Tagged! The Book Meme

Flip tagged me on this one...

I'm not the voracious reader I would like to be. I'm not one of those people who is constantly reading a novel, or one who excites over getting a John Grisham at a yard sale for 25 cents. And I'm not one of those people who goes out and gets every new Philip Yancey or Purpose-Driven book that has come out. I like reading, but it's not one of my great passions. I like learning, and I enjoy a good novel.

With that, here goes... a different spin on the book meme:

1. How many books have I owned?
I really do not have any idea, probably several hundred. When I was younger, and still even know, my Gramma always got/gets us books for Christmas and birthdays, and she always picks neat ones. She says when she was younger a book was a real treat. Most of the ones she picks are educational how-to and learning books. I have a few great knitting and sewing books from her.

2. What was the last book you bought?
Oh dear, I’m not even really sure. Since finishing school, I really haven’t had any disposable income to devote to books. I do like to frequent the library in the colder months though! The last book I bought was probably Andrew Careaga’s eMinistry: Connecting with the Net Generation, that I bought in December 2003 to work on my final paper for seminary.

3. Last book that you’ve read.
The last book I read was also a book on blogging that I took out of the library this April. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of it! I also had a few knitting books out, including this one.

4. Five books that have meant a lot to you.
The Bible is the obvious answer of course, but also the easy answer.

I’m going to dig into my childhood for this question and answer them from the days between ages 10 and 14, when I was a voracious reader of novels, and when I think reading is the most magical:

* Samantha’s Secret Room, by Canadian author Lyn Cook. I loved this book so much, I used to read it at least once a year, and even when I moved on to junior high I would still go to the elementary library section and take it out. I loved the part when she put the note in the Christmas tree and then Kim came to visit her. The novel took place in Penetanguishene, Ontario, and often I think it would be neat to drive there now.

* Who Is Frances Rain?, by another Canadian, Margaret Buffie. When I was in grade 6, we had a wonderful Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Peterson. We had a great writing program that allowed us to explore our creativity and feel the joy of publishing. And Mrs. Peterson would read us part of a book every day. Who is Frances Rain? is the one I remember most vividly. And at the end of reading it, our assignment was to journal like we were Frances Rain ourselves. I still remember the neat journal I made. The novel took place just east of Manitoba in Ontario… somewhere I had never been, I lived as far east as I had ever travelled.

* The Sky is Falling by Canadian Kit Pearson. I ordered this book from the little book magazine we got through our teacher in grade 7. This book would become the first of a series of three books, following Norah and her little brother Gavin to Canada, from England, during World War II. This novel opened up to me the wonder of wartime, and I think a fascination with travel and spending time educationally in a place I was not from. This novel and series opened up an interest in what it had been like exactly 50 years before… and what would it have been like to grow up during that time. I went on to read her other novels as well.

* Back Home, by Michelle Magorian. This novel took place in 1945, and followed a character named Rusty, a girl a little younger than Norah, after her return home to England from staying in the US during the war. I read it while waiting for Kit Pearson’s series to be written. I read another of her novels as well, and now which one it was has escaped me, but I didn’t like it as much as this one.

* The fifth book would not so much be a book as it would be the concept of now what I think we would call a “tween” series (those from when I was that age). I loved Sweet Valley Twins, Animal Inn by Valerie Vail, Sleepover Friends by Susan Saunders, The Babysitter’s Club by Ann M. Martin, and Camp Sunnyside Friends by Marilyn Kaye. Most of these books are now out of print, but at my parents’ house in Alberta I still have a big box of all the ones that I ever owned.

5. Tag five people that haven’t played yet.
If you want to continue this meme, please feel free to do so. But I'm too tired to tag anyone.

This Place Called 27


I have to admit that sometimes I get really frustrated with the boxes that life puts us in. Boxes like age and occupation and location and unknown destination.

I’ve been frustrated often lately with this stage of life I’m in. It seems so apathetic to me. And where exactly it’s leading to I have no idea. Maybe that’s what I find most difficult to deal with.

This stage, this box, this place called 27. I know it’s different for everyone. Remember 26? That was a box of change. Remember 25? That was a year of endings. Remember 24? That was a year of new things and carefree days and hopes for the future. What is this 27?

Sometimes people say to quit wondering and worry and just be. But it’s hard to be when being isn’t fulfilling. When working is monotonous. When the box seems like it’s a rut.

I used to hate change and wish things didn’t have to. But right now I’m longing for a better good.

This box, it’s alright I suppose. As long as it ends sometime soon and doesn’t last forever.

Mikao@Etsy


Check it out at mikao.etsy.com

My First Bachelor Party

Last weekend I was just getting ready to leave and drive home from camp-land, when I got roped in to going to Mike's bachelor party. I should probably set the record straight and say that although I have been to a whole lotta regular old bridal showers, lingerie bridal showers, old lady bridal showers, and baby showers, I had never been to a bachelor party before. But they needed a sixth person, and that was me!
Mike, in the van on the way. He had no idea where we were going. The goal was to keep it a secret until we arrived. I liked the fact that he's talking with his hands.

We went to Canada's Wonderland, you know, a totally normal place to go for a Bachelor Party. ;) I had only been there once before, so this time I at least had been on a roller coaster before. This is Matt (Mike's brother), Jordan, Mike, Craig, James, me, and Nat. Thank goodness Nat came for most of the afternoon, because I was sorely outnumbered as the only female. And thank goodness it was the Tamil Festival that day, because we got special festival prices. CW costs way too much in my opinion.

These are the mutant koi that inhabit the streams of Wonderland. See the ducks? See how the koi are BIGGER than the ducks?
All that orange... that's hundreds of koi going nuts for the food people throw at them. There were signs by the little quarter operated fish food dispensers that said "DO NOT EAT." I have this theory if I ate that fishfood, I'd grow.

The lines for most rides were around an hour, some were two hours. People tend to find creative uses for my khoole clip on sunglasses.



Nat stole my camera for a bit so now I have pictures of her boyfriend Paul. He's in this band called GrandPM.

We were talking about how people at Wonderland are nuts. Like they think that because it's Wonderland they can wear whatever they want. Like the pink see-through bathingsuit lady. Eww. Please feel free to show this photo at all opportune occassions.

This is in the line up to the new ride The Italian Job Stunt Track, a.k.a. best roller coaster ever. Well worth the two-hour wait for the one-minute ride. So, if you get the chance, go.

So... that was my first bachelor party experience. I think it turned into a lame post though. I find that I feel whatever I seem to write these days is lame. I think I am getting tired of sitting in front of a computer all day.

Question

How is it only 10:20am? I feel like I've been here all day already.

Self-Portrait Tuesday

There seems to be a new trend to do this, so I thought I'd join. :)

I need a haircut.

What is It?

When I was coming back from Holly's earlier last month, I came across a lot of roadkill. I could identify most of it, but there was this one soft furry brown thing with a black behind that I passed by from behind (and couldn't see the head of) and couldn't identify. I had no idea what it was.

Then last night I was walking in the cemetery near my house and I saw one. Luckily, I had my handy dandy new Olympus D-595 with me.

I still have no idea what it is (and it's not a beaver).

Home

I am back now from my week away volunteering at my "other camp," the camp I worked at for the past three summers... and I had a blast. :)

It's one of the places I know as well as the back of my hand, and could walk around blindfolded. It's different to be working somewhere else this summer, but I'm thankful I had the opportunity to go back for even just a week. It was well worth the vacation days I had to take to do it.





This is the only job I've gone back to after one summer, and it's been neat to see things develop and grow and change, and especially to see new people move on up to different positions and into new leadership. This is me and Shammy... she worked in the kitchen my first summer, and now she's the female program director (and once again a CHUM :) .








