misdirected motivation

2006-01-09T18:52:00.000-08:00

Hey From Connecticut!

So, after a prolonged and painful death by lack of motivation of the misdirected sort, I'm sort of pleased to announce my return to this post. I'm not committing to posting more often than before, but I will do this just once.

So from my home in Beautiful British Columbia, I drove to Seattle (at 2am) and flew from there to Phili to New Haven, took a taxi to the OMSC, and got a ride to Madison, Connecticut, to the Mercy Center (on the beach), where I will be staying for one more week. I have had an amazing week of lectures from missionaries around the world, who have unbelievable testimonies, and so many valuable things to share with eager listeners.

This weekend, a few of us took a trip to Boston. We stayed just north of Salem and had many interesting experiences, including driving 40 minutes north into New Hampshire instead of 20 minutes south into the city, walking through a graveyard where the captain of the Mayflower is buried, and getting a 6-hour history lesson while walking around.

I miss all of my friends back home and at school, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of you again, hopefully on Friday some time. Talk to all of you soon.

Cheers,
ERin

The Last Five Weeks

2005-07-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

...

I've been trying to come up with some creative way of telling all of you what I've been doing since my last blog.... can't think of anything except maybe sharing some of my journal entries, but since I don't have that with me right now, I'll do the next best thing.

For the last five weeks:
-I've been sleeping in a sleeping bag
-I haven't worn a seat belt
-I've watched the sunset from the beach every night except three times when I was in town
-I've seen eagles nearly every day
-I've taken more rolls of film than ever in my life, including when I first bought my camara (averaging about 1 roll/week)
-I've been the subject of many Canadian jokes, and proud of it
-I went snorkelling for the first time
-I went ten-pin bowling for the first time
-I went to a drive-in movie for the first time

Some words/phrases I've picked up and rather like:
Dan: "Fudge!" (great while tidepooling if things are a bit slippery)
Lauri: "You've got none tact, you know! None tact!"
Ben: "Affluenza!" (to be yelled in an old man fashion out the window of moving vehicles, along with fist-shaking)
Neal: "oh.... You've got to be kidding me!"
Roger: "Feel the wrath of Muir!" (best used while hitting his full collection of essays over the body of a fellow classmate)

Update

2005-05-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

from the West Coast

Since I have come home (just a little over a month ago), I have been promising lots of blogs to everyone who asks about it. As you all know, I have blogged more faithfully than I ever did at Redeemer, but here's just a few more things that are going on that I may not have already mentioned....

As of May 17, I am a fully licenced driver in BC, thanks to my good friends out in Maple Ridge (btw, the speed limit on Dewdney Trunk road should be faster than 50km/hr- almost didn't get my licence because of that).

The long weekend was Rodeo weekend here in Cloverdale. It's the one big, exciting thing that happens around here, besides the time the movie nearly burned down... nearly. There was a big midway, a parade, and of course, lots of people hobbling around town on crutches.

My sister and I had a Harry Potter movie marathon.

I got a hair cut.

My parents had their 25th wedding anniversary- more on that later.

I'm also working a overtime shifts at the greenhouse every day now, and for the last 8 out of 10 days, overtime on top of that. People who send in rush orders 10 minutes before the regular crew leaves for the day should be shot. Temperatures got over 108 degrees in the connectors in between the greenhouses last week (it's even hotter in the houses), so most of us were sent outside to take stickers off of pots. I think it's rather ironic that I spent the first three weeks at work putting stickers on pots, then for two afternoons, everyone takes other sitckers off pots. Only four more days of work!

Many of my relatives stayed over at our house for the weekend, which was good times. I haven't seen a lot of them since I left for Uni.

So that's some of my last for the past month. Feel free to send me lots of emails, I'd love to hear from you guys!

2005-05-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

So guess who else was at the A Rocha lectures? Dr. Goheen and his wife, out in BC for a week finding a house. They have since found a place (10 minutes from my house), just down the road from Trinity Western. It was great to talk to them for a bit, and show them around the farm at A Rocha, and introduce them to some of the people that I worked with last summer.

Don't worry, I can totally handle anything this baby can throw at me

2005-05-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

...

Late last night, I got a few phone calls. One was from my dear friend Mira, and another was from a very desperate and ill sounding girl. The call went something like this: "hey Erin, sorry I'm not even going to say hi to you... well, here- hi. Umm... just wanted to know what you are doing tomorrow". Me: "I don't even know who this is...." Other end of the line: "oh yeah, this is Joanna (I worked with her last summer)... I was wondering if you could babysit at A Rocha tomorrow...."

And so began my last day of my long weekend. I woke up early to the phone ringing again- this time my boss informing me that there may be "a few" kids besides just his own, and that he wanted me to create some kind of environmental education game for these kids for a few hours. No idea how many kids or how old, just grateful I could make it at the last minute. Needless to say, I drove out there with a bit of trepidation, scenes from Jack-Jack Attack running through my mind.

