Fun with my new phone!

I got a new phone for Christmas. I'm pretty excited about it. Most people who know me would know that I'm not generally one for gadgets although computer programming is my line of work. (A paradox that some cannot fathom.) Well, I realized that being home in Scotland was a good opportunity to get a new phone because the technology here is a bit more advanced than that which is available in Canada. (No offence to my Canadian chums. Europe's just been doing it for longer.)

After a look around the shops in Glasgow and some subsequent research on the 'net, I picked out the Motorola V620 for myself. The main features I wanted were:

* Quad Band (Good for both European frequences and both North American frequences)
* Unlocked (Can use a SIM from any company, such as O2 in the UK and Rogers in Canada)

It turns out my phone has all kinds of useful features such as camera, Bluetooth and MP3 ringtones. This means I can easily transfer files to/from the phone such as photos I've taken with the in-built camera or if I want to use an MP3 sound file from my computer as my ring tone, I can do that too!

I'm really glad I was able to get this. I'd been hoping to get a new phone at some point and it's good to have one that'll work in Scotland and Canada!

Here's a pic I took of myself on the train with the camera on my phone. The colour's a bit weird but I blame the train for that.

Happy birthday, Jesus!

In case anyone wondered, I hadn't forgotten in my previous post that this is in fact Christmas Day, I was saving it for a separate entry.

Here we are again. Another year, another Christmas. "The word became flesh" God's gift to us is still providing for us, still helping and blessing us through every Christmas past, present and future. There's really nothing we can give to pay him back, yet how many times do we try to earn his approval?

How can a child earn sonship? Is it with his first step? His first word? His first million? There is no earning sonship, only receiving it. We can choose to work at making God accept us or we can say "Thanks for being my daddy" and trust that we are, in fact, his kids.

What can we give back for the gift of Jesus? Nothing. We can't ever come close to repaying God and I don't think he wants us to either. A gift is not a loan. A gift can tell you a lot about the person that gave it and it demands attention. We should recognise the nature of God from his gift of Jesus and that should inspire us to live like we're special. Certainly, his kindness will result in action on our part but the difference is it's motivated by his love, knowing we're already accepted and we're allowed to screw up. It's good to know you're safe.

Jet-lag cured?

Well, I tried an experiment over the past couple of days. I did indeed stay up all night from the 23rd to the 24th. Then I was nodding off a bit in the church service I went to on Christmas Eve. I had planned to stay up and go to the late one over midnight as well but I threw in the towel and went to bed at 11 o'clock.

Being something of a one for numbers, I added it all up. I had been awake for 35 hours by the time I finally went to bed last night. Not surprisingly, it didn't take me long to get to sleep.

The thing that remains to be seen is whether it did in fact deal with the jet-lag or if I'll be wide awake tonight. I got up at around noon today so I suppose I overslept but the good part was that I went to bed at a reasonable time.

Still not slept since last post

OK, so would you believe it, I've actually tried the crazy idea I posted last night. I have not slept a single wink of sleep since I last posted in the blog. Just a recap, the last time I wrote in here was 4:15am this morning and now it's 2:50pm and I've still not been to bed. It remains to be seen if I will pass out at some point this afternoon/evening. I'm hoping to make it till midnight and then after church I'll come back and sleep like it's going out of fashion.

A haggis supper in Glasgae

Heh, how's it gaun? Guid? Aye, crackin, so it is!

Did you understand that?

How about:

Gonnae geeza bottla ginger?

Now that I'm back in Scotland, I'm adjusting back to the accent (and language!) of the west of Scotland. It's amusing how strong everyone's accent seems to me. I was talking to an assistant in Carphone Warehouse in Glasgow and I couldn't understand a few things he said. It's a bit frightening, really.

Today I managed to get back in touch with a common Scottish pursuit - the trip to the chippy. I walked down Glasgow's Buchanan Street eating a Haggis Supper with a can of Irn Bru in my pocket. I thought to myself, "I can't get much more Scottish than this." It was pure quality, soitwiz. Sorry, lapsed into the Glasgow vernacular there...

An amusing thing about travelling from Toronto to Glasgow is the effect it has on your sleeping pattern. Here I am, still up at 4:45am, not especially tired. I got up at around lunchtime today so that kind of fits. My body is still operating on Toronto time even though my location happens to have changed by 5 hours! Maybe I should stay up all night tonight and then when I go to bed at the end of Christmas Eve, I'll be really tired...

Back in Scotland!

Yes, it's true! I arrived safely back in the UK this morning and I've just had dinner with Mum, Dad and my siblings for the first time in a year and a half. My body clock is still somewhat confused. It's 6:30pm here but my body is probably closer to 1:30pm. The problem with that is that I only slept for about an hour overnight on the plane so I have some catching up to do. I slept this afternoon and hopefully that should be enough. Tonight I'm going to hear Andy Hunter at Glasgow Elim. I've not been there since they had all the building work done to extend the building. It should be interesting...

First snowboarding trip of the season!

On Saturday I made my first trip up to Blue Mountain of the season. There were quite a lot of runs open, considering it's still only December. I had a fairly good night of riding, considering I've not done it for a while. It's reassuring to see I can still carve although I'm not quite as fast as I was at the end of last season. I'm sure that a few visits from now I'll be back on form, though. It's still fun, no matter what. I love getting out on the hill and having the freedom of zooming down on my board and not needing to worry about anything else other than picking my path down the mountain.

این یک کتاب است

I had my first proper Dari lesson last night. It was so exciting! I recently met someone from Afghanistan in Toronto who is willing to teach me Dari. We met up in Second Cup last night and spent three hours working on it. I LOVE this! It's so cool.

It turns out that my reading and writing is quite good. The only problem with that is that I don't understand any of the words yet! Still, I shouldn't trivialise the ability to understand the symbols of a compeltely foreign language!

The sentence I wrote above (این یک کتاب است) is the Dari for This is a book. It's the first thing I learned in Urdu as well. The Dari is pronounced Een yak kitab ast which literally translates into This one book is. If it was Urdu, it would be Yay kitab heh which would be This book is. Urdu doesn't need the "one" in front of it but otherwise the word order seems similar.

I learned a couple of variations such as your book, his book, her book. I also learned how to say on top of, underneath and in. Pretty soon I'll be able to construct some sentences of my own!

I love Keith Green's music!

I was just checking out some of Keith Green's music on iTunes over the past couple of days. I have a few of his CDs back home in Scotland which I will collect when I'm home over Christmas. It's funny when you listen to something that you know so well but haven't heard for a while. That guy had so much passion, his music was (and is) really powerful. I can hardly wait till I pick up my CDs!

Life after love

No, don't worry. I'm not about to sing a Cher song. I was thinking more of my life of late. It's always a sad business when a romance ends and you're left with all these unanswered questions such as "Did I really hear God in the first place?" and "How will I know when it is his voice?"

The thing I've concluded is that these aren't the most important questions, really. The most important thing is to recognise that God is good, he's still on the throne, he's not forgotten you and life goes on. The other big thing is not to become hard hearted or defensive in future friendships. It's easy to conclude that after a failed romance, you don't want to go through the same disappointments again and therefore, to avoid all risks of romance. However, that will only guarantee that you stay lonely and that's no good! Instead, it's better to have the attitude that you will never know who the right person is if you keep hiding from everyone and sooner or later, you'll have to get back out there and try again.

So, life's not so bad in that sense. I'm feeling optomistic for the future although it is always disappointing when things don't end up the way you expect they will. I'm glad God knows me better than I know myself. I leave you with these wise words from Veggietales:

"God is bigger than the Boogie Man and he's watching out for you and me."

Fun with guns

Scotsman with gun
Originally uploaded by theken.

I know, I know. Guns kill people. They really do. However, I discovered that they're lots of fun to shoot at a paper target as well. I was in Pennsylvania visiting my friend Pete Dorosh and his many siblings (shouldn't that be siblii?) in Pittsburgh. We had the fun opportunity of going to Anthony Arms and shooting guns for a fairly small sum of money. We tried out a few smaller handguns (Glock 9mm and Sig 9mm) to begin with and then Steve got the Smith & Wesson 500 which turns out to be the most powerful revolver in production today! You can check out the rest of my photos from the gun adventure here. Don't worry, I'm not turning into a nutter. I just thought it'd be fun to shoot a gun in the USA. One of these things I can look back on and say, "Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I shot guns in America?"

Have beard, will travel

Ken with beard
Originally uploaded by theken.