I've never really been a morning person, but I always loved getting up early to go to prayer meeting in the morning before flagraising and before breakfast. This is a picture of my favourite flag raising game ever, the hoola hoop race. I don't know that it would be fun at any other time of the day, but when you're lethargic and have that "just got out of bed" feeling, it's pretty funny.







For three summers I was in charge of crafts... and for anyone who knows me, I loved it! :) This picture is of a few campers doing sidewalk chalk on Friday, and you can see Chums in the background (a.k.a. best cabin ever, despite the fact that they put SALMON COLOURED CARPET in it). I miss Chums. We need to have a Chums reunion some time. But now there are at least ten Chums, and I don't think we'd all fit in there.






It's raining, it's pouring! It rained almost (if not every) day I was there this past week, but it was so hot that the rain was welcome to cool us down. This is a view off the ramp at the back of the ramp.












The Skittles Challenge. Each cabin divides their two packs of Skittles by colour, and then each colour is divided in two. Each camper gets a pile of Skittles, and one person can eat at one time. As soon as they are done, the next person eats their Skittles until all are gone. First cabin done wins. It takes an unbelievably long time.









Uncle Horace is our chapel speaker from Tennessee and has been coming up for 29 years to speak to campers. Here he is after breakfast with the morning bug. :)

This is campfire. And it even has a real fire this year! Being somewhat of an oddity, and being a camp in a residential area, sometimes (well, a lot of the time), there are fire bans, and you have to make do without a fire. I think my favourite, other than when there's a real fire, is when someone dresses up like a fire. Ah, chuckle chuckle.

Highlight is something we have on Wednesday nights instead of campfire, and includes a mix of songs, worship, games, skits, and a speaker, and is held upstairs in the barn in the gym. This week, I wore a toga and carried a hammer as one of Noah's children.










This is my friend Astroboy, he's the male program director this summer. And he's getting married in 18 days.















I think it's important, and essential, to remain faithful to places of ministry. Studying youth ministry and the youth ministry profession in school, I was disheartened to realize that I loved a ministry that has so much transience. We are involved in a ministry of seed planting, but it's also important to see those seeds grow.

My friend Jodi used to get annoyed with me and Holly always talking about camp (albeit two completely different camps). But I love this place, and even though it's no where close to my family or even where I grew up, it always feels something like home.

Back, But Gone

Next week I'm taking a vacation and am going to volunteer back at the camp that I worked at the past three summers.

I've been looking forward to this all year. I'll be back here when I'm back at work.

Have a great week.

Email That Almost Made Me Pee My Pants

"and i don't know what my grandparents did to their children but for some reason my family members can not throw out jars. like a jar that had jam. they think there like gold and must be treasured and kept in a proment place where everyone can see how many they have, like the countertop, and be jelouse that they don't have such nice things."

August

I have a goal for August. I will not be making any long distance telephone calls.
This is mostly because my May and June phone bills totalled $110. I was going to get a digital camera.

Mostly it’s just the regular bill, except for the THIRTY DOLLARS that two telephone calls made three minutes before 6pm and lasting for about half an hour cost.

Note to self: Change all clocks to Bell time.

News

Karen Shumate, a vice president at the hospital, said people can keep parts removed from their bodies if they want them.

"They've had women that want their uterus," she said. "People take tonsils. They take appendixes. I think it's unusual that someone would want a foot, but it's within their rights because it's theirs."

After a friend picked up the bucket at a hardware store, Rubottom added several objects as well as the severed foot - including a porcelain horse and can of beer - to make what he called "a collage of myself." He also cut off two of the toes, saying he was considering giving them to friends.

On Monday, police returned the foot to Rubottom after taking him to the hospital, where he signed a release allowing them to see his medical records.

"It's cool. It's all good," said Rubottom. "Now I've got my foot back. That's all I wanted.

"I'm not sick or, like, a danger," he said of his decision to keep and display the foot. "I just wanted my foot ... I just figured I'd do with it whatever I pleased."

(Source)

Road Report

In honour of the fact that my car will be turning over 190000km tonight on the drive home from work, I respectfully submit the following:

Name: Hot Rod
Make: Mazda
Model: 323
Year: 1992

Time Period: October 10/04-July 24/05
Distance traveled: 12107 km

Oil changes: 3
Gasoline fills: 40
Average mileage cost: $.079/km

Towed: 5 times (October through February)

Washed: Approximately 7 times
Vacuumed: 3 times

Repairs:
- Unstuck torque converter
- replaced transmission
- replaced power steering cable
- replaced windshield wipers
- minor paint touch ups.

Duff Stuff

On the weekend I went to see my friend Lisa, and whilst there, she mentioned the fact that Cheaper By the Dozen 2 was being filmed a mere 45 minutes away.

Of course we had to go. I mean, when else could I ever hope to:
a) See Steve Martin in the flesh
b) Talk to that guy from Smallville
c) Meet Hilary Duff
d) Be asked to quit my day job so I can staff in a movie?

Exactly, so we went on Sunday afternoon. But, luck was not in my favour, they had packed up filming the day before. A whole month of filming and they're done the day before I come, how ridiculous is that?

Now I'm going to have to get an agent and become a movie staf the old fashioned way I guess.

Rats.

The Dark Ages

Sorry, it was like 1992 around here last week because we had a big thunderstorm on Monday and a few lightening strikes... thus the internet didn't work until a bit on Thursday afternoon, and then it was off and on on Friday as well.

And at my house it was like 1892 because our phone didn't work from Sunday until Friday. We thought it was Bell Canada's fault because they're not too swift, but turns out it was our fault because we're not too swift and someone hit the phonejack and it just needed to be pushed back into place. But I would like to formally announce to the world that no it is not okay for Bell Canada to tell you you have to wait a full week for them to come if you have no phone service even if it is their fault and not yours. This is 2005AD people, not 2005BC.

New Low

I did something last night that I have never done before... I voted for Canadian Idol. My life has reached an all new low.

Good Ideas I Have Had Throughout Life

Small Wall-Mounted Fridges: This is an idea I had in early childhood, I thought it would be the perfect solution to lying in bed at night practically starving because you weren't allowed to get up. Now I think it would be a good idea just so we don't have to get up.

Pet Squirrels: They would have to be more like cats than mice or gerbils though, because that would be gross.

Drive-Through Chocolate Stores: This is a recent genius idea that I have had. Who wouldn't go there? Seriously, I could make a fortune.

General Announcement

I just added the word "barfo" to my computer's official vocabulary because I was tired of the spell checker always telling me it wasn't a real word.

Cool Mail Query

I would like to redecorate my office with cool stuff. Would anyone like to do a mail swap?

Book Idea

From : Joanne
Sent : July 5, 2005 4:51:42 PM
To : Michelle
Subject : IT IS TIME

Michelle,

I now have 500 emails from you. I think that is enough to begin our project. "Operation 'Make Money'".

I am thinking either a book or screenplay on the wacky non-adventures of Michelle and Joanne.

Thoughts?

Sincerly,

Joanne

Coincidence?

Not only did someone search for "ashley olsen" "her big toe" and find this site #1, someone else searched for hilary duff's feet and found this site at #181.

Lack of Posting

The lack of posting is due to the fact that I am very tired, and that it is very busy around here these days, you know, being summer camp and all.

Too bad I don't have the internet at my house. Usually I'm more inspired to post there.

:(

Vacation Days

I'm leaving today after work (you know, at the camp I am currently employed at) to drive down to "my old camp," the camp I spent the last three summers at, to partake of a little bit of staff training week there and to visit.

