Contextless Thoughts

I haven’t had much time to write much of anything other than the occasional tweet on Twitter from my iPod Touch lately.  Some have said that Twitter is ruining my blog but the bigger issue is that I don’t have uninterrupted time to write.  If I had time to write, this is what I would be talking about.

• I recently considered two job offers.  One in a church and the other one in a more beauracratic setting.  Both were in some ways tempting but in the end I realized both were not what I was passionate about.  Turning down the one job was hard because it appealed to my ego and the fact that the chances of going home smelling like urine are absolutely zero.  Turning down the pastoral position was really tough because it made me really examine what was a strong pastoral calling in my life.  At the same time something that Leonard Sweet said on Twitter has been tormenting me. “…but musing about how I am SO tired of the church viewing the world more as a market than as a mission.”  That clarified a lot for me (and cost me a lot of money) as despite using the language of mission, the church sees the world as a market (and I wonder if a lot of pastors see the church as their market).  Anyways it helped me realize that I didn’t have the passion or energy to lead something that saw the world as a market and for which I wasn’t sure if it wanted to see it as a mission.  At the end of the day I realized I had more in Saskatoon that I wanted to accomplish.
• Speaking of church, I haven’t darkened a church door in a couple of months.  I have been working nights on the weekends while I tried in vain to find the right staff person.  Along the way I found another outstanding person for the Centre who is great but not the right person to fill the night shifts.  Last week I finally found that person which means that this could be the first time that I will be in church in a long time.  Wendy has been attending the Saskatoon Free Methodist Church and Lakeview Church but until next weekend, I am the father and husband who never attends church (feel free to judge me in the comments).  I don’t know what is wrong with me but when I was 24, I used to be able to stay up all night and function the next day.  Now that I am 34, I can’t stay up 24 hours straight (while working 16 of them), go to sleep for five or six hours, work another graveyard and function at church in the morning.  I have great intentions but they fall apart as soon as I stop moving and sit down in the morning.  Then I find myself worshipping at the Presbytry of the Pillow.
• Some have asked how the emergency women’s shelter is going.  Well it is a long process but it is still moving forward.  We have operational funding in place, we have capital funding in place, we have identified a building and now we are entering a zoning process with the City of Saskatoon.  Believe it or not I have read the 200+ pages of the City of Saskatoon zoning bylaw but I actually brought it with me to the cabin.  That was some relaxing reading by the lake.   We have a ways to go on it still but it is looking pretty good from here.  I’ll save the entire story for the formal announcement
• I was going to do some creative campaign coverage of the election up here but Warren Kinsella started doing a lot better job of it than I could.  Today he is writing why Stephen Harper is going to win the campaign.   After reading Kinsella’s posts day in and day out and then watching some excellent W@AL videos, I realized that his coverage was going to be way better than mine and so I just kind of decided to be quiet about it and accept that some things (like medicine, mortgage backed securities, and brake repairs) should be left to the professionals.  That leaves me with commentary on Survivor, Bon Jovi CD’s, what I had for supper last night, and the East Coast Hockey League (update: Wendy says that if I start commenting on supper, my life expectancy could be shortened).
• I have been meaning to blog about Sarah Palin but I’ll leave it at this, she probably is a wonderful parent, good neighbor (if you like your neighbors being Rovian), and decent governor of Alaska but she wasn’t prepared to be nominated by John McCain who is exploiting her age, sex, and looks for his own political agenda.  Everytime I want to come out against this strongly, I think of Dan Quayle who was the male version of Sarah Palin.  JFK disliked (even hated) LBJ but chose him to help him in the south so this isn’t a new or a partisan trend, it is just that YouTube makes it a lot more painful.
• Why is it that many sites equate being a social conservative with being a hunter.  Are there no liberals who shop at Cabelas?
• After breaking up with hockey, I may be open to a reconcilliation this year.  I am not sure I miss it but if we run into each other on a Saturday night, I may stay a while and chat.
• Forget NCAA cheating scandals, out of control Olympic games, crooked NBA refs, or even fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs are mathematically eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, here is the real problem in sports, out of control marching bands.

