Alien Aversion

I have spent a lot of time with aliens lately. As a result of this blog post, I have spent most of the Christmas season TV-bingeing on Dr. Who. With two seasons left of eight, I am coming in on the home stretch. I have enjoyed some seasons more than others, some episodes more than others, and some doctors more than others. That being said, on the whole, it's a great show, and unless things go really sideways, I intend to keep current.

While discovering a new TV series and watching one's way through is not a significant event in and of itself, it becomes more interesting when I clarify that sci-fi is not my thing--fantasy doesn't generally tend to be my thing, either. I don't do Star Wars or Star Trek, and while I have seen Lord of the Rings, I can't say I particularly cared for them. I also couldn't hack the Chronicles of Narnia. 

On the other hand, I quite like Superman (mostly Lois & Clark, Smallville, and the original movies), I thoroughly enjoyed Firefly, and I love Harry Potter. And it looks as if we can add Dr. Who to the list.

So as a general rule, I tend to avoid aliens, talking animals, and non-human creatures, but clearly there are exceptions. I have always thought it must have something to do with how much of the story line exists on earth, and how many humans are involved. I have noticed that the Dr. Who episodes I like most, for instance, are the ones that involve a personal struggle for the main characters, not so much the ones where aliens are being shot with lasers. As the alien-to-human ratio of this show generally teeters on the borderline of what I can handle, I have been thinking about this affinity (or lack thereof) to aliens and sci-fi a lot over the last several weeks.

Aside from running counter to the realistic, down-to-earth mindset with which I tend to view the world, I often just find aliens creepy. Remember that old show, Unsolved Mysteries? Yeah, I could never watch that. Admittedly, there have been a couple Dr. Who episodes where I've had to look away from the screen when the aliens came out. I have also been turning on more lights lately (and not just cuz the sun still goes down at 4:30).

The creepy aliens (Dr. Who or otherwise) never look human, never sound human, and they are rarely portrayed as having positive intent. They often have powers unseen, which makes them unpredictable.

Fear of the unknown, I guess. And a couple weeks ago, I discovered something new about this fear. While browsing Sesame Street for work, I remembered this video.

I remember being completely scared by these two Martians. I would leave the room or cover my ears and eyes if this clip (and I think the telephone one) came on during the show. I did not like their creepy voices, the way they moved, and I did not like the fact that they could travel through walls.

I was maybe five years old.

I'd all but forgotten about these creatures until a couple of weeks ago. And this, along with my other recent extraterrestrial reflections, leaves me wondering: is it the very core of my being that has me uncomfortable with the idea of aliens, or was this Sesame Street clip where the alien aversion started? I may never know.

I think I'm just glad that, as far as we know to date, the key word in science-fiction is fiction.

Now, if you'll excuse me the Doctor is about to save the planet (again).

Everything Old is [Kinda] New Again

I am recognizing more and more that trends from my own generation or slightly before are coming back around full circle for the younger generation--I also recognize that this fact means I am getting old experienced nostalgic ...cultured?

I had another one of those mixed moments of timey-wimey nostalgia today. I saw this ad on TV, and was raising half an eyebrow at the techno-zombie piece of it, until right at the very end, where I was thrown straight back to the late 80's, and a toy I had of my own.

What I saw today:



Are you a child of the 80's? Did you get thrown back to the same place as I?

HINT:



...I thought the throwbacks were for Thursdays...

Secular Music as Worship, Part III

"I've never been a swimmer,

but I know that I'll never drown."

The Snap Pea Experiment

Last year, I was a little bit inspired by this video:


I mean, not so much in the area of becoming an activist for an Edible Edmonton (though I think that would be really cool, and I would totally participate at whatever level I could). But more in using even my own space differently to maximize the way I grow food.

I already have a raised bed garden. When I saw the video last year, most of it had already been harvested, and the season was nearly over. But it got me excited for what I could do this year.