Turns out there were over 30 kids, ranging in age from 1.5-8 years old. Need I say more? Michelle lost to Martyn in a game of rock-paper-scissors, so she ended up coming and helping for a bit. We looked at cows, chased chickens, sent the kids pond dipping (which, surprisingly didn't end up with us dipping for children), and tried to catch butterflies. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning up, making dinner, eating dinner, drinking wine, and just relaxing. All in all, a fun weekend. (Two more weeks until Au Sable!)

Cheers

Alive in British Columbia!

2005-05-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

I'm back home in the lovely little town of Cloverdale, working hard at the greenhouses (for another two weeks before going to Au Sable), and having fun living on the West Coast again. I haven't really done a whole lot yet (I just finished unpacking two days ago), but I am looking forward to a few of the things going on here. My parents are having their 25th wedding anniversary, and so my sister and I are planning a big party for them, including an 'Amazing Race' style trip around Vancouver. There's a party at A Rocha next weekend for Martyn before he leaves for Portugal, and for Jared's first birthday.

My last day of work is June 3 (also my birthday- 21!), and I can't wait to get out. I'm finally doing orders on my own, but working so much overtime by myself is a little dull some days. I miss being able to just send an msn message or phone anyone and have a group of people out playing poker or watching a movie or just hanging out. It would be so great to have all of you out here. Someday.....

Yep, not much going right now, and nothing too exciting to talk about. Just thought I'd keep the blog going.... I'll think of more to talk about later, cheers.

Turin Brakes

2005-04-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

Band 2

This is a band that I've been very excited about for close to eight months now. I still haven't been able to find any of their music anywhere in Canada but there is a lot of their stuff on the internet, as they are gaining more interest in England where the band originates.

Turin Brakes features

Iron and Wine

2005-04-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

Something a little different.

I think that since music is such a huge part of my life that I should take some time to promote new and little-heard-of bands that may be of interest to a few of you. I’m not at all saying that these are necessarily artists which I am promoting because I love their music, I’m just trying to get some exposure to something a little different. If any of you have suggestions, feel free to pass them along my way.

Here’s a look at the first artist, Iron and Wine. They have (as far as I can tell), two albums out, The Creek Drank the Cradle (Sept, 2002), and Our Endless Numbered Days (released March, 2004)., an EP titled Woman King and another one, The Sea and the Rhythm.

“The gentle acoustic plucking may not grab your attention, but Beam's delicate, hushed vocals sure will. His lyrics, meanwhile, tread familiar territory without sounding too familiar. He even tackles love through metaphor without seeming like a high school poet: "Love is a tired symphony you hum when you're awake/ Love is a crying baby mama warned you not to shake."
The folksy sound sometimes recalls Nick Drake-- that is, if the British troubadour were from the bayou instead. In the lolling "Bird Stealing Bread", Beam's voice then takes on a Drake-ian resemblance, as he sings, "Did his hand in your hair feel a lot like a thing you believed in?/ Or a bit like a bird stealing bread out from under your nose?" Beam's overdubbed harmonies, delivered in a repetitive cadence, are spooky without being forbidding. On songs like this one, Beam feels like an artist working in different hues of the same color-- blue, perhaps, or brown. Beam's voice is all his, as he stretches out his vocal cords and displays a greater range than he had led the listener to believe he possessed. As the song peaks, all guitars but one drop out for a brief respite. "Found a photo of when we were married," Beam sings, breaking the last word into two. "Leaning back on a broken willow tree/ That's one memory I choose to carry/ Weary memory I can always see," and he takes that "see" soaring skyward.

And please don't be fooled by the label. Sub Pop may not be the foremost purveyors of roots music, but they've proven before-- in the case of former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan-- that they at least know good old-time country and blues music when they hear it. If indeed The Creek Drank the Cradle is only half of the material Beam submitted to the label, then hopefully there's some more Iron & Wine on the way. It sure beats more mud and honey. “
-Ryan Kearney, October 2nd, 2002

I find that the music by Iron and Wine is rather folkish and sometimes drags, but the lyrics are worth checking up. There are songs that remind me of other artists such as Jack Johnson, and the style of guitar is similar to slower songs by Teitur (review on him coming up). There are other bits that sound like southern backwater music infused with folk rock and jazz. I’m not sure that this is music I could listen to often, but for more mellow moments, this would suit perfectly.

2005-03-30T20:57:00.000-08:00

Blogger Exile

I realize that this is where I have been placed, and that’s ok. As the title of my blog suggests, my blog is a place of misdirected motivation, nothing more. If I have something important to say, I’ll publish it somewhere else. This blog is for random ramblings and not-so-deep thoughts.

I had a wonderful weekend with my parents who came out from British Columbia for a few days. They were disappointed to fly into a snow storm, but once that was dealt with, we had a great time on a road trip up to Wiarton, went to a maple syrup festival, walked around Sauble Beach, went to church, the Coach and Lantern, Toronto for a day…. They had a great time, and thank everyone they met for so much fun.

Well, I’m off the rec center, so I’ll be back later with more….. really…..

