March Madness...

I don't watch basketball. I don't know who the final four are. But March was madness for me.

I'm back at work this week after taking some much needed time off last week to go to my kid's swimming lessons, read, watch movies, play guitar and just generally be around the house.

I honestly don't think it was enough time, but it will have to do for now.

I am now officially bored at 9:00pm and too lazy to do anything else. I think I'll go play Nintendo or something. Wouldn't that be productive?

In the meantime, here are a few $0.88 reviews for your reading pleasure:

Gone Baby Gone - Don't rent it if you don't like intense movies. The predicament that the main character finds himself in led to a fascinating discussion in our house that was well worth the rental price.

Martian Child - Decent, family movie. Somewhat funny and cute.

Death Sentence - How could I pass this up at $0.88? I am partly ashamed of myself, but mostly ashamed of Kevin Bacon for being in it.

August Rush - Ummm...the lead female character is named Lyla. Every time her name was said I would break out into a rendition of Eric Clapton's "Layla" with "Lyyyyyyllllaaaaaa...I'm begging darling please Lyla." Erin was not as amused as I was, but my humor stretches beyond many mere mortals. The movie? Not so much. The soundtrack? Excellent. In the same vein as an Erik Mongrain.

Of hockey and guitar...

The Habs are currently beating Ottawa 5-1. Pittsburgh is currently losing. I don't boast, but it does make me fell a little giddy. First place in the East is within reach. As long as we don't "pull a Detroit" and get beat out in the first round of the playoffs.

In other news I was able to finish off the Clapton autobiography today. I absolutely loved this book. The rise to fame, the fall into drugs and alcohol, the people he played with, the story behind the songs and the albums, and how he was able to escape the grips of addiction, it was riveting. But then again, I'm a fan of his.

I remember buying his MTV Unplugged album when it came out while I was in high school, and I was hooked. A few of his albums ended up in my collection over the years and I've always been impressed with his guitar skills. But last March when I had the chance to see him live, I was blown away.

Anyway, this just means I'm going to be listening to Clapton for the next couple of weeks. Sorry Erin.

No profound thoughts...

It's Good Friday, but I don't have anything spiritually significant that I want to post on.

It is,however, my first full day off in 2 weeks (and I'm not patting myself on the back for that one...I'm an idiot). I stayed up late watching an $0.88 movie (to be honest I slept through most of it). The kids are playing the Wii. My wife is out for coffee. I spent most of the morning at Improv Everywhere (some very funny stuff).

Funniest quote of the day will go to Matthew Good who was describing one of his teenage jobs at a fine dining establishement:

First, there was Bonanza, an interesting establishment that tried to cross fast-food with grilled steak, the result of which probably kept the local hospital busy with food poisoning cases.

Why does this strike me as funny? I loved Bonanza. I remember visiting Regina in years gone by where I would team-up with Brad to try and get our wives to join us for a meal at Bonanza. I believe somebody got sick one year from eating there, but I'm fuzzy on the details. Then again, it seems that most people who have ever eaten at Bonanza have gotten sick. Except for me.

Other random observations of the day:

• Bryan Adams is still making music
• GI Joe will be a movie. And this is Snake Eyes. Cool.
  
• This video cracked me up more than most.
• Yay for bubblewrap.
• I'm currently reading Clapton: The Autobiography
• I am now losing the reading contest...but my wife doesn't play by the rules.

Youth leaders...

I have a youth leader meeting tonight, but found out a few of them won't be able to make it. So I sent out an email asking for their input on four questions. And so far I've got three entirely different types of responses.

This is a healthy reminder to me that while we may all be working in student ministry, there is no way that we will all be clones of each other. We are all wired differently. We won't always see things the same way as someone else. We won't always be passionate about the same things. We will sometimes miss things that others won't. We will sometimes have ideas no one else will think of.

But that is why we need to do this as a team.

So, how's your team?

Talking to myself...

Sometimes it feels like I'm just talking to myself.

3 more down...

It's time for a reading contest update. I finished three more books out of my personal goal of 26 for the year.

(pause)

Yes, I just paused to pat myself on the back. Yes, I'm still ahead of my wife in this ocntest. Yes, this lead will soon disappear.

But here's what I've finished lately (please note no Dr Seuss):

The Testament by John Grisham
I hadn't read any of his stuff since high school and it was the only book I could find lying around the house that looked unread and mildly interesting. I thought the book started good, but I wasn't too thrilled with the ending.

Deep Ministry in a Shallow World by Chap Clark and Kara Powell
Good book. This ones going on the "read-it-again-and-spend-more-time-processing-it" list. It contains some great challenges and raises some great questions about the current status of any student ministry. I'm currently debating making this one a must-read for our leadership team next year.

The Midnight Club by James Patterson
I just plain like the way this guys writes. It could have something to do with the really short chapters that makes it possible to pick up at any time and read a few pages, but this was another good one.

