Windsurfing

Keeping up my theme of going places outside of the city, I spent some time with my friend Marcel in Barrie. His house is quite nicely placed on the shore of Lake Simcoe. As if that wasn't cool enough, they have a wee dock beside the water with a canoe and a windsurfing board. Indifferent to the somewhat chilly late September weather, I decided to give windsurfing a shot. I always like trying new things and, well, windsurfing is a new thing.

I need to be honest here and point out that I wasn't entirely unprotected from the elements. Marcel lent me a wetsuit-vest thingy. I don't entirely know how to describe it, but it was a short-sleeved t-shirt sort of a garment with a zip on the back. When you zip it up, you have your own "Keira Knightley in a corset in Pirates of the Caribbean" moment but you do forget about it after a while. Actually, by the end I didn't want to take the thing off because it really did keep me warm.

I was also given a pair of water-shoes (or river-socks or some combination of the two terms) to protect my feet. I was warned about a curious creature called a Zebra Mussell. It seems these strange little things amuse themselves by sitting on the floor of the lake and sticking a sharp pointy thing up the way in the hope that some unsuspecting windsurfer might step on them. Odd, I know. I think they might be a product of The Fall.

The windsurfing itself took place over two days. The first was fairly windy. In fact, as we were in the water we noticed the clouds were getting darker and we expected a storm to come in soon. I actually saw lightning in the distance but I didn't mention it to Marcel until afterwards because I didn't want him to call a halt to things. We went in when it started raining. (As if that would stop us in Scotland!) The second day was much more placid and I found it much easier then. Having said that, I did have a day of experience under my belt, as it were.

As with a lot of sports, windsurfing has a bit more to it than meets the eye. You have to keep your balance on the board and you have to point the board in the right direction. The mast must lie at right-angles to the board on the surface of the water. You also need to lift the mast out of the water with your back to the wind and ensure that when it gets close to upright your body is counter-balancing enough that you can hold it at arms-length. Then once you can do that all you need to think about is rotating the sail to catch some wind and steer it in the direction you want to go. What could be easier? Well, pretty much every other water sport ever invented, except that kiteboarding one. It's wack.

I managed to stand on the board. That was ok. It was quite hard to get onto it in the first place because the board has a hard surface and kneeling on it is sore on the knees. Once standing, I had to be sure my feet were equidistant from the mast. (Great word) This meant I was applying equal pressure to both sides of the board so it wouldn't rotate either way.

The next thing was to raise the mast out of the water. This is achieved by picking up a rope that is attached to the mast and pulling it towards you, leaning back and using your bodyweight rather than your arms. As you do this, it might get interesting. Hopefully you have positioned yourself with your back to the wind and your board across the way. If so, the sail will point directly away from you as it comes out of the water and it won't catch any wind. Think of this as being in "neutral". Now imagine an automatic windsurfing board. That'd be weird.

If the wind is NOT directly behind you, it gets fun at this point. The wind blows the sail until it points in the direction the wind is blowing. Think of the sail here like the classic "Dad's hankie prior to launching a kite". If the sail starts to turn, you can no longer rely on it as a couter-balance and the chances are you'll fall in. If you don't fall in, you can correct the situation by rotating the board until it is perpendicular to the sail.



Rotating the board is achieved by putting more weight on one foot than the other. Whatever side you push will go forwards, so left foot goes clockwise and right foot goes anti-clockwise. This is a bit weird at first but after a while I found myself instinctively using my feet to correct the angle of the board to the sail as the wind changed or the board drifted.

As the mast gets closer to you, you need to grab the bar. The bar goes all the way round the sail and it's what you hold on to while riding. It's not possible to raise the mast out of the water by pulling on the bar in the first place because you wouldn't be able to keep your balance wrestling with the force of the wind, weight of the mast and your own balance on the board.

Once you have the bar in your hand (I managed this a few times) you start to rotate the sail to one side. The first time I did this I got a fright because it was the first day I mentioned and the wind was STRONG. I suddenly caught the wind and thought "Oh no! What do I do now?". I answered my own question by promptly falling into the lake. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the next thing on the list.

All in all, I had a great time. It was tricky and demanding on my balance, co-ordination and physical endurance but I liked it. By the end I was becoming quite confident with the first couple of steps like correcting the board angle and raising the mast out of the water. The part I was finding tricky was leaning back enough so that I could hold the bar at arms-length. I was standing too upright and pulling the mast completely vertical. This meant I didn't have much stability and my arms were weakening fast.

The other bizarre thing of note was that I got slashed by a tiger mussel, despite my protective footwear. The blighter got me on the hand. I think it was actually my very first attempt and I fell backwards off the board. I instinctively reached out my hands behind me to break the fall and cut my right thumb in the process. I didn't feel anything but when I was about to climb onto the board again, I noticed blood coming out of my hand. The cut seemed to be fairly deep. When I looked at it the area inside was white with a few red dots of blood on it. It looked odd to me. Someone later suggested the white stuff was called "bone" but I don't think it was that deep.

Heidi and Brian's Wedding

Ok, so I'm totally on a roll with this blog-a-thon thing, but my battery is running out and I can't connect to the Internet and charge my battery at the same time, so this is going to be some pretty rapid blogging...

The wedding was really cool. I had a great time. It was outdoors in an apple orchard. They had a grassy area set up with two sets of chairs and the obligatory aisle down the middle. At the end was a nice canopy/gazeebo kind of set up with flowers and what not. The whole area was surrounded on three sides by trees on the left, right and just beyond the aforementioned canopy thingy in front of us. They also had some leaves and other autumnal things strewn on the ground for the bridal party to walk on as they entered.



The most noteworthy thing in the ceremony itself was the prayers of the nations. I'm not just saying that because I was part of it. I thought it was a really cool idea. They basically called up lots of people of varying nationalities and language skills to bless them in their own tongue and to welcome them to their nation as a representative of that place. Lacking the Gaelic for the occasion, I prayed in a Scottish accent. Many wept at the beauty of my words and thousands got saved. Ok, so I made that bit up, but it was good anyway.

The reception was unlike any I've ever been to. As well as the expected speeches, Heidi and Brian took time to individually honour each of their bridesmaids, groomsmen and parents. If you're not familiar with "honouring" just think of it as the opposite of a Scottish wedding. They said really nice things about each of the people I mentioned, and they meant it. (Compared with us saying nasty things and not meaning it.)

All in all, a great day was had by all. My battery's about to die so I'll sign off now.

A house in the country

Although I've lived in the city (or town) all my life, I still feel like I'm a country boy trapped inside an city boy's body. Is that bizarre? Probably. One of the places I got to stay on my travels was in the blip of the Ontario map known as Baden. My friends Chris and Lorri stay there and it also happens to be really close to Stratford, where the wedding was.

Chris and Lorri's house is in a new area where some of the houses on the street are still wooden frames and one is still a big muddy bit of ground. Theirs hadn't even had the driveway paved yet. The coolest thing by far, though, was the view behind their house. The back garden was freshly laid turf (covering all manner of building refuse I wouldn't wonder) with a fence at the end. Beyond the fence was a rather large corn field. Yes, corn. I looked at it up close and I could see them on the cob, on the plant. Weird. So that's where that stuff comes from. I kept expecting Mel Gibson to burst out and annouce "you won't get famous doing this". From the upstairs window, I could see across the field to the rest of the farmland. It's nice to get out of the city.

Eating in my favourite places in Toronto

It's funny the things you miss about a place. Most people who have spent significant time at TACF could be excused for listing things like "the presence of God" and "the Father's love" as things they miss when they leave. Well, I missed all day breakfasts and quirky Japanese food. I suppose we're all different.

Within my first day or so back in Toronto, I had eaten at a number of my favourite establishments. First of all, I had a Beef Teriyaki at the infamous Woodbine Mall, near TACF. Later on, I managed to make it to Perkins, where they do all day breakfast, 24 hours a day. What a deal! I always think of breakfast food as very special. It's kind of like my equivalent to caviar or lobster. What is the reason for this accolade? Well, basically, places like McDonalds stop serving it at 10 or 11 so I'm never there in time to buy it.