I've added several flower pots to my back yard to house herbs and vegetables. I cleared the front garden beds of their flowers, dedicating the space under the cherry bushes entirely to strawberry plants. But the thing I was most excited about was the snap peas. I decided to plant my snap peas (and some sweet peas) along the chain link fence lining my driveway, instead of in the raised garden like I've done in the past. It was a bit of a risky venture, given that the dirt is not exactly top-quality potting soil. Sandy with a bit of clay, I added some nutrient-rich compost soil to the mix, sowed my seeds, and hoped for the best.

Everything in the garden has been coming up over the last week or so, and wouldn't you know, the snap peas are, too! ...Looks like my snap pea experiment is a success!

Still Worshipping Through Secular Music

In a [Facebook note turned] blog post from several years ago, I contemplated the idea of secular music having purpose as worship. Over the years, there have been songs here and there that I have added to my mental collection of "secular worship" music.

Just before Christmas, I heard Phillip Phillips' song "Home" for the first time. Initially, I was taken in by the melody and the vocals (he sounds eerily like Mumford & Sons). But once I listened closely to the lyrics, I was impacted powerfully by the song as one of worship. Not Phillip Phillips--but Jesus--singing His song of protection and care in these lyrics.

Beautiful.

"Hold on to Me as we go

As we roll down this unfamiliar road."

SOTC 33/365

Every time I see stuff like this, I get the refrain of this song in my head:

(And in case you're sitting there thinking, 'what on earth is this?!' ...THIS is what thirty-something math geeks watched as children.)

"...Maybe I'm In the Gap Between the Two Trapezes..." OR 260/365

Oxfam + Coldplay

=

Great

Spontaneous Fun!!!

112/365

Feist. In concert. :)

Life is a Song OR 108/365

I love music. I come by this naturally--both my parents had musical skill and loved listening to various genres of music. My dad spent a period of time working at a radio station; my mom has been and is currently active in the worship group of her church. In my brother and I, this genetic predisposition translated into self-taught guitar and modest piano skill, respectively; and both of us were in various school choirs.

I grew up listening to music in the car, in the shower, doing chores, doing homework, and to wake me up in the morning. As an adult, this love of music has not faded. Here is the typical soundtrack of my day:

Waking up:


On the drive to work (a la CBC Radio 2 Morning):


Throughout my work day:


and:


and:


Driving home:


Making supper:


Winding down the evening:


My iTunes collection is one of the major reasons I'm running out of space on my laptop.

And sure, I could go into all the ways that music enhances brain function, the powerful impact of a song's lyrics in conjunction with its melody, the universal way that music influences people. But that's way more of an intellectual post than I'm going for. I know that the brain response, lyrical content, and genres of music I prefer are major factors as to why I love music and listen to it so much. But today I don't need to know any more than that.

I just need to decide which song I want next.

62/365

Learning some basic Indian dance techniques from the experts :) (Enjoy the music video, too; it's a catchy song!)

My Work Rocks

I am blessed. I work for a great organization doing great things. Lately, we have been given a decent amount of media coverage. The timing of this has to do with our upcoming fundraiser. Still, we are an organization that makes sure it is always following best practice. We believe in empowering families, inclusion, learning through play, and learning through life. These are great values to run a business by, and I think it's one of the reasons that The GRIT Program is such a great place to work. Here is a little bit of what I get to experience every day.



The GRIT Program, through Carson, also got some coverage in a free local paper, The Edmonton Examiner:

Pondering the Miracle

It's Christmastime. AKA Jesus' birthday. I have grown up knowing this, and accepting without question that Jesus' birth was miraculous. I mean, of course it's miraculous. God placed a baby inside a virgin. He sent angels to tell Mary and Joseph what was going on. He sent angels to the shepherds. He placed a star in the sky so the three wise men could find the new King. These are not your ordinary, everyday events. I would say they are some of God's showier "stuff."

