confessions of a geek

tonight i finished a Christmas present for my dad, it's a framed 3-D picture I made him of two ewes and a lamb in a field. i think it looks pretty cool actually, and he pretty much likes anything with sheep on it and anything i have made, so i'm all set! ;) the frame wasn't really what i would have liked, but it is hard to find frames that will accomodate something that isn't quite so flat.

i bought a new scrapbook on tuesday. the two that i've made so far (one was from summer 2001 when i was a youth intern and my fourth year of college, and the other one was from my first year of seminary) i used a 10x10 book with white pages. my new book however is i think 9" tall by 12" wide maybe... i'm not sure, and with ecru coloured pages, and i am so excited. i can't wait to start it. but all my scrapbooking stuff is at home, so i have to wait until Christmas to pick it up. but, i'm planning already.

if you've never scrapbooked or you've only seen those creative memories scrapbooks that all the church ladies make, then you won't know why i'm so excited. but my scrapbook is cool and not geek-ish. i hope. well, people usually tell me that it's cool. and i love cutting stuff out and arranging it and making neat colour combinations and neat backgrounds and stuff.

anyways, i'll quit typing now. i'm a scrapbooking geek. i just love cutting paper.

"To Him who bleeding offered mercy
To Him who weeping offered praise
To Him chained yet offered freedom
To Him who branded offered grace

I go, when I am wounded
When I am chased
I go, where I’m surrounded
Where I’m embraced"
- "Bleeding Offered," by Matthew Christopher Davidson

gone

they demolished the root cellar yesterday.

it was one of my favourite buildings on campus, left over from when this town was a war base in the early 1940s. it was behind my old house, the perfect spot for impromptu photo shoots. it was basically just a big roof sticking out of the ground... but you could climb up on top of it (even though you weren't supposed to) and lie dow and look up at the stars... or stand on it and look around and see as far as the eye could see on the saskatchewan prairie.

i have some good memories on that roof. i'm going to miss it.

i think people are cool

today i'm doing research for my class "Junior High Youth Ministry" that i took early in november. i am doing a research project on internet use amongst junior high students and “becoming more knowledgeable in an area of current thought regarding junior high ministry, with conclusions related to how one approaches actual ministry with students.”

I’m not sure exactly how to become more knowledgeable in an area of current thought that doesn’t really exist… there isn’t much out there on junior high internet use, other than statistics. What do youth workers think about junior high internet use? Is anyone out there addressing it? Are there any specific ministry issues? This is what I need to know.

I found an internet message board posting from last January and emailed the author to find out whether or not she had found out any more information on her search for teen internet use information, and she emailed me back right away with all kinds of helpful stuff. That was nice.

That’s what I love about the internet.

passionate and energenic

every once in a while i do a quiz that i've found off of someone's blog, but i've never posted the results before. but i always find it interesting what they have to say about you.

you are gray #808080

Your dominant hue is red... you are passionate, energetic, and unafraid of life's changes. You're all about getting out and trying something new, even if it means taking risks that other people would be afraid of. Hey, if they're afraid and you're not, more power to you, right? Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

link via andrew.

by popular request

it's snowing in mikao's world.

spicing it up

i decided to go for a new colour scheme. i had time. and it's sort of evergreeny-Christmas-ish.

and i attempted to clean up the html, so i hope it loads better for some of you. :)

searching

* 8.86% of people who come to this website through a search engine are looking for "scary websites."

* 2.81% are looking for photos of angela gossow

* 4.83% are looking for either jars of clay or starfield lyrics.

* .44% are looking for michaela forbes

* .44% are looking for sarah perkonig

* .35% are looking for jason killingsworth

* .35% are looking for michelle kao.

sorry to anyone i may have disappointed. i'm just me.

conversation

joanne: i hate life.

joanne: that's because i don't have one.

michelle: well, you could get one.

joanne: why? are they selling them somewhere?

joanne: can i charge it to my sears card?

it's over, it's on

i survived my stint as a choir member for the school christmas musical... three dress rehersals and four performances, plus uncountable practices have added up to general exhaustion. i think the correct word is actually "pooped," but i'm not sure if i should write that on my blog.

i phoned my mom yesterday and told her it was all over... and she was wondering exactly who was involved. so when i explained the 130 voice choir, plus all the cast and crew, etc., she asked "um... so, did more people come watch it than were involved in it even?", and so i explained to her that 12 000 came, she was a little surprised. i guess she just thought it was a little musical.

and now, after an afternoon of flurried paper-proposal writing (and not a very good proposal at that, which i blame on procrastination and general tiredness), i am going home to lounge on my bed and maybe knit and consider making a phone call or two tonight.

au revoir.

sub-culture vrs. pop culture

lately I’ve been reading a few blogs from a few other people who also go to the same school as I do (and some who used to but don’t anymore), people I know of but don’t really know. People I see in the hallways every day, and have sometimes talked to, but don’t really have a friendship with. I’m sure there are many more school webloggers that I haven’t found.

It’s interesting to read other people’s writing and perspectives. But sometimes I think it’s weird when they read mine… like they’re getting too close to my mind and delving into my brain. But then again, I’m doing the same thing to them.

But I can’t stop them. My blog is pretty easy to find. I don’t really write anything I don’t want people to know.

Some of these school bloggers are pretty interesting. They write deep thoughts, and funny thoughts. Some of them are disturbing. Finding out one of your old classmates is a practicing gay man is pretty alarming. But reading the struggles of someone striving to stay close to God is encouraging and uplifting.

There’s a guy on the computer next to me, I don’t know who he is, but he’s been reading a bunch of blogs for the past half hour. And there’s this guy on the computer behind me typing an entry for his.

Remember when blogging was less know? Remember when blogging was avant garde? When not quite so many people blogged? When it was more of a distinct sub-culture and not pop culture?

pour out

"carry me, Your love is wider than my need could ever be."

- jars of clay, river constantine, from the album if i left the zoo

"we're survivors, we can make it"

tonight was the first full run-through of the christmas musical, and i think it went fairly well. we have performances tomorrow night, twice on saturday, and once on sunday. it's going to be a long weekend!

this afternoon i got the last pages done for this yearbook submission (the one that has to be at the publishers on monday!), and so 12 more pages done. yippee. we have a whole bunch more still to go, but we'll make it.

today was american thanksgiving, so happy thanksgiving to the majority of you who read this! i had pizza for supper, what did you have? :)

my friend joanne got a job selling meat by phone. how weird is that? not the best job in the world, and i'm not sure how long she will end up doing it for, but it's better than nothing! :)

my friend amanda is home for the week from liberty university, and that means it's free to call her after 6pm and on weekends (as she's in canada), so yay i can phone her saturday morning. i haven't talked to her in a very long time.

but now i must run. the library is closing.

and i need to get some sleep.

Christmas Musical

last night was our first dress rehersal for the Christmas musical, winter's heart. we only did the first act, i think tonight we're doing the second act and then thursday the whole thing. then friday, saturday, sunday we have four performances. it's a long week for me!

my friend erin is coming on saturday from calgary to see it, so hopefully i get to see her, even if only for a little while. we lived in dorm together a few years ago and i haven't seen her since last Christmas.

this afternoon i have plans to work on my MRRP proposal and maybe do some crafts. i need to make a few postcards. :)

hmm... this isn't very interesting, and sorry for that, but i'm exhausted.

i have an "item" in my mailbox (i.e. a parcel or a larger envelope) that i need to go and pick up before the post office closes for lunch. i have no idea what it is. this is exciting.

bethany hamilton

bethany hamilton is a 13 year old surfer was attacked by a shark at the end of october and lost her left arm.

i think we are going to see a lot of her in the future.

"Please keep Bethany in your prayers. She is doing well & believes this life changing event will allow her to tell the world about God's love."

link via shiny things.

i get the feeling

that holly wants a scarf for some reason.

and that my roomdawg, jodi, is paying her for public pleas as well.

:)

through the glass

i have to have my MRRP proposal in by december 1st. like, they just told me today. like I have time this week for this. like i'm going to graduate.

aahhhhhhh.................

but after a conversation i had the other day, i did decide sometime between falling asleep last night and waking up this morning that i'm probably staying here in january to finish it.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. "
- Hebrews 12:1, 2

accomplishment

i just finished reading a bit from every single blog on my blog roll. in one day. i've never done that before.

there are too many to keep up with.

quote

"Of all the strange things men and women do I will never, ever understand The Cold Shoulder. A man meets a woman, he enjoys her company, he begins to pursue her romantically, she responds to his pursuit, and then, as if it were all meaningless to begin with, he changes his mind and ignores her. She attempts to reconcile things with him - was it something she did? Said? - and he assures her it had nothing to do with her, he just changed his mind. My male friends refer to this as a guy simply freaking himself out at the prospect of having a relationship with someone; my female friends refer to this as being (edited out) over.

