Jon's Blog

Christian Nuggets

2010-03-23T23:50:00.004-07:00

Over the past year (ie. since the last time I blogged), there have been some things that I have learned, or new thoughts that I've picked out of sermons. You don't have to agree with them, but perhaps they will make you think, as they did me.

1. "What makes you think that suffering in the world is not normal?"
This challenged how I view suffereing. It is something to consider when somebody says "With all the suffering in the world, how can there be a loving God?" Yes ideally we would not have suffering, and people want to "get back" to that ideal, but this world is far from ideal.

2. "Church denominations are fine as long as they are based on non-essentials such as language or a music style...." Ideally the Christian church would not be divided into so many denominations. It makes us look like we can't get along. Ideally the church would be united theologically, and only divided up according to things that are not foundational to our faith.

3. God named Adam. Adam named Eve. It struck me as interesting since people give names to that which they have authority over and responsibility for. I'm following a study by John Piper on manhood and womanhood. The basic jist is that men and women are fundamentally different and the Bible teaches that man is the leader of the wife and family, starting with the first couple. God made Adam first and gives him the assignment to name all the animals. Then God makes Eve out of one of Adam's ribs, and when God presents her to Adam, he names her. God could have named her (remember that He named Jesus--Mary and Joseph did not get that priveledge), but He let Adam name her. To me, the first 3 chapters in Genesis really establish the roles of men and women, particularly in marriage.

Donation Rant

2009-01-04T00:04:00.004-08:00

Another rant.

I admit that I am usually cheap and I generally like to hold onto my money. But I do make donations to things that I want to support. And I've learned that making a donation, even a one time donation, automatically gets you signed up to their mailing list.

Keep this in mind: If you make a one time donation to an organization, and get on their mailing list, you will eventually get back the entirety of your donation in the form of letters. And of course this bothers me. (Some organizations have discovered email and send their letters out that way but most use paper letters.)

What really bothers me is that most of the letters I receive are essentially asking for more money. Yes, they use a part of my donation to solicit me for more money. Granted they flower it up with all the great things that are happening in their organization (which is totally fine). But in about paragraph three, you find out why they wrote the letter. I'm almost offended when they ask for more money. Why are you coming to me? Go solicit someone who hasn't given anything yet. I already gave you a donation (or I'm still making donations). If I felt I should give more I would have done it already. It makes me feel like they aren't happy with what I've already given.

So, where possible, I try to make a compromise: I'll make a donation on the condition that I never get any letters asking me for more money.

Flyers

2008-11-28T20:33:00.005-08:00

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

2008-11-21T01:59:00.006-08:00

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

2008-11-19T20:36:00.004-08:00

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

2008-11-19T00:16:00.003-08:00

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

2008-11-16T21:44:00.007-08:00

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

2008-11-16T21:30:00.002-08:00

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.

-----

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

2008-05-08T23:48:00.002-07:00

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

2008-05-07T23:42:00.003-07:00

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!

2008-04-28T00:57:00.003-07:00

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

2008-02-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

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.

Powering the Human Body

2007-12-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

In the electrical world we talk a lot about how much power it takes to run things. But have you ever wondered how much power it takes to run YOU? I did the math.

1. Find out the Caloric intake for an average person (number of Calories of energy consumed per day). Say around ~2200 Cal (depends on a LOT of stuff but let's pick a number).

2. Convert to Joules (the standard unit of energy). This gives us 9204800 J.

3. 1 Watt is 1 Joule per second, so divide the number of joules consumed in a day by the number of seconds in a day. 9204800 / 86400 = 107W

So how much does it take to run you? Around 100W.

That's pretty good efficiency, considering what little you can do with 100W of electricity. You could run a light bulb, but little else. In my computer the CPU alone takes 95W. It really makes you think about how amazing our bodies are. Have a great day.

Fighting the Packrat

2007-11-08T23:34:00.000-08:00

I come from a line of packrats on both sides of my family. Over the years our family has bought stuff and been given stuff. But as packrats, we do not get rid of old stuff. This leads to eventually packing it away in spare cupboards, drawers, shelves, closets or putting it in boxes and storing it in my parent's crawlspace.

A packrat's motto is "I can't throw it away because I might need it someday." Experience dictates this is true, but you will never need it UNTIL you get rid of it. My grandfather also had to deal with an additional problem: "Hey it's on sale, I better buy two."

I spent my early years accumulating stuff and "saving it for later" without realizing what it would eventually lead to.... clutter!! I would save things like it was being taken off the market. Our crawlspace always had room for one more box. Nothing really brought this issue to light...until I had to move. Oh MAN!!! Years and years of stuff is not easy to downsize, so I never did. But after moving I was determined that I would sort through all my stuff rather than just store it, because I had just moved into a condo with no crawlspace. And if I wanted a roommate, I would have to move my stuff out of the spare bedroom.

Thirty one years old and I decided to fight the inner packrat. Some people have a one year rule (if I haven't used it in the last year, it goes). I think I needed to set a 10 year give-or-take rule. Not great but it's a start. I sorted my post secondary education notes and threw out a stack of notes 3 feet high (and I still kept eight 3" binders of notes). There were boxes of comic books, wires, $26 in pennies, brand new packages of oragami paper from when my dad taught Japanese exchange students in the '80s, more wires, floppy discs, pictures, miscellaneous electronic junk, and boxes and boxes of miscellaneous trinkety stuff. Everything was sorted to one of 4 places: garbage, recycling, MCC or a new box of sorted stuff. I have never gone through that much stuff
in my life. It is VERY time consuming, so I might add that my recent job termination was very timely.

After all the sorting that I've done I've come to realize that life is too short to hoard stuff. We need to be generous and give it away or else we end up with more stuff than we know what to do with. If I haven't used it in 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years then I probably never will. And if I really need it again, I can always buy a new one.

I got a JOB

2007-11-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

Mere hours after I announced to the facebook world that I lost my job, my friend Michael informed me of some engineering positions opening at his company in Victoria. I had visited this place last year and I was very impressed by what I saw. It really looked like they had their act together as a company, and I really wanted to work there. But that never panned out, and I ended up landing a job in Langley. Uh, then I was let go (see previous post).

I immediatelly applied to the place in Victoria, and after two rounds of interviews, they offered me a position in engineering!

So looking back, I see that God has a plan. Working at the job in Langley was a great stepping stone. It gave me confidence in my abilities, and enabled me to buy a place in Abbotsford and live away from home but not far from home. Had I moved to Victoria last year, it would have been a lot harder on me. Now I'm ready to take on living farther from my friends and family. That's God's timing. Ya gotta love it.

Canned

2007-11-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

Well, after 10 months of faithful service, my employer decided to trim the fat off an already lean staff, and eliminate some positions. Mine was one of them. This termination had nothing to do with my performance, as I was relieved to find out. It was the weak US dollar that is mostly to blame since most of the products are sold to the states (and paid for in US dollars--all of a sudden it was very unprofitable to accept payment in US currency). Perhaps my jumping up and down yelling "in your face America" (as per the previous post) was a little premature.

Nobody likes getting canned, and I had just bought a condo in Abbotsford a mere 5 months prior. But I've totally felt at peace, and have been confident that God had something else planned for me.

Ya Dollar

2007-10-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

I typed "1CAD in USD" into Google today and got this...

1 Canadian dollar = 1.006948 U.S. dollars

Booya! Take THAT United States of Not-Worth-As-Much-As-The-Canadian-Dollar!
I should probably take this opportunity to buy something from the US.

Roadtrip 2007

2007-10-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

So I took a week and a half off of work and went on a roadtrip halfway across Canada to visit some friends that I hadn't seen in a while. The "while" ranged from a couple of months to 10 years. Thank you facebook. I've posted some pictures here, and facebook has more.

I discovered how devestating the pine beetle is. The green forests are turning red, as mountainsides of trees are dying. eeek!I drove through a lot of prairies....they're still flat.

As soon as I got to Winnipeg Myron, Don and I left on a camping trip on the Mantario trail.
The logistics required that we would have to do some night hiking.
The only thing about that is the trail is less obvious at night. So we got lost.
Actually it wasn't our fault. A beaver flooded the trail. Thank you beaver. Oh well, it was late so we hiked up a hill and camped on a giant mossy rock. It even had a half decent view (the other half was not a decent view--trees). AND as a bonous, we saw some awesome northern lights!!

What was not obvious at night was the fact that the trail did a jog and then crossed the beaver dam.
After a couple more hours we reached our destination, and our source of water, Caribou Lake.
When I asked about water purification before the trip, Myron and Don told me they had a "system". What I didn't know was part of their system involved using a sock as a filter--which later I found out was a sock that Myron had been wearing all day. But it was ok, Myron assured me, because he only used the leg part of the sock.
The second part of their system was adding 2 chlorine tablets to the water, which put the flavour somewhere between swimming pool and hot tub. But I wasn't complaining, I was too thirstly for that.

Our lunch attracted attracted whiskeyjacks. And so to affirm their presumption that humans=food, we fed them.
We had perfect weather. A wonderful hike.
-----
I visited the Lussier Hot springs on my way back. On the way out I met some mountain sheep on the road. The experience didn't have a very natural feel to it though, since all the sheep were wearing giant tracking devices around their necks. Must we tag everything?

When I think back on this trip...
This was the first time I had a place to stay every night of the trip. I'm so glad I went to Bible school, cause it's great having friends all over the place! Thanks to Fat Tony, Lyndon & Anita, Don & Steph, Steve, and Cory & Lisa for putting me up for the night. And honourable mention to Myron and Cyndi who fed me (steak!). It was good seeing you guys, and Michael, Andrew and Joel too.

I think it will be a long time before I take the crowsnest highway again. By my watch, it took me 15 hours from Lethbridge to Abbotsford. It's only 10 from Calgary to Abbotsford. So when travelling West from Lethbridge, as counter-intuitive as it seems, it's faster to go North to Calgary, then West, then South, than it is to go straight West. I think the problem lies in the fact that the crowsnest highway is anything but straight West.

Roadtrip Stats:
Total distance: 5800km
Total fuel bill: $337.68
Farthest destination: the Mantario Trail (on the MANitoba-onTARIO border).
Most expensive gas: Golden, BC 115.9
Cheapest Gas: Abbotsford, BC 91.4

Sandcut Creek

2007-08-16T01:04:00.001-07:00

Despite Bronwyn's obvious pregnancy, Peter, Bronwyn and I went camping. We were trying to get into the interior of the southern island backcountry, but the logging companies have completely gated off the area (BOOOO!!!) citing it is too much of a liability to have people in there. (I say it's crown land and you can't sue for hurting yourself on crown land.) So our only alternative was to camp at the beach, which isn't a bad alternative.

Sandcut creek is named for the creek that has carved it's way through relatively flat sandstone. There is a waterfall onto the beach (which I forgot to photograph) and then it flows into the ocean. A great getaway for a quick camping trip.

Our cat is on the pill

2007-08-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, well not THE pill, but a pill, about the size of a capital O. Our cat is a teenager in human years, and in his declining years he was diagnosed as having Hyperthyroid. I don't know exactly what that means. But basically, if he doesn't get his pill twice a day, he starts meowing a LOT, and that becomes very annoying. So we must feed him this little pill to keep him from going crazy. I call it his sanity pill.

A tip for those who have to medicate their cats: My brilliant mother, determined that our cat likes strawberry yogurt. So twice a day we crush the pill and mix it into the yogurt (a very small amount of yogurt mind you, it barely covers the surface of the spoon). The cat thinks he's getting a treat and we know that he will be sane for at least 12 more hours.

Reg

2007-08-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

A tribute entry to my good friend Reg (don't worry, he's not dead).

Reg has been good friend and buddy since Myron went to Bible school back in 1995. We all went to the same high school, but I only knew Reg through Myron up to that point, but with Myron gone, I decided to make an effort to get to know this guy. A move I have never regretted. Reg has been a close friend, a confidant, and a guy I can do stuff with. Reg and I both like an adventure. We both like hiking and camping. We both like to do stuff spontaneously and it has been SO nice to always have someone to be able to get together with, either to go mountain biking or to just to kick back and talk about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. We have been able to challenge each other in our Christian walks.

Indeed our personalities are as different as night and day. Our interests only intersect in a few key areas. No doubt there have been difficult times of conflict (road trips :-P ), but fortunately the conflicts are short lived and we are able to move on and keep our friendship going. The fights are forgotten and the memories of good times live on. I have learned a lot from Reg. The things he values are VERY different than the things I value. He sees the world from a completely different point of view. I struggle to understand that point of view and struggle even harder to accept it. But it has taught me patience and endurance as we keep our friendship going despite our differences.

As I write, Reg is in Thailand. He is now a full time missionary, currently studying the Thai language. He is a gifted people person, and missionary work fits him like a glove. This is one place that I can't join him. He was called to Thailand, I was called to... well...Abbotsford I guess. His people skills and leadership skills have impressed me. It's one thing that he does naturally that I struggle to do. For crying out loud, he can be program director for an entire camp with one hand tied behind his back. I wouldn't even know where to start. It is those skills that God is going to utilize, to win souls to Christ in Thailand.

