To be a teacher.

Alright, so as many of you all know I am studying to be a teacher, and hope to have my B Ed eventually. In Louises Ed classes one thing we were taught to do was to deal with classroom distractions and try to work around them, or perhaps even incorporate them into our lesson. This is one distraction that I would never have seen coming and would have no clue how to deal with:

"A pupil at a Nottingham school had his drama class interrupted when he was sent a strippogram for his birthday.
It is believed the parents of the pupil at Arnold Hill School booked a singing telegram as a 16th birthday surprise, but got the strippogram by mistake.

The stripper, who was dressed as a policewoman, performed her act in front of the Year 11 class.

Education chiefs are investigating the "highly inappropriate incident" which took place on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire County Council said no-one had been suspended and the police had not been called.

She said: "We and the school are investigating the situation.""

A great quote

I have been reading Frankenstien, which, by the way is entirely different than the movie, and came across this quote, I thought it was amazing, especially given my current situation of doing six classes and working 20-30 hours per week. I must have read it three or four times to take it in and underlined it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

“A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule, if the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can posssibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind if this rule were always observed; if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquility of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country; America would have been discovered more gradually; and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed."

~ Dr. Frankenstein

What's your iTunes top 25

New Apartment

Okay, so I am finally moved in to my more permanent residence, I was living up on Cumberland up by central park (aka sketchville) for a while, (15 days) and witnessed such things as random people selling a carton of cigarettes singly to passers by, people peeing on trees at twelve noon, and also a gang meeting or two. I usually just pretended to talk on my cell phone or something as I walked by the park. Now however, I am living with Sarah Livesey, on Edmonton St. by the Legislature, and it is an amazing apartment/condo, my bedroom is huge and so is the balcony (perhaps we will run a few plays for passers-by on the street). I still have yet to find out what switch activates which lights and which plugs, and I also need to get a few items, lamps etc. but overall I am thrilled. The only thing I can complain about, though it is also kind of humourous, is the shower. It is so incredibly powerful. I just got out of it and I feel like I just survived a monsoon/hurricane, the wind it creates from the mad rush of water entering the room is enough to make my shower curtain fly about like Marilyn Monroe's skirt in Seven Year Itch and the water comes out so fast I swear it can cause bruising. Though it does make me clean. All in all I am quite happy about my new place :)

It Has Been A While

Well, I am currently sitting in Starbucks on Osborne with my laptop waiting for a friend and I thought I would use the wait time to update readers on how my summer was and what my plans for the year are and other etceteras. First, I am no longer an involuntary lifer as my previous entry states, everything worked out with Prov and I will be able to get my TESOL certificate this April and also finish my degree at the UofM. If you want to know more about how the situation worked itself out though you are going to have to ask me in person.

As far as what I did this summer, I worked with two special needs youth one of them is my brother and another was a client in Gimli that I was with last summer too. I must say that this job is absolutely my favourite job! I don't know of many other jobs where one can make twelve dollars an hour to go to IMAX or the beach or to play super smash brothers. Though don't misinterpret this, there is a lot of work behind the scenes going on trying to help my client to live as normal a life as possible, and I also had to be a math tutor and language teacher and other such things. My highlight of the summer though was my last day of work. The mother of the child I worked for wanted me to take him and his friend go-karting, needless to say I was a bit skeptical of the day being a fun day. There was also a 30% chance of thunderstorms in Winnipeg that day, our backup plan was to go to IMAX and watch a movie or two. My client really did not want to go go-kart racing and really wanted to go to IMAX and so the whole way to Winnipeg he was like "Justin I see clouds... Justin it is going to be too rainy for go-karts" I kind of wanted to give in to his desire to go to IMAX, but I knew that I could only do that if it rained. We finally arrived at thunder rapids, (the go kart place) and I went in and bought eight tickets (good for two go kart races a round of mini-golf and bumper boats). I suddenly realised that they had passenger karts, where a driver and passenger could sit side by side, I was relieved and took him in that and showed him the gas and the brake and then how to steer, I handed the wheel over to him and he drove decently until his friend drove by and he started trying to swerve into him, and then into the walls... we finished that round of go-karting then did bumper boats and a round of mini-golf, and then I got a call from his mom asking how the day was going, I told her what we had done so far and she then asked me if my client had gone on the kart by himself, and no I told her that it was a passenger car and I got him to steer a bit. Then she said what my greatest fear was, "I want him to have a try doing it himself." Normally letting special needs children do things by themselves is not too bad because their aide can jump in and help them or pull them out of the activity if it is too hard. I say normally because this time there would be five race track employees who are supposed to deal with any problems which happen on the track, and there was an eight foot fence around the track and a locked gate designed to keep it that way.
I worked up the courage in my heart and gave my client the "rules of the track"

1. No hitting other cars on purpose!
2. No hitting the walls on purpose!
If you do either you have to restart your timer. (the timer is basically a positive reinforcement tool which allows my client to be able to trade in tokens which he gets every time the timer is finished for either TV. computer or money, or various other things)