The Cold Shoulder solves nothing, if that is the intention behind it. It doesn't resolve the problem of romantic feelings, and it surely doesn't make those feelings go away. Maybe the guy's feelings can go away that easily, but somehow, I just can't believe that they do. Can they? Is it just women who drown themselves in memories of what a guy wore three months ago the last time she saw him? Is it just women who have what turn out to be insignificant relationships with guys and just can't seem to shake them even though there is no hope? Am I alone in this, is this a sure sign of my neurosis? Am I crazy?"
- from sarahhatter.com

the friday five

i don't usually do the friday five, and it's not even friday, but i liked the questions this week.

1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.

okay, nothing profound, but here goes:

a) figure out what i'm doing in january. (ha ha).
b) finish making Christmas gifts for my family.
c) finish all my course assignments from my last two classes.
d) start my MRRP research.
e) have a happy holiday.

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.

hmm.... good question.
a) levana, a good friend from kindergarten to grade 5. i think she lives in saskatoon.
b) sharlie drieger, a good friend of mine from grades 8-12. i haven't talked to her since december 1996. i heard she got married. i hope she's doing well.
c) melanie gall. she was a friend of mine i met at the students commission national youth conference in ottawa in 1993 and saw her again in 1994. we found each other on the internet in 1997 and then i went to visit her while i was in edmonton that Christmas. i think we emailed a few times after that but i haven't heard from her in a long time.
d) justin friesen. he was a friend of mine from grades 5-12. i still hear what he's up to through my friend jessica, but i haven't seen or talked to him since grad... june 1996.
e) my second cousin once removed from australia. i talked to her once online on icq in 2000. i've never met her. she's my age though. when i was a kid i always thought she'd be super cool. well, i still think she'd be super cool, golly, she's related to me after all. ;) her name is jill provins.

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.

a) make lithographs. i have done linocuts, they're cool, but i think lithographs would be cooler.
b) parallel park. this i have learned before, and i sort of know the logistics, but i need to learn it again.
c) fly. i might be too wimpy to actually accomplish this one though.
d) run a marathon. i was thinking this the other day actually, it would be cool to run one. to have the stamina to run for that long. i think however, it might take more discipline than learning, more physical training than knowledge. so does that actually count as an answer?
e) knit mitts. i think that homemade mittens are the coolest. i really really want to learn how to make them. i can knit scarves like crazy, knit cable patterns, etc., but i haven't got a clue how to knit mitts. and i think i could make money off of them, people love mitts. well, here in the barren cold winter they do. i don't know about my new zealand readers though. ;)

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).

a) pay of my student loans. and the student loans of my sisters.
b) build my parents a new house. but on their land because they like it there. and i'd furnish it too if they wanted.
c) sponsor a bunch of missionaries i know who do not have enough financial support, give money to missions in general.
d) i would go on a random vacation somewhere. i want to do this even if i don't win the lottery. i've never been on a vacation.
e) umm... go shopping and get some new clothes and shoes. i could really use some new shoes. have you seen my shoes lately?

5. List five things you do that help you relax.

a) drink tea.
b) lie in bed in the morning for longer than is neccessary.
c) paint. i don't do this very often any more though.
d) make cards for people.
e) go for a walk.

general germiness

so... i am going to discuss some things i think i wouldn't normally discuss, but these are pressing issues.

toilet seat covers in canada aren't too common. i like toilet seat covers. i think they're fabulous. i think every public washroom should offer them. they're more sanitary. i don't want to sit or hover over other people's bum germs.

why are american washrooms more likely to offer toilet seat covers than canadian washrooms?

do those of the male gender wonder about such issues as much as females do? i mean, they don't have to sit down every time they use the facilities. i wonder if they know about "hovering" and "lining the seat" (with tp when no covers are available).

my roommate jodi has this theory with which i agree... we assume Christian bums are cleaner than the average non-Christian/mainstream bum. ask girls at a Bible college if they sit on a Bible college toilet with nothing between them and the toilet seat. they'll probably say yes. but ask them if they would do the same thing on the average public potty, and they'd say "NO WAY!" they'd hover or line or use a toilet seat cover (if available). but really, are Christian bums any cleaner?

this post was inspired by sarah drake who is on my sidebar... and upon whose blog i every once in awhile read....

project mail-a-thon results #4

i think it's #4, but i could be wrong.

if you're a new reader, you may need to read the original post for project mail-a-thon.

but anyways, i digress... i got a super duper package the other day, actually two packages over two days, from the lovely neely including the following:

* a disney princess mirror ("whenever you're down and out just take a look at this and you'll see a princess in God's eyes")
* two snowmen erasers and a snowflake eraser (because the colours reminded her of mikao's world
* simpsons candy sticks (she loves the simpsons, and figured if i didn't i would still get candy sticks out of the deal :)
* cinnamon gum with "boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" written on the package! ("pretty self explanatory! i think it's great how it's made by David & Goliath too - the whole stone throwing thing!") i thought it was hilarious.
* movie clapboard keychain (she has the same one because she's hoping to go into film, but also came up with the spiritual explanation of how God gives us so many "takes" in life.
* a "just bummin" around postcard with cowboys on it.
* a Calgary sticker postcard, very neat-o
* and a cute little ballerinas card with a nice letter inside.

definitely a very fun package! i loved it, thank you soooo much neely! :)

this has been a very fun experiment in internet connectedness... it's fun to have this "tangible" contact with people i have come to know only virutually up until now.

i hope i get to meet some of you in real life some day. :)

knitting

i thought knitting scarves for my family for Christmas would be a good idea, except none of them want them, they already have scarves! rats. now i need to think of something else to make. i'm doing all homemade gifts this year.

hopefully it doesn't take me forever.

upcoming

i have a job inteview via phone with this company december 10th in the morning.

disappointed love

you know that feeling when you open your email inbox hoping for a really really really really really good email... and you don't get one?

yeah, i hate that feeling.

the commenting scoop

my enetation comments weren't working... and they were driving me nuts. i could see the comments when i would log in to enetation, but otherwise i couldn't see them (and i don't think you could see them), and they were giving wacky counter numbers.

so i'm trying out haloscan for now... and i might get rid of enetation if it doesn't start working again.

but for now, comment with the comments on the right. thanks. you're super. :)

confessions of a procrastinator

so, this is the third time i've been to the computer lab today with the express purpose of editing my resume to send to various places... i did, however, fill out one of those online form thingies for a job with cruise ships. i have, however, not edited my resume.

my sister wants me to come work up north with her cooking for oil rig personnel. she doesn't have the job yet, but she has an interview the first week of december. it pays pretty well. but you work 21 days straight and then get a week off. and, it's most likely in the middle of nowhere.

my friend joanne sent me a link that had ministry job openings in the perfect town in ontario. but they're accepting applications until next may. and you have to raise your own support.

all the jobs i'm really interested in you have to raise support for. i'm not sure that's the best idea for someone just coming out of school with student loan debt.

i watched reality bites yesterday with my roommate jodi, who had never seen it before. i had seen it once. i watched it with joanne and rachel last year... and now that i just checked my archives for the link, it was exactly one year ago today that i watched it... that's way weird. anyways, what i wanted to say about that movie is that it makes me realize that it's pretty normal not to get that super cool job just out of school... even though we all want it. but, i would like to think that i will get that super cool job. and a cool looking apartment. lelaina's apartment was cool looking even if her job sucked.

and it makes me wish i was more passionate about life. i don't know how that movie exactly makes me wish that, but it does. her life pretty much sucked.

but in the end, she got the guy.

advice column

i've been wanting to post this for a long time... but i haven't because i don't want to sound like a cheeseball, but maybe someone will perhaps learn from it and that would be a good thing.

don't tell someone you like them unless you know what you're going to do about it.

who we are instead/blogosphere coziness

so, i keep thinking i should a) post something meaningful or b) do what i came to the library to do, but i am not doing either. just yet.

but i did however want to tell you that the new jars of clay album is awesome. i love it. definitely well worth the purchase price.

and this washington post article about blogging is interesting.

