This is an amazing advert!

I've just seen a very impressive, literally "amazing" advert here. I mean, this had me actually chuckling and saying things like "no way" out loud, as I sat at my computer. Credit must go to the author of this blog post where I found the link.

Back to the Future Trivia!

I just found out LOADS of interesting things about the Back to the Future movies that I never knew before. It's amazing how many clever references people write into movies to pay tribute to films they liked in the past, or naming things after wives and so on.

If you're interested, here are the trivia links for Back to the Future parts 1 and 2:

Trivia for Back to the Future
Trivia for Back to the Future Part II

In case you're not convinced about the merits of reading the trivia, let me show you the COOLEST one I discovered:

The mall where Marty McFly meets Doc Brown for their time travel experiment is called "Twin Pines Mall". Doc Brown comments that old farmer Peabody used to own all of the land, and he grew pines there. When Marty goes back in time, he runs over and knocks down a pine tree on the Peabody's property. When he comes back to the mall at the end of the film, the sign at the mall identifies the mall as "Lone Pine Mall".

Here are some pics to prove it. I just grabbed these straight from DVD:




I love the fact that someone went to the trouble of doing that. It makes me smile.

(I'm watching part 3 tomorrow, maybe I'll read up on the trivia now.)

I love "Back to the Future"

For the past six months or so, I've had a kind of nagging craving in the back of my mind that I really should watch Back to the Future. I can't explain it, other than it being like really missing an old friend.

On monday, I signed up with my local video shop and rented the completed Back to the Future trilogy on DVD! Last night I watched the first one and it's still as good as ever. OK, so the special effects are pretty dated by today's standards but the thing I realized was just how great a story it is. I suppose it's the ingredient of time travel that really opens up the plot options to writer(s?) but still I think it's definitely one of the better ones.

Tonight I was watching Back to the Future Part 2 and I noticed something very spooky at the start. Just after the opening credits it states the date as October 26th, 1985. I thought October 26th looked a bit familiar and then I checked today's date. Today is the 27th, meaning I watched part 1 of Back to the Future EXACTLY TWENTY YEARS after it was set! How cool is that? I thought it was noteworthy at least.

Part II was brilliant as well. They really took things to a new level with the plot going back AND forward in time. Especially the idea that someone had gone back in time creating a tangent on the space/time continuum, leaving them unable to go forward in time again to stop him going back because they were now on a different time line. There's not many movies that would attempt to put something as cool as that in there. Sure, their idea of the future wasn't exactly accurate but it'd just be too freaky if everyone really was using wireless Internet, laptops and mobiles. I still want a hoverboard, though.

Tomorrow I'll watch Part III but I think it's safe to say that 30 years later, Back to the Future still has the magic! Great Scott!

Baby Progress Bar

I just had a great idea today for the more geeky parent to be.

I thought what would be cooler than a baby progress bar? That's right. Imagine an item that could be safely stuck to the tummy of the mum-to-be, indicating to anyone who's interested how far through the pregnancy she is! Wouldn't that just be so cool? I think it would be. Before you get concerned, I'm not going to take things to the extreme of that guy last year who named his baby version 2.0.

Come to think of it, it'll be a while before I'll be in need of such a product, since I won't be having any babies until I solve the "still needing to get a wife" problem which in turn is complicated by the "still needing to get a girlfriend" problem. Ho hum, I can always make money off those who are a bit further down the track in these things in the mean time, though.

Guinness Face

I don't know if you're like me but whenever I get a Guinness, I always feel the need to try the "face" test. The face test (ok, I'm sure no-one else calls it that) is when you make a face in the head and then see if it's still there at the end of the pint. A "good" Guinness will preserve the face to the bitter (ho ho) end.

By that definition, this pint wasn't a good Guinness. It just goes to show for all you Canadians that we don't get perfect Guinness in Glasgow either. Maybe one would need to go on some kind of pilgrimage to Dublin to get the real deal. I suppose there's the argument of how it's poured as well, I suppose.

---

Actually, I heard an interesting story about the origins of Guinness. The inventor, a Christian man, (presumably Mr. Guinness) noticed how a significant number of the working-class men in Ireland were going straight to the pub when they got paid and then drinking all their earnings, neglecting to feed themselves properly in the process.

