Age & Time

Yesterday on The Dilbert Blog, Scott Adams, the author of the Dilbert comics, had this post. It's pretty funny, as his blog usually is, so I encourage you to read this one. (Um, not all of it is family-friendly fare, though, like his most recent post. Heh. Just a caution.)

In that post he asks, "What is your permanent age?" Like, if you're always complaining about youth today and the downfall of society, you might be a 60 year old. Sure, you may have only been alive for 20 years now but you'll grow into your permanent age eventually, like kids grow into shoes. Or if you're always looking for next fun thing to do and never mind the deadlines, maybe your permanent age is around 12.

Me, I peg my permanent age at around 25. I'm much too serious about some things but I'm way too infantile about other things. I'm the guy that likes comic books, video games and playing with my X-Men action figures with my Little Brother. I like to jump turnstiles in front of stores and I'm always tapping or bouncing around to some tune in my head. I love sports and I still behave like an active young person. 25 is young enough to fit the bill, the right age to permit a single guy to have fun without any attachments.

25 is also an ideal age to have been in the workforce for a few years. 25 works for a guy that got married young and had a few kids already. (Granted, that's not actually me but that's always been in my head.) It allows enough time for some experience and maturity, to be at the point of wanting to help others grow a bit more. I often think and act like I'm that kind of 25 year old. So because of that dichotomy, I peg myself somewhere in the mid-twenties, when it's socially acceptable to be on both ends of that spectrum.

In the second half of that same blog post, Scott asks if we're the type of people that live in the past, in the present or in the future. I'm definitely a present-time kind of guy. I let others take care of the visionary stuff. As for the past, I try to deal with things and then move on. I'm entirely focused on practical life, the next step, today's work. Show me real life, right here, right now.

When I get caught up in thinking about my future, as has happened recently, I default to action. I hang out with friends, I go to movies, I get involved with new activities. I keep my eyes on the present if I get too many tears in looking at the future. Keep moving, don't let the past drag me down or the future hold me up.

So that's me. Anyone else? What's your permanent age, and what "tense" do you live in?

In Your Face

My friend Derrick had a Note on facebook about being challenged by someone else. He said that there are only two results when someone disagrees with our ideas: Either we realize we were wrong about something and change, or we confirm our ideas and we're encouraged.

I quite agree, those are the intended results. One of the best ways to refine our ideas, to review our thoughts, to grow and to change is to allow other people to question us and really make us think. Unfortunately, this is not what usually happens because of these kinds of conversations.

More often, we become offended. We equate our ideas to ourselves, and if someone attacks our idea than they are attacking us. (I think that Mike might call this our imago?) We have ourselves wrapped up so tightly with our ideas that it's tough to step back and re-evaluate. So instead, we opt to either defend our ideas valiantly or we counter-attack. In any case, we help ensure that people won't attack our ideas again and we gain some feeling of security.

On the flip side, people become trained to not question, doubt and challenge the ideas of other people. Parents give commands "because I said so." Teachers give assignments and feed you answers and you get a poor mark if you disagree with their assessment of Jung typology. Religious leaders easily lay the theological smack down if you aren't quite right about some obscure aspect of faith.

In the end, we're trained not to attack authority figures or anyone else. We opt for a "live and let live" approach. And if we do get bold about it then we're labeled as not being team players, or we're rebellious, or we're egotistical or we're crazy. It keeps us all nicely in line.

At my initial glance, I attribute some of this to two factors in North American society: Individualism and authority. We don't want people to attack our sovereignty, this little kingdom of ours, this world view that we have so carefully constructed. And we acquiesce to our boss or whomever because they demanded it.

From my experience as a project manager and software designer for many years, this pattern was actually quite a hindrance. Time and again, we as programmers would build some new piece of software just as the boss requested, because the boss said so. After all, the boss has more experience than we do. And if nothing else, they sign our paycheque so we don't really have much choice in the matter.

