Computers, Youth Work and Mutant Blood

I thought that maybe I would try something different today. I thought that instead of having a well thought out post with a specific topic, I'd just start typing and see what came up with. So please join me on a journey through my thoughts!

Ever wonder if typing on a keyboard has taken away the art of the written language? Sometimes I think that. It's so convenient and easy and if you get the knack of touch typing it's a lot faster than writing things down on paper. But as someone who enjoyed making my notes neat and tidy in high school, and who is fascinated with calligraphy and old school writing from back in the day, I wonder if we've lost something to the clickety-clack of the keyboard...Just something to ponder I guess. I'm sure that I could get into some rant about how society today is being lost to the age of the computer and technology etc, but I don't think that I'm going to go there. I will admit that I'm someone who can type pretty darn fast on the computer and it always feels impressive to start typing away and wow everyone in the room with my impressive skills. I have my PLM class in grade 9 to thank for that! PLM stands for Personal Life Management and it was this naff class where you learned about random things like how to make decisions, personal hygiene and of course how to type on a computer keyboard. I suppose it wasn't completely useless because here I am typing away, impressing people left and right!

I'm the only one in the building at the moment. Well aside from the decorator who I nearly ran over this morning. He was painting behind the other side of the door which I didn't know and so when I walked in I heard this banging and a bit of a shout. He just laughed which is a good thing. He seems like a pretty jolly fellow, he must enjoy his profession, we need more decorators like him in the world.

Tonight we have a youth club to go to and it's my turn to do the "talk." The theme which I am going to be talking about is either The Bible, or the Holy Spirit. I'm not sure which one because someone's scribbled out the topics and re-written them. Either way it's always a challenge at this particular club because none of the kids are churched and there is only 10 minutes at the end of the club to try and get the talk in. As well they are usually loud and hyper and a bit rough around the edges so half the time you're telling them to be quiet...Please, and the other half you're trying to talk about God. It's very interesting and it makes you wonder at times whether or not they're actually hearing anything you actually say. One evening one boy was bullying one of the younger boys and pushed him over. Let's call them Jim and William. William came to the table where I was playing a game with some others and burst into tears. I comforted him and then got him settled into the game we were playing and then went to see Mike about Jim. Mike went to speak with Jim and then came back to William to announce that Jim was ready to apologize so William went with Mike. While Jim was apologizing something caught Mike's attention and while Mike wasn't looking Jim started giving William the finger while very sweetly saying he was sorry. William just came back to the table with a sigh an continued playing the game. But I had seen the whole thing so I once again went and reported to Mike about Jim's apology. Mike confronted Jim who started yelling and denying the whole thing. When Mike told him that I had seen him give the finger he started yelling at me and cussing at me. I was then his target from that moment on and was constantly dodging pencils that were chucked at my head. SIGH! Youth work sure has it's moments!

I actually did something social last night! After youth group I went out with some of the older youth for a drink. It was nice to hang out with them and just talk about whatever. I've really missed going out while I've been over here. It's not that it's impossible, it's just that there's really a lack of young adults my age to hang out with, they're all away at University. That's one of the things I miss about Canada the most, the friends that I have back there. One of the other problems is that I do not work regular hours. Sometimes I work weekends and evenings because of youth events such as youth alpha and our youth services and tomorrow we have a "vision planning day" for 6 hours. There is a lot of time and effort that goes into being a youth worker and it overlaps quite a lot with your personal life.

I'm trying to think if there are any other interesting stories that I can share...Well my brother and I decided that there is mutant blood in our family. For starters who has a last name like Mosher?? Now, I googled Mosher and apparently there are a lot out there especially in the States, but throughout all of my child hood years I only ever met one person who had the same last name and that was when we were in Thompson. Other then that we were always one of a kind. Secondly there is an unusual behavioral disorder in my family called insanity. As individuals we are fairly tame although still distinctly unusual but when we get together as a family madness reigns. The only theory we could come up with is that our parents must carry mutant blood and have passed it down into us kids. I will never forget the day I came home for lunch and my mother (she rocks) started dancing around the kitchen with an empty jar of salsa singing "my name is picante salsa"...yep mutant blood is the only explanation I can think of. I think most of the mutant blood was distributed amongst the males in my family. I will admit to the occasional weird streak but my weirdness is nothing compared to my brothers...Oh the inhumanity of it all! I have stories...stories that are sworn to secrecy and must remain locked in the family vault of knowledge...If you people out there only knew! I think Tanys must have a pretty good idea since she married one of my brothers, now her kids will have mutant blood in them as well. I guess that's the price she paid!

Anyway I am going to get working on my talk for tonight, Lisa has come in and told me that I can just pick a topic because we've gotten them out of order.

Until my next ramble
JMo out!