Thoughts, Thinkings, and Ideas!

2009-08-27T16:19:00.006-04:00

Evony (http://www.evony.com/)

Intro:

This is a game that I have currently been playing with several friends. My user is Lord Sreaberac and am currently part of the JLA server 31. It’s fairly addictive and unlike other games it does give you the ability to play on par with people who pay for the game. There is a graphic web/java interface, avoiding the common text based games. To best describe the game I’d categorize it as a mix of civilization and sim city.

Strat:

The concept of the game is build a city. There are three levels to the city. Within the walls you can build buildings.

Interior:

Barracks: Where you can build military units. (You should have a majority of these)

Cottages: For food (You only need 4 or 5 as population never really is a concern) Population is a resource needed to maintain production, and a requirement for building military. They regenerate, to the maximum population * loyalty of the city.

Warehouse: Reduces pillaging (Useless since defending is so much easier)

Embassy: Important for allies to help you out in defending and joining alliances. The higher the level the more waves of allies can send you.

Town Hall: Determines the amount of valleys you can control and rates. (You start with this building) You also have special abilities here to raise loyalty, population, and production. The level also determines the amount of production buildings you can have in the exterior section.

Forge/Stables/Workshop: Prerequisites for buildings and technology. Once you’ve upgraded all your other buildings you can pretty much demolish these. You will need them to research some techs, however that doesn’t mean you need them in every city.

Rally Spot: Level determines amount of men and parallel marches you can make. Once you go military strategy you will find you will need a level 9 or 10 in every city.

Relief station: Shuttling units between cities speed boost. (Allies as well) This takes a long time to build. Level 4 or 5 will be enough unless your cities are far away. At higher levels it takes quite a while to upgrade.

Academy: Where you upgrade technology. You can only research one tech at a time per city. But if you have multiple cities you can run parallel research. I find you only need one level 10 academy and just high enough for the other cities to always be researching something.

Inn: Where you choose your heroes. The key here is that higher level does not mean higher base stats. So a level 1 hero can have better stats than a level 10. Except a level 1 is easier to upgrade and cheaper. Hence, never settle anything less than level 1 or 2. Anything higher than 65 in any cat is a steal. You can specialize. I would never upgrade pass level 3 as the higher the level the harder it is to get lvl 1 or 2 hero selections.

Politics: +1% production if mayor, faster construction if mayor
Attack: Faster military unit build if mayor. Attack boost if leading attack.
Intel: Reduces research time, and boosts scouting.

Feasting Hall: Where you can appoint a mayor and where and how many heroes you can hold. You will end up needing a level 9. This really helps when you are medal farming later on. Ie. Attacking multiple valleys in one go to find medals.

Exterior:

This is where you build your production buildings. The level and number of each type contributes to the production of each type of resource in real time.

Wood. This is the most used resource.
Food. You need this to build units, also military require food maintenance while stationed in your city or defending a valley.
Iron. Produces Iron, this is needed in everything as well but to a lesser extent of wood.
Stone. This is needed to build buildings. A lot of this is required to build walls.

This is my advice. Since controlling valleys increases the bonus to only one type of resource type. It makes sense to control all valleys giving bonus to one resource type and building that one resource type field in the city. Then you can ship the resources between cities. However it’s difficult to create more cities unless you medal farm. If your active it could take weeks to get 2 cities, months to get 3 cities let alone 4 cities. However in your first city you should have a good proportion of each since. However you should really go a 20% food, 50% wood, 15% stone and 15% iron to start. Specialize in your expansion cities.

World:

In the world section you can see all the other cities and enemies out there. There are a mix of valleys which you can conquer with military to get resource bonuses. There are also NPC which are computer cities you can attack to gain resources. And there are other live player cities just like you. The level of valley determines how strong the enemy there is for you to take control of it. The higher the valley level the greater the bonus as well. I just suggest you take the levels you can and upgrade them later. But you should concentrate on one valley type to pile on the bonuses to the resource you produce the most.

I’ll let you know now, that if your active enough. You’ll make a lot more resources stealing from other players than you would ever by producing on your own. So military is always better. At the end of the day it’s best to be surrounded by a large number of 1-4 level NPCs. As you can farm them with long range weapons to steal vast resources without any losses later on.

Other notes:

Things that make this game fun are your allies. If you get into a good alliance that actively works together to defend each other from oncoming attacks it is 10 times more fun. The only reason I keep playing is to support my allies and avenge them from people pillaging them. Just remember everything is in real time so it takes time for men to travel. So it’s exciting when someone realizes a large army is heading towards them and all the alliance members are scrambling to send reinforcements to help someone defend. I will conclude this review for now and add some even more advance info later. I’m located in server 31 if anyone is interested in joining JLA.

Roulette: You can claim a daily gift. This is a amulet that allows you to get a random gift. It's done through a random roulette. Such gifts include, bonus items, heroes, military units, resources etc.

Quests: For beginners, everytime you hit a milestone for the first time you get resources or prestige or items. Helps you know what order of things to build. ie. First time building a barrack. etc.

2006-10-06T13:30:00.000-04:00

Casting Crowns

It all started when I went to Mitchels and they were having a 2 for 25 dollar sale for some music. I wanted to get the Switchfoot CD, which was really in. The original one, I knew a lot of songs on there. I also saw the casting crowns CD which sounded familiar I think because someone played me a song before and I liked it. However someone I was with wanted a CD too, but only wanted one so I decided to get just one. I really couldn't decide because I was like, I only know one song on this casting crowns CD. Like a miracle there was a song playing in the background on the speakers. I was like, that song sounds nice who is that? And my friend said, "That's casting crowns, it's on the CD". So I got it. Loved it so much, I bought the new Lifesong CD on ebay as well. Casting crowns is so geared towards students. Check out a video made by someone with one of their songs.

