Dreams Unlocked

talked to my friend in calgary - he is a pediatric dentist. what was quite interesting is how our schedules are so similar. it's something like this: 7:00 - wake up 7:45 - leave for office (he actually is at the office at 7:45 i think) 4:30 - he works out / i run or swim 6:00 - supper evening - csi / video / lost etc etc. this runs monday to friday but for me sometimes i have to take care of adam which is a whole other schedule centered around him. those scenes from new orleans are really difficult to watch. i wonder if things will ever return to normal there. "I can tell you fancy, I can tell you plain You give something up for everything you gain Since every pleasure's got an edge of pain Pay for your ticket and don't complain"

had an all day staff meeting - got some stuff done. grey rainy day - looks like death. pray for new orleans, mississippi and everwhere else devoid of mercy. still plugging away at first@night stuff. have to put together a proposal which may secure me some bucks. new bob dylan cd out today!!! yahoo - that makes me very happy - will pick it up tomorrow at a&b. "I will turn my head up high To that dark and rolling sky, For tonight no light will shine on me."

had a bit of a rough morning - got into a crazy fight with someone i really love, got a personal attack via e-mail form someone i barely know and then a very important announcement that i needed to get into the church bulletin was not placed there, even though i was assured earlier in the week that it would be. i sat in the church pew with my heart pounding and my fists clenched - blood pressure to the roof. and the sermon was on forgiveness! sheesh - it was probably the best sermon our pastor has ever preached - if they had it on cd i would buy it - but they only have tapes. it was exactly what i needed to hear. i need to forgive those who have hurt me and just let the anger and resentment go. so i feel much better now. i have reconciled somewhat with the first person, i am not going to respond to the second person and will deal with the person who left out announcement tomorrow. today's chain of events reminded me that we are deifinitely in a war. we do not battle other human be...

adam turned 1 yesterday but we had the party today. we had about 30 of our friends come over. it was fantastic. it was the first time we had all our friends and some of our neigbours together in the same place. it was so much fun. i think adam enjoyed it too. i had started writing an article about what adam had taught me - i hope to finish it in the next couple of days. one thing he taught me is that sometimes we need to feel god's presence, even if we know he is there. sometimes adam will be playing on the living room floor and i will be sitting with my laptop doing some work sitting on the couch. every once in a while he will crawl up, pull himself up on to me and just want to be held for awhile. after a few seconds he's ready to play on his own again. sometimes i'm doing my thing and i have to come towards god, pull myself up and feel his love and warmth towards me. then i'm ok - i can go back to what i was doing, realizing once again that he's there for me. I ne...

so my mom is in town and felicia and i decide to go on a date! yipee! we start off by going to this place called memphis barbecue house - we ran into some good friends, we sat at their table but they had already paid the bill. the waiter was like, "what's going on here? i've got 3 groups waiting!" so that pretty much set the tone - he completely hated us from that time on. but the food was amazing - i love me some southern cooking. we had tons left over which will make a nice snack over the next couple of days. next stop - a movie. we went to see 40 yr. old virgin starring steve carrell. as i'm standing in line, i glance over and there's a guy who looks a lot like robin williams. he is as short as me but really really well built. he stepped out of the line next to me to walk over to the cooler and get a couple of cokes. as he does this 3 people get into his line ahead of him. now he's really far back, but the guy at the back saw that he had been inline bef...

Pat grooving with a couple of Christian Coalition groupies.

i find that i don't really get angry at gays, abortionists or other people who are supossed to be my "enemy". rather my anger usually gets channeled at powerful christians who have gone insane but sadly have a national platform to spout their lunacy. case in point - pat robertson's statement that the usa should assasinate the president of venezuela. way to go pat - you just contributed to my emerging ulcer and to the danger of venezuelan evangelicals who have to explain what the heck you meant. read what my hero jim wallis says. - he writes good. Pat Robertson: An embarrassment to the church by Jim Wallis Pat Robertson is an embarrassment to the church and a danger to American politics. Robertson is known for his completely irresponsible statements - that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were due to American feminists and liberals, that true Christians could vote only for George W. Bush, that the federal judiciary is a greater threat to America than those who flew the plane...