Sailing on Lake Ontario

The day after arriving in Toronto, my roommate-for-a-few-days, Maciek, offered to take me out sailing on Lake Ontario. Although it was September, it didn't take me too long to agree. It was pretty good fun. I liked the fact that all of the odd looking wee bits and pieces on the boat actually served some function or other. It was also pretty cool to all of a sudden be very interested in the direction of the wind, relative to where you want to go. Too often these days we take for granted that we have motors and engines to take us wherever we want to go regardless of the environmental conditions.

We sailed out of Port Credit and headed towards Toronto. Although it was quite far away, the CN Tower still dominated the skyline from our position. We headed towards it for a while. I took a turn of steering (or should that be "navigating" or "piloting"?) and it was a strange feeling. Whenever I turned the tiller one way, there was a short delay as the new angle of the rudder caused the water to deflect off it. I would then realise that I turned it quite far so I would compensate in the opposite direction. For a while the boat was wiggling from side to side as I tried to keep the CN Tower in line with the bow. As time went by, I tried a form of "prophetic steering" where I turned it a bit and then guessed how far I had oversteered before the boat actually turned. Either that or I made smaller adjustments, I don't know which.

On the way back, it was more tricky. This was because the wind had been at our back on the way out and now we had to sail into the wind. "How do you sail into the wind?" I hear you ask. Fear not, I shall explain. It seems that a sailing boat can still use the wind by pointing diagonally past it. In other words, if you were facing into the wind, you could turn say 45 degrees to the left or the right and the wind would propell you in the direction you're facing. How exactly does that work? Well I think the wind kind of pushes past the boat, causing it to move in the direction that has least resistance in the water, which would be the direction it's facing. Also, I suppose you can turn the sail a bit. I don't actually know what I'm talking about. I'm just guessing.

In order to get back to where we started, we had to adopt this 45 degree angle to the wind that I was just talking about. The only problem with that was that we really wanted to go into the wind, rather than off at some angle to a different destination altogether. For that reason we had to do some tacking. This is simply a technique where you travel to the left of the wind for a while and then turn 90 degrees to travel right of the wind for the same distance again. You then keep repeating this until you get to your destination. Think of the direction you want to go as a straight line up and down the way, and the actual path as a zig-zag line that veers off to one side and then turns back across but gets to the end eventually. Ok, that was a rubbish comparison. I basically repeated what I just said. Undaunted, I carry on...

Sailing into the wind is a bit slower than having it behind you, as one might expect. For this reason, we changed the front sail to a bigger one to help speed things up. This was pretty good fun. I had to go to the bow (front for you landlubbers) of the ship and lower the front sail, unclip it and gather it into a big bag. I then had to repeat the process in reverse to attach the larger sail. It was great fun. All that bouncing up and down made me slightly sea-sick but it was good to feel alive again.

The return trip was much bouncier and the boat tended to lean to one side quite impressively. Maciek assured me that it would be impossible for the boat not to right itself in the event of an extreme "leaning" (?) situation. The reason for this is that the keel is very heavy compared to the weight above the water. Basically, that means if it capsizes it'll right itself. Thankfully no capsizing occured, although a jaunty angle was entertaining in its own way.

Blog catch-up

Ok, so I'm about to splurge lots of stories onto my blog as fast as possible. I don't want to do them as one big super-post, though, because then it's harder to find them in the future. I will post them as separate posts, starting with the topics I promised in my most recent post.

Having fun in Canada

I realise it's been a few days since I've written anything but that doesn't mean nothing has happened recently. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I've got so many fun photos and videos from my adventure so far that I want to do them justice when I write about them here. Until I get round to doing that properly, though, I'll give you a sneak peek just now of the things I'm going to be talking about.

1) Sailing on Lake Ontario
2) Eating in my favourite places in Toronto
3) Staying with friends in a house that looks out over endless fields
4) Going to Heidi & Brian's wedding

I don't know if this is worse than not posting at all, but I just wanted everyone to know I've not forgotten about you and I'll write more details soon.

I have slept

I'm now part way through my first full day in Canada. I got up at about 10:15 which was a fairly reasonable time to get up. I had gone to bed at about 11 o'clock the night before. Oddly enough, despite my being awake for so long, it still took me a wee while to eventually get to sleep.

I was trying to figure out just how long I had been awake when I did finally go to bed. I had got up at 4:10 am (Glasgow time) the morning of the flight. I then went to bed at 11 pm (Toronto time). That's about 24 hours all together!

This morning when I woke up, I had no idea what time it was because I was in the basement and my phone which is my only clock was in the other room. I thought I would probably wake early since I've moved 5 time zones to the left. :) The first few times I therefore went back to sleep.

The other odd thing is that my throat is really sore today. It's possible it is from the flight but I don't think that could be it, because I had already been in Canada 12 hours since the flight without any problems. I actually think it's an odd sleeping characteristic of mine. I know that I can snore for Scotland and I think this is especially true when my body has missed out on some slumber. Perhaps I have a "snore quota" that needs to be fulfilled and the lack of recent sleep has left my body with little option but to compensate. I'll keep drinking lots of water and see how it goes from here.

Kenada

I have arrived safe and sound in Toronto. I had a direct flight from Glasgow. It was cool to get a direct flight rather than having to change planes somewhere.

The flight was scheduled to depart at 8:15 am which all sounds very civilised, but in reality I was meant to be there three hours in advance. Yep, that's 5:15 am. Well I was a couple of minutes late but it was fine. Checking in was a bit slower than usual because they were being very strict with the security measures.

First of all, passengers were only allowed one carry on item each. Secondly, it had to fit in a wooden box near the counter. They were very strict with the fact that the bag had to completely be contained within the box. This meant a lot of people had to re-pack certain items. I had to move my musical instruments from my backpack to my suitcase.

I had a bit of a silly moment when waiting to board the plane. They were boarding by row number which was fine. They started off with rows 1-4 or something like that for first class. Then they did something like rows 22 to 32. My boarding card said row 33 so I groaned inwardly and then waited for my row to be called. Next they said something like rows 16 to 32. I thought it was odd that they were going in the wrong direction. It was then that I noticed that 33 was actually the GATE number and I was actually in row 22. I could have gone earlier!

I got a whole row to myself which was so cool. There were three seats, from the right windows to an aisle. Unfortunately the nearest TV screen wasn't working so I had to watch the one a bit further down the plane.

All in all the flight was good and the cabin crew were very cheerful and helpful which always makes a difference.

Stay tuned for more updates of my antics!

Crazy Week

It really has been a crazy week in more ways than one. We have had an amazing prophetic conference at our church this week with Patricia Bootsma and her team from Jubilee Christian Fellowship in Stratford, Ontario. It was especially busy for me because I was doing sound. This meant I had to be there early for each session and available for the band during sound check as well as being there throughout the sessions. I also knew a few of the guys in the team so we invariably hung out together when the evening meetings finally finished around 10:30pm or thereabouts.

As if this wasn't enough to be keeping me busy, I was also packing everything up. I've been getting ready to finally move out of my flat and today was the day. I am writing this at the home of my good friends Phillip and Sarah who have let me stay here tonight. I am currently of no fixed abode! Well, ok, technically speaking my parents' address is the one I use but I'm in transit already, although my flight doesn't leave till Monday morning.

I'm starting to get pretty excited about going to Kansas City. Even though it's been a really busy week, there's something I love about being active. I feel kind of reluctant to say I like being busy because I know the whole School of Ministry thing was so much about rest and not striving. I would say, though, that it's being active rather than striving that I enjoy. :) I like feeling tired when my head finally hits the pillow (or cave floor) at night. It's good to have a sense that I've actually done something today!

With that thought I'm going to leave. It's late and I AM actually tired! Nice one!

Blog of the Day, apparently

You may have noticed my previous post was a bit more techy than my usual ponderings in here. Part of the reason for that is that I wanted to follow up on a my post about the new look for the blog. It seems that entry earned me the title of "Blog of the Day" on the aptly titled blogoftheday.org website.

