2500 km down, 1000 to go

Passed the 2500 km point as I crossed 17th Ave on the way home tonight. Felt good. A day early too!

- Peace

Amanda and Peter

Update: I've uploaded 32 pics from the Wedding.

Quick Return

What I love about Fish Creek is how you can escape the city, in the city. This sceene brought me back in a hurry. Ok yeah there's an over pass, but you just kinda edit that from your mind when you're there.

- Peace

Prototyping Blues

See if this situation rigs a bell: a manager tells you to build a proof of concept to test the look and feel of a new application. You hack for a week straight, day and night, producing some of the ugliest code you have ever seen to make the Big Demo. After all of your hacking, the meeting is a huge success and everyone loves your prototype. Then someone asks you how long until the application is deployed. You respond with a reasonably worked estimate of six to nine months. The feeling in the room quickly changes like someone just stopped the music in a bad 80s show. No one understands why its going to take nine months to build something that they already see in front of them. No one is happy anymore. Uh-oh.

from Interaction Happens: Prototyping Techniques
by Jonathan Simon

That's a leson I learned early, where the client didn't understand why it would take three months to build a system they 'saw' after three days of prototyping. Good to know I'm not alone.

- Peace

Women in Ministry

Mara and I were talking about women in ministry on Sunday and I promised her I'd find LT's post Why I think women should be church leaders. I thought his take on 1 Tim 2: "I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man" to quite insightfull.

- Peace

DVD Tip: Use subtitles when commentary is on

I'm not a big fan of most DVD commentaries, cause they talk over the dialog in the show. My Big Fat Greek Wedding being a notable exception. Last night while starting to watch Firefly: Out of Gas with the director's commentary on; it dawned on me to turn to go back and turn on the subtitles. Much better, I could follow enough of the show to remember what the director was talking about.

- Peace

Stacked Rocks, Kids

I told the kids who stacked these rocks by the Bow River that they could find the pic by googling IdeaJoy. So here it is.

- Peace

Slept With a Motorcycle Momma Last Night

Yeah I'm surprised too. There was a week of intense activity and then things cooled down. I was wondering if anything was going to happen. Then last night it did. Kim got here Motorcycle license on her second try!

Congrats Love!

- Peace

Pope John Paul II considered Billy Grahm a Brother

Billy Graham had never met a pope until John Paul II invited him to Rome in 1981. Ushered into the papal apartments by the Vatican's famous Swiss Guard, Graham marveled at the pomp. He and the pope chatted like long-lost friends for half an hour, swapping photos, gifts, and travel stories. Before Graham left, John Paul II reached over, clutched Graham's thumb, and told him, "We are brothers."

[Christianity Today]

I wish more of us on both sides of the Cathlolic Protestant divide could follow John Paul II and Billy Graham's example in how to get along.

- Peace

In case you missed it

J got engaged! Congrats to the happy couple, you're both in my prayers :)

- Peace

Spare ¢ for Ninja Lessons

I thought this guy's sign was brilliant. Most panhandler signs are tales of woe, this guy's sign read: Friend killed by Ninjas. Spare ¢ for Ninja Lessons. An outrageous take on the woe is me sign. He saw my camera and hid his sign, so I told him I'd pay him for the shot. He put it back and I snappedd the shot. I then paid him $3, and he was happy with that. Ssaid he'd use it to buy lunch. I guess Ninja's only work for small change.

I took a few pics of street people on Sunday. One is was a guy sleeping under a tree at Western Canada High School. And the other was a couple of guys on a bench in the park with a guitar. I wondered about taking the pics, I don't want to be voyeuristicc with other peoples pain and difficulty. However to exclude the homelesss from my shots of17th ave would have made them invisible and that's just too easy to do. I went with the 'if it's interesting to me, I take the shot' rule. It's the same rule I used for everything, everyone else.

- Peace

A Day Late and 50 km short

Passed 2200 km mark this mornings, but as the goal for Aug was to go from 2000 km to 2500 km that's a day late and 50 km short. Still doable just need to get at it.

- Peace

I hate Mondays.

At least when they go with news like this. Please insert words that make sense here, cause I just don't have them.

Update:
I just got off the phone with Jordon and he's in very good spirits, he cheered me up quite a bit. How does he do that?

- Peace

CBC locks out employees

As a result there was eyeopener this morning, and it really threw me off. And not only is morning show not there, but they took the web page down too. Now what's that point of that?

It's funny how you get used to things. Sarah says I'm a CBC addict. I used to dismiss that charge, but I may have to reconsider.

[story @ CBC]

- Peace

Guess

Anyone want to take a guess at what this is?

