ESL Lessons for Japanese Girls (NSFW)

Okay, so these are absolutely hilarious! Mama Bean and I almost peed our pants laughing. The first 2 are the best.

Who gives good head? I do, you do, my parents to, even my grandmother



You make my juices fro...umm...what? Your grandma makes my juices fro too?



Give you what?




A what? A bitch on what? On heat?



You'er so good. It's true. You'er so good!

Salt and the Bacon Explosion!

I just read this interesting article about the high amount of sodium in our daily diet, and how New York City's Health Commissioner is trying to curb this. 80% of our daily intake of sodium come from "packaged foods and mass-produced restaurant meals."

His proposal was made to some big names in food processing over lunch...

"Over the next five years, identify the foods that are contributing the most sodium to people’s diets and cut the level of salt by 25 percent. In a decade, cut it by another 25 percent. And do it in unison with your competitors."

While I'm not sure about his method of doing it, the idea is brilliant. I especially like the gradual decrease.

So after reading that and feeling good about the changes that might be working its way into western society, I read this, the Bacon Explosion! Ummmm...YUM!

It is 4lbs of pork, rolled up into a fatty and smoked (on a bbq). 2lbs of bacon, 2lbs of italian sausage, rolled up with bbq sauce and bbq'd for a few hours! Seriously, YUM!

In the beginning, it looks like this: (place napkin over keyboard to protect from drool)



Then this:


Almost done:


And to finish:

It's a blanket...WITH SLEEVES!

Watch this...(The Snuggie)

(video replaced with a link because i found it really annoying that it would start playing everytime this page loaded.

Then this...(The WTF Blanket)

The WTF Blanket (Snuggie Parody) - watch more funny videos

Awesome right? And no, they aren't both a joke. The first one is real. (and apparently a huge scam)

But I also came across this blog. This is someone that actually WANTS to buy one of these. And to takes it a step further, wants to know which is better, The Snuggie or The Slanket.

Seriously...

The comments are the best part.

In an economy in recession, shouldn't shit like this be the last thing on your mind? Then again I want to spend 2 grand on a tattoo so I guess I can't really talk.

Response

This is in response to Abby's comments on my previous post.

Miss Abby, you are anything but offending. :) Your advice is actually right on the button.

I've been looking into being a "Big Brother". There isn't much going on until Spring. But it is something I definitely want to pursue. And I figure I was a pretty decent big brother, so I would make a great Big Brother. :) I'm also working on improving my music theory so I can eventually teach lessons. So anything but time consuming and boring. And I have LOTS of elderly neighbours. Our neighborhood has the highest concentration of old people in the city, so there are lots of meet and listen to stories from.

Part of the problem is that no matter what I do, it gets faded and replaced. Except for a few things... like my wife. :) And bass playing. And religion. But relationships don't seem to follow the same pattern. So I figure they are a great place to start.

Anger

I don't understand being angry. It doesn't happen very often, because I think it is just such a waste of energy. It helps that I have this huge well of patience, but sometimes it still gets to me. Sometimes, but not very often.

It also means I don't know how to deal with it as well either. I do much better at dealing with sadness, for some reason it is a feeling I am much more familiar with.

Something is missing

I've been feeling kind of lost lately, like I'm just going through the motions. It's not like there is something wrong, but it feels like something is missing.

What keeps me going, is looking forward to the next "thing". Vacations, events, changes, etc... I spent all last week looking forward to Thursday night's rehearsal. And then, I spent the next two days looking foward to playing on Sunday morning. I'm not sure what's wrong, but I really need something. I don't get to play again in church for 3 weeks. That sucks. Well, any chance to play is amazing and something to look forward to. But I also feel kinda bad, because I'm coming in and taking time away from his playing. Though he does also play guitar, so that means on the weeks when I get to play, he plays guitar. Which means he gets to play every week. I think I need to pickup a second instrument. :)

Seriously though, I don't understand why I feel as though something is missing. I shouldn't have to spend my entire life looking forward to the next thing. My life shouldn't be a series of build-ups, and highs. Wash, rinse and repeat. Shouldn't day to day life be enough? I enjoy my job, I'm spending lots of time with my wife, and things are good.

But until I figure out a better way, I need to find something new in my life to look forward to. I'm thinking about getting a part-time job to pay for a tattoo. I want to get a full sleeve tattooed on my right arm. It will cost between $1600-2000. I figure if I can get a job for $10/hr, work 16 hours a week, I should be able to take home about $400/mo. This will allow me to pay for the entire thing in 4 to 5 months. Which is friggin sweet. It's still too far away to be one of the "things" that I look forward to, but awesome. :)

I have a lot of goals, and things I am working towards, but none of them have that "thing" factor. It makes me sad.

