The Royce Files

Had a fabulous journey reading The Course of Irish History. It did not go into much depth in places but presented a comprehensive view of Hiberno-History. I never knew that the constitution of the Republic stated that the whole of the island is Ireland thereby claim Ulster as part of the Republic. That's where a lot of debate and violence ensues in the past 80 odd years. I am still unsure an united Ireland will ever exist. At least the hostilities have diminished. What books am I now hoping to conquer. Well I am reading Joyce's The Dubliners . A much easier read than Ulysses. The stories are auto biographical slices of existance in Dublin. So far I have read about dead and skipping school. I had been looking for the book for a while and finally got it at a thrift store for 30 cents ! Another book which I just picked up for a deal at Boys Ranch (more on that later) was The Unforgettable Fire an older U2 biography. I got it more more the information about Dublin than for the ...

Doggone. 

My days of semi-employment are coming to end next week. I will once again enter the daily grind of the work a day world. It's not that bad really. I just need to adjust my schedule. The increase in income will be a welcome reward. Earlier this week I did possibly my last stint at Kaye's printing. It should have been a sad parting I think but it was more like changing a garment. At the end of my shift I walked out to my bicycle and shed not a tear. Then a day later at 6:45 AM I get a call to work at AmeriPride . I dread getting that phone call. I last appeared at AmeriPride over a year before. I folded orange shop towels for 8 + hours a day. Although they treated me well (I got a free lunch one day!) it was not a fun a job. It was monotonous. But most of all it all happened the week before my high school reunion! "So what you been up to lately?" one of my successful classmates asks. "Oh, folding shop towels." I timidly replied with a smile. Not quite wh...

Going through change is not necessarily easy. Although I do admit to being flexible, change irks me on the inside. I need to wrestle with it for a bit before I settle into it. That is what I have been doing this week. So far I have been getting the advantage. Each discouraging thought or depression that come my way I rise to occasion and give it a KO. So what all the change? Let me tell you. First, there's a Christian community I am going to help establish in Grand Forks this fall. I don't even have clue what's going to happen. We'll be driving up from Go weekly and find out. We've got a meeting space. Now we need chairs. Second, the church I am helped establish and am still attending is going through some transitions. New home groups and different prayer strategy have really put us in a spin going into the fall. It would be ideal that the church would move in that direction with unity. Third, a new contract position with Xcel energy begins in a few days. I w...

Owen relishes new challenge at Real Rumors had been floating around since the end of the Premiership season that Michael Owen would depart for Madrid. After almost 13 years at Liverpool, Owen felt he needed to pursue his ambitions to be on a successful. Stiff competition up front (Ronaldo and Raul) hopefully will stir the striker to greater heights and gain Madrid some hardware this season. With Liverpool in a strange rebuilding/readjusting phase, the parting probably produced bittersweet taste in Reds fans. It seems Heskey has left the club too? What about Gerrard (not Houlier)? Although it looks like Djibril Cisse has joined from Auxerre. I like his name.

Grafton North Dakota Detailed Profile - travel and real estate info jobs hotels hospitals weather schools crime ... Made a trek up to Grafton, ND this weekend for a mini-conference with the Outfitters churches. I had the opportunity to lead worship on Saturday and it was incredible. God told me "Why would He withhold his presence from his son?" earlier in the morning. [Note: If you do not know already I firmly believe God is an active and personal being. He also communicates to his people including me.] And so it came to pass. God's grace definitely flowed through me, my team, to the group assembled. I have a recording of it and it actually sounds pretty good. Really good. Well it's not that good but I love it!

Munch's famous Scream stolen At first I thought it was some cartoon character that had his scream stolen. Why would that make headlines? Sounds a lot like Monsters Inc. So thieves stole a painting from the Edvard Munch Musueum in Norway. An actual scream did not vacate the musuem with thieves. Two Munch paintings were stolen which included one entitled The Scream, a rather popular impressioninstic painting depicting a person screaming with two hands over his/her ears/cheeks (I am not sure of gender or body part covered). That would be much more abstract and difficult to keep in a get away car. However the paradox exists that this and another painting by Munch were considered priceless but had no security that prevented thievery of the painting. Check out Edvard Munch for yourself. The other stolen painting was entitled The Madonna.