Saturday, February 03, 2007

Isaiah 26:8

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

?

If I was put on trial for being a Christian,
would there be enough evidence to convict me?

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Printing Presses (and the woes of getting lost)

I'm in this English class -- Book History. That sounds really boring. But it's NOT. I have a great Prof, and he decided to take us on a field trip to a printing press.

I didn't know this, but there is, in Edmonton, a real printing press, where you have to hand set the words, and actually turn out the prints.



SO, yesterday night, I got in my truck, and proceded to drive down to 10309 97st. I looked at my map, but I wasn't totally sure where I should park, or what I was specifically looking for. Someone should have told me that it was next to Uncle Ed's Pawn Shop in the ghetto.....



To make a long story short, I had some problems turning left. And then, before I knew it, I was down the hill, and going across the low-level bridge. (ooops... the low-level bridge is nowhere near where I wanted to be) SO, I decided to turn around and go down 98th ave. Except there's that funny exit you have to make if you want to go west instead of east....


Yeah. I forgot that.


So here I am, at about 5:52 (I'm supposed to be there at 6:00), freaking out on my cell to Robbyn, and driving AWAY from downtown.



Anyway. I pulled a u-turn, went back the way I came, and ended up at the right spot, only a couple of minutes late.



I was excited for this "field trip", but I was not expecting it to be this cool. The lady who helped us, Theresa, (http://www.snapartists.com) told us the general gist of it, and then we got to try it.



We picked a tray of letters in a certain font, and had to set them. Now, this is harder than you think, because the letters are upside-down, and backwards. You actually have to think.



(If you look at the picture to the right, that's a composing stick. The top of the page starts at the bottom left hand corner.) You can only compose three or four lines at a time, depending on how big your font is.





It took an hour or more for each of us to write 2 or 3 lines, and get it all in order and ready to print.





I have to say that I have a much bigger appreciation for old books, and how hard it used to be to acquire them. I can't imagine printing books, upside-down, backwards, 3 lines at a time, and then turning the press by hand for 100 copies.

It was a very cool experience.



~~
pictures.from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_type

Monday, January 22, 2007

Surprise

I opened a "letter" this morning from official people who give out money. I thought it was some sort of "confirm your attentance at this institution" form.

But it was money. Yup. It was a scholarship. A nice cheque.

What a wonderful Monday surprise. It just goes to show that God takes care of me, even when I'm not watching. A great balance to the stresses of last week & the weekend.

I love how God encourages me, even when other parts of life are hard.

SURPRISE!

Monday, January 15, 2007

the woes of monday

Mondays are not cool for me. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I HATE them, but it might be close. Especially at 6:30am, when my alarm goes off so I can come to school for a class that's been cancelled.
Fun stuff.

I've now been up for 3 hours, had coffee, and gotten over the fact that I have to wait 3 hours for my next class. BUT, let me tell you another woe of Monday:

As I got to the LRT station today, I realized (once again) how much I dislike people who can't PARK THEIR CAR.

When parking in a parking lot, one needs to make sure there isn't half a car width between you and the next guy. This will make sure that there is room for everyone. It also helps if you're straight, instead of crooked.

I really dislike driving around, and around, and around, and around, looking for a spot, just because some people are too "special" to park properly. Just because the lines are covered with snow, that DOESN'T MEAN that the lines are GONE.

On a completely unrelated note: it was a very beautiful morning this morning. As I was driving, the sun was coming up, and coloring the sky amazing shades of pink and gold, and the smoke from the houses was hanging in the sky.

How pretty.
Such a good reminder to let that other stuff, the stuff that doesn't matter, go.