Friday I'm off to visit Holly and to endeavor to see Paul Martin somewhere in the Ottawa area during the Canada Day long weekend.

It's going to be a whole lot of driving. And I tried not to forget anything when I packed this morning, but I forgot deodorant!

Deodorant is essential! I don't want to drive back home to pick mine up, so I'll have to stop somewhere along the way and get some.

Have a great weekend.

Office Soundtrack

I probably shouldn't admit this, but yesterday I decided I definitely prefer Hilary Duff's music to Lindsay Lohan's.

Note to Spammers

If you choose to use the first name "Poops," although it will make me laugh out loud, it will not make me any more likely to open your email.

June 24

When I was in Grade 8 on June 24th our cat December had five kittens. These kittens weren't very healthy, and when my mom took us kids to visit my Gramma for two weeks that July, she told my dad to "take care of the kittens," which had negative connotations.

We were delighted upon our return to find there were still two kittens left (well, I think just me and my siblings were delighted, my mother would probably use another word to describe her feelings). We named the male Gizmo and the female Sooty. Gizmo was black and white, while Sooty was greys and browns with an orange patch over her eye. They booth had cloudy eyes due to the infections they had had in early kittenhood, Sootie more so than Gizmo, but they both didn't seem to notice.

It didn't take long, much to my mother's chagrin, for the kittens to become inside cats rather than outside cats. Gizmo and Sootie had a great fondness for each other, and spent most of their time together. Sootie adopted a Lego plastic evergreen tree as her favourite toy and carried it everywhere, most often up and down the stairs. Gizmo, on the other hand, found a hairspray bottle top (you know, the sqeezy thing that goes on top that has the straw thingy on it), and would carry this around up and down the stairs and under the couch and chew on it and bat it under the china cupboard and then stare under there until someone fished it out for him.

Sootie unfortunately passed on at the young age of ten months. Gizmo missed her, but later adopted his younger sister Blackberry as his replacement buddy.

Gizmo somehow decided that the best place to get a drink was from the bathroom sink, and would jump up on the counter and wait for someone to come and fill it for him. Some days, we would find him curled up in the sink sleeping, after waiting too long for someone to appear. And, just in case you were wondering, he didn't react too well to being woken up by water cascading down on him! :)

My mom always called Gizmo "Fathead" and told him he was too fat pretty much every day. I used to always carry him with his front paws on my right shoulder and take him over to my mom to say goodnight, and he would pretty much always attempt to wallop her. I always told her this was because she called him fat. She always thought it was because his one eye wiggled all the time trying to get in focus so he wanted her to stop wiggling. Whatever the reason, it was hilarious.

My mom is a fanatical tea drinker. And whenever the kettle boiled, Gizmo would run over to the fridge, because he knew that when the kettle boiled the fridge would open. My mom would open the fridge to get the cream out, and Gizmo would put his front paws up on the first shelf and sniff around in the fridge, and every time my mom would kick him slightly and say "Get out Fathead" and he would say "Aaack!" and run off.

Secretly, Gizmo and my mother had a great fondness for each other. When Gizmo was about 4 or 5, my mom and dad left for several days to go to a family funeral and my younger siblings and the pets and various animals were left alone. For some reason during one of the latter days of this time, my younger sister put my mom's slippers on and went downstairs. When she came upstairs, Gizmo came running out of nowhere, because he assume the distinct slipper shuffle up the stairs meant Mom was finally home. He was extremely disappointed when my sister came around the top of the stairs!

The first two summers my parents lived in Alberta I spent with them, between being at college during the school year. I used to always take Gizmo and our other cats to the pond down the road every day. Usually on the way back he would end up dawdling and lounging in the grass and I'd have to carry the big galoot home.

Unfortunately, Gizmo disappeared that last summer I was home. But, usually when my family is all together, somehow we end up telling Gizmo stories. He's one of those funny little pets whose personality lives on and whose memory will last at least as long as mine does.

Neuf

It has been exactly 9 years today since my high school graduation.

That day, a classmate said to me, "This will be the best day of our lives," to which I replied, "I sure hope not!"

From the End of A Long Email

"Does any of this make sense? I just needed to type it to someone."

Things That Society at Large Likes, Yet I Don't Get
Part Two

Carpet

When I was a kid, pretty much all the houses we lived in had green carpet. Not nice green, but that weird mossy green. And it always felt plasticy.

When I got older, we moved to a house with "gold" carpet in the living room and grey in mine. The grey was okay, I guess, if you like that sort of thing.

But carpet's gross! Sure you can vacuum it, but does it ever really get clean? Sure you can shampoo it... but you can't really rinse it, you're just making it wet and stinky.

One time in grade 7 I had to do a science project at a friends house and they had dirty brown carpet. I was sure I could feel the germs crawling on to me while we were sitting on the floor.

My Gramma's house doesn't have any carpet in it, because it was built in the 1930s when it was very posh to have linoleum. And she has this super cool greenish-coloured linoleum with a feather print on it that I always loved, in a few of the upstairs bedrooms. Anyways, the point of this paragraph is that she had rugs, which are nice to step on when getting off your bed in the morning. But the wonderful thing about rugs is you can either pick them up and beat them, or wash them, or even throw them out when they get dirty! Horray!

After I finished high school and my parents moved to Alberta, and a year or two after they had bought a new super-deluxe Electolux vacuum and deep carpet cleaner, they bought a house with no carpet. None. Nada. No carpet in sight. It's a wonderful thing.

There is carpet in every room in my apartment except for the kitchen and bathroom. It's all this weird dark mint green colour, except for the grey-on-grey "snowflake" patterned carpet in my room. I'm glad I get the grey-ish carpet though, because the mint green is too reminiscent in colour of everything I wore between grades 4 and 7 when mint green was the best colour in the world... or my world at least.

But, truth be told, carpet's gross. It's not clean. You can't clean it properly. Everything that has ever touched the carpet you are standing on is touching you back.

All those dirty feet. All of them.

Clean

I miss owning my own washer and dryer because I can't wash my clothes every day for free any more... and there's such a nice feeling of self-satisfaction when all your clothes are clean and nicely folded away.

Things that Society At-large Likes, Yet I Don't Get
Part One

Coffee
When I was a kid and I used to make coffee for my Dad (a.k.a. spooning a spoonful of freeze-dried Folgers into a cup and pouring boiling water over it), I used to think it smelled so good.

Sometime in junior high or high school I actually tried a cup either at home or church or somewhere, and IT DOESN'T TASTE LIKE IT SMELLS.

In fact, it tastes disgusting. My first year of Bible college they had this big official opening thing of the Gourmet Bean, the coffee shop they had just built. You could get any size coffee you wanted that day for 25 cents! Even though I claim I'm only cheap in my dreams, the reality is I'm always cheap and if I was ever going to drink coffee it would have to be that day. I think I had 5 extra large cups, and it only cost me $1.25! But, even though I think I tried every flavour they had, I didn't like any of it. And I don't think I slept a wink that night.

I don't get the whole coffee obsession thing. Sure it smells delicious, but it tastes disgusting, and, HAVE YOU EVER SMELLED COFFEE BREATH? That alone should be case enough to make you never drink another cup.

Free Stuff Comes to Those Who Wait

I was going to buy an orange vinyl chair for my living room on Saturday at a second hand store, because my roommate that moved out took the chair with her.

But this second-hand chair was ugly and $20. I decided to hold out and hope for something better.

Then today, I scored a free chair from a whole truckload that was donated to the camp I work at.

Horrah!

