Video Friday

I don't have anything earth-shattering to blog about today, so I thought I'd leave you with a video. It's a catchy and fun song by Owl City called Fireflies. I love the video and so to my boys. I think we all like it for the same reason....the cool toys. There are some pretty cool toys represented in the video. I do own the Robo-Sapien robot featured in the video....but everything else just looks cool and makes me want to go toy shopping. Enjoy and have a good weekend and Halloween holiday.

Lakers Season Opener - The Copeland Clan Tradition

Almost every year since Joi and I have been married we have held this tradition. When we were first married, we would get Vince's Spaghetti on the night of the Lakers season opener and we would watch the game whilst eating the spaghetti awesomeness that is Vince's. When we started to have children, we continued our tradition. Sometimes the kids would watch the game with us, other times they would play and ask us the score occasionally. Now that we live in Colorado, Vince's Spaghetti is just too far away to pick up for the Season Opener. So, now, Joi makes her spaghetti recipe....which is just as awesome and we watch the game together as a family. The season opener was on Tuesday night, but since we live in Colorado now, the game didn't start until 8:30pm. Now that we are parents, we're usually in bed and sleeping by 9pm...so that wasn't going to work. So, we did what any family living in the digital era would do. We DVR'd it and watched it on Wednesday night. It was hard not checking the score the next day or reading any basketball news articles for fear that it would somehow give away the score, but I persevered. Last night, I got home from work and Joi already had the spaghetti dished out and waiting for us and the Lakers game was set up and on pause. We prayed and began our Season Opener tradition. What a night! The spaghetti was great, as always. The Lakers didn't play so well in the first half and were down by as many a 16 points. But, somehow, thanks to Shannon Brown and a few other Lakers who exploded in the second half....we made a late rally and won the game by 2 points. Wow! It was a great game. People were diving for balls and playing really physical basketball. It look more like a play-off game than the first game of the season. Also, the Lakers got their 09-10 Championship Rings...which was pretty cool to watch and they unveiled the new banner. Pretty cool.

On side comment after watching the game. I'm not sure how I feel about a new rule this year where they will give a technical foul to a player who makes any demonstrative reaction to a foul call. Here are some actions that can get you a technical foul with the new rule.

• Making aggressive gestures, including air punches, anywhere on the court.

• Disagreeing with the ref in an overt manner, the whole look of amazement genre.

• Running directly at a ref to complain.

• Dragging out the postmortem of a foul call with continued questions, even if it's done politely.

• Any body language that indicates the call is being protested.

 Now, I'm in favor of targeting the whiners and complainers who protest every foul call. It gets old and slows down the pace of the game. But, there is a fine line between protesting a call and just showing raw emotion. Sometimes a player will punch the air when a foul is called because they are upset at themselves or their teammates...not necessarily the call itself. But, now, they get a technical for that. According to the new rules, players will have to stifle any and all acts of emotion while on the floor, for fear that it will be interpreted as a protest of a foul call. I fear that if we eliminate emotion from basketball, it will make the game boring. Basketball is an emotional game. That's what makes it fun to watch. But, the ref's are going to have to be very careful not to misinterpret emotion for a protest. I've always seen some questionable calls on this rule. For instance, in the season opener, one of the Rockets got a foul called on him and he ran away from the ref and swiped his hand in a casual manner. The ref took that as a protest and called the tech on him. To me, it looked more like a reaction like "Darn...I got a foul"....rather than a "What a horrible call!" Besides, he was running AWAY from the refs. Come on! I think this can quickly get ridiculous. I think the Commissioner and the refs are going to have to be very, very careful with this one. Otherwise, they will risk making the game boring and we might as well have robots out there playing the game.

Preparing for Halloween

I have been introducing my boys to the Marx Brothers by showing them some of their films over the last few months. This year they decided that for Halloween, they want to be the Marx Brothers. So, we started going Thrift Store shopping and looking for costume pieces and accessories. Garrison wants to be Groucho. So, we found him some glasses, a small tux jacket, and bought some greasepaint and some black hair spray. Originally, Gavin wanted to Harpo...but I talked him out of it because Gage already has a mop of curly blond hair and it would be easier. Gavin will now be Chico. We got the perfect hat and coat for him. I need to get him working on his fake Italian accent. Gage will be Harpo. Joi found an awesome trench coat for him at the Thrift Store. We got him a top-hat and a bicycle horn (which I'll have to stuff cotton into since it's a little loud). I can hardly wait to get them dressed in their costumes and take some pics. We plan to go trick-or-treating and then to a Halloween Party at the Ferris'. It should be fun. The only problem I foresee is that people won't recognize their costumes when they go door to door. I guess it will be a way to test the culture of our fellow Colorado residents. We shall see. Stay tuned for pictures.

