What's Goin' On???

(Mood - Downtrodden and apprehensive)

(Listening to - What's Up by 4 Non Blondes)





"Twenty-five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination..."

"And I try, oh my God, do I try
I try all the time, in this institution
And I pray, oh my God, do I pray
I pray every single day
For a resolution..."

Anyway, whiny song lyrics aside, here are the following things I'm not doing:

a) I no longer have a surefire definite internship, as the parish that offered no longer need me.

b) I was not accepted to cadet camp this year, and am not going to be a chaplain.

c) Because of this, I've lost the major source of income for the wedding (for now).

d) Because I need to find work, I'm doubtful I can go to Minnesota with the Youth Group from said parish who can't have me as an intern.

So, no idea of when/how I'll get ordained due to lack of internship, and therefore, no real way to get started with the wedding. Gobs of uncertainty. Again. LOVELY.

On the bright side, I am home in a few weeks, exams and papers are almost all done, it's Easter very soon, and all my colleagues are offering ideas for summer work. Also, the possibility of a position or posting in a parish for the summer is an idea, and if available, I COULD do it at home, not to mention that it MIGHT count as an internship, if I could get one.

That's a lot of ifs though. Anyway, just FYI if you we're wondering.

Personally, I'm confident in the whole "When a door closes, a window opens" thing, even if sometimes it feels as though it's a window for you to jump out of. There's nothing that takes the wind out of your sails completely quite like depending on plans that seemed definite only to have them dissipate. Guess there's something else I was supposed to do - hope I get to know what that is soon. That'd be nice.

So, how's YOUR week? More later.

Thank you Scott Kurtz!

I read PVP the comic series. I thank Jerm n' Tara for this addiction. :) Some of them keep me laughing, even the second time round reading them. Because of this, I have discovered something...

I want, nay need, pets like these.

More later!

Sudden need to write for leisure - must FILL it!

(Mood - Surreally peaceful in the midst of work)

(Listening to - Black by Pearl Jam)




MUST... WRITE... BLOG...

WILL FINISH... IN... IN THE MORNING... GAAAAAaaaahhhh.....

(seriously, expect an edit tomorrow with reviews of "300", "Pan's Labyrinth" and, well, my mediocre St. Paddy's day)

******UPDATE******

So, as I was previously saying...

First, St. Patrick's Day - usually one of my favorite times of the year. Not so much this year. Though, during the week leading up to it, I don't think I've ever participated in so many opportunities to drink!

Between scotch drinking lessons and class discussions with colleagues, followed karaoke night at our local haunt on Tuesday, to St. George's On-The-Hill's solemn and enlightening evening prayer, followed by traditional Irish cooking, beers and wine with a bit of Irish/Celtic music from a local duo on Wednesday, along with some friendly administrations of Bailey's to a coffee or two - the whole of the week seemed promising!

Which brings us to Saturday - the day of Ireland's patron saint. For all the bars that Toronto had to offer, none would oblige a weary traveller with rest and a pint by the fire. All were filled to the brim with miscreants and rogues, copping a feel of the blessed saint's day, whilst we Divs were forced cold into the streets, only to shabbily get home early. No leprechaun costume, one stray Guinness, and surrounded by a mind-boggling sum of glaze-eyed youngsters almost everywhere one walked.

*sigh* How I longed for home... To George Street and it's family of hovels and pubs, to friends and family, and to a good scuff n' scoff. So, all in all, not much of a Paddy's day to say the least. I hope that some of us succeeded a bit in enjoying the day. Oh, and Keith? We have to plan ahead next time. ;)

As for the movies (POSSIBLE SPOILERS!):

300

I just got finished reading 300 the graphic novel today, about a week or two after seeing the film. It's almost shot-for-bloody-shot! Impressively done, not too much CG stuff (well placed anyway), loved the "Matrix-meets-Gladiator" fight scenes. There was a sex scene, which I guess is pretty much required nowadays in Hollywood (done in the same "Matrix/Gladiator" slow-mo style), and some expansion of the background stories too (blackmail, secret plots and twists, the Queen attempting to stick up for herself, oh my!), but it hardly took away from the movie. If nothing else, it added to it - gave a break from the violence from time to time. I thought it was great - simply put. Gorily glorious. Everyone will enjoy this film, so long as one is not too squeamish at some pointy ends going through people.

Pan's Labyrinth

As for Pan's Labyrinth, it was impressive. I had NO idea it was in Spanish, first of all, nor that it took place (as do ALL children's dark fantasy stories of late) during World War II. Basic plot - a young girl, fascinated by the fantastic in fairytales, soon becomes part of one in the background of a truly gruesome scene of Nazi cruelty. She and her mother, who is pregnant with the Head Nazi's child, are brought to live in the countryside where the Nazi's have a small post out of a large farmhouse next to an old curious stone labyrinth...

Slowly but surely the girl is woven into a tale of fairies, with a large, craggy and malicious looking faun called Pan telling her that she is the long lost princess of a kingdom that lives beyond this realm of mortals, and her family wants her back - but not without her accomplishing some tasks to prove her linage first.

Grippingly real, and well counterbalanced between reality and fantasy, this movie is shiveringly beautiful. The gruesomeness and bleakness of the Nazi's, the war, and those caught within it, is mirrored by the colourful and dazzling in the fairy world - where horrors of another kind still can and do exist. This movie really tears at your mind, trying to sort out where reality exists and doesn't, what is really happening and isn't, and trying to decide what or whom it is you're really rooting for as the main characters keep turning new sides to their dimensions.