You Tube link to VIDEO

And I also got a job. Still need the papers, so stop asking me when I start people?

2006-09-23T19:26:00.000-04:00

Update on life

Well what have I been up to?

I did laser eye. Yes I can see. No I'm not blind. Eye drops 4 times a day for 4 weeks then 3 times a day for 4 weeks. etc. That's it. Already beginning to forget I wore glasses.

No job. Downgraded from student to unemployed. The credit card people stopped callig me to offer me a credit card since I told them I graduated and don't have a job yet.

To move on, I'm going to Emmanual fellowship. These people you can tell are a lot more old. Sigh, well you gotta move on sometime I guess. Also noticed how much older people are when we had bubble tea with the alumni at LCCF. Elaine Ma, and Ken came in on motorcycles and helmets and armour and stuff. Wow! Talk about different part of their life. Rani is working late nights at a "studio". Josh was talking about all the raises he's been getting and Clinton talking about the multiple real estate investments he's been closing. Yep! Old!

Also started playing guitar on a worship team. Amp was way too loud the first time. Man, Maybe I wont' plug in next time. Let the drums and piano carry it. Then you can't hear my wrong chords. hahaha.

2006-06-25T21:01:00.000-04:00

One of those days

Sigh found out Kwan dropped out for coming to summer conference. Was really looking forward to jamming with him.

Found out Derek is going to New York for two months. Means we just lost our franchise player short stop for the rest of the season.

Hit the pitcher with the ball at my first up to bat.

My teammate drove off with my wallet, phone, and keys in his bag.

Night ended with me having to pick up a dead bird out of my neighbors basement and throw it out.

It's only Sunday. It's going to be one of those weeks.

2006-05-16T10:11:00.000-04:00

First few weeks of school

Textbooks

If I had bought all my textbooks the stupid online bookstore says the total would have been about $650. That's way too much for textbooks anyone agree? At any rate I whittled that down to $60 through my textbook saving methods. I'll list them below.

1. E-bay and Amazon: Textbooks are cheaper this way you can get a softcover version or international versions which are much cheaper. You can also buy textbooks and sell them at your school.

2. Legacy: You have friends? Post on msn what books you need and see who helps you out. Some friends offer to lend you the books which is the best. Others offer to sell you the books pretty cheap. Other friends offer to sell the books for expensive. At any rate, in these cases, just remember the rules of thumb... don't make a profit on your friends. ie. Buying their textbooks for $50 and then reselling it the next term for $60. If you borrow books, you should be willing to lend them out as well.

3. Photocopy: Hmmm surprisingly not even worth it. Maybe a case here and there and an article instead of buying course packages, but I wouldn't suggest doing it for textbooks.

4. Library: I didn't even realize this... but I can borrow our textbook from the library, and then just keep renewing it forever. Dang... all these years. I just did it this term.

5. Share textbooks: Hmm I've done it before. Don't do it unless you don't need to use the book a lot. It just gets confusing and everyone studies last minute which is the same minute.

6. Don't buy: Hmmm you can get away with it. Surprisingly in hind sight I didn't have to buy books for like 70% of my classes. I've gone through courses without buying them and I've been fine. Generally you need them for case classes and math classes. Sometimes science.. depending on if you can understand what your teacher is saying or not.

Housemates

Hmmm thought housemates were good. But lately they've been smoking a lot in the house. They have some weird machine with a hose in the living room and I've seen them smoking things, different things. At any rate, I had to open my window and blare my fan yesterday to the point where I took out my power. Nehow, been holding my breath to get food from the kitchen.

Keys

Yeah so yesterday, I took out my keys and put them on my desk. Later I went to brush my teeth and stuff to go to bed, but when I went back to my room I found out that I closed the door and locked myself out of my room. I locked it because I'm scared of my housemates now for the reasons above. However, luckily I left my window open to blow out smoke, so I went outside popped the screen off and crawled down the window into my room. I live in the basement. Sigh, I bet this is going to happen a few more times.

That's it for now. Take care. By the way I play on the softball team Eternity looks like I'll be playing Renown and Illuminate... should be interesting.

2006-04-13T10:59:00.000-04:00

You Know You Go To a Small School When...

1. They treat out the graduating class to lunch at a buffet and the ratio of students to profs is 1:1. Fun games good speeches.

2. A prof sees you on the street and honks you and gives you a ride to school.

3. Your fellowship can get control of an entire building to study in.

4. A sixth of the fellowship is on school brochures or website.

5. School has to use the stadium to write exams.

6. People complain something is far if you have to walk for more than a minute.

2006-04-05T09:18:00.000-04:00

Grad Night

Such an awesome night it was. When you thought they possibly couldn't have done more, more happened. A lot of small and big things that made the night special:

1. Alumni came up (Elaine Sung, Sham, Clint, Rani, and Tammy).
2. Frosh sang, that was amazing. Funny. Creative. And great.
3. Tracy sang. This is someone who has really grown to be more assertive every year.
4. Spammie's vids. Oh Spammie. Going to miss you!
5. Edward sharing, I'm thrilled by how much he's come into the community.
6. Hannah's cell group vids. Pure random goodness.
7. Sam Ip and his violin players. To think they were holding back all year.
8. The stuff we got. Everything is so sentimental.

