The Legoland Convention

The best thing I saw today. Kids waving flags at church. The girls dancing around all ladylike. The boys pretending their flags were swords. It was classic.

Fluffy! hahahahah
I saw a wing on the ground today. No bird, only a wing. Tragic.

I have just lost a lot of respect for the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Seventh inning stretch - Take Me Out to the Ballgame, performed by William Hung. What's next, him singing O Canada at the Maple Leafs game?

In other news, 6 killed in tragic monorail failure...

Every hear the theory about the peanut butter-cat monorail? If you drop a cat, it lands on its feet. If you drop toast with peanut butter, it lands on the buttered side. Strap the two together, back-to-back, and if neither can land properly, then they must never land. Therefore, they will float, and a monorail can be built using this principle. Brilliant in concept, but today, I dropped said piece of toast, and watched it fall, in slow motion. What I saw stunned me. It began to flip, as if following the universal laws of physics previously described. At the apex of the flip, however, unexplained circumstances causes the motion to reverse itself, and a safe landing was achieved. No mess! No monorail!

I had a dream the other night where I was eating several pieces of toast with peanut butter. I had noticed in real life that I can't get the peanut butter on the toast without getting some on my hands. It happens everytime. In my dream, however, I accomplished this unbelievable feat, only to realize that I had buttered both sides of the every piece of toast. What a mess that made! Glad I didn't drop any.

This morning, I woke up at 7:30! On my own, no alarms, no noises, nothing. If I hear a single person say anything about me becoming a morning person, I will kill them.


"So needless to say
I'm odds and ends
But that's me stumbling away
Slowly learning that life is OK.
Say after me
It's no better to be safe than sorry"

"Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two"

There's still hope...

Today, I saw two things that made me happy. The first, I was at work, unloading a transfer load from the old warehouse to the new. My boss' wife was in our new breakroom, cleaning it up so we could start using it next week. My boss walked in from outside, having just arrived from the old warehouse. When he saw that his wife was there, he smiled. He didn't wave, he didn't shout hello. They didn't even exchange a glance. He just smiled, because she was there.

Second, I was walking home from the bus stop and I had to pass this couple who was holding hands, and as I did, the guy was singing to the girl, and she was giggling.

On a side note, we have a new pet at work, named Fluffy. He was a squirrel. A few months back, he got caught between some boxes and the wall. He's now about 1/4inch thick, flattened against the wall. He's stuck, and it's funny.


"Here comes a strange cargo
Here comes a light that leaves out of here
Sweet Lord
All I've known is badness
Sweet Lord
All I've known is pain"

"Satellites ahead
So hold on"

Here's an interesting tidbit (well, not really). Some pieces of furniture are actually too light or too small to pick up effectively. Actually, I'd rather move a 200lb dresser than a 20lb chair. Crazy, eh? Big 300lb armoires still suck, though.

On a side note: Sugar is water soluble. Amazing!


"A song on the jukebox made me feel lonely
The kettle boiled down and evaporated me
But who was to notice 'cause Jenny was glowin?
And Dwight was all over her like a honey bee"

"Me and Jenny, twinklin' like crystal and pennies
Two hot girls on a hot summer night
Looking for love"

To be in the place where brave knights roved.
To fight, to die, for one betrothed.
A maiden's love, a maiden's beauty,
To live or perish, it is my duty.

Duty, duty, what is this?
To have a purpose, ah, it is bliss.
To fight for honour, and die for valour,
Help those in need, in deed, in battle.

Not might is right,
But might for right.
Camelot's King was an honourable man,
I only wish that I still can.

But without purpose, with nothing to cherish,
Where there’s no vision, the people perish.
Useless are the deeds of the knight,
Without a standard by which to fight.

Duty, duty, what is this?
To have a purpose, ah, it is bliss.


"Drink up, baby down
mmm, are you in or are you out
leave your things behind
'cause it's all going off without you
excuse me, too busy you're writing your tragedy"

"So let go, just get in
oh, it's so amazing here"

My band finally has a practice on Thursday. Should be good.
I didn't work again today. I might have to find a new job.

Here's the chorus to one of our songs . . .

"Who said that being a snob was easy
It's not that easy
And it's not free
It's not for me"

Fear

Even though God has blessed and called it good,
I fear to take what I want in life.
Do I fear being rejected, or do I fear actually getting what I want?
The decision to not take is no decision at all.
It is indecision.


"Valentine is done
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity… Romeo and Juliet"

"Come on baby… don't fear the reaper
Baby take my hand… don't fear the reaper"

Slynn, That was the best venting blog I have ever read. You are so great at lovingly pointing out important friendship dealing.

