Christmas

The week of Christmas started off stressful. About a week and a half earlier, my car broke down. It would've cost $500 to maybe get it running somewhat reliably, but there still would've been a major coolant leak in the head. So I decided not to get it fixed. I borrowed my parents' car for a couple days, then I spent the weekend in Calgary (I took the bus), and then I rented a car for a week. The next weekend, I picked out a car and I picked up the car on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, I had some Christmas shopping to do.

The Cavalier and I had some good years together. She carried me 80,000 km, to various jobs, to Colorado and back, and to Fort McMurray and back quite a few times. Now I have a Neon (one of the newer ones, so it should be fairly reliable), and it has a manual transmission, so I'm getting lots of practice with that.

Once Christmas came, I was relieved. The urgent items were taken care of. I got to celebrate the birth of Jesus with a lot of my relatives, and my girlfriend (yes, I have a girlfriend now) spent a few days in Edmonton starting on Boxing Day. We had some quality time together and she got to meet lots of my relatives. They seem to get along well.

Later in the week, I got to see my friends who moved to Toronto a couple years ago. I've seen them a couple times since they moved, but this was their first time back to Edmonton since they moved.

I'm sure some new stresses will come soon, and I know there are some things I need to get done in the near future. But it's been a good break, and I really feel blessed to have all these people in my life.

Anticipating Christmas again

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are only a small village among all the people of Judah.
Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you,
one whose origins are from the distant past.
The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies
until the woman in labor gives birth.
Then at last his fellow countrymen
will return from exile to their own land.
And he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord’s strength,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
Then his people will live there undisturbed,
for he will be highly honored around the world.
And he will be the source of peace.
--Micah 5:2-5 (NLT)

Christmas is coming again, so I posted this prophecy, written roughly 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Maybe this sounds like Jesus would be a military leader, but maybe the "enemies" that the people have been abandoned to are themselves--their own sin.

Confirming Stereotypes

When I moved in September, I signed up for one of those deals where you sign up for extra high speed internet and they give you a computer. (Or maybe I have to pay an extra $5 a month for the computer, but it still works out to a good deal, if it's a computer that you want.)

The computer arrived last week. I set it up and browsed the manual and found this warning:

"WARNING: Handling the cord on this product or cords associated with accessories sold with this product will expose you to lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Wash hands after handling."

Then I looked at the label attached to the power cord. It said, "Made in China." I try not to believe stereotypes, but Chinese manufacturers are making it difficult. At least they give warnings when they sell lead products to adults.

Or does lead only cause cancer and birth defects in California? In that case, I'm safe.

How concerned should I be?

As regular readers and my friends probably know, I am a Christian. You probably also know that the Bible says homosexual activity is wrong. With that in mind...

When Canada introduced gay marriage nationwide a couple years ago, I wasn't thrilled but I wasn't very concerned. On one hand, I don't think every sinful activity needs to be illegal, but on the other hand, this seemed to be giving society's blessing to a sinful activity, not just allowing it. But on the other hand, I just didn't see how gay marriage would harm our society. The Supreme Court said churches couldn't be forced to do gay marriages because that would violate religious freedom, so one of my biggest concerns was allayed.

A couple years later, for the most part I don't see problems in our society stemming from allowing gay marriage. In the legal world it gets kind of tricky though. First there's the issue of forcing marriage commissioners to perform gay weddings (which I already addressed here and here). Then there's the issue of forcing organizations that own buildings to rent out their buildings for gay weddings. I heard about this happening with the Knights of Columbus. But then I searched for an article, and I found out the BC Human Rights Tribunal decided that because Knights of Columbus is a Christian organization, they can refuse to rent out their buildings for gay weddings. They only got in trouble because they cancelled a booking after first accepting it. I have heard that businesses like Bed & Breakfasts can't turn away couples for being gay though. I'm not sure where I stand on that one. I can see that B&B owners would be concerned that they're facilitating sin if they have to rent to gay couples, but then how far should the law go in allowing businesses to discriminate in serving customers?

I think my biggest concern about this issue right now is about freedom of speech. Some people get in trouble for speaking out against homosexuality. I may not fully agree with everything the people mentioned in this article wrote, and I would prefer if they said it in a less inflammatory way. But I'm not a big fan of "hate speech" laws. Don't get me wrong, I think encouraging violence should be illegal and I think any form of hateful speech is deplorable. I just think the line between legitimate criticism of a group and hate speech is too murky. No group should be immune to criticism. I'm not sure exactly where the law should stand on this issue, but I suspect it's going too far now.

Throwing one more link and monkey wrench into this: I have seen arguments that it is okay for Christians to be in committed homosexual relationships. There's a page here that talks about that perspective. I think they make a good argument about Sodom, but I'm not so sure about their arguments about Paul's references. Their interpretation of Romans 1 certainly isn't the most obvious, from my reading. As for the other references to homosexuality in the New Testament, they base their arguments on the original Greek, which I haven't studied. Do any Greek scholars want to comment?

The Map

Sometime in the very near future you may notice that most of the red dots on the map (on the right hand side of this page) have disappeared. That's because ClustrMaps (the service that provides the map) archives and resets the map every year, to prevent it from become a big red splotch. If you want to see a map that covers the last year or so, click on the map, then click on "Maps Archive."

Better than Hasselhoff?

(By the way, I put a couple of links to David Hasselhoff videos in this previous post.)

Update (May 16, 2012): It appears that this copy of The Urkel Dance has been removed from YouTube. You'll have to find a different copy yourself.

Reminiscing about politicians

The years 1993 to 2003 were special years for Canada and especially for Alberta. No, I'm not saying this because of economic growth or paying down the government's debts. One reason I miss those years is this: we had hilarious political leaders at both the federal and provincial levels. I've seen Jean Chrétien (Prime Minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003) and Ralph Klein (Premier of Alberta from 1992 to 2006) on TV in the last two days, and it's had me reminiscing.

Chrétien was known for trying to strangle a protester, defending himself against an intruder with an Inuit carving, and most of all, for bungling the English language. Hardly a week went by without a gem in the news. Like the time someone asked him about the increased drug traffic across the border and he said, "It's more trade." (He thought they'd asked him about increased truck traffic.) Or the time some protesters got pepper-sprayed and he said, "For me, pepper, I put it on my plate."

Ralph Klein was known for his drinking (which he cut back on after the infamous homeless shelter incident that most Albertans probably remember) and for speaking without thinking. He accused eastern creeps and bums of driving up the crime rate in Calgary. He said dinosaur farts caused the ice age that killed the dinosaurs.

Stephen Harper and Ed Stelmach just aren't that funny.

(In case you're wondering, Jean Chrétien was on TV having lunch with Rick Mercer, and Ralph Klein was on TV giving horse racing advice to Lynda Steele, a local news anchor. If you want to see the Jean Chrétien clip, click here, navigate to Season 5, Episode 7, and click on "Mercer: At Harvey's with Chrétien.")

