| the weekend of history |
[Feb. 27th, 2007|10:26 am] |
Well, I’m sure some would want an update of the weekend.
Well, it started with a 3 hour drive down to PTBO getting there at almost midnight, crashing at my friends house, getting up stupid early and gunning it over to St Thomas for a bike competition, which btw… ROCKED!
I ended up staying there for most of the afternoon and the guys were just layin it down like mad! 6’ air outta a pipe, doing a fufanu off of a 10 ft high wall, backflips, 360s, flat land, you name it and they were pulling it out. It was just awesome. Plus being around that many people who all have one thing in common… our love for bikes (not to mention drooling over the bikes that were actually AT the show.
After that popped by Chris’, checked out his new bike (which I think when he’s done is going to be an AWESOME set up… get it done Chris, I wanna try it!), went to Joe and Trish’s wedding (which was fun and nice), and got a little scared. They had the seating arrangements in the following manner: married/dating couples sat together and were co-ed, but any single ppl were broken into gender tables… literally, all the tables were either guys or girls tables… kinda freaked me out a little. :P
Crashed at Geoff’s, got up, went to LGT (which I was surprised cause I wasn’t antsy, frustrated or anything there this time… although it was annoying being ignored by all these people who were “upset I didn’t say hi to them last time”, so I kinda gave up on that whole thing. :P), went out for lunch and got to see Christie then (yay!), installed some speakers in my car, slapped some new bike parts on my trials bike, and then hung out with Brandon and Lauren from my high school. Ended up playing a board game, goofing around with my bass, and ultimately trying Dance Dance Revolution (which surprisingly was a fun game!), so that was awesome and yet another highlight of the weekend.
Monday, went out shopping with Geoff, dropped Noel off at home and came home.
Downside of the weekend, couldn’t go out with Stacey or Dan (pastor friend from Tillsonburg), haven’t seen either in way too long.
So yeah, all and all definitely one of the best weekends I’ve had in a WHILE! :D
I wanna go to another bike comp though… and do a ride. |
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| The Plan |
[Feb. 15th, 2007|12:23 pm] |
Well, I finally have my schedule for the 24th – 26th (Joe’s wedding weekend)
Friday
Leave Palmer at 10:00 pm
Crash in PTBO
Saturday
Leave PTBO at 8 am
St. Thomas around noon – Forest City Jam @ Industry Skate Park (WOOT!!!)
Leave Industry around 5
Joe’s wedding at 6
Crash at Geoffs
Sunday
Go to Chruch (possibly Byron Community or Forest City)
Install car speakers with Geoff and Chris in the afternoon
6-12 pm hang out with Brandon and Lauren (old high school friends) playing bass and pool
Monday
Morning – Upper room with Geoff
Afternoon – drive to Cobourg
10:30ish – drive home
So there we go. That’s my vacation plans. Yay! |
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| One goal reached! |
[Feb. 3rd, 2007|05:24 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | BVYC | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  hyper | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Substance - Haste the Day | ] |
Well, it happened finally.
Last night I was at a youth event for the youth centers that I work at and was talking to one of the volunteers (who also happens to be a friend). Somehow we got on the topic of me being a pastor and he made an interesting comment.
You see a few years ago in bible college I was looking at all these super spiritual pastors who are "up there", you know what I mean? So Godly, got everything right, to be honest... unreal. Well I determined I would NEVER become one of them. I would be real and human.
Last night my friend made the comment to me that some people in the youth center don't even believe that I'm a pastor!!! I was laughing. I realize that some people would react with a "what?!? That's horrible! You're not a good witness!" etc etc etc.
To you I simply say this: *ahem* WRONG!
Why do I say that? You see they don't think I'm a pastor cause I listen to heavy death metal music (Christian death metal, go figure), I listen to secular music, I will jump head first into a mosh pit, I'll dress up like a goth, I'll make sarcastic comments with the best of them and I'm totally off the wall in what I do!
you see, I'm being a witness in a way many people aren't, I'm showing them that God can be real and that He doesn't have a problem with stuff like that, infact that stuff makes me feel more alive then sitting in a stuffy church, in a suit listening to how my heart is full of evil but God has ransomed it, and many other theologies. I'm not trying to downplay theology here, ok? I know it's invaluable, but to these youth it's more of an open door to say "hey, look... Christianity isn't about rules and regulations, about do this and don't do that, it's about having an awesome time, living life to the fullest in a way that you wouldn't even think possible, in such a way that things like drugs and alcohol pale in comparison!" This is what it's about, building relationships, becoming all things to all men but not sacrificing our integrity.
and if you think I'm wrong, let me know and we'll discuss it. :D |
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| New Bike |
[Jan. 20th, 2007|04:18 pm] |
I don't care if anyone cares or not, but;
I GOT MY NEW BIKE FINALLY!!!