The problem is, we had a habit of creating flawed software whenever we allowed this blind obediance to happen. It became a rather obvious issue for us since it effected the bottom line of finances. We realized that we really needed the programmer to question their given instructions. Get more information, clarify the requirements, suggest alternatives, explain why something won't work. We actually had to work very hard to make programmers understand that the software that they code is their own creation, within their own field of expertise, and it is their personal responsibility ultimately.

For new programmers coming in, I often pointed to Microsoft as the extreme example. Microsoft was well-known for stories like this. As a designer, you come with your plan for the new software. You make a presentation before twenty other people, each of whom is probably smarter than you. They pick at every little notion, point out every problem and doubt every decision. If you can come out of the meeting with your idea adequately intact, it was a success. Your proposal was strong enough to stand on its own and you would be commended for it. And if your proposal failed, then that was good as well since you learned a lot and the software would be better when you presented your new proposal.

In my experience, junior programmers coming straight out of university were especially prone to this problem. As much as university's like to say that they "teach students how to think," the system also rests on the decisions of teachers. Teachers always knew more than the students, always had every answer for the tests, always had detailed plans for the assignments and always decided the final grade. I don't know if other subjects, like philosophy, trained students in this way but I saw this from numerous university grads that joined us.

So when new programmers joined our staff, I went far out of my way to break this thought process. I had to explain that doubts, questions and challenges were both encouraged and rewarded. Requesting a meeting to discuss instructions and design details would never be punished. We wanted - we expected - people to disagree with their boss, to disagree with me. If they didn't do that then they weren't doing their jobs properly. And I couldn't just sat this stuff, I had to prove it repeatedly.

I tell you, some people were positively shocked to hear such things coming out of my mouth. It was so completely foreign to them. Some people reacted with gusto and relished the chance to be involved creatively and to have their voices heard. Some people shrunk back at the thought of it and had to be coaxed and brought along to that place of politely challenging other people. In the end, though, I think that we left an excellent legacy for the programming department at my old company and it runs very well to this day.

So to come back to the original point, challenging each other is an incredibly useful trait. Challenging systems of thought or institutions is valuable. Each one of us can benefit from this in both our personal lives and in our public lives. It's not exactly easy to do and there will be plenty of resistance but I say that it's a beautiful thing when we allow others to speak into our lives and when we're allowed to speak to others in the same way.

The GTA Report

This upcoming Easter weekend, my church, Glad Tidings Assembly, will be presenting a comedy/drama/music performance. The concept for this play pays homage to The Colbert Report. It sets a Colbert-like news commentary show during the original Easter period, talking about the news of the day regarding Jesus' death and resurrection. Taken at face value, that story is pretty crazy so I'm looking forward to seeing how this works.

It's certainly not the classic Easter story, or the Passion. I'm involved in playing percussion for the five musical songs during the production, and the songs are very cool. I haven't seen the dramatic portions or read the actual script yet but I'm told that it's pretty funny.

Everyone is invited to see one of the two shows, as detailed here. We also have a link to our radio ad on that link. There's one show on Easter Friday at 7:00 pm and another one the following night at the same time, on April 6th and April 7th. Admission is free, but I would recommend arriving at least a half hour early to get seats due to the expected crowds.

Note that this is meant to be a fun evening, relating the original Bible story in an interesting way. If you would like to attend a more traditional Easter service, that will be available on Easter Sunday morning at 9:30 am and 11:30 am.

Some people may not know much about The Colbert Report. This Wiki article describes it in more detail. Suffice it to say, the show is a satire of cable news commentary shows, like Bill O'Reilly. Colbert's character is a right-wing fundamentalist Christian guy that steadfastly supports the president and loves America with all his heart. In the process, he pokes fun at exactly those points of view, while reviewing the latest developments in politics and other areas.
The show is on Comedy Central and it comes right after The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It's often said that teenagers and people in their twenties now come to these two shows as their primary source of real news commentary, which I completely agree with. I rarely watch regular news but I consistantly watch these two shows, despite the fact that they air at 11:00 pm each week night.

