Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how much do you like your own handwriting?
No more than a 4 - I can't write very neatly unless I really take time and I can't write in a straight line without ruled paper.
Soup
Do you prefer baths or showers?
Showers are the best - except when staying overnight at a hotel - then baths are the best because I usually have time and they have those neat little bottles o' stuff.
Salad
What was the last bad movie you watched?
Bad as in porn or bad as in lousy? I guess I shouldn't need to ask - I know there was one on TV a few weeks ago that was so awful but I can't remember what it was - I just remember Cliff and I commenting that it was sooo bad.
Main Course
Name something you are addicted to and describe how it affects your life.
I guess in a way I am still addicted to cigarettes. I dream about having a smoke and the only reason I eat dessert in a restaurant is because it replaces my after dinner smoke. I have been cigarette free for 20 years and the smell makes me sick but there is still something about it. I can almost feel the way that I can flick the dead ash off and the ....oh forget it, I just can't talk about this anymore..., I need a smoke ;)
Dessert
Which instrument is your favorite to listen to?
Drums are great, but not on their own. I guess piano for a lack of an imaginative answer. Worst has to be bagpipes. When I lived in NS there was a guy down the street that practiced outside. It got tiring real quick.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Have You Ever Lost a Document in Your Computer?
Okay, I got to the school early to get a lot of my paper done. And I was very pleased to work through the meanings of the words sexual immorality and foolishness in the morning. This made the bulk of the meaning of the passage I was working on and was going to tie the whole paper together.
Then off to lunch and then to a store to buy a birthday present. Didn't even go to the party because I wanted to put in more good work! But when I went to read what I had written, all of the morning's work was gone. GONE!
We are on a network using free ware. What I didn't know is that when I save the document - even though it is already saved under a file, I have to click "Save As". The many times I clicked the save button it was actually greyed out - I couldn't tell. So the work was no where to be retrieved.
Frustrated I've gone back to pen and paper - I can probably do a better job from rough notes anyway. Thankfully the work I did was based on photocopied material - if I had to go back into the books to find all that info I would have cried!!
Then off to lunch and then to a store to buy a birthday present. Didn't even go to the party because I wanted to put in more good work! But when I went to read what I had written, all of the morning's work was gone. GONE!
We are on a network using free ware. What I didn't know is that when I save the document - even though it is already saved under a file, I have to click "Save As". The many times I clicked the save button it was actually greyed out - I couldn't tell. So the work was no where to be retrieved.
Frustrated I've gone back to pen and paper - I can probably do a better job from rough notes anyway. Thankfully the work I did was based on photocopied material - if I had to go back into the books to find all that info I would have cried!!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
My TV Evangelist Loot
I got another envelope from Peter Popoff the Prophet. He has send me so many little gifts to encourage me to send money - I am thoroughly enjoying them.
This time though was a real extensive set of stuff. I received:
a very cheaply made cotton glove
a plastic vial of annointing oil
a plastic baggie
I was too excited by the bulky contents of the envelope to read the attached letter, though Peter put big warnings to read the letter first! I hope I didn't jinx everything.
Without reading the whole letter here is what I understand I am supposed to do.
First the glove is G-d's glove of love (or was it love glove?). ((Did you watch the Simpson's with Milhouse's father's song "Can I Borrow a Feeling"? It has a line in it about a glove of love.))
I am supposed to write my pray need (never a prayer of thanksgiving or commitment always a prayer asking for something) on the palm of the glove. Then I put the annointing oil all over my hand and stick my hand in the glove making sure the glove gets saturated with the oil.
The I put the glove in the provided plastic baggie and slip in my twenty dollars (oh, that's to show G-d that I believe that he will bless my meager 20 with tons more money) and ship the whole thing off to Peter.
I am very worried that this won't work - after all it will be hard to write a prayer request on the glove let alone ensure that the oil doesn't smudge my request. What if my request gets garbled? I don't want Peter praying for the wrong thing!
I'm dying to know what my next package is.....