I've been wanting a bike like this (actually this exact model and year) for a good year and a half, and this style of bike since I got my first one. I'm so pumped!!!! |
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| work work school? |
[Jan. 3rd, 2007|04:53 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | My Deliever - DC Talk | ] |
Well, as typical fashion for anyone in their mid twenties after finishing a degree and working in the field... I wanna go back to school.
You heard me, I wanna go back to school... actually I AM going back to school. Before you start freaking out and wondering about my jobs and the like let me explain.
I found out about a correspondence school that only costs $40 a class. It's high school level learning but at least I can learn some stuff. I've been thinking for the past few months about opening a small business of my own. Working in the youth center taught me about grants and I came across some grants that support small businesses and the like. So I'm sending off my application for the classes to see if I wanna open a small business or not. I mean it's only $40 and it's handy to learn these things.
So, I'm still working at the youth center, and ministry? That's still my main focus, this is a side job/support for ministry. Imagine being able to hire a pastor part time and not having to worry about if he can support himself or not because he has his own business on the side.
So what type of business would I open? that's a silly question. I found a school in Waterloo that teaches an intensive. I can learn all there is to know about bike mechanics in two weeks, and I'd have places to stay in the area too boot! So, long term, open up a bike shop/camping outfitters, maybe in Barrys Bay. You see Barrys Bay (a town near where I live) is the last major stop into Algonquin Park. There are no bike shops within almost an hour drive of that town and also all the campers from Ottawa would be heading through there to hit up Algonquin. suddenly I'm tapping two groups. As for winter sports. Well, winter camping and probably things like ice fishing or the like. We'll see about that.
So that's the plan SO FAR. We'll have to wait and see what God says about it all, eh?
Other news: Got a bass guitar for christmas so gonna learn that (already started learning) and also I sold the Azonic bike (YAY!!!!) So now I'm looking at buying a trials bike to replace it and have a couple lined up. :D |
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| life and other things |
[Nov. 25th, 2006|10:09 pm] |
Life lately has been... interesting to say the least.
On one hand life couldn't be better. I mean I have my own place, my own car (that yes does give me trouble once in a while, but hey), an awesome boss in Eganville, another one in Killaloe, great co-workers, incredible youth (both in and out of the church), an incredible pastor I'm working under, my baby (or as some would call it a "bike"), PS2, I have so many ideas for sermons lately that are starting to come out, my spiritual life (and as well my ministry) is starting to take a corner for the better (I think anyway).
But at the same time I feel very... melancholy lately. Something is lacking. Maybe it's the fact that I have no real social life right now, that my spare time is taken up with haphazardly reading a psychology text book, modeling with my Lego, and watching TV or movies. I'm not really accomplishing anything really.
I'm not saying that my life should be filled with productivity that will have an eternal value, obviously these little things are really important cause they do help keep us sane, but something is... lacking still. No real purpose right now. I mean I have a purpose at work, I have a purpose in the church but I have nothing to strive for in my spare time. I mean gamers have their games to beat, artists have paintings or musicians have songs to write. Things they WANT to achieve. In all honesty I don't know WHAT I want to achieve. Personal objectives... I don't really have any to be honest.
I had one and I finished it a month ago (build a website for a strategy game I made... the website will hopefully be up and running in the new year once I set up payment with the provider), and all my objectives for biking well... you need people to ride with to meet biking objectives to be honest, it's annoying and frustrating to ride by yourself.
I also was reading my friend's blog online and it kinda challenged me... I know I keep thinking about writing poetry again and I'm thinking about picking it up again. Lately I've become VERY mind and little heart to be honest. I'm so analytical I feel like I've lost touch with the emotions (oddly enough when people "lose touch" with thier emotions more often then not they simply forget about them and it seems the darker emotions come out, in my case, more depressive emotions), so I've endeavored to stop analyzing things so much, to TRY to live a bit more from my heart and spirit and a bit less from my head.
On another note: Lately I've been thinking alot about creation and evolution, and trying to figure out a bit about which one would be more accurate, creation or intelligent design (God given evolution). I was thinking about this in the car the other day and suddenly had a flash of insight.