I was always told "Never trust a man with a beard!" It just crossed my mind today, though - didn't Jesus have a beard? Well, I don't know for sure - I wasn't there. Maybe he did. Anyway, now I have one.

 

Progress in the Immigration process

Yesterday I received a card in the mail which confirmed that the Canadian High Commission in London is now processing my application for permanent residence in Canada. They explained that there are three possible outcomes:

1) Waiver of an interview
2) Requirement of an interview
3) Refusal of application

Personally, I favour option 1! After that, I just need to wait for the final word. I'm pretty confident that everything will be fine. I've got more than enough points to be accepted as a Skilled Worker. They say it can take up to 21 months but I don't expect it to take more than 6. It'd be sweet if I could have it all wrapped up before my current work permit expires in the summer.

Christmas Schedule

In an attempt to be more organized this time, I'm going to try to plan my trip home for Christmas before the event. This is a bit of a change for me as I normally like to be spontaneous with things. However, since I'll only be in Scotland for a week, I don't want to spend half of that time figuring out what I'm going to do.

I will arrive in Glasgow on the morning of the 22nd of December. I return to Canada on the morning of the 30th of December. So, I'm available between those days. If any of my Scottish blog-reading friends and family want to catch up with me while I'm home, drop me an e-mail or post a comment in my blog. It goes without saying that family will get the 25th!

Where efficiency meets forgetfulness

Have you ever done something really silly and then felt a bit embarrassed for being so dim? I had one of these moments this morning. (and it's not even 9 o'clock yet!)

Yesterday, I realized I hadn't got a cell phone bill for a while so I logged on to Rogers.com to check out if there was a new bill for my phone. Well, lo and behold there was a bill. Not only was there a bill, it was due the day before.

"Oh no!" I cried, "My unblemished record of on-time payments!"

So, off I scurried to my local Rogers Video Store to pay my bill. I decided to overpay by about $2.50 so that I'd end up in credit and hopefully appease the powers that be.

I was confused that I hadn't received an e-mail telling me that my bill was ready, though. I was sure that I'd received that before. I decided to call them up today to see what the dealio was.

(Are you ready? Here comes the embarrassing part...)

I already paid the bill on October 27th! I was so darned efficient I paid it right away and then forgot that I had done so. Consequently, my account is $55 in credit and showing no signs of getting in trouble for late charges! I just need to upgrade my brain to remember what I've done in future!

Discovering new details in songs

As I already mentioned, I have been enjoying new headphones since my trip to Denver. However, today I noticed that I can now hear new details in songs that I never knew existed before.

Firstly, in Don Potter's Facing the Wall, I was listening to the track called Garden. (Track #7) At 0:27 I noticed a guitar harmonic that wasn't there before. It's really high pitched and is just a gentle pick of a string with a finger lightly pressed on it. It's not devastatingly exciting, just a note that I'd never heard before.

The other thing I noticed was in a song by The Corrs. The album is The Corrs, Live in Dublin and the track is Joy of Life/Trout in the Bath. (Track #5) I hadn't heard the guitar before. It's panned way out to the left and it starts on a kind of muted rhythm wotsit thingie at about 1:27.

These discoveries may not be too exciting to the average blog reader but if nothing else, you can have a chuckle at the fact that I can't be vague. It's not possible. I need hyperlinks to each band and album along with the precise moment in time that the audio feature occurs. Sigh. If only I could be vague. Blogging would be so much quicker.

More pics from Denver

I uploaded some more photos from my trip to Denver last week. I have added them to the existing photoset and I've also created another set which only contains the new pictures. That way, you don't need to look through all the ones you've already seen. That said, I've updated the description of them and I reckon some of them are pretty witty. If I do say so myself. About my own joke.

Noise Cancelling Headphones!

I bought a new pair of headphones in Denver airport on my way home on Sunday. I'd been considering getting these for a while and then there they were right before me in the departure lounge. I got a pair of Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones. They are really cool. I'm so blessed to be able to afford them. They worked really well on the plane. I was able to cut out all the background noise of the engines and I was also able to watch the movie (I, Robot) with no outside noise. I'm very pleased with them. It's not often I buy something so extravagant for myself.

 

Photos from Denver

I've uploaded some of the photos from my trip to Denver with John Arnott last week. They all have descriptions and you can comment on them as well. Please take a look!

 

Tongue Cleaning

After a deeply traumatising event last week where I witnessed Alyn scrape a large volume of whitish "ming" from his tongue, I promptly went out and bought myself The Tongue Cleaner. Apparently cleaning the tongue has the benefits of 1) Eliminating bad breath and 2) Improving your sense of taste.

It's really a bit disturbing the first time you see just how much nasty stuff lives on your tongue. For those of you who brush your tongue, I have this quote from the above link:

Brushing your tongue with a toothbrush only stirs up this plaque film, without effectively removing it.

It seems scraping is the way to go. Here's to a cleaner, happier tongue!

More good times with healings and the rest

Today was amazing. First of all, because we got to sleep in until lunchtime and then get taken out to the Golden Corral again to eat. Sigh, it's a hard life I tell you. That was really the most trivial of all the good things that happened today but count your blessings, as they say.

This afternoon Jack Frost was doing one of his teachings and it was really good. He was talking about the importance of a mother's affection in providing security in the very early moments of life. He shared about how we can end up looking to other sources for comfort and love if we have not felt the love of our parents for whatever reason. God did a lot of deep stuff restoring people who had been hiding hurts for years.

Tonight John Arnott was talking about the importance of forgiveness. Again, it was pretty intense stuff. A lot of people were in tears. There was a girl there who had lost her sense of smell when she was about 6 months old. When she forgave herself for having this problem, God HEALED her! It was amazing. All her life, the enemy had held her in bondage because she blamed herself for not being able to smell. Now that she moved from law into grace, she could receive God's healing power.

The youth group at this church are amazing. I've never seen a group of kids so seriously passionate about Jesus and so raw. Most of them have not been saved for long but they know what life was like before they met Jesus and now they're mental! One of them got in trouble in his high school because he was talking to his friends about something God had shown him. I think it was a poem or something like that. One of the hall monitors gave him a hard time because he was using the name of Jesus in school. The church is going to defend him, though. There is freedom of speech for students in schools so he has every right to say whatever he wants.

The same kid was in trouble again because he was having a bible study in the school cafeteria wih friends and he got drunk in the spirit. He fell over and couldn't get up. Some of his friends were carrying him into class and he got taken to the "narc" who I presume is the staff member who checks to see if you're doing drugs!

I love these stories! God's breaking out in the schools and the kids are so raw and fresh in their faith they don't know how to be religious. They just go nuts, praying for everyone. It's really amazing to watch.

At the end tonight, we had a fire tunnel. Now, to the uneducated I should explain. A fire tunnel involves two rows of people facing each other. People walk down the middle and the people either side pray for the fire of God to fill them up. Some people don't feel or sense anything but a lot of people have really amazing encounters with God through this. Some of the kids were getting really powerfully touched by God and the thing I loved most about it was watching them coming out the end and then running back round, climbing over chairs to get back in for another round. They were so hungry some of them were going through three or four times. It blessed me so much to see the enthusiasm they had.

Daddy, give me that same hunger for you again. I want to be desperate for you like that. I want to be so dependent on you that I feel like a fish out of water when I'm not completely baked in your power. Give me that sense of urgency for more of you.

Daddy big, devil small

Ah, it's nice to get things in perspective, isn't it? We've been having fun in Denver. I tell you, this life on the road thing isnae sae bad. (Lapse into Scottish there) Life mainly involves sleeping, eating, soaking and meetings. I can cope with that. The eating especially is pretty cool since I'm not paying for it! Today we went to Golden Corral which I recall having visited in Utah during my book selling days for The Southwestern Company.

It's funny because we're meeting all these super-duper renewal-type people such as Jack Frost and Peter Dresser and I'm having the most entertaining experiences. Like at lunch today in the aforementioned restaurant. Jack Frost and I both finished our first plate of food at the same time and started to head over to the various options to peruse the tasty choices we could have. I drew his attention to the size of the steaks that were being cooked. (which were HUGE) He then informed me that he's not eaten meat in fourteen years. Woopsie. I don't think he was overly offended but it's not exactly how to win friends and influence people.

In other news, we saw some of the mountains today. The cloud had lifted a bit and we got a chance to go "ooo" and "aah" at various stages of our transience through the day.