It was only two rules, pretty easy to follow, I got him to repeat them back to me and then after I knew that he knew the rules I walked him to his kart. We were having seat belt issues because my client was sitting on the buckle so I had to call a race track attendant over to help, I didn't want them to know that my client was special needs because I didn't want them to not allow him to race which surely could have happened, so I just got them to quickly tell me what to do to fix it and then I got him buckled in. He was first in line and almost drove off immediately way before the light turned green. I said "wait till it starts" and "good luck" and then was escorted out by a race track worker to wait behind the gate. The race began and I watched my client start to drive, all by himself! he had a bit of a slow start, but he did a perfect job, all the way through the track. He finished the race, and I kind of half expected him to get out of the car immediately even though everyone has to wait for the okay from the race track officials, and he did wait. Though when he was allowed to get out he was the fastest up and shouted "I DID IT JUSTIN, NO RESTARTS! FIRST PLACE FOR ME!!!! AND TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS IN PRIZE MONEY!!!" I was so happy. . . . and I admit, I cried a little bit, and I am even now remembering it, but it was definitely my best memory of the summer. And proof that with a little training a child with autism can do anything, even drive!

~Justin

Involuntary Lifer!

lifer |ˌlaɪfər|
noun
1 informal a person serving a life sentence in prison.
2 a person who spends their life in a particular career,
3 (Providence Definition) one who spends their entire life at Providence College and Seminary

Well, I was on the phone with the University of Manitoba today and asked if I could get a course calendar. I have not received mine yet and really need one to find out how to register and what courses I want to register for, and graduation requirements etc. They said that they needed to wait to get the final grades from my summer courses until I could get the information and have everything finalised. Because I took the summer TESOL program at Prov which really is not a summer program, but stretches until next April I told them that my final grades would not be available until then. (I have practicum requirements to fill which will probably take until then). I was then put on hold only to be told that they would have to call me back. When they did call back they told me that they had revoked my status as a University of Manitoba student and that because I was still technically enrolled at Providence. I would have to remain at Providence for another year or request a letter of permission from them to be able to take classes at the U of M and have them count towards my degree at Prov. I don't know what this really means for me yet, I don't really want to be a Prov student, but I do know that I will have to remain a providence Student for yet another year. I wonder if I even get a university of manitoba student card... because that is where I will be doing all of my classes.

I don't even know what this will mean for my student loans.

Overall mood: Pensive, apprehensive, anxious and aggravated.

I just want to get all of this sorted out.

Continuation on a Theme

Okay, in response to the comment in which I am told that I “seem to ignore the number of times He [Jesus] refers to Himself as God”, I have decided to write this entry.

In the course Jesus and the Gospels, A class by Michael Gilmour I had last year, I was taught that scholars today pretty much unanimously believe that The Gospel of Mark was the first of the Gospels to be written, though it was not completely written by one author, and instead was edited together from multiple sources. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke then copied Mark and other documents, constructed their own gospels soon after. Finally John was written quite a while later. Interestingly enough, in these books the focus on Jesus as a man to Jesus as a divine figure shifts progressively in chronological order, Mark treating Jesus as entirely human and the others progressively focussing more on the divinity of Christ In Mark Jesus refers to himself as solely as the son of Man, only in the other gospels does he refer to himself as “Son of God” or divine, though really even if he does call himself the “Son of God”, Christians today call themselves “sons and daughters of God”, making it not really any different, at least from my perspective. Another thing which deserves pointing out, is that in the Gospel of Mark (10:18) Jesus actually makes a point to make sure that he is not seen as divine/God by the people. When someone comes to him kneels and asks him “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds “Why callest thou me ‘good?’ There is none good but One, that is God.” (sorry for the antiquated English, I am quoting from the KJV). So it seems that Jesus really did not view himself as the same as God, and that the “divinity of Christ” really did not come about until later within Christianity.

The phenomenon of great people becoming deified is quite a common occurrence, Gandhi, who died fairly recently 1948, has a following people believing he was divine, as does Mother Teresa, and she passed away much more recently. To me this illustrates that it is entirely possible that a similar thing could happen in Jesus’ day. The individual, (Jesus, Mother Teresa, Gandhi) know they are not divine, however because of the things they accomplished people begin to think they are, and they develop a cult following. And really since Jesus didn’t write anything, how can we know what he truly thought of himself. The only difference between these recent movements and Jesus is that his has had nearly 2000 years to develop.

Another interesting story worthy of mention is that of Shabbetai Zevi whose life is actually quite similar to that of Jesus’ and also has a sect of Judaism which thinks he is divine, (for more information on this sect see http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~slocks/asym/zevi.html, which is a direct quotation of Karen Armstrong’s A History of God).

