that one blog

in addendum to the addendum to my previous previous post

2007-10-23T08:37:00.001-04:00

it is now early in the morning and i'm home because of rain...didn't work yesterday because of a lack of work...kinda wish the rain had come yesterday and that yesterday's beautiful weather had come today...
oh well...one can't complain about the weather...i'm under the impression that it's taken care of by a rather perfect master...it'll be fine...
anyway...as the title would suggest, i have some changes to make...here goes:

- i still don't get enough sleep...but now it's usually at the right time because work has me on a steady schedule.
- i don't play computer games nearly as often these days...i've been filling my time with other, more cooler things
- one of those cooler things is my guitar...i play a lot more...and i play in a band now...we're performing on dec 1 if you're interested in showing up...it'll be a good time...it'll be a coffeehouse style where you spend money for drinks and snacks, but there's no cover...it's a good cause you'll be supporting too...
- turns out i can still type quickly...whee for me!
- i'm listening to music right now...imagine that...me...music...oil?
- cigarettes are still hurting my singing...can anyone tell me why it's so hard to start quitting? what the heck is the matter with me? i don't want to be a smoker anymore...i really don't...so why can't i kick this vile weed?
- i take care of myself a lot more now...i usually eat more than once a day...and it's usually good food...i train/workout and stuff...i'm faster, leaner, and stronger than i've ever been...and i like it!
- i no longer need to find my girl...i found her! her name's kat...she's my hero...she's the coolest, prettiest, funnest, sweetest, mostest bestest girl ever! i'm completely over my gourd for her...i don't know what over my gourd means, but i hear it's really good...warm and fuzzy and all that...you know...over my gourd...
- fin's still alive...i still don't think about him much...but he's still cool
- living with my friends would be good, but plans about living situations will be changing drastically what with the whole applying to the rcmp thing that i'm up to. step one down...four more steps and i'm off to regina for six months...eep!
- still...i should be living with my kids...this is mostly a desire to get on with my life...and in the past seven months i've been making some serious progress in that area...most of the details concerning that are listed above...it feels good and is intensely frightening at the same time...
- and, finally, cake doesn't suck but i don't like them...and anyone who's anyone knows that pie is superior in every way...

well...there you go...

in addendum to my previous post

2007-03-13T03:26:00.000-04:00

it's very late, or very early, and here are some things that i'm realizing:

- i don't get enough sleep...or i get sleep at the wrong times
- i play too many games
- i should be better at playing guitar than i am
- i can type quickly because i'm a gamer
- music is a constant in my life
- cigarettes are hurting my singing
- i don't take care of myself
- i need to find my girl
- there's a fish that lives in my house that i only think about when i feed it...his name is fin...he's a beta...he's beautiful and feisty...he belongs to my mom...i think she'll cry when he dies.
- i should be living with my friends
- more to the point...i should be living with my kids...
- as much as i try, i can't love the band cake...much less the food...

oh yeah...my blog

2007-03-13T01:57:00.000-04:00

so...i have a blog...

(in this space please hear the sound that a cowbell on a spring attached to a football helmet on your head makes when you shake out the cobwebs)
if you're confused about the sound ask danboy.

forgive me people, i have not blogged...my last entry is below and dated for your convenience.
you may be wondering what's happened to me since i last posted; what's going on in the world of me? well, the answer to that is very short and simple...nothing. i'm in the off-season of work...i look after my parents with the cooking and the cleaning and all the other things that entails...i play a lot more guitar than i have in the past year...and i still play a lot of games.

a. the music front

here're a few songs that all of you should know and listen to and realize that you're madly in love with:
jeff buckley - lilac wine (hot damn, that boy can sing)
elliot smith - tomorrow tomorrow (endeavouring to play it...not an easy task)
sufjan stevens - the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us! (what fun with rhythmic and harmonic layering...and he uses a mess of woodwinds...we all know that's good times)
radiohead - gagging order (try bending your head around the rhythm...it's pretty keen)