- Peace

Calgary Flickr Meet Up

Shots I took yesterday at the Calgary Flickr Meet Up. Will post some favorites soon.

- Peace

Poetry and Prayer

Most men and women in North America today are equally uneasy with poetry and prayer. Insofar as we let the culture depersonalize us -- turn us into nonrelational technicians and consumers -- we lose our capacity for intimacy both in language (poetry) and before God (prayer). The recovery of either prayer or poetry doesn't guarantee the recovery of the other, but it certainly encourages it.

Eugene Peterson, note 3 from Chapter 19: Theology -- David and God, Leap Over A Wall.

- Peace

WLW and WRW are down

Dean is reworking blogs4God so Who Links Who and Who Reads What are down for now. Will have to see where things go from here.

- Peace

Searching for the Joy - 24

1Ki 1:40 - "And all the people came up after him, piping with pipes, and they were glad with great joy, so that the earth was shaking with the sound."

Background
King David had become ill and was dying. David was so sick that Adonijah was planning to userp the throne without waiting for David to die figuring that David could not possibly oppose him. But King David had another plan. He quickly gathered Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada and instructed them to proclaim his son Solomon king. So in the presence of the people they anointed Solomon and proclaimed him king and the people responded with such an outburst of joy that it literally shook the earth.

Where’s the Joy
“Long live the King” I saw the scene in a newsreel — people shouting, waving, blowing noisemakers. Soon there will be another shaking: Heb 12:26 “Whose voice was the cause of the shaking of the earth; but now he has made an oath, saying, There will be still one more shaking, not only of the earth, but of heaven.” When the king appears I’m hoping to be shaken but not stirred. Well maybe a little of both.

My Morning Commute: Single Track, Butterflies

two wheels on single track
high green grass brushes past me
butterflies, orange and black, scatter by the dozen
a cloud of flight bursting before me

- Peace

Real Curves?

in the end, you simply can't sell a beauty product without somehow playing on women's insecurities. If women thought they looked perfect -- ?just the way they are -- why would they buy anything?

These Dove ads say it's cool to be round and hefty ... so long as your skin is taut and firm and perfect. But what's that, you say? You love your real curves, but you've got a little cellulite? Girl, run out and buy our hocus-pocus cream right now! Those cottage cheese thighs are vile! Dear God, cover them up!

from When Tush Comes to Dove By Seth Stevenson, a good article on Dove's new add campaign.

- Peace

Searching for the Joy - 23

2Sa 6:15 - "So David and all the men of Israel took up the ark of the Lord with cries of joy and sounding of horns."

I was a long time Calgary resident and as such I was a big, (and might I say die-hard) Calgary Flames fan. This was a pretty disappointing proposition because in those years our rival city, Edmonton, practically owned the Stanley Cup. Then, one year, it finally happened. We won the cup. There was a huge celebration on the ice as the players took turns skating the huge cup around the rink. The entire town went berserk and people literally danced in the street.

This is what it must have been like; the great symbol of God’s presence with the children of Israel entering at last the king’s city.

Where’s the Joy
I should remember that I have a symbol too, a cross. A symbol that He loves me, was willing to pay anything for me. I should be dancing.

Predators Needed

When wolves left an area near Banff, elk became more common, a meadow replaced willow trees and songbirds were replaced by sparrows, biologists say in one of the first large studies of the role of predators on the land they live on.

[CBC: Banff food web shows sharp differences without wolves]

- Peace

Faith, Art, Tech...

Have you heard the one about Bono, the Pope and the airport Security guy?

[thanks beth]

- Peace

The police phoned, thank you very much!

We got a call from the Calgary Police service this morning.

Officer: Mr King this is the Calgary Police, officer [I forget his name].
Me: yes, good morning.
Officer: Have you lost anything?
Me: not that I know off, I misplace stuff all the time, but I can't think of anything at the moment.
Officer: do you know where your wallet is?
Me: Should be in my napsack... Should I describe it for you?

He had my wallet, with all my Id, some money and my PDA. Someone found it in or near Fish Creek and turned it into the police. I went and picked it up. Every thing was there and fine. Only thing I can think of is it must have fallen out when I stopped to take a picture.

A Huge Thank You to who ever turned it in. It's nice to have your faith in your fellow man reinforced.

- Peace

2000 km down 1500 km to go

I passed the 2000 km mark yesterday. I did 250 km in just over a week. I know I said things needed to be perfect for that to happen, but they weren't. I had a bent crank that was causing bizzare things to happen with my shifting. It took them a couple of tries but the PedalHead boys figured it out. And it may have taken two trips but both times they worked on it right away and had me ridding again in no time.

- Peace