I miss ya man.

Why I haven't Blogged

2007-08-15T23:42:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a time times half a time* since I last blogged. It's not as if my life has been so dull that there has been nothing to blog. Quite the opposite, which is actually one of the reasons why I haven't. As Stephen Colbert once said "Being me is a full time job, and I haven't missed a day."

I have blogged very little since I got home from Thailand, mainly because I talk to a lot of people in person. So those who really need or want to know what's happening, already know. Not to mention that it is a burden to know in the back of your mind that everytime you do something fun, you need to write about it (with pictures). Blogging can start to feel like homework.

I'll admit that facebook (a.k.a. "crackbook") has taken up some of my precious blogging time. And when there is the choice of sitting on the couch watching Simpsons, or blogging, well...Simpsons takes less effort, and therefore wins. TV is indeed a blessing and a curse. Not to mention that most of my adventures were with Reg, who is a very faithful blogger. No point in double blogging. (for more of my adventures see regisonamission.blogspot.com)

Another reason I slowed down on blogging is that it is no longer the latest craze, and in my opinion, it is slowing down (there are several blogs that I have read who's last entry was in 2006). Now people just use facebook.

BUT now more than ever, I have a lot of my friends are not within arm's reach. I don't see them on Sunday anymore, and timezones make phoning an exercise in coordination. My friends are peppered across Canada, and now the world. So suddenly blogging is actually an easier way to keep them up to date.

So I'm back in the blog world. And for the sake of chronologically documenting my life (for those that care), I will be retroblogging (writing about some past events).

*A biblical phrase, found in Daniel 7:25, Revelation 12:14 (NIV)

Kenyon Lake

2007-08-07T00:57:00.000-07:00

I took a trip to Kenyon Lake on the August long weekend. This lake has an island on it, and it has a couple of campsites. Unfortunately a family was using it for the entire weekend and pretty much took over the entire island (grrrr). I was left with one small corner. But a private corner with a view, so I was happy. The one thing I've noticed about Kenyon lake at night is that it is QUIET. Dead quiet. The lake is in the bottom of a valley, so there is plenty of room for noise. But at night I'm sure I could have heard a pin drop from across the lake. There was not a whisper of wind, not a cricket, bird, frog or bear. So quiet it makes your ears ring. Yes I'm going on and on, but it's just amazing to think that a place that large can be that void of noise.

In the morning I went boating around the lake. Good times had by me.

Hillsong United

2007-06-01T00:35:00.000-07:00

My new favorite Christan band is definitely Hillsong United. Their music is well written both musically and lyrically. And all their song's are worship songs and very singable. I realized the other day why I like their music so much. The musical style actually reminds me of Matthew Good's music (my favourite secular artist). So I was thrilled when I found out they were coming to Vancouver.

In May they had an outdoor concert. It was awesome. Great music, and a great message. These guys are all about praising God and seeing people come to Christ. Earlier this year I was at a Jars of Clay concert. That concert was very much about Jars of Clay, who acted like they were all that and a bag of chips, which they weren't. The Hillsong people do not have that arrogance. It was cool to see that.

Sumas Mountain

2007-04-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Reg and I conquered Sumas Mountain with our bikes. Ya we walked up most of it, but the way down was awesome!

BTW you can't drive up the whole thing like you used to. The gate at the bottom is open but they put a second gate half way up, which is before the lookout (in the picture) and is WAY before the old parking lot for Chadsey lake. (Booo!!)

Jon's Web Junk

2007-02-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

There's just too much crazy stuff on the internet. But that's the internet, not my life. So I've created another blog just for the stuff I find on the internet.

Visit Jon's Web Junk and waste some time watching the best videos that I have found.

Oh. You may notice that the first posts were a few months ago. I retro-posted them so they show up in my blog around the time I SHOULD HAVE posted them.

Ember Updates

2006-12-03T01:01:00.000-08:00

Better late than never. A brief update to the life of Jon for all the EMBER months.

SEPTEMBER
Returned from the New York roadtrip, and would do it all over again.
Hiked up to Chadsey Lake, first with P&B, then solo. It was so beautiful and peaceful, and I have no pictures to prove it.

OCTEMBER
Bushwacked quite literally for over 1/2 a kilometer with nothing but a GPS that was always cutting out because of the trees. But we made it. Our destination: Wye Lake.
Featured in this photo is yours truely, B and P.

NOVEMBER
Hot Sproings
Went to some hot springs with some friends and friends of friends. heh heh.
I'm way to lazy to be the 3rd person to write about it when Jess and Reg did such a good job of writing about it (more pics here).

Snow!
We gots the snow. 13 5/8" to be exact (I don't know what that is in millimeters, like a million). Didn't go to work for 3 days. Woohoo. Then again, I get paid by the hour (so doh!)

It was beautiful and poetic...
Abby had a little snow, its flakes were white as sheeps.
And everywhere Jon usually went, he couldn't because the streets
(were icey and Jon didn't have snow tires on his car).

More Snow!
A couple days after the first dumping we got 4 more inches, and there was much rejoicing.

DECEMBER

Jon made a new friend and updated his blog, and there was much rejoicing.

(bonus points to whoever knows the obscure rejoicing reference)

Hot Springs

2006-09-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Our final stop on the roadtrip was a visit to Lussier Hot Springs. They are outdoors, hot, and FREE. A nice ending to a long drive.

Ontario Tourism

2006-09-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

We made sure we visited the most important Ontario tourist traps: Niagara Falls and the CN Tower.I was at the falls 10 years ago and I'm happy to report that they are still falling. Very beautiful. Reg and I paid the $11 to go in the tunnels behind the falls. For future reference, save your money. This is what you will see--not worth it. They give you a plastic poncho before you go down. I think the poncho cost $10 and the view from the tunnel was a dollar.
The CN Tower was nice I guess. We were up there during a storm and at night so visibility was not great. I walked on the glass floor. Man that's a weird feeling.

The Hello Deli

2006-09-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

This was about as close to fame as we got. The Hello Deli is a tiny Deli in the same building as the Ed Sullivan Theater -- Home of the The Late Show with David Letterman. And Rupert from the Hello Deli often appears on the show. Anyway, Rupert was working the till the day we were there so we ate the Hello Deli and were served by Rupert. I thought that was cool. Reg didn't know who he was, but now he's going to watch Letterman more.

NYC Part 4 - The Sights

2006-09-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

Times Square - Wow, that place is insane. And the PEOPLE. If you have ever seen on TV or in the movies the hoards of people on the sidewalks and thought "is it really that crowded?" For Times Square the answer is YES, even late at night. It is home to so many things including: Hard Rock Cafe and The flashiest McDonalds I've ever seen. Also...
My Dad caught me on the Earthcam - Check it out at http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare
ABC Studios
Lots of street performers - These guys were really good.
and Naked Cowboy
Brooklyn Bridge - As seen from the Staten Island Ferry.
Central Park - SO BIG. The picture above is taken from the top of a castle in the park. Behind me is The Great Lawn, which holds 6 baseball diamonds. It is a blip in the map of central park.
Carnegie Hall - "Saw" it, but couldn't go in.
The Plaza - Reg tells me it appears in "Home Alone".
Inside CNN/Time Warner Building - Time Warner building is enormous and impressive. The tour was actually more lame than I expected it would be.
Radio City - We were there the day they were doing the MTV Video Music Awards, so there were a bunch of celebrities showing up. I think they were famous, I mean a whole crowd of screaming black girls can't be wrong.
Rockefeller Center - Just a bunch of buildings. Whatever.
Macy's - The largest department store in the world. It is a full New York City block, and 9 floors! Also the location for the film "Miracle on 34th Street".
The New York Public Library - Crazy! So elaborate I didn't see a single book until I got to the 3rd floor! It was more like a museum than a library. But it is a public library so at least it was free.
The Statue of Liberty/Staten Island Ferry - Also free (amazingly). It travels right past the Statue of Liberty. That's as close as I got (Reg visited Lady Liberty personally).
Ground Zero - That's a huge area right in the heart of the business district. It's amazing some of the surrounding buildings are still there. One skyscraper that was right beside the World Trade Center property was damaged and so they are currently deconstructing it, floor by floor.
The New York Stock Exchange - Lots of suits running around the outside of that place. Security is so tight around there that since 9/11 they have blocked off all the roads in that area.
The Cathedrals - My goodness it's like stepping into Europe. There are several big cathedrals downtown.
Madison Square Garden - We saw it, it's still there.
The United Nations Headquarters - That's a big place. I guess there's lots to do in order to keep so many countries united.
Empire State Building - Expensive but a good view of New York (for the record, the 86th floor is the main observation deck, and is really good. Don't bother paying the extra 14 bucks to go to the 102nd floor, it's not worth it)
Grand Central Terminal - Saw it. I can say I was there. That's about it.
New York Subways - Convenient, fast, frequent and functional. But wow, those terminals are hot.
Steaming Manholes - Apparently the city has central heating so many downtown buildings are heated by steam, carried through pipes underground. Some pipes have leaks, and thus the steaming manholes.

Whew, those were the main things. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. I highly recommend it.

NYC Part 3 - Getting Around

2006-09-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

Being in New York, there is a level of fitness expected of you. The transit system is very good, but if something is less than 10 blocks, they will think you're weird to try to take transit. "It's not that far, it's only 10 blocks!" the city worker said to me (except we'd been walking for the last 2 hours). Lower Manhattan (everything South of Central Park) is considered the "downtown core" of New York City. That's where all the famous landmarks, buildings and businesses reside. But you could fit probably about 5 downtown Vancouvers into Lower Manhattan. It's Really Big. Thankfully the subway system is very extensive, fast and frequent. The wait is less than 5 minutes for a train.
Or you can take a taxi. I always wondered how people on TV would just raise their arm and get a taxi. Now I understand.

NYC Part 2 - The New York Attitude

2006-09-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

New Yorkers have quite an attitude. It's kind of hard to explain. You can ask anyone directions for something and they'll give you an answer, it's just the way they do it that takes some getting used to. They like to keep things moving. They don't revel in conversational formalities. It seems like they want the conversation to be as short as possible, so they can get back to doing whatever it is they're doing. Everyone is on the move, always walking, listening to their iPods and talking on their wireless cell phones. Nobody waits for the walk sign, if there are no cars coming, they walk. If a car is coming and people are walking across, they just lay on the horn and speed on through.

NYC Part 1 - Driving

2006-09-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

My first experience in New York City was navigating the highways to the JFK Airport (which is where we had decided to store our car). That was quite an experience, not for the faint of heart. Stopped in Bronxville (almost in the Bronx!) and got directions from some guy who was hanging around the gas station. He gives me 3 different sets of directions to get to Kennedy Airport. Well there's like 5 different highways you can take. Very confusing, so I went with the last set of directions which was the simplest. New Yorkers seem to be nice enough to give you directions, but whether they make sense is another story.
I've always heard about "The Projects" where the really poor people live. They are sort of a landmark of The Bronx, and I got to see them (I skipped visiting them).

New York State

2006-09-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

New York state was very different from what I expected. Most of the state looks like BC! Trees and forest abound. Lots of small towns, lots of room. So different from New York City!

Another interesting note is that New York has several Tim Hortons. Our Canadian Coffeeshop is slipping into the States! Aaaaaaaah! What a world, what a world...

Ottawa & Montreal

2006-09-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Next stop was Ottawa Ontario. We had just enough time to tour the parlement buildings. Took the official tour and they even let you go up into the bell tower.
We found another use for Duck Tape: Holding the parlement buildings together! Several spots on the front of the building were patched with the handyman's secret weapon.
We have no pictures of Montreal, Quebec, we just drove through, so I've "been" to Montreal. I have experienced Montreal enough to know that it is a VERY big and the highways are insane.

Red Rock & Ontario

2006-09-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

After Winnipeg we made a stop over to see Steve G. at Red Rock Bible Camp. That was fun. We hung out, relaxed and mountain biked. After that, it was into Ontario.

The road from Winnipeg to Ottawa is long and boring. The rolling hills are just high enough that you can never quite see over the trees. After a day of driving your reward is Thunder Bay, Ontario. Another day of driving and your reward is Sault Ste. Marie. Hoorah. (Well it's not all bad. I've discovered there are a lot of cute and friendly girls that work at fast food restaurants--I'm talking to you Sault Ste. Marie Arby's and Irving NY Tim Hortons ;-)

I've learned a couple of things about flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants camping:
1. There are a lot of people that have houses at the end of gravel roads off desolate highways in the middle of nowhere.
2. Finding a good spot to camp is really hard to do at 2am when you can't drive or think anymore.
3. If you pull into a camp site late at night (or even early in the morning), and are honest about it, it will cost you about $25. A couple times I just wanted to leave because we didn't even use their facilities. But we registered the next morning because it is the right thing to do.

Fortunately we found some unused side roads and were able to have a peaceful sleep for free. That was nice.

Car-bed

2006-09-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

I have built a bed into my Toyota Echo. It may sound crazy, but it has 6'4" of length! This was more of a challenge than a necessity. We have a tent, but if it's raining, it is so much nicer to be "indoors" than out in a wet tent. Incidentally, it was 10 summers ago that I went across Canada with Myron, and we slept in the back of his Honda Civic Stationwagon (yes, there was such a car). So this is kinda cool that 10 years later I am doing the same kind of thing.

