Bad Hair and other Hard Truths

Let's be straight about this image: these people have spent way too much time grooming way too much hair with way too much hair spray. I mean the hard truth is that the hair style evident here is so 'jungle frew-frew' it is just begging to be hacked back. You'd need a weed whacker to take off enough to make a visible difference. I have no idea who decided that this style of hair was groovy, but we'd all agree that this way of setting hair is just embarrassing. But it is a hard truth -- albeit a funny hard truth -- to admit that many normal, hard-working middle-class folks in the 1970s actually thought this style rocked: anyone recall the Bay City Rollers? And do look more closely at the photo: doesn't that young family seem delighted with their 'jungle frew-frew' hairdos? You better believe it! "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!" or "Let the good times roll...let them brush your rock 'n' roll hair, let them leave you up in the air..." Oh the frew-frew jungle blues!

Some truths are hard to grasp while others are hard to take in because they demand of us a difficult course of action or choice. Most hard truths follow the latter description, involving so much more than dealing with evidence that clearly shows you had an extremely poor sense of aesthetic judgment. Indeed, the hardest truths I can think of are these:

1. there is no eternal security; we must trust only in Christ's mercy
2. the two ultimate choices: we saying "yes" to God's will or God saying "yes" to our will.
3. not everyone will find blessedness
4. heaven may involve even longer and more frequent liturgies :p
5. you must hold your hands out in love to those you dislike

What are the hardest truths for you?

Unrelated remarks

A while ago we went to see the Picasso exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It amazes me that Picasso was so successful in his own lifetime; he was wealthy and lived a life of luxury and ease. This painting of the bombing of the Basque village, Guernica, has always held my imagination in horror. When someone asks me whether the beautiful is to be equated with that which gives pleasure, I always use this painting in my answer. For this work is beautiful but it gives me no pleasure at all; in contemplating the images, you will notice only horror, loss and brutuality. Hardly giving a normal manly man pleasure. Therefore the beautiful is not another way of saying 'that which gives pleasure'. What do you think the Latin lettering is for?

Winter Frost

The Winter Olympics are running and Canada has owned the rink. It is rather lame that we haven't excelled that well in snowboarding. One bronze medal is lame for a snowboarding capital of the world! In hockey we are starting to get business accomplished; our women's hockey team has won the gold! Truly they seemed unbeatable. Our men are having a tough time getting to be a 'team'. Perhaps a few set-backs will do them good service: it may pull them closer together. The men's team needed a slap upside the head and both the Swiss and the Finns delivered a couple of smashing wake-you-up uppercuts. I think the Canuckleheads will pull together as a manly national team should; and I hope we get to see our manly squad play in the final, crushing the Finns. Oh, baby, that would be better than butter on a fresh cinnamon bun!

This frosty watercolor painting is lovely. It reminds me of the winters during my youth when we used to get more snowfall.

OliveBSD

Go get it here. Burn that onto a cd and then you can boot up OpenBSD 3.8 with a nice graphical user interface. It is an easy and free way to use the most secure operating system currently available. As an aside, olive trees are remarkable in that they bloom prior to growing their leaves. It was this trait that made it the species to represent the White Tree of Gondor in The Return of the King. I sometimes enjoy imagining what those White Trees of Valinor would have looked like in all their radiance.

Quilts

This post is about quilts and why I love them. I want to say at the outset that it is very manly to enjoy quilts. The craftsmanship in making them is not for me to put down or joke at; I highly respect those who design and craft these comforting treasures. However, I am not advocating that manly men start doing this craft; but if you are faced with a choice between taking up quilting or taking up figure skating, I'd say the manly man would choose the former if faced with such a dilemma. Now let's view some of my favourite types.

I have always loved homemade quilts. These days the blankets that are commonly sold are lame in comparison. The industrial revolution ruined things for many an artisan, the textile craftsman not least. That said one can still find good, heavy quilts around. My father's mother was an avid quilt maker until her death. She made me 3 quilts throughout my childhood. The last one she crafted has served me for the last 26 years. And that quilt has seen 26 yrs. of steady use; it went with me to university, it lived through my life as a bachelor; it has been a joy to Ramone and I during our slumbertimes. I love -- absolutely love -- heavy, weighty and manly quilts made with a wool core. Oh baby, can you say Thomas go have a restful and content snooooooze? These old friendship quilts are superbly crafted.The crazy brokendishes design is by some old mennonites; I will forgive them for their theological errors because they made such splendid blankets. It is interesting to note in passing that my grandmother wouldn't have wrapped her or her children in a such a blanket because those perceived theological errors.