and i wish blogger supported categories for it's posts.

that is all.

standing beside a rockstar's mother

so the internet was not working on the cruddy public computers around campus this weekend, so i couldn't check my email all weekend... and so i was greeted with 129 spam in my junkbox and 80-something "real" emails (of which it turned out only 2 were real), which took me forever to sort through, but made me feel somewhat important momentarily when i opened my email account at first.

jodi and i went with another girl to regina on saturday (and it was grey cup weekend, and the grey cup was in regina, and so we almost had to eat sitting on the floor in the foodcourt at the cornwall shopping centre because there were so many people downtown for the parade... the grey cup is like the superbowl, but for Canadian football) with the primary purpose of procuring costumes for our parts in the Christmas musical. we are, of course, members of the elite community choir, the choir that anyone can get into by showing up at. but, nonetheless, we are officially in the Christmas musical november 28-30th. we had to find 1920s style outfits... which, is no small feat, in case you've never tried it and don't know. anything remotely 1920s-ish hasn't been in style for the past 70 years. we did somehow manage to wrangle up some real nice outfits, jodi has a *really pretty* blue lace blouse to wear with a black skirt she already owned, and i got a navy blue polyester pleated skirt that goes past my knees, a *lovely* white blouse with embroidery all over the collar and the front, and a white, yellow, and bright green dressy scarf to brighten up the whole deal. we are going to be the prettiest looking gals out of the whole 130-voice choir. or.... maybe not. i am looking forward to dress rehersals next week when we get to see what everybody else ended up with.

today we had our first rehersal with the whole choir and the orchestra. well, not the whole choir or orchestra, lots of people couldn't make it, but it was the first time we practiced with the orchestra and not just the piano, so that was neat.

we have practices every day at lunch now this week. and dress rehersals are next week. and then next weekend we have 4 performances. this is going to be exhausting.

volatile combination

i had a salmon sandwich and 3 fudgee-o cookies this afternoon.

someone said i was eating Nemo.

graduating april 2004

so... i just had my seminary graduation photograph taken, and picked up my application for graduation from the seminary office. and apparently i have to meet with the registrar.

Michelle Johnston, M.A., B.A., A.A. is that the correct order? :)

journey

so, i've pretty much been in the library, on the internet, all afternoon. i did, however, manage to accomplish a few things... like print out a bunch of book titles i need to write my MRRP (read: psuedo-thesis), print some other info for my MRRP, check out some jobs (nothing hopeful), check my email (nothing real, only spam, as usual), surf my blogroll a bit (removed some old inactive ones, and ones i never visit anymore), and wonder in general what i'm doing with the rest of my life and where it's going.

and now, i'm going home to knit a new scarf and further contemplate my life. it's cold outside.

mom

this is somewhat humourous. warning: contains a bit of bad language, but addresses a big fear of a lot of blog writers.

see also what to do if your mom discovers your blog....

links viablogger.

you deserve someone great!

a pop-up just told me that.

thanks, mr. pop-up, but i already knew that. :)

alphabetical update

a) this is the slowest computer ever. well, maybe not ever, but it is slow.

b) i have almost everything crossed off my to do list for today. this is very exciting. i should do this every day.

c) i finished the two papers i had due today and handed them in.

d) i am not moving to the G.T.A. in January, unless something drastic happens to change that. my aforementioned possible roommate does not want to get an apartment any more. so, the official job hunt begins.... right now.

e) my friend mike and his girlfriend are coming over for supper. cool schmoole.

f) i have choir practice tonight and tomorrow night from 8-10pm. these are going to be long nights.

g) we got a couple of yearbook deadlines unexpectedly pushed back... so now we have more time. this is a very very good thing.

h) the girl behind me in the computer lab keeps talking to herself. it's kind of... umm... you know... weird.

i) i framed a bunch of pictures today and submitted them for the art show this friday and saturday. i am excited to see what else is there.

j) my little sister's birthday is on saturday. i sent her a veggietales birthday postcard today. she's turning 22.

k) i am going to purchase the new jars of clay cd "who we are instead" after i finish writing this and return the christmas musical practice cds.

l) it's pretty sunny out today. but it's cold. and there is still lots of snow.

m) i'm making chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole for supper. i'm not a big casserole fan, but this casserole is good.

n) i started knitting a new scarf today, except there was an error in the pattern, and it was a little wider than i wanted it to be, and so i need to re-write the pattern and start again. ugh.

o) i should be getting home. i need to start cooking.

p) 26 points is a lot. i am running out of things to say.

q) i love fluffy puffy pink marshmallow candies, the kind with red sugar on them that you get in the bulk food section. they're yummy.

r) let jodi's SIMS kids, ralphy and eddy, drown in my pool. is that unethical? because rachel was trying to tell me it was. SIMS isn't real life.

s) i like "for better or for worse" cartoons.

t) i would like to just fly somewhere for a short vacation... just a couple of days. that would be fun. if only i had more money. someday though... someday i will. (go on a vacation randomly, not have more money ;) )

u) you are cool. hey, you're reading this, aren't you? ;)

v) value village... shopping extraordinaire.

w) i think it should actually be called a "double-v," not a "double-u."

x) your x-ray vision is powerless against me, i'm wearing tinfoil underpants. just kidding.

y) why? why? what kind of a question is why? because they're cool, that's why.

z) it's pronounced zed

team online

so, i've been looking a bit online for jobs. because a job in january would be a good thing.

i remember way back in the day, way back when i first started at Bible college... that would be fall '98... i thought when i got done college i would be a keener and get a youth pastor job.

except when i finished college i started seminary. and i don't want to be a youth pastor anymore.

i was talking to my professor from my class last week, darrell pearson (he's an associate professor of youth ministry at eastern university in pennsylvania), about women in youth ministry and such, because he was wondering what i am going to do once i am finished seminary. he said he's noticed that not a lot of women he's talked to in his classes want to be the "head guy youth pastor," they get excited however, about team ministry.

which i would have to agree with 100%. when i was looking for an internship to do after my third year of Bible college, the primary reason i decided to take the position i did was because it was to be in a team setting, with a team of interns. i was really looking to get more team ministry experience, i didn't want to fly solo, or be in charge.

but i ended up being the only intern... and working alone most of the time. i didn't like it.

when people ask me what i want to do with my life i usually am faced with the fact that since i am in youth ministry, especially since i'm completing my masters degree, i should be wanting to be a head honcho youth pastor. however, is there not just as much validity as wanting to be a team member?

perhaps part of the problem is that Canada doesn't have many youth ministries with more than one paid staff. i'm not sure if i actually care whether or not i get paid to do ministry. but then again, as of yet, i haven't really worked. i think right now though, i wouldn't mind having another "regular" job and doing ministry part-time or as a volunteer (how many churches would be ecstatic to have a volunteer with a masters in youth ministry?).

i don't know many women who have completed a youth ministry degree. the ones i know didn't end up wanting to be youth pastors. a lot of guys i know never completed their degree and ended up working elsewhere. some finished, and now they're working in youth ministry or other ministry jobs.

i'm not sure if this is a complete thought or not, but i'm getting sleepy and so i'm going to end this post now.

hmmm...

so i really haven't been up to much constructive today... although melissa and i did manage to rearrange the yearbook page ladder (the order the pages go in), which is good. we had to cut 16 pages (so now we're down to 80) because it was going to be too expensive for the amount of books we are selling (525 this year, which is down a lot from other years. there are 800 students, usually more buy them).

but anyways, less pages also means less layout, but less general coolness as well. but, i can definitely appreciate less yearbook work.

answer

in response to jodi's question ("Do you like hugs?") i offer the following response:

generally, no. but it totally depends who the hug is from and under what circumstances.

and three in one day... hmm...

in response

to rachel's question ("How many people were involved in project mail-a-thon and what other stuff did you get?"):

see this post. i got mail from rebecca and jake, and you. i am still expectantly awaiting neely's contribution to the project. :)

but, now that i look back, i forgot to post what i got from you! sorry. i got two neat postcards (one with sheep on it, and one with a photo of new zealand on it i think...), a neat "auckland at night" magnet, a cute homemade card with a note, and a bazillion little glittery confetti stars. was that everything? i am sorry my mind is escaping me at the moment. i especially liked the sheep postcard and the stars that scattered themselves all over my kitchen table. very neat. :) i loved the whole package, very fun.

now to answer neely's question ("Hmm any clues as to when you'll figure out where to live?"):

if i had any idea, i would let you know. :) chuckle chuckle.