Moving

2006-09-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

We helped Myron & Cyndi move from Sundre AB back to Winnipeg MB. The girls flew and the guys drove. Reg, Myron and I each had a vehicle to drive. Just before we left, we heard a little bit of scratching in the back of the moving truck. When we opened up the back, two kittens popped out! They just about relocated to Winnipeg.

We bought Walkie Talkies so we could communicate without having to always pull over. (Technical note: we purchased Cobra brand FRS/GMRS 2-way handheld radios. They advertised as having a 16km range--ya right! We were lucky if we got 1/2 km! Granted it said 16km under ideal conditions such as good weather and unobstructed line of sight, but that's what we had! We were in the prairies in sunny weather for crying out loud. Anyway, for any future walkie talkie buyers, you have been warned.)

The great thing about the prairies is that when you get tired, you can just find a quiet gravel road and sleep. So that's what we did. I've always wanted to camp in the median on a divided highway (you know the ones between Surrey and Hope). Well I guess my dream kinda came true because we pitched our tent in the middle of a divided highway. I say "kinda" because it hardly felt like it. There was a whole mile between the two directions of traffic. It was a nice quiet camping spot, free and alone, just the way I like it.

It took us two days of driving to get us from Sundre to Winnipeg. We had to go the speed limit. Not because we couldn't afford a ticket, but because if Myron went over 100, the moving truck would start to shake. And Myron & Cyndi's van gets the shakes around 110. My car (or my foot) is built such that it always wants to go 120km/h on the highway, so it was a constant fight to keep the speed down. On the plus side, we got no tickets.

After arriving in Winnipeg, Reg and I became "two small guys with big hearts" as we moved all their stuff into storage lockers. On our way back we may end up moving all that stuff once more if they find a house.

Corner Gas

2006-08-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

Reg and I took a little detour off the #1 highway to see the set for the TV series Corner Gas. They do a lot of the filming for that show in an actual small town in the Saskatchewan, so a lot of the show is quite authentic. They have the Corner Gas gas station and The Ruby diner all as one building. The store part of the gas station is set up just like a small town gas station store, and they do all the inside and outside shots right there. Some of the inside shots (like inside the Ruby) are done at a sound stage in Regina, but most of it is taped on location in Roulou (Row-Low) Saskatchewan (about 1/2 hour south of Regina).

It was pretty cool. We could walk around the set (which is on the highway right on the corner of town). There is a map of town to show you where they tape various things in the show. For example the Dog River Police Station is actually an ice cream shop. They just put up a Police Station sign when they are using the outside for filming.

The other cool thing was that they were shooting some scenes for Episode 63 while we were visiting. For those who follow the show, they were filming at Oscar and Emma's house, which is an actual house on the other side of town. They renovated it for the owner so it would look the way the producers wanted it. They even fixed up the house next door in exchange for being allowed to use their bathroom on the days they are filming. So (not that anyone really cares) Episode 63 will consist of scenes where Oscar is doing some gardening and they will be apparently erecting a "city limits" sign at the edge of town.

We didn't get to see much. They block off roads and keep the public quite a distance away. We got brief and distant views of some of the cast but not much for the amount of time we spent there. We talked to one of the traffic security guys and that was pretty fun. Then we toured around to see some of the other locations they film at. I felt embarrassed as I took a picture of the curling rink. For crying out loud, it's just a small town rink! And yet I was taking a picture because it's been on Corner Gas. I roll my eyes at myself.

Roadtrip

2006-08-21T22:08:00.001-07:00

Well as I write this, we are on our way to Winnipeg. Reg and I are doing a roadtrip from Abby to Winnipeg, with the possibility of going to New York City. Yes, I am aware that NYC is significantly farther than Winnipeg, but we both have the time. It will just be a matter of the will.

We stopped in Sundre to see Myron & Cyndi and helped Myron move their stuff and their van. From Sundre, AB we drove to Winnipeg, MB.
I'll try to keep this thing updated while on the road. I've got my lappy along so I can write while on the road. It is a bit of a challenge to try to always be documenting everything you do. We have the digital camera, the video camera, and the blog. It can become a hassle. Sometimes you just want to enjoy the moment. So you won't be filled in on everything, but you will get the jist of our trip.

Airshow

2006-08-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

The province newspaper had a feature "100 things to do in BC before you die". I have already done about 16 of them, which I think is pretty good. But one of the things they neglected to mention was the famous Abbotsford International Airshow. I mean it's the only thing that puts Abbotsford on the map--well it's also the city with the 3rd highest crime rate per capita in Canada (Hooray!) But enough about infamy and onto fame...

As locals of Abbotsford, and the good Mennonites that we are, it seems a bit pricey to pay 25 bucks for the privilege of being on the grounds of our dinky little airport. So we decided on a different vantage point: The top of a grain elevator. After a very long climb up a very long ladder, we were at the top on this little metal platform. Just us and an auger motor which was thankfully off.

It was pretty cool to be on the top of the tallest thing in the sumas prairies. And we got some good views of the planes. Most went around us instead of over us, but 2 snowbirds flew right overhead so that was cool. Ah, a free airshow. My kind of show.

Fireworks

2006-08-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of things with Reg because he wants to do a lot of things before he goes to Thailand. Man, you'd think the guy was going to die on January 1st. Anyway, one of the things he wanted to do is watch Vancouver's Celebration of Light fireworks.

We watched all 4 nights and as usual it was very good. But since the show is world class, any other fireworks display that I watch now is just boring. I highly recommend to anyone to see the Celebration of Light as least once. Then again, if you want to enjoy little fireworks displays, you better stay away or you'll be spoiled forever.

(I didn't take any pictures of the fireworks because I took so many last year. If you want to see more than enough pictures of fireworks, see July/August pictures in 2005.)

Golden Ears

2006-08-21T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well once again it has been a long time since I last blogged. But for the sake of documenting my life in chronological order, I will step a few weeks back in order to fill you in on a hike that Reg and I did. For the first time for both of us, we conquered Golden Ears mountain.

It is 12 km ONE WAY. I did not train for this trip and I was dreadfully out of shape, but I made it, albeit barely. Positives: Beautiful (although hazey) view of the entire Fraser Valley, good view of Pitt Lake, and a feeling of accomplishment. Negatives: Relentless black flies (even on top), and a terrible trail. I have never called a trail "stupid", but this was a stupid trail. It is 12 kilometers, and it didn't need to be. The first 3 km are completely flat! In another part the trail goes up really steep up the mountainside, only to go down again right away. What's with that? Then there were the rocks. It's like they built half the trail on an old creekbed, with big loose rocks--too small to step on but too big to ignore. Very hard to hike.

There is an "emergency" cabin at the foot of the glacier, about 1 km from the top. It sleeps 8...cozy people. And they had an outhouse. Pretty fancy for being way up in the mountains. The cabin was occupied that night so we tented, which was fine. It was the hottest weekend of the year (35C or so in the valley) so it was really nice, not really cold at all.

We summited in the morning and then headed back down. That was the first time hiking that I was actually concerned that I wouldn't make it down. My legs hadn't recovered from the hike up, and we didn't bring as much food as we should have, so I didn't have anything to get my strength back. We had some Gator Aid mix and I was so desperate for energy that I ate a couple of spoonfuls of raw powder. That might have been the energy I needed to get down. The trail is so steep that you can't go down any faster than you came up, because you have to be so careful of your footing. I was so exhausted and so thankful to see my car after that hike.
(The picture above on the right is of the cabin, the outhouse and our tent)

As a footnote, I would just like to say that I will never do that hike again, unless
a) they redo the trail so there are no creekbeds and
b) they make the trail half as long (and they can, they SO can).

Spam

2006-08-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well the spammers have found me and are leaving comments on my entries. So I have turned on that security word verification thing.

One thing to note: If NOBODY bought things that spammers advertised, spam would disappear. So the fact that spam is getting more and more common means that some of you out there are buying things that are advertised through spam. So whoever you are please stop! You are encouraging uncaring jerks to keep making money though very annoying means. Please, for the good of all mankind, please make your purchases through legitimate businesses. Thanks!

Long Beach

2006-07-09T03:00:00.000-07:00

If you visit long beach on Canada Day, the parking is free. So we made the trip to the island to take advantage of the savings! Well, maybe we had other reasons as well. (Note the sentence that starts and ends with the word "well") . We were able to camp on the beach and it didn't rain at all! In fact it was about as good as it gets in terms of weather on the west coast.

Had a bear come through our camp. Of the 8 people in our group, Reg and I were the last ones to leave camp that morning. I was eating breakfast and was walking toward the food to get myself another strudel, when I looked up and saw the bear about 10-15 feet away! What do you do when you come face-to-face with a bear? I found out. I said "WOAH!!! Reg, there's a bear in our camp!"

What are you supposed to do next? I don't know, I never read that chapter. Apparently town-bears aren't phased by yelling and flailing arms. But clapping and thowing sticks seems to work...sort of. Two minutes later he came back through a different part of the bush. And THIS time I got my camera out.

We scared it off yet again with more sticks and clapping and that worked for a longer period of time. The thing about where we were camping is that we left our tents up. And even after we told the rest of the group about the bear, nobody was interested in checking on/taking down the tents. When we got back LATE that evening, the bear had taken down 2 of the 4 tents, looking for non-existant food. Fortunatelly, our tent was OK. But the others had to use a lot of duck tape to patch holes and mend broken tent poles. I can't believe we still slept there that night.

Long Beach was gorgeous, and the water was very cold. Peter brought a kite to fly, which was an excellent idea (I would have been SO bored otherwise). There was enough wind that we were able to attach bull kelp to the bottom of the kite. We made a tail about 20-25 feet long. This was a 2-string kite that you could control really well. We would whip that tail around and try to make it snap, or slap the ground with it. Good fun.

Peter & Bronwyn's dog Coda had to be kept on a leash, as per the sign and the park warden. But she never said the leash had to be attached to anything. So Coda ran free, dragging a leash behind her. Whatever.

The last night we stayed at Sproat lake. A nice place except for the 20 bucks a night. The water was relatively comfortable and the grounds were beautiful. A good place to go, the next time you want to camp around Port Alberni.

Floating down the canal

2006-07-09T02:44:00.000-07:00

My oh-so-original title basically sums it up. At the end of June, Reg and I decided spontaneously to go to Penticton. More specifically, at 10:00pm Saturday night Reg mentioned his parents were in Penticton for the weekend and I asked him why we were sitting in Abbotsford! So ya, we arrived at 3:30am and stayed with Reg's relatives. Sunday afternoon we were floating down the canal.

It's a great thing to do in summer. I highly recommend it. If you provide your own floaty things and transportation then the ride is totally free. We each had an inner tube and we were both tied to the boat which carried all our worldly possessions. You need to be tied together or you will totally get separated. We were moving along at the pace of a fast walk (5.5km/hr). As to the state of Reg's undress, I'll let you decide.

Camping On Kenyon

2006-07-09T02:25:00.000-07:00

Reg and I took advantage of a rare weekend when it wasn't supposed to rain. And it didn't rain so that was good. We camped on Kenyon Lake. It's one of my favourite places to camp, and judging by the amount of garbage thrown into the bush, I'm not the only one.

I got up in the morning, before the bugs had even woken up, and took a look at the lake. It was clear as glass. Not a trace of wind. The lake gave a perfect reflection of the mountains. All in all it was another successful camping trip--not to mention, fun.

Back to the Cave

2006-07-09T02:00:00.000-07:00

At the end of May, shortly after I got back from Thailand, Reg and I went to visit our cave. It's still as beautiful as ever. And just as muddy. The entrance is eroding away, which is actually good because it means we don't get AS wet as we used to. On the downside, a lot of gravel seems to be building up on the lower (wet) end--the end we were hoping would eventually open up into more caves.

We both ventured down the hole that we once hoped was a lead to a new part of the cave. It still doesn't go anywhere but we like to check it out anyway. It is a tight squeeze with solid rock above you, rocky mud beneath you and rocks on either side of you. And it's at an angle so you have to inch your way back up to get out. There is one part which is REALLY tight. We jokingly called it the "birth canal". It's a good place to try out your claustrophobia. The picture doesn't do it justice.

And the last picture shows some of the flowstone. Ya it's a real cave with active stalagtites and flowstone. I still find it hard to believe that Reg and I were the first ones to ever see it.

Blog Junkies

2006-07-09T01:56:00.000-07:00

OK you blog junkies, you know who you are. I'm posting some more stuff so you guys can get your fix. I'm posting each event as a separate entry so maybe PACE YOURSELF, cause I don't know when I'm going to be motivated to post again!

Home

2006-05-20T02:02:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let all my faithful readers know that I am home. The return date was always on my website, but it seemed that very few people ever went there. I touched down Wednesday evening (May 17th). Thankfully, I haven't been suffering from jet lag. Almost no effect at all. Strange but good. I'm driving again and back to wearing sweatshirts, socks and shoes. The weather is cooler for sure but not as biting as I thought it would be (it's so much drier).