2005-03-17T03:06:00.000-08:00

I had one of those moments of pure revelation the other day. You know the kind where something hits you in a blinding flash of comprehension, and suddenly the world makes sense? I've been reading Life of Pi for the past week, and if you haven't read it, you should probably stop reading by blog here, because I may give away a moment of the same kind of revelation for you, if you were planning on reading it.

So for the past 20 pages or so, I had been trying to figure out who Richard Parker was. I thought that somehow I had just missed a page of two of description of this strange man who appears in Pi's photo album, in his memories, in the other narrator's comments. Then, as the boat is sinking around him, and Pi is frantically trying to describe everything going on around him, it came to me like a bus on the street. RICHARD PARKER IS A TIGER! This thought burst incredulously out of me (yes, I said it out loud), and I started laughing a little. Mira, reading silently on her bed looked up, startled, then started laughing as well. We sat there for quite a while, picturing Pi sitting on the lifeboat beating Richard Parker with an oar and a half-drowned cat thrashing around in the Pacific Ocean, then went back to reading again, satisified that at least one mystery of the world had been solved.

blog blog blog

2005-03-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

conversation i had not 10 minutes ago:

person 1: 'you don't blog anymore'

me: 'sure i do'

person 1: 'no, you don't. blog!'

me: 'i have nothing to blog about'

person 1: 'look at the crap i blog. just blog anything.'

me: 'fine, i will'

here it is.

Galileo, the Church, and Science

2005-03-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Influence of Galileo on the interactions between faith and science and its impact on the development of science in Western Europe

The interactions between the church and scientists have always been approached with a certain amount of tension. During the early middle ages, when science was beginning to challenge the common worldview of people raised in an era of Christendom, the church reacted very strongly to the propositions of scientists, especially astronomers, who, it was feared, would lead people away from the church by opposing the church’s thus far unchallenged authority. Scientists, on the whole, were more than willing to attempt to appease threatened papal leaders. Copernicus dedicated his book to the Pope, Galileo retracted his works under the order of the Inquisition, and Descartes, though he did live in Holland (where institutional powers were a little more lenient), tried to stay on good terms with the church. It’s not quite as simple as all of this though.

The church was not entirely unfounded in their fears of being undermined by certain upstart researchers of the time. Early opposition to science was a product of the respect in which Aristotle was held. The church felt that if the statements of all scientists were revered as highly as the opinions of Aristotle were, there would be serious competition for absolute truth claims and monetary donations. Opposition to science came first from the Protestant church, which tried to deny the writings of Copernicus on the issue of a heliocentric universe (the idea that the planets revolve around the sun) and promote the traditional geocentric view of Ptolemy, who stated that earth was unmovable and at the center of the universe (though this attack came long after Copernicus was dead). The Roman Catholic Church chose Galileo as the target of their vindictive march against the seemingly antireligious capriciousness of the newly born science proper.

Galileo, who lived from 1564 to 1642, was born to a mathematician father, who would have done anything to keep his son from discovering the impoverishing obsession of science that he himself had fallen prey to. Unfortunately for Mr. Vincenzo Galilei, young Galileo overheard a group of scientists conversing in a public square, and he was won over to the dark side of science (most notably physics) forever.

Galileo pioneered work in the study of dynamics, which are the laws governing the movement of bodies, and eventually established the revolutionary idea that a body in motion would go on moving in a straight line with uniform velocity if it were free of external influences. He also did experiments on falling bodies (using weights as bodies) from the tower of Pisa, which not only had the religious community up in arms over his apparent disregard for the safety of pedestrians below and the way he attempted to disprove long held traditions, but he also managed to make enemies among his fellow professors, as many of his experiments against the works of Aristotle were conducted before their very eyes on their way to teaching classes on Aristotelian physics.

Galileo assumed that his situation with religious authority would improve after Cardinal Barberini (who approved of natural sciences) took on the title of Pope Urban VIII, and so Galileo published “Dialogues on the Two Greatest Systems of the World”, a book on contrasting the propositions of Ptolemy and Copernicus (though it is strongly biased toward the latter). Galileo’s ease was ill founded however, and he was summoned on February 26 of 1616, by the Pope to appear before the Inquisition to abjure his errors. As a consequence of their parle, all books on a moving earth were left on the Index, and the work of Copernicus was condemned. Galileo retired to Florence.

2005-03-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

Depend on God.

2005-01-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

I just did it. I applied for Au Sable Institute's summer sessions I and II. Courses hopefully include Biosphere Science (biol/ geol/ soc 489), an investigation of the earth's attributes that support life on a regenerable, sustainable basis. Applications of the earth systems science, environmental biology, and eco-psychology to understanding the earth as home. Set in the context of biology and behaviour of human beings and other organisms at extremes of temperature, pressure, altitude and gravity within sub-marine, near-earth and lunar space. Includes high altitude and sub-surface field work. Prerequisites: swimming competence; SCUBA not required, but beneficial.