Concerned by this, he created Guinness to be a meal replacement. It actually has all the nutrients and whatever that you might get from a normal meal. It was made with alcohol, so people would drink it but it was designed to be difficult to actually get drunk on, although I have to say I've never tried. I've even heard of doctors recommending Guinness to nursing mothers who've been having a hard time producing enough milk for the baby. Strange but true.

Having said all that, I still find it sad that Guinness is all people think about on St. Patrick's day. (See my post on St. Patrick's day from March.)

End of an era

Today is a sad day. Well, not very sad but a moment to reflect at least. You see, I finally decided it was time to get a new wallet because I've had this one for years. At least since 2002, maybe even 2001. I had this one with me in Germany on outreach in 2002 and I actually lost it. Then I retraced my steps in the dark and found it in the middle of the road! It was the strangest thing. I drove over a wallet-shaped shadow and thought, "Hmm, that could be it." and then dismissed the idea. Then I remembered that I was in fact LOOKING for my wallet so it would really make sense to check out wallet-shaped clues. I did a u-turn and came back to the spot and there it was. Nothing was missing.

My new wallet is different and it brings attention to the fact that I'm very accustomed to the other one. It opens to the left while the old one opens to the right so I keep opening the new one upside-down and then saying to myself, "Oh yeh, it's my new wallet." Also, the zip opens from left to right while the old one was from right to left. I really don't know how I'm going to cope. I'll try to be strong - for the sake of my blog readers.

End of Innocents

Today is a sad day. I've now finished the ten free fruit smoothies that Innocent Drinks sent to me as an apology for the yoghurt thickie I bought that was off. I still have the bottles on my shelf to help me remember the good times, though.

 

Image Test - Wine Bottle Decoration

Look at that, that's amazing! You can add images directly to blogger these days. I don' t know how long it's been like that but that's handy to know. I've been using Flickr for a while now as the more avid TheKen-blog-followers will know. (If you didn't know that, stop reading this and go to my flickr images and start commenting on my amazing pics immediately.)

This picture to the left is a bottle of wine, decorated simply yet effectivley with a decoration my good friend Heidi Lichti gave me just before I left Canada. Apparently in Canada they have traditions about bringing bread and wine to a new house to symbolise things like provision and prosperity. (I think.) Anyway, this was the first bottle in my new flat so Heidi, that's your wine-bottle-decoration put to good use.

Innocent Drinks are the best!

I'm seriously impressed with the people who work at Innocent Drinks. (innocentdrinks.co.uk) I've been a huge fan of their fruit smoothies and yoghurt thickies for a number of years now. Of course, I've also been living in Canada for the last 3 years so it's been a difficult distance relationship. In fact, I actually missed innocent drinks while I was in Canada. I really did. Whenever I came home to visit, I always had to go out and buy one.

It was when buying my first innocent drink after moving home to Scotland that this latest adventure all began. I bought a yoghurt thickie at a shop in Glasgow Central Station (I won't name and shame them here) and hopped on the train to Greenock, to go see Mum & Dad. Well, after the obligatory shaking up of the bottle, I was surprised to hear a fizzing sound when I opened it. I drank some and it tasted fizzy and seemed thinner than usual. Oh, not to forget that when it fizzed to begin with, it actually overflowed onto my hand and the floor of the train. It was quite a tricky moment.

Well, the good people at Innocent Drinks were kind enough to offer me a case of their finest drinks as a peace offering after I reported the unfortunate event to them. A whole case! I got TEN FREE SMOOTHIES because I bought one bad one! Amazing!

Here are some pics of me enjoying my new smoothies after they arrived today. If you follow the links, you'll see bigger pictures along with comments from yours truly. (That's me)









If you're still reading, you obviously find this interesting. Why not check out what they have to say about cranberries.

Cooke'd

Wow! We just had an incredible conference at Glasgow Elim. It was called Seasoned in the Prophetic and we had an amazing speaker by the name of Graham Cooke.

