Of note in the news....

According to today's health and fitness news:

"Although weight control can help lower your risk for both heart disease and cancer, so can exercise. For all weight levels, a lifestyle with at least 3.5 hours of exercise a week lowers the risk of death 25 to 30 percent, according to a recent study of more than 116,000 women." (Provided by the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.)

Therefore... I strongly recommend that you exercise, since it lowers your risk of death... exercise and you may live forever. According to our experts at the American Institute for Cancer Research anyway.

That's my quote for the day

-Deborah

Say it like you mean it!

Dear men,

When you tell your wife that you love her, say it like you mean it. Don't say it glibly. The word has been too often profaned for you to profane it; too falsely disdained for you to disdain it; etc. Say it like you're throwing a brick through a window. Then, later on, say it like you're threading a needle. Through force and through craft, you must ensure that the message reaches the deep heart's core, where your lady is nourished.

Yours faithfully,

Montgomery, esquire.




I swear I meant to go to bed.

You can't hit what isn't there

I remember a "No Fear" shirt which said, "You can't hit what you can't see." Another truth, less frequently stated, is that you can't hit what isn't there. Postmodernism is one of those things that can't be hit because it isn't there. It's an empty title. When it does have a meaning, it's central doctrine goes something like, "No statement is true."  "But," we reply, "what about that statement you just made?" Other times, it's used to describe truths that were around long before the word "postmodernism," for instance, "you shall love you neighbour as yourself." Some postmoderns say that we should accept homosexuality, which is a lie. Other postmoderns say that we should have more empathy on homosexuals, which is true but not postmodern. Postmodernism covers a range of disparate opinions, and we don't need such an ill defined word. We don't need a cool new word to teach us the above truth. We need to repent of our homophobia, while holding firmly God's truths that homosexuality is rebellion against God, and that homosexuals, just like everybody else, for other forms of rebellion, need to be forgiven and healed by Christ. Likewise with probably any other good thing postmodernism has to say; it was an old truth, known once, and we simply need to remember it and repent of having forgot it. The label "Postmodern" should be dropped, because it's too confusing, and all writings that claim to be postmodern should be read, if at all, with caution.

Hello again

Hi, it's been a while. I haven' posted in over a month, and really, who cares?

If your interested in indie rock, I recommend Sufjan Stevens. I recently bought his album "Illinoise," which is an album in tribute to the state of Illinois. It's got some history, and the music is soft and folky, with plenty of banjo, trumpets, violins, percussion and acoustic guitar. It has pretty great harmony too. Also, the titles of the songs are really great, for instance, "A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, who went Crazy, but for Very Good Reasons," and "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois," and "In This Temple As in the Hearts of Man for whom He Saved the Earth." It's a sweet, sweet CD. Deborah doesn't like it because it has a song about a serial killer called "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."

I also got a CD by a group called Page France, entitled "Hello, Dear Wind." It's quite good. The instrumentation is minimal, with mostly acoustic guitar and bells. They use a mixture of biblical and non-biblical imagery, and they reiterate their images throughout the album. The lyrics seem a bit hippyish, but they're quite good nonetheless. Here's a bit of lyric from their song "Chariot": "Come and marry us/ to the blushing circus king/ And dance like elephants as he comes to us/ Through a fiery golden ring/ With a violin and a song to sing/ As he brings for us our wings/ Now he's one of us/ He plays the tambourine/ He breaks the bread for us/ and sings."

In more music news, we've a new hymn book from Canon Press. It's called Cantus Christi. It has songs from all through Christian history, and it focusses on the psalms. It has a kind of psalm I've never heard of, namely a "through composed" psalm. It has four of them, I think. For these psalms, the composer took the text of the psalm, and composed music for the whole text. Therefore, the music can't be used for any song other than the one it was composed for. The hymn book came with an audio CD, which we can use to learn the songs and can sing along to. It also has psalms as regular songs, and psalm chants. It's a great book.

It was nice chatting with you. Drop us a comment if you're lonely. We'll do our best to comfort you.

So Tired....

Hello to the few people who read this... how are you all doing today? I'm okay myself, killing some time while on a break at work. The day has been rather stressful, so this is my hour of relaxing relief. I'm pretty exhausted and rather sleepy, but I only have one class left, so I'll survive I think.

It is snowing here right now. We havn't had barely any snow at all here, so it was kind of nice and refreshing to wake up two mornings ago to about two inches on the ground and more coming down as I walked to school in the morning. As I said, it is snowing again... to the dismay of some people here, but I welcome the change in the weather. Change of any kind is usually welcome for me, as my daily tasks become routine and boring.

Anyway, this isn't meant to be a blog of complaints... that will just bore people to death... so on to more cheerful news and events. My brother Shawn and his wife Heather just had their first child and named him Liam Andrew MacDonald... he was quite the porker I guess... 9 lbs and 1 ounce. But I've seen some pictures and he looks pretty cute... Congratulations guys! So, now I have seven nephews and nieces, and I'm sure I'll have many more in the future. I can't wait to meet them all, three have been born since I left, and two of them will be almost a year old when I return... and the others that I do know, will be so big.

Scott has been working semi-diligently on getting his application and related forms all filled out and faxed away.. for applying to Acadia Divinity College. He jokes that 'it'll be so strange living in Wolfville next year... he doesn't know if he can handle the big city life and the crowds of people'. It will be quite a difference, that's for sure, but we both agree that we'll enjoy the small-town living of Wolfville compared with the big city living of Seoul... neither one of us are really the 'big city' type.

At the end of this month, we will have made it through one half of our contract here and will have six more months to go. We are going out for a big 'Western -style' dinner at the end of the month to celebrate this milestone. I look back on the past six months with 'fond' memories... some fonder than others. Let's see... I saw my first cockroach, shared an apartment with guys and millions of ants and weird flies... well other than those things.. it hasn't been all that bad... there are good things to remember like: great new foods, weird cultural experiences, etc...
All the same, I'll be glad to go home in six months.

Well, I had better be going.....