One More

I don't know how this blog became more about Muppets than about me, but to end out the year I just wanted you all to know that The Muppet Movie has just been announced as a brand new induction to the Library of Congress.
Ah, a bear in his natural habitat... a Studebaker... in the Library of Congress.

For the Love of Chickens

The two of you who read this blog (hi mom) know that I work at a camp and that my camp name is Gonzo.

I was dubbed Gonzo due to my love of Muppets and my bio on the camp website.

Half of what you read there is serious, the rest is just goofy. We had to fill out a short little survey to help the author of our bios. One of the questions was "Who is your hero?" I wrote down the apostle Peter and realized that I admired Gonzo for the same reason.

Now I didn't say I was like Peter or Gonzo, just that I admired them. The ability to get back up after you have been knocked down, to me is the definition of what it means to be human. However, I have learned an important lesson since beginning my work at camp. In order to get knocked down you have to be moving forward.

Now, before I get comments about how according to physics you can knock down a stationary object (hi ben). I am speaking metaphorically. In order to keep trying you have to have tried the first time. In order to learn from your mistakes you have to make mistakes. In order to heal stronger you have to have been broken or bruised.

I began once to write about my coworkers and the example they have been to me. I got side tracked and wrote about community instead. So let me say this. My coworkers seek out their limits, they push themselves, they are proud of each bruise and scrape.

Now, I am not ever going to be the guy who takes a water bottle, a tent, and a sleeping bag and heads off into the woods. I am perfectly happy with some corn dogs, mac and cheese, a comfy couch and a season or two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, my time at camp has pushed me way beyond my boundries. I have gone exploring in caves and sea cave kayaking. I haven't done as much as those I went with, but that is okay. I found my limits, and had a blast doing it.

And like the kids on the zip line, pushing myself physically has allowed me to push myself in other areas as well.

Most likely more on that next time.

Serving Him alongside you, just from further away
 --Jesse "Gonzo" Letourneau

Okay, so this season Sesame Street turns 40, and their focus is nature. I work as a naturalist and have an unhealthy attachment to all things Muppet.

But the cool thing is I just learned that Abby (a newer character) has a class pet that is a gerbil-corn, which I wonder if it is related to a gunnie-corn.

If the second sentence doesn't make any sense, don't worry, there are only like three people who would understand it.

More than we see

I think we see in each other more than we ever see in ourselves.

A few months back I drew a picture for a friend of mine. It was a farewell present as he moved on from the camp where we (and I still do) worked to a new chapter in his life. I was quite happy with how it turned out, and I did put quite a bit of work into. Since then I have constantly been requested and encouraged to do more works of art.

Here is the thing, I can't draw very well. I can doodle. I am learning to play with colors to add shading and depth, but I can't just up and draw anything I want and have it look like I want it to. I certantly am not at a point where I could make any kind of living with my skills.

Yet those I work with see me as someone with a greater level of skill in drawing than I actually possess. This can be frustrating at times, as it is hard to convince people that I actually know my limits.

Yet limits are tricky things. Watch a kid cry before they jump off a zip line platform, or a sixth grader try and climb a rope ladder, slip, hit the ground, and immediately get back up and try again, and you quickly learn that limits are not set in stone. (Don't tell anyone, but I think I have learned more from the campers than I have taught to them.)

Nearly eleven months ago, I left Grace Community Church.
Grace and Community are two concepts that I have struggled to understand, struggled to know, struggled to live, and struggled to give my whole life to.

When I was in high school I thought I didn't "need" grace, and was convinced that I didn't deserve community or at least that no one would want me in their group. Then the Lord called me on a short term missions trip to England, and I learned just how wrong my theology was.

As I prepared to come to ARCG, my understanding of Grace was being renewed in my life. And the understanding of Community was being refreshed and expanded upon. I don't fully know what Community truly means. I know that it is essential for the life of the Christian. I know that Paul's analogy of the Church as a body is deadly accurate. I know that I am constantly grateful that I don't live isolated, that I don't struggle alone, I don't have victories by myself, that my burdens and trials are not mine alone to carry.

