Flyers

I get them. In fact I get a lot of them. Now I happen to like looking through flyers. I often find them more interesting than the newspapers they come in. So I would rather get flyers than not get flyers. But my goodness I get a lot of flyers! Some places send me two different flyers at different times in the week. Here's the list of flyers for this week:

1. London Drugs
2. Sears
3. Superstore
4. Zellers
5. Future Shop
6. Office Depot
7. The Brick
8. Toys R Us
9. The Bay
10. The Real Canadian Wholesale
11. Petcetera
12. XS Cargo
13. Dodd's Furnature
14.London Drugs (again)
15. AudioTronic
16. Sport Mart
17. Sears (again)
18. Mark's Work Wearhouse
19. Staples
20. Bentley
21. Home Depot
22. Rona
23. Ikea
24. Canadian Tire
25. Rogers Video/Wireless
26. Wearhouse One
27. Thrifty Foods
28. M&M Meat Shop
29. Home Outfitters
30. Save On Foods
31. Shoppers Drug Mart
32. Wal-Mart
33. Michaels
34. The Brick (again)
35. Safeway
36. The Source
37. Blockbuster Video
38. Country Grocer
39. Canadian Tire (again)
40. Rexall

I get two local papers per week. Each one is thick with flyers. Then, in addition to that, I get two separate packages of flyers delivered to my doorstep. There are more flyers than the newspapers can hold! They must be clearcutting mountainsides on my behalf, just to get enough paper to supply me with these flyers. I guess that's what happens when you live in the city.

Online Dating Rant

Dear Girls of online dating websites:

I have seen many of your profiles. And from a guy's perspective I'd like to offer you some tips. Note: this is a rant more than anything else, but it needs to be said.

1) Only sign up once. If you really insist on getting more free time, take your old profile down and put a new one up. When you keep several profiles on the same dating website, you remind me of my friend who always forgot his password (or didn't realize you could log in repeatedly with the same username). He would sign up again and again for online stuff. Don't be like that.

2) State your city (not just "Canada"). We're not all stalkers. We're not going to hunt you down if you state your city. What this will do is help the viewer in finding people that live in the same (or nearby) city.

3) Sign up on a dating website only if you are interested in dating. Don't sign up if you just want to "meet some people in the area". You're on the wrong site.

The next few tips are to do with the pictures you post. Digital cameras are plentiful. Get some pictures taken with a decent digital camera, in the daytime. Remember: put your best foot (or face) forward.

4) Don't post a picture taken with your webcam, late at night, in a dimly lit room. It's amazing how many people think this is acceptable photography. Get up from the computer, go into the daylight and take a picture outside.

5) Don't post a picture of you with your girlfriend and leave it to the viewer to guess which one is you. The worst ones are far away shots of you and a bunch of random people all at a party. You have to have at least one picture where it is a closeup of just you.

6) Don't post a cropped picture where it's obvious that the person you cropped out was a guy, especially if he has his arm around you (it's just tacky--take another picture!).

7) Don't post a picture of just you and another guy that looks like he could be your boyfriend. Even if you put in the caption "Me with my friend", guys will read "Me with my boyfriend". Even if it's your brother, it's just better to avoid those pictures.

8) Don't post a picture with you and a child. The reader will immediately assume it's your own. So unless you're looking for someone that wants an instant family, it's better if you don't post a picture with you and a random kid.

9) Spellcheck.

Thanks for listening and happy online dating.

Sincerely,

Jon

Uncle

I gained a new title today. Through no effort on my part, I became an Uncle....Uncle Jon. It reminds me of a series of books :-)

On an unrelated note, it is also my 1 year anniversary at my job. Yay that.

On another unrelated note, it is also the 150th Birthday of B.C.

Busy day.

Mail

The previous owners of the townhouse in which I now reside, moved out and didn't tell a soul. As a result, I still get their mail, and I get a lot of it. Everything from bills to gov't cheques, I get it all....And I write "Moved, Return To Sender" and put it back in the mailbox, again and again. It's been 9 months now and I'm still receiving on average 3 pieces of their mail per week.

Wing Hong Chau, if you're out there...I'm still getting your mail. Canada Post would be happy to forward your mail to your new address for a modest fee. Please Mr. Chau, I'm getting tired of this.

Murchie

For as far back as I can remember, our family always had a cat. Motor was our first cat (on right), and I think he was my favorite. He slept on my bed most nights, and would lick my ear to wake me up when he needed to go out. It was a really sad day for me, when we discovered his lifeless body in the forest behind my parent's house, his life cut short by a BB gun.

