Category Archives: Current Events

Church of Christ Youth Minister & Watershed Worship Singer Sean Algaier to Appear on NBC’s The Biggest Loser

Many of the regular readers of westcoastwitness.com know Sean Algaier.

In addition to being the youth minister for the Jenks Church of Christ in the Tulsa area, Sean is also one of the lead singers of Watershed – a high energy Christian acappella group that’s frequently made appearances at Church of Christ retreats and workshops within the past five or six years.

Someone posted a link to this video on Facebook, and I clicked on it when I recognized Sean’s face in the still shot.

Apparently, Sean is a contestant on the upcoming season of NBC’s The Biggest Loser – a reality show where overweight people compete to see who can lose the most (here’s Sean’s profile on NBC’s site).

Good for him!

I know how tough it is to lose weight and admire Sean for putting himself out there, admitting he has a problem, and taking steps to fix it.

I’ve never watched more than a few minutes of The Biggest Loser, but will be tuning in this season rooting for Sean to win. The season premiere is September 15 at 8/7c.

Am I sharing yesterday’s news over here … did you already know about this?

Here’s a related video of Sean poking fun at himself and sharing his passion for nachos, fried chicken, rolls, and gravy (seriously … lol):

What in the world???

Anyway, watch Sean on The Biggest Loser!

(Click here to visit Sean’s fanpage on Facebook)

UPDATE: The show is now over – check out Sean’s transformation here. He lost over 150 pounds!

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Don’t Take Your Kids To See Transformers 2 – Don’t Take Yourself Either

I went to see Transformers 2 last night with a group of friends from Lake Merced. Going into this movie, I was convinced it would be one of my favorites from 2009. I’m a big fan, and the only real question I had was if TF2 would rival 2008’s Iron Man in it’s goodness or not.

Man, was I in for a surprise.

Not only did TF2 fail to live up to Iron Man, it barely beat out 2003’s big budget flop Hulk.

Yes, the action scenes were cool. Yes, the special effects were cool. Yes, I still love Optimus Prime, but those things added together didn’t make this a good movie – there were too many other things dragging it down.

First of all, the acting was horrible. Cheesy characters spouting cheesy lines make for a cheesy movie.

Secondly, TF2 boasts the most amaturish, sophomoric writing I’ve seen in a big budget film in a long time. I left the theater commenting that I felt like the script must have been written by a couple of frat boys.

Thirdly, I wouldn’t think of taking my kids to see this movie. The cussing starts within the first three minutes, and it doesn’t stop until the end credits. If you’d like little Tommy and Suzy to repeat what’s said in this movie to their classmates at school or to their grandmother,  then be my guest – take your kids to see TF2. If you don’t want your kids cussing like their heroes (whose action figures they bought in the children’s section at Wal-Mart), then don’t. I’ve spoken with parents who unwittingly took their kids to see this movie only to leave the theater pretty steamed.

Lastly, sophmoric humor always includes stupid sex jokes. Another reason not to take children to see TF2 –  it’s filled with sexual situations and innuendo. It even features a female humanoid robot that seduces the main character into cheating on his girlfriend by having sex with her (only to try to kill him with her robotic tongue after the girlfriend walks in).

Overall, even if the cussing and sexual stuff hadn’t been in this movie ruining it for little kids, it’d still have been a terrible movie. The script was that bad.

Trust me. You don’t want to waste your money on this.

I’ll be thinking twice before spending mine on #3.

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Governmental Oppression in the Digital Age Doesn’t Fly on the World Stage

If you haven’t seen this, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/citizentube

YouTube has created a special section of their site specifically for Iranian citizens to upload videos of governmental oppression (in case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a link to stories regarding what’s going in in Iran right now).

 

Here’s a sample vid from YouTube’s special “citizentube” channel:

*Warning* – quick disclaimer: if you choose to peruse the channel, some of the videos you’ll encounter are extremely graphic. People are being killed in Iran, and the bullets are very real.

My thoughts: what’s going on in Iran right now is horrible. I hope things are resolved without too much more bloodshed, but I’m not too optimistic that they will be.

What’s very interesting to me is the role technology is playing in this situation.

Here we see the internet, a technology invented in the United States (NOT by Al Gore), intentionally created to be decentralized, unregulated, and easily accessed, fueling a revolution in Iran.

World leaders and citizens alike are watching the same videos on YouTube, and no one is left unaffected by the images they’re seeing. Everyone has an opinion – some more vocal than the others, but EVERYONE is seeing these images – some that will stick with us for a very long time. They’re shocking and sad …

Many moral people have argued for governmental regulation of the internet because of things like the prevalence of porn and other malicious content (like, instructions on how to build a bomb – don’t get any ideas, kids), but here we see the decentralized, unregulated nature of the web being used for something good.

Does the good outweigh the bad? Time will tell I suppose, but I, for one, am not going to complain too much in the meantime. I see too much good happening.

I’m impressed with YouTube – thumbs up!

-Wes

 

P.S. – Totally unrelated, but make a note to yourself: don’t sell weed, but if you do for some stupid reason, DON’T SELL IT ON CRAIGSLIST!

Yeah, governmental oppression in the digital age doesn’t fly on the world stage, and neither does selling pot on Craigslist.

That guy MUST have been smokin’ more than he was sellin’!

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