The meetings this afternoon and tonight were pretty cool. I was being surprisingly noisy with "hooo!" type sounds. We saw some healings which was cool. One person who testified tonight was someone I had prayed for last night who's pain has completely left her arm. I wasn't the only one praying for her but my share helped! I really want to do more of this stuff. It's not rocket science really. Daddy's big, the devil's small. Ask for what you want and whoopee - there's a healing!

Denver by day

No, sadly there's no pitctures here but at least we've got internet access so I can write in my blog from the relative comfort of my hotel room.

I looked out the window and the first word that came to mind to describe the weather that greeted me was dreich (pronounced dree-ch where the "ch" is like the end of loch) It means it's somewhat gloomy and not so impressive. There's a lot of clouds and it's raining a bit as well. In fact, if it wasn't for all the american flags, I could be excused for thinking I was back in Scotland.

We've had a fairly leisurely day so far. This morning we started off with a breakfast with some local pastors at a place literally "round the corner" from our hotel. This afternoon John, Alyn and I had a bit of a prayer time and a relaxing soak in John's room. Now we're just chilling and waiting to be whisked away on a magical mystery tour to this evening's venue. John asked me to share a testimony at some point this week so I'm pondering what I might talk on. The most likely candidate is the topic of faithfulness.

Remembrance

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

By John McCrae (1915)

This poem is one I've not read fully before now although it's really famous. I've been thinking about remembrance recenlty, since it's only two days until Armistice Day or Veteran's Day / Remembrance Day depending on where you're from.

It's funny how the world's getting smaller. I'm a Scot living in Canada, surrounded by people from all corners of the world. I've met Germans here and had the somewhat morbid thought that if we had been born fifty years earlier, we'd have been forced to be enemies, though we would have no personal grievances with each other. We are truly blessed to live in a time where we have the freedom to do whatever work we want. I just can't imagine what it'd be like to be forced into military service. It's one thing to join the army if that's your choice of career but the thing that always stands out to me about the two world wars was the fact that the majority of these soldiers weren't people who had chosen a career in the army. They were regular people like me. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The lucky ones were separated from their loved ones for years, only to return home with a head full of nightmares. The others sufferred all kinds of pain, torment and death. It's just such a tragic waste of life.

I'm not saying I'm anti-war. I think there are times when you have to defend your own if you are truly threatened. If we hadn't fought off the German army in the 2nd World War, we would have been taken over and come under the power of Hitler. I have no doubt in my mind that we were right to defend ourselves there. Admittedly, some modern wars are a bit more "grey" in terms of the immediate threat to the average individual. I don't want to get into that discussion here, though.

I just want to say "thanks" to those who gave up their careers, health and lives to protect the future of Scotland, my home. Here's to learning from our past.

On the road with John Arnott!

I don't think I've written about this yet but it's pretty exciting news. This afternoon, I'm leaving to go on a ministry trip with John Arnott! I was totally amazed when I heard he wanted me to go along with him to a conference he's speaking at in Denver. It's Catch the Fire, Denver which I believe will be hosted at New Song Fellowship, Denver. In case any of you don't know - John is the senior pastor here at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship and he has an amazing anointing and ministry around the world. It's a real privilege to be part of one of his trips.

There are three of us going: John Arnott, Alyn Jones (a fellow Scot, might I say!) and myself. Apparently, Alyn had mentioned in passing to John one day that I had been working really hard on the new Premium Membership section of our website. John then thought it'd be good to take me along on a trip, to show that I'm worth more than my computer skills alone. I was so amazed to be invited - it's going to be great!

I will be part of the ministry team - praying for people and all that good stuff. I hope we get some healings. I like healings.

I Can Only Imagine

Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine

From the song I Can Only Imagine by MercyMe.

We did this song recently in worship and I really love it just now. It really captures the contrast of how we would want to respond to our first sight of Jesus balanced against the holiness and amazing intensity of that moment.

There's a video of the song available on Yahoo! Music. I recommend you check it out. (For some reason, it doesn't work with Firefox which is a bit unfortunate. However, you could always fire up Internet Explorer this once, couldn't you?)

The World Names The Dead on Election Day - Global News on the World Crisis Web

The World Names The Dead on Election Day - Global News on the World Crisis Web

I found this to be an interesting article. There are people all over the world saying it's maybe time for the US to call it quits in Iraq.

Structure of a Phone Conversation

I was talking to Drew last night about the structure of a typical phone conversation. I had thought this through a while ago but I suddenly realized this could be quite blog-worthy so here goes...

The basic structure of the call is as follows:

1. Preamble
2. The Point
3. Post-amble
4. Re-iteration of The Point
5. Goodbyes

Depending on the individuals concerned, preamble and postamble can be short or even non-existant. An example of this would be The Point ending with "okbye", often experienced by those arranging plans with Drew in a hurry over the phone.

If the parties concerned are of a more conversational disposition, however, pre and postamble may be fairly lengthy, creating a need for #4, the re-iteration of The Point. Such a call might go something like this:

Person A: Hey man, how's it going?
Person B: Good, good.
(Start of preamble)
Person A: Cool. How are tricks - did you have a good weekend?
Person B: (Talks at length about weekend)
(Start of The Point)
Person A: Nice one. Well, anyway, I was calling to ask if you're up for catching a movie tonight. Some of us are going to Colossus at 7.
Person B: Yeah, sounds good.
(Transition to post-amble)
Person A: Cool, it'll be good to catch up. Hey, did you see that other movie with that guy...
Person B: (Talks at length about movies, life and whatever else)
(Person A starts running out of time and transitions to re-iteration of The Point.)
Person A: Cool, ok so I'll see you at 7 then?
Person B: At Colossus?
Person A: Yeah, for the movie.
Person B: Oh, yeah. Right. OK, I'll see you then.
(Goodbye phase)
Person A: See you then, then.
Person B: Cool, bye.
Person A: Bye.
(End of conversation)

Now, I could have gone on to the extended goodbye version where there's a considerable amount of back-and-forth before the phones are actually hung up.

Also, I've not even got started on phone conversations where there is no point in the first place. I like to think of such calls as "pure amble" for obvious reasons.

With some cell/mobile calls, you can add the "where are you?" clause to the start of the preamble. That was always a favourite in calls I heard on the train back in Bonnie Scotland.

Do you have any thoughts of amusing phone call foibles and anomalies? Do comment, do comment...

Feeling a bit better

You'll be pleased to hear I'm feeling a bit less miserable than I was the last time I wrote in my blog. My feelings are back and life is all together more interesting again. It's funny, not much has really changed in the sense of my day to day routine and the activities I'm involved in. I've just found my peace again. I suppose that's the key to coping with anything.

I think that part of the cause of all this was the extreme amount of work I did for the Premium Membership project at work. I really put in a lot of extra hours to get everything finished on time. After it was all over, I was so detatched from life outside of work that I felt very disconnected from the world.

I found a verse that spoke to me during this time. Its relevance may not be instantly obvious:

A faithful man will abound with blessings,
But he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished.

- Proverbs 28:20 (NASB)

This reminded me to faithful, even when things all around aren't changing that much. God's not passing me by here. This is just a slow phase I'm in right now. That's ok.

I need to say a big "thank you!" to all my concerned family members who wrote encouraging e-mails after reading my previous post. Mum, Dad, Alison, Auntie I - I love you all! Thanks so much for your encouragement. It's good to feel loved! I'll hopefully be able to write to you via e-mail soon and I'll see you all at Christmas.

Nothing

Nothing is what I feel. I am a spectator, largely unaffected by this world around me. The alarm goes off, I stop it and turn over. Eventually I'm in the office and for about the next 8 hours I know what I'm about. The program gets written, the bugs get fixed. I go home and become a spectator once more.

The world passes by, years as a heartbeat. The view from the window changes a touch from season to season. The leaves are born and in no time at all, I'm trampling them into the ground. The cycle continues.

You never plan for life to become mundane. Somehow you just wake up one day and wonder why you should bother.

I believe in God, in his plan for my life. I believe the expression "life in all its fullness" is supposed to apply to what I'm experiencing. The problem is that it's not my experience just yet. I wish for that day. Until then, it's another day at the office. As a friend wrote:

"Look at me sick of the same old,
Look at me cling to my routine" -Jeff Snyder

This is just passing, but it's where I am just now...

TACF Premium Membership

I forgot to mention that the new Premium Membership feature is now up and running at good old www.tacf.org.