Here's a nice wee link to it so you can see for yourself:



For those of you who were a bit perplexed at the complexity of my discussion on CSS and HTML, I want to reassure you that normal blogging will resume momentarily. Thanks for your patience!

Slight tweak of layout

I noticed that the "Edit HTML" feature of Blogger Beta was now active so I've been trying to make a few small improvements to the layout of my blog by hacking the CSS and HTML a bit. I say "hacking" just because these changes weren't possible through the layout editor itself.

Today's shopping list contained two items:

1. Change my Dari Blog Description to be right-justified.


2. Change the font of the Blog Description to one that looks a bit nicer.

Right-Justifying the text

The Blog Description is written in Dari, which is an Arabic-based language. It is read from right to left and, consequently, should really be right-justified on the page for normal situations. (Granted, in English we sometimes right-justify things that are written in English, but that is in special cases such as the header of a letter or something.)

There are two ways I knew of to right-justify the text. Firstly, you could use the CSS attribute of "text-align:right". I was able to do this by editing the Template HTML and finding the rule for "#header .description". However, this isn't really the best solution. Why do I say that? Well, because the direction of the text is implied by the content, not just by style. As we are all starting to catch on to these days, Style=CSS and Content=HTML. Therefore, an HTML solution would be better here.

The HTML solution I had in mind was to use the dir attribute. It is used to indicate that a piece of content is either ltr (left to right) or rtl (right to left). To make this change, I had to check the "Expand Widget Templates" checkbox above the HTML editor, because the HTML for the Blog Description is hidden inside the Header widget.

Inside this widget, I tried applying the dir="rtl" attribute to a number of different elements but it didn't work. Now as I write this, I'm wondering if it only affects the direction of the characters while not implying a change in justification of text one way or the other.

A quick check on the web reveals this W3C article which suggests setting the directionality on a block element should change the justification. Oh well. I've stuck with the CSS option for now, but I don't like it.

Changing the Blog Description's Font

The font for the Blog Description can be changed through the Fonts and Colours section of the Template area of Blogger Beta. You can choose the font family and size as well as bold and italic settings. It contains the following fonts:

• Arial


• Courier


• Georgia


• Times


• Trebuchet


• Verdana

While I understand that these are probably the only fonts you can assume a user has available, I would still like to add a font of my own choosing to the front of the list. With CSS, the browser will attempt to use the first font family specified and then roll over to the second if the first is not installed and so on.

In my previous Blog Description, I used the Tahoma font which makes Arabic characters look quite nice. I wanted to make that the first font it would attempt to use here, with Verdana and sans-serif as the other options.

Poking about the CSS in the template, I discovered the #header .description rule contained the following attribute for the font:

font: $descriptionFont;

This is using a placeholder which is later substituted with the values you chose earlier in the font settings. Very clever - a spot of dynamic CSS. I tried adding my font to the front of the list like so:

font: Tahoma,$descriptionFont;

This didn't work, though, because the $descriptionFont variable does more than simply state the font family, it specifies font weight, size, boldness, italicisity (?) and finally font family. My attempt to hack it produced this CSS:

font: Tahoma,normal normal 173% Verdana, sans-serif;

This isn't a valid CSS rule since Tahoma should appear between 173% and Verdana.

In the end, what I did was add a font-family attribute immediately after the font: $descriptionFont; line:

font: $descriptionFont;
font-family: Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif;

This way, I can still use $descriptionFont to alter bold, italic and size settings, while my rule will only override the font family.

I think in the future, custom fonts could be supported through Template -> Fonts and Colours by allowing users to specify a font family in a text box while still forcing them to choose one of the generic fonts as well. Their own font would be put at the start of the list and ignored if the user doesn't have it installed.

Phew! That was quite a long post. Sorry about that!

Come Alive

"Do not ask yourself what the world needs, but ask yourself what makes you come alive because the world needs people who have come alive."

- John Eldredge

Everythin's up to date in Kansas City

...They've gone about as fur as they c'n go!

(If you have no idea what that's about, don't worry about it. Just read on. It's nothing to do with what I'm about to say.)

Well I'm on the move again. I've only been in Scotland a year since I was unceremoniously dumped by Canadian Immigration, but it feels like a long time.

I've finally decided that since I hate programming so much these days, I should really get on with it and do something else. In the words of Why Don't You (theme song), I'm going to "...switch off my TV set [or monitor in this case] and do something less boring instead."

The "something" I am going to do is a church planting course in Kansas City. I will be at the All Nations Training Center, doing CPx, which is the "Church Planting Experience".

I'm actually leaving in 2 and a half weeks which is not very long at all. There are still a few details to finalise such as my flat and... oh yeh.. all the money!

If you feel like supporting me financially by any chance, have a look to the right of the page here and you should see a PayPal donation button. You can use that to send me money. Isn't technology handy?

New look for the blog

I've been looking at the new Blogger beta and I decided to switch over. To make the most of the new layout tools, I decided to switch over my layout to one of the new templates. Now the layout editor is much more simplistic. It seems that not everyone who edits their blog layout really wants to tinker about with HTML and CSS all day. I have to say that when I'm not getting paid for it, the novelty does wear off a wee bit.

The new layout editor is much more like a proper content management system with blocks on the page where you can add/edit/delete page elements. All very nice.

Being the details kind of guy, though, I still want to make a couple of tiny CSS tweaks that I can't seem to get at right now. All in all, though, it's pretty good.

War Wounds on Flickr

For those of you who've been unable to play my video of my recent longboarding "war wounds", I've uploaded some pics to Flickr.

Go to this page to check them out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theken/tags/warwounds/

Käck

Yesterday I ate a Käck. It was quite nice.

Reflections on risk, pain and failure

I was reflecting for a brief second there on my experience yesterday with the longboard. If you didn't read yesterday's post, the gist of it is that I fell off and it was sore.

I was just thinking about various people's attitude to what happened. Someone said that it was time for me to start "acting my age" and that I can't treat my body like that. I began to think about what they meant by that. Was it simply the idea that grown-ups don't ride longboards (or any skateboards) or was it something else? Maybe it was an attitude that since grown-ups don't heal as quickly, we shouldn't risk things like that any more.

It just made me think, because I feel as if we lose our sense of adventure as we get older. Children are expected to take risks, to learn to ride their bike, skin their knee occasionally. However, if I, being 29, decide to take up a new hobby such as longboarding, there's not the same social acceptance of that. The general attitude is "ooh - watch you don't hurt yourself" and that sort of thing.

I was weighing up the two sides of my longboarding experience. I have had three months of fun with my board so far. I ride to church, I use it to get around and I really love the ride. There's something liberating about carving your way down the street with a smooth ride.

The flip side (excuse the pun) of my experience is the fall I had yesterday. Assessing how I feel just now, I have a bit of a sting on my left shoulder, elbow and hip. (Can you tell I ride regular?) I also have a bit of what I assume to be whiplash in my neck. I just realised today that I totally think all the fun I've had balances out the pain I've felt, and continue to feel. If I had never got on a longboard for fear of falling off then sure, I wouldn't be in pain just now, but I wouldn't have had the same great experences either.

Is this a pointless discussion? I don't think so. I think it highlights our attitude to risk, fear of pain, fear of failure and so on. I don't ride because I want to get hurt, that'd be pretty twisted. I ride because I love it. If I fail from time to time, I will learn from it and get up and start again. I reckon the only way you can guarantee you never fail is to never try.

I like taking risks. I think God made me that way for a reason. Time will tell!

War Wounds

Today, I fell off my longboard for the first time. Hopefully it'll be the last time as well! I was carving and the board turned too far and stopped instantly. I think I went over some loose stones that made it skid. I flew off it, rolled a bit and then landed on my back, finishing off with a wee bump to the head as well.

Being the sharing sort, I thought I would let everyone else see the assorted scrapes for themselves. (Mum, you probably wouldn't enjoy this one.)