b. the gaming front

i know some people think it's pretty lame to play computer games...they're probably right. however, i find gaming delightful and extremely entertaining.
and now i'm going to admit to everyone who reads this that i have a problem...
i play world of warcraft
this game can suck the life entirely out of people...it has phenomenal powers over those who are not aware of it's wiles. one could say it's much like the devil that way, if one were so inclined to make such a ridiculous comparison. i'd like to think that i'm in control of my life and have not let wow (as world of warcraft is commonly called) take over. i suppose i'm not actually qualified to make that claim, however. you'd have to ask my family and friends whether or not that is, in fact, the case.
you may be wondering why i said that i have a problem. well, i'll admit, that was a little bit of sensationalism to pique your interest in the picture i'm about to show you...
this is a shot of my main character right now...her name is hindlithe...it took me some time and effort to get that white bear (it's her pet) and i named it angus. the little dragon-looking thing is her little dragon looking thing and the guy with his back turned has nothing to do with anything.
so...here she is:

you may need to click the pic to get a better view, if you're actually that interested.
ok...that's all

Music Challenge

2006-11-27T19:56:00.001-05:00

saw this at my cousin piet's blog
thought i'd try it out...here goes:

1. put your music player on shuffle
2. press forward for each question
3. use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn't make sense

no cheating!

how are you feeling today?
white ladder

how do your friends see you?
ghost wiring

will you get married?
aerial boundaries

what is your best friend's theme song?
in other words

what is the story of your life?
rated x

what was highschool like?
overhead

how can you get ahead in life?
every night

what is the best thing about your friends?
scar tissue

what is tonight going to be like?
fakin' it

what is in store for the remainder of this weekend?
love rescue me

heh...that's kinda fun...i may have to try that a few more times on my own

what i need

2006-10-17T14:09:00.000-04:00

i was reading felix's blog and decided to do the same thing...search google for the term/phrase "joel needs"
the most notable hits were these:

joel needs to live with a family until he is old enough to look after himself. he is happy to live with white or mixed race carers

joel needs to quit smoking that stuff. when he beats you with facts, attack him with stupidity

the rest of the hits weren't really funny, except for a one that said i could easily start on any nba team because of my passing skills...but it didn't have the pure "joel needs" beginning...
anyway, maybe i should stop smoking this stuff and move in with some white or mixed race carers...i could use some care...

as you wish, tink

2006-06-19T14:58:00.000-04:00

Questions, questions...

1. Take the nearest book and look up page 18, line 4. What does it say...

"Whattaya got?"

2. Reach out your arm as far as you can. What do you touch?

Louie can nearly reach my door and righty can grab my choice hat that i'm also wearing in my msn picture.

3. What is the latest thing you watched on TV?

hmm...i think it was die another day with my pops.

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
3:15...dang...it's only 3:00

5. Apart from the computer, what else do you hear?
my room fan, Radiohead - Gagging Order and my stupid whistling nose from this stupid cold i've had for about 5 months now.

6. When were you last outside, and what did you do?
well...i finished work at about noon today and then i went to pete's place and he showed me around his house. nice place really, especially once he's done all the million things he plans to do with it.

7. What did you look at before you started answering these questions.
i just tab-browsed my daily blogs...and before that i read my email and checked gamespy.

8. What are you wearing?
nothing!...that's what you wanna hear, right? right? actually, that's not actually the case, actually. i'm wearing some jeans and a black tee...

9. Did you dream last night, if you did, then what was the dream about?
you know, i so rarely remember my dreams...

10. When was the last time you laughed?
some time earlier today i'm sure...probably something pete or bun said. or sam or jrod or rod or ed. or maybe from something i heard on the radio. or perhaps i just was thinking about funny stuff and laughed all on my own. also, i'm pretty sure i laughed when i read tink's post of this silly list of questions.

11. What is on the wall in the room you sit in right now?
a picture of the cockpit of a concorde jet, a pink floyd poster, and five bits of art done by my sisters in highschool...you should see them...they're quite keen.

12. Have you seen anything strange lately?
i saw a man drop from a plane and sprout wings like a hang-glider and then calmly float to the ground. he then came over to me and smiled and taught me how to do the same thing. unfortunately, he proceeded to sap me with this little sack of marbles he was carrying. since then, i can't remember how to sprout the wings.
on further consideration, this may be a better answer to number nine.

13. What do you think of this challenge?
vous ne pas un robot vraiment! (i'm not sure if i spelled that properly. perhaps tink could give me the seal of approval.)