Alright, an update on my goals...


I'm not on top of all of them, but things are starting to come together so that I will be. I had a fairly large list, so to think I would make that many changes instantly would be a little far fetched.


When I wrote the original post, it was the first Sunday of 2009. Last week, Mama Bean and I started weightwatchers again (the whole counting points, and keeping track of what we eat, not the going to meetings part). This morning I weighed in at 237.8. That would mean I have dropped 10.8lbs in the past two weeks. Maybe I was eating a lot of garbage. And the best part is that I don't even feel like I'm making much in the way of sacrifices. I think it is because we are also eating healthier that I stay full longer. And instead of snacking on junk, I eat popcorn. I think I've eaten more popcorn in the past week than I have in the past few years, but that's totally okay. It's so low in calories, fills me up, and takes away the mental cravings.


We also started using this book called Eating on Fire or something. It gives a weekly menu, as well as a grocery list for the week. This way we spend less at the grocery store because we aren't randomly buying things AND we eat better because each meal has a protein, starch and vegetable. It's amazing! My wife posted an entry on it, here.


Waking up this morning sucked until I stepped on the scale. It totally made my day. (and so far work has been anything but great) I'm also going to focus on doing daily exercises this week as I'm sure that'll help burn even more.


I found out this running company near our house is starting a running clinic next month. I kind of want to check it out. I know my knees suck, and I'm still terribly out of shape, but maybe it would help. I'll check.

Going Green

Upon moving to Winnipeg, we discovered that the recycling program out here is free. So we jumped on that pretty quick. We are still working on what we can and cannot recycle, and getting used to washing out cans, and delabeling them and stuff. But what a huge difference it makes in the amount of trash we throw out.

Then we decided we would start gardening, and built a garden plot in our backyard. We also started learning about composting, and I went to a little workshop they put on at the public library. Composting is awesome! We originally had a 5 gallon bucket in our kitchen that we threw all of our kitchen scraps into. When it got full, we put it out side, and bought one of those big outside garbage cans. I attempted to dump the contents of the first bucket into it, but it had frozen while outside. So now we have an old ice cream bucket in the kitchen, and we dump it into the big can outside on a weekly basis, which is usually about how long it takes to fill up.

Composting is an amazing process, and it further cuts down on the amount of trash we throw out. AND it creates a great soil additive.

I don't rake my leaves, but rather mow them back into my lawn. So we snagged a couple of bags of leaves/grass clippings from a neighbor and they will provide great brown material to add to our compost bin. Right now we only have green materials (kitchen scraps), so I look forward to adding the brown and having it break down come spring to really help our coming garden.

There are a lot of crazies in this whole "green movement," that I really don't want to be associated with. I'm just doing my part to reduce my personal impact on the environment. I've always been a big fan of water conservation; I grew up learning to conserve water, and it continues to impact my everyday living. I'm not as stringent about it as I used to be, and it makes me feel bad, but I'm getting back into conserving again.

I figure there are a ton of little ways that we can do our part to help the environment, whether we think it's going to hell in a hand basket or not. We all have a negative impact on the environment, it is human nature, so we have the responsibility to reduce the negative impact.

She's back...will it last?

I hope so.

It makes me happy that my wife is blogging again. I like reading what she has to say. :) Though, I am a little biased. She has a new location on the web, you can find her at Spinagus.

Wimps, I say

So almost every school in southern Manitoba outside of Winnipeg and Brandon are closed today. No school buses are running in Winnipeg, and the majority of private schools are closed. The public schools are still open though, and of course that is where I work.

Why are all these schools closed, you might ask? Why are there no school buses running? Because it is -35, but with the wind-chill it is -50. I remember when I moved to Calgary they closed the schools down because it was -35 or -40 or something and it just made me laugh. I had just moved down from Yellowknife, where -40 was commonplace. If it was below -40 they'd let us come inside before the bell rang in the morning, and we'd have indoor recess. But close the schools? Not gonna happen. We even walked to school most days. Now this might come across like, "Well, when I was a boy, I had to walk to school EVERYDAY, in -40, through 5 feet of snow, with no boots and it was uphill in both directions." But that's fine, if you want to take it that way, because I'm not exaggerating. Winnipeg winter is almost as cold as up there, so people should understand how to dress for the weather, and own warm clothes. Don't give me that bullshit. I could go on and on about all the stuff we used to do, no matter the temperature, but it's irrelevant, and it just makes me miss it.