Summer session II: Marine Mammals (bio 359), Biology, behaviour, ecology, identification and conservation of the marine mammals of the Pacific Rim. This study area includes some major habitats in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea, with attention of the diving physiology, social behaviour, and communications of whales and seals. The course aims to develop a stewardship perspecitve rooted in biological principles and directed at the global conservation of marine mammals and their ecosystems. Special attention is given to their use by cultures of the region in order to understand current issues.
Global Development and Ecological Sustainability (bio/ geog 317) Environmental analysis and natural resources in relation to society and developmental issues. The focus is on ecological sustainability and sustainable society in the context of various factors that are bringing environmental degradation and impoverishment of people and cultures. It deals with topics of tropical agriculture, hunger, poverty, international debt, appropriate technology, relief programs, missionary earthkeeping, conservation of wild nature, land tenure, and land stewardship. It employs a discussion format both in classroom and field settings. Its emphasis is on grappling with difficult practical and ethical problems and issues that require deep and presistent thought.

More to come.

Living with a Crippled Intellect

2005-01-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

From "Evolution as a Religion" by Mary Midgley (p. 104-105)

"It is not surprising, however, that Monod's story has had so much success, especially among scientists. In its lively, existentially coloured package, it offers a way of combining the general scepticism and acceptance of confusion about moral questions which is widely professed today with a firm, saving exception for confidence in the value of science. This fits the world-picture acquired by very many people in the course of a scientific education, an education which trains them in scientific thinking, and greatly exaggerates the precision possible to it, while doing very little to teach them the ways of thinking which they will need for other purposes- personal, political, psychological, historical, metaphysical and all the rest.
Since these purposes are central to life and call for a great deal of though, especially in changing times, those whose intellect has been cramped by this kind of foot-binding process into a specialized use experience a very painful sense of confusion when other issues come before them. The discrepency between their confident use of highly trained intelligence in their work and their helplessness on other issues threatens to tear them apart and attacks the roots of their self-respect. (Scholars in general are of course to some extent subject to this trouble, but the physical sciences tend to have a method and a subjext-matter even more remote from everyday problems than the rest.)
In this emergency, Monod appears with the balm of a metaphysical proof that their plight is inescapable. He declares that science is indeed the only field where thought is possible. Everything else must be left to choice: not reasonable choice, but choice in the Existentialist sense of a blind, inarticulate act of will. For those who may still hesitate, he stands ready with a bracing draught of dogmatic puritan morality to enforce this mortification of the intellect:

Cold and austere, proposing no explanation but imposing an ascetic renunciation of all other spiritual fare, this idea could not allay anxiety; it aggravated it instead. It claimed to sweep away at a stroke the tradition of a hundred thousand years... With nothing to recomend it but a certain puritan arrogance, how could such an idea be accepted? It was not; it still is not."

Here's to liberal arts education and great friends who helped me develop an interest in disciplines outside of the constrictions of science. Bear in mind, these are not my sentiments. I happen to disagree with much of what Monod is arguing. There were/are many unbalanced people who would suggest that science is limiting, or that science is the only way to live, but have I mentioned that these people were unbalanced? I suppose that every tradition has their own fanatics who would claim such a thing to their discipline respectively, but I suspect they are few and far between (and unbalanced). Really, I'm grateful that Redeemer offers courses like history and philosophy that are mandatory for all students so that hopefully we can avoid such elitist exclusivist ideas. Or maybe I'm just a geek who loves learning about more than just the program I signed up for.

It's been so long since I've seen the ocean

2004-12-20T17:40:00.000-08:00

I'm going back to the Gloryland tomorrow. I can't wait. Enough of this talk of how good it was/is. I'm going home. Things I'm most looking forward to? Listening to Handel's Messiah while curled up on the couch reading a book, spending time with my family, seeing old friends, hanging out on the beach, playing violin, going back to A Rocha, sleeping. This, my friends, will be a Christmas to remember.

2004-12-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

Last night at the Winking Judge, a few of us were lamenting the lack of rhymes in our lives. Sure, sometimes they're cheezy and really bad, but sometimes (especially as song lyrics) they can really sound cool. As an example: "hypereal fragmments disturbing the stagnants of almighty fear" -how cool is that? Btw, it's part of the Turin Brakes lyrics from the song "Feeling Oblivion". If you've never heard of Turin Brakes, I suggest you listen to them as soon as you can, because they're awesome- this post was just a reason to get their name out there. Have a great day. Feel free to post your favorite song lyrics/ rhymes/ name of amazing new band you just heard.

2004-12-05T23:25:00.000-08:00

Do you ever wish that you could just shout "Riddickulus!" and all of your biggest fears would vanish with a satisfying 'crack'? yeah...