14. What movie have you watched most recently?
i already told you...

15. If you became a multi-millionaire, what would you buy?
i'd buy a nice house in ancaster and a sweet infinity G35 and a heckarigfully choice computer. and then i think i'd buy my church a new choice building with a killer organ with 64' pipes and a fabulous piano and a tonne of bells and whistles.

16. Tell something about yourself that others don't know.
i guess that a lot of people i know may not know that i just picked up a new car. it's a little 97 civic with 105000km and an ultra-clean body. once i jazz it up a bit it'll be a hecka keen car for me for a long time, if i'm nice to it that is.

17. If you could change ONE thing in the world, without consideration to politics and feelings of guilt, what would it be?
i think i would remove pride. i hate my pride and the pride of others makes me furious. i think a great deal of the grief in this life would be eased if people where humble. however, i could just as easily have said that i would take sin away. when it comes down to it, i'm just looking forward to the kingdom.

18. Do you like dancing?
yes, i just suck at it...and i won't have anyone saying, "no you don't...you just don't try." or "don't worry about what other people think, just dance." that's all a bunch of bunk...

19. George Bush?
looks surprisingly much like a chimpanzee...i have a pic that compares about 30 of his facial expressions to those of chimps. they're frighteningly similar.

20-21.What would you name your children, boy and girl respectively?
benjamin joseph
sara jane, or jane francis

22. Could you consider living abroad?
no...when it really comes down to it, i don't think that i could be that far away from my family.

23. What would you like God to say to you when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"Enter my rest"

24. Four people you would like to answer these questions?
kins, los, kenny, and felix

because of mowing

2006-05-18T20:14:00.000-04:00

this past week i've been relegated to mowing for the vanderwoudes because one of the regular mowers is not done with school yet.
if i've talked with you about mowing before, you'll know that i hate it. if i haven't talked with you about it before, well, to sum up, i hate it! it's painfully boring and when it rains it's quite a lot like torture of the soul.
when you're mowing and sitting on a tractor by yourself for ten hours straight you have a lot of time to think. as my cousin ed puts it (paraphrased), "you have so much time to think that by mid-afternoon you've gone through everything you can think about so you have to think about the stuff you thought about in the morning again."
so, in all my pondering about life, love, and the average flight velocity of a laden swallow (african or european...you pick), a strange thing happened; a lyric from my church's psalter hymnal popped into my head. this is curious because it came from nowhere and was surprisingly relevant to the dark thoughts that tend to plague my mind while i mow. thoughts and questions about why God has seen fit to punish me in this way.
anyway...here's the lyric:

hymn 49 verse/stanza 2

my faithful saviour keeps me in his care;
without my father's will cannot a hair
fall from my head; he shall for me prepare
a heavenly habitation.
all things must serve to further my salvation.
his holy spirit brings me consolation;
he makes me willing now with veneration
in hope his yoke to bear.

indeed...all things must serve to further my salvation...

number complete

2006-04-13T15:57:00.000-04:00

on wednesday, april 12, 2006, at around 8:30pm, kathryn molly whetstone was born. baby kate was 8lbs 10oz, just like her sister lily. she's in perfect health and so is sara. thank the Lord for this new wonder in my family. a new daughter for sara and joe, a new sister for jane, hannah, and lily, a new neice for mar, kev, and me, a new cousin for william, fred, and sophia, and the seventh grandchild for my folks.

fabulous

schmleh

2006-04-10T17:27:00.000-04:00

so...a psychologist decides to investigate whether pessemistic kids and optimistic kids always maintain their respective outlooks on life.
he places the pessimistic kid in a room full of all the best toys and games and goodies and stuff and puts the optimistic kid in a room with a massive pile of horse shit.
the pessimist plays happily for a while, then begins to complain...the games could be better, the toys could be newer, the food could be more plentiful and tastier...he maintains his pessimism.
when the psycologist goes to observe the optimist, he's nowhere to be found.
understandably worried, the psycologist runs into the room and discovers a small tunnel in the pile of horse shit...
he eventually finds the optimistic kid deep inside an intricate labyrinth of tunnels inside the pile...
he asks the kid, "what on earth are you doing?"
the kid says, "well, with all this manure, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere"

schmleh!

neat

2006-04-04T14:38:00.000-04:00

so...this wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after one am, the time and date will be this:

