Finally MSN has required that I update to the newest version in order to use it. For about 2 years I’ve just clicked “remind me later” or “click for more info” but they never forced me to update. I had a hack installed on Messenger 6 that took away all the advertisements, but even that wasn’t enough to make me comfortable with the interface. MSN 6 was riddled with useless buttons, unnecessary visual nuances, and a very un-intuitive way of viewing a friend’s information.

Google Talk came along and satisfied all my requirements. It was clean, slick, intuitive, and simple. The “no advertising” was important. And most importantly, the “chat history” was all saved to my Gmail account. That way, I can refer to the chat history at any point, anywhere. I love it. MSN 6 had no such feature, instead it saved Message History locally on my computer, or not at all. The XML history files were useful, at times, but for the most part they are difficult to toggle. And if I reformat my computer, I don’t want to have to backup my chat history. I want it to still be accessible. The web-based chat history is perfect.

Of course Google Talk doesn’t have webcam abilities still (I hope they bring it at some point) but for me that isn’t a make-or-break feature. The voice-chat is handy (friends have told me they use it religiously) and I think it’s great that you can leave an MP3 voicemail in someone’s Gmail through Google Talk. Genius.

MSN has (for the most part) always had group conversation features. Google Talk Gadget web-client allows for it, but not the Google Talk local client. In fact, if you want to see something amazing, it’s the Google Talk web-client. It has alternate smilies, group chats, tabbed windows, embedded photo-links and video-links whenever you type a URL. The web-client allows for Google to automatically republish new features without needing the user to update their software locally. Pretty neat.

I just installed Windows Live Messenger, let’s see what it’s got. Some of you may have been using it already, but I don’t know too many people who’ve said much about it.

I’ve decided to make this post open. You can ask me a question — any question — whether it be about trivia, ministry, opinion, personal, or hobby-related. I will select which one to answer. I will possibly answer other ones in the future. Go ahead, post a question in my comments.

Our street has been undergoing construction to replace sections of the sidewalks, curbsides, and eventually the whole road surface. It has been pretty crazy, since they sent us a notice in our mailbox stating it would take about a month. So far we’ve endured the tearing up of the sidewalk in front of our house, and then they set the moulds and poured concrete the very next day. Our driveway had two massive ditches on either side of the new sidewalk from the digging, and it prevented us from driving the cars in/out during the weekend… this morning they poured some gravel in there temporarily. Until they dig up the whole front section of the driveway, I guess that will have to do.

Last week when they took out the old sidewalk, they also cut some of the cables that were under the concrete — our Rogers TV cable and the Bell telephone line. I called the two companies to arrange for a maintenance guy to come in and fix it… later that evening the Bell guy came (that’s amazingly fast, I didn’t expect it that fast) and then the next morning the Rogers guy came and strung a temporary cable through our tree to the side of the house. It demonstrated the total inefficiency of the system, since Rogers and Bell only send technicians to fix individual orders from homes. In our case, they were doing construction in the whole neighbourhood, and yet the companies had to respond on a per-call basis, when in fact a whole bunch of homes were affected. The contractor really shouldn’t cut cables like that, but the companies also shouldn’t lay cables so shallow in the ground! In the end, the city gets billed for it all, since in the end it’s the city who’s responsible for the original construction process. It’s pretty frustrating. People like the technicians are employed for the purpose of covering up and repairing inefficiencies. How meaningless. At least I was able to introduce myself to the various dudes who came by to fix the things. It doesn’t help to get angry at them… they’re only fixing the problems that other people caused.

Here are some photos of my street from tonight… they have dug up the curbsides and haven’t poured the concrete yet, which means the whole half of my neighbourhood had to park on the street instead of their driveways.

And I stitched together a panorama of the tidy parking lot that resulted on my street.

On another note, I’m really excited for the return of Heroes. Season Two is starting September 24, and I watched some of the footage of the Heroes World Tour as the actors and actresses went around promoting the upcoming season and the DVD of Season One. I’m excited to see how they continue to make this exciting, since you would have thought that the world is now saved since they saved the cheerleader. And Peter Petrelli didn’t explode (as they thought he would). And Sylar appeared to have got away. But it goes way deeper, apparently. It’s also great to see the cast have so much fun with each other. Masi Oka and Glen Grunberg beatboxing together, Noah Gray-Cabey showing off his piano virtuosity. That’s one show I’m looking forward to keeping up with.

You, as my blog reader, have it bad sometimes. I tend to process thoughts for a mighty long time before posting them on the blog. I’ve been thinking about some things for over a week now, that would have been blog-worthy at that time, but now they seem less important now. Or at least less “current”, in my opinion. But still I want to set them down in words.

In the past couple days I’ve found myself processing thoughts a lot more verbally. With a face to talk to, I notice myself being more likely to open up about what’s on my mind. I don’t get that very much when I’m in Toronto. But being in Guelph for a couple days helped a lot. There are so many people there who I feel open and comfortable with. I can talk without inhibition.

It’s a little different on the blog. There’s always the stigma that a post I make needs to be either a) profound, b) witty/hilarious, or c) intriguing/emotional. I’m not sure why that’s the case. I actually have no accurate gauge of how many people read this on a regular basis anyway. But I usually end up really thinking about an issue before typing it up and publishing it. I never went through this a few years ago while blogging. Maybe more of a filter has gone up. All I can guarantee is that what I talk about is not impersonal: it’s what I’m going through and I’d like to think that it discusses what I would tell people even if I were speaking to them in person.

Friends are great. Visiting Guelph helped me realize the depth of the relationships I’ve made. Or, rather, being in Toronto has helped me realize the depth of the relationships I’ve made elsewhere. It’s unfortunate about Toronto and the time I’ve spent with people here, that so little remains. I’m working on it again now.

So I met with the supposedly “alienated” couple. They were tremendously encouraging of me. They are totally behind what I do; in fact, they told me they weren’t surprised that I have decided to do full-time ministry, and had seen it coming even during the very first times I met them. Wow, that is foresight. Also, they explained to me how they don’t have much time, but they do have the ability to support me. As for me, I have lots of time, but very few resources, especially the ability to support myself financially. And they are extremely busy people… meeting with me isn’t the highest priority since other people in their lives need their time much more than I do. And I didn’t make them feel tapped from the way I did my follow-up after projects in the past. They were glad to be supportive of me and are totally behind university campus ministry. Perhaps a lot of the trepidation was in my head. I’m glad I met with them. I feel like I’ve gained a whole relationship back.

It’s a kind of low-maintenance relationship with them. I guess some people in our lives will be like that: low maintenance friends. We don’t have to talk to them frequently and sometimes it will be impossible, but when we engage, it is deep and meaningful.