Oh Where is my Hair?

I'm sure most of the people who read this blog will have already experienced Matt sans long hair, but on the off chance that you have not yet... I shaved my head! (I didn't bic it however, that would be crazy.)

I should start at the beginning. I have mentioned that I am going on a missions trip to Jamaica with people from McKernan Baptist Church. It is going to be an awesome experience and I hope that we can spread the Good News of God's love to a bunch of people. Way back in January I had a crazy idea for a fund raiser and foolishly told my small group. I somehow committed to letting people bid on the privilege of shaving whatever they wanted into my head. Over the weekend at the College and Career Winter Retreat I started the bidding. Thinking that people wouldn't raise that much, and giving myself an out, I said I would not shave it unless $250 was raised total. Everyone surpassed my expectations (remember, these are poor college students and people just starting their careers) and raised over $500! They must have really wanted to see my lovely locks gone.

Matt Penner raised the most and therefore won the right to do what he wanted with my hair. He devised a plan involving hidden cards with the fate of my hair written on them. I chose card "C" and only had to loose a lock of hair! It was still scary however. When the deed was done however, the crowd wanted more. What happened next is difficult to write down; I may have suppressed the memory. Thankfully Cait recorded everything on tape and has made this video so I can relive the whole event. You can't tell, but my legs were shaking the whole time.



Here are some pictures of the final product:


Alicia's hand was shaved into my head...


My long hair in the back was left... however they shaved it up the middle...


Probably the best picture of the "hand" that I can find.


They made me wear it in pigtails for the first day. Oh, and that is Matt Penner on the right.

I called it the Red Sea Blessed Mullet for blessed business in the front and its parted party in the back. Part of the whole deal was that I had to keep my hair how they shaved it for a full week. My hair was shaved on Sunday morning which meant that I had to keep it that way until after church one week later. By the end of that week I absolutely hated the hair in the back. It drove me nuts. So, almost immediately after church I got my Mom to shave the rest off. To prove to everyone that I kept it for that whole week and didn't hide it under a toque all the time, I told people that I would take a picture every day with one of my profs at Taylor. Here are those pics.


This is Pat Fisher. She teaches most of the Leadership and Spirituality classes at Taylor. She is also my Academic Adviser because I am in the Leadership Emphasis (it's like a minor, but different because it requires work experience as well). She also attends McKernan where I work and worship. She wanted to feel my hair, so we took a picture of that. Both my classes with her have around 5 people on average. It is a weird and interesting dynamic. Pat has lots of quirks and I used to think that's all she was. Now I am starting to get past them and realize that God can and does speak through her. It is sorta cool I guess.


This is Ralph Korner. He teaches some higher level Religion courses at Taylor part time. He also used to be the Campus Pastor at Taylor. He is a great guy, a great teacher and a great example. And, apparently he wanted to give me bunny ears.


I told him we needed a picture of him "with his hand on the hand." We shared a moment as you can tell.


This is Nathan Kowalsky. We attempted to take a picture making weird faces. He looks like he is eying a delicious pie on the table and I look like I am trying to stop time a la Hiro or something. I think we both failed at the whole picture thing. But, I do have to rave about this prof too. He is teaching at St. Joseph's College at the U of A and teaches one class (Science and Religion) here at Taylor. He has two Masters degrees and a PhD and he is only like 30 or something. He is an amazing prof, incredibly knowledgeable yet still shows that he is continuing to develop his ideas. His classes always feature great discussion, although Taylor is making him have tests in his class and he doesn't want to. Last term grades were determined by papers alone and I loved it and learned a ton.

And I had to include this picture of him that he put up on his profile at St. Joe's.


He loves the outdoors and has told us about his "primitivist" leanings. For Halloween last year he came dressed like a hunter and wore a full bear pelt. I don't know many profs that would do that.