01:02:03 04/05/06

that will never happen again in any of our lifetimes.
and i doubt it will ever happen again at all.
that is all

bunny films

2006-03-21T14:46:00.001-05:00

if you're in the mood for some thirty second movie reenactments performed by bunnies, then this is your site.
including such greats as alien, the shining, pulp fiction, and my personal favourite, jaws.

johari

2006-03-11T16:18:00.000-05:00

i found this via bvo.
i'd appreciate your honest input on it...

everglades

2006-03-07T16:19:00.000-05:00

yes...that is an alligator.
and yes...that is me.
this was definitely the most fabulous moment of my trip to florida. on an airboat tour of the everglades, under the direction of a local native, i got to touch a live, wild male alligator both above it's head and under it's mouth. i was hecka nervous but i wasn't gonna miss the opportunity to do something that i'll maybe never be able to do again.
as bvo will tell you, "i dig on the flora and fauna," so it was glorious to spend some time zipping around the 'glades and seeing the different plants and wild animals in their natural habitat. by far the best part of the trip.
the choirish parts were less than stellar, though we did have a wonderful concert for which we received many accolades from the locals and from our director (strangely enough).
spending the rest of the week with danboy's grandparents in cape coral was a nice, relaxing vacation. bvo, dan, and i got to chill out at the pool, get in a little beach time, hit the everglades, and catch the jays first grapefruit-league game of the season. altogether good times.
it was also great to meet danboy's family and to get to know them a little bit. wonderful people, to be sure.
anywho...i'm back home now and settling back into my loungy non-sod life.
feelin' good

coloured

2006-02-21T15:25:00.000-05:00

i discovered this site via stumbleupon.
it's a unique idea, to be sure, but perhaps the most intriguing part of it is the large set of emotions it tweaked in me while i read through it. some were very dark, some incredibly bright.
on the whole i'd say i left the page with a blue emotion. not a bright blue, as there was enough there to make me sad for humanity, but a blue with a great deal of depth and character because i was left with a sense of hope from most of the cards and each gave much insight into the author.
let me know how you felt about it...what colour did you end up at?

p.s. if you don't dig on the whole emotions-as-colours thing, i forgive you.

an exercise in sync

2006-01-30T16:24:00.000-05:00

try to make all the horses sing together. it was harder than i thought it would be.

tehe

2006-01-25T17:04:00.000-05:00

funny

midwinter heya

2006-01-24T17:55:00.000-05:00

i figured it was time for a little update on my life as it sits right now...sit being the operative word.
i'm enjoying the non-sodding life of playing many many video games and generally relaxing and taking care of things around my house. i cook, i clean, i babysit, i sleep. it's not terribly exciting always, but i'm certainly not complaining.
also, i get to hang out a little more often with my friends and family. many nights of poker and euchre and settlers and beer and some beer and a little beer now and then.
the rest of my family is doing pretty well. right now half of them are sick with coldish-fluish symptoms, including my youngest niece, sophia. she's in the hospital right now, actually, with an oxygen mask to help her breathe. she's got a virus that's a lot like a cold, but she's a little baby; little lungs, little nasal cavities, little everything. A little virus does a big job on such a little package. the prognosis is not bad, but she's not exactly in a great health spot. offer a prayer up for her and her family that she has a speedy recovery and that they can get back to normal life again soon.
also, it's been a month of niece and nephew birthdays in my family. will, fred, jane, and hannah are all january kids, so there's been much celebration and such. good times.
well...i'm not sure there's much else to say. it's not really that much of a life to update on. i hope everyone who reads this is well and happy. and if i don't see you all the time, i miss you immensely...or i don't know you.
cheers

two newses

2005-11-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

to begin, i've auditioned and successfully made it into the John Laing Singers. i'll be starting in January as a second tenor. pretty keen, i'd say...
and in other, more exciting news...i've a new niece! she was born today a little after 5:00pm into Mar and Kev's family. her name is Sophia Cornelia, after my sister Sara, my grandma Seena, and Sophia's grandma Cornelia. she's healthy, my sister's healthy, and we're all very happy.
it's particuliarly poignant that she was born on november 12 since my grandma Seena, my dad's mom, passed away on this day 25 years ago. God is wonderful and curious, isn't he?