This is the project that I worked my rear off to finish in time. We had a few problems along the way but everything's pretty much working now. We still have some problems with people not getting their confirmation e-mails which is an annoying thing to try to fix. It works for some people but not for others. I hate bugs like that - the ones that are so intermittent.

I'm currently working on a really peculiar bug in the Revive TV section. It seems my LinkButtons are just not firing the event the way they're supposed to. This is very frustrating...

Applied for Permanent Residence

You may or may not remember that when I got my new work permit back in June, I made a remark about immigrating as a skilled worker. Well, today I finally got round to sending off my application to the office in London. Hopefully everything will go well (and quickly!) and I'll be able to stay here as long as I want. That'd be a huge thing off my mind. I could finally move all the rest of my possessions over here without fear of having to send them back to Scotland again.

Hot Apple Cider?

With the weather getting colder, I popped into Tim Horton's a few days ago to get a drink of Hot Apple Cider on my way home. It reminded me of an unusual thing I noticed about my local neighbourhood Timmy's...

One day you might be able to go in and order Hot Apple Cider no problem. Then a week later, you'll as for it and they'll say "We don't sell that." They don't say "We've run out", they look at you like you've just tried to order Filet Mignon. It's so weird! I think they're trying to trick us into thinking we imagined the whole thing. I know the truth, though. You can get Hot Apple Cider from a Tim Horton's! Don't listen to their trickery to the contrary!

The end of "sandals" season.

Yes, it's a sad day and with a heavy heart that I write this post. It seems that my sandals will have to be put to one side in the near future, pending better weather. I was working late last night and as I walked home at 10:30pm, I couldn't help noticing my breath on the air and the rather numb sensation creeping across my toes.

As I passed the Toronto Congress Centre, I was informed by the big (and somewhat superfluous sign) that the temperature was 6 degrees Celsius. Of course, as I mentioned before, it's quite possible there will be a danger of heat exhaustion today, knowing how schizophrenic the weather can get around here.

Blue Mountain, here I come!

I bought my new Night Pass for this winter at Blue Mountain, at a reasonable $94 + GST. I'm a bit disappointed about the GST. I'm pretty sure that wasn't included last year. I used their rather handy e-commerce site to buy my pass. I was able to re-use my photo from last year (so I don't need to get a new photo taken) and for an extra $10, they're mailing my new pass out to me (so I don't even have to line up to collect it.) When I get there on the first day of the season, I can go straight to the lift!

I'm so excited about this season. I was just starting to have some fun with ollies last season and I want to try some more. It's so much fun. I love snowboarding, but not as much as Hanna or Jesus. (ok, that was cheesy)

Seasons? What are they?

You know, I think it's true what they say about Canada. It's like there are two seasons: Summer and Winter. The thing that I just realized recently, though, is that the changing of seasons is like the switching on of a floursecent tube light. It flickers a bit and then makes up its mind to change. The weather seems to say,
"summer..winter.summer.summer.winter..summer-winter...winter.oh, wait summer summer...oh, all right winter winter winter."

Home for Christmas

Yesterday I booked my flights and I'll be heading home to Bonny Scotland for just over a week in December. I arrive on the 22nd of December and head back to Canada on the 30th. Hopefully in between times I'll be able to catch up with some friends & family in the Glasgow area. It's funny, my accent always gets stronger again when I go home...

Blogs vs. Work

Man, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. There's so much work to do for the premium service with tacf.org that I've barely had time to think about blogging. Things are going well, though, and hopefully all will be working in time for Catch the Fire.

New Look

New Look
Originally uploaded by theken.

I felt like a bit of a change on Monday so I spent Labour Day shaving my head. I've had it shorter before but I think my skull's changed shape since then. It seems a bit wider now. Strange how that happens. 

Brisket and Biscuits

So, I'm in Texas by the way. Thought I should have mentioned that. I'm on a training course in "ASP.NET Programming using Visual Basic". Very exciting it is, too. The trip, that is. The training is ok but I know a lot of the stuff already. The coolest thing is how I got here...

My super-duper boss, Russ, encouraged me to find some training to help improve my VB knowledge since I've only been really good with C# up till now. I found a course in Mississauga (near Toronto for those not in the know) and signed up for it. The company then had to cancel because there weren't enough people signed up.

Now, here I am in Dallas, courtesy of the training company! I got free flights and a rather nice hotel suite for the week as well. Sweet deal - God is good!

The only catch is that I'm away from Hanna and it's killing me a bit. Still, it's Wednesday evening now and so we're past half way. We'll be together again in no time!

Ken of '99

Ken of '99
Originally uploaded by theken.

I'm experimenting with flickr, an image hosting website. I think I might start using it for my blog instead of Hello.
 

OK, not the end of the journey

So it turns out that our big "end of the journey" was really more of a rest stop and everything's back on again. Man, I do NOT understand women. Especially this one beside me who's got a special place in my heart. (still) Yes, we're back together and I've learned a couple of important things.

1) When someone breaks up with you, you should probably wait a bit to see if it's a "for real" break-up or a disagreement that got a bit out of hand. (Ours was the second kind in case you've not figured it out yet!)

2) Maybe blogs shouldn't have all the details of relationships in them. It's just a bit too tricky having to deal with the subsequent e-mails etc. generated from a scare like we had today.

From now on, I won't be blogging much about our relationship. Don't assume one way or the other based on the lack of posts. It's just going to be an off-limits topic now.

So, the course of true love never runs smoothly or something like that and that certainly seems to be true here. Have a great weekend everyone!

A shorter journey than I expected

Well, the journey's over. Hanna broke up with me last night so that's the end of that. We had been together for almost two weeks but it's still a bit of a blow nonetheless. I was just starting to get my head around the idea of being in a relationship and now it's over.

I don't want to go into too much detail here for both our sakes. I felt I should mention it, though, since I said we'd got together in the first place and if I didn't mention this, everyone would assume we were still together. We are still friends, although things will probably be weird for a while.

God is good and he's bigger than all of this. I trust him with my heart and I know his will is going to be done. I'm still not convinced this is the end but I have to let it go and see what happens next.

Rain

You know, I think I must be weird or something. Maybe it's the Scottish in me. I'm not sure. I just enjoy the rain here in Toronto. It just started raining and I decided to go out for a wee run round the car park to enjoy it. It's still such a novely to me that the rain is warm over here, unlike the chilly rain in Scotland.

Now I'm a bit out of breath and slightly damper than before but I feel more ALIVE as well.

The journey has begun!

Yes, it's true. I have embarked on a journey of adventure, romance and joy which some would call dating and some, courtship.

On Sunday, I started a relationship with a wonderful, beautiful, talented, woman of God by the name of Hanna Wright. We've been friends for a couple of years but there's never been anything between us until we started to notice each other in a new way recently.

We're taking things slowly, of course, but it's very exciting to have this opportunity of a relationship with such an amazing girl. I'll try to get some photos of us up in the near future!

Banks wasting paper!

Grr, I hate my bank sometimes! I'm with the HSBC (no link, find them yourself if you really want to) and I've been getting annoyed with the statements they send me out each month. The statements themselves are fine, don't get me wrong. There are all kinds of facts and figures on there which would have been fairly relevant 2 weeks ago! My statement arrived today - the 23rd. The last transaction logged was on the 15th. It's completely irrelevant, obsolete etc. by now!

I finally decided I was going to call them up and get them to stop sending me statements. I was told that I have a statement savings account and that I would need to close that account and open a passbook savings account. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? I want them to print less paper and send out less mail. Maybe it's just my t-shirt talking (I'm wearing my maketradefair t-shirt today)  but I just hate companies wasting resources and the environment. If I'm going to go to all the trouble of closing my existing account with them, I might as well open my new one somewhere better!

Now, contrast that with my British bank - smile.co.uk. They send me an e-mail once a month saying that my credit card statement is available on-line. If I want to see it, I can log in and see what activity there was this past month. If not, no harm done. They have all the data on file anyway so it wasn't much work for them to make it available to me.

(sigh) I love smile. Such a good bank. They're green and ethical. Both good things.

New love?

I'm going through a very strange transition here. I may well be leaving singleness behind and the prospect is somewhat daunting but exciting at the same time. The lady in question will remain annonymous just now but I will probably write more about her in future.

We're both feeling this is the right next step but we're spending this week praying about it to be sure we're doing what God wants. It might sound like Christian cheese but I really feel the decision to start a relationship shouldn't be taken lightly. When two people get romantically involved, there is a heart connection there that can have long-term consequences.