This is Brian Gold, or as most of his students call him, BG. The other guy is Jeremy Cook and BG wanted him in the picture because of his sweet suit. So I had to try and look badass. I don't think I am very good at it. BG is fairly hilarious in a weird way. He has spent a bunch of time in South Korea and is currently doing his PhD in a related field. He always has one class each semester where he requires his students to sing a song. One year he taught everyone a Korean kid's song with actions (he also taught that whole day like a Korean teacher would teach, and we had to act like we were students in Korea. It was memorable). Watching him sing in Korean and get really into the song was priceless. He also likes to put a chair on a table, sit on his "throne" and ask the class questions which correspond to participation marks. He also takes out all willing students to a authentic Asian restaurant where you all eat on the floor in a separate room, then everyone goes and sings Karaoke. I haven't went yet, but I have heard it is a blast.

So there's the story of how Matt lost his hair. It's a good one. Although I don't mind short hair, I really do miss the long hair. I probably would have cursed it in Jamaica though, so I guess it is a good thing. To truly grasp my feeling of horror the first time that I saw my hair, I tried to recreate my facial expression.

Later.

Sky Moments

I'm off to bed, but I thought I would quickly post this. I didn't have the greatest day today at all. I slept in through my alarm for over an hour, and was late to help make pancakes at church. I felt sick all morning (at least I wasn't coughing much at all) and was pretty dead by the time I left the church. I headed over to my parents place and slept on the couch for a couple hours. I had planned on getting a few things done tonight, but that never happened. I helped my brother and Dad put together some IKEA furniture, and I promised my brother that I would hook up his internet before I left. I crimped one cable wrong and it took me 20 mins to find the problem. Then, even though he could connect to the router fine and my parent's computer could connect to the internet fine, his computer refused to access the internet. I spent what felt like an hour in a futile attempt to find the problem. I left at midnight and headed for home.

On the way, I pulled over. I used to get out of my car, sit on the back and check out the stars if I was coming home late after a bad day. It sort of helped put stuff into perspective. Of course, once I moved into Edmonton, it was harder to really see the stars at night. So tonight I pulled over and asked God to let me really see the stars because I needed it. When I got out and looked up I was disappointed. I could see the big dipper, but it wasn't that impressive. I was about to get really depressed when I flicker of light caught my eye. I looked north and observed the coolest Aurora Borealis that I've seen in a long time. It was colourful and dancing around wildly. I needed it. God is good.

I tried to take some pictures, but they had died down by this time and you can't really see them. But, the show was for me anyways.





Like I said, God is good.

My New Nephew!

Go straight to Steve's blog here to check out some pics of Von Charles Barker!

Birthday Blogging!

So I'm 21 now. It's sorta awesome. I can now do some cool stuff that I couldn't... well it doesn't open up any real doors here in Canada... but in the States... wow, it lets me... gamble and drink. Hm. Not that amazing. But hey, it's cool because I say it is. I guess I don't feel any more like an adult than I did yesterday. Well, maybe that's not entirely true. A birthday causes you to look back on your past year, and I think I have become more like an adult, but in a good way. Lots of things have happened in the past year that have tested and molded me, and I think I am a better person because of it. I have no idea what the next year will hold, but I am excited. Let me fill you in on a couple things.

I am going on a missions trip to Jamaica during Reading Week (Feb 16-25) with McKernan Baptist Church. I am SO excited! There are about 20 of us going consisting mostly of college and career age people, most of which I know well. We are going to be helping at a boys home, a girls home, an AIDS Hospice and doing a VBS for three days. I can't wait to hang out with some cool kids and share Jesus' love with them. Maybe they can teach me some cool dance moves to go with our worship songs or teach me how to play cricket. But, overall, I think you can describe my mood as ecstatic!

*** Here begins a weird section of this post that you can just skip

Hmm... there was something else I wanted to inform you about... really, I'm drawing a blank. Um, you could check out some of the new features on my blog in the side bar. Yeah, right over there to the right. I updated a couple things, and tied in my last.fm profile as well.

