Evangelism Is My Favourite!

Sometimes I just can't believe what lengths people go to for the sake of evangelism. But I am extremely grateful that God has a "wonderful, lead-free plan for [my] life." Because, really, who doesn't love a good lead-free plan?

Time Wasting with Books

Via Paul

"It works like this: The bolded books are books I've read (and even enjoyed) [but not necessarily] ... italicized books I would like to read, books with crosses are on my shelf and asterisked books I've never heard of. The books that are striked out I am unlikely ever to read. The books listed here that haven't felt the touch of my cursor and remain unedited I could care less or more about on any given day.I imagine the books on this list were selected for their best-seller status or something like that."

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) -shh, I know it isn't good, but it's a page turner!
2. †Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. †To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. †The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. †The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. †The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. †Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. †Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) - *shudder*
23. †Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. †Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. †Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. †The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. †Bible
46. †Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. †Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. †Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. †The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. †The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. †Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. †War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) - Currently in progress!
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. *Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) (see #91)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. †The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. †Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams
87. †Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje) - I wish I hadn't read this!
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. *The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. *The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. *A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. *The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Sickness and CD covers

I am sick at all times. It's le Poo.

On a happier note, I feel as though I should make a CD because my cousin Jaime just sent me CD cover worthy pictures...which are pretty rare considering I'm not very photogenic. I have my yearbook photos to prove that.

We are playing scrabble, it is the summer....yahoo summer.

Library Thing

My friend Emily, who works at the Waterloo Public Library (and is awesome, as is my other librarian friend Jan), told me about the coolest website ever. You can catalog all your books and create your library online. It is geeky, it is pretty, it is great. For a sample of the greatness and prettiness, see the new addition to my sidebar.

Joy Cometh in the Morning

Or so they say. "They" being, in this case, Psalm 30, and various songs based thereupon.

I am not a morning person. For me, joy cometh not in the morning. Sadness, irritability, anger and other such emotions unrelated to joy cometh in the morning. The ability to Commune With Other Human Beings cometh at around 9am. Joy cometh, at the earliest, 1pm. Unless it is a Saturday, the only day when joy cometh in the morning, when I realize I do not need to get up just yet.

There is, however, one hint of joy in most of my mornings. When I walk past a tire store on my way to work in the morning, I am greeted by a large Chow Chow and a small Chow Chow who are tied outside. Occasionally, if he is untied at the moment, the small one will try to accompany me to work. He is my friend. He is puffy. Funny puffy dog=joy.

A Ridiculously Long Time Between Posts

So, now that no even checks my blog anymore because it has been so long since I last posted....

I shall post.

Christmas was great for the following reasons:

• Carley came home. (She proceeded to leave again but that didn't make Christmas good.)
  
• Melissa, Diedre, Aaron, Jan, Paul, Michelle and Trevor all visited. Fun Times.
• I had a week off work.
• I shopped for books at a bookstore in which I needed A SHOPPING CART.
  
• I saw many babies: Abby, Aydan, Naomi and Kaedmon. Babies Everywhere.
• Did I mention the store where I bought books and used a cart?
• Jesus was born.
• I stayed with my family for a few days and just hung out. It is always wonderful to be with them.
  
• Riley wore antlers.

Yes, it was all very fun.

And now, I shall begin 2007, being resolved to not make resolutions.

Why Facial Hair is Often Wrong

What is up with Neil Gaiman's beard?

You might not actually see it if you click on the link, because the pictures are randomized...but click around the site a bit, you'll find it.

For those of you who actually care, I'm sure you've already seen it.

Quarter Life Crisis #2 (ish?)

Working full time for 20 months straight in jobs that I am less-than-passionate for has made me begin to freak out. I will probably try to resolve this cognitive dissonance by going back to school. Possibly to get an English degree. (?!?) That way, I can either be a teacher or a travel writer.

