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I recently went to Toronto to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Most times when I told people who I was going to see in concert I got really weird looks. They’re kind of hard to explain, but I’ll try to put it into context. Take 1980s hair metal, a string symphony, gospel singing, James Earl Jones type narration, a pyro/light show that rivals anything Kiss has put together and add some egg-nog throw it all in a blender and serve it in a tall glass that is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

After the 3 hours of non-stop music, face melting guitar solos, keyboard duels, rock opera singing, fireworks I officially declared it the best concert I have ever been too. I was fairly excited to go see them, but I was not expecting the show to completely rewrite what a concert should be like in my mind. They put on a show, and did it with class, flash and style.

If you ever get a chance to see them live, take the time, spend the $60 for tickets and GO. I’m definitely going to be returning next year when they do their annual tour. It is an experience every person who likes music should enjoy. The crowd was very eclectic, there was every type of person there. You had the young rocker with long blond hair, a Jack Daniels shirt and a beer in his hand, you had grandma and grandpa sitting quietly in-front of us, you had ma & pa and the 2.8 kids, and everything else in between. This really was a show for the masses, I believe it’s something everyone could enjoy.

I hope they decide someday to put out a DVD, because I would be the first in line to buy it. If you haven’t given them a listen or have never heard of them pick up one their Christmas albums and make it part of your collection. You will not regret it.

A comparison of the first years of the Nintendo GameCube and the Wii. Spoiler: Nintendo learns from the mistakes it made with the GameCube, and comes out swinging.
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Wow it’s been a year already since the Wii has been released. How far has the little console that could come? Well for one it now has the top rated game of all time in it’s title list. That is no small feature to accomplish. I’ve owned one from launch day and I’ve played it more in the last two weeks then I had for months. There is a list of games about 10 long that I’d like to pick up and play, but my gaming time isn’t abundent right now either.

If you can find a Wii, I’d recommend you pick it up and give it a try. Now that companies are finding ways to use the controller and it doesn’t feel as gimmicky the enjoyment of playing with it is increasing. Now only if they could work on their online play and add some downloadable content (ala 360) they would be unstopable in the short term.

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I just finished setting some of my trip pictures to music. So here it is:

I’m in a situation in my life where I find myself in a weird paradox of sorts. In my current job I feel I’m very overqualified for what I do on a daily basis. I’ve been doing essentially the same thing for over 3 years now in total and have grown as an employee very little. But yet I don’t feel that I have the skills to make the next jump either. I’m also at a loss over what to do about it.

So what do I do to make the next leap? How do I improve myself when I’m working 40 hours a week at an office job that does not push me, 10 hours a week as a Youth Director at a church which does stretch me but there is a sense of comfort in it. Add on having a family, a dog, and a house to take care of and the weekly hockey game for exercise and there is little room left for self improvement.

I teach myself a lot. I consider myself someone who is a jack of all trades, but a master of none. I feel that if I put my mind to something I can teach myself to a point of adequacy but not to expertise. I’ve done this with a lot of different things from guitar to oddly enough yo-yos. I picked it up, taught myself enough to be better than an average, but not good enough to make anything of it. But again, I come back to what do I teach myself and where do I find the time to do it?

I’ve had people tell me that I have the skills to start my own company. I know that it would push me, I would love working for myself and I know that I could be fairly successful at it. But what does someone with my resume do? Do I need a simple yet magnificent idea? Like the One Red Paper clip guy or the Million Dollar home page guy? I’m not looking to invent the next youtube (two guys came up with at a party), google(two guys in a garage) or facebook(one guy in his dorm room) out of my basement. I don’t want to be a millionaire, money only brings problems. I would be content to make the same I am now, just doing it on my own and setting my own schedule.

I just hope a light bulb goes off in my head sometime soon, I know I have the smarts to take an idea and turn it into something. But then there is always the “In the Beginning” problem. Where do I begin?

For years I’ve sang the lyrics to “The Joy of the Lord”, a song that I have essentially memorized due to the countless times I’ve heard it. It wasn’t until my recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo that I really understood what those words meant. Two years ago this month a friend of mine came to a church I was attending in Calgary and challenged the congregation to start really caring about the world. He flashed startling statistics on the projector that had to do with AIDS patients dying, kids starving to death, the sort of stuff that makes you extremely uncomfortable in your chair because you know that you’re probably 50lbs over weight and spend ridiculous amounts of money on a lot of stupid stuff.

The lord spoke to me that day, because I was the one uncomfortable in the chair, I was the one 50lbs overweight looking into the eyes of a starving child, I was the one spending money on stuff I didn’t need. So what was I going to do about it? I approached my friend who had done the presentation and was just recently back to Canada after spending some time in South Africa setting up his AIDS non-profit. I asked him if I could go and visit him for a bit and help out. I’ve always wanted to go to Africa, and this seemed like right thing to do. I was pumped, I was going to help people! Then two months later he died, the man who I credit for help shaping my life died. He had a heart attack in his sleep at 40 years old and his first child was only 3 months from being born. My trip was promptly cancelled. I had very little joy, my uncomfortableness wore off, and life went on.

It wasn’t until this January that the thought of returning to Africa even crossed my mind. Another friend of mine who I hold in similar regard approached me about going to the Congo with him in a few short months. My only understanding of what the Congo was, was from movies about jungles and gorillas, so we talked endlessly about everything that he had experienced there on his previous trips. So, after a little contemplation I decided to take him up on the offer to go. After having our trip postponed due to tension in the country we finally were able to go in September. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but after that first drive through the capital city of Kinshasa my eyes were opened. Opened to the reality of what a large majority of the world lives in. Kinshasa is a city of 10 million people, 85% of them do not have jobs. Within the last few years the city has mushroomed in size due to military clashes in the East, along the Rwandan border. This has put enormous strain on a city that was under a lot of pressure already from various conflicts over the years.

A few days into my trip, I was sitting in a home of one of the families that we were involved with during my stay. They wanted to give me a gift, so they asked me what I wanted to take home with me as a reminder of what I had seen there. I told them the people. I have been all over North America and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve run into people that were as full of the Joy of the Lord as they were. Amongst struggling to find work, taking care of their families, doing ministry, constant threat of war, they loved the Lord and they were happy about it. Every single time I would see them, even if it was just earlier that day I was greeted with a huge smile, a warm handshake and the conversation was rarely far from a good laugh. I went there to help them with agriculture, and they showed me what it meant to have the joy of the Lord as my strength.

I got a chance to sit down and talk to a man who had to walk 500km over a period of 3 weeks to flee a war that hit the city of Brazzaville a few years ago. He had a smile on his face the whole time he told me this story. He loved the Lord, he got his daily strength from God, and he was full of joy.

Romans 1:21 (ESV) “For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

That scripture is exactly where I was not long ago. I knew God, but I did not honour him, and I did not give him thanks. So my thinking became futile and my heart was darkened. It is my prayer that a day does not go by that I do not thank God, for today is the day the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in him. Am I suggesting that you need to go Africa to find God’s joy? No, but start in the small things. The next time you sit down to eat and pray for your meal, take the time to really thank God for your food. The next time you drive to work and the guy in front of you goes 60 in a 90, use that extra time to thank the Lord for the beautiful day he made. And when you are having a hard time in whatever situation life throws at you, remember the joy lord will be your strength.