Category Archives: Personal

Stanley Cup Game Seven – Go Oilers Go!

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Game seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs starts in half an hour. For the record, I predict an Edmonton 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. The momentum is certainly with the Oilers after the last two wins, and even though Carolina has the home rink advantage tonight, I believe the Oilers will be hoisting Lord Stanley by 9:00pm tonight!

If you’re not an Edmontonian, it is probably hard to appreciate the loyalty and support the fans have in Edmonton for the Oilers (though I imagine it parallels the fan loyalty that surrounds the FIFA World Cup).

I grew up during the first Edmonton hockey dynasty and its great to be watching these games with my kids. Right now we are watching the pre-game show — all decked out with Oiler tattoos, shirts, and flags, of course!

Go Oilers Go!


Thanks, Jim West!

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Jim West held a contest of his own today, and guess what? I actually won something. I don’t win things very often, so I am pleased as punch! (OK, what does that mean, “pleased as punch”? How can a liquid be pleased?).

At any rate, I happened to be Jim’s 170,000th visitor at his site, and because of that I get a free book — to be more accurate, I get free “books.” Jim, who will now be known to me as “Jim the Generous” will be posting me the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls edited by Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. VanderKam (Oxford, 2000; Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com). With 450 articles by an international team of scholars, this two volume work offers the most comprehensive critical synthesis of current knowledge about the Dead Sea Scrolls — and their historical, archaeological, linguistic, and religious contexts. Written in non-technical language this reference work provides authoritative answers and information for all readers. This is a pretty expensive set — at least up here in the Canadian hinterlands. All I can say is, “Sweet!”

Thanks, Jim!



Blogger of the Month Interview up at Biblioblogs.com

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The revealing tell-all interveiw with this month’s “Biblioblog of the Month” (yours truly!!) has been uploaded at biblioblogs.com. It is a riveting exposé of one of the most influential inconsequential bibliobloggers ever to write a piece of html! I laughed, I cried, and in the end I wanted more. Here is the picture of myself I wanted to include with the interview:

Homer_slippers_sm.jpg

Seriously, I would like to thank Brandon Wason and Jim West for the honour of being Biblioblog of the Month – and for maintaining biblioblogs.com. These are the sorts of things that will provide cohesion to the biblioblog community. Cheers!


Prayer Request for Michael Barker

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I have a request for those of you who are praying folk. The brother of two of my students (one former and one current) and the nephew of a good friend, Michael Barker could use our prayers. He was in a serious truck accident last Wednesday and is in the University of Alberta Hospital with a broken neck and a base skull fracture. He has no feeling below his chest but has movement of his arms and hands — though it appears that just last night he lost feeling in his hands. His brothers have set up a blog to keep people informed: A Brother Like No Other. Please pray for Mike and his family.

For those of you who prayed for Tim Bauslaugh, you will be pleased to know that he is steadily recovering. He is now posting messages on the blog that was set up when he was in the hospital.


Oilers, Soccer, and Bunnies

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My blogging has been thwarted by the Oilers, my kid’s soccer, and plans to buy some bunnies (and work, of course!). I really need to get back on track, though I would be lying that the break from blogging has been refreshing.
Go Oilers Go!
Wow — what a great game tonight! It looks like sharks can’t swim in oil! Next, we’ll defeat the Mighty Ducks (how can a duck be mighty? C’mon, really!), and then it is Stanley Cup time!  I really think the league needs to get rid of some of the new rules. I understand they are to open up the game, but when a penalty is called and for the life of you you can’t figure out what the penalty is, something is wrong (and then when they show it on replay it doesn’t look like a penalty!).
Funky Pickles Rule!
That’s right — the Funky Pickles — that’s the name of the all girls under 10 soccer team I coach. My daughter suggested the name, and go figure, the other eight and nine year olds liked it! In Edmonton, May and June are outdoor soccer months. That means a couple nights a week you are out on the pitch cheering on your kids. This is my seventh year coaching and I really enjoy it.

Bunnies, Bunnies, Bunnies!
My kids have been wanting a pet for some while now. My wife and I really didn’t want to get a dog or a cat due to the work involved and the fact that some close family members have allergies. I raised rabbits as a kid, so I suggested we get a rabbit or two. Rabbits are also nice because they can be kept outside for most of the year but can still be brought inside the house on occasion. If we are to get some bunnies, then of course I needed to build a rabbit hutch. I think I have outdone myself with the two storey deluxe rabbit hutch I have contructed (I will have to post some pictures).

So that is a bit of what I have been doing in my evenings and weekends.
I have a number of plans for future blog posts, but please bear with me as I actually have a bit of a life! 🙂


Go Oilers Go!

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Edmonton_Oilers1.gifWhat can I say… the eight year drought is over.

Tonight the Edmonton Oilers ousted the Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I only caught the third period due to the fact I was coaching my daughter’s first soccer game of the season (and her under 10 girls team also won decisively 7 to 1), but that was enough since all the action happened in the final period.

I’m not sure if the Oilers deserved it considering how they played at times in the series, but what only matters at the end of the day is the final score!

Go Oilers Go!


The Fool is Forty

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Tyler-5days.jpgSome forty years ago today, Dr. R. Winters (who evidently had a healthy sense of humour) performed a scheduled C-section on my mother the morning of April 1st, 1966 at the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. At approximately 8:21 am, I was brought into this world, preordained to be the fool that I am today. I weighed in at 6 lbs 2 ozs and was 20.5 inches long and was by and large healthy — except for one brief notation in my rather sparse baby book (I was the last of four kids) that I will not disclose publicly! If the picture to the right is any indication, I was a stern lad — perhaps I was a bit perturbed about being given such an ignoble birthday! Sure, they say that they needed to do the C-section as soon as possible — they could of least waited until after twelve noon to make the cut! That’s OK, I’m not bitter. Really…

Well, some forty years later I can look back on my life and realize that I have been blessed. I have a wonderful family, including three great kids and a lovely, long-suffering, wife (suffering for about twenty one years to be precise!). I love my work (the piles of grading I have been creatively neglecting notwithstanding) — especially my colleagues and students. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be a religion and theology professor at a Christian college!

Life is good. Thanks for reading.

הודו ליהוה ×›×™ טונ ×›×™ לעול×? חסדו


Thank you for your prayers for Tim!

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Great news this morning!

Tim Bauslaugh has been discharged from University of Alberta hospital as of 10:45 am this morning. Tim is staying in Edmonton for a couple days and then will be going back to Washington State. Subject to how he is feeling, Tim is even planning on coming to chapel this Thursday (March 30) to express his thanks and offer a song of praise to the Lord.

God is gracious!


Blog Design and Monitor Resolutions

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I received a comment from a reader about having trouble reading my blog due to pictures getting in the way of the text. I assume this is due to my new blog design that includes a sidebar on both sides of the text as well as his or her monitor size and resolution.

I knew the new design would be better viewed with 17′ monitors with higher resolutions, but I figured it would affect few readers. While the vast majority of my readers use monitors with resolutions of at least 1024 x 768, there are still 12-13% who are viewing the blog on monitors with resolutions of 800 x 600. If you are one of those individuals, please let me know how the blog looks and whether viewing it is a problem with the new design. I will seek to rectify the problem as soon as possible.

Any and all comments are welcome!