"I'm telling you, it feels good to get up without a hangover."
--Something Ralph Klein learned in his third term as premier

A Recent Weekend

The weekend before last I had a guest in town, so we visited a few places like the rodeo:
Elk Island Park:

and we took a quick detour to Toronto while we were at it:

Eskimos

Last year I attended one regular season football game. It happened to be the game where the Edmonton Eskimos got mathematically eliminated from a playoff spot for the first time in more than thirty years. For the first time in my life, just one year after winning the Grey Cup, they missed the playoffs. Coach Danny Maciocia wasn't a very popular person around Edmonton, despite winning a Grey Cup in his rookie year. (Some people claimed he just inherited a great team and got lucky.) Although I'm no expert on when coaches should be fired, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that hiring an offensive coordinator would help.

A year later, the Eskimos have missed the playoffs again and Danny Maciocia is keeping his job. After two years in a row of doing what no Eskimos team has done since the 1970s, I thought it was time to let him go. Like many things I say on this blog, this isn't a strong opinion. But they need to do something different.

Baptisms

I go to a church that doesn't baptize babies. We baptize people after they personally make a decision to follow Jesus. Last Sunday eight people were baptized. Seven of them are in our youth group and the other one is a youth leader (who was in the youth group until recently). Being a youth leader myself, I've had the privilege of getting to know all of these people better over the last few years. It was really special to hear each of them talk about why they're getting baptized, each in their own unique way. I think I learned something new about each of them too.

Amid my doubts about God and my questions about what God really expects of us, here's one thing I'm pretty sure of: if the God that the Bible tells us about is real, there is nothing better than living a life devoted to him. Congratulations to everyone who was baptized. I think you've made a great decision.

Halloween Part 2

Only 16 trick-or-treaters. Maybe it's because I forgot to turn on the outside lights at first. Maybe they couldn't read the sign on my door that said the doorbell isn't working.

People started showing up at 6-something, and they'd mostly stopped by 7:30 or 7:45. I still saw people in costumes walking around outside after that, but none asked for candy. I don't remember what time the trick-or-treating stopped last year, so it's hard to compare.

If you come and visit me sometime soon (if you know where I live, or if you have my email address or phone number so you can ask me where I live), I'll give you candy. For reasons I will not disclose, I will also give you garlic if you should so desire.

Halloween and Daylight Saving Time

It's 6:00 on Halloween evening and it's still light out. This doesn't seem normal. I remember trick-or-treating in the dark when I was younger, and more recently, I remember handing out candy in the dark. Granted, the trick-or-treaters haven't started to show up yet, but I'm sure they will soon.

This must be because of the change in Daylight Saving Time rules. Now we set our clocks back after Halloween; we used to always do that before Halloween. A year ago it was 5:00.

I wonder if people will complain that it wasn't dark enough. I wonder if the trick-or-treaters will stay out later. Combine that with the decent weather, and I wonder if I bought enough candy. Stay tuned...

Oil and friends

Premier Ed Stelmach has finally announced his decision about oil and gas royalty payments, jacking up royalties by about $1.5 billion per year, total. I'm no economist, so it's really hard for me to predict what effect this will have on the oil industry and on job prospects in Alberta. While I don't want to see people lose jobs, it probably wouldn't be bad for Alberta if our economic growth was slower. As it is, we may be the richest province in Canada, but it's an expensive place to live. I've heard before that Alberta has the highest rate of depression in Canada--more evidence that money doesn't buy happiness.

One piece of evidence the premier may have found the right balance: people on both sides are angry.

On Saturday I went to visit two friends who moved to Forestburg, Alberta a while back. They went to my church while they lived in Edmonton. So a few of us from church went to visit them. They have a funny dog named Rolo who was scared of my other friends' baby at first. Actually, the dog was scared of all of us at first, but she got less fearful of most of us. Except Curtis. (If you'd seen how he treated Rolo, you'd understand.)

Our Forestburg friends took us to the school where they work and we played a sport called "pilo-polo" or something like that. Their description went something like this: "It's kind of like floor hockey, but you play with a ball. And there are nets." At this point I was wondering what the difference is. "You hit the ball with these foam bats." Then I was starting to see the difference. And it turned out the ball was larger and softer than typical floor hockey balls. It was a tiring, challenging game, maybe because I'm kind of out of shape, but it was fun and I scored two goals. One of them was even for my team!

"I was elected to lead, not to read"

Back in July, I said on this blog that I'd have to see the Simpsons movie in the expensive theatre, even if it sucks. Now I must apologize. I did not see it in the expensive theatre. I saw it this past weekend at a cheap theatre in Calgary with Kate. But I'm happy to say, it didn't suck. It was quite a bit better than Bean and Duct Tape Forever. (I still want to see Mr. Bean's Holiday though.) It had so many funny parts, they didn't even fit in the trailer! Overall, I think the earlier part of the movie was funnier and the later part got more serious (maybe a little overly serious). If you like the Simpsons, go see this movie.

Meanwhile, we had a civic election here in Edmonton on Monday. All of the currently serving councilors who ran again were expected to win, but one lost--Mike Nickel. Last year there was a big controversy because council voted themselves a rather large pay increase. Mike Nickel was one of only two councilors to vote against the raise, and the only councilor to vote against all the proposed pay and benefits increases (see this page for the complete list). Obviously Edmonton voters didn't consider this the most important issue.

Something I'm relieved about: it looks like we won't have a federal election this year.

New Anesthetic

I saw an article recently about a new type of anesthetic that's being tested on rats now. This anesthetic only disables pain-sensing neurons. This would avoid the numbness and paralysis that normal local anesthetics cause. The only recent time that I had a local anesthetic was when I got my wisdom teeth out. I was drooling and couldn't talk for an hour or two after I got out, and my mouth was partially numb longer than that. So I could see this new anesthetic being good for surgery recovery.

The problem that I see is during the surgery. I'd still be able to feel the doctor cutting me (whether they're cutting my gums or some other body part), but it wouldn't hurt. I think that might be freaky. It also might make people flinch as soon as the doctor starts cutting, and generally, I don't think you want flinching during delicate surgery.

Do you think you could handle feeling yourself being cut open if there was no pain?

So in conclusion, I think this research shows a lot of promise, but there are some situations where I'd be wary of using it.

Is morality arbitrary?

A question I've been pondering: if God decides what's right and wrong, does that make morality completely arbitrary?

Here's an example of what I mean: if God had decided that hatred is good and love is bad, would that be any worse than living in a reality where love is good and hatred is bad? If God truly defines morality, then that reality couldn't be any worse, morally. (Yes, it may involve more suffering, but suffering wouldn't be a bad thing.) If that reality was worse, wouldn't that mean God is subject to some sort of higher moral principle that even he can't control? If God completely defines morality, then making love better than hate would have been a completely arbitrary decision on God's part and there's no inherent reason for it except "God said so."

Is there an alternative explanation that I'm not seeing?

House pictures

My internet access did indeed get set up on Monday, but it took me until now to get around to downloading the pictures from my camera--all two of them. So here it is--my house:

And here's the first home-cooked meal I ate there:

The Move

You haven't heard much from me lately on this blog because I've been settling into my new house, which doesn't have internet access yet. (It's supposed to be hooked up on Monday. We'll see if that happens. I'm writing this at my parents' house.) My house is a townhouse in Clareview (northeast Edmonton). It was built in the late 1970s. I took possession on September 15 and moved a bunch of my stuff there, with my parents' help. I've been gradually buying more stuff for it, like a fire extinguisher and a toaster, and gradually unpacking.

