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May 30 Guess who's a father now . . . !Well, for those of you who hadn't heard yet, the good news is in, and it's that Jenn and I are expecting to have a child born the end of November. The baby is about 14 weeks right now which apparently means that we are through the highest risk period for a miscarriage, and so we can just sit around and wait for the baby to be born in about six months now. We had our first ultrasound a couple weeks ago, and I attached the picture here. It was so exciting to see my kid shake his/her fist at me as it wondered what it had done to deserve being poked and prodded by an ultrasound wand. Anyways, that's my big exciting news. I'll keep you posted as developments warrant. May 20 We're Real Homeowners Now!I know that we've been moved into our house for about a year now, but it's not until we finally got our final two items that we really felt like we were homeowners. On Friday evening we finally bought our long awaited BBQ and patio furniture. The yard was nice and all before, but it still felt kind of empty and incomplete until we got the furniture and BBQ to make the whole outdoor area usable. It's really nice to be able to sit outside on my padded patio chair underneath the big lilac hedge and read a book or have a drink in the great outdoors. The best part of all is that I haven't seen a single bee or wasp anywhere near our hedge yet, whereas we had a whole wasps nest in there last year. Like I said before, I never had myself pegged for the outdoors type, but if the outdoors remains bee and wasp free, then I can certainly see myself making a ton of use of that outdoor furniture. The most exciting thing maybe is that they also make a matching outdoor sectional sofa and chaise lounge that match our patio set, so I may finally get the chaise lounge I always wanted, just outdoors. Whodathunkit? I attached pictures of our bbq and patio furniture.
Anyways, that's it for now. Maybe next time I'll tell you a little more about my self-diagnosed autism. Don't worry, I'm high functioning (If Jon has finished jPod, he may know what I'm talking about). May 17 Look at me, I'm an accredited Mennonite . . . maybe later. For now it's Mega Man!Well I was planning on giving you a rundown on how my pastor accrediting conference went, but it's late and I just found I site that I need to share with you, so I'll give my rundown later.
Were you a Mega Man gamer when you were younger? Are you still a Mega Man gamer now? I have the Mega Man collection for my XBOX that I still play all the time. You ever wonder where some of the names of the bosses came from? There were some weird Japanese names like Yamato man, some names that were just silly and simple like Toad man, and others that were so basic that you just shook your head and said, "Why don't they hire a creative team?", because Wood man is a name a 2 year old could have come up with.
Well, this guy put together his list of the top 10 mega man bosses of all time and does it in a pretty funny way. If you are or were a mega man fan, definitely take a look at this top 10 list.
May 13 Look at me, I'm a Mennonite now!So . . . I'm here in Winnipeg, for my MB pastors orientation/credentialing, staying with my cousins, and missing my wife. Life is okay, but I'd rather be back home. Staying with the cousins is great, but being the only one of the thirty people at the orientation that is under thirty years of age makes things a little awkward. I think the worship team tonight felt bad for me because as soon as they were done their set, they came over to sit with me and chat.
The next two days of my life will consist of nine hours of lectures on mennonite history on Monday, and nine hours of lectures on mennonite doctrine on tuesday . . . all on unpadded wooden pews in a chapel. There are a dozen classrooms in the building, but we are using the only room without padded seats. It's going to take a little bit of work to keep from falling asleep during the lectures maybe, but I think the bigger battle is going to be keeping my but and feet from falling asleep from sitting on the hard wooden pews for nine hours a day. I am however looking forward to hopefully figuring out exactly what kind of denomination I have got myself into here.
Nonetheless, I'm here now, and I'm going to make the best of it. At least I got to take a plane ride both ways, and that if nothing else, makes the trip worthwhile.
Until we meet again . . . May 10 Itchin' for My Fantasy Football FixIt's hard to believe that it's been 3 1/2 months since the NFL season wrapped up, and more than 4 1/2 months since my fantasy football season wrapped up. I always tell Jenn that she should be thankful that I picked the sport with the shortest season to have as my favorite, but by this time of year I start getting pretty jittery jones'in for a football fix. At least fantasy baseball has helped me through the offseason in the past couple years, but it's still not the same. I can not wait for the fantasy football season to get underway again. At least it's only about another 3 weeks until the gears start turning again.
