10.1 ... well, almost done

I got some great footage in New Brunswick for my documentary and I've decided to make it feature length, so I'm going to get a bit more this fall. Hopefully, the movie will be done by the spring.

12.0 Course Done

This was done ages ago, I just kind of abandoned this blog. Oh well. 

It was a really eye opening course. I discovered that micro-financing and micro-economic development are not the cure all development tools that they are sometimes presented to be. They can be very useful, but also tremendously damaging. In a sense, they are a little like a capitalistic export - remembering that capitalism is not ALL bad (just mostly).

11.0 Car is a go! and new 12

-Ended up that I didn't need a recharge on my A/C, the mechanic had disconnected something. 

-Got an oil change from a young feller from Winnipeg. It took a while because of some big plastic sheet that covers the bottom of my car that they had to reinstall.

-After months without music in my car, I got the code from an Audi dealership just up the road from me here in Calgary - for free!! I didn't get the code from the people I gave $50 to in Red Deer who also disconnected my A/C and lost my lugnut key inside my hubcap...

I need a thing 12. That thing will be: Finish my course on micro-finance and micro-enterprise development in the 2/3 world.

10.0 Got the footage & New 11

As I can no longer get a timelapse sunrise because I am no longer in Guatemala, I change #10 to "Get the rest of the footage needed for my Goat documentary." And since I've got it all... Done.

The next thing is getting my car on the road. It's on the road, but it needs an oil change, an A/C recharge, and the code to get the stereo out of safe mode. All of this costs money and I hate spending money (especially when it means giving it to mechanics).

7.1 Recommencing Now

This isn't working. Gotta start over. Only went for 2 days. Crunch. Crunch.

It's not the desire that's lacking, it's the knowledge of that desire each day. Gotta make a banner or something.

7.0 let the crunching begin

I've been avoiding these five things long enough. It's not as though I don't want to do them, it's more a I'm too tired and lazy thing - plus there were the holidays, a visit from my sister-in-law, a flurry of deadlines, a visit from my sister, and a 12 day vacation to Belize and Mexico.

Tonight, (as a part of my colon cleanse - exciting I know) I begin working on my abs. No goals, just 2 or 3 sets to exhaustion each morning or evening.

1.1 & 9.0 Foreign Languages

I finally sat down and cracked the code. It turns out that all 8 of the perfect tenses are just repeats of the other 8 + habido. Nice. And several of them are related in how they are written too (like the imperfect and conditional only differ by an R). So then I just had to memorize 6 sets of 6 and voilá! ¡Lo he terminado!



Thing 9 is to learn the 319 Greek words that appear 50 times or more in the New Testament, accounting for 80% of all the words in the New Testament (there are still over 5000 other different words that account for the last 20%, but hey! it's a start). This selection of 319 words was selected by a guy named William Mounce.

I'm gradually writing these words out on flipchart paper that I recently acquired and I'm going to display the sheets in my shed where I keep my goat milking supplies (feed, work clothes, rubber boots), so I'll just review 10-12 of them each morning. I'm finding that many of the words are quite easy as they already are roots of many English words. And then proper names are straight forward too. The articles and conjunctions are the tricky ones. Here's a sampling of some words you should recognize:

ego, kardia, kosmos, logos, pneuma, ergon, prophetos, phone, aggelos, anthropos, apostolos, amen

8.0 Backed-up: DONE

And finally, I'm not referring to the toilet.

I tend to procrastinate when it comes to backing up files. Which is really bad because we'll probably get robbed again and this time they'll probably take my computer. And if they take my external hard drives I'll be really screwed.

The reason I usually procrastinate is because it takes 90 minutes to transfer the 103.44 GB (about 155,000 files) of my home folder to one of my firewire drives. It's 73% music and 17% photos.

Let me digress here for a second. I don't keep any videos on my computer, they are all either backed up on DVD-Rs or on external HDs. And I have 6 other photo libraries on other HDs too because I can't fit everything on my computer. Life is hard. I need a new iMac with 1 TB harddrive. Right?

3.1 Cross of Christ: Read

One of my five ongoing books is now done. I was stalled a bit by the 4 week distance course I took when there was only 50 pages left. I finished the last 20 pages today.

