From the Inside Out

Thousands of people will head to the movies this weekend. When they arrive, many will head for the concession stand to grab a few snacks. After all, what goes better with a movie than fresh popcorn? But if you’re watching your calories (or just trying to eat healthy), be warned. Mindless snacking during a show can add hundreds of calories to your daily intake.

During a Cornell study, theater patrons with large buckets of popcorn ate nearly twice as much as those with medium buckets. And it gets even worse: some of the large buckets had two-week-old kernels instead of freshly popped corn. Those with the stale popcorn still ate 34 percent more than those with medium buckets. It just goes to further prove that absentminded snacking is your enemy.

To help you make better choices at the movies, the authors of “Eat This, Not That!” developed a guide to movie theater snack survival. The results are interesting. They say the worst snack at the movies is buttered popcorn. The butter used at the theater triples the calories and is full of trans fat (39 g fat total for a medium!). Instead, they recommend a soft pretzel (plain). It has no fat and only 290 calories.

Other choices include:

Junior Mints (1/2 box=170 calories, 3g fat) instead of M&Ms (1 bag=240 calories, 10g fat)

Good & Plenty (33 pieces=130 calories, 0g fat) instead of Twizzlers (1 pkg=480 calories, 2g fat, 64g sugar)

Swedish Fish (2 oz=200 calories, 0g fat, 28g sugar) instead of Dots (22 pieces=260 calories, 0g fat, 42g sugar)

For more great tips, check out the new Eat This, Not That! book.

How many times have you been in a theater watching a movie and sipping on a Big Gulp-sized drink when all of a sudden it hits you? You know what I’m talking about. You suddenly have an urge to go to the bathroom. It’s always a dilemma. You wonder if you should hold it and be uncomfortable or leave and risk missing something important?

Well, wonder no more! There’s now a website that tells you when it’s safe to go to the bathroom. RunPee.com gives you a “wiki-pee-dia” that provides the best times to leave the movie without missing a major plot point. It also tells you how long you can be gone and gives a summary of what’s happening while you’re in the bathroom, but it doesn’t “spoil” you. You choose whether or not you want to view the summary.

RunPee.com lists movies that are currently in theaters. It also offers another nice feature that I like. It tells you if there are any scenes after the credits that you should stay around to watch.

And for those of you who forget to check the RunPee times before you go to the movies, there’s a nifty iPhone application that will countdown to the next PeeTime. The iPhone will vibrate to let you know when it’s time to go. Pretty cool, huh?

Check it out

We held the last normal rehearsal for The Prison tonight. Tech week (AKA hell week) begins next Monday. Normally at this stage, I’m worried about how we will pull everything together before opening night.

This time, it’s no different. I’m still worried.

Miraculously, it all seems to come together during tech week, so we just move forward in faith that it’ll happen again with this production too. Everyone teams together during the final week, and we’ve had some of our best performances after the worst rehearsals. It’s just further proof that you never know what’s going to happen.

It is fun to see things start to gel — acting, lights, sound, and multimedia. Amidst the craziness tonight, I saw glimpses of brilliance. It’s there, we just need to fine tune it during the remaining rehearsals.

Below are a few more “behind the scenes” pictures — see the real thing on May 1 and 2 at 7:30 pm at Abundant Life Church in Plano.

Rehearsing a visitation scene

Aundre going over his lines

Steve patiently waiting for his next scene

Our Stage Manager and Director deep in thought

Gary making Daphryne laugh — it’s not supposed to be funny!

Derrick directing the stage crew — if they don’t get it right, they get thrown in the slammer.

Gary and I jumped into the Mercedes today and headed North. It was time for a road trip! We were traveling to the city where my sister was born (Oklahoma City) to see Katie performing in Be Aggressive at Oklahoma City University.

Even though I prefer to fly, there is something distinctively fun about a road trip. You get to drive on the open road, listen to great tunes on your iPod, and see the countryside up close and personal. For this trip, the trees in Oklahoma were displaying their Fall colors, and it was a beautiful sight. You don’t see that in a plane.

After three hours and an unexpected delay by a state trooper, we arrived in OKC. We had some extra time before the show started, so we ate dinner at a Mexican food restaurant and then headed to the OKCU black box theater for the show.

Be Aggressive is a play written by Annie Weisman. Set in Southern California, the story revolves around cheerleaders Laura and Leslie (played by Katie). After Laura’s mother is killed, the teenager is left to care for her little sister and her grieving father. The play takes a darkly comedic turn when the girls conspire to better themselves by running off to a cheerleading training program called the Spirit Institute of the South.

Be Aggressive is a witty, energetic and entertaining play. Katie’s performance was AWESOME! She did an outstanding job playing Leslie. It was a challenging character to play, and she made it look easy. Katie is extremely talented — we’re lucky to have her in our dramas when she’s not away at college.

After the play, we got back on the road and came home. We arrived late, but daylight saving time ends tonight, so we get an extra hour to sleep before church tomorrow.

Don’t forget to change your clocks, and have a great Sunday!

In case you were wondering why I didn’t post a blog last night, here’s the story.  I got bored so I decided to rip the Pirates of Patmos DVD and turn it into a short music video that follows the basic storyline.  I am by no means an expert in video editing, but I love playing around with it. 

In fact, I love it so much that I accidentally stayed up until 4 am working on it.  Hey, it’s not easy squeezing 2 hours of content into a 6 minute video!  Plus, it was already late when I started.

Here’s the completed video…check it out.

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