Okay...I'm a Music Geek

I love music. I love a variety of music. I LOVE learning about new artists and hearing new songs. My wife and I recently took over the Connection Team ministry at our church. This ministry comprises various hospitality ministries at our church like coffee/donuts, greeting, parking and direction signage, etc. One of the things that I most look forward to is setting up the hallway music each week. Our church sets up a small P.A. system in the hallway with an MP3 player. The pastor says that he wants Top 40 Pop and Alternative secular music (clean) playing in the hallway. My church does this on purpose so that new guests and non-christian guests will hear something familiar when they enter the church and will feel at home. This is a job I can get into. After all, I am a music geek. I've loaded an iPod shuffle that used to belong to my son with songs from The Fray, Flyleaf, Death Cab for Cutie, Coldplay, OK Go, Owl City, Angels and Airwaves, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, Muse, Lifehouse, U2, Jimmy Eat World, etc. This is all stuff I already listened to, so it was easy to make a playlist of these songs and throw them into a iPod for church. I knew I was doing something right when two weeks ago a couple of teenage girls stood by the P.A. and started singing along to some of the songs. Last week, a guy from the worship team stopped in the hallway and asked who a song was by. It was Ok Go. He then asked if all of their songs were that good. I said, "Yep!" It's been nice to subtly share music in this way...and it is my favorite part of being the lead of the Connection team. It's what I love and what I know. Music is my passion. I'm thankful for a small outlet for this passion at my church.

In The News

Here are some items in the news that either interested me or I thought were funny, strange, or otherwise noteworthy.

Tom Bosley dies at age 83. I loved Happy Days. I watched it often as a kid. Tom Bosley was one of those fixtures of my childhood appearing in lots of television shows and commercials throughout my childhood. I even had the pleasure of seeing him play Belle's Father (Crazy Old Maurice) in Disney's stage musical of Beauty and the Beast. It's sad. We'll miss you, Tom.


On Sunday, a man committed suicide at Disneyland by jumping off of the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure. I'm guessing he first tried to get into the park, was disheartened by the sky-high admission prices of the parks, and then decided that if he couldn't afford to get into Disneyland, he had nothing to live for. Very sad. I guess it's not the happiest place on earth for everyone.

 The vatican declares that Homor and Bart Simpson are Catholics. What?? Seriously?!?!? Why in the world would a religion want to associate itself with a cartoon that repeatedly berates family values and makes fun of Christianity. The article even goes on to say that Catholic parents should encourage their children to watch the cartoon. I'm not sure how attaching Catholicism to the Simpson's is going to help a religion that is already struggling with priestly sex scandals and dwindling attendance. I just don't get it. I'm still scratching my head.

A recent article finally proves something that we have known for a long, long time. Making your own meals at home is ultimately cheaper than eating out. I'm so glad someone took the time to state the obvious. I did like the cool graph and the comparisons thought. Check it out here. Oh...and it's healthier to eat at home, as well. Who knew?

They have finally....FINALLY...decided that Peter Jackson will indeed direct the upcoming Lord of the Rings film, The Hobbit. Based on the fantastic job he did with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, why would you want anyone else? I don't care what was holding up the process. Pay the man whatever he is asking for. He deserves it after the awesomeness of the first three films. I own the extended versions of each film and they are masterpieces. Granted, there are some differences from the books that left me perplexed, but overall, they were awesome! Unfortunately, a union dispute for local New Zealand actors could delay the filming further. My goodness! Will this film ever see the light of day?

When media overshadows education. A recent article states that British children believe that Buzz Lightyear was the first man to walk on the moon. One in six children think that the Darth Vader's Deathstar is the furthest planet from the sun. Another one child in every six thinks that the Daleks from Dr. Who actually occupied Brittan. Another one in six kids couldn't correctly identify Barack Obmama and thought that he was Mr. T from the A-Team. On the flipside, though, more than half knew who won Brittan's show X-Factor and 65 percent knew that Brittany Spears had shaved her head. Oh...and did you know that Christopher Columbus discovered liposuction? One in twenty kids in Brittan thought so.