The house is probably the nicest place I saw in my price range while I was looking, but of course it's not perfect. There's a large stain on the carpet in one bedroom, and the doorbell doesn't work. My dad came over and fixed the back doorbell and began to fix the front one, so hopefully it will work soon.

I'll post a picture or two once I have my photos and internet access in the same place at the same time. In the meantime, thinking about my doorbell reminded me of a song, so give it a listen:

Frisbee and philosophy

If you throw a frisbee (or a ball) badly, do you ever apologize to the catcher? Sometimes I do, but lately I've been wondering if that's a bad thing. If I apologize for something minor, does that tell the people around me that I think it's something significant and I expect them to apologize when they do the same thing? If so, our efforts at being nice and humble might be backfiring. It could be making us think we have to be good at stuff before our friends will like us. The "I have to impress people before they'll like me" attitude could make it harder to make friends and grow friendships. Ultimately, it can take away our sense of freedom.

Of course we need to apologize for more significant things, but would it make the world a better place if instead of saying, "I'm sorry for that bad throw," we say, "You should've caught that! It was only 40 feet away from you!"?

Busy weekend

Saturday is the day I take possession of my condo in northeast Edmonton, so I'll be doing some moving that day. Meanwhile, two friends of mine from out of town will be in Edmonton, so I'll get together with them. (They're friends of each other, so this isn't a coincidence.) It's kind of a shame these two things happened on the same weekend, but I guess this is a nice problem to have. Then early next week I'll get together with another out-of-town visitor, and near the end of the month yet another visitor will be in town.

If I'm indecisive, does that make me a genius?

"The more you know, the harder it is to take decisive action. Once you become informed, you start seeing complexities and shades of gray. You realize that nothing is as clear and simple as it first appears. Ultimately, knowledge is paralyzing. Being a man of action, I can't afford to take that risk."
--Calvin, September 21, 1993

What's wrong with my email?

I got an email from a friend recently asking if my ualberta.net email address is still working because he got some error messages when he sent messages to me. A couple months ago, someone else was having trouble sending me messages. This makes me wonder if I'm missing emails from anyone else. If you got an error message when you sent me an email, please re-send the message through Facebook (if you use Facebook) or send to my alternate address: ascheuer Άт yahoo.com. (You'll have to replace the word "Άт" with an @ sign. I wrote it this way to make it harder for spammers to get my email.) And if you still have the error message, please send that too.

I did hear that the ualberta.net server will go through some sort of upgrade that will be announced this month. If this doesn't fix the problem, and soon, I'll have to switch to a different main email address.

A Tribute to Dinkus

Last year, my sister adopted a cat from the Wetaskiwin SPCA and she named him Dinkus. (That's short for Dinkus Maximus.) I haven't spent much time with the cat (for one thing, I'm allergic, although my sister has been cleaning him well, so he's probably less allergenic than the last time I saw him), but he's a very friendly cat. Of course, to someone who lives with him, he's needy. When my sister shows any signs of being awake, he starts poking her so he can get some attention. One time (or maybe more than once) recently, he started poking her when she was trying to go to bed, until she took him in her arms.

Dinkus loves to eat muffin wrappers and salsa, so my sister recently bought mild salsa (or was it medium?) instead of strong salsa so he wouldn't get as sick. When my sister's friend took care of Dinkus for a while, he managed to sneak into the closet where his food was stored and finish the bag a lot faster than he was supposed to. He gained a bit of weight then.

This gets me thinking of the nature vs nurture debate. Does the cat have psychological problems because the kids at school made fun of his name, or was he just born this way?

Mother Teresa

Did you see this article about Mother Teresa earlier this week? She was such a respected woman, known for her faith in God, yet she had serious doubts about God and didn't seem to feel his presence for a long time. Some people are saying this is a sign that this whole religion thing is a sham, that this proves that even the people with the strongest faith don't have good reasons for believing in God. Others are saying this makes her even more of a saint because of how she suffered.

Is the latter group saying it's admirable to ignore the lack of evidence for God's existence and just pretend he's real? I'm sure they would say no, but I can see why some people would understand it that way. I think there are reasons to believe God exists, but those reasons aren't obvious enough to eliminate all doubt. Keeping the faith will often mean wrestling with doubt, but that doesn't mean we have to go against our own rationality to keep believing.

I wish Mother Teresa didn't have to keep this struggle so private, and I wish I didn't have to either. Yes, I admit general things like, "I experience some doubt" or "I went through my most serious time of doubt two years ago," but I tend not to say anything when I'm at the height of my doubts.

Reflections on coming home

One year ago today, I got back from almost two months in eastern Canada. I wrote on this blog several times while I was there, so feel free to check the archives and read more.

I think some people say travel is a good way to get to know yourself, and I think that's how it turned out for me. Maybe it was because of meeting a lot of new people, finding common ground and differences with these people, and not having the usual obligations with church, work, or school. When I got home, I seemed to have a stronger sense of what I believe about God and what I'm not so sure about, and what I want out of church. When it comes to church, I was feeling the need for a place where anyone, including the leaders, can question anything. Yes, I still thought churches should uphold certain beliefs, but people need the chance to search for truth themselves and not just take somebody's word for it. (This could be a tough balancing act.) Even people that have been Christians a long time can experience doubts, even if they're leaders. And I think it's a very natural thing for a person's faith to change over time, sometimes in uncomfortable or controversial ways.

I keep a bit of a prayer journal, and I looked back at it to figure out which date I got home on. I also noticed something I'd forgotten: I wasn't feeling very optimistic about returning to my church. I guess I wasn't sure if I'd find the freedom there to be myself, search for truth, and grow in ways that they wouldn't necessarily choose for me. That evening a year ago, we had a youth leaders' meeting at church. It was a good chance to reconnect with some friends, and I remember our pastor saying something that made him sound open-minded and willing to disagree with the majority of Christians. By the end of the evening I was already feeling more optimistic about staying at the same church.

Eventually I had a few chances to talk with our pastor about some stuff that was on my mind, and I developed a closer relationship with him as a result. Eventually we had a new Sunday school class (or "Discovery Group" as they're called at our church) where we discussed whatever "searching questions" we had on our minds. Most of the time, I really enjoyed that class.

This doesn't mean I never question my place in this church. There are still a lot of people (including many of the parents of people in our youth group) who don't know much about where I stand on certain spiritual issues or what I've been through spiritually in the last couple of years. Sometimes I fear what they'd think if I told them all of that. Even when I do voice my opinions and questions, even with close friends, I'm not always thrilled with the response. But I know I can't expect everyone to agree with me, and these close friends have remained close. I experience alternating enthusiasm and negativity about my faith and my church and sometimes I experience both at the same time.

Maybe it would be easier to start fresh in a new church, but the people there mean a lot to me, and I've had the chance to see some of the younger ones grow from tiny babies to wonderful teenagers (and even a few young adults) who really seem to care about the people around them. A year after my return, there is still baggage from being in the church I grew up in, but hopefully I'll be able to work through this and God will show his strength in my weakness (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). I'm still finding my place (which could take a lifetime), but I think I'm headed in the right direction.