Note: I realise I look somewhat out of it in this video. I just want to reassure everyone that I was very tired, slightly sunburnt, possibly whiplashed and in no way under the influence of anything questionable.

Tentmaking

I've been wondering about something lately. It's something about a biblical character that most people have probably never given a thought, or seen the relevance of. However, it kind of sums up where I am just now.

"Did Paul enjoy making tents?"

There's only one reference I could find to Paul being a "tentmaker" in the bible. (I used Bible Gateway, as opposed to a thorough personal study.) Despite the fact that so little is said of Paul's tentmaking skills, the word "tentmaker" has become a Christianese term for a job you do that isn't especially spiritual or enjoyable but you do it to pay the bills. I'm finding myself dying a bit each day as I sit in front of a computer in my empty flat. It really is rubbish. I'm convinced I should be doing something I'm passionate about.

This brings me back to the question, "Did Paul enjoy making tents?" Was it something he was passionate about or did it kill him on the inside? I only had a very brief look at the chapter where Paul's tentmaking was mentioned (Acts 18) but I can't help feeling the meaning was one of a brief, transitional phase where he returned to his previous trade because the people he was staying with also made tents. He didn't do it for years, desperate for something else.

Maybe the term "tentmaker" has been exaggerated from the original context, or maybe I just can't accept the conclusion that everyone else seems to have settled for, that fulfillment in your work is unimportant, and the paying of bills is all that really matters.

For me, I have this possibly naïve notion that we should be passionate about what we do. We'll see how it goes. I'll bet my income on it.

Snowboarding in July - God is good

Last night I went for a lesson at the sno zone at the Braehead Xscape centre. It was pretty good stuff. For those who don't already know, it's an indoor slope with actual snow. The whole area is kept at a temperature of -5. (It feels so hot when you come out.)

I did a 1.5 hour lesson in Freestyle Level 1. Freestyle refers to doing tricks such as jumps and spins rather than simply riding down the hill. Level 1 refers to the fact that it's as basic as they can make it. I figured that since it's not a very big slope anyway, I'm not going to get too much of a thrill from just bombing the hill because it'll be over in 10 seconds.

In the lesson I did the following:

• Nose press


• Tail press


• Ollies


• Nollies


• Flatland spins (both frontside and backside)


• Switch (Fakie) Riding

It was pretty cool stuff. It was encouraging to find that my ollies were actually better than I thought they were. I was able to jump 3 rows of cones and my instructor was finally relieved when I clipped one because I kept clearing everything he put in front of me.

Another part that was really encouraging was when I started to ride switch. I found that once I got over my fear of putting my weight on my right foot (normally the rear foot for me) I was able to link a few turns and swing my back foot round pretty well. I'm still not quite ambidextrous by any means but I'm a lot better than I was.

The flatland spins were a useful introduction to riding fakie. The deal is that as you go down the hill, you keep rotating the board in one direction. This means that for half of the spin your usual front foot is leading and then for the other half, you're leading with your weaker foot. The trick is really to shift your weight from one foot to the other when your board is across the slope.

After the lesson we had half an hour of practice time on the big slope. It's not HUGE but for an indoor venue it's pretty impressive. I did a few runs riding fakie and only fell once. (and I was actually watching someone else fall when it happened)

Today I'm feeling a bit worse for wear. This usually happens the first time you ride in a season. My back's pretty tight and my triceps are a wee bit achey too. I feel it in the back of my neck - possibly from trying to jump and spin. My bum muscles hurt when I walk as well.

All in all, though, it was a grand day out, and I would heartily recomment a spot of freestyle riding to anyone who's getting bored with simply carving down the hill.

While writing this entry, I found an amusing list of snowboarding terminology.

Esau living as Jacob

I've been thinking a lot recently about the two personalities of Isaac's sons - Esau and Jacob. I'm not going down the road of Esau despising his birthright or Jacob being a cheat. I'm thinking more of the notion of Esau being a wild man of the outdoors and Jacob preferring to spend his time around the tents. I feel as if I'm an Esau who has been raised as Jacob.

I became interested in computers in childhood when I didn't really get the chance to go "out" just for the sake of going out. I would go to friends' houses. Consequently we did Jacob-ish things like sit around computers for hours on end. Now, years later, I've developed a love for the outdoors that I really wonder what would have been different if I had found this sooner.

I have told friends before that I would love to go back in time to the day I decided computers were cool. I'd love to take that kid and say "Hey, here's a skateboard, a snowboard, a kite, a tent..."

I know God can still use what I've learned. I have skills that are useful. (Still don't know much about bo staff or numchucks, though.) I've realised, though, that my future is not yet written. I don't have to think down the narrow lines of computer programming forever and a day. I think there is a better way...

A week without Levi

It's been an interesting week or so. I had to send Levi (Ken's faithful lappy) back to Samsung to get a problem fixed. It's interesting how different my life has been without it.

I've been listening to teaching tapes from when Graham Cooke was at our church last year. I've also been worshipping, reading my bible and basically doing useful, productive things.

God's been showing me some cool stuff about myself and my future as well which is all pretty encouraging.

Back from Rio

I just got back from Rio a few days ago and I'm slowly adjusting back to life in Scotland. The biggest thing right now is trying to adjust to the timezone. It's 1:30 am and I'm not especially tired. I hope I get to sleep when I finally go to bed.

The trip was amazing. It was such an experience to see another world. The kids in the favela were so sweet. They were always smiling and happy to see us. They remembered my name and the second day they were shouting "Ken! Ken!" as they ran up to me. They really do love very easily.

One day I was playing a game with them where they would describe something with gestures till I guessed the name of it in English. (This game was motivated by my lack of Portuguese.) To begin with it was things like bicycle, kite, dog, bird and so on - the kind of things you would expect. Then things took an interesting turn when they said "granad". From their description it was clear that they were talking about a hand-grenade. It brought it home to me that despite their loving, playful innocence, they were essentially living in a warzone where violence and death were not uncommon.

Leaving for Rio in the morning

Well, it's finally here - my last night in Scotland before the much-anticipated trip to Rio. I think I'm excited about it now. Some people get excited about things way in advance but I'm quite short-sighted in a sense when it comes to things like this. Once I'm on the plane, I'll be forced to contemplate what's about to happen. I find a change from your normal surroundings tends to prompt the brain to focus on what's about to take place.

We're going to be away for just under two weeks. We'll be doing some physical work on a school/orphanage of sorts in one of the favelas of Rio. I'm excited about getting away from the computer, actually. I have my doubts about being a programmer, as it happens. I just think I like the outdoors and people too much to make a true programmer. I mean, I can do it if I have to but generally it bores me to tears. Now professional snowboarder or longboarder might be a different story...

Longboard

On Monday, I bought myself a longboard.



I've been riding it every day since then. In fact, it's been a bit painful on the right hamstring (my kicking leg) which took me by surprise a bit. I've been trying to learn how to stop properly. It seems the best technique for me to learn at this stage is footbraking. That doesn't mean breaking your foot, incidentally, but using your foot to slow down the board.

Yesterday I was riding through the park and a group of girls whistled and waved at me. It seems I'm drawing attention to myself, although that wasn't my purpose.

Nat and Nick's Wedding

On Friday I had the pleasure of going to Nat and Nick's wedding. It really was a great time.

The wedding was at St Aldates Church in Oxford which is a very nice place indeed, although I did spot a masonic symbol on a wooden panel inside the building. That point aside, the place was very nice.

One amazingly awesome moment was when Nicky, the bride, entered the ceremony. It was the most spectacular entrance of a bride I've ever seen. No, she didn't abseil from the ceiling or ram-raid through the wall (although they would be fun) but she had the most amazing music ever.

In keeping with the North American way of doing weddings, the bridesmaids came down the aisle first. They came one at a time, interspersed with the occasional flower girl distributing petals on the floor and not quite seeing what all the fuss was about. Just as the last bridesmaid reached the front, the music reached its climax and in came the bride and her father, a beautiful sight to behold as the choir sang. The track they used was Benedictus from The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins.

