TV

by

Wires Can Make Anything Look Messy

Wires can really make an area look junky. That’s what our television area was like – a tangled pile of wires.

wires can make anything look messy

Of course we tried to hide them behind a TV stand but, if you looked at the far side of the stand, the octopus of cords was visible, spilling out from behind the unit. 

It just didn’t look good. 

And honestly, it doesn’t take very many cords to make things look messy. 

But that is our burden in the 21st century. So much in our lives runs on electricity. 

Just think, there was a time when there were no cords. The only thing on the table by the wall was a oil lamp or candle stand.

Back then homes never looked like you needed an experienced seaman to come and harpoon the tentacles that were wrapped around the furniture.

… Oh, and how quickly an electrical cord can get tangled. It doesn’t even need another cord to fight with. One cord can tangle itself into knots. 

It’s the price we pay for being able to plug things into the wall and have power, whether that is to light a lamp, or turn on a TV, a computer or other device.

Recently we got a new TV. … Yes, we got it just in time for the Super Bowl party we won’t be having this year. 

Lily and I will really have to whoop it up by ourselves. I think I might even have a chance to win some of the contests I usually have for our guests. Maybe I will go all out this year on prizes and make them bigger and better than ever.

Back to the new TV … 

Our last TV sat on a table/TV stand so all the cables went down and behind that stand. From the front you couldn’t see any cables. 

The new TV, well, that’s a different matter. We wanted to hang it on the wall. 

What a mess; it looked disgusting. 

There is a two and a half foot space between the TV and the table below. On the table is a cable box, a PlayStation and a Wii. Some cables have to go up to the TV and some have to go down to the outlets.  

Basically, there are 10 wires of different kinds and colours that have to go between the table and the TV.

I separated them all nicely and created a pattern of cords in that gap. I kind of thought it looked artsy. 

Lily didn’t find it one bit artistic, so we needed a plan.

I cut two holes in the drywall, one behind the stand and one behind the TV. I ran the cable back and forth through those holes. Power cords, however, are not supposed to go through the wall like that, so I put an outlet behind the TV and connected it to the outlet below. 

My entertainment area now looks like a scene from the 1700’s when nothing was connected – no wires. 

Here’s the thing: I don’t think many of us would want to live back at the time of some of the great saints of the past, even though life seemed simpler then. Though the world we live in is messy, that should not stop us from becoming present-day saints, and working on cleaning up our messes and living godly lives. Seek more of what Jesus wants for you and you’ll be satisfied.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s a messy part of your life you should clean up? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one twice weekly delivered to your email inbox.

by

Commercials Are Interrupting My Routine

Lately I’ve been wondering if they are putting more commercials on TV than they used to. 

commercials are interrupting my routine

It’s hard to tell because in one hour you have about fifteen to eighteen minutes of commercials. You can hardly get into watching a show without being interrupted by commercials that seem to go on and on. 

And because some of the commercials are only fifteen seconds long, they just seem to keep coming at you. 

The reason I’ve been wondering this is because I’m getting back to working out regularly. And I watch TV while I work out.

Usually the best programs to watch are sports events because they fit commercials in when there is a break in the action, and not at perfectly timed intervals designed to thoroughly annoy you. 

Movies are second best to watch because they have a few less commercials than regular TV programs. 

The whole thing with the television and working out is that it distracts you from what you are doing. 

I have a rowing machine – it’s the same motion over and over again. Believe me, it is boring. There is nothing you can do to make it fun. But if you can watch something that takes your attention away from what you are doing, you can just keep on rowing.  

The time goes by fast.

The problem with commercials is that they don’t grab my attention … well, unless I’m watching my daughter’s commercial and then I’m engaged (watch it here).  

But the majority of the time, the only thing commercials do is cause me to notice how long I’ve been rowing. And how much more time I have to go. 

The little screen on my rower shows me how hard I’m rowing but it also shows how long I’ve been on the machine. Believe me, it never tells me I’ve been on as long as I figure I have.

Without commercials getting in the way, you just get lost in the action of the sport or the story of the show. Before you know it you are done working out.