I Feel Slightly Deceptive

I downloaded the newest version of MSN Messenger earlier this week. One of it's features, for those not in the know, is that you can enable it to list what song you are currently listening to on your Windows Media Player.

The other day I borrowed The Garden State soundtrack from someone in the office, and I've been listening to it today. It features songs from The Shins and Frou Frou.

Granted, I do like these two songs on the album especially, but I can't say that I know if I've ever listed to any other songs by The Shins and Frou Frou. But I've already gotten two comments this morning on the fact that I was listening "to such good music." I felt slightly deceptive since I really know nothing about these bands and usually listen to something quite different.

They're the pseudo-underground-vogue at the moment. But I kind of think eventually the same thing that happened to all the other formerly pseudo-underground-vogue groups and singers. They'll become too famous and lose the originality. Everyone else will copy and try to be just like them.

But You Knew That, Didn't You?

There are 199 days till Christmas 2005.

Seriously

Those whom I went to college with may find this interesting. This is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. It's on par with the day they got rid of the root cellar.

Odd Coincidence?

My friend Cory used to always ask the president of our college, whom we fondly called Papa Mags, about the much (word-of-mouth) publicized "ring by spring or your money back" program. Briercrest, where we went to college, was also often called "BridalQuest".

It worked for Cory, she eventually met and married her beau after a few years of college and a few of seminary.

Three former BBC student body presidents got married in the past few weekends:

Jeremy and Erin May 15, 2005
Ryan and Cindy May 21, 2005
Phil and Triscilla May 28, 2005

Is it coincidence that they all got married in a string of weekends? I am highly suspicious that somehow Papa Mags is using this to promote the whole "Bridal Quest" "Ring By Spring" philosophy. Even if he's not, you know, the president anymore.

My main piece of evidence is this recent copy of our alumni magazine:



It's not doing such good things for our school image. ;)

365

I have officially been in Ontario for one year.

Time passes so quickly/so slowly.

Business

Yesterday I went on a "business trip." It was fun, but was also a very long day (we left at 7am and didn't get back until 6:30pm). I think I'll be going on more trips come fall. They're interesting, but most are around Toronto and that's around a 2.5hr drive each way. Could be worse I suppose. :)

I have definitely been a lot busier at work lately as I've taken on a lot more responsibilities. And, being that it is primarily a summer camp, everyone's busy with more summer related things as summer is of course just around the corner.

I downloaded Firefox as I've been having a ton of problems with Internet Explorer. It's not really visually too much different that I've noticed, but definitely works much speedier on my computer, and doesn't shut down and have error reports all the time like I was finding with IE. They even import your bookmarks which is super handy. The only crappy feature I've noticed with Firefox so far is when typing in Blogger and you add a link or use the italicize or bold buttons, etc., it automatically takes you back to the top of your document. Slightly frustrating and time-wasting.

I got some sweet olivey-green fabric yesterday printed with cowboys on buckin' bronchos and cacti and I think maybe spurs or some other sort of cowboy-related thing. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get around to making it in to something. I have big plans for it, I hope I can make it work.

Anyways, I'm going to go home and have some chocolate milk (with Quik mix) and watch tv until I muster up enough energy to cook something. Have a great weekend.

Doubly Tagged

I have been tagged by Rachel to complete this quiz:

1) Total number of films I own on DVD/video:

DVDs:
Brokedown Palace
The Prince & Me
Videos:
Serendipity
Kate & Leopold
Back to the Future 2
On the Line
A Walk to Remember

2) The last film I bought:
Brokedown Palace, it was in that $6.88 bin at Wal-Mart. I love that movie.

3) The last film I watched:
I watched The Prince & Me on DVD last night with my roommate, we hadn't watched it in a long time and there was nothing good on tv. The last movie I saw in the theatre was Kicking and Screaming (soooo not worth $9.25).

4) Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):
A Walk to Remember
The Bourne Identity
Garden State
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
Flight of the Navigator

Ten Things I have NOT done:
1. Smoked anything
2. Drank alcohol
3. Flown overseas
4. Watched any Star Wars movies (that I can remember, maybe in early childhood???)
5. Been to California or Florida
6. Cried this year
7. Fallen in love
8. Lived alone
9. Met the Queen
10. Eaten raw fish.

That was hard, it's much easier to list things I have done. And this is an odd list of questions to answer. :)

I tag Michael, Peter, and Jen.

A Decade of Change

I got a call from my ten year high school reunion committee last week. Well, actually, my older sister got a call from them because they were able to track her down before me, and then she called me to let me know that they called, and then I got a call from them.

My ten year high school reunion won’t actually be until July 2006, but they’re contacting everyone now. "They" being two girls from my class who still live in the same town we grew up in. I think there were 32 graduates in 1996, from our Kindergarten through Grade 12 school of 450 students. Most of my classmates still live in Manitoba, except for me, one girl who’s in the Bahamas, and a guy in Alberta, that I know of.

The person who called me was actually one of my very good friends from high school. Except we haven’t spoken in at least five years. Five years! So we caught up on what we’ve been both up to since then, and since high school in general (she has married and now has three children), and she let me know what a lot of others whom we went to school with are up to.

We used to spend five days a week together for ten months of the year. Most I went to school with for the eight straight years I was at that school. Yet the large majority I haven’t seen since graduation day in June nine years ago. Some I thought I’d never loose touch with, yet in reality I haven’t seen any of them since 1999, and I haven’t been back to the town our school was in since 1998. A few classmates I talk to a couple of times a year, some every once in awhile find me on the internet.

These are people I shared a large chunk of my growing up years with, yet since then we’ve grown and changed and been educated and moved on.

This weekend I walked past the infants and children’s clothing section in a department store and I thought most of these people I went to school with and spent my childhood days with have now had children of their own. They’ve had the experience of love and marriage and pregnancy and birth and feeding and clothing and growing up little ones to take the places that we left vacant in the halls and classrooms of the school we shared together.

The reunion isn’t for almost 14 months, but I’m hoping to go. It’s weird to think it’s been almost 10 years… that’s a long time! It'll be neat to see everyone again, catch up on what we’ve all been up to, see how we’ve changed and how we’ve stayed the same. Can you do that all in one weekend?

I should probably start working out. I think there's some unspoken rule about how you should look better than you did when you were 18 when you go to these things.

:)

Three

As seen from Drina and Jen:

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Michelle
2. Mikao
3. Umm... current nicknames include my last name and "MG"

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. mikao
2. michellej
3. muklukmichelle

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My hair (most days)
2. My faint freckles
3. My toes

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My tendency to still get zits. When do you get too old for such things, because I'd like to know!
2. The fact that every time I shower I get a few patches of dry skin on my face that get all flakey. Too much information, I know. There aren't any good moisturizers out there that I have found.
3. My height. Well, I guess technically I don't mind being 5'5", but I wouldn't mind being a couple of inches taller.

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. English
2. Irish
3. French

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Parking garages (we've been over this before)
2. More than two lanes of traffic. I can handle it, but I don't like it.
3. Downtown New York City

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Deodorant
2. Being outside
3. A telephone Call

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. My brown "Arizona: Grand Canyon State" t-shirt that I love (I have never been to Arizona).
2. My newest pair of jeans, from Jacob Connexion... I think they're too big and won't shrink enough. Gah!
3. My grad 2002 ring. I got it when I got my first degree from Briercrest. I like it, but the year is kind of bizarre because I graduated three times from there in the end. I don't usually wear this ring, but I put it on last week.

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. Jars of Clay (this is a staple)
2. Avril Lavigne is a current office staple for me (don't tell anyone)
3. Lowana Wallace

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. Communication
2. Understanding
3. Adoration

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE:
1. I do not enjoy travelling (the being in motion part).
2. I've lived in 2 states, 4 provinces, and 1 territory
3. I've flown overseas.