All through the conference I felt an excitement stirring within me. It's hard to pinpoint exactly but it was a very real, physical manifestation of the power of God on me, almost like something inside my chest would explode. It only seemed to diminish in intensity between sessions when I'd go out and get something to eat, talk to friends and that sort of thing. The whole time I was sitting in the conference God was just ON me. It was pretty intense. It didn't seem to be in response to what he was saying although there were key moments when it definitely got more intense as though God was underlining something that had just been said.

The conference was really about the character of God, though, and how we should respond to things that happen to us, what we should ask God. Rather than saying "Why is this happening to me?" we should be asking "What are you teaching me here?" and "What do you want me to do here?" We tend to respond wrongly by saying things like "I'm a Christian! Get me out of this!" when God's saying "You just don't get it, do you?"

Another really cool thing was about God seeing us present-future but we get caught up in our past and see ourselves past-present. We don't think we can do the things he's called us to because of our past whereas he sees us in the future and we're much better looking than we are now! If you have a prophetic word about your future and you don't see how it could happen, remember that God wants to change you into the person that can do these things. The time from prophecy received to prophecy fulfilled is a time of transformation when God changes our very personality!

Finally, I thought it was so cool that God wants to BE our strength in our areas of weakness. We somehow think we need to get rid of our weaknesses but in 2 Cor 12:10, Paul suggest otherwise. God actually wants to take over and make up for the lack in those moments when our weaknesses are challenged. We need to let him take over when we are in an area of weakness.

It's funny because when I heard Heidi Baker for the first time in 2002, I declared after that I'd been "Baked". Now after Graham Cooke, I've been "Cooke'd". It seems that God has a culinary theme regarding his dealings with me. It'll be interesting to see how he turn's the Todd Bentley conference I'm going to next month into a food theme!

Fun at Loch Lomond

Last night I had a very interesting camping experience with Alan and Collin Gibson. We set out to spend the night in a cave beside Loch Lomond but we left a bit late in the day which made things a bit more complicated. By the time we got to the nearest car park, it was 8 o'clock in the evening and completely dark. It was an overcast night as well so there was very little light. Only the two head-mounted torches that Alan and Collin had brought with them provided any illumination. I watched my step by following their lights along the path.

As time went past, we became a bit uncertain of the path and after a few scouting explorations here and there, we decided to sleep on the beach instead. Now, this posed a small problem as we didn't have any tents. Undaunted, however, Alan managed to create a shelter he called "a bendy" which consists of a small sapling bent over and tied to a secure spot on the ground (a convenient root that protruded above the surface) allowing us a framework to add other coverings to.

We made a fire and settled down for the night enjoying foods ranging from Scottish Cheddar to an obscure Russian beer from the Baltic somewhere. We were having a good laugh and enjoying the whole camping/bivvying experience and decided to turn in for the night just after midnight.

I started off just using my sleeping bag as a pillow because I felt fine in my clothes, not too cold at all. After nodding off for a while like this, I woke up feeling cold and decided to jump into the sleeping bag. No sooner had I done this than the heavens opened and it rained. It got heavier and it got lighter and that cycle pretty much kept repeating ALL NIGHT. Sadly the shelter we had constructed didn't really cover us overhead and, consequently we got seriously rained on. I remember a few distinct landmarks in the night's events:

* The "I'm getting rained on" phase
* The "Now my legs are wet" phase
* The "Oh, my socks are wet too, now" phase
* The "I can't stop shivering" phase
* The "Isn't it morning yet?" phase

Finally at around half past 6, Alan had had enough and we all packed up and left. It was still dark. I still saw no sign of daylight. It was only when we reached the car that it started getting light and the rain stopped too!

Since we were completely drookit, we decided to remove our trousers to minimise the soaking of the seats in the car. I was relieved to also discover that my phone had survived the night in my rucksack, under the in-built rain cover which I had deployed when packing everything up the night before.

As if this wasn't enough drama for one night, we discovered just after driving onto the road that the car had a flat tyre. "One for all and all for one," I said and in no time we had three drowned rats in the boxers changing the wheel of a car at 6:30 in the morning. We must have been a sight.