A Declaration for Sustainability- by Paul Hawken

2004-11-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

'Shift from Electronic Literacy to Biologic Literacy
That an average adult can recognize one thousand brand names and logos but fewer than ten local plants is not a good sign. We are moving not to an information age but to a biologic age, and unfortunately our technological education is equipping us for coporate markets, not the future. Sitting at home with virtual reality gloves, 3D video games, and interactive cable TV shopping is a barren and impoverished vision of the future. Don't get me wrong. Computers are great. But they are not an uplifting or compelling vision for culture or society . They do not move us toward a sustainable future any more than our obsession with cars and television provided us with newer definitions or richer meaning. We are moving into the age of living machines, not, as Corbusier noted, "machines for living in." The Thomas Edison of the future is not Bill Gates of Microsoft, but John and Nancy Todd, founders of the New Alchemy Institute, A Massachusetts design lab and think tank for sustainability. If the Todds' work seems less commercial, less successful, and less glamorous, it is because they are working on the real problem- how to live- and it is infinitely more complex than a microprocessor. Understanding biological processes is how we are going to create a new symbiosis with living systems (or perish). What we can learn on-line is how to model complex systems. It is computers than have allowed us to realize how the synapses in the common sea slug are more powerful than all of our parallel processors put together.'

Just a thought.

(originally from 'Utne Reader' #59 (September/October 1993).

2004-11-14T17:41:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't blogged in a while, and no one is likely to read this, so I figured I'll just blog on everything that comes to mind at this moment:

- I just read several very thought-provoking articles that are making me wonder why I'm still sitting at my desk and not saving the world from famine, apathy, and occult

- I have a smashing headache from trying to understand calculus- the job of world-saver is starting to look easy compared to using logarithmic differentiation to find the equation of a tangent using Liebniz' notation (was that even in English?)

- I know I can no longer live away from the ocean. I grew up only 10 minutes from the beach, and I realize now how much of my life revolved around enjoying that particular aspect of God's creation more than anything else.

- The cup of hot chocolate on my desk is forming a nasty film on top. Maybe I should go do my dishes.

Ahimsa

2004-10-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

Is ahimsa a good guide for what we should do in the face of today's environmental challenge?

Himsa is the Buddhist word for the use of force, violence, brute strength, impulse, or to be impatient. Jainism is just the opposite. Jainism is the practice of ahimsa- or the practice of not harming anything. There is no protection of nature though. Do we have to protect nature, or can it heal itself? Is there such thing as ahimsa environmentalism?

Thoughts anyone?

Interesting....

2004-10-12T01:28:00.000-07:00

A random thought that occured to me on the long drive back to Redeemer: I haven't blogged in a while. Sure, this seems obvious to most of you, but I had almost totally forgotten that the world of blogs existed.
As this is the first blogin some time, I though I'd take an old idea and recylcle it. The idea is to:
Follow the herd (from Gideon):
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

As I did this, my eye was caught, not by the fifth sentence of the first book that I saw, but the first, and only because it was in bold type and double spaced, and seemed to fit well with a conversation of earlier this evening.
Here it is:

"Charles Peacock, from V.S. Pritchett's "The Fall," reminds me in certain ways of Woody Allen, especially in the way that 'crowds and occasions' frighten both of them, and engage them in 'the fundamental battle of ... life: the struggle against nakedness, the panic of grabbing for clothes and becoming someone'"

Another random thought: there's a note on my computer screen (written in my own hand) that says 'no MSN until calculus is done!' Therefore, I am signing out now, and going to bed.

Directions for Kayak Surfing

2004-08-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

1. Grab your kayak,
2. find a good wave,
3. face the shore,
4. ride the wave to the top,
5. then paddle your heart out, mate
cheers

You know you don't live in the city when.....

2004-07-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

Your excuse for being late for work is that the tractor driving in front of you dropped several bales of hay that blocked the entire road.
(true story)

On another note, this past week has been very educational for me. I never really considered myself a country girl until I realized that I had never driven on any kind of freeway before, and that to get to Lighthouse park to go rock climbing, I needed to drive through Vancouver. I made Martyn drive on the way there, but after conquering the 5.10a face, I figured that freeway driving should be no problem. It's a good thing I got over my fear quickly, because I'm driving into Vancouver every day for the next week, and making a 'wee road trip' into Seattle on Monday. Should be a great week!

Unbelievable

2004-06-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

Some days, I can't believe that I'm being paid for the things that I get to do at work. Take last week for example. It was probably the best week of the summer so far.
Monday, I did two pond samples with Matt (took a meter of pond gunk and identified and counted all of the benthic invertebrates in it). The rest of the day was spent talking to Donald, a man from Scotland who has started something called EcoCongregations.
Tuesday was a pretty normal work day- we finished the pond samples, started clearing a trail on the site, and weeded and planted the garden. That night, I had dinner at the site, and took Martyn and Matt to beach volleyball with some of my high school friends.
Wednesday, the four of us young workers (Matt, Martyn, Joanna and I) spent the day on the beach at an eelgrass mapping thing (mostly sat around on the beach playing with the GPS equipment). I got a parking ticket, which wasn't so cool but that night, we had a bbq on the front porch and then Martyn and I went and saw the new Harry Potter movie.
The next morning, we skipped out of the staff meeting to go down to the pub to watch the England/Switzerland soccer game (England won 3-0, fortunately- Martyn was quite happy). Instead of being mad at us, my boss told us he'd meet us down there at half-time. Thursday was staff fun day, so we had a huge beach soccer game that lasted nearly 3 hours, then went out of ice cream. The rest of the day, we were too beat to do anything, so Martyn and I just sat on the porch with a beer while Matt and Joanna looked after the kids (my boss's kids).
I slept over at A Rocha that night because of a late workshop, but we ended up staying up talking until 2:00am.
Friday was a short of mapping on the beach for the DFO, and we did the same thing on Saturday, except that the guys asked if I wanted to stay and play Settlers of Catan. Naturally, I did and so we played until 11:00pm.
It was an unbelievable week. Too much fun.