I'm looking for a new job. So... If anyone knows of a company looking for an electrical engineer (with an interest in computers, networks and servers). Let me know. Even job websites are welcome!

Layover

2006-05-17T05:14:00.000-07:00

You would think that with the thousands of bookings that an airline handles each day, they should be pretty good at what they do, and you would think that they wouldn't just change the time of a flight and not tell the person flying until he comes to the counter on the day of the flight. Well that's what happened to me. My 4 hour layover instantly became a 10 hour layover with no advanced warning. I was not amused. Bad China Airlines! No fortune cookie for you!

On a positive note, I have become well acquainted with the Taipei Airport. If you ever have a layover there, be sure to go to Gate C7 for some free wired and wireless internet. They also have a subway and starbucks upstairs (in the VIP lounge area).

Here are some signs I found around the airport:
Dude! This restaurant serves gruel! And dishes. Mmmm, dishes.
He dances, he pukes and he wants to be your friend. It's Puki!! (Well maybe not, my Taiwanese isn't that good).
Is that what they call a recursive sentence?
I found it on the wall in the bathroom. It is informing me that I should not bring fruit into Taiwan. That's fine except it's a little late since I'm already in Taiwan. The funniest thing is this was in the bathroom on the departures level. Everyone who sees this sign is leaving Taiwan. Silly.

Shopping in Bangkok

2006-05-16T03:28:00.000-07:00

Well I'm pretty sure that Bangkok is by far the biggest city I have ever been through. It has about 12 million people and it sprawls as far as the eye can see in all directions. With that said, it is no wonder that they are the home of some very large markets and malls.

I joined the TREK team for a day of shopping in Bangkok. First stop was Jatujak market. It is HUGE, and impossible to see the whole thing in one day. It is home to thousands of little shops with thousands more of people, walking down aisles no wider than 6 feet (that's before they let their merchandise spill into the aisle. If you are claustrophobic, you might not want to dive in too deep, there are a lot of rows and some of them get pretty crowded.

Next stop was a congregation of malls (or flock of malls?) We think metrotown in Burnaby is a big mall. It is but that's just one mall. Imagine like 5 or more malls like that, all side by side or across the street from each other. And that's just one part of Bangkok. It just makes the malls in Canada seem puny (ok, except West Edmonton). The malls took the other half of our day and we only scratched the surface. Shopping in a city that size with that many people is definitely an amazing experience.

Rush Hour

2006-05-16T03:20:00.000-07:00

Bankok brings a whole new meaning to rush hour.

When I got back to Bangkok from Lopburi, I took a motorcycle taxi through Bangkok during rush hour. We were traveling between cars with fractions of an inch of clearance between my knees and car mirrors. I prayed a lot during those 10 mintues. It was one of the scariest things I've ever done! But I gotta say, it sure got me to my destination in a hurry.

A Trip to Lopburi

2006-05-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

Took a quick trip to Lopburi. Stayed only one night and was back in about 24 hours. Just visited the Griffioens who are busy in language school. Also I just wanted to see Lopburi and see the monkeys. Over the course of two days I traveled by: MU7 (SUV), taxi, bicycle, foot, train, tuk tuk, motorcycle taxi and van.

I saw the Lopburi monkeys. Indeed there are a lot of monkeys in Lopburi.

Day Trip

2006-05-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Ya, some friends and I took a day off and traveled to a nearby island. We rented a giant 6-passenger tuk-tuk for the day (driver included) and toured the whole island. The island is pretty big and it has one or two small towns. It also has at least one BEAUTIFUL beach. The scenery was picture perfect, and it was as nice in person as it looked. The sand was clean and soft, right into the water. The water was clear and WARM. It was great.

Afterwards we toured around a bit and visited a site that was a vacation spot for one of Thailand's ancient kings. They keep it up, and it is a beautiful park.

All in all, it was a great day. And I worked it out, it only cost me about $12 Canadian for all food and transportation. Best 12 bucks I ever spent!

Lots of pictures on my website.

Picking Mangos II

2006-05-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

Picked mangos again. This time I got a close up of the picker itself (refering to the object on the left--not me).

Grain Jai

2006-05-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, say it was your turn to do the dishes and you forgot, and your roommate went ahead and did them for you. You say, "Awe, you shouldn't have." and you kinda feel bad that they went to the effort to do something that was your job (note that you are a GOOD roommate). How would you describe how you feel? "I feel...." what? Ok, I'll tell you. You feel "grain jai".

The Thais have a word for it, but I don't know of an English equivalent, and frankly I don't know how we've gotten this far without it. It is a distinct feeling. It's a little bit of embarrassment. It's a little bit of feeling bad. It's a little bit of helplessness. It's wishing you could do something to change it so it didn't inconvenience someone else, but you know you can't. Thats grain jai.

So I'm going to start using grain jai to describe the feeling. English needs that word. When you finally see a grain jai emoticon, you'll know what that is.

Cambodia Visa Run

2006-05-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

This blog entry is not like my usual entries. This one is for documentation purposes, so that it exists somewhere on the net. This was originally written for teams that are staying at The Life Center church in Chonburi, Thailand. But it could be adapted to almost any group. Prices are accurate as of April 2006. Pictures are by Dave & Shannon Harder and me.

If you are planning to stay in Thailand more than 30 days, you will most likely be taking a trip to get out of the country and right back in again, to renew your visa. We call this a "Visa Run". The nearest country from Chonburi (and Bangkok) is Cambodia. Once you've been there, you'll know why we wrote these instructions. It is it quite (some would say intentionally) confusing.

Prices:

Air Conditioned 15 passenger van with driver (from Chonburi): 1800 Baht/day (regardless of number of passengers)
Gas for the van: 1000 Baht
Cambodian visa application (with photo): 1000 Baht
Cambodian visa application (no photo): 1100 Baht
Guide: 200 Baht/person

Times:

About 3.5 to 4 hours travel time each way
About 2-4 hours for paperwork and standing in lines (depends on the lines, AVOID SATURDAY)

Step 0: Checklist BEFORE YOU LEAVE

Passport
Pen
1000 Baht (or $20 US) for Cambodian Visa
Make sure you have a Thailand departure slip stapled inside your passport (and filled out).
Passport Photo: You will need one on your Cambodian visa application form. If you don't, it will cost an extra 100 Baht. You can get passport photos taken at a photo shop (Kodak). Getting photos ahead of time is the cheaper alternative.
You may want to bring a book, pillow, food, water, diskman, portable dvd player etc. The ride is about 3.5 hours. There are gas stations along the way for bathroom breaks.
You can leave stuff in the van or take it with you. They don't check your luggage/backpack.
...and finally your Passport!
Tip: Leave early to avoid long lines. We left from Chonburi at 5:00am
Tip: Go on a weekday to avoid long lines. They are open Saturdays but it is busy!
Tip: Note that $20 US is a better price than paying 1000 baht for a visa. If you have US money, now is a good time to use it (exact change required for either currency).

Step 1: Getting to the border

Shortly after you arrive and park, one or more "guides" will come up and say that you pay them and they will guide you through. Others will say that if you let them guide you, it will be faster than if you do it yourself. That isn't true. They may also tell you that they have a special relationship and you will save money by going through them. That is not true either. BUT if you want someone to hold your hand through the process, they WILL do that. And they cost about 200 Baht extra per person.
From the parking lot you see a huge market. The road forks. Take the left fork. A little ways down you will see a dirt hill that has lots of people with carts. Go over the dirt hill.

Step 2: Exit Thailand (customs)

Make sure your departure slip (stapled in your passport) is filled out.
You will first walk through what looks like a border crossing station, but that isn't the border.
Head to the departure building. This is on the LEFT side of the road (looking into Cambodia)
Wait in line (You have a "Foreign Passport")
The Thai customs will remove the departure slip and stamp your passport, and you'll be on your way.
Note: If you overstayed your welcome (stayed longer than 30 days, you will be fined 500 Baht per day for every day beyond the 30 days.

Step 3: Apply for Cambodian Visa

Walk across the street and down the road to the Cambodia Visa Office. This is on the RIGHT side of the road (looking into Cambodia) and it has rows of chairs out front.
Fill out the visa application form:
- you are a tourist
- you are entering at POIPET
- you came from Thailand
- If you don't know the answer to a question (like address in Cambodia), leave it blank
Hand in your visa application along with your passport and 1000 Baht (or $20 US)
Wait for your passport to be processed (about 20 minutes)

Step 4: Enter Cambodia (customs)

You can walk or take the free transport service into Cambodia (it's a diesel, open tour bus--not the guys with the carts). It's not very far so it's not a huge deal. But it will stop right in front of the Cambodia customs office.
The customs building is on the RIGHT side of the road (looking into Cambodia).
As you enter the customs building, someone should be there handing out Cambodia entry/exit slip. You need this to get in and out of Cambodia so find a guy with the slips.
Fill out the Cambodia arrival/departure slip:
- You are a TOURIST
- Your visa was obtained in POIPET, visa number is not important
- If you don't know the answer to a question, leave it blank
Tip: Fill out both sides of the entry/exit slip, because once the exit slip is stapled into your passport, it's harder to fill out.
Then you're IN CAMBODIA! Do what you like, but if you want to keep things moving, you will walk across the street to the other customs building to exit Cambodia.

Step 5: Leave Cambodia (customs)

Same basic line, different direction.
This building is pretty much directly across the street, with a giant DEPARTURE sign.

Step 6: Enter Thailand (customs)

Walk the back to the Thai customs "building" (actually it's pretty open). This is on the LEFT side of the street (facing Thailand). It is past the Cambodia visa office, right after the bridge.
As you approach the line, there is a table with guys handing out Thai entry/exit slips. Pick one up and fill it out while you are in line.
Fill out the Thailand arrival/departure slip:
- Read the instructions!
- For address in Thailand, use TLC's address: P.O. Box 25, Bang Saen, Chonburi 20130
- You are a TOURIST
- You are NOT on a group tour
- If you don't know the answer to a question, leave it blank
Tip: Fill out both sides of the entry/exit slip, because once the exit slip is stapled into your passport, it's harder to fill out.
Tip: If you have a 60 day Thailand visa, make sure they see the page in your passport. Otherwise they will stamp it with a 30 day visa and you will have problems on your next visa run (voice of experience).

Step 7: Go home

Go back the way you came. Go through the big building in the people lane and over the hill.
When you go over the hill there is a tent with one final check. Men go through one side, women through the other. You must go through this on the way back.
You can spend some time in the market if you like. You will be harassed by child beggars and sunglasses salesmen.

I hope this helps. I know I sure would have appreciated a guide like this. If this helped you, leave me a comment eh?

The World Wide Blog

2006-04-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I looked at a friend's blog and they had some links to some other blogs of people that I know. And those people has other links to more blogs of people I know, and so on. Apparently there are a lot of people that I know that have blogs....

Endsville Flask, dgoerz, Nicolette, Ange "the cat" Mandel, Tim&Robyn, bronnyblog, Fat Tony, Any Janzen, Seto Safari, The Nesdolys, The Bakers, Cara, Kathy, The Englers, Julene Indonesia, Rebekah Janzen, Steve & Carolyn, Steve Klassen, The Harnetts, The Thoutenhoofds

And those are just the people that I know (or have met at least once in real life). There are a few more of people that I don't really know.

After reading a lot of blogs, and keeping one myself, I thought I would share my take on blogs:

Blogging is kinda fun because you can write about life (like a diary) but other people can read it and keep up to date on what is going on in your life (general or personal). To an extent, what and how you write will determine your audience, which could be thousands of people, or maybe it's just your mom. It has a different feel than email, but it serves a different purpose. Emailing 100 people you know, to tell them about your latest adventure, is not a good idea if only 10 of those people really care. And it sucks if there are 30 people who do care, that are not on your email list! But if you blog it then anyone that is interested can check out your blog when they want, if they want.

Everyone has the right (freedom) to keep a blog. Different people use blogs for different purposes.

Category #1: I think the best use of a blog is to keep friends and family up to date when you don't live in the same town. It is also an easy way to share pictures, and it doesn't plug up anyone's email box. I see a lot of young families doing this and I think it's great. Their audience is mostly family but it allows friends to have a peek into their lives too.

Category #2: Then there are the people that blog about their life but their audience seems to be their friends, who live in the same town as them. I'm not sure what purpose that serves. I would rather talk to my friends in person, than blog it and hope they read it. Get off the computer and get out and socialize! I scratch my head on those blogs, but maybe they are in category #3.

Category #3: Then there are the people that like to write, and would be keeping a journal or diary anyway. But they have decided to let others look in on their life. They aren't writing for anyone but themselves. So if you read their blog, you get what you get. I can respect that. Some people just have a lot of thoughts and need to get them written out. Some of the thoughts are really good, and I'm glad they are willing to share them.

I think I fit into categories 1 and 3. My friends and family are spread out so this blog allows me to reach a lot of people really easily. I think I also fit somewhat into category #3. I want a record for myself of all the things I experience, yet I am glad that there is an audience that enjoys what I write. It encourages me to write more.