Take the above for what it is worth, but really I have trouble believing that Jesus believed himself to be divine, I do believe that he believed in God, I would say that is obvious and a result of the culture he grew up in. I would not however say that belief in God or the divinity of Christ is necessary to work towards the goals he had for society. This is also shown by Reimarus (1694-1768), who “argued that Jesus had simply wanted to found a godly state. . . . He point[s] out that in the Gospels Jesus never claimed that he had come to atone for the sins of mankind. That idea, which had become central to Western Christendom, could only be traced to St. Paul, the true founder of Christianity. We should not revere Jesus as God, therefore, but as the teacher of a “remarkable, simple, exalted and practical religion” (Karen Armstrong 307).

As final thoughts I would like to quote my textbook from Jesus and the Gospels written my Craig Blomberg, which states: “Historically, the church’s doctrine of Scripture has almost always stressed that it is only the contents of the original manuscripts that are authoritative, inspired, or inerrant.” And yes I know that the whole New Testament is viewed as authoritative, inspired, and inerrant, but I would challenge this saying that it seems evident that details about Jesus and his nature evolved over time, and so I think it is safe (though heretical I realise from a Christian perspective) to not trust the validity of much of the New Testament, because much of it is based on a Paul-originated theology and christology instead of a Christ-initiated teaching.

Lastly, I know that my thoughts on the bible and Christianity and all of these things will not be easily accepted by Christians, and I don’t necessarily believe that they should be... because... (this is probably something better thought and kept silent than typed and published, but I am going to type it anyway, ) I believe that some people are not ready to not have Christianity as a crutch. As Karen Armstrong similarly states: “Freud made a valid and perceptive point when he insisted that it would be dangerous to attempt to abolish religion. People must outgrow God in their own good time: to force them into atheism or secularism before they were ready could lead to an unhealthy denial and repression” (Armstrong, 358). Some people need a superior being in their lives in order to be psychologically “healthy,” and some don’t, and it is my realisation of this, I believe, that allows me to be a “pluralist-atheist,” because I may not necessarily believe in God (whatever he/she/it may be), but I realise the value of the belief of God (or any being resembling God) in others’ lives who are not able or ready to be without “him”.

Again, I hope that this does not seem to rambleish, if it is it is because it is two years of my thoughts squeezed into an evening of writing, but again, I hope that whichever side of the fence one is sitting on, that it fuels appetites for further research on the subject!

I think my mom caught the hint

Okay, so I have been trying to avoid being at home for the past three weeks so that I am not home when church is going on so I don't have to tell my mom that I don't want to go. Tonight I was home but had an excuse ready incase she asked me to come. My auntie came to pick her up for church and she didn't even ask if I wanted to go. I was impressed, but also felt bad because I know she is upset with me, and I think she feels quite worried and let down that her son didn't turn out how she raised him to be. She found out that I had an alcoholic beverage in the UK *gasp* and we had an interesting talk about it before church. In this conversation I told her that it is pretty sad when what defines Christian from non-Christian is the consumption of alcohol. I wonder how long I can last before I have to tell her that I am not a "Christian". Maybe I should just print off my last blog entry and give it to her... though I think I should talk to her soon because I don't want her to be agonizing forever, however if she doesn't see things my way I guess she still will be...

Why I am no Longer a Christian

I have been wanting to write this entry for a long time but have not had the courage to do it, until now, and even though I don’t think everything I want to be included will be, I have faith that the message will get across. “What was the straw which broke the camels back?” you ask, well that would be the opportunity of sitting in on a Jehova’s Witness Bible study. The Bible study was being presented to a fifteen year-old girl her mom and her younger thirteen year-old sister. Though they have been Jehova’s Witnesses for a long time, they (the children) didn’t really seem to know much about what it meant, except that God had a name and it is Jehovah (though really this is just, as far as I understand the German pronunciation of the Hebrew Yahweh, which is the true name of God, though no one really knows what the true vowel sounds are, but the J and Y have been exchanged and, as is typical in German, the V and the W). The meeting started with a prayer to “Jehovah” and then they started talking about things such as the garden, Adam and Eve, perfection, and then how Adam’s sin which meant that humankind was no longer perfect and so God decided to make his son into man and send him to earth to die as a ransom to pay for our sins, as a result of which we could achieve the lost state of perfection again. This seems really close to the Christian message, at least to me, (I know there are differences between the JW teaching and “orthodox Christianity” but this is not necessary to examine for the purposes of this entry). Essentially the way I see the Christian message, it is at its very basic form this, God created perfection, humanity screwed it up, God sends his son/himself to pay for the damages, Humanity is saved and can be perfect again.

In the class Interpreting the Old Testament Narrative, a class I took while at Prov, I learned about two words “Utopia” and “Dystopia” these words essentially are words which describe a perfect state (like that which was in the garden, or ‘heaven’) and its direct opposite, a completely imperfect state (hell, etc.). When defining these terms we had to say how they were used in the text and so I did that and also said their purposes within texts in general. The idea of Utopia provides a positive reinforcement for following a system, (If you do these things, you can be perfect/have a perfect society), Dystopia provides negative reinforcement, (if you do bad things, all of these terrible things will be heaped upon you).

