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.

---

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.

Bike + Open Sandals + Road = Pain

I had an interesting encounter with the road today on my way to work. First of all, it was an encounter with a funeral procession where the cars had a police escort, stopping traffic at the traffic lights. Not familiar with this, I proceeded to cross the road when the lights were in my favour. It was when I was about half-way across the road that I noticed the cars were still going. I panicked and slammed on the brakes. The car that was about to hit me then stopped and let me through. It was only at this point that I saw the wee "funeral" sign attached to the hood/bonnet of the car. It seems that in Canada funeral processions (or corteges as we would say) can carry on through red lights if they have a police escort. Good to know if you're a cyclist.

So, I survived that near miss with only a minor telling off from the cop. He said something over the speaker like "Watch or you'll get taken out!" Fine, well anyway, I carried on and then came to the real problem. I was on the bridge over Highway 27, looking for a break in traffic so I could nip off the sidewalk (pavement) onto the road. I usually fly down the hill and then turn onto Attwell with a bit of "gravitational assistance" or "momentum" - both work. Due to the delay caused by the funeral procession (which had since merged onto Highway 27 North) there were a lot of cars on the brige. More, in fact than usual.

I saw a gap in the traffic and decided that I would go for it. I was aware, though, that I would need to get up to speed quite quickly because there was another car coming. I bumped off the curb and started peddaling for Scotland. Sadly, my right foot slipped off the back of the pedal, my posterior slipped off the seat so I was sitting on the frame and my foot ended up dragging along the road hairy side down.

I quickly got off the road and assessed myself. First off, I noticed that the seat had twisted round to one side by as much as 60 degress, resulting in the rear mudguard protruding from the other side at an equally outrageous angle. More importantly, though, I had lost part of the toe nail on the big toe of my right foot. There was also a small scrape on the knuckle of the 2nd toe. My sandal, too, had suffered with a bit of a shaving off the edge.

Suffice to say I'm fine. However, I am a bit "gun shy" and might not be quite as eager on the road again. It a hard one to call because you're not meant to be on the sidewalk but drivers don't exactly embrace you on the road. Come to think of it, I don't think I'd want to be embraced by someone in a car while I'm on a bike. The best I can do is to hog the whole lane so that cars don't try to squeeze past me while the other lane's occupied.

Getting ready to leave Canada

So, I've been pretty busy this week getting everything organized for the big move home. I gave myself a month to get everything organised before returning to Glasgow and I think I'm pretty much on top of things.

So far I've sold a few possessions and copied all my personal files off the office computer. It's funny how packing up your files can be just as complex as packing a suitcase these days. I bought a Lexar JumpDrive Secure with a capacity of 1 GB for the occasion and it's proved to be very useful. I like the versatility of being able to re-use rather than the one-off nature of CDs. Also, I can correct it if I accidentally copied files I don't actually need.

I also got a 32 Capacity CD Wallet from Case Logic. Not quite as exciting, this is still a crucial purchase. Now I have the sad task of throwing out all the jewel cases for my CDs and DVDs so I can pack all the discs in the new wallet. (In case you think that's not very many CDs, I already filled a 36 capacity one a few days ago.

Once I get back home, I'm going to start my own software company. I will do freelance stuff, starting off with contracts from TACF who I just finished working for just now. My company is called Tabletop Software although there's nothing worth seeing on the website yet. The important thing is that I've got the domain name.

No more work permits for me!

Last night I got an interesting letter from Canadian Immigration. (Bless them, Jesus!) They decided that I'm not going to get another work permit and, consequently, I need to leave Canada...again.

This isn't the first time I've been through this so I'm almost getting used to the idea. In a way it's shocking how suddenly things like this come along but really God's in control of it all anyway so I should just enjoy the ride.

I think it's going to be good to get a chance to step back from the intense time I've been spending doing IT at TACF. You know, it's really been stressful and depressing lately. I found myself so overwhelmed with the prospect of work that I've not wanted to get out of bed in the morning or face the next day's IT-related problems.

I know God's got something new for me so that's cool. I need to look inside and see what I actually WANT to do that can benefit this world and make come alive. The world's too full of bored people. I need to do what I was MADE for, just as soon as I figure that out. I don't really want to be in an office any more, though. I crave the outdoors. Maybe I'll do some hillwalking when I get back home. I'll check out some of the Munros.

I have my kilt!

Today is a monumentous day (in more ways than one as you'll see once I've done my 2nd post).




I finally collected my kilt from Hector Russell Scottish Imports in Toronto! You've no idea just how long I've had this nagging thought in the back of my head "Man, I wish I had my own kilt." Well, today is that day where the dream is realised. It was a lot of money (around $750 CAD) but I'm so glad I finally have one of my own.

Humidity is not my friend

I'm finding the recent humidity in Toronto to be really horrible. We don't have air conditioning in our place so when I go home it's just bleugh.

I don't know how I did this but last night I went to bed at around 11:30 at night but this morning I missed my alarm completely. I woke up a few times and went back to sleep, since the alarm hadn't gone off yet. Well, finally, I looked at the time and it was 11:45 am! Oops!