Things I'm Gonna Miss

2006-04-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

There are so many good things in this country, so here is an unsorted list of things I'm going to miss...

The whole bathroom is a shower.
If you leave something out, it heats up instead of cools down.
Songtaus that will pick you up and drop you off ANYWHERE on the route.
Good meals for a buck (drink included).
Using a sprayer instead of toilet paper. Maybe this is more information than you wanted to know, but I've stopped using toilet paper. Cleaning your rear with water instead of toiliet paper is cleaner, more thorough and you don't have to buy toilet paper. It takes a while to get use to, but now if I build a house for myself, every toilet will have a sprayer.
No tax (it's hidden in the price).
Access to a drum kit and a bass guitar, anytime.
Everyone smiles at each other. General good will toward their fellow man.
Everyone has a level of respect. This place breeds much fewer jerks.
Limited rules and regulations so you can do something dangerous and still have fun.
Picking and eating fresh mangos.
Songkran.

My Hump Song

2006-04-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

Just in case you wanted to know, the most popular song in this country seems to be "My Hump" by the Black Eyed Peas. It's not a very intelligent song, nor a topic that I would bring up at the dinner table, or anywhere else for that matter. But I guess it's got a catchy beat, and they just love to play it. In fact there are even a couple of different versions. If a movie is in the Theatre for a week, that is a long time. But I guess songs are different, because they've been playing this one for the whole time I've been here. I am guaranteed to hear it at least once every market night (which is 3 nights a week), and other places too. Stupid song.

Picking Mangos

2006-04-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

I picked mangos the other day. I have an open invitation Sanchez's (missionaries) to pick mangos at their house anytime. Did I mention I LOVE mangos? I know I could buy mangos in the market but I like to pick them myself because a) they're free and b) because I can.

The cool thing is that I'm doing them a favour. They don't have time to pick them all so the mangos just fall off the tree and litter their driveway. Once they hit the ground, they split open and the ants get them. The best mangos are the ones that you pick and then let ripen. There's nothing like a juicy ripe mango (except maybe a juicy ripe peach, but in my opinion, mangos are better).

Mixed Feelings

2006-04-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

As I write this, it is now less than a month before I return to Canada. As I've lived here and the novelty has started to wear off, it is easy to forget how lucky I am to be here. It is just as easy to forget all the logistics of getting here and staying here. And it is sad to think that I may not return to Thailand for this length of time ever again. Yes I still have a month to go, but I can already feel my departure date coming up really fast, as the days fly by on the calendar.

Yes, I miss Canada, my friends, my family, (my car); and I will be glad to see them again. But I know that it will be probably no more than a month before everything is familiar again, and I will look back on the first 4 months of 2006 and realize how lucky I was to spend it in Thailand.

Songkran Castles

2006-04-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

Part of the festivities of Songkran in Bang Saen involves building sand castles on the beach. Man there must have been about 50 of them. They looked really nice, like they were professional or something--and maybe some were. But I was told that they build the structures out of wood and then spray the sand on. Once you know that dirty little secret, then they aren't quite as awe inspiring. Some of the sculptures were obvious works of art (there are some things you can't fake with wood), and other sculptures were perfect--a little too perfect. Something that is truly made of sand should not contain screw heads.

As creative as each sculpture was, they really weren't thinking outside the box. The monument theme got old fast, and they always included something from Buddhism (the face of Buddha, sculptures of Buddha, spirit houses, etc). The sand castle competition in Harrison every year is WAY better. But hey, it was free and it was still better than I could do. Check out my pics for more.

Everything Is A Little Zappy - Part II

2006-04-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

It has become common knowledge at the church that you do NOT touch anything electrical at the church unless you are wearing (insulating) sandals--especially the microphones. The problem stems from the fact that nothing is grounded. I originally thought that was OK because all the floors are ceramic tile, and ceramic is not conductive (it is in fact a very good insulator). But apparently the grout between the tiles and the finishing coating on the tiles IS conductive. Hence you get zapped when you touch the metal part of the microphone if you have bare feet.

So I was curious to know just how much electricity was buzzing through my system when I touched some of the equipment the other day (I was wearing sandals but they were wet so I got zapped). I took my multimeter, I attached one probe to the "grounded" part of the microphone, and I touched the other probe to the grout between the tiles: 150 VOLTS! That's a lot of volts. OK, putting things into perspective: Electrical outlets in Canada are only 120V. No wonder it hurt.

A technical side note: The voltage on the microphone seems to be enough to shock people but it is very low current (I measured it)--and it's the current that kills you. Even 12V can be lethal in the right conditions. So please don't feel at liberty to go out and stick your finger into empty light sockets just because over here we're getting zapped by microphones that carry a higher voltage.

Electronics Paradise

2006-04-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

I went to Bangkok with my friend Beer (he's a person, not a beverage). He is also an electrical engineer (well, just finishing up his degree). So we have a lot of common interest, and would discuss it at length except for a GIANT language barrier. We get by.

There are no Radio Shacks in Thailand. If you need a decent selection of electronic parts, you go to Bangkok. More specifically you go to the biggest electronics market I've ever seen. I guess you could call it Bangkok's Electronics District. I decided not to take pictures because they wouldn't capture the place. There are HUNDREDS of little shops. Then you can enter buildings along the road which contain even tinier shops. Some are only 6ft by 4ft and they are just big enough for one person to sit behind the counter. You view their selection from the narrow corridor that you are walking down.

Pros: Lots of variety. Everything is really cheap.
Cons: Everyone carries mostly the same stuff. You have to search hundreds of stores to find the less common things.

And that actually sums it up for a lot of speciality places in Thailand. There are very few all encompassing department stores. Most of the sales are from tiny, family-run businesses. At the beginning it is overwhelming to see all the stores with all sorts of goodies. But after 20 stores, you realize that everyone carries pretty much the same as the next guy with only slight variation (or none at all). So there you have it. It's great for the treasure hunter, but exhausting for the guy who just wants to buy it and leave.

But to leave things on a happy note, it was a cool experience to see another side of Bangkok, and I will probably never see that many electronic components spanning that many streets again.

Songkran

2006-04-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Songkran is the Thai New Year. It is a celebration that starts April 13 (the official Songkran day). On that day, it is tradition to bless the elders of your family by pouring scented water on their hands (I think it is to cool them off, or to symbolize it, because this is the hottest time of the year). That is the reverent part of Songkran. The days following are when everyone breaks lose and the entire kingdom has a water fight.

Bang Saen, where I am located, is a Thai vacation town. We have a really HUGE LONG beach (such that when you are in the ocean it goes as far as you can see in both directions. Probably about 2-3km solid). And everyone flocks to the beaches, so we probably get to see the best of Songkran. The church is also on the main drag through town. This is very convenient for observing and participating in the water fight.

Try to imagine our road out front: a 6 lane street with a median down the middle. And hundreds upon hundreds of pickup trucks in virtual gridlock in both directions. Each truck has between 3 and 15 people in the back and 1 or 2 huge barrels filled with water. As they drive down the street they scoop out water from the barrels (with plastic bowls) and throw it at other trucks and at people on the street. And the people on the street do the same. The ultimate destination is the beach, but people drive along the main drag in both directions because that is where much of the excitement is. We took a drive away from town along the main highway that leads to Bangkok. We were fine but the traffic heading toward Bang Saen was pretty much stopped, for miles. I've just never seen anything like it.

There are also no shortage of water guns. And they're cheap too. 10 bucks Canadian will get you a pretty sweet machine (like a $30 super soaker). But the streams are always so small and you spend half the day pumping the stupid thing. I found that nothing delivers water better than a bucket.

Oh ya, and then there is this clay-like powder that they mix with water and smear on your cheeks. They hop off the trucks and cover your cheeks with the stuff and wish you a happy Songkran. It's all in good fun, and the stuff is not at all gritty, and comes off instantly with water.

Every day is like 35C, so getting hit with water is actually refreshing. The tap water is actually warm. We have one garden hose running from the church out to the street where we fill up a garbage can. We can't fill that thing up fast enough. There are that many people to soak. There are also guys that go around selling huge blocks of ice to put in your containers to cool off the water (blocks like 18"x12"x12"). This makes the water REALLY cold and of course then you get better reactions when you soak people with it. We bought 2 blocks once and I think they were gone in 15 minutes.

It's pretty much a given that if you are in the street or on the sidewalk, you are fair game (if you really didn't want to play, you would take the backroads). Our favorite targets are the songtaus (the pickups with seats that are like local buses). I don't know why you would take one if you didn't want to get wet. Not only that, but it's faster to walk than to drive. That's our favorite target, because most of those people are unarmed. The other favorite are the pickup trucks that are so full of people that they didn't have room for a water barrel. They're just sitting (or standing) ducks. Open windows are fair game too. So why they will roll down the passenger side window is beyond me. We generally leave it alone but they are asking for it. And then there are tour buses and you will get the odd one with a window open. I don't think those guys want to be hit but man, they're asking for it.

An Element of Respect

Here's the part that I think is the coolest (and why this would never work in Canada): There is an element of respect throughout the festivities. For example, street vendors selling (much needed) food and drinks will set up right on the side of the main road. But no one will spray them, or douse their food with water (at least not intentionally). When they put the powder on your face, they don't try to get it in your eyes or your ears or in your mouth (some might depending on if they are drunk or not, but so far I've only got it on cheeks and forehead). And ya, some people do get drunk and may take things too far. The girls have to be more careful than the guys (who might want to smear Songkran powder on more than just their face). But the number of decently sober people seem to far outweigh the not so sober people. Also, they don't spray little kids, and they don't go out of their way to soak people who obviously aren't "playing". Overall, the point is to have fun, not to tick people off. Man if we tried this in Canada, we would have riots, fights, assaults, arrests and everything else that comes with idiots being idiots. Over here it's about having fun, with the people who want to have fun. I like that.

At the time that I am writing this, I have soaked people with water for two days now (Thursday I "distributed" water to the masses from 1:30-6:30pm almost non-stop). And we have at least 2 more days to go. It has been crazy but expect the weekend will become even more intense as more people get time off work. If you have read this entire entry, I'm proud of you.

Kids Camp For A Day

2006-04-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

Saturday I spent the day at a Thai resort. World Vision sponsors a whole bunch of kids in this province of Thailand (money to go to school and get a good education). So now school is out (for Thai kids) and World Vision put on a kids camp last weekend. The TREK team and I were in charge of all of Saturday, about 10am to 8pm. The TREK team only got back Friday night from their mid-term vacation. I've never seen so little planning for such a long period of time!

The kids were middle school age. I've never been a youth sponsor, but some people on TREK had been, so they knew the art of faking it. If you look like you know what's going on, they'll believe it. It wasn't completely unorganized. We had some stuff planned, but nothing was rehearsed, we just did it.

I found out that middle school Thai kids are pretty shy. They also don't hold hands very well. And every single one of them had a "dead fish" handshake. I guess when you've grown up in a society that avoids physical contact, that's what you get.

It was a good experience. I came out of it a little wiser. And a little more certain that I was not destined to be a youth pastor.

My Future

2006-04-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

It's been no secret that I don't think I will be in Thailand long term. Some people have asked me what made me change my mind about Thailand. The answer is I never changed my mind. I came here because I felt called (or I felt something. Whatever you call it when you get a strong desire to return to a country and you can't get it out of your head). Part of me coming here was to determine whether I was called to Thailand long term or not. Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoy it here. It's a lot of fun actually, and it doesn't really feel like work. It's almost like a vacation except that I have stuff to do. The biggest thing that has turned me off to continuing longer is my own personality. I am not a people person like everyone else here. Nor am I a kids person. I'm a sit-at-the-computer person. Part of that is my job. Ok, I help out with interpersonal activities (such as teaching English twice a week) but it's not what I'm naturally drawn to. Overseas missionaries need to be people persons, otherwise they might as well be working in Canada. I feel like the work that I'm doing here is temporary. It will meet their current technical needs but that isn't ongoing (at least I don't think it is).

I don't think there is a need for a full time techie just for Team 2000. Ya, they always have videos to make and problems to fix, but not enough to justify a full time person. That would be overkill. If I was able to raise my own support, I could probably find enough work being a missionary techie for say, all of Asia (websites, video, computer tech support). That would be a pretty serious commitment, and it's just thoughts right now. I think my next step will be in Canada, but I really don't know what the future holds in Canada or what the future holds after that.

This is where I need God's guidance and your prayers.

Convenience Stores and Sewers

2006-04-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of 7-11 convenience stores in Thailand. In the city you are never more than a 10 minute walk from one. And even if you were more than 10 minutes away, you are never more than 2 minutes away from a local convenience store (not always a full store, but they'll at least have drinks and usually some chips). Now that's convenience.

Thailand also has a very large sewage system, not unlike most developed countries. The difference is that you KNOW it's there. There are metal grills and concrete slabs EVERYWHERE. (Under the concrete slabs is the giant sewer pipe. The slabs also have a couple of holes in them, probably for lifting them up, but also for pouring stuff into them and ventilation). 7-11 is the name of a store, but it is also the average number steps you have to take before stepping on either a concrete slab or a metal grille over the sewer pipe, as you walk along the side of the road. There are literally that many. For clarification, the storm drain system is not separate from the sewer system. There is only one system, and that means that there is a lot of raw sewage beneath your feet and it often smells as much. It becomes a part of life. You just have to know that when you're in the city, don't take a deep breath and expect fresh air, you may just get a waft of the sewer smell.