I am grateful that others see in me more than I see in myself.

Link to Crater Lake Pics

Crater Lake Pics

For Rita

It begins anew

So ODE (Outdoor Education) has started here once again. We only have 17 kids, but its a nice easy transition back into the routine. When you forget that Wednesday is pizza day at lunch, and that you are to tell the kids to start with only two pieces, it is an easy fix to tell them that when they get to the dinning hall. When you forget to tell 300 kids, not so much.

There is still construction going on, which changes some of our teaching locations, and adds quite a bit of noise, but the payoff is going to be well worth it.


I still can't believe how awesome the forest is and the fact that I get to live in it.

I miss those of you in Long and/or Seal Beach, but will be off for the month of Nov and Dec. So, if you wanna play anytime during those months, let me know.

If you have any work during those months, let me know as well. (10 months of salary is livable, but if I can make some scratch while I am home, all the better.)

Things already on the docket:

Breakfast burrito at Nick's in Seal Beach.
Firefly/Serenity night for those cool enough to know what that is (I am thinking Chinese food and Apple pie and everyone pick a favorite episode).
Disneyland (if I can figure out how to get in for free-so if you know someone who knows someone, let me know).
Grace at Night.

Volcanoes are awesome

Pics of the trip

^ clickable

Edit: 9/16/09 So that link doesn't work unless you know both me and the guy who took those pics, and 99% of that group was on the trip.

I will post more pics soon.

Frisbee Golfin'

sorry the last one is sideways, thought I fixed that.

Picture dump part one (clicking makes em bigger)

Massive Picture Dump Part 2

God is so good

It has been a while since my last update. That is basically cause things are going really well, and I have been super busy (and busy having fun).

So short story, long, I just had a conversation with the speaker for this week's camp. It was an encouragement to both of us. I am overwhelmed that God would use my life and my ministry to bless this man of God.

I am so use to being up front and in charge in ministry. But currently God has me doing a lot more "smaller" less noticeable things. And it is somehow the most amazing things. I think the big thing is that what God is doing in and through me right now, doesn't come from my gifts or talents, but comes through Him and His Grace.

odds and ends and praises

Some are odd some are ends and some are praises, I will let you figure out what is what.

My family found a nice apartment in LB, in their price range no less!!! Mucho happy about that. Plus it has a little more room than current location, so I have place to crash over holidays.

I finally got a hold of someone who cleared up my clearing up of my credential. I don't have to apply for an extension until next year (2 years left on it). Which means I can put that aside for the time and focus on what God wants to do in and through me.

With the above, I am not the most malleable clay, please pray that I will let go of what I want, what I think I want, and even what I know I don't need, and allow God to continue to do more than I can even conceive of for my life.

It's now dinner time. I will try and post more later. Summer is gearing up, new people have arrived at camp, and this week of training has been quite good. Hope to fill you all in with all that when I can.

Click to Enlarge part 2

randomness

I have had Muppets on the brain lately. Figured out why, Monday was the 19th anniversary of the passing of Jim Henson.

I am "home" in Long Beach now. I missed my church here dearly, but realize that God clearly has work for me elsewhere, and saw several examples of what He wants to do/is doing in and through the ministries at Grace I left to go to camp.

Church attendance in Occidental has been super sporadic at best. Still need some reliable transportation, as my schedule doesn't really gell with available rides.

I have 300 pics on my camera, I plan on posting some of them shortly.

Memorial Day weekend at camp is going to be crazy busy. Please pray that we all survive, with our good nature in tact.