busted tees

2005-10-25T17:20:00.000-04:00

super funny website of silly t-shirts...worth checking out

yeah...that's right

2005-06-27T19:20:00.000-04:00

could i have asked for a better jedi to be?

how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

i mean really...look at that quote...so good!

sheepish grin

2005-06-07T16:17:00.000-04:00

some of you may be wondering what has happened to my blog...if i have fallen back into the horrible slump that was my entrance into the blog world.
well, yes, i have fallen into a slump, but not the same slump...this one is because of sod.
i'm back at work for JVSF and i'm loving it, as you might have predicted. i'm getting a tan and some muscles and getting rid of all my nasty winter fat. the crew's pretty much the same, with the loss of diggidy and danboy, but the addition of the wonderful and increasingly sod JRod. he's a decent shot, that one.
anywho...i'm working and therefore not posting much.
but i assure you, if anything exciting happens, such a happenstance being highly unlikely, you'll be the first to know.

My my my

2005-04-22T17:31:00.000-04:00

Across the lake, a small Native American village prospers. It seemed like there were dozens of little animations playing in this tiny community. Women prepared hides, people paced between tents, and near one building a little kid walked along the top of the fence, carefully balancing as he strode along. "Alive" is really the only way to describe the graphics.

This is a quote from Gamespy's write-up on Age of Empires 3. I can't wait for this game...like not at all.

for the sod boys

2005-04-08T17:36:00.000-04:00

recognize this, boys?
maybe the word methane will tip you off...
good ol' google maps...

bvo's webcam

2005-04-06T23:47:00.000-04:00

heh...webcams are fun...

super-uber

2005-04-02T12:23:00.002-05:00

finally finally finally, after eleven years of living in grand rapids, my sister has returned back to canada. this is fantastic!
and...to make it all better...she brought her husband and her three little girls...(i know...of course she did...but it's the added awesomeness that i'm trying to get across)
so now my whole immediate family is living in the hamilton area...the first time we've all lived in the same area...ace!
to commemorate this momentous occasion, here's a pic of my twin neices:

aren't they cute!

bad medicine...mess you up

2005-03-28T12:26:00.000-05:00

so there's this young guy from my church named adam. he has diabetes and has some trouble keeping his blood sugar fluctuations to a minimum normally. the other week he went to his specialist and complained of fairly intense pain in his abdomen. the specialist told him that it was just constipation and that he should take a lacitive. so he did that...and the pain kept up for about five days until he decided to go to his family doctor who then told him that the specialist was probably right...but she didn't even check him over in any way. then, after suffering some pretty intense pain for another six or seven days, he decided to go see a naturopath...immediately this guy told him that he had a ruptured appendix and sent him to the hospital to get detoxified. his abdomen had been steeping in poison-juice for nearly two weeks. and he's been on lacitives...which didn't help the cause at all. AND his blood sugar has been fluctuating like a mad monkey because of all the poison. if the detox doesn't clear everything up, he may still need his appendix removed. that's bad news for a diabetic because it takes them a much longer time to heal.

one can imagine the outrage of him and his family towards the specialist and the doctor. so they wrote a letter to the OMA reporting the incident and returned to the family doctor to request adam's medical records so that they could switch to a different doctor. the doctor requested the fifty dollar fee and said it would take a day or two to get everything in order. she then added his file to a ten inch stack full of other people's files. all of these people were also quitting her practice.
now...how the heck does a doctor like this get a practice? adam has spoken with a fair number of people who are also leaving the practice and they've all been baffled at her lack of professionalism and her generally poor, and in this case potentially fatal, practice of medicine. doctors who practice medicine like this should not have been able to make it into personal practice in the first place. it's unbelievable.

so...i would request prayer for adam...he's not in anywhere near ideal health yet.
and i would hope for some better screening of the medical profession so that doctors like the one that nearly killed adam don't get their own practices.

salad fingers

2005-03-25T19:58:00.000-05:00

if you're in the mood for something really odd and quite disturbing, check out david firth's site.
he created salad-fingers:

creepy, huh?