I think it really hit me yesterday. I've been constantly pushing the thought out and not thinking about it. But this is it. The ability to do what I've been doing every year for the past 5 years is about to end. The friends and times that we've had. The christmas potlucks, BBQ's, softball outings, brunches, movie nights, studying together, and etc. It's done. Although I know that I'll be doing my best to keep in contact. After so many years I know that it's not always possible. We'll be all doing different things and making new friends and things will never be the same. I'm not saying it won't be better, but it won't be the same. I realized it's even sadder for the grads then for the people that will still be here. They only have to say good bye to 9 people. While the grads have to say goodbye to everyone.

It's strange. Even though I've gotten to know the frosh and questionable frosh only 4 months it feels like I've known them so much longer. I don't know. LCCF is something that I've seen become and I've seen people grown in it, and grow it since the beginning. How hard will it be to let it go? I think coop has helped that process and the ring. (Can't imagine the withdrawl the non-coop grads will have.) Things have really changed and just like a pair of shoes... just when you have a pair that makes you comfortable, and attached is when you have to get a new pair.

However, we'll always have the blogs.

2006-03-27T22:45:00.000-05:00

Survey

I'm doing this venture competition that's pretty hardcore. And it's very serious and levels above what you do in school. So I'm actually taking the time to do a market survey for our product. If we win we get funding to do it... strange eh? So please if you have time e-mail me your answers or leave it in the comments. THANKS!

A Quick Survey About You and Furniture!!

If using softcopy please bold your answers:

Info: Male or Female
Year of post secondary study: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5+, N/A
Age: 18-19, 20-22, 23-25, 25+

1. Circle all furniture in which you use in your student housing?
Desk, Chair, Shelves, Bed Stands, Bed, Drawer cupboards, others

2. Would you buy your furniture online?

3. Would you buy your furniture on campus at the bookstore or student center area?

4. Where do you prefer to purchase your furniture and why?

5. What is your favorite furniture piece (excluding your bed) in your room? Why?

6. When do you buy your furniture?

Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, Throughout school.

7. What is the most you’d spend on furniture in your room?

Nothing, $20-50, $50-100, $100- 150, $150-200, $200 –250, more than $250

8. Are you willing to take time to build your own furniture if it meant you could customize it?

9. What material would you prefer your student furniture made of?

Wood, Plastic, Metal, Others:___________

10. If you could choose only one colour what would you prefer in your furniture?

Clear, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Red, Yellow, Black, White, Others:____________

11. Please rank the following in terms of importance to your room furniture decisions: (1 – very important, 6 – least important)
Colour
Size
Comfort
Ease of moving
Fashionable/Trendy
Durability

2006-03-27T00:35:00.000-05:00

Small things

I remember when I was a bit younger and I tried to draw a picture. It actually looked really really good. I couldn't believe I drew it, the teacher actually got everyone in the class to come and look at my sketch of a picture from national geographic. Looked so real. At any rate, I had to later blow it up to a big poster. But when I drew it it looked didn't look so good. The eyes I guess were a bit more unproportion. The ears were off but a tiny bit. All these small things that made the sketch so good were just a little off when I blew it up bigger. Hence, it looked odd and nearly as good and yet you really couldn't see why it was different. Fundamentally it was the same picture, but because of all these small things it just didn't look right.

I think, a lot of times small things go unnoticed and taken for granted. And yet it's those small things that when you look at the big picture ruin it. Isn't that the difference from the great artists and well me? The ability for people to realize the small things and the details and deal with them well. And yet, it's always the small things people think aren't important.

2006-03-11T11:05:00.000-05:00

Don't be so quick to judge

So many lessons to be learned from this.

If it doesn't work it's also located here http://www.metacafe.com/watch/41491/black_drawings/

2006-02-26T18:43:00.000-05:00

Blogs are good?

Are blogs good? I first started blogging because I thought I could give people a good laugh when they were bored. I also thought it was a good way of expressing just how I felt.

However, I must admit that lately blogs have been quite a chore. Also, blogs are not the seemingly inconsequential vent that it should or could or would be thought to be. In reality people don't see blogs as open thoughts. So... are blogs good or blogs bad? Do people have the right to blog about how they feel if their feelings although honest are hurtful?

I would hope so. But in reality perhaps it isn't. Why? Simply because of perspective. What does that mean? Well... that's something to be explained in person. Gluck with crazy week!

2006-02-16T08:31:00.000-05:00

Hell week averted

So this week as well as other people is really bad. A lot of people had midterms and assignments. But I don't know what happened. Because people were going long on presentations I have to do mine next class. Also, the assignment due Friday was postponed. And my midterm and assignment due today is moved too because of the snow day.

Quite interesting. Does this mean I have to relearn the material again? Oh man. Hahah not sure to be really really scared for after reading week or really happy that this week has been incredibly easy.

Here's to winter retreat!

2006-02-06T20:00:00.000-05:00

Snow fun

To think on Saturday morning I was complaining how in February there was snow. Sure enough it came in droves. Great snow, for snow fights, seven feet high snow men, and umm snow walls. However, the highlight of that night was definitely getting the two frosh to push my car out of the snow.

You know coming down to this point you really realize how old you are getting. Everyone around you is so young and all the old faces are gone. Thank goodness Chinese people always look young. Until they are 50. Then it all falls apart. At any rate, God is good. But the question I've been asking myself is how good I am to God?