But the miracle goes SO beyond that--and is so UN-showy that I think many people miss it. On my drive to work the other morning, I was thinking about the fact that Jesus was born in a stable. It wasn't just coincidence that there was no room at the inn--God meant for there to be no room at the inn so Jesus' birth would be the first display of the Jesus' humility. And I think we mostly recognize this humility in terms of the uncomfortable quarters the stable affords, the presence of animals, and that the stable was where servants spent their time (certainly not kings). But something else struck me the other day. Jesus was born in a barn--a barn!!! I've been in barns. They stink. They're not the warmest. They're dusty. And you get cow poop on your shoes. It's certainly not a sanitary place to bring a child into the world. Angels and immaculate conception aside, it's miracle enough that Jesus' tiny little immune system wasn't overrun by the myriads of microscopic organisms on the floor of that barn!

...I think it's the so fully human aspect of Jesus that continually blows me away. Fully God and fully man. All the knowledge of being Lord, and yet all the experience that goes along with being human. Choosing to set aside power and enter into the world's poop (literally and figuratively). I read once that "every religion in the world is about man trying to reach up to God, like working your way up the ladder. They’re all about striving to achieve something for yourself. Christianity is the only religion about God reaching down to man and offering salvation as a free gift, with the added bonus of a personal relationship with the Creator God through Jesus Christ..." I love it. I love that God loves me that much. To render Himself human so He could be intimate with me.

Little Boxes

I don't have a socio-political opinion either way (well, I probably do, I've just never taken the time to think about what that opinion is); I've just heard the song a lot in the last couple weeks (don't ask), and think it's kinda cute...



There are several covers of this little song--and spoofs, even. Of course, Wikipedia (I love Wikipedia) has the details on its satirical origins.

Get Your Canadian On!

...Pick your style of patriotism and enjoy the day; happy birthday, Canada!

Traditional:


Majestic:


Contemporary:


And totally fun!


...Yeah, I watched them all in a row, too. :)

Txtng + Drvng

I don't get vocally passionate about a lot of things, but there are a range of safety issues that totally get me riled up when people just don't use common sense: driving impaired; not wearing a seat belt; not wearing a bike helmet; and, as technology has made it an issue, texting while driving. Seriously, how does anyone think this is functional?

(Head's up, this video is quite graphic in the first 60 seconds)


And while that video is a dramatization, those exact scenarios do play out in real life:



Srsly.

Attack!

PPrincess has done this occasionally with the DVD player and my cell phone (if it's on vibrate). Not quite as intensely, mind you, but nevertheless, good free entertainment value!

Not So Different...

Okay, so I recently watched an 80's teen movie called Can't Buy Me Love. It was recommended to me by a friend cuz the male lead is Patrick Dempsey, who is also the male lead on Grey's. From the outset, I knew this would not be a 'substance' movie. I expected 80's cheese, and it was 80's cheese.

But I had to wonder a couple times: if I had been a young adult in the late 80's and had watched the movie 20 years ago when it was new, would I have thought it to be cheesy, or would I have thought it was a feel-good teen movie? A while ago, I posted about how, re-watching some old clips of Lois & Clark, I could admit that it was definitely a bit cheesy twelve years later. But I sure didn't think that when I was sixteen! ...Maybe cheese is relative?

Okay, so here's the final scene from Can't Buy Me Love. Context: geek pays popular girl to go out with him, but even though she ends up really liking him, she blows his cover in a moment of weakness. There's animosity. Can chic and geek really co-exist together?

Now here's the ending scene from the fourth season finale of Grey's, which I was watching this evening. Context: on-again-off-again for the last three years, Meredith and Derek are discovering themselves and what they really want out of relationships.