From my experience with visiting “the cult” that I visited when going to Prov, one thing that I noticed was the emphasis on “going to heaven,” and “avoiding hell”. Or in other words it was providing heavy reinforcement using Utopia and Dystopia. One key feature of “cults” to me seems to be heavy mind control used to keep people in the system, and this seemed to be how it was done at this church. Even amongst the JW meeting they talked heavily about Adam and the perfect state he was in and then how he fell away, and then talked about the dystopia we are in right now and how it will be even worse at Armageddon. Those who follow God until that day (which is Very very close) will be spared from his wrath and be able to enter his perfect kingdom. I find that this system of heaven and hell, or even just heaven (for those who don’t believe in negative reinforcement), is cultish and I, personally, am distrustful of anything which focuses, even a little, on “what is promised for us when we die”, or the “promises of God” etc. This rules out a large portion of Christianity, not just the sections which are actually labeled as “cult” by the rest of “orthodox” Christianity but a much larger section, I would even say mostly all of Christianity, as can be seen by the sales of the Left Behind series.

Though now that I am on the topic of “labelling” one thing that I found interesting was during the JW meeting when they were going through all of the other devilish forms of Christianity, like “Catholocism which was allied with Hitler during World War Two, the Pope and Hitler signed an alliance, you can read about it in the history books, and George Bush, look at the mess America is in with the war, do you know what he is?..” “ uh... I dunno Baptist” “yes that is right, he is Baptist... and what about the Monarchy in England, they are involved too and guess what they are.... they are Anglican... and do you know that all of them have severely edited God’s name Jehovah out of the Bible... etc.” so yah, one thing I noticed was how much the JW’s reinforced their beliefs by showing how wrong every other sector of Christianity is. And this reinforcing by the negation of others, has happened all over Christianity. I have had countless conversations with my Grandmother where she tells me how evil the Catholics are, or how she wouldn’t even allow a JW into her house, because her way is the only way to get to heaven and the catholics and the JWs and most of the rest of Christianity doesn’t follow the way and thus should not even be called Christian. It happened in Protestantism with the Reformation and Catholocism with the Counter-Reformation, and has been perpetuated by many even today, people are reinforcing their beliefs not by deeming them to be in-fact true, but by deeming others to be false. Should a student assume that because everyone else got a question wrong on a test that the odds that they got it right have increased because of everyone else’s failure?!

It seems to me very illogical to say “well everybody else is wrong therefore I must be right” how can we claim to have a monopoly on truth simply because we view everyone else’s truth as wrong. It is also an absurdity. The odds that we just happened happened to choose or be born into the “right” religion are highly stacked against us and chances are we are just as wrong as all the faithful in all the other religions we view as heathens. Though we can only judge them as heathens based on the “absolute truths” which our religion defines as truth, everything truly is relative to the religion of the viewer. Instead it is much more logical to say that there is no absolute truth to lean on to judge other things as faulted. Perhaps it is true that we are as Sartre states “condemned to be free” that there is nothing that we can turn to, and it is our dislike of being in control of ourself, and our realisation that we do not have a utopia and therefore we must be flawed, that we cannot deal with. We want a way out of the mess we are in, and something to look to so that we don’t have to take the responsibility for ourselves, and so we invent a perfect deity, who we can look to and turn to for hope, and in some cases a satan which we can blame.

The way I see it, it is us who are imperfect and therefore it is us who should fix our own situation. The illogicality of the Christian system was very easily noticed by the fifteen year-old at the JW bible study. As she was asked numerous times if she understood why God would need to offer a ransom, (a ransom similar to the one that would be payed by her mom if she was kidnapped), and she seemed very confused and said, “I just don’t understand why God would be paying a ransom to himself....” at this point, internally, I was like: wow her logic is much better than the adults in the crowd, but she was merely told “Questioning is good, it means you are thinking about it, and that she would understand eventually. Let’s move on.” To me this seemed like a form of cultish conditioning, a way that people are brainwashed into believing something ludicrous or nonsensical. If someone who a child views as older and wiser says to them that they will understand something such as the salvation message eventually, even if the child logically can see its illogicality he or she will still view themselves as wrong and not smart enough, until they eventually have lied themselves into believing it and truly stand up for it as “truth” even if they don’t know why, or they say they believe it because they don’t want to be viewed as an outsider or inferior.