Working with students...

Why is it that almost every book about student ministry seems to want to tell me that the way I am currently doing things in ministry is wrong and that I should strongly consider switching to their superior model of working with students?

The FA Cup...

I'm choked that United lost to Portsmouth this weekend which leaves them out of the FA Cup. But some relief comes from watching Chelsea (I refuse to link to them) get beat by Barnsley. For those of you who don't watch football, Chelsea is in 3rd place the Premier League and spends piles of money on their squad. Barnsley is in 19th place in the Championship and doesn't even have piles of money.

Their chairman Gordon Shepherd summed it up here with this little gem:

"It's wonderful, beating a squad worth £230million, while ours is worth under £2million."

A 24 prequel...

Stumbled on this today. Apparently a 24 prequel movie is in the works for this fall. Oh, please tell me it's true.

How I escaped the pudding shower...

s of Wednesday at 6:00pm I was worth approximately $206,000. Ryan was worth $226,000. That meant I needed one more person to buy me in order to tie Ryan. Two buyers and I would be the leader and winner.

The catch was that only one student appeared to have enough cash to buy either one of us. My only hope was that this particular student would walk in the door at youth and that she would be willing to pull a fast one on Ryan.

Well, she showed up and it just so happened that Ryan was on the other side of the building with the middle schoolers. So this student went along with the plan, found my computer and jumped online. My wife videotaped the whole Facebook transaction, while the rest of our evening unfolded. This high school girl called one of her friends and they quickly started buying me back and forth.

The middle schoolers came back to join us in the Youth Centre. We had our worship time and then got ready for the pudding dump. I got up to admit defeat and as I was about to speak my wife jumped in to state that there was a new development. And it was all on film.

So, we plugged in the camera and watched the madness unfold. I think Ryan may have yelled.

My worth? $629,289.

Ryan's worth? $142, 329.

Ah yes, I dodged a bullet. Unlike another time in my ministry career which Tammy was so kind to bring up.

Update: Here's the video for your viewing pleasure.

More tomorrow...

I'll give you the details tomorrow, but all you need to know is that it's not me in the picture.

And now it's 12:30am and I should probably not be on the computer.

Night of the pudding...

The challenge was put forth. The results are final as of tonight. I'm currently losing and will likely have pudding dumped on my head at youth tonight. I'm not sure how this will affect the flow of the evening. I'll admit that it would be easier (and funner) if Ryan lost. But I find that unlikely. He was able to rally the troops.

Apparently everyone wants to see me covered in pudding.

Remind me why I agreed to this?

Another weekend complete...

I traveled close to 800kms last weekend. I slept for about 11 hours. I ate a giant burrito. I drank an XL French Vanilla. No, that was not all the food that I could find, but it was the only food that was worthy of mentioning.

I prayed over one of my students as he prepared to hurl chunks in the bathroom. I heard students scream at 120db. I had my rental vehicle TP'd. I lost a game of Settlers. And everyone arrived home with all limbs attached.

It was a good weekend.

Don't ask me about the spiritual stuff. That will take longer to analyze and report on.

Relationally? The weekend was worth every penny.

But I'm glad to be home.

Buy me...

Ryan (the intern) walked into my office last Wednesday with this pronouncement: "I have a challenge for you."

I should have said no and told him to get back to work. Instead I entertained his thought and it wasn't long until it became a reality. It has now spiraled and morphed into a monster all its own and I can no longer contain it or manage it.

Here's the deal.

Facebook has an application called "Friends For Sale". You buy someone and their worth increases. They buy you and you make money. The more buying and selling that takes place, the more that things spiral out of control.

Well, Ryan threw down the challenge and said we should have a 2 week challenge to try and see who would be worth the most. And then at end of those 2 weeks the person who loses would be forced to eat pudding. The catch? The loser will lie on the floor of the Youth Centre while the pudding is dropped from the balcony.

So we announced it to teh students and we are now just over 1 week into the challenge. And guess what? I'm currently losing.

But I'm not beyond asking for your help. Please buy me. Please save me from the humiliation that will come from being fed that pudding. Save my student from the horrific sight of seeing their pastor, mentor and hero in life humiliated.

It's for a good cause. And if it helps you, Ryan likes pudding. So, go buy me.

Zombies...

My wife: "Does everyone know that you're supposed to shoot a zombie in the head to kill it?"

Me: "Uh...yeah"

Since you are included in "everyone", I would like to know if you were aware of this zombie fact?

Movie trailers...

First of all, I apologize for excluding a word in one of my last posts. The word "worst" should have been placed between "the" and "officiating". I'll admit that it makes much more sense when you add the word.

My wife pointed out my failure with the English language, as she so often does. I believe she feels that I have hired her as my editor. It is quite possible that she used her womanly powers on me at some unsuspecting moment and forced me, against my will (and apparently my knowledge), to sign something to that extent.

