Lest We Forget

Two thoughts come to mind after attending my small town’s Remembrance Day services this morning. One: the importance of studying the genealogies in the Bible. Two: the grief I feel over what we have already forgotten.

Part One: The Remembering

Let me start with a list entitled Honour Roll: Those Who Died in World War I and World War II. Feel free to scroll down past it for the explanation.

Westman Bible Conference: Last Inside Look

I am sorting the paperwork that’s accumulated over the year for Mr. President of the Board, filing it appropriately, making plans to organize it into a blueprint for the years ahead. Four days to go.

As I clean out the massive binder, I come across an old sheet from the spring where I had typed, “Conference Groundwork.”

We were so behind the eight ball. We missed networking with half the spring conference circuit, simply due to not even starting on this until the last week of March. We had no contacts, no plan, just an incubated dream and a couple of guys we knew would come speak.

The Underbelly of a Happy Life

Yesterday, we scrambled about the countryside, kids in tow, on conference-related missions, cramming in visiting with friends and family, trying to maintain connections with the life we otherwise have.

Dave played in the German band for an Oktoberfest night. I traversed the almost-trackless wastelands for an evening with the Carl Teichrib family. We mistakenly brought a movie that made their pre-teen daughter bawl, though all my kids love it. Like, not good bawling. Emotionally traumatized bawling. I felt so bad for her. I was that kid, once upon a time.

Westman Bible Conference: Insider Eye 2

So we’ve got our workflow for conference day laid out. For advice on that, we’re hugely thankful for the organizers of Christianity on Trial.

Lost in Space

Over the past week, we identified a minor communication issue between the sub-groups involved. Our board is communicating with the host church leadership, who are communicating with volunteers from among their congregation (we also bring our own cohort of volunteers to the table).

Our communication has been reasonably good, but it seems we’ve failed to stream a clear picture of the conference day through the channels to the volunteers churchside. More than one casual conversation this week has tipped me off to this. The main question is, “How long is the day?” My answer: “About 11 hours.” Their response: {stare of shock}

We don’t need people feeling all stressed out because they’re not sure how much is expected of them. That would not make me a happy or satisfied co-ordinator type person. So…

Resonant Chamber

This is my all-time favourite Animusic clip. I love the mechanics envisioned in this instrument as well as the composition that drives the CGI machine.

These guys have a massively diverse collection of these original pieces
available on DVD, and it’s like stepping into a whole other universe–one where machines and music somehow form the natural element. They also have lots available by podcast. More info on their process and their stuff is at Animusic.com.

Count ‘Em One By One

Time for another blessings-counting. Yes. That makes lots lately.

It’s worthwhile. There are times when life feels like a desert, or worse, an ongoing dark ugliness where it’s impossible to see even a glimmer of the light that cleanses one’s way.

I’ve been in Christ for nearly fourteen years now. I’ve seen deserts, strange ships that pass in the night, and dark ugliness. Woven throughout have been some of the most wonderful moments I never imagined.

I was baptized a week after trusting Christ. That was not one of those moments. I didn’t really know as much about it as I would have liked, which equals repressed terror in my world. Worse, as we were putting on those white robes down in a basement room, the other girl with me asked me to pray before we went upstairs.

Like, out loud? Um, me, the secular humanist? Pray? Woman, are you nutty?

American Idol Meets Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Here’s a press release from the only company I bother buying new books from anymore. MLP is highly innovative, not your run-of-the-mill cliche’d inspirational novels. We’ve seen dinosaurs in space, disembodied intellgences in android bodies, and by the way, this is how I first crossed paths with recurring Sc > Sc guest Marc Schooley, whose near-future dystopia The Dark Man was released by MLP this spring.

Marcher Lord Press is running an American-Idol style competition for sci-fi and fantasy. Can’t wait to see who’s invited to the party.

How to play: Sign up to the Anomaly forum here. You can always cancel it when you’re done.

Check out the Marcher Lord Select thread. You need to be signed in to do this.

Read below for the full explanation from publisher Jeff Gerke.

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Marcher Lord Select: A Revolution in Book Acquisitions

Marcher Lord Press, the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction, recently announced the debut of a revolution in fiction acquisitions.