Sure it's cold. I froze my balls off sitting in my car as I drove to work this morning, and my fingers went numb being out of my gloves for the 15 seconds it took to fumble with plugging my car in. Yes, my teeth hurt when I smiled at someone when walking to the building and my nostrils would freeze together if I breathed in too sharply. But that is just part of winter. I'd enjoy it more if I had snowpants, because I'm not above wearing them around, but I get by.

It's Winnipeg. It gets cold. If you've lived here for more than a year you know this. If you haven't lived through a winter here, you've heard about it...A LOT. So there is no excuse. Stop your whining and enjoy life.

Ouch

Don't mess with those sushi waiters in France!
Man stabbed to death while stealing tips

Internet Radio

Internet radio is awesome. I listen to it all day at work, despite the fact that we aren't supposed to, but I figure in a school of 1500, my little computer using internet radio isn't going to be a big deal.

When you select an internet radio station, you have a lot of options, and with each option is a the speed of the station, eg. 28K, 56K, 128K, 256K, etc... The speed indicates how much bandwidth you will be using.

For example, you are listening to a 128K station for 8 hours a day at work.
(b = bit, B = byte)
there are 8 b in a B
there are 1024 B in a KB
there are 1024 KB in a MB

so ...
Size (in megabytes) = length (in seconds) · bit rate (in kbit/s) / 8,388.608 (since 1 megabyte = 8 * 1,048,576 bits = 8,388.608 kilobits)

3600 * 128 / 8388.608 = 55MB per hour. Multiply that by 8 and you are only using 400MB of bandwidth per day. In our world of super high speed internet, that's nothing. I don't care what those other IT guys say. They are usually those uptight asshole types anyway.

Okay, this post got a whole lot geekier than I had originally intended. Originally I just wanted to laugh about convincing a teacher that the louder her internet radio was, the more bandwidth she used. :) But I guess I got a little ahead of myself. Ah well. It was funny.

Women in Ministry study gets derailed

I've spent a chunk of this afternoon reading and learning about Women in Ministry, and whether it's cool or not. So while I'm going through it all, learning lots of cool things, and points from both sides of the argument, I get hung up on a minor detail. Why

Proponents for the prohibition of women as leaders in ministry use 1 Timothy 2:12 (NIV), "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." An argument against it is that this is only applies to the woman that Paul is talking about in the context of the letter, which I was in the middle of exploring, when I thought, "Who is this 'I' that is forbidding it?" Why Paul of course. And is Paul God? No, he is not. So then why is something that he forbids law? Who is he to tell us what we can or cannot do? Sure his words are "God-inspired," but are they to be taken as the be all and end all? And there are plenty of critics who don't even believe that Paul was the writer of 1 Timothy. *sigh* This didn't go the way I expected. Now I need to study the canonization of the bible before I can continue with my study of women in ministry.

A Great Saturday!

Yay, my garage is usable! When we moved to Winnipeg, we had the piano packaged in a big box and moved out here. The movers unpacked the piano and put it in our living room and left the box in our garage. We kept meaning to dismantle it, but never got around to it. Then it got cold, and it was too cold to do it.
Well today we finally got around to doing it. Well, we didn't fully dismantle it, but we did make the garage usable for the first time since moving in! Yay us. So one car is now in the garage, and the other is parked outside. They will rotate depending on the timing of us getting home, but it will be nice.

I also got winter boots today! This means Mama Bean and I can go for walks and such, which is exciting. Now to slim down so I can fit into my snow pants, and I'll be set! Good times!

We also bought a futon today! (it was a good day if you can't tell) We've been married over a year and a half and still don't have a couch. We had a futon from Jo's parents, but it wasn't very comfy. This one is much nicer, and will make watching TV enjoyable (when I hook it up that is). We only have electricity on one wall in the basement, the opposite one from the TV. So I'm going to have to run an extension cord across the room as well as run a ground cable to that outlet. I'm excited about the futon, it's really nice, and they've made technological advancements in futon mattresses so now they don't flatten out where you sit like the old ones. We also have a futon mattress from Jo's cousin so we have a spare/backup.