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs 4:23

Favourite Sounds

I've noticed something interesting recently. People sometimes talk about their favourite sounds and I've noticed more and more how much I love the sound of the wind in the trees. I've discovered something pretty cool, though. It's not just a sound that I like but it's a sound that suddenly grabs my attention whenever I hear it. I might be thinking about something else, just walking along the road and then suddenly the wind picks up, rustling the leaves of a nearby tree. Immediately I think, "Hey, I can hear the wind in the trees - that's so cool!"
 
I think that's something that sets favourite sounds apart from other sounds that you might like.

We are climbing Jacob's ladder ladder...

I've been trying to build upper-body strength lately by climbing a ladder without using my legs. It's been a most entertaining endeavour for all who happen to pass by while I'm dangling there like an extra from a b-movie who's about to fall into some kind of nasty pit.
 
The challenge initially was to see how many rungs I could climb using only my arms. At first I could barely do one but now I can get all the way to the top, which is a 13-rung journey from my starting point. In fact, the last time I was able to get all the way to the top and then descend 7 rungs before having to give up.
 
I've been doing it "the easy way", though. I start with both hands on the same rung, pull up and then grab the next rung with my right hand. Then I transfer my left to the new rung and repeat the process. The challenge is to only use one hand per rung. That would be much harder.
 
Having said all that, my climbing skills are still minimal. It goes to show that it's not just about strength. Whenever I try to climb an overhang, I can only last about 5 minutes and then  my arms are knackered. I know it's a technique thing 'cos I've seen some pretty skinny girls shimmy up that wall like it's nothing and there's me with all my new found upper-body strength struggling 6 feet off the ground. (sigh) I'm sure I'll learn at some stage. However, it's still frustrating right now. I know you're meant to turn your hips and keep them close to the wall. It just doesn't seem to take any of the weight off my arms. I don't think I'm doing it right.

Don't put sunscreen on your own back

You know how they say you learn something new every day? Well, yesterday I learned what happens when you try to put sunscreen on your own back. I was at Wasaga Beach with some friends to celebrate Canada Day. I had even bought sunscreen on the way - a spray on kind rather than the conventional slimy lotion.

If you look closely at the picture, you will see that just above my waistline, I was almost able to cover all the way into the middle from both sides. Higher up, I managed to cover across the back of the shoulders. However, in between there is a definite pinkish tinge of Scotsman done "over easy".

I suppose next time I'll just have to ask someone else to do my back.

Glove Compartment

I was just thinking last night of how different the world must have been back when the automobile was invented. It just seems more civilised. Consider the fact that they even took consideration for where the driver would store their driving gloves when not using them.

I just looked at the expression "Glove Compartment" in a whole new way yesterday, wondering if anyone still keeps gloves in there or is it just license, registration and six-shooter these days? There must have been people who kept gloves there at one point to merit the name. Was that really its original purpose or did the glove compartment just get that name from people always leaving their gloves in there.

Why didn't Spiderman live in Kansas?

I was watching Spiderman II on Wednesday night and I thought of an amusing image of Spiderman living in Kansas. It's pretty convenient that all the crime he needs to stop occurs around tall buildings. I mean, he'd be kinda stuck if he was in the middle of a field somewhere and the crime was taking place three fields over. I suppose that means Superman has an advantage over Spiderman there.

Crazy Portugese Fans

As some of you may know, the Euro 2004 FOOTBALL tournament is drawing to a close right now. On Wednesday, Portugal beat The Netherlands in their semi-final. The first signs of this that I saw were a couple of cars driving around with Portugal flags sticking out the window as I went down Kipling Avenue to get to the subway. I was, as with every Wednesday, on my way to Joe Rockhead's for a spot of climbing action.

When I was on the subway I realised I was running late and I decided to get off at Dufferin to get the bus south to the climbing gym. Well, this turned out to be a very interesting stop as I now know Dufferin seems to be populated entirely by Portugese people, and football-crazy patriotic Portugese people at that. The bus was struggling through the crowds and it seemed every car driving past us was adorned with a plethora of Portugese pendants and the like. I couldn't believe it. There was cheering, honking of LOTS of horns and lots of happy faces. I wondered if they'd just won a war that I had missed.

I finally got to Rockhead's and climbed for a while before my buddy Gary arrived to take me to the movies where we were meeting up with friends to see Spiderman II. Sadly, the celebrations were not quite over yet for the Portugese contingent of Torontonians that were in our neighbourhood. We were stuck in pretty slow moving traffic for a while with more flags, more cheering, more cars, more dogs wrapped in Portugal flags, etc.

To make things more interesting, I started to yell "Yaaay! SCOTLAND!" out the window as we drove by people with Portugal flags. One guy responded with "F--- Scotland!" but I don't think he was especially angry, just so pro-Portugal that no other name would suffice at that point in time.

I'm going to be sure to avoid downtown Toronto on Sunday. Even if Portugal lose, I'm sure there are more than enough Greek fans to do the honours of clogging the roads if things go the other way. I think we've got every nationality under the sun here.

Oh, Canada.

Paintball Fun

I was at Paintball City last night with some friends from work. I had only done it once before and the last time was outdoors. That was back in the autumn of 2002 when I went to Wasaga Beach Paintball with the TACF Young Adults.

Although I had fun last night, I prefer playing outdoors. Wasaga Beach had lots of fields with plenty of variety whereas the Paintball City only had one venue.

That said, I really liked the attack/defend scenario. One team occupied a building and was not allowed to leave it until part-way through the game. The other team had to attack the building and eliminate the people inside. When we were attacking, I managed to get into the building and shoot a few people. Unfortunately I was then shot in the back, through a window by a teammate who was sniping from another building. He later told me that he saw movement and couldn't tell what colour the person was wearing. Of all the shots I took last night, that's the one that left a welt on my back.

All in all, though, it was great fun with everyone coming away with plenty of exciting stories to tell.

Combo without a drink?

I've found a really easy way to confuse the cashier at fast food restaurants. I wasn't even trying either. I'm not the sort to deliberately confuse these poor individuals, really I'm not.

No, I simply don't buy drinks any more. Since I got my nice, translucent-green Nalgene bottle (500ml capacity) I no longer have need of nasty fizzy teeth-destroying beverages. Instead, I fill up my bottle with the old-school option of water. (Pause for gasps of amazement.)

The problem is that most people don't know what to do if someone wants a combo without a drink. It's so easy to confuse them. When they say "What drink do you want with that?" just say "No drink, thanks." It's seriously that easy.

I've even been told that the items separately without the drink would cost the same as the combo with the drink so I usually don't save money. I need to start bartering for a free potato or something.

I just don't want to drink crappy stuff that kills you, even if it's dirt cheap.

I saw Osama!

At the weekend I bought the DVD of Osama, which I mentioned in an earlier post. I watched it on Saturday night with some friends. It was really interesting to see the country of Afghanistan and to hear their languages. I couldn't distinguish the words at all, it's really difficult for me to understand. That said, with time I'll be able to.

The film was good, although not as cheerful as I had hoped. I've watched too much Hollywood, I think.

New Work Permit! Woot!

Man, what a relief this is. I just got my new Work Permit yesterday. I'm now valid to stay here until July 11, 2005! My current permit was due to expire on July 11 this year. It's always interesting to see what's going to happen with something like that. I'd started to get a bit established here with an apartment and some furniture. It would be a bit tricky to just pack that all up and head home. Not to mention the relationships and everything that I've built up here.

Of course, I've only delayed it for another year. Maybe I should try to immigrate as a skilled worker. Then there's the whole thing about "landed" status. Hmm, must investigage.

Osama

I really want to see the movie Osama. It looks very interesting. I'm especially excited that all the language in the film is in Dari and Pashtu. That said, it remains to be seen if I'll be able to tell the difference between them. I want to buy this and watch it a million times so I can pick up some language from it.

It's also really encouraging to see films being made in Afghanistan now that people have a bit more freedom. I was reading an article that said when Siddiq Barmak, the director was looking for the girl to play the main part, he met Marina Golbahari (who plays Osama) begging in the street. He asked her "Do you want to be in my film?" and she answered, "What is this word 'film'?" She had never heard of a film.

Since the movie, she has been able to buy her parents a four-bedroom, mud home in the poorer part of Kabul, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Which (poem/country/os/city/whatever) are you?

OK, that's the last straw. I was just looking at dru's blog and I saw a link to which poem are you? (I've delibarate not made the name a hyperlink to the questionnaire in protest!)

