Lilly

Watch for Crickets in Times Square.
(Anybody read the book...?)

New York

Hello everyone, just on a break from my course and wanted to write a quick note. We are learning so many great things that it is almost hard to take it all in. So far I have managed not to get mugged and even spent some time walking the streets by myself last night. We ate in a diner just like on Seinfeld and we have even hailed a cab. Tonight we are going to check out Time Square, and we hope to buy some pizza from a street vendor. Also we will be doing some shopping on 5th avenue.
Laura

Creative Writing

Here is an old essay I found from my days in U of R's "persuasive & expository writing" class.(dated 1997)

God
by Yoshua Brekkner

I am not God. I am a university student.

As a student, however, I know that it is never sufficient to make such a statement without backing it up. So I've prepared a list of reasons supporting the assertion that I am not God. I believe you will find it to be irrefutably true.

I was born on a Thursday. My mother, my father, and the doctor whose face I peed into in my first few seconds of life can all testify that it was the seventh of October, 1976, somewhere around noon. This year, therefore, is my twenty-first year of life. The church at which I am currently a member, however, was established in 1942. We must assume that God was alive at that time, and it follows, then, that God must be at least 54, going on 55 years old. In fact, if the witnesses of many texts and documents are to be believed, God is substantially older than that. The reason there is some uncertainty is that God's birth, unlike mine, was not a witnessed event -- or at least nobody that we know of recorded any such event. God could be hundreds of millions of years old, but suffice it to say that he (she?) must be significantly older than I.

Still not convinced? Then consider this: it is commonly agreed that, by definition, God knows everything. That's prerequisite for the job. It is quite easy to prove, however, that I do not know everything. Just a few weeks ago, I proved it as I wrote a Math 214 midterm exam. Surely God could have scored better than 25%. I prove it again each time I answer the telephone and ask who is speaking. In fact, if I were God, I would seldom have to talk to anyone at all since I would know exactly what would be said anyway. Surely, then, I am not God.

God is also capable of doing anything -- that is, God is all-powerful. Omnipotent, you might say. We know this because God alone in history has been able to exist for such a long time without the government having any record of that existence. Because we have this knowledge of God, many people, when desperate, call on God to perform some act that they have been unable to perform themselves; yet nobody calls on me with impulsive and unlikely promises when it's forty degrees below zero and the car won't start. I can't even start my own car on mornings like that. Can someone as incapable as I, then, be God? I think not.

We know that God must be everywhere at once. Although this is impossible for us to understand, we know it must be true because if it wasn't, God could only help one or maybe two people at a time with his knowledge and power. In a world packed with nearly 6 billion people, God often needs to save people from terrorist bombs in Palestine, and help raise money to bail out Jim Baker in America at the same moment. I, on the other hand, take 15 minutes just to drive from my house to school -- if all the lights are green. If I were God, I would not be much use to anybody.

God is not asked to pay taxes, and yet I have no choice.

Lastly, but most surely, God, with all of that trademark wisdom and power, would not be subject to such humbling problems as acne, diarrhea, constipation, and male itch, all of which I have helplessly suffered from at some point.

The few similarities that may exist between me and God are easily dismissed in the light of the above evidence. I am not God. Yet, my mind is not yet at rest; if God exists, but I am not God, then I would like to figure out which one of us is God so I can introduce my humble self.

---

My prof wrote: "Interesting - I actually enjoyed it. 75%"

Where is every one.....

I feel the need to confess that I am addicted........ its all I think about, if I can just get my hands on it, I know I can get through the day, it helps me forget the problems in my life and it makes me feel soooooo good when I'm doing it. SoDuKo

Every 7 minutes there's a lull in the conversation...

Since I have to return my book, The Ecology of Commerce to the library (they won't let me renew it anymore) and since that means I have to un-dog-ear all of the pages I've noted ... here are the pages I've dog-eared (for my future reference ...)

pp 29, 30, 33, 43, 48, 54, 55, 82 (bottom of first full para), 89, 90.

I know you're all fascinated.

Kevin, if you're reading, the water heater's been turned down, and the cats have been fed. I'm about to head over and feed them again.

I think this was the word...