I played bass with the band, since Joel couldn't make it. I've played a few times before although not very much. The church had a bass so I just had to show up and use it. However, when I got there I discovered it was fretless. In case you don't know, playing a fretless bass means you have to get your fingers in EXACTLY the right position or the note will be out of tune. I'm not sure, but I don't think I'd ever played one before. Well, I played at the wedding all right. By the end of the practice I had a blood blister and a regular blister on my two "plucking" fingers. It went ok, though.

One of the other cool things that happened that day (though not as spectactular as Nicky's entrance) was seeing The Queen. Yes, I really did. It turns out that while the wedding was in progress, Her Majesty was visting Christ Church just across the road from St Aldates. After the bridal party left, some of us were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time as The Queen's car left Christ Church and drove right past us.

Being the organised sort, I had my camera phone close to hand and made sure to capture the moment as best as I could. The Queen was sitting in the back-right seat, wearing a pink suit and matching hat. She waved to the crowd as she passed but since she was on the far side, I didn't get the best view. Still, for one brief moment I saw her and that was amazing in itself.



I was thinking of how much we lowly people get excited about seeing the rich and famous. I don't tend to be really interested in the private lives of celebrities or any of that sort of thing, but it was special to see The Queen. We waited there for some time but there were those who had waited much longer. I'm sure there were those who waited for hours and their reward was a passing glimpse of the head of The United Kingdom - a genuine royal figure.

Although the experience was so transient, each person's life was changed for ever. I'm sure all of them would have told at least someone that they saw The Queen that day. Something of that magnitude has to be passed on.

Having said all that, consider our response in church when we meet with God. Do we really believe we've met with the creator of the universe? Do we honestly think that we've had a moment where someone more powerful than The Queen has not only passed and waved but stopped and interacted with each and every one of us on a deeply personal level? I think half the time we think we made the whole thing up.

I know I've had experiences of God. I have no doubt about that. However, I don't know if it's the invisible and therefore less tangible nature of God or if it's simply the enemy sowing doubt, but we feel incapable of talking to other people about it sometimes. Maybe we think they just wouldn't believe it. I don't know quite what it is, but I know I was much more of an evangelist for my queen encounter than I've been for any of my God encounters, and that's something that concerns me.

Being Judged

I had an interesting experience on Sunday that I thought was worth mentioning. We were having a curry festival at church to raise money for our Rio Trip and we were all going to dress up in suitable curry-related clothes. Well, since I had lived in Pakistan before, I had my own Shalwar Kameez. I decided to wear that along with my Pakistani waistcoat and Afghani cap.

So, I walked to church dressed like that, not really expecting anyone to make a fuss about it. Well, I hadn't got far when I got a very extreme reaction in Queens Park. I was walking along a fairly wide path (wide enough for a car or two) and there was a middle-aged to elderly Scottish lady walking her dog, heading towards me.

As soon as she saw me, she did a MAJOR body-swerve and walked as far from me as possible, along the opposite side of the path. I think if there was a road in the middle to cross, she would have but given the fact there was only the path, she didn't have the choice.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it got worse when she actually passed me. I was going to smile and say "hello" or something like that if she looked at me but she actually turned her head away as she passed and actually slightly raised her arm towards me as if to protect herself from my obvious evil presence. It was SO bizarre. I've never seen anything like it.

Walking through Govanhill, a Pakistani man congratulated me on being well dressed. I'm not sure if he thought I was a convert to Islam or if he just liked seeing someone wearing traditional Pakistani clothing.

When I was at church, a number of people tried to joke about my appearance by saying things like "I'm surprised you didn't get arrested walking here dressed like that" or "Do you have a bomb vest under there?" It actually really angered me. I don't mind people poking fun at me if they think my hair's ridiculous or if they don't like my taste. I mean, whatever, have your opinion. I think what I reacted to so much about the comments was the ignorance and judgment it demonstrated.

I happen to really care about people from the Middle East - Afghanistan in particular. It's horrible to think that for many people here in Scotland, whenever they see someone dressed in middle eastern clothing they immediately judge them as some kind of scary terrorist. I feel for the innocent people who fled the horrors of war in their homeland only to be judged and treated as wicked here by the people who have offered them refuge.

Strong Bad E-Mail 150!

This is tremendous! I can't believe they are at 150 already. I remember e-mail 100 like it was um, not very long ago.

Some amusing quotes from this latest episode:

"Oh-ho-ho! Swirly photo-shop magic! I bet this thing could release some serious kacko demons."
- Strong Bad, when The Cheat "mashed go" on his Alternate Universe Portal.

"Zounds! A sarsparilla swimming hole! Last one in's a freemason!"
- Old Timey Strong Bad, when Tiny Handed Strong Bad unearthed a massive mug of Root Beer in the "Dig to China with your ears" contest.

The song at the end is pretty good too - "Save the last e-mail for Strong Bad".

E-Mail 150 is waiting for you right here.

Twenty-Nine

Saturday was a special day for me. It was in fact the day I became twenty-nine! It's a fairly daunting age numerically as the landmark thirty is only one trip round the sun away.

I had a really great day, though. It started off with Collin waking me up by phoning me to invite me round for breakfast. (I had slept in because I was programming into the wee hours the night before.) After hurriedly getting dressed, Collin arrived and whisked me away to Chez Gibson where we enjoyed bagels with bacon and a soft cheese that I forget the name of, mixed with mint. (I think it was mint anyway.)

We chilled for a bit and most family members phoned me at some point or other to wish me a happy birthday.

Another highlight was the voicemail I got of Dad singing "Happy Birthday" to me. Ah, 'twas a special moment!

Later in the day I popped into town to get a Mother's Day gift - for Mum of all people.

Ali, my sis, then came up to Glasgow for the evening and we hung out for a bit before going to the cinema to see The Pink Panther. It was ok but not the best. I preferred the original series because they had more slapstick gags in them and also the humour was more innocent back then. The new one had all sorts of sexual innuendo and things like Clouseau dropping a Viagra tablet down the plug hole. I wish they could just make films that were FUNNY without having a sexual theme.

Anyway, that point aside, it was a great day. I felt special which is always a bonus on your birthday!

I was also glad that I didn't feel miserable or depressed about clocking up another year. I feel more peace now about the fact that God's ordering my steps so I shouldn't get in a flap about how much I have or haven't done with my life at this point. The important thing is that I'm following him as best as I can and you can't ask for more. I suppose the danger when you feel a dip, as I did recently, is that you start doing things motivated by your own frustration more than by God's timing.

The scripture that helped me get over the frustration of the tedium of my work was from the book of Colossians:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Pushing Buttons

Pushing the buttons in front of a screen
Morning to night and the hours in between
The sky's often grey, but sometimes it's blue
Always observed from the same window view

Making some money, my bread and my butter
Surely my feelings on work shouldn't matter
But somehow I find as I sit in the dark
I'd rather be having a laugh in the park

To like what you do, to love your vocation
Is this such a rare thing in our gloomy nation?
The only incentive - to eat and pay bills
Suppress fancy notions of "God's perfect will"

Snowboarding jumps in Queen's Park!

On Saturday night, Glasgow got a fair dumping of snow. It was really quite amazing, especially since it's MARCH! Well, I daresay this erratic weather is due to Global Warming or the like but I decided to make the most of it.

After church tonight, my good friend Collin and I went to Queen's Park to do some snowboarding. At first it was just going to be plain riding on a fairly unimpressive incline until Colin showed me a ramp he was building. Intrigued, I allowed the evening to take an entirely different direction! In case you're wondering about the colouring of these, they were shot in "night mode" and there was actually a surprising amount of light for 11:00 pm!

I was so excited to discover how much fun it is to do jumps in a park that I walk through all the time. I didn't need to travel, get a lift pass or even take time off work. What a great night!

This first offering is a commentary on the structure of the ramp we found and consequently improved!



Next up is a video of me jumping over the fence, using the previously mentioned ramp. It was a bit scary given the fairly steep approach and the small margin for error. If I missed the ramp, I'd plough into the fence!



