Another year has come and gone

2010 is just a few hours away and I realise that I haven’t written anything for over a month, so it’s time to reflect.

December always tends to be a blur as there always just seems to be so much to do and often not enough time to get it all done. However, it didn’t seem to be so bad this year as it has been in previous years. Maybe we’re getting more immune to it, or perhaps we may be more organised or something!

The people I work for seem to have had a hard December, if you go by what has been said in the press. We seem to hear the same thing year in year out, so perhaps it is time to rethink the whole approach to how things are done in regards to the huge fund-raising and PR machine that rolls heavy at this time of year. People start to get cynical when they hear the same old sob stories each year, so it may be time to reflect on how things could be improved upon. Maybe instead of saying ‘we need more money to carry on helping in the way we do’, the approach just needs to be one of humility and gratitude, thanking everyone for their generosity in hard times, acknowledging that each quarter, loonie, toonie (or whatever donation given) is more than we started with. Any organisation that comes out with arrogant claims/slogans such as ‘Doing The Most Good’ or ‘We see things that most others don’t’ should ask themselves what those slogans say to the other groups and organisations who also tirelessly help those in need or in unfortunate situations. Those slogans and campaigns make me cringe and I refuse to be a part of them. If the money raised keeps going down then maybe it is time to ditch these campaigns and take a more humble approach with the public. I have had members of the public ask me why so much is being spent on some of the national advertising that has been undertaken and I have no answer to give other than sending their question ‘higher up’.

Locally, we did quite well. Our Moose FM Radiothon was down a bit on last year, but our kettles were up almost 40%. So, overall we are round about the same as last year, which is quite surprising given the economic climate of the past few months. I have no real explanation as to why this year was so successful, but we are thankful that it was. A lot of it is down to community spirit and the way in which many people from all walks of life get involved in helping us at this time of year.

After Christmas we took some holiday time and headed off to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan for a couple of nights. It was nice to get away to relax and have some family time together. Sometimes we feel that the kids get cheated a bit in the run up to Christmas.

2009 hasn’t been a bad year. There have been worse, there have been better.

Changes

There were some major changes that occurred in my life this year. First of all, in February, after much thought, I decided to become a vegetarian. This turned out to be a lot easier than I thought and I have felt healthier for it.

Secondly, we finally moved the group we gather with from the old location to a better location.  Overall the move has been a good one, although there is still much to be done. Everything takes time, but I believe we are headed in the right direction.

Family

It’s been a mixed year as far as family goes. Our kids continue to grow and flourish, and they keep us busy. It’s a joy to watch them grow up and develop their little pieces of independence, but it can be worrying sometimes as well.

We had quite a few family members come and visit this year and it was great being able to spend time with them. Being so far away makes those moments even more precious.

The one downer for our family this year was the passing of my granny, at 95 years old, in November. She led a full life and left quite a legacy of family behind. It gave me the opportunity to travel back ‘home’ to Orkney, which was nice, but it would’ve been better in other circumstances.

Highlights

There were some good highlights in 2009 as well. Those who know me well, know that one of the biggest was in September seeing U2 on their 360 tour at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. We have tickets to see them again in Toronto next July.

Another highlight was getting to meet Thomas Mathie, aka the Headphonaught. It was a hastily arranged get together for coffee and a yarn whilst I was over in Scotland for the funeral, but it was worth the effort. I’m really appreciative of the support I receive from my online community (many of whom I have never met face to face), one of whom is Thomas, and I look forward to meeting more of them in the future.