Veracious
1-Truthful, honest
2-Marked by truth- accurate

Is this Legal? - Not that it Matters

So i guess my boss, Mary didn't like me attending to my sick child. she came to me yesterday and told me that I would have to use 3 days of my holidays beacuse of it. I'm not sure that she can do that, but what eles can I do. If i make a fuss, I have to work with her and things will get ugly, I don't want that. So I'm feeling very abused today. In an effort to make he actions seam much mor acceptable she told me that my district manager thought I shoul dhave to use all 5 days of my holidays, but shes not going to do that, she didn't think that was fair.
AHHHH.
M

What global warming? I don't feel anything...

from Christian Century.org

"Some evangelical leaders, such as Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, oppose activism on global warming, saying there is neither a scientific nor an evangelical consensus on the topic..."

see http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=1855 for the full article, "Evangelicals split on global warming", by Adelle Banks

Sick......still

I've been home all week from work. Would be nice if Micah hasn't been so terrible sick and I as well. Seams like we are on the mend. I'm not going to work tomorrow either. You all can pray for the softness of my bosses heart in this matter. Even though she is a mother herself, I'm not so sure she realy understands what is like to have a sick child, a husband that is working shift work as well as being sick yourself. Not a fun time. Of course In my head there is no where eles I would rather be that with my sick little one, thats when kids need there moms the most. Any way I have been trying to come up with something insightful to say, since I have all this time on my hands.... not. But my brain is currently cloged with snot so thinking only exasterbates the matter. So I though I would post some pics for you all to enjoy.
First we have Micah and our new cat, see Josh's blog a few down. He is currently unnamed. Kev is deciding but so far he doesn't like any of the suggestions I have given him.
We have Micah and her Princess. This is Cara, My new step-sister-in-law.
I though I woudl include a wedding picture as well. The groom is my step brother Sam and the best man is my step brother Jordy (Larrys sons). They are good guys and I realy like Cara. There first offical date was attending my wedding. So they have been together for a while as well. In fact they were ingaged for 4 years!!.
And I realy liked what they did for a cake... Cup cakes!!!!!Ummmmm.
M.

Lent

Yessss! Now we can talk about Jason. What a nerd.

So Long - for a while

Well, today is Ash Wednesday. The beginning of the season of Lent. A time to follow Jesus into the Wilderness. I am going to lead the youth on this journey, and I am going on this journey myself.

Lent is traditionally a time to give something up and a time to take something on. I have decided to go offline for the season of Lent. That's going to be tough. Except for work and email, no internet for me. No blogging, no surfing, so checking things out, no keeping up to date. In place of this, I have decided to take on reading large portions of the Scriptures. I was recently challenged by Henry Braun in this area. I was convicted that I have lost a love for God's Word. So I am going to take his advice to heart, or at least try to.

So, that's it for me. See you on the other side of Easter.

J

P.S. - Kevin, I do believe you have to back up the fact that you are on Jason Hildebrand's blog. You must give some evidence to that regard.

Soul Mates

About every year or so I read a book that is so in-tune with my own thoughts and where my soul is at that I wonder why I didn't write the book, and I wonder why I'm not best friends with whoever wrote it. The book Blue Like Jazz (written by Donald Miller), that I am currently reading, is just such a book.

I am about half-way through the book, and I have probably underlined, starred, checked, circled about half of the text. It is that good and that relevant to me.

Let me give you some tidbits from the second chapter, titled Problems: What I Learned on Television.

I sometimes wonder whether we are moving through time or time is moving through us...I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.

If you don't love somebody, it gets annoying when they tell you what to do or what to feel. When you love them you get pleasure from their pleasure, and it makes it easy to serve. I didn't love God because I didn't know God.

An observation on the human condition: We have to be taught how to be good. It doesn't come completely natural. In my mind, that's a flaw in the human condition.

The problem is not "out there". The problem is the neady beast of a thing that lives in my chest...I went there to try to get my head around this idea, the idea that the problem of the universe lives within me. I can't think of anything more progressive than the embrace of this fundamental idea.

A poem by C.S. Lewis:
All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;
I talk of love - a scholar's parrot may talk Greek-
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

I think Jesus feels strongly about communicating the idea of our brokenness, and I think it is worth reflectioin. Nothing is going to change in the Congo until you and I figure out what is wrong with the person in the mirror.

Fantastic stuff. I think Don Miller is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors (guess I'll have to see about his other books though).

J

Everything Bad is Good for You

I just finsihed an interesting book called Everything Bad Is Good For You. The subtitle is How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter. Interesting, not phenomenal. It was quite a "heady" book - lots of psychology, media theory and neuroscience involved, so at times it was tough to stay with the train of thought.

Anyway, the author's premise (Steven Johnson) is that over the last 20-30 years (and especially in the last 10), popular culture has actually been developing our brains and making us smarter. Contrary to the popular thought that mass media will always gravitate to the lowest form of intellect, and head us all in an increasingly downward spiral.

