www.simoncollier.ca

I got into a discussion a short while ago with some people close to me about homosexuality. They consider themselves to be fairly strong Christians. I was raised labelled a Christian, but the views held by those I was speaking with were very different to my own.

Their view of homosexuality seemed simple: Homosexuals are not bad people, as long as they don’t actually think or do anything homosexual. Homosexuals are ill, they have a birth defect (quote). Those I was debating backed up their stance with two quotes from the Bible: One from Leviticus, and the other from Romans.

I have not studied nor read the Bible, I do not regularly attend church and I do not know any verse other than the Lord’s Prayer (I had to say it at school every morning). All I had was a gut feeling: It just seemed wrong that something so meaningless as sexual orientation would be cause for punishment or judgement. It seemed off-balance, unjust. But I didn’t know enough about the Bible to argue the theology, all I could really say was “this feels wrong. This doesn’t feel like a Christian way to think”.

I love debates as I am prompted to go and learn more than I knew before, and this is no exception. I came home and researched these verses as best I could, and found a great brochure that made a great deal of sense to me. The information in here is something that I feel I can assimmilate into my spirituality and my understanding of self as a hetrosexual Christian.

If you want to read what appears to be a very educated, logical argument against those that I was dabating, then read this PDF brochure. It’s fascinating.

When Daft Punk released “Around the World” in the mid-90′s it was played on the radio all the time, and on a seemingly continuous loop on MTV and other cable music video request/jukebox shows. It was everywhere: “Around the World” was popular, and everyone knew it.

Maybe it’s because I’m in Texas Edmonton now, but I haven’t heard Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” AT ALL through the mainstream media, except for Kanye’s cover song “Stronger”. However, people seem to have taken the song and run with it, creating many home-made art projects with the song. I have no idea how legal it is, but since they have not been removed from Google Video / YouTube I will assume Daft Punk is enjoying the massive amount of free publicity.

Here are my favourite projects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cYWfq–Nw – Daft Hands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLYD_-A_X5E – Daft Girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhZ2iMMq578 – Daft Bodies

You can see where this driver broke through the guardrail (right side where the people are standing on the road pointing). The truck was traveling from right to left when it crashed through, it SPUN across the culvert outlet (front wheel on the metal centrepiece), and landed on the left side of the culvert facing the opposite direction from which he was traveling.

Pretty cool crash, all in all. But to get an idea of just how lucky this driver actually was, click this link for the zoomed-out photo!

References:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/culvert.asp
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/09/06/utah.crash/index.html

In 1998 I went to Romania with St John Ambulance UK and Newcastle Police Aid to Romanian Children. It was a short trip, but one of my richest life experiences.

On the trip with us was a trio from Tyne Tees Television who made a documentary about our visit and the work of the charity.

While the full documentary was about 25 minutes long, there were a couple of shorter versions used as “special reports” in the local news. It is one of these that I have uploaded to Google Video.

See if you can spot the 18-year old version of me.