Holiday Music

I was listening to the electro-pop song called "Fireflies" by Owl City. Based on the vocals, I thought maybe this was some solo project by Ben Gibbard from Death Cab or Matt Thiessen from Relient K...but the techno-pop doesn't really seem to fit their style. Anyway, I went to check out Owl City's Myspace and found out that it is Matt Thiessen who does some vocals on the song and also helped to co-produce the album. It's got a catchy beat but I'm not sure if I understand the lyrics which he claims to be a product of many sleepless nights. What I found interesting was that on his MySpace, he has:

"I follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly. He is my life, my strength, my all."

I hope he can use his growing fame to proclaim God's fame to the world.

I've listened through "Battle Studies" by John Mayer and I must say I'm disappointed. I would consider myself a pretty big fan of his music - I think I have all of his albums and have attempted to learn how to play through most of them at one point or another. Perhaps it's my high expectations of Mayer but all the songs sounded pretty bland. Memorable riffs that you can find in songs like Neon, Why Georgia, Belief, The Heart of Life, Something's Missing...and pretty much everything by John Mayer Trio...aren't as prominent. The lyrics aren't very impressive either - loving a girl with half your heart while you look around for someone better; moping, heartache and self-pity. I wouldn't mind so much if it was accompanied by some blues-rock like that found in "Try!" I could maybe see myself busting out this album and listening to it after a bad breakup. I'm definitely not feeling any desire to grab my guitar to learn any of these new songs. Sorry John, but this is a FAIL.

Another album I've been listening to is "The Element of Freedom" by the gorgeous Alicia Keys. Why am I listening to all these heartbreak/heartache tunes? Anyway, it's not bad. I'm not sure if I like how she uses classical piano riffs in her songs. I have a feeling Claude Debussy would be rolling in his grave if he heard Like the Sea. But, I still love her voice and that makes this album alright.

I do want to get my hands on Jay-Z's latest at some point (I know I'm like 5 months behind here but with my current budget for music, it's tough! The search for fresh, memorable, biblically sound, congregationally appropriate music takes priority these days).

He Knows My Name

This is one of my favorite songs and the guy singing it has skills. Awesome voice.

The "Universal Office" of Believers

"Every believer is a prophet, a priest, and a king. We are all prophets (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:14ff). Every believer is to exhort (Heb 3:13), counsel (Rom. 15:14), evangelize (Acts 8:4), and teach (Col 3:16) with the word "dwelling richly" within. You must speak!

As a priest (1 Peter 2:9), you have access to the presence of God, as did the priests of old (Matt 27:51; Heb 4:14-16). You have the responsibility to offer spiritual sacrifices and deeds of mercy (Rom 12:1-2; Heb 13:12, 16). You must serve!

As a king (Rev 1:5-6), you have authority over the world (1 John 5:4), the flesh (Rom 6:14ff), and the Devil (Luke 10:19). We all have divine weapons to demolish strongholds and obstacles to the kingdom of Christ (2 Cor 10:4-5). You must take charge!

Nobody outranks an 'ordinary' Christian and every layperson has the responsibility to initiate, plan, guide and manage ministries of both word and deed. They must not be passive!"

(taken from pg 157 in Timothy Keller's Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road which cites RB Kuiper's "The Glorious Body of Christ")

Home

The last few days in Sisley were a bit depressing. With most of our furniture moved/sold, it looked vaguely similar to the home we first moved into almost 2 years ago...

Sleeping on the floor isn't much fun =(

I’m really thankful to be back home in Calgary. My trips to and from Australia in 2009 have been rife with delays, missed flights and unexpected overnight stays in a hotel, a friend’s couch and the airport. Still haven’t experienced lost luggage, a plane crash or a DVT so I can be grateful for small mercies. I feel extremely lucky for the opportunity to fly home for Christmas each year to be with family and that’s something to keep in mind – delays or no delays.

This time around, I arrived at the airport at around 9:45am alongside my friend Jamesy. We decided to grab brekkie and, since I had a bit of time ‘til my 12:05pm departure, we decided to do so at the airport. We got to the check-in counter and discovered that my flight was going to be 12 hrs delayed. The 747-400 for my flight had just left Los Angeles on route to Brisbane and would not arrive for another 14 hrs or so. Apparently they had some sort of mechanical problems that needed to be fixed. I printed off my itinerary that morning but I didn’t check the flight status online (I think some passengers did check and it wasn’t updated).

It turned out okay though. I stuck with James, got to see a few guys in the arvo, and then made my way back to the airport in the evening. Finally left Brisbane at around 0035 on Dec 10th and arrived in Los Angeles at around 1930, Dec 10th after an uneventful flight. I watched the ‘Time Traveler’s Wife’ and some really terrible war-related movie called ‘Hurt Box’. The rest of the time I slept. I had the aisle seat in a row of three and a girl named Devon (sp?) occupied the window seat. Luckily, the middle seat remained empty and we took advantage of the extra space. I made a bit of small talk with her, found out she was studying at JCU in Townsville on exchange from Northern Arizona University for a semester. She had managed to hit up New Zealand and even Indonesia/Bali and planned to return to Australia to see everything else in the future. I did not envy her travel situation as she had spent the last 60 hrs going from Indonesia to Sydney; then up to Townsville to grab the rest of her things; then down to Brisbane for the delayed flight to Los Angeles; and she still needed to grab a flight home to Phoenix. In hindsight, I should have told her not to hesitate to wake me up if she needed to get up at any point during the flight. I would wake up for meals, watch a movie and then fall right back to sleep. Each time I woke up she appeared to be busting to get to the toilet.