Other cats came and went. We bought Boots from a pet store. He was the most misbehaved kitten we ever had. I figured he was possessed, and he ended up at the SPCA. Pushkin lasted for a number of years. He was a pretty good cat, but he ended up getting sick and barfing a lot. Way too much for any reasonable pet owner to handle. So off to the SPCA went he. "B" (short for Pushkin B) was a super friendly cat that appeared one day and adopted us. But a few months later he disappeared and never returned. Molly was a very energetic kitten but she lasted only a short time. She was let outside once and took off and was never seen again.

It was summer of 1993 when we drove to Mission to a hobby farm to pick out a kitten. I'm not sure how we did it, but we convinced my parents to let us take two kittens. We chose two brothers, Zipper and Murchie. Zipper was named for his energy, as he would zip around the house. It was also a somewhat appropriate name because he had a lot of gas, when he was getting used to the cat food we were feeding him. Murchie was named after the coffee shop that my parents used to buy coffee beans from. Murchie's belly had little brown dots that looked like coffee beans.

Zipper and Murchie were great cats, but very different in personality. Zipper was fearless and completely trusting. I think he ties with Motor for first place as favourite cat. Zipper was just cool. Murchie was much more fearful and reserved. I still remember the day we got them. Zipper was running around with us kids, chasing string. Murchie was hiding in a corner beside the TV. That about sums up their personalities. Unfortunately only a couple of years in, Zipper disappeared. It's unlikely he ran away. I suspect he tried to make friends with a raccoon and lost. Murchie's natural fear could be equated with street smarts, and it paid off; he didn't disappear.

Murchie's life wasn't perfect. He tended to do things that would make him barf. We would let him in and, without even an acknowledgement, he would race for the food, eat like he was being timed, and then barf only moments later (stupid cat). Sometimes he would bring gifts of birds or mice to the back yard door. Other times he would eat said prey, and it wouldn't agree with him.

But Murchie's virtues outnumbered his vices. He was a gentle cat. He didn't hiss, swat or scratch people. You could try to catch him and he would run away, but if you talked to him as one talks to a baby he would flop down on his side and start purring, and then you could just walk up to him. And he never lost his kitten-like purr. Right to the end, his purr was audible and he used it generously. At various times us kids would have the cat on our beds at night, and it was funny cause all you had to do was move and Murchie would start purring again.

November 4, 2008 Murchie, died of old age (about 15 years). He's the only cat our family ever had that stayed with us his entire life and actually died of old age. My parents are now true empty-nesters and they'll have to find something else to blame for the things that go bump in the night.

Grandma

On October 28, 2008 My grandmother went to be with the Lord. We knew her time was coming soon. Her mind, for all intents and purposes, had already gone many months before. When her body finally gave out, thoughts of her last two years faded away and the memories of the wonderful life she led, filled the forefronts of our minds. After the funeral, at the open mic, I shared some of my memories of my grandmother. For those that weren't there, I now share that with you.

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Memories of Grandma

I have many fond memories of my grandmother. When I was young, we would usually take a week in summer and visit "Grandma in Victoria". That was always exciting, especially since we had to take a ferry to visit her. Grandma's place was fun. She would make peppermint cookies, and she had games and storybooks that we didn't have at home.

Grandma made sure we knew that she loved us. When I was little she would say to me, "I love you. Do you know that?" Until one day I told her "I know you do, you don't have to ask me." From that day on, she never asked me again, but she never stopped telling me that she loved me.

From as early on as she could, she started teaching us songs about Jesus. I distinctly remember her singing "This little light of mine" and "Heavenly Sunshine" with me. She wanted us to know Jesus. I don't think I fully realize just how many prayers she prayed for me, and how much of where I am today is because of her prayers for her grandchildren.

In her day job, my Grandmother ran a successful fabric store. Grandma's store was cool. At the store, the grandchildren had special privilege. We could go to "the back" but the customers couldn't. The thing I enjoyed the most was the big boxes. When she got shipments of fabric, they would come in refrigerator-sized boxes, and she would save them for me so when I got there I could spend the week building myself a house.

Sometimes I even made a little money doing odd jobs around the store. I remember stamping hundreds of bags with the "Yards 'n' Yards Fabrics" address on it. One time I asked if I could look at the alarm system, because all the windows had a foil strip around the perimeter and I was interested in electronics. She took me to the back of the store, and bent down and quietly said to me "It's fake." My eyes widened and I couldn't believe that all this time my grandmother was secretly tricking all the potential robbers with a fake alarm system.

I asked her if she was going to get a computer for her business, but she said no, she had never used one before, and she doesn't need one. In fact, she NEVER used a computer, not once. And I think she was almost proud of that.

Grandma always kept herself busy. So even when she was watching TV, I remember she would work on her Crocheting. She taught me how to crochet. And for a period in grade 5, that was my hobby too.