first picture

2005-03-25T15:24:00.000-05:00

i'm pretty sure this is the first picture i ever ripped off the interwoo. i thought it would be fitting for it then to be the first picture i posted to my blog...
i can't really remember, but i'm pretty sure it came from a very early rendition of this page... it's not there anymore, as far as i can tell, but it's certainly from the same group of folk.
it makes a pretty choice desktop picture...if you can handle the brightness, that is.

death-boy

2005-03-24T14:43:00.000-05:00

some of you may be wondering what's up with the little death-boy on my sidebar.
well...bvo showed me to a handy little place where they have a bunch of blog templates you can choose from and then edit. i'm sure some of you know all about the site...but it's new to me.
clearly, i haven't edited mine much yet...but that's the intent.
so, before you start thinking crazy things about me and start worrying that i've forsaken the force and have turned to dark side, be assured that i will make this more to my own liking.
cheers

in response to danboy...

2005-03-18T16:40:00.000-05:00

even though i rarely/never post, i've been reading a number of blogs daily. i was intrigued by the five question game...therefore, i asked the right-good daniel jerund aruncey postma to give me some questions to answer. here goes:

1. Why is music so important in your life?

in short, for a constant joy and inspiration. music affects me in every facet of my life...from simple personal growth, to interpersonal relationships, and even as far as my relationship with God. music is on the tip of my brain and tongue at all times, and that has a major effect on my ability to simply wake up in the morning. if i think on any memory i have, chances are i can tell you what song i was listening to at the time; be that out of speakers, in my brain, or from the voices around me. also, many many songs remind me of good times, or bad, i've had. so, music links me to my past, it follows me in my present, and i don't expect it to forsake me in my future. i stand in constant amazement at the variety and potential for creativity God gave us in music. most of my deepest felt emotions and the times i've felt closest to God were, at least in part, brought on my music.

2. In what ways do you think technology has, in turn, blessed and cursed our generation?

technology has given us the ability to learn and discover more things more quickly than ever before. it has given us new ways to stay connected with each other, regardless of location. we have been granted great power through technology and with it have been able to do things that are unbelievable. this then must be a blessing...
on the other hand, perhaps technology, while allowing us to discover more quickly and accurately many things in Creation, has, at the same time, alienated us from Creation. now, i don't mean to suggest that technology is not an intended part of God's plan and therefore outside of Creation in some way, that would be a completely ridiculous thing to say. i mean that we can quickly lose touch with the earth and it's creatures and it's wonder if we spend all of our time looking through a microscope and studying a computer screen instead of actually interacting with nature. it is indeed easier and more efficient to use technology to understand Creation and to find information, and i certainly am wont to favour that route. also, it would be naive to claim that we should use technology as a backup resource and instead attempt to search out our answers in the physical world alone; it's not like i can just jump over to japan and exchange $100 and see how many yen i get back. it certainly makes more sense for me to find some website that will tell me the precise exchange. however, if (to steal a phrase from my boy bvo) "google is the arbiter of all reality", i think we might be a little disconnected from the reality being arbitrated.

3. What are your greatest joys and your greatest struggles as a Canadian Reformed Christian?

i am a very cerebral sort of christian. for good or bad, i tend to think my faith more than feel it. therefore, in a worship service, the part the affects my faith most and strengthens me most is the preaching of the Gospel. the canadian reformed church, theologically/doctrinally, believes also that the preaching of the Gospel is to be the focal point of all worship services because it is through the Word that we are strengthened and uplifted, and it is through the Word that God speaks to us. this is of great joy to me because when i really started listening to the preaching in my church, i immediately experienced growth in my faith and understanding. i also find great joy in my church community. in general, canref people are very good, solid, welcoming people. if they know you, they will help you. this is partly the dutch way, of course, but it is a sense of community that i do not take lightly. some people claim that canref'ers are particularly exclusive in their acceptance of people outside the canref church. well...not more so than any other tight community i've ever seen, especially if there are dutch folk involved. canref'ers like to support the people they know, just like any group of people. that's how come any canref'er can get a job landscaping in hammertown just by saying their last name. but that's not any different than any other dutch community. we've all played dutch-bingo...it's a connection and an immediate acceptance. and, what's more, you can get a job landscaping in hammertown too, if not by your last name then by association with me. it's not exclusivist, rather it seeks to help and support it's own just like any other community does.
as far as struggles, i have a hard time being at peace with the music in my church. certainly the chunes are firmly based in the psalms and other bits of Scripture, but the archaic genevan tunes we use are a bit more than lacking. i definitly respect the music for it's history and i would never say that the tunes aren't musically intriguing, but i have a hard time singing about my joy in Christ in a minor key at the pace of a dead whale. great reform needs to come about in my church's songbook. also, i find it difficult when i am consistently forced to defend my church for the actions and thoughts of a generation ago. but i don't think i'll rant about that here.

