What For? (Only Mr. God Knows)

Since moving to Europe, I’ve become a fan of a yearly event called EuroVision where each country in Europe sends a singer/band to represent them and then there’s a live vote.  Kinda like American Idol or Pop Idol or Deutschland Sucht Ein Superstar or whatever Idol  is playing in your country however this has been going on for decades.  Remember the group ABBA : this was their break way back when.  Anyway, I’m hooked on this event every year and I’ll stay up until 2 AM to watch it all as there’s pre-show shows and post-show shows and everything.  Its kinda become my SuperBowl.  So being a little sick today I’ve decided to do something brain dead and started to watch the videos of all the entries to start selecting who I’m going to root for in the actual contest.  That’s when I came across Latvia’s entry – What For? (Only Mr. God Knows).  Here’s an excerpt of the lyrics (click here for all the lyrics):

What for are we living?
What for are we crying?
What for are we dying?
Only Mr God knows why
What for are we living?
What for are we dreaming?
What for are we losing?
Only Mr God knows why
But his phone today is out of range

People in Europe are wondering what their purpose is and believe that God is not around any more to answer the questions.  This is why we are here.

[Not seeing the video above - go here to view it on Youtube.com]

Travel Facts

I use a website called TripIt.com to help me manage my travel arrangements.  It works great and I highly recommend it.  I’ve been a member of the site since April, 2008 and I just took a look at some of the stats for my trips since then:  a total of 20 trips with 168 days away from home and going for 60,870 km (37,822 miles) to 34 cities and 17 countries.  Now this doesn’t include all of my trips especially the ones I drove to or to cities within the country once I got there.  Now for some of you road warriors out there, I know this doesn’t seem like much but I have to say, I was a little impressed with myself.  Not bad for two years. Let’s see what the next two years brings.

Microsoft’s Skinput – the future?

The idea is that there’s sensors in an arm band that pick up low frequency sounds (inaudible to human ear) so that you when you tap different parts of your arm, it “sounds” different and so the computer knows where you hit and can act appropriately.  Totally cool but think about the implications – we could use this for helping handicap people to use computers.  What other ways do you think this could be used beyond the typical “coolness” factor?

Check out the full article at http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/19/microsoft.skinput/index.html?hpt=C1

Pray For Poland

[This is an email from our GEM president asking for prayers for Poland during this time - please join us]

On Saturday April 10, 2010, the people of Poland awoke to the devastating news that the presidential jet had crashed. The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, was killed, along with his wife Maria. In addition, the crash claimed the lives of senior government figures, senators and representatives of Poland’s parliament, senior members of Poland’s military, and various religious leaders. The loss to Poland’s government and culture is incalculable.

The plane was on the way to a commemoration service for those killed in the forests of Katyń in early 1940. At that time, members of the Soviet Security Service murdered over 20,000 of Poland’s military leadership and intelligentsia. That event has long been a contentious issue in Polish-Russian relations. This present tragedy is now forever linked with the tragedy of 1940.

Greater Europe Mission asks you to join us as we pray and extend our hearts to the people of Poland in their time of grief and loss.

• Pray that Prime Minister Donald Tusk and acting President Bronisław Komorowski would rely on God’s wisdom in reconstructing the government.
• Ask God to fill the governmental positions with qualified and competent people who desire to do His will.
• Ask God to draw the Polish people to Himself through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
• Pray that this event would not aggravate the already fragile Polish-Russian relationship.

Thank you for joining with us in prayer for Poland – a vital and influential country in Europe. We share with you the confidence that God desires the best for Poland and its healing as a nation. Psalm 91.

Best Regards,

Henry Deneen
President
Greater Europe Mission

Political Incorrectness pt 2

I went to the doctor yesterday about some problems I’ve been having with my shoulder.  After a fairly quick examination, the doctor thinks that I have tendinitis in my shoulder and prescribed some pills and some physical therapy.  I should be back to normal soon.

However, when I got my prescription filled and looked at the box of pills, I was wondering if the doctor was trying to say something about me.  After all, he prescribed me   Retardtabletten .   I honestly burst out laughing when I saw that.

In all seriousness, Retardtabletten just means that they are SLOW dissolving tablets.

[Ok, I know this is politically incorrect to joke about and I'm in no way implying anyone other than myself is retard in this situation.]

Recent Conversations

The other day while Krista & I were going for a walk:

K:  The grass is growing and green.

Me:  Yep.

K: The trees are getting leaves and the flowers are blooming.

Me: Yep

K: I think spring is here.

Me: and so are the allergies (awwwcheeeewwww!)

(Update:  Woke up to our car having frost all over it so I guess mostly spring is here)

Alex and I the other day after I was getting him to do some chores around the apartment:

A:  Why do you always ask me to do all this stuff?  I’m just a kid.

Me:  Why do you think I had a child?

Political Incorrectness

When you travel around the world there are times you’re going to see things that are politically incorrect from where you come from but not for the location you are in.  Like in some places, it perfectly fine to ask someone how much they weigh (or even guess for that matter) but you wouldn’t ask them their first name as you have to wait for that information because its personal.  You’ll also sometimes see things you wouldn’t think you’d see like in a record store the label “Black Music” (not a translation – it was in English) for the Hip-Hop/Rap music or like, in the picture to the right, that when literally translated is “Black Man’s Chocolate” as it’s a dark chocolate.  Political Incorrectness is something that is regional – not necessarily international so it’s always good to try to understand the local culture as asking for someone’s first name could be like calling someone a bad name.