So the other day I decided to watch some football, thinking it would be perfect, that I’d just get into the game. I wasn’t rowing long before the team lost possession and they went to commercial. The game came back on, but after the very next play there was an injury so they went to commercial again. 

They were only back from the commercials for maybe three minutes when the two minute warning sounded … and they went to commercial again. 

Normally commercials during sporting events are only about a minute. Not these; they broke from the action for about two to three minutes each time. To top it off, they kept showing fifteen second commercials so I had to row through eight or more commercials every time.  

It was like I was at a game. I was yelling at the TV like I would a referee, only I was yelling at the commercials to stop. I couldn’t take it any longer. 

I’m just glad I finished rowing by half time – there are way too many commercials then.

Here’s the thing: There are things in our life that may be causing an hindrance, disruption or frustration to our growth in Christ, or the quality of our relationship with Him. From time to time it’s a good idea to ask yourself what those things might be and then move to eliminate or diminish them. You will then find you enjoy Christ more.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What might be an interruption in your life right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this delivered to your email inbox twice weekly.

by

The Media Is Driving Me Crazy

I feel that taking a break from all media sources might help calm my mind and my emotions. 

Media Is Driving Me Crazy

In order for me to do that, I need to turn off the radio in my car, my television set at home, and all social media feeds on my computer, tablet and cell phone. 

That would be extreme living for me … and all in a bad way.

I’ve heard of people living off the grid, moving to some remote place where they have to hike in on foot, and setting up a yurt after they cut down a bunch of trees in the middle of a pine forest. 

They live on vegetables that they grow and fish that they catch. Every month or so they treat themselves to a trip to a city to really experience life.

You know I’m just kidding. 

For all my off-the-grid readers, how do you even get this blog? 

At least the off-the-gridders can be selective with the media they are exposed to. In the last couple of days I’ve been so frustrated with what I’ve heard in the media that I’m ready do something, but don’t what to do or whom to do it to. 

All the impeachment talk concerning President Trump has me itching to impeach the media …Could someone actually do that?

I’m not saying for one moment that Trump didn’t do something wrong, but let’s not jump to the conclusion before we have the whole story.

The conclusion is where everyone is. Even the NDP candidate running for the PM of Canada is calling for Donald Trump to be impeached. 

It’s all emotion based on information provided from someone we don’t know … information that still has yet to be verified as all true and accurate.

For all I know, what we are being told is true, but most likely it’s partially true or mostly true. 

Remember the prince in the Princess Bride who was only mostly dead? I think what we are being fed fits somewhere in that category of not being completely true or false, just mostly one or the other. 

But the media is talking about it as if it has all been proven true. They even interpret some of Trump’s words from the phone recording in ways that exaggerate what was said. 

It stirs people’s emotions and builds a hype that creates a unified voice that judges and condemns before any real investigation or trial has done its job. 

What the media is doing is building strong support for something that is based mostly on opinion at this point … their opinion! 

And when that opinion catches wind, they stir the embers and fan their opinion flame into a bonfire, maybe even a wild fire that can’t be stopped. 

Opinion is not truth. It might be true, but it’s not true until it is proven. When opinion becomes truth before it is proven, that’s what you call North American news. 

They hold up their right to inform the people, but they are really only forming the people to their opinion. 

Here’s the thing: Some people’s belief systems are based on opinion. Their opinion of God seems to be truth to them, even though they have never taken the time to prove their opinion one way or the other. All of us should question how we have let our opinion of God rule our relationship with Him, rather than seeking proof of God in our relationship with Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What opinion of God do you have that needs to be challenged? Leave your comments and questions below.

by

I Want A New Deal With Bell Canada

Bell Canada has a good thing going, but it hasn’t been very good for me.

Bell Canada

Today I turned on my TV and I heard voices talking but the screen was as dark as it was before I turned it on.

I started hitting buttons, but the only buttons I could get to work were the volume and the power controls. 

My first thought was that I needed a new TV. We’ve had this one for many years and maybe it was just its time. But I turned on another device that was plugging into my TV and there was the picture.  

It seemed the problem lay with my Bell Canada Fibe TV box.

Immediately a whole load of thoughts flooded my brain. I remember sitting with a woman as she outlined the great deal that Bell had for us that would save us a ton of money. 