It doesn't really change the way my life will look in the short term. I was going to go back to school next year in any case. But the MTS (Master of Theological Studies) idea is beginning to look less and less attractive. Mostly because I am getting sick of church. I can't really explain it, but I am. I'm not getting sick of God, or of the people at church, or of the leadership at church, just of church. I figure this is not the way to get started in ministry. Although, if I could work at a church AND take courses in liberal arts from a secular school, I think that could be a good balance...we'll see.

Baraka

Since Jan is the boss of me, and she said this, I'm posting now.

The title of this post is Baraka. This is an Islamic word for "blessing". It is also the title of a super-rad movie.

There are several reasons that make this movie awesome:

1. no plot
2. no dialogue
3. shot in 24 countries
4. cool musique
5. beautiful scenery
6. makes several excellent points. Without using words

I know that numbers 1 and 2 don't seem to be assets. But they are. So there.

Quote of the Day

"That book sucks"

- Paul McIlwraith, Lead Pastor, WMB, when he saw me reading The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard in Starbucks. The funny thing is that I didn't realize for a second that he was joking. I thought I was going to have to change churches. :) It would have been even funnier if I had been reading the Bible.

Next time I see someone reading the Bible, I'm going to say: "that book sucks."

Uh-oh...too sacrilegious?

Batman and Son

Yesterday, while waiting for a ride to small group, I witnessed this:
A Young Man and a Small Child, both wearing capes, run into the lobby. They then used their "super-vision" to look for and finally spot the van they were waiting for pull up outside. Another boy was dropped off by 'Nana', and the small boy admired himself in the window while whispering "batman...yeah...batman" to himself.

I was confused by this scenario...I thought the young man was the cool babysitter, possibly the cool uncle, to this small child. And I thought "Nana" was picking the small child up to take him home with his older brother. But...could it be? Could this guy, who looked younger than me...possibly be the father of these two? My confusion ended when the older one called him "Dad."

Coolest, Cutest Dad EVER.

Pink Thongs do NOT Belong in Yoga Class

Or, really, any thongs.

Especially not in the front row.

They just don't.

Buy Nothing, Create Something Week

Back at our fall retreat in September, our Regeneration (College and Career) group at WMB decided that we wanted to do something to raise awareness about consumerism in our lives. So we decided to have a "Buy Nothing" week, during which we don't buy anything (other than a set budget for food). We also discussed how the fact that few of us know how to make many things for ourselves impacts our need to consume. So we changed it from simply "Buy Nothing" to "Buy Nothing, Make Something"

Last night, my Mom taught a group of us how to make soup and biscuits and we made a huge batch so we all have a couple lunches for the rest of the week. Quantity cooking is better and so much cheaper! The rest of the week will include "Trick or Eat" reverse trick-or-treating (collecting food for the food bank), a community meal, Urban Croquet (sounds fun eh?), a night of learning to sew/knit/etc and a movie night.

Maybe this week you could think about how you can buy less and make more...

A Narrow Escape from Certain Death

So, I'm sitting at my desk, when I hear a HUGE crash coming from outside. I get up to investigate and see our 7-foot long, steel (read: enormous and very very heavy)sign on the ground. It is not supposed to be on the ground. It is supposed to be hanging at the top of the second storey of our office. The wood it was attached to apparently rotted and down it came. My first thought was: "That could have fallen on my HEAD! I could have DIED!" I was just about to go out and get the mail after all. Providential Timing is all that has saved me!

LOOK OUT!

Weekend from Heaven

I had the best Thanksgiving weekend ever! Normally I don't go in for the "and then I did this" type of blog post, but I ask for your indulgence this one time:

Friday night, my cousin Jaime came over for a sleepover, we watched What Not to Wear, drank some wine, and she taught me how to smoke a pipe. I felt like I needed to ponder something (think Sherlock Holmes).