That is the news that I found noteworthy as of today. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Adam Again - River on Fire

I didn't have time to blog today during lunch due to trainings and an appreciation lunch held for our department, but I did want to post something. I thought I'd leave you with a beautifully haunting song by one of my favorite Christian bands from way back....Adam Again. Enjoy "River on Fire". I miss you Gene Eugene.

The End of the Soccer Season

On Saturday, Gage and Gavin played their last game of the season. Gavin scored 3 goals and Gage scored his first goal of the season (he's usually on the defending end). They ended up winning the game 7 to 3. Well, apparently our coach accidentally let the kids kick off before the whistle blew and we got a goal from that play...so our coaches said that the game was actually 6 to 3. Either way, they won and they played their little hearts out. I was amazed at the difference between how the team played during the first game and how they played during the last game. They "got" it and looked like they knew what they were doing toward the end. I was impressed. After the game, the team got medals and certificates. They, also, got their team pictures back. I'll have to scan them and post them later. They look so awesome in their soccer jerseys with their "game face" on. It's pretty cute. Anyway, at least until basketball season starts for Garrison, we have our Saturday mornings and our Thursday evenings back. Life will settle down a little bit, which will be nice. But, I enjoyed watching my boys play their first team sport. I was proud of them for their growth and diligence.They played hard and learned a lot during the season. They are excited to play again next year. Even though I really knew nothing about soccer when they started, I am still a proud sports Daddy and I loved watching them play.

Happy 6th Birthday, Gavin

My little Gavinator isn't so little anymore. Today, my youngest son turned six. Yesterday, I took the day off of work so that we could spend the day together, since my boys have Friday Home-School Extension Classes on Friday from 8am - 3pm. So, yesterday, we went to the Apex Center at Gavin's request for ice-skating and swimming. Gage got to join us for ice-skating since the rink was closed when we went for his birthday. Garrison helped Joi watch Morgan (the little girl that Joi baby sits). Also, Dylan and Josiah joined me to help with my boys. Ice Skating was pretty funny. I hadn't ice skated in 20+ years and this was only my second time ice-skating ever. So, I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to keep myself upright, let alone my boys. But, I got my ice legs pretty quickly and it all came back to me. I didn't even fall down. My boys, however, weren't so lucky. They looked like Scooby and Shaggy trying to run away from a villain. Their bodies were staying in one place while their legs were a blur. But, thanks to a nice ice-skating instructor, things got a lot easier. She suggested that they use a "cone" for balance. I had never heard of such a thing. But, she brought out two construction street cones and they used those for balance while they skated around the rink. Before long, they got the hang of it and left the cones behind. After about an hour, my knees and ankles were ready to be done and Gage and Gavin's rumps were bruised, so we adjourned for some swimming. We swam and went on the water slides for a couple of hours and then left to get cleaned up and dressed. I took Josiah and Dylan home and then went back to pick up the family (we desperately need a bigger car). We went home so that Morgan's parents could pick her up for a doctors appointment. Then we were off to Texas Road House for dinner. Another one of Gavin's requests. After dinner, we were off again...this time to soccer practice. Then home for ice cream and settling down for bed. When the boys were tucked in and dozing off, Joi and I crept down stairs to decorate the house with balloons and streamers for Gavin's actual birthday, the next day. This morning, we woke them up early to get ready for Friday school and we sang Happy Birthday to wake him up. We measured him on our measuring stick and wrote down his height. He almost grew 4 inches this last year. They got dressed and went downstairs for cinnamon rolls (another Gavin request) and to open some presents. I left for work and the boys left for school shortly after that. Tonight, we are having a small birthday party with some of his friends. The usual cake, ice cream, games, and presents. Josiah and Dylan will probably spend the night.

Gavin is a great kid. He's sporty and picks up on athletic skills really quickly. He's intelligent. He is reading at a level several grades above his own. He has a great smile and a loving spirit. He is competitive. He has a great heart and loves to have his bible time every morning. He's a clown and loves to make people laugh. He is always doing or saying something to make people crack up. He enjoys nature and playing Wii or PlayStation. He is God's gift to us and he completes our family. I can't imagine life without our Gavinator. Happy Birthday, Big Man!