Realistically, when it comes to salvation, why should “God” pay for our problems, it doesn’t seem to solve anything at all, we screw up and then God dies for us so that we can be not screwed up, though we don’t really learn anything from this except that we are supposed to believe that he died and then voila we have been saved from our “wretched state”. How does simply believing change the world? should it not be action. To me it is the message of Christ to follow him, not by believing that he died for our sins, but rather to be kind one to another, that was his entire mission in life, he even states at one point that it is much better to be kind to others that to offer sacrifice to God, this means that according to Jesus, the “author and finisher of our faith” that it is better to be kind to others than to rely on his “sacrifice” for our salvation. This seems to be a common thread between people who have become my role models, Jesus sought to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, as did Mother Theresa, and Gandhi too, they were all quite selfless, the Buddha also strived to be a selfless being. In my opinion, it is not our duty to have faith in God, but it is our duty to realise the human condition, and to work to help those who are not as well off as us, to be selfless, (which is endorsed by Christiantiy), and because it is our problem, our imperfections, really it is our responsibility to fix it. This perhaps is why I find Buddhism a much more attractive faith than Christianity. It does have Gods but they are not perfect beings that one can look to to distract one from one’s own faults, they are faulted just like everyone else. In Buddhism attempting to reach Nirvana is something that each person has to do for themselves, by striving for the love of all things, not by believing that loving all things is possible and believing in the somebody who accomplished it, but by actually attempting to do it ourselves.

So, am I Buddhist, no, but I cannot call myself Christian either, the closest I could call myself to this is a “Christ follower” meaning I see value in the way he lived his life, and would like to be able to do the same, I could easily call myself a follower of anything which leads one to love others. But overall, I want to be my own person, I want to be able to embrace the “condemnation to be free,” to not try to escape it, but to truly live as myself. Or in the Buddhist mind set, to live as no self, but to live a life of love in serving others.

I dunno, this may seem like one big ramble, but I do hope that it makes sense, or at least causes fodder for thought and self-research. and for those of you who have read this far... Thank you for reading!

~Justin Goodman

Married life

Okay... So I haven't written a blog entry in a very long time, and so I figured I might as well keep everyone updated a little on what I am up to and all the juicy details of my life... First things first Gloria and I decided to play a Facebook prank last night and say that we were married, and I must say that I have gotten some great reactions. Though no one really believes Gloria ( This year she has also been "pregnant" so... yah)


"Ok Justin, are you married? IT that a real wedding picture? I had no idea...when did you get married? Seriously! Or is it some kind of joke???"
- Amber Wylie

So you had Gloria divorced with Chad pretty fast.Hmm. ... Congrats! ... What are you up to these days, except of course the abundance of sensual honeymoon games? I am pretty sure that tesol is over by now. Let me know the best and the worst in your present married life.
I really hope this message does not get on the front page of your profile.
-Yuliya (who didn't truly fall for it but thought she would play along I guess)

wow thats crazy that you got married, but cool at the same time. congrats man
peace
-Joel Small

MARRIED? I didn't even know you were ENGAGED! Congratulations
-Amber Hancharek

whoa! you're married? congrats!!!
-Eldon Wiebe

Well...congratulations? So what did you do with her husband? :)
-Rebekah Bareg

well...I guess our potential marriage is off...it looks like u beat me to it...ha ha Hope that MB is treating you well. Korea is CRAZY!! :)
-Jennine Best

You're a crazy nut!
-Chris Harwood

WOW Justin Congrats on the marriage! I didn't get you anything but once i grow my hair long enough i will chop it off and make a nakelace out of it for you!
-Shannon Brilz

Wow! Congrats Justin! I had no idea you were getting married... That's so great! When was it? :D
-Felize Belanger

I just wanted to point out that someone is kissing your wife, if not ... you're kissing someone else's wife.
CONGRATS anyways.
there are also photos on your wife's facebook where she is kissing another guy. I guess I should of told you that over the phone or something ... jk
-Viola Mckay
(Gloria you really should have made the pictures of you and chad together hidden or something so that this would have been more realistic)

justin whoa when did you get married and how come i wasnt invited to the wedding. i thought i was your favorite cousin. :)
-Melissa Goodman

I think this is hilarious, but will be very confusing for people who don't really know me but have me on their facebook. Though apparently we are getting divorced today anyway.


well... I really don't have time to keep typing, but I will soon be writing about my readings, which have been interesting (to me atleast). Stay tuned!

~Justin Goodman

Super Camera! (If your name is Chris Harwood, you probably shouldn't read this)

Alright, so apparently my camera is the strongest camera on the face of the earth. It has fallen a great height, a height so tall that it would probably compare to the distance from the roof of the bell tower to the bottom of the cistern beneath it. As it fell out of my hoodie pocket I thought to myself, oh crap! now I have to buy a new camera, but when I got to the bottom I pressed the "review pictures" button and the display turned on, the face plate came off, but if I attach a piece of blue sticky tack to the front it will turn on and take pictures, so it is a bit of an inconvinience, but hey for falling like 20-25 feet it is doing pretty well if I do say so myself. To the right you will see two pictures, one is the last picture my camera took before its great fall, and the second is one it took after, notice the blue sticky tack.

