"El Churcho"

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!! (is what i would say if i was a military radio host during the vietnam war)

So, today's entry won't be very long, my apologies to you if you were expecting a novel of a blog considering i haven't written in this in a week. My life has been busy, and i have added a new commitment to my life that has kept me from blogging for the time being, but since i got up early this morning, i figure i would write a bit here before el churcho, which is not to be confused with "el scorcho" which is a great song by my reknewed heros, Weezer.

So first things first. Yesterday, or was it the day before? (i have lost all track of time and dates) i was at work....obviously....and i was doing what is known as a "Grass seed blend". Now in order to do this "Grass seed blend" i need to take the forklift and lift all of my grass seed and other various products (such as clover, alfalfa ect) up about 35 feet to the platform where we have to manually pour the product into the blender. So i do this, then i climb up to the platform and begin making my batches. Now there is another machine attached the this blender, and what it does is it pours fertalizer in with the grass seed, and then the blender which i pour it into blends it all. Now keep in mind when i say fertalizer, i don't mean cow crap, i mean things like phosphate, sulphur, and other apperant minerals that help stuff grow. Anyway, when doing a grass blend, the worst thing to have happen is for it to be windy, and it was windy on this day, so as i am pouring bags into the blender and as it is blending, the wind is kicking up all the dust and schmeg and causing me quite the annoyance. So after i was done, i climbed down collected all the bags i had thrown to the ground, put them in the trash, and then went inside to wash out my eyes, cause they were stinging and red from all the dust. As i looked in the mirror, i saw something funny. My windblown hair and beard were all dusty, thus giving it the "I've gone grey" affect. As i looked through bleary and tearing eyes, i noticed a striking resemblance between myself and Country Music legend Kenny Rogers. It was amazing, i really looked like Kenny Rogers, and to be honest it made my day, i mean Kenny Rogers is a freaken stud, for goodness sake he should've been on that "Elle Girl 50 hottest guys list"! Anyway, after that little episode, i cleaned myself up and went back to work. All afternoon i was singing "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers, it was kind of fun....

In other news, i have a g/f. For those of you who don't speak MSN, lol, brb, jkjk, lol, g/f,wtf...whoa did i just swear, sorry about that, this blog just got a PG13 rating. Anyway, yes, i have a girlfriend, her name is Cara. We have been dating for like 5 days. I feel pretty good about the situation.....more to come as it becomes pertinant and or available. Most of you know about this already, sorry to the ones that didn't.

Song of the day is "She believes in me" by Kenny Rogers. I know you were all hoping to be able to listen to "The Gambler" at the behest of my blog, but i was also thinking about the song "She believes in me" by Kenny that day, and i want to hear that one more. It's such a great song, even if you don't like country, Kenny is one artist who i think was able to transcend Country music, and still remain loyal to his roots, although his roots were actually rock, before he was every a popular country star, he was in a rock band, and i have the record, but i forget what his band was called. Also when i was very young, i got to see Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton live in concert. It must've been on the Island in the Stream Tour, ah, actually not, cause that song came out in the year i was born, but anyway, i seen them in concert, it was my first concert and it was pretty sweet. Also, his rock band was called "The First Edition". So if you have the means and or the desire check out "She Believes in Me" by Kenny Rogers.

Peace out

ps. I am reading a book called "God is closer then you think" by John Ortberg, really great book, giving me some great insights, check it out.

Pharisee's eat at Subway (and by Pharisee's i mean me)

Good Evening my loyal friends and blog readers.

Yesterday was a pretty darn good day. Except for one time during the day. So after church (church was really great by the way....Shawn preached the best message i have ever heard him preach.) i went out for lunch with some friends. I had been craving Subway (props to my sister) for like weeks, because unlike months earlier, i had not eaten there in over a month. So at my request and desire we went to Subway. I hada great sub, but as we were standing in line to order a crappy scene began unfolding.