2004-06-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the summer, I said that I would blog every time that it rained, thinking that I would get plenty of time to blog. Contrary to popular belief though, it hasn't rained here in quite some time (in fact, I don't think it's really rained since I came home), so I guess I'll resort to blogging when it's too hot to be outside. I'm serious, I don't think the temperature has been below 30 degrees C for the past week.

2004-06-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

As an early birthday present to myself, I bought a violin on Saturday. It's going to need a few repairs, but I'm quite excited about it.

2004-05-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

Just to show how God answers prayers, I was offered a job with A Rocha (Portugese for "the rock"), a Christian Environmental group on White Rock beach this past Wednesday. Thanks everyone for thinking of me during my interview. I'm quite excited that I will be getting out of the greenhouses, and doing something more mentally challenging than spacing pointsettas on tables and working with growth hormones (aka 'magic dust'). I get to set my own hours, and I will be identifying and mapping plants on the beach, helping build a pond (which we can go swimming in after), and taking care of 10 highland cows (basically letting them out to pasture in the morning, and rounding them up at night again).

Thank you

2004-05-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, there have been a lot of good things in my life lately that I thank God for every day. The first few weeks at home were pretty rough with a lot of things that we had to deal with, but things looking up. My uncle had to go into the hospital for emergency operations, I was working with a 19-year-old girl who had problems with alcohol, my sister's medications were switching every couple of days, a friend of mine told me that she didn't believe in God anymore, and left her church because she said that Christians were all fake, I saw a guy that I went to high school shoot up in his car after a party, and two girls I grew up with ended up in rehab for using crystal meth (a.k.a. speed).

It was really hard to come home to all of this, but God has shown his faithfulness in each of these situations. My uncle is at home and doing well, the girl at work has quit drinking, my sister is fairly stable, and the sisters in rehab are getting a lot of support. Thanks to everyone who has been keeping these things in their prayers.

it's a hard knock life

2004-05-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

I fell off of the bar that I was standing on at work yesterday, and it was definately (in the same moment) the most painful and hilarious thing that happened all day. Vivian couldn't decide whether to help me up or to keep laughing for a while, but in the end, both of us were laughing too hard to do anything.

Home Again!

2004-05-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry if I didn't say good bye to most of you before I left to go back home- my plane left a bit earlier than I had thought, which resulted in me doing some very last-minute packing, and showing up at the airport only 4 minutes before my plane did. The best part of this was that there was no line, and I pretty much just walked into the waiting lounge.
I showed up on time to hear Jake (the guy who ended up sitting next to me on the plane) in true Adam Sandler fashion, play a few songs on his guitar before we left.
The trip was otherwise uneventful, and I've been enjoying my time at home since.
I'd like to thank all of you for the great times that we had this year, for all of the fun, the tears, and the laughter- I'll never forget this year! See you all in the fall!

The Top Ten Events

2004-05-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

The Top 10 Events of this past semester:
10. Mystery Madness! They had ELEPHANTS!
9. Rock Climbing
8. The Ranch- good times
7. The Winter Retreat
6. My sister Leah's visit
5. Playing 'Settlers' with Jon during reading week
4. Choir Concerts
3. OC parties and all that is involved
2. Study parties at Tim Horton's that ended at BP's
1. The dorm 43 trip to OTTAWA!

Honourable Mention goes to:
-my last library shift
-11:15pm tea at dorm 43
-random dance parties
-snow day! (and all of those pj's!)

Truth from children's stories:

2004-05-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
-The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien, 1937

All his thinking could not make him understand, but his singing heart could.
-Waterless Mountain Laura Adams Armer, 1931

Calm your mind.... No problem can be solved by a drunken monkey.
-Beautiful Warrior Emily Arnold McCully, 1998

When I grow old, I too will live beside the sea.
-Miss Rumphius Barbara Cooney, 1982

Reality Check

2004-05-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

The latest fad in our dorm has been to watch these reality shows on TV, our favorite being 'Extreme Makeover'. Personally, I think that these shows are a pretty sick reflection of the culture that we live in. Basically all these shows do is enforce the stereotype of a beautiful person by contrasting them with 'ugly' people. The worst part of these shows to me is when the transformed woman is revealed at the end of the show, the first that her husband always says is "you're beautiful... I love you" as if love and beauty must always go together.
I'm not saying that the husband didn't love his wife before- obviously he did enough to marry her, but it's like his love suddenly means more now that his wife looks like a 20 year old supermodel.
It's like we are living by the Bohemian values of Beauty, Freedom, Truth, and Love, but have dropped the last three, and blown the first way out of proportion. I don't know about the rest of you girls out there, but I would like my future husband to be able to look me in the eye and say 'I love you' and not ' it's about time those mosquito bites turned to mangos- why don't you go for the D-cup?' I want to be appreciated for the characters that I hold and yes, for my looks- whether they are good or bad. My looks will always be a part of me because God has created me in His image, and I wouldn't mess with that for all of the image-obsessed men in the world.