(beautiful bc) i overheard that yesterday when i went for a run along the seawall. i'm watching the last episode of the last season of the sopranos. its excellent as always. my mom comes in tomorrow for adam's b-day - dad comes in on saturday. i'm not going to do any work this week-end - just relax and enjoy my folks and my son.

had lunch w. my friend dwight - just caught up on old times. then had an interesting meeting with the director of marketting for chapters. i'm trying to book ward gasque in to give a lecture on the da vinci code - they sound quite interested - i have to draft a more formal proposal for them. then met with a couple with 2 young daughters who were interested in ministry at first. went fairly well - hoping they will get involved with first at night.

on Friday Adam will be one year old. Above is Adam's first picture when he was less then a minute old. what a guy. another excellent sermon today - the five circles of healing - very practical. went for a ride around stanley park - i inherited my brother in law's bike. it is worth 2 grand but the seat is very uncomfortbale. i also find the handlebars too far away. will try to fix it. but still, love's been good to me.

on thursday night i tried an experiment - i heard that very importnat people - presindetns and ceo's only get a few hours sleep per night. i currently get about 6-7. so i decided on thursday i would only get 4 - got to bed at 2 and wake up at 6. well, i woke up at 7 so i got 5 hrs and i felt hopelessly depressed - i didn't want to do anything - didn't want to start this new church, didn't want to read, didn't want to go out. i slept for about an hour in the morning and still felt crappy. so my consensus is to stick to the 6-7. saw the movie broken flowers - really went to see it but was pretty disappointed - just found it quite boring. got the boy tonight - flea is at work - sun is setting and i am in my box in the sky trying to figure it all out. "there is no need to be nervous. jzebel is a nun who nervously knits a bald wig for jack the ripper who sits at the chamber of commerce. TOMBSTONE. the hysterical bride in the penny arcade. send out for the doctor and...

when you come to an intersection and it has one of those buttons that will change the light so we can cross, why do we press that button repeatedly? it will not change the light any quicker - do we think we will irritate the light to change quicker? bought a day-timer - i no longer use the palm pilot - i have gone back to early 90's ways of keeping appointments. that palm pilot was $500 4 yrs. ago! - now i barely touch it. "when you look at the sun, keep your eyes closed."

today i had the boy. i went to return some videos and pick up a latte. as we're coming back to the apt. i cross paths w. the biggest jerk in the world. i'm crossing the intersection and he's in a blue camaro trying to turn left - he comes within inches of hitting adam, screeches to a stop, as i move out of his way he honks his horn and yells "f--k you!" i am pushing a kid in a stroller!!! what a jerk - i got his plate # and reported him to icbc. so bald man in a blue camaro i am onto you - next time i see you and adam isn't around watch out i might give you a really dirty look and then you might feel bad.

go to www.relevantmagazine.com to read my review of this awesome movie.

(this is what i look like when i try to be cool - david brent busting a move.) went into the office today met with the staff and then the pastoral staff where i presented some info. about first@night. they were all very supportive. had lunch w. our sr. pastor tom - he was very affirming and encouraging. i was really pumped about everything! went for a nice long run along the seawall - its unbelievable to run so close to such beauty. watched an episode of the sopranos tonight - focused on cermalla's affair w. one of a.j.'s teachers. also the character played by steve buscemi goes into business w. a korean businessman. it is such a good show - compelling characters and clever story lines. friends please -don't you turn your back on me.

my first day at the new job! it went fairly well. i worked on a lot of prep. stuff for when we launch in sept. also met with a guy that i am going to get to speak in october. after work we headed down to this oyster resturant for oysters and beer - it was delicious. then we rented a couple of movies. we had to get some groceries at urban fare and while we were there, who should walk by me but samuel l. jackson! the biggest grossing movie star in the world! and he walked right by me. he was with a rather heavy and short white woman and her daughter. as he was coming out i asked for an autograph. he said you gotta say please - its important to say please - and teach your son too! then he was off. we followed him for a bit but then decided to quit being stalkers and headed for home. was quite thrilling and i am sure i will coast on this for awhile. "Whether or not what we experienced was an According to Hoyle miracle is insignificant. What is significant is that I felt the touch of G...

went to church - good sermon on anger - very practical. my friend josh was inducted as youth pastor - that was pretty cool - i got to lay hands on him as he was commissioned. went to fatburger and got fat, then lazed on the beach w. flea and the boy. - it was so hot today! adam loves the sand but is not too crazy about the waves and the cold cold water. adam almost swallowed some foil gum wrappers. i was chewing some gum - adam saw me and he pretended to chew too. came home - i tried to make crab cakes but they kept falling apart - so it was more like crab crumble. did some reading. tomorrow i start my job at the church! woopee! i'm actually quite excited, and nervous at the same time. ciao

so last night i went to general motors place around the block from our apt. now in the past i have gone and enjoyed hockey games and concerts but last night was special. benny hinn was in town! now those of you who don't know him, benny hinn is one of the biggest televangelsit faithhealers in the world. his tv show is broadcast in over 100 countries and his ministy rakes in 65 mil/yr. so i went out of curiosity to see the buzz. he made at least one major exegetical mistake when he preached from one of the gospels. he made the outlandish statement that the bible guarantees everyone will live to be at least 70 yrs. old in perfect health. he also said that EVERYONE willbe healed. but as i sat in the back during the "healing" part of the night i saw a lot of people not get out of their wheelchairs. i wondered how they felt as they were wheeled out of the arena last night. why didn't god heal them? and what about me? i still wore my contacts and glasses today - god didn...