As you may or may not know, May long weekend was this past weekend. In Alberta, this is an excuse for many people to get totally hammered. One such person and his buddies wandered into Subway that fateful morning, and the one fellow was out of control. He was yelling, and cussing in a very vulger way - alot, he was bothering customers and employees alike, he was taking off his shirt, basically, he was being a real ass. I just kind of ignored him at first. I figured, ah, what the heck, he is drunk, and he'll leave after he gets his food, but he didn't. The people (especially the females) i was with, were becoming obviously disgruntled with this person. To the point where they were responding with anger to his idiocy and drunken behavior. This continued well on into the time where we were eating our subs. He was not being a considerate drunk. One lady in line apperantly called the police, but they never showed up. So this went on and on, and we didn't want to leave because he was harrassing the two teenage girls who were working at Subway. The ladies in our party continued to engage the guy in conversation when they felt neccesary to tell him to shut-up or what have you. I have to admit, he was being fairly rude, and with kids in the place. My anger began to burn. I wanted to get up and throw him out, and maybe give him a punch or two to straignten him out. My anger began to burn and then i wanted to just plainly kick his ass. I was almost wishing he would go one step further and give me an excuse to pop him. Eventually, after some unkind words between him and my friend Cara, he stumbled out with his buddies. I dwelled on my indignant, righteous anger for a little while, then moved on, cause he was gone. Today, i had time to think about this situation. I thought about how it could've played out differantly. Then i thought about, what an asshole i was. I had just today read the seven woes that Christ addresses to the pharisee's and teachers of the law. They were about being hypocritical and unloving and so on, and as i thought about how this could've been differant i realized that i needed to love that guy.

How am i any better then this guy? I'm not, i may not've been drunk then, but i've been drunk and obnoxious before. Hell, i've been sober and obnoxious before! I have done worse things then piss some people off in a subway when i was drunk. The differance comes in that i have accepted the forgiveness that God has offered to me. Yes, i have been just as bad and worse then this guy, but the differance is, I have discovered God's life changing love, and he hasn't. But how is he ever going to find God's love if Christians like me, and looking at him with eyes of hate, and murderous intent?

I thought about how instead of grumbling under my breath and hating this "SINNER" i could've gone and eaten with him, and loved him and showed him what Christ has done in my life. If Christ would've been there, who would he have sat with....me...or this other guy? He would've sat with the other guy, and at that moment i realized what a pharisee i can be, and how those seven woes that Christ addresses to the Pharisee's are for me, because i can be exactly like those guys who we villify all the time. How easy it is to allow righteous indignation to serve as a cover for pure hate and anger. It felt right at the time, i had a right to be angry with this guy, he was being a total jackass, and bothering my friends especially, WRONG! I had a right to pass on the love that Jesus gave to me, and the thought didn't even cross my mind...how frustrating is that?! I can see where the Pharisee's would get caught. It made sense that they would not want to hang out with those sinners and tax collecters, they are drunk assholes in subway, they are thiving tax collectors, they are foul mouth co-workers, they are prostitutes...do you see what i am getting at? I have made the pharisee's out to be real idiots on more then one occasion, but they weren't so unlike me after all! Which makes me kinda sick to my stomach to think about. God give me the strength, and the heart to love those who are unlike me, but like me completley on that we both are in need to you amazing love and grace.

Song of the day is "Shadows" by Matt Sharp. Matt Sharp used to be the bassist in Weezer. His solo album is good, really mellow and slow. I ordered it and am trying to give it a good listen. Check it out, i dig Mr. Sharp and so should you. If you have the means and or the desire, check out "Shadows" by Matt Sharp.

This is Shaolin - Out

Elle Girl has snubbed me again

Hello

I just popped in my new Smith's CD. But if you were currently logged into MSN, you could know that without even reading my blog...yes...wonders of wonders, MSN has somehow created an option that will tell all of your MSN friends what it is exactly that you are listening to at that moment! Keen huh? So far most of the other people that i have seen using this option have been listening to crappy music, so i am hoping that my good tastes will influence them and turn this trend of crappy music from other people around.

