april 29th, 2006

today i got out to play some tennis. it was pretty windy out there. kind of ironic that i was playing with tim, the guy who assured me upon moving up here that it didnt get windy.
anyway. it was great. what a great game. its like a moving, full body chess match. tim and i didnt quite make it that far today since my shoulder was pretty sore...because,
on wednesday i borrowed darlas longboard to ride for a few minutes. it didnt like me and i crashed.
it was cold out while i was riding, so my hands were in my pockets. i tried the trusty shoulder roll, but landed right on the lateral end of my clavicle. so, its still pretty sore and had a tough time returning tims rockets on the court.
nonetheless, it was sweet to be out hitting the ball.
moral of the story is...dont ride a skateboard with your hands in your pockets...and dont ride darlas at all. it is hard.

i was too young...

but these images are pretty intense. 20 years ago today the chernobyl disaster began, and consequences are still being seen first hand even today.
pretty scary stuff.
if you have an extra 2 minutes check these pictures out...

http://www.pixelpress.org/chernobyl/index.html

(you will have to cut and paste this address...sorry, i havent figured out how to create a direct link. just do it. its not that hard)

off to a good start

it is playoff time in the NHL. and it doesnt get much better than this year.
the leafs missed the playoffs, which is almost as good as a montreal stanley cup.
and tonite, the canadiens took their first step to number 25 with a 6-1 win over carolina.
vancouver also missed the playoffs. what a beauty year for hockey.
no more saturday nites spent watching the stinkin leafs.
time for some real hockey and some real hockey players.
go montreal.

madball-the kings of new york hardcore

from one of new york city's finest bands...these lyrics are where i find myself at sometimes...

God help me
Guide me towards righteousness Lord, once again
Please give me back the innocence of my youth
That was taken from me so long ago
Out of my control
I do not lay the blame on anyone
Only you can save my soul,

I'm calling
I'm calling out, I'm calling, is anyone listening?
I'm calling
I'm calling out, I'm calling, are you listening?
Cause I'm trying to fight it with all my heart and soul,
Strength and hope, is it all my fault?
I can't deny it, sometimes I lose control
I lose all hope

God save me now
From my past and present sins once again
Please give me the peacefulness of my youth
That I've never had
I keep it all inside, for the sake of pride
I will not disrespect my family
Only you know what I hide

I'm calling
I'm calling out, I'm calling, are you listening?
Cause I'm trying to fight it with all my heart and soul,
Strength and hope, is it all my fault?
I can't deny it, sometimes I lose control
I lose all hope

Until then, it feels like
I'm caught between
Heaven and Hell

Please take away the sins of me and my father
Give me the strength to prevail
If you forgive me, then I'll forgive myself


if you feel like watching the music video for this song...its at http://www.ferretstyle.com/madball/

ed

a good friend from regina started up a blog too. ed has been a huge encouragement and example to me..so im looking forward to seeing what he has to say. if you dont know this guy, move to regina, and go hang out with him at his house. he will make you laugh, make you think and tell you some good stories. miss you lots eddie!
check it out here....


http://eslywka.blogspot.com/

please excuse the profanity...

ive been reading a book by Anne Lamott that i bought this week called "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith". i am about half way through and must say that this lady is hilarioius. not only is she hilarious, but she inserts phrases or paragraphs that have stopped me in my tracks. made me think. made me examine.
the one ill share this time has a little bit of profanity in it...and yes, i grew up being taught that this is bad...but lets try and look past it together this time to see what she is trying to say. she is talking about light and darkness, and how in life we run in to patches of each...so here goes.

"Without all the shade and shadows, you'd miss the beauty of the veil. The shadow is always there, and if you don't remember it, when it falls on you and your life again, you're plunged into darkness. Shadows make the light show. Without shadows, we'd only see what a friend of mine refers to as 'all that goddamn light'"


ive never thought of that before. the purpose of shadows. ive always thought they were kind of neat, but never knew their purpose. i guess they do have a purpose. i guess even shadows can teach us something about life, about our relationships, about our God.

at 2:00 am...

they decided that they needed to push all the clocks forward an hour. so this morning came pretty quick. i miss good old saskatchewan where they dont mess with the clocks or your sleep...
but anyway. im starting to get that itch to get out and play some tennis. unfortunately, im afraid that it might be a little bit later in the year than what im used to. but maybe it will be even that much sweeter when the white leaves for the more glorious green and red of the tennis court.
if you are up for a game, give me a call.