I quickly got dressed and cycled in to work - just in time for lunch.

Feed the Poor / Peace on Earth

I've been thinking about current events. In particular, the Live 8 concerts, the G-8 Summit and the bombings in London today.

I don't want to just write about the violence because, basically, I don't want to play into the hands of the terrorists who want to upset everyone's agenda and distract us from what is an important moment in world history. We are at a crucial moment in history where 8 very influential nations are discussing important things like poverty and the environment. These are such important topics that they really need our attention.

It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day life that we forget things that really matter. We can be so side-tracked by getting the latest "stuff" that we miss the point. How much of what we do with our time really counts for something? How much of it has a point?

I sometimes find it hard to see the worth what I do from 9 to 5. I know I'm serving a church and ultimately God and the underlying IT infrastructure needs to be solid for everything (like the live video streaming) to work properly. It just feels as if that's not tangible enough for me. I want to go somewhere really desolate and build a house for orphans or something like that. That's a good day's work right there - people living in a house instead of on the street because I went to work.

The whole bombing/warring thing seems to be a self-perpetuating entity as well. The whole reason there are wars in Afghanistand and Iraq right now is because of the bombing of the world trade centre and the pentagon. Maybe cynics would question that and I'm not saying I'm entirely in favour of what's happening. The point is, though, that terrorist bombings were the reason. Now, what kind of logic is it that motivates someone to plant some more bombs to make the wars end? Isn't that just fuelling the anger, hatred and thirst for revenge? People in the US and UK are now conveniently reminded of why their troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place - to stop this kind of thing from happening. There needs to be a better path to peace than this.

I don't agree with bombing Iraq or Afghanistan to pieces, incidentally. I really don't think that's the way to go about it. I think western nations need to earn their respect by genuinely caring about them and helping them (especially Afghanistan) to get re-established and stable. I'm not just talking about governments but things like water, food, houses, schools, parks, clearing of landmines. I know there are organizations like the UN who are doing great work there but I think we need things that are clearly done by the governments of western countries as a gift, a token of goodwill.

I pray that the compassion of Jesus and the wisdom of God will be an influence in the G8 Summit. I pray that our leaders will be motivated by not only concern for their own people but by a compassion for all the people in our world. May there be a radical decision to clear the debts of the poor countries who can't pay - without conditions or strings attached. It's time we evened the playing field a bit.

Montréal with Jon & Sheba

A week ago, I went on a fantastic trip to Montréal with Jon & Sheba. It was all part of Jon's plan to romance Sheba for a couple of days building up to his proposition and her acceptance. Yes, they are in fact now engaged!

Maybe I should back up a bit and explain what happened. On the Saturday, Jon took Sheba out for a sail on lake Ontario as a romantic date. Then the next morning, Sheba thought she would be having breakfast with her mum but she was surprised to find Jon, a chauffeur (that's me) and a car waiting for her instead. We took her home and got her to pack some things before grabbing some brunch and then heading for the highway. Sheba still didn't know where we were going at this point. We eventually told her when we got onto Highway 401 East and she couldn't figure out where we would be going.

We drove about 650 km each way in our rented Chevrole Impala which was pretty good and thankfully had good air conditioning because it was REALLY humid.

When we arrived in Montréal, we got settled in to the bed & breakfast before Jon & Sheba headed out for dinner and some jazz. I had a wander around the city and took some pictures. I happened to stumble upon a movie set where Scottish actor Robert Carlyle was being filmed for a show called Human Traffic which I believe will be available on cable in October. You can see my photos here.

Kilt Ordered!

On Saturday, I decided to cycle to Hector Russell to order my kilt. I knew it was quite a distance but I thought it'd be a good bit of exercise. Well, one hour later I arrived there and chose the tartan for my kilt. I went for the ancient Farquharson. As if that wasn't complicated enough, I also had to choose from three different mills who all use slightly different colouring. I don't remember right now the name of the mill I chose but I'll look it up.

The kilt should be ready in 6 - 8 weeks although it depends if the mill has the material in stock. It should be ready in time for all the weddings I'm going to in September. OK, both the weddings I'm going to in September...a week apart.

Will Elder - my friend

Today I received the sad news that Will Elder, a friend and ex-colleague died of cancer this morning. The news hit me as a bit of a blow because we had been praying and believing for God to heal him. The whole thing seemed so tragic as well as he had so much of his life ahead of him. He was 22.

I first met Will in 2002 when I started working at TACF as a volunteer in what was then the Media department. Will was such a friendly and cheerful guy. He was always enthusiastic, hard working and helpful. He had time for people and would help out whenever help was needed, even if it wasn't really his responsibility.

When he stopped working at TACF a while ago, I didn't really keep in touch with him. We just went our separate ways, really. He first contracted testicular cancer almost a year ago and he had a fairly bumpy ride with various treatments and some misleading good signs and even a phase when he thought he was cancer-free.