How are you? I am fine, i am tired, though i have not been working as late or as hard these last couple of days. On Monday night it rained, and then it continued to Rain all day Tuesday which made farming futile, which made operating a business catering to the needs of farmers futile, so I left work on Tuesday at 1:30pm. After that i got myself cleaned up and went to Lloydminster with a friend. I needed to pick up some key items that i seem to be only able to get at Wal-Mart. As well as those things, i also got some photo's developed. 96 photo's to be exact. I always thought that even though i now had a digital camera i would continue to print my photo's on a regular basis, but that has proven untrue. I just printed pictures from last August, the fall and Christmas of 2004 and so on. So, i only have like 300 more pictures to print and then i will be up to date. It will be nice to have all my photos from my internship in a book. Some i also want to frame. I actually have a large number of photos that i want to frame. I used to make photo collages on my walls with tape, but more recently that mode of doing things has been wrecking my photos, but at the same time, sticky tac seems to have lost it's stickyness, so using it, is also out of the question. My answer to the problem is to simply frame the best and most important pictures and hang them on my walls where everyone can see my fun and wonderful photographs. I will miss the collage atmosphere of my photo's but my framing will be good as well.

Today, i was also thinking that i would not work late (though i didn't want to get off at 1:30 again), and in retrospect, i really didn't work that late, but i was hoping to be out by 5:30 or so, but i ended staying at work till 7:30. I wasn't even doing anything too productive, i was just filling our fertalizer bins so that we would not run out tomorrow. It's important i know, but seriously, all you do is flip a couple switches and wait for the alarm to go off to tell you that the bin is full. Lame-town USA! Work was actually pretty slow again today, even though it didn't rain. The ground was still to moist for farmers to do anything. I served four customers all day, thats how slow it was. Luckily this afforded me time to clean up a few huge piles of schmeg that had accumulated around the plant. Me and this other guy got to hang out and shovel all this crap into bags (the crap being wet fertilizer), which isn't a great job, but it definitly made better by doing it with another person. Later on we made a deliver of 88, ten litre jugs of a chemical called Glyfos. It is our biggest selling chemical product. They are boxed in twos, so the boxes actually weigh more then one of those big water machine bottles that are oh so popular out here in rural Alberta. So with that, i carried the equivalent of 45 big water jugs. It's good for my muscles though. Seriously when i get back to Calgary, (which is what i desire more then anything) i will be so buff you won't even recognize me. I will be walking down the street and i will see you and wave to you, and you will be like, "Whoa, who was that buff and extremely attractive man that just waved at me?" and if you are a female, you will also say "I wonder if i can go get his number" and then i will give you my number, and you will be like, "Hey, this is Mike Schalin's number!" and i will be like "I know". Sweet.....

I haven't shaved in a long time. I thought i would let it grow along with my hair, until my sisters grad, then i can get a shave and a haircut. I do enjoy a good shave and a haircut, especially if it is from my man back in North Vancouver. Seriously, ever since i was a baby this guy has been cutting my hair, and he is the man. If ever i can afford to wait to get haircuts from him, i do, and so thus, i am letting my hair grow as well as my beard, because he shapes it really well. Anyway, the whole point being, my neck is really itchy, i have a serious neck beard, like Rivers Cuomo circa Maladroit, or like Mike Schalin circa No Shave November (or any other time i don't feel like shaving). Anyway, my neck beard has been so itchy i have been very tempted to shave it, but i plan to hold fast. I hope i do.

I think that's enough random thoughts for today. Especially since i don't seem to have anymore, and since i wanted to call my parents and see how they are doing, and then go to bed. I am tired. I can't wait till the job is over.

Song of the day, hmmm, what to say, i don't want to use the Smith's, i am still getting into this new disc, so i will give you a new song by the band Weezer. The song of the day is "Beverly Hills". I am aware that it is currently thier big song, and it's cliche or whatever to pick songs that are currently popular, or so i was once told, but anyway, "Beverly Hills" is a great summer song, i love listening to it with my windows down whilst driving in my automobile. The whole new album is pretty great, but if you have the means and or the desire, check out "Beverly Hills" by Weezer. Speaking of Weezer (which is something i have done many times on this Blog) i read today that Rivers Cuomo "was named #43 on Elle Girl's 50 Hottest Guys list. "He's the enigmatic singer of Weezer. Even though he looks cute and harmless, we suspect there's a lot of weird stuff going on in that little genius head of his...which is -oddly enough- hot." This was all available information on the bands website www.weezer.com. I wondered how i stacked up against the top 43 guys on that list and so despite the fact that Elle Girl did not list me, here are they guys on this list that i am hotter than:
Gavin Degraw
James Lafferty (whose name reminds me of "Lafferty, Daniel" from Happy Gilmour)
Sean Faris (whose last name rhymes with Paris)
Bow Wow (enough said)
Jared Leto (he is so 1997)
Clay Aiken (i can't believe this guy made this list,, what a dingleberry)
Fabrizio Moretti (though i will admit his name is cool)
Alex Parker
8 other guys who for some reason were lumped together...probably cause i had never heard of them
Johnny Knoxville
Gaspard Ulliel
Alex Greenwald
Jonathan Rhys Myers (whose picture makes him look like a coke fiend)
Elijah Wood (by far i am hotter then the gayest of gay hobbits)
Gael Garcia Bernal
John Robinson
Rupert Grint (who i know realize play's Ron Weasly in the Harry Potter films)
Lou Taylor Pucci (this guy was #1)