2006-01-26T12:28:00.000-05:00

Chinese New Year

No one cares what I did this week so I won't bore you.

Whoot, who's year is coming up? My year. It's the wonderful year of the dog.

Dogs are loyal, and super. Attributes include: High perception, endurance, being smart, and looking very good.

Let's all celebrate this chinese new year before we have to move onto the year of the pig.... which although is an interesting animal. Not nearly as cool as the DOG!

Nehow, dont' really celebrate new years, don't get any money, it's mostly an excuse to not do work. Haven't been back to TO in quite the while so it'll be good to restock and see how people are doing. Work is piling... and this next coming month is going to be suicide. But not to worry... dogs have a huge resiliance of survival! Think Homeward bound the incredible journey.

so Happy New Year!

2006-01-16T00:25:00.000-05:00

Full weekend

Started with business ventures trying to be sold,
Watching, cheering, learning how to be bold,
Good job Sam Ip, for almost getting to the gold.

People baking, jamming, movies and memory clips,
Apples to Apples, chilling, studying, and betting chips.

Pretty tired, not much work done.
However, at the very least it was quite a lot of fun.

It's too bad we have to let the frosh always win.
I guess, us seniors just have to take it on the chin.

Looking onward to the resume workshop,
It'll be fun putting resumes on the chopping block.

2005-12-26T22:52:00.000-05:00

UAC Christmas Musical

If you've ever heard me talk about it (Unionville Alliance Church). You must think I'm a bit obsessed at how good it is. After last year's "The Christmas Tale" with musical numbers that blew me away I really looked forward to this year. Although the expectations were extremely high. It was a good followup. Not as good as last year but still very good.

This year, it was a retelling of the Mary and Joseph Christmas story from the perspective of Mary and Joseph in some love story, in the 21st century. A very interesting take on the leap of faith they took and the trust in something they couldn't understand.

Now, I think the people doing it are just too good. I really felt like either this was the most talented musical church EVER. (Which actually might be true it seems). Or maybe they pay actors and dancers from other places to perform for this Christmas musical. So... I googled as much as I could on the UAC musical. I still don't know who the people were acting in the musical because they didn't even have their names in the programs. And if anyone can actually tell me if these are real church members... it'd really resolve a lot of my curiousity. At any rate... some interesting things I found out.

1. Almost all of the info I found posted about UAC.. ended up from people I already know. (Fellowship, or other chinese churches. Apparently blogging and posting stuff is common for chinese people, but not so common for others such as people at their church)

2. Well I did find an interesting blog post by someone about "the Christmas Tale". The one with the songs that blew me away. It was from a non Christian... and when I mean Non Christian I mean, someone who works in a bar, very skeptical of the faith, and paranoid of the whole church concept. She had gone to watch one of the waiters that worked with her perform.. since he was a head prophet or something in the musical. At any rate, I would have expected her to rave about how amazing the songs were. How great the insight of the story was. The great costumes. The amazing special affects. BUT, in her post... she said she laughed at singing these carols. The music was nice. However, she talked about one thing for almost the entire post on her experience. That was when she came in. A woman greeted her, shook her hand, and said "I hope you have a very Merry Christmas. " She said that impacted her a lot. She didn't trust people, but this woman invited her in, and meant it. This person was genuine in caring about her and she sensed it. And THAT's what blew her away. Not the music, NOT the amazing singing, NOT the sets, NOT the costumes, but the greeter when she first came in. That was the memory that most lingered in her mind from the experience. Now isn't that something.

2005-12-12T11:24:00.000-05:00

The Little Things

Asked/Forced to of my friends to share their story of how they both ended up here in TO. And it was pretty incredible at all the small things God did to put them here together. It's interesting how they said that when they tell their Christian friends, they realize it's all through of God's providence. And when they tell Non Christian friends it's no big deal and just a nice coincidence.

I wonder in my own life how many little things I let go as coincidence and neglect to realize God's providence. There are tons of things you don't really see as blessings. In fact many of the blessings you might see as curses. How I wish I had the eyes to see beyond what I want to see?

Snow
I love snow... but not when I'm driving uphill to work and causes me to be late by 2 hours. I don't blame the snow though... I blame gravity. Or maybe friction.

Grad Night
Good time of sharing. I'm going to miss the grads. I don't feel the sadness I used to when people graduated though. It's more of happiness that they get a chance to grow even more to where they will be going. Perhaps in the past I cared more that they were leaving me behind and I wouldn't see them anymore, but now as I'm approaching graduation I realize how they feel.

MSN
Curse or blessing? How do people survive without it? How do people survive with it?

2005-11-30T10:02:00.000-05:00

What would Jesus do?

It's an interesting phrase? What would Jesus do? It's worn on lots of bracelets all the time, and seems to be a wonderful catch phrase. How much of a perfect answer it is when you're in a dilemna to think what would Jesus do? And yet... seriously.. sometimes you come across situations where you're like What WOULD Jesus do? And sometimes the answer would be... well he'd do this and this but I can't do that...

ie. If someone is sick, and you want to do something. What would Jesus do? Well he'd heal them. Well you can't exactly do that.