What she told us sounded so good we decided we would make the switch after 18 years with another TV provider and 22 years with another internet provider. 

We were given tons of promises, and everything worked pretty well. We were happy for the first month and a half. 

Then we noticed a price increase. As the months went on, the increases for varying amounts showed up about every two months. 

Then a year into the contract, we got hit with a huge increase. After less than two years, we are paying more than double what we had agreed upon when we got Bell’s service!

That is a sweet contract for them. We pay a penalty for leaving the contract early but they can raise their rates continuously throughout the contract. 

When I inquired as to why the increases, the answer was, “we are continually improving our service”.

I think that means I’m paying for Bell to dig up other streets so they can install Fibe TV in those neighbourhoods as well. 

I’ve seen no difference to my service. It’s not faster, not more reliable. I don’t even have more of the same stations to watch the same programs on!  

… Did that last sentence hypnotize you a little? Well, that’s just the reality of TV.

Every time I’ve called customer service, they refuse to honour what the original salesperson told us because they can’t verify what she said. Instead they offer to reduce my channels to reduce the impact of the increase to maybe half. They, however, always get an increase.

Just the other week I received a phone call from Bell. They said they had a great deal for me because they’ve upgraded the service in my area. 

I replied that I’m already paying more than twice what I started at a year and a half ago, and I wasn’t interested in paying more. I said I was just waiting for the end of the contract. The salesperson said they would have someone call me.  

No one has called.

I wonder … if I called and told them I’m only hearing voices, would they set me up with a psychiatrist or reduce my bill in half? Probably neither. 

Here’s the thing: In this life, institutions, businesses and people are looking out for their own interests above all else. Even God has His best interest in mind. However, God’s best interest is truly best and, because He loves you, His best interest is really your best interest as well. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you think God’s best interest for you is? Leave your comments and questions below.

by

My Complaint Was Unjustified

I was a little too hasty with my complaint.

Spring is here and I should be writing about mountain biking, hockey playoffs or maybe baseball. 

… Or how about those Raptors and Kawhi Leonard’s four bouncer, rim shot, buzzer beater to send Toronto to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals?

But I can’t write about those things. I’m still trying to get my head around my latest bill from Bell Canada.

At the beginning of April I got a shock when our TV/Internet bill increased by $79 from the previous month. (I wrote about it here.)

I got a double shocker this month when my latest bill appeared to be devoid of any adjustments.

After the big increase a month ago, I had called Bell and complained. … I’ll make this short by saying they gave me a $40 reduction on my bill plus faster internet service. To get that, I was on the phone for way longer than an hour with more than one customer service rep.

Within a day or two I noticed some results. They kept their promise of adding three free stations and removing one station, but the internet service didn’t seem any faster. 

Then this month’s bill showed the free stations, but no mention of the upgraded internet, and the same price for TV and Internet as the month before. 

Back to the phones I went! … If nothing else the phone company is ensuring we are still using their services because we have to call them all the time to complain! 

This time the conversation was more disturbing and discouraging than the previous month. 

I talked to two customer service reps who didn’t want to budge. They basically dismissed what I had been told a month earlier. They said that the notes for that complaint didn’t say anything about the credits and changes we had agreed upon. 

In the end, the rep said that she would have her manager call me.  

So I have to wait for the manager’s call … which also means there may be a follow up to this post some time in the future.

Then this morning, as I reviewed my bill again, I noticed something I had missed before. All the itemized charges are the same as the previous month, but there is an amount in an adjustments box with no explanation.

That adjustment is a credit. It only shows up on the remittance page, but it brings my bill to what was promised me the month before.

So I didn’t get faster internet and there doesn’t seem to be any record of or reason given for the credit, but I got one. 

The question I still have is, “Will this credit show up every month?” There is no record of what it is for, so it would be easy to just drop it.

As it stands now, when the manager calls, the only thing I can say to him is … in the words of Saturday Night Live’s Emily Litella, “Never Mind”.