I think I will always buy Olympus cameras

Thunderstorms

Last night was a crazy night! We went to bed at around 10:30, and I saw a little bit of lightning in the distance as we made the walk to our tent. I couldn't fall asleep because it was rather warm out so I began to listen to Japanese lessons instead, I made it through quite a few and finally by 11:30 I think i began to doze off and on, I was suddenly woken up at 12:30 by a raindrop hitting my chest, then another, I opened my eyes and my tent was absolutely white and flashing like a strobe light. The thunder roared! it was intense! I cowered under my blankets and then put earplugs in and slept quite soundly after that. In the morning I woke up with a puddle under my matress, hopefully that will dry over today, before the predicted thundershowers tonight. My night was not nearly as bad as Evan's though, he apparently tied his poncho to one of the pegs inside his tent and then ran it down to one of the bottom corners so that this way he would not get drenched by the water pouring through the top of his tent. I saw him crawl out this morning and his hair was dripping and I think most of his stuff is wet...

Ahh hooray for camp TESOL.

Welcome to Camp TESOL

Alright, so Evan Friesen and I have decided to save a bit of money for the summer TESOL courses and not live in dorm or be on the meal plan; instead we are living in two tents down by the rat river and eating those cheap noodle packets which are like 20 cents a pack, I bought some bananas and beans and carrots and lentils so that we can actually get some nutrients, but ya, so it will be an interesting month. My first sleep was crazy, I went to bed at 11 and actually didn't even feel like I was outside, but then when morning came it was quite evident. There was a bird that was atleast 1400% louder than all the others and it kept getting higher and higher pitched, and this happened at 5:30AM I heard Evan shuffle in his tent and so I wished him a good morning and then I attempted to fall back asleep. I did and then woke up for 7:30 showered in Amy's trailer and then went to class. It will be interesting to see how this turns out and whether I survive it. stay tuned for further details!

~Justin

billets

Well, I am currently on tour and I have already had a few eventful days.

My first day of tour I got to stay at a Bed and Breakfast, and it just happened to be at the home of two of the pioneers from the reality tv show Pioneer Quest, which was on the history chanel. It was amzing to get to stay with them. I didn't realise why I recognised the guy in the audience, until James told me that he was on a tv show, and instantly it dawned on me. That night James and I had to share a bed. It didn't bother me, and I tried to make it as awkward as possible for James. saying things like, "Wow, I have never slept with a teacher before." Apparently he has never slept with a student before either, so i guess there is a first for everything.
Yesterday, I was pulled over by the OPP, (I am one of the drivers on the tour) I was going 95 in a 90 zone so i was a bit confused as to why i was being pulled over, but I pulled off to the side and the woman got out of the vehicle and asked me if I had others in the vehicle, I said that there were 11 of us, she asked where we were coming from and I couldn't remember, so I looked back to James who reminded me that we had been in Timmins earlier that day. She then said that she had received a complaint that a vehicle similar to ours had been the object of a complaint made earlier that day, apparently someone said that we were throwing beer bottles out the window. I assured her that that was untrue, and she told me I might as well confess. I then told her that we were from a Christian college which seemed to easer her conscience. She checked over my license and then she back to her vehicle. It took me about half an hour for my heart to get back to its normal speed, but atleast I survived my first time getting pulled over.

Money Grubbing Institution

Well, I have decided that Providence College has been trying to squeeze every last dollar out of me before I leave. Earlier this year I received a charge of $55 dollars for not handing a form into the business office on time. I had received a note in my box a week prior telling me to get the form in "as soon as possible" so I tried to get the information from my mom and then I handed the paper in on January 16 only to be told that the deadline was the 15th and so they opened a student loan account for me and would have to charge me $55 dollars. Though the usual process is to have students sign a form saying that it is okay for them to open up a loan for them, though they did not do this for me, they tried to find the form that I signed which said it was okay for them to charge me, but I never signed one, yet they still thought it okay to charge me. Only after talking to about 5 people and writing a formal appeal to the board was I able to get my money back.

About a week later I was given a 35 dollar fine for not displaying my parking pass, but I didn't have it up because it took them over a week to change the sticker from grey to red, showing that I had switched to the electrical lot.

Now, I am taking summer tesol, I was going to finish it this year but I was not allowed to take Child Development as a directed study, because Morgan said it would be far to much work for him. (though the entire course was evaluated through multiple course questions on our chapter readings so I really cannot see how). So now I am planning on taking it this summer.

I had already taken a Tesol course last year and so I emailed Jason asking if I could get a reduced price on the summer TESOL because I already have finished 1/5 of the course material, to which he replied it is already a discounted program and so there was nothing that could be done. So really, it is both Morgan and Jason who are making me pay an extra 380 dollars (1/5 of the 1900 dollar tuition). I am sick of this place and the "Christian" Facade it puts on saying that they will try to help you, but really they are just another business, as corrupt and money grubbing as any other.

konnichi wa

This entry is a little all over the place, I am sorry.

So, I examined the counter on my blog (down at the bottom), and was pretty happy to see that I had two visits from Japan in one day (SUGOI !).


It has been a while since I posted anything so I thought I would put a little something on. I just got a new (refurbished) iPod, and it is great. I have finally been able to listen to my Japanese lessons again, (japanesepod101.com). I started learning Japanese five years ago in grade eleven. I haven't done any formal study of the Japanese language but have off and on picked up a little from various course books, and one day last year in England I stumbled upon Japanesepod101 and it has made learning Japanese so easy, and quite fun!