2009 Favourites

No old year reflection would be complete without some favourites lists, so here goes:

Top 5 Books read this year:

1. ‘Pagan Christianity’ – Frank Viola
2. ‘Irresistible Revolution’ – Shane Claiborne
3. ‘Enough’ – Will Samson
4. ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society’ – Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Borrows
5. ‘Mozart and the Whale’ – Jerry and Mary Newport

Top 5 Movies watched this year (for the first time):

1. ‘Star Trek’
2. ‘Where the Wild Things Are’
3. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
4. ‘Earth’
5. ‘Burn After Reading’

Top 5 Movies watched this year (seen previously):

1. ‘The Shawshank Redemption’
2. ‘Hoop Dreams’
3. ‘The Mission’
4. ‘On A Clear Day’
5. ‘Back to the Future (the trilogy)’

Top 5 albums purchased/downloaded:

1. ‘No Line On The Horizon’ -U2
2. ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ – Derek Webb
3. ‘The Knee Plays’ – David Byrne
4. ‘A Hundred Million Suns’ – Snow Patrol
5. ‘Flesh and Bones Electric Fun’ – Mutemath

Anyway, feel free to disagree with anything I’ve written here. That’s pretty much it for 2009. Looking forward to 2010. I’m not much of one for resolutions. There are some things I’d like to achieve. For one, I’d like to get my weight under 200lbs, which means I have about 25 to lose. The Wii fit board is helping me to achieve this. The other major thing I really need to do this year is to get my Canadian citizenship. I’ve only been eligible for 13 years! Getting this would save a lot of hassle any time I want to visit the USA. It would save some money as well in the long run. I like the idea of a 365 photoblog, but the last time I tried it I didn’t get beyond January. We’ll see how it goes this time! I’d also like to do more reading. This year I managed 25 books, but it would be great to get closer to 40 or more.

So, have a great New Year! Hopefully I’ll get beyond the one post a month here that seems to have been the recent output, but I’m not making any promises that I can’t keep!

Here we go again!

The presale commenced less than 30 minutes ago for U2’s next Toronto concert on July 3 next year. I just got 4 floor tickets, again, for this. Cameron, who is 8, is excited, because after the concert last month I promised I would take him to the next U2 concert in Toronto. I didn’t expect it to be so soon again, but that’s okay. However, it’s going to be a long 8 months wait now, but at least it’ll make the winter more bearable!

Going Crazy at 360 in Toronto

The night I’d been looking forward to for a long time came and went on Wednesday when I got to go to the first Toronto show of the U2 360 tour. I wasn’t disappointed and came away fairly happy and quite hoarse!

I travelled down with three friends from Elliot Lake, two of whom were attending their first U2 show. We had floor tickets, so we made sure that we got there fairly early and found a decent place to stand. The crowd was 58,000 so we were glad to be as close as we were and kind of felt sorry for those in the nosebleeds.

Snow Patrol opened up for U2 and they put on a good show, with a little humour thrown in.

Reading about the tour and the ’spaceship’ stage don’t fully prepare you for the experience of being there and seeing it all from a close distance. I’ve wondered how U2 would be able to top some of the previous tours I’ve seen them on, but I’m glad to say that they managed it again.

My personal highlights were:

• hearing ‘Your Blue Room’ being performed live for only the second time ever. It made sense in the context of the show;
• hearing my favourite song, ‘Unknown Caller’, live was what I most looked forward to and I wasn’t disappointed – Edge’s guitar solo in this one is one of his best ever (YouTube video here);
• ‘Walk On’ was quite moving, especially with the parade of Aung San Suu Kyi masks;
• the synchronized lighting on the CN Tower was pretty awesome (check out the video here);
• Bono letting the crowd take the first verse of ‘I still haven’t found…’ (YouTube video here);
• the live remix version of ‘I’ll go crazy’ was crazy, in a good sense (this YouTube video has it here).

There was good mix of old and new stuff and it was great to hear seven songs from the new album. I posted some pics and short videos on my flickr. They’re not the best of quality, but they might give you some idea of how awesome the night was, although they really can’t do it full justice. You just had to be there! Here’s the set list for the show (courtesy of U2gigs.com):

1. Breathe
2. No Line On The Horizon
3. Get On Your Boots
4. Magnificent
5. Beautiful Day / Alison (snippet)
6. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
7. Elevation
8. Your Blue Room
9. Unknown Caller
10. Until The End Of The World
11. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
12. The Unforgettable Fire
13. City Of Blinding Lights
14. Vertigo / Pump It Up (snippet)
15. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
16. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Oliver’s Army (snippet)
17. MLK
18. Walk On
19. One / Amazing Grace (snippet)
20. Where The Streets Have No Name
21. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
22. With Or Without You
23. Moment of Surrender

I wish I had tickets for some more of the shows on this tour, but I’m not that rich, I’m afraid. At least I was fortunate to get to this one.