Right now I'm sitting here listening so some funky Motown hits. Last week I watched Standing in the Shadows of Motown, a documentary about the Funk Brothers; the musicians behind the hits. The lack of recognition that these guys got is so sad. And I'm not working my way through Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The James Jamerson story, a book I got for Christmas. James Jamerson is THE original bassist. He's arguably the best bassist to ever pick up a bass and lay down a groove and has played on more number one hits than anyone, all with no recognition. It's such a sad story, but I'm learning so much. And I'm LOVING this music. I've always enjoyed it, but now I just get sucked into the bass lines, and will just sit here and lose myself in the funk. The book is also full of bass line transcriptions from the songs, as well as two CDs with many modern bass players covering James' old hits, with the bass line being prominent on the recording. It's beautiful. And with the smell of fresh baked bread from our bread maker. It's a good evening.

And as I'm sitting here listening to the music, I'm looking up a lot of the bass lines so I can learn them.

ouch

jo and i had a great meal of perogies, beans and mashed cauliflower for supper yesterday. it was yummy.

but i bit into a perogie and the filling was really hot, and instead of spitting it out, i left it in my mouth, tried to make it cool down, and ate it. then my mouth started to hurt. and it blistered. and then the blisters popped. and now my mouth hurts. :p

Ugh

My body disgusts me. It has for a while now, and I'm finally going to do something about it.

Right now, I am irritable, and grumpy. I'm not really sure why, but I think it's a mix of being out of shape, eating too much, and having a bad bass practice.

I'm 250lbs, and in the worse shape of my life. I still have a decent build, but it is now completely covered. I'm 26, and should be in the prime of my life, so what's going on?

I got lazy. I used to love working out, but now...I'm so out of shape that working out sucks. I can't afford a gym membership, so I have to workout at home. Chinups, pushups, situps, wall-sits, etc... It sucks. I used to be able to rep out chin-ups like there is no tomorrow. I once had to do a presentation on chin-ups. I think I did about 50 of them through-out the presentation, stopping at half-way points, holding it and talking before continuing. Now I can hardly do one.

I know what I need to do to lose the weight, to get back into shape. I exercise, and I eat less. 2 things that I am going to find very difficult. I'm pretty sure I can do the working out part, but the eating less is going to be rather difficult. My will power has gotten weak (but can be built back up), and I love my food.

I can do it though. Mama Bean will help me stay accountable, and I'll track my progress regularly. I can do this, and I will. I'm tired of hating my body. Things need to change.

Bad Practice :(

I had a really shitty bass practice tonight. I'm not sure why. I was grumpy and irritable, and my tone just wasn't right. And I know tone can be changed with the turn of a dial, the changing of strings, or the difference in amps. But I don't know enough to figure it out. Right now it's easy to blame it on my amp. When I played on Sunday, the tone was absolutely amazing, though there were still issues. I had to turn my treble all the way down on my bass and amp in order to eliminate the background noise, which was kind of frustrating. But the tone otherwise was beautiful, I could even slap, which I can't do through my amp at home for some reason. It just sounds like garbage. So that was frustrating, and ruined my practice. I practiced for about an hour, running through my Building Walking Bass Lines book, but I just couldn't get into it. :(

Mass

I miss Catholicism. I went to Mass a few times, but never really understood it. I think I would get a lot more out of it now.

I want to find a place to go to mid-week mass, or maybe Saturday or Sunday evening. I think it would be cool to go back and check out again.

I wish I could write like this

Today I discovered a few Theology blogs. Mostly by doctorate students, and very interesting. what blows me away though, is how they write. Below is a smattering of examples I've pulled off a few of them.



"Thus, for Christian ecotheology, imagining a Christology that is coherent in the tradition and moves beyond anthropocentrism is simultaneously a most significant desideratum and the crux maneuver for the whole systematic enterprise"


"Finally, I will evaluate the significance of the trajectories in Moltmann’s Christology in ecological terms and argue for the necessity of certain shifts if future Christologies are to avoid underwriting deleterious modes of interaction with the natural world. "



"However, he exemplifies presuppositions that drive modern culture to cut ties with tradition as a relic of superstition, and refuse to acknowledge anything but what can be empirically verified."


3 short clips from this guy's blog that I've been reading. And I do mean reading; you can't just skim it when it is written like this. I have one tab open to his writing, and one open to wikipedia and another to a dictionary. I understand what he is saying, though it might take me a little longer than reading the daily news, but I'm proud that I can do that much.


So what I'm wondering is do all theologians and doctorate-type students write like this? Am I going to write like this one day? I can't see myself writing like that. I mean it'd be pretty sweet if I could get my mind to work like that but...


Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool, and I like challenging my mind, so I'll continue to read it. He seems to be a big proponent of "ecotheology," something completely foreign to me, yet it has piqued my interest. I'm excited to learn more, and maybe some of his language skills will rub off on me. :)

Resolutions? How about Goals?

