Weekend Update again...

Free at last, free at last...

I have worked what I think is my last day for the Aeration company. My boss wants me to go for lunch with him and discuss the future and make him an offer for next year. I'm really not sure if thats something that I look forward to. To be honest I don't mind the work. I can't say the same for my boss. He and I just don't communicate well. So I think I might just ask for too much money and that'll be the end of it. Unless he accepts... then what will I do? Maybe I will just have to tell him that its been a slice but no thanks.

Having said that, I went to a career fair today. I walked around and pitched myself to about 30 of 150 companies. Despite any rumours that the "Alberta Advantage" is running out they didn't seem to be showing it. I got a couple great responses from two companies that I would really like to work for. So we'll see how it goes.

Nanowrimo..

I went straight from the Career Fair, skipping the opportunity to see George Strombolopolous and whatever enlightened hoo-haa he might have to say, to a gathering of would-be novelists. The meeting was set for a small independent book store up in the old part of Calgary. Which as it turns out is a WIFI location that makes great coffee. Annie's Books hosted the first get-to-gether of the local Nanowrimo participants. Several first timers but all in all many very interesting but also very normal (I know, first impression) people. So now I feel a little better about the monumental task set before me. 50,000 words isn't so bad when you have a support group to shame you into action. I also have a working title: Salad Days

Canadians abroad (both real and imagined) support:

I recently read in Allison's blog that she felt out of the loop on Canadiana. In an effort to combat the ill effects I share some good news. Corner Gas and several other CTV programs are avaliable on the internet as a streaming video. So now you don't have to wait for me to smuggle DVDs into Europe. http://www.ctv.ca/

Ok. I have to go now and find a job. or not so that I can write a novel. Dilema...

Those Bloody Christians...

I'm not sure if you all know who Ian Wright is, but I have been a big fan of his for a while. Anyway, he's the original guide for the Pilot Productions show called Lonely Planet and now called Globe Trekker on OLN. He's been doing his job for about 13 years now and I think I've been a fan for about ten of those years.

As I was driving home on Friday night I saw a sign in front of a travel store in Calgary. It said "Ian Wright LIVE" at MacKewan Hall at the U of Calgary. I wanted to stop and see about tickets but I was already barrelling up 14th with a fully loaded trailer with two tractors so I figured I would just look it up online. Anyway, I wasn't sure I would have the time to go, but as it turned out we got a freak snowfall here in Calgary, so I had time off!

So after work and a haircut on Monday I headed into town hoping that there were still tickets, which there were. Which I was happy about because I had already commited to paying 6 bucks for parking. But I was a little miffed that I paid 4 bucks for the convenience of walking to the ticket window and handing them the money. The same as I would have if I had reserved them online. Its amazing how some companies choose to do disingenuous* things and expect you to understand, when they could just raise the price and say tough. Like Telus charging an access fee...

Anyway... Ian Wright comes on at 8pm, well 8:15. And he is hilarious. About 6oo people have showed up to see the guy and he has us all in stitches. It seems everyone in the audience is a travel nut or plans to be. He shows pictures and tells stories and more than just whats on the show. For about two hours I am thinking this is awesome and its amazing how this all worked out. He ends the show part and starts taking questions, people begin to leave because its already about 10:30, I stayed and there's only about 150 left. People are asking questions and he's being polite in answering and telling more stories. Then some lady asks "In your travels what would say is the greatest negative impact of Western Culture?" He pauses for half a second and then he says,"Those bloody Christians... their everywhere." He goes on, "I would say religion in general, its just caused so much damage." "And Coca-Cola. And rich kids trying to blend in with locals by hageling poor people in the markets." I'll have to say I was stunned. I wasn't angry until a group people in the front rows began to clap. They began to clap right after is first comments.

I thought about it... I thought about stepping up to the open microphone and asking why he had said that. It seemed odd. If he had said 'the problem with world is those bloody Muslims' he'd be in the paper and run out of town. Or if he had said those 'Israelis', but his anger burns against Christians. I felt like I had been transported to the story of the White Rose when a speaker might have said something at a University about the Jews and the enlightened front rows might have applauded in the same way.

Well I didn't go to the mic and I didn't wait for an autograph. I went to my car and started to drive. Paul Simon song lyrics popped in my head:

A man walks down the street

He says why am I short of attention

Got a short little span of attention

And wo my nights are so long

Where's my wife and family

What if I die here

Who'll be my role-model

Now that my role-model is

Gone Gone

He ducked back down the alley

With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl

All along along

There were incidents and accidents

There were hints and allegations

Its a pretty sad thing to have your bubble burst.

But then I thought about it. He's been in about 80 countries and most of these countries are becoming popular tourist destinations and before he gets there, there's those bloody Christians. Sure... people have done enough damage in the name of Christ to encite a person who has seen it from the outside to think that all Christians are the same. I guess its been a while since I felt like a minority. I'm not sure how to finish this off so...