4. Respond to Romans 5: 1-5: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” How has this passage been made concrete in your life?

this passage gives me great comfort and hope. wretched sinner though i am, i am also called a child of God through Christ's triumph and am assured that my sin, repeated and grievous, is forgiven and i will be welcomed into eternal life. therefore, i can endure whatever suffering i experience and can live in the joy of the comfort of the Spirit. since i am now at peace with God, i am free to live my life in thankful obedience to his law, but without fear of the consequence of my failure, since the law has been kept for me by Christ and my faith grafts me into his blamelessness before the eyes of God. since, also, i am free from the curse of sin, i am free to spread God's love as a living witness to the saving work of Christ. so, i take comfort in my blamelessness before God through Christ and i am assured in my hope of salvation.

5. You have all the money and resources you could ever need. How will you spend your time? What do you consider most important in how you live and work?

i think i would spend a great deal of my time travelling the world and interacting with as many cultures as i could (ideally with all of them, though that might be difficult as a white, western, north american, christian). as for what i consider most important, well...i would have to say the spreading of the Gospel. i know that's "the right answer", and i'm sure many people are rolling their eyes reading that, but i honestly think that that is the most important cause in life. i am, however, not very good at actually living out that cause. perhaps, if i were to be more truthful about my life, i value interpersonal connection above that. i spend the majority of my time trying to strengthen the bonds i have with the people i love. i do think that relationships are of very high importance in life, but perhaps this is an opportunity for me to examine my priorities.

well then...that about does it for my answers to danboy's questions. i'm not sure if anyone is actually going to make it to the bottom of this post. i have a feeling that many will fall away in boredom somewhere near the middle, or just take one glance at the post and close the tab. for those of you who didn't fall away, thanks, and i hoped you enjoyed what i had to say.

___________________________________________________

Anyone else interested? Send me a note or leave a comment. Here're the rules.

1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me." The first five commentators will be the participants.

2. I will respond by asking you five questions.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)

passing afternoon

2004-12-24T14:17:00.000-05:00

wow...it has been some time since i've posted...but i guess that's expected from me now. since my last post i had family gift giving and recieved about the choicest gift i could have asked for.
i present to you a lyric from Iron and Wine's lastest release.
the album's called Our Endless Numbered Days.
the song's called Passing Afternoon.
here goes:

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon
Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon
And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her
Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms

There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days
Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made
And she's chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings
Sunday pulls its children from the piles of fallen leaves

There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass
Springtime calls her children until she let's them go at last
And she's chosen where to be, though she's lost her wedding ring
Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds

There are things we can't recall, Blind as night that finds us all
Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls
But my hands remember hers, rolling around the shaded ferns
Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I'd never learned

There are names across the sea, only now I do believe
Sometimes, with the window closed, she'll sit and think of me
But she'll mend his tattered clothes and they'll kiss as if they know
A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone

yeah...i dig
and here's a pic of our hero, Sam Beam...aka Iron & Wine:

oh...and that's a rolly...not a j

lion's mane

2004-11-13T13:52:00.000-05:00

here's a choice lyric i'm quite fond of:

run like a race for family
when you hear like you're alone
rusty gears of morning
faceless, busy phones
we gladly run in circles
but the shape we meant to make is gone

love is a tired symphony
you hum when you're awake
love is a crying baby
mama warned you not to shake
love is the best sensation
hiding in the lion's mane

so i'll clear the road, the gravel
and the thornbush in your path
burn the scented oil
that i'll drip into your bath
the water's there to warm you
and the earth is warmer when you laugh

love is the scene i render
when you catch me wide awake
love is the dream you enter
though i shake & shake & shake you
love's the best endeavor
waiting in the lion's mane

it's from iron and wine, one of my favourite artists. grab up any music of his you can find.