In the most mediocre Canadian contest.  I am serious.  Join the campaign.  It’s going nowhere that spectacular.  Brent Gretzky is only mediocre because of his brother.  Warren Kinsella has FOUR well known books and drives a nicer classic car than I do.  Alan Thicke?  Way, way nicer hair than any of us.  He is a D list celebrity already.  You won’t see me courtside at L.A. Clippers games, that is Alan Thicke territory.

I am from Saskatchewan.  We define mediocrity.  A 9-9 football season is a good but not great season for the Riders and that Grey Cup thing last year was only because we messed up and hired Eric Tillman as our G.M.  Saskatoon, nice but not great city.  My blog is good but not great.  I define mediocrity.

• J.P. Riccardi throws in the towel, just like he has over the last six years.
• 50 things that are blamed on the rising cost of oil.

• Wendy is blogging about some cheap cabins that I kind of like.  She also links to the Lightbox Cabin which I find pretty amazing.
• The six Canadian NHL teams provide 31% of NHL revenue :: In fact, eight U.S. teams – the Coyotes, the Florida Panthers, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Islanders, Atlanta Thrashers, Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues – generated less than half the amount of ticket revenue this season of the Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators. At $1.2 million in ticket revenue per game, the Oilers and Senators garnered the least amount of ticket money among Canadian clubs.
• A quick prediction, Hillary Clinton will take her case to the DNC credentials committee and then to the courts before conceding defeat which will destroy not only her political career but also hand deliver the general election to John McCain.  The Washington Post disagrees with me and I hope they are right.
• Here are some great photos of a part of America that is quickly disappearing.
• I am not supposed to be telling anyone this but we found out that we are having a boy.  All of the old wives tales suggested it would be a girl but according to the many, many ultrasounds that have been taken, it will be a boy.  I am just hiding this in the middle of a larger post with the hope that my beautiful, smart, and forgiving wife will forgive me.
• Just a quick job hunting tip.  If you are giving someone a resume, make sure your e-mail address is not a crude sexual pun or joke @hotmail.com.  Also, even if your resume is phenomenal, giving me a phone number that is wrong or disconnected causes a lot of problems as well.   Here are 25 other reasons why you may still be unemployed.
• The Centre’s resident half-coyote is moving out with his owner.  We are a little sad to see them gone.  While the dog was here, he had a nice bed, new leashes, a bike carrier to ride in, and an amazing assortment of dog treats given to him from staff and even some other agencies in the city.  The dog went from homeless to pampered pretty quickly.

• I can’t figure out what Hillary Clinton is going to accomplish by keeping her campaign going until the Democratic convention in August.  Jason Cherniak has some reasons on why she should stay in the campaign but in the end he is arguing for a Canadian type political convention rather than an American one (one with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson all in it).  I agree but I think we are both biased towards one system rather than the other.  Either way, I wonder if this nomination may be decided with the courts deciding if the Florida and Michigan delegates get seated (you know those states that Hillary won without having Obama to campaign against).
• Bill Simmons says that KG’s habit of choking in pressure situations could keep the Celtics from winning the NBA championship.  Of course he isn’t the only guy to choke in big games :: Now, Garnett isn’t the only NBA star who has struggled in big moments. Wilt was famous for it. The Mailman choked so many times I once wrote, “You know you’re watching ESPN Classic if it’s 2 a.m. and Karl Malone looks like he’s about to throw up.” David Robinson was an extremely nice guy who played like one in big games.  C-Webb passed the basketball like it was a hand grenade in the clutch. Clyde Drexler always seemed like he’d just downed too much caffeine. Even one of my favorite Celtics, Kevin McHale, got the yips. In Game 2 of the 1984 Finals, his legs shook after he missed that free throw before Gerald Henderson’s famous steal.
• Good story about Dale Jr.’s relationship with his dad in ESPN Magazine.  While I am excited about the Indianapolis 500, I have to admit I am becoming a NASCAR fan.  I find myself turning left when driving just because I can.  Also when watching a NASCAR race I find my literacy deteriorating and George W. Bush’s presidency making sense.
• Can someone please tell me how the NDP are both pro-green agenda AND calling for lower gas prices.  Wouldn’t lower gas taxes lead to higher consumption creating more demand AND creating more emissions.  Look, I hate filling up the tank as much as anyone but…
• If I was Stephane Dion and the Liberals, I would reach out a little bit to Canadian bloggers this summer when selling the carbon tax.
• The only was an English soccer team was going to win a major tourney on penalty kicks was for another English team to be in the game so they could lose. 
• So is college for everyone?  A professor at a small community college argues that not everyone will make it and wonders why everyone needs a college education.
• It’s time to upgrade to Firefox 3
• Lifehacker has ten ways blog easier :: It missed the obvious suggestions of 1) reader better books and magazines 2) start covering more NHL hockey games 3) spend more time writing original well thought out content (do as I say, not as I do)