Here’s the thing: I’m distrustful about what my tech company has given me. They might take it away as fast as I received it; it only shows up as a mystery item on my bill. How many times do we treat God that way when He gives us something? We treat Him as though He might take it away at any moment, or we are suspicious of whether it was God who gave it to us in the first place. You might not be able to trust your tech company, but you can trust God. Give Him the credit and praise He deserves.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has God provided for you that you didn’t really thank Him for? Leave your comment below.

by

It’s Been A Month Of Exercise

In the past month I’ve only missed two days of exercise. For some people that might not be a big deal, but for me it’s huge.

This year so far I’ve been trying to complete the rings on my watch. I wrote a blog about it and you can read that one here.

The three rings represent calories burned while moving, standing for at least one minute for each of twelve hours in the day, and completing 30 minutes of exercise a day.

… That last ring needs some explaining: Exercise as recorded on my watch is any time my heart rate is elevated past a certain range for a minute or so.

Most days I will get a few minutes of exercise just doing what I do in a day. If I’ve walked somewhere fast or shovelled snow, I’ll get that ring to move a little.

There are some days – and in the last month there were two – that I completed that ring by doing everyday activities that elevated my heart rate for a total of 30 minutes in the day. But in the last 34 days, I’ve actually worked out 32 times.

… I haven’t been this active since I was in my early twenties and was always running, playing, and doing things every day!

Sometimes my workouts have been short, maybe twenty minutes on the bike or rowing machine; other days I’ve played hockey for 60 minutes or more.

There have been a few times that I’ve come home from work and felt too tired to exercise, but I’ve done it anyway.

Times that I couldn’t exercise between work and an evening meeting, even though it was 10:00 or 10:30 pm when I came home, I still put in time in the gym.

And that’s what’s helped me. I have a mini gym at home, one room in the house – my son’s old bedroom to be exact – where we have equipment and a TV.

The TV is critical because I don’t think I could keep working out without some kind of distraction.

I have three basic pieces of equipment that I use: a treadmill, my old bike on a trainer, and a rowing machine.

When I think about how well I’ve done exercising this past month, I also realize that it’s just a month. It’s too soon to say that I have a pattern or a way of life now that includes daily exercise.

And that is the important thing for me to remember. I’m not doing this to reach a goal, or to say that I completed something. I’m doing this to make a change to my life.

When I was young, I naturally got exercise every day. At my age and with my work, I have to build exercise into my routine because my days don’t naturally produce it.

I feel so good right now, maybe this is how I always felt when I was in my twenties … now I’m not taking it for granted.

Here’s the thing: I now have to work at something that I didn’t have to even think about 40 years ago. There was a time in your life when you didn’t think about changing or renewing yourself. But when you become a Christ-follower, you have to daily put on the new self, your Christ nature, by building the fruit of the Spirit into your life. Don’t neglect your new self.

That’s Life!

Paul

Galatians 5:22-23

Question: What are you doing to daily exercise your new nature?

by

When You Get Lost in the Change

I get a little lost at this time of year, especially in the evenings. For the past month, there has been hockey on TV pretty much every night.

New old Habit

Often there have been multiple games, extending hockey into the wee hours of the night for us in Ontario. But that has come to an end.

They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so in the past month, I’ve been in the habit of watching hockey each night.

It didn’t matter if I had a meeting or activity after dinner, when I got home there was always the action, cheers, commentary, and, of course, my red light broadcasting throughout the house that another goal had been scored.

It was comforting; I knew what I would be doing and Lily would know where to find me. I didn’t have to choose between several options or projects when I was home. I was focussed, single-minded. It was a good thing.

… Well, I guess it wasn’t all good. There were some downsides like not being able to follow the conversation Lily was trying to have with me. I found it difficult to look her in the eyes while she was talking when the play-by-play guy was describing how a player just rang one off the post.

All winter I have reserved Saturday night to have a can of Dr. Pepper. It’s pretty much the only time I will drink it. However, with hockey on every night, I had to daily remind myself that it was not Saturday or I’d have been going through a case of pop every week!

But all that has come to an end. I don’t know what to do with myself now, because we are down to only four teams and the games are spread out. I had to watch a repeat of the Canada versus Belarus game the other night and I already knew Canada won 9-0!

I’m finding there is great pressure for me to move away from the TV and find something more productive to do. I keep hearing suggestions and hints of things that could be attended to around the house.