as part of the answer though, here's what's going on in my life at the moment... i just finished my last class ever yesterday. and we even had a test in the morning. i've never ever ever had a test in a youth ministry class. i think it's a first in briercrest history. i chuckled. but, i did get to hand it in with a classic michelle line ("that was fun"), which i always said to the teacher or professor after doing every test and every exam for as long as i can remember. so that was kind of neat. i had forgotten about it actually until i had to hand it in yesterday.

now i'm not officially done school, i still have about 6 papers I think to finish for the classes i've taken this semester (Spiritual Formation, Philosophy and Foundation for Ministry and Mission, and Junior High Ministry), and also i need to get cracking and write my MRRP proposal ( a MRRP is a "ministry related research project", it's like a thesis but a tad bit shorter)... and then actaully write my MRRP. my original plan was to get it all done before Christmas. i still could, if i worked at a frantic pace. oh. i still have yearbook to do too. that isn't as important as my schoolwork, but i like doing layout, it's fun (most of the time!) and when i do it i can be confident that it'll look good.

a bazillion people have suggested i should just stay here all next semester. this is appealing for the following reasons:
a) it gives me a place to live
b) i don't have to start a job or anything then
c) my roomdawg jodi is cool
d) it gives me more time to do fun stuff and not have to be rushed
e) i wouldn't have to fret job hunting

this idea however is also unappealing for the following reasons:

a) it costs money to live and i wouldn't be making any
b) i would feel very much like i was just delaying the inevitable
c) i don't really need to stay another whole semester
d) i've been in post-secondary school for six and a half years. that's much too much. i don't want to make it a whole seven.
e) caronport isn't always fun.

i don't know how long it is going to take me to finish these papers, or realistically how long it would take me to do a decent job on my MRRP. i have thought about staying for january. but realistically, how motivated will i be to leave at the end of january? not very, i don't think. it would be much easier to leave, and logical to leave, at Christmas time when everyone else is going home and a few other people leave and don't come back as well.

i'm not very motivated to get on the job hunt and get a cool youth ministry job. i think this is mostly because i don't want to just move anywhere. there are lots of cool youth ministry jobs out there. they just happen to all be in places i don't really know anyone. i am tired of getting jobs in weird places. the past two summers i was really glad to spend in the same place, after working in illinois, the yukon, and maine the few summers before that.

i want to go somewhere familiar. but i don't really have a home. my parents moved after i finished high school, and i've never lived in alberta with them, so going there isn't like going home is for most everyone else, because i only know my family there. and besides, it's northern alberta, there aren't any interesting jobs there. i don't want to work at sammy's pizza.

ideally i'd like to move to the g.t.a. (greater toronto area) and share an apartment with my good chum carolyn that i worked with at camp in 2002, and we have discussed it, just lately i haven't been able to get ahold of her to see if she's actually serious serious about it. it would be near a great deal of my old briercrest friends, plus near the camp i've worked at the past two summers, i'd probably be able to go to church with a lot of camp friends, i wouldn't be too far from a few relatives, and it's toronto so there is neat stuff to do.

and hopefully lots of jobs. i don't really know what kind of job i would get yet, i think i'd just apply for a bunch and see what happened. the thought of a random job (or jobs) for a year or so seems oddly appealing to me after being in concentrated youth ministry studies for the past few years. i started out expecting to go into full-time ministry, but now that i'm almost finished, the though of it is somewhat... i don't know what the proper word would be... i kind of have this weird exhaustion. i don't know how to explain it.

i'd like my january to be given to me on a silver platter with all the kinks worked out for me. but it's not happening that way. so, i'll let you know what happens when it does. as i have said before, God has it all under control, and PTL for that. :)

ask me

a question. what do you want to know?

flew the coop

so my roomdawg jodi went home to montana for the weekend. she just decided to go. she has a car so she can do that. that makes her cool. well, other things make her cool, besides the fact that she can take random road trips.

"I'm home. Safe and sound. The ride was long and uneventful aside from the cattle drive that I encountered while in Saskatchewan. The SK roads were really slick which made me ponder, "if I were to slide into one of these cows that I'm passing by, who would be liable? I mean they are tropping down the highway and all." hmmm...."

i'll have a 2 cheeseburger meal please

my roomdawg jodi is taking me to mcdonald's tonight. she's the greatest. well, maybe not the greatest, but she's pretty high up there on my list. we are also going grocery shopping becuase it's 10% off day at our favourite grocery store, Moose Jaw Garden Market IGA. maybe they'll have taken down the skeletons now that halloween is over. maybe santa will be standing over the deli counter today.

some sort of cruel joke

so, jars of clay has a new album, and in the longstanding tradition, it is of course briercrest reading week when they always seem to release their stuff. except this reading week i just happen to be here and by a Christian bookstore where i can buy it. except they didn't get it in and they don't know why. i think this is ridiculous. :)

but, Who We Are Instead marks a return to the acoustic, soulful sound that launched Jars of Clay’s musical journey nearly 10 years ago. "We were excited to just sit in a room and re-embrace the simple acoustic process that got us started," noted Dan Haseltine, Jars' lead singer. "What has emerged, we hope, is an album that is organic and soulful and an honest expression of the things we believe."
- from http://www.jarsofclay.com

and, i can't get into my email. it keeps giving me error messages. what if i got a really really good email?

who am i kidding? pretty much all i ever get is spam.

bundle of joy

so my friend mary-margaret, who is 20, just had a baby on saturday. she's married. it's her first baby. her husband is 33.

but, she's 20. when she's my age, she'll have a 5 year-old kid. can you imagine me with a 5 year-old kid? can you even imagine me with a baby? i can't imagine maggs with a baby, let alone a 5 year-old in five years.

i'm glad i still have a few more years, at least.

junior high memories

so this week i am taking a class called "junior high ministry," a class that is offered as both a college and seminary elective. there are about 26 people in it i think.

this morning, first thing off, we were asked to fill out these little sheets entitled "What I was Like In Grade 7". They included such tidbits as, you know, favourite teacher, worst teacher, best friend, most embarassing moment. Everyone knows that junior high is pretty much cruddy for everyone.

i was sitting beside this 30 year old lady, who is in the college, and she freaked out when i leaned over to read hers. golly. you don't need to make a scene in class. we don't need any more junior high moments re-lived for anyone.

we then had to get together in small groups of 3-4 and discuss who we were as junior high students. you know, the stuff we wrote on our sheet, and then compare that to junior high students today. miss aforementioned was a little testy and did not want to share anything of her "horrible junior high experience" with anyone.

hmm... i don't know if it's too much to ask that you should have worked through your issues from junior high if you are going to be in a class on ministering to junior high students. you shouldn't still think that you are the only one who had a bad experience at that age. i don't think it's really very healthy at all to still have those issues bottled up inside.

or am i the only one who thinks that?

another

To whom it may concern:
RE: ROOMMATE RECOMMENDATION FOR MICHELLE G. I. JOHNSTON

To anyone and everyone who is considering Michelle as a potential roommate I would just like to provide my insight as I speak from experience as Michelle's current roommate (or as we fondly refer to each other--roomdawg). You see, that is what you can look forward to as Michelle's roomate--she is a loving, caring, affectionate individual whose sole desire is to make you feel loved and accepted in any and every type of living environment.

I also lived in the residence of Lewis Apartments with her when we were just wee little babes as young college girls. This experience molded and shaped my early years of college and truly made me the person I am and who will walk across that stage to receive a diploma in April. You see, she held the position of "spiritual mother" in the LA residence, because she is indeed the exact definition of such a term. A true woman of God whose desire is to care for, protect, and serve the needs of those closest to her. She does this through writing little notes and hanging them on the bathroom mirror, cooking delicious and nutritious meals that provide the sustinance that one needs to make it through the day, she is very tidy although not a big fan of washing dishes (but I assure you if you are willing to wash she would be more than happy to put them away), her personal hygiene is outstanding and there is not a doubt in my mind whether she changes her underwear daily. I have not found her to posses any peculiar odors and she is an avid lotion-user which means her skin won't flake which is also fantastic.