In fact, a lot of situations now a days aren't anything similar to what happened in bible days. We do a lot of inferring, but there are so many gray areas it sometimes feels very dangerous to solidly pick one side over the other. Sure for Jesus, its' easy.. he just asks himself what would I do? Then he'd do it. It's a lot harder for us. There are very general concepts we know of and we can follow. But life isn't so general in our day to day lives. What would Jesus do against same sex marriage? What would Jesus do against pirated DVD's? What would Jesus do against the war in Iraq? What would Jesus do against capital punishment?

Sometimes I wonder... if asking the question is a cliche. Is it even a fair question? Do we know our closest friend well enough to know what he would do in every situation? At any rate, I believe the question is valid. But sometimes I wonder how applicable it is? And how cheesy it is when I say it to others. I wonder if on judgement day you can claim ignorance. "I honestly thought that's what you would do?" But oh how dangerous that would be.

2005-11-22T09:51:00.000-05:00

MSN

Gone are the days when ICQ was the main stream type of online conversation. The patented uh Oh is a distant memory to the now common Ding and Dong. Perhaps it was the massive spam of ICQ, or the problems ICQ had. Or maybe it was just that MSN came with windows.
There are 3 types of MSN contacts.

1. The instigators: Those that message people first. (I call them the carers. They care enough to message you first.)

2. The Receivers: The ones that respond when you message them first, but never message you first. (I call them the friendly friends. Very good with responses, always someone to talk to when you're bored.)

3. Left overs: These are the people that only message you when they want something. And when you message them, and pretend they are not there. (I call them the connections. That's pretty much what you are to each other.).

Surprisingly you can't go with a good solid MSN list without a combo of each of these. You can't have all instigators or you'll be bogged down with messages all the time. You can't have all receivers because then no one will ever message you. And you need connections because well.. it's good to have them without having to talk to them all the time.

Now... someone might be a instigator on your list and a receiver on someone elses list. etc. (And people change. Left overs become instigators and instigators become left overs...). But what do you want to be?

2005-11-15T14:14:00.000-05:00

Looking for jobs?

I'm sure most of you haven't really started looking yet. Unless you've graduated that is. However, most hiring for summer jobs do start in January so people should start on it. Of course most people I know have ended up lifeguarding, at wonderland, or some retail job. Finding jobs is tough work. And we all love to dream of some cushy high paying job falling on our lap. Barring those with wicked connections we're pretty much stuck fending for ourselves.
So how does one get out of this rut? What's the easy answer?

Well I'm just going to throw out my opinions:

1. I've editted a lot of resumes in my time. And I'd like to say a lot of them have left plenty to be desired. As much fun as filling up a resume with how many years of piano you've played it's not that helpful in getting a job in an office. The key, is getting it editted like 5 times by different friends and putting stuff on it that matters and bolding it with super font.

2. Don't be lazy. Send out as many applications as you can to anything that resembles something interesting. Sort it out later when you get interviews. If you don't have a lot of experience shot gun approach is your best bet.

3. Just because you don't have connections doesn't mean you can't make them. Go out to events, and introduce yourself, keep in contact with old employers. If you're not outgoing like that, then don't complain you don't have any connections.

4. If you don't have skills. Go get some. Study programming, or word, or access, or other things in your spare time. Take on extra curric roles that will help you out. Like the treasurer, or lead a cell group and pick up some organizing/leadership skills.

5. Diversify your knowledge breadth. Read the newspaper, go get some hobbies. Even if you hate sports, know something about it. If you don't like movies. Know why you don't like them. In interviews you have two choices. 1. Talk about what you have to offer. 2. Small talk. If you don't have a lot of number 1... it's time to stalk up on number 2.
Good luck.

PS. I'm starting my job search for post grad as well! So see you on the battlefield.

PSS. FINALLY, they are fixing Steeles West. Worst maintained road in Toronto 5 years in a row. So many holes people would go out of their way to avoid the road. Praise God!

2005-11-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

Stealing Memories

Heh this is a term my friend Sharon came up with. However, it's fun... what you do is piece together people's memories through..

1. Blogs
2 Videos
3. Conversations with other people.
4. Imagestation pictures.

The trick here is to not remember details, but think of how everyone was acting and feeling. Then when they start talking about the memory you pipe in talking about how it was. They get all confused and think you were there. Mission accomplished. Memory stolen!
You might get caught once in a while. But if you do it with enough people with the same memory, soon you'll have all the kinks worked out. Yes, on one hand it's cheating, by trying to spend time with people without actually spending time with them... but making them think they did. But hey, everyone wins..

News

Hmmm the world is going all crazy. Hurricanes, earthquakes, riots in France, tornadoes... I don't recall it being this bad before. Are these signs for things to come?

2005-11-03T11:22:00.000-05:00

Resume
What's in a resume than jobs. And when I look back and think at all the jobs I've held in the past well...

Hospital Porter:

Basically volunteered in the hospital to transport stuff. urine, and blood are the biggest customers, but if I'm lucky I get to transport a person in a wheelchair who throws up easily... so every little bump is a potential adventure.

Newspaper boy:

Each flyer is a quarter of a cent. Takes 1 hour to deliver but they get you because you have to put the papers together which takes you 3 hours. Samples are the perk of that job. You get to keep extras. Yummm guava juice.

Camp Counsellor:

3 days and I'm sick. Kids are like walking virus bombs. Someone should quarantine them.

Math teaching Assistant:

Volunteered to TA kids in grade 9 math. I'm telling you, some kids see numbers and freak out. Calm down and actually read the question before asking me to slip you answers on tests.