I have also been ripping my DVD's to my computer so that I can have something to watch while I am on Veritas tour, we are going to the Maritimes and have numerous days of solid driving, so I will need something to do, We'll see how much Japanese I take in this time, on my flights from Germany back to Canada last year I think I took in over sixty, ten minute lessons.

I can't believe that this semester is almost over, I only have three exams left and then I am done at Prov. (not including this summer's TESOL program).

If anyone still has books of mine that I have either lent out or have been stolen from my room (my turabian book) can you please return them to me,

Refills

Okay, So apparently McDonalds in Steinbach does not give free refills, I thought it was McDonald policy, but I suppose I was wrong. I left my garbage on the table out of spite, not nice of me, I know, but really, it is like two cents cost for them.

The R Part Two

Alright, so it was another fine day at the R. This time I went with Laura, it was a long drive to get there, especially since the roads were covered in slush. After service the members of the church made sure to remind me that it started at 6:00 instead of 6:30, I told them that I knew that, I just didn't think the roads were so bad. Anyway, backing things up a bit. Laura and I walked in the door and this time one of the members, a really nice guy came and greeted us at the door and took us to our seats, (I think they saved a seat in the middle of the congregation in case I decided to come back). I must admit it was a little awkward to be seated in the middle of everything, sometimes something would be said and I would tap Laura gently on the elbow to see if she caught what was just said, but I didn't want to be too obvious. As we sat down, the pastor quoted a verse from Kings, where Solomon was asking for discernment, the whole sermon was basically about discernment, any verse in the Bible which talks about someone judging good from evil must have been mentioned. Even "Judge not and ye shall not be judged" was quoted, but only to dismiss it saying that we had to know good from evil otherwise there would be no way we could know how to get to heaven.
There was one moment which really creeped me out in the sermon and that was when the pastor was saying how a "church of God pastor KNOWS if there is sin in your life." he must have said this atleast 5 times in succession, it kind of gave off the aura that God tips him off to when someone is sinning and tells him all about it, as if a church of God pastor can see into your soul. Soon he said "you might think you can hide your sin from me, but trust me I know when there is sin in your life, I may not know exactly what it is, but I know when it is there." At this moment I was reminded of being back in my church again, when pastors would come to our church and tell of people who would stand at the front of other churches and then call people to repentance by pointing them out individually and telling them their sins. At that moment I was thankful that a pastor hadn't done that to me, and I must admit, there are things I prefer to keep between me and God.
Moving away from my personal life.... After the sermon we sung a song, I don't remember the words exactly, though if one wants them Gloria knows them, they were something to the effect of "If there is sin in your life you can't enter in, One spot on your soul, you cant enter in." and it was sung triumphantly, as if they were happy that people would be excluded from heaven.

Well, that was my experience this week, I may go again next week if I have time, I was invited to one of their houses this time and wanted to go but Laura had Homework to do so we didn't do it.

Oh, and apparently one can get excommunicated from this church for drinking caffeinated beverages (except hot chocolate, because the man who started the movement enjoys chocolate). So, i will have to hide the fact that I consumed five large cups of tea throughout the day before attending the church in the future.