I found out about Cabela’s (via Jason Kottke’s blog) a couple weeks ago and ordered their catalog  to take a look at.  Cabela’s is a Sidney, Nebraska-based direct marketer and specialty retailer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor recreation merchandise.  Right now their catalog is the most widely read thing in the Cooper household.  I got it before we were thinking of getting the cabin but since then it has been a lot of fun to look through.  Our reactions go from “that would be so comfortable” on one page to “No. We are never getting elk antler chandeliers” when looking at the next page.  We only got the Home and Cabin catalog, and apparently their full catalog is almost 1400 pages.  Until then we will have to take our time with browsing their website.

For some reason I didn’t know they did retail shopping as well until a friend told me how cool their stores are.  Take a look at this photo.  Now I hate shopping but this looks okay to me.

They have moved into Canada and I hope the check out their Winnipeg store the next time I head east.

• I just read The Macintosh Way by Guy Kawasaki.  It was sent to me anonymously a month or so ago and it is a great book.  Some excellent stories about Apple and early pioneers like Dave Winer are in there.  If you can find it at a used book store, it is worth reading.  Whoever it was who sent it to me, thanks!
• A friend phoned me yesterday about the cabin.  He asked if I had made any big plans yesterday and I said no, “I am up to my ears in paperwork.”  He replied, “That’s why you need a place to retreat to” and hung up the phone.  About 20 seconds later, I got an e-mail which said in full, “and that’s why I am borrowing it from time to time as well.”  Sounds good to me.
• Wendy‘s protein count is rising, so is her blood pressure, and blood sugar.  She is off work for another week and they are hoping some medication helps with the preeclampsia  Normally she would be okay with it but as she blogged, she is getting transferred to the 33rd Street Safeway which is only two blocks away from home and is one she has been tried to transfer to for about five years.  It also means a big savings in gas and that store keeps shorter hours (because it is smaller, it is quicker to close) which means that she will be home a lot earlier when she is working in the office.
• Len Sweet has a new podcast which may interest you.
• I can’t figure out why Hillary Clinton stays in the race.  People say that she is running for 2012 but she is burning so many bridges in the Democratic Party that if Obama loses, she will take a lot of the blame for it.  I think she still thinks she can win.
• East side churches in Saskatoon want to send a 1000 people to the west side core neighborhoods and “clean it up”.  It’s a nice idea but it makes it sound like the west side residents can’t or won’t do the job itself which is totally false.  Riversdale and other neighborhoods are a lot more alive then people give them credit for and believe it or not, do clean up the neighborhood every year by themselves so I am not sure why having an army of SUVs and minivans descend on the area helps at all.
• I like Stephane Dion but his proposal to make me pay even more for gas is a little tough to swallow politically.  You know since I am paying $1.31 for a litre of it now.