He calls this upward trend the "Sleeper Curve". The Sleeper Curve basically suggests that popular culture (and he is looking at all forms of media and entertainment) is becoming more and more complex, thus demanding greater cognitive abilities to follow it and to navigate the various and new interfaces.

Johnson argues that to truly evaluate what pop culture is doing to our brains, you cannot look at it from a moral perspective. And I would have to agree with this. If you put morality and ethics aside, the trend is definitely toward more complex ideas, and it is forcing us to learn at a greater rate. We are becoming smarter as a society in relation to complex decision making, complex systems, and understanding how to explore new interfaces. At the very end, Johnsons also makes a small argument for the idea that pop culture is not making us morally bankrupt either. He points to evidence that most of the "research" done that points to a morally downward trend is completely unreliable because it is based on too many assumptions. Again, I think he has a case there.

One thing that he does say is suffering in today's pop culture is the ability to stay with a sustained, long-term argument. He gives the example that contrary to popular belief we are actually becoming a more text-based culture (emails, blogs, chat rooms, etc.), but that these texts come in short bursts. Whereas a sustained argument (like the book he is writing) is beginning to suffer in this reality. To counter this, he calls for a balanced approach between all forms of media that interest you (gaming, TV, film, print, etc.).

So, if you want a complex read, check it out.

J

Cool, not cool

I'll tell you what cool is, Jason Hildebrand writes about me on his blog. Truly, I'm the standard. I refuse to have to back up this statement as it is self evident.

Here's something not so cool.http://avokatsomo.com/arkisto/2006/02/23/romanialaista-hockeytaituruutta/
No ethics whatsoever in this little hockey scrum. These guys need to come to Canada to learn the gentleman's rules to ice conflict. Even Bertuzzi could teach these guys a few things.

Who's Jason Hildebrand

I guess cool is in the perception of self, or of others, but perhaps for not the same reasons.

Thought regarding economy: (FINE PRINT: This is not an original idea, but one that has kept niggling in my head, and yes, niggling is a word I made up and will continue to use until it finds its way into a dictionary). Does money grow on trees? Is money or profit ever generated without being at someone eles's expense in terms of labour, exploited resources or talents? and is it ever ethical to get money for doing nothing, but rather being in a position where it (profit, goods, money) can be taken or produced without the original producer sharing in the benefit? The next question then, and perhaps one that is hardest dismoss, is where are my investments and who am I damaging by trying to save for retirement? What is interest and whose money becomes my gain? Is it ever right to benefit at the exploitation or expense of others?

Related but perhalps a random thought, also not my own, but from Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael": The lie of our culture's need to make money, work the rat race, hating it, and yet feeling that this is the only option available all started when somebody decided to lock up our food. Who would really work the crazy hours we do, for as many years and more as we do, and continue this way of life for hundreds of years if we could just take our food from our environment. We would of course labour enough to generate or find our food, but that would likely be it because we would have what we needed to survive, Perhaps another lie of our culture is that we would not be content with that simple of a life, In fact, it is that very lie that keeps our economy afloat, isn't it.

The Ecology of Commerce

Reading The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken.

Hawken argues that there are design flaws in the way we do business, and that business needs to not only adapt in order to become sustainable, but also restorative. To model itself after nature's process.

Here are some interesting tidbits...

The problem is, in part, in the language of business ... "In the language and accounting of classical economics, resources do not technically exist until they are drilled, extracted, pumped, or cut; in biological accounting, the principle is reversed."
...and...
"If Hawaiians had 138 ways to describe falling rain, we can assume that rain had a profound importance in their lives. Business, on the other hand, only has two words for prift - gross and net. The extraordinarily complex manner in which a company recovers profit is reduced to a single numerically neat and precise concept ... it does not factor in whether people or places were exploited, resources depleted, communities enhanced, lives lost, or whether the entire executive suite was in such turmoil as to require stress consultants ... "(p10)

---

He quotes a farmer / essayist named Wendell Berry: "However destructive may be the policies of the government and the methods and products of the corporation, the root of the problem is always to be found in private life. We must learn to see that every problem that concerns us ... always leads straight to the question of how we live. The world is being destroyed -- no doubt about it -- by the greed of the rich and powerful. It is also being destroyed by popular demand. There are not enough rich and powerful people to consume the wohole world; for that, the rich and powerful need the help of countless ordinary people." (p15)

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"... 27 years worth of stored solar energy is burned and released by utilities, cars, houses, factories, and farms every 24 hours." (p22) Translate - what the earth (natural processes, God...) took 10,000 days to create we un-create in a single day.