I’m the Invigilator!

I’m on something of a blogging roll, so you get another post.  It always helps when I have the time too.  I have oodles and oodles of time on my hands right now, because I am “invigilating” and exam.  That’s basically an awesome way of saying that I’m sitting in a room doing nothing while students write exams.  This is how the time gets on my hands.  Honestly I’m a little concerned, because sometimes I don’t know how to get the time off my hands.  Are there any home remedies for this?

We are coming up on Easter weekend.  I’m excited for a few reasons.  First, I love Easter.  I think it’s one of the two most meaningful holidays in the year.  It’s always significant to remember who Jesus is and what he has done.  Second, I love chocolate.  This bears no spiritual significance, but it does increase my enjoyment of Easter.  Some naysayers might argue that I love chocolate more than the average woman.  I would argue that they are stereotyping women.  I would also argue that this particular argument is preventing me from enjoying my Creme Egg.  Third, I am playing percussion for our church on Sunday.  This Sunday includes a choir.  Those that know my involvement with SPC’s choir might suggest that I’m making a habit of playing percussion for choirs.  Nothing wrong with that, I say.  Here’s someone else who made a habit of percussion (sometimes with choirs):

Ironically, not playing percussion in this photo

Unfortunately he also made a habit of singing, and writing bad songs.  Songs like “Sussudio.”  What is that?  Someone’s name?  A disease?  I would say that only time will tell, but it’s been about 30 years and we still have no answers.  We want answers Phil!  Answers!  I’m getting angry.  I need a distraction!

Ah, much better.  See?  The world needs more kittens.  Only they can counter the curse of the Phil.  I remember a long time ago (like last summer) I promised the world “Phil Collins Week.”  I think I might have accidentally started that today.  Thus, you will be getting a Phil Collins song as one of your videos today.  Probably the one I just made fun of above.  Man I hate that song!  Perhaps next post I will try to unravel my complicated relationship with Phil Collins.  If you’re a serious drummer, you just eventually have to come to grips with the Legacy of the Phil.  But that is for another day.  Today I will bid you adieu by wishing you a happy Easter.  Enjoy your long weekend everyone!  If I’m lucky, I’ll get to be on a sailboat on Saturday.  If that’s the case I will try to bring you some pictures to enjoy.

Two videos today.  First, Phil’s song “Sussudio.”  It’s just such a cheesy video!

And finally, a lego re-enactment of Samson’s final moments.  It’s not Easter related, but it is biblical.  Thanks to the guys from Pass it to Bulis for this one.  They are my favourite Canucks blog of all time, by the way.  You should check them out.

 

So You’re Sayin’ there’s a Chance!

One of my more recent goals (like in the last 2 days) is to be more creative.  Not so much to generate creativity as to force the creativity I have in to action.  This is an entirely personal goal and it has no bearing on your life.

Except . . .

EXCEPT . . .

I’m back!  Back on this hopelessly lonely blog.  This is probably my third attempted resurrection of this blog.  I recognize that this is officially sad, and it probably says bad things about me as a person.  However, as my brother always says, “creativity is a muscle.”  Which means that I choose to flex that creativity muscle here on my little corner of the internet.  Will you join me?  Only time will tell.  I can only promise you some relatively humorous chatter, and maybe pictures of kittens.  Because what the world needs now is kittens.  Some might tell you the world needs love.  I say that love is personified in the fluffiness of an adorable kitten.  In fact, let’s take a little kitten break right now.

This was the first one I found on Google!

But of course, as you well know, little kittens grow up.  And as they grow they lose some of their sweet innocence as they deal with the realities of modern life.  Unfortunately, sometimes this happens:

If only he had a loving home!

It really is tragic.  And these are the types of weighty matters I hope to discuss with you here.  Perhaps I’ll bring back “Monday Morning Musings.”  The title could probably use some work.  Especially because I’m pretty sure there’s a sewing blog or something that uses the exact same title.  I do not wish to be associated with sewing blogs, but not for the reasons you might think.  I actually fear violent reprisals.