We moved to a different area and built another ramp out of "borrowed" snow men. This clip shows me hitting the jump a bit too slowly to really clear it.



This was cool. I managed to stay standing after a jump. I didn't manage to ride it out because I got kinda stuck on a lump of snow that was meant to be the down-slope. Keep watching to see me perform a kind of 180 on the ground. I don't know the proper name for it. You lean onto the front and whip 'er round.



This is monumentous! I went over the jump, landed and kept riding! How sweet is that? It felt so good to land in control of my situation! Now I just need to add some finesse to the equation and maybe a bit more height. I love this stuff!

How to watch my videos

I realise I maybe skimmed over a few important details (quite unlike me, really) last night when I uploaded the first of my videos for my video blog.

In order to watch the videos, you will need to download QuickTime. The files my phone produces are 3gp files and QuickTime is the only program I know of that plays them. I'm sure there must be others but since I already have one installed on my machine that works, why would I bother looking for more? I don't do things like that "just out of interest" since it doesn't interest me!

Ok, so if you go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download you can download QuickTime. This might actually be a good opportunity to download iTunes which includes QuickTime but also lets you buy music online. If you don't care about that and you just want to watch the videos, go to the QuickTime page instead.

Once you get there, uncheck the boxes offering things like news subscriptions and click on the big "Free Download Now" button. The program will download to your computer.

After it's downloaded, find the file and double-click on it then follow the on-screen instructions. Usually this just involves pressing "Next" lots of times until it goes away. (Do you like the technical explanation from the programmer here?)

Once it's all up and running, you should be able to play my videos. Click on one of the links to a video, choose where you're going to save the file and then open the file once its downloaded. If everything's working, it should open the file in QuickTime.

Fun with a boomerang in the park!

My wee sister, Ali just got back from Australia a week ago and amongst other things she brought me a boomerang. The instructions were pretty amusing. At first I was going to type them in here but I decided against it.

What I do have instead is far more exciting! I have SIX videos of me playing with the boomerang in a popular park in Glasgow. Check them out:

Boomerang 1 (569 KB)

Boomerang 2 (133 KB)

Boomerang 3 (216 KB)

Boomerang 4 (214 KB)

Boomerang 5 (131 KB)

Boomerang 6 (128 KB)

Video Blog!

Introduction to my Video Blog (878KB)

Haha! Can you believe it? Just when you thought the Internet couldn't get any stranger, Ken goes and works out how to upload videos for all to see! Yes, up until now it was only pictures and text. Revenge of the Ken - this time it's multi-media!

Whenever you see a picture with a QuickTime player window round it like this one above, simply click on the image or the text below it to watch the video. What could be simpler?

Update on Rio trip - Project Info Online

As I mentioned already, I'm going to Brazil in May/June to help do some work on a run-down school in a really poor part of Rio. We've now got a page set up on our church website with a bit more information. There is also a link there to make a donation via PayPal, if you are interested in doing so.

The page is: http://www.glasgowelim.org.uk/rio2006/

The circle of life

Years ago, a fish was born. Ok, it might have been hatched but either way it came into existance. It probably didn't have a name or indeed much of a life but it was a tuna, so it was well looked after and didn't lack much.

Elsewhere, in a seemingly unrelated story, a hen laid some eggs. I think the hen had a name but it was more like a number, "10937.7". (No, really - it did have .7 on the end!) It might have had the luxury of being of the "free range" persuasion but more likely it was cooped up in a ...erm..coop and didn't see any more of those eggs after they rolled away through a maze of complex egg-gathering contraptions.

Meanwhile a cow chews the cud and performs a number of other cow-like activities that I will not elaborate on at this point. Her name is Mildred. Hopefully Mildred has escaped the wrath of the "cow tippers" who can damage a cow's milk for life (so I hear) by the trauma infliced on the poor beast. Speaking of milk, Mildred happens to be in fact a dairy cow, and today is milking day. So along comes the friendly farmer and milky-milky there you go. Mildred-minus-milk carries on the rigours of cow life.

In the dark soil of another, quite possibly distant field, a potato grows. I would be very surprised if it had a name but let's just call him Bob. Well, Bob's been sitting around for a while and it is with some alarm that he hears a rumbling sound as a potato-gathering-device-ok-I'm-not-a-farmer-give-me-a-break came along and wheeched Bob clean out of the ground. I say "clean" because this was one of the state-of-the-art kind that clean the potatoes as they're plucked from the bosom of the earth.

Bob's encounter with the potato plucker was nothing compared to what would happen to him a few days later. You see, he was baked for a while in an oven along with some of his pals, introduced to some butter made with Mildred's milk, some mayonnaise made from 10937.7's eggs and the meat/flesh/edibles of the nameless tuna from Paragraph 1! They were all then promptly carried home and scoffed by me for lunch today, giving me the energy to write a meaningless entry in my blog just now.

It's good to know that your life serves a higher purpose. Isn't it, Bob?

The Cave - Take 2!

This past week we made another bold attempt at finding the cave. Spirits were high and confidence in the nineties when we set off at 7 pm on Friday night. I know what you're thinking, "7 pm in February? Won't it be dark then?" Well...yes, it was. And I know we couldn't find the cave before and ended up sleeping on the beach in the rain as a result but this time was different. You see, we'd been back during daylight and found the cave then so it meant this trip was much more likely to succeed.

As it turned out, we found it really easily this time. There were no wrong turns or stopping for directions. It was a guys' navigational dream come true. We got to the cave at 9 o'clock and made a fire. Well, Alan and Collin made a fire while I sat about and wondered when I'd finally learn how to make a fire.

We ate some food and eventually went to bed, or "bag" as the case may be. It was a bit chilly and slightly damp, although very tame compared to the DELUGE we slept under that fateful night last September. There was the occasional drip but that was all. I was sleeping on a slope, though, and whenever I woke up I found myself half on top of Alan whose only response was a slightly different snore to the usual one.

In the morning we got up and made some rolls and sausage. The sausage meat was cooked on a piece of slate which was pretty impressive work on Alan's part. Again, I was more of a spectator than a real participant. I did participate in making the food disappear. I've been doing that for years so I'm quite good at it by now.

We had a wee walk round to the top of the cliff overlooking our campsite. Collin "happened" to bring his abseiling (rapelling to you N. Americans) equipment with him. After a look around, we found a pretty good spot to anchor the rope and he proceeded to set up the equipment and then cheerfully hurl himself into the abyss, slowed down only by his skill with a rope. I thought he was mental. Then he tied the harness etc. onto the end of the rope and sent it back up to me using the pulley. "There you go!" he shouted and all of a sudden I started to feel a tad uneasy.

You may be forgiven for wondering why a rock climber such as I would go weak at the knees at the thought of abseiling. The main reason is that I'm used to using a "GriGri" for belaying. This device has an automatic locking mechanism so if you suddenly let go, it catches you. Well we were using the "old school" option of the basic abseiling device. If you let go of the rope with this one, you fall at full speed. (Still reading Mum? It's ok, it's got a happy ending!)

It took me a considerable length of time to convince my body to roll over the edge of the cliff while holding the rope quite firmly in the "locked off" position. I was so nervous I almost backed out and gave up completely. Finally when I was hanging there, it was pretty good. I didn't do it exactly right, though. The proper way to descend is to let go your grip slightly on the rope to let it slip through your hand. Well, I kind of chickened out and fed the rope through my hands a few inches at a time. It was pretty pathetic really, looking back on it. I mean, Collin was bouncing off the wall (his feet, it was his feet) and there I was going down at about 2 feet an hour.

So there we are. That's another couple of "firsts" for me. My first sleep in a cave and my first abseiling experience. Hey, I just realised something. I wanted to do something new each year and I've done that already in February. I need a new goal now...

I leave you with a picture I took of a stream as we made our way back to the car.

Nutella is a dip!

nutella
Originally uploaded by theken.

I realised today that the people who make nutella could probably sell a whole lot more if they marketed it as a dip instead of a spread.