The next morning my dad picked us up and we went fishing. We wore waders, which Jaime thought were "like a home" because they were so big. We got to the river and it was really really high. So we couldn't fish at the spot we wanted to because we would have had to cross the river and we couldn't because it was too high. Walking in the water was fun though. We ran into a small child on our way back to the car and he remarked excitedly "Dad, I see some FISHERS!" I am a fisher. We tried another spot and my dad and Jaime saw a fish.

Saturday and Sunday were full of family and food. Good times.

Monday I got to call Carley and catch up on her England adventures. I finished off the night with some Friends watching accompanied by some knitting.

Best weekend ever.

Good Jobs and Good Books

I like my jobs. That's pretty much all I have to say about that. My favorite project right now is creating a mural of all the MBMSI missionaries. i get to work on a world map (yay maps), plot the locations, and make it all pretty.

Right now, for some reason, I am reading 4 books. I keep starting new ones and reading whichever one suits my fancy at the moment.

The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Don't read this. Not unless you want to get seriously messed up. Seriously. Also don't check out The Simple Way. Because you might get ideas and want to do that too. :)
Under the Overpass by Mike Yankowski. Similarly Up-Messing, although not to the same degree because I don't think I would actually do it.
In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen. Little but powerful.
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. You either love her or hate her, I love her.

Uh-oh, Even Lolo is Posting More Than I Am.

I guess this is a good chance to catch everyone up on the state of my life.

1. I am not crazy, nor am I going crazy, nor having a major breakdown, although I had a close call on the weekend.
2. I will not go crazy in the near future due to the fact that I have a new job as a part time admin assistant at MBMSI. This brings my job total back up to three again, however, the MBMSI job is at the same place as the Conference job and will end up being just less than full time put together. Pretty much 8-4 Monday to Friday. Which is Almost Normal. Hence the Not Going Crazy if you define crazy as abnormal. Zehrs is now relegated to one shift/week, which is very close to the ideal of none.

But I Didn't Even J-Walk! I Swear!

Today I got picked up by a policeman.

I was just walking home from work, minding my own business when I hear this voice over an intercom. I couldn't hear what the voice was saying but I turned around to look just as a police car pulled up beside me. I bent down to ask what he wanted trying frantically to figure out what I had been doing wrong. Turns out it was Lolo's cousin Jeremy! He drove me the rest of the way home in the squad car...he wouldn't let me put on the sirens though.

My love life takes yet another hit

John Mayer, who was quite possibly my most likely love prospect, is rumored to be dating Jessica Simpson. For my sake, lets hope he is sending a cryptic message to the world on that topic via this blog post.

Pedestrian Adventures

I've been walking to and from work a lot because I don't own, or have access to a car. While walking, I've noticed that pedestrians seem to be invisible to the rest of the world. In three weeks I have been:

1. Sprayed by lawn sprinklers.
2. Doused by passing motorists driving through puddles.
3. Almost run over by inconsiderate and/or blind motorists attempting to execute right hand turns.

I have also almost been late for work several times.

This makes it seem like walking has created a soaking wet, half-dead, fired-from-her-job Stephanie. In fact, it has made me healthier, more aware of time, and less stressed. I highly recommend it.

Another very good reason for walking is the fact that it is good for the environment. Which isn't really true, it would be truer to say that it isn't bad for the environment. I recently did an ecological footprint quiz and discovered that mine is 5.6 global hectares (compared to the 1.8 global hectares available for every person alive right now). This essentially means that it would take about 3 earths to sustain those living the way I do. And I DON'T DRIVE. Pretty scary. I actually filled in the quiz again to see what my score would be if I did drive and it wasn't as different as I thought it would be: a 6.3 (three and a half planets). The biggest part of my score was actually the food part. After filling the quiz in several different ways I determined that it is practically impossible for anyone to acheive a score close to the 1.8 ideal without being vegan, eating 100% locally grown food, not having electricity and walking everywhere. It really opened my eyes to how unsustainable my lifestyle is. And it made me feel a lot less smug about all the "good" I'm doing by walking.