The Three Hour Tour

2006-04-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

We have made some friends in Ang Sila, a small fishing village about a 15 minute drive from TLC (still part of Chonburi). That lead to us doing some clean up and building work for them (the MEI team helped out with that). And to show some of their gratitude, they invited the TREK team and I on a tour on a fishing boat. Sweet.

Before we got into the boat, we got to see one of the things they harvest...jellyfish. GIANT jellyfish. Each one of them was the biggest I've ever seen. We're talking around 18" in diameter for some of them. Check out the pictures. Apparently there is good money to be made in harvesting jellyfish, but I wouldn't eat them.

There is a lot more activity happening out in the ocean than you can see from land. Apparently the water is fairly shallow even WAY WAY out in the water (like a couple of kilometres). I know this because there are clusters of bamboo poles sticking out of the water. Even some elaborate bamboo structures that are solidly anchored in the ocean floor (see my pictures in late March).

First we stopped where guys were harvesting mussels. It looks like they pound bamboo poles into the ocean floor and leave them there for a long time (just sticking out of the water). Over time, mussels and coral grow all over them. Then divers bring them up and they scrape them off. The mussel shells were a nice green colour, not the black that I see at home. In between the mussels are a whole lot of other sea creatures like baby shrimp and tiny crabs.

Next stop was at a boat that was collecting crabs. I think the fishing guys must all know each other cause this guy gave us a bucket of crabs for free. All the crabs were already tied up with elastics, rendering them "safe". They have a way of tying a crab up with 1 elastic band. The coolest thing about these crabs were that their legs were a beautiful light blue colour. He also gave us a horseshoe crab. That was a very interesting looking creature. See the pictures to see what I mean.

After a while the severe rocking of the boat got to Tony and he had to lie down for a bit. Even I was wondering if I was going to start feeling noxious. There wasn't a whole lot of room on deck, as it was a very small boat (about 20 feet long I'm guessing). Plus the deck was at quite a steep angle, not at all flat. And we had around 10 or 12 people on board.

Then we docked at a different pier for a few minutes and some of the Thai guys got out and left. We didn't understand what was going on until they came back. We had stopped for more beer.

We travelled some more and eventually ended up at this processing house on stilts in the middle of the ocean. It seemed to be abandoned but it was big. The stilts were concrete and the floor of the place was about 10 feet above the water (depending on the tide). It too had large concrete tubs, (like the ones we saw on shore with all the jellyfish) but they were all empty. We stayed there a while and swam in the ocean (it was warm). Some of the guys even cooked up some of the crab for the ride home.

All in all it was a really cool experience to see what stuff is out there to be harvested and to see how they do what they do.

The Neighbours

2006-04-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

It's 5:55am and I can't sleep. I woke up at about 5:30 and now that I'm awake it is going to be hard to get to get sleep. The time between 3:00am and 8:00am is best spent sleeping because that's when the noise starts.

The most annoying neighbour isn't a person, it's a rooster. He starts up at about 3:00am and doesn't stop until well into the day. He's like every 10 seconds. I would not be opposed to a couple of gunshots in his direction. At 6:00am (about now) the birds start up, and I don't mind that so much because it is mainly background noise. But it was sure a lot quieter before.

I am in a townhouse, with neighbours on both sides. I have come to realize just how thin the walls are. You can buy some incredibly thin cheap cinder blocks. One good hit with a hammer and they crumble. But they use them anyway. When they're finished a wall they cover it with stucco and that's it. But it still would take only a couple of good hits with a hammer to make a hole big enough to tell my neighbours to shut up.

For the most part, the neighbours have been fine. But this morning someone has been dropping a ping pong ball onto the floor and letting it bounce. THAT is annoying at 5:30 in the morning! Tim & Robyn of the TREK team are two doors down. Tim says he can hear the guy fart next door. We share the same neighbour and I haven't heart anything but I believe him. Oh and then there was the other day when the lady next door was just yelling at the top of her lungs (fortunately this was around 9:00am). She was obviously mad at someone or something, only I didn't hear anyone respond (but that was way too loud to be talking on a cell phone).

All this to say I'm getting more and more awake and I would really like to be sleeping right now. #$@%^$%$#%$!!

Life At The Orphanage

2006-04-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

The orphanage is really just a two storey, two bedroom townhouse. It sits empty except at night when I'm here sleeping or typing on the computer (like I am right now). And I've got A/C and a very large, comfortable bed so I'm happy. But life here has had its moments. Here is a summary of my adventures (some of this is a rant).

A few days after moving in, the water started coming out of the tap in spurts. Then it just stopped coming out altogether. So I check the tank outside and it was EMPTY (everyone has a tank at their house in case of a water outage). Valves were open but no water. Turns out whoever was at the place last, turned off the water when they left, and I had been using tank water the whole time. Mystery solved (thanks Tim).

Nobody told me that there was going to be someone cleaning the place while I was there. I first found out about the mystery person because the pillows on my bed would get moved around. Not a big deal but c'mon, leave my pillow alone.

Went into the kitchen one evening and discovered a giant spider. I think there is a picture of him in my photo album. He must have been 2" in diameter (with the legs). Tony wanted to kill him, but the spider moved extremely fast and went up into a crack in the ceiling. I haven't seen him since, and I've decided he must have moved next door.

Came home one day and flicked the switch for the lights. Nothing. Checked the breakers, they were all on. A power outage? But my neighbours had lights on. So I go to check the power meter on the telephone pole in front of my house. THE METER IS GONE! I call Karen, who calls the landlord, who comes over right away to inspect the non-existant meter. Apparently he sent someone to pay the electrical bill and the guy didn't pay it (and when you don't pay your bill, that's it, no power for you!) He was very appologetic and offered a room at his house. I declined, but took all my bedding and slept at Tony & Scott's place.

The next day I brought my bedding back, and put it on my bed. I left it in a ball because I didn't know if I was really going to get electricity that day. When I came back that night at 11:00pm I had power! Went upstairs and my bedding had disappeared! It's 11:00 at night, and my bedding is gone. AAAAAAAH! What are you supposed to do in a situation like this? I can't go back to the church (it's past 11), and there are no other sheets in the orphanage. I concluded that the cleaning lady had assumed the bedding was off to be cleaned and took it to the laundrymat (turns out I was right). Well intentioned I'm sure, but I need that bedding EVERY night. Finally, I took a comforter from the other bedroom and slept without sheets.

About a week ago, Goi and I were in the office when 2 vanloads of kids show up at the front doorsteps of the church. We were the only ones at the church and neither of us had any idea what this was about. They were from Lorenzo Home which is a catholic AIDS orphanage nearby. They wanted to see the orphanage. OH. For you see, I wasn't expecting any visitors. And although the place wasn't really messy, it wasn't exactly presentable. So we got on the phone with Karen pretty quick and so Goi waited with the Nun and the Kids while I high tailed it to the orphanage for some quick sweeping and putting away of some unmentionables that I had left out to dry. I learned that when living in an orphanless orphanage, always have the place presentable.

In my quick sweep job, I swept up 2 cockroaches who were upsidedown and dead. It seems that if a cockroach finds himself on his back, there is nothing he can do to remedy the situation. What I want to know is what they were doing to get themselved in that situation in the first place. One of the cockroaches had died in front of the refridgerator. The day after I swept up, there was another cockroach on his back in front of the refridgerator. What's the deal with dying on your back in front of the refridgerator?? And if I clean this one up, will another one take its place?

Those are the adventures so far. I guess the next thing would be the wireless internet which keeps going down (as I write this, the internet is down). Oh well, it all keeps life interesting.

God At Work

2006-04-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

This is from a letter that Karen Hubert Sanchez of Team 2000 just recently sent out.
-----
This just happened. For the last few weeks, P' Ganiga, one of our newer believers, has been sharing her burden for her boss, P' Laan. P' Ganiga was able to walk with her boss as she discovered she had breast cancer, and went to Bangkok with her to visit the doctor there. P' Ganiga was burdened for P' Laan because she did not want to obey the doctor and have her breast removed.

Carmen got a group of us from TLC together and we went to share Christ with P' Laan and pray for her. During this time, it just so happened that Dan and Agnes Ratzlaff from Abbotsford were here scouting out some land for our church. A few years earlier, Agnes had experienced God's grace while fighting kidney cancer, and she was happy for the chance to share her story with P' Laan. We went last Monday afternoon and Agnes shared some scriptures and her story and then we prayed and laid hands on P' Laan. Her surgery was scheduled for Friday.

On Friday, P' Laan went to Bangkok for her surgery, and the doctor examined her before the surgery. He told her to go home. She was cancer free!!! Amazed, P' Laan admitted to P' Ganiga that she too had prayed that Monday after she received prayer. She prayed her very first prayer and silently told God that if He would heal her, she would go to church every Sunday.

Yesterday, P' Laan came to church for the first time ever, keeping her promise to God. She loved it all...the worship and the preaching and the fellowship.

Pray for P' Laan to meet the God that healed her and to grow in her new faith.
-----
Wow, eh? This is the kind of stuff I hear about around here! I know that I'm "way over there in Thailand" and it may not sound as exciting because the news is second hand and you don't know the people. But P'Laan was at our church this Sunday. This is a real person who HAD real cancer, and was really healed! Really. I mean you don't just schedule a surgery in Bankok unless it is serious. Can you imagine having the doctor say to you "Why are you here? There's nothing wrong with you."!!?? Wow. Anyway, I share this with you to increase your faith, and to encourage you that prayer DOES work. God is listening and he answers prayer. Really.

The Chicken Ladies

2006-04-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Beef is hard to find here. It's just not mainstream. The big meats here are pork, seafood and chicken. And that's fine with me cause I like pork and chicken and I can tolerate seafood.

I have become a regular customer with two chicken ladies (for the CHICKEN, not for the ladies!! Sheesh, they're in their 40's.) The first chicken lady was shown to me by Ricky. He brings all the visiting teams to her for a meal. She is set up at the beach at light pole #4 and she's there every day serving chicken and sticky rice. And now she even sells fresh beef and pork jerky (the best you'll ever have). Here chicken is barbequed chicken breast chopped into strips (bone and all). Served with a dipping hot sauce, it is really good stuff.

The second chicken lady was actually my own discovery. I went to a food market near the university in search of some form of deep fried chicken ("guy tot" for those of you who don't speak Thai). And I found this one lady with her little stand selling deep fried chicken. It looks and tastes like KFC but it is BONELESS and WAY CHEAPER. About 5 baht per piece (remember 35 baht is a dollar). And she's there every night. Man, after having her chicken, going to KFC is a step down! I think I'm addicted.

Pants vs. Shorts, Heat vs. Mosquitoes

2006-04-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

You may know that we are in the middle of summer here. What you may not know is that I'm not wearing shorts. The reasons stem partly from abundant air conditioning, but mostly from the hassle of wearing shorts (wow, I never thought I would ever call shorts a "hassle").

I am required to wear pants for both church and English classes. Pants are more respectable than shorts, and so they are required for church and especially in a teaching position such as English class. So that takes care of 3 days of pants (yes I could wear shorts the rest of the time but I'm lazy and I don't feel like changing in the middle of the day). But the main reason I wear pants is because of mosquitoes. For the first while I wore shorts and my legs were getting eaten. Pants solved that problem. Plus, I've adapted to the weather and I don't find it unbearable to wear pants all the time.

So there you go: Pants or Mosquitoes? I choose pants.

My New Blog Home

2006-04-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog site.

After doing a bunch of research on the most popular blog sites, I concluded that blogger/blogspot is definitely the best one. They are owned by Google now, and that means realiability (I'm talking to you diary-x), speed, lots of features, and lots of storage space. Too bad I didn't research this BEFORE I started blogging.

Now I wish that I could move my old blog entries over to here. So if you want to read my old blogs, go to http://jonknoll.blog.com

P.S. My appologies to those who now have to sign up with yet another blog site so they can post comments.

P.P.S. For those who use newsreaders, my link is http://jonknoll.blogspot.com/atom.xml (For those who don't know what I'm talking about...uh, never mind).

Hot

2006-03-30T07:23:00.000-08:00

Summer is here. The weather skips spring altogether and moves from "winter" right into summer. You know it's hot when the Thais start complaining about the heat. It seems that hot weather for them is like rain for me; they're used to it but they don't like it. Not me however, I love the heat. I just love that every day is hot, every evening is warm. I never have to grab a jacket to go out at night. The weather is definitely one of the things I am going to miss when I move back to Canada. (Of course I am writing this from an air conditioned room. I might not be singing the praises of warm weather so much if I didn't have the air conditioning.)

With the intense heat has come some intense storms. When it rains it pours. But I don't mind because it is short lived, and the streets are dry in about an hour (crazy).