So close was a person to the work that its very presence was thought to be blessed or cursed by the form that the maker's mind crafted it with; and if in that mind there were theological or moral ideas that could contaminate other forms or ideas? Well, so much for resting contentedly in a mennonite blanket that could've been contaminated with bad religion. At least they took art extremely seriously!

I love this brokendish design which I am told was a favourite of mennonites; I can just picture my grandmother somehow enjoying the verbal irony of the quilt type and linking it to the followers of Menno Friesen.

This last quilt is a very heavy one, being made of wool. It is just the sort of blanket I would love to wrap myself up in.

The weight, the density of the material is not only warm and soothing, but also it helps to hold you still, suspended, care-free and gives you some respice at the close of a hard day's work.

Oh yea, bring it on! I can just see myself enjoying a good slumber under this one. I hope you enjoyed a peak at some of my favourite quilts.

Canadian Olympic Hockey: can we cheer?!

Our men's and women's teams are posed to defend the Gold; in the coming two weeks we expect to see a couple of scenes like this one:

Let's forget about the figure skating, it is so lame and way too subjective. Remember 2002 when figure skating vomited all over itself on the international stage? I don't know why anyone likes to watch it anyway. It seems to attract mostly effeminate men to the sport. Think about it, what type of guy would rather go practise his ice dancing routine over going to a hockey practice or over going snowboarding??! Enough said; that was a rhetorical question, we know it is a Brokeback-Mountain sort of guy. Furthermore, who gives a rip about figure skating when compared to hockey or snowboarding or skiing? It bothers me that there are people who do not recognize just how lame and unmanly figure skating is; yet this fact only really bothers me because of the effect it has on the broadcasting of the olympic events. The CBC broadcasts hours of the artistic malarkey and they do so because lots of people want to see it. To me watching figure skating is on par with reading and valuing astrology or harnessing the creative energies of crystals. I mean let's get real, no manly man believes people can cast spells or that stars and planets have anything to do with how financial investiments will fare on a given day. "Oh, excuse me while I consult my $50.00 crystal to determine whether the 'creative energy' is right for investing with you...or to find out if I should cheer for the Russians or Chinese in ice dancing???!" It is all unmanly and terribly superstitious and full of horse hockey pucks! Give ice skating a rest, instead cheer for the hockey, snowboarding and skiing. Curling is much more manly than figure skating; they bang their rocks together to make a very manly sound: arggggh!
Or something like that :p

Go Team Canada!

beauty

I came across this painting and thought others might like it, too. I am not sure why I like this picture. If you don't just click away from my post. If it catches your fancy or delights you, then try to explain what it is about the image that evokes your response. Enjoy.

the four parts to a question: for Vic

4 jobs:

1. Teacher: I've taught for 15 years.

2. Gill Net Fisherman: I gill net fished for salmon for a couple of summers.

3. Seine Net Fisherman: I worked on board the Westview III for a couple of summers; I was a tie-up man or beachman. It was in the days when I was a fast runner: in gr.12 I ran a 100m sprint in 11.46s! And a good beachman had to haul his chops up and down slippery rocks, all the while looking for something to tie up on.

4. Burnaby Parks and Recreation: during the summer of Expo 86 I worked as a mobile playwriter. My partner and I would get a week to compose a skit, practise it, find costumes and props; then we would do two shows per day in two different parks per day (one am show, one pm show) over the next two weeks. Then we'd repeat the three week cycle again. We did a nine week stint to great reviews for all three skits! Hehe, it was my summer as Professor Percy Bumble, a bumbling inventor who had various adventures:) And I got to use a Burnaby Parks and Recreation Van to get around; at night I would hang out doing all sorts of silly things with my roomie, Tom Hooper, a bassist for the Grapes of Wrath.

4 movies I could watch over and over...

1. A Man for All Seasons (Paul Scofield)
2. The Godfather I/II (they are connected)
3. Ikiru/The Matrix
4. A River Runs Through It

4 places i've lived:

1. Vancouver: I went to Lord Kitchener Elementary K-3
2. Victoria: We lived on Thompson Bay Rd by Oak Bay Park Pre-school years
3. Toronto: Only there for gr. 3-4. I hated Toronto. I still do. It is a pussy-footed,
liberal-minded part of a wannabe-cultured city that has no culture that isn't superficial.
When we moved to Calgary for my gr.5-6, I could start to think and breath and do things in
the mountain heights!
4. Fort Langley: I live here and I love it; it is so groovy. Just ask Vic, she'll tell you how
cool it is.