I've now had an idea for an online questionnaire of my own. It's going to be called "Which retarded online questionnaire are you?"

One result could be "You are the 'Which American City Are You' questionnaire which is ill-thought out, quick to jump to conclusions about people and generally not very helpful."

HaloScan - I don't think we're right for each other.

Breaking up is always hard. Especially when I've got so many nice comments people posted in my blog using HaloScan, the commenting system that I'm now retiring in favour of BlogSpot's in-built commenting facilities.

If you've posted any comments on my blog in the past, I'm afraid they're not going to be shown any more. However, you can always comment on my new posts and make up for it! If fact, if you REALLY want to, you can always look through my archives and post comments on things I wrote months ago. Maybe I just need to move on... The old comments are gone but life goes on.

Spiritual Authority!

I was teaching at an Encounter Weekend that the TACF Youth Network had organised this past weekend. I was teaching on the subject of Spiritual Strongholds, a pretty important teaching because we do a lot of prayer ministry and deliverance after this teaching to bring people freedom from the strongholds they have just identified.

I had been warned ahead of time that the enemy would try to distract and confuse people to prevent them from hearing what God was trying to say through me. Well, just before we started the session, a storm started to pick up and there was thunder, lightning and some pretty loud winds as well. When I started my talk I said,

"It's no co-incidence there's a storm outside just now. There's about to be a storm in here as well but you don't need to be afraid unless you're a demon."

Well, part-way into my talk one of the staff of the camp we were using came in and said that there had been a tornado warning and that we should be ready to head down to the basement if anything happened. He also gave us candles in case we lost power.

I instantly remembered the Jason Upton CD, Remember which I mentioned in my blog last week. He rebuked a Tornado and it left. I thought, "Right, here we go. It's my turn to rebuke the weather now. If Jason Upton can do it, so can I!" I waited for the staff member to leave the room and then I prayed. It wasn't overly complex. It was something like this,

"Daddy, I just take authority over this storm in the name of Jesus and tell you storm that you have to leave now. Enemy, we're not impressed with you and we're not going anywhere. Tornado, you are not coming here. I rebuke you in Jesus name and tell you to go. We're not leaving becuase we need to stay here and deal with our demons."

I then went back to my teaching and didn't think any more about it. Well, I don't know how soon afterwards it was that I noticed but all of a sudden it was very quiet outside! I stopped for a moment to listen because I was actually surprised. It really had worked! I took authority over a storm in Jesus' name and it left!

Now, you need to realise something here. I don't pray in tongues for an hour a day. I don't do any special, complex intense devotions each day that give me more authority than mere mortals. No, I'm just a Christian! I'm a child of the King and I recognise the authority that gives me. Authority over the spiritual forces of darkness and all that they control.

It's time for us to rise up and stop letting the enemy push us around! Church, realise your authority and RISE UP! For too long we've been hiding in corners, scared of the enemy. Check out Psalm 18. See how David starts out hiding in God, his stronghold. He is not doing well:

v4: The cords of death encompassed me,
And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me.

By verse 37 he is the one doing the attacking and the enemy is the one on the run:

v37: I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
And I did not turn back until they were consumed.

Too often we live in verse 4 when really, Jesus has done all the work. We're in verse 37 now! Let's live like it!

This blows my mind!

I just bought Jason Upton's new album, Remember. There's something on this CD that amazed me like never before. I'm being serious here. There's the voice of an angel on the CD! I'm not talking about someone with a nice voice. I'm talking about a supernatural sound that appeared on the recording that could not be attributed to any of the people or instruments present at the recording. In the CD information, Jason Upton explains that when they were mixing the last track, Fly, they found "a soaring voice over the top of the other voices". At first they weren't sure what it was but they discovered that it was only coming through Jason's microphone. It was another source, near where he was.

If you listen to Fly and skip ahead to around 6 minutes 11 seconds (I think it actually comes in just before then) you will hear an amazing voice singing a really high melody. It sounds somewhat like a choir boy's voice. The first time I heard it, the power of God hit me really powerfully. Even now, when I hear it I feel an amazing presence of God. At first when I started thinking about it, I was a bit disappointed that the voice similar to something we know - a choir boy. Then I thought of something else. Why do we get choir boys to sing in the first place? It's because they sound like angels! Or think of movies such as Lord of the Rings where they want to create an "angelic" mood. They have choirs of pure, high, clear voices. This isn't a co-incidence. This is the reason why. People already know what angels sound like.

God is good. He is real. This stuff's not just for Sunday School!

Pedicures are ticklish

Ok, so I know I might get a bit of flak from the macho among you but I did in fact get a pedicure on Saturday. In fact, I got a manicure as well. I figured I might as well. Both were things I'd never tried before and I was getting my hair cut and I thought I'd go the extra mile, as it were. With my toes being on public display more than ever with sandal weather kicking in, it seems only kind to society to make them a bit more presentable. That and the fact that short toenails are good for climbing, short fingernails are good for guitar and short hair is good for..emm...not overheating in the summer.

So I'm all set for summer now. Except for having pasty skin. Still a bit too Scottish really.

I wish I had a car...

...so that I could put this on the bumper:

"The Swan" annoys me

Is anyone else annoyed by all these shows coming out on TV now that smash up ugly people and re-arrange them into something more beautiful?

I mean, ok, there are people who could really use some kind of corrective surgery if they've got some kind of deformity or something like that but so much of it's just ridiculous to me. People don't need new boobs - they need Jesus! It's true! Even with the best body, you're still the same messed up, insecure person inside. (sigh)

The Swan annoys me in particular because they take it one step further. Each week two women are "made over", sorry, re-constructed, and then the judges decide which one of them gets to go in for some beauty pageant.

So, in other words, the loser gets the message,

"Well done! You're beautiful now! Oh wait...no, not as beautiful as her. Sorry, you're ugly again. See ya!"

Grrr....

ب پ ت ث

Well, I'm making really slow progress with my Dari lessons. I'm about 1/2 way through lesson 2, to be precise. So far in this lession, I've looked at the letters be, pe, te and se. (Or bey, pey, tey and sey)

Here's what I've got. They're all written the same except for the number of dots and they're pretty simple as far as the different forms. (initial, medial, terminal and detached)

Initial form: بابا
Medial form: سبزه
Final form: واجب
Detached form: ب

So there you go. More fascinating discoveries of this new language are no doubt just around the corner.

Having your own climbing shoes helps

It's really true. It helps a lot to have shoes that fit your feet rather than the rental ones at the climbing gym. That said, if you're only going to go a few times, $6 a pop is maybe a better investment than the $100 + whatever you spend on your own.


Me being me, however, I figured the best way to force myself to commit to a sport is to spend some money on it. That way I feel a financial obligation to climb, even if I don't want to. As it stands just now, though, I do still want to climb so that's cool.

So yes, my new equipment. I went on a sort of climber's hajj to the Mountain Equipment Co-Op in Toronto.



I climbed this mother of a wall while trying out my new shoes on Saturday.

So I know you're all dying to know what I bought. Well I'm dying to talk about it at least so that's always something.


First up, I got a harness. I got a Black Diamond Focus Harness which is pretty comfortable. Well, as comfortable as you can expect with all these straps around various parts of your anatomy.



Once I got the harness sorted, I spent forever and a day trying on different shoes and consequently abusing my feet quite a bit. I ended up getting the La Sportiva Cliff Rockshoes. They were the best fit for the shape of my toes. Funny how something as hitherto trivial now has pretty serious influence. I was just thinking as well that since I climb AND play guitar, I have to keep my fingernails AND toenails nice and short. Ah, what a blessing for my future spouse. Anyway, I digress...



I got a nice wee chalkbag all of my own as well. To be more precise, it was a Sickle Retro Sport Chalk Bag. Not that exciting really other than the fact that it's mine and I won't need to keep borrowing one when I go to Rockhead's.

I also got a re-fillable chalk ball, a chalk bag strap and a water bottle but I'm starting to bore even myself at this point and I'm almost 1/2 hour late for lunch so this is a good time to run along.

New Blog Layout - woohoo!

Yes, it's true! I may only have been in the blogging business for about 4 months but that doesn't stop me taking advantage of the sweet new templates that blogger has available now!

For all (both?) my atom feed readers, lay your text-only preferences aside for just a moment to marvel at my new blog in all its majesty!

Oh, how I love stylesheets.

Apparently I am Windows 2000 SP3.

Which OS are You?

