What's on my mind?

So what’s been on my mind lately? What things have I seen that I can tell you about that bothered me?

For one, I am pleased to say so far, two people have approached me on my struggle with the Romans class. I was a bit surprised to hear from some people, but at same time, am pleased that they did. One has offered to help me understand it through meeting with each other. That sounds like a great idea, but with my lack of knowledge of Romans so far, it would not fly right now. I’m still open to any thoughts by anybody else.

For I think either seven or eight years I’ve been playing church softball. CCSA has truly been a blessing for me, and I think through softball I have gained some friendships that I lacked in the early part of my church going years. I have played with several people in this league over my years, collecting four TCBC jerseys in my time (Redemption, Salvation, Reconciliation and now Sanctuary). I think softball ministry is great and I am grateful to be a part of it. I have seen many strides to God’s will in this ministry and the great things God has done with this league is just amazing. Last year I got the opportunity to be assistant coach on Reconciliation, my first year in the senior division. There were many struggles at times, but at the end of the year, I learned so much and it was great.

So what’s going on with me and CCSA this year? Well, I was reluctant to play a little at beginning of year. Because what I wanted was to go away for internship which would result in not being able to play. Well, alas, things did not turn out that way. Another thing is I’ll be playing with bunch of people from my church I’ve never played with, and hardly even talk to. This crowd is an older and more Chinese oriented crowd, which I have not had the chance to talk to usually. So far through a few practices, it has been fine, so I don’t think that will be a problem adjusting. Which brings me to my last dilemma. I was asked to umpire a few games and I said yes to this. So this Saturday, I will be umpiring my first game. But I am not a carded umpire, I will be umpiring with either 2 or 3 others. I am actually kind of scared to umpire. I have never done it before and I don’t really know all the little rules of the game that I usually don’t care much about. I’m scared I’ll make a bad call and I’ll get my head chopped off by the players. So for those reading this note, and care, pray for me on this one. It may be little stuff, but it still matters to me, after this weekend, don’t have to worry about umpiring for rest of year.

I was going through some unread e-mail today and I have tis collection of unread e-mail of New York Times headlines. I have an online subscription to the New York Times, that sends me the headlines of their newspaper every day. It’s free, thus affordable, and great for people like me who don’t have time to read newspaper all the time. So I looked at each of the ones I have no read an stumbled one of the issues in the Arts section. The article talked about how this man in Europe stole about $1.4 billion worth of art from museums. This included paintings, sculptures, and artifacts. This guy does not steal it to make a profit, that is far from the fact, I get the idea he has some mental disability but that’s not the point. He just stores them in his home so he can look at them. So finally this guy gets caught, and a couple days after, they go to his home to try and recover the goods that he admitted he stole. Only to find out his mom had destroyed all the evidence. She shredded all the paintings, thrown artifacts into the river. I was thinking to myself, if this woman mad? We’re talking about $1.4 billion worth of antiques.

Recently, I have a greater appreciation for antiques thanks to Antiques Roadshow, a great show on tv where people bring in their heirlooms and stuff for appraisals. I\’ve watched a few of them and it’s a great show. Who knew simple paintings can be worth upwards or $1 million dollars or furniture can be worth $700,000. I think I’ll start looking at peoples garage sales, and find out how to get to an estate sale soon. But one good this has come out of watching this is that I;ve learned a great deal about history and antiques. I didn’t know glass made in early 20th century was so coveted and worth a fortune. Or a movie poster from early 20th century was worth so much. So that is why what this women did amazed me. I’ve seen paintings on that show be appraised for tons of money. And here she is shredding this painting known as Cranach's `Princess of Clèves,' worth $8 million. That’s like destroying money. Simply amazing what people will do to history.

I think what I even more amazing is the security in these museums. They have none. A visitor can walk in broad daylight, and walk out with millions of dollars worth of goodies. Not bad for a $10 admission fee. They say $8 billion worth of art and art objects are stolen from European museums each year. I am either so happy that we still have people that trust the people so much that they can leave billions of dollars laying around, or disgraced that mankind can lay billions of dollars laying on a table.

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I’m going to try and add an addition to this blog listing interesting current events that catch my eye. So for now:

- Two disappointing upsets, Lakers and Leafs both lose games, Leafs lose series, 35 years and counting
- Art Eggleton gets the boot from Defence portfolio in Cabinet because he hired ex-gf to do some research
- NATO formally welcomed Russia as a participant today but not a full-fledged member of the organization created 53 years ago to contain Soviet power and expansion.