Well I think that’s enough for now.  Perhaps next time we’ll discuss how car companies assume that you’re completely stupid.  Yeah, that might be fun.

Until next time, I leave you with my traditional video ending.  I may have put this one up before, but it’s just a delightful music video.  And maybe this is how me and the sewing blog would eventually settle our differences.

 

Finally! A song!

Some of you may remember from long ago, my PIANO CHALLENGE 2010!  I admit that my neglect of this blog may have caused you to forget.  It certainly caused me to forget!  But now here we are, December 31st.  I said I would learn and record 5 songs on the piano and post them to my blog.  I accomplished half of that – I have learned the songs.  However I obviously have not posted any songs in video form yet.  Come to think of it, I haven’t really posted anything on this blog in quite a while.  Well, I am extending my deadline for this project, because it is fun and I think I’m getting slightly better at the piano.  And now, here’s what you’ve been waiting for all year.  The first installment of PIANO CHALLENGE 2010!  (Warning: I sing).

 

Since we were last together . . .

Oh so very many things have happened.  For example, I joined Twitter!  Why?  Because I just don’t have enough venues to share things that I care about and you don’t.  A blog wasn’t enough (and honestly, I tend to neglect my blogs), so I joined the Twitter.  What kind of things do I post on Twitter?  Well, things like “I’m hungry,” or, “OMG LADY GAGA’S NEW ALBUM IS EPIC!!!!!:):P:(:)”  Just kidding.  I only post important news like how the Canucks are doing, or minute by minute updates of Summit’s ball hockey league games.  That actually almost got me kicked off Twitter.

So how are you dear friends?  Same as always, I expect.  It’s funny how the internet changes, but people never really do.  Or is that the other way around?  I’m just trying to put a few words in here before Tara takes me out “extreme shopping.”  It’s basically where you shop with a million coupons and try to get things as cheap as possible.  It’s more fun than surgery, but probably less fun than sitting on a couch.

Well that’s all for now folks.  I just wanted to get something started again here.  For a video I leave you with Josh Ritter, and a song from his newest album.  I went to his show and it was awesome.  Definitely in my top 5 of all time shows.  Speaking of which, I may get back to Stop Five Records soon. We’ll see. Anyways, enjoy the video.

 

“PIANO CHALLENGE 2010!” Updates

It’s been one of those weeks where I’ve had at least three great rants, but when I sat down to write on this lovely little blog, none of them came to mind.  If only Tara came with some kind of digital transcribing feature.  Ha, people with features!  What will they think of next?  Anyways, in lieu of ranting (which not even Tara probably cared to hear) I give you an update on PIANO CHALLENGE 2010!

So far I have learned about 6 or 7 songs, but I have only perfected one.  The video for that one should hopefully be ready shortly.  I promised 5 songs, so I’m trying to break down the ones I want to do for sure.  Again, any requests would be helpful here.  Here’s what I’m thinking so far:

1. “Kick Drum Heart” – The Avett Brothers.  This is the one that’s pretty much ready for production.
2. “When You were Young” – The Killers.  I’ve actually already played this one, I would just need to touch it up.
3. “Shape of my Heart” – Backstreet Boys.  Progress here has been slow, but I made a promise to Tara.
4. & 5 are where I could use some suggestions.  Some of the other songs I’ve learned so far?  “Wavin Flag,” The chords for “Learning to fly,” Most of “A-Punk,” and a few other Avett Brothers songs.  But I feel like I can do better, so suggestions are welcome.

Yeah, that’s it for tonight.  Like I said, requests are welcome.  I want this project to be quality(ish), and something I can try again next year.  So we’ll see how it goes.  To finish tonight, I’ll give you another piano song I recently discovered by watching Benny and Joon.  It’s for songs like this that they invented the piano.  Hope you enjoy.