It does sing out a bit of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with the WWII time line and the "mystical world within but outside the regular world" motif, but to compare the two outright would not totally fit. She is never fully without the regular world until the end - at some points, you wonder "Is she dreaming? Is she crazy? Is this really happening or not??" The visuals and darker overtones compare more to Sarah's journey in Jim Henson's Labyrinth than the colourful host found in Wardrobe. In either case, calling it a "grown up fairytale" is just right.

Definitely worth seeing both, and even better on the big screen to get the full effect.

So there we go. Moses has updated his blog. Oh, and on a more recent note - I preached for the first time, and probably now the last time, here at Trinity. It went well! A few kinks, for sure (it was a liiiittle longer than I hoped), but seemingly well done, so I was told. Moreover, I'm happy with what I wrote, and what I brought forward - good simple points, and nothing too "religious fanatic" or "structured churchy". :) I'll have to share it sometime.

Now I'm tired. And still have papers to write. *sigh* More later.

Bloody Google controlled blog...

(Mood - Frustrated with the friggin' blog!)

(Listening to - Rebel Yell by Billy Idol)




Argh... Speaking of the "bloody interweb", now that I've transferred over to the Google way of running blogger (since it wouldn't let me log in my USUAL way), I can't seem to post vids from YouTube anymore...

I was trying to post my comments about the one really funny part of Music and Lyrics (aside from a few funny moments or one-liners from Hugh) - the music video at the beginning. Just LOOK at it! The writers/director really did their homework on this! It looks like the culmination of EVERY '80s music video. Soooo cheezy!

Anyway, here's the link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuWS4Alp43s)

Bloody interweb...

(Mood - Disgusted... Mostly by work)

(Listening to - "Love, Reign O'er Me" by The Who, performed by Pearl Jam)




Okay, so let me just say that except for WoW (or something of the like in terms of online gaming) and myspace, I'm now involved pretty much in all popular online trends.

I recently got on Facebook... Dear Lord, what has happened... As my friend Aaron put it: "Now you shall do no schoolwork...for about a week, until you get bored of poking people." or as he also put it "I can see graduation. Nay, I can smell it. The last thing I need to be doing is frittering away time on Facebook. So, of course, that's precisely what I'm doing..."

*sigh* I should be reading...

In the meantime, there IS a benefit to this bloody Facebook nonsense - I have located multiple old friends I had sorta lost track of, not to mention I have a new (and easier!) way of posting pics aside from on here. Not that I really have much to share at the moment, and I gotta ask "the li'l missus" if I can post pics of us/her on there too, cause I'd like to share her with the world.

Well, tastefully and visually, anyway... None of this whole "revenge vid cam" stuff here!

ANYway, this is just a "tide you over" post until I can get some pics of the ski trip I took with the Youth Group at St. George's On-The-Hill (the church with whom I'm presently teaching Sunday School to the older of the littler kids) and with whom I'll be interning in the fall should all go well.

Huh - well there's two big give away bits of info. Alright, I'll elaborate:

First - last weekend, I was invited to ride shotgun as an "adult" for a fun ski trip at Blue Mountain (http://www.bluemountain.ca/). 10 Youth, 2 "adults" (if you can call myself and James adults). I didn't get to ski much, since I had a paper on Martin Luther to finish, so I got to play "HQ" down in the chalet via walkie-talkie. Lemme tell ya, enjoying hot drinks and watching people ski is the only way to truly appreciate the sport. :)

And it was a laugh! Everyone seemed to have a great time, especially when we crashed with the local Anglican priest Rev'd Heather, whom they all knew from her time at St. George's. She and Jim (her hubby) were fantastic hosts, and funny as all out. Great parish too - All Saints - in the town of Collingwood. (To the Newfs, I'd describe it as a mix of Water street style shops meets Grand Falls/Windsor. ...or basically if you made a whole town out of the downtown, but without the harbour.) So really nice place! Great people n' all that.

Even the 2 hour ride in a jumbo-LARGE van with all of us was civil and unretarded. Everyone had something to occupy themselves with - like sleep - and we even swung into a Futureshop to pick up an iTrip for James' iPod so we could have "dee jammin' toones" on the way.

Oh, and he let me play his Nintendo DS... Damned little addictive machine. I need one... Sorry sweetheart, but between that and a Wii, these are things we'll need for the house. Just as much as ...I dunno... furniture. Yeah, they'll be included as furniture for "entertaining" guests. There we go!

So, all in all, I'm really glad I went, and glad I got to meet many of the "staples" of the youth group. Especially since it's been made quietly official that I'm heading back up this way in September till December (begrudgingly, but still) to work as their intern at St. George's. Nothing against the parish (quite the contrary in fact!) but it would have been nice to serve at home - though there would be no guarantee of ANY kind that I'd wind up in town, or anywhere remotely close to St. Philip's/St. John's, so really, if I gotta be elsewhere, I might as well be somewhere I am familiar with and with which I'd get a totally unique experience. I've lived the pseudo-rural parish life all my life, so there's nothing really new I'd find back in NL, whereas up here, it's a bit different - tons of people, a variety of outreaches in the community, a friggin' Anglican private school attached to the damn church!... need I go on? This will be a good thing, though yet another expense I can't really afford, and I'll be away from the folks, the friends, the familiar, and the fiancee - but I'll make it work. ...Come to think of it, most of my friends are away now anyway, so feh. (no offence Keith ;) )

Anywho, the more I know, the more I'll say. Meantime, I'll be working hard to get done with the course work, which means I'll be cutting this short now and get back to it. I'll letcha all know how 300 is tonight when I go see it at the IMAX. wOOt! ...and maybe I'll review Music and Lyrics too, since that's what we saw before leaving Collingwood. Ugh. Not horrible, but ain't no Wedding Singer either.

More later.