Really, what's so different about a kiss riding into the Arizona sunset and a kiss atop a Washington cliff in a candle lit house plan? I think it's just time that renders the former cheesy. Clothing trends change. Issues-of-the-day change. But the concept... discovering what really matters in making a relationship work; discovering that there's someone who loves you for who you are; having that true love approach you with the kiss you've been waiting for for who knows how long; having the happy ending... The concept is timeless.

Rob Bell

Two weeks after my trip to Seattle and I'm still summing it up on the blog...

Anyway, Saturday evening was spent at the Moore Theatre listening to Rob Bell. He was the 'motivating factor' for our trip to Seattle. Rob Bell is a Christian pastor in Michigan, and quite the post-modern thinker (not like relativist-post-modern, but actual-post-modern). His tour was a reflection on his most recent book, Drops Like Stars, which explores suffering and trying times and how that meshes with our faith.

He stated from the outset that we were not going to look at the 'why' of suffering. That's been beaten to death, and you can ask why things happen 'till the cows come home, but no one will ever know all the time all the reasons why crap enters our lives. Instead, he decided to look at the 'what' and 'where' of suffering. As in, 'what now' and, more importantly, 'where in context'.

Rob challenged us to think about the idea that suffering is what shapes who we are more so than successes. One of the highlights I took from the evening was the idea of The Box. We all tend to live in a box. And when people do off-the-wall things or think in different ways, we say, "he's thinking outside the box" or "he's a bit outside the box". But when we experience suffering, it's like the box is suddenly gone and we have no frame of reference for the life we had been living up until that point. We are left fully reliant on God to help us reshape our everything.

Lucky for me, there is a YouTube video summing up this highlight. I don't know why it's sideways, and I apologize on behalf of the videographer, but I think what Rob says is quite valuable. He had a lot of good things to say and for us to think about that evening, but this really stood out from everything else.

Purpose

After a long week, it was so good to enter the weekend today! I slept in 'till 11am, giving me over 10 hours of sleep; it was fantastic. Today's agenda: snowshoeing and groceries.

JM and I broke out the snowshoes in the River Valley this afternoon. I have taken a real liking to snowshoeing since I tried it for the first time last year. This year I gave up renting and bought my own pair; I have been several times this winter. Mostly it's just JM and me, but we are slowly pulling people over to the fun side of winter! ...The goal is usually to trek for about an hour, so while snowshoeing, we usually catch up on the other person's day/week, and chat about whatever is at the forefront of our minds at that moment. Such was today, until about 40 minutes in...

As we were making the loop around the ravine to come back to the main park area where we had started, JM noticed some kids playing in the creek below and commented on how it reminded her of days gone by with her older brothers. The scene was a brief recollection of childhood for both of us until we realized one of the children was crying and uncomfortably trying to get over to where his friends were. The kids realized we were there at the same time we realized that we should probably help. I slid down the hill into the ravine, asking to help, while simultaneously changing the gears of my brain into First Aid mode.

It was a big relief that we were not dealing with blood-and-bones-type injuries. Still, his foot had gone through some thin ice in the creek and he had filled his boot with cold, icy water. The poor kid was wet from the shin down, and therefore cold. He definitely didn't need to be down the ravine any longer. From the bottom of the hill, I started helping the kids up towards JM so she could continue pulling them up with her ski poles. At the top, we created a more organized action plan to get them all home. JM put her mitten on his foot, and piggy-backed him while I carried poles, boots, etc., and walked with the other three. Except our cold little man didn't want to go home. Suffice it to say he wasn't exactly s'posed to be playing down there in the first place. I'm sure he felt like strangers returning him to his parents would be adding insult to injury. I understood. But I also had the word 'hypothermia' screaming in my head, and knew that an adult needed to be available on the other end. We briefly considered heading to the house of the other children, but as he was still shivering quite significantly when we finally got around the ravine and up to the residential area, we stuck to the original go-home plan.

Yup, discipline was alluded to by his parents as we dropped him off at his house. I tried to reassure them that he hadn't been anywhere dangerous--he was just wet and we wanted to make sure he got home safely.