 

Yeah, being home is cool too

Okay folks, no long introduction here.  I think that I may be tired.  I spent about 15 hours driving in the last two days.  But the good news is that this driving completed my June of touring.  Nineteen days out of thirty I’ve been on the road this month.  Let’s see, 19/30=63% of my month spent travelling,  It’s been great, although I’m happy to be home again.  However, I wanted to just gather some random observations and notes together from the last month.  This is one of those, “enough to warrant mention, but too little for its own post” kind of thing.  So here we go!

• I was introduced to the show “True Beauty” this last week.  I proceeded to introduce it to Tara.  She likes it.  A lot!  She is currently on her third episode, while I sit here blogging.  It’s not exactly life-giving television, but I think everyone should watch a clip of how the show ends, because the loser of the week gets shown all the bad things they’ve done over the course of the show (which have been recorded by hidden cameras).  I think it may be the closest thing we have to a picture of judgment day.  Very interesting, but also very cheesy.  Especially since one of the main judges is a man who holds much moral authority in our world, this guy:

Helping people look good . . . on the inside?

•  Northern BC is windy!  Everywhere from Chetwynd and north is just a wind parade.  It makes the temperature a few degrees cooler, and the people a few degrees tougher.  Also, if you want to live in a place where the trucks outnumber any other vehicle by about 6:1, you need to live in Fort St. John.  I’m also fairly certain that there’s more guns than people in that town.  I told the pastor that when the revolution happens, I’m going to Fort St. John, because they should have no problem defending themselves.

 

• Okanagan Lake was surprisingly warm.  I was there for a baptism, and it was incredibly windy.  For some reason I thought the temperature of the water would be affected in the same way that the air temperature was.  Apparently this was not the case.  I learned some science this summer!

 

• This month has been a month of babies and puppies.  On my first tour, almost everyone had young children.  Same with my second tour actually.  This time, everyone had puppies.  Really cute little bouncy puppies.  No real point in me telling you that.  I just thought it was interesting.

 

• If you’ve never listened to the Relevant Podcast you really should.  I owe it to Josh Otto for introducing me to this one.  It’s so fantastic and funny.  It’s sort of what I want my podcast to be.  I particularly recommend this one.

 

• In case you’re wondering, I’m still in love with the ocean.  Not in the same way that I’m in love with Tara, or Jesus for that matter.  But it’s something special.

Well, that’s about all I have for now.  Except I should tell you that I just downloaded the new National album, and I’m already a big fan.  Great work guys!  So we’ll end with a video or two.  Oh, by the way, I’m going to have a Phil Collins week sometime soon.  Why?  I don’t know.  He and I have a complicated relationship.  Maybe I just need to work some things out through Phil Collins week.  Perhaps you can all celebrate and loathe him together with me.  We shall see.  Now, for the record this doesn’t mean I’ll be posting about him all week.  It just means that I’ll only be posting Phil Collins videos.  Yay!

Now, I hate doing this but there’s just no good live version of this song on youtube.  This is a band called Sleigh Bells who I just discovered through the above mentioned podcast.  If this song doesn’t literally melt your face off, nothing will.  But please don’t come knocking on my door if your face does get melted off.  It would gross me out.

And, from the National’s new album (Song starts at about 1:10):

 

Summer Adventure #6 – You have to go Nowhere to get Somewhere

Hello again faithful readers.  You may be witnessing history today, since it has been so long since I’ve posted two blogs in one day!  Such is the necessity when you’re working with the time-access matrix.  It’s kind of like the real matrix, but not real.  Which actually, when you think about it, makes it even more like the real matrix.  Don’t think about it though, because your head will explode.

So the next leg of my fantastical journey took me all the way to Chetwynd, BC.  If you’ve never heard of it, don’t worry.  It’s never heard of you either.  Chetwynd is nestled in the mountains about 3 1/2 hours north of Prince George.  It really is a lovely drive.  It is, however, completely desolate.  Look:

Cars? Any cars here? How about animals? Anyone?