Anyway, uh i kinda feel bad about telling you all how much more hot i am then these guys listed here. I feel like i don't know, bad for some reason, as if my talking bad about these guys will somehow be bad....but i will let it stand. Everyone needs to boost thier ego in a healthy way like comparing thier own physical attractivity to that of others every once in a while.....uh right.

My only concern with the afore mentioned list (available at www.ellegirl.com) was that Brad Pitt didn't make the list, and i (though not being gay, and i don't mean to bash gays with that Ellijah Wood comment earlier, but his portrayal of Frodo Baggins i believe strayed from it's original intended way a bit) am inscenced because Brad Pitt, just might be the most attractive man since John the Baptist.....for more on him read Matthew Chapter 3, verse 4 (in the Bible)

HMV is not usually the haven of my happiness

Hey Everyone...or no one.

Sorry i haven't blogged in a while. You know how life is. Maybe you don't know how life is...maybe i should tell you. Life is pretty good. I realized today that when i am done work this week i will be halfway done my tenure working at Webb's in Vermilion. Once again, not that i don't like the job, but my heart years for Calgary, and my feet yearn to be washed.

So yesterday i was once again able to have the day off. I have been feeling lonely lately, so i decided to take the opportunity to try and hang out with some friends. After making a few phone calls, my situation was looking grim, but then i got a hold of my old friend Landon Mashon, and he was more then willing to hang out with me while i spent my $100 gift certificate at HMV ect. So yesterday made me very happy cause i spent a lot of money on a lot of CD's and to make it better, the money wasn't mine. Now i know what you want to know. "What CD's did you buy Mike?" Well, i was getting to that, but since you are so impatient i will just tell you. I bought:
1. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Cold Roses (which for some reason i want to keep calling Stone Roses, but it's not, it's Cold Roses
2. Green Day - American Idiot (really great disc that i had a burnt copy of, so i felt bad and bought the real thing, i prefer the real thing anyway)
3. Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman (the only one of the six CD's i bought that i have really been able to give a good listen to so far, and it is beautiful in many ways)
4. Heatmiser - Mic City Sons (A rare CD, from Elliott Smith's ((now deceased)) band Heatmiser, really quality stuff, despite the apperant homosexuality of everyone else in the band.....i don't even know what i mean by that, i like music by a lot of gay people....ok, just one)
5. The Smiths - Meat is Murder (The best selling album by the enigma of a band and for the low low price of $10.99)
6. Rufus Wainwright - Want One (Flaming Homosexual, whose musical exploits have been told to me, wanted to check him out ((Musically speaking you sickos)) and this one was also only $10.99)

All in all, it was a great day. The other CD i wanted to buy but didn't was the new Bruce Springsteen Album, but i only had so much money to spend. Today was an ok day, i thought it was going to suck, i totally thrashed a bag of Canola today spilling it's expensive contents everywhere in such a way that reminded me of a human main artery being sliced. You see, at work we have two Forklifts, one crappy one and one good one. The crappy one has two main problems. 1. You have to rev the engine in order to move the forks in any way, and 2. The forks and drastically uneven, meaning that when i get one fork in the right place, the other one is not always in the same place, meaning that today when i was moving a pallette of Canola, one of my forks, instead of going where it should've, went right into the stupid bag of Canola, causing me to say bad words within the confines of my own head. I thought this experiance would cause irreprible damage to my outlook on the day, but it didn't end up making me feel as bad as i thought it would.

What else to say? I suppose not too much.

