Thursday, July 29, 2010

Oh Happiness...

For your summertime listening and viewing pleasure:

Monday, July 26, 2010

Monday...

Just got back yesterday from spending the week with some students and leaders down at Creation Festival, a music festival in Washington.

As I'm doing a little reading before starting a day of post-camping trip clean up, I found this video and it kind of gutted me.

If you're not familiar with the work of Invisible Children, go check them out.


Nate Henn // 1985 - 2010 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

10 years...

I passed a milestone at the beginning of the month.

Ten years of working full time with students.

I remember starting at a small town church in Alberta and my initiation was heading off on their annual long weekend Bike Trip. I remember my first office and how bare my walls and shelves were. I remember wondering how I would fill my days.

But I also remember being ready to take on the world.

I was so naive.

10 years later and I've filled my shelves and my walls. I've filled days and nights and weekends and months. I've lost sleep (and hair). And I have realized that I still know so little.

But I'm currently doing what I love to do.

In celebration, I painted my office this week. Ok...so Erin painted my office. But I still picked up a paintbrush a few times.


I wonder if I have another 10 more in me?

Monday, July 12, 2010

Book #10...

Somehow I forgot to post this review. Oops!

Hear No Evil
Matthew Paul Turner

Another snarky (that's a word, right?) book much along the same lines as his previous one called "Churched" (review here) that seems to make fun of his fundamentalist upbringing and his experience within the world of Christian music.

I found the occasional piece of humor within a few of the stories and I was particularly drawn into the story of how his former boss tried to get him to write a dirt article on Amy Grant (short version here), but those moments seemed to be few and far between for my liking.

This book almost felt a little rushed and came across as a little disjointed and random.

If you aren't familiar with Turner I would probably liken him to a writer version of Derek Webb. He like to stir things up and cause the occasional ruckus. And I know that many people would probably stop reading his stuff, but I find that while he occasionally annoys me...I actually enjoy it.


So, I've got an extra copy to give away. Would you like it? Leave a comment with some sort of music story and I'll randomly pick someone by Thursday and throw it in the mail for you.


*This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Currently playing...

Here's what's making the rounds in my CD player & iTunes lately.

Rend Collective Experiment "Organic Family Hymnal"
Finding new "worship" music tends to be a crap shoot...most of it is unoriginal, poorly written and uninspiring. Not so with this one. Besides, how can you not like a group who figures out how to do this:



John Mark McMillan "The Medicine"
I've been listening to the album via Grooveshark for the last few months, but the CD finally released (again) and I snagged a copy last week. Love this album! Go and buy it. You will not be disappointed.

The Tragically Hip
"We Are the Same"
I'm not a huge Hip fan or anything, I think it's by Canadian obligation that I listen to them. The jury is still out on what I think of this album though as I have not really "listened" to it...it has been on in the background.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Never blogged about Oprah...

Until now. And it actually has nothing to do with Oprah.

This guy is fairly funny.




And this is part 1 of his travel show.


Saturday, July 10, 2010

Yoda...

While not nearly as funny as the previous Darth Vader video, this one is still worth a few chuckles. I should buy a TomTom.

World Cup...

I love this game. It's too bad that a month of soccer comes to an end this weekend.

Pick your final score.

I'll go with Netherlands 2 - Spain 1

Friday, July 09, 2010

Summer TV...

Let's face it, TV in the summer is terrible.

So, admit it. Which shows do you watch?

No judging allowed.

We're watching Whale Wars (season 3) and Glee (season 1).

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Slowing down...

I've been officially "on vacation" this week. Where to? Nowhere. What have I been doing?
  • We've set up the kid's pool in the backyard. (It'll take a month of 30 degrees to heat that thing up enough that I'll actually get in it though.)
  • We finally replaced the old rusted out BBQ.
  • I passed my knowledge test for my Class 4. (Sure, it was the 2nd try, but I still passed.)
  • Watching football. (Sometimes I wish the World Cup was every year!)
  • We had friends from Edmonton stay with us for a few days and we took in the Canada Day parade and the Aquarium.
  • Reading about Abraham Lincoln, who was apparently a vampire hunter. Who knew!
  • Playing some video games.
  • Watching some summer TV.
Such a great start to the summer. Anyone want to come over for a BBQ?