The bible tells us that through Adam and Eve sin entered the world and through sin death, right? If evolution was correct then sin and death entered the world a LOT earlier then man came on the scene (for death HAD to exist prior to the evolutionary existence of man). So we'd simply have the retaliation of "well, it was spiritual death that they brought into the world". A very good and strong argument for we are all well aware that sin bring spiritual death as well. So there's a point for evolution (score is 1 to 1 right now in this discussion). So I continued on this line when something else didn't make sense. In the evolutionary scale we came out of apes. Apes (correct me if I'm wrong) live a LOT shorter then humans. So if we were directly descended from apes, then how come Adam, Methuselah and many others lives for hundreds and HUNDREDS of years. Just something else to think about. :P
Anyway, I'm gonna go ride my bike even though I'm totally alone while doing it. |
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| church and the world |
[Nov. 24th, 2006|09:18 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | BVYC | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Hell Song - Sum 41 | ] |
Well, lately at work I’m starting to get floored by some stuff. I dunno what God’s doing (and I’m not gonna say anything here that isn’t to come out to the public) but it’s cool. Lately at work I’m seeing a… weird thing happen. The secular youth centers are desiring to contact the local youth groups (churches) to get them involved. What the? Isn’t the church supposed to seek the lost not the other way around?!? Haha.
Anyway, kinda making me wonder. We’ve tried some stuff with the BVYC and local churches to no avail, we had a couple churches (mine and another mainly) desire to do joint projects but for the most part the Church has kinda given us a cold shoulder for one reason or another. It actually frustrates me and upsets me a lot.
So I have a plan I’ve been formulating in my mind on my way to work yesterday morning… what if the youth pastors (especially rural ones) contacted their local youth centers, set up meetings with the directors and said “hey, we wanna start doing events with you guys”. What would happen? Like serious, I’m learning that youth centers are focused on one thing, helping youth live better lives, they don’t care about religious beliefs or dress or anything, just simply helping youth. I mean (and to be BRUTALLY honest) church’s even struggle with this (don’t believe me? Bring a punk youth to church and see how people react to them as opposed to a clean cut one). It would surprise me if youth centers turned DOWN joint events. It’d be an incredible link into the community and local youth, get you out of the walls of the church, and show your youth that not only should we NOT hide in the church, but should make an effort to go out into the community.
I realize there are some youth centers that cater to groups that Christians would question why you would wanna work with them (how about a youth center that works with homosexuals), but… we’re to reach out to ALL youth. It’d be an incredible challenge to your youth if you had a game of volley ball of your youth group against this youth center (in good fun, and possibly talking to the kids before and showing them that love is key irregardless of the person you’re talking to).
Needless to say, if youth groups started to get out of their church and started doing things like this, it would be interesting (and cool) to see the response in the world.
So yeah, a thought to youth pastors here. |
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| ignorance isn't bliss |
[Nov. 7th, 2006|02:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | BVYC | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Whispers in the Dark - Skillet | ] |
I've run into this phrase a lot lately and on one of my many.... many car rides I had time to think about this phrase.
ignorance is bliss. What exactly does that mean? Well, if you look at someone who simply doesn't know what's going on around him, he seems happier and generally a pleasure to be around rather then someone who's weighed down by the worlds troubles. But is that bliss?
Kinda goes along with my saying "what you don't know won't hurt you... except for the sniper on the roof". an ignorant person may be happy and at peace now, but when that tank that he was so ignorant about rolls over him, he won't be happy anymore.
But there are some that like to run with this thought, especially in regards to God's law we like to take this thought and run with it, both Christians and non-Christians are guilty of it.
How so? Well, think about it, if you simply choose to not believe that God exists, you won't be held accountable for your actions, right? I mean you can plead ignorance "I'm sorry God, I didn't know that that upset you or was wrong, no one told me."
We even take this far in the church? How? Well, if we simply DON'T read the bible, or kinda skim over this part or that part, cause if we don't know about it, God's grace will cover us in that area, right?
This isn't hypocracy btw, that's more of "gossip is a sin, you hear what Jimmy did?", this is what I like to call... willful ignorance. CHOOSING to not know something due to lack of study or selective hearing.
To be honest, I think when we get to heaven there's gonna be a LOT of people who are going to be REALLY surprised. How so? easy, they'll get there, God'll be like "why'd you do this?" to which they'll say "I didn't know that was wrong". I think at this point God would look at them and be like "uhhh, dude (yes, God says dude I'm sure!), it's right there in the bible... Why didn't you read it?" At this point we get messed over cause... well... we ahve no excuse (unless you live in a country where bibles are banned and you cannot get your hands on one, that's different).
Keep in mind, ignorance itself isn't wrong, I mean I'm ignorant about hunting, about cars and about a million other things. Ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge, and in some things I'm sure God will have mercy towards us cause we simply didn't know it was wrong. But I think when it comes to some things (namely things that are blatantly written in the Bible) there's gonna be a lot of explaining to do.