The book itself is very good. John Stott offers an incredible knowledge with a tremendously wide scope of reference. There is much to be learned as virtually every possible angle regarding the central symbol of Christendom is exposed. Though I should probably read it again to do it justice, I think I have a much firmer grasp on how the Cross should be central in my own life.

2.1 Sarabande: learned and performed

Without further ado...



I'm not terribly pleased with this performance as I change tempo 1/4 of the way through, but it was my best take. Oh, and I was messing with Final Cut Pro, explaining the crazy visuals.

On to other things.

Inactivity Theme

To follow Joel and Petra (and most of your fivers), it may appear that I am not doing anything, but that would be sort of inaccurate.

I haven't been too active. For instance, I had to look at my blog again to remember that I had planned to learn the verb HABER. I haven't been studying.

I have 35 pages left in The Cross of Christ, so I'll be posting an update soon on that, but only after I finish my distance course in a week and a half.

I've learned the Sarabande, it's just too cold to play; my fingers and joints get very stiff. Plus I want to film it and post it on the site.

Crunches... Um. I've been doing push-ups every few days to maintain the ability to do 50 in one shot. That feels awesome.

The screenplay hasn't been touched, but I've been filming and working on some of the special effects. I haven't said anything about this have I? The title is For What it's Worth, Milk a Goat. It is about the benefits of reconnecting with nature and supplying our own needs.

That's five, right?

2.0 Sarabande - Lute Suite BWV 995

I've chosen this as the piece I will learn for thing 2. Classical guitar was my major during my first year of university. Then I changed majors because my hands hurt and I was tired of practicing 2 hours a day. Now I miss it.

This thing is one tiny step towards achieving Life Goal #19. There are 30 movements (Preludes, Gigues, Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Gavottes, Bourées, Fugues, Doubles, Allegros, Loures, and Minuettes) in 7 suites (2 are just single movements). And so far, I have only learned one other movement.











This piece is actually a bit tricky fingering-wise. Rhythm is easy. The melody travels a lot and I've got to mute some of the bass notes as they are only supposed to last 1 beat.

I'll post a little YouTube video of it when I've masted the Sarabande, then you can all renaissance dance to it.

4.4 Iron Pecs - DONE

My daily email reminders from my calendar program always ended up in the junkmail folder. The good thing is that I was preoccupied about receiving the mail, so I'd always check to see where it went.

• I didn't miss a day (30)
• I did a couple sets like 5 times, but general one to exhaustion
• My maximum in one set was 62

For Adam's viewing pleasure:





I can't see much difference in the photos. You really have to cup the pectoral muscle in your hands.

Now the abs...

4.3 Half way there

I've managed to stay focused and do my pushups for 15 days now. I'm not doing multiple sets - just one to exhaustion. When I began my first attempt on September 1, the most I could crank out was 20. Now I've reached 40. Hopefully I'll be able to reach 60 or70 by the end.

5.0 Adoption not a possibility

So, I spent an hour this morning doing some research and talking to some good folks (Adoption Alberta, Immigration Canada) about the process. Sort of what I expected, but I had to confirm.

We were thinking of adopting an abandoned Guatemalan baby - not a particular one, there are always lots. Sadly, the baby trade is a very very corrupt one in Guatemala and only the USA recognizes adoptions from Guatemala - not one single other country recognizes Guatemalan adoptions, including Canada. We were in a unique situation where we could adopt very easily and inexpensively in Guatemala as residents of this country. The problem is the process that would follow...

1. become qualified foster parents in Guatemala with intention to adopt
2. get custody of baby
3. go through 6 month adoption process and get Guatemalan papers
4. apply to sponsor the child in Canada without endorsement from any Canadian province
5. get the sponsorship rejected on grounds that the adoption isn't certifiably legal
6. appeal the process with tons of letters of reference, MP intervention, and immigration lawyers until it goes through, though the more often you appeal, the less credibility you have.
7. hopefully get to return to Canada with the toddler.

We are only looking at another 10 months here, so... nope, not gonna happen here. Bunch of corrupt fools have wrecked it for a lot of children.