It seems there are a lot of quizes out there these days based on the formula. "What [groupname] are you?" such as "What dog are you?", "What country are you?" etc. I even saw a link to "Which Nigerian Spammer Are You?".

What's the deal with Sushi?

Is it just me or does anyone else feel there's a bit of The Emperor's New Clothes going on with regards to everyone's enthusiasm with Sushi these days?

I tried it a couple of times, the latter being lunchtime today. I really don't see what the big deal's about. It tastes of nothing, unless you dip it in the sauce and then it tastes of sauce. Sounds like fries (or chips for my British readers) to me. I just don't get it. I wonder if it's just me or if anyone else is spectacularly unaffected by this.

Think outside of "Think outside the box"

Have you noticed how popular the expression "Think outside the box" has become?

It strikes me as amusing and ironic that the phrase which originated as an expression advocating lateral thought and creativity has itself become another glib cliché, falling victim to narrow thinking and half-baked slogans. It's one of the most over-used expressions of our time! We need to think outside the box of "think outside the box!" Maybe a good alternative might be:

"Ponder outside the planet."

or

"Hypothesize outside the hyperbola."

maybe

"Consider outside the cliché."

Add your own suggestions to the comments section under this post! Let's see what we can come up with when we think outside the... no, wait... when we employ some lateral thought!

(Of course, don't feel bound to the "x outside the y." formula here. This is all about being different, after all!)

If you were a REAL Christian you would...

You know, sometimes I get certain forwards in my inbox that really tick me off. They usually originate from some Christian or other who's trying to gain support for some hot topic such as prayer in schools, abortion or whatever. The prevailing theme in these messages is always the same, though. It's the sting at the end of the message that says something like:

"Jesus wasn't ashamed to hang on the cross naked for you, funny how you're too ashamed to forward this message on to your friends."

The latest one I received today ended with this:

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in!

In other words, "If you really were a good Christian you would forward this on. By deleting it, you're admitting to being a pathetic person."

This kind of thing angers me so much because Jesus was NOTHING like this yet people who profess to be his followers resort to these kind of tactics to spread their message. It's funny how children of God can sound like the accuser of the brethren sometimes.

I think people need more teaching about emotional manipulation and the fact that it's NOT a good way to get your point across. Jesus NEVER resorted to telling people they were pathetic to get them to do anything. He didn't make people feel worse about themselves. If someone was genuinely doing their best, he was (and still is) the very definition of compassion and grace. The only people who he gave a hard time were those who were so confident in their own righteousness that they didn't see a need for him in their lives.

If Jesus could inspire a group of twelve people to spread a message to the world, risking their lives and dying for it in the process without manipulation then why do we feel we need to manipulate to get more signatures on a petition? Isn't the kingdom of God better than this? The God who parted the Red Sea, fed thousands from a few loaves of bread, raised the dead and forgave our sins is more than capable of speaking to the recipient of an e-mail without us beating them to a pulp in the process.

Some of the examples of Christian behaviour I see through e-mail make me sad. I don't approve of these tactics and I don't see any evidence in the bible that God's character is like this either.

سلام

I finally got round to doing the first lesson from my Beginner's Dari book.

It is mostly about the letter Alef which looks like (ا or آ). The 2nd version has a mad on top which looks a bit like a Greek tilde. (~) If a word starts with the regular kind of Alef (ا) then it's a short 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o' or 'u' sound. If it's an Alef mad, though, (آ) then it's a long 'a' sound. When an Alef occurs elsewhere in a word, it's always the long version. The mad is not written in these cases, though.

Another weird thing is that when an Alef is preceded by a Laam (ل) , they form a bizarre shape called a laam aleflaa. It looks like this: لا

So, the title of this post (سلام) is "salaam" which is a greeting in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. I believe that literally it means peace although it's often used as a "hey, wassup" kinda deal as well.

Sweet Norah - so relaxing

I just bought Norah Jones' recent album, Feels Like Home, last week.

It's really nice stuff. It's hard to remain stressed and up-tight while listening to this album. Perfect for these Monday mornings when you can't quite get your brain in gear again after the weekend. (No mind-altering activities implied by that remark.) The only thing I'm finding difficult to come to terms with is that a couple of the songs are a but too much like Country Music for my liking. That said, if there was someone who was to change my opinion of Country, Norah just might be it.

I'm not dead.

In case anyone was wondering, I'm still here. Just so you know.

It's true, though. I've not written in my blog for a while and I should really figure out something interesting to write about.

I did find it quite amusing in the news today that Kevin Spacey reported that he had been mugged when in fact someone had just tricked him into handing over his phone.

Am I Seattle? Probably not.

Take the quiz: "Which American City Are You?"


Seattle

Your dark exterior masks a caffeine driven activism. You'll take up a cause and you'll get ugly to advance it.

I'm not too impressed with quiz. There were 6 questions. The overall breakdown of my score was:

New York (You scored 0)
Las Vegas (You scored 0)
Cleveland (You scored 0)
Washington DC (You scored 0)
San Francisco (You scored 1)
Seattle (You scored 2)
Los Angeles (You scored 1)
Memphis (You scored 1)
Boston (You scored 1)
Orlando (You scored 0)

In other words, I'm a bit of everything but I had two answers in the Seattle category rather than one.

Also, the spelling was pretty amusing. There are words like karyoke and stoopor in there.

So, in conclusion, the quiz is crap. It was a waste of my time. Thanks to dru for the distraction.

See The Ken, see the world...

After much tinkering with CSS, I've now got my photo in my blog. It was taken at my birthday party on March 27th by my buddy Tim Jeong. (no link yet, I'm afraid) This is the original colour of the image due to a sneaky use of natural light.

I put the image as a background in the left column rather than using an <img> tag. Ideally, I want the left column to be fixed at the width of the image and have only the main section re-size. As it stands just now, the dividing line between the columns is based on a percentage so when you re-size the window the left column changes size.

Muscles...aagh....

It's been 2 days since my last visit to Joe Rockhead's and my arms are getting worse rather than better. Man, I feel like such a wuss. I reckon I'd have a hard time picking up a wet towel just now.

On a more positive note, I'm noticing some increased definition in my arms and upper body. It's weird to feel part of my arm that's solid yet not bone. It's about time - I certainly need it! I just need to learn to climb with my legs more so that my arms last longer. I only hope they feel better tomorrow rather than worse.

Is this made by the guys who did Homestar Runner?

THORAX CORPORATION LLC,,.

Man, this website is bizarre. I reckon it's the guys who made Homestar Runner that have made it. Mainly because on today's April Fool Homestar Runner front page, the title says

www.homestarrunner.com is coming soon!
This domain is reserved through thoraxcorp.com

Also, on the Thorax Corporation page, there are references to "peasant children in the thatched roof cottages" (Trogdor reference perhaps?) There is a use of the word wedpages on the produkts page as well. That could be a reference to Homestar's page which was a secret link off one cartoon.

If you believe...Google put a man on the moon (man on the mooon)

I was looking at the Google April Fool's article about there being a job vacancy on the moon. I especially liked their explanation on why you would need to use a different programming language:

"The rules of coding will literally be stood on their head at the Copernicus Center, as the absence of gravity plays havoc with the normal ordering of data. Search results lacking in substance may rise to positions of prominence while those possessed of a desirable gravitas may become negatively buoyant. Simple computing exercises, such as building a list inverter become problematic when "up" or "down" are not clearly defined, and subroutines are disrupted when values increment six times faster than in Earth gravity."

Yes, values increment six times faster indeed! How amusing!

The nicest spam I ever saw!

I was just reading some stuff on Kristin Thomas Spam Poetry. This is terrific! This genius writes poetry using only the subject lines from spam. That's a constructive use for it - good thinking I say!

That said, if I was to try to write a poem from all the spam I get on Hotmal, I fear all my poems would have a kind of gross sexual overtone with maybe the occasional "cheap viagra" reference thrown in for good measure.

Thanks to JPuddy who posted the link in his blog.

Ooh, that other car's getting rather close...crunch!

Yes, indeed. I was in fact in a car crash last night. I was one of Drew's passengers in the crash he mentioned on his blog. I was in the front passenger seat and yes, I did have my seatbelt on. Hurrah! Of course, I didn't have a "neck belt" on which I'm thinking could be an interesting concept. I reckon as well as air bags, cars should have an inflatible collar that fills up when you crash to stop "neck wiggle".

I feel pretty good, just a slight neck pain. It's nothing worse than when I go snowboarding, though, so I'm not too bothered. It'll be all back to normal in no time.