In 1995 she moved to Abbotsford, and that was a treat. Now the grandmother we loved to visit was in our own town. She would join us for Saturday morning breakfast and I remember I could tell when Grandma had been to our house because there would be a tire track on our front lawn about 6" in from the curb. She like to make sure she was off the road as far as possible.

Some other facts about my grandmother:
-Grandma was a lefty like me, although at a young age she had to convert to right handedness.
-At thanksgiving, she always wanted the turkey neck, which was good, because nobody else did.

Grandma would invite me out for lunch from time to time. Just one-on-one with her FAVOURITE grandson, which is technically true, since (at the time) I was her ONLY grandson. She also extended a standing invitation to go for lunch anytime. If I have one regret, it's that I didn't take her up on it in my 20's as often as I could have. In those times we would talk about everything from what we were doing that day, to what it was like when she was a kid. I remember her speaking so fondly of her late husband, my grandfather. Their time together was so short, and yet it gave her enough good memories to last a lifetime. It has encouraged me to strive to be that kind of man.

I am really proud to say that Elizabeth Marshall was my grandma. She enjoyed life and had a positive cheerful attitude every time I saw her. She loved people and loved her family and loved the Lord. And I have been truly blessed by her.

Relationships are blog killers

As I was looking down my list of blogs I read, I noticed that there are a lot of people who don't blog anymore. A few of them were short lived; they got excited and wrote 5 posts and they were done. But some of them were uber bloggers. The ones who posted almost every day and sometimes twice a day. Nothing could stop them. And now... silence.

Well, I noticed a trend. Their blogging petered off right around the time they started DATING. Relationships are blog killers! I guess once you have someone of your own to tell all your stories to, you don't need to retell it to the rest of the world. They also use the "B" word ("Busy"). They're too busy to blog now.

Well it seems that all blogs eventually get past the honeymoon stage and either the blog gets maintained at regular intervals or it drops off to nothing. The maintained blogs belong to those who have chosen to make blogging a hobby, OR they need to keep people up to date and the blog is the easiest format to use. The rest have changed their priorities and are now too busy.

Then there's me. I'm just lazy... I mean busy.

Teachers and Nurses

Ok, so I'll admit that I dabble in the online dating websites. I've paid some bucks here and there to get an account so I can send an email to a girl. It's not all it's cracked up to be. I would say it has the success rate of regular blind dates, except in this case a computer is trying to play matchmaker. But maybe I'll blog about my issues with it another day.

Today I just wanted to point out an interesting trend. I've noticed that the vast majority of single girls on any given online dating website (who are in their mid-late 20s) are either teachers or nurses. What's up with that? Then I started looking around at the single girls I know personally, and guess what? A noteworthy number of them are teachers or nurses, or training to be.

It seems like those two career paths are giving hundreds of girls an unfair disadvantage to finding true love in their younger years. Has anyone studied this? Is anyone warning young girls of the romantic dangers of these careers choices?

Warning: A career in Teaching or Nursing is known to cause extended singleness in women.

There, that should do it.

On a related note, one of my single female friends, who has tried the dating websites from the other side, says that a lot of the guys are engineers. Hmmm. And I am a.... statistic. Go figure.

That's MY Church!

Central Heights Church made national headlines when a section of the sanctuary floor collapsed and sent 50-60 teens into the basement 12 feet below. I was in Abbotsford at the time and got a call from my friend around 1/2 hour after it happened. A few friends went down there to see what we could see and also to offer help if they needed it. But they had called every emergency crew in the area and they had the place under control.

We praise God that no one was killed.

Central Heights is MY church. I've been a faithful attender and member there for over 10 years. I moved to Victoria last fall but when I am in Abbotsford, you will find me at Central Heights on Sunday morning, just to the right of what is currently a gaping hole.

At the time of me writing this, there is no investigation results released yet and no engineering report. But I'm an engineer (albeit and Electrical Engineer), and perhaps I can offer a little church history and my best guess as to the cause.

Central Heights Church is of the Mennonite Brethren denomination. It is a mainstream protestant denomination (not to be confused with Old Order Mennonites). The types of services vary between churches, but for the most part, MBs have been known to be conservative in their services. In fact the early service at Central Heights sings almost exclusively hymns, and has no "rock and roll" type instruments such as drums, electric guitars and bass.

Over the years, a new generation has been replacing the old generation at Central Heights. The difference can be seen between the worship styles of the first and second services. The second service is much more lively and almost charismatic (we even have flag wavers now during the worship). Anyway, I would say that where we are now as a church is not where we were when the sanctuary was built in 1985.