I like having goals. I never used to, but I've learned they should be an important part of my life.

I never used to be a huge fan of New Years Resolutions, but I've found the that having a set date to use as a starting point for goals, is very helpful. My goals could be accomplished at any point in the year, but I find the structure of having a starting time is important.

So, now I have a list of goals, and the methods I will use to accomplish them. I list them on my blog, to use you all as my accountability buddies. Public accountability. :)

My Goals (and methods for achieving them) for 2009

Spiritual:
1. Pray more
- Write down prayer requests/things to pray for on cue cards. I learned to do this in bible college, and it was a great way to help stay focused, and to keep track of things to pray about. So I don't tell someone, "I'll pray for you" and then forget about it. I will write it down, and have a constant reminder.
2. Read my Bible more
- I'm going to set aside 20-30 minutes a day to read a passage and write about it. It doesn't necessarily need to happen at the same time, because sometimes it is nice to read something, think about it and then write, but there will definitely be some reading and writing.
3. Read/Write more
- Similar to the previous one, but I want to read non-Bible stuff as well and write about it.
4. Learn how to tell someone about Jesus...and actually do it.
- Not really sure how to go about doing this. It'll definitely require leaving my comfort zone since it's not really something I do, but...it scares me. I'll talk to other Christians about it, people at church, Greg, Rev. Jimmy, Brother-in-law Pastor Dave, etc... and get some ideas.

Work:
1. Get my A+ and Network+ certifications
- Study my little ass off for the next 2 months and get them written. I'm going to set aside an hour after lunch each day to study and cram my brain full of useless facts in order to successfully write the exams.
2. Get an Apple certification
- Once I am done my A+ and Network+, I will spend the next couple of months using that same study time to study for an Apple certification, probably the help desk one. I will also spend more time using OSX at work to further familiarize myself with it.
3. Become Dell certified
- Talk to my boss about how to get this, and take the requisite steps to make it so
4. Be on time
- Be out of the door by 7:50 to ensure I get to work on time everyday.
5. Increase the amount of side work I do, to increase revenue.
- I should be getting business cards soon, and I'll be able to start handing them out and picking up more business. This will be easier as I get more certifications, and get my name passed around. Word of mouth is a great marketing tool.

Personal:
1. Lose weight/get fit.
- I'm currently 248.6 lbs, and can do 1 chin-up and a handful of push-ups. This is unacceptable. By the end of the year I will be 210 or less, be able to do 24 consecutive chin-ups and 24 consecutive push-ups. I will accomplish this by following a daily regime of chin-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and calisthenics, as well as getting back on Weight Watchers. I definitely don't look 250, but it sure feels like it some days.
2. Be a more loving husband (even more so than now)
- Return to doing things that I used to do while dating. Showing my love in more ways than just words; things like opening the car door for her, leaving her little love notes, surprise flowers, etc... Things I should be doing anyway, but have let slip over the years. We've only been married for a year and a half, but have been together for seven and a half, which is no excuse.
3. Sit around watching TV less.
- we have gotten into the habit of sitting around watching far too much TV and spending too much time idly surfing the internet. If I take the steps to ensure the completion of my other goals, this will happen automatically.

Bass:
1. Increase my knowledge of music theory
- I'm going to actually start going through the large collection of bass materials I have. I keep collecting them, thinking they will make me a better bass player, without putting in the actually practice time with them to ensure this happens. I will start working through these by putting in an hour a night playing bass, which will include working on theory.
2. Improve my technique
- As part of my increased practice time, I will be working on playing all my various scales, modes, etc... so that I know them inside and out. I want to be able to sit down and run through my scales without thought and know all of the notes.
3. Learn new songs (not just church ones)
- I'd like to have a new song memorized every two weeks. I'm not sure if this is realistic, but I figure it is a good starting point. All I really know are church stuff, and just recently I've started branching out, because I want to start playing outside of church (see next point).
4. Play outside of church.
- With the improvment of my playing, I will feel more confident, and therefore play better, and know more songs. This will allow me the confidence to go and play with other people, maybe join a band, and play in real life, not just church. The people in the worship team at Central seem pretty plugged into the music scene here, and should be able to provide a little direction/help.

My longer term goal is to go back to bible college, get my undergrad and then get my M.Div and become a pastor. I know this is pretty far down the road, and that makes me sad, but I am staying strong and committed. I REALLY want to be back in school by fall of 2010, but everything really hinges on Mama Bean and her work. I'm not putting any pressure on her, and am happy to wait for her, but I just really want to go back to school. This latest discussion on Facebook brought back that love. I also have people in my life that show an interest in it, and that makes me happy. Kari and James have always been really great supporters of it, and Jo's cousin Ann always asks me about it. It always gives me a chance to remember how badly I want to go back, and let them know that, yes, I will be going back, but not yet.

