Archive for March, 2004

This past weekend I went to London, ON. Jenn’s parents are going to be making the move up to TBay soon and Jenn wanted to say goodbye to her childhood home. It was the house that she lived in when she was born and the house that she grew up in and the house that she “came home to” even when she wasn’t living there anymore. So, it was important to her to see it one last time.

My parents sold my childhood home when I was in highschool. We built and moved into our new place when I was a teenager. I didn’t want them to sell their house either, but for different reasons. I didn’t want to move out into the country. Of course, it wasn’t the country and I lived in that house for over ten years, but I don’t think it’ll be such a big deal when the decide to move from it.

What is the most fun for me about these two moves is the building of a new house. Jenn and I have been looking at plans and suggesting changes and this weekend we went along while they picked out doors and tile — actually my father in law and I went along with Jenn and her mom while they picked out doors and tile. But it was still fun. I really want to get a job in TBay now so we can move there too and be on site while the building happens. I love when houses are being built, especially framing in the “house skeleton.”

On the way home yesterday I took Jenn to the Toronto Train Show and was pleased that she at least feigned interest. But more on that later.

“and there’s a picture of a train.”

I went to a model train show on Sunday after church. Only six bucks to get in — which I thought was cheap. I was expecting somewhere between five and twelve. There were a few displays, and that’s what I really wanted to see, but there were probably as many vendors. The set-ups on display weren’t that thrilling either. There were a few large scale trains, a modular HO set-up and a full scale hand pumped car (like in Mountie Mick’s Deathride) going the length of the show.

Remind me sometime to compare and contrast the attendees of a model train show with those of a Commodore 64 show.

I enjoyed a small N scale layout the most, unfortunately, there was only one there. But it was the best layout of the whole show. One of the vendors had a bunch of good books and I picked up on on the basics of N scale.

Now, some history… When I was a kid, my dad got me a great HO model train set and we had it his workshop in the basement. I played with it and had lots of fun with it. When we moved in grade 12, I got rid of it. As is usually the case, as soon as you get rid of something, you want it back. Well maybe not all the time, but in this case, I did. I’ve been drawing and planing new electric train ideas since university. Just before Christmas, I found a great website on the old Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway, a railroad that used to run out past my family’s camp at Whitefish Lake. My current train dream is to model the old PeeDee in n scale.

Ah, Mountie Mick, I’m enjoying listening to the in game music right now.

Well, it’s still a good week and a half before spring rolls in, but today I filled up my bike tires with air. I probably wouldn’t have done it this early except I’ve been making too many hikes downtown the past couple days and I figure it’ll be easier to ride. And this only a week and a day after the Rideau Canal Skateway was closed!

Now, my problem is where to store it. Last year, its place was behind the couch, but now that we’ve got the elliptical trainer, there isn’t the room. So, I was going to put it in the closet, but it doesn’t fit. I’ve got to get some of those hooks to hang it from the ceiling I think.

Anyway, this isn’t much of an entry, so I’m cutting it off here.

So, I moved to Ottawa a year ago in October after purchasing my new Mac that August — I’m talking 2002. In January of last year (2003) I started getting MacWorld magazine mailed to me at my apartment. The funny thing is, I didn’t order it. Nor did I pay for it — as far as I could tell. I don’t even know how the publishers got my Ottawa address. So, I enjoyed my free monthly Mac mag, but when I moved in July to my new place, MacWorld stopped showing up in my mailbox. Maybe it kept going to my old mailbox, who knows.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my wife decides she wants to get the magazines in order and we get a few of those upright magazine holders. While she’s going through her old magazine (and throwing a lot of them out — good for her) I stumble across my half year of MacWorld and think “Gee, wouldn’t it be nice to still be getting that for free?” and my brain hatches an idea. Why not contact them and ask them to send the remainder of my subscription to my new address? So I did and they agreed!

Well, maybe it’s because I didn’t have anything to lose, or maybe it’s because I figured it wouldn’t fly, or maybe it’s because smooth sailing is par for the course (mixed metaphors, I know) when I’m doing Mac stuff. Who knows? But I’m getting MacWorld for free again. Woo hoo!

Last night after work, I picked up Jenn (like I usually do) and because it was Thursday, we went and got Tyler. Tyler comes over Thursday nights for supper and to watch Survivor. Instead of heading home though, we crossed the river to Quebec so that we could go to the Museum of Civilization and see the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The first of my observations of the evening was our conversation in line. Now the scrolls are important historical documents and while not important to our faith themselves, the text of the scrolls is. They are the oldest records of the Old Testament of the Bible (except for the books of Esther and Nehemiah.)

But we didn’t talk Bible or history or archeology. We talked about the cross-dressing poker night that one of the guys from where I work hosts at the end of every months. I’m sure we managed to offend someone in line, no doubt there were many good church/synagogue people waiting with us.

My second observation was that of the scrolls themselves. I didn’t know what to expect, but I had two preconceived notions of the scrolls that were made apparent when I saw them.

1. I was expecting poorly written, pre-civilization type writing. Maybe hastily written, certainly not done with much care or craft. But the scrolls were beautiful. The penmanship was great! The people who wrote this stuff were skilled artists. The strokes were all consistent, thick and thin and top aligned perfectly. It was a surprise.
2. I was expecting an archive document of some sort, sterile, perfect (I know, my preconceptions don’t work together.) But it appears that the scrolls were meant to be used and studied. They were real documents for real people. When I think of the Bible in a pure sense, I think, that it doesn’t include chapter and verse numbers never mind section headings and margin notes. But the Dead Sea Scrolls appear to have comments written in them. Over some words there are other words and some paragraphs have a word or two written below them or above them.

That’s about it — but now I have an idea for a later post: How I often make observations without really having a point other than “Isn’t that interesting?”

Okay, here’s the explanation for the blog and reasons for why I’m not jumping on the blogging bandwagon. I was thinking that I don’t update my website nearly often enough. Not that it’s hard to update a website, but it’s less hard not to update it. I thought that if I started a blog, I’d be more apt to post.

So, a few weeks back, I downloaded some blog software, played with it a bit and then my webspace used up it’s allotment of bandwidth for the month. I was getting into setting up the blog though, it was fun. I couldn’t post it online, so I branched out even and updated my whole website. I hope you like it and I’d appreciate your comments – you can leave them over on the nifty little comment box to the left.

Anyways, my site came back online yesterday and I’m just getting the finishing touches done on this blog page. Now, let’s see if I have anything to blog about. I would have a couple weeks ago, but not now. Maybe I’ll post something after I see the Dead Sea Scrolls later this week.

I’m posting a new post. Just so that I can say that I’m a posting maniac. Hey everyone… I’m a posting maniac. I’m maniacal – in a posting way.