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Eyes.
2. Good dressing habits.
3. Neat hair.

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Painting
2. Biking
3. Making stuff to mail.

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Go home.
2. Hang out with friends I haven't seen in a long time (Jodi and Holly, what are you doing tonight? Let's hang out. Meet at my house, it's in the middle).
3. File my nails. They feel kind of weird.

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING/YOU’VE CONSIDERED:
1. Professional artist/graphic artist.
2. Fine Art Conservationist
3. Youth worker

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. London
2. Montreal (I've been there once, but I'd like to go back).
3. Wisconsin (I've been through it twice, but have never done anything there. I'd actually like to go to Wisconsin on my honeymoon).

THREE KID’S NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Lily
2. Kathleen
3. Andrew

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Get married.
2. Be happily married.
3. Raise children successfully.

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GUY:
1. I take about 7 minutes to get ready in the morning.
2. I like working on my car (I just did some touch-up painting on it this weekend).
3. I don't often use very many hair products (hair spray stinks and makes your hair sticky).

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A CHICK:
1. I like romantic comedies.
2. I like pink.
3. I've read Wild at Heart in attempt to "figure out" the opposite gender.

THREE CELEB CRUSHES:
1. Joey Lawrence
2. Steven Curtis Chapman
3. Hugh Grant

Communication Exile

Our internet/email/network has been having major problems for the past three days. Work has been slow as it's been hard to do anything without these three tools.

And then yesterday, when my roommate went to use the phone, there was absolutely no dialtone. The phone people say no one can come to look at it until Monday. Monday the holiday. Does that make sense? I didn't think so.

And the phone people are also giving us this huge hassle to switch the name that the phone is in, and are also telling us that someone switched our long distance plan. But we didn't.

Why are corporations so hard to deal with?

Anyways, the lack of modes of communication has been extremely frustrating, and will continue to be this long weekend when I'm home alone and can't use the phone.

Ugh.

Gingham Flip Flops




My friend Lowana just had a CD come out. She's pretty much one of the coolest people I know.

You can hear some songs here.

Nuts!

Someone told me I am like a cashew in a can of mixed nuts.

But cashews... they taste gross. I never ever liked them, I always gave mine to my Mom because they're her favourite.

Personality

I was reading Charlotte's blog today and came across yet another one of those personality type tests. I often do those blog quizzes, but I don't often publish the results.

This question definitely made me smile:
32. You are the type of person who:
a) Has a gazillion windows open on your computer
b) Tends to focus on one task at a time
... because I always have a gazillion windows open on my computer. "Multitasking" is my middle name.

I always end up INTJ on personality tests. This test result calls me "The Scientist", and says amongst other things, that:

You have a head for ideas - and you are good at improving systems.
Logical and strategic, you prefer for everything in your life to be organized.
You tend to be a bit skeptical. You're both critical of yourself and of others.
Independent and stubborn, you tend to only befriend those who are a lot like you.

You would make an excellent scientist, engineer, or programmer.

INFJ also describes me in that:

You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity.
Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is.
You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience.

And ISFJ:

You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal.
A good listener, you excell at helping others in practical ways.
In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music.
You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for.

And ISTJ:

You are responsible, reliable, and hardworking - you get the job done.
You prefer productive hobbies, like woodworking or knitting.

What are you?

Weekend Weddings

My friend Leanne, whom I met while in college at Briercrest, is getting married on Vancouver Island this Saturday. Once I made her a lovely foamie flower headband for her birthday. Unfortunately, I don't think she will be wearing it as she walks down the aisle. And even more unfortunate, I will not be able to be there to celebrate with her and Jason.

And my friend Ryan from Seattle, whom I met through Carly, and is getting married in New Brunswick this weekend as well. Two years ago I was home in May and talked to Ryan on MSN pretty much every day, I think we were both waiting for our summer jobs to start. I think he's the tallest person I know (even though we've never technically met). All the best to Ryan and Sarah as they start this new life together... I can't wait to see pictures!

Jeremy Thiessen, of the blog Normal Rockstar, and the band downhere, and who was my student body president my first two years at Briercrest, is also getting married this weekend. Can you be a normal rockstar? I always think of Jeremy as the guy who wore mitts and lumberjack shirts and Adidas sandals all year long. Even that wasn't normal. ;)

Best wishes for lovely weddings for all of you, and strong marriages built on the foundation of God's love.

The Random Interview Project: Mike

Here is a late entry for The Random Interview Project, Part 2. Mike is from the blog Life This Way, and is a regular reader of Mikao's World.

1. What are some of the perks of living in your home state?
Minnesota is:
Home of "the world's largest pelican", 10,000 lakes ( more shoreline than California, Florida and Hawaii combined - 90,000 miles), 1 million+ acres of BWCAW, 4 complete seasons of the year (even if winter tends to be on the long side), The Mall of America (just kidding), and don't forget we are blessed to have such great neighbors on the northern border! :)

2. If you could be someone else who is currently living, for one day, who would you want to be and why?
I would say maybe Bill Gates (because he has lots of money), or maybe one of those guys on the TV fishing shows that sit around all day and get paid to say "Oh wow!... That's a nice one!... Beautiful fish!... I am sure glad I used 'brand x' fishing tackle!"

Truth be told, I kinda like being myself!

3. If you could be someone else who is not currently alive, for one day, who would you want to be and why?
That's a tough question. It would be cool if I could be someone from the future to find out what happens, or maybe my great, great, great grandfather to find out what they were like and how they lived.

4. What is your favourite song lyric and why?
I have always been impressed by Rich Mullins. He is one of my favorite artists. Most of his songs have something in them that hits home to me.
There is one song that comes to mind at the moment called "Sometimes by Step". The lyric is "Sometimes I think of Abraham, how one star he saw had been lit for me..." if you know The Story, it really puts things in perspective.

5. What is your earliest memory?
Believe it or not, a few years ago I had a flash-back of having my diaper changed when I was like 2. I just remember trying to get up and someone telling my to lie still.

6. What do you enjoy most about being a sibling?
Having 2 sisters as 2 of my best friends.

7. If you could request your next birthday party to be in any venue in the world (all expenses paid of course), where would you want it to be?
I would stretch my birthday out. Maybe have my party over a week on a cruise ship (to Hawaii because my wife has always wanted to go there).

8. Who would you want to be at this aforementioned birthday party?
All my family and friends. No one famous.

9. What is your favourite insect?
I prefer arachnids, but I think dragon flies are pretty darn cool.

10. What five websites do you visit most often?
Well, it varies, but I would have to say probably:
mine (lifethisway.blogspot.com)
my church (www.livingstonesfellowship.org)
http://www.loneprairie.net/my_blog.htm
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/
http://mikao.blogspot.com/

Thanks for another chance at the interview!"

Editor's Note: Sorry that it has taken me so long to get this up Mike! It kept getting lost every time I formatted it in Blogger. Ugh.

Conga Rats

Whenever I say/write the word "congrats" (which I guess technically isn't even a word, but rather a short-form), I think and hear in my head "Conga Rats". Every single time.

So, I just wanted to say CONGA RATS to whoever it is that happens to be the 30 000 visitor to Mikao's World. You'll know if it was you if you scroll on down the right hand side and the counter says you were. Please tell me if it was you. Being the 30 000th visitor is a lofty honour reserved for only one, and it's taken two years and seven months to have that honour bestowed upon you.

Thanks to all of the rest who have been along for the ride. Without you, it wouldn't be the same.