In the time that I've been attending CHC, we have allowed worship bands to use/rent the sanctuary for concerts. Doxa had a weekly praise and worship night for several years, which was often packed out with young people, not unlike the Starfield concert. My friend and I snuck down into the basement under the sanctuary during one of the lively Doxa songs. We watched the ceiling as it flexed/bounced several inches. Looking back, I'm sure the Doxa crowd was using the floor beyond the designed limits.

Basically it comes down to this: When they designed the sanctuary for our conservative Christian church, no one was thinking "mosh pit".

The engineers probably designed for what would be considered the worst case loading. More specifically: the pastor has an alter call and the entire congregation comes down to the front. That is a reasonable maximum load to design for.

But this was a different kind of crowd. In a mosh pit the people are packed much more tightly than in an alter call. And what if the people suddenly start jumping around (in sync no less)? Those two factors combined is a different kind of load altogether. If enough people jump in unison, you suddenly run the risk of pounding the floor until it just breaks apart under the load. Another possibility is that you may hit the resonant frequency of the floor structure and essentially "double bounce" the floor (as you would on a trampoline). In either case, you end up with structural failure.

The section that collapsed was being held up by wooden trusses that ran between two main wooden support beams under the aisles of the sanctuary floor, hence the "cleanness" of the break in the floor. It is likely the trusses were connected to the beams using metal hangers which were nailed into the beams. The force of the moshing crowd likely sheared off the nails or simply broke a few truss hangers. Other trusses probably failed in quick succession due to the weight of the crowd.

This is a shot of the concert before the accident. Note the size and height of the speakers and the lighting truss that ended up on the floor.
Here is a closeup of the lighting truss.

I too find it amazing that no one was killed. But not because of the floor, but because of the way the lights and speakers came down on the crowd. Look at the way those speakers crushed the pew. It was a sold out concert with lots of people and little room to move. Someone could have easily ended up under that pile of speakers (and those things are HEAVY). Also, the lighting truss is strategically sitting right on top of two pews (see first photo). There are some important things to note here: 1. The truss is preventing the right pew from falling into the hole, thus preventing injury to people below. 2. Had the truss come down even 6" farther back, it would have hit people on the head who were in the row behind. 3. Had the truss come down slightly ahead of the pews, it would have hit people standing in the row in front of the pew. 4. Depending on the order of events (not sure), the floor collapse may have actually saved some people from getting hit by the lights and the truss. The fact that a lighting truss (with all those speakers) was able to fall that hard into the crowd that big and not kill anyone is a miracle in itself. There had to be a whole lot of strong guardian angels working that night.

Missions Fest

I went to Missions Fest again this year. Thanks Bill and Louise for a place to stay! Chris, Tobias, Vu, Benz, it was a blast!

I like to see what's happening in the world of missions, and to be challenged in my faith. Truth be known, that is not the only reason I go. Part of it is to run into people that I haven't seen in a while, and in some cases, a LONG time.

Sometimes I go past the booths and wish that I was a missionary type person. I wish that I had a desire to tell everyone I met about Jesus. But I "test drove" the missionary life (see Jan-May 2006 blog entries) and I know that I am not cut from the same cloth as those that I met in the mission field. So my calling is a little less exciting. It is to be a "light" in Canada. But I will always support those who are in full time ministry. Those who have committed their life to going into the world to tell those who have never heard about the life that can only be found in Jesus Christ. (And if you are one of those people and would like to know more about my faith in Jesus Christ, please send me an email.)

If I could change conventions

In order to represent concepts in math and science, we use definitions and conventions that just "are". Nobody questions them because it's all we have come up with. But there are a couple of things that I was taught where I said "wait a minute, this is not a good convention!"

Take for example pi, aka 3.14159. It is the ratio of the circumference of a circle vs. the diameter. And we give it the unit of radians. But it takes 2pi radians to make one circle. Why didn't they make pi = 6.28?? That way, one pi would represent one circle (or pie if you will). So pi should really be 2pi. Wouldn't that make a lot more sense?

My other pet peeve is the fact that it was arbitrarily decided that protons would be "positive" and electrons would be "negative". This has caused all sorts of confusion, particularly when we talk about electrical current flow. Electrical current is the flow of electrons from one point to another, more specifically from a negative point to a positive point. So you would assume that the electrical conventions would be set up to support this. But everything is the opposite! Conventional current flow is positive to negative. So what exactly is flowing positive to negative? It's not electrons, but rather the absence of them! Now, if we said that electrons had a positive charge then everything would make sense. Electrons would flow from positive to negative (as we would expect) and a collection of electrons would mean a greater positive charge which would in turn produce a greater positive voltage. Electronics would make a lot more sense and this engineer would be happy.