Calgary

It's my hundredth post! To celebrate, I'm going to have a special episode in which I... um... write what I was going to write about anyway--my trip to Calgary this past weeknd.

I went to Calgary last weekend to visit a couple of friends. I could tell you about the conversations, the movies, the Shatner Show, the Chinatown Street Festival, church, and the crepe party. But I think I'll write about something smaller. On Saturday, we browsed a used book store for a while, and I found a book from 1994 called "You Are Becoming a Galactic Human". I read the back cover, and it claims to explain why all life on earth will be physically transformed by the end of 1996. With statements like that, I can see why it hasn't sold yet. For better mockery of this book (from someone who actually read it), click here.

Pictures:And of course, there are more pictures here.

Yummy

Yummy
Yummy
Yummy
I got love in my tummy
and I feel like a lovin' you;
The Love
you're such a sweet thing
good enough to eat thing
and that's just a what I'm gonna do.
Ooh love
to hold ya
ooh love
to kiss ya
ooh love
I love it so.
ooh love
you're sweeter
sweeter than sugar
Ooh love
I wont let you go.
Yummy
Yummy
Yummy
I got love in my tummy
and as silly as it may seem;
The lovin' that you're givin'
is what keeps livin'
and your love is like peaches and cream.
Kind a like sugar
kind a like spices
kind a like
like what you do.
Kind a sounds funny
but love
honey
honey I love you.
Ba da
ba da da da da.
Ba da da da da
ba da da da.
Yummy
Yummy
Yummy
I got love in my tummy
that your love can satisfy:
The Love
you're such a sweet thing
good enough to eat thing
and sweet thing
that ain't no lie.
Ooh love
to hold ya
ooh love
to kiss ya
ooh love
I love it so.
Ooh love
you're sweeter
sweeter than sugar
Ooh love
I wont let you go.
Ba da
ba da da da da
Ba da da da ...

No, this doesn't mean I'm not single anymore. When we were camping on the weekend, my brother asked me to sing this song, but I could only remember that one line, and I also had no idea who sang it (aside from Homer Simpson). So I did some searching and found the lyrics, which you already read. I also found out that The Ohio Express sang it.

Moving

It's official. I'm moving to northeast Edmonton in September. I made an offer on a townhouse, it got accepted, and the financing is lined up now. All that's left is to meet with a lawyer, sign some more papers, pay quite a bit of money, and then get in the biggest pile of debt anyone in my family has ever experienced. (My parents bought their house--which is bigger and better than mine--20 years ago, so it was quite a bit cheaper, and nobody else in my family owns a house.)

Meanwhile I went camping with my brother and sister in Jasper last weekend, so I got to spend a couple days surrounded by nature, appreciating God's creation (and polluting it on the way there and back). Here's a picture:
And you can see more pictures here.

Finally, the Hickfest pictures are ready!

If you've never experienced the Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta, you don't know what you're missing. (You can decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.) A friend of mine invited a bunch of people to her family's farm for the last weekend in July. She called it Hickfest, and as part of it, we went to the Gopher Hole Museum. Here's a picture:


Other hick activities included riding a car hood attached to a quad, swimming in a river, making hairspray burners. It was a fun weekend and I even got to see a few friends I hadn't seen in a while. I posted more photos, but this time they're on Facebook, not Yahoo, because Yahoo Photos is shutting down. The good news is, you can still see them even if you aren't a member of the evil empire yet (you know you'll join eventually). See the photos here.

War Crimes and Mercy

I haven't heard much in the mainstream media about the civil war happening in northern Uganda. It's been going on for 20 years. Last year, peace talks began and the fighting started to wind down, but a lot of issues have gone unresolved, and the fighting hasn't totally stopped. During this war, soldiers have done some atrocious things like rape, murder, and kidnapping children and forcing them to become soldiers. So one big question is, what do they do with the people who've committed these atrocities? Here are a couple of articles by people who don't think there should be big war crimes trials in this situation:

Why the ICC Must Stop Impeding Juba Process

Truth and Reconciliation, Ugandan Style

I wasn't actually planning to say much about Christianity in this post, but as a Christian, articles like this sometimes get me thinking about parallels between this situation and Christian teachings. Christianity teaches that we have all rebelled against God, but God decided it was better to offer reconciliation than to make sure our punishment fit the crime. God's grace allows us to leave behind our lives that were opposed to him and be welcomed into his family, like a former child soldier brought back into a community where he raped and killed people. The crime happened and it can't be undone, but dealing with these problems more through grace than punishment gives more hope for a peaceful future. And I am impressed that the Acholi people have their own way of dealing with these situations graciously. They probably have grace "figured out" better than most Christians, including myself. For one thing, they have experienced it in more concrete terms than most of us in the developed world. Imagine if the whole world could make peace like this.

And now I'm going to quote the Bible:
"If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!"
--Romans 5:10-11 (The Message)

Fraud, part 2

About a year ago, someone who is not me bought a plane ticket on my credit card. I called the credit card company, signed a form they sent me, and I didn't have to pay for it. (See the story here.) Anyway, they recommended that I contact the credit bureaus to tell them about this. I did, and they both asked me to sign something and mail it in. Both of them put a warning on my file telling anyone who might be offering "me" credit of some sort has to phone me first to confirm my identity. (This way, if someone tries to get a loan or cell phone or something in my name, intending to stick me with the bill, they won't be able to do it.)

Today there was a message on the phone from Telus. They said a dealership of some sort was trying to get a cell phone in my name. Thanks to the warning on my credit report, they had to call me to confirm that I really was trying to get a cell phone, which I wasn't. So if you've ever been a victim of credit card fraud, I'd recommend contacting the credit bureaus (Equifax, Transunion, and possibly one other company if you're Canadian) and getting a fraud warning on your file.

The problem: The Telus person only left a general Telus number to phone, she only left her first name, and I could hardly understand her name, so when I called back, the people I talked to couldn't track down this fraudulent request. I'm not too worried though; I don't think they'd actually let someone open the account without confirmation from me. But if I ever tried to sign up for a new account with Telus and they don't start leaving more information in their messages, I might not be able to confirm my identity. If that happened, I might have to try a different company.

Heard it Slightly Wrong

It turns out that scene from The Simpsons with Weird Al (see my previous post) mentioned Allan Sherman (a parodist from the 1960s) and not me as I had originally thought. My 15 seconds of fame are over before they really even got started. Maybe my 15 minutes will be better than this.

I got mentioned on the Simpsons

I was at a Weird Al concert tonight, and during one costume change they showed a clip from a Simpsons episode in which Weird Al appeared. In that scene, someone mentioned the name "Alex Scheuerman." Yes, someone mentioned my name on The Simpsons. I was with three friends and they are my witnesses. I will have to do some research to find out how this happened. If anyone wants to help, leave a comment with whatever you find out.

Stay tuned and I'll let you know what I find out. I wonder if they spelled my last name right in the script...

