Grrr - leave my blog alone, spammers!

I just discovered that my most recent blog entry had 7 comments. This was a bit of a surprise as I hadn't received any e-mail notifications. I excitedly opened the list to read what all my friends had written about what I personally consider to be one of my best blog entries so far.

You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered my first bit of blog comment spam. Man, is nothing sacred any more? It's getting to the point where anywhere you can submit text to a page someone's going to try to use it to market something stupid to you. Well, thankfully Blogger have a mechanism to handle that. I have now switched on the "word verification" feature. You've probably seen something similar before. You just need to read the text shown in an image on the screen and type it into the box underneath it. Programs can't do that so by doing so you prove that you're a real person leaving a real comment rather than a program that's going through all the blogs and dumping unwanted advertising in there.

(sigh) Sometimes it's just annoying when your privacy is violated like that. It annoys me. I wish people would just stop trying to sell me their crap all the time.

Hello Scotland

I'm home! I made it back safely to the home of haggis, kilts and The Ken.

I had a fairly decent 5 and a half flight with Air Transat directly from Toronto to Glasgow. I was sitting in the very back row, just in front of the toilets. I was thinking of some pros and cons of the location of my seat:

Back Row (General)
Pro: I could recline the seat without worrying about disturbing the person behind me.
Pro: Nobody could dig their knees into my back.
Pro: As well as under the seat in front of me, I was able to put things under my own seat.
Pro: I was one of the first allowed to board because they boarded by row number. This allowed me to put my bag in the overhead compartment before it got filled up.
Con: I was one of the last people off the plane.

Proximity of Toilet
Pro: If I needed to go, it was easy to get to.
Con: A lot of other people used it too and every time the door opened, I got a whiff of their contribution.
Con: People squeezing past my seat on the way to the toilet frequently brushed past my shoulder with their bottom, creating mixed reactions depending on the individual.

Video Screens in the middle of the cabin
Con: People going back and forth to the toilet and cabin crew doing their duties frequently blocked my view of the screen.

So, all in all it was a mixed experience.

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I arrived at 6:15 this morning and I've slept maybe 2 hours since then! This morning I went to Glasgow Elim for the first time in ages. It was really great to see everyone again. There was a real sense of coming home, a great spiritual family vibe. The worship was amazing as well. God seems so much closer here. It's strange, I'm just connecting with him a lot better all of a sudden and really feeling the love and acceptance that I've been craving for so long.

I went again this evening and there was a baptisimal service. I didn't know any of the people who were getting baptised but I'm sure I'll get to know new people sooner or later. It's really great being back and renewing old friendships with friends that I've known for years. I realise now how much I was suffering in Toronto from having no roots or established connections there. Everything was just so transient and temporary. It was hard to feel settled. I'm excited for what God's got for this next chapter of my life. I really am.

Goodbye Canada

Well, this is it. It's the end of my time in Toronto. I stopped working a month ago when I got the news that I had to leave but I've still been around.

I've been getting everything finalised for my move back to Scotland. There were so many bits and pieces to organise but at last I'm ready. I've still not packed most of my things. I'm going to do that tonight. I just hope I can fit everything into my suitcase and rucksack. Otherwise I suppose I'll just have to throw some things out. It's funny, I've felt for the longest time that I'm always on the move. I never feel really settled anywhere. Canada, especially, had a very temporary feel about it with the question of work permits coming round each year. I had intended to avoid that by getting Permanent Residence but that still hasn't finished processing. The decision to apply for that was really so that I could choose my own return date and so I could work for whoever I wanted while still in Canada. I don't know if I really wanted to stay here forever anyway.

I'll see how things go in Scotland. It's going to be a bit of an adjustment back to Scottish life. I've probably lost my accent a bit and I still find myself thinking and speaking in Canadian. It doesn't sound so odd to say that about French or German or another non-English language like that but the thing is that even with variants of English, you still switch from one set of terminology to another. At least I do, maybe I'm just different. In Scotland I say "crisps" and in Canada I say "chips". Then you've got pavement/sidewalk, road/pavement, pram/stroller, gutter/eaves trough. (yeh - that's an obscure one to know)

It's been a funny time here in Toronto. When I started working in the IT Department I felt totally underqualified and there was a large team of programmers at the time as well. Then with the finance issues we faced a few years back due to Sars, everyone else got laid off, leaving only me really. For a while I was the only programmer here and I had the freedom (and burden) of making all the decisions about how my programs would be written. It's a bitter-sweet situation, really. We all like to make the decisions, but not to be the one responsible for their consequences. Hmm, that's one to ponder actually...