• Some photo sets of our trip to Regina:  Saskatchewan Science Centre, Saskatchewan War Memorial, and the Saskatchewan Legislature
• After returning early, we did manage to get a head start on some yard and garden tasks for our house.  A productive trip to Canadian Tire, Home Depot and Peavey Mart.  The big jobs this summer will be replacing part of our roof but in addition to that we will be painting fences, decks, and redoing the playhouse that does duty as our shed.  The other big task will be reseeding again a big chunk of our lawn after Maggi managed to kill it off.  Some people have suggested a cap of apple vinegar in her water may help stop the damage to the grass so we will see.
• We also had some cracks in our basement wall (what happens when your house is 88 years old) from water seeping through.   A bunch of people have asked about this from when I blogged about it before but the key is to chisel away all of the damaged concrete and tightly pack in hydraulic cement into the crack.  Now hydraulic cement dries too quickly to really work with so if you want to add a top coat to make it look good, you will need to leave a bit of space.  Let the hydraulic cement cure for bit (I left it for a month) and then some standard cement with a bonding agent for parging.
• So much for “This Note is Legal Tender”.  I found out that many hotels won’t allow you to pay cash for your hotel room and only take credit cards (and won’t even take prepaid credit cards with the Mastercard or VISA logo on them), even if one offers to pay for the deposit that is normally billed towards a credit card?  How is that not prejudicial against people who don’t have a credit card?  Just claimed bankruptcy or just choose to use cash?    The weird thing is that I called some Saskatoon hotels and it doesn’t seem to be dependent on the class of hotel.  Some high end hotels accept cash while some middle class hotels do not.   I don’t want to sound like Ralph Nader but this hurts some of the guys who we serve at work and it is frustrating.  (Update:  BMO has a pre paid card that costs $9.95 for three years and they said it works with hotels although they don’t recommend it as hotels can keep the hold on their card for weeks – it doesn’t make what the hotels do any better but it works)

I made some tweaks to the site that you will find throughout it.  I have finally added a search box on each page from Google that combined with Google Sitemaps should offer much better search results.  There is an improved navigational element which should make it easier to find stuff in the top left corner and some improvements in the bottom navigation as well.  I know some of you hate the design but that’s okay…

• Last night Wendy, myself and some co-workers took in Perogy Fest III at the Manhattan Ballroom.  There was five different varieties and over 12,000 perogies made in total.  The event was a fundraiser for Nashi, which works to divert children out of the sex trade in Ukraine and the money from the perogy smorg and auction went to support these projects as well as fighting human trafficking world wide.
• I repaired a crack in my basement wall which isn’t that exciting but several people I have talked to about it have  cracks in their basement walls and have been asking me about this.  After reading all sorts of solutions, I took the advice from Ask This Old House and chiseled away any deteriorated concrete that I found.  This enlarged the crack from quite small to about an inch across (not all of it was bad but it came lose while chiseling).   After cleaning it all out, I decided to use aqua cement which is suggested for any cracks below grade, is waterproof (it will actually set in running water), and dries far harder than ordinary cement.  While it works great, you really need two people to install it as it sets so quick.  It worked well but I think we wasted about 20% because it dries so quickly.  It also dries harder over a month.  I’ll see how it lasts but I am impressed with the first couple of weeks.  It has been a slow melt so I doubt I will see much water coming through it even if I didn’t patch it so we may have to wait until next year.  Now I get to dig down and seal the outside of the wall this summer.  One tip that I have is that since it dries so hard, it is almost impossible to finish so don’t fill the crack completely with it and leave a bit for standard portland cement to finish with.  Using Weldbond will help with the bonding quite a bit as well.  I discovered Weldbond this summer and it amazing around the house.
• I am reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer (Wikipedia has more and here is the complete text available online).  After watching a couple of documentaries this year that talked about how Hitler knew the war was lost in late 1942 and 1943 as did many of his generals, I was interested to read more.  Of course not so interested to do anything about it but now that I have a copy of the book, 1400 pages await me.  Once I get this book done, I want to read a Russian telling of the Second World War.  Does anyone have any suggestions for a good English translation that I can find?  If you do, let me know in the comments.