:)

It Isn't Like It Was Supposed To Be

I went to my small group from church on Tuesday night as usual (I missed last week), only to find out that it is over for the year and is now taking a summer break! I thought we still had at least one more session left in our little bookie thing. You know, our DVD-guided nicely-laid-out uber-programmatic barely-have-to-lead
small group book thingy.

So, I went for a drive on a road to see how far it would take me (because I had nothing else to do) and found out it simply takes me back to where I came from in the first place. But, now I know where that road goes. It was pretty and reminded me of home in the spring.

It's somewhat bizarre and sad to me to think that basically the only people I've met, besides those I work with, in the eight months I've lived here, are in my small group. And I don't even really know those people.

Moving to college, and having summer jobs, those two things were very different from this whole moving-on-moving-out-starting-a-real-life thing.

I hope it gets better.

Amelia

I've started another baby toque, as another friend (from my Bible college days) has just had a baby girl recently. First it was odd to be at that age where friends were getting married... now it's odd to be at that age where they are starting to have children.

Bosco Stevens

I have decided that I still really think that having a pet squirrel would be great. But in my head I think it would be more like a cat-pet than a mouse-pet, even though everyone tells me I would have to keep it in a cage and it wouldn't want to be petted while I watch tv. I think that "Bosco" would be a perfect squirrel name, so I'm basically ready to have one. I just need to find one that wants to move in and be my cat-like squirrel.

So Long

It seems like it's been so long since I've posted anything. I've had a few posts bouncing around in my brain, but usually I'm no where near a computer when the inspiration hits... and they seem to get lost into oblivion rather than entered into cyberspace.

New Key

I sort of got a promotion last week. I'm now the Personal Assistant to the Executive Director.

Plus I do my regular job still. So I'm not so much sure that it was a promotion as in a "here's some more work to do".

:)

05/05/05

When I turned 5 years old, I had the best birthday party ever. I wish I had one of the photos here with me in Ontario because I would scan it and put it up. I had very special Disney character birthday hats (I was Minnie, of course), and I believe we had angel food cake if I remember correctly (because I think all my early birthdays included angel food cake). I had my little friends Dennis and Trina from our street, and Dennis' best friend Spencer from across from the park at the end of our street, and my best friend Rhea from a nearby town who I met because both our moms were in Kinettes together.

I don't remember anything we did, but I remember the hats. They were the highlight pretty much. And I got to wear my fuzzy purple short set.

Today, exactly twenty-two years later, I did not have Disney themed hats. But someone made me a cheesecake. And I got to go out for lunch and look at antiques and neat artsy stuff. So that was pretty neat. (And I got several e-cards, and Rebecca and Peter sent me a "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt, thank you so much!).

Ben Stephenson, Heather Yoshiki, Grace Stephenson, John Stephenson

Monday night the CycleNEA team ended the second day of their trip biking across Canada, and stayed at my house.

When a Canadian missionary donated a bicycle to high school students David Mensah and Sayibu Imoro, they began the initial work of the Northern Empowerment Association (NEA). With this bike, David and Sayibu were able to reach beyond their own city of Tamale. They traveled to rural schools where they encouraged the poor and struggling students, praying for them and providing physical resources such as food, clothes and money to the needy ones.

May and June 2005, twin brothers Ben and John Stephenson ride from Peterborough, ON to Vancouver, BC. The ride will cover 4500 km to raise money for their friends in Ghana, West Africa. Along the way, Ben and John are stopping at high schools to let students know how they can get in gear.

Check out the CycleNEA website to find out more, and for information on how to donate to improve nutrition, health, women's issues, environmental protection, water and sanitation, and agriculture in Ghana, West Africa.

Tag, You're It

I was wondering when this meme was going to make it's way around to me, I had been noticing it wandering around my blogroll these past couple of days.

The idea behind this one is that, when tagged, you choose 5 occupations (or more) from the list below and complete the sentence with it describing what you would do as a member of that profession. If you have more occupations to add, you add them at the bottom following in italics.

After you’re done with that, you tag 3 other people, adding a trackback to the one that tagged you as well as a trackback to Ogre’s original post.

If I could be a scientist
If I could be a farmer
If I could be a musician
If I could be a doctor
If I could be a painter
If I could be a gardener
If I could be a missionary
If I could be a chef
If I could be an architect
If I could be a linguist
If I could be a psychologist
If I could be a librarian
If I could be an athlete
If I could be a lawyer
If I could be an innkeeper
If I could be a professor
If I could be a writer
If I could be a llama-rider
If I could be a bonnie pirate
If I could be a service member
If I could be a photographer
If I could be a philanthropist
If I could be a rap artist
If I could be a child actor
If I could be a secret agent
If I could be a comedian/comedienne
If I could be a priest
If I could be a radio announcer
If I could be a phlebotomist
If I could be a pet store owner
If I could be a computer programmer
If I could be a police officer
If I could be a politician
If I could be a mom
If I could be an underwater basket weaver
If I could be a reality tv host
If I could be a forensic pathologist
If I could be a key grip on the next Star Wars film
If I could be a fairy god parent
If I could be a cast member on “Smallville”
If I could be an Airbus pilot
If I could be U2’s equipment manager
If I could be a rock star
If I could be a skunk catcher
If I could be a reality TV star
If I could be a ballerina
If I could be an astronaut
If I could be a professional blogger
If I could be a teacher
If I could be a father
If I could be a professional researcher

If I could be a professor, I would be fairly creative and have lots of neat projects, but essays too, because those are important.

If I could be a reality tv star, I think it would take me awhile to actually weigh the pros and cons of being such a star before committing to it.

If I could be a mom I would be one. I'm going to cheat out on the rules on this one and just say that.

If I could be U2’s equipment manager I would have a lot of jealous friends, but personally I would have a really hard time with this profession because I AM THE ONLY PERSON WHO DOES NOT LIKE U2.

If I could be a farmer I would want to take over my Gramma's farm and grow all sorts of neat stuff and renovate the barn to have a bed and breakfast and huge craft room upstairs where I could teach classes and sell stuff. That would be super fun.

I am going to tag Carly, Neely, and Rebecca to participate in this meme. I think they'd all have fun with it. :)

Although Rebecca's in Russia right now and I'm sure she's super busy, so I'm hoping sometime she'll be able to participate.

Query

The following is a scan of a paper wad that I found in my backpocket this morning. I have not worn these pants in a couple of weeks and I am not sure what it is/was, so if you could let me know that would be great.

Clues:

-it has yellow specks and pink specks

- appears to have been primarily white

- seems to be composed of a "heavier" paper

- has a distinct "sticky" feel to it.




Click photo for a closer inspection.

Reflections of a Graduate

A year ago this past weekend, I graduated and finished seminary, walking across the stage to receive my Master of Arts in Christian Ministry with an Emphasis in Youth and Family.

This weekend I spent some time thinking about that graduation, about friends who are graduating this year, and friends who had graduated with me and before me and what they are all up to now.

I sent a few friends who were graduating this year a fun card and a mix CD of songs and people singing them that remind me of my years at school in a little town in the middle of nowhere. I tried to be encouraging of the future, and especially of the future of unknown. It’s hard to leave a place that you learned in, changed in, grew in, grew closer to God in, and somehow came to love so much.

People always talk about how fast or how slow time passes… and the past year has been a little bit of both.

The last few months before graduation people had started to ask me if I was going to go for my doctorate. I said no. No, I’m done school.

I still have no plans or desires to do my doctorate. But I miss the opportunity to study full-time. I miss the freedom of full-time research. I miss the quest for knowledge and the time to accomplish it in.