The poster at the top of this blog post is a reference to the classic images from The Colbert Report. (Remember, the "t" at the end of those two words is silent.) It's a bit of a combination of these two images below. I love it!

Cynical

Big decisions in life. Weigh all of the factors, get advice from people we trust, consider the possibilities, pray and seek God's will. Then we have to pick a path, as I wrote about here recently.

Sometimes that process can be easy, sometimes it's really tough. As a Christian, this decision making might seem to be a little more simple. After all, God loves us and he knows what is best for us so as long as we figure out his will then we'll be fine, right? And even if we get it wrong, we know that God is still there with us.

Yeah, it's not always as simple as it sounds. Discovering God's plan for our lives isn't always so cut and dried. God speaks in so many ways: to us directly in our minds, through the Bible, through our friends, through writing, through songs or art, through history, through nature, and a bunch of creative ways beyond those.

And God isn't a solo voice out there. We have our own thoughts, desires and emotions kicking in. Our friends have their own personal opinions. The world has its own voice and satan and the powers of darkness certainly want to lead us astray.

That's part of the reason that we need to practice how to hear God's voice. We need to learn how to recognize God's voice, like a lamb knows the voice of its shephard or a dog knows the voice of its owner (John 10:27). The more we do it, the easier it becomes to find God's voice as a whisper after the earthquake (1 Kings 19).

So all of that is to say this: I've become more cynical about this process. I believe everything that I wrote above but, more and more, I'm seeing that God leaves us to our own devices on these decisions. He will guide us a bit and give us advice but in the end the decision is completely up to us. We have free will, we must be the ones that determine our own lives.

In various ways recently, I've heard people declare or suggest what God is saying about certain situations. Investments, business decisions, romantic relationships, new Christian ministries, etc. We become convinced that God has told us to do something, or conversely that God has not told us to do something. And in so many of these cases recently, the results just ain't right.

If we think that God is telling us to make a major financial investment and then it falls through and we lose it all, did God really speak to us? If we decide to date somebody and we think that God has chosen that soul mate for us but then we break up with that person, did we make a mistake? Or take my situation with my new company, the one that I'm trying to start up. We have gotten God's confirmation in umpteen different ways but since I first heard about the idea in July 2006 and I started working full time for it in December 2006, we still haven't raised the necessary funding. At some point, I have to seriously consider my options if this doesn't work out.

Yadda yadda. I have asked numerous people this question recently since, you know, it has a direct impact on several key areas of my life. And as expected, I get a lot of different answers. The most common answer is the most comforting one. Sure, you heard from God. Maybe God just had other plans for you. You thought you were going from Point A to Point B but God was actually moving you to Point C. We don't know the mysteries of it all, nor do we know how many people we effected along the way. Just be thankful for it all.

Bah humbug, I say! If you think that there's a prophecy that says to do something and that exact thing doesn't work out, the most basic answer is that the prophecy was wrong. We didn't hear God correctly, period. Of course, that may be the most harsh answer so I understand that we do not think agree with this conclusion. So maybe someone else didn't follow through with something from God, maybe our plans were incomplete, maybe we didn't follow God's leading enough. If we go that route, though, how do we test prophecy and "words from God?" The must fundamental test of a prophecy is to see if it happens. If it doesn't, then it wasn't a prophecy. Right?

I don't know. It's a little much for me to claim that someone who honestly and desperately sought God's voice got it completely wrong. It's a bit much for me to discard all of the evidence and confirmation that I've had in my life regarding my new company and other major areas and admit that I got it all wrong. I haven't really come to any conclusions on this.

All I know is that I do have these major decisions in my life still. And some of these decisions needs to be made soon. Spiritual mumbo jumbo, good intentions and consoling thoughts do not help me make those decisions. As best as I can figure, God leaves us responsible for our choices and we have to use what we have to make the best choices, as Steve suggests in this post regarding Proverbs. If things don't work out, it's not because God misled us. It's our choice and it's our responsibility.

