succeeded many times in stopping evil from happening or bringing justice to
evil done. It’s doesn’t mean though that
Odd has to do no thinking at all because of his powers. No. In
the Odd Thomas universe, the ghosts can never talk, thus, they can never vocally
instruct or assist Odd. Thus, Odd still
needs to do some detective work to figure things out.
Odd doesn’t fear death. He even considers it as a reward since he
will be reunited with his lost love, Stormy.
Still, Odd is not suicidal. He
understands that killing himself won’t allow him to get his “reward”, thus, Odd
remains sensible in his decisions though a bit reckless. Because of this philosophy, investigative leg
work and nosing in the presence of danger comes easy for him.
Anton Yelchin did a great job portraying him in the recent movie adaptation.
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