Anyway, I'm at work and I guess I should get back to it.
On a lighter note, I'm getting a new fork for my bike and almost sold my old frame *does a little dance*. Now to just sell my old fork and get a new frame, plus a few other parts a friend promised me and I'll have a street/DJ rig. :D
Go me! |
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| wow, wierd |
[Oct. 25th, 2006|09:40 am] |
Well it finally happened.
I got to work this morning and logged on to recieve an interesting e-mail.
My parents sold thier house.
Yep, the house I grew up in, my last hard link to London, all those memories... the pool, "Mike's bike shed", the fire pit... all gone. Mind you in return we will have a hot tub, sauna, half pipe, etc.
It hasn't sunk in yet, I think it might sink in at Christmas when I'm down there.
That just leaves the question of what should I do in regards to Christmas and London. I know you Mel, and ESPECIALLY Geoff won't let me NOT visit London Christmas vacation. Maybe I'll stay at my parents for a few days (say, Sunday till Thursday morning) head to London for a couple days and crash at Geoff's and then head to the Valley Saturday morning. It's do-able.
Also have to see what Stacey's plans are cause I wanna hang out with here too... well... if I bump everything up a day (leave for London Wednesday morning and leave for the Valley Friday morning) I could visit Stacey in Cobourg all day Friday.
I think I might have a plan. :D |
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| downhilling: fun; yes. Expensive; yes |
[Oct. 17th, 2006|04:03 pm] |
Well, it finally happened. My friend Noel came up and visited me and took me to Calabogie Peaks, a local downhill biking resort.
Stinking
Awesome.
Anyway, I must admit that downhill biking is incredible. I only did four runs (got tired), on a hard tail bike with slick treads (ask any biker, that is tantamount to suicide), and only had one good wipe out at the beginning. Hit a jump wrong and cased the landing.
All in all it was an AWESOME day and now I wanna upgrade my bike to do downhill and freeride. Meaning swap out the fork (won't cost anything), get beefier treads and slap on those hydro disc brakes I have sitting around. Woot!
So yeah, that's about all that's new here. I also bought Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex for the PS2, awesome game! Can't wait to play it tonight again. :D
So yeah, short post, but not much new here. Just trying to squeeze in as much riding as I can before the horrible white stuff hits the gound (salt, not snow oddly enough). |
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| quivering biological mass of PAIN |
[Sep. 27th, 2006|03:57 pm] |
Well, last weekend I decided "hey, I have a couple days off, why not pop down to Peterborough" so I did. I crashed at Noel's place (atomatik) and brought my bike down intent on going riding all weekend.
Started out awesome, hit some jumps, did some gaps, just had a blast sessioning Peterborough with a good friend, then he decides "hey, let's do a downhill run" Me thinking I'm getting ok at handling my bike at speed is like "ah sweet! I love DH!"
So off we go, I slap on my leg armor and gloves, he has his gloves on and off we go. Keep in mind I have a hard tail (no rear shock) with moderate travel on the front (6" travel shock), he has a full downhill rig (6" travel in the rear, 7" in the front) and off we go. I do really well considering we're flying down a mountain at about 30-40 kph and I'm soaking up the hits with my legs, then we hit the bottom.
and I mean HIT
basically there was a small winter run off creek with a busted up bridge there, he rides over it, I can already see what's going to happen (dejavu... literally, I already knew exactly what was going to happen), long story short, I ate it.
Short story long, I came down, my front tire slips off the side of the "bridge" and digs in, turns 90 degrees and ejects me into the opposite slope. Now realize this: I'm heading in a down/forward angle at about 30 kph \
the opposite slope is stationary and at an upward/forward angle /
seeing what's happening? Also stupidly enough I DIDN'T HAVE MY HELMET! THE ONE TIME! So I eat it huge, driving my right side into the ground and hearing the resounding coconut type *crack* of my skull off the ground. I lay there for about 30 seconds before I get up when Noel comes back to investigate the "AH" he heard. I lay back down laughing and checking myself over.
end damages bottom to top: my leg armor saved my legs, so no damage there. My pelvic bone was driven into the ground damaging the skin there fiercely. I ended up hitting my chest hard and likely bruised the ribs (but didn't break). My collar bone is FINE (surprisingly, and thank you God), but my shoulder took a good hit too, feels like it's brusied up pretty badly. I ended up pulling my pinky on my right hand RIGHT back to the wrist, but no breakage there (that I know of), just seems to be REALLY sore, possibly dislocated and reset? Wrist is a little sore from that too. And lastly the head. REALLY surprisingly my head suffered the least injuries (save the leg and collar bone). I walked away with a slight head ache. No concussion or anything. Go me!