2004-04-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

nothing says 'exam time' better than a craving for hot dogs and orange juice at 9:30am

Unless maybe it's 11:15 tea at dorm 43. For each night of our exams, the girls of my dorm have been sitting outside on our porch, wrapped in quilts like old omas, chatting about the good old days (ie those before exams) and drinking tea. It's been really fun to let the stress of the day just disappear for a while, and focus on our chattering teeth in the cold instead of trying to remember that "this gene encodes a homeodomain transcription factor, and if this gene is ectopically expressed in the ventral vegetal cells, a secondary axis emerges on the former ventral side of the embryo, and if cortical rotation is prevented, siamosis expression is eliminated." (which is also inhibited if the Tcf3 protein is bound to the gene's promoters in the absence of B-catenin, in case anyone was wondering about that) Anyways, back to studying.

just for a laugh

2004-04-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

as i was busy reading blogs of the past, catching up with some old friends, i stumbled across some posts that made me chuckle a little.

the first one is from my good friend Tamlin:
this is will be random, but what isn't?
I walked slowly today. everywhere. all day it felt like everything was fuzzy and blurred and like i was in a constant state of confusion.
I was finishing homework in the computer lab and this message was on the white board:

NO TALKING

NO BLINKING

NO HAPPINESS

ONLY KALKALASH

don't ask, cuz I don't know. but i wish i did.
i hate that when people have the wrong impression of who i am, for some reason, i can never stop being that person around them.
my flip flops are loud. they make three distinct noises when i walk: the slapping of the shoe on heel, the dragging of the shoe on ground and the farting noise of my foot rubbing on the sole. the farting noise was my favorite.
i had a macaroon this morning for the first time.....sooo good.
sleeping on the bus never feels like a nap. and i always wake up with people looking at me and i have this fear that I"ve been drooling the whole time and unbeknownst to me a large puddle has formed on my shirt. this has never happened but one day i think it will.

also from Tamlin:
I love having shaved legs. When I wear pants, no one knows that under my layers of denim, I'm hiding lethal weapons of silky smoothness. I feel like a sex goddess, with the power to bust any man's balls at the lift of a pant leg. It's like going camando. Nobody knows about it, but they sure as hell wish they did.

Top Reasons Why I Tell Everyone I'm from Cloverdale, not Surrey

2004-04-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

10. It doesn't smell THAT bad. Cows are a natural smell
9. They film the TV show Smallville there. It's cool- check it out some time
8. Brittany Spears came to Cloverdale two years ago to shoot a commercial (I don't like her, but she's a celebrity, so that makes it worth mentioning)
7. People play street hockey on every corner- unlike Surrey, where there is drug dealing on every corner
6. The movie theatre plays two movies for five bucks (only once a week- Fridays at 7:00pm, and you'd better count on them being from at least 3 years ago)
5. We have a museum, as Brianna pointed out last night (it's about the size of the upstairs of my college dorm, but hey)
4. As our only promotional website states (there are others, but they're all copied and pasted off of each other) "It is one of the few communities in Greater Vancouver that has a genuine "main street" where locals shop on foot and friends and neighbours gather to sip coffee and exchange gossip in the cafe's." (they should have made the last word singular- one cafe)
3. We have a soapbox derby, and a parade (check out www.fraservalleyguide.com/Cloverdale.html for pictures of our parade- all two horses, and the pooper-scooper)
2. The Cloverdale rodeo. Need I say more? It's the biggest thing to happen in all of Cloverdale all year, and employs all residents for at least a week. Huzzah!
1. By saying that I'm from Cloverdale and not Surrey (though technically Cloverdale is a part of Surrey), I avoid the international recognition of being called a "Surrey Girl"

2004-03-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

P.S. I finally won! After many long hours of trekking out to Meadowlands and back, I won my first Roll up the Rim last night! Even if it was 'just a cookie' I'm still pretty stoked.

2004-03-21T14:14:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick blog to let those of you who think that I haven't blogged in a while (Felix and Mikey mostly), that I still do blog.
I haven't had a whole lot of time lately to keep up with this, because as most of you know, my sister Leah came out to Redeemer for the week. It was a really great time of us just hanging out at the dorm, taking goofy pictures, driving all around Ancaster, and making green cake for St. Patrick's Day. My conclusion of the week: if any of you have siblings, spend time with them. They'll love you no matter what, and you don't have to do a whole lot to please them. I don't mean this totally to be cheap and sarcastic, I just love the way that my sister and I have kept up our good relationship even though we live at opposite ends of the country. Here's to you Tookie, I had a great time!