  So yeah, pretty empty space.  I listened to about three podcasts and a whole bunch of music.  Now, if I’ve told you anything about my travels up north before, I’ve probably told you that I long to see a moose.  It is my dream.  And so far, despite several trips to different locations, I have not seen one.  So, at about hour 3 of my drive, I decided to pull over and see if I could find one:

Not a bad moose call if I say so myself, but not all that successful.  So eventually I ended up in Chetwynd, where they have 1 pastor and 3 interns from the college right now.  I told them I wanted to introduce myself to the church as Mr. Chet Wynd.  They didn’t think that would be a good idea.  We had lots of fun hanging out, though and church on Sunday was great.  We went swimming after that for about 3 hours.  And Terrance continued to try to teach us the “broom dance.”   We then went out to dinner at another family from the church’s house, where Chad the intern and I invented the marble game.  The marble game requires you to have a loft, a bucket of marbles, and someone to judge the game and sweep away the excess marbles.  It is preferable (but not yet required) if you call your judge “Marge” or “Margaret.”  If you wish to know the complete rules of the game, feel free to ask in the comments, and perhaps I’ll fill you in at a later date.

Anyways, I just gave you a whole whackload of information in a short time, mostly because my time with the matrix is running low.  I wanted to end this post with a video of the pastor’s family dog, named Shiloh.  They actually have two dogs, but Shiloh is the real star.  She has a blue mohawk, and she’s more jumpy and vocal than any dog I’ve ever met.  So I bid you adieu, with a video of me and James playing with Shiloh.  Make sure you turn up the volume so you can hear all her noises.  See you soon friends!

 

Summer Adventure #5 – Swift we rode in to the Mighty Canyon

Well friends, it has been quite a trip so far, let me tell you!  And I can explain the lack of blogs about it by an interesting combination of two factors.  I have either had the time to post, but no internet access.  Or I have had the internet access, but no time to post.  And really, that combination really can dictate a lot of your life in today’s modern, crazy world.  Time+access=awesome blog post about my ongoing summer adventures.  And here we go!

So on Wednesday I took off in this little Suzuki Swift (a rental car for this week) to head up to Quesnel.  Now, the usual van I drive is named “Olaf the Destroyer,” and for good reason.  He is a powerful force, destroying all in his path.  This car, well, let’s just call him “Nigel, drinker of warm beverages.”  He’s sweet and all, but not exactly powerful.  Although he is very quick.  But not so quick that I accidentally speed somewhere near Prince George and get a ticket and make my wife cry.  Not this time folks.  Here, for the curious (Tara), is a picture of this week’s vehicle.

Tally-ho, everyone!

So at about 10:30 or so I found myself winding my way in to the beautiful Fraser Canyon.  This highway is definitely in my top 10 favourite drives in BC, and it may even be in the top 5.  It’s quite breathtaking.  So of course I slowed down to take a picture or two (after making sure the coast was clear).  Click “more” to see the pictures, and also to hear about the zany antics of one Bethel Church in Quesnel.

 

Summer Adventure #4 – I Hope-Princeton gets me to the Okanagan!

Cheesy title?  Perhaps.  But I’m sure you’re used to that by now my fine readers.  Yes, I am currently ensconced quite comfortably in the lovely town of Penticton.  Actually, to be more accurate, I am staying in a house in OK Falls, which is about 20 minutes west of Penticton (or maybe southwest).  And don’t ask me about the falls, they’re alright, but not that great.  Teehee!

Not a whole lot to report today to be honest.  I had a great time with the youth of Bethel church in Penticton yesterday.  We played this game where you can only use one hand to shoot the ball at people.  It’s called something like “gagaball.”  I accidentally won.  But I got all sweaty, and then had to preach.  If I had a dollar for everytime I’ve had to preach while sweaty because of youth group games, I’d be taking you all out for ice cream!  But I’m not complaining, I love that stuff.  So all in all a good night.

The main reason for this post is to tell you about my drive up here.  I took the Hope-Princeton highway, as you may have guessed.  It really is quite the beautiful drive.  It winds its way through Manning park to the small town of Princeton.  Now, if you ask me, Princeton is one of the weirdest towns in BC.  It’s just sort of plopped in to this valley, and it’s an hour away from anywhere else.  Actually, now that I think about it, you could probably say that about most rural BC towns.  This one is just so completely landlocked that it just seems odd to me.  But on the plus side, it has a booster juice!  Not that I even like Booster Juice, but Tara loves it!

