Lac du Bonnet Camp Out June 23-24

A group of youth, under the banner of Faith-O-Rama(the youth group I'm involved in), headed out on the Saturday June 23rd morning, for Lac du Bonnet. We were going out to help a family in need of some assistance, and to have a little fun!
We got to our destination around 11-11:30am, and got straight to work. The guys piled wood and mowed the lawn, while the girls helped inside the house with cleaning, sorting, packing etc. . After our work was complete we stopped for lunch/afternoon lunch, then headed for the beach for some cool down time.....did I forget to mention, it was quite warm.
The lake was great, we swam, played football, hung out...and then there was the mud fight. The floor of the lake was rather muddy in places, and to some people, rather gross. I got the idea to bring some of the mud to the surface, well this opened a Pandora's box, everyone in the water somehow got hit with mud, or at the extreme, dumped with mud....whoops!
After the lake, we went back to camp for some supper, and a little birthday celebration. We had great eats all weekend, and for supper that evening we had burgers and smokies....and to finish it all off some birthday cake for yours truly, my birthday was coming on the 25th.
Following supper we had some rec. time around the house, some threw the football around, others sat around a smoldering fire eating candies. The smoldering fire brings up another thing, it had rained there a lot before we had come, so everything was pretty damp. With dampness comes tons of mosquitoes....lets just say bug spray was in high demand!
Later that evening we where treated to one intense thunderstorm, we watched it for a while from the dock on the lake until the storm was on top of us, we then headed for the vehicles and watched a little more. The storm got pretty intense, so in tents(a little pun, for those paying attention) that it knocked my tent down, and soaked the girls tent pretty good. A few of us had to sleep inside (in the small house we where helping out at), and a couple slept in a camper...but most could still sleep in their tents, in the end we all had rather dry places to sleep.
The following day a couple people left early, so those that remained went on a tour of the area. We went all over the place and saw many neat things, but unfortunately the mosquitoes followed us everywhere we went, we couldn't spend a lot of time at one place. Once we had been all toured out, we returned home and so ended the Lac du Bonnet Camp Out.
I don't think I made this clear, but the whole group worked really hard, and I'm very proud to say that I was apart of this Camp Out gang!


Took some videos and got some pictures of the Camp Out, enjoy the visual goodness!

Campout 2007

Sonshine 2007 July 11-15th

Sonshine 2007

This was my second year to Sonshine, and it just keeps getting better. I had such a great time there, and really enjoyed the company! Our group consisted of 6 guys, Mike Chopeck and myself where the men in charge, followed by 2 vets from last year Travis Plett and Josh Verinder, and the "rookies" (the nickname our vets gave the 2 newcomers this year) Ben Plett, and Sea....er Iain Hilderbrand.

Last year our Sonshine experience was marred by a nasty thunderstorm, which cause show cancellations and ruined some camping arrangements. Well this year was awesome when it came to weather, it wasn't too hot and the rain we did have, was barely noticeable!

Some of my highlights of this year were... Toby Mac-donald, from getting people to do the "combine" (hard to explain, ask me to show you sometime) to just grooving to the music, way too much fun!...Flatfoot 56, never seen these guys before, I heard them a little on Myspace, but their show was awesome! They formed: the biggest mosh pit of the festival, a meat grinder(no dying invovled), and a Braveheart charge between the members of the crowd! good times... Just.Live, a hip hop group, a very pleasant surprise, their show was so full of energy you couldn't help but move to the music (I took some video on them, so you can see it for yourself!) ...Hip Hop Under The Big Top, new this year, was a tent totally set aside for......you guessed it Hip hop! I really enjoyed this tent, and it was a good break from all the rock shows...Meeting cool people, not a band, but we meet a bunch of really cool people, like our camping neighbor (I forget his name...), a guy with the nickname "the Zipper" (we forgot his name so we called him by his nickname), it seemed to be a bad habit of ours forgetting everyones name we met...Good eats, again not a band. We had pretty good food the whole festival, maybe not the healthiest but it sure tasted good! Walking Tacos, Domino's pizza, Cheeseburgers on the way down, breakfast buffet on the way back home, who could forget Funnel cakes, Pancakes and deep fried Snicker Bars! There were soo many highlights, I think I could go on for a while!