 

Regarding my previous post

In case anyone's concerned/wondering/at all interested, my previous remarks regarding Valentine's Day weren't motivated by a sense of loneliness or misery. I just happened to think, "Oh yeh, I suppose it could be single awareness day." I had barely thought about it all day. Actually my biggest concern was that I was meeting a potential client at a restaurant at lunchtime to discuss a contract and I was concerned that people seeing me with him could get the wrong idea. The situation was saved, however, by the presence of a third party and a large pile of business-like paper on the table.

Single Awareness Day

I was just thinking about Valentine's Day (which has just passed in my time zone). I noticed my good friend Steve had the title "Happy Single Awareness Day" on his MSN today and it got me thinking. There are a lot of issues I have with Valentine's Day.

Here they are in no particular order.

1) It has very little or nothing to do with Saint Valentine. It seems the closest link was that he was martyred on the 14th of February. Rather than remembering someone who really loved God to the point of surrendering his body to whatever end, people now buy dodgy cards with sexual messages and we have a day more focussed on sex than anything else.

2) It's a social obligation. Everyone in a relationship HAS to buy something for their significant other on Valentine's Day. If they don't, the world at large would agree that they are an unromantic whatever and the other person is better off without them. What happened to spontinaity? I think a lot of people don't really receive their gift at Valentine's Day because they know it's being given out of obligation. Hey, here's a thought. It's become religous. It's people doing what they're meant to do when they're meant to do it, regardless of whether they really want to.

3) It emphasises the solitude of those not in a relationship. As you get older and friends start pairing off it gets more noticeable. Trying to arrange anything on the 14th of February is pretty tricky because everyone (thanks to point #2) feels obliged to fulfill their social duty, national service or whatever you want to call it. In the end the "left overs" have to either sit and feel sorry for themselves or pretend that it's not really Valentine's Day and it's just another day (while checking the mail again just in case.)

4) It's a commercial rip-off. Everything is more expensive, such as flowers, chocolates and so on. First we have the social bullying to force you to buy things on a fairly un-special day and then we have the entrepreneurs cashing in on everyone's plight.

I'm going to stop at 4 because I don't want to appear completely heartless. I will say this. I am a romantic person. Really, I am. I just don't like being told when to be romantic. I'd much rather pick a random day each year to surprise that special someone in my life:

"Hey, happy Valentine's Day!"
"But it's September"
"So?"
etc...

Something as simple as choosing a different day would show that you are thinking about the person and being creative and maybe even spontaneous. Now isn't that so much better than being religious?

Another thought is that maybe if people were generally more romantic the rest of the year, there wouldn't be the same pressure to produce the goods on Valentine's Day. I think a lot of people cling to Valentine's Day as a lifeline of the last hope they have of receiving some kind of affirmation because their significant other will at least do something on Valentine's Day. Let's rise above this, people! Let's be romantic ALL YEAR ROUND! It doesn't need to be expensive, just thoughtful.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now. I just need to check the mail. I think something might have got stuck behind the door...

I'm going to Rio!

Yes, it's true! I am really going to Rio! A team of us from the church are going this summer to do some practical work on a school building in the City of God, a favela (slum) in Rio de Janeiro. We will be there for around 10 days at the end of May. I'm pretty excited about it already! I've never visited the southern hemisphere before and Ali, my wee sister, already beat me to it so I need to catch up.

More importantly, though, it's really great to be part of something that actually matters. I often think to myself, "How much of what I do with my life really matters?" In the end, when all is said and done, what will last? I love snowboarding and rock climbing but it's not going to be these moments that count for much. It's going to be the times I showed kindness, compassion or love to someone who really needed it.

I've been learning about Rio in preparation for the trip. I've watched a few DVDs that are fiction, although they're based on the kind of thing that happens there. I've seen Cidade de Deus (City of God) and Cidade dos Homens.(City of Men) Both deal a lot with the day-to-day trials of children living in poverty and tempted by the drug culture as the easy way to make a lot of money.

Something that I realised while watching was that a lot of these kids don't set out to be drug dealers. They simply want to make money to survive. I know there are those who crave the power, the status and the notoriety but there are others who just want to make some money. It's so hard for these kids to make money any other way.

I really feel for the street children in Rio and I hope that by me going there I can show them love, maybe communicate to them that someone cares and the world's not forgotten about them.

Now would be a good time to mention that I'm raising my own funds for the trip. If anyone is interested in helping me out, please comment and we can talk.

Extra Thick Bread

Extra Thick Bread
Originally uploaded by theken.

I bought a loaf of bread today that boasted the title "Extra Thick White". You can imagine my surprise when the "heel" turned out to be almost as long as my thumb! The rest of the loaf wasn't as thick, thankfully. It would probably have only had 6 slices if they were.

 

New Photos

I uploaded some new photos on my Flickr account. I can't be bothered crfeating individual links for them all in here. If you want to see them, go to my Flickr page. Photos include Shocking numbers of empty bottles a new year (not mine), The Cave and Lego Hair.

Now I'm off to finish reading The Silver Chair.

xxxchurch.com

I've discovered an amazing Christian website. It's called xxxchurch.com. I know many of you are already freaking out about the name because it has the "xxx" prefix. Allow me to explain, though.

The two guys who run the website have a vision for reaching people in the porn industry. They're pretty radical in their approach as well. While many Christians would just greet such people with the attitude of "you're sick, you need to stop that", their attitude is to show them God's love. After all, that's what Jesus did. He loved the people society turned their back on.

One of the radical things that Craig and Mike do is to go to porn exhibitions and set up a booth with the message "Jesus loves Porn Stars". They get all kinds of reactions but the message they're spreading is that Jesus loves everyone, whether that be pastors, nice Christians or even people in the porn industry. They write about their experiences on their blog.

At one such event they met a girl called Trinity who really wanted to get out of the porn industry but didn't have the money to do anything else. They launched an appeal for her on their website and raised enough money for her to go to college. Now she's moved to a different state, away from her old life. She's now studying cosmetology, which is what she had wanted to do all along. She has a blog where you can follow her progress in her new life.

As well as reaching out to people in the porn industry, Mike and Craig do a lot for churches to help people overcome addiction to porn. Let's face it, it's everywhere and being in the church doesn't make you immune. They do presentations at churches, talking about this issue. They also have a prayer wall on their website which is a forum where people can request prayer and discuss their struggles. They also have free accountability software which sends a list of everywhere you've been on the internet to an accountability partner every couple of weeks. I installed it on my computer. It's really simple and doesn't slow anything down.

I'm just so impressed with this ministry. They've got a really bold approach to the problem and I love it. I know it's going to bear a lot of fruit.

Ice Climbing!

On Saturday (the last day of 2005) I had the amazing opportunity to go ice climbing. We went to a place called The Ice Factor. They have the biggest indoor ice climbing facility in the world! They have all kinds of technology that keeps the room like a giant fridge with lots of real ice on the walls!

It's quite strange after doing rock climbing. The things that hold you to the wall are the ice axes and the crampons. (sharp pointy bits on your boots) At first it feels quite clumsy, swinging these big pointy axes around but it started to feel a bit more natural after a while. I found that as I got more tired, it got harder and harder to actually lift an axe and swing it at the wall. My left arm got so tired that sometimes I'd swing and it'd deflect off the surface because I was unable to hold it straight. Other times it was tricky to get it OUT of the wall when I wanted to climb higher.

The funnest moment was when I was about a third of the way up the wall. I had one axe free because I was about to reach higher to stick it in there. Just as I moved a bit, though, the other axe slipped out of the crack in the ice that it was lodged into. Slowly, I started to rotate backwards, my feet still gripping the ice with the crampons. Instinctively, I swung at the wall with my right axe and it stuck in, immediately stopping the fall. It was a pretty cool moment, kinda like something out of a cheezy film.