In 21 days (June 1) all the teams in our league have to announce their keeper players from last years roster for the coming season, June 1 also usually means the start of fantasy football magazine season, where I proceed to spend $100+ on magazines that I will have no use for in 2 months, but for those two months of preparation they never leave my side. Draft prerparation usually takes every spare moment from June 1 until draft day, usually the last sunday in July. Then comes the draft party, an afternoon of sitting around in a small room with 9 other guys (some live and some live via sattelite) claiming ownership of professional athletes for the next 12 months. From there the real game begins, watching preseason games to determine my final roster and then into the regular season.
I really only have to survive about another 21 days until my fantasy football cycle starts all over again, but now that I'm counting the days down, it's going to be agony as waiting for the hobby that keeps me sane for six months of the year drives me crazy.
Just a note, if you want to spend any time with Jenn and I this year, the next 3 weeks would be the time because after that every spare moment will be spent in my alter ego: Benyamen Kramar, owner and GM of Benyamen's Bears of the RBFL. May 07 Kramer & Ebert at the MoviesOkay, I'll level with you, I didn't go to the movies with Roger Ebert. It just makes the title more eye catching and you gotta have something eye popping to reach the raging masses. I actually went to the movies with my wife instead. In person she is far more eye catching and visually attractive than Roger Ebert of course, but "Kramer & Kramer at the Movies" isn't nearly the headline. In reality I'm far more happy that I got to sit in a movie and hold my wife's hand as opposed to Roger Ebert's. I just know most people would rather hear his opinion on a movie. Unfortunately you won't get that here either, as I already explained. So I guess that leaves us now with my admitting to having misled you with the title and still not getting Ebert's opinion on the movie. If you're still reading this now despite the posibility of actually hearing Ebert's opinon than I appologize for my earlier deception used as a cheap marketing ploy.
Now that that's out of the way, on to the movie . . . don't worry I won't ruin the story for you if you still plan on going to see Spiderman's wedding (just kidding, that doesn't actually happen . . . or does it). Anyways, it was a good show. I don't think I'd call it great, but it certainly was better than good I guess. Lot's of action, pretty true to the original comic book characters, some sad parts, some happy parts, and strangely some parts that were so cheesy that Wisconsin would feel uncomfortable. It was 2.5 hours long. For me that was a positive and not a negative as I enjoyed the show, but some I did hear some people complaining about the length of it. All in all I'd probaby give it a 7 of 10 stars. I'll watch it again on DVD, but I won't go see it again in theatres like I did with the first two. It was a good show and basically wraps up the trilogy. They really didn't leave any loose ends this time, so it looks like that's probably it for the Spiderman movies. I'm glad I saw it and it was worth the admission.
Now I guess I just wait until the end of the month to go see Pirate's of the Carribean 3, and then until July to see the new Transformers Movie. That's right, if you hadn't heard yet there is a new CGI Transformers movie coming out that I will drive to the end of the earth to see (well actually just Saskatoon, but it sometimes feels like the end of the world). But that's enough for now. If you like the first two spiderman movies, you'll like this one. If you didn't like the first two spiderman movies, save your money and don't see this one. And if you didn't like the first two spiderman movies, I don't know why you're still reading this post if you weren't likely going to see the movie anyways.
Well, have a good night and a great tomorrow. May 04 My Celebrity Look-a-LikesFound something interesting today online, a photo analyzer site that then compares your picture to that of celebrities and tells you your famous look-a-likes. Now, as many of you know, I have been publicly mistaken for Fred Durst before, which has made for more than a few funny stories, so that comparison was no surprise. Some of the others were I guess, but anyways, here are my celebrity doubles. May 03 Not the beginning, but far from the endI can't remember if I've mentioned it here before, but I'm in the process of developing a theology of pain and suffering. I think it's something that the modern Christian Church has turned a blind eye to and has chosen to try to gloss over instead of truly dealing with the issue. I won't get into a lot of the deep exegesis here tonight, but I'll give you a few of my basic observations.
