A Glimpse

caught a glimpse of an alternate 2007
lived in towers amongst the clouds
saving the world with bold moves
glowing sabers
jet-packs and droids
artificial beauties in spandex

and then I was back in my cube
mundane problems
keeping the lights on

home on the train
to my real beauty
to frustrations, fears
real love

our daughter
doing an artful job
of putting together a life
despite the failings of her all too present parents

dinner with a friend
form our community of honest sinners
shared stories
a game
dessert
some pictures

The world gets saved on the ground
not in towers

- Peace

I'm Expecting a Parade

That's standard with a visiting King isn't it?

- Peace

Lunar Eclipse

Had a great time watching the Lunar Eclipse with Kevin and hanging out with astronomy geeks by moonlight. It's the first one I've seen. Most impressive. Can't say the same for the photos I took. Posted this one to flickr yesterday and the feed back has been very good. I just thought it was the best of a mediocre bunch, but who am I to argue with my friends?

- Peace

Globalfest

Made it out to Globalfest last night with Sarah. It's Calgary's annual Fireworks competition. My first time shooting fireworks, found it quite challenging. Looking forward to getting another chance at it next year.

- Peace

Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women

An excellent critique of how of Women's Image in ads. The issue is of course much broader that just how ads view women. Ads offer an implied gospel, a way of life. For me the question is how do we form communities that subvert this prevailing, mostly subconscious gospel?

- Peace

Recovery Group vs Self Help

Chris Rice has a great post on the difference between self help and recovery groups.

I tried to fix myself using a lot of books. I can remember as a teenager finding a twelve step Bible and even trying to do the fourth step (the “searching and fearless moral inventory”) at that time on my own. I thought that steps one, two, and three were obvious. I had a problem. I believed in Jesus Christ. I believed he could fix it. What’s next? (Wasn’t that easy?) Well, it didn’t work, for the simple reason that I was alone.

Twelve step recovery is hard work. It does not involve only stopping those destructive habits that we did not like. We had stopped hundreds of times. We couldn’t stay stopped. Recovery is a new spiritual way of life that involves a new connection to God through the group–those people who identify on the basis of their addiction.

Working the steps means working with a sponsor and taking in as many meetings as possible. This is very different than a self-help program. This kind of radical commitment, turning our will and lives over to the care of God—through the group—involves an ego deflation not in keeping with the idea of self-help.

- Peace

Roger's Wireless Needs to Get a Clue or Two

Here are two clues for Rogers Wireless:

1. Keep track of phone numbers you call and why you called that number when you leave a message asking people to phone you back. That way your representative will know why the message was left with someone who doesn't have an account. Given the large sum of money you've obviously spent on your automated phone systems, this should be a minor feature.
   
   
2. Don't ask someone for their Social Insurance Number so they can prove they don't have an account with you.
   

If you'd like to replicate my experience phone 1-866-346-3436. Tell them they left you a voice mail asking you to call that number, in my case they asked that Dave King phone Rogers at 1-866-346-3436. Of course this only works if you don't have an account with Rogers and can put up with people who, blame you and fraudsters for the fact that they don't know what they're doing.

- Peace

Thanks Thomas

I bought a new Pentax K10 and Mom gave me Dad's old K1000 and lenses just before we went on vacation. When I arrived in Ottawa I found there was an incompatibility with the telephoto and the K10. I happened to wander past the Camera Trading Company and stopped in. Thomas was able to figure out the problem and came up with a solution, at no charge even.

Thanks Thomas.

- Peace

One Chair