My problem is I don’t have my ready-made excuses to not get at these things. It’s one thing to say, “Sure Lil, I’ll put out the garbage right at the end of the period . . . after Coach’s Corner.”

It doesn’t work any more to say, “Could you repeat that? I didn’t quite hear you” four or five times. Lil knows I’m scamming her.

You see, I just made a habit and now I already have to break it … and that’s why I feel lost right now. My routine is being interrupted; my time must be filled with new things.

I think I just need to be weened off of hockey over a few weeks. And that’s good because the semi’s are on and by the time the Stanley Cup series is done, I think I will be ready to fully embrace golf and mountain biking . . . until hockey starts again in the fall.

Here’s the thing: When a season of life changes or your schedule changes for that matter, it can throw you off from your time spent with God alone. Use these times to refresh your approach to your time with God. Change it up a little. Try to incorporate something that will challenge you and increase your interest and desire to meet with Him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What disruptions to your routine cause you to feel out-of-sorts? Leave your comment below.

by

Sleepless In . . . Kingston!

I just had one of those nights where you find yourself wide awake at 2 am. I’m not sure if this kind of thing is contagious, but a friend of mine was telling me the day before how he had had a sleepless night.

insomnia

The very next night, like someone had sneezed right in my face, I rolled around in my bed like I was doing laps at the track.

It makes you crazy when you can’t stop thinking about something, even though you can’t solve it. It just hangs on in your mind. And even when you try to redeem the time by thinking about something else, you always come back to that unrelenting, unpleasant thought or issue.

And, after a while, you realize that unless you do something, you will not be able to sleep at all.

When I get to that stage, I just get up. I need to change my position; I need to get away from the heavy breathing of someone deep in sleep beside me.

So, the other night I got out of bed, went downstairs and started to work on my sermon for the next week. So what if it was Monday morning at 2 am? I have some of my best and most creative thoughts at that time of night.

I worked on my sermon and made great headway until about 3:30 am when I thought I’d better try to sleep. Even though I was still very awake and stimulated from my late night study time, I grabbed a blanket, laid down on the couch and turned the TV on.

If there is anything that will put me to sleep it’s the TV – not those infomercials though, they get me thinking of things I could make or buy. (I think I wrote once about the ab-dolly my son and I made after watching an infomercial.)

No, I need some kind of drama. In my flicking through the channels I came across a TV show I like, called “Castle”. It’s a detective show where a mystery writer helps the police solve crimes.

But the only crime I wanted solved was catching the guy who stole my sleep so far that night! And don’t worry, I won’t give away the show’s ending – only because I can’t … I was asleep in probably 15 minutes.

Actually, all I need is two things to put me to sleep: TV and being horizontal. It works every time. It works for Sunday NFL games, TV shows, and for romantic movies my wife sometime cons me into watching with her.

In the morning it was Lil who woke me up. I had slept through three alarms and never heard one of them. She came down wanting the room for her workout. So I trudged upstairs, and crawled into bed. But by then the day had started in my mind and it wasn’t long before I was up and moving.

… Maybe a little slower than normal, mind you.

Here’s the thing:  Sometimes we are awake because we’ve seen or experienced something that has shocked us. Sometimes it’s just indigestion from bad pizza late at night. But one thing you can do to redeem the time is spend it with God. In those quiet hours, when nothing is moving except your mind, take the time to talk to God. He may have something to say to you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What can trigger a sleepless night for you? Leave your comment below.

by

You Can’t Beat The Real Thing

Though television and the internet have provided us with live images from around the world that we would never see otherwise, what they can’t do is give us a live experience.

Certainly television news tries to give us live experiences of wars and disasters. The commentary of the reporter is always dramatic. They somehow think that showing the same footage over and over and making the same comments seeps into our psyche so it becomes like an experience to us. … but it doesn’t really work.

IMG_1433

My wife, Lily and I took a trip to Atlantic City, for a week’s get away and to relax. No, not to gamble, though there are a plethora of opportunities to do that.

We aren’t even staying in one of the casino hotels. In fact, we are staying at the very end of the famous Atlantic City boardwalk. To be accurate, the boardwalk used to go past our hotel.