Song of the day is "Gracie" by Ben Folds, from his latest album. The song is about his daughter, and it's quite beautiful. If i ever have a daughter, i hope that i could express my love and care for her with even half the talent Ben does on this wonderful song. Matt Russell, if you don't have this CD yet i feel bad for you, but i should mention that the album does feature Weird Al Yankovic singing background vocals on one song. You can't really tell it's him though, unless you really listen. Also amazing is Ben's tribute song to Elliott Smith called "Late". Great song, great CD, if you have the means and or the desire, check it out. Until next time, i bid you love and farewell.

How often can you feel like Forrest Gump and get and email from Pete Yorn in the same day?

You'll never guess who i got an email from today! Pete Yorn! That's right, my old friend Pete sent me an email to tell me about the new album he is working on (due for release Fall 2005). It was good to hear from my friend Pete, because i felt like i hadn't heard from him in a very long time. (For those of you who are confused and find this irrelevant, Pete Yorn is a musician that i admire, and i am on his fan mailing list, so i got an email, yet it my inbox it showed up as being from Pete Yorn....anyways)...anyways....

You'll never guess what happens to a person when they work for more the 10 hours a day! Thier feet smell bad! That's right, i have found in days where i work more then 10 hours, my feet smell really awful. Sorry to tell you that, but, i needed something to say. Work is going good, i was exhausted today, because i had to stay up last night till nearly midnight doing laundry so that i wouldn't have to go to work in no clothes today. Also i didn't get home till nearly 10pm last night too. It has gotten busy, though, today was not so much. Tomorrow will be very busy, we are getting a huge shipment of agriculture chemical products and seed products as well. I will have to recieve them and store them. Woo-Hoo. Also i think i will be making a couple of deliveries tomorrow, which is actually kind of fun, cause it gets me out of the yard for a bit. You should see how tanned i have gotten (and when i say tanned i mean the three areas of exposed skin i have. Two forearms and a face). Working outside has been great. In fact, yesterday and today, as i was driving my forklift, i was reminded of Forrest Gump. You know the scene where Forrest is running his lawn tractor, dreaming of Jenny, and then she actually shows up. I was driving my forklift, and for some reason, i just felt like Forrest. I think everyone should feel like Forrest every once in a while. What a great film, if you haven't seen the film "Forrest Gump", you need to, and if you have seen if, but not for a while, you need to watch it again. Amazing, Amazing film.

There is not too much else new with me, truth is, i work, i eat, i sleep, and sometimes, in between eating and sleeping i write emails/blog updates, such as i am doing now. Though tonight, i had to chose, whether to write another email, or to write in my blog. I figured i hadn't written in the ol' blog for a while, so here i am.

I was reading my bible this morning, and i noticed something. Jesus was teaching his disciples and he was telling them how they had to take up thier cross and follow him. For some reason, and possibly to no consequence, i noticed that Jesus was referring to the cross, long before it ever became significant (ie: long before he ever died on one). I don't know i never noticed it before, even though Jesus in the passage before is prediciting his death and telling his disciples about it, the passage doesn't mention being crucified. Then he uses the cross to illustrate his point. I don't know what it means, i just like finding things that i never noticed before.

The guy whose house i live in, Herb, is watching boxing in the next room. Muhammed Ali is boxing some guy, and apperantly kicking some guys butt, but just can't seem to put him away, and Ali, just took a huge punch......good old boxing....

Song of the day, you know what i noticed. I don't get to listen to much music anymore. In fact, only when i am driving, and it's so interesting how the mind works. Even though i don't listen to music throughout the day, there is seldom a second where there is not a song playing in my head. It's like i have this huge archive of songs in my mind, and my brain is acting as a radio to play those songs to keep my happy during the day. I wish i could think of one of the many songs that were on my mind today, but i can't. Ok here's one, though i did actually hear it today, "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John. The afternoon was tough for me today, i didn't have a great one. Then i took a break at seven thirty to try and eat a sandwhich and drink a pop. Now, i do these types of things in my automobile, so i can kind of hide out and listen to some music. I was feeling kinda down, and then on came "Tiny Dancer" and it lifted my spirits immensly and instantaniously. I know it's a pretty mainstream Elton song, but that's because it is so darn good! It's an amazing song, and it carries with it the ability to make me feel good, when i feel like crapola. Speaking of crapola, i need to go to sleep before i die, and two, if you have the means or the desire, check this song out, you will not be disappointed. If you are, i don't want to hear about it, because you are probably not disappointed with the song, but you might just tell me you are to spite me. Speaking of spite, i like Sprite.