4 albums:

1. Led Zeppelin I/II/III/IV
2. Neil Young: Harvest
3. John R. Cash: Live at Folsom Prison
4. So many others...Feist, Sarah Harmer, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Nirvana: Bleach, The White
Stripes, Bach, Mozart, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong,
Pink Floyd, etc..

4 fiction writers:

1. C.S.Lewis
2. Tolkein
3. Joyce
4. Dostoevsky

4 poets:

1. Herbert
2. Homer/Pindar
3. Rumi
4. Donne

4 Playwriters:

1. Shakespeare
2. Robert Bolt
3. Sophocles
4. Anton Chekov


4 non-fiction writers:

1. Jean Danielou
2. Vladmir Lossky
3. CS Lewis
4. George Grant

4 Philosophers:

1. Plato
2. Aristotle
3. Thomas Aquinas
4. Simone Weil


4 heroes:

1. Christ
2. St. Paul
3. Mary, the mother of my Lord
4. any truly manly man

4 vacations:

1. Chaunigan Lake
---I have not been on a vacation as an adult other than to Chaunigan Lake.

4 foods:

1. Jim's Pizza: In Fort Langley. The Rustic Italian and House Special (with slight manly substitutions) Id Est, add feta to both; remove pineapple, add roasted garlic to the house special; remove tomato, add roasted garlic to the rustic italian. though the rustic is good with the tomato, but i just prefer the garlic because it is manlier. -edited so as to clarify matters for Victoria

2. Prime Rib

3. Greek Food

4. Chinese Food

4 places i'd rather be:

1. Fly Fishing
2. Not working
3. reading what I want
4. hanging out with friends

4 sites:

1. www.openbsd.org
2. www.undeadly.org
3. blogs I visit
4. google.ca and imdb.com

4 bloggers to whom i'm passing this burden:

1. luke
2. hannah
3. ramone
4. davido

Boom, drizzle, crack! and some baby talk...

I love the wind and the rain; and I love chocolate and cinnamon buns. But too much of a good thing is too much, excessive, over-done, a lot of plenty, etc., etc.. I heard that twins have been born to Deanna and Peter; moreover I am given to understand that the boy is named Thomas. I'd like to congratulate the parents on having the good sense to use such a manly name. The baby girl's name is Elizabeth; and I do have a fondness for that name, too, even though I do not utilize the name. Thomas the baby: what an outstanding name to grow up with and to grow into. Arrrgggh!

Gabe and Amy had a boy with a fine name, too: Owen. What is especially cool about the Little O-man's name is the pronounciation of the initials of his three given or Christian names: O + P + E or 'Oppie'; as, for instance, in the little kid played by Ron Howard on the old Andy Griffith Show. Owen is one of my favourite names. In fact, if Ramone and I were to have a divinely sent accident in the form of another male baby, we'd probably name him Henry Owen Thomas; and yes he'd be one HOT! baby I am sure!

Congratulations to Amy, Gabe, Peter and Deanna on the recent arrivals. May you be given the strength, honour and wisdom to raise them well!

I sure do hope to see some sunshine soon.

word cloud

Here you go Vic and KimRB, I did this post for you two. I don't know if it reveals anything other than that I end up with cinnamon buns smack dab in the middle of these words...a sublime message perhaps???

Bell X1

In this post I will tell you about a model jet Luke and I will build in the coming weeks. I bought a model of this Bell X1 jet for my son Luke. The Bell X1 was the first jet to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947; Chuck Yeager was the pilot. This weekend we will buy the cement and orange paint for it. Luke is quite excited about putting it together. I like working on modelling projects with Luke; he has loads of patience for a guy his age and takes instructions well. Being teachable is such a virtue and is a sure sign of intellectual humility. Moreover, he has steady hands and an eye for detail. As he grows older I am sure he will learn to anticipate what is needed in a working situation better than he does currently. He's not bad at anticipating, but he needs to refine his observation skills and 'read' situations more accurately. I am well-pleased with my son and his manly progress into becoming a young man!

This weekend Ramone goes in for a MRI on her back at St. Paul's Hospital. Lord, I hope all is well! I don't want to go down that bad-back road again. Please do offer a pray up on behalf of my wife's back; she's already had numerous back surgeries and we don't need any further hospital time.

While we are in town Hannah and I will pick up some Chuck Taylor's; argggh! manly cruisers indeed! Hannah wants to get navy or brown low cuts so they match anything she wears, while I will go for a cream colored set of high tops. Yes, I am so harsh and stylish.

Well I think that's enough manliness for this entry. Here's a cool blog to check out. She wrote an interesting article on Islam and Free Speech and constantly updates her blog with details of an ongoing series of apartment renovations and informative shots of Leith, Edinburgh. Enjoy...