not sure what to write anymore...

this circle of confusion is a figure for my current mind set on blogging. i wrote two other posts about a popular gay cowboy movie currently enjoying rave reviews, but ramone had me delete them because she felt my views were too politically incorrect and dangerous to my employment situation. i thought they were both thoughtful, carefully considered and rather funny. but i trust my wife's insight.

this incident has made me post shy; and this bothers me, leaving me somewhat confused. furthermore, it makes me feel as though what i am thinking through is unimportant and on a lower level of spiritual priority than what ramone or other more spiritual folks are working through in their writing. i don't deny this, but it bothers me nevertheless. in addition, i read a post over on stacy's site and was going to leave a comment about my experience with special ed students but thought, "no, write nothing, it might offend." accordingly i am not sure whether i should write anything about what i truly think about controversial matters. it would seem the wisest move is to remain taciturn. i will just have to find another outlet. so that is what i am going to do; as such i will just write about OpenBSD and other stuff that won't easily offend anyone unless they are silly enough to use microsoft windows :p

a 30h fast: hunger bites, bite back!

Today my school was awarded the highest honour a school can get. No, it wasn't for scholastic merit or for athletics; both of those are very important but are not of the highest honour. Honour must be conferred on that which is the most difficult, challenging action. Also the action must be an action especially pleasing to God if it is to be worthy of the highest honour; for who else can determine what is ultimately honorable? All else is relative and given to folly. To be recognized as compassionate is the highest honour for it is based on the love of one's neighbour, the greatest love according to my Lord; all schools could've accomplished what we did, but they lacked the will to do it. World Vision awarded my school's collective will power today. Last year we raised more money for famine relief in Africa than in any other school in Delta or BC or Canada! That includes very rich private schools like St. George's or Upper Canada College! If they had willed to they could have easily put our humble efforts to shame -- and this is where the full manliness of the honour we earned for our little high school kicks in -- but they didn't will it to be done, whereas we did. I am thankful to work at a school where we are honored for our compassion.

This year we will do the 30h famine again for Rwanda. I pray that this will help some Rwandans and that it helps to cleanse and make more loving hearts in the students who participate. O, Lord have mercy!

the best cinnamon buns in the world?

Fresh cinnamon buns are one of my favourite desserts. I should emphasize that I have some good friends who make awesome cinnamon buns. My wife does not make me cinnamon buns; this is a good thing, for if she did I'd be a whole ton more than I am currently. But on my birthday Kim RB made me some caramel covered cinnamon buns. Arrrrgh, so manly and delicious. Victoria makes a type of cream cheese covered cinnamon buns....oh, they are so good, I'd expect that they are straight from heaven's bakery!

The Old Morris Tobbaco Shop

The Old Morris Tobbaco shop was established in 1892 on its present site and is one of British Columbia's finest examples of how a shop should be set up. I love to enter Old Morris and let my nose wander.

As you enter the shop, you can glance overhead at the fine examples of leaded glass in the domed entrance and the Alabaster arch and pillars framing the doorway. Though, beyond all other sensory input, your mind can not but focus on the fragrant tobbaco scents wafting through the air. Aaaahh, such a sure sign of God's goodness, much as chocolate or coffee or fresh cinnamon buns.


In 1910, the interior of the store was remodeled, with mahogany fixtures, mirrors and a walk in humidor were added. These fixtures add a definite sense of time and place to the shop.

The Alabaster cigar lighter that stands in the center of the floor is delightful and full of deep magic. You can purchase all manner of cigars and pipe tobbaco from Old Morris. For Pascha and at Christ's Nativity, I often buy my 'mild and mello' blend online. I must add that it is smashing in a hobbit pipe with a little bit of wine or scotch! So fine, indeed; a texture like sun.