I'll miss the sticky floors

It's a known fact that if you hear a rumour from two totally independent sources, it's probably true (like Rowan Atkinson's death in the 1990s or Bert and Ernie's homosexuality). Now, two independent sources have confirmed this: the venerable movie theatre Cinema City 12 has closed.
Cinema City was south Edmonton's only source for nearly-on-video movies. Back in the day, a Tuesday movie only cost $1, and recently, I think a typical evening movie cost $3.50. I'll miss the gaudy colour scheme, the sticky floors, the cash-only ticket counter, the amateur-looking website... Now I have to go to northeast Edmonton or West Edmonton Mall if I want to see a cheap movie.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm probably moving out of my parents' house in south Edmonton to a condo in northeast Edmonton in the next couple of months.

Email problems

If anybody sent me an email at my ualberta.net address last Saturday, Sunday, or Monday (July 21-23), please try sending it again. There was a problem with the server and some messages didn't get through. (You probably got an error message if this happened, but even if you didn't, feel free to send the message again.)

They claim they found the problem, and that it's less likely to happen again after September when they do a major upgrade. It would be a shame to have to stop using this lifetime email address because of poor service.

Wildlife

Do you ever stop to sit and watch wildlife? Living in the city, I don't get to do this a whole lot, but I like to do it when I get the chance. There's something special, maybe even profound, about the way they go about their simple lives. These animals are incredibly complex (take a biology class if you don't believe me) yet they go about their lives oblivious to the size of the universe or even the size of this world. They have no idea about human governments and societies. If they were born in a place inhabited by humans, they have no idea that all this human technology is something relatively new. Either way they have no idea how it all works, or how plants, other animals, and even their own bodies work. But they contentedly go about their simple lives. Maybe a simpler life would make us more content, and maybe there are things we're oblivious to that we will never understand. We can't even totally understand these animals. For me personally, I sometimes find that admiring God's creation makes me feel closer to God and seems to strengthen my faith. It's not really a logical thing; as far as I can tell it doesn't prove God's existence. I believe God isn't anti-logic but he does go beyond mere human logic.

These pictures were from my trip to Uganda last year. I got to go canoing on a river and watch some pelicans last weekend, but I didn't take any pictures.

For more about God and wildlife, read Job chapter 39.

All Leaders are Unreliable

"All leaders are unreliable."
--Scott Adams

The creator of Dilbert had this to say in his blog recently. (Click on his name to read that whole post and a whole bunch of comments that people left.) If you haven't read the whole thing, here's one paragraph to give you some idea of the context: "I’d point out that most of our information about the war comes from the generals. All leaders are unreliable. A general would be fired immediately if he said the surge was a bad idea. And if a general believed the surge might succeed, even as a long shot, he’d be a crappy leader if he told anyone his true assessment of the odds. So you can’t believe the leaders." He also pointed out how people try to justify their mistakes in their own minds.

This got me thinking because I am a leader. If things were going badly in the youth group that I'm involved in leading, or if things were reasonably good but needed some changes to take it to the next level, would I say so? Would I even admit it to myself? Of course, things are going well there, but can you take my word for it? Can I take my word for it?

Please let this suck less than Bean and Duct Tape Forever

"Spiderpig! Spiderpig!
Does whatever a spiderpig does!"
--Homer Simpson

The marketing blitz for the Simpsons movie has begun. I went to 7-11 on Sunday and found that they're selling collectible Squishie cups. Today I heard that they've even converted a few 7-11s in the US and one in Canada into Kwik-E-Marts. Yesterday I saw Transformers, and one of the trailers was for the Simpsons movie. The trailer was pretty funny, and I just hope they didn't use up all the jokes to make the trailer.

As a fan, I'm going to have to see this movie.

In the expensive theatres.

Even if it sucks.

Failure to Communicate

What I said:
"Do any of you know where Pam is?"

What she heard:
"Do any of you wear panties?"

Can't Erase It

Follow the crowd and love everybody now
'Cause love is the best thing for you now
But you changed your mind, you let everybody down
But down is the best place for you
It's easier that way, you know it's

So wrong, can't embrace it
wish sometimes for any other you
But you can't erase it, and you won't escape it

Don't waste your time
Your words only confine you
To all of the things you've buried now
Don't ask them why
Their wisdom will leave you blind
But blind is the best thing for you
It's easier I know, you know it's

So wrong, can't embrace it
Wish sometimes for any other you
But you can't erase it, and you won't escape it

How long will you face it
Till the wait comes crashing down on you
'Cause you can't erase it, and you won't escape it

--Can't Erase It by Jars of Clay

Miracles (updated)

One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”

But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights."
--Matthew 12:38-40 (NLT)

The subject today is miracles. I'm not talking about things like the "miracle of childbirth" or other things that can be explained reasonably well by science, amazing though they may be. I'm talking about events that blatantly violate the laws of this universe.

I haven't personally seen or experienced a miracle like this, but I've met a few people who claim they have. In a couple of cases, they talked about almost dying of some vague childhood disease, people prayed for them, and they recovered. Whether this qualifies under the definition of "miracle" that I'm using, I'm not sure. In one case, a guy I met claimed a badly broken bone had been instantly healed leaving no sign that it was ever injured. I've also met some people who claim they know people who've experienced miracles, such as cancerous tumours disappearing without a trace.

Could there be a "natural" (as opposed to supernatural) explanation for these things? I find it hard to come up with one for the broken bone or the cancer. Were these people exaggerating, or even telling blatant lies? Christians generally seem pretty honest to me (although some like to point out evidence for God's existence that they haven't even tried to verify), so I don't think these stories would be blatant lies. Am I a fool for thinking these people might be telling the truth? (They do seem a lot more credible than Peter Popoff anyway.)

If we don't have evidence of some kind of miracle that couldn't have happened without God (whether the creation of the universe, the resurrection of Jesus, or something in our own time), what right do we have to claim that God is real, has expectations of us, and that Jesus has made the only way for us to come to God? But as you read at the start of this post, Jesus didn't want people demanding miracles to prove he was sent by God. But then he did promise a miracle--his resurrection. Even so, even Jesus' words get me to question the authenticity of modern-day miracles.

If these miracles are real, they could really convince the people involved that God is real, but the miracles would elude scientists because there wouldn't be a repeatable cause-and-effect relationship to experiment with. Usually this notion that "God has given us just enough evidence of his existence that we'll find it if we're really looking for it" seems like a cop-out to me because so much of the evidence seems so subjective, but with miracles, maybe that notion would work.

I think every good thing, whether it fits this definition of miracle or not, is ultimately a gift from God, so I don't mean to sound ungrateful to God here. But blatant miracles would make it easier to be confident that God is real.

[Update #2: I got invited to contribute to another blog a while ago called Godtalk Uncensored. I posted this thing there too, so go have a look and see what others have written.)

We're Number 24! We're Number 24!

As I mentioned last week, Sherritt participated in the Corporate Challenge. Kind of like in basketball, things did not go so hot in most of the other sports. Early in the Challenge, not enough people showed up for one sport that they were registered for, so we lost ten points for that. But by the end of the Challenge, we worked our way back up to zero! By the time you add in blood donor points and "Minimum Sport" points (whatever those are), we finished with 10 points! That puts us in 24th place out of 32 in the White division. So I think we should all feel good for overcoming the adversity of the ten-point penalty. (Cue the inspirational music.)