My experience living with Michelle in the 'Plex has been excellent. She is a happy and cheerful person to be around (unless you break one of her precious bowls--then she won't talk to you for a little while, but she gets over it). She's not overly agile when it comes to putting away glasses so I recommend that you use plastic tumblers instead, but she's GREAT at vacuuming--she gets in every nook and crany with that thing--it's really astounding. She's a little psycho about her sheets, but don't call her psycho because it brings back painful memories for her, but as long as you don't touch her sheets with any part of your being there really shouldn't be a problem. And seriously what normal roommate wants to touch someone's sheets? If you are annoying she may kinda complain about you when you're gone, but just don't be annoying and leave the closet doors open and stuff because if you do she will leave a note on them to remind you to shut them.

Michelle is a big photo-taker so be aware! She will take pictures of you at your finest moments, but as long as you are as photogenic as myself it really shouldn't be a problem.

So that about sums it up. Michelle is a supercool roommate and I recommend her to any potential roommates. I believe her to be, in the words of Michael Chowns, "a prize, a diamond in the ruff". Thank you, I believe that about
sums it up.

If you have any questions or need any clarifications, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks and have a great day!

Jodi Lea Chambers
Current roomdawg, former RA

* note from michelle: where do i find these people? or perhaps, rather, i should be asking, how do these people find me? ;)

sparkly

i like it when it's super cold outside and you walk on the snow and it sounds crunchy and the snow sparkles in the light of the streetlights or the moon and you look up at the sky and you can see a bazillion stars...

but only until the cold gets to me and i think i'm crazy for making the trek to the academic building to check my email.

roommate recommendation

so i'm trying to convince one of my really good friends from ontario that we need to get an apartment together in january. so, i thought the most logical thing to do would be to get roommate recommendations from former roommates:

"I have known Michelle G. I. Johnston in the capasities of dormmate and roomdawg and friend for the past 4 years. Michelle is a wonderful person, fun, has an excellent sence of humour, kind, considerate, loving, a good listener and conversationalist, pleasant. She shuts off the lights on when she leaves a room and does not use all the hot water
when she showers, to my knowledge she has not left the toaster oven running, nor the oven, she does not eat stinky food except for bacon, which can be forgiven becuase she shares. Though miss Johnston does not enjoy doing dishes she is a good cook, watch out for the mexican fiesta, its got kick. MGIJ also does not enjoy cleaning the toilet, but she
doesn't leave her gross hair plastered to the side of the shower, she also doesn't accuse her roommate of stealing razors and does not borrow tampons. I do not believe Michelle to be a snorer, nor a drooler, she does not have any unpleasant odors, does laundry frequently, vaccums, does not shed hair on the carpet. She does not have an abundance of shoes and therefore you won't trip on the way in the door. She does not have annoying friends, only really cool ones, one in particular who lives in Kitchener. I would recomend Michelle as a roommate to anyone.

sincerely,
Holly Anne Skelton
Housemate 2002-2003
ps, she makes really good brownies.

***

Michelle is a great roommate.
Stated by Heather Alayne Yoshiki on October 23rd, 2003.

You want more?

Alright. Three years after living with Michelle, I am still greatly affected by the time I have spent with her . . .I am definitely stranger than I was when I met her. Heehee. Just joking. Michelle is so great that I am taking time out of my crazy schedule to write a letter about how great she is.

Michelle will bring a smile, a listening ear and some good advice to your life. She will keep you up late at night talking about whatever you need to talk about, and sometimes she will throw jujubes at you. She will be a voice of reason, a person to chuckle with and a great friend. She will make you care cards. After she moves away, she will send you postcards.

She is super easy to get along with. She is not too messy. Except when she does not clean up the dirt from her knocked over plants.

She will not sit and watch TV all day long, and she will introduce you to some great music. She will make friends with your cat if you have one. Over the years she has provided me with much laughter, pushing closer to God-ness, and many fun, memorable times. You too should live with Michelle and experience this once in a lifetime chance!

Heather
Roommate 2000-2001

***

To Whom It May Concern,

This letter is in regards to the recommendation of Michelle G. I. Johnston as a roommate. Michelle is overall a good roommate. She is not a person of extreme uncleanliness and does her part in the regular upkeep and cleaning of a home. She is not a person given to extremes in temperament and was often the source of a lot of fun. Her skills with numbers and computers were invaluable as she kept track of the house finances in terms of who owed how much and why. Like I said, this was very much appreciated.

Michelle is a good cook as well and therefore is capable of contributing to the making of meals when required. I quite enjoyed living with Michelle and would do so again given the opportunity.

Sincerely,
Tamara
Housemate 2002-2003

***

Michelle G. I. was an exceptional roommate. Although we had some problems beginning our wonderful relationship (we didn't talk for the first few months) things went well under way. Michelle enjoys listening to music, especially Caedman's Call and Corey Doak. She has night time selections she likes to listen to when she goes to bed. She is freaky about her sheets being clean and gets quite upset if you sit on them. Michelle loves cats and frequently gets presents and letters from her cat at home. She is an exceptional cook and is always ready for a good laugh. Michelle is one of the greatest roommates of all time!

Leanne
Roommate 2001-2002

walking in a winter wonderland

we have a lot of snow. my sister was stranded in saskatchewan from wednesday until yesterday when she finally decided to brave the drive back to alberta... and still ended up in the ditch anyway! but, she's safe and sound and back home now.

yesterday was the funeral of mrs. ingrid hildebrand, one of the founders of Briercrest. my roommates and i went and stood in the honour guard after the funeral, which is when the citizens of a town stand along the road that the funeral procession makes to the cemetery. it was neat to see so many people there.

in other news, mike yaconelli died. if you are in the youth ministry world, or have read any of his books, then you will know who he is.

last night i went to regina to see "bruce almighty" with my housemate rachel and a couple of other girls. we also went to chapters, a big book store. i love chapters. you can look at all the books and usually they don't bug you. the only bad thing is when you want to buy a book it's all dirty because bazillions of other people have pawed through it with their dirty starbucks hands. anyway, i spent my time purusing kids' room decorating books (no, i do not have any children, nor do i ssee any in my immediate future, i just happen to think that kids' room decorating books are way more fun than regular decorating books. why are people afraid to use vibrant colours in regular rooms anyways?) and in the kids' book section (because, well, kids books are cool too. the illustrations are waay fun. and i looked at all the art books i wanted to look at last time i was at chapters, which is usually the aisle i go to first).

today i haven't done much of anything. i have class this next week. "junior high ministry." should be good. it's my last class ever, and it's done on friday. friday is my last day of class ever.

that is all.

snowy snowy day

my sister is "stuck" because it's snowing here, and there is a whole lot more snow apparently in Alberta (where she would be headed), and driving would be bad, so she's here for at least another day.

last night i cleaned out a whole big rubbermaid tub full of old clothes. i have the hardest time getting rid of clothes ("hey, maybe someday i might fit into these big pants again, even if now they fall down without a belt" or "hey, someday i might loose weight and fit into this size 5 skirt again," or "hey, this ugly sweater might come back into style again someday"... you know, stuff like that), so this was a real accomplishment. i also packed up all my dishes for my sister to take to my other sister's house so at Christmas when she drives to my parents' house she can take them there. i don't want them to get broken in the mail or on the bus, and since i have no idea where i'm going in january (well, i have a partial idea, but nothing's comfirmed, but it would be cool if it happened)... so, yeah, i'm sending all my kitchen stuff home.

future

i am looking forward to that day when i get to change again what it says beside "location" over there on my side bar.

oh sister of mine

my little sister arrived yesterday and is visiting until tomorrow. this morning we went to chapel, and then spent an enjoyable afternoon in Moose Jaw... pitas from Pita Pit at Crescent Park, took some photos there, went to the scrapbooking store downtown, looked in a few shops downtown, went to the mall, went to Wal-Mart, got the photos developed, went shopping at IGA, chuckled a lot. there were lots of rather large squirrels in the park so i took a few pictures, hopefully i'll be able to scan them soon and post them over on my fotolog.

i haven't time to post anything else, but just thought i would say what i've been up to. have a great day everyone. :)

problems?

is anyone having problems accessing this page? because i am. but i was wondering if it's maybe just the computers here because they've been having lots of problems since a whole bunch of power outtages occured on friday.

let me know. thanks. :)

the Kingdom

i was listening to a radio sermon today or yesterday sometime about something about experiencing the Kingdom of God, and i'm not sure in what context anymore that it was refering to, but it got me to thinking about how people experience the Kingdom here in "blogdom" (or whatever you want to call it). i have been thinking a lot lately about Christian blogging, how we have our little Christian blogging circles, and how that affects blogdom, and specifically how it affects us all as Christians, and how it affects the non-Christians who stumble across it (or look for it). do people experience the Kingdom here?