It's going to be kinda surreal when I eventually go back. Watch it not be at all what I want it to be, and I'll get all pissed off and quit. lol, not likely. Well, likely that I'll get disenchanted with the process, but I have a goal here, and I'm going to do it. I've been waiting (and will continue to) for a long time, so I'll have a pretty solid reason for being there.

So those are my goals. I think they are important, and I'm happy to share them. Thank you public accountability buddies. :)

A Great Second Sunday

We played at Central for the second week, and it was absolutely amazing! I kinda sucked the big one a little bit (not totally, but a little), 4 of the 5 songs were completely foreign to me, and we only rand through them once before the service, and the one song I did know I messed up the worst. I'm used to playing with chord sheets. They are simple and to the point. Here they tend to enjoy lead sheets, though there is a smattering of chord sheets. I think I'll be taking the music binder, finding all the stuff on CCLI in chord sheets and printing them off for a binder for me. :)

Playing with these folks will make me a much better player. I didn't play more notes than I usually do, but I played more different notes. I tend to hang out on the root because I'm scared of standing out. It's my normal problem, lack of confidence. I'm shy, and playing bass is no different. But my confidence level is greatly increasing, and today I played some pretty sweet root-fifth lines, as well as some fun walking. It wasn't as solid as I would have liked, but then I like to practice, practice, practice before playing live, so I'm not too disappointed with myself. I'm not sure what Greg thought, but I'm going to ask him. He's a pretty straight up guy, and I'm sure he'll tell me if I messed up or not. I might be shy, and under-confident, but I can take criticism. Though for some reason church people in general aren't very good at that part of things. Constructive criticism is an amazing tool to help someone grow. I can only hear/know so much. If I have someone with a more experienced ear letting me know, and someone with far more musical and theory knowledge than me telling me, how can I lose? Mama Bean is slowly learning this. I know she doesn't want to sound harsh, and we are getting better with our words and tone with talking to each other about criticalish things, so it's good. I appreciate her telling me what sounds good, and if something isn't so good, or if she thinks something else might sound better. I appreciate this from any musician.

So yeah, I'm going to grow as a musician here, and that makes me so happy. I wasn't at Gracewood, though I was at Journey, but not as much as I will here methinks. This makes me really excited, and when I left the church today, the thought of getting better far overshadowed my sub par performance. I'm not sure if I'm being overly harsh about my playing (or maybe not harsh enough?) but I take comfort in the fact that my mind had a really good idea of what to play, my fingers just couldn't always keep up. Even then, for completely new songs I think I did pretty well. :)

We are going for dinner on Tuesday with Pastor's Greg and Brenda, and Rolly (the other bass player) and his wife Jeanette will be there also. I'm excited about this. I like getting connected with other people in the church, and making friends is always good. I've noticed since moving out here that I have always under-rated the value of friendship because I've always kinda had some. Out here there was pretty much nothing in the way of friends, and I quickly realized I was lonely. What I need to be careful of is latching onto potential friends too quick. :) I never thought that is something I would say, but it's true. I've been meeting some pretty awesome people out here, but I have to remember that they have other friends as well, and to ease into it. Just because I'm looking for all these new friends, other people aren't in the same boat. I've been pretty lucky in meeting the number of great people I have though, so it's been alright.

We're going to come up with a schedule this month to rotate me and Rolly through the team. I know he wants to start playing lead guitar, but I'm pretty sure he'll want to keep playing bass as well because he is the bass player in the band they have outside of church.

All in all, it was an awesome Sunday, and I'm so glad we found this place. So here's looking forward to many more great Sunday's of playing with a great worship team. :) God is amazing, and He has a plan for us all. I just try to remember to keep His will first, and He will take us where we need to go.

A New Year

Welcome to the New Year. 2009. How many days will I spend putting 08 on things? For that matter, how often do I ever write out the date anymore? Is this something from the past that will haunt people less and less as the years go on? Or maybe just me.

I get to rock out at Central again tomorrow, which I'm quite excited about. Mama Bean will be singing too which is always very nice.

School is back on Monday, along with the requisite increase in tech calls since I have invariably messed something up with the work I did over the holidays, and exams are coming up.