Biggest Box Office Star Ever

I was randomly reviewing some of my older blogs and I came across this post. In it, I explained that Samuel L. Jackson had just taken over first place in the list of all-time box office revenues for movie stars. Harrison Ford was previously at the top of that list thanks to things like Indiana Jones. Sam's work with the second Star Wars trilogy had pushed him over the top.

Out of curiousity, I went to see the current list, which you can see here. It seems that Tom Hanks has leap-frogged over Harrison Ford, mostly due to the success of The Da Vinci Code and the fact that Ford is an old man now. There's something even more shocking, though: The new number #1 box office star of all time.

Can you guess who it is? It's... Frank Welker. Now there's a household name. Can you name his biggest hit during his career? Perhaps Star Wars or some sort of trilogy? Nope, not even close. It's The Lion King. Heh. He's an actor that mostly does voice work for animations. They must have added him to this list recently et voila, all of his animationed films tally up to almost five billion dollars in revenue. That's more than a billion dollars ahead of SamL's total. Crazy!

Small Things

I had a few things in the past month or so that really got to me. I just thought that I would share a few of these ideas, in no particular order.

Evangelism is about communication, not conquest. It's not about knocking down the front door, it's about being invited to sit on the back porch with your neighbour. It's not about forays into foreign areas, it's about getting involved in people's lives. [Various quotes from Glad Tidings church on March 18th, 2007.]

"It's people that change people." It's not really about sermons and books, it's not really about church services and Bible studies. It's people, being used by God, to connect with people. There are many methods, tools and resources out there and they may work to a limited degree. Even so, the most effective plan that God has is...us.

"Trust is a choice. Security is a feeling." [Pastor Rick, GTA, February 18, 2007.]

How does my view of my dad affect my view of Father God? The parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15:11-32. [Sam Dielman, nine20, February 2, 2007.]

Being offended is most often an indication of bitterness. If you take offense at what people may say or do in your life, ask yourself if you are bitter or hurt in that area. To be bitter, to become offended, to get angry as a result of others...it means that those people are in control of your emotions, not you. There is a better kind of freedom.

Gee, I hope I didn't offend anybody...heh. And just for fun, here's a photo from the Wing Night that we had yesterday at Kelsey's near Masonville. Ashleigh, Tara, Ruth and I hooked up with a semi-random group of people and we had plenty of fun eating, talking and laughing for a few hours. Every week or so this group likes to visit different restaurants in London, taste-testing the chicken wings and calculating the final rating. Kudos to Jennifer and Amy for organizing this evening each time.

Social Energy

Almost exactly one year ago, I wrote this post about my finite amount of social energy. At the time, I had (once again) moved from mostly being a programmer into full-time management. As I expressed then, my regular work day demanded that I "talk to anyone about anything at any time."

By the time I got home at the end of the day, I was spent. As a proud and acknowledged introvert, I would grab dinner and immediately hide in my room for an hour or two, just to be alone. Once I had recharged my batteries, I would appear once again to catch up with my family or to hang out with friends.

In my life, I have a limited amount of "people time" in any given day. If I spend it all at work then I'm much less likely to want to hang out with people outside of work that same day. Extroverts get energy from being with people, whilst introverts generally find that it requires some effort and it gradualy tires them out. Not to say that extroverts hate being by themselves or that introverts don't like to be in groups, that's not true at all. It's just that one type of person gets pumped while the other type finds it deflating, and the opposite is true when these two types of people spent time by themselves.

Anyway, I wanted to follow up on that old post with an update. In December, I left my job as a director at AV-BASE Systems and I started to work from home while trying to help found a new company. Wow, has that change ever had a drastic effect on my social life.

I now work in my bedroom for most of the day. The only regular interaction I have with anyone is with my dad once in a while as we discuss his rant of the day and my many percolating thoughts. As a direct result, I find that I have a burning desire to hang out with people in the evenings.