Peace for now, my peeps.

ps. In all my haste to write in my blog i forgot to mention that my friend Pete Yorn could possibly actually be Gay. Not that i would like him any less, or any hate filled prejudice like that, i just thought i would mention it. The reason i think this is because of a song of Pete's called "Closet", you can listen to it and make your own desicision, or if you have any other comments or questions on the subject you can ask Tim Houghton. I won't give you his email, but i will tell you his blog address.....

www.timhoughton.blogspot.com

"I kissed you in a style Clark Gable would've admired.....I thought it Classic"

Happy Mothers Day! Even if you aren't a mother, i hope you had a good one. In fact i am not aware of any mothers that actually read my blog, but i hope even if you aren't a mom, you took the time to tell your mom how much she means to you.

So, i literally just finished reading McLaren's new book "The last word and the word after that". Like i said, it had some mind blowing elements, more so then usual was McLaren able to push me in my mind and heart. I remember when i first read "A New Kind of Christian" and it was really controversial to a lot of people. People were having thier minds blown, and to me, it wasn't all that big of a deal. I liked the book, i felt like McLaren was vocalizing things that i had believed in all along, but he wasn't shattering my world, like i saw happening to people around me. I actually was turned off of McLaren, because some of the people who were becoming devoted followers of him around me, i was in conflict with, so i waited till i moved to Calgary to read his books. Good times, you should read some of them sometime....

Anyway, there is this song that i heard. It's called "Clark Gable" by a group called The Postal Service. I got a mix CD of a bunch of thier songs and i listen to them in my car. I keep all my burnt CD's in my car, so if ever some dingleberry decides to steal my car and my CD's he only get's the burnt ones. I will still be mad, but at least i won't lose anything of huge monitery value. Anyway, there is this song called "Clark Gable" (for those of you who don't know, Clark Gable was a movie star back in the day, most famous for his role in the huge film "Gone with the Wind". Anyway the song is kind of weird it recounts this stange encounter that the writer has (or has in his mind perhaps), but it also puts into words a deep passion for romance and relationship. Here Check out the Lyrics.

"I was waiting for a cross-town train in the london underground
When it struck me that I've been waiting since birth to find
A love that would look and sound like a movie so I changed
My plans and rented a camera and a van and then I called you
"I need you to pretend that we are in love again" and you agreed to

I want so badly to believe that "there is truth, that love is real"
And I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd

I greased the lens and framed the shot using a friend as my stand-in
The script it called for rain but it was clear that day so we faked it
The marker snapped and I yelled "quiet on the set"And then called "action!"
And I kissed you in a style that clark gable would have admired
(I thought it classic)

I want so badly to believe that "there is truth, that love is real"
And I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd
I know you're wise beyond your years, but do you ever get the fear
That your perfect verse is just a lie you tell yourself to help you get by?"

So there are the lyrics to the song. I was particularly gripped by the line "and i want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd". It's this desire for a relationship for a romance so passionate that there isn't down time. So that every action, every word somehow affects the relationship. To put the relationship in a place of highest prominance. Hmmm, even as i write that i see that being a follower of Christ would get in the way of that dream. I think it resonates in my heart because i am such a passionate person. When i graduated from High School, there was a Youth Group Grad celebration and my youth pastor coined these words in describing me "Mike is a passionate guy, when he loves he loves with everything inside of him, and when he hates something it is the same". That was not a direct qoute, but that was the idea. Anyway, in my pursuit of a romantic relationship with a female i make it life or death, and this equation to the romance and the relationships shown in popular media, especially films, makes sense to me. I want my love, my wife, to be like William Wallace and his wife Murrin in the film "Braveheart". Well, except for the part where she gets killed, but you know what i mean. Passionate, mysterious, holy, undying, worth fighting for, and so on. I want to feel the feelings that they portray in their acting. But then in the song it raises the idea that those kinds of emotions might not be real, yet the singer wants so badly to believe that they are true, and i am with him on that, i want it to be true as well. I want to believe that when i find my wife that my love for her can be as real as William Wallace's for Murrin, as Bob Harris' for Charlotte in "Lost in Translation" and even to go back to something like Romeo and Juliet. I believe i have that romantic spirit, and it shows itself throught my affirmation of those situations, characters and themes. I don't know why i am writing all of this, except to say that the song "Clark Gable" seems to have evoked in me a real resonating of desire, whether it be good or not. I want to love someone. This whole thing reveals of course, that my desire to love another human being not being in sync with my love for God. I know i am supposed to love God more then anything, and i believe he is worthy of it, but sometimes the desire/the craving/the passion(props to Jesus/Jim Caviezel) for a love relationship with a women overshadows it. Not all the time, but sometimes, maybe even often times, and this song reveals it. It reveals my desires and it reveals my fears. That makes it a good song. I have been wanting to share this song for a while, but have been putting it off, cause i don't know what Good it would do to put out there how desperatly i want to love and to be loved. Oh well, it's out there now, theres not much i can do...well i could erase all this, but i am simply expressing myself, my true feelings, and who i am. Don't feel sorry for me, as much as i wish it was, love, true love, is not something that happens overnight, i just wish it would get started. And who knows, maybe it has. :)