“Marcher Lord Select is American Idol meets book acquisitions,” says publisher Jeff Gerke. “We’re presenting more than 30 completed manuscripts and letting ‘the people’ decide which one should be published.”

Westman Bible Conference Prep: Insider Eye 1

I realized the other day, in trying to be a calm and peaceful, supportive wife toward Mr. President of the WMBC Board, and totally failing, that I am experiencing a sort of repressed terror about the Bible Conference.

I’m on point, organizationally. I haven’t talked much about this because (A) it’s boring administrative stuff and (B) maybe after I’ve done it for a few years I’ll be able to speak to this kind of job, but I’m a total neophyte.

I must people-handle. I am terrified of this. I have a strong personality in much need of moderation, and I tend to use very direct statements that can be taken as abruptness, rather than an attempt at efficient problem-solving.

Happy 40th Birthday, Internet!

So it’s the internet’s 40th birthday. Well, somewhere around here. The other day, we heard a radio interview with Leonard Kleinrock, inventor of packet switching, on CBC Radio. It was cool.

So it turns out the Internet wasn’t an American military conspiracy to take over the world, it was a cost-saving measure to let a bunch of scientists share processing resources.

I know, sort of mundane and typical, but look what it did. It took over the world.

Jian Ghomeshi’s Q on CBC (48 minutes, the Internet’s up first of three items.)

[The Q Homepage]

Dr. Kleinrock talks about how they sent the first transmission in September 1969. As Jian puts it, they invented the internet AND the internet crashing, all in one day.

LO.

And here’s an appropriate song for the moment, of course.

We’ve come a long way from the summer of ‘69.

The Many Worlds of Books

Two or three times a week lately, it strikes me. My cup overfloweth.

With busyness, yes. We just did a quick volunteer meeting with our host church, and things are coming together nicely for the conference. But more than that. Something crumply, papery and priceless has leapt off the shelf and into my attention.

The Bringing of Books

At the same time, the serendipitous Randy’s dad and I have had a couple of great conversations about educational materials and bringing my generation together around the Bible. As it turns out, I know Mr. Brandt’s local relatives reasonably well. I spoke with him on the phone a couple of times about books, as he’s a book broker–or perhaps I should better say book-giver, as I strongly suspect he does as much giving as brokering, if not more. I have quickly developed a deep appreciation of the elder Mr. Brandt.

The Making of Books

This week, two good friends have offered me an insider look at partial manuscripts–one for critique, another simply for my own encouragement over a shared connection. So precious. I always feel a strong sense of privilege in sharing unpublished work. There’s something about it that’s deeper and more personal than a bound and cover-designed, finished product with its business suit on, so to speak. A pre-published manuscript is a book at home on a Saturday afternoon in its comfortable jeans, no formalities interfering with the visit we have together.

In the midst of this, I’ve got a deadline for getting my own writing act together, as Heather’s graciously agreed to crit Thor’s Kingdom for me starting in mid-January. I can’t think of a more suitable first reader–she even has a strong background in my research areas for this project. Sometimes these things just line up by the hand of God. I am blessed.

The Stewarding of Books

Tonight, while in our conference meeting, our four wild and unpredictable children sat quietly in a row of chairs outside the room with their library books, the netbook and Civ III. I did not hear a peep from them the entire time.

About those library books…we went into the local library, and the librarian served us coffee–made just for me and Dave–and cookies. I was so touched. Because we’re in from out of town and must be there across the dinner hour due to the kids’ evening classes, she allows us to eat our supper in the meeting room. I can go hibernate in that room with the netbook and make use of the free wi-fi. While able to hear myself type. Meanwhile, Dave will rack out on the couch just outside the door and snooze. And that’s cool with our librarian too.

The World of Books

To be a person of books in any capacity is to be a keeper of hearts, as our librarian is. As is a writer reaching out, or a critiquer reaching back. As is a kindly man bringing knowledge across the miles to those scattered hither and yon–hearts carefully wrapped in paper, dabbed with the rumpled inky marks of consideration, glued together by shared wisdom.

There’s no magic in ideas. They would waft away invisible, ceasing to exist, without a heart which holds them. That’s what books are: a backup heart for when ours fails, or passes on to the next world; and God Himself is an Author. We can store a travelling soul’s cache of sustenance here, within the many worlds of books.