Wednesday Dec. 01/04

I have decided that the way to go is to find a woman twice my age. That's right, 44 or older. For some reason, they're the only females who find me attractive. I was looking through my past year of journal entries today, and found this one:

"Apr.03/04 - 4:08pm
I have determined that girls don't like me. This is not an absolute rule, but more of a general guideline (although even as a guideline, it's pretty accurate). And when I say "like" I mean "are attracted to." At parties and various other social functions I always see girls flirting with my friends, but never me. Y'know what though? I'm ok with it. I think. It sure would be nice for the ego to have girls fawning over me, but that can also be dangerous too."

That being said, I went to help out for a couple hours in the village primary school on Tuesday morning, and when the (middle-aged) teacher introduced me, she explained to the children that their regular Tuesday morning volunteer was somewhere else, and that I'd be taking over, and that it was all right because I was much more 'handsome' than the normal helper. It got me thinking back to all the middle-aged women at my mom's various jobs over the years who commented on how 'handsome' I was. So I'm thinking, really, that ought to be my target market! Forget these 20-somethings who don't even glance at me, I need to hit up and hit on the older ladies!

...or not.

In other news, I'm going to see Brian McLaren speak in London this Friday! Brian McLaren is one of my heroes, due to his tremendous writing. Most of his books have to do with reshaping theology and Christian practice in light of the current cultural shift from modernity to postmodernity. He's speaking on Thursday as well, but unfortunately I'm trapped in the village with work on that day :( Oh well, at least I'll get one chance! I went to his church near Baltimore earlier this year, in August, hoping to see him speak, but unfortunately although he was scheduled he had been busy and someone else took over. Oh well, I'm really excited for this time and hope (pray) that everything goes ok. It's going to be tight because the conference ends at 4pm, and I gotta be back in Hartfield to run Roots (the youth group) at 7:30. It only takes an hour and half in theory, but that's assuming that trains and buses are on time, which they never are. So we shall see.

Lastly, I finally caved in and bought a cell phone (or as they call it over here, a mobile). I have it with me almost all the time (it doubles as my watch, organizer and gameboy), and I can receive calls for free, even from overseas. That being said, it would probably cost you more to call me, but with phone cards these days, it's pretty cheap for anything. If you want the number, e-mail me and I'll send it back in a reply.

Ok, that's it for now folks. My mom flies over for a couple weeks before Christmas next (not this) Friday. Then after Christmas I'm off to Rome with Mark for 10 days. Hope life is treating you all well. Good luck with those exams for all you unfortunate saps not lucky enough to be across an ocean ;) God bless

Thursday Nov. 25/04

Oh my, it's been an exhausting week. And it doesn't look like things are going to let up until early next week. In case you missed it, my entire SPAIN trip has been uploaded here.

That's all I have the energy for now folks, more earlier next week.

Sunday Nov. 14/04

Allow me to expound the brilliance of the cinematic trilogy...it is quite simply this: time.

There is time to fully develop the characters, time that is not avaible in a standard 2 hour (or even 3 hour) film.

There is time to fully develop and explore the diagetic world - this especially holds true for the genres of science fiction and fantasy, in which the world(s) often differ from our known one.

There is a superior story arch which encapsulates the three individual story arches - the beginning, middle and end of an overall beginning, middle and end.

Speaking of which, there IS a definite ending, concluding with the finale of the third part. This separates the trilogy from its close cousin - the series film - avoiding their possible pitfalls of repetition, boredom and obsolescence.

Needless to say, I'm suffering a bit of withdrawal from my film education, and am on a bit of a trilogy kick lately ;)
I'm starting with the latter-day ultimate trilogy, The Lord of The Rings (which is in fact one trilogy, all though it is the length of two!) and then plan to move on to the original Star Wars trilogy (TRULY original, pre-special edition crap). After that, I am undecided...possible contenders include Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, The Godfather and the Matrix (although that last one is really more like a single movie with two sequels :P) I'm tempted to include Harry Potter as well since there have been 3 released so far, but it is actually a series, and NOT a planned trilogy, and so the feeling is a little bit different...maybe I'll save it for the end then.

Well, if anyone else has any other recommended trilogies, I'll be glad to add them to the roster...sorry about the pictures from Spain taking so long to upload, but that's how it happens when you only have dial-up. Believe me, it's worth the wait!

Until then...

Thursday Nov. 11/04

Shout outs today go to BURNIE for being the first Canadian who didn't give birth to me to send me mail! I'm not quite sure what the deal was with the fish on the front of the card, but inside was a 2 1/2 page letter! And on top of that, she even sent me money to pay me back for a concert that we went to at the beginning of May. MAY! I didn't even remember that she owed me money, and would have been happy to let it slide, but not good ol' Burns! And on top of THAT, she sent the money in British Pounds! Most people would have just sent Canadian dollars, if anything at all, but not this ISTJ! She went out of her way to get currency that I could actually USE! Now THAT'S friendship! To be honest, I don't even really care about the money...the fact that she just put the thought and effort into mailing me anything is what I most appreciate...she will DEFINITELY be getting a cheapo Hartfield postcard in reward for her efforts! If any of you would like a cheapo postcard from Hartfield, then e-mail me your address and I'll send you one. Better yet, mail me something with your return address on it, then I'll send something back. I don't want to put my address on the Web, but if you e-mail me and ask me for it, I'll tell ya...I'm always glad to get mail, of either the "e" or "snail" variety.

Now, as for this elusive big update that I keep promising....the problem is that it's, well, big!...as in, many megabytes. Queen's only gives me about 20MB to host my site and I've more or less filled it up with the text and pictures so far. I'm looking into getting more webspace from somewhere else, but I don't want my site covered in ads. But in order to whet your appetite, and for those who don't already know, the big update consists of Sarah, Cassie, myself and a couple wild apes, in a European nation which the locals refer to as España



Stay tuned....

Friday Nov. 05/04

Had an awesome walk on the way to Roots tonight...the stars were out and the temperature was perfect - cool, but not cold. Listened to my all-time favourite album, Wooden by Drew & Duncan, and during that half hour it was just me and God...awesome. Only 3 girls showed up to Roots tonight, because Nov. 5 is fireworks day in England (apparently one year on Nov. 5 some English chap tried to blow up parliament with gunpowder, so now they celebrate that fact by having fireworks every Nov. 5...??) It was good tho...since it was small we just got to hang out and chat and laugh. It was a really good time. On the walk home I got to watch the fireworks too ;)

Just thought I'd share that...be on the look out for the big update still...I plan on going for a bike ride tomorrow, but if it's rainy I'll stay inside and work on the site...so until then!