Thankfully, Qantas put many of us up at the Hilton for the evening which included meal vouchers. I was able to enjoy a nice sleep in a massive queen/king sized bed that sure beat sleeping on the floor during our last night at Sisley St.


I've caught up on HEAPS of sleep. I think that's what I've been doing mostly. Had a chance to play some floor hockey on Sunday which was awesome! I have a feeling this break is going to fly by really fast...

My dad in front of the Real Canadian Superstore. You can see my mom running off in the distance trying to get inside because it's -25ºC and she didn't want to stand there for a photo.

Regular Kraft Dinner that's not the microwavable kind...

Dad and bub getting ready to head out for an evening walk so that mom can get a bit of sleep

Emily is 3 weeks old.

Dad says that he misses sleep but they've decided that she's a keeper =)

Who's that strange looking fellow?!?

This is what driving on the right side of the road looks like for all those Aussies. So far, no incidents of driving on the wrong side...

Blast from the Past

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow's a mystery and today is a gift - that's why it's called the present." - unknown

So after a massive cleaning and moving job in Brisbane, what do I find myself doing back in Calgary? CLEANING! YAY! I arrived back home realized that I have no room in my closet or dresser for my suitcases of stuff.

Conclusion: I have way too much junk and I should start by
a) refraining from buying more stuff
b) getting rid of old stuff that I don't need or can't use anymore

I'm cleaning out some of my binders and came across some rather amusing self-quotes from my grade school days...

"I want to be an ophthalmologist (can't believe I got the spelling right...) because I enjoy science and medicine. I also am interested in surgery and the eye. I want to be an ophthalmologist because I have bad eyesight and I want to find a better treatment than laser eye surgery."

"Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God." - unknown

"People are like stained-glass windows
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out
But when the darkness sets in
Their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"There are 3 kinds of people in this world - those who can count and those who can't." - unknown

Wintertime!

Saw this weather warning for Calgary. Oh how I miss Calgary weather and the snow. Good times ahead.

Chuckles

Here are a few things that made me laugh recently...

I'd totally buy this for my office too Ocho...

Stumbled across this on a friend's facebook wall =)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GROUND!!

Patients Always Lie?

If you watch House, you know that you always have to take the history details with a grain of salt because patients often don't provide you with the full truth...

66 yo man presented to hospital with a piece of wire protruding from his anus claiming that some friends stuck a bottle up his ass and that he was trying to fish it out with a coat hanger.

Turns out he wasn't lying about the bottle part but he was about the friends. An abdominal X-ray revealed that this was a solo effort. There's no way he could have looped the coat hanger around the bottle after insertion.

Apparently 3 months post-laparoscopic surgery, he did the same again with 8x33cm butternut pumpkin and unsuccessfully tried to remove it with a fork. He was rewarded with a colostomy. Should have given the bottle back to him...

350,000

The economy changes all the time and, depending on where you are, the cost of things are a bit different. I remember when gas/petrol prices were $0.40 a litre. I grabbed a slurpee the other day from 7-Eleven cuz it was stinkin hot and it set me back $3.40. The same slurpee would have cost me $1.20 in Canada (and no, it's not because it's -400º and nobody buys them). That was my first and last slurpee of the year - not paying that much for iced-sugar again.

So what does $350,000 get you these days? Apparently, it's just enough to get yourself a left-hand, sequined white glove that Michael Jackson wore during a 25th anniversary TV special moonwalk. It also happens to be enough to:

- provide clean water to 194,444 people in Ethiopia
- provide 4069 orphaned children in Malawi with day care for a year
- provide 116,666 children in Bangladesh with reading and writing lessons
- provide 10,000 people living with HIV/AIDS lifesaving antiretroviral treatment for one month (or a year's worth of treatment for 833 people)
- provide roughly 951 people in a developing country, who suffer from non-resistant tuberculosis, with 12 months of curative, drug therapy (4000 people die from tuberculosis each day and, with exception to multi-drug resistant strains that are especially high in places like the Ivory Coast, Abkhazia, Thailand and Uzbekistan, we have the cure for it)

I'm just spitting out ballpark figures and not writing some research paper - feel free to look up the exact costs yourself and please resist your hedonistic temptations and invest your $350,000 in something more than a white glove.

And why does it have to be $350,000? What about how we spend $1000? Or $10? Not trying to get legalistic here but it's something we don't stop and consider often enough. At the very least, it's something I need to think about more.


PS - maybe the Hard Rock Cafe plans to use the money to buy 20,000 bibles to be distributed all over the world. If that's the case, then good on them and forget what I said about the glove.

Ready

Regretful rebellion revealed,
Remorseful, repentant, reprieved

Rescued, reconciled, redeemed
Refreshing renewal received

Rejoicing, recommitting, recruiting
Re: resurrection remedy