ok... i'm going to keep the blog going. i'm not going to switch to Xanga because there are a few things which i feel i can be justified in hating....er...umm...strongly disliking, a few of them being Windows, Xanga, and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

so josh is coming home tonight, ceelebration starts tomorrow, vacation is after that. it's going to be a busy couple of weeks. i'm really excited for celebration, and i can't wait to see what God is going to do...

speaking of celebration (and to make this post a little longer), here are the lyrics to a song that my dad and i wrote for celebration:

(verse one / pre-chorus)

Before time You looked on us with favor
Predestined us in love
To be Your precious ones
Sacrificed Your Son to pay our ransom
Death exchanged for life
Because of Jesus Christ

Bought with a price
We will glorify
Our Savior and Lord

(chorus)
Jesus
This life is for You, All about You
To You be the glory
Jesus
This life is for You, All about You
To You be the glory

(verse two / pre-chorus)

Our desire is to reflect you glory
In everything we do
O Lord it’s all for you
May your name be in all praised the nations
By every tongue and tribe
Exalting Jesus Christ

Bought with a price
We will glorify
Our Savior and Lord


The theme for celebration is "It's All About You" so rather than bringing back and (re)over-hashing that slightly antiquated Paul Oakley gem we decided to write a new (and more upbeat) song with sort of the same theme.

is this blog lame? i was wondering today. is it worthwhile to keep one? i don't know. i've had a blog for a pretty long time. but if it's lame anyways then maybe i'll stop. there are probably better ways to spend my time.

bill murray has called twice today. not the bill murray in the photo above, but some other bill murray who happens to sound just like him. weird.

i didn't really explain in the last post, but the office was (and still is) shaking because of construction across the road. apparently they are building a new "cultural center". now don't get me wrong here, i'm not opposed to remembering the city's cultural roots, i'm just opposed to the sensation of constant shaking and loud hum that we're getting in the office.

i thought about picketing the construction site, but i didn't think that that would be particularly useful, or that it would serve the workers... but it got me thinking.... i really want to start a cause... not really seriously, but a funny cause. for example, i could campaign to save something that doesn't need to be saved because it isn't endangered, but unfortunately the NA folks already used that idea with the wheel.

so i'm not sure what to start a cause for... this is the best idea i've thought of yet: Liberate the Alpacas!

it's probably not practical, but that means that it fits in perfectly with every other environmentalist campaign.

anyways.... give me your thoughts.

Oh... one more thing, last week sean and i recorded a new version of the old hymn My Jesus I Love Thee. feedback is always cool, so if anyone wants to hear it just send me an email and i'll email it to you. if you don't have my email it;s on my profile thing.

just a few minutes ago here in the office everything started shaking. one thought came to mind: what if it is "The Big One"? It wasn't the big one (obviously, because i would probably be dead if it was), but it prompted me to think about what i will do when the big one actually does come. For those of you who don't know about the big one, read this:

There are two scenarios for Greater Vancouver, says the National Earthquake Support Plan (NESP), a study into the region's earthquake preparedness. The first is the most likely: a moderately strong 6 to 7 Richter-scale quake, similar to the ones that hit San Francisco and Los Angeles in the past decade. This would produce significant damage and deaths in Vancouver. Since the 1989 San Francisco quake, a lot of engineering work has been done to upgrade local bridges and dams against seismic hazards. But little has been done about the vulnerability of older, masonry-walled schools, hospital buildings and brick structures like those in Gastown and Yaletown. Some could collapse. Even in a moderate quake, soil liquefaction would likely break the dykes along the Fraser River and the Georgia Strait foreshore, producing widespread flooding. Similar soil liquefaction would also likely affect many structures on reclaimed lands, especially those built on the periphery of False Creek, the Arbutus lowlands, the riverbanks of the Fraser, Sea Island and the Burrard Inlet waterfront all the way to Port Moody. Landslides and underwater slumpages would drop shoreline houses and port facilities. Power, gas and water systems could be affected for days.