Some weeks, I schedule six or seven days with people in a row, which is quite the phenomenon for me. I know that type of planning is just par for the course for some people but I don't remember doing that intentionally ever before in my life. I have gotten more involved in planning Young Adult activities, I've gone to concerts and plays, I've visited a class at Fanshawe, I've helped JP campaign for president of student council at Fanshawe, I've hosted poker parties and I have started to develop an entirely new circle of friends.

And to add strange to odd, I now find it frustrating when well-laid plans to hang out with certain friends fall through. When I was busy as a manager, I would actually welcome social cancellations. And now, even though most times these cancellations are for good reasons, I find that I am rather disappointed. In a single week recently, I had five friends cancel on plans that we had and, uncharacteristically, that actually bothered me quite a bit on an emotional level.

Life is funny sometimes. My long-term goals are actually to get back into management at some point 'cause I love to help people develop and succeed. These days, I think that I like management even more than I like programming, which is a small revelation for me. I look forward to doing that again in the future but for now, I'll just enjoy all of this extra time with my friends.

Top 10 Reasons For A Big Church

In response to this post by my dad, tongue in cheek though it may be, I have my own Top 10 list about the benefits of big churches. Now granted, I'm actually a long-time fan of cell groups and my dad is slowly convincing me that home churches might be a good option as well. I've been a part of a number of very small churches, some medium-sized churches and some very large churches. I like each of them and they each have some unique benefits of their own.

I also recognize that there are inherent dangers with a church that has 50 people, that has 200 people or that has 1000 people. Again, these dangers can be as unique as the benefits that these sizes provide. We just need to acknowledge that getting bigger - and getting smaller - will automatically lose and gain some things that churches of other sizes have. My purpose is to look for a balanced discussion and not dismiss big churches simply because of their inadequacies.

So here are my reasons...

10. Easy Access for Community
It's easier for the average stranger to attend, no invitation required. This can include out-of-town visitors, curious neighbours, people new to the city, or university/college students.

9. Facilities for Special Needs
The building can be geared towards physically disabled people. Programs can be available for children with development disabilities, there may be options for deaf people, etc.

8. Big Building
Central location that can host large crowds. This can include: congregations for services, seminars and classes, group dinners, concerts, marriage ceremonies, funerals, and special events like Christmas and Easter services.

7. Financial Resources
Music, video, and visual art copyrights can be costly if they are used legally. Some programs, like Take It or Leave It or food donations, have a certain amount of administrative overhead. Study resources, advertising, publishing/distributing materials...each of these can open up new avenues to reach Christians and non-Christians alike.

6. Pastoral Staff
Provides people that can be dedicated to various parts of church ministry. Children's ministry, dramas and musicals, worship CDs, counseling services, marriages and funerals, etc.

5. Musical Resources
Top level music can have expensive requirements. Sound systems, sound boards, pianos, drums, recording software, sheet music, stage, etc.

4. Technical Resources
Some technical resources can be quite expensive. Audio and visual recording software for seminars, sermons, music and special events. Projectors, computer networks, telephone services. Website hosting, virtual services, online ministry. And again, the people with the technical skills for these things.

3. Opportunities for Ministry
Numerous ways to contribute. Nursery, children's ministry, adult ministry, parking lot attendants, snack/meal preparation, sound/technical teams, musical/drama/dance teams, visual arts, custodial work, ushering, elders/deacons, visitation, missionary work, etc.

2. Volunteer Resources
More people are available with common skills. There is less reliance on a single team because more people can be involved. Large worship teams allow for time off as musicians rotate. People don't get burned out as easily.

1. Larger Group of People
It is easier to find others with common interests or life circumstances. This could include children's groups, youth groups, young adults, young marries, young parents, seniors, etc. It could include a larger pool of musicians, athletes, artists, computer geeks, or maybe just UFC fans.