Car Counter:

Drive out to an intersection and count cars for 6 hours. Mark down how many turn right, turn left, go straight, and how many are trucks. (8 wheels or more). Hahah so freaken hard. All the cars go at once and you have to watch two ways. At any rate, the key to success is estimation.

Boot straightener:

My very first paying gig. 50 cents a day to straighten boots in the hall during the winter in elementary school. The satisfaction is to walk in a chaotic boot mess and come out making the hall look like a shoe store. And 50 cents buys you two bags of popcorn afterschool.

And the list goes on. So.. I'm looking for a full time job? Anyone need these skills?

2005-10-31T09:45:00.000-05:00

Hunger Banquet
Awareness program for our English fellowships on Friday. You come in and they give you tickets with assigned numbers. 1, 2, 3. We later discovered they represented 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world countries. There were something like 10 1st worlds. 40 second worlds. and 60 third worlds. The 1st worlds got to sit at nice cushy tables with table clothes and candles with bottled water. Their food consisted of chicken, potatoes, salad, with baked cookies for dessert. The 2nd worlders, sat on chairs in a circle and received rice, and beats with water. The 3rd worlders which I was in, got to sit on the ground and we got rice and water. Afterwards we got a good speal about what we can do and misconceptions. Also, watched an interesting video. Some interesting notes.

1. Numbers are random just like real life.

2. None of the 1st worlders offered food to third worlders.

3. None of the 3rd worlders asked for food from the 1st worlders.

4. At first they felt guilty, but later everyone pretty much talked to their own group and ignored the other groups.

5. 1st worlders had left overs.

Good concept of an organization that offers microcredit. Where they offer small loans for people in third world countries to start their own small businesses. ie. about $100 to start businesses such as ie. Goat selling, dress hemming. Important concept: Solves the source of their problem, not a bandaid solution. Lets them maintain their dignity. Good witness for them from a Christian organization.

Birthdays:
Joanna, disappointed in the lack of a potluck. What's up with that?

Oh and Mr silent man, doesn't want people to know his b-day is coming up on the 2nd. Congrats dude. Ur up on the coming weekend right?

2005-10-27T14:26:00.000-04:00

Random Thoughts of the Day

1. Odds of winning 649 is 1 in 13.9 million. Each ticket is $2 dollars. To buy every combination of ticket is $27 million. If the jackpot is higher than that... why not just buy every ticket combo?

2. Why do gas stations that are the same. ie. both petro. Build right across from each other.

3. Why do people buy sports cars when you live in the city? It snows in the winter. And you can't even drive it fast.

4. Why can't we just ship prisoners to baffin island and have them live off the land instead of paying for them to watch tv and eat and work out everyday?

5. Why do civilians need guns? Seriously? Why? We don't need to hunt? Gun collections, Please! Makes no sense. If there is a right to take away, it's the right to shoot other people.

2005-10-21T11:53:00.000-04:00

Playing Tag

Well I wasn't planning on posting.
But seeing how I've been tagged... multiple times.

1. For some reason my third finger curves outwards. It's the strangest thing. I can't straighten it. It just naturally curves outwards like they both are crooked.

2. I got mugged in grade 12 at school. Some grade 9's I think, stole my year book right after I picked it up and when I chased the guy, all his friends surrounded me and got my wallet. Not scary mostly annoyed. I realized how I'm too trusting.

3. Deathly afraid of heights. Looking over stair banisters makes me dizzy. Used to love high places when I was young, but now it's not so great.

4. Played soccer once when I was young. And a dog wanted the ball. So I started running backwards to avoid him. And I ran backwards and hit my head on the soccer pole. Stopped playing soccer for 10 years after that.

5. I usually talk in conversations a lot, because I want to prove that I'm listening. And somehow feel like I'm expected to. Although I'd prefer to just sit there and listen the entire time. Surprising no?

*Bonus* 9 years of playing softball, and I haven't made playoffs a single time!

2005-10-17T14:15:00.000-04:00

Christian Responsibility

An interesting point seems to come up all the time in regards to this topic. When is it that Christians get all wriled up and the churches band together and go to Queens park? I think I've heard countless times the comment that when same sex marriage arrived we signed petitions and trips to protests were organized. And yet you don't see the same fire for aspects such as homelessness, hunger, abuse, etc. Just an interesting contrast. What makes one topic so much more charged than others? Abortion, homosexuality vs World hunger, child abuse.

So passions is coming to Toronto. Although people are excited with the opportunity to hear Tomlin, Crowder, and Hall, and perhaps Louis speak.. I wonder how excited I am. I heard Louis speak before and although he's a funny speaker and very animated, I can't say it was incredible, not bad, but not amazingly good. Pretty solid is what I'm saying, but not life changing. It is strange to attend such events where worship, is some hybrid of a concert/praise night. Not sure where I stand on that, like what is it meant to be. Although I suppose it can be whatever you make of it. Maybe I'll ask around and if people are willing to go, I'll check it out.

I used to call theology something that is like a food that makes you feel full, but does not provide any real nourishment. As I've seen it confuse Christians more and make them feel discouraged instead of strengthening their beliefs. However, I suppose systemic theology should confirm what you already believe. Although sometimes I feel it is a bit tiresome and irrelevent to argue about predest vs free will, because seriously, does our freedom fall outside God's control. I really hope not, or then how could we believe He has a plan for us. But, I think it is important to get some "meat" and do your best to see how much absorbs into that blood stream. Because, when you get tested, cream and sugar will only get you so far.