But now I'm too far off topic.

It's Monday night and the remnants of our high school small groups have vanished into the darkness.

Now I'm currently enjoying a beverage while watching movie trailers on the HDNet channel while Erin studies for her exam tomorrow. Is this really what Monday evenings have come to?

So...what'd you do on your Monday evening?

Congratulations are in order...

First, congrats to the Tottenham Hot Spurs for beating Chelsea in the Carling Cup. It's just plain enjoyable watching Chelsea lose.

Second, congrats to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova who won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. If you've been living under a rock and haven't seen it yet, go rent Once and watch it.

And that's all. Hey, I didn't say it was a huge list.

Weekend roundup...

I'm wearing shorts right now.

That pretty much sums up the weather today.

It was a beautiful day for football. But all we could muster was a draw. Sure it was the last place team in the league that we played. Sure, the other team had lost every single game this season. But we showed up with only 10 guys and a pile of the regulars were missing. All in all, we did horrible but were able to claw our way back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game. And once again I was robbed of a goal by what turned out to be one of the officiating displays I had seen in a very long time.

I just realized today that I hadn't posted since last Sunday. That's no big surprise when you factor in a half day staff retreat, high school small group, hospital visits and waiting with our student ministry intern (he got his appendix out and is on the mend now), worship practice, and a quick trip south of the border.

And I also realized I missed an movie review from a week ago. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to the movie store on Thursday, so this one will have to suffice:

3:10 To Yuma
Good movie. Go rent it. Westerns are cool. $0.88 well spent.

Great review, eh? What can I say...I'm a man of many words.

Reading contest update...

My wife and I have a friendly reading contest going on. I should point out that it originated when I decided to make a personal goal of finishing 26 books this year. I've never kept track of exactly how many books I've read in a year but I can assure you it's far fewer than 26.

Well, I now find myself a month and a half into this little reading blitz (yes, I will call it a blitz even while some other readers will refer to that number of books as a personal reading "lag") and I'm fairly proud of myself. Contrary to what others may believe (ahem...Erin and Brad) I am not allowing Dr. Seuss into this mix. However, I am trying to mix things up a little and I'm branching outside my usual reading material which 98% of the time deals with ministry in some way shape or form, and it's usually student ministry. There's nothing wrong with that. I just need some variety.

So here's a quick recap of some of the books I've been able to get through since January 1st:

Cross by James Patterson
This was a Christmas gift intended to introduce me to the world of fiction. I immensely enjoyed it and will definitely try to find another one of his books.

The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams
I loved The Great Escape and found that it mentioned another escape that happened from the same POW camp. This was the story. Although originally written as fiction, it's been adapted a bit over the years to more accurately reflect the actual escape as it occurred. I love escape stories so this was a good read although at times it was a bit slow going.

UnChristian by David Kinnaman
If you wonder what 20-30's who don't follow Jesus think about "Christians" this book will be good for you. And lest you think this is another "I'm young and the church sucks" book, I should try to point out that the author makes a genuine attempt at painting a picture of hope for the future of the church. My advice? Read this book.

The Making of Star Wars by J. W. Rinzler
I alluded to this book a few posts ago and how it would place me in the front running as the next mayor of Dorkville. Well, I'm a Star Wars geek and when this showed up under the tree at Christmas I was stoked. It tells the story of how Star Wars came to exist. The script writes and re-writes, the personal dynamics, Lucas' dreams, the characters, the studio...it leaves no rock unturned. An yes, it has pictures...my wife won't let me live this fact down.

The Dark Half by Stephen King
I've never read a King novel. This was another gift that was intended to introduce me to the world of fiction writing. I'm not sure what to say about this one, except that I'm not sure if King is going to stay on my reading list. Part of me thinks that if I let Ted Dekker (here) have 2 chances, then King should at least have another opportunity. So, if you have a recommendation, I'm open to it.

Stripped: Uncensored Grace on the Streets of Vegas by Jud Wilhite and Bill Taaffe
This was a quick read that contains some stories of people who experienced grace in...well...Las Vegas. Some very interesting life stories and perhaps some good illustration materials for future teaching opportunities.

Guess what...

I am officially the owner of 2 tickets to see Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds perform live in Seattle as part of Seeds of Compassion. There is no denying that this is one concert that is on my "must attend before I die" list. You may not be aware that such a list exists. Let me assure you that it does.

Did I mention that the Dalai Lama will be there? Before the concert begins there will be a "an intimate dialogue on the role of music in building culture, racial and religious bridges - how the emotions experienced through music unifies and ultimately serves to create global compassion." It should be fascinating.

And now, seeing as though it is Football Saturday, let me point out that I played a game today in which i scored a goal that would be worthy of Highlight of the Night honors. Yes...I shall remain humble while at the same time recognizing the sheer brilliance of my own scoring prowess.

In closing...Glory, Glory Man United! Goodbye Gooners!