I went Indoor Rock Climbing... and lived!

Well, the snow's gone and it's time for me to do something other than snowboarding for exercise. With this in mind, I went to Joe Rockhead's Indoor Rock Climbing Gym in Toronto last night with a few friends.

It's the 2nd time I've been rock climbing in my life. Last time was at the Glasgow Climbing Centre back home. That time was interesting because I pretty much used my arms the whole time and I didn't rest them or shake them out while I was climbing. The next morning they were killing me!

Another difference was the type of belaying device we used. In Glasgow, we used what I think was a Belay Rappel Device which is a fairly simple device that relies on the belayer to get it right or else you could drop the climber. Last night, though, we used a Grigri which is much better. It's got a mechanism inside which locks the rope when the climber falls. It only releases when you lift a lever which you can open more or less to adjust the speed of descent as desired.

The first couple of climbs I started to get scared as I got higher up because I wasn't really putting my faith in the rope and my belayer. When I got more used to it, though, I was able to go all the way to the top. I still had to stop for a rest once or twice, though, because my muscles are pretty weak. My arms are hardly sore at all today, though, so I think I used my legs more than last time.

I had to keep reminding myself to straighten my arms when I was thinking and to shake them out once in a while. It's all practice and learning. I think I'm going to have fun with this.

Life Languages

Ok, it's only taken me all day to get this to work so you better be impressed!

This is my life languages breakdown (and I know the CSS doesn't work properly in Mozilla browsers.) I'm a Influencer-Doer-Shaper it seems. This means I feel, do then think. That surprises me a bit because I always thought (haha, clever) that I was more of a thinker than that.

I

D

S

P

R

C

M

Language	Score	Rating
Influencer	67.7%	High
Doer	62.6%	Moderate
Shaper	62.1%	Moderate
Producer	42.4%	Moderate
Responder	32.3%	Low
Contemplator	31.8%	Low
Mover	31.3%	Low

27 Years ago today...

...I was born! Yes, it's true. Don't be deceived by my boyish charm, I really am 27!

It amazes me just how quickly the years fly by and the details fade to nothing.

Man, it's true that the older you get the faster time seems to go.

US Pledge $1billion to Afghanistan

Times Online - Home: "On a one-day visit to the Afghan capital, Colin Powell stressed that the US remained committed to Afghanistan, and was 'in this for the long haul.'
'They (the Afghans) don't have to hope we will be here. We will be here,' General Powell declared.
General Powell told reporters that the new $1billion pledge would be made at an international donors' conference in Berlin on March 31."

I really hope they stick to their word on this. It would be so amazing to see that country flourishing after so many years of barrenness.

British phone company uses Hydrogen Cell for power in Scotland!

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Hydrogen cell powers phone mast: "Hydrogen cell powers phone mast"

I love this! I feel proud to be Scottish. They've set up a cell phone mast that runs on a Hydrogen Cell rather than running cables through the forest or using a nasty generator. It's so cool when a big company starts making decisions that save money and the planet. The Earth is the Lord's! Let's clean up after ourselves, that's what I say!

Grace & Mercy in a British Courtroom!

AP Wire | 03/12/2004 | Charges Dropped for Briton Ex-Detainee

I thought this was a really interesting story. One of the five British men who recently returned from Guantanamo Bay has had certain criminal charges dropped. The reason given was that he's already suffered enough:

"It was decided that if he'd been found guilty he'd have gotten two years and he's already spent two years in prison in Guantanamo Bay," a prosecution spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. "That (time served) would be taken into account. It would be a waste of procedure, really."

I was really impressed with this decision. It's a very compassionate way to go in the situation.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Astronomers discover 'new planet'

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Astronomers discover 'new planet': "Astronomers have detected what could be the Solar System's 10th planet."

Well, fancy that. It seems Pluto isn't the last planet in our Solar System after all. Actually, what freaks me out the most is that I once read Sci-Fi book called The 10th Planet and it was about these nasty monsters that came from the 10th planet of our solar system. It was a classic Doctor Who? adventure, introducing a new enemy: the Cybermen. Very frightening, they were.

Are there innocent men in Guantanamo Bay?

News: "'My son is helpless. I do not ask for mercy, I ask for justice'
Moazzam Begg: Still in Guantanamo Bay, facing a military tribunal"

The more I read about the situation several families are facing, dealing with loved ones being held in Cuba by the US Military, the worse I feel about the situation. It's now been two years since these guys were arrested and they've still not been charged with any crime or allowed access to a lawyer. One man in this article hasn't even seen his youngest child. His family says he was working as a foreign aid worker, digging wells.

Of course, the sceptic would say these are all lies and in some cases they probably are. However, are you really so convinced of the efficiency of the US Military (whose own casualites in Afghanistan came more from friendly fire than the Taliban) that only the guilty were captured? Imagine two years of being tortured, placed in solitary confinement etc. without ever having done anything to deserve it.

God, free the innocent. Don't cast them aside with the guilty.

Afghan women in Olympics!

Games hold hope for Afghan women

This is so encouraging! I almost cried as I read this. God, bring more freedom to this nation!

India play Pakistan at Cricket - IN PAKISTAN!

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | India begin historic cricket tour: "India begin historic cricket tour

Hundreds of police provided security for the team's arrival in Lahore
The Indian cricket team has arrived in Pakistan for a historic five-week tour - their first there after a break of nearly 15 years. "

This is really cool! Man, I really hope there's some peace between these two nations. They really have a rocky history.

Now we can see an eclipse from Mars!

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nasa rovers view Martian eclipses

This is pretty cool. They've been able to take pictures from the surface of mars, of its moons eclipsing the sun. It's totally different to here, though, because one of the moons takes 20-30 seconds to pass the sun and the other takes a minute.

By his stripes we are healed

I decided not to go snowboarding today since I'm still a bit sore from my fall. That said, I did go to the Healing Rooms at TACF yesterday just before lunch and I noticed a significant change.

As they prayed for me and soaked me in God's presence, I just felt more and more relaxed. When they finished, my neck felt significantly more flexible than it had been before. It's still not 100% normal again but it's about 95% I'd say. My back still hurts a bit but I know it's on the mend.

Man, it's so cool to know that God doesn't want us to live with sickness. It's not even a question of whether it's life-threatening or not. He cares about all our aches and pains. Even if our pain is a direct result of our own action (like snowboarding) he still wants to heal. After all, can you really have "Life in all its fullness" without taking risks?

Aw, man. I'm Switzerland too...

I got this link from my buddy Drew who turned out to be Switzerland. I, too, am Switzerland.


Switzerland -
A neutral power for as long as most can remember,
it has avoided war for several centuries.
However, it is still considered highly advanced
and a global power.


Positives:

Judicial.

Neutrality.

World-Renouned.

Powerful without Force.

Makes Excellent Watches, Etc.


Negatives:

Target of Ridicule.

Constant Struggle to Avoid Conflict.

Target of Criminal Bank Accounts.



Which Country of the World are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I hate these e-mails.

A friend forwarded me an e-mail this morning. It was one of these ones that makes me want to boke, gag, chunder, ralph and blow chunks all at the same time.

You may have seen one like it before. Here it is in all its fluffiness:

13 Things About You
====================

1. Someone in this world loves you, in some way.
2. A smile from you, can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
3. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
4. You mean the world to someone.
5. Without you, someone may not be living.
6. You are special and unique, in your own way.
7. Someone that you don't know even exists, loves you.
8. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.
9. When you think the world has turned it's back on you, take a look, you most likely turned your back on the world.
10.When you think you have no chance at getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, you probably sooner or later will get it.
11.Always remember complements you received, forget about the rude remarks.
12.Always tell someone how you feel about them, you will feel much better when they know.
13.If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great. If you choose, send this letter to as many people as you care about, you'll brighten up someone's day, and might change their perspective on life, for the better!

~Author Unknown~

You're right, 'Author Unknown'. I'd want to be unknown too if I had written that! Note the obligatory "You suck if you don't forward this to everyone and their dog" sentiment at the end as well. That bugs me too. Do you notice that there's "Unlucky 13" items in the list as well?

The worst one I've seen is:

Don’t ever frown, because you don’t know who’s falling in love with your smile.

What this is really saying is, "Remember - you're not allowed to be real. Be sure to pretend everything's "fine" just in case that special someone is watching."

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about romance but you've got to be real. Seriously, I hate the "plastic smile" mentality.