So yeah, it hurts like mad, but pop two tylonol and I'm still fit to ride (infact I went out the next day with Noel and rode some XC trails, did some short, some dirt jumping - very little dirt jumping for me - and some street).
so yeah, all and all I learned three things:
1) NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE LISTEN TO NOEL! (oddly enough that was his advice)
2) My body can take quite a bit of abuse... especially my head.
3) DHing on a hard tail is a lot harder then I thought. |
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| I've been thinking and thinking, yet no answer |
[Sep. 22nd, 2006|09:57 am] |
Well, I've been thinking lately (yeah, I know, dangerous habit of mine) and... well... I've been reading some news lately, Christian news, and realized that a lot of it just boils my blood. Why you might ask? Well, let's take this Rosie O'Donnel thing. For those of you who don't know she took Christianity and compared it to militant Islam as a threat. Granted it wasn't a nice thing to say, but COME ON!!!
Below is an excript of an MSN convo I had with a friend (it's only me talking, so no permission is needed for me to use. :P) of I think the best way I could sum up my view point:
Pastor Mike - Street and park biking, the best all body work out ever (if you don't mind falling and pain) says:
see, here's a root of my problem: Christians blow the smallest thing out of proportion. Like Rosie claiming that Christians are the same a militant Islam. That's her perspective, but if we do start screaming about it then it kinda proves her point. It's as though Christians are oding all they can to make the world godly but is that how we're supposed to be doing it?
Pastor Mike - Street and park biking, the best all body work out ever (if you don't mind falling and pain) says:
I mean a) we've been warned ALL through the bible that people will hate us, namely the whole world. And we've been warned that the world will slip into more and more sinful practices before the end
Pastor Mike - Street and park biking, the best all body work out ever (if you don't mind falling and pain) says:
yet Christians act totally mortified if something happens that mocks Christianity or Jesus. I don't think we should support themocking (well, some of it is actually funny and in jest, like your red suited bunny Jesus), but just ranting and raving about it... just makes it worse cause people mock to get a reaction.
I also made some comments about how we simply want to change the world, but it seems like people think the way to do it is to make people conform to our world view (my friend's observation there), but say we succeed in doing that; ok, the whole world follows the teachings of Jesus, guess what... WE FAILED!
Why do I say that? We wern't here to change the world. I don't think the church ever was called to change the world cause God knows that won't happen, we are called to change people, to draw them towards God and I'm sorry but that's not going to happen through us ranting and raving and making it so people won't insult us, it's going to happen through us enduring that but still showing them love and praying for people. I've learned that someone who attended church thier whole life (yet is unsaved) is harder to witness to then random people on the street.
If the world is going to change for the better, it won't be through ranting and raving and demands, it'll be through changing one life at a time.
That being said, I don't believe that we should sit down and not take a stand either, we need to pick our battles more carefully. I mean yes we should take a stand against things like age of consent being lowered, prostitution, banning us from practicing our faith and the like (dangerous territory there, cause if we can practice ours can we really stop others from practicing thiers?). But things like this Madonna thing with the cross in this coming Nov, take a breather. Yes it is a bit offensive, I won't deny that ok? But get used to it cause that's how the world views us.
You are upset at Rosie claiming us to be like militant Muslims so are demanding a public appology from her and the company that had her on. Ok, so not so bad. Here's a question for ya then... how is this different when that cartoon of Mohammad came out? They offended the Muslim faith just as Rosie offended the Christian faith, how do you make the distinction?
Just a little thought. I think I'm gonna start avoiding a lot of these Christian news sources... |
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| common day miracles and other things |
[Sep. 17th, 2006|07:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | my home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  ecstatic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | AFI | ] |
Well, I was threatened by various people to update, so here I go what with the updating!
First, personal stuff, went on vacation a couple weeks ago, ended up camping with my parents and my sister at Long Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie. It was really nice even though I finished my novel on teh second day and my dad and I couldn't catch anything save a half foot long perch. Dah well, the area was flat which sucked for biking as well but on the last day I was like "enough of this, I'm riding" and tried to practice my manuals and hoping which was very much worth it. That weekend I went to Kim's church and met a ton of people I knew from school and just had a relaxing time at church there (there was no sermon but that doesn't mean God didn't talk to me).
So I came back, worked anotehr busy week, and yesturday we had a team come up from Kanata for the skate park. Even though we had a horrible turn out at the skate park they had an awesome time non-the-less.
