:: Thursday, November 26, 2009 ::

Birthday and Christmas Ideas

My Birthday and Christmas are close together, I'm hard to buy for yada yada yada.

Anything from the World Vision Gift Catalog.

Gift Cards from The Camera Store or MEC are always welcome.

Games for my DS:
Big Bang Mini
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Game:
Dominion

Movies:
Up
The Philosopher Kings

Music:
Deep Blue by Martin Josheph

Sufjan Stevens: the BQE and the comic book Hooper Heroes.

Half Handed Cloud's Halos and Lassos

The Essential Weird Al Yankovic.

Books:
Kevin Frank's True North.

Photoshop Lightroom 2 Adventure

For my Mac: The Magic Mouse.

From Threadless in 3XL: a simple plan or All Galaxies.


Update:

Can't believe I forgot Buzz Lightyear!

Just read a review of Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip and it sounds great.

- Peace

Labels: Life

:: Dave King 11:48 :: (0) comments ::
...

Hello, it's me Calvin posting on Dave's blog. In keeping with my tradition of vandalizingposting to Dave's blog my favorite videogame-style music, here is a really neat remix of Michael Jackson's Thriller:



You can learn more here.

:: PsySal 13:51 :: (1) comments ::
...

A Tough Guy Eh?

Calvin took this shot of me on Sat at their delayed due to illness Halloween Party. They say I looked mean.

- Peace

Labels: Life, picture

:: Dave King 16:13 :: (2) comments ::
...

20 Years Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

CBC News:

Former Polish leader Lech Walesa tipped the first of 1,000 plastic foam dominoes set up where the Berlin Wall once stood as part of celebrations Monday marking the 20th anniversary of its fall.

That made me smile, I've always connected Polish Solidarity and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mostly due to Steve Taylor's "Over My Dead Body" from his 1984 album Meltdown. The final verses of the song are:

After the Nazis we were baited by the Russian bear
Our 'liberators' wanted Poland for a thoroughfare
Rise up, my brothers don't despair the Iron Curtain's rod
Someday we'll draw the string assisted by the hand of God

I was a victim of December 1981
I took a final beating from the blunt end of a Russian's gun
You made a memory - the memory will multiply
You may kill the body, but the spirit - it will never die

In the mid 80's I remember thinking I would never see the fulfillment of Steve's prophecy, the Iron Curtain was a fixed part of our reality. But in 89 there was the huge upswing in people gathering in churches for Peace Masses, and then the wall came down. And I couldn't help thinking of Steve Taylor singing:

Rise up, my brothers don't despair the Iron Curtain's rod
Someday we'll draw the string assisted by the hand of God

May the dominoes continue to fall.

- Peace

Labels: faith, music, Steve Taylor

:: Dave King 18:01 :: (0) comments ::
...

The Cost of Genrification

A friend and I visted Jesus People USA on Jan 1, 1994. As young guys from Edmonton I'll admit we found the inner city Chicago neighborhood JPUSA calls home quite intimidating. In the past fifteen years Uptown has gone through a process of gentrification. Some of the new upscale neighbours objected to JPUSA's homeless shelter.

The “powers that be” had listened to and heard the relentless pleas from a very fearful and merciless exclusive club. This group represented a relatively small number of people determined to promote hatred, fear and deception by painting negative pictures like violent ex-offenders living near innocent children. Nothing was investigated and propaganda had been used as a powerful tool, and the result was “no more funding!

JPUSA hasn't given up on the men from the shelter. They're still working and advocating for the homeless in their neighbourhood.

Digest this utterly false statement: “We’ve served our time and have been set free to live as a productive member of society.” Once a person is greeted into the cold angry cells of shame, that person’s rights are vanquished and they become a lifelong slave to societal fears, hypocrisy and prejudice. Guilty for life has been tattooed upon the foreheads of ex-offenders. The first strike law of public housing, mandatory minimum sentences, parole, the internet and the easy availability of criminal background checks have placed huge X’s upon every felon’s back. Sadly, the result is that housing and employment have been made virtually impossible. Thus, an endless cycle of grief and recidivism begins, and within that context, the lost sheep need to hear the Lord’s message of love, grace, restorative justice and hope.

Read the full story: Dejected but not forgotten

- Peace

Labels: Homlessness, JPUSA

:: Dave King 17:43 :: (2) comments ::
...

Do You Like Breakfast?

Hi it's Calvin, not Dave. I feel inspired to post this video here:



PS: Don't ask me why Dave lets me intrude on IdeaJoy, but I think we can all agree this video is fabulous!

PPS: We like breakfast!!! =)

:: PsySal 15:14 :: (2) comments ::
...