Song of the day is obviously "Clark Gable" by The Postal Service. Check it out, if you have the means and or the desire that is. It's a pretty cool song, at least i think it is. Is there anything else to say...hmmm....i don't think so.....i might be in pursuit of my dreams.....who knows i am so wishy washy with life these days.....

Also, does anyone else believe in Spring Fever? I do, especially with CBC, but i think since being at CBC is has been bred into my system to want to be in a relationship at this time of the year more than other times of the year. With those selfish and repetitious musings i will leave you.

What do a Moth, and Itchy Neck and Naked Preaching have in Common?

Hey Kids, What's happening?

No i didn't just get home from work, thought it wasn't too long ago that i did. Today i worked from 7:30 am to 8pm, thus completing my first week in the agriculture industry. All in all, i would say it was pretty sucessful. Working within the time frame of the six or so weeks has given me much to look forward to. It has given me goals, and it has given me focus. For instance: with each passing week (one down) i get closer and closer (by the way don't ever watch the movie "Closer" especially with Mel and or Jani) to returning to my semi-native soil of Calgary Alberta. Also, whenever i am lifting heavy stuff at work, and i am not using a fork-lift, i think of it as working out. Like everytime i don't want to pick up another box, i just think about how buff i am going to be when i am done this job, and how all the girls will love me and so on and so forth. Anyway, thats my lift.

Speaking of life, i feel like i should tell you, there is a moth on the computer screen. I just haven't have the energy or the heartlessness to shoo it away yet. It's not in my way anymore anyway, it's just kinda sitting there, being a moth, and i can respect that. I mean, how would i feel if all of the sudden, God decided to flick me to death, the way i do with most moths and or creepy crawling/fluttering things that enter my personal space....

So i did have a bit of a mishap at work the other day. I was loading a palette on to some dude's truck, and i couldn't really see, and i went to far, and i put a nice dent and scratch on the back of his truck. He wasn't too impressed. I felt pretty bad, like i should throw myself through a window or something. Those kind of things can just ruin your day sometimes, i know it did mine. Not cause i care about the truck all that much, but i am trying to do my best and not screw up so i can show my appreciation that way to Mr. Webb, who is the guy that gave me the job in the first place. Anyway, i noticed that out here in Vermilion, when people say the word "Dent" they pronounce it "Dint", and i found it really weird, but when i was describing the situation later, i said "Dint", just so they would understand me. I felt weird calling it a "Dint" since i knew in my heart of hearts that what it actually was, was a "Dent".

Ok, i am starting to fall asleep and go blind and my fingers aren't working quite as nimbly as they used to. Speaking of blindness, i was outside the youth centre tonight and one of the kids was eating a candy necklace and he was trying to break the candy, so he was pulling back on it, and it broke and flung itself only to hit me painfully just beneath the eye. It was a bad show, i felt like i had some serious nerve damage done to my eye and general visual stimulas areas.

So i'm reading the last book in Brian McLaren's "New Kind of Christian Trilogy". It's called "The last word and the word after that. It's really something else. For once in his life, McLaren is actually hurting my brain and causeing me serious discomfort and frustration through his writing. I appreciate it, and i hope on day i can return the favor.