P.S. Be assured, I have another post coming up in which I criticize institutional churches, both big and small, for the problems that they create and allow. Heh.

Fight Clubs, Faces & Fubar

Abe has posted a hilarious video from his underground fight club. Not for the squeamish, so don't look at this unless you enjoy the prospect of seeing Abe fall to the floor in agony.

Steve wrote this post recently in which he draws parallels between the development of mirrors and how men, women and children approach life. Very cool concept, worth looking at if you missed it.

And I would like to officially welcome my dad, David Grant, to the blogging community. I've been listening to his rants and revelations for years, it's about time y'all joined in on the fun. One of his primary strengths is the way that he questions our Christian religion - the "religion" part, specifically.

We all like to say that, "It's a relationship, not a religion." And Christians often announce that, "We just want to be like the New Testament church." Sure, sure. Nice words, but why on earth are so many people still hurting and alone? And why do we rely on church buildings, pastors and Sunday services anyway? He'll dig into all of those fun details and challenge the many assumptions that we have about our Christian faith. We're looking for true life-giving freedom in Christ, not some cheap imitation. Check out his first post, F.U.B.A.R.

Babies All About

Congratulations to Steve and Tabitha on the birth of their son early this morning. After months of thought, research and prayer, I see that they chose to name him Liam Mitchell! I love the name Liam.

For those that do not know, Steve is one of the guys working with me as we found our new company. For all of the details, check out his blog. I'm so happy that this all worked out and everyone is healthy.

Engagements & Other News

Finally, at long last, I managed to get some pictures of Tara with her new engagement ring. That's right! In case you haven't heard the good news, Richard officially proposed to Tara a few weeks ago while they were visiting Niagara Falls. They first met while they were camp counselors at Circle Square Ranch. They started dating shortly thereafter and almost four and a half years have now passed. The final wedding date has not been set yet but they'll announce that once they can confirm it. I love both of them dearly and I wish them the best.

In other news, I hosted my second poker fundraiser on Friday March 9. As I mentioned before, I had a more expensive poker fundraiser the previous Sunday. (And just to rub it in, I beat Joel down in a head-to-head match at the end of that one.) We had seven people at the first one and thirteen of us at this second one. It was a little tight to have us all in a single game but I really didn't want to split the group up and it ended up working out. For my part, I was the first person gone. Anyone care to rub that in?

Once again, it was a great crowd. We had good food, odd musical selections and fun competition with both newbies and regular players. Terry & Gina duked it out and they actually came away with both second and first place prizes, in addition to all of the buy-in money that went to them. I'm glad it worked out so nicely and they can put that money towards their wedding this summer.

As for my two most recent blog posts (here and here), my thanks to everyone that read the story. I was astounded to see the different interpretations that people offered. I'm really impressed by what you all wrote and it was really interesting to see how people looked at my words from other points of view. Fascinating.

Bear & Squirrel: The Moral Of The Story

According to my stats, I had 25 people reading my blog yesterday.* All of those hits and no one added any comments for my previous post? No one wanted to hazzard a guess about what crazy ideas were running through my head when I wrote that? Heh. Just pretend it's an English class in school. Any interpretation is correct, as long as you can back it up with some evidence.

Anyway, I wasn't trying to be obscure, I just wanted to make my point in a more entertaining way. Allow me to explain the moral of that story...

Why does the bear take this hike every day? 'Cause his poppa bear did.
That's just like so many of us, and especially we as Christians. We do church on Sundays, in buildings, with programs, with pews, etc. Not for any good reason, it's just because we always have. None of that stuff is in the Bible. We can apply this observation equally to the way that we behave with our families or the way that we act at work.

Why is the bear alone? 'Cause he's big and scary.
Well, that may be the original reason. Since that time, though, the bear has become comfortable in his loneliness. He does know that he is lonely, since he misses the squirrel's company later. That's like a lot of people I know. Even if we acknowledge that we have very few or no close friends, we learn to become satisfied with it. We chalk it up to some aspect of our personality or say that it's just a fact of life.