Check out the official standings
Point totals for each company in each event

But we had fun

"It's important to be able to enjoy being horrible at stuff."
--my brother

Today I played in one of the Corporate Challenge events--basketball. Team Sherritt lost the first game 24-4. Then we lost the second game 24-6 or 8. And finally we lost the third game 24-4. (The games end when one team gets 24 points or we play for 20 minutes, whichever comes first.) Congratulations to Enbridge, Cosyn, and ATCO Gas for being worthy opponents.

Such is the life of a Sherritt employee in the Corporate Challenge. Our team may not be very good, but that means there's room for me on the team.

Follow Sherritt's results in other sports over the next few days by clicking here and selecting "Sherritt" from the list.

Free Hugs

When I visited Montreal last year, I saw a street performer who called himself the Hugger Busker. His performance wasn't really a performance; he just had a sign offering free hugs. Since then I've noticed a trend building. Once in a while I hear something on the radio or see something in a newspaper about ordinary people who go out on a street corner one day with a sign offering free hugs.

And now I will continue my occasional habit of talking about one tiny aspect of an event in my life while almost completely ignoring the event itself, good though it may be. Last weekend I went with my church youth group to YC, a big annual Christian event for teens. It happens at Rexall Place (home of the Edmonton Oilers) every year. This year the big trend was--you guessed it--free hugs. Many times I saw people with signs offering free hugs, and once in a while I saw people take others up on the offer. Then I saw a sign that said:

FREE HUGS
are dumb.
Don't touch me.

What a party pooper!

Coming Home

Today I return to Edmonton. I've had a good time in Toronto, hanging out with my friends and visiting all kinds of tourist stuff. I've even visited every Toronto landmark mentioned in "The Toronto Song" (which is by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, NOT the Arrogant Worms--see the bottom of this page for proof).

Here's a picture:

Arrival

I have arrived in beautiful Courtice, Ontario (a suburb of Oshawa). I'm staying at my friends' house there. Here are a few highlights of the trip so far:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgX-hiQdfFw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQVlVHsFF8

People I haven't seen in a while

Recently one of my friends that I met on my trip to Uganda last year came to visit Edmonton. (She lives in Vernon.) We got together last night along with another person from that trip (who lives in Edmonton), her boyfriend, and a cousin of the one from Vernon. Incidentally, this cousin has the same first name as the Vernon girl's second-cousin who was also on the Uganda trip. So when she emailed me last week to arrange a time to meet, I was a little confused about who I'd be seeing. And it turned out that I'd met her cousin 4 or 5 years ago at Navigators (a Christian ministry at the U of A). Small world, isn't it?

On Friday I leave for a week and a half in Toronto. I'm going with two friends and we're visiting friends of ours who moved there two years ago. (I also visited them last summer for a few days and mentioned them on this blog.) I'm excited to see them again and travel with these friends. I don't know if I'll get the chance to do a blog update next week, but I'll tell you about the trip sometime.

My Car's Thermometer

Every car develops some personality over time, but most of the time that means they're working worse. But in my case, my car actually developed a built-in thermometer all on its own. It can only tell the difference between below freezing and above freezing temperatures, but it's a start. Here's how it works: if the ABS warning light is on, the temperature is above 0°C, and if the light is off the temperature is below 0.

This started last year in the spring. I thought I might want to get my anti-lock brakes fixed before winter came, but the day the first significant snowfall came, the warning light stopped turning on and the anti-lock function on my brakes started working. (By the way, with the ABS light on, my brakes are still fine, they just don't do the anti-lock thing. If the light was blinking, then I'm in real danger, but that hasn't happened.) They worked for most of the winter and maybe stopped working for a while during a thaw. For the part of spring when the temperature was below zero at night and above zero during the day, the warning light would be off on my drive to work and on on my drive home.

Now I know what you're thinking: if ABS isn't working for half the year, my car is getting worse, not better. But who needs ABS when the temperature is above zero?

"Trying is the first step toward failure"--Homer Simpson

Back in January I mentioned that I would be involved in starting a new small group Bible/book study at church. After getting it started a month later than planned and then meeting for a couple months, we decided to call it quits. We'd had some interesting discussions, but in the end it wasn't attracting people and we agreed that it wasn't really meeting a need in our lives. All of us were already attending the same "Discovery Group" (basically Sunday school) on Sundays, and some similar discussions were going on there.

So was it a waste? I don't think so. Since it was a smaller group than the Sunday one, I think we each got a chance to say more, and we probably got to know each other better than we would've otherwise. And even in failure, we've learned some lessons that could help in the future.

In a way, it's a bit of a relief to have Wednesday evenings free. One of my hopes in getting this group going was to help build a stronger sense of community among some people at the church and have a place where we're free to discuss what's on our mind and to grow freely, not just in the direction that certain leaders want us to grow. I think that is already happening at this church, so if we don't need Wednesday night to make it happen, we might as well spend more time with friends and family instead (including the same friends who went to the Bible study).

Actually, I've come to appreciate my church more over the last year. As I've dealt with doubts about God and developed somewhat more liberal religious views, I've needed to learn to care less about what other Christians think. While I haven't told everybody at church a whole lot and I haven't told anybody everything, it seems like I'm still accepted and not thought of as a second-class Christian when I do voice my opinions or talk about struggles. And sometimes other people have similar things on their minds.

Senate

Let's face it, Alberta's 2004 Senator-in-Waiting election was a joke. Most people figured the winners would never actually be appointed to the Senate, and only the Progressive Conservatives and Alberta Alliance ran candidates. It's hard to take an election seriously when all the political parties come from the same side of the political spectrum. I couldn't blame Paul Martin for ignoring the election results.

(A little background in case you aren't familiar with this: In the Canadian senate, Senators are appointed by the Prime Minister; they aren't elected. But occasionally, Alberta elects "Senators in Waiting" to send a message to the Prime Minister that many people in our province want an elected Senate, and to say who we want our next Senators to be.)

Now Stephen Harper has said he'll appoint Bert Brown (the winner of our 2004 election) to the Senate. Stephane Dion criticized this move saying Harper may not have picked the best person for the job. I don't know much about Bert Brown and I don't remember if I voted for him, so I don't know if Dion is right or not. (Of course I'm such a good judge of character that I would never vote for anyone who wasn't the best candidate.) But ultimately I'm glad Harper is appointing Brown because this should lend some legitimacy to future Senate elections. If Harper is still Prime Minister when that time comes (and I'm not saying whether I would vote for Harper or not), maybe the Liberals and NDP will take this vote more seriously and run candidates. A serious, well-fought race with a wide spectrum of candidates would be harder for any Prime Minister to ignore.

Two Short Stories

After hearing about the high number of murders we've had in Edmonton in the last few years, sometimes it's nice to hear some other perspectives. Yesterday the company served lunch for everyone at work, and I was eating with a couple of mechanical engineers. One of them is from Toronto and got transferred here for six months. She went to get some more food, and when she came back she remarked, "People are so friendly here." Someone had stopped to talk to her as she was going to get food, but it sounded like she finds Albertans in general quite friendly.