Some random thoughts

The current economic situation should bring us freedom and simplicity, but for the people that I work for it seems to be bringing a barricading in mentality.

A cold shower first thing in the morning can be a good thing, but it’s not best if it is spraying out of the back of the toilet.

I dislike being told that I ‘have to participate’ in something that I believe is not good for me or for those around me.

The one good thing about the Leafs always missing the play-offs is that it frees up my evenings after the first week of April.

Reading books can seriously challenge one’s complacency and that’s what I like the most about it.

If I’d known what I know now, I may not have chosen the path that I did, but did I really have a choice at the time?

‘Unknown Caller’ is one of the best U2 songs ever.

It all boils down to ‘Love God and love your neighbour as yourself’. Without that nothing else really matters or makes a difference.

A few (dis)connected thoughts

“What is the difference between Tradition and Traditionalism? Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” (Jaroslav Pelikan from The Vindication of Tradition)

“…the truth will set you free.”  (Jesus in John 8:32)

I just spent over an hour composing and sending an e-mail of ‘truth’ to someone higher up ‘the system’ than me. I felt relief as I openly shared in this way. There was freedom in sharing like this. I never quoted Pelikan in the e-mail, but I did touch upon what he says in this quote. I’m not sure where the e-mail will go, but I just wrote what I felt needed to be written and left it at that. Maybe it’s something I should do more often, who knows.

__________

A month of not eating meat and it’s almost like it’s all I ever did. I’ve lost weight, I feel fitter, and talk of juicy steaks no longer induces mouth-watering.

__________

If you haven’t listened to No Line on the Horizon yet, then why not? I can’t stop listening to Unknown Caller. It’s definitely the best track on the album, maybe even one of their best songs ever. Listen to the last couple of minutes – just awesome!

__________

This Sunday will not, after all, be our last gathering in our present location. By mutual consent, Easter Sunday (12 April) will be instead. Not sure when our first gathering will be in the new place. The work is a little behind, but it will be ready well ahead of the grand opening on 23 May.

__________

Looking forward to seeing Monsters vs Aliens with the family on the weekend. Looks like it’ll be lots of fun.

__________

(P.S. Don’t look for any hidden meaning in the inclusion of the demotivational poster at the top. It’s just the one that made me laugh the most today)

Membership has its benefits

I took out a subscription at U2.com last year with some money I got for my birthday. As well as an exclusive t-shirt and double live CD, this membership gave me access to the first round of the pre-sale for any of the concerts on the forthcoming U2 tour. So, at 10.05am this morning I was able to complete the purchase of 4 tickets for September 16 at the Rogers Centre, which is great because the general sale doesn’t start until next Monday. So, membership can sometimes have benefits! Looks like it’ll be a great show. Hope they play ‘Unknown Caller’.

Cameron is a little sad and disappointed that he can’t go, but I promised I’ll take him when he’s older. He really want to go to an As I Lay Dying show sometime, too, although their upcoming tour doesn’t work out for us at all. He did tell me that when he puts his band together they’ll tour every year. I asked him if he would need me to play bass guitar for him, but he declined, telling me that I’d be too old by then and that he doesn’t want any grandpas in his band. Oh well.

Magnificent

Well, today was the day I finally got to download ‘No Line on the Horizon’ the latest offering from U2. There’s certainly been lots of hype leading up to this release, and on the whole it does live up to that hype. After all it is their first full studio offering in over 4 years, so there’s been a long wait. My favourites so far are ‘Magnificent’, ‘Moment of Surrender’ and ‘White as Snow’. It’s hard to pick out a weak track, so I won’t.