And what's more, we start to defend this position. We start to rationalize it and we pretend that we're happy by ourselves. We avoid inviting friends in and we turn down chances to develop new friendships. After all, if we cannot convince ourselves that we're fine then we would be entirely too sad. And the only people that break out of these solo hikes in life are those that realize how desperately they want some of those vital friendships.

Why does the squirrel pester the bear? 'Cause that's what friends do.
We all need a friend like that. We need somebody that can get past our defenses, that can make us think, that can challenge us to change and grow. It's like I wrote about in this post last month, we need different friends that can each bring something into our lives. They each have a vital role for us and it's virtually impossible to do some of those things on our own.

The rest of the story was just for fun. I thought it was funny to have the little squirrel bop the bear in the nose. The picture of a dizzy squirrel on the bear's head also amused me. As for the end of the story, it was intentionally left incomplete. How many of us are like that bear? How many of us are stuck with out pointless habits, and how many of us live alone like that? It's up to us to decide to shake up our lives and develop those crucial relationships.

*I just added site tracking statistics this past week for my blog. My thanks to Ashleigh for pointing me to a good one, statcounter.com. I've used these kinds of things before but most of them are not very useful unless you pay for the service. This one seems to have all kinds of great detail, though.

Nut in the Nose

A squirrel was scampering through the trees one day and she came across a large bear that was sauntering through the woods. The squirrel pelted the bear on the nose with a nut, just to get his attention.

"Mr. Bear, if I could inquire, where are you off to today?"

"Why, little one, I'm off for my daily hike," said Mr. Bear. "I am going to the river way down in the valley to catch some fish and to drink some water."

And with just a nod to each other, the bear then lumbered ahead while the squirrel scurried in the other direction. The next day, the two of them met once again in the woods. The bear was met with a pinecone to the snout and so once again, he stopped to talk to the squirrel.

"Mr. Bear," said the squirrel, "Do you come this way every day?"

"But of course, little one," said the bear. "I have been coming down this path my entire life. My poppa bear did this before me, and his poppa did it before him." Another nod, and then both of them went on their way.

On the third day, the bear was looking out for flying nuts and pinecones, and while he was looking up he stepped on a thistle and it poked his paw. He stopped to suck out the thorn and here was the squirrel again, sitting on a low branch in the tree just in front of him.

"Mr. Bear, I have another question for you. Do you always come this way by yourself, each and every day?"

"Yes, I am very proud to say that I do. I have been doing this for a long time. I do not have many friends because I am so big and I scare them all off. I used to think that it was lonely but now I enjoy these long walks every day. I guess I will see you tomorrow, little one."

The next day came and the bear repeated his journey but this time he did not see the little squirrel. On his way back from the river, the bear was a little sad when he realized that he missed the sudden surprises of his new friend the squirrel. The bear got all of the way back to his cave up in the mountain when he heard an odd noise coming from somewhere. He looked around and saw no one. Then he spun around quickly but he still seemed to be alone.

"Mr. Bear, Mr. Bear, it's your friend the squirrel and I am on top of your head. Please stop turning around, I am becoming quite dizzy." The squirrel then leapt off the bear's head and onto the ground in front, though the squirrel was a little off-balance as he landed.

"You really need to check your hearing, Mr. Bear. I was calling to you earlier and you did not notice me at all. That's why I had to throw things at you on the other days just to get you to stop. Today I decided to jump on your back and join you for a little ride, but you are so large that you did not even feel me."

"So tell me, Mr. Bear, is this cave your home?"

"Well, yes, it is, little one. All of my family once lived in this cave, and one day I will have cubs of my own that will use this as their home, too."

"I do not understand, Mr. Bear. Every day, you have to walk a very long way to get to the river so that you can have fish and water. There are hills that are much closer to the river, and they have much bigger caves that you could use. Why do you live all the way out here by yourself instead?"