Chris' Night Terrors: The Sequel

If you haven't already, please read Part 1 of this blog series. so that the following will make more sense. Not all of my night-time antics are terrifying. In fact, sometimes they are comical or sweet. Two nights ago I woke up and had another one of those wakeful dreams where I saw that Joi had decorated the ceiling for me with love notes, drawings of flowers, and the like. In real life, I rolled over to Joi sometime in the middle of the night and said "Awwww...did you decorate the room for me?" To which she replied, "Yes"....thinking that I was referring to our recent goal to make our room more romantic by placing romantic paintings and candles around the room. At this point, I woke up enough to realize that there was nothing on the ceiling, as my wakeful dream seemed to imply. I told her that I'd explain all of this the next day. I rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning, I explained my dream to Joi and what I meant when I asked her if she had decorated the room for me. She laughed and told me I was funny.

Later that night, we all adjourned upstairs to our bedroom so that I could read to the boys, which is our usual routine. Gage said something and then started twisting his body to look up at the ceiling. I just chalked it up to his being unusual and silly, like usual. But, I happened to glance up and realize that Joi did, in fact, decorate the ceiling for me. Above is a picture that shows what I can now see when I look up at the ceiling from my spot on the bed. In fact, it's very similar to what I saw in my dream. Joi is freakin' hilarious. We laughed and laughed. It was funny to me that she would turn one of my weird night-time dream antics into a reality by actually decorating the ceiling. I'm keeping those pictures up for a while. She is too funny!

Step-Mom Prayer Request

My Step-Mom, Pat, is not doing very well. Dad called today and was pretty shook up. He said that she now has an infection due to the ruptured intestine. She has labored breathing and is in and out of it. An infection is what we were worried about due to her frail health. Please continue to pray that she can pull through the infection and continue on to the road of recovery. Also, pray for my Dad, Erika, and Robert as they go through this difficult and emotional time.

Calling All Cassette Players

I have tons of cassettes. Seriously, I have at least a suit case full of nothing but cassette tapes. Some of these tapes are rare and hard to find tapes from the 70's and 80's. A few of them are me when I was a baby, a toddler, when I was in drama as a kid, and as a teenager with some friends. A bunch of them are tapes from band practices that I was involved in throughout the years. Some are just me with a guitar running through some song ideas. Either way, there is a lot of history and memories on these tapes. The problem is, cassette tapes and players went the way of the dodo bird. They are hard to find or altogether extinct. Technology has progressed enough to allow me to convert these cassette tapes to digital format with a $5 cord from Radio Shack and some free software from the internet (Audacity). The only missing piece? I don't have a cassette player. I went online to see if I could pick one up from Amazon. I searched up and down on Amazon. They are still available, but they aren't cheap for an extinct technology. You can get an old Sony Walkman Cassette player for anywhere between $50 and $300. You can get a portable boombox for about $30 to $100. They even make cassette players that are made to convert old tapes, like the Ion Audio USB Portable Tape-To-MP3 Player for $47.89 on Amazon. But, that still seems like a lot of money. I just want a reliable cassette player that has either RCA out or a headphone jack that I can input a stereo patch cord between the player and my laptop's microphone jack. I'd even take an old, used one if I could find one. Does anyone have an old cassette player laying around that they want to donate to my digital audio archiving project?

Prayer Requests

I don't normally write blogs over the weekend, but I thought I'd make an exception this time. There is a lot going on in our families right now that really need some prayer. First, Joi's Step-Father found out earlier in the summer that he has cancer. He had a seizure and went to the hospital where he found out that he had brain swelling and cancer in his brain, lungs, and various other parts. He had radiation treatment which seemed to work well on the cancer in/on his brain. He starts chemo next Wednesday. Then we found out that Joi's Dad has congestive heart failure. He needs to lose weight and change his diet (less fat and salt). If he does, this will be treatable....but any illness can cause weakening or total failure (even a cold or flu). So, he's got to be careful. Last night, we found out that my Step-Mom, Pat, went to the hospital with stomach pain. They found a hole in her intestine. She is already pretty weak and frail from crohn's disease, Parkinsons, and various other ailments. She had surgery last night that the doctors said she may not survive. They performed the surgery, since it was vital and she did survive. They repaired the hole and removed 9 liters of bowel bile from her abdomen cavity. She'll need 7-10 days of recovery in ICU and then 6-8 weeks of recovery in their trailer in California (where they live when they are in California for doctors visits), since they need to stay nearby a Kaiser facility. The main thing to worry about now is the possibility of infection from the bile in her abdomen, which is a very real threat.