random thoughts.

meaning?

i found this site, behind the name, via jenn's musings, and i thought it was interesting that my given name and two middle names together mean "Who is like God?", "grace," and "peace." i have wondered in the past whether or not the meanings of our names actually means anything.

in my family, it's traditional to have two middle names after family members, however, only my second middle name is after someone in my family (it's my aunt's, grandmother's, and great-grandmother's middle name), "michelle" my parents just picked, and my first middle name is after a friend of my mom's.

what does your name mean?

cool

i like this site a lot.

link found via much afraid of falling.

lost ambitions

i came on the internet tonight to write emails and clean out my inbox, but as soon as i got here i lost all ambitions. hmm...

my class ended this morning, it was a very good class but i am looking forward to not having to get up at 7:45 tomorrow morning. i'll still wake up around 8 because my internal clock never shuts off, but i won't have to get up and that will be a great feeling. :)

the power went out a bazillion times this morning and a few times this afternoon. thankfully our professor wasn't so relient on powerpoint that he couldn't teach the class without it.

i think from now on power outtages will always remind me of this past summer and the 24 hours we didn't have power along with much of southern ontario and the upper u.s. and i still conserve power. rachel never turns off her lights. this drives me up the wall.

this afternoon i had craft time by myself and made a bunch of cards for people, and then i made home-made ravioli, from scratch. i've never done that before. it took what seemed like forever, but it was pretty good i thought. i even made the sauce from scratch.

the past couple of days have been the windiest i can ever remember. this morning when i walked to class there were plastic cemetery flowers in the walk behind our house. the cemetery is no where near us. there was also a shower cap, numerous plastic bags, and newspapers galore. the plastic flowers i found quite humourous.

my little sister called me tonight. she is coming to visit on monday. that should be fun. she has only been here once before when it was the summmer, so there weren't any students, so it will be neat to show her the school and town while there are others here.

tomorrow a bunch of us are dressing up and going out for supper and to "Christmas in October" in moose jaw. i think i'm going to wear my vintage peacock blue 50's dancing dress. if i get up the nerve. everyone else is just wearing normal fancy stuff or "church clothes." but i love that dress and i don't get to wear it nearly often enough. :)

i should probably go home. i have nothing else to say.

long week

class weeks are always long weeks for me, however, my class will be done by friday at 11:30am. although i have enjoyed this class immensely, i am looking forward to my week off. then, november 3-7 i have "junior high ministry," which should be interesting although i am expecting the large majority of the class to be repetitive from stuff i have learned before.

thank you to everyone who has encouraged me this week via comments or email... you know who you are and i love you all. i would leave pink heart post-it notes for you if i could, but you might think someone had broken into your house and left them on your mirror... right jodi? :)

i have to go. to bed.

i continue to stalk myself

this post from a couple of days ago talks about how people keep surfing in here off of weird search results. all the time.

i have found the problem. internet search engines do this thing called "cache-ing", from what i understand, and this is when a search engine searches your page, it doesn't do it all the time, just every once in awhile, and somehow it saves a copy of this snapshot of your page as it looked when it searched it. this is called a "cached copy."

here is a faulty cache copy. somehow someone else's blog got substituted for mine. not only on yahoo, but also on google. i think it results from a faulty archives link somehow.

anyways, this tells me why people are always coming here looking for "angela gossow pictures" (i don't even know who she is). it also solves the weird "Mostly Weird, Some Normal, I offer you nothing. I am not a politician" question.

sorry if you've come here looking for angela gossow. she's not here. sorry for the faulty cache. i had nothing to do with it. i don't know how to fix it either.

pink heart post-it note on your mirror

"you are loved"

faced with my own mortality

so today in the mail i got a package from my mom of all the mail i got at home from the end of may until now. it did include some cool stuff, like some postcards and a bunch of little sanrio notepads (i have discovered lately that i have notepads coming out of my ears. seriously. i have tons of them).

but, not so cool in this package she also sent me a lot of bank stuff, which told me that when i am finally done school, i will be paying back my student loans for what, i am sure, will feel like forever and i will be very very very very very very poor.

but i don't regret any of my schooling. well, except for the couple of classes that they told me i had to take and it turned out i didn't need to so i wasted a lot of tuition money on them. and i don't regret the summer jobs i've had either. they weren't all fun, none of them paid very much, but they sure taught me a lot.

and soon, hopefully, i'll be getting a real job. like in january. doing what? i haven't got a clue. where? i am not too sure about that one either. but God is. and that is super cool.


these days
i wish i was 6 again
oh make me a red cape
i wanna be Superman
- John Mayer, "83", from the album "Room for Squares"

i was wondering

so this afternoon when i was walking home from class i was wondering why on earth anyone would want to have "princess" written across their bottom.

a) would a fairy tale princess actually wear pants like those?
b) do you really want to associate yourself with the prissy whiny princess stereotype who would?

maybe i shouldn't critique the clothing choices of children who have yet to develop the critical minds to think this much about their clothing.

but their parents on the other hand, who buy them the clothing....

;)

busy busy busy bee

friday we finished the first sixteen pages of the yearbook that were due. and they don't look too bad. i didn't think we'd get them done... yay!

this week i have class, "philosophy and foundation for ministry and mission," (at my school all of our classes are only a week long, monday to friday, 8:30am-4:15pm-ish), so i'm busy this week. next week i have off, then november 3-7 i have "junior high ministry," my last seminary class ever. well, i think it will be the last ever, that could change, should i do something wild and crazy in the future and take another one.

anyways, i found today really enjoyable and really like my class. i'm glad i decided to drop Romans class a few weeks ago and am taking this class instead. we have do develop our philosophy of ministry for a post-course assignment, which i know will be good for me. i have done a philosophy of youth ministry before, so this will be a chance to expand on that and develop my philosophy further.

i got an email from my little sister tonight who is probably coming to visit next week, so that should be super cool. she has only been here once before, and that was in the summer, so it will be nice to show her the school while there are students here, and she can meet my friends and stuff, so that should be neato. and maybe we can do some touristy-things in moose jaw or regina too. she's never really been to either city to do anything there, so that would be rad.

and my good chum carolyn emailed me too, which is always super cool. you know how you have those friends who are just all-round super cool people and you wonder how you ever got to be friends with someone so cool? yeah, that is what carolyn is to me.

and my good chum lowana wrote me this amazing encouraging care card today and put it in my student box and i got it on my first break from class this morning. she is another one of those people that i think, "gee, how did i get to be friends with someone so amazing?"

i am thankful for my amazing friends. they encourage me so much. thank you God, for these amazing people.

i've gotta run and get back to my house. i need to get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight, i need to be functional at 8:30am. yikes.

;)

project mail-a-thon results 1 & 2

if you're a regular reader of my blog, you will remember the original post found here for project mail-a-thon, which was basically borne out of the idea that i don't get much real mail sometimes, and hey, i like real mail.

the gist of the project was this:
"i will mail you something cool within one week of recieving your address. this cool thing will be a surprise. the object of the mail-a-thon is to send happiness. yes, happiness. how cool. you will also, at this time (within one week), also mail me some happiness. i would like that. i like mail. i like happiness

when you recieve your happiness in the mail, you must post an entry on your blog that reports your happiness, has a link-back to http://mikao.blogspot.com, and post the original instructions.

you will then mail happiness to others who request that you do so via your blog.

but, you may still be left with one question... how exactly do i mail someone happiness? well dears, that is going to have to be something you figure out. i am guessing it will be distinctive to each person.

cool, huh?"

the results

well, a little while ago i got the first results in from project mail-a-thon, from the lovely rebecca. rebecca sent me a lovely card along with 2 ikea postcards inside with a little bit about how her best friend lives where there is an ikea but there aren't any where she lives. i think most females share a fondness for ikea. very cool. ;) i especially love the painting on the card. right now i don't have it with me so i can't tell you who the artist is, but i love it. thank you so much rebecca, you're fabulous!

and last week i got my second piece of mail from project mail-a-thon. jake went over and above what i was expecting and sent me a little package including a nice note, a Fayetteville, Arkansas visitor's guide (should come in handy if i'm ever in fayetteville ;) ), an arkansa postcard, a university of arkansas grad school key chain, a fort lewis college skyhawks car window sticker, and a personalizable arkansas liscence plate. he didn't know it, but i actually have quite a few of those liscence plates, but no arkansas ones, so that was especially cool and enjoyable. it was neat to see a little bit of the place he lives. thank you again jake, you're awesome!

so, that is my report. i don't think anyone has gotten what i've sent yet (sorry... i was a little late getting things out), but i do hope you like what you get. :)

if anyone else would like to participate, feel free to email me at mikao at briercrest dot com and let me know. :)

i don't get it

so if you search for "michelle" on google, you just might get these search results... which, at the bottom, have the following:

"Mostly Weird, Some Normal
I offer you nothing. I am not a politician.
Friday, June 20, 2003. Today's CDs: Fred Anderson/Kidd Jordan ...
mikao.blogspot.com/ - 23k - Cached - Similar pages "

i assure you that prior to right now, i have never had that on my site. friday, june 20, 2003 i didn't even post anything. but eerily, the next day i also wrote a post entitled the same thing as this one! i don't even know who fred anderson and kidd jordan are. while i am definitely not a politician, i would never make that statement.