The R

Alright, so for those of you who don't know what the R is, it stands for Restoration, which is short for Church of God Restoration, and that is where I decided to go last night. I went for a few reasons, firstly, I wanted to understand Gloria more and what kind of background she came from, secondly, I wanted to compare this church to my own, both are quite cultish. I don't really know what I was expecting going in to the service, but before I left from Gloria's house I was quite scared to go. I was scared because I knew that I would have to sit through what may be a very uncomfortable two hour service, hearing and seeing things that would make me very upset. Before I left Gloria's house I asked Gloria for a Bible to take along (to help with my appearance as a Christian), and Chad gave me one of his, which was green and a bit beat up. I started on my drive heading south... heart pounding... palms sweating, eventually I saw a bend in the road up ahead, and I knew that that was probably the corner where the church was on. I slowed down and saw the sign, and slowly and quite reluctantly turned into the parking lot which was already full, (apparently they changed the service time, so I was half an hour later than I should have been but arrived just as the singing was finishing). I sat at the back of the church because there was no room left anywhere else, and I felt more comfortable there. After singing, they said "let's pray" and instantly everyone turned around, (this frightened me I must admit, it almost seemed as if they were going to jump me or something, then i saw that they turned around to kneel so I very quickly did the same, and tried to duck my large self behind the pews, flattening myself as far as I could go, so they wouldn't see the striped shirt I was wearing which was quite different from the sea of black clothes which initially had me worried as i walked in the door). After a long and quite loud period of prayer in which one of the women of the church was thanking God for their new school, (apparently the church started a school, so that the children never have to leave the church), and there was also prayers just thanking God for his forgiveness and other things.
After prayers the sermon began *amen,* and a man with a beard (much like the rest of them) started preaching *preach it brotha,* he talked, *amen* about how the whole law was summed up in the words "be kind one to another," which in a way sort of shocked me because that is what I have been searching for in christianity all the time, a faith that just desires to be kind one to another and treats others how they would like to be treated. However, I soon caught on that the pastor was not being as open with his love as I, or Jesus, would want him to, (not that I know what Jesus thinks on every situation, but this one I am sure he is on my side). The pastor always just talked about love amongst the "saints" meaning the members of the Church of God Restoration. Throughout the message I found that I was much less nervous and noticed that there were many things that were similar between my church and this one, I couldn't really name them per se, but even things such as the way the pastor spoke, emphasizing certain words and syllables, (though my pastor does not have a german accent), and the "Amen"s which littered the sermon, which happens in my church occasionally. Throughout the sermon, I noticed that many of the examples given were examples that encouraged the congregation to be good docile followers of their leaders, (though I may be reading a bit into this). I also noticed that the major emphasis was getting to heaven. Heaven was the goal for them, everything was phrased in "if I want to get to heaven, I have to show love to my brothers and sisters, if one of the saints comes up to me..." etc. Following the sermon, there was a time for singing and prayer, many of the followers went and kneeled with someone at the front and prayed with them, kissing them on the lips when they were finished, (I must admit, the sight of two guys kissing was not something I expected to see at the front of this church).
After the sermon, or "after service" as they would say, I quickly tried to put on my jacket and make my way to the foyer, but sure enough, as Gloria and Chad warned me, things would not be so easy. Instantly after we were dismissed I was surrounded by 8 men all introducing themselves to me, first and last names, all of them quite German sounding, and all of them oddly enough were from Mexico. Gloria warned me that they would quiz me and try to find out how much of a Christian I was, and if there was any sin in my life and to make sure i was "saved." They asked me where I was from, So I told them Gimli, and then they were a bit confused that I had driven out from Gimli, but I told them that I was a student at Providence College, (I did not want them to associate me with Gloria so I told them that I had only been here for two years). They asked me how I heard about them, and I said that I used to go to a Church of God in Gimli, (which is true), and so I was looking up churches on the internet and found out that there was a Church of God near Steinbach and thought I would come and check it out. Gloria was a little skeptical about them buying this story, but it did work very well, and I don't think they made the connection between Gloria and I, which, seeing as Gloria is kind of a blacklisted person in the church, having become a "horrible sinner" I did not want them to make a connection between her and I. (don't worry Gloria, even though you are a sinner Jesus still loves you, and I do to). They asked me if I was a Christian and kind of wanted a testimony from me, and so I told them that I had kind of gone to church my whole life, and then before they could question me further, I turned the question back to them, and then listened to eight very similar testimonies. On the topic of me going to Prov, all of the men who talked to me seemed quite impresssed that I was "educated" and each of them said "well... you must read a lot" so i told them that I did, they tried to get me on their mailing list, but I declined gently. They then asked me what I planned to do after i was done school, and i told them I want to teach English in Japan. "Where is Japan in relation to Germany" some of them asked. I was quite shocked, and then opened the Bible Chad lent me to the map of the world and pointed out Canada, Germany and Japan to them. Eventually, after we talked for quite a while, I wanted to get on my way and leave however I was still boxed in by eight of the men of the church, I started jingling my keys in my hand and i think that they started catching on. On my way out one of the elder men of the church noticed the bible Chad gave me and commented that I must read it a lot. Eventually I was able to get on my way, only to have my car stopped by one of the men who was talking to me earlier, I rolled down my window and he invited me back, telling me that I can bring friends with me too if I want to.
Overall, my experience was a good one, and I am very glad that I did go, it helped to remind me to "hate the cult, and not the culters." So many times it is easy to talk about people trapped in a cult as if they are malicious, and to think of them poorly, but I was reminded by this experience that they are people too, real people, people capable of love and hate, they have desires, wants and needs, I don't know why I couldn't see this before visiting the R, my church is quite similar, but perhaps it is because I know the people in my church, and grew up there which makes the experience different.

~Justin Goodman

I almost lauged hysterically loud in the library when I read this!

Ron and Rosemary are Proud to Announce the Birth of their Child, Justin, on 22, 1986.

Unfortunately, Justin cries at everything.

Ron and Rosemary are thanking Satan.

What Did Your Birth Announcement Say?  at  QuizGalaxy.com

The Switch

Ok, Well, this word switch will have two meanings today.

The first meaning is that I am switching my blog from LiveJournal to Blogger, (Sorry, to all those who are on my livejournal). I will still be around. just bookmark this as an RSS or something, (if your browsers support it, and it will tell you when I update).

The second meaning to "switch" is the story regarding my 49 page paper which has 123 footnotes, all of which decided to spontaneously switch places. It is hard to explain, but essentially I was left with 123 quotes and had no clue where they were from, I had to find them all over again, or rather match the footnote up with the quote. It was awful, and a whole day's extra work.
For those wanting to read my old blog visit "kanadjin.livejournal.com"