So, if you think about it, please keep Vic, George, and Pat in your prayers. There is a lot going on right now in our families and the best thing that I can think of to do is to go before the creator of our bodies and ask for healing and peace in the midst of turmoil.

Michael Davis - The Mouth Juggler

I've got nothing important to blog about. So, I thought I'd start your weekend with a funny video from the 80's revival of the Smothers Brothers show. This guy is hilarious.

Chris' Night Terrors (My Poor Wife)

When we got married, I promised my wife "Never a dull moment." I do my best to keep that promise. One of the ways I keep her on her toes is by having vivid and physical dreams that creep into my being awake and involve some sleep walking or other movement. I often see dreams of mechanical robot arms or spiders coming down from the ceiling. I'm halfway awake...so I reach for the ceiling and ask Joi "Do you see that?"...to which she groans and says "You're dreaming. Go back to sleep!" I had a dream where Gage was standing on top of our T.V. hutch in our bedroom and was about to fall. I jumped out of bed and rushed to catch him...in real life. Joi woke up because of all of the commotion and I explained that I was trying to catch Gage. She said that I was probably dreaming and put me back to bed. One night, I woke up to see Joi crying in the corner of the room. I got up and crouched down to console her. I rubbed her face and shoulders for a minute before I realized that I was crouching in front of one of my guitar cases in my room and was caressing it. Joi didn't wake up for this one, but I told her about it the next day. Another night, I was having a dream where I was fighting with someone and I full on punched my nightstand...hard. If I had been facing Joi, she might have woken up with a black eye. I'm glad I was facing the other way at that moment. A couple of nights ago, I woke up Joi telling her that there were skeletons on her back. I still don't know what that was about. I don't remember the dream. Joi told me about it the next day. Last night, I jumped up to catch a box that was teetering on the edge of our T.V hutch about to fall on Joi. I jumped up to catch it and was yelling something like "No...no...no." Joi woke up and told me I was dreaming. While I stood (yes, stood) on the edge of our bed trying to catch a box that wasn't there, I shouted..."I'm not dreaming this time!" After I realized that the only things on top of the T.V. hutch are some framed pictures, I realized that I was dreaming and went back to bed.

My poor wife. I'm sure I'm skipping quite a few funny stories about my sleep walking/night terrors. This happens fairly frequently. She doesn't fall asleep as easily as I do...so I know that she loses sleep because of these episodes. After one of these events, I can lay down, plop my head back on the pillow, and be snoring in seconds. Joi, however, isn't so lucky. I'm thankful that I never cohabitated with Joi before we got married, or I'm not sure she would have gone through with it knowing what be in store for her. Oh well..."Never a dull moment!"

The Times Square Two

I don't have anything important to say today, so I thought I would leave you with a funny clip from the Smothers Brothers show back in the 60's. Enjoy.

If "Wuthering Heights" had been written in the 1940's

I love the song "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush. I don't know why. It just touches a chord with me. I can't explain why. I could just listen to this song for hours and hours. Here is the song (and video) if you have never heard it.

Now, what if the song had been written in the 1940's? Would it have sounded a little different? You bet. And the Puppini Sisters have made it possible to hear what that would have been like. Enjoy "Wuthering Heights" 1940's style.

2/3 Cry for Mercy Reunion

On Saturday, October 2nd, there was a 2/3 reunion of Cry for Mercy, the Christian band I was in from 1990 to 1995. I was the missing piece, because I couldn't afford to fly down to California at this time. Our budget just didn't have a category for "last minute former band reunion concert"...so I was unable to make it. But, Dan (drummer) drove 6 hours from his home near San Francisco and joined Joe (bass player) for a 2/3 reunion concert where they played two of our old songs: "Hope" and "Doll House". Apparently, no one got "Hope" on video, but I have included the video of Joe and Dan playing "Doll House". Joe filled in on guitar and vocals in my absence. Joe tells me that they didn't even rehearse. They just set up and played the songs from memory. Now that's rock and roll. It broke my heart to not be able to join my former Christian band comrades. I have been secretly dreaming for a Cry for Mercy reunion concert for years and years. Oh well, maybe we can try it again someday and make it a full reunion concert. Sorry I couldn't make it Joe and Dan. But, way to represent!