I'm hoping to do a whole lot more reading this year, as well as keep up my recent trend of lots of posting. I enjoy it, I forgot how much fun it is. I've also started journaling again. I think it is still an important thing to do. Every little detail of my life isn't fit for public consumption, nor should it be. Journaling should be an integral part of life. It should be something taught to kids at a young age and instilled in them. We used to have to keep journals at school in elementary, but it wasn't really much of anything, and nobody told me it was imporatant, so I didn't really start again until after high school. It's such a great way to get emotions out, think things through, etc... Journalling is a really powerful tool.

I'm also hoping to shape up and lose some weight this year. I really want to have an active summer, and to fully enjoy that, I'll need to be in shape before-hand. I want to get some canoeing in, as well as some canoe/camping trips, and camping and hiking. There is so much wilderness to explore out here, and it isn't crowded with a million city folks each weekend.

I'm also going to continue to work on my writing, which I am starting with by increasing the amount I read. I figure the more I read, the more I'll write. :) And hopefully the more you'll read, enjoy, comment, and maybe even correct. lol

I'd like to get in 150 posts this year. I had 22 in December, so as long as I'm posting a few times a week, that shouldn't be a problem. I've been working on bringing in all my diaryland entries (a slow and tedious task), and it has reminded me how much I used to post, and it's been fun reading through old posts. It's neat following my life over the past few years. It goes as far back as 2002, so 6 years of life. That's a long time, and a lot of changes. Lets hope the next 6 calm down a bit. ;)

A little Facebook fun

A friend of mine, lets call her Angela, is reading "The Shack" by William P. Young.

Angela posts on her Facebook wall that she "is halfway through the Shack and really enjoying it."

Someone pipes up that she heard it is "'new age-y'" and wonders what Angela thinks of it.

To which another person, lets call her Maggie, responds, "Watch out, it's tied to the emerging church. And for those who don't know, the emerging church is bad. Oh, and I found that out AFTER I read it. It was too weird for me."

( Seriously...? I know...but anyway, to continue.)

Being the shit disturber that I am, I respond with, "Yes, beware of the emerging church! It'll put crazy thoughts in your head and take you in theological directions you hadn't previously gone. ;)"

( Just joking around really; I'm kinda sarcastic like that, thus the wink emoticon.)

Maggie: "All emerging churches are disenchanted with traditional church forms and practices-but their ideas, theology, and goals are often radically different from each other. All seek to relate to a society inundated by postmodern thought. People today commonly believe that all truth is subjective. Either there is no absolute truth, and each individual decides what's "right" for themselves, or absolute truth may exist, but it's so filtered by each person's experience and cultural mindset and viewing it as the enemy, emerging-church members aim to engage it. The emerging movement thinks HOW a person lives is more important than WHAT they believe. Hope that helps. Ask me if your still confused. :)"

( She comes across as fairly intelligent, and has valid points that she clearly states. I can appreciate that. And for the most point, what she says is fairly true. It is her attitude that there is something wrong with this subject that incites me to respond. Well, that and I like stirring the pot. For the record, I did check with my friend Angela before responding, as it was on her wall, and her friend. I don’t know Maggie.)

Me: "600 years ago, a man named Luther came along and radically changed the face of Christianity. He brought Christ to the people. He took the power away from the Roman Catholic Church and gave it back to the people. This is what the emergent church is doing. It is taking the power away from the "insutitution of the church" and turning it back into a conversation with God. They are about changing the face of Christianity from a one-sided monologue to a conversation between many. It is about making the church accessible again. They want to move away from aggressive apologetics and confrontational evangelism, instead people the freemdom to discover the truth through conversation and relationships with the Christian community. Absolute Truth is still there. They aren't denying that, they are just changing the face of it."

(and because that is as much as you can put in a facebook wall comment)

Me: "They want people to discover this truth themselves. They want people to seek out God to find this Truth, instead of having some zealot cram it down their throat. The goal of Christianity isn't to go about living "the right way" so that we will go to Heaven, or so that on judgement day we will be spared eternal damnation. It's about creating a kingdom of heaven on earth, about living for the here and now, not in fear of the future. By creating this kingdom of heaven on earth, we are living in a way that will please God. Luther started a Christian revolution, the emergent church is continuing it."

(I am not sure if I would say I’m a member of the emergent church, thus using the work “They” as opposed to “we.” Part of me thinks that most churches today, outside of the high order churches, are “emergent churches.” I’d like to discuss this further with people though, because I’m not sure.)