This time though was a real extensive set of stuff. I received:
a very cheaply made cotton glove
a plastic vial of annointing oil
a plastic baggie
I was too excited by the bulky contents of the envelope to read the attached letter, though Peter put big warnings to read the letter first! I hope I didn't jinx everything.
Without reading the whole letter here is what I understand I am supposed to do.
First the glove is G-d's glove of love (or was it love glove?). ((Did you watch the Simpson's with Milhouse's father's song "Can I Borrow a Feeling"? It has a line in it about a glove of love.))
I am supposed to write my pray need (never a prayer of thanksgiving or commitment always a prayer asking for something) on the palm of the glove. Then I put the annointing oil all over my hand and stick my hand in the glove making sure the glove gets saturated with the oil.
The I put the glove in the provided plastic baggie and slip in my twenty dollars (oh, that's to show G-d that I believe that he will bless my meager 20 with tons more money) and ship the whole thing off to Peter.
I am very worried that this won't work - after all it will be hard to write a prayer request on the glove let alone ensure that the oil doesn't smudge my request. What if my request gets garbled? I don't want Peter praying for the wrong thing!
I'm dying to know what my next package is.....
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Is This Funny?
We were talking about the church library and how it had been moved up the stairs into a small room. I responded with "Yeah, but it's a bugger to take the books out of disability". Now, I think this is hilarious - but is it funny in a Christian sense? The Bible talks about using wisdom in speaking - is this wise or foolish? I think its funny to put a library that is for the whole congregation up a set of stairs. I'm not saying that there is a better place for it, but it strikes me as funny. And there aren't really books on disabilities in the library so its not really truthful for me to make the joke either.
I am going to be one very nice and very mellow person if I have to lose all of this humour. Have you read Family Circus? Very Christian, very not-funny.
I am going to be one very nice and very mellow person if I have to lose all of this humour. Have you read Family Circus? Very Christian, very not-funny.
Its All Vanity
Okay, I think I may have had a major breakthrough. I have been aware of my critical nature for some time but never felt I could get a handle on it. But I think I am at a point where I can commit to at least not express it. I realise that my need to tell people my pet peeves is a form of vanity - as if no one else in the room could possibly be as smart as me to see the same thing I see. I guess others don't care or don't feel the need to speak up. Really, is there a need to point out the obvious? And if it isn't obvious its just mean spirited because there are much nicer ways of saying "that's stupid". Yeah, I know, I have some way to go.
Now I am not going to be able to do this overnight but I think I can make many attempts at it. And it will always be a guilty pleasure I am afraid because I so much like the irony of some of the things that happen in life - like not praying during the planning for the WDoP event. I mean, that's sad but funny too.
I am studying a passage in Ephesians and it talks about not being silly and to not use empty words. I am going to be struggling with this because I haven't been able to find enough research yet on what "silly" means. Is all humour out of bounds? Surely laughing is a God created response, and must be good.
If I can get a handle on my critical nature it will make me a nicer person. Its a pretty tall order but I'll see what I can do.
Now I am not going to be able to do this overnight but I think I can make many attempts at it. And it will always be a guilty pleasure I am afraid because I so much like the irony of some of the things that happen in life - like not praying during the planning for the WDoP event. I mean, that's sad but funny too.
I am studying a passage in Ephesians and it talks about not being silly and to not use empty words. I am going to be struggling with this because I haven't been able to find enough research yet on what "silly" means. Is all humour out of bounds? Surely laughing is a God created response, and must be good.
If I can get a handle on my critical nature it will make me a nicer person. Its a pretty tall order but I'll see what I can do.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
My Decision on Stereotyping
Last week I noted that I was uncomfortable with comments made regarding a group of people and noticed that others didn't seem to think it was out of line. I did a lot of thinking and reading about this because my knee jerk reaction was not only were we stereotyping but that we were crossing the line into racism.
Interestingly enough I found out of dozens of references 3 references that there is nothing wrong with stereotyping - since it is based in truth. All three of these references were by Christians. I will say that one of them had strict guidelines about when to use stereotypes and it was more in line with humour - for instance the Simpsons is funny because the characters are stereotypes - police are stupid and eat doughnuts, the wives are stay at home, the preacher's wife is a gossip, the East Indian runs a convenience store.