Last year, I was challenged *ahem $10 bet* by Mike and Josh to approach a female and speak to her in the thirdish person. They even gave me the line they wanted to hear "I'm Diesel, Diesel likes you" a simple line, but one problem.... Sonshine seems to be populated by girls 12 and under, with their moms in toe (nothing against 12 and unders, or their moms......just doesn't look right when a 26 year old does such things to such peoples). So last year it didn't work out, but this was a new year with even newer possibilities. Josh and Mike got all the guys on board for the challenge, everyone had their eyes open for a prospective target (haha, sounds kinda crude). Unfortunately Sonshine proved the same as last year, so we packed up and headed home unsuccessful.....or where we?! We hit up a breakfast buffet on the way home, well wouldn't you know it there was a waitress there that at least didn't look too young or too old.... but just right (kinda like Goldie Locks)! After finishing our breakfast I approached the girl and said my line "I'm Diesel, Diesel likes you." and her response you ask?! "You guys are silly!" We had been joking around, and telling jokes all breakfast, so she must have thought it was just another one of our laugh out loud moments....I guess it kinda was, cause we all couldn't keep a straight face afterward. Yes, I made 10 bucks at her expense, and I'm a big jerk.....but if memory serves correct, I laid most of that down as tip, so we both profited!

Wow this is a long post, hopefully it gives you a small taste of our Sonshine adventure, and that at least it makes some sense.

Again, media to follow and pictures at the top...enjoy!

Toby Mac-donald


Just.Live


Survivor Race

Something Is Real Bad Wrong....With My Ankle

I hurt really bad...where I walk.

My ankle got a nasty surprise Sunday night - Monday morning. I had dozed off at the compy, I woke up and was going to head for my bed, one problem, my left leg had fallen asleep; must have been sitting wrong. When I went to walk to bed my left leg collapsed like an accordion, causing my left ankle to roll unnaturally....ouchie! I writhed in pain for a couple minutes, on the floor, and then hobbled to bed. That's the way I've been for the last couple days, just hobbling around. This evening my ankle has felt much better, just now my foot is kinda bluish purple... which means I must have burst some blood vessels when I rolled my ankle. Heh, my ankles are not very good, I've hurt both more than once before...so this isn't exactly a new pain that I've been feeling.

Restart 1001 on Father's Day

Well not much has happened in my life if you base it off the content of this blog....ouchie! Anyways today is Father's Day, and my day started off extra early to teach good old Sunday School. Sunday School was uneventful, we made some Father's Day papers, and a rare collectible "The Diesel 'Father's Day Special' Paper Airplane" a classic for sure! Following Sunday School was the church service, it was an ushering day(I am an inside usher and Sunday School teacher at the Prairie Rose EMC) and my turn to usher the centre isle....all too easy. Following the service I chatted it up with friends and headed home for some lunch.
Had a hearty Father's Day Lunch of hot dogs, made by yours truly....I'm the hot dog grill master! This was also the first real time that I got to see my dad this day, so I wished him a happy Father's day and gave him a big hug. After lunch I had a nap for a few good hours, heh I didn't mention before that I woke up in the morning very tired, with very little sleep (stayed up way too late...again). I woke from my nap around 5pm, and headed out to Boston Pizza for a little family get together, Father's Day style.
We had good eats at BP, and I left there good and full. Headed home from BP and clillaxed in front of the compy for a while; until I got the urge to go for a bike ride. Had great ride around the Mark, nothing too vigorous, just cruised around takener easy.
That's about it for my day, got some good rest, and some good eats with family.... oh and some chatting time with friends. Now hopefully I can keep this up, I've got some things I'd really like to blog about, so not everyone of my posts will be a "Diesel's day"post.

Last Weekend - Princess Bride

I had a great weekend, the best part being, the Dinner Theater held at the local church on Saturday night. They did the Princess Bride, and it was awesome! I had not seen the movie in many a year, and had forgotten how good it was. Just so you all know, I've never been to a dinner theater and had no idea what to expect. The first thing that got me was, the actors actually escort you to your table all in character, and not only escorting, they serve the meal all in character. So between acts the actors would be floating about, serving their guests, and doing their thang.