* on another note, sorry i didn't post anything on friday. i'll try to tonight. my weekend was very busy. thank you for your patience! :)

choir and yearbook

so i just finished my first choir practice of what jodi likes to call the elite community choir. elite, because anyone can join.

i haven't been in a choir since grade 12. that was six years ago. and that's scary.

i worked on yearbook most of the afternoon, but PTL for msn on the yearbook computer, or else i'd go nuts. yearbook is fun, but i don't think i'm too cut out for the solitary work that is done as a solitary graphic designer. i need human contact. i can't just interact with a computer.

yearbook is going okay, there is still a lot of work i need to do, hopefully i can get it all done by tomorrow evening. that would be very very good. then i could get my homework done for class on monday. ;)

this year though, layout is much faster as a) we have a new faster computer that doesn't shut down or freeze when you try to do anything cool, b) they sent us this thingy so you don't have to format all the photos yourself, the thingy formats them properly which saves TONS and TONS of time, c) we don't have to name all the photo files this year, we can just leave them with the names they come with off the digital camer, and d)um.... i can't think of a "d". bottom line is it is much much faster.

sims is getting kind of boring. donna lyn and gordon vincent had all the kids they can have. dahlia louise, azalea marie, dandelion priscilla, nastursium the third, francesca gardenia ann, and one other one i always forget the name of. we also had nastursium lea (who was lost in the move), nastursium lee (who was taken away by child and family services), three boys we didn't keep, and gardenia lily mae who got a sleeping sickness and wouldn't wake up and so got sent to military school. she was the perfect child. :)

i can't wait to name my real kids. chuckle chuckle.

anyways, i should go. i will try to post more tomorrow. i got some cool mail today i need to tell you about, and i still have to tell you about the first mail i got for my project. promise.

phrases i like

again i go unnoticed
instead of being satisfied
three weeks since yesterday
february theory
so nice to be loved

if i ever made a cd i would spend many months deliberating on an appropriately cool phrase to name it.

snow

yes. that's right. it snowed today. big, soft, flakey chunks. very pretty.

but it melted. and now it's all wet. but, it's snowing in mikao's world. for now, anyways.

i spent the majority of the day working on yearbook, i have a good start now, but there is still tons to do and not much time to get it done it. i decided to put all these fun little facts in it this year, which we haven't done before ever, so that is neat-o. it is interesting how much stuff you can find out online about people at your school. ;)

on a side note, on a scale of 1-10*, what would you rate potatoes?



*remember that the lowest you can give something on a scale of 1-10 is minus 53.

bebo

i like this song. i'm not exactly sure what it's saying though.

I don't know why I always run
is it fear of the fall or fear of the touch
And I don't know where the angels sleep

And I don't know how to really love
I've never stood still long enough
And I don't know where the angels sleep

But I am alive and standing strong
I'm no farther forward, just farther along
I hold on to my pride and dig in deep
It's pulling me down, and I am no closer to release
And I don't know where the angels sleep

I don't know how to see you now
The friend from before is different somehow
And I don't know where the angels sleep

And I don't know when I'll love again
But I don't trust myself to just let you in
And I don't know where the angels sleep

It's taken ten thousand days
To get stuck in my ways
And it offers no grace
I cannot stand this place
With love in my face
I walk away slowly

I don't know where the angels sleep
No, I don't know where the angels sleep
- "Where Angels Sleep," from "Ten Thousand Days", by bebo norman

ha ha

i found this site tonight that tells me jasonkillingsworth has blogrolled me.

yeah right.

but, other things on
blogstreet are neato. i like the thingy that shows your visual neighbourhood. it's neat. but not thorough enough.

attractive

sometimes i think it would be neat to just exist out of a suitcase and maybe a backpack. to have all of my materlial possessions fit neatly into one small, confined, neat little space. to have everything that i need for existence at my fingertips in one nice zippered carryall.

think about it. it would be so easy to travel. i'd just need to do laundry more often. and i couldn't be a pack rat. and i wouldn't be able to buy as much physical "stuff".

i don't think i could do it.

interesting

i think had i written down all the sites i have visited in the past two hours while redoing my site and wasting time on the internet, you would have chuckled. sometime i'll do it for you. i just didn't think of it until now.

but, for your enjoyment, here's a link to the ugliest shoes ever. and they can be yours for a mere $209.

two hundred and nine dollars?!?!?!?!?

the redesign

so.... what do you think? does it look okay? or was before better? should i shut off the rain? what about the font colours? i tried to justify (alignment) the main blog text so it would be more distinguished from the side bar, but i couldn't figure it out.

yearbook and msn and yearly themes.

well, i've spent the afternoon working on yearbook and talking on msn. i got part of three pages done. i picked out the fonts. i think they look pretty cool. i found out lots of information i needed. i scanned pictures. yay. that's the first concrete work so far. and i talked to people i like to talk to.

last year the theme of my year turned out to be "you are here," and that's what i titled my scrapbook photo album of the year. this year i've decided my theme is "making sense of it all." if i had a CD burner and made CDs , i'd give all of them names like this too.

but for now, i must run and get some supper.

writer

every once in awhile i get this feeling like i should write a book. like somewhere deep within me there is this book waiting in there, waiting to come out, typed onto a computer screen and somehow later be published in book form.

in grade 6 (age 11), i won two writing contests. the first one was the local paper's Christmas short story contest. i won $25. then in the spring i won the shrine circus short story writing contest for all of Manitoba. i won a bmx bike called "the mirage" that was royal blue and hot flourescent pink, tickets to the circus for my whole family, and supper at the shriners temple with my parents and the other contest winners. i didn't have a clue at the time that they were a cult. i even have my picture with the grand kartum, who is some head honcho-ish kind of guy with the shriners.

i like writing. but i don't do it that often. pretty much my blog is the extent of my writing at this current time. i also have a book of random lists that i add to often as well. i used to have lists everywhere, but this summer at chapters i bought this neat little coil journal/notebook thingy in this hideous shade of lime green, with rip out pages, that has four different sections distinguished by different colours on the right edges of the paper that is perfect for random lists and random thoughts. so for now, instead of a novel or a great book of some sort, i have a blog and i have lists.

perhaps some day i'll write that book. but for now, it remains in the recesses of my mind. i should think about it more during times when i'm not so busy. or perhaps i should just spend less time thinking about it and more time writing it.

theatre

1. open range
2. how to deal
3. pirates of the carribean
4. finding nemo
5. national security
6. maid in manhattan
7. superman
8. miss congeniality
9. what lies beneath
10. runaway bride
11. city of angels
12. titanic
13. last action superhero
14. robin hood, men in tights
15. e.t.
16. little orphan annie

thanksgiving?

tonight i went to my roommate rachel's boyfriend's for thanksgiving supper. i call this post "thanksgiving?" because a) we didn't have turkey, b) we had curry (which was super good), and c) it's not actually thanksgiving. thanksgiving is on monday, but i think most Christians celebrate it on sunday. well, that is, Canadian Christians. :)

later tonight we're going to see a movie. i forget what it's called. it's a 'western'. i'm not sure how i feel about that.

what???

so, i used to be a pretty big jars of clay fan. but, the past year or so, i haven't really been keeping up with them. and today i find out, hey they have a new album coming out november 4. when did this happen? i promised myself after buying "the eleventh hour" that i wouldn't buy the next jars album without hearing it.

but now i'm all excited. i want to get it. i wish i could listen to audio samples on this computer.

i used to

i used to always quote music lyrics on pretty much all my old posts. but i haven't in a long time. i think it's mostly due to the change in my blogging space. i don't have the internet beamed into my room anymore, i have to come to the library to use it. when i had it at home, i was always listening to music and could type them up as inspiration hit. usually they went with the post. often they had a meaning only i knew. sometimes lyrics can be a post when words of our own are insufficient or unusable. if that makes sense.

but yesterday i was thinking i wanted to post some lyrics that i was listening to. so here they are.