So there you have it. Despite all the murders, Edmonton (and area) is still a very friendly city.

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Today my church put on a first aid course for the people who work with the youth and kids, so I was there. Some of the youth in our church are leaders in the children's ministry, so they were there too. At one point, when we were practicing bandaging major wounds, one of them started singing "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus."

My first aid partner remarked, "Definitely church kids."

A Stranger on the Road

One Sunday a long time ago, two men were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened recently. As they talked and discussed these things, another man suddenly came and began walking with them. They didn't recognize him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?”

They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.”

“What things?” the stranger asked.

“The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.

“Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.”

Then the stranger said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then he took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning Jesus.

By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. The stranger acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. It was Jesus! God had kept them from recognizing him until that moment. And at that moment he disappeared!

They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, who said, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter.”

(Adapted and mostly copied from Luke 24:13-34, NLT)

Happy Easter! May you find that your deepest hopes that were dashed will be fulfilled after all.

Who Writes This Stuff?

There’s a Mexican dead up on a power line
He’s deader than yesterday’s communion wine
He was trying to getting something he couldn’t afford for free
He was just a poor man stealing electricity
His heart when na na na na na na na
na na na na na na na

10,000 volts and now he’s gone
He’s hanging on a cross-tie above Babylon
Hey baby ain’t that just like you and me
Love is like stealing electricity
Two hearts go na na na na na na na
na na na na na na na

When the poverty of your spirit and the weakness of your flesh
Go dancing every night through other people’s trash
You don’t love yourself baby, what the hell you’re doing with me
You’re gonna burn baby burn stealing electricity
Two hearts go na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na

We all climb so high in search of the kindred soul
Till we grab hold to a live wire up on a highline pole
The laws of nature say you get nothing for free
Love is like stealing Electricity
Two hearts go na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na

--Stealing Electricity by Tom Russell

I heard this song yesterday, and I don't know if I should be offended on behalf of Mexicans everywhere, or if I should applaud such originality.

Farewell to Radio 3

I found out today that CBC Radio 3 has stopped broadcasting on CBC Radio 2. (CBC Radio 3 is a satellite radio station that plays independent, mostly Canadian music. It used to also broadcast on CBC Radio 2, 90.9 FM in Edmonton, on Saturday nights.) It's still available on satellite radio (which I don't have), and they have some music on their website too, but I won't be able to listen in the car anymore. Some of their music was overly weird, but some of it was pretty good, and I'll miss it. I guess CJSR and CKUA play indie stuff too, but they play less of my kind of music.

Interview

Want to get interviewed? Here's the idea:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better!
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 post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

I found this on a friend's blog, and she gave me five questions to answer. Here they are, with my answers:

ELIM'S INTERVIEW

1) If your life (so far) was being made into a movie, who would play you? Why? Please feel free to fill in other parts of the cast.
Topher Grace (the guy who played Eric in That 70s Show) would play me because he's awkward yet charming.

2) Name a book/tv program/website (etc.) that you've read/watched that has affected the way you see the world. Please describe how.
The Last Word and the Word After That by Brian McLaren. Although it's the third book in the A New Kind of Christian trilogy, it was my first encounter with it. I read it in the fall of 2005. It looks at some things like hell, heaven, God's grace, etc. from more of a postmodern perspective than what I was used to. Some of it discusses what things in modern Christianity actually come from Christ and the Bible, and what comes from modern society. This book and other stuff like it have helped me see Christianity in terms that seem more realistic to me and help me see the good in Christianity when I tend to also notice negative things that seem to come from Christianity (like judgmental attitudes).

Maybe that's a little vague, but it is kind of hard to describe.

3) Tell me about something that's been really important in your life lately.
I've been given more responsibility with my church's youth group (for people in junior high and high school) recently. I think this is helping develop my leadership skills and become less indecisive. And when it comes to helping teens in their spiritual lives, I'm seeing more clearly that I can't just fix all their problems, let alone my own problems. (I knew this before, but I think I understand it better now, if that makes sense.) I do believe it's important to be honest without being cynical, and I think this is all pushing me to trust God more. It also helps me appreciate the other people I work with in this, who each have their own unique experiences and gifts that each help in unique ways.

I don't know if some of that comes across as discouraging or hopeless, but I don't mean for it to be. If anything I'm encouraged and hopeful about this.

4) Name one thing you want to do before you're 30, two things you want to do between the ages of 30 and 45, and three things you want to do after the age of 65.
This one's hard. I haven't set very clear goals for these age ranges, but there are lots of things I'd like to do. There may be some personal things that I'd rather not post on a blog. But here are a few ideas.
Before 30: Get reasonably good at a competitive sport.
Between 30 and 45: Become a dad. Visit Antarctica.
After 65: Ski. (I ski now, and I hope I can still do that when I'm old.) Visit every continent that I haven't visited yet. Live to 100 with a fully-functioning brain.

I'm not too sure about the age ranges for some of these things. For example, if I visit every continent or if I'm a dad before I'm 30, I won't complain. I don't want to reach the age of 100 before I turn 30 though.

5) And our Canadiana for the day.... If Ben Mulroney and Justin Trudeau were in a kraft dinner cookoff (when everyone brings a pot of kraft dinner with his/her favourite alterations, like adding tuna or salsa)
a) what do you think each of them would make
b) who do you think would win?
a) Ben Mulroney would add tuna that was caught just off the coast of Canada (if tuna come anywhere near Canada, I'm not a marine biologist), because--like Canadian Idol--he'd just take someone else's idea (in this case, yours) and make it more Canadian. Justin Trudeau would add some organically grown, locally grown spinach and tomatoes (grown by a bilingual farmer). He'd probably add a spice of some sort, if he could find something organic and locally grown.
b) Depends on how cynical I'm feeling.

(Have I proven that I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to these two people's lives?)

A Weirdly Relaxing Saturday

Most Saturdays, I play floor hockey from 11:00 a.m. until 1 or 2. I started playing occasionally about a year ago, and started playing regularly in September. I think it's been several months since I was at home on a Saturday and didn't play floor hockey, but today it was cancelled for some reason. As much as I enjoy playing ball hockey and seeing my friends there, I'm finding today very relaxing and unhurried (even though I did have one errand to run--getting a chip in my windshield fixed).

Goodbye Smytty

Today the Oilers traded one of the best and most dedicated players of the post-Gretzky-and-Messier era. I'm sure every Oilers fan will miss Ryan Smyth. I was hoping he'd finish his career as an Oiler, but now it doesn't look like it. (Yes, he could sign with the Oilers again someday, but I don't know if that's likely.)

Security Certificates

So the Supreme Court of Canada struck down some parts of our security certificate law that let the government hold non-citizens without a trial based on secret evidence of terrorist ties. So far, I think this was a good decision. As I've said before, I think these people should have fair trials because they're accused of fighting against the rights and freedoms that we have; it hasn't been proven that they're terrorists. I'm skeptical about the secret evidence because--while I respect the vast majority of police officers--the RCMP showed during the Maher Arar case that they sometimes find extremely flawed and even fabricated evidence against some people.