Sandi

This is Sandi. We only met once, at a party down in Pittsburgh back in November of last year. That was the same trip when we went to the gun club and had some fun with guns. She was Vera's roommate at the time.

Anyway, I just heard last night from Steve that she died in a rock climbing accident. It was a huge shock to me and it raised all kinds of questions in my mind. She had been in Wyoming doing some kind of outdoor adventure training and she was learning to be a climbing instructor. They had got to the top of the climb and she was tidying up the ropes and she lost her balance and fell. By this time they had taken off all their climbing equipment and there was nothing to save her.

It struck me a bit because this is the second person I've known to some extent who's died young. It makes it all the harder to cope with the loss. The last one I wrote about was Will Elder who died of cancer in May. It's not as tragic when someone's older and you feel they've led a full life but when someone dies young there's that sense of loss of all the experiences they'll never have.

I find it hard seeing God's will in it all. As far as we knew, Sandi didn't know Jesus. Vera had talked to her about her own faith from time to time, but as far as we know, she didn't ever make that decision for herself. I personally think that she could have cried out to God in her final moments as she realized what was happening around her. Salvation can come in a heartbeat, and I suppose we won't know until we get there who made it and who didn't.

Regarding God's will, though, I realize that out own free will overrules in a way. I mean, it's God's will that none should perish yet we see people perish all the time and go to a godless eternity. Our own choices and actions are not controlled by God. They are our own. Maybe I'm looking for more meaning in these events than there really is. We ask God, "Why did you let that happen?" and it's the same as anything else - we really make the choices for ourself.

Wind Energy is the way forward!

I've been looking into all the different aspects of getting set up back in Scotland. I'm going to start renting a property in Glasgow and I'll be choosing my ISP and Energy companies as well.

It was while looking through all the Energy companies for the UK that I thought about wind power. I strongly believe that we need to use renewable energy more and more now. The climate really in changing. The weather's going crazy and we can do something about it. For the last while I've been doing small things like using energy-saving lightbulbs or only boiling as much water as I actually need in the kettle. Now, I'm going to take things a step further and choose an Energy provider who uses green forms of energy. In particular, I really favour wind energy. I feel that it's the best form of renewable energy we have on offer.

There's a really great website about wind energy in the UK. It's Embrace The Revolution. (www.embracewind.com) There are some amazing photos as well as interesting facts vs. myths about wind energy. I'm really excited about this and I hope more and more people choose to support renewable energy.

Back from Kelowna

I just got back to Toronto after spending a week in Kelowna, BC. It was pretty good, I have to say. I definitely prefer the dry heat and the overall way of life seems a lot more chilled.



I did a lot of walking and generally being outdoors. Consequently, I developed a fairly impressive "sandal tan". Believe it or not, I'm the first person in Flickr to use the "sandal tan" tag. Fancy that. Also, you can see here that my big toe on the right is healing nicely after that encounter with Dixon Road a wee while back there.

About the most adventurous thing I did on the trip was parasailing. It was a cool experience and it was all the better since Mum & Dad paid! It wasn't as scary as the parachute jump I did back in Utah in 1996 but still, it was an amazing view.

While I was with Mum & Dad for the first couple of days, we drove about a bit and saw some of the towns nearby. I really liked seeing mountains and hills again. It's sometimes only when you see something after a while of being away from it that you realize how much you missed it. At least, that's how it was with the hills and me.

Another thing that struck me was how short all the buildings were in the downtown area of Kelowna. I'm used to Toronto now where the buildings are so huge that you get this sense of the magnitude of the city. I'd rather have big hills and small buildings any day, though. I prefer the outdoors to the city. I just seem to end up living in cities all the time, though.