• It’s been two weeks of this flu and I still feel miserable but am feeling better. If I keep getting better, I may start blogging again but you never know.
• I was listening to the head of the Baptists rail against John McCain the other night. Apparently he committed the unforgivable sin, he voted to preserve the right for the Senate to filibuster once and this somehow attacks families and the church in the United States.
• I am kind of indifferent to a McCain presidency but this is an interesting take on the story the New York Times ran about him and the lobbyist and an op-ed from the Times wondering why the Times even ran it.
• The one thing I will miss if Obama wins the nomination is that Maureen Dowd won’t have the Clinton’s to kick around any more. Frank Rich gets in a couple of shots as well.
• One thing worth considering in Saskatoon’s efforts to tear down the Barry Hotel. Where will the 100 or so people who call that place home go? Many are suffering from addictions and while the Barry is not what I would call home by any stretch of the imagination, where do people who are not at a place of dealing with their addictions live? Saskatoon has a 0.4% vacancy rate right now. I am not saying that the Barry shouldn’t be torn down (from what I have read, it would be almost impossible to save) but there are a lot of hurting people who are not benefiting from Saskatoon’s boom.
• While spring break is nice if you have the money to get away or have a parent who doesn’t have to work, does anyone think of the impact of elementary school vacations have on single parents. I am friends with a single mom whose salary this week is almost exclusively going to childcare. She is making it on her own but school vacations make it very hard for her to get even a bit ahead. There seems to be an excellent opportunity in there for a church to step in to make a difference in a neighborhood.
• Speaking of single mothers, I was listening to a church leader screaming about single parents, “shacking up”. For once I would love the discussion be less about sex and lust and more about how hard it is for a single parent raising kids alone. I am just saying there is something wrong with the discussion as it is currently framed.
• I understand that when governments change in Canada, some things also will change but one should let Google know. Almost all of the Government of Saskatchewan sites that I have found in Google are 404′d or moved. Most of the sites are URL changes and still have the same content which could have been done without breaking links or upsetting Google.
• New Jersey Institute of Technology completes perfect NCAA Division I basketball season :: Apparently someone thought that having the worst basketball team in history of Division I basketball would help enrollment. The Highlanders were also the only Division I team this season with more turnovers (577) than field goals (550).
• “If adventure had a name, it would be Indiana Jones.”

• It’s been a crazy week and I am looking forward to a quiet weekend. The big plans are to post the rest of my review of The War Room, finish The Ghost Map, and listen to some music. I am not sure if I will watch the Super Bowl or not. If I am suitably relaxed by Sunday then I will but if I am still feeling as tired as I am now, I will just chill and follow it online.
• I am just wondering but does Microsoft buying Yahoo! remind anyone of the AOL / Netscape debacle. Has the merging of two massive companies ever produced a excellent new company?

• What is it that Democrats see in Hillary Clinton? If she wins the primary, she will will unite the Republicans in a way that James Dobson could only dream of. Speaking of the religious right, I wonder what would happen if a strong evangelical presidential candidate who shared their values and happened to be a Democrat ran for President (you know, like Jimmy Carter). Would they acknowledge his or her existence or campaign against them because they are nothing more than a tool of the GOP.
• As a Denver Bronco fan, I wasn’t really surprised to see this.
• Saskatchewan won big in Montreal.
• At one time today, I had worked 24 of the last 32 hours. The worse thing is that someone had donated these sofas to the Centre and they called out to me every time I walked by them. 5 hours of sleep later and here I am back at work for another 16 hour stretch and the sofas are calling to me again. I was also quite disappointed that the kitchen wouldn’t let me hook a hose up to the coffee maker and run it to my office. Wendy suggested those hats that hold cans of beer but I think that would be a little warm when full of coffee.
• The NHL opened their season in London. I searched through a lot of English blogs and not a single mention. Of all of the European countries to open the season in, why England and why not a country that likes hockey or has an infrastructure (like hockey rinks) that would allow the game to grow.
• Does anyone know of any literacy programs that can be used for adults that you have used and can recommend. If you have can you e-mail me at jordoncooper AT gmail.com.
• Mark is taking karate twice a week at his school. I was doubtful at first but after a week being punched (“Dad, stand there while I practice punching you!”) I am thinking he has some potential. I am helping his development by making him watch every episode of Walker, Texas Ranger.
• I graduated from a public Catholic high school and would have no problem with sending Mark to a Catholic school but what John Tory forgets is that it isn’t the school’s responsibility to teach religion, it is the church/temple/synagogue and possibly more importantly the families. Catholic schools don’t make better Catholics and while I learned more about religion and less about birth control then I would have at a public school, it was a pretty secular and in many ways pagan education. The issue is an odd one to lose a campaign over considering the payoff isn’t that great even if the people of Ontario rallied around it… and they haven’t.