2005-10-08T01:34:00.000-04:00

Thanksgiving

Ahh a holiday. That means I get a holiday from work. That's an extra sleep in day in my mind.
Thankgiving is a good time where everyone gets together and you can remember exactly how lucky you are. Don't need a turkey to tell me that though.

Oh and Happy B-day Sharon. Hopefully you can beat the 3 surprise party record this year.

Hmmm although it's holidays, I'm sorta stressed in the back of my mind. Through certain circumstances I ended up homeless for the winter term. Been asking around for a few months, but all my options fell through as had a feeling they would. Looks like I'll have to rely on those online housing boards and have to actually go up and look around. Huge pain, I feel like I'm back in 2nd year. (Never been good at finding housing, that experience was not too pleasant.)

Boy, my guitar string broke and I haven't fixed it because I'm wondering if I should just get a new guitar. If I restring this guitar I want to have the action lowered. But is it worth it if I want to get a new guitar soon? Haha I miss messing around. I sound good to myself. But when I play with other people I realize how much I suck. Kinda like when you sing the car you sound amazing, but when you sing with other people or tape yourself, you sound really really bad. What's up with that?

Nehow time to enjoy thanksgiving. Or how I called it when I was young. Foh Gai Yut.

2005-10-03T23:11:00.000-04:00

Happenings

Tech hates me. Laptop stopped working. That's 1 G per year of use. HP sucks. Hahah don't know what's wrong. Investigating. I'm thinking it's the HDD, because it has to be the one thing that I want to recover that's broken. That's just how it is for me. My current backup comp is chugging like a train. So hopefully it'll hold up. The loud noises concern me. E-mail at work is odd, not getting the flow I need from the e-mail ring. I get a bunch every 5 hours it seems which puts me out of it. Hopefully it'll get fixed by tomorrow, because it's so quiet without e-mails from outside the firm.

Kingston Highlights:

Kwan show, everyone should check that out.
Sleeping in the loft with my own washroom and bed! Luxury! Thanks Zigs.
Everyone trying to get on James Fong's team for ultimate.
The look on Trace's face when she caught a frisbee!
Greco's so much food, we ate like kings.
Natural ice cream by the lake.
Trying to go to a restaurant that was bankrupt.
Sermon that didn't make any sense, and had no real biblical relevance at all.
Mel throwing my stuff in the hall with a note on it.
Purple nurples for Andy.
Slow food even for Kingston = free dessert.
Just talking.

Next stop! Waterloo!

2005-09-18T23:18:00.000-04:00

Smaller things

Hmmm thinking big is good. However, it's good to fall back to the smaller things. I think this term I really want to focus less on the big things and more on the small things. Smaller is better. Less front leading and more background stuff. You learn a lot from the background. You learn a lot more from listening. Should be an interesting term.

Hmmm there seems to be a lot of coincidences happening. A lot of bad coincidences happening and a lot of good coincidences. Now if I believed in coincidences I'd say I have a lot of good luck in some aspects of life and a lot of bad luck in others. However, if I don't believe in coincidences, than I can't blame luck and I have to find other venues to explain things. Hmmm, can't determine if there is such a thing as coincidences or not. I'd like to believe there is. But a lot of circumstantial evidence does lead to the truth in most cases. And when is giving someone the benefit of the doubt foolishness... Just some random thoughts.

My day goes, sleepy tired, eat lunch, itis tired, eat dinner, itis tired, sleepy tired, sleep, and then repeat.

2005-09-08T18:26:00.000-04:00

The cycle

Started work in an insurance firm. To save people from constantly asking where and who, it's called Aviva and it's located very far away in scarborough. I'm attempting to drive but horrid experiences are causing me to want to switch to the long subway route. That way atleast I can read and do something. Nights are short, and days are long. But I'll deal... I don't have much of a choice.

Not quite sure what I want to do this term. It seems to be very weird. But lately I'm feeling very disconnected from everything. Not really sure why. I guess it's just the time of the year and the lack of seeing people all the time like I do at school.

Nehow some highlights from the summer:
Frosh BBQ - Fun times. Fun frosh. I think I'm being too aggressive in trying to welcome them. But hahah it's either you aggressively welcome or you don't welcome them at all.... halfway and ur just being superficial...

Kwan Show- Man, I've been plugging this ever since I got back. So good! If you get a chance to go to Kingston go check it out. It does make appearances in TO too!

One on One chats - Yep, surprisingly had a lot of these during exam time. Odd but they really made me want to stay to have some more. You learn more about a person from one on one chat, than meeting them 10 times in a large group.

This summer was really the opposite of last summer. It was very interesting. When you see how cool people are you begin to feel insufficient. However, ur sufficiently confused on what that standard is.

2005-08-10T09:51:00.000-04:00

All done

I love this gap that we get between school and work. I like to call it guilt free holidays. You don't have to feel bad you aren't doing homework, you don't have to feel bad that you aren't looking for a job. It's just feel free to play time!

I wonder if I'm going to be bored.

Oh thanks for the people who did b-day stuff for me. Very nice of you. I'm wearing that hat right now! I bet you I can get it to turn brown really fast.

I've been looking into laser eye surgery, I'm not a candidate for LASIK only for PRK. Which means recovery time is like a week long. Not too sure when I'm going to be able to do it though. It'll be interesting. Not too scared of risks though doesn't seem like a big deal. If you guys want to learn about laser eye let me know. I've learned a lot in the past few days.

Em, thanks for fixing my template. Looks much better without all that space.