If stereotyping is okay based on "truth", then I could say that the only people who stereotype are Christians since I didn't find any non-Christian viewpoints that indicated stereotyping is okay.
Two of the writers even claimed that the Bible used stereotypes. The one example both gave was the Pharisees when Christ called them vipers. This is ridiculous for two reasons - he often spoke directly to the Pharisees and thus was not saying that all Pharisees are vipers. He was directing his speech to the one thing the Pharisees said about themselves - that they were the experts of the law. He challenged them on their own perceptions of themselves. But most importantly was that Christ was actually breaking a stereotype - the people thought the Pharisees were the wisest and the law keepers. Jesus was actually saying "this is not true". The other example was the good Samaritan and the Priest in the good Samaritan story. Again, Christ was not stereotyping - he was using an example of a stereotype to challenge his listeners.
The fact is there are few benefits to stereotypes. By saying that the Jews may be perceived as arrogant discounts every Jewish person who is very humble that is not noticeable. Just as there are many Dutch who are very careful in what they say and very gracious and would never speak out of turn. The other problem is that even if we were to accept a stereotype what exactly does it do for us? If the Dutch are blunt is that good or bad or just different? We tend to see the "other" as bad. But everything is relative. And as Christians as soon as we talk about people we have to think of them as God's children - and we all fall short of his nature.
So when Rob Ford says that the "Orientals" are hard workers that is no better than saying that Americans are ignorant. Because neither statement is true for every person and it serves us no purpose. People are hard workers, people are ignorant, kind, gracious and impatient. The only bending I would give on this is that we can state facts - for instance, "the policy of the XY industry is that workers are expected to take their breaks next to their machines and work 12 hours". When someone says that the Asians are hard workers and sleep next to their machines it is why we believe this that is important. Do the majority sleep next to their machines, do they do so willingly and most importantly why?
Interestingly enough I found out of dozens of references 3 references that there is nothing wrong with stereotyping - since it is based in truth. All three of these references were by Christians. I will say that one of them had strict guidelines about when to use stereotypes and it was more in line with humour - for instance the Simpsons is funny because the characters are stereotypes - police are stupid and eat doughnuts, the wives are stay at home, the preacher's wife is a gossip, the East Indian runs a convenience store.
If stereotyping is okay based on "truth", then I could say that the only people who stereotype are Christians since I didn't find any non-Christian viewpoints that indicated stereotyping is okay.
Two of the writers even claimed that the Bible used stereotypes. The one example both gave was the Pharisees when Christ called them vipers. This is ridiculous for two reasons - he often spoke directly to the Pharisees and thus was not saying that all Pharisees are vipers. He was directing his speech to the one thing the Pharisees said about themselves - that they were the experts of the law. He challenged them on their own perceptions of themselves. But most importantly was that Christ was actually breaking a stereotype - the people thought the Pharisees were the wisest and the law keepers. Jesus was actually saying "this is not true". The other example was the good Samaritan and the Priest in the good Samaritan story. Again, Christ was not stereotyping - he was using an example of a stereotype to challenge his listeners.
The fact is there are few benefits to stereotypes. By saying that the Jews may be perceived as arrogant discounts every Jewish person who is very humble that is not noticeable. Just as there are many Dutch who are very careful in what they say and very gracious and would never speak out of turn. The other problem is that even if we were to accept a stereotype what exactly does it do for us? If the Dutch are blunt is that good or bad or just different? We tend to see the "other" as bad. But everything is relative. And as Christians as soon as we talk about people we have to think of them as God's children - and we all fall short of his nature.
So when Rob Ford says that the "Orientals" are hard workers that is no better than saying that Americans are ignorant. Because neither statement is true for every person and it serves us no purpose. People are hard workers, people are ignorant, kind, gracious and impatient. The only bending I would give on this is that we can state facts - for instance, "the policy of the XY industry is that workers are expected to take their breaks next to their machines and work 12 hours". When someone says that the Asians are hard workers and sleep next to their machines it is why we believe this that is important. Do the majority sleep next to their machines, do they do so willingly and most importantly why?
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