"Well, the answer is clear, little one. I live here because I grew up here. My poppa used to live here, and his poppa lived here before that. I'm sure that there was a good reason for my grandpoppa to move in here, and that is good enough for me. Besides, I like living here and it always feels like home to me. This cave may not be as large or as warm as others but I am happy."

"I see, Mr. Bear," said the squirrel. "Thank you for talking to me and showing me your nice little cave. I cannot live all the way out here like you do, though. I need to get to the river every day, too, and I am not as big as you so I cannot live so far away. I need to hurry home now just to get there before nightfall. Have a good day!"

And with a jump and a bound, the squirrel disappeared into the tree tops and the bear was left all alone.

Switchfoot & Poker

'Twas an action-packed week for me. Here are some of the highlights, if anyone is interested.

On Thursday, my friend Cliff and I went to the all-ages Switchfoot concert at Cowboys bar. I took a head count and I estimate that there were between five and six hundred people there. Just for fun, I ran the numbers and I figured that each of the band members made about $1000.00 for that concert. (Join in the fun! $20.00+ per ticket, one opening band, the main band had five members...)

The building has one main open floor and the bar and seating areas are along the edges, so the whole place focuses on the stage. Cliff and I were in the balcony sitting down, overlooking stage right with an excellend vantage point for the whole show, other than the drummer. Derrick and Bruce joined us there a little later and I saw a lot of other people that I knew. The show itself was great. The opening act was fine, nicely above average. Switchfoot, however, had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand.

They had a bunch of popular songs that everyone knew, inviting the crowd to sing at various points. Apparently they were even recording the crowd for a later release that they're working on. They seemed to pull out a new gadget every second song, including a voice synthesizer on the piano keyboard. They put lighting effects to good use, got the crowd into it, pulled one fan up on stage and were a lot of fun.

On Sunday night, I hosted a poker fundraiser for my friends Terry and Gina, who will be getting married this coming June. We had seven of us playing, which was less than we had hoped but the $20.00 buy-in was a bit much for some people. It was a wildly entertaining game, as it often is. Plenty of snacks, an eclectic music selection from Mike, racous laughter and trash talk, good times. I handed out $2000.00 in poker chips to begin and we had $80.00 standing for first place and $40.00 for second place. As a result, people played rather conservatively for the first two hours, which is unusual since there are usually a couple of people that play recklessly.

At that point, we upped the ante and the action really started to pick up from there. Now, I'm usually one of the first few people out of the game. I like focus on hosting and I rarely allow someone to bluff their way out of a hand. So after playing with my usual flair for the first two hours and getting down to around $700.00, I decided to tighten the reins and play with due diligence. Gagh, that was downright painful for me as I proceeded to fold hand after hand for the next hour or so. Eventually, though, it all worked out.

I went all in and swung the hand, doubling my chips. From there, we had numerous changes for the chip lead with many crazy hands, some incredible coincidences, intense strategy and agonizing mistakes all in play. At the end, it came down to a duel between me and Joel, much to my surprise. Who knew that patience would pay off? We upped the ante to $500.00 per hand. I proceeded to receive a strong pair of cards in 19 of the next 20 hands and I kept going all in immediately, while Jevant proceeded to fold like an origami swan. That's right, he's the paper poker player. I wittled away at his chip stack until he finally put it all on the line and I schooled him. No bluffing here, boyo, just lady luck on my side.

Great night overall. Congrats to Terry and Gina on their upcoming marriage and I hope that this small amount of money helps you out a bit with that.

As for anyone reading this blog, y'all are welcome to the second poker fundraiser that I will be hosting at my house this coming Friday evening. This time the buy-in is only $5.00, with $40.00 for first place and $15.00 for second. I'm fronting the prize money and all of the donations go directly to the happy couple. Guys and girls, friends and strangers, everyone is welcome. Just contact me ahead of time so that I can prepare properly. Hopefully it will be a good crowd this time as well.