Now the great news. Over the summer my passion for riding has been lacking. I havn't really had anyone challenging to ride with (who would push me farther then my current level), I learned drops and DH but no one to challenge me on the skills front. Well yesturday a couple guys were at the skate park with thier bikes and was sessioning the park. I knew these guys for a while now so we just start riding the park for a bit when we decide to hit some DJs after the event was over. That is JUST what I needed! We hit up some DJs and they taught me how to properly jump and shift my weight etc to get more air. As well I learned a little more on the techinque to manual (coasting on the rear tire only) and managed to find the coveted balancing point on my bike (even though I only held it for a second), that REALLY got me pumped up! looks like I'll be riding more before the season is out after all. :D
As for the title, I was thinking this morning in church while Pastor Dan was preaching (no, I was NOT zoning out :P) and something occured to me. eveyone expects these monstorous miracles for God to do. Like I hear people's interpretation of the Biblical stories and some of the miracles that God did as massively impossible things (which I do NOT deny that God does, I mean things like cancer vanishing.. yeah, huge), but when I read the bible (maybe it's secular culture permiating my brain) I tend to find a lot of LOGICAL answers to what happens. Things like Noah's Ark, the Red Sea (possible sunken land bridge with an East wind that uncovered it?), crossing the Jordan in Joshua and more. I was thinking about it and it seems that God does a LOT through various repeatable circumstances, it's just the exact timing that makes it a miracle (I mean the whole red sea thing, the Bible records an east wind blowing throughout the night that made it possible for the Israelites to cross... think about it, the fact that it happened at JUST SUCH A TIME AS THAT in and of itself is a miracle). Just something to think about, maybe God enjoys working His miracles while adhering to the possible. I tell ya, in MY perspective it takes more faith to see something ordinary happen and KNOW that that was God then to see something extrodinary happen and say it was God. |
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| "open the flood gates of heaven" |
[Aug. 28th, 2006|11:05 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Looking Through the Glass - Stone Sour | ] |
Hey all
Well, we've just seen the first trickles of what will hopefully be the beginnings of something large happening here in Eganville.
For those faithful readers of my journal you'll know taht we've had a HORRIBLE time this summer. Just basically a lot of crap has been happening.
*edit* due to a lack of foresight and thought on my part I realized I needed to edit this entry, the sum up of it is, cool things are happening in Eganville. Yay! So yeah, pray!
Things are starting to look up.
Oh, and as for the stress at work thing. Turns out some of what happened is my fault, but thankfully (:God be praised" type thing) I've seen my own attitude and what needs to change from this. I've been too me focused and not really sacrificing of myself like I should. What do I mean? I've been too focused on what I want, playing my games, biking, watching my movies, etc, and my work and ministry HAVE suffered due to that (I've started to see the effects) but luckily I still have time to counter what has happened. Next week I'm on vacation for a week and I'm gonna spend a lot of time praying and trying to refocus and get a good sense of God's vision for all of this (work and ministry both).
Anyway, time for me to start work on that bible study, God bless all!
Pastor Mike (hehehe, still lovin that) |
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| stressed or just happy? |
[Jun. 21st, 2006|12:16 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  confused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Hillsong - Open up the Heavens | ] |
Well, a wierd thing has been happening lately... I've been laughing.
No, that in and of itself isn't the wierd thing, I laugh a lot, but lately I've been laughing at things that arn't even THAT funny, and things I used to not laugh at. It's freaky. I wonder what it means...
I've been getting stressed out a lot about work, we have a deadline and due to forces outside of our control I dunno if we're gonna make this dead line. To boot I'm having another dead line in regards to my ministry and I'm gonna have to work like a mad man to meet that one.
On the other had I've been chatting with awesome people more often lately, met a few guys around here my age, found a short DH run near my house (only about 30 second run) and the like, so I dunno what's going on.
On another note; I managed to break my axel. No, not on the car, on my bike. I was doing my DH run yesturday and found that the front end was drifting a LOT, like the tire was wobbling, I was like "ok, so the cones (the bolts that hold the axel in place on the hub) are lose, no biggie, fix it when I get home." So I finish my ride, get home, pull the front tire off and set the wrenches on the cone to pull it off, well the second I put them on I lift one up and the entire cone with part of the axel comes out! I was like "uhhh, ok...." then I hear a thump. I look under the bike and the OTHER cone (there's two cones, one on each side of the hub) is laying on the ground with some of the axel in it. I look in the hub and there's the rest of the axel still in the hub. I managed to break it into three pieces. It was only the quick release lever that held the entire wheel on and together! I was like "dude! I broke the axel! AWESOME!" ... I need a new front tire soon ...