Four A.M., two hours to go
I'm wearing out a lonely glow
I miss you more than I could know
Here I am, here I am

I've got my hand in redemption's side
Whose scars are bigger than these doubts of mine
I'll fit all of these monstrosities inside
and I'll come alive

With my fist down at your feet
I was running out of mysteries
Insecure and incomplete, here I am, here I am,
won't you get me?

My fears have worn me out
My fears have worn me out
My fears have worn me, worn me
- Redemption, Switchfoot, from The Beautiful Letdown

grace

so many times i think, gee, i have everything under control.

but no matter how often or hard i try, i don't have anything under control.

and i never will.

but the beauty and reality of God is that He does.

too easily pleased

i keep reading this quote everywhere.

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
- (C.S. Lewis)

sugar cookies and the wrong side of the tracks road

so today i got up and baked sugar cookies, for the first time since sometime last year. a few of them turned out a little brown, but they still taste pretty good. :) i'm not much of a baker, i way prefer cooking. i love cooking. and doing laundry. i love having a closet full of all clean clothes. my mom says this will make me a good housewife. that makes me chuckle.

it frustrates me that i cannot leave my email for over a day without it being packed full of spam. i keep thinking i will have to start a new email address too. this makes me sad. i like the ones i have now.

my mom found out a couple of weeks ago that, after 6 years of living where they do, the post office decided to check their land location, and they live on the wrong side of the highway to have a mailbox in that town! so, they have to now get their mail delivered to the closer town. i have been to this closer town about... hmm... three times in six years. it's smaller and has nothing in it pretty much, and is on the wrong side of the highway too. so, now i have to go through the hassle of changing my address on everything important. i cannot even fathom the hassle this is going to be.

jodi is gone home to montana for this thanksgiving weekend that we are currently in. so, it's just me and rachel. it's kind of boring with only one other person around, especially when she has a boyfriend and isn't really around much.

old navy is having their grand opening in regina this weekend. i of course won't be there, but it makes me excited to know that old navy has finally reached saskatchewan.

i've cleaned up my side bar, added a couple of new links and deleted some old ones.

and with that, i leave you. let me know how you are doing. this is an interactive thing. ;)

huh?

so i'm not sure who she is, but everyone and their dog is coming here off of search engines looking for angela gossow not wearing any clothing. i'm sorry. she's not here. i actually don't know anyone named angela. or anyone with the last name gossow. and, i happen to know for a fact that i've never used the name "gossow" in my blog before now.

and, who is this "miako" many of you are searching for as well? i do not know anyone or anything that goes by this name either. and i don't know why the search engines are bringing you here. sorry to disappoint.

however, if you'd like to see some pictures of moi, your blog author, you can go here.

prose

digger dan picked his nose
and always had a dinosaur
on all of his clothes.

i wish

so this weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving. everyone cool is leaving town. last year i went to my sister's in alberta. the year before i went to jodi's in montana. this year i am staying here. i wish i was somewhere else. somewhere cool, like ontario. but instead, i'll be here, and i'll be working on yearbook. because i'm a glutton for punishment i think. ;) lots of work and no pay.

my roommate rachel and her boyfriend invited me for thanksgiving supper saturday night (why saturday? i'm not sure. that's a weird day to have it, in case you thought it was some sort of weird Canadian custom!) so that's nice.

i was going to write something about maple bugs here because they are everywhere now like they always are this time of year, except i can't find a link to show you what they look like. apparently though, there is some kind of a computer but called the same thing, and there's tons of information about that out there on the web.

woodshop

every day on my walk to the academic building i pass the carpentry shop, which lately, because of the nice weather, has had their window open. so, walking by, admiring the yellow leaves and general autumness of the area, i smell wifts of sawdust and other woodsy smells that remind me of woodshop.

i took woodshop as a part of industrial arts class, which everyone at morris school had to take in grades 7 and 8. in grade 7 we got to make a trivet, which is one of those wooden things you put a hot dish on. i thought they looked like picnic tables for barbies. in grade 8 we got to make shelves. except mr. ginter planed my piece of cedar wrong and so it was all weird and never looked very nice. mr. ginter had coffee breath. i still remember it very distinctly.

that shelf has never been used. it still sits on top of my parents' extra fridge. the gold one that isn't in the kitchen. the trivet, however, has found it's rightful home. in my gramma's attic.

i wasn't very good at woodshop.

they renovated the woodworking shop the year after i graduated, now it's the elementary end of the school's gym. so now the kids at morris school don't grow up knowing the wonderful smell of woodworking. they do, however, still get to smell coffee breath, mr. ginter was still teaching graphic arts last i heard.

techno

if you're interested in blogging information or internet trends at all, you might be interested in this. (link via andrew).

i like my nanoaudience. you guys are cool.

life
random thoughts... again

so i just came to the library from my house, after an exhausting evening of, you know, knitting and playing sims (gordon vincent and donna lyn just adopted their second child, azalea marie. azalea is a sister for dahlia louise.

i have just checked my email and cleaned up my blogroll and rearranged it, and done some random blog surfing.

cocqui, sarah, michaela, sarah... people i think are cool but i have, you know, pretty much no contact with. and then i surfed onto noreia's site. i've never heard of motime before. interesting how this blogging universe keeps expanding. motime's definition of a blog: "a web log, a website halfway between a diary and a personal magazine."

so.... then i got lost checking out motime. they have cool stuff. like their posting template lets you choose other fonts. i know that you can do that here too, but you've gotta do all the html yourself. and motime also hosts your comments. and has cool templates. with images. and they even have a group template blog.

so, yeah, motime sounds cool. perhaps i shouldn't be flogging it though, seeing how i use blogger.

this ended up being very stream-of-conciousness blogging. sorry to bore you. :)

finally
an update

this weekend was global focus, which is a missions conference that my school puts on this year, and is also the reason i wasn't around here much. i enjoyed hearing steve saint speak especially, he is a good speaker, and had some cool videos, and yesterday night we all agreed that it was nice to hear someone speak who is so passionate about his wife.

i've also been working on a cool white cableknit scarf for my good chum carolyn's birthday. my roomdawg jodi says carolyn always gets all the cool stuff. this however, is not true. jodi has also gotten cool stuff on occassion.

and today, when i went into the post office, i declared "this is a cool mail day!", and then proceeded to open my mailbox. i was right. i got a package from my sister (cool cat socks, a cool red personalized pen, and numerous hair thingies, and a letter), and a package of free samples of garlic instant mashed potatoes and vaseline hand lotion of some sort from some company, and also the first piece of mail from poject mail-a-thon. but i will tell you more about that tomorrow when i have time. :)

until then, have a super duper day.

addiciton

so my roomdawg jodi has sims on her computer and we've all become addicted.

prompted by you

"Hold on," You said
and I held on.
"Lay down, your sweet head"
and I laid it down.

I'd say, "Tell me all you have seen".
And you gave of your life, to bring out my dreams.
And I need hope, and faith, and the goodness of grace.
And I need you to let me
Go my way

Time passed, things changed
Now i'm grown.
I'll hold his hand, we'll grow old.

We'll need hope, and faith, and the goodness of grace.
We'll need you to let us,
Go our way

You taught me so much
And you live in my eyes
I carry your blood, inside.
That will never change, no no.

Hope and faith
and the goodness of grace.
I'll need you to let me
Go my way"
- plumb, "Go", from the album "Beautiful Lumps of Coal"

and the award goes to

michelle. for procrastinating for almost a whole week.

congratulations!

:)

new look

i was wondering if i should change the sizes of the columns and/or text.

let me know what you think of it.

new month

means new issue.

*update*: so, yeah, i just got back from checking it out. the funniest part was the little girl pulling the other little girl's hair. "homework assignment" was waaaaay grody. if i were you, i would just skip it. don't let your curiosity get the better of you.

and who is this "my michelle 2003"? certainly, it is not me. i hope. i don't want to be his michelle. sorry jay.

has anyone found the secret stuff on the site? i did once find some bonus stuff, but i can't remember how i got there.

anyways, yeah. that's it for my review of "the plug october 2003".