Next Monday the tour dates will be announced. I had to go to Auburn Hills to see the Vertigo tour, as I missed out on getting tickets to any of the Toronto dates. This time I should be okay, because as a subscriber to U2.com I’ll get a heads up and chance for pre-order. I’ve only missed one tour since the Joshua Tree and I have no intention of missing out on the forthcoming one.

For your listening pleasure…

…click here.

EDIT: video is here.

The countdown begins

Mark October in your calendars – the long awaited new album from U2 should be available then. Paul McGuinness, long time manager of the band, talks about this and many other things in an interview with the Telegraph, found here.

Thinking out loud…

Just a random collection of thoughts and events of late…

Always around this time of year I feel ready for a rest. This year is no exception. It’s been a busy time lately, what with a trip to Winnipeg for some study time, the purchase of a new building for our church, building committee meetings, the sale of our present church building, birthdays, changes in the life of our church, transitioning our son to a new school, a trip south for a funeral, and so on. We’ll get some vacation time in August and it will be great when that time of rest arrives.

We celebrated/remembered our tenth anniversary of our ordination this past week. It was kind of bitter sweet as we also received the news of another couple in our session tendering their resignation. In one sense it was quite surprising, but in another it wasn’t. I know that sounds contradictory, but it’s hard to explain. We live in the 21st century, yet we find ourselves serving in a movement/organisation/church that wants to continue harking back to the past. The hierarchy is still a convenience to hide behind when it suits. There are many who talk a good game of change, but when things don’t go the way they want them to, the trump card of hierarchy comes into place. It’s kind of sad. Will it take the last one left turning out the light, locking the door and throwing away the key to realise that there is really little relevance in holding on for dear life to things that really don’t matter in the larger picture of life. It’s a big worry, that’s for sure.

Reading has been hard of late, maybe because of assignments being due and other pressing matters. As usual I have a number of books on the go. I just finished Solzhenitsyn’s ‘For the Good of the Cause’, which was good, but not as good ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’. Included in ‘For the good..’ was some background into the whole censorship and exile that Solzhenitsyn underwent, which was very interesting. I am now trying to get through Pete Greig’s ‘The Vision and the Vow’, which is a very challenging book. It’s a must read, that’s for sure. Other books I’m picking up and including in my reading are: ‘Christ, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper’ (Leonard J. Vander Zee), ‘Everything Must Change’ (Brian McLaren), and ‘Wishful Thinking’ (Frederick Buechner). Hopefully I’ll get through a few of these this summer!

Some of the movies I’ve enjoyed lately include: ‘The Savages’, ‘The History Boys’, ‘Kung Fu Panda’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, ‘Cloverfield’, and ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’. We’re looking forward to ‘Wall.E’, which opens next weekend.

We gave Emily an i-Pod shuffle for her birthday, so I finally gave in and got an i-tunes acoount. I haven’t bought much yet, but I’m tempted by much, especially older stuff I don’t have on CD (all my old vinyl is still in the UK) – such as early Iron Maiden, some Blue Oyster Cult, Fish-era Marillion, amongst many others. I still have an e-music account (40 tracks a month for $9.99) and they just added some early Rush stuff to their catalogue, which I downloaded. Some of the stuff that I’m listening to the most lately includes: ‘An Ocean Between Us’ (As I Lay Dying), ‘The Ringing Bell’ (Derek Webb), ‘Messengers’ (August Burns Red), ‘Facedown’ (Matt Redman), ‘U2 Go home’ (U2), ‘Symphony no.6 – Pathetique’ (Tchaikovsky). I eagerly await the soon to be released new U2 album.

I’ve been spending some time at Plurk.com  If you join add me as a friend (my user name is wcs53). I’ve also been designing rooms at Webkinz (the kids bought me a couple of Webkinz).

Anyways, that’s enough thoughts for now.