Maggie: "Just another note on the emerging church thing; it is also categorized as "new voices" in some stores. Stay away from any "Liquid" or "Nooma" series DVD's. Also there is a childrens/youth curriculum company called "Youth Specialties" that's put out by the Zondervan company that some churches use for Sunday School that is also tied in with the ... Read Moreemerging church. And just a couple of authors that spew that crap are: Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne, Mark Driscoll, Doug Fields, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, Erwin McManus, and Donald Miller...... just to name a few. Jesus loves you!! ;)"

(Yes, Jesus does love me. He loves Universalists as well. ;) My reponses were written after she posted all of hers. She made a number of posts before I had time to properly respond, so things weren’t necessarily posted in this order, these were my responses to her posts that I posted on Angela’s wall.)

Maggie: "I just know that the emerging church is very ultra-sensory with big productions and stuff. What if you take it all away? Will people still want to go to that church? I think it's a shame when a church isn't about the people, but about a production or stimulating the mind and eyes ya know? And about absolute truth, well, what if I drove up in a ... Read Morered truck and you said "Well, what makes it red? What even makes it a truck? I see it differently." That in a nutshell is how the emerging church feels. They don't want to challenge anybody on what is ACTUAL truth because well, gee, everybody has a different perspective and opinions, and yadda, yadda. Whatever happened to the Bible and preaching IT'S absolute truths? Actions and concequences? Or reward! :)

As far as the shack goes, I just heard it was tied to the emerging church. I'm not entierely sure how. Maybe because Jesus and the trinity was portrayed as a fat black woman, a fruitty artsy fairy, and a grumpy old man."

(I just couldn’t believe that she would say something like “Stay away from any "Liquid" or "Nooma" series DVD's.” I was rendered speechless… I really had no idea how to respond to that. And saying that authors like “Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne, Mark Driscoll, Doug Fields, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, Erwin McManus, and Donald Miller” are “spewing crap?” Seriously…I was at a loss. It took me a good amount of time to just sit there and look past the ignorance and respond in a decent manner. Though as soon as I started writing about Tim LaHaye and the Left Behind series and had to delete a few paragraphs because I just started going off, which I was trying hard not to do. I find Rob Bell’s writing a little over the top, but I love what he has to say. Same with Brian McLaren. I saw him speak at CBC when I was there, and now own most of his books.)


Me: "Why would you want someone to stay away from things like the "Nooma" series and amazing visionaries like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren? That's like me going around saying things like, "Stay away from the Left Behind series, and authors like Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins because they propogate the idea of literal biblical interpretation." While I ... Read Moredo believe that, I wouldn't tell someone to stay away from it. People should be encouraged to check out all types of different ideas, be they something from Tim LaHaye or Brian McLaren. It is then up to them to determine what resonates with them, and why. This should cause people to reach out to God with questions, and thoughts. It invokes dialogue with both God as well as others in the Christian community. And in the end, isn't this what we want? A relationship with Christ?"

(the word “visionaries” to describe Rob Bell and Brian McLaren might have been a little sensationalist, but I thought it suited it. ;))

And there it stands. This all took place on Angela’s wall, who coincidentally didn’t, nor has she, said anything. I think she should. ;) I found it amusing that we just sort of hijacked her wall.

It was all just kind of surreal. I was trying really hard to stay concise and to the point, while laying out a decent rebuttal to her comments. It just kind of shocked me that someone would so adamantly oppose the emergent church. I've never come across someone like that...it was just so mind boggling. So I thought I'd have a little fun with it. I hope I haven't hurt her feelings or anything, or that she thinks I was attacking her, because that wasn't the intention. Do I come across like I am? (i honestly want to know, because if i do, i need to change the way I do things so that doesn't happen) I’m thinking I should send her a quick message on facebook letting her know it was all in fun and that I wasn’t attacking her personally.

What this whole thing really ended up doing, was reminding me how much I love this stuff. How much I love a little theological discussion with someone that isn’t a million miles over my head. I read some stuff, and follow some discussions and the points they bring up are stuff that would never cross my mind. And I understand there is a huge education gap there, and one day I will be there. Until that day however, I need to keep finding people to talk to and discuss things.

The time I spent living with Topher were great for that. I can’t count the number of times we sat around debating theology. Most times there were copious amounts of alcohol involved, but that was added to it. I’d often sit there thinking, “no, you are wrong” but not having the words to dispute his point. He has a degree in Religious Studies for Pete’s sake, but that just made me more interested in learning things for the next time we’d sit down. The chats with him helped strengthen my faith because he would challenge me. I wouldn’t know why I thought or believed certain things. So I’d find out so that I could tell him. So that I wouldn’t just sit there without the words to respond.  I miss those days.