Have you ever noticed that most people make their decisions based on what will cause them or others the least pain/suffering and determining that must be the right moral course, as opposed to truly examining the situation and determining the truly correct thing to do? We have made pain/suffering synonymous with evil, but I don't think there is much support for that idea biblically. In fact, as I have been looking for it and studying, I have found more and more examples of places where pain/suffering seem to be the direct will of God for his people because it is the only means to attain the right ends. Now I'm not suggesting that Christianity is by it's nature sadistic, but I think we really need to re-examine the part that pain/suffering can play in our lives for our own good and for the good of others.
Have you ever noticed that the first thing that we pray when we encounter pain/suffering is to ask God to take us out of it, or if we aren't sure that God will do that, then we pray that God would just give us the strength to get through it? We have made pain/suffering something that is to be avoided at all costs as an unnecessary evil in life as opposed to embracing it possibly as God's blessing for us to form us into the people we need to be for his service. Again, I'm not endorsing going out and creating pain/suffering for one's self, but I would say that maybe we need to be praying that God would help us to learn what he is trying to teach us or that we would become what he is trying to make us into through our difficult times.
I can't claim to have seen the depths of pain and suffering in my life, I haven't starved or gone homeless, but I have experienced a fair bit of pain/suffering over the last five years. I wouldn't change a single one of those things I've gone through even if I could. I would not be half the man I am today if not for that pain/suffering. I would not be half as equipped to minister to other people if not for that pain/suffering. I am endeavouring to put some of these things I've mentioned into practice in my life. Lately, the difficult moments have been few and far between, and for that I am very greatful, but I sincerely hope the next time that pain/suffering do come into my life I am just as thankful for what God is trying to make me into as I am thankful for the good times.
Like I said, this is just the start of my journey into this study, but I have already been challenged and grown enormously though it. If you want some more in depth info on exactly what I've been study, and how I came to some of these conclusions, I would be more than happy to share them with you, and maybe as I discover more things for myself I will continue to share them here. Until then, we'll keep working through this life together. May 01 My life, or something like itHave you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had a different career, or did something slightly differently? Don't get me wrong, I love the church I'm at and I couldn't be happier, and I plan on being here for as long as they'll have me, but in the past week I have had at least half a dozen people tell me that I would make a great salesman or sports broadcaster/writer. Now I'll admit that I had considered both of these careers before, but when you have people come straight to you and tell you that you would have been great at something totally different, it has to make you stop and think a bit.
I love sports. I especially love football as most of you know, and this past week while watching the draft, I continually said what the sports casters said, only about thirty seconds before they pointed it out. And when it came to prognosticating the draft and knowing team needs they might draft to fill, I hit on about fifty percent which is significantly more than the 25% that the Mel Kiper Jr. (pro draft expert) hit on. And the funny thing is that this is just a hobby for me that I keep up with in my spare time, where as these guys spend every waking hour studying this stuff. I think I'd really love a career where all I had to do was live football. Maybe someday I will.
And as for the salesman thing, it's something I did a bit at Loney's Golf Shop when I worked there, and now that it's gone I miss it. The only place I have to put my power's of persuasion and sales skills to work is in my fantasy sports leagues where I'm known as "the silver tongue" to a bunch of the guys b/c if I really want to make a trade I can pretty much always work something out with a guy. I'm glad I've got the skills to use in fantasy football/baseball but I wonder how much those skills could have made me in the corporate world. Maybe someday I will find that out too.
Like I said, I love where I'm at right now, but I still wonder somedays what life would be like if I had done somethings different. I know you can't change the past, but with all the options that you have in this life I do wish sometimes I had more than one life to live so I could really see what all those different options would have been like. I'm only 26 but I already feel like life is too short to do everything I want. So many interesting jobs and careers to try, so many people to meet or wish you could have spent more time with, so many hobbies you'll never get to try, so many great books that you'll never have time to read, but I guess that's what prioritizing is for.
Anyways, there's the inner workings of my daydreaming for the day. It filled most of my spare thinking time for the day and likely will for a while until I find some other great mystery of life to ponder.
Have a good one. |
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