The second--and less likely--NESP scenario, based on an 8.5 subduction quake in the Lower Mainland, would produce severe destruction within 100 kilometres of the epicentre. Many buildings would fail. Liquefaction would likely damage the airport, the Fraser Valley dykes, the Massey Tunnel and those bridge supports sunk into loose valley soils. Western sections of the Fraser Valley would flood. Up to 45 per cent of Vancouver's schools would suffer moderate to total collapse. Tsunamis and underwater slumpage would damage shoreline facilities, producing almost inevitable chemical spills, fires and mass evacuations. The death toll would be in the thousands.

The reality is that when it hits, a major earthquake in the Greater Vancouver area would be a disaster. Most wood-framed homes would ride out the shaking with little serious risk to their occupants. Modern structures, including all highrises and office towers, would remain standing. The old and vulnerable water system would inevitably fail. Gas mains would break and fires would follow. Sections of bridges, port facilities and old masonry-walled buildings would collapse. Train lines, roads and electrical distribution systems would fail. Loose objects within offices, factories and homes would be hurled around. Cornices and chimneys would fall. Glass would fly. Many people would die. Earthquakes search out the most vulnerable sections of a structure. And the Vancouver area has many older buildings that have never been tested in a great quake. The longer the shaking lasts, the worse it will be--as small initial structural failures grow exponentially as the vibrations continue. Someday this will happen here. Nothing can protect Vancouver from things that go bump in the night.

-Some random website trying to make people freak out...

yeah, so basically some really large earthquake is scheduled to destroy Vancouver as we all know it within the next couple hundred years, which means it could happen tomorrow.

I decided that I have only one emergency plan: to run screaming out of whatever building I'm in (i don't think getting under the desk like they taught us in school will help if the building collapses.).

I've decided to start a photo series on my blog with sean and the truck... haha. I'm sure he'll enjoy that. Check out his hair in that second picture... after a few days of urban camping (essentially being homeless...) it wasn't doing so good. This is retaliation for him saying that i look "special" in one of the photos that i posted a while back. unfortunately i can't disagree with him, so my only other option (other than saying "your face is special!" but that joke is getting old) is to post some funny pictures of him.

i guess no one was all that enthused about the last post... haha. oh well. if none of you thought that was funny then i guess i have a lame sense of humor, but at least one other person was amazed.

hmm... so... it seems like when i have the time to post i don't have much to post about. i really feel like going golfing. if anyone feels like golfing this week let me know.

i have a soccer game on thursday night (take note of that sean. i know. it figures.((inside info))) which is unfortunate because i had other stuff planned and because my legs are in the most painfully sore condition that i can recall feeling within recent memory.

pic: sean (after being abandoned on the prairies.)

all your base are belong to us!

brilliant. watch it here.

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.”

Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of his praise be heard,
who has kept our soul among the living
and has not let our feet slip.
For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
You brought us into the net;
you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
you let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
I cried to him with my mouth,
and high praise was on [1] my tongue. [2]
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me!
_psalm 66

be amazed at what God has done.

new header...

everybody should download the NA sermons. they're free.

just got back a little earlier tonight from the studio in kamloops. we finished the final vocals, and now all that remains is editing, mixing and mastering. the dog in the picture is charles. he's not my dog. i don't even really like dogs, but i like charles. he's really dumb and happy.

and on a more serious note...

one of my favorite hymns.

thy way, not mine O Lord
however dark it be
lead me by Thine own hand
choose out the path for me

smooth let it be or rough
it will still be the best
winding or straight it leads
right onward to Thy rest

Lord take my cup and it
with joy or sorrow fill
as best to Thee may seem
Lord choose my good and ill

not mine, not mine the choice
in all things great and small
be Thou my guide, my strength
my wisdom and my all

-horatius bonar

i was thinking about this hymn, and it reminded me of Ecclesiastes 3:11 which says "He has made everything beautiful in it's time," and i was thinking about the way that God leads us, sinners with nothing good or beautiful in us, choosing roads that we wouldn't choose to take, sending trials that we wouldn't choose to face, and through it all shaping us into something that reflects His glory. i want to write a song about that now, but it's a bit too late. i need some sleep.