About six months ago, a hurricane came through and wiped out the part of the boardwalk that runs in front of our hotel. I’m surprised it didn’t destroy part of the hotel we are staying in as well.

I remember seeing the news reels on TV when the disaster took place, thinking that it was too bad. I even felt sorry for the people who lost homes and for the damage it caused them and the city.

But until yesterday, when my wife and I walked along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and saw the remains of the portion of boardwalk that was lost during Hurricane Sandy, I had not experienced it.

It’s not that we experienced the storm, but our experience of being right at the site of the damage is something television and the internet can’t give us. For example, there’s something better about going to a live sporting event than watching it on TV – even though on TV you get replays and commentary and all kinds of extras.

It’s the same with going to a concert or performance of some kind. There is something better about being there live. If you are there, it is an experience. If you’re watching on television, you are only tuning in to it.

There have been major events that were so pivotal that we remember where we were when they happened: when President Kennedy was shot, when Canada beat the Russians in the 1972 hockey summit, or when the twin towers were struck.

The experience was not the actual event in those cases. The experience was with the place, the people and the emotion of where we were at the time.

For instance, I remember being in the library of my high school, with wall-to-wall people watching the game on three little TVs. I remember the place erupting when Henderson scored his goal. I remember everybody hugging and cheering and shouting (yes, shouting in a library) when the buzzer went. I watched the game live but my experience was in my school.

The point is, our experiences are with live events we are present for, not something we see on TV or the internet.

Here’s the thing: We can see something about God, read something about Him, even be with people who have experienced God. But until we personally engage with Him, meet with Him, or have some dealings with Him, we can’t say we have had an experience with God. We have just been looking on

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What event can you remember in detail as to where you were and who you were with?  Leave your comment below.

by

I like Nostalgia Night … Once in a While

When I think of my ability to remember things, sometimes I find it amazing!  Sure, there are lots of things I don’t remember, like each week when the garbage has to go out … I still need a reminder for that.  Sometimes I need more that one reminder.  If you’re driving by my house at midnight on Tuesday (or, is it Wednesday?), it’s possible that you might see me putting the garbage out to the curb.

When you think of it though, on so many things our ability to recall is astounding.  Take phone numbers, for instance.  Some people can remember not only their own phone number, but they know all their relatives’ phone numbers and many of their friends’ numbers as well.  My wife Lily is like that; she’s my personal yellow pages if I need to call someone in our family.

The other day I was flicking channels on the TV and PBS had a special on the Ed Sullivan show.  (If you’ve never heard of that show, it was an entertainment show that ran from 1948-1971.)  This particular PBS special featured musical acts from the 60’s, so I tuned in.

It was great to see some of the bands perform from way back.  But what struck Lily was that I knew the words to many of the songs.  At one point she said, “You were 11 when that song was out and you know every word!”  I thought about it later, and I don’t even know how I learned the words.  They just got stuck in my memory.

Lily didn’t stay too long.  So there I was, alone, singing away with the likes of Herman’s Hermits, The Beatles, Jerry and Pacemakers, Lulu, and yes, even Tom Jones.  I was asked to shut the basement door as if that would create a sound barrier to my singing, that apparently got louder and louder as I got more into it.  What Lily was really hoping for was the “cone of silence” from “Get Smart” (another 60’s TV show).  When I came upstairs later, Lily had an ice pack on her neck.  She said that her neck had been bad for weeks, but I’m wondering if maybe my singing finished it off.

I did enjoy myself though.  I could even remember guitar solos, drum beats – I sang them too.  For about an hour my memory was digging deep, bringing song after song to the front of my mind.  I guess I overtaxed it though, because I couldn’t remember where I put the remote when it was over.

Here is the thing:  God says that when He forgives us, our sins are gone, taken away “as far as the east is from the west”.  So when we have confessed our sins to Him, and then still feel guilty for them, it’s not God punishing us, or needling us with those sins.  It’s our own excellent memory that keeps them coming back!  What we need to do is be a little more selective with what we remember when it comes to our past sins.  We need to treat our past sins more like taking out the garbage or remembering where we put the remote control.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How do you prevent your past from plaguing you with guilt?