It's all good fun, really. Doing something like that indoors is so much safer than out there in the REAL world. Man, it's a crazy sport, I tell you! We had the ropes anchored to metal girders which made up part of the structure of the ice room. (If you click on the picture you can see this more clearly in the big version.) When people ice climb "for real" they put big screws into the ice. Yes, THE ICE! The only thing holding them up is water. OK, frozen water but still. Man, it's water! I know that it was only ice I was gripping on my way up the wall as well. The difference is that when I did slip, the rope was attached to something more reliable.

Having said all that, it was a great experience and hopefully I'll get a chance to do it again some time. Now, if I can just find somewhere I can go snowboarding to try out my new bindings...

The gift of Christmas

I was opening my presents this morning and for possibly the first Christmas in my life, I started to think of the symbolism of what we do at Christmas. In church life we're always careful to make sure everyone realises the symbolism when they take communion yet I find we don't think so much about it at Christmas.

What do I mean? Well, I'll explain a bit further. As I unwrapped my presents I wasn't focussed on the gifts themselves. I didn't even think of the kings and the gifts that they brought. As I peeled the shiny paper from various items, I thought of Jesus, God's gift to humanity, His answer to our condition. The gift of God, wrapped in flesh and blood, held together not by some cheap sticky-tape but by the love of the Father.

The gift was free. There was no persuading God or twisting his arm. It was his agenda all along to extravagantly give this gift to us. It's our choice if we just leave him under the tree.

That's not just a reference to salvation, either. How many times do we bang our head against the wall, forgetting the Christmas present we got a few years back that could solve the situation? How often do we call on Jesus? How often do I call on Jesus? Not enough. Not nearly enough. I complain to him a great deal. I don't think that really counts, though. I just find myself sounding more and more like a bunch of people that ended up getting eaten by the desert this one time...

Let's all remember the value of what we've got at our disposal.

Romulan Chief!

OK, so last night when I took the pic of my straight hair, I thought I should do a profile as well, to give you a better idea of the shocking transformation that took place.

Straight Hair!

I just got my hair cut at Mika on Kilmarnock Road. The girl that cut it encouraged me to leave the top to grow and she just trimmed the fringe and the back and sides. (Does that make it a short back and sides?) Anyway, she also STRAIGHTENED it which was quite a big deal, considering the amount of hair I have these days. The best part of all was that despite the time she spent straightening it, she only charged me £4.50 because she just cut the back and sides. Sweet!



UPDATE:

I should add that I actually took 30 pictures with my camera-phone before finding this one that I thought was good. Criteria were not cropping part of my head from the pic and remembering not to look too serious although really concentrating.

Also, every time I look in the mirror I think I'm a Romulan from Star Trek!

Hotel Rwanda made me cry

I don't know what it is with me and REALLY serious films, especially with my last post being about Hitler.

Tonight I watched Hotel Rwanda and it really moved me. The story is based, I believe quite closely, on actual events during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. While angry Hutu mobs roamed the streets killing their Tutsi neighbours, one man opened up his hotel to welcome in refugees as they sought to save their lives from the massacre. The UN refused to stick around to protect them either. Foreign military only came to escort the white visitors to safety, leaving the Rwandans to fend for themselves.

It just made something inside me cry out at the injustice. I've no idea what it feels like to be in such a situation but you must feel so utterly helpless. I don't know what it must be like to watch people beaten and killed, knowing you can't do a thing to stop it. I felt it to some extent as I watched this film, though.

I think that seeing a situation of great suffering stirs something in you. It provokes a sense of compassion which maybe doesn't easily surface in me, at least. It prompts a response. It asks the question, "What do you want to do about this?"

I just feel more and more that here in the West we really have so much. We have it so easy in so many ways yet we still complain. God, let us appreciate the peace we have in our land. Let us be quick to run to those in need, regardless of the personal cost. Let our lives count for something.

Hitler was mental

He really was. I know you don't need me to educate you on this. I just saw a film last night that reminded me of the fact, though. It's called The Downfall and it proved to be a very interesting and educational film. It is actually all in German with English subtitles which I found to be really interesting. I like hearing other languages and I feel that we're very guilty in the English-speaking west of isolating ourselves from other languages.

The film tells the story of the last days inside Hitler's bunker as the Red Army closed in on Berlin and Germany's defeat became apparent. It's told from the view of Traudl Junge who was Hitler's secretary during the war. She actually wrote the story so it's pretty authentic.

I just found it interesting because often war films tend to show America or Britain and not really tell you much about the Germans other than the fact that they're the nasty people we're fighting against. In The Downfall, you see the humanity of some of the German officers and it was reassuring to learn that some of them genuinely cared about their people and wanted to protect the civillians and so on. Don't get me wrong here, though. Most of them were mental. I'm not condoning any Nazi ideals at all, just pointing out that there were real people there too.

This maybe isn't making much sense. I'd recommend seeing it if you want to learn more about that part of history, though. I think we can always learn from the past. I'm glad I didn't have to live then, right enough. Thank God for peace in our time.

A week in England

I just got back to my flat in Glasgow after spending a week catching up with friends south of the border. For my North American friends, I hope you realise I'm not referring to Mexico but England :)

It's funny being in a different country. Even though we're technically under the same government and all that, it's still in the forefront of your mind that you're different. Some of you might say I'm different anyway but I'm talking about accent in particular. As soon as you open your mouth, everyone knows you're not from there.

I was in Bracknell for the most part of the week and I went for a jaunt into Bath for a day and a half as well. It was interesting driving to Bath with directions from multimap.com. We got lost once or twice but we got there in the end and that's always good.

I got the flights for £20 because I had enough Aeroplan points from previous trips with Air Canada. The cost was the airport tax which sadly isn't covered by the rewad points. Still, £20 for a return from Glasgow to Heathrow is pretty good. Checking in for the return flight they used my bank card to verify my ID which was new. It's a strange feeling to be in a plane without anyone having looked at your passport. It reminds me of when I drove from Toronto to Pittsburgh for Christmas and when I came back into Canada the guy didn't even check my passport. Another cool thing with domestic UK flights is that I checked in with less than an hour to go in both cases and everything was fine.

It was good to see friends again and catch up as well. I never really think of much to talk about but company is worth more than information to me anyway. I'm content to be around people, rather than probing for all the latest goings-on.

My Company Blog

I recently created a blog on my company website. You can see it by clicking on the big "blog" link at the bottom or by just browsing to www.tabletopsoftware.com/blog.

Why have two blogs, I hear you say? Well, they will both serve different purposes. This one is my fun fun fun "here's what's happening in my life" kind of blog. The other one will be more work work work "here's what I'm doing with programming" kind of blog. I want potential customers to be able to see what I'm doing programming wise to build trust in my abilities. There's also some book or other called blog marketing that some guy I know wrote. It suggests blogs are a good tool to communicate with potential customers.

My blog stats from Google Analytics

I recently signed up with Google Analytics after seeing mention of it in Jeremy Wright's blog. It's pretty cool. It collects all kinds of stats regarding your visitors that I'd never even have thought about. Don't worry, it's not spyware. It's relevant information such as where in the world you're all from, what screen resolution you have, how many colours you have, what version of flash you have installed, whether or not you have JavaScript enabled and so on. All these things are really important for webmasters to know their audience and adapt the appearance of their site accordingly.

There was also a ton of marketing stuff that I've not really looked at yet but I think you can track the effectiveness of ads you've placed on other websites.

This map shows where everyone is from who's been looking at my blog recently. (Do click for a bigger image!) It's really cool to see all the nations that I've been in contact with, mostly through the School of Ministry and TACF.

Now I just need to get more potential customers to visit my company website and then I'll be in business. Wait, I am in business. I could just use a few more customers!

Chilies are cool!

I bought some chilies recently and I was fascinated by the change of colours if you leave them for long enough. It's like having your own wee autumn on the shelf!

Everyone needs a camera phone!

I was just musing to myself about some moments that would normally have to be expressed purely by word of mouth before people started carrying cameras everywhere with them. Watch in wonder and amazement as I give you the fruit of my camera phone toil and present a moment of bewilderment and repulsion captured when I discovered a glittery thong - in the men's section I might add - while shopping recently:

Don't you just love technology and how it enriches our lives on a daily basis?