(Disingenuous: synonymous with generally brown material associated with male cattle)

weekend update

So not much to report. Well, thats not true, I'm just not sure I have time to sift through the details of my life. I did go to Lectureship at WCC and had a great time. Not sure I have ever said that before. May be there is something wrong with me. The speakers were quite good and I spent the whole time running into people that I hadn't seen in while.

The focus of the weekend has changed a little. They used to have a lot of speakers or so it seemed. Now they have backed that off a bit but they have added a serious missions emphasis. It almost feels like a mini missions workshop. This year I heard about the work being done in Ukraine from Mike Armour. It was amazing and because I've been in Estonia and East Germany, it was also close to my heart. House churches and camps... and the emphasis on treating new Christians as RTP (ready to preach) and the government being open to the freedom of religion.

Also, I have updated the settings on this blog and fixed some dead links. Now anyone can post a comment. I had been soliciting comments but I had the settings so that only bloggers could post. Kinda pulling a Henry Ford,' you can have any color so long as its black. ' And I have updated the Nanowrimo link. I do plan on participating this year. It seems that its always right when my life and my job situation are up in the air. Maybe turmoil makes for good writing. I also came up with a term for those people who don't have blogs but who read blogs: "Virblogins" (soft g) Maybe there is already a term, lurkers are in chat rooms and noobs are inexperienced LAN gamers. So far as I know a blogging hasn't been blessed with a predjudicial derogitory name so there's my contribution.

Anyway, all you bloggers and Virblogins, feel free to comment.

New season of Corner Gas

I'm not going to write about Corner Gas. Titles are the hardest part of blogging so I've decided to just name the first thing I see and get over the grief. But to those who care the title of this blog tells you what you need to know and all together now: "woo hoo!"

Its been a while since my last blog and the downside of that is that it leaves me with too much to write about.

In response to the subject of my last blog. I continue to be employed by the same company but not for much longer. We are winding down for the year. Now is the time of year that my mother has turned into a cliché "Joel wonders what's next" which she writes in the church bulletin. I hope thats the end of it. I really have a quite justified fear that my personal trials will become a regular feature for the Lord's body to ponder.

Anyway... I had an epiphany the other day. I had just come from my financial Bar Mitzvah. Now financially speaking I am an adult. How? you say. Well I bought an RRSP. I had a conversation with my banker and we looked over my situation and all in all its not a horrible mess. Now don't start sending application for grants, I'm not loaded. I just can't feel my live scraping the bottom anymore. But thats not what I want to talk about anyway. I'm not going to gloat about my less than ... well there you go.

What occured to me and it required a banker to do some simple subtraction for me. But I have 37 years until I reach retirement age. Actually probably closer to 39-40 if the current trend continues. Thats longer than I have been alive already. And the first 20 years were kind of a unfocused foray into ignorance. So that means I have about 7 years of actual focused life experience. And I'm pretty sure thats not very significant. So anything that I may have done in that time is valuable experience but it it by no means the lion's share of my life's work.

What I mean to say is that in kind of a "Scrooged" sort of way I still have time to make changes. Even if I am not satisfied with my life or my job or whatever. I still have time to do something else.

So I have hatched a plan... and like any hatchling it is now incubating in my brain. But unlike something that incubates I am exposing it to the elements. SO... what I hope to gain from this is at least two-fold. 1) I hope to gain some feedback from people who actually read this blog, who know me and are willing put in their two-bits. 2) I think that if I actually publish this idea it will be harder to simply let the momentum of this idea evaporate.

Vince Lombardi once said, "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender."

I saw that quote painted on a wall. It struck me that maybe thats what has been missing from my life. Maybe thats why I find it pretty easy to move from idea to idea. I think often I treat the stuff that I focus on like hands in a poker game. I always just "limp in", I never get "pot commited" to that point where I will see the hand out to the end. If this summer has taught me anything its that hard work is the same as an investment. The work environment wasn't the best but the work I did was honest and showed a result at the end of the day. I think the reason that I have decided to stick it out is that I think walking away would make all the work I put in this summer seem like a waste.

But having said that, I'm sick of grunt work...

The idea that surfaced while I was on the tractor logging whatever thousands loop of whatever fairway was this... Journalism.

So thats the idea that I submit for your perusal. I was thinking, I like to write and take photos. Plus I have the travel bug. It seemed like a a good fit. But thats as far as I have gotten. Well, I did look at some schools and I have enrolled in an online journalism training site.

So now its your turn.

In other news,

My dad has had a second set of tests. Despite our hopes that he was doing really well. His tests show that his Leukemic blood cell count has increased. Indicating that treatment will likely be neccessary. We had been encouraged by the way he seemed to have plenty of energy this summer. So these tests came as a big stunner. More than that I really feel that for the first time in my life I actually heard dejection in my dad's voice. If you know my dad, you know he's even and cool tempered. So I ask that people pray for him to be encouraged.

Well, thats all for now.