Mastermind and Master Scheeming

Last week was dedicated to that computational photography project, every waking moment was spent working on it, right up until Friday at 2:00 when it was submitted. I was certainly in need of a break.

Lucky for me Jackie, the youth minister at Shadyside, had contacted the young adults asking if anyone wanted to join her and the junior highers for a little Friday fun. Naturally I said yes. First stop was Panera, an apparent necessity for Pittsburgh locals. I was not aware of its greatness, and those around me were quick to make me aware. Basically it is a soup, salad, sandwich shop connected to a bakery. I had a tasty chicken soup with a cob salad. Very good. While we were there we also prepared for a little mischieving (yes that is a word) later that night (I will get to that later). Due to a miscommunication as to the location (we were at the waterworks, and some people went to the waterfront, they are on opposite sides of town) there were only 2 junior highers. As for "adults" (which will be used loosely from here on out) most of them I knew! Sam (girl from Whitworth, Spokane represent!), Tracey and Gwyn (who really could be constantly grouped together, they are locals, sort of, the V party was at Gwyn's house) and Christiana (who came to the V party). So yes, the "adults" outnumbered the Junior Highers 3 to 1.

After diner we walked over to the theater to watch "Mastermind." Which I will throw out there is a great movie. I was pleasantly surprised. I was not really expecting much, but it was a good story, very funny, and by far the clearest looking CG animation I have seen yet. Us Adults were being told constantly by one of the Junior Highers that we were getting out of hand. There may have been some Twizler wars and licked-gummi bears being stuck to faces (I was not part of that last one).

One of the pastors of the church and his family recently officially adopted a daughter, who I believe had been living with them for a while (I don't really know the situation). Anyway, we "forked" their yard. Now if you were like me, you may be thinking that to fork some one's yard, you push the forks, tines down, in to their lawn. In this case, we wrote motivational and inspirational messages on index cards. Then inserted the cards in between the tines, and then pushed the forks (handle down) in to the ground. The over all effect being that in the morning the family would come out to see all of the messages facing them. Very amusing operation. And in doing so found out that the people in my car (all "adults") had never really done any pranking... in fact one of them (she will remain un-named) didn't know that TPing involved Toilet Paper until I was talking about it. She always thought it was actually setting up a Tipi in some one's yard. I am thinking that this needs to be changed. The only problem being that all of the people we thought of to prank live in apartments, thus making TPing not overly effective. So Chelsea, Chris, if you have any ideas, let me know.

After all of this shenanigans, I headed down to the Leaf and Bean, a local coffee and cigar shop, where Garret (someone from the Young adult group) was having a birthday party. The Leaf and Bean would be the place where his girlfriend, Kendra and Jeff (the young adult director) work. Father, you would like it. Two things you enjoy, in an atmosphere you would find comfortable. We might have to stop by when you are here. I didn't really know a ton of people, I spent most of the time talking to Jeff about a movie based theological series I am going to be starting.

On that topic. I am looking for movies that have some sort of theological undertones in them. They can be blatant as Luther, but they can be subtle as well (in fact those would be preferential) like The Dark Night. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Yet again, another enjoyable Friday.