There was one character in the cast that really made my night, Prince Humperdinck. The Prince was great, he had this lisp and had....well bisexual tendencies, which made him a lot of fun to talk with. Oh and his clothes just made the man, or would women be a better term, his clothes where also quite....hard to describe, I don't think there are words to describe his get up. Through out the night he'd aggressively hit on man and women alike, and it was great to see people's responses to his advances, and him entering their personal bubbles. Oh, and I was not immune to his outreach, if you can put it that way, on one instance we held hands at chest level as he escorted me to the punch bowl, chatting it up as we went....I'm sure it was quite the sight! :P

Enough of the prince, the dinner theater was really well done, it blew my expectations way out of the water! With that being said, I need to give mad props to some local stars who did a great job in the production, Kiah V. and Katherine H. played "something in plaid skirts" sorry I forgot their real name, Walker R. a hunch back from the Pit of Despair...sorry I forget his name too, David V. playing both Vizzini("INCONCEIVABLE"), and Miracle Max("Get back, witch") Deb R. as Valerie I believe was here character's name, the people who made the great food, and finally Scott and Marcia P. getting the whole thing together and executing a great show.

Once a Month...

Hmm, this once a month posting is not going to cut it! I thought I'd easily be able to maintain a once a week effort....I guess not. I must apologize to all those who faithfully come here for new posts, and all you get are the same old garbage from a month before. Alright, now to keep this deal rolling, with more content from myself, and not a silly video clip every week...stay tuned!

Global Warming / Islam vs Christianity

Here's a couple of great videos that I found on a blog that I read. Ok I'm not a Bush slammer, but this is just a great video, and Will Farrell is awesome.

glumbert.com - Bush makes a special announcement on Global Warming

And Here's another gooder on the conflict of between Islam and Christianity. Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert slug it out for their respective religons.

The Week That Is, and Was

Whoa, it's been a little while since I've last posted...ouchie! Well I've been super busy the last few weeks, and when I've had time to do something I slacked off, and took the lazy route.

This weekend I'm heading to Camp Cedarwood for a retreat. The retreat is for volunteers of youth centres(like Flatlands)around the province. Sounds like there will be a bunch of people there; it'll be good to meet some new people.

This week has been bachelor week for me, my parents have left for a week long getaway/vacation. Yes if you didn't know, I still live with my parents....laugh it up fuzz ball! It's been good, though it seems that the house doesn't clean it's self.

On a final note, we had our Faith-O-Rama(youth group I'm involved in) church service last Saturday, and it was a blast! There were a bunch of kids, doing a whole lot of jobs: from pinatas, to skits, small talks, music, and everything in between.

Until Next Time

Music Of Interest

I've found this great band via the One Dark Summer free cd sampler that you can get at purevolume.com, they are called August Burns Red. Hard hitting, face smacking, Hardcore/Metal that either sends you: running with your fingers in your ears, or fists a pumping and your head a banging! Oh yeah, Cheese Supreme! Anyways these guys are good, and if your somewhat interested in "good" music you should check them out.

On the lighter side of things, I found another band on this great sampler(One Dark Summer), they call themselves Run Kid Run. Their song "We've Only Just Begun" is what really got me into them, and if you listen to the lyrics you'll notice that they're extremely positive. When I'm not in my happy place, just playing "We've Only Just Begun" will get me feeling better....again Cheese Supreme, but it at least it tastes good.

Samplers are great things, they can reveal all these hidden gems which you may never come across anywhere else. So to all that read this, if you've found bands you'd like to give some mad props, then comment it up!

Just so it's clear these are not my favorite bands, just some gooders that I've stumbled upon recently.

Here's the music video for "We've Only Just Begun"

Boy's Club Canceled?!