I went with a few friends to visit him about a month ago and we chatted for a bit. He told me of all the pain he was in, how he had gone hoarse one day from yelling so much because of the pain. Through it all, though, he never lost his sense of God's presence. He said he could feel God's love and he could sense angels in the room as well.

It's just tough when I KNOW that people get healed and cancer really isn't a big deal to God, he's healed people before. God is also a God of LOVE and he desires good things for his children. Right now these don't seem to add up with what's happened but I beleive there are other factors outside my understanding. I still trust God, I still belive he has a good, pleasing and perfect plan for my life and all the rest. I just wish I knew more about healing.

I've been wondering recently, as Will's death seemed more and more imminent - why should he die and me live? Really, when all is said and done, he was a nicer guy than me. I've probably run to sin instead of God more in my life yet here I am in perfect health. I suppose we may tend to associate sickness with God's judgment but it's not always that way.

Will isn't in any pain any more. That I believe. He's with God, his creator, his loving Father. How amazing a promise that is. Really, where is the sting in death? All we have is this temporary separation until we are re-united in heaven. Until then, though, I'll miss him.

I think I'll buy a kilt.

Since the wedding at the weekend, I've been considering how much money I've spent on kilt hire. The rental costs $150 each time and I know I've rented a kilt at least 3 times while in Canada, possible even 4. That's from $450 - $600 dollars right there and I have nothing to show for it other than a few cool photos.

I can get a full 8 yard, hand-sewn kilt from Hector Russell in Toronto. (Interestingly, the first Hector Russell was in my home town of Greenock.) If I get the kilt by itself, it'll cost $645 which I think I can afford. Then I can wear it whenever I want, which would be quite fun.

I'm going to go with the Farquharson tartan which is my family tartan, although it's not my name. To add confusion, there are actually four version of the tartan I can choose from. Here's a peek at each of them.


Ancient


Modern


Muted


Weathered

I'm going to go and have a look soon to see which one looks best in real life as they can look misleading on a computer screen.

HSBC No More!

I have finally closed my account with HSBC. I find PC Financial to be a far superior bank. I've been using them for a couple of months now but I still hadn't closed the HSBC account because I couldn't figure out a way of getting my money out without needing to pay a fee, since I had a lot to transfer and I didn't want to walk out with a bag full of cash.

I spent the money instead and today I was handed a $2 coin from the manager as she closed my account. It was actually quite amusing. It illustrated how little interest I had in the bank by that time - the fact that I had spent all but $2 before closing the account.

She was actually pretty grumpy about closing the account, as if my business going elsewhere will put her out of a job. She asked me to fill out a form at one point and when I handed it back she said, "Thanks, that's great....Well...it's not great."

I just smiled to myself, thinking her poor attempts at guilt and manipuation wouldn't work on me! Ha! Your Jedi skills will only work on the weak minded!

Photos from Chris & Lorri's Wedding

I now have the photos back from the wedding on Saturday. Follow this link to have a look. Luckily for Chris, I took out the one from the night before when we made him wear a thong.

A pretty cool wedding

I was priveleged to be part of Chris & Lorri's wedding on Saturday. We had quite a drive to get there, though. Chris is from New Hamburg and the wedding was in Saint Mary's. (the town, not a Catholic church) Check out a map of the area on Google to see where these places are. The reception was somewhere else entirely. I don't know exactly where it was - it was a barn somewhere. Mind you, it was a really nice barn.

One of the highlights of the day was at the end of the ceremony when the minister told us the reception was to be at 5:30pm. Chris and Lorri looked at him kinda funny and said "it's 6:30" to which he replied, "no, trust me, it's 5:30" Well, the newlyweds left in the car and then Lorri's dad came up to the front and said "The reason it's 5:30 is because they don't know this but we're having a helicopter pick them up and fly them there. Oh, and free helicopter rides for everyone!"

It was a pretty cool deal and far more original than the old "free drinks all round" concept. There were two helicopters, one of which could take three passengers and the other could take four. They kept going for quite a while until everyone had a shot. I had to be carefuly standing in line with my kilt on because each time a helicopter took off, there was quite a gust. I think I managed to defend my dignity ok, though.

All in all, it was a great day, though, starting with a last-minute band practice in the morning and ending with helping to clear up some of the stuff in the barn and getting back to Toronto at around 2am.

I love the community of a wedding. It's not just two people getting together, it's everyone being a witness and participant in the joy and celebration of their new life together. Here's to Chris and Lorri's new future together!

(I will hopefully have some photos soon!)

BICYCLE!

(In my best Queen voice:) I want to ride my BICYCLE, I want to ride my bike!

Yes, it's true. I finally bought a bi-cycle - a two-wheeler, with no stabilisers! I'm a big boy now, yes I am.

Inspired by the plethora of bicycles is use in Denmark, I decided to get one of my own to get around (round round get around, I get around!) my neighbourhood. I can also ride to work/church as well and get a bit stronger in the legs in the process. That way I'll be stronger for climbing as well and a spot of cardio exercise is always a good idea as well.

For those of you interested in bike details, I got the Yukon by Giant. I hope to have lots of fun and get fitter at the same time.