Not a fan.

But my favourite part of the drive is the town of Hedley.  I have a fine tradition whenever I go through Hedley.  But I think instead of telling you, I will show you through video.  Enjoy!  (Warning: it might be quite loud)

 

Monday Morning Musings

Good Monday morning to you all!  I hope everyone had a good weekend.  Or at least a satisfactory weekend.  We’re going for a “B” or higher here.  No B minuses.  Anyways, I am back at home, just heating some home made soup that Tara left for me in the fridge.  It is so very nice to be home, but I can’t get used to it I’m afraid.  I hit the road again on Wednesday.  This time I go to the Okanagan.  I’m very excited, but for now let’s see what this last week churned up, in bullet form.

• Big ups to Evangel Church in Powell River for a great Sunday morning service.  I really enjoyed worshipping with you guys, and appreciated the opportunity to share.  All of the churches I visited this last week were great, and lots of fun.  It was a great Sunday.

 

• In related news, according to Youth Pastor Mark L, “Powell River has a restaurant problem.”  Now, this might sound like just one person’s opinion, but I have been there a few times and it’s very true.  We had a group of about 15-20, and went to the Coast hotel.  They refused to seat us.  So after much debate we went to the Sky Dragon Chinese Buffet.  I think they were slightly embarrassed, telling me it doesn’t represent the best Powell River has to offer.  But I actually really liked it, and their sweet and sour sauce would probably be up there in my top 5.  But definitely behind Dragon Fort in Abbotsford.

 

• Do any of our readers have an Iphone with the “Tic Tacs” app?  Because if you do perhaps you could explain to Ashley from Powell River exactly how it works?  Apparently you’re supposed to pull up your “tic tac container” on your Iphone, shake it around, and then “pour” the tic tacs in to someone elses empty container.  Well, good luck!  Ashley and Julia tried for about 2o minutes, and did not succeed.  I tried for about 10 minutes, and also did not succeed.  Here is the thoroughly unhelpful demo that comes with the app.  Did I mention I think the whole thing is ridiculous?

• As you may know, I am travelling solo this summer, because Tara is working all of June.  Now, travelling alone is not necessarily bad, and it even has it perks.  However, BC Ferries is unfriendly to solo travellers.  They are cold, calculated, and ruthlessly efficient.  On the ferry to Horseshoe Bay from Gibsons, I took a break from my usual habit of sleeping in my van and went up to get a burger.  I got my BC burger, yam fries, coke, and glass of water and found an empty table.  It was a fairly busy day, so they were asking people to clear out if they were done eating.  I finished my yam fries, went to open my burger, and discovered (to my horror) that it was a veggie burger.  So I left my drinks on the table and went back to get the right burger.  The service lady was really friendly and got me a new one as fast as she could.  However, it was not fast enough.  I returned to my seat to find my table empty!  My coke and water were gone.  The people sitting beside me hadn’t even noticed it gone!  Mysterious?  Indeed.  Happy ending though, since the same burger lady let me get new drinks.  But a warning to be heeded: do not leave ANY trays unattended on BC Ferries.

Well, that’s about all the items that have been kicking around my brain.  Instead of a comic today, I want to leave you with a few of pictures from my trip.  Just because I like them.

Comox to Powell River ferry

From a lookout facing Powell River. Old ferry dock in the foreground.

End of sunset - took this while messing with shutter settings.

Well folks, thanks for joining me once again!  I hope to have many new summer adventures to write about from my next trip.  Until then, here’s a video or two.

Now, I don’t usually put up videos with just songs.  I prefer to have something visual or something live to go with the song.  But this song is so good, and there’s no good live video and no music video that I could find.  Thanks to Dan Kang for showing me this one.  Oh, and if you think the song is too slow and boring, just wait until about the 2:05 mark.

And here’s a high energy one to send you off.  Happy Monday!