Close to Jackfruit

2006-03-30T06:24:00.000-08:00

I have really gotten a taste for Jackfruit. It's a fruit that's really hard to describe, so I'm not going to try. And I'm really going to miss it if I can't find it in Canada (and I don't think I will find it). Mind you, they import durian, and jackfruit is about the same size and not nearly as horrible.

If I haven't said it in my blog yet, I must say it now: I love the location of The Life Center Church (which is where I work)! It is close to everything you could need: good cheap Thai restaurants, photocopy place, hardware stores, coffee shop, computer store, night market (right in front of the church), corner store that is virtually always open, 7-11, 2 food night markets that serve food until late, pharmacy and a shopping mall -AND- The Jackfruit Lady.

The Jackfruit Lady is about a 1 minute walk from the front door of the church. She is there just about every morning, cutting a jackfruit to sell the pieces. 20 Baht (65 cents) will get enough jackfruit for breakfast and a snack later on. She makes me think about how society works (well Thai society anyway). Everyone finds a job to do and does it. The jackfruit lady cuts and sells jackfruit at one little location in one suburb of a big city. It's not a particularly busy place, during her hours (which is about 10:00am-noon) but the population is dense enough to sustain her. Well anyway, I'm really glad that at least for a couple months in my life I am able to walk a very short distance to buy as much jackfruit as I want.

Testimonies

2006-03-25T06:46:00.000-08:00

Hello all. I thought you might be encouraged to hear the testimonies of a husband and wife who recently became believers. They are members of an AIDS chruch called Bet L, and they were baptized in the ocean today.

Kwan (wife): I first heard about Jesus when I was in the hospital being treated for AIDS I was laying in bed and a nurse came and shared the Story of Jesus’ love and forgiveness of my sins. I was very interested in knowing more about Jesus so I went to Church in Bet “L” . I gave my life to Christ that Saturday. After I became a Christian, my life and my health changed dramatically. I never had to stay in the hospital again after that. My first husband died of AIDS but when I started going to the Bet “L” church and receiving medicine, I met another man with HIV and fell in love with him. After we were married, my husband became very sick. The Doctors told me that because his lungs were full of water and he could not go the bathroom anymore, that it was a 50/50 percent chance that he would live. That day, I laid my hand on my husband’s swollen stomach and began to sing and worship God. I cried out for God to heal my husband. In the evening my husband suddenly had to go to the bathroom. All his swelling went down and he was greatly relieved! The next day, the doctors examined him and were surprised to see that all his symptoms were gone. Apart from HIV, he healthy again and was told he could go home immediately!

Phuak (Husband): One day I met a friend in the hospital with HIV who told me about Jesus. She said, “If you believe in Jesus, you’re life will change” I had no other hope in life so I prayed and gave me life to Christ. I was very addicted to alcohol. The Doctors had told me to stop many times because it was so hard on my sick body. But I couldn’t stop drinking no matter how hard I tried. One day after I prayed to God, I went out and got very drunk and fell down. That next Saturday, I went to church and told them my struggle. I asked them to pray for me to be able to stop. Many people came around me, laid hands on me and prayed for me. After that day, I have never drunk again. I thank God for freeing me from the bondage to alcohol! Before I believed in Jesus I was so sick but after I believed he healed me so much that I was able to go and work in a factory. Now for the first time in my life, I have money enough money to live on and take care of my family.

Praise God people are being healed not just physically, but spiritually too!

The Land Of The Good Enough

2006-03-16T21:36:00.000-08:00

One common theme that I've noticed throughout Thailand is that NOTHING is perfect. Everything is a little crooked, a little off, not quite straight etc. Where Canada is the "Land of the perfect", Thailand is the "Land of the Good Enough". The Thai workmanship stops when it is functional, not when it's perfect or beautiful. If it works...good enough.

Coming from a country where everything is done "right", it sometimes gets frustrating at the workmanship of the tradesmen. It's like they finish it good enough so it won't break while they're still there, and it will last just long enough so that if/when it breaks, there will be some question as to whose fault it is (and they will absolve themselves of blame). The same goes for the manufacturers. It will work long enough for you to get it home. Or things like the plastic will be so cheap and brittle that any slight mistreatment and the thing shatters.

The Thai wiring may look like a web spun by a giant drunk spider, but it works, so they leave it. The light switch might be upsidedown, and in the far corner of the room (or even better, in the next room over), but it turns the light on so that's good enough.

You can NEVER assume that two adjacent rooms will be at the same floor level. Way too often there will be a subtle, unmarked, 2" step. Not enough to see, but enough to trip over. Sometimes the floor level will change within the same room, so you must always be alert to this. On staircases, top stair or bottom stair (or both) will be a different hight than all the others. Like no one bothered to do the math to make all the stairs even. Sometimes you will get stairs unusually narrow and/or steep. Unsafe for sure, but it gets you from one level to the other, so what's your problem? It works, good enough.

The only place where they don't say "Good Enough" is with their cars. All the cars and pickups are perfect and they wash and wax them. There are very few "beaters" that I've seen (except for commercial vehicles). Strange.

Everything In A Bag

2006-03-16T21:22:00.000-08:00

I guess we do this in Canada too, but I find it funny that everything you buy--no matter how large or small--gets put into a bag. The standard Thai bag is a white semi-transparent crinkly plastic bag. They come in various sizes but most of them are pretty small. The best is when the the item is already packaged in a bag, and then they put that into a bag when you buy it. Or when you're in the market and you buy some deep fried whatevers, they put it into a small heat resistant plastic bag, and then put that bag into the standard Thai bag. By the way, the bag also makes a great substitute for a cup. A lot of fruit shake stands will give you a fruit shake in a bag rather than in a cup.

Tinglish

2006-03-16T21:13:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that when I talk to Thai people in English, I don't speak proper English, but more of a dumbed-down simplified English. I know that it's not really good if the Thai person is trying to learn to speak English properly, but if you use the "extra" words in your sentence, it just confuses them. It is butchering the English language for the sake of communication. Most of the time I want to convey a message. How that message is conveyed becomes secondary. Examples (to English speakers, to Thai speakers):

English: Where're you going?
Thai: Where you go?

English: I'm going over to Lamthong Mall.
Thai: I go to Lamthong.

In English we have two ways of saying verbs. For example, you can say it the simple way "I go" or the more complex way "I am going". Unfortunately, for some reason conversational English dictates using the complex way for most cases. And that requires a more complex form of the verb. Most Thais know only basic English, so if you want to be understood, you have to use the simple form of the verb. (Yes, yes, I know you might be thinking "Or you could just learn Thai"--I'm not there yet.)

To keep things simple, you have to cut out all the non-essential English words, such as : a, the, am, are and -ing endings.

Also, if you want to be understood better, you will have more luck if you say things in the butchered English way that the Thais say it, rather than saying it using proper English pronunciation. For example, there is a large department store here called Lotus (The full name is Tesco Lotus). I have asked the Songtau drivers to take me to Lotus (LOW-tus) and they give me a puzzled look. If you want to be understood you have to say TES-go Lot-AAAS. If you tell the van driver "Royal Ping Resort" he will not understand, but if you say "Loyl Ping", they will know what you are talking about.

Their English also takes some getting used to. For example, in Thai if a word ends with a consonant, you end the word with your mouth in the shape of the consonant as if you were going to say it, but you don't actually say it. Pronouncing the last consonant is a foreign concept to Thais, so they often don't do it. That means they don't say mouse, they say mou, and science becomes sien (silent n). Then theres the pronunciation of two consecutive consonants that really throws me. If they see two consecutive consonants, they try to put a vowel between them. So "st" becomes "set", "sp" becomes "sep", "tr" becomes "ter", "sc" becomes "sec". So the name "Scott" become "Secott", and "Sprite" becomes "Seprite". One time a student was telling me what software programs they use in school, he told me he was using Ill-you-set-ter-rater. That one really threw me. Eventually I figured out he was saying "Illustrator", but he was separating out those consecutive consonants (and butchering a perfectly good English word).

What I have learned is that learning another language goes deeper than just the different words and the accent. It means learning a number of rules about the pronunciation that we just don't have in English. The rules are foreign to us, but a lot of our rules are foreign to them. And it helps to explain why they have an accent.

Visa Run

2006-03-03T12:39:00.001-08:00

If you are going to stay in Thailand for any length of time over 30 days, most likely at some point you will have to go on a "Visa Run". You leave Thailand and cross the border into some neighbouring country and then turn around and re-enter Thailand. It is a pain, but that's what is required when your Thailand visa expires.

From Chonburi, the nearest border is Cambodia. It takes about 3 1/2 hours to get there. It is the most confusing border I have ever seen. There are people everywhere selling stuff, and it isn't very clear exactly WHERE the border is. There are buildings but the whole time we were just hopping from one building to the next, never sure when we actually crossed. Maybe the whole thing is intentionally confusing. That way, you feel the need to hire a guide, which will hold your hand through the whole process, for 200 Baht a person.

The most annoying part is that there is no free short term visa for Cambodia. When you enter Thailand, you automatically are granted a free 30 day tourist visa. For Cambodia, you have to pay 1000 Baht (about $25) and fill out a page long visa application, WITH a passport photo attached (I didn't know that, so I had to pay an extra 100 Baht). In a few minutes your Cambodian visa is added to your passport. Then you can go to the next building to get it stamped so you can get in.

Cambodia is a very poor country. My only memory of it was observing that they drive on the right side of the road. That's all I know because as soon as I got my passport stamped to get into the country, I walked across the street to the other building to get it stamped to leave. In total I was officially in Cambodia for 5 minutes.

I guess it's neat to be able to add another country to the list of places I've been, but I don't look forward to the day-long affair, the next time my visa expires.

Living in an Orphanage

2006-03-03T12:38:00.001-08:00

Well I'm not really an orphan, and it really isn't an orphanage...yet. But I'm living in an orphanage. Team 2000 and TLC Church have been working on a project to start an AIDS orphanage. If you know Ricky and Karen Sanchez, you may also know that they were in Canada for 4 months last year, doing almost nothing but fundraising for this orphanage. It worked, they raised over $100,000 USD (which is staggering when you turn it into Baht). Now the process has started and it is just a matter of logistics, setting up and running an orphanage.

The current situation is that they do not yet have any AIDS orphans, however, they do have a townhouse rented and partially furnished. But until the rest of the logistics work themselves out, I will be living there. It is more room than I need, and it is definitely more room than the 1 room apartment I was sharing with two other guys from the TREK team. Now I've got a king size bed, the room has A/C and a large front deck. It is unlikely I will be there when the orphanage gets going. (I am not a caretaker, and that is not why I'm here anyway). But I think I finally have a place to call my own, for now.

Ice Cream On A Bun

2006-02-26T09:04:00.001-08:00

Well I got daring enough to try it. Yes, ice cream on a bun. More specifically, here is how the order went: I tell the street vendor one ice cream on a bun (by pointing), she starts with a bun and puts two scoops of sticky rice on the bun. I tell her mai ow (don't want--I couldn't imagine adding sticky rice to the mixture), so she removes the sticky rice. Then she adds 5 small scoops of "ice cream" onto the bun, and tops it with what appears to be corn. This concoction was only 10 baht, thankfully. Although it was cheap, I think it was a waste of money. The ice cream didn't taste like ice cream, it was more like bun flavour (I guess to compliment the bun it was sitting on). The corn didn't help any and the sticky rice definitely would have been too much. Anyway, I didn't finish it. I couldn't.

This may beg the question, "why put corn on your ice cream?" Well over here, corn is actually considered a dessert. It is put on and in things, as one would do with fruit. I once bought yoghert and the label showed various fruits and corn. I thought, "they couldn't have put regular corn in the yoghert!" Well they did, and it tasted as much--not something I enjoyed. But apparently the Thais like it this way. I've seen one booth at a food court where all they sold was cups of hot corn kernels.

There may be other questions such as "Why put ice cream on a bun?", "Why put rice with your ice cream?" One of the missionaries told me his motto: "Why ask why?". It's not bad or immoral, it's just different. THEY probably don't know why they do it, they just do. They would probably ask you, "Why DON'T you put ice cream on a bun?"

His name is Bun... Spelled PLE

2006-02-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Everyone in Thailand has a nickname, which is a good thing since everyone in Thailand has a REALLY long real name (first and last). Their nicknames usually have nothing to do with their real names. Usually they are just common words or things, and some are in English and some are in Thai. One of the girls here has the nickname "Ying" which means (conveniently) "girl". Another one has the name Goong which means "shrimp". One of the guys around here has the English name "Beer". And another guy has the name "Bun"--spelled PLE. His name requires a bit more explanation.

Bun's nickname is actually from the english word "apple". But in the Thai language, they don't end words with "L". They can't, it's a foreign concept to them (much like it is a foreign concept to us to start a word with "ng"--which they do with ease). So instead of saying "l" at the end of a word, they will say something like "bun". So this guy's nickname is really the last syllable of the word "apple" and thus the spelling "Ple", but the Thais can't pronounce a word ending with "l" so his nickname is pronounced "Bun". You see, it totally makes sence when you understand a little bit of the language.