Anyways, this blog will be kind of sad. Just as a warning. Its another customer blog. So there's this old guy who comes in, British accent polite etc. Seems like a good old guy. The other day he comes in with a young girl probly teens and buys her breakfast. She was a hooker. According to one of the girls at work, lots of girls will sell themselves for food instead of money. A few days later the old guy comes in with sunglasses on and huge dark circles under his eyes shaking like a leaf totally stoned, probably on crack.

Today a girl and her mom came in. The girl was left to her coloring (she was about 11) while her mom went in and out of the fraser valley motel. I hope she wasn't a hooker. Oh my job is in such a destitute place. God help me show them your love.

Welcome to the worst week of my life!
Well, perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration, but at times, that has been the best way to describe it. The last few weeks not only included the end of the school year, moving into a new place with new rooommates and living on my own for the first time, starting a brand new job that involves physical labour - something I am not used to, the return of someone very special to me who has been across the world for a year...but also a miraculous breakdown in communication between me and all of my friends. The thing is that none of it was from my side, but indirectly I was greatly affected by it all. Some of it was unavoidable - such as people not having phone lines available to them. But the rest of it was miscommunication, or simply, no communication at all. Nothing causes hurt feelings or upset people like the lack of communication. Here's my advice for next time: Don't assume going behind your friends' backs is the best solution. Even when it's supposed to be in their best interest, sometimes its better just to tell them what you are planning to do. It can save a lot of hurt and misunderstandings.
Friendships do have a certain amount of politics to them. I was discussing this the other day. Sometimes friends need a break from each other. Sometimes little things that annoy you about one of your friends get blown out of proportion if they do something that is actually hurtful. It can bring up all the other times they ticked you off...even if at the time, those things were not a big deal. But when you love your friends, it's easy to forgive and forget. There are times, however, when we need to tell our friends that we have been hurt by them. Distinguishing when these kind of issues should be dealt with, and when one is just having a bad day can be hard sometimes. But we shouldn't be afraid to let our friends know how we are feeling. If they really are friends, they should care enough.
Another thing, sometimes people want to hang out with some people and not others. This should not be a problem. Except that I think friends should think about each other once in a while. And if they know that they are doing something (different than usual) that someone else would love to be doing, they should maybe think about how that other person is going to feel. This doesn't mean they have to cater to that person, but they should perhaps communicate to their friend what is going on. I think friends understand if others just want to hang out with certain people, and that is okay. Communication is just the key.
Maybe I'm too idealistic. I care about my friends a whole, whole lot. And I do think they care about me too. Sometimes I just wish they would check on me. Like when I'm having one of the worst weeks of my life...it just would have been nice. Not that I do expect them to read my mind all the time. But I do hope they know me well enough to know when I'm having a real rough time.
Okay. Enough for now. Just as an aside, for the most part, I do think that I have the best friends a girl could ever ask for. It's just been one of those weeks.

Rock Garden - May 16, 2004

Rikk Watts is pretty damn cool. I know I'm a bible nerd (thanks Holly for the term), but I can sit and listen to that guy for hours. And today, I did. Well, for hour, and a bit. I love the way he tangents, but it still all flows naturally. He's funny, without being over the top, or being super cheeseball corny. The worship band was also really good. Not super showy (which I like), but solid, humble worship leading. Besides, they had two IMR members. It was cool to see them in this environment.

The worship leader, this guy named Andrew (good name), was really good. He's not a prodigy or anything. He plays as if he's on the verge of being too nervous to lead, you know, like those guys who are backup singers for years, then are given a shot at it, and they don't have any control over their songs. It added a great humble element to his playing. It was great, and I will come from Abbotsford next semester.

In saying all this, I'm glad I was able to write two short paragraphs about this service. I hate it when people go to services, and when you ask them about it, all they say is "Good" or "Fine." Those are the things we say to our parents when we don't want to tell them about school. By no means did I include a full description of the service here, not because I don't want to, but because it would be tedious to write. And long. It would be much better in person. All this is just to say that if someone where to ask me about the service, I would have something to say about it. And that makes me happy.

Oh, by the way (Bryan, you'll like this), Rikk used an obligatory 'Troy' clip in his sermon. And they took the offering with a rubber boot. That was cool.


"All the things that we've been through
You should understand me like I understand you
Now girl I know the difference between right and wrong
I ain't gonna do nothing to break up our happy home
Oh don't get so excited when I come home a little late at night
Cos we only act like children when we argue fuss and fight"

"If you don't know me by now,
You will never never never know me"

I like bonsai trees. Way to go Dan!
I watched that episode of American Idol with my family, and we sighed with capital understanding at each commercial break, experienced a funny sort of outrage at 'America's' decision to vote the best contestant off the show, and swore to ourselves that we would not watch it again.
But we knew we could complain only so much, for we were complicit in the game the show's executives try to pass off as reality tv. The whole country is complicit and the only way to complain really is to volunteer to be a part of the Neilsen rating system and always watch PBS.
I've found in the last little while here at home I've enjoyed tv less and less the more choices I've been given. We have to much too say and too much opportunity to say it when it comes to the trivial things in our lives. We get scared when we have to make real decisions because our everyday ones don't have any real consequences.
Maybe commercialism is an inevitable result of a healthy capitalist democracy and it's up to us to be smart enough to cut out the junk. I don't want to be an ascetic, but maybe I need to simplify my entertainment choices, stop caring so much.
I hear Bonsai trees can be fun.