I haven’t read much on paper since graduation. I did read part of a book for a Bible study I was involved in. But I sort of unintentionally took a break from reading novels and printed research material. I do however read a lot online, both blogs and otherwise (I love Bloglines). I follow endless links and find new things to do online. I search after blogging and online research studies. Unfortunately I haven’t been very good at keeping Dialog up to date. I need to be better at that.

Time passes. Things change. Change brings perspective.

This past year has been one of learning, even though it has been outside the traditional walls of education. I’ve learned more of life. I’ve experience so much change and coming to live the day-to-day in a fulltime job and a bill-paying life. I struggle day-to-day in paying back the seven years of education that I cherished so much.

Some day, perhaps, I shall return. It’s highly unlikely, but I like to live with that hope, that maybe perhaps I’ll have the opportunity to learn more of what I would like to know. For now, I continue in a self-directed pace. I learn in this new environment, in this new land, through these new experiences as part of this journey that God is leading me on.

To me, thankfully, His faithfulness is evident in each new day and with each new breath.

Unfortunate

I forgot that I also need to pluck my eyebrows this weekend, before they get all wild and crazy, and also do my taxes, because they're due soon.

The Weekend and Life Ahead

I've always liked weekends, but even more so now that I have a 9-5 job and also because there is no snow left.

I found these neat wallets via Joleen's site. I'm not sure I'd ever personally use one, but I have always loved paint chips, and I know I have a ton from October when I was looking for a colour for my new room, so I think perhaps I might try to make one.

And I've been wanting to contribute to a group art project for awhile, and found this Tsunami Relief Aid Chunky Book Project, and I am planning on contributing to that... we'll see what I come up with. I posted a few new creations on my craft site yesterday if you're interested.

I need to take Hot Rod in for an oil change. I also need a haircut. Both of these things are ones that I wonder if they're really all that necessary. Sure, I should get my car's oil change. And I'd really love a haircut because it's getting too long.

But one of my roommates announced she is moving out. And she only gave us 11 days to decide whether or not we'd be moving out as well. We have to give our landlords 60 days notice if we're going to move out, but ELEVEN DAYS is not enough time to think about moving or to figure out if finding a replacement roommate is even feasible. So two of us are stuck in a bind, and looks like we'll be paying more rent than we can afford. Our original agreement with each other, when we moved in, was to give the other roommates at least 30 days notice before the 60 days would begin...

I honestly cannot afford to up my rent by 50% for too long. Thankfully we technically have until the end of June to find a roommate before we start losing money. I'm hopeful that we will... but I really have no idea what the likelihood is. I don't want to move, I love my apartment, and the rent is cheap. And it's an awesome location.

Anyways, I also got some fabric this week to re-attempt to sew a shirt that I sewed last weekend, that turned out horribly because of the horrible terrible crappy cheap fabric I bought. I am hoping the re-attempt turns out better than the original attempt.

I am thinking of starting a new blog only of fun and funny stuff, because I don't always like posting everything here. That's also a reason I have my arts and crafts blog, because I don't think that everyone is interested in that, and also because Blogger doesn't have categories (*note to Blogger head honchos who may be reading this: if you added categories, I would love you forever). And I have all this funny stuff I sometimes scan, and a bunch of funny links in my favourites, that I'd like to clear out. But, anyways, it's just a thought at this moment.

I should go.

Deep Theological Post

The Amazing Meganame Generator just told me my punk rock band name is The Blaise Sticky Flags.

The Random Interview Project Part Two

I was waiting for one last interview to be returned before posting this, but it doesn't look like it's going to be returned. So, I now officially declare The Random Interview Project Part Two over. Thanks to all 18 who participated! All but one I knew beforehand, and it was fun to interview you all.

1. Jodi Chambers.
2. Holly Skelton of a day in the life of vegetation.
3. Mike Chowns of Sarge.
4. David Fisher of Pilgrim Scribblings.
5. Rebecca Wood of World Wide Wood.
6. Rachel Runnalls of Orange Tree Chronicles.
7. Jake Murdock of Mainstreet American.
8. Peter Wood of World Wide Wood.
9. Carly Bishop of jeffersonair.
10. Marisa Taylor of Simple Games.
11. Barclee Huggins of Barclee and Stu.
12. Neely of Unquenchable Songs and Endless Praise.
13. Dave of funkypancake.
14. Melanie Gall of melaniegall.com.
15. Michael Morgan of Time to Believe.
16. Jen Kibler-McCabe of Meditatio.
17. Ben Bartosik of I don't have a blog.
18. Robert Martinson II of Rob's Whirled.

19. Mike Laulanen of lifethisway.

The interviews from The Random Interview Project Part 1 are also available.

Two-Wheeler

So, as I previously mentioned, I bought a bike on the weekend. It's a Raleigh Summit, a silver 18-speed mountain bike, which is pretty much exactly what I wanted. Except I had to buy a water bottle holder because one didn't just come with it. And I got a maroon bike helmet that matches the trim, because apparently maroon is a very popular colour for bike helmets this season. And it's cooler that the aqua-coloured one I have at home.

I had gone bike shopping/perusing a couple of times, and had been watching the flyers for deals because I'm poor. But have you noticed, there are a lot of weird bikes out there these days... shocks, and weird frames, and a bazillion of different types of brakes? I just wanted a regular-old-kind of bike. Like the kind I have at my parents' house, except not with a distinctly early-90s dark purple with metallic blue paint spatters paint job trying-to-be-cool with a name like Conestoga. Conestoga, for those who do not know, means "COVERED WAGON". Yeah, that's right, it is a bike named after a covered wagon.

Anyways, Saturday I went to the local Canadian Tire and was testing out a few bikes, and all the employees were just passing me by not offering any assistance. I think this is because I look like I'm 12 and not nearly 27, and thus why would they offer a kid assistance? However, there did happen to be this fellow bike shopper who started asking me questions about the bikes I was trying. And had I been to the cycle shop downtown? And blah blah blah. It was kind of creepy. So, I kind of went around the corner and... disappeared. I went to Wal-Mart instead and looked at bikes there, but there was only this weird one that only even remotely fit me, with both front and back shocks, which I found out I am not particularly fond of. And I also went and looked at Home Hardware, but they didn't have any bikes in that particular store, even though their flyer said they did. And I didn't think I was hardcore enough to even step inside the bike shop downtown.

So I went back to Canadian Tire, and Creepy Guy was gone, and so I looked at a few more bikes and tracked down the kid who is supposed to be in charge of the bike department, and then walked out with my newly purchased bicycle, reading for biking endeavours of all kinds.

When I was in junior high and high school in Manitoba, I used to go biking all the time. And the summer I spent in Maine I biked all over the place every day off I had. And the summer I spent in Illinois the youth pastor I worked with got me a bike and I used to bike to the mall all the time. And then one year at school one of my roommates had a bike and I'd bike a lot. And whenever I went home in the spring I'd bike. And summers in Ontario I'd always bike to town from camp. I love biking.

But I have never really biked up hills before, except maybe in Maine, but the hills there are a lot more r o l l i n g that the hills here are. The hills here are KILLER. Seriously, I almost died.

Saturday I went for a couple of test drives, and then I noticed the tires seriously needed some air. So I got an airpump because I didn't want to load the bike back into my car and take it to a gas station. Except apparently you shouldn't skimp on airpumps and the $12.97 version might have worked instead of the $9.96 version I got that just deflated the tires even more.

So I had to load my bike up and return the airpump and pump the tires up at a gas station anyways.