The Philosopher Kings (Movie): A Short Review

Sarah took me to see The Philosopher Kings during the Calgary International Film Fest. From the official website:

In search of wisdom found in unlikely places, The Philosopher Kings takes us on a journey through the halls of the most prestigious colleges and universities in America to learn from the staff members who see it all and have been through it all: the custodians. This thought-provoking, feature-length documentary interweaves the untold stories of triumph and tragedy from the members of society who are often disregarded and ignored, and seeks out the kind of wisdom that gets you through the day and the lessons one learns from surviving hard times, lost loves, and shattered dreams.

The Philosopher Kings is a wonderfully humanizing work. Eight stories are woven together by various themes touching the nature of work, family, art and life. If you have the chance to see a screening then I'd highly recommend the movie. For 2009 I'd rank second only to Up!

- Peace

Labels: movie, review, Video

:: Dave King 17:17 :: (0) comments ::
...

My Stint as a Wedding Photographer

Back at the end of Aug. I had the honor of being the prime photographer for Cameron and Teressa's wedding. I've posted 80 pictures from the Wedding to flickr. Wow, talk about stress. Mostly self imposed. Most of it was realizing that I'd agreed to shoot a major event for two people I care deeply about and that they are both outstanding photographers. Indeed Teressa is now doing Family Portraits. Cameron has a flickr stream that he doesn't update nearly enough.

In comedy they say you should never follow a better comic. Not sure what the rules are about shooting better photographers.

- Peace

Labels: Photography, picture

:: Dave King 17:31 :: (3) comments ::
...

1500 KM

First ride since Aug. Lots of reasons why, ankle getting hurt again, taking advil for a wisdom tooth removal drained my energy. Took the birthday of a friend to get me out ridding again. Won't make 4500 km this year, but if I make 2500 km I'll be happy. BTW 2500 KM was my best distance when I was in my 20s.

- Peace

Labels: bike, km, picture

:: Dave King 16:23 :: (1) comments ::
...

Download Buddies?

You can download cool music from NoiseTrade.com if you'll give out five email addresses. NoiseTrade will then send those five people emails about what you've downloaded. They won't spam you, I know the CEO of NoiseTrade, they're good people. I also don't like spamming people, even if we're friends and I'm getting good music out of the deal.

So I'm looking for download buddies, five friends who wouldn't mind if I used their email address when I want to download something from NoiseTrade. You'll of course be free to use my address to do the same, and you'll know what I'm downloading. What say you?


- Peace

Labels: music, tech

:: Dave King 08:14 :: (3) comments ::
...

Martyn Josheph

Enjoying Martyn Josheph's How Did We End Up Here? He has quite the collection of MP3 for free download on his listen page. Enjoy.

As seen on Empire Remixed.

- Peace

:: Dave King 13:37 :: (0) comments ::
...

Land of the Free?

The Land of the Free incarcerates more citizens per capita than any other country on Earth, almost half of them for nonviolent offenses. And it's not because of a rise in crime rates—in fact, those have been falling for nearly a decade. Rather, tough sentencing and anti-drug laws have put a growing number of marginal offenders behind bars.

From Wired Nils Christie: Empty the Prisons part of their The Smart List: 12 Shocking Ideas That Could Change the World. Thing that struck me was that Chuck Colson and Prison Fellowship have been talking about this for years:

2.3 million men and women now pack our prisons and jails — a 500-percent increase since Prison Fellowship began in 1976.

From the sidebar on Why Minister to Prisoners.

- Peace

Labels: America, faith, Wired

:: Dave King 12:03 :: (0) comments ::
...

The Quotable Chris L. Rice

Chris over at has a great post sins to keep us out of heaven, and just had to quote a couple of bits:

Jesus said, not that it is hard to be gay and enter the Kingdom, but rich.

and

If you haven’t struggled with hate in the church I submit that you haven’t been close enough to anyone else in the church for enough time to really be a member. Church demands the kind of proximity and rigorous honesty that causes friction and yes, untoward anger. That we can be the Church and not kill each other is wonderful testimony of the grace of God and the active presence of the Holy Spirit.

- Peace

Labels: faith, quote

:: Dave King 20:57 :: (0) comments ::
...

Blogger Turns 10

Blogger, software that I use for IdeaJoy Turns 10. Hope Blogger gets some new templates for it's brithday.

- Peace

Labels: tech

:: Dave King 18:33 :: (1) comments ::
...

Four Interesting Pictures From NB

We spent a week in New Brunswick, and I posted 60 pictures from NB. Still my home province only comes away with four pictures. No man is a great photographer in his home province? Maybe.

It does fit with my sense of NB as the province people drive through on the way to Nova Scotia or PEI. New Brunswick is easy to capture as NS or PEI, and it doesn't try as hard to please either. To be honest I prefer it that way.

Update:


This shot of a Tim Hortons traffic sign just made the Most Interesting Set, bringing the NB count to five. It also occurred to me the NB was the only province to have two portraits make the Most Interesting Set.

- Peace

Labels: picture, vacation

:: Dave King 18:20 :: (0) comments ::
...