i think there is a definite link between exercising in nature and spirituality. i'm surprised more people have not written about it. i find that when i run along the seawall here in vancouver, more then my body gets a workout - something happens to my soul - i am uplifted and feel very close to God. try it sometime. saw the movie murderball today - it is a documentary about quadriplegic rugby. it was fantastic - i wrote a review for relevant. i'll let you know when they run it. books - currently reading da vinci code by dan brown - don't really like it. resident aliens - willimon and hauerwas - this book is fantastic - should be required reading for all believers in north america bono in conversation - probably the best book on bono's spirituality ever written - this guy is a true believer "i am searching high, searching low asking the cops wherever i go - have you seen DIGNITY?" -Bob Dylan

"Ask big questions. Demand big answers". - Bono.

this is a picture of a mr. sub restaurant for sale in humboldt saskatchewan. i can think of nothing more depressing then managing this restaurant. how is this chain still around? you would think by now subway and quizno's would have completely dominated the sub industry. and mr. sub has not updated anything - the font of their logo is still 1977. today - went to superstore and bought groceries. came home and got halfway through my first paper - hope to wrap it up this week. went for a workout and 5 km. run. watched 24 - season 2 is the best one so far. have the boy all day tomorrow - can't wait.

the boy got a haircut today - he didn't scream as much as the first time. i got my haircut at the chair next to him. took a long walk w. flea and the boy on the seawall - saw several people reading. there is something quite peaceful about watching people read. i don't know why, but it just is. another of life's simple pleasures - pizza and a movie, more specifically pizza hut pizza and the movie "dear frankie". its a scottish film - it was kinda slow but felicia liked it. we went for a swim - adam is an awesome swimmer - he did like 6 laps w.out slowing down. as we were taking the elevator down i looked at adam and i thought - wow, unreal - this is my son! this is my child. i am his father. it was really overwheleming - just one of those moments i guess. We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over bro...

Loeppkys! Originally uploaded by stan00 . This is one of the best photos I have ever taken. Hope you guys all like it!

went to my second wedding in 7 days today. a couple of our very good friends - phil and elona were married today. phil is from puerto rico and elona is from albania - it was a very small wedding - only 34 at the reception. i was reminded something a pastor once said - he had done several dozen weddings and remarked that he had never seen an ugly bride. there was always such a glow and beauty n the bride's face. i think he was making a point that the church is the bride of christ and one day we will be glowing and beautiful before christ. i think i am one of the few males who actually enjoys weddings, as long as they ar enot too long. went to coastal church this morning - ran into 3 other first baptist people. its a pretty good church.

Spent three days in Whistler with the fam. Walking around the Whistler village makes you feel very healthy and very rich. I highly recommend it. You just feel better being up there. We had a great time biking and just bumming around. took the boy in one of those bike trailer things - he totally hated it - screamed the whole time. I have put together a schedule and plan for the fall service schedule of First @ Night. I got pretty excited as I was working on it. On our way back from Whistler we drove through West Vancouver. We felt like imposters, who were about to be caught. I no longer felt healthy and rich, but rather, sickly and dirty. It's always nice to come back to 950 Cambie street - my home, Felicia's home and Adam's home - its the only home he has known. Will post some pics as soon as I upload them. "Gully, Gully Gully Gully" - Adam Ninan.

wowee! i got a comment on my last post. from an old friend who i ran into at the wedding. i am watching adam completely destroy a plant in my office. its a plant i don't really like so i'm letting him shred it leaf by leaf. went on an extensive workout today - gym and then a long run with adam in the jogging stroller. fire works tonight - should be cool - its the biggest draw in vancouver all year. i'm sensing that i need to write something of more subsatnce in this thing. but not today - will try tomorrow - maybe a film review or something. going to whistler for a mini holiday tomorrow.

i forgot to mention that my birthday was on saturday - 35 yrs. old! it was fun - we went out for drinks on some place that has a deck - everytime we toasted warren and carla i threw in the fact that it was my b-day - i got a desert out of it! back home with my wife and child - feels good feels good. been working on some church stuff - i think i am going to have music playing as people enter - something to break the ice - i am just going to have rnadom stuff from my cd collection - i'm not sure what people like - but i'll try it.

I am melting. it must be close to 30 degrees and very very humid. can't take the heat get out of the proviince. i fly back to vancouver tonight to my beloved wife and son - hope he still remembers me. great weekend, although a bit bizarre at time - the wedding , photos and reception all went quite well. might write more tomorrow - have to pack up and get outta dodge.