Funny thing happened on the way to and from the gas station. I saw Creepy Guy. Biking. He was riding a shiney new weird red bike with shocks and a bizarre frame, and was wearing a maroon track suit. He biked by my house. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to escape him in the future because he can bike up hills a lot faster than I can I'm sure.

Oklahoma

Reading muddyart this morning alerted me to the fact that today is the ten-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

My site stats reminded me of this again, when they told me this site is #10 for a Google search of "bailey almond oklahoma city bombing" because of a post I wrote in March 2003 about being 16 at the time of the tragedy.

Bailey Almond was the infant daughter of Erin Almond, one of nineteen children killed in the bombing, out of a total of 168. A photograph of Bailey being carried by a fireman became the symbol ingrained in the minds of millions synonmous with the Oklahoma tradgedy.

Time passes and we think "It's been so and so many yeas since this (insert Oklahoma City Bombing, Columbine, Taber Shooting, September 11th, etc. at your discretion)". We stare in disbelief, we gawk, we mourn, we move on.

Unfortunately, I'm sure, there are still many more tradgedies to come. When will we start to learn?

Uphill

I bought a bike on the weekend.

Technically

I'm sitting in my office technically doing nothing because I'm waiting for (and have been for the past hour) some people to show up so I can give them a tour, and it's not really worth it for me to start doing something to be interupted when they do show up. This makes me hesitant to be writing this post, because what if they show up, then what am I supposed to do? Will I have enough time to press "publish post"?

Yesterday I went out and about and got some Tremclad rust paint in a non-descript shade of red because I have some rusty patches on the back of my car and someone once told me I should take care of them before they get out of hand. And the "RustCheck" oily spray stuff I bought a few weeks ago doesn't appear to be working, and besides, it still looks rusty. I'm hoping the paint will a)help the rust to stop, and b)somewhat match and make it look non-rusty.

I also picked up some black fabric from the $1.97 bin at Wal-mart and a couple of patterns to make a shirt this weekend. My Mom sent me my sewing machine in the mail so I might as well get busy with it. Hopefully it'll turn out okay, sometimes using a pattern for the first time you never know what you'll end up with. I also desperately need to make a new purse because the yellow one I made last May is getting a tad big grungy and I don't like any of the other ones that I have enough to use them.

The people still aren't here. But I think I'll go back to doing nothing so I'm ready for their arrival.

Two Random Things

1. This morning on the way to work I was thinking about the time about a month ago when I went for a walk and the snow looked so tasty, like the snow of my childhood memories. And so I ate some (and it tasted just like I remembered). But wait a second, I live north of Toronto, which is like, total pollution central in my mind, so our snow here is probably acid snow. WHAT WAS I THINKING EATING SNOW? I'M GOING TO DIE!

2. Britney Spears is pregnant? Yeah, sure we all already knew it, but now it's official. How bizarre is that? And I'm ashamed to say I even actually checked out the official lame-ly designed Britney Spears website, although I refuse to link to it here.

Design Details

I have finished tweaking and here are the design details for my template.

Little Red Car, Mikao's World v. 7.1

April 2005

Modified from the Pink Designs template Color My World

Background image: Green colour

Sidebar image: Car graphic, ©2005 MJ

The car graphic is from an original card I made in late February 2004, from cut cardstock, and may be seen here. The green is taken from the same card. The card was scanned on an HP Scanjet 4400C, and the two graphic images have been digitally altered in Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 to improve digital quality.

Template Tweaking and Travels

I've slightly tweaked the template, trying Ian's suggestions of changing the background image, and Peter's comments about text over the cars. I'll still tweak it a bit more when I have time, before calling it done.

This weekend I went to Peterborough, for a CycleNEA fundraiser, and to see my friend Heather. About 80 people came out, and they were able to raise almost $600, so that was great. I knew quite a few of the people too, which was surprising to me. Heather was my roommate in college for a year, and I've spent many weekends with her family near Toronto when I've worked at a camp not to far away from them.

Peterborough is about a three-hour drive, and I took the backroads because I thought it might be shorter. I'm not sure if it actually was, but it was neat to see new scenery, and to go through part of the area known as the Haliburton Highlands. I saw a ferret run across the road, I'm not sure that I've ever seen one in the wild before.

On the way back I stopped at an antique mall in an old barn (I think everyone else who was there was around when all the antiques were new, so I was a bit of a young anomaly), and a "dollar and up" store that had apparently bought out a lace and trim store sometime... and got some really neat laces and trims for a steal of a deal.

And today, I got my sewing machine and birthday present in the mail from my Mom (I got the sewing machine a few years ago, it's not new), so I'll be able to sew this weekend which I shall be looking forward to. I'll post the results on my arts and crafts page when I'm done.

Little Red Car

So the time has come, and I have finally done away with redoing and editing the original Cranberry Socks Blogger template that I've been using since September 2002 and the start of Mikao's World.

This template uses a base of code I got from Pink Design, and the image is an original from a card I made.

What do you think?

(and I can't get the permalinks to work, can anyone help me out?)

Rachel's Questions

These questions are from Rachel of Life Being Beautiful, as part of a blogging meme she is participating in. I agreed to answer whatever questions she came up with.

Question 1 - When you were younger, what did you picture life like now?
I remember when I was quite young, playing with some Strawberry Shortcake dolls in our Strawberry Shortcake Gazebo on our kitchen table, asking my Mom what it was like when she was my age "in the olden days." She said she wasn't quite sure what I meant by that term. I can remember thinking that when I was about the age I am now that I would have kids and they could play Strawberry Shortcakes at our kitchen table as well!

Question 2 - If you could change one thing about your life, What would it be (you have no limits!)?
This one is a selfish answer, but I would change it so I had no student loans. I would feel so much more freedom.

Question 3 - On Anger Management, Jack Nicholson's character calms down Adam Sandler’s character by getting him to sing 'I feel pretty' from West Side Story. If you were being treated by Jack’s character, what song would he sing for you?
Hmm... I have never actually seen this movie. Usually when someone has told me something disturbing I try to think of rainbows and marshmallows and My Little Ponys, because those are happy things. ;) I don't know that I would sing a song, or have anyone sing me a song.

Question 4 - If they were making a movie of your life, Who would play you and why? What would the plot be?
I don't know th at a movie of my life would be interesting to anyone but me. It would be kind of Napoleon Dynamite-ish... with no real plot and a variety of different sub-plots. I would like a currently undiscovered actress to play the part of me, because being me in a movie could quite possibly catapult her into SUPERSTARDOM, because people would think she was as funny as I am. ;)

Question 5 - Assume that the right guy has come along and you’ve decided to settle down and get married. What songs would you chose to walk into the Church with and out with your new husband?
I find the term "settle down" an interesting one. What exactly does it mean? Haven't I settled down already by taking a job and buying a car and getting an apartment and such? Or does "settling down" require marriage, or a significant-other relationship of some sort?

But, that's a tad bit off topic. The songs that I will play at my wedding are something that I have not really given a lot of thought to. I haven't actually been to a lot of weddings, so I don't know what are and aren't acceptable songs to walk in and out to. I wouldn't mind walking in to the traditional Wedding March (it's okay, not bad sounding, very traditional, and I don't really have any other song I'm particularly fond of that I can think of), and I would probably like a friend to play it. I like to make friends with musicians and then later will pull the favour of being a wedding instrumentalist (ha ha). I told my friend Lowana a couple of years ago that I have already reserved her talents to play at my wedding. I have no idea what song we would walk out to. Someone else I once knew said that all Christians should walk out to Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," but I did not just repeat that. ;)

Part of this meme is agreeing to ask five more people five questions, but I think that somehow the mammoth Random Interview Project I have almost completed (there is still one to be returned yet...) should suffice!!!