Only two weeks left of teaching, then I become summer staff. I am no fan of physical labor (maintenance, et al.) and don't do well in the heat. Please be praying that physically, emotionally, and spiritually that I not only survive but thrive this summer. Please pray that while my strengths and my gifts won't be utilized this summer like they were during the winter season, that I maintain a positive attitude of service. (and that I get more kitchen/program/cleaning shifts than maintenance shifts)

More Muppets

So, I have been giving a lot (too much) thought to Gonzo and how he has appeared over the years. Like any good decades old character he has undergone several changes in appearance. The most resent I like to call his "Disney-ification."

Outside of Kermit, most of the principal players on the Muppet Show underwent some pretty radical transformations during the show's (all too short) five year run. To say then, that Disney has no right to change the characters look would be unfair. However, the direction that the Muppets have gone since Disney bought the rights to Kermit and company, as been to a more rounded, monochromatic, almost Playschool like appearance. (In point of fact, the classic Disney characters (Mickey, Donald, Goofy) have undergone a similar metamorphosis.) It is a case of marketing (kids like bright colors and soft round shapes) dictating the characters' look, over the character of the character dictation the character's look.

I know that last sentence has a lot of "character" in it, but when dealing with the Muppets it is important to remember that they are first and foremost characters. They have back stories and deep seeded fears, they have strengths and weaknesses, they function as a (highly eclectic and highly unstable) family. To turn them into the "funny one," the "mean one," the "jock," and the "outcast" is to miss the point of what made Jim Henson's crazy characters work so well and be loved for so long.

Kermit's new appearance is the most egregious change brought to the Muppets. However, to Disney's credit they have brought him back to a more classic look.

Classic Kermit (Notice his "skull" is basically a hand) with a more football shaped head

"Disney-fied Kermit' with a almost perfectly spherical head.

And here is Kermit in the most recent Muppet Production ("Letters to Santa")

Notice we are much closer to the original football shaped head.

(Side Note: The Muppets and many other properties have been trying hard to produce a seminal Christmas film in the vain of A Charlie Brown Christmas. The reason Charlie Brown and friends have become a part of American Christmas is that CBS ran the special every year for decades on end. If you want kids to grow up watching your Christmas special, stop making new ones every five years, and simply rerun your show until everyone deems it a classic)

Despite the presence of various and radical changes, Miss Piggy adamantly denies ever having plastic surgery. You be the judge.

BEFORE

AFTER

However, what Disney has done to the pig (make her head as round as possible) seems a little extreme.

Disney-ification

Sadly, one of my favorite Muppets (who makes me smile on appearance alone) has undergone (in my book) the most unfortunate transformation of all.

Old school Fozzie

Disney-ification

I really hate the look of the current furry funny man.

So on to Gonzo.

When Gonzo was first introduced to the world, he was this little weird whatever. Not overly appealing in his appearance (or his "artistic acts").

1976

As the years went by Gonzo grew in size as well as physical appeal (relatively speaking of course)

1981

During what some fans have dubbed "The storybook years", Gonzo continued to grow in size, appearance, and in prominence. In 1992's A Muppet Christmas Carol, Gonzo took center stage as the narrator of the film.

narrator of classic novels and stealer of souls

After Disney bought the Muppets, Gonzo became rounder, softer, and more monochromatic.


Once ugly and predominately purple, Gonzo has morphed into a (somewhat) appealing and mostly blue.















I would be absolutely appalled at the transformation of the little whatever who was booed off the stage when he tried to eat a tire to the tunes of Korsakovo to the alien who is front and center of the recent Disney/Muppet outings, except for one thing:

Dave Golez, the man who has had his hand up Gonzo's tucus, since the first episode of the Muppet Show. Gonzo and Golez are the only character/puppeteer combo to remain in tact since the beginning. Golez/Gonzo are the reason that any heart, any humor, and since of nostalgia are part of recent Muppet productions.

So while I am not a fan of rounded heads and simple color schemes (these ain't the telletubbies) I do love me some Gonzo.

Below is a video of Dave and Gonzo

clicky