Change of Plans

2006-02-22T16:21:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my prayer letter, I wasn't able to help out in Chiang Mai the way I had hoped. The English/Thai/Computer training center had not been set up when I got there. Russell Schmidt was able to rent a place in the beginning of February but it still needed renovations. The end result is that it was decided that I would be better off in Chonburi. There is more to do there. So on Feb 17 I flew to Bankok, and then made my way to Chonburi. There is lots going on in Chonburi (more specifically The Life Center in Bang Saen). So I will be working with Team 2000 and the TREK team that is here.This is a sign on the back of a Tuk Tuk in Chiang Mai. I would have ridden with him if I only had somewhere to go. (Farang means "foreigner" in Thai).

A Bit About Northern Northern Thailand

2006-02-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

While I was in Chiang Mai, a team of pastors and businessmen were visiting from North America, touring all that is going on with MBMSI in Thailand. They also came up to Northern Thailand, and I was able to go with Russell to meet them. They flew (we drove) to Chiang Rai, which is 3 hours North of Chiang Mai. From there we drove to Chiang Khong. That is almost as far North as you can go in Thailand. It was really cool because the guest house we stayed at was right on the Mae Khong River, and right across the river was Laos.

We visited several Khmu villages and met with several Khmu pastors. Russell Schmidt's connection with the villages is that he disciples and encourages the Khmu pastors. The Khmu villages are tribal villages, very rural and very poor. But people are really turning to the Lord! It was cool to hear how several people on several different occasions, prayed and received healing. After they were healed, they turned to Jesus. Traditionally their religion was spirit and ancesstor worship. But they have seen the power of Jesus, and those who have turned from it say they are never turning back.

We also toured the "Golden Triangle". This is the border area (not strictly defined) of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma). It is more of a tourist trap than anything. We went on a boat ride up and down the Mae Khong River. Then we stopped on an island that is actually part of Laos. The whole island is full of Laocian tourist shops, selling tourist junk. But on the plus side, I can say I've been to Laos. And actually I think I've been to Burma too, although only borderwise, because I never really was on Burmese soil.

After being in Northern Thailand (and Northern Northern Thailand) and seeing all the work that Russell Schmidt is involved in, I must say that he sure has a lot of "irons in the fire". The unfortunate part about his work is that it is so spread out, and there is a considerable amount of time taken up just travelling to the various villages, and even around Chiang Mai. But I am glad to have seen it and I'm glad I was able to serve in a few small ways. God is blessing the Schmidt's ministry in Northern Thailand and I pray that the love of Jesus spreads like wildfire through those villages.

For a more visual tour, please check out my pictures.

Being Sick

2006-02-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

I guess it's all part of life, but I was sick. And that drastically decreased my motivation to blog, or do anything. It ended up being some sort of throat infection, which is why the caugh syrup and other pills didn't do anything. I got some antibiotics and that started to clear things up pretty quick. So I got to learn how medicine works in Thailand. It's funny how there are no "prescription drugs". Everything is available. In fact if you tell the pharmacist your symptoms, they will diagnose you and give you the drugs to fix it. The antibiotics I needed were sitting in a box on top of a bunch of other drugs, in one of the aisles. Nothing is really "behind the counter". The other thing that's different is the price. It's cheap. Maybe because it's not the real thing, but as long as it works I guess I don't care. 7 days worth of antibiotics cost 100 baht ($3.00 CAD). At least it's not expensive to get well.

Oh, yes they do have doctors. But if I would have gone to one, I would have paid in the order of 2000 Baht, so I was just as happy to not visit a doctor.

The Buddism of the common Thai

2006-02-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'm not one to really comment on such a thing, but it seems to me that the average Thai person is Buddhist, BUT not in a devout sense. I get the impression that the spirit houses, the little offerings and the status of being Buddhist are more to keep the status quo than to really make great strides for Buddhism. And I guess they do their duties to make merrit, but I don't see it really changing their lives. They do what they have to do to keep their families happy and to keep the status quo. Satan's got them right where he needs them. As long as they stay Buddist out of fear of shaming their family, they will never turn to Christianity. But these are just my thoughts, probably more naivety than anything.

Spiritual Update

2006-02-09T16:50:00.000-08:00

If you have been keeping up with my blogs, you may have noticed a lack of spiritual entries. It would seem ironic, since I am on a "missions" trip. The truth is, I don't feel any more spiritual here than I do at home. I write about my experiences. Currently my experiences are more comparing and contrasting Thai culture to Western culture. I'm sure God is teaching me things. But recently I haven't had any major revelations in my daily devotions.

One thing that I have started doing consistantly is bowing my head and praying before every meal. So often I have prayed in my head as I started to eat the meal, or just skipped praying altogether. I have been convicted that if I can't do that simple act, I must be embarassed or ashamed to show my Christianity. But I need to be unashamed of that which I believe. And part of that is through prayer. Not to mention that the food here actually needs praying for! You never know if the next meal is going to make you sick. So far so good, but I'm not taking any more chances.

Beer Shampoo

2006-02-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

I needed to buy shampoo today, so I went to a drugstore in the mall. Some of the cheapest shampoo was also the strangest. It's funny what kinds of things they use to enhance their shampoo. I could choose between: Henna, Avacado, Yoghurt, Honey and Beer. What part of honey can you extract that would NOT be sticky? As for Avacado and Yoghurt, those are foods. So I choose Beer, because when is the next time I am going to be able to buy Beer Shampoo? (Bob & Doug McKenzie would be proud--there is a reference to beer shampoo on their album). The silly thing is that if I put any of those things in my hair, I would use shampoo to remove them. So why would I want any part of those things IN my shampoo? I guess it's just another one of those Thai mysteries.

Random Stuff

2006-02-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Saw a dog get run over and die. I don't want to witness that again.
Fortunatelly(?) it was the owner that ran over his own dog, so there is no tension between any neighbors. His kids were crying and all, but I learned that later on that day they got a new puppy, so the mourning period was extremely short lived.
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I can't understand how the Thais are able to talk on a cell phone in such noisy places. I've seen many a Thai, carry on what I can only assume is a coherent conversation, on a cell phone, standing right beside--or in--the middle of a busy street. The vehicles around here aren't quiet either. It would be like talking on a cell phone while standing beside a vaccuum cleaner. When my cell rings and I'm on the sidewalk, I have to cover the other ear, and even then the conversation is difficult. So I've come to the conclusion that all Thais are born deaf in one ear :-) (no offense intended, I actually marvel at their ability to block out huge volumes of noise).
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Sidewalks often don't live up to their name around here. The side "walk" is often the side "obsticle course", filled with uneven surfaces, poles, signs that are too low--even for a Thai person, wires, cars, motorcycles--both stationary and moving, plants, tables and chairs, street vendors, bags of garbage, store displays, dogs, cats, and oncoming pedestrians. Most of the time there is a path through the maze, but it's usually only wide enough for one person to pass through. Half the time I give up and just walk on the road.

Prices

2006-02-05T18:12:00.000-08:00

I just got back from an awesome lunch. Sweet and sour chicken, on rice, with fresh vegitables. It was so tasty. To complement it I had a Mango Shake, made with fresh mangos (I know because I watched them make it). The total for the meal was only 45 Baht ($1.29 CAD). I've often thought "something this good should not be this cheap". What's the opposite of highway robbery?

Some other Chiang Mai prices for you in Baht (and Canadian):
- 1L Water: 5 Baht ($0.14)
- Ice Mocha (Starbucks quality): 55-65 Baht ($1.57-$1.86)
- 1.25L bottle of Coke: 27 Baht ($0.77)
- Ice cream cone (prepackaged): 20 Baht ($0.57)
- Typical noodle or rice dish: 25-80 Baht ($0.72-$2.29) The price really fluctuates depending on the attractiveness and location of the place.
- Typical fresh fruit drink: 10-20 Baht ($0.29-$0.57)
- Bag of fresh fruit (Pinaple or watermelon or others): 10 Baht ($0.29)
- Cell phone: 2,200-15,000 Baht ($60-$430)
- Cell phone minutes (anywhere in Thailand): 5 Baht/min 1st minute, 2 Baht/min after (14.3cents, 5.7cents)
- Cell phone call to Canada: 10 Baht/min (29cents/min)
- High speed internet: 30 Baht/hr ($0.86/hr)
- Trip across town on a Tuk Tuk (3 wheel covered cart): 80 Baht ($2.29)
- Trip across town on a Song Tao (pickup truck with benches in the back): 30 Baht ($0.86)
- Trip around town on an air conditioned city bus: 12 Baht ($0.34)
- Small motel room in downtown Chiang Mai--Prices vary, using mine as an example (Hot Showers, TV, Fridge, Air Conditioning, queen size bed, and a 4 foot by 4 foot balcony): 300 Baht/night ($8.57/night).
- 2 hr boat ride up the Ping River (includes herbal drinks): 250 Baht ($7.14)
- A day trek (bamboo river raft, elephants, lunch, hill tribe villages): 700-1600 Baht ($20-$45).

Keep in mind those prices include tax. There is a 7% Value Added Tax (VAT) but it is built into the price on everything you buy. With prices like these, it's no wonder this place is crawling with tourists.

Financial Update

2006-02-01T07:18:00.000-08:00

Wow. I received a financial support update today and couldn't believe what I saw. Several more people sent in generous donations after my previous support update. Not only am I fully funded, I'm overfunded! When I originally made up the Support-O-Meter, I made the scale up to 125%. To be honest, I didn't think I would make it to the 100% mark. But God has blessed me almost $1000 over my budget! That goes outside the bounds of my Support-O-Meter's range. I can't believe it. All I can say is PRAISE GOD and thank you for your donations!

It is another testimony of God's faithfulness. Blessing me more than I could imagine (note the Support-O-Meter's size). It is also another confirmation that I am where I'm supposed to be.

Tourist for a day

2006-01-29T18:03:00.000-08:00

It was suggested to me to go on a "Trek" while I was in Chiang Mai. A good idea indeed. I wasn't sure how I would do that since I had no idea about where to go, what to do or anyone to go on a trek with. But I think God had His hand in how it came about.

On Sunday I went to an international church. It was nice to hear a fully English sermon. It could have more depth than the sermons at TLC because it wasn't being translated. As soon as I walked in I was greeted by 4 other guys who (I found out later) were there for the first time as well. They were in town for a conference of Christian English teachers, of which there were over 600 people from all over Asia. After church we walked around and ate lunch together. Along the way, they were pricing out day treks, and it occurred to me that it would be cool if I went along with them. So we signed up. 700 Baht (20 bucks) bought us a trip to 2 mountain villages, a trip to a waterfall, lunch, a trip down a river on a bamboo raft, and a trip on the back of an elephant. Not bad for one day!

It is fun to be a tourist once in a while. I sometimes have this "better than you" tourist attitude because I know that I'm being catered to as a tourist. And now I think I'm better at spotting the good price and the tourist price. It was funny when I paid the van driver he told me not to tell the other people in the van how much I paid, because they had paid much more for the same tour. He he.

First stops were the hill tribe villages. Whatever those hill tribes used to do, they don't do it anymore. I think they're main source of income is tourism. But they still live in rural houses. The first village was about a 1/2 hour walk, way up into the mountains. It actually reminded me of hiking in BC in the summer. We get up there, and I'm walking around and I spot a pickup truck! I know he didn't get up there on the trail that we hiked on. That's when I realized that this village is maybe not as rural as I first thought. In any case, I enjoyed the exercise.

The waterfall was nice. The waterfall was a bit too cold for my liking. It was like visiting Cascade Falls in the summer. I think its too cold for the Thais too. But hey "bring the foreigners, they don't know the difference!" The Thai lunch was great, rice with various toppings. Then a trip down the river on a bamboo raft. The rafts were made of about 10 thick bamboo stocks, about 20 feet long. They held the raft guide at the front, 2 in the middle and someone at the back. It was mostly calm and quite relaxing. A stark contrast to the elephant ride. The elephant ride was neat, but it is very much "hold on for dear life". The two seater on top of the elephant becomes one with the elephant, so it rocks every which way. And elephants don't come with shock absorbers. A good day had by all.

Here's the God part. Unbenounced to us, the trek company has several vans, and each person is pre-assigned to a van, usually based on which hotel you're staying at. The vans are staggered so only one van is at any activity at any given time. I ended up in a van with 3 couples and one other single girl, who was also looking for her friends. At the first stop I started talking to her and found out that she was in town for the same Christian teachers conference as my friends were (from church the day before), and soon found out that her friends were the same friends I was looking for. Fortunatelly, we found the others at the first stop and they had room in their van, so we all got to enjoy the day together. It was cool to be able to hang out with a group of likeminded Christians. I will probably never see them again, but it was cool that at just the right time, God provided me some friends to go on the trek with. Thanks God.

Crosswalks

2006-01-29T17:55:00.000-08:00

In my experience, crosswalks are more dangerous than J-walking, becuase they give you a false sense of security. The crosswalk buttons beep, tempting you, like they're saying "c'mon, push me, I'll keep you safe, you know you wanna". But like all other traffic signs and signals, they're just suggestion. I foolishly tried out a crosswalk, thinking it would give me some magical power to stop the traffic... and almost got run over by a motorcycle. To see a crosswalk in action, check out the little movie I have in my pictures.