Irish Blessing

2004-03-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

Seeing how it's St. Patrick's day next wednesday (March 17), and my name is Erin (the poetic version of Ireland), I thought that I would post an Irish blog. If none of you have heard of the amazing 9-piece violon group Barrage, and their version of this Irish poem, i suggest that you try and find it.....beautiful

Irish Blessing

MAY THE ROAD RISE TO MEET YOU,
MAY THE WIND BE ALWAYS AT YOUR BACK
MAY THE SUN SHINE UPON YOUR FACE
THE RAINS FALL SOFT UPON YOUR FIELDS
AND, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN,
MAY GOD HOLD YOU IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND

Barrage adds a few more verses to the song that I thought I'd include:
May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face now,
May the rains fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand
May God hold you in the palm of his hand

May our children and their descendants
Be the ones to find a lasting peace
May their hopes and dreams become united
May the past be left for those who hate

And until we meet again
And until we meet again
May love and trust find a way to make a stand
May love and trust find a way to make a stand

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the rains fall soft upon your fields

May this world and all its wonders
Be a home to all humanity
May the people find a common purpose
May we help one another to survive

And until we meet again
And until we meet again
May Mother Earth pour her heart into our land
May Mother Earth pour her heart into our land

africa

2004-03-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

Under enigmatic skies and a temperamental sun
She rests wisely on the globe,
The mystical mother
Drowning the desert with kisses
From the river
Most of us
Have never seen

Anger sets her jaw
Forthright and proud
Into the shadows of beauty
As the brow of a nation
Shades her eyes.

She is the mystery and glory
Of Africa

-Andrea Stone

Mount St. Helen's- the good, the bad, and the really really dirty

2004-02-26T18:41:00.000-08:00

So this blog is mostly for the seven of us (Josh, Greg, Eric, Andrea, Aaron, Chappy and myself) who went to Mount St. Helen's in grade 12 together. I was just asked to post something so that we wouldn't ever forget the good times. Here are some of the highlights:
-the infamous Giant Eruptions Theatre
-the scenic waterfalls
-the Erin/Greg relationship
-the Andrea/Randy relationship
-the Q's 80's weekend
-the $100 fine for stepping off the path
-Aaron and his 'amazing' fire fanning skills
-Josh and the cigar outside the theatre
-Josh and his 'Sobe' bottle (both at the theatre and at the Taco Bell)
-the Fire Hot Sauce Jackass game - good times eh, Aaron?
-caterpillars- how do you tell which is male and which is female?
-the seismograph and it's detection of various bodily functions

Quotes:
'I'm a virgin' -Greg
'This water tastes funky' -Josh
'You taste funky!' -Andrea
'At least you didn't say 'your momma....' -Greg
'Time for de-virginizing!' -Josh
'Quick! Hid the Koran!' -Greg
'Survivors of Eruption Hunted' -newspaper
'The only thing permanent is change' -Heraclitus (note the spelling of that one Josh)
'Fire hazard is low TODAY!' -sign on the mountain
'Andrea, go get me a paper! -Josh
'Round up all the Arab kids, of course' -Greg
'I'm giving this relationship 30 more seconds, so you'd better make it good!' -Erin

2004-02-26T18:06:00.000-08:00

So i'm sitting in front of my computer, trying to think of something to write for my first blogspot ever. At least the first one that I've ever written, I've made comments on everyone else's and figured that by this time, I could just have posted my own by now. By the time that I got it all set up though, I had lost all of the brilliantly funny topics that I had wanted to share with everyone. I'm not sure exactly what I want to prove with this first blogspot, but Care said it had to be good. NO pressure, right? Since blogs are basically a form of procrastination, I thought maybe an appropriate way to begin this blog was to come up with the many ways that we (collective as college students) find to occupy our time by doing things other than study.
At the top of the list would have to be msn. I know this is cliched, and for some of you, this is worse than others. I remember the first time that I talked on msn, I went a little overboard, and actually talked to one of my friends for close to 4 hours. This definately puts this form of 'misdirected motivation' at the top of the list.
Second would be music. I'm a bit of a music freak.... i spend a lot of time listening to new music, and I can't refuse going on the network. Right now, I'm listening to Vivaldi's Four Season's (my favorite classical music, for those of you who haven't filled out the survey with a twist yet :))
Third comes Timmy Ho's. I can't think of a time that good old Tim Horton's wasn't a part of hanging out after school, during school, after long nights on the beach, or like last night, while trying to study for ped, chem, or bio. good times
I could go on forever about ways that dorm 43 has found to procrastinate- finding out who owns the loaf in the freezer (and who pinched it), looking at wedding dresses (for no particular reason, right Karen?), eating cheese, watching Sweet Home Alabama, random dance parties, settlers of catan, the O.C. etc.......
But since this blog has nothing to do with anything, except that I wanted to comment on one of our best alliterations (sp?) (see future blogs on processed plastic, bitch beer, and forbidden fusion etc.) In that case, I am going to sign off for the moment, and I'll talk to you on a later bout of MM.