As JM and I walked back to the park, we chatted quite animatedly about this impromptu adventure. At one point, JM commented on the randomness of the event and wondering what God had meant by placing that in our afternoon. What were we supposed to glean from it? ...We didn't really conclude anything substantial.

As I was driving home from my grocery shopping, mind you, I thought to myself, maybe God didn't mean for us to get anything out of the afternoon. God uses a lot of circumstances and events to allow us to learn something about Him, His world, His children, and to learn something about ourselves. But that's not the primary reason for anything, is it? All situations, all interactions, all events--they're for His glory. Are we so arrogant to think that God orchestrates events so that we can learn something from them?

...Now, ironically enough, I realize that by gaining this insight, it means I have learned something from my adventuresome afternoon, albeit indirectly. But we so linearly think that big or unusual events must come with meaning. It's not like I learned something new about interacting with children this afternoon; all the skills I used I already had. I didn't gain any parenting wisdom as I was helping the kids or interacting with the child's parents; it was familiar social territory. I didn't gain any new friendship insight; JM and I have been through crazier. The actual situation didn't remind me of anything I didn't already know. And I don't think those kinds of situations (and even bigger ones) necessarily need to bring new insights or learning. Is it such a stretch to think that God might just take the skills and talents He's already given us for nothing more than His glory? So that we (and others) might see a glimpse of Him in their day? And not to learn anything from that glimpse of glory but to just experience it?

Superheroes and Brain Surgeons

I realized it has been a couple weeks since I've blogged; what HAVE I been doing? Well, apart from jumping back into the world of work and extracurriculars after the holidays, I have spent less of my free time on my laptop and more of it lately feeding my TV addiction: Grey's Anatomy.

Over the holidays, I acquired Seasons One, Two, and Three on DVD. And in the last three weeks, I have watched them in their entirety. Sad. Or disgusting. Or hardcore. However you want to look at it. To be fair, the first week I was still on holidays with oodles of free time, and the first season of Grey's is only nine episodes; not the typical twenty-something of a regular season. But yes, I realize that's still a LOT of Grey's in a very short time period. I loved it.

I don't know exactly what it is about Grey's that I love so much. No, it's not Dr. McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey). He's great and all, and I love that I share my birthday with him, but let's get real--do you know how much older he is than me? And I'm quite beyond Hollywood crushes. The male lead is not the key factor. Maybe it's the drama. My life is not nearly as chaotic or dramatic, but they DO deal with issues that fall (or could fall) into the realm of my adult world. Maybe it's the science. My major was psych, but my minor was biology. I'm fascinated by rare conditions, the human anatomy, and anything that has to do with the brain. Maybe it's the script. The dialogue between characters right down to the one-liners--the comic relief is hilarious, and the rest is poetic and true. Maybe it's the characters. I don't really identify with any one character, but I love how each is completely unique, and I love the dynamic between them. Seriously.



I dunno. I have only ever been as intensely into one other television show, and it wasn't really the same genre. When I was in high school, I was completely into Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Not exactly similar to Grey's, hey? There was no drama. Well, not the soaps-style drama that Grey's offers. L&C was more of a catch-the-bad-guy each week with a Lex Luthor sub-plot that came up a few times each season. And there was no science. More like science fiction (obviously not too much, otherwise I wouldn't have watched it). But the script... the characters... yup, that's what drew me into that one. I strongly identified with Lois Lane, and totally wished I had personal connections to a guy who could fly. And again, the one-liners; hilarious. The dialogue; endearing.

For those of you who missed it in the 90's, and for those of you who would like a stroll down memory lane:


Yeah, I guess some of it's kinda cheezy looking back. And I'm sure ten years from now, I'll watch my Grey's DVDs and think they were kinda cheezy, too. I went from a man in tights to doctors in lab coats; kryptonite to chemo; superheroes to brain surgeons.