George Grant and despair; for the practical man

George Grant has been a hero of mine since I was first introduced to him through my High School Latin teacher. Mr. Wilson photocopied a CBC Ideas transcript for me, and I found his ideas about technology, the enlightenment period, and the role of the love of goodness very intriguing. What Grant had to say about Simone Weil, Nietzsche and Heidegger fascinated me, too, but I didn't know what he was really talking about back then. Yet when I went on to study classical philosophy (that is, the pre-socratics, Plato and Aristotle) as part of my undergraduate degree, I found myself often going back to find out what George Grant had to say about certain ideas and the classical thinkers and their relationship to this post-enlightenment world. So often I found his views to dovetail with my own that I thought there was some sort of mental tie. Though Grant dabbled in the subtle platonic theory about forms and the ontological basis for them in the idea of the good, the most profound thing he ever wrote was at the end of Lament For A Nation, where Grant wrote about a notion that is near to my heart: the relation between the certainty of the saint and the hopeless, despairing unbeliever to a regular, wanna-be-manly chap like myself. Now men who truly despair don't write poetry, plays or novels; suicide is the act of a man who has no hope. Such is the despondent extreme when viewed unromantically. Few see no hope at all; but, once again, few ever attain the certainty of the holy. They are rare who greet all horrific events and losses of good with the cheerful knowledge that all changes in the world take place within an eternal order that is not affected by them. Somewhere in between these two poles are the vast majority. Accordingly to Grant, "if one cannot be sure about the answer to the most important questions, then tradition is the best basis for the practical life." Such is one of the fundamental precepts that I live by, and though it is a simple idea it is profound and rich. For it allows a man like myself to live with courage in the ancient faith that asserts whatever impersonal ferocities are faced in this age -- and however much they seem to gain an upper hand -- the eternal light and order is not affected, and that to the religious man "...this process is not all. 'Tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore.'" Mr. Wilson taught me enough Latin to translate that text from Virgil's Aeneid.
Perhaps Jenny or Fr. John can verify or correct this, but I think it reads like so:

"They were holding their arms outstretched in love toward the further shore."

I commend George Grant to anyone who desires to understand the plight of conservatism in the Great White North during the age of technology.

Cartography, an exacting art?

Try clicking on this old map of France, which shows the ecclesiastical boundaries in effect between 1789 to 1802. I enjoy examining maps. Though I am unsure why, exactly, but I suspect it because there is so much that can inferred from a visual cue. I am not sure whether cartography is a science or an 'exacting art', or whether this is mere quibbling about terms and equivocating. Yet, whatever may be said about cartography, I do find that an understanding of the lay of a land to be most interesting and helps to illuminate the life of a community or nation.

See Kong!

Perhaps not a little kid's flick, yet it is one of the best adventure movies I have seen in a while. The plot is well known and it keeps you riveted throughout this sad tragedy about exploitation on a few different levels.

The CGI battle scenes of Kong fighting the Tyrannosaurus Rex are worth the cost of admission. In fact, I think I will see Kong kick some more sorry T-Rex butt around again before this feature moves out of the big screen theatre in my town. Watching it on my tiny TV screen on DVD just won't cut it.

Another aspect to this movie that I should mention is the very fine acting by Naomi Watts. Her portrayal of her character was consistent and showed a wide range. For me, when Watts entertained Kong with some humorous antics, she was drawing out every part of her character's background and resourcefulness. Not only was Watts funny though; she was also quite sincere and loyal. It is my view that when good characters are portrayed as such in a movie, this is both useful and inspiring for a viewer. Hence I applaud this aspect of the acting and, as a corollary, the script writing.

So go see Kong jump and swing and battle harmful, horrifying creatures.....Oh yeah, arrrrgggh! it is a manly man's film tender enough even to make a sweet lady like my wife feel the inevitable tragedy of Kong's end. For you see, Kong dies out of love and loyality. Even one manly as I was moved...so go see Kong!

Plantinga's views on Evolution and the Bible

Read an article by a Calvinist thinker I studied back when I was a student of Philosophy at UBC. It is curious that so many of us in our 30's and 40's took degrees at UBC; Fr. John, Mat.Jenny, Fr. Richard, Brandon-Anatassy. Even Dave did a short spell at UBC. Anyway this article I linked to brought back some memories of time spent on logic.

Big Cookie

we had dinner over at andrea and dave's tonight. while there we met up with nolan thomas, nick and his wife claudia. we had a lot of chuckles over dinner, but i think the funniest was about nick's 'big cookie' idea; just watching claudia roll her eyes during that story made me crack up. claudia seems very cool as she knows about unix.

on another note i have been praying for deanna and peter's unborn kids. i have the inner sense that they are coming soon; accordingly there will be a multitude of ways to help them out. if i recall correctly, the way in which twins will change your life is unknown to you until it does; there is no inkling or foreshadowing.

also i ask you to keep in your prayers the young servant of God Jonah; i was happy to hear that he was able to rest at his home instead of at the hospital.

lastly i was very pleased that canada beat the russians tonight 5-0 at the world junior championship; this win gave them the gold medal.

Thanks

the party at kurt and vic's was a splendid affair. the only lame thing about the party is that i have to recover my strength today before i get up at 5:30 am for work tomorrow. again, all cheer and thanks to kurt and vic for hosting a very large get together. your generosity will not go unnoticed!

Happy New Years and a Poem

I will start 2006 off with one my favourite poems by e.e. cummings. I hope you find it thought-provoking....


somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
by E. E. Cummings

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

any experience,your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near



your slightest look will easily unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose



or if your wish be to close me, i and

my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility:whose texture

compels me with the color of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing



(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens;only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands