(A)musings

A Brief Bout of Minimalism.

2007-02-04T23:05:00.000-08:00

For the first time in my retail career, a lady hung up on me.

I have a sinus-y type cold thing going on.

There have been worse days, I suppose.

erkälten = to catch a cold

And now, back from the brink...

2007-01-30T23:01:00.000-08:00

Hello All!

I just realized today that it has been a helluva long time since my last post. (Insert usual excuses Re:School, work, etc. here). To tell you the absolute truth, not a whole lot has changed in the last 2 months or so, but I feel compelled to update you all the same.

I've finally figured out (for the moment at least) what it is that I want to do with a large portion of the rest of my life. Although when I started off here in Edmonton I was pretty dead set on doing academics (PhD, professoring, and all that), I don't think I'm really cut out for the academic life. You might think this means that after I finish off this degree I'm going to be done with school and start working. You would be wrong. I've decided that, after finishing this degree, I'm going to stick around the University in the hopes of becoming a professional asshole; by asshole, I mean lawyer. I'm told that in order to be successful in this field, one must have a massive collection of self-deprecating jokes. To that end, I ask all of you, my faithful readers, to provide as many lawyer jokes as you are willing to, either in the comments section or via email.

All joking aside, I am going to be working as hard as I can to get into Law (hopefully here at the U of A), which means that I may be incommunicado for a while. I'm going to be writing the LSAT in June ('round about the 12th or so), and so will appreciate your prayers (seriously!). I've actually started my preparation already with the '100 Days of Logic' off to a good start. I'm also putting as much effort as I can spare into my classes this term; hopefully more effort will lead to higher marks which will, in turn, lead to the success of my application.

I told you all that there isn't really much else to tell, and that's pretty much it for now. I'm going to try and update at least weekly from this point on, but that will depend on the availability of publisheable material.

BTW, the German Word of the Day is:

"die Meinung," it means "the opinion" (among other things)

Return of the Israeli(?)

2006-11-07T23:02:00.000-08:00

You know you're a nerd when, in a seminar, you compare the redaction of Hebrew texts to Star Wars. The comparison in question? The following post I made on the webCT discussion group for my Hebrew Bible seminar:

Jill*,

In response to your comments about redaction of an existing text as opposed to creating a new text, "If they truly believed their version was correct they would have entirely changed the old versions or they may have written their very own book," I wonder if this isn't just a tad simplistic. I wonder if the reason that later redactors didn't completely remove sections they didn't agree with or create new books was because, in their time, the texts already had a certain authority which they would have wanted to continue or use. That is, in the time that they were editing the works, people were reading and using the existing texts and, rather than trying to set up a whole new system of thought, the redactors simple tweaked the existing system to better reflect their 'new' ideas.

Also, I think it would be easier to transmit the new ideas by strategically altering an existing set of texts than by trying to get people to read a wholly new work or set of works. As a more contemporary example, look at the first Star Wars trilogy. The original version became such a big part of the popular consciousness that, when George Lucas later wanted to alter the story to fit in with his vision for the three new movies, he made strategic additions and deletions in the original three movies' construction in order to alter the popular conception of the 'grander narrative.' That is, it was easier for the redactor (Lucas) to alter peoples' perception/understanding of the narrative through additions than trying to change the way people understood the Star Wars narrative by creating a new set of sequels (a nearly impossible task because of the integration of the originals into the popular consicious).

Dan

*Name changed to protect the innocent.

Yet another first

2006-10-30T17:22:00.000-08:00

In the interests of becoming a more well rounded person, I think it's time that I develop my writing skills to include more than academic writing. With that goal in mind, I present my first written movie review:

Title: Little Miss Sunshine
Starring: Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carrel & Co.
Director: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Rating: 8 Fingers out of 10

In "Little Miss Sunshine," Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris bring us the tale of young Olive Hoover, a budding young beauty(?) queen and her eccentric family. When 10 year old Olive wins the chance to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in Redondo, California, she can't wait to have her chance to shine. Family circumstances being what they are, she is accompanied by her fledgling motivational speaker father, Richard (Greg Kinnear); her mother, Sheryl (Toni Collette) ; her Proust Scholar uncle Frank (Steve Carell); heroin addicted Grandpa (Alain Arkin); and monastic emo-kid brother, Dwayne (Paul Dano). The tension in the banana-yellow VW bus is more than enough to give us lots of laughs.

As I was watchting Little Miss Sunshine, I was actually reminded of Sideways, another dark 'road trip' type comedy. Like Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine keeps a good balance of levity and seriousness without straying too far into comedy cliche. By the end of the film, I felt drawn in to the life of the Hoover family. I really wanted Olive to win. If you want side-splitting laughs mixed in with explorations of Beauty, Self-image, and even Death, Little Miss Sunshine will give you all you want and more. Even if you just want a feel-good movie, Little Miss Sunshine will do it for you. I know I want to buy it when it comes out on DVD.

Stand Out Performances:
*SPOILER WARNING*

Paul Dano as Dwayne: I don't think many actors could successfully pull off a role that calls for silence for the first hour of a 101 minute movie. Dano's expressions of disappointment and anguish are done exceptionally well; teen angst comes naturally.

Abigail Breslin as Olive Hoover: For most of the film, I wasn't terribly impressed with Breslin's acting. Fortunately for her, the final 20 minutes of the film redeemed an otherwise pedestrian performance.

Steve Carell as Frank Hoover: Although I didn't really like Carell in the American version of "The Office," and have to confess that I haven't seen "The 40 Year Old Virgin," Carell he gives a stellar performance as the melancholy academic for whom nothing seems to be going right. From his failed suicide attempt to meeting his former love interest travelling with Frank's biggest competitor, Carell draws us into the sadness and hopelessness he feels.

*END SPOILERS*

Basically, if you haven't seen "Little Miss Sunshine," see it now.

Es Schneidet!

2006-10-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

I'm very glad that this year the snow has waited until after my birtday to arrive in force. When I woke up yesterday morning, this is what I saw:

Now all I have to do is find myself a shovel!

This Just In!

2006-10-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

A follow up to my last post, I've identified the Owl in question as a Northern Saw-whet Owl. Thought you ought to know...

Close Encounters of the Fowl Kind

2006-10-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

Today, while I was blissfully experiencing my daily dose of Trek, I was disturbed by a large THWACK at the window. Upon investigation, I was greeted by this little guy:

Who knew that wildlife was as close as your front yard?!

Preaching with you, not at you...

2006-10-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hello all once again. As I promised to several of you, here is the text of the sermon that I preached on 15 October 2006. Just a note, while it is written in essay style, please remember that this piece was mostly a guidline for me to speak from and as such doesn't necessarily reflect everything that I said. Other than that, feel free to comment, rip to shreds, etc.

The Mystery of Jesus

Who is Jesus? I don’t doubt that many people around the world have asked this deceptively simple question at sometime in their lives. Often the question is posed in a somewhat flippant manner, “Who’s this Jesus guy, anyway?” or, “What’s with the white dude with the long hair?” No matter how it is asked, the answers one gets to asking “Who is Jesus?” depend greatly on the context of the question. Ask the question in a Sunday school class, and you’ll likely hear such things as “Saviour, Messiah, Friend, Brother,” and so one. Ask the question on the University campus and you may hear such diverse answers as “A great teacher,” “the first feminist,” or “the extra Rabbi of those crazy 1^st century Jews.” At a biblical seminary, answers will probably be along the lines of “the begotten son of God,” “the absolute expression of God’s love,” or “the propitiating sacrifice of atonement for sin.” All of these answers are given with varying degrees of thought.

For me, I think I often take the answer to the question of “Who is Jesus?” for granted, without giving much thought to the reasoning behind these answers. I also think I’m not alone in this, to the detriment of our churches. With so many varying ideas about the nature of Jesus, it is of critical importance that we, as Christians, spend time exploring, examining, and explaining the mystery of Jesus. Jesus is a mystery, not only in the religious sense of, “something inexplicable or beyond human comprehension,” but also in the more common sense of a story or drama dealing with a puzzling crime.

As we seek to unravel the mystery of Jesus, we are fortunate to have many of the clues already set out before us in the New Testament. We also have the advantage of roughly 2000 years of tradition and scholarship. Finally, we also have the author of the mystery on our side, gently prompting us and leading us in the right direction, if only we will listen to his still, small voice.

Turning now to our text, let’s begin to ask some questions, in the hope that we might see, as in a glass darkly, something of the mystery of Jesus. Beginning at John 6:22 we read, “[…] Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, Give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”[1] On the surface, these few verses seem to have a relatively straightforward interpretation. That is, Jesus is the spiritual food sent by God so that we might find spiritual satisfaction in him. I certainly agree but I also think that a fuller meaning is apparent when we dig a little bit further.

In this passage Jesus refers to himself as “the bread of God […] which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world,” undoubtedly a reference to the Jew’s collective memory of being fed manna in the desert. Not only does this provide a point of reference for Jesus to present himself as the Messiah to the Jews, but I think Jesus is also anticipating the Jews’ reaction to him. As we read in Exodus 16, “When the Israelites saw it, the said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”[2] Just as the Israelites didn’t know the nature of the food they received from God in the desert, so to will they not understand the nature of the divine food provided by God in the desert of their sin.

Fortunately though, Jesus doesn’t leave his audience hanging, saying shortly after that, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. […] This is the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” Jesus lays bare the meaning of his words for his audience to accept, and yet the still wonder about his teachings, saying “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?” Here, the real mystery of Jesus isn’t his nature; rather, it is why he seems to be so incomprehensible to those around him, even when he tells them in plain language what they must do.

I suspect that the reason Jesus is so mysterious to his audience isn’t because his teachings are too complex for them to understand. As Jews, those in his audience were, in all likelihood, thoroughly versed in the stories of the Exodus; they certainly were able to understand the nuances of the claims that Jesus made about himself. No, the obstacle to the peoples’ understanding isn’t the supernatural claims of Jesus about himself; it is their concern with the mundane details about his life that prevent them from understanding and accepting Jesus as the son of God. They saw him eat, they saw him sleep, they saw him do all the things ordinary people do; the ordinariness of Jesus was conceptual barrier to the people’s apprehension of the extraordinary.

Often, I think that the ordinariness of Jesus is an obstacle for us, as modern Christians, as we try to understand who Jesus is. In our case, though, we have the opposite problem to Jesus’ contemporaries. We have been so conditioned to think of Jesus in purely abstract, religious terms, that we are unable to apprehend the humanity of Jesus. This mystery of Jesus, his extraordinariness masquerading as the ordinary is one of the big questions of the Christian faith which, I think, presents a huge challenge to us as believers: understanding the humanity of Jesus, while at the same time never losing sight of his ultimate divinity.

Although it may not seem that important to appreciate the humanity of Jesus, if we focus purely on spiritual aspects of Jesus, I think we risk losing an important point of contact with our Saviour. Drawing nearer to the divine humanity embodied in Jesus Christ allows us to become more fully human ourselves. As we draw nearer to him through which all things were made that have been made, we become a clearer reflection of the image of God.

John 7 also highlights another mystery of Jesus for us; how it is that God’s grace is sufficient for us; how his power is made perfect in our weakness.[3] As we read in John, “the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? Yet we know where this man comes from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.’ Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

With their own confused words, “When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from,” the Jews confirm the truth about which they think they know nothing. I admit, we do have the benefit of 2000 years of hindsight on our side which allows us to appreciate the dramatic irony in the text. At the same time, though, I wonder if God doesn’t give us the grace of ignorance in order that we may learn from him. That is, the questions we ask of God are the very truths he wants us to know. For example, when we experience troubles and tribulations and ask questions like, “Where is God in all of this? Doesn’t he want me what is best for me?” perhaps the fact that we ask the question is God speaking to us through our questions. The mystery of Jesus prods us to ask the questions through which God reveals that which he wants us to know.

We now come to the climax of our mystery story. “After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”[4] How ironic it is that the fountain of living water, from all who wish can drink and yet never thirst, is himself thirsty at the end of his days. We ought to wonder how it is that an innocent man can come to death, a terribly painful death on a cross.

The mystery of Jesus’ death encompasses all the other mysteries we have so far seen. In our horror at Jesus’ death on the cross, we question how a loving God could abandon his son to torment and despair. As I have mentioned, our question here points us to the answer that we hear so often, but ought to remember more; that it is precisely because of God’s all surpassing love that he sent his son to die. Or, to respond to one mystery with another; How could an infinitely loving God do anything but send his only son to die that others may live?

When we appreciate the mysterious horror of Jesus’ death on the cross, we identify with the suffering of Jesus the man, the human being. Not only do we empathize, at least in some small way, with the physical pain Jesus must have felt, but we also empathize with the pain of separation from his father as he cries out in death. The mystery of Jesus’ humanity allows us to more fully understand the divine sacrifice.

As we seek to understand more fully the mystery of Jesus Christ, let me suggest that that we not be in a rush to get an easy answer, to hear the ending of the story before we’ve had a chance to meet and get to know the characters. While we may not be comfortable with the uncertainty it causes, let us continually ask ourselves this question: Who is Jesus? If we ask in the expectation of an answer, I am sure that we will find all that we need, and more.

Notes

[1] John 6:22 - 35

[2] Exodus 16:15

[3] 2 Corinthians 12:9 - 10

[4] John 19:28-30

No, I'm Actually Not Dead

2006-10-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

As the title says, reports of my death have, in fact, been greatly exaggerated. I'd like to say that I've been totally swamped with homework, readings, and paid employment but I'm really just a lazy ass. That said, I figured I should make a new post before I lose contact entirely with the outside world.

With the start of a new year, new classes always present new challenges. My first challenge of the year: Staying awake in Art History 101. It's terribly embarrassing for me, in my 6th year of Undergrad (who knew I'd be a professional student?) to still be taking introductory level classes, but I thought that the artistic area of my intellect (if that's possible...) was seriously lacking. Seing as Art History is still artistic enough to be in the FAB building (I know that's redundant, but it's still funny) yet cerebral enough to appeal to me, I thought it would be a perfect class. Unfortunately, the class is held in a room where the temperature is held at a soporifically warm 25 degrees and the lights are dimmed to the bare minimum for writing notes, which means that I spend approximately the first 20 minutes of an 80 minute lecture dozing and writing incoherent notes. Needless to say, I'm learning more from reading the family-bible-sized textbook than from attending lectures.

Now a new feature here at Dan's blog, the "Nifty Sight of the Day." Today's nifty sight: A dump-truck broken through a hole in the Asphalt. I guess you had to be there...

Finally, a note to all my faithful readers in Saskatoon. I'm going to be gracing you (haha) with my presence this weekend (Friday 6th to Monday the 9th). Bring on the Party!!

My Contribution to ongoing debate...

2006-08-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

My last jar also came with a nifty soccer hologram. GO NUTELLA!!

Red and White Forver!

2006-06-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

Just a short post to let all of you Saskatoon folks (those who care at least) know that I'll be in town this coming weekend for Canada Day. I'll arrive early Friday afternoon, and leaving Tuesday morning. Roll out the poker chips, fireworks, and beer! See you all soon!!

There is no Joy in Oilville

2006-06-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of days, a subdued air has hung over Edmonton. Until I lived in a hockey town, I didn't realize how much the fortunes of a sports team could affect the mood of thousands of people. As my good buddy Anders put it, you can't expect that after months and months of building excitment and expectation disappointment will disappear over night. That said, I expect that by the start of the next hockey season we'll be sufficiently recovered from our disappointment to make another run at the cup. Next year in Edmonton...

The whole playoff run has also provided me with seemingly endless opportunity for self-reflection. For one thing, how is it that I, a self-confessed anti-sports junkie, could get so caught up in playoff fever that I actually cared how the series turned out? Perhaps this is the beginning of a new phase in my existence. Next thing you know I'll be at Taylor Field in October naked save for green shorts, green body paint, and a melon-head.

Well, that's enough navel gazing for one day, who knew that I would ever devote an entire blog post to sports? I leave you with the incisive commment made by one of my buddies from work at the conclusion of Game seven:

WHAT... THE... HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's hope it's NOT a quiet summer!

2006-06-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

This just in!!! Hooray for Bono and the boys! I don't want to sound callous, but I think it's high time Bono took a hiatus from saving the world and went back to the studio. GO BONO GO!!!

Rejected, not Dejected

2006-05-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

Further to my last post, after submitting the article to the MB Herald for publication, I received the following email from Ms. Laura Kalmar, editor of that same publication:

Dear Daniel,

Thanks for your submission. We certainly appreciate feedback from readers, and this topic has generated some excellent discussion. At the moment, James Toews is our columnist for "Intersection," so we won't be able to use your article in our regular feature.

While I understand the argument (and subtle irony) of your article, I'd invite you to write a response to James' column in a Letter to the Editor.

Sincerely,

Laura Kalmar
Editor
MB Herald

Thank you very much Ms. Kalmar, I just might do that.

With Tongue Firmly in Cheek...

2006-05-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

Recently, in the MB Herald, James Toews published an article entitled Why I don't drink. After reading his article, I was most distressed to find that my precious alcoholism was in danger of being destroyed by spiritual conviction. Actually, I thought he was dead wrong and felt that a response was necessary. What originally started out as a letter to the editor has blossomed into a short article, which I will dutifully submit for publication to said MB Herald. Without the expectation that this article will ever be published, I present it to you here in its entirety.

NOTE: I strongly suggest that you read the original article prior to reading mine. Also, as the title of this post says, I've written with tongue firmly in cheek and by no means mean to diminish or make fun of the struggles of those with eating disorders. The example of food is used simply because it is the vice that Mennonites most often partake of.

Why I don’t Eat

Daniel Johnson

“And what will you have this evening?” The black aproned server stands with her pen poised ready to jot down my order.

“Just water, thanks” I say, and note the slightly awkward silence around the table as my companions around the table suddenly become terribly interested in the patterns on this fine restaurant’s flatware. In this age of fad diets, anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders, questioning why another person isn’t eating is a major faux pas; the fear of being insensitive overrides our natural curiosity.

Of course, if the question were asked, an answer would easily fall from my lips. “I’m on the Atkins Diet,” or, “I’m flushing the toxins from my body,” or, “I’m just not hungry,” would all be good enough answers for my companions; good enough, at least, to make them avoid asking the question of me in the future. Unfortunately, “I’m a Christian,” just wouldn’t cut it as an answer; “I’m a Mennonite,” would be an even less satisfactory answer, especially if my companions didn’t know what a Mennonite was. With our church potlucks, community barbeques, and rich foods, “I’m a Christian” and, “I’m not eating tonight” seem to be almost entirely contradictory.

Though it would be ‘biblical’ for me to abstain from food in order to focus more on the kingdom of God, “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” (Romans 14:17) and indeed, I have used bible verses in the past to justify my abstention, I don’t eat mostly because of the culture that I grew up in, and the experiences of my childhood and my youth.

From the early days of my childhood, I often would hear the adults in my life discussing who was on what diet, and how good people looked after they had lost weight. I also clearly remember diets being posted on my grandmother’s refrigerator door; usually these were variations on “One half grapefruit in the morning, bland chicken and rice for lunch, vegetables and water for supper.” As my grandmother was a model Christian in my eyes, surely her ability to eat so little must be direct result of her faith; if I were to be a better Christian, then I too should diet and control my weight.

I was also exposed to the dangers of overindulgence in culinary delights: “Fat Fanny Fran” was a regular fixture in my class. Every day she lugged an enormous brown bag filled with chocolate bars, potato chips, and ham sandwiches with white bread to school and toted the same brown bag, now filled with ‘empties’ back home. The sight of her ever expanding waistline was more than enough to scare me into avoiding too much food, at all cost.

Later in life, as a teenage drive-thru clerk, the dangers of eating too much were reinforced by what I saw from my post at the cash register. Cars with the backseats filled with the garbage of months of take-out meals while the owners filled up the front seats, other youths coming through the drive-thru after a night of partying, and fryers filled with solid blocks of fat, were all scenes commonly seen under the golden arches. I finally understood the connection between overindulgence in food and self destructive behaviours.

Unfortunately, at the time it seemed like the only activities that were acceptable for young Christians involved consumption (and over-consumption) of food. I remember several nights when I came home from a night out with friends with an aching belly, only to wake up with gastrointestinal distress the next morning. I also wasn’t immune to the mystique of fine dining; what unsuspecting diner hasn’t been lured by the luxurious sounding names like “Coq Au Vin,” and “Boondocked Prime Rib of Beef,” only to encounter Chef’s Revenge later in the evening. The way that many in my community of faith treated food, it seemed to me that the mysterious essences of food literally bound our communities together.

Though several years passed when my only concern towards food was how good it made me feel at the moment, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was doing serious harm to my body by my overindulgence. Additionally, the statistics were getting too hard to ignore: the number one killer in North America is heart disease and stroke, often caused by a diet rich in fatty foods; fatty liver disease (steatahepatitis) is often caused by eating too many rich foods; there is a direct link between the consumption of food products and eventual mortality. Something wasn’t right with this picture.

Finally, I came to a realization: In order to avoid the possibility of harm, I should never engage in activities that might lead to harm. I’ve since stopped driving my car, drinking alcohol, and eating. I’ve finally realized the truth: If I eat, I might overindulge, and if I overindulge even once, then Jesus doesn’t love me. The next time someone has the nerve to ask my why I don’t eat, I’m going to turn the tables on them and ask the more challenging question:
“So, why do you eat?”

Return of the Religi

2006-04-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hello all once again. Now that school's done for the summer and I haven't started working days yet, I have nothing better to do in the hours between 10pm and 4pm than clean my suite and prepare for the move. To take a break from the monotony of cleanliness, I've decided to post the last installment of my apology. I see no comments as of yet, though I'm hardly surprised as it is quite long and perhaps a little boring. At any rate, in the interest of completion, here's the final chapter:

Joining and Finishing

The interaction between the business world and religions brings me to the second major area of interest for me within Religious Studies. As I have examined religions over the course of my studies both here at the University of Alberta and even while at the University of Saskatchewan I have been struck by the ways in which different religions, often with radically different conceptions of the world, incorporate aspects of each other in to their own systems of practice. What, at this point at least, seems to be a syncretic tendency inherent in most (if not all) religions of the world has both perplexed and fascinated me in my studies.

Unlike the relationship between business and religion (and vice versa), even at this early point in my career I have done some research into syncreticism ‘on the ground’ as it were. As I researched the interaction between Jesuit missionaries in New France in the 16^th and 17^th centuries and the aboriginal people they encountered, I was surprised at the extent to which the Jesuit missionaries were willing to incorporate Aboriginal religious ideas in to their Christian discourse. This may be one are where I would like to consider further research as well.

My interest in religious syncreticism has also been shaped by early experiences, though not in the same way as my interest in the Economics of Religion. While I in my ‘Apologetic’ phase, one of the books I found very interesting was entitled Eternity in Their Hearts[1]. This missiological work, authored by one Don Richardson, exhorts Christians to seek out aspects of other cultures that are similar to Christianity in order to more effectively convert them to Christianity. Where I once read this book for guidance as a person of faith, as I approach it with the new eyes of a scholar, it has become another artefact of religious experience to be analysed, interpreted, and discussed. As an example of syncreticism at work in the ‘Modern’ world, Richardson’s work is worthy of serious consideration.

As I seek to examine the nature of religious syncreticism, as well as the nature of religion and religious practices as a whole, an understanding of the theories at work within discourses in Religious Studies will have a tremendous impact on my work. As I mentioned earlier, McCutcheon’s criticism of discourses within religious studies will be a powerful ally, particularly as I venture into areas that may not previously been considered to be within the purview of Religious Studies. The freedom gained from rejecting a sui-generis character of religion will allow me to explore these areas in great depth.

In addition to the freedom granted by McCutcheon’s work, I believe I will find Daniel Gold’s work, Aesthetics and Analysis in Writing on Religion, to be particularly helpful in my scholarly endeavours. In particular, his commentary on, “The Religiohistorical Sublime” will, I think, guide me in my studies. Where I am tempted to pursue above all else the arid, reasoned, ‘objective’ aspect of research into religions, Gold’s commentary points towards the necessity for imagination in scholarship, in order to achieve deeper levels of understanding. Likewise, where imagination takes over and runs wild, the brake of reason applied to imaginative discourse allows for a more balanced and appropriate analysis of religion.

Where in the earliest, most foundational stages of my interest in religion my thinking could be described as Fides Quarens Intellectum, currently, I believe that the motto of the University of Alberta is much more appropriate: Quaecumque Vera, “Whatsoever things are true.” Though this may seem like empty sentimentalism, as we learned from Magnolia, “nothing happens by accident.”

I have here presented the two major areas of my interest in Religious Studies, but I am far from set in my ways. With many more years of study ahead of me, in all likelihood, my interests in the study of religion will change. What will not change is my desire to seek truth in all things, wherever it may be found. Though some may not believe it to exist, it is my contention that truth can be found and I wish to be a part of its discovery.

[1] Don Richardson. Eternity in Their Hearts. (Ventura, California: Regal Books, 1981).

Second Apology

2006-04-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure you're all waiting anxiously for the second installment of my paper, I now give you part II

What Business is Religion?

While I would like to think that as an enlightened scholar I can be completely rational and objective about my research, I know that I am peculiarly shaped by my past experiences in education and otherwise. Having been thoroughly immersed in the discourses of Economics and Business while working towards my first undergraduate degree, I find that this has profoundly affected the way that I perceive religions and religious phenomena. This brings me to my first are of interest within Religious Studies: the Economics of Religion, especially as it relates to Christianity (or Christianities, if you prefer).

When I studied Commerce at the University of Saskatchewan, I was often struck by the quasi-religious character of the discourse of business. I am inclined to think that if one were to replace the words, “Mission Statement,” with “Confession of Faith” and “Chief Executive Officer” with “High Priest,” one would be hard pressed to distinguish between the practices of many companies and the practices of religions. Indeed, with their corporate anthems[1] and chants, businesses could be said to have a religious character all their own. This, I think, presents a fruitful area of study within Religious Studies, albeit one that is likely not to be terribly popular with other scholars of religion.

In examining religion, I find Russell McCutcheon’s ideas about the nature of scholarly discourses on religion to particularly comforting. If religion, as McCutcheon says, is a construction of scholarly discourse, I think I am perfectly justified in examining the ‘corporate world’ using the techniques of Religious Studies. That is, if there is no sui-generis nature of religion, why can’t business be examined as if it were a religious discourse?

Another aspect of the Economics of Religion which I find interesting is the way that religions often take on aspects of the ‘corporate world’ which they, as part of modern society, are unavoidable immersed. That is, I would like to examine the ways in which organized religion, particularly modern, evangelical Christianity takes something of a commercial approach to what an outsider might think was a purely transcendent phenomenon. Here again I must confess that my interest has been shaped by my experiences within organized religion. Having observed many Christians speak about their faith in terms that wouldn’t be out of place in a boardroom, I have questioned how much modern commerce and modern Christianity have influenced each other.

[1] These do, in fact, exist. For a listing, please see http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020481,2122414,00.htm

Well, that's the end of Part II, coming soon, the final installment

i love and hate the bottle

2006-04-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

I love and hate the bottle
typing on autopilot words spill from my fingers
i'm numb and raw and feeling

i'm not me and i am me
exposed
but hidden in my stupor

you know who you are
i love you
but why can't it go away?
what does it make me

love you
you
why me?

tears and hope and pain and love and good
why

raw nerves tingle and are alive
restraint and love
raw love sets me aflame
i could go on
i'll stop now
now

My Apology

2006-04-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

When they hear that I'm a Religious Studies major, people often ask me things like, "Why religious studies?;" "So are you Catholic?;" and, "So what exactly do you DO in religious studies?" While I often give rather off-the-cuff answers, I think that a more in-depth answer would be more satisfactory. With that in mind, and in order to preclude some of these kinds of questions in favour of provoking deeper discussions, I'm going to post an essay about some of the why's, what's, and how's of my academic interests. I wrote this essay as a final paper for my RELIG 475: Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion seminar, so you aren't going to be the first to readers. In order to keep the length of my posts reasonable, I'm going to post in several parts.

Apology and Interest: Part I

Much of my interest in religious studies stems from the experiences I have had from childhood through my early teen years. My first experience with any sort of religious activity was as a small child attending Sunday school classes and church services with my parents. While in my early teens and throughout the time that I attended secondary school, I engaged in a flirtation with the more fundamentalist and charismatic aspects of Christianity. At this point, my interests in studying religion were limited to examining Christianity apologetically; I wanted to prove the veracity of my chosen religion to others and, perhaps more importantly, to myself.

After entering the University of Saskatchewan as a student in the College of Commerce, I continued to have an interest in studying religion, although still in an apologetic mode. With the goal of personal edification, I took several courses in religious studies as electives while working towards my Bachelor of Commerce degree. Although I did not realize it at the time, in hindsight I have realized that my interest in religion was slowly turning away from understanding religion solely as an insider, to examining the larger phenomena of religions in the world. Even so, I think the motto of the scholastics sums up the early stages of my interest in religious studies quite well, Fides Quaerens Intellectum: Faith seeks understanding.

As I progressed through my studies at the University of Saskatchewan, I found my interest in Business as an object of study to be waning. More and more, I was intrigued by the questions presented to me in my Religious Studies electives: Why are rituals important to people? How is it that the same phenomenon, religion, can motivate both acts of great compassion and acts of great hate?; and so on. I also came to realize the huge effect that religions and religious people have had on the world history. This also greatly increased my interest in studying religion; how could I let such an important phenomenon go unexamined, if only that I might understand the world better?

Having completed my studies at the University of Saskatchewan, I made the decision to commit myself to the full time study of religion, at least for the time that it would take me to earn a second Bachelor’s degree. As such, I applied as was accepted to the program in Religious Studies at the University of Alberta. This brings me to the present in my academic career, having nearly completed the first of 2.5 years studying religion at the University of Alberta. Having only begun seriously studying religion 8 months ago, I am still somewhat in the dark as to where my exact interests in the field lie, though there two major areas which I find to be particularly fascinating.

End Part I

Thanks for reading, I welcome your comments!

The End of The Affair

2006-04-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

This morning when I checked my email, I had 93 new messages from the aforementioned Listserv fiasco. While I was hoping it would continue for some days and provide me with more fodder for posts, sadly, the problem seems to have been fixed. I'm sure something will come up again in the next while which will again demonstrate the herd mentality and stupidity of Arts students.

Students At the University of Alberta: 30,000

Students in the Faculty of Arts : 10,000

Number of Students to spark a firestorm of Stupidity: 1

Ability to think logically: Priceless

Multiplication of Stupidity

2006-04-11T23:46:00.000-07:00

I know it's rare that I post twice in any 24 hour period, but this is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

When I first thought about coming to the University of Alberta, I thought that, being one of the premier institutions in Canada, the students here would have a certain amount of intelligence. Unfortunately, it seems that the majority of students in the Faculty of Arts are mentally deficient and that a single moment of stupidity is sufficient to illuminate the stupidity within the faculty. What prompted this mini-rant you ask? Well, the story thus far is as follows:

At the University of Alberta, there has been a listserv group set up so that students in the faculty of Arts can send out announcements to all of the other students in the faculty with announcements and all that sort of thing. At the end of every email which goes out from the listserv, a link is provided for those who wish to unsubscribe from the list. Unfortunately, the email address of the listerv is also provided as the sender of the message and, as such, anyone who replies to a message from the listserv sends a message to everyone on the list (all 10000 of us).

Apparently, what has happened is one dumbass, while trying to unsubscribe from the list, replied to the message he (or she) received rather than clicking on the appropriate link contained in the body of the email. After replying to the email, 10 of the people who received the email attempted to reply back with something along the lines of "Why are you emailing me, I don't know what's going on?" After everyone received their replies, 10 people replied to each of their messages, and so on and so on and so on. As such, one idiot's failure to read an email carefully has resulted in a firestorm of stupidity, and me getting approximately 100 emails within the last hour.

Further highlighting the stupidity of Arts students: instead of simply deleting the emails they recieve, people are replying asking "How do I stop getting these emails?" and thus compounding the problem. One really must wonder how the human race has got this far.

The more intelligent people out there have used the newly discovered technology to send out various messages to the entire arts community. Some highlights include:

From h*******@ualberta.ca:

I am appalled at how an innocent request of asking how to unsubscribe(that was misdirected)has turned into students inviting other students to start sending hate mail. Our tuition pays people to keep us informed of what goes on at University.

Are you really university students or just yo yo's hiding in university because you don't have the interpersonal skills to hold a job in the real world?

I appreciate the university emails I get - even when they don't apply to me.  And I would like to continue receiving all of them and continue being the judge of whether they apply to me or not.  Even when they don't apply - they inform of all the other aspects of university that go on.

It takes less then 10 seconds to scan and decide whether to keep an email or click the "delete" button.  Is that so hard??

From l******@ualberta.ca

Single White Male seeks female of age 18-24 for fun and intelligent conversation, preferably single. Interests include biking, cooking, movies, and classical music. Is good listener and compasionate.

And many just like. Fortunately for computer literate people like me, every email has [arts-students-town-crier] in the subject line, which makes filtering all of these messages into my trash so much simpler.

Well, that's about all from out west for tonight, watch this space for updates on the Firestorm of Studidity.

March Movies

2006-04-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a little later than I should be with this post, but what with final papers, exams, and work, I've hardly had time to breath, much less blog in the last while. At any rate, here is my movie journal for March:

March 3

I Want To Live!

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

March 10

Sean of the Dead

The Life Aquatic

Mar. 23

Die Hard: With a Vengeance

Mar. 24

Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale

Mar. 25

Walk The Line

March 31

Everything is Illuminated

That's all for now, but now that I've got more time on my hands, expect more posts in the near future. Also, for the Saskatoon crowd, I'm going to be in town this Thursday until next Monday, so give me a call!

Tschuss!

My How the Mighty have Fallen

2006-04-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

Right now, I feel intoxicated from 1 beer. This is terribly unfortunate.

You Make Me Feel...

2006-03-24T15:56:00.000-08:00

Today, feeling very accomplished after handing in my 3rd last paper of the year and felling somewhat more confident in my finances for the next little while, I treated myself to a new CD:

That's right, you guessed, "Tapestry," By Carole King. I've been looking for this for some time, but it's always been way out of my price range. In the process of checking out some other stuff at A&B sound, I came across it for a mere 12.99(!!). Needless to say, I excercised a little bit of finanical irresponsibility and seized the opportunity. I don't know why, but this is one of my favourite albums of all time. Maybe it appeals to some deap seated sentimentalism in me, or something like that.

Halfway into the Digital Age

2006-03-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

Today I picked up my pictures of the Victoria trip from London Drugs. While 10 years ago I would have been unable to share them with you, save by getting duplicates and snail-mailing, the techno-wizardlings digitized all my pictures on to a CD for my. Not as elegant as a taking digital pictures in the first place, but for now I have to do. I here present to you the highlite pictures, along with my insightful commentary.

Here we have my good buddy Anders sitting at the topic of scenic Mount Douglas. I particularly like the scintillating light in the background, as though the light of reason were illuminating him, or something like that. For more background on the hike we took, and more pictures as well, check out this post on Meghann's blog.
On the way down from the top of Mount Doug (see above), we found this nifty, partially uprooted, tree branch. Now if this doesn't scream "hiding from the Nazgul," I don't know what does. Here we see Anders doing his best "frightened hobbit" pose. I would have liked to added a Black Rider for effect but, unfortunatley, I neither have Photoshop nor the skills to use it.
If you thought that this was going to be all photos of Anders, you were wrong. Here we see another speices of the local fauna, a common seal. When we were feeding the seals, this fellow was particularly anxious, even splashing water at us with his flipper in an attempt to coerce us into giving him the biggest share.
Being from the prairies, I have always thought of seaweed as cute little green plants that grow from the bottom of Blackstrap lake when too much fertilizer gets into the water. Imagine my surprise, on visiting the the Pacific ocean, to find Seaweeds taller than I (and almost as long and thick too ;-).

Finally, though perhaps anti-climactically, we have a picture of the BC Legislature at night. Nothing overly significant here, except that I thought the picture was nice too look at.

Well, that's all for now folks, thanks for reading!

Again, what I have seen

2006-03-03T22:08:00.000-08:00

While it may be passe, I here post my February film journal for the enjoyement of my faithful readers.

Feb. 3
Total Recall

Feb. 4
American Splendor
Dead Again

Feb. 10
Ned Kelly

Feb. 16
Bringing Out the Dead

Feb. 17
Rounders

Feb. 19
The Frighteners

Feb. 21
Road House

Feb. 23
Jurassic Park
The Lost World

Feb. 26
The Life of Brian
Offret (The Sacrifice) – Andrei Tarkowski

Validation Necessary

2006-02-28T22:03:00.000-08:00

This week's topic in my Theories and Method's seminar was Religion in (and?) Film. As was usual, I prepared a short review report on the readings (or in this case watchings) assigned for the seminar discussion. Unfortunately, it turns out that we were not required to submit a review paper this week which means that my wonderful piece of scholarship (haha) will forever be ungraded. Since I can't stand to do something and not have at least some feedback on it, I'm taking a giant leap of faith and posting here the text of my review in the hopes of receiving some feedback from you my faithful readers. Yes, I am a grade whore, I am sorry.

Religion and Film: Brief Reflections on The Life of Brian and The Sacrifice.

In looking at Religion and Film (or perhaps Religion in Film) we experience one of the great advantages of Religious Studies, that of interdisciplinarity.Not only do we get to look at films as expressions of religious ideas and ideas about religion, but we also get to take a page out of the literature scholars’ book and look at films as literary objects. Combining these two perspectives hopefully will provide us with a deeper understanding of what these films are saying and how they are trying to say it.

In The Life of Brian, there are many instances of commentary on religion expressed through a satirical examination of religious behaviour. In this film, the example which stands out most for me, is the “Sects of Brianism” sequence, where the various followers of their supposed messiah (Brian) express their faith through different practices (taking off of a shoe, lifting up the gourd, etc). Each ‘sect’ zealously promotes what it perceives as the true way of showing their devotion to the messiah. Here, the Python crew are satirizing the rigid sectarianism that often characterizes the major religions of the world; one of the most famous ‘sectarianisms’ is the Catholic vs. Protestant division within Christianity. Satire is the means through which religion (particularly Christianity) is criticized.

After viewing this film, I wondered what the motivations of the filmmakers were in producing this work. My first thought was that, as purveyors of entertainment, the filmmakers were simply attempting to use the (relatively) common knowledge of Christianity to provide a few good laughs and ultimately turn a profit. On further reflection, I began to wonder if there wasn’t some deeper motivation driving the filmmakers. Perhaps, I thought, they aren’t only interested in making a buck (or a quid) but in prompting change in people’s attitudes towards religion, for better or for worse.

In Tarkowski’s The Sacrifice, a much more subtle commentary on religion and religious behaviour is presented. Through the eye of the camera, we see the expression of one man’s religious beliefs in his life. Though the commentary on religion is not quite so explicit in Tarkowski’s film, it is most certainly present.

I think in making this film, Tarkowski was attempting to explore several aspects of religious belief. Most importantly, I think he explored how, as a result of their religious beliefs, people commit acts that they would ordinarily be considered unusual or even criminal. Much like Abraham in Derrida’s The Gift of Death, the main character in The Sacrifice becomes a criminal in response to the demands of 'The Other'. Regardless of whether or not his experiences are real or imagined, the main character makes the decision first to sleep with ‘the witch’ and second to destroy his house and family to satisfy his bargain with God. While it may not be understandable to an outside observer, this character’s response is entirely consistent with his experience of God whether his experience is real or imagined.

After viewing The Sacrifice, I also wonder if Tarkowski isn’t attempting to comment on the mysterious nature of religious experience. From the opening sequence of the film (the planting of the dead tree), to the final sequence of the mute boy speaking, those experiences of the characters which can be characterized as religious are shrouded in mystery; they are not fully accessible to either the characters themselves or to the audience. It seems that Tarkowski is saying that religious experience is in and of itself unfathomable by anyone, including its practitioners.

On First Principles

2006-02-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I arrived back in the Edmonton safe and sound after my long (and yet short) trip to Victoria. Thanks to Anders for his hospitality and lots of good times. Looking back on the past days, I realized that in the last week, I have done more things for the first time than ever before. For your amusement, I present (in approximate chronological order) the best of my firsts:

1. First time flying on a plane all by myself - I know flying isn't all that exciting for most of my readers, as I seem to be the least travelled of all my peers. I certainly feel much more grown up now that I've travelled in a plane without a responsible adult.

2. First time being west of 115 degrees - Again, I show the fact that I am terribly untravelled but I am certainly making strides to remedy the situation. Previous to this trip, the farthest west in Canada I had been was to Fairmont BC (50°20'21.12N,-115°50'38.4W )

3. First time eating Sushi - This wasn't you're run of the mill, seawead wrapped, fake fish. This was honest-to-goodness giant pieces of raw fish (Snapper and Tuna) on top of a little chunk of stick rice. I definitely enjoyed my first sushi experience, though I don't think I'm going to become a Japanese food/culture addict that so many in the west seem to have become.

4. First time seeing/touching the Pacific Ocean (or any ocean period) - Though I can't say that this was a deeply moving experience for me, it was neat to think that the water I was touching was touching water that was touching the coast of Japan (and the rest of the world too, I suppose). As a memento of my experience, I am now in possession of 3 small ocean rocks.

5. First time seeing seals live and in-person - National Geographic specials don't do justice to the beauty and grace that is Phoca vitulina. At least, if you think that fat sausages are beautful and lying on the bottom of Oak Bay is graceful. All five of the seals we saw were certainly very eager for a handout; one even anxiously splashed water at the dock in an attempt to hurry us up in tossing them our fish

All in all, I had an excellent trip and look forward to my next trip, wherever that will be.

The last word goes to Dalton, "Be Nice!"

Recent Watchings

2006-02-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

Hello All! In lieu of an actual post with real content, I'm going to cop out by simply posting my January movie Journal.

Jan. 3
Madagascar
Patriot Games

Jan. 5
The Squid and the Whale

Jan. 6
Flightplan

Jan. 10
Sideways

Jan. 13
Munich

Jan. 20
Van Helsing

Jan. 21
Mad Max
Double Jeopardy

Jan. 27
Fubar
Army of Darkness – Directors Cut

Jan. 29
The Royal Tenenbaums

There you have it, look forward to another update within the next year!

Am I Too Late?

2006-01-15T21:59:00.000-08:00

Since it's been almost two weeks since my last post, I figure that it's high time for an update.

First, I turn to matters concerning my new academic life as a third year student. For those who are interested, this term I'm taking four classes, RELIG 475/575: Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion, RELIG 379: Religions of Aboriginal North America, GERM 112: Beginners' German II, and PHIL 102: Knoweldge and Reality. Of all the classes I'm taking, I'm most concerned about 475; since it's both an MA and BA course, I'm thinking it's definitely going to be the most taxing case I've taken yet in my career. Case in point, 250 pages of reading and a report due within the first week of class. I know, I know, peanuts compared to what all you MA students are doing but, in my defence, I'm still new at this whole "Arts" thing. At any rate, I'm sure I'm going to learn a whole lot.

Now, a question: Is it, or is it not ironic that a blind guy, after finishing a chat with his friend, says, "See you later!"? If I were a more committed artsy, I would engage in a long deconstructionist rant about humour at the expense of disabled people and its implications in a post-modern society, but I won't.

Next, a 'blast' from the past. Anders, this is specially for you, but I do suggest you remove anything pointy from the floor. I warn any of my readers who may be weak of stomach to NOT, I repeat NOT click on the link. That said, this was hilarious when I was in High School.

Finally, today's german word is "der Affe." It means "monkey," appropriate somehow...

The Movies That Were

2006-01-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

Now, for your reading pleasure, I present to all of my faithful readers my movie journal for the month of December. I'm not so sure about some of the dates, do let me know what mistakes I've made.

Dec. 2
Black Hawk Down
Top Gun

Dec. 3
ThunderBall
Sleepy Hollow

Dec. 5
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Dec. 9
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Dec. 11
The Transporter

Dec. 12
Monster

Dec. 16
Blade II

Dec. 21
The Hunt for Red October

Dec. 23

The Sting

Dec. 24
The Great Train Robbery

Dec. 26
Ali G: Indahouse

Dec. 28
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Dec. 29
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

Dec. 31
King Kong (2005)

A Happy New Year to you all, and a great rest of the day!

Frohliche Weihnachten!

2005-12-25T23:45:00.000-08:00

Hello All!

First of all, a huge MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! to all of you, or Happy Holidays for those who aren't into the whole Christmas thing. I don't think I can live up to Anders's christmas greetings, but Merry Christmas to all of you the same.

Now that we're in to the last gaps of the year, I think it's time for a little shameless soul baring and sappy words. Thanks to all of you who let me count you as my friends, you're a great bunch. Luke, you're the best artist I've ever had the privilege to call friend. Anton (I don't know if you read this but you get mention anyway), congratulations on your baptism and many blessings to you. MCpl. Justin (ditto), congrats too! Rochelle, I look forward to getting to know you better; since you seem to be okay for a best-friend's girlfriend, maybe just this once I can make an exception to 'the Rule.' Scott, thanks for lots of good times, good beer, and great quotes! Finally, Anders, my best bud (friend, mate, whatever), love ya lots; though we haven't always seen eye-to eye, I wouldn't trade the last 7(!) years f0r anything, here's hoping for many more. No matter what you say, you're still smarter than me! Maybe it's not manly to say this, but I love you all. God knows we could always do with more love in the world. To anyone that I've hurt this year (and I think you know who you are), I give you my apologies; let's make our peace, kay?

Anyway, that's enough of that for now (and yes, I do realize how much like an Oscar speech that read). A Merry Christmas to all of you, and all the best in the new year!

Honey, I'm...

2005-12-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, that's right. As of 4:33pm CST, I am back in Saskatoon for a grand total of 17 whole days. Let the good times roll!

Todays German word "die Partys" it means "the Parties."

Letters from the Brink

2005-12-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

Another big hello to all of you out there in Bloggerland from the not-so-frozen North. We've had a spate of warm weather here in the supposed land of endless winter. Instead of having icy, slippery roads, we have mucky, slushy roads. I'm certainly not complaining about this unseasonal warm weather (+7!!), being as I seem to be allergic to winter. Now that I've discussed the weather, I turn to other, perhaps weightier, topics.

For those of you interested in following the Saga of the Broken Computer, I have arrived at what is, I hope, the final chapter. Today I got my computer back from CompuSmart all shiny and fixed up. No mention from the repair people what was wrong with it, though I suspect it was nothing more than a broken cable or loose screw, since all my files are still intact and resident on my hard-drive. All though I've had two free repairs from them (with an average cost of 2.5 computerless weeks),I would certainly have preferred to have needed no repairs in the first place. For this reason, my next computer will certainly be of a different stripe. All the same, I am DEFINITELY glad to have my own computer back.

Yesterday, I got my FGCC (Forest Grove Country Club) membership card in the mail. I don't now what exactly to think, but it's somewhat unsettling that I haven't attended the club for about 5 months and no one's noticed my abscence. I'm also a little disturbed by the content of the letter which accompanied my membership card, as well as the "commitment" that I have apparently made to the club in absentia. This will definietly be fodder for a beer fueled discussion when I get home; consider yourselves warned.

Penultimatley, a note on Scheduling. I wrote my first final today (Germ 111) write my next final tomorrow. Following that, I have 3 days off and write two finals on the 19th and one on the 20th. After my last final, I'm heading home to Saskatoon the 20th, and will be in Saskatoon until about the 7th of January.

Finally, today's German word is, "fertig," it means, "finished," which is both what I am in my German class and what I will be soon for the semester.

Hope you all have a great day, and happy (s)Nogging.

Over the Hump (My Hump, My lovely University lumps)

2005-12-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

Today, after much effort and consternation, I turned in my final paper of the semester, a comparision of the major arguements and assumptions of two theorists of religion. Sigmund Freud's (the nut) big idea is that religion is a construct of civilization to insulate itself against nature (Future of an Illusion). On the other hand, Mircea Eliade's idea is that religion is the concept by which humanity (he says 'man,' but that's okay) positions itself in the cosmos. I am now more firmly convinced than ever before that Freud was, in fact, whacked. 'Nuff said about that.

Today I also got back my paper entitled, "Finding the Middle Way: Method in Reformation History," from Dr. Gow. It's somewhat gratifying when the professor writes something like, "An excellent historiographic critique, a good beginning on the path to an Honours degree, if you choose it." Even so, it was only for a 100 level class, so I'm not sure how I should take his praise. Anyway, I'll definitely take the grade.

Since I am now officially done all of my course work for this term and finish classes tomorrow, I am now in the position where I have to discipline myself to actually study on my days off. I'm now realizing that being somewhat less socially involved than in Saskatoon could be something of an advantage, as I won't be as tempted to go out in the evenings, stay out late, sleep late, and forget to study. That said, the siren song of the Altar of Capitalism still rings out clearly through the appartment. Perhaps I can get Rachelle to agree to a moratorium on electronic entertainment for the next week. Or I could grow some spine and just not watch.

Finally, the german word of the day is "Glühwein" it means (directly translated), "Glow-wine." More accurately, it is, "Mulled red wine with hints of lemon, cinammon, cloves, sugar, and cardamom.

Hope you all have a great day, and good luck to those of you writing finals!

Why?

2005-12-04T14:10:00.000-08:00

My roomate has decided that it is necessary for us to have the fireplace channel running constantly in the background.

On Positivity

2005-12-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me last night, that my blog of late has been something of a long stream of bad news and self conscious naval gazing. In order to set my stream of consciousness on to a more positive tack, I have resolved to make a list of several good things or funny that have happened to me this week (in no particular order):

1. Playing Settlers of Catan with some folks from my church.
2. Having an hour long discussion with Zack about pipes, cigars, and other forms of Tobacco
3. Dr. Andrew Gow singing "The Star Spangled Banner" in German, in History 111.
4. Finishing my two essays on time, without having to stay up past 10:00 any night.
5. Beating the Christmas rush to IKEA.
6. Eating Brownie Earthquakes at DQ.
7. Discovering how great Benylin is for coughs.
8. Making money tutoring.
9. Starting a new job at Staples.
10. Finding out that I get 50% off any thing at Staples that has a price ending in a 7
11. Finishing my German exam ahead of everyone else in the class.

Only those 11 things have come to mind so far, I'm hoping that the week beginning today will have more than this past week.

The German word of the day is "die Umfrage" it means "the Survey"

Hope you all have a better day, and a great week!

Journals and Jeremiads

2005-12-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

Again, I find that I must apologize to all of my (I hope) faithfull readers. This last week has been a rather stressful one, what with having 2 essays to finish up, an exam in German, and starting my new job. Add to that the fact that my computer is still in the shop and I can't speak, it seems to be a wonder that I made it.

Though my computer is still in the shop, I have now finished my essays (one more for the term) and I definitely think that my voice is on the mend. I even managed to get some Christmas shopping done yesterday. All in all, I'm definitely glad that the week is over, but it doesn't look so bad from this end.

In other news, here is my movie journal for the month of November:

Nov. 4
Boondock Saints

Nov. 5
Traffic
El Mariachi

Nov. 18
St. Elmos Fire

Nov. 19
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Nov. 20
After Life

Nov. 25
The Phantom of the Opera
Love Actually

Nov. 26
Almost Famous

I know it's not as extensive as some others, but it is what it is.

Finally, today's German word is "der Feuerkelch," it means "Fire Goblet"

Hope you all have a great day!

P.S.

2005-11-21T16:44:00.001-08:00

My computer is still broken, and that really sucks.

Employed, Finally!

2005-11-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

Once again, I find myself engaged in gainful employment. Even though i've been tutoring lots, I still haven't been able to pull in enough income in to make things work. After handing out a few resumes and going to precisely 2 job interviews I am now a Customer Service Representative at Staples Business Depot. My first day is this Friday, 25 November 2005. Hopefully this will put me over the top in terms of income, so I'm at least not moving backwards this year.

In other news, the end of term is rapidly approaching and I'm still not done any of my term papers yet. I apologize in advance if I don't talk to you as much as I have recently as I'm going to be buckling down and working hard all week.

Today's german word is "die Bohnen" it means "beans"

My Computer Sucks

2005-11-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

You know what's stupid? My computer has decided that it's not going to work anymore. Of course, it has to happen now that I've got 3 papers due in the next week. My dependence on technology is terribly unfortunate.

Movies, Band-aids and others

2005-11-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a few days later than the generally accepted deadline for posting this sort of thing, but for those of you who are interested, here is my move journal for October:

Oct. 1

Swing Kids

Oct. 2

Amélie

Oct. 3

Finding Nemo

Oct. 21

Saved!
Wag the Dog

Oct. 28

Run Lola Run
The Reckoning

Oct. 29

Good Will Hunting

Oct. 30

The Ghost and the Darkness

In other happenings, I took the LRT for the first time ever last night on my way to tutoring. Being a small town boy (yes, Saskatoon is a small town. Get over it!), I was quite impressed with the speed of conveyance associated with rail based transit. Had I got off the train at the right station, I would have been at my tutoring appointment 20 minutes early, rather than just on time. As it was, I had to wander through downtown Edmonton looking for the Edmonton Public Library. After calling my roomate for help, I made it just on time. Just for information's sake, if one wants to go from the University of Alberta LRT station to the Stanley Milner branch of the Edmonton Public library, the appropriate station to get off at is the "Churchill" station, NOT the "Central" station. I find I'm directionally challenged as it is, being underground certainly doesn't help matters. It's a good thing the LRT only runs 2 directions (North and South).

On my way home from tutoring, I encountered one of the joys of public transit, a drunk person. A drunken construction worker got on to my bus (which I had to take from the LRT station). Needless to say, his faculties were not all entierely intact. His conversation with the bus driver, much to my amusement, went like this:

Bus Driver: "Sir, you have to pay your fare to ride the bus"

Drunk: "I what?"

Bus Driver: "You have to pay the fare to ride the bus"

Drunk: "Oh"
Drunk rummages through his pockets, pulls out his book of bus tickets, and something else that he thinks is a bus ticket. Puts what he thinks is a ticket into the fare box.

Bus Driver: "Sir, you just gave me a Band-aid"

Drunk: "I what?"

Bus Driver: "You gave me a band-aid"

Drunk: "Oh," to the passengers on the bus "I gave the man a band aid"
drunk pulls a ticket out of his book of tickets, puts it into the fare box

Bus Driver: "Thank you, have a good night."

I had some difficult concealing my laughter, but I at least managed to until getting of at my stop.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the german word of the day!
Today's word is, "das Gift" it means "the poison"

Don't fear the reaper

2005-11-14T20:54:00.000-08:00

Tonight, after a short but interesting conversation with Luke on the physiological changes that occur at death, I was in a slightly macabre mood. Thus, I attempted to determine how long I have to live. Apparently, I have until October 19, 2070. It's really a shame that I'm going to be 8 days short of my 87th birthday. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

Mein Fuhrerspersonlichkeit

2005-11-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

Who knew?

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Many Happy(?) Returns

2005-11-14T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hello again to all of my faithful readers! I apolgise for my lack of updates this paste week; I'll hide behind the excuse of papers and busy-ness with papers and the like and leave it at that.

As I'm sure you are aware from my last post, I was in Saskatoon from Wednesday evening to yesterday at about 5:20pm MST. As usual, it was good to see the family (though I didn't see a whole lot of my Mom and Dad) and hang out with all you Saskatoon kids. I got to hang out with Luke this weekend, which I didn't get to the last time I was in Saskatoon. After a trip to Costco Thursday, losing $10 at poker Friday night (my usual poker winnings), and watching "The Third Man" and "This is Spinal Tap" on Saturday night, I returned to the frozen grey wasteland that is the City of Endless Capital.

Though I had a really good time hanging out with my friends, I have found that my visits home are always somewhat bittersweet. Sweet in that I really enjoy doing stuff with friends and activiely rembering other good times we've had; bitter in that I know that I'll be leaving again very shortly. The night before I return, I always find myself waxing nostalgic, wondering if I've made the right choice in leaving, and wondering what things would be like if circumstances were different. Then, I wake up on the morning I'm to come back to Edmonton and I'm excited to get back to classes, my basement suite, and my roommate.

Anyhow, the German word for today is: "betrunken" it means "drunk." ha ha

Control! Control! You must learn control!

2005-11-07T09:52:00.001-08:00

This morning I did something I have not done before. I deliberately skipped a morning class so I could get an extra hour of sleep. Ordinarily I would wake up and go to class no matter how groggy I felt; however, having only had a grand total 0f 4 hours sleep before my alarm rang I decided that an additional hour of sleep would certainly be worth my while. Why only four hours of sleep you ask? My insomnia was a direct result of my newly developed Tetley Tea habit. After consuming 2.5 mugs of tea within the two hours immediately previous to my going to bed, the combination of caffeine and liquid conspired to make going to sleep impossible and slightly unwise. I'm definitely going to go to bed early tonight.

In other news this is a short week of classes for me as the University of Alberta has decided to turn the Remembrance (Rememberance?) day holiday into a sort of mini-term break. We have the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th off. Aren't they nice to give us Saturday and Sunday off from classes? I'm taking advantage of the extra long weekend to head back to Saskatoon to visit all of you lucky praire people; I arrive Wednesday night (about 10:00pm) and will be leaving Sunday afternoon.

Today's german word is, "aufraumen." It means "to clean up"

Hope you all have a great day!

Reflections on the Extra Hour

2005-10-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

Having lived my entire life in Saskatchewan, I have never experienced the change from standard time to daylight saving time or vice versa. After gaining an extra hour of sleep Saturday night and getting to walk to school in the sun I have definitely become a supporter of Daylight time. We'll have to see how I feel in the spring when I lose an hour of sleep.

Darkness falls across the land...

2005-10-30T17:48:00.000-08:00

Well, since it has been precisely 9 days since I last updated my blog, I thought it was high time that I put my finger to key and made a super-enormous update.

Since I complained about them in the last major post, you're probably wondering how my three midterms (happy birthday to me...) went. Let's begin at the beginning, with German 111 (Beginner's German I); no surprises there, listening excercises, identifying objects in pictures, answering german questions in (real) german (shocking I know) and a 100 word compostion on "mein Tagesblauf." All in all, it went well and I was out 20 minutes early. 30 minutes after walking out of my German exam, I began my History 111 (The Early Modern World) exam. As my professer,the eminent Dr. Andrew Gow is more interested in teaching us lowly undergrads how to read sources, "do history" in his words, the exam consisted of writing two essays on sources we were permitted to bring in to class with us. The essay questions were new but that was really the only challenging part of the exam. 60 minutes and 2 exam booklets later, I was on my way to my third and final midterm of the day.

If I had to sum up my Religion 200 (Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion) midterm in one word it would be, "Short." Having been given the 12 possible essay questions for the midterm ahead of time it was rather straightforward for me to prepare for the exam. One entering the classroom I sat down, received the exam paper, wrote the required single page single spaced on the two questions, and handed in my exam to my instructer. Total time elapsed from sitting down to standing up: eight (8) minutes. Yep, gotta love Arts courses.

Friday, I wrote my Religion 240 (Introduction to Buddhism) exam. I took the whole 50 minutes allotted to write the exam. Enough said.

In other news, my Mom, Dad, and Sister came up to celebrate both my birthday (27th) and my Mom's (30th - Happy Birthday Mom!). The family and I (include my roomate/cousin Rachelle) went to the Olive Garden and had a nice meal, complete with a server who didn't know whether or not they served club soda. Hmmm... Anyway, it was nice to have the family here for a couple days, and a trip to Costco to fill the freezer and cupboards was a definite plus.

I have also recently taken a page out of Anders's book and taken on some tutoring work. Interstingly enough, I'm tutoring first year Economics. I try to keep the fact that I'm a Religious Studies major quiet when trying to win a pupil, if only to avoid the inevitable conversation that always goes something like this:

Them: "so you're in your fourth year then"

Me:"no, actually this is my first year here, but my fifth year of University"

Them:"you're doing your Masters?"

Me:"no, I'm actually doing another Bachelors' degree"

Them:"oh, what's your major?"

Me:"Religious Studies, actually" (why I always say actually, I don't really know"

Them:"so what's your first degree in?"

Me:"Commerce"

Them:(in a puzzeled voice) "you did your degree in commerce, and now you're doing a degree in

Religious Studies? That's an odd combination"

Me:(looking at my shoes) "ermm, well, yes... uhm, what about those demand curves."

Personally, I don't think it's that big of a change. I mean, in Religious Studies we study people who worship all-mighty God(s). In commerce, we study people who worship all-mighty Buck. Tell me what the difference is.

On a totally different topic, for those of you who are interested, here are a couple of pictures of my house:
My Living Room:

My Kitchen:

My apologies if the quality of the pictures isn't that great, but they'll at least give you some idea about my new digs.

I captured the above pictures with my new webcam. Yes, I now have the technology to video chat with any and all of you who so desire (not that anyone is ever on when I am, but oh well...). I suppose I could also set up a live video feed from my bedroom so an entire world of voyeurs could see the intimate details of my life. Maybe I'll do just that, charge $20/month to supplement my tutoring income, although most people would likely drop subscriptions pretty quick, when the found the only exciting thing was me changing in the morning. (an awesome sight to see, I might add.) And I think that's quite enough on that topic for now.

To wrap things up, today's german word is, "anders." It means, "different" Seriously!

PS. Caitlin complains about being sick of undergrad. Caitlin, it could be worse, you could be finished a degree and tacking 3 - 100 level classes with 299 idiotic 17 year olds. Not that I'm complaining, just putting things into perspective.

Yuck!

2005-10-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Why do people insist on talking on the cell phones in public washrooms? I mean, isn't that a little disturbing?

Television is the opiate of the masses

2005-10-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have decided that I have a love/hate relationship with my television. On one hand, I love the fact that I can turn on the Tube and allow myself to passively accept whatever the powers that be have decided is worth my attention. On the other hand, my scholarly sensibilities cause me to balk at the idea of failing to critically engage the arguments and phenomena that are presented to me. Television has also become the new pac-man of my productivity. For example, I came home yesterday (5:15pm) and intended to watch CTV NewsNET just to catch up on the headlines for the day (since Newsworld had a documentary on) and ended up finally turning switching off at 11:30 after Lloyd was finished speaking to me. I'm hoping that the pressure of studying for midterms will give me reason to avert my eyes.

On a side note, John Leguizamo has joined the cast of ER as the efficiency minded Dr. Ernesto Clemente. Well have to see if he's a good replacement for Sherry Stringfield as Dr. Susan Lewis. Why is it that John Leguizamo always seems to play greaseballs or assholes?

As alluded to earlier, this week I'm going to be madly studying for midterms this week. For those of you interested in the gory details, I'm writing my Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion, German, and World History (yes 3!) midterms on the 27th of October (what a lovely birthday present...) and my Intro to Buddhism midterm on the 28th. I'm definitely going to have to make up some kind of schedule so I can get all the studying that I need to done.

I'm looking forward to the weekend; Rachelle and I are going to the Bears footbal game Saturday and I should have plenty of time to study (if I can tear myself away from the squawk box).

Today's new German word is "die Geige" = "the Violin"

Of Contests and Debates

2005-10-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I am amazed at the way that things work together and bring about wonderful new experiences and intellectual growth.

This may shock some of you but on Friday night I actually willingly went to a live hockey game. The U of A Golden Bears played the UBC Thunderbirds. In spite of my overall lack of interest in team sports I found myself drawn into the contest and was rather pleased when my new home team won. Now, I'm not sure if I'm actually experiencing a change of heart towards team sports in general or if my enthusiasm was merely a product of the "liquid fun." At any rate I'm planning on going to a Golden Bears volleyball game this weekend. We'll see if my enthusiasm has waned or not then.

In another arena, Sunday night I went to a lecture given by Dr. Denis Lamoreux DDS PhD PhD (and no, that isn't a typo) entitled "Beyond the Evolution vs. Creation Debate." It was actually quite interesting as Dr. Lamoreaux is both an Evangelical Christian and a beliver in evolution. While I'm still not convinced either way, (as yet I fall into something of an agnostic category in this sphere) it was interesting and refreshing to hear that it is possible to be a christian and accept evolutionary theory as truth. Dr. Lamoreaux's lecture wasn't about evidence's for or against creationism, ID, or evolutionism but rather about how the dogmatic division between Creationism or Evolutionism and all the baggage that goes along with it is really unhelpful.

Today I learned a new word in my German class. der Fisch. It means "the fish"

All in all, I had an informative and recreational weekend, now it's back to the old grind of reading, lectures and the whole bit.

The Pre-weekend Edition

2005-10-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here I am, sitting on the fourth flour of the Cameron Library at U of A, wondering if I really should go to my Anthropology class today. I know I can get the notes from a girl that I sit near, but I don't know if she's going to be there today. It's also Friday, and the class doesn't start until 2:00. I think I'll go, not because I actually want or have nothing better to do, but because I'm cheap. I can't stand the thought that if I don't go, I'm not getting everything that I can for the $500 that I paid to take the couse.

I don't know why, but whenever I start to update my blog, I always feel like I'm being incredibly pessimistic. I don't feel overly pessimistic, it just seems like my tone is really negative. Huh. To positivize this post: HOORAYY, I ACTUALLY HAVE INTERNET AT HOME!!!! (and cable TV too). As I'm sure many of you can relate, I used to think that I could stand to be unconnected from the web but in the words of Joni Mitchell, "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone." When I get my computer back from the shop I may become much more prolific in my posting, emailing, and MSN-ing activities.

On Thursday, I got my first paper back in my Theories and Methods class. Now, you must understand that this is the paper that I wrote late at night, hopped up on as much sugar as I could get. After reading my learned professor's comments throughout, I was convinced I had failed on this assignment. However, much to my surprise, on the last page of the essay I found waiting for me not the, "F," I had expected but an A- along with the comment, "Daniel, I was a little bit harsh on you in my marginal comments. Why? Because you wrote a strong paper, well written and thoughtful, and I thought you were up to the challenge. Good Work!" Needless to say, I was quite pleased with my results and nearly skipped home. It seems that going into Religious Studies was the right decision after all.

Hopefully my next foray into the world of Academic writing will be at least as successful as the last. Though it's a book review rather than an essay I think it will be pretty good. The book I'm reading is The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and Politics in France 1560 - 1620. I'm thinking that the book will at least be an interesting read.

A Relatively Happy Return

2005-10-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hello again to all of you from the scenic (but not as nice as the U of S) campus of the University of Alberta.

I've returned from a brief excursion to Saskatoon for the Thanksgiving holiday with a full belly and a full car. By full car, I mean that my roomate and I now have roughly enough food in our fridge, freezer, and pantry to feed a small army (or last until Christmas). We both had a good time visiting and catching up with our shared family. Our trip home was rather uneventful, save for a brief encounter with the persons-in-blue known as the EPS. At least I'm not paying the fine. As to the exact details of said encounter with persons of the policing persuasion, in the immortal words of a slightly intoxicated student, "ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies."

In spite of all the curses, threats, and attempts on its life my computer is still on strike. How can I post without my computer, you ask? Well, the University of Alberta has generously provided its students with free (and relatively unfettered) access to the world wide web. Though I appreciate the access I hope this will be a relatively short relationship. With any luck, the nice people at my local computer fixing shop will be able to convince my computer to come back to work with me, albeit without any increase in pay.

So, there you have another brief post from me, hope you all enjoyed it, and have a great day!

Update the Third

2005-10-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings all from slightly-less-cold-than-Edmonton Saskatoon. I'm here in town to see my parents and the rest of the family for Thanksgiving. Hooray for free food and plenty of leftovers to take home and fill my fridge!

In other news, my notebook computer has decided that it doesn't like running Windows anymore. Grrr... For the time being, I've re-joined the ranks of the un-connected masses, drifting from public access workstation to borrowed computer and back. Hopefully the good people at Compusmart will be able to make my computer like me again. Until then, I'm going to be slightly less prolific with emails and updates.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good feast!

Jumping on the Bandwagon... Again.

2005-10-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

I'm going to follow Luke's example and publish my movie journal for the last month. I'm not going to put anything more than title's 'cause those of you who care probably know all you need to know about movies or are smart enough to find out for yourselves.

Sept. 8

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Sept. 9

12 Monkeys

Predator

Sept. 10

Robin Hood – Men in Tights

The Transporter 2

Sept. 16

The Believer

Murder in the First

Sept. 17

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Sept. 21

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Sept. 23.

Die Another Day

Secret Window

Sept. 24.

John Q
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Enemy at the Gates
The Red Violin

Sept. 30

Blade Runner – Director’s Cut

The Beginning of a New Era

2005-10-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

Allright, Allright, since Anders has been pestering me to start my own blog, here it is. I make no promises or warranties about deep thoughts, incisive comments, or wise words, but I'll do my best. For all I know, I might be famous someday and you'll all be able to say, "Hey, I read his blog," or something like that.