Boxing Day Snow

I’ve been dreaming of a white Boxing Day. Just like the ones I used to know.

Which is good because it snowed like it was the end of the world. Oh, wait that was last Friday.

I had to drive home last night during the height of it. It should have been about a 20min drive but took over an hour. And almost getting stuck a couple of times. My little car of heroes was strong and made it through.

The other, more annoying, thing is that I was hoping to not have put oil and gas in the snow blower just to drain it for moving in a couple weeks. However this amount of snow can not be ignored.

Happy White Boxing Week all, and to all a good night.

Happy Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Happy Christmas Holidays!

As you prepare for your celebrations tomorrow please conform to the established Christmas tree rules as prescribed by the University of Sheffield Maths Society.

Using this standard our Christmas tree has 6 baubles, a 3cm star, 152cm of tinsel, and 94cm of lights. Our tree is only 30cm high (as we trying to sell our house and not cluttering up things is important).

Does your tree meet the requirements?

Can you tell the difference?

I am in an usual position because of my impending move. Our current phone provider is Rogers.

This is Rogers coverage map. Notice the gap in coverage out west. Guess where we are going to live. There is basic coverage in Regina, Saskatoon, along the Transcanada Hwy, and along the Yellow Head Hwy. We are not going to be living in these places. Thus we need a new phone company.

There is the added complication that because we are using movers to move our stuff we really can’t be without a phone during the move. So for about a month I have two phones. One for here and one for there. So I have an iphone 4 and 5 currently.

So can you tell the difference?

Photo 1

Photo 2

Video 1

Video 2

Vote in the comments. As apparently there isn’t an easy way to put a voting into the post. There used to be…

Spock’s Brain Drain

I had just watched Star Trek: The Original Series episode called Spock’s Brain.

It is terrible. In the last couple years I have come to appreciate TOS much more and enjoy the episodes. I grew up on TNG and the TOS movies but there are significant differences between TOS and the movies through to TNG. The specific cut off is Star Trek: The Motion Picture. After that movie the feel of Star Trek changed. The inclusion of Harve Bennett on Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan changed Star Fleet into more of a military feel and this developed into the culture of TNG (according to commentary on the DVD).

As such I haven’t immediately taken to the TOS but had to take time to acclimatise. However, Spock’s Brain is horrid. The story is bad. I don’t know whose fault it is (story, directing, or otherwise) but the acting was terrible too.

It’s Voyager bad.

Mine Car Lives

Rising from the assumed ashes of the scrap heap; it’s my car!

Saskatchewan has a public car insurance system. The provincial government administers and runs their own car insurance system. This is meant to reduce costs and maintain standards.

I know. I know. It’s essentially communism.

Apart from giving in to the Reds, it also means that we need to get safeties on any vehicles we take out west. Heather’s car is newish and will pass a safety with ease. My car, I had assumed, was too far gone to make bringing up to safety standards economical. However I decided to actually get an car expert person (mechanic) to back up my assumption. It turns out that my car is not remotely too far gone. Some things needed to be done but well within the economical worthwhile range.

Why is this critical? Because my car is awesome. That’s right, awesome. Despite it’s small engine and questionable handling, it has one very important feature.

A Manual Transmission.

A manual transmission is the difference between transporting yourself from point A to B and driving yourself from point A to B. Using an automatic transmission is a joyless, boring, mechanical existence. Using a standard transmission brings art, challenge, and grace to the act of transportation. Only when personally shifting gears do you achieve your full potential as a driver.

Heather’s car is an automatic; thus the surviving of my car is crucial.

Excuse me now, I must go and drive to the store and buy ketchup, and make several gear changes along the way.

Newtown

Rom 12:9-21

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³ Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰ On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

How does a Christian respond to the events in Newtown?

• Hate what is evil – Hate the event. Be angry about the event.
• cling to what is good – Find and hold onto any good (if that is holding your own children, extended families, other children that happen to be near by (be careful about this though…) or stories like these ones.)
• Honor one another above yourselves – Put aside your personal agendas (talking to you pundits). If that means saying nothing then say nothing.
• Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer – Be and do these things
• Share with the Lord’s people who are in need – Specifically this is talking about fellow Christians, but generally, be willing and act to help those who are in need because of this situation. The “how” of this is subjective, especially given that we don’t have geographic or personal connections.
• mourn with those who mourn – Share in the grief. It’s okay to feel sad by this.
• Do not be overcome by evil – Avoid vilifying and expressing hatred towards the perpetrator.
• but overcome evil with good – While we don’t have opportunity to do good towards the perpetrator in this case; we can ask how we can do good by preventing similar events from occurring again. We can have a calm, rational conversations about gun policy, mental health issues, school security, etc.

We know that even as Christians we will disagree on how to move forward from this event policy wise.  But can we agree not to yell at each other?

Selling of House

So it looks like we will find out if we have sold our house literally days before Christmas. So for us our Christmas hangs in the house balance. Either we have a wonderful Christmas or we may get coal (not the useful burning type of coal either, the spent useless stuff) or we may be in some sort of grey coal area of negotiation.

I am considerably stressed as the outcome of the sale of our house (or the lack of) as it greatly impacts our future. I don’t think I would make a good realtor. The house situation is really annoying as well because I’m having a hard time being all Christmasy. It’s hard to relax with large unresolved impending house selling unkowns in the air.

The worst case scenario is that we end up carrying the house when we don’t live in the province anymore. Then things get expensive with long distance selling and holding onto a mortgage that we don’t need. (Also the added work for my parents who would become the proxy caretakers and the like)

I’ve learned that selling a house is far more stressful than buying a house. As buyer you generally have much more power (the ability to walk away) (unless there is some crazy high demand for your house).

However, this all being said, I choose to have hope. 

Hello. Goodbye.

Hello.

I’ve not been doing the whole internet writing thing for quite some time. I’m thinking that I should get back into it. For two reasons.

• It is generally a good thing to write on a regular basis. Organization of thoughts, whether serious or not, and keeping up mine ability to write somewhat cogently.
• Perhaps more importantly the need for communication. I (and we being mine wife) are moving to Kenosee Lake, Sask and thus communication will be needed.

Do people blog anymore? It’s kind of like twitter and facebook. Well, I guess I will blog like it’s the early 2000’s. Is Zanga still around…