You're done already? I guess there wasn't that much new. Um, could I tempt you with promises that I really am going to update my template soon? You don't believe me? Yeah, I guess you may be right, this site has been under construction for a long time... I'm sorry alright! Oh, and I really will post that entry on Creation soon. I will be attending a Denis Lamoureux lecture on evolutionary creationism that I want to add to my blog entry as well. That thing will be horrendously long by the time I finish it...

*** Back to reality

Ok. I am now tired and I want to go to bed. First off, Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! Secondly, Lori, you failed to have Von on my birthday. I was hoping for the best; he might have continued some strange birthday tradition or something. I can't wait until he is here. And in third place, I am waiting in anticipation for the weekend and the Winter Retreat. It should be a good birthday week.

Shalom!

PS I tried to add a photo of "welts" from last year's retreat but it would not work. I guess you will just have to use your imaginations.

Two things...

... that I wanted to throw up here. If you are wondering how my trip to Detroit to surprise Steve and Lori went you can check out the last post on Mike's blog here (also has a link to the video of us doing the "surprising"). School is good so far, my parents and brother will be moving into the Sherwood Park house this weekend and I can't wait for the C&C Winter Retreat. As for those two things...

One: My very short article for The C&C Courier for those of you who will be unable to check it out (at least I think that is what it is called, I have yet to see it).

And you thought the Bible was serious…

I’ve heard people say that they imagine Jesus hung out with the disciples like everyone else, telling jokes, pulling pranks and laughing. I’ve heard people say that God has a sense of humour, just look at the Platypus. Sometimes these statements are followed by that person wondering why there are no jokes in the Bible itself. I would say the Bible has lots of humour, you just have to look for it. Take Jonah for example. When is the last time you read it? It’s really not that long, and really a great story. And yes, I realize that using “story” makes you think fiction, yet to me it loses nothing from that interpretation. But, I digress. Jonah is a book of incredible extremes. Jonah sleeps during a storm crazy enough to make the mariners throw their cargo overboard, Jonah lived in the belly of a fish for three days and nights, Jonah gets vomited up, everyone in Nineveh repented, from King to cattle, and Jonah proclaims he would rather die when he sees God display mercy. It is quite the list. I read it and think, Jonah, are you serious? He seems slightly melodramatic. I’m comforted that God still has mercy on us when we are crazy, irrational and completely stubborn. So, next time you read something that strikes you as funny in the Bible, don’t be afraid to laugh, I’m sure God will join you.

Two: Before Christmas I compiled a mix cd from a bunch of indie music that I downloaded. It is just some songs that I liked from artists that I (mostly) haven’t heard of before. Check it out; expand your musical horizons and all that. It got a rave review from a friend (six out of five solar panels on David Suzuki’s scale of awesomeness!).

Can You Say Indie? Volume 1

1. Loop Duplicate My Heart – Suburban Kids with Biblical Names
2. Nothing in My Way – Keane
3. Oh Lately it’s so Quiet ¬– OK Go
4. Ooh La – The Kooks
5. Rainbow in the Dark – Tilly & The Wall
6. Live and Learn – House of Fools
7. Hoppipolla (Acoustic) – We Are Scientists
8. Swisha – Ratatat
9. The Sun Goes Down on Manor Road – The Wonder Stuff
10. Thinking of You – Molly Jenson
11. Take a Chance – The Magic Numbers
12. Whistle for the Choir – The Fratellis
13. Continents and Constellations – Sleep The Season
14. Do it Again Again – The Tyde
15. Gravitys Rainbow – Klaxons
16. I Wish That I Could See You Soon – Herman Dune
17. Get Behind Me, Santa – Sufjan Stevens
18. Just Stay – Kevin Devine
19. Imaginary Girl – The Bees
20. Welcome Home, Son – Radical Face

If you don't have any moral qualms with acquiring music without paying for it then I could be persuaded to burn you a copy of it. Can You Say Indie? Volume 2 should be coming out soon as well... Oh, and I should mention that some songs require you to dance while listening to them. Don't worry, it doesn't have to be anything major, but they can only be fully enjoyed while moving your body to the music.