Then I replaced it with a spare axel I had (broke a similar hub earlier in the season) and tinkered some more, watched Pirates of the Carribean and went to bed.
So yeah, that was my day yesturday. |
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| blessed beyond measure |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|10:39 am] |
Well, I was in devotions this morning and it kinda hit me, for all the whining I do (yeah, I know I whine alot, you don't have to tell me), I'm also really blessed.
I mean I have a REALLY nice bike, a pile of movies, TV shows and video games. My jobs both involve working with youth and acting like an idiot, etc. I have a car that work (once in a while), and I'm getting my own apartment. So I mean, what am I missing? Aside from a girl but really, do I need to be in such a rush for that?
Well, aside from that anything new in my world. I've discovered that not having a front brake can be a good thing, I'm gonna try to learn abubicas (basically, ride up to a short wall or edge of anything, hop up so your rear tire is resting on the edge but nothing else is touching (popping a wheelie position), and then hop backwards off of it.) and some other manuevers that don't require the front brake, but are too easy to learn if you have it (the cheap way).
Oh, I finally got in touch with an old friend who lives up here, going to play comp games with him later today! Woot! Good old Starcraft! :D |
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| it's almost done |
[Jun. 14th, 2006|06:19 pm] |
well, the bike is almost complete. I know what you're thinking "uhhh Mike, you've been pouring cash into it, and riding it around for months, how is it NOT complete?" Well, I made a goal to get all the XC stuff off of it and make it bomb proof. Effectively aside from the brakes I don't want anything from my old bike on it.
So here it is, I just ordered a new stem (thing that attatches to handlebars), and after instally that the only thing left from my original bike (Specialized Hardrock) is the front wheelset and rear brake. Since I don't care about the brake right now I only need to upgrade the front wheelset (I've found a deal for a brand new bomb proof one for $125) and buy a new front wheel (since I don't have one), and actually purchase a front brake, I have to fix my rear hub I got from Chris and put it on my bike and then my bike will be DONE.
Dunno what I'm gonna do with it after that, but hey. :D
So, what else is new in my life... uhhh, ummmm.... not much sadly. Just working away.
Oh, I bought Elizabethtown on DVD, so that rocks. :D |
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| arn't weekends fun? |
[Jun. 12th, 2006|11:06 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  irritated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Great Big Sea - Mari Mac | ] |
Well, I got back late last night from London. Here's the lowdown on the weekend.
Got into London, bought bike tools, then came to my parent's house and hung out there for the evening.
Next day went to P. Pauls and chatted with him, which was rather encouraging, then I went and picked up Chris and we went bike part shopping (of course) and built our bikes up and went for a quick ride. After that we hung out with Amanda and then went riding again. Here's where it gets interesting!
turns out Chris' bike can't handle him anymore. He warped the rear rim, and after a little curbside repair (laying it on the curb and jumping on it) we got it a little better and went riding again only to have the tire blow out in downtown. Well, that ended our riding for the day. So we went, grabbed Mel, went game shopping (I got aliens vs predator for PS2), turns out she's getting me a GBA for my b-day!!!! XD Isn't she awesome?
Anyway, went to see X-Men 3 which I think was a cool movie. I like movies where they arn't scared to kill off characters at random. Plus they had sentinals in it!
anyway, after all that I came home, crashed, got up the next morning, went to a wedding which was nice, hard to believe he's married though. Meaning out of all the people I knew in Bible college, Stacey and I are the only two single people left. *sigh*
Anyway, went to church the next morning, hung out with Grant and Dan that afternoon, then came home.
Interesting things of note: when you're doing 130 down the 401, you reguliarily run into people who won't let you pass. I don't mean they cut you off and slow down, i mean if you start passing them they speed up and start almost racing you, it was awesome! Also I ran into this one girl just past Oshawa who was doing 130 down the 401 in the left lane, but the right lane was open and I had to turn off soon, so I cut over and do 130 as well, we start passing the middle lane (all doing 110) like in a movie or something, it looked so cool. :D
Ok, so another rant about relationships. I've been thinking over the past... well... yesturday, and been seeing a pattern with some people where they'll start dating someone saying "God wants us to get married" and "God told me we're to get married" etc. Well, after a bit if the relationship falls apart and they're left wondering what happened. Here's my view on this: Maybe God didn't say "marry this person". It's the balance of God's absolute will and His permissive will. We want to date someone, so He allows us to date them, and out of that we learn something, sure we get hurt, but we also walk away less innocent and more knowledgeable. It seems that Pentecostals are all talk about free will but live in predestination. What do I mean? They say that thye have a choice, but don't make a move unless God directly tells them, and even then if they do start doing something they claim that God is directing them that way, or if something goes wrong "well, God had that happen for a reason". I wonder if it's more like God is watching us walk through the woods, and there's a fork infront of us, it's up to US to decide which road to take, God's being silent on it cause He wants us to choose. So pray about it, see if you get a peace over one path, and if it's not one over another, then choose! He's not forcing anything to happen (generalizing here) He just works with what we do. Know what I mean?