new music

i found some pretty good music on good old iTunes today. check it out at www.lisaloeb.com
i would

feeling good about myself...

lately ive been struggling with pride. when i say lately, in this case, i mean for the last 24 years of my life. pride has led me to treat people poorly, take people for granted, make bad decisions, ruin friendships and most recently i have come to realize how it has impacted my relationship with God. i am too proud to rely on him, to see the wonder and otherness that God is, and to put aside my wants and needs for those of others.
its hard for me to admit when im wrong, and even harder to break a poor personal trait, such as this, that has become something of an awful habit.
i have reduced my relationship with God to mathematical formulas and answers to all the questions. my pride has prevented me from being lost in wonder and truly fearing the God of the universe.
its something im working on...

changing it up

playing around on my mac i found a new blog thing that im trying out. as of now it probably will not be a long term thing. but its kind of fun to play around on. see what it can do here http://web.mac.com/jeremyalanolson/iWeb

first post from a real computer

so yesterday i got home from work to see a box from fedex sitting on the table waiting for me. turns out it was a MacBook Pro.
after about 30 minutes on the phone with paul taylor, im hooked up to the wireless internet and running. thanks paul!
anyway, everyone should have one of these. fast, slick and easier to use than an iPod.
in real news...things in yellowknife are going well. lots of cool people and quite a bit of fun stuff to do.
last weekend i skied 12.5 kms at the ski club here. im still sore from it. but it was fun.
thats all for today. stay tuned...

more funny stuff from rick...

well, if you need a good laugh. rick mercer is one of the best ways to get it. go check out this link here and play the "Hand In My Pocket Spoof Ad"
i thought the original ads were funny...but this is even better.

what?

i thought these were funny anyway

"Faithful Companion" by Mark Veldhoven



























by Big Jule ------------------------------->


found both of these on Rick Mercers blog.
check it out. its funny too.

from a wise man in china...

one of the wisest people i know sent me this in response to my post about the apathy and laziness ive been feeling. i believe he found it reading some Madame Guyon...

check it out, its been making me think since i read it yesterday.

"Dear reader, you must realize that God has only one desire. Certainly you can never understand a dry spell unless you understand what His desire is. His desire is to give Himself to the soul that really loves Him and to that soul which earnestly seeks Him. And yet it is true that this God who desires to give Himself to you will often conceal Himself from you—from you, the very one who seeks Him! Now why would God do that? Dear saint of God, you must learn the ways of your Lord. Yours is a God who often hides Himself. He hides Himself for a purpose. Why? His purpose is to rouse you from spiritual laziness. His purpose in removing Himself from you is to cause you to pursue Him.”

one reason to hate march...

in march they already start talking about and showing baseball. i mean, give me a break...they already show all 200 regular season games throughout the year, so do we really need to watch an extra 40 games of out of shape athletes play bad baseball?
even the highlights are boring.
other than that march is a pretty sweet month.

not thinking much lately

other than focusing on the new job, i havent been thinking about much lately.
ive kind of slipped into a state of apathy or laziness or something when other things are called into question. dave's thoughts really challenged me today about apathy and letting sin creep in.
its pretty easy to let that happen. you dont even have to want it to be there, it can find its way through cracks and crevices. small things like the apathy and the laziness i have been feeling when it comes to faith have found their way in like water pouring into a cup full of marbles.
what i really want in those spaces between the marbles is that relationship with jesus that ive been missing for far too long. i need to find the drain, exhaust the water and let the real thing pour in...

day one...

well, a lot of people were interested in how the first day of work went...it was a pretty slow day. i really didnt do a whole lot.
i started at 0830h and we had a meeting at about 0900 so i could meet everyone. at 1000, 7 of us went to tim hortons for an hour.
then the rest of the day i read up on how to run the autoanalyzer to test levels of nitrogen in potable water samples.
thats what ill do tomorrow.
so far so good. good people, fancy machines.

starting monday...

i will no longer be unemployed!
i have accepted the position of Laboratory Technician with the Taiga Environmental Laboratory up here in yellowknife.
so, my three month weekend wraps up a little prematurely, but in a welcome way.
thanks for all the prayers and help from everyone!

quinn and bertuzzi

yeah, so canada lost out in the olympic hockey tournament.
these are the two guys i blame.
what a terrible penalty by bertuzzi that let russia go up 1-0.
and what was pat quinn thinking on the powerplays?
pretty disappointing.
better luck in vancouver boys.