Today, I was ready to header back to Boy's Club(BC), I co-teach gym and because of the BC schedule, I've been off since before Christmas. This afternoon I got a phone call from a BC leader, asking if I would be willing to sub for his class tonight, I told him about my gym commitment, but we worked that out; for the first part of the night I would attend to his class, and when gym started I would depart his group for the gym. While we were talking this leader brings up an interesting tidbit, he's not the only leader in need of a sub infact a whole bunch needed subs, to the point of canceling BC! It wasn't for sure but the leader, on the phone, told me he'd get a hold of me if things went sour, and Club was canceled. Alright fine, well I get home from work, and guess what? BC is canceled! What?! This really hit me in a soft spot, and it's been on mind for most of the evening; how can it be canceled? The only time I can remember BC being canceled, was cause of weather, and that was usually a winter storm of epic proportions. Boy's/Girl's Clubs, I think are vital in the development of kids/young people in the community, and has impacts on many peoples lives; personally, Club is where I made my choice to follow Jesus.

This is by no means a slam on the Boy's Club leadership, or those leaders who could not make it to BC tonight, I'm just confounded by this turn of events. One thing that bothers me is when events/programs have to be canceled because of a lack of volunteers, I think this is one of the reasons I'm a "yes" man...I have a very hard time saying no when asked to help. Anyways this "yes" man "no" man topic is for another time, and this is getting a little drawn out...

Superman

I did this Superhero test and came up with Superman buy a clear margin, so I guess there is no questioning it, I'm Superman! If you'd ask me personally Superman would not be my first choice, but the test does not lie, I did it twice and both times came up with Superman....It is my destiny.
Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 80% Green Lantern 55% Robin 55% Spider-Man 50% Catwoman 50% Iron Man 45% Hulk 45% The Flash 35% Supergirl 30% Batman 25% Wonder Woman 0%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Wedding Thriller

Here's a great a great video of of a group of people at a wedding (bride and groom included), doing the "Thriller" music video on the dance floor. Classic Michael Jackson.


Hmm I wonder if "Can't Touch This" has been done at a wedding?

Posting Comments as "Anonymous"

I've notice some people are posting comments as Anonymous, and that's fine. I just want to highlight the fact that you can post with your nic or your whatever name you want. Just select the 'Other' option between the login and the 'Anonymous' option. There you can enter your nic/name and your website, this is all optional, if you don't have a site but want to use your nic/name use the 'Other' option...but I'm fine if you choose to remain anonymous.

Thanks

Finished with Sunday School?

So last Sunday I got up early to go and substitute teach a Sunday School class (at Parrie Rose). It also happened that I was asked to fill in for a fellow usher that morning, so you can see my plate was on the full side that morning. Having not gone to bed as early as I should've, I woke up rather tired and a little on the self reflective side. As I was walking into the church and to my classroom, I got this strong feeling of being tired of Sunday School; and that all my efforts where for not. Anyways the class went great, no highlights good or bad, I left a little early for my usher duties, and sent the kids on their way. Standing at my ushering post, the far east side, I noticed one of the boys from my class enter my isle. He sat down with his mother and began to act "abnormal" or "different" so his mother said; she also commented that they normally didn't sit in this isle. Not soon afterwards his mother found the true meaning of this strange behavior, I had been his sub teacher. Whoa! At that point it truly hit me, even though it felt like I was just there to keep the kids occupied for an hour or so, it seemed that I had made an impact on this kid. Sure, he was acting strangely but he was acting that way cause I was there, I can kinda remember doing those kinds of things when I was his age and older. This seems focused on the impact of teaching, but I think this kind of experience can be used in general life as well. Weather you know it or not there are people that look up to you, it may be a sibling, friend, co-worker, family who knows!

Phew! That was a long one, hope it makes some sense.

Welcome to the World of Diesel!

This is a new beginning. I'm taking my first step into this whole new realm called, by those in the know(not myself) as, the Blogosphere. I haven't done a lot in the sense of online posting etc., sure I've done a few MySpace comments, but for the most part my online contribution has been few and far between. Hopefully now I can keep this thing updated, and not let if fall into the pit of lame un-update garbage that litters the internet! If you want to comment, go right a head. and if you just want to read, be my guest.

Be Good!