I finally made it home and put my stuff in the wash along with my week's laundry. I had a much needed shower and then discovered on taking my clothes out of the machine that I had left a Tracker bar (kind of granola cereal bar) in the pocket of my trousers. There were bits of peanut, toffee etc. stuck to ALL of the things that were in the washing machine.

Oh well, it seems I'm not quite as Wild at Heart as I thought I was because most of the night I was wishing it was all over. We did laugh about it, though, which is always good. You need to see the funny side of these adventures.

First Small Group Meeting

Today was a special day. I finally got over my fear and led a small group meeting. Simon (my pastor) had asked me to lead some guys in the church who were keen to get a guys' small group up and running. In the past I had always felt weary about the notion of becoming a cell leader in TACF. I don't know if it was the notion of coming up with a teaching or the fact that I was wiped from work that put me off. I just didn't feel like it.

This time it's different, though. When Simon was talking to me about it I started to feel genuine interest for the guys and a motivation to help them and pass on what I'd learned. This hasn't always been the case!

Tonight we met for the first time and I talked a bit about my experience at the School of Ministry and how walking in the light had dealt with some of my ungodly beliefs about myself. We had a soaking time as well. Levi (my lappy) was on hand to provide the soaking music. Having a laptop's so useful!

SoM Reunion

I went to the SoM Reunion in England this weekend which was really cool. I drove down with Alan Gibson in his car. We shared the driving and got there WAY too early. It started at 6:30pm but we were there at half one. Oh well, not to worry.

It was cool catching up with people I knew and meeting new people who had been to TACF. It's funny how you quickly connect with people through the common experience. Maybe the fact that we've all gone through a bit of inner healing probably helped, too. People were surprised that we drove from Scotland, though. I think in the UK we don't really expect to drive too much. Whether it's the price of petrol or just the fear of putting miles on the clock, there's something that's putting people off.

Anway, the reunion - we had a lot of worship and some social time as well. We prophecied over each other, prayed for healing, had a laugh. All the good stuff really. I don't know when the next one will be but I think I'll probably go again.

Levi

I'm excited to announce the safe arrival of LEVI! No, I haven't secretly been fathering children in my spare time, Levi is my wonderful new laptop computer system! He's weighing in at 2.38 kg he is a bit on the light side but he's perfectly healthy. He's a Samsung X20 HVM 740 or just an X20 for short. I've been busy running Windows Update and downloading all sorts of things to get him ready for work. I'm still waiting for the copy of Visual Studio that I bought from a guy in The States. I expect it to arrive this week.

I also bought a nice wee bag for Levi today so now I can take him with me. (which is really the idea with a laptop.)

The latest from an over-clocked brain

I noticed tonight when talking to a friend on the phone that my brain has been racing at a hundred miles an hour recently. It's a bit concerning. I mean, seriously, I've never done speed but if it does what the name implies, I think I've had a similar experience. I was confused about this because I've not been drinking any coffee lately. It then crossed my mind that tea actually has more caffiene than the former and I've certainly been drinking my fair share of that. Could it be that my lack of caffiene intake prior to returning home has resulted in my having a lower tolerance? I think it's probably what's going on.

Getting organised in Glasgow

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks but I think I'm finally making progress getting settled in Glasgow again. It was a bit of a strange adjustment to begin with. I had forgotten the PIN number for my debit card and the phone number for my mobile was one that I hadn't used in ages either. I was also staying with friends and I couldn't remember their address or post code so really, when all was said and done, I didn't know a great deal.

I've signed a lease and got the keys for my new flat in the south side of Glasgow. I'm quite excited about that. Now I can start updating my address information with everything to my new place. I'm trying to get power, phone, internet and furniture sorted out though. My new laptop should arrive tomorrow and my software will be here soon enough.

My new place is quite close to a park. I'm pretty excited about that. I've been meeting up with a few friends from church to go jogging once a week at the unlikely hour of 7am. Amazingly, I've been able to get there on time and actually do a reasonable work out. I think I'll aim to jog every day because working from home doesn't give you much reason to leave the house.

The weather's been pretty sunny but the last couple of days it's got cloudier and more like the Scotland that I remember.

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.