I'm going to bed, but i get tomorrow off, so i hope to write again, maybe about something other then work and sleeping and songs of day. Speaking of the song of the day.....someone told me that i reminded them of Hyde from "That 70's Show" today. I don't know how i feel about that, Hyde is sort of a jerk, and in real life, he is a scientologist, and i am definitly not. Now, i know that many of my longtime and faithful readers will be shocked by the genre of the song of the day, but keep an open mind folks. Today's song has been in my head all week, which must mean something but i don't know what. The song is "You'll think of Me" by Keith Urban. It's a song about a break-up and it's on a mix CD Matt Kinniburgh made for me, so woo hoo. Check it out, it's pretty good and catchy for a country song, if that is, you have the means and or the desire. Anyway, time for a glass of water and a bed time. Peace.

ps. the other day, i had a weird dream where i pastor i know was preaching in church and he was naked, and it was very bizarre and weird. Then some women thought it was a good idea and so she started to engage in the same attire as this pastor, and when she did, all the elders and serious people walked out, and quit the church. If you want to know who the pastor is, you will have to ask me in Private (props to being a Private Dancer, and double Props for being a Tiny Dancer - "look at me i'm dancing tinily") cause his reputation might be scared through this naked preaching dream

My neck is really itchy.

...."Give Me Clean Hands"......

What to say….
It’s been a few days since I last blogged, and who knew that when I got to my new place of residence that there would be a computer with high speed internet waiting for me? Certainly I did not, but certainly that is what I found.

Life is good. I have survived my first two days in the agricultural industry, and more specifically the fertilizer and agricultural chemical industries. My job, once it gets more busy will be to oversee shipping and receiving out at the chemical and or seed warehouse. So what that means is that someone will come to me with an invoice and I will get the products and load them on to the customers truck……because none of our customers drive anything other then a truck, I live in the country don’t forget. Anyway, other then doing a bit of that, I have been working the forklift, which is actually quite stressful at times. Like today for instance I needed to get to something at the bottom of a stack of chemicals. And when I say pile, I mean five pallets full of stuff, seed in this case, stacked on top of each other and what I needed to give the customer was of course at the bottom. So I began taking things off the stack, which would’ve been a whole lot easier if I would not have had to use the crappy forklift and also, if the stack was not in an awkward corner. In the process of unstacking this pile I ripped my first bag of product. It was quite frustrating for me. I tried to remain calm and breathe and so on, but I was not feeling good about the whole forklift thing after that. I tried to stay away from the lift for the rest of the day, but was unable to. Anyway, it was very stressful and unnerving for me.

I just looked at my hands, they are pretty dirty still. I need to go wash them. Anyway, life is good, the living accommodations are amazing, and I am feeling good about life other then the long hours at work. The long hours haven’t even started yet, and I am already dreading them. But I mean, honestly, who wants to work from 7:30am to 8 or 9pm anyway? Not me thank you! I have gone right to bed after dinner almost every day so far, which is only two, but I have been exhausted.

My send-off from the church was good. We had a big potluck lunch, also called dinner in Alberta, and I gave kind of a speech. It was sad, but true. I mean sad but good. They really blessed me as a church over the nine months that I was there, and then they also really blessed me financially, through the love offering. I really had something to praise God about there. I won’t say the figure, but I will say it was 4 times more then I expected, so it was wonderful and I am so thankful for these people.

Anyway, I need to go. It’s almost supper time and I think Nita is making Fried Chicken. The great thing about where I live now is that the lady of the house actually cooks food. Another place that I stayed, it was all frozen food. This is all real! Like last night she made a turkey dinner for goodness sake. I haven ‘t had the strength to ask her if she killed it and cooked it though. Maybe tonight.

Thanks to the miracle of radio, I have had a terrible song in my head all day. “No Surprise” by Theory of a Dead Man, also known as “Theory of a Crappy Band”, anyway. That’s not the song of the day. The song of the day is “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. This song is amazing. Passionate lyrics, scorching guitar, and wonderful memories. This song always makes me think of two things. My dad (cause it’s his favorite song) and the film “Forrest Gump” cause it is featured prominently in the film. I watched a film the other day, oh yeah, Braveheart and I ate steak while watching it….amazing. If you have the means and or the desire….check out “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Love and Peace and Dirty Feet
Mike