The decision to wait a year before this ruling takes effect is probably good too because we may need something to replace the security certificates. We should still have some way to make sure that terrorists who enter Canada don't get the chance to attack us, but I think the security certificates go too far. And since there is evidence against the people who are imprisoned, they shouldn't just be set free; they should be able to hear the evidence against them and defend themselves in court.

I'm not super well informed on this issue, so that's all I'll say. If this topic interests you, please search for other articles about it.

Free e-book

I recently finished reading an interesting book called "God's Debris" by Scott Adams. Although it's written by the creator of Dilbert, it has very little in common with Dilbert. It's a book about two fictional characters discussing things like probability, God, relationships, science, free will, etc. and it intentionally includes some ideas the author thinks are dead wrong. If you like books that mess with your mind a bit, you'll probably like this one. And it's only 132 fairly small pages. Not only that, you can download a free copy here.

High on an Addictive White Powder

I spent yesterday (Family Day here in Alberta) skiing at Marmot Basin in Jasper with my brother, who was snowboarding. It was probably my best ski day in a few years. The snow was great. There wasn't much virgin powder (just a bit off to the sides on a few runs), but there was a good number of places that still had several inches of very loose snow. Marmot may not quite be the biggest and best ski resort in Alberta, but the conditions right now are great.

Out of Context Bible Verse of the Day

"Money is the answer to everything."

--Ecclesiastes 10:19 (NASB)

Update on the Gay Marriage Issue

In November I wrote some comments on a bill that would have allowed marriage commissioners in Alberta to refuse to perform same-sex marriage. In my comments I said, "Before the beginning of gay marriage, I think marriage commissioners were expected to marry any couple that was legally eligible for marriage. (I've been having trouble confirming this though. Even the Alberta government website seems kind of vague, although I didn't read the Marriage Act, or whatever it's called.)" Recently I read something that Glenn Penner from Voice of the Martyrs Canada said (Sorry, this link may eventually lead to the wrong place, but hopefully not for a few weeks): "It is worth noting, that marriage commissioners are licensed by their provincial governments and not employed or paid by the government. Therefore, they should not be forced by the government to perform marriage ceremonies contrary to their religious beliefs. The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed that clergy cannot be compelled to perform marriages contrary to their religious beliefs. This same freedom should apply to licensed marriage commissioners. Interestingly enough, in the past, marriage commissioners could refuse to officiate at weddings that violated their religious convictions."

Assuming the facts (not the opinions) in this statement are accurate (as I mentioned earlier, it's hard to find a clear answer on this from the Alberta government website), I would like to apologize for making assumptions in that post in November and I'd like to clarify my views now.

If marriage commissioners really could refuse to perform whichever weddings they didn't want to perform, then that right should include the right to refuse to do gay weddings. But if this is the case, I don't think Ted Morton's Bill 208 is the right solution because it puts the focus on homosexuality. I think it would be better to just say that marriage commissioners can refuse to do any wedding they disagree with.

Nintendo Wii

Last night I tried a Nintendo Wii for the first time, playing the game "Wii Sports". I enjoyed the game, but this isn't about how much I liked the game. I'm commenting on the characters, the "Mii's". (You can design your own characters for the game. I didn't, because it takes a while, but my friends who actually have the system did create their own.) I think the characters are a ripoff of Homestar Runner. Two reasons:

1. They have no arms.

2. They might not wear pants.

There are some differences. For one thing, the Wii characters have hands. (The hands just float in midair near the torsos.) Also, the Wii characters have shorter shirts. Because of the shorter shirts, we can tell that the Wii characters either wear white skin-tight pants that blend in with their shoes and they wear shorts over their pants when they're boxing, or they have no genitals or butt crack. Either way, it is a little creepy.

So what do you think? (Click here for a screen shot, in case you haven't played.) Do the Mii's wear pants? Does Homestar wear pants? Is Nintendo copying Homestar?

Very Cold Black Gold

I'm back from a weekend at Lake Louise with my family. Conditions were pretty good and the weather was wonderful, especially on Sunday. There wasn't any fresh snow, but at least they had record snowfall in November or December, so it was still pretty good. A few icy spots, but not too bad.

I didn't take my camera skiing, but I took some pictures at Lake Louise (the lake, not the ski resort) one evening while an ice sculpture competition was going on. Here's one of the lake itself:

And one of the sculptures:

And one of those only-in-Alberta sculptures (which wasn't quite complete):

Starting Three New Roles

In the near future, I'm stepping in to three new roles so I hope the learning curve doesn't get overwhelming and that I can keep my sanity. I start my new job at Sherritt tomorrow. Then on Wednesday, I'm starting up a small group Bible/book study at church. And in February, I'll probably be put in charge of the youth group at my church. School is something I'm quite good at, but all of these roles will require me to learn things that school doesn't necessarily teach very well. I'm excited and nervous about these things, so please pray for me if that's something you do.

Employment

The rumours are true. I got a phone call from Sherritt last Thursday and they offered me a job. I've accepted the job, so I start on January 22nd. I'll be a Process Control Engineer, designing and improving control systems at their plant in Fort Saskatchewan.

Following up on my last entry, that once-in-18-years blizzard sure was underwhelming, wasn't it? Yes it was cold and windy for a day or two, traffic was probably very slow, and the highways were in pretty bad shape, but we didn't get an unusual amount of snow and things were back to normal pretty quickly.

Blizzard!

If you live in Edmonton, you've probably noticed that the city never shuts down, even for a blizzard. I guess we don't get three feet of snow in a day like some places, but we're in the middle (or maybe the beginning) of the biggest blizzard in 18 years, and as far as I know most people are still at work or school today. (Although I admit I haven't been out of the house today.) The highways are bad and a lot of flights are canceled, but schools in the city aren't closing and people keep driving in the city. I'm sure traffic is moving slowly, and my brother's bus didn't come this morning, but a little once-in-18-years blizzard can't keep Edmontonians down. Can anyone remember a time when the city really did shut down?

The Penguin Chronicles: Probably the Final Chapter

The penguin I wrote about recently fell off his perch a couple of times and somebody put him back up there, but unlike Humpty Dumpty, he only developed a hole; he did not completely break. He could've been fixed with a somewhat handy person and a glue gun. No need for all the king's horses and all the king's men. (By the way, I didn't know horses could repair anything.)

But today the tale reaches its sordid end. A grader and a dump truck showed up today and took the snow pile away. Now I see no sign of the penguin out there.

But maybe the story isn't over. Maybe, like in a horror movie begging for a sequel, when the snow melts at one of those big snow-dumping lots in the spring, all that will be left will be some dirt and...a plastic penguin.

Are you scared yet?

Fun in the Snow

This is one of my most pointless posts ever, but I want to share a picture with you.
Somebody who lives near me tried to introduce a foreign species to the big snow pile in the middle of our cul-de-sac. If you look closely at the picture (click on it to see a larger version), you may notice that the penguin couldn't keep its hat on. The city claims it will take the snow pile away sometime, so someone might need to be careful not to lose this toy penguin.