Ok, if you havn't guessed yet, yeah, I'm getting kinda lonely and wanting to date, but I'm also seeing a lot of people dating or completely NOT dating and it's really really confusing me. Where in the Bible does it teach things like this? Oh, keep yourself pure for your spouse. Well, how are you gonna find your spouse if you don't date? And also if you do date someone and it doesn't work out, it's not like you arn't pure now. Dating doesn't make one unpure. Besides, I'm not going to be upset if I married a girl and found out that she dated other people, and even if she slept with them long ago, things happen, things change, who am I to judge. It might hurt but I'll get over it (unless she ends up like screaming his name, that'd be a mood killer right there).
I'm sorry, just a little bitter and hostile towards the whole "no dating" thing. It never settled right in my heart and life. |
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| I guess it's that time |
[Jun. 6th, 2006|11:15 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  excited | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Everyday - Hillsong | ] |
Well, I'm sure everyone wants to know what's going on in the life of Mike, sadly, nothing really special that other people would care about. :P
I'm getting an apartment July 1st (for anyone who wants to visit me in the bush up here) finally, I'm really looking forward to getting out of the house.
Let's see, we had a baseball tournament/manafest concert last Saturday, really good times. People are VERY Competative when it comes to sports up here, so hearing that the baseball tournament ended in a tie between my youth group and the youth from my job was rather amusing if not wierd. Guess we're gonna have to rematch.
Manafest was awesome, I tried to break dance (emphasis on tried, it was more of falling to the beat). Although on one of his songs he says "thank you for burning my CD that you stole" and pointed at me, I was like "wha? I never stole a CD, and any I do have downloaded are either unfindable, ones I had but lost, and lastly, one's I'm buying but not yet (oddly enough my CD collection is growing). So yeah, my comp was out that day playing my playlist the whole day so maybe that's where he got it from? Oh well.
Oh, I also met Sonz again (met him on my internship), turns out he's in Masters (2nd year) with some of my friends, wierd! I'm hoping to go visit them next semister sometime. Really awesome guy.
This weekend I get to visit London again with a stop over in T.O. (sorry Dan, crashing at Jon's house, he can ensure protection of my bike, no hard feelings, just it's VERY expensive), looking forward to that! Get to sese my parents, a couple friends, go biking with Chris, Mordas, Jon, and possibly a girl (yes, a girl freerider! :O). Afterwards Chris Mel and I are going to go see X3, I wannna see that so bad! Then I have a wedding Saturday and hanging out with Grant Sunday. Maybe I'll go swimming sometime too. Oh, I'm aslo getting a ton of bike upgrades that I need as well. Go me!
So yeah, that's about all that's new on my end here. |
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| noticing a pattern? |
[May. 27th, 2006|04:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blah | ] |
| [ | music |
| | FM Static - Crazy Mary | ] |
Well, I was just sitting here at work and suddenly something struck me. No Mel, it wasn't a wrench. :P
Anyway, I was just looking through my MSN list and looking at all my friends who are getting married/are married, then I looked at my list and looked at all the people who are single and suddenly came to a realization!
It seems that all my married/soon to be married friends and all my single friends (ok, generalizing here) have stuff in common with people of the same relational status. So, all my married friends are of my bible college group and it's interesting cause they are all in happy, semi-stable relationships (which denotes normal cause if it were perfectly stable then there wouldn't be any human nature), while all of my old friends from my old church are all single still, what seperates these two groups?
Well, you see, here's the deal, my old church group are all waiting for thier white knights and princesses, while my college group seemed to have forgone that conclusion and simply said "hmmm, I like that girl/boy, prayed about it and God seemed to say 'go ahead,' so now we're engaged."
May seem like I'm harping on the one group, and maybe I am, but some of my friends know exactly WHY I'm doing this. :P Anyway, I just realized that and it really makes me think. To be honest I'm not a big fan of the whole "I refuse to even consider dating someone until God directly shows him/her and I at an alter saying our vows" type mentality.
Anyway, gotta go work I guess. Proceed to rip this apart as you see fit, just remember, I'm a little bitter. :P |
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pastor_janse's journal
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