"There's a blue bird at my window
I can't hear the song he sings.
All the jewels in heaven
They don't look the same to me.

I just wade the tides that turned
Till I learn to leave the past behind.
It's only lies that I'm living
It's only tears that I'm crying.

It's only you that I'm losing
Guess I'm doing fine."

I got a job yesterday. I now work at a nameless nursery for a man named Jin. He's asian. I noticed that my nursery sells Bonsai trees. Very exciting.

I must say I totally agree with Andrew's American Idol rant.
Did anyone watch the last Frasier? a rather unsatisfying finish if you ask me.

Anyways, I plan to enjoy my last few days of freedom a la Ferris Buehler's Day off.

"She was there through my incarceration
I wanna show the nation
My appreciation"

"Girl you're my angel
you're my darling
Angel
Closer than my peeps you are to me."

I'm sorry I never called Andrew!!!!
I feel real bad. I did want to hang out...I just thought...well, excuses won't cut it anyways. So here's my humblest apology.
Can we still hang out sometime???

Did any of you know that Quentin Tarantino directed an episode of ER? Crazy.

I hate money, by the way. Not that I have it, or more like it, don't have it. This isn't going to be a rant about what rich people do with their money, or how poor people don't have any. Money makes life annoying as hell.

So, I'm watching American Idol today (correction: Mom was watching it, I was reading the newspaper). The real show wasn't on, of course, only the show where they pansy about to kill half an hour before telling you how everybody voted. I mean, seriously, come one the air for 5 minutes and tell us, but of course, they need to have this show to shamelessly sell merch and make loads off of ads, which are not few and far between to say the least. Did I mention that this show is now A WHOLE FREEKING HOUR LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

And what occurs on this hour-long show? Well, they spend at least 10 minutes telling the contestants what the judges said the night before, as if they had forgotten. And after each telling, they threaten them with being in the "Bottom 2," but before telling them, there is the obligatory commercial break. Talk about rape and plunder, using these kids to make a quick buck, and then the winner (and many of the runners up) get to make records to make more money for them.

I couldn't quite tell you what happens for the rest of the show. I mean, the singing and the contest and all that jazz happened the night before. This isn't really even part of the contest. Nobody is judged (just rejudged), but because American Idol is a popularity contest and not a singing contest, they can't use this time to get to know the contestants any better, lest America finds them boring and average. So we watch a show, several times a week, an hour per episode, spending time with these people for weeks, and never get to know them. It's like an awful sitcom; worse, it's an awful soap opera. At least they have 'characters.'

Oh, of course, American Idol has characters. There's Simon, who's an ass until the competition gets serious, then he's the only one who tries to offer CONSTRUCTIVE and HONEST criticism. But of course you can't hear truth through all the boos of public opinion. Damn democracy!! Then there's the bozo twins, who have a collective vocabulary of about 15 words, none of which are controversial, or even interesting. I'm sure a conversation between said bozos goes like this:

Dog!

I know, that was really you.

But Dog, yo!

And who benefits? Not our friend William Hung. Of course not. He's just another victim, stripped of his soul and dignity, and for what? I would say money and fame, but he won't get any of that, not really. Just like us to pick on a guy like that. And the worst part of it all, considering I am helpless in this situation, is that I participated in this mockery. An innocent person would have nothing to complain about, because he wouldn't know any better. So I admit it, I lost my virginity long ago, my purity gone in one foul swoop by money sucking network execs. Yeah, they screwed me real good. And what did I get out of all this? What does anybody really get?

Not a damn thing! But I, I managed to get one thing out of this debacle: I got angry.


"Now I’m stuck with this ring
And riders in black won’t leave me alone
Me and eight of my friends
Went on a road trip
We met the Balrog, and Gandalf died
(Sam’s Crying)
Boromir lunged at me so I had to decide"

"Hey, look I’m invisible
But now I must walk into Mount Doom
Sauron is invincible
He’s putting up a fight
If quests were untakable
Then I could relax home in Hobbit land
I would give the ring to Sam
And he’d be invisible
But wait- who’d water my plants?"

I want to be witty and write something great, but i'm too tired. maybe tomorrow.

I have come to the conclusion that I am the worst applier for a job in the history of job applicants. I can't remember people's phone numbers, I always show up when the manager is away, I'm just generally passive . . .
I think a job should just jump into my lap. That's the way its supposed to be.

Andrew, call me sometime soon.

