Score

He shoots!!  He SCOOOOOOOORRRRRREEEESSSSS!!!!!!!
Roberto Luongo Rocks!!

And Canada has now won more gold medals in a single Olympics than any country in the WORLD.

The pool of Perrcipio

A reflection; glimpsed but briefly before it flees the smooth glass of the water.


This is the pool of Perrcipio.  It's lies next to a seemingly quite path, slowly becoming overgrown in ferns.
There is a sign, standing there,  with words, barely readable.  One gets the feeling of warning,  yet, invitation.  You look closer so you can make out the words scratched into the wood.  


"This is the pool of Perrcipio.  It does not twist, it does not hide.  Look.  But only if you want yourself to be known. Only if you want to know who you are.  For the pool understands,  it feels what you feel,  it knows why you are who you are.  It does not judge." 


You have choices now.  You can react with fear, which is of course a natural response, and one that makes the most sense.  For to know one's self, and to find it from without, is very risky.  So you could walk straight by.  The choice is yours.


Or, keeping your fear in mind,  you can choose to trust the builder of the sign.  The pool does not hide truth, and neither does it twist it.  But it does not create you again,  but merely reflects.  You lose nothing.  You could look in the pool and learn.  
The choice is yours.

The water is smooth, and you feel the urge to throw a pebble.  To break that smoothness.  to send ripples through that circle of sight.  Even then,  the pool understands.
The choice is yours.

You can gain much, and lose much.

Coalesce

It's pretty crazy sometimes, how things just go in such and such a way so that plans are made,  without you doing any planning really.   It's really exciting.  = )

Right now things are coming together so that I'll be leaving some time this spring for Oregon, USA.  I don't know for how long, or when exactly.  Only for a month or two I think.  But it looks like it's working out in such a way that I will be able to be down there and actually earn the same as I am earning now with about the same level of expenses.

We'll see what happens next. . .

Quotes

"You have to understand.   Dragons in themselves are not intrinsically bad.  Rather, how they are used, and the motivations behind the users can give them a negative value.  But essentially, Dragons are a neutral force."

~ Master Lecturer Hassaf McCardo,  from the Draconis Academia Collections

"Ever since the days of Sun-Tzu, all good soldiers know that the best defense is a good offense.  This, however, is not entirely true.  Rather, the best defense is a brilliant offense.  Anything less than that is court martial material."

~ Maj. General Jon Korbella,  United States Army

Graphics

I've never run into a game that give me that feeling of reality, or the feeling of beauty you sometimes get in surroundings.  But I must say, Assassin's Creed almost gives me that feeling.  The graphics are unbelievable.

And it's fun too.

Layne Huber's . . .

. . .  life is starting to make more sense.  = )

Layne Huber

 . . . used to think that he knew how things worked.  But now he has no idea at all.

picture [ˈpɪktʃə]

N -   a visual representation of something, such as a person or scene, produced on a surface, as in a photograph, painting, etc.


Yesterday and Today I was up by Delburne,  calling upon me good friend,  Kerzdenn Kowalchuk.   Kerzdenn and I have a great working relationship, with him helping me with pictures, and then me helping him with website things.  It has worked out quite well actually.   Anyway,  over the last couple months, the need to get new profile pics has become more and more incessant in my mind, seeing particularly as the last photo of myself that I truly liked was from when I was about 17 or 18.   


Anyway,  we both had a great time taking shots, and having shots being taken off, at his place and in Red Deer. And  I'm really, really happy with the results.

We found some really sweet construction that added a lot of nice ambiance. . .

     Gotta love old clocks and things!!

Now THIS shot,  I'm very proud off.  Kerzdenn let me hold his camera, while he looked for some mysterious paraphernalia/torture device, in his monstrous bag.

Kinda fun, but gets old after a half dozen repeats.

Ahh . . . Symmetry. 

It was closed. . . and it wasn't an apartment. 

Absolutely LOVE this one Kerz!

So thanks again Kerz, for all the fun times, theological discussion, good food, website frustrations, fun shopping, and introducing me to the term "that's tight!" 

Family (as it used to be)

Long time ago,  our family looked like this.

Loooooong time ago. 

I was eight?  I think? 

And I haven't had a haircut like that for ages.

Thankfully.

If I was Tintin . . .

. . . Nathan Fletcher would be Captain Haddock,

      Jesse Chaulk would be Cuthbert Calculus

      Robert Griffiths and Kadin Osborne would be
      Thomson & Thompson

      David Fletcher would be Nestor the Butler


     And yeah.  It was a late night last night. . .

Actions

Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end. It all depends upon where the observer is standing.

• Leto

The thing about this quote, is that it emphasizes the mystery of perspective.  As Christians, and as friends,  one of our greatest challenges is trying to make sure that we don't get locked into our own perspective.  It is required of us instead to break out of that viewpoint;  to go and stand on the opposite side as an observer. 

Matt. 22:39  "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

How can we love anyone, if we don't even stop to think about what they see, what they feel?

"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves."

• Ender Wiggin

But what about Hitler?  How can you possibly love someone like that?  Someone who purposefully hurts and mistreats others.  How can you understand him?  Do people like Hitler become the villains they are at birth?  I don't believe so.  Consider that Hitler was actually a mother's son, a child who was somebody's offspring.  His upbringing was fairly normal I believe,  not something from one of the Saw movies.  Before WWI he was a painter, and very poor.  Of course, we don't understand completely his mind.   But we see the results. 


We do not condone what was, and is done by people like that.  But we also should consider that they didn't start off that different from us, and we could possibly end up standing in their shoes, if it weren't for the grace of God.


It's sobering.  And it gives sympathy, where there might not have been any.   


Does that make sense at all?


Personally, I think the most loving thing you can do to anyone, is see things the way they do. 
You don't have to condone, you don't have to agree, but you do have to love.