"She seems to have that invisible touch, yeah!"

The Dynamism of Prayer (Eph 6:18)

The accoutrement cap-a-pie appropriate to the Christian warrior has been reconnoitred; but though no piece of armour can be said to have been overlooked, a dynamic all-important for a campaign waged against the standing army of darkness craves mention. What Luther says of the Reformation may be affirmed of every stage of the conflict in the heavenlies; “prayer must do the deed.” If not strictly one of the weapons of our warfare, it is their potent concomitant and indispensable auxiliary. By persevering, unceasing, heart felt prayer alone can the soldier of Christ acquire or retain that high-souled fortitude, that indomitable resolution, that spiritual presence of mind amid the hurly-burly and din of battle, that calmness in the wearing hours of suspense, for lack of which he may blot his escutcheon deplorably either through temerity or treachery.

Prayer is an engine wieldable by every believer, mightier than all the embattled artillery of hell. Never out of season, nor to be deemed a drudgery, it is to be plied indefatigably, with a compass coextensive with the church universal. Its circuit should be as catholic and its importunity as fervent as the needs of the host of the Lord in every quarter of the globe. To differentiate between prayer and supplication seems hypercritical. Some would construe in the Spirit of the human agent principally; and that appears to be the meaning of the phrase in such contexts as Rom 1:4, 1Cor 14:15; but Jude writes of “praying in the Holy Spirit” (20), and true prayer is both the suitor’s own and the Spirit’s work. The sincerity and intension of soul pertain to the human petitioner; the potency, inspiration and freedom of utterance and access (2:18) spring from “the secret touch of the Spirit” (Gurnall), generating a glow of holy emotion in the suppliant’s soul.

The primary condition of true communion with the Most High is a consciousness that we are holding converse with a Divine Person, not addressing vacancy like the pantheistic word-spinner. For all prayer worth the name is “a living voice speaking in a living ear.” It may be tranquil or agnostic, ejaculatory or protracted. And we may add that a routine of prayer prescribed and appointed by rule, is ill suited to an intercourse so sacredly familiar and intimate as the approach of children to a Father in heaven. Entreaty for the welfare of others is amongst the noblest privileges of the Lord’s people; and observation bears record that public disasters and private distress multiply in proportion to the decay of the importunate intercession which prevails to “move the hand that moves the world to bring salvation down.” Proficients in the holy art of intercession are sorely needed by the church of God today, skilled to turn the battle in the gate by dint of this impalpable reagent. And may not ten praying souls avert the vials of judgment from some wrath-provoking Sodom or Capernaum?

-E.K. Simpson

"You don't have to pray out loud; He's nearer than you can imagine."

-Brother Lawrence


"She's young at heart but no teenager
Early thirties I would wager
I came along a little later
So I could merely carbon date her
Age, she's not keen to
It's a trap, I a door
In the stage she can go through
Until the encore"

"Oh the life of a working girl
I used to see her all the time"

"Oddly enough, this wasn't written by a practicing poet. It was written by a psychoanalyst named Wilhelm Stekel. Here's what he-Are you still with me?"

"Yes, sure I am."

"Here's what he said:'The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.'"

-Mr. Antolini to Holden Caulfield


"Picture yourself swimming in an ocean
1,000,000 miles from nowhere and the nearest phone
There's bodies in the water
Floating all around you
And all of them are talking, and they're comedians"

"I'm frantic
so load me up"

I'm going swing dancing tonight! I haven't gone dancing in over 4 years, and I am a little apprehensive as to how much I'm going to embarass myself tonight. However, I have just this to say:


"We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine"

"I say, we can dance, we can dance
Everything out of control"

Here's some bad news:
I can't access my fantasy baseball team from the library's databanks (ie. internet computers). I have no idea how much I'm dominating.

You and your cheese!

I have a fun game to play: Good News, Bad News!

Good News - Citizen Kane is playing in a Vancouver theatre
Bad News - it only has two shows

Good News - The Book of Mormon movie is out of theatres
Bad News - I really wanted to see that movie

Good News - Well, I found a job today. Moving furniture. I will be moving it around the warehouse, I will be moving it to another warehouse, I will be moving it to the showroom, I will be moving it around the showroom, and I will be moving it to people's houses. Maybe your house.
Bad News - I now have to get up in the morning

Good News - I will be buffer than all of you.
Bad News - You're all dead meat


"But there's no sense in telling me
The wisdom of the fool won't set you free
But that's the way that it goes
And it's what nobody knows
well every day my confusion grows"

"Every time I see you falling
I get down on my knees and pray"

Today I ate some moldy cheese
It made me cough, it made me wheeze
I'll give you some, if you please
If you'd only come down from those trees

For Andrew . . .

If You're Going...

Today I picked a flower for your hair
A bloom of beauty rare
But give to you I did not dare
Because I feared you would not care