2005-08-01T21:52:00.000-04:00

Guitar Lessons

Well I broke my guitar string, and the replacement ones in the case are the entire set except the string I need. So I'm going to try to see if I can get that string from someone else. At any rate I thought I'd write down all the various lessons I learned from different people.

Sam Mo: No matter how bad I was he always made me feel like I was getting better. He taught me the basics and well, very cool guy. Of course he taught me strumming by saying you'd just pick it up eventually... but he atleast taught me the cheat chords. Ahh good times. Key Song: I Can only Imagine.

Justin Lau: He taught me to palm the chords. And how to play specific songs, because there are tricks for them. Also he taught me the boring strum which all strums come out of. Oh and how to use all the frets. Not as friendly as Sam Mo though. Key Song: God of Wonders.

James Lau: Well, not so much of a lesson as letting me know I'm not good. But he showed me how to learn off Mp3's. Key Song: Come Home Running.

Tif Chan: She taught me the valuable lesson that less is more. Don't strum if you dont' have to and let the vocals carry it. Ur just support ur not the key player. Key Song: Give us Clean Hands.

Sam Ip: Got me going using something called a double strum. He also taught me something called CAGE and the decreasing base notes. Very interesting. He's a funny modest guy, hard to learn off of because he's so improv. Key Song: Give me a Pure and Holy Passion.

Hahah learning guitar has been an adventure!

Anyone know how to fix my formatting? I dont' know where there's so much space above, it just happened all of a sudden.

2005-07-11T23:47:00.000-04:00

I think I'm getting dumber

I seriously am. What I think is good work doesn't seem to fair too well with the profs. And I'm seeing what other people are doing and they can think of things I didn't even think of considering.

Honestly, is it possible to have ADD? I really feel like I do have it. Can't seem to concentrate on something without a lot of work. And even when doing an assignment I keep trying to do everything at once before getting one thing done at a time. Or maybe I'm just agitated right now. I need a break.

2005-06-28T15:51:00.000-04:00

I'm thankful for

I'm thankful for the hot summer.
I'm thankful for a monster laptop that has bad ventalition.
I'm thankful for a laptop shutting off constantly because of the hot summer.
I'm thankful it only shuts off when I'm playing games.
I'm thankful I can concentrate on school work now that I can't play games.

I'm thankful for all the work.
I'm thankful for all the group meetings.
I'm thankful that people are still willing to work with me.
I'm thankful I haven't killed anyone yet.

I'm thankful, that I can be thankful, because it's much more fun than being bitter.

2005-06-25T12:56:00.000-04:00

Spotlight in a time of darkness

Lots of meetings to work through,
Lots of different things I must do,
If it isn't marketting, it's OT
Stealing my time that is free
Yet although I feel the burden of stress
I'm still happy none the less,
It's not that I don't worry about my work
I guess you can call it a quirk,
Or perhaps it's just knowing my priorities,
Or perhaps the slacking in my qualities,
Yet every day I am reminded of God's grace,
of the people in my life I get to face,
That there's a reason for me to be in this place,
No matter how busy I am I can not waste,
The conversation and wisdom of those here,
Grades are nothing compared to the fear,
Of coming to school and acquiring only a grade,
For there is more from which we are made.

2005-06-21T00:22:00.000-04:00

Why does this term suck so much?

Let me just say that this is the hardest term yet. I'm not saying that in terms of content I mean in sheer amount of time it takes to get stuff done. Its' group meetings galore. Which is just time consuming. This coming Monday I have 2 cases due, 2 presentations, an assignment, and a midterm. Pretty absurd. I've never seen myself someone who can't make time, but I'm starting to run out.

Speaking of groups. I wonder what the best group is? They say you need someone to play devil's advocate. Who no one really gets a long with. And will be the first person voted out of the group. And yet they are the ones that push people to work harder and think outside the box. So really the group that isn't cohesive can do better? What role do you play? I think I play the devil's advocate sometimes. It's odd when sometimes you forget why you're arguing a point. Hmmmm.

2005-06-13T23:28:00.000-04:00

Drinking

This is usually a taboo subject because of the very wide spectrum on the topic. I see myself as a person in two lights. I'm personally conservative, as in the my tastes and the things that I enjoy and decide to do usually is along the conservative lines. Ie. I don't like drinking at all. Mostly because I don't like the taste and it's expensive. So it appears to be illogical to acquire a taste to something that's bad, not necessarily good for you, and is expensive. However, that's purely a personal preference. However, in the other light, I'm quite liberal in terms of acceptance of it in general of other people. It's not like I frown on people who drink.

Now, the reason I bring this up is because it seems to be a topic that has come up more and more. Although, I recognize that it's a culture issue, as in different cultures they tolerate different things. I think a line should be drawn somewhere just like any habit. Trust me, I enjoy seeing people have fun, and a lot of people have fun drinking. Clubbing is fun too. So where do you draw the line? Is it dangerous to draw a line in a the sand and realize that you've put people on the wrong side of it. Hmmmm....

I suppose I'd draw the line of drunkeness. Ahhh... seems simple! Afterall drunkenness causes you to lose the very gift that God gave you of choice. Since it robs you of your mind. However, then we have another issue.... what's considered drunkenness. Hmmm, good question? Another question, if someone is drunk... so what? How does that affect you? so where does that leave someone like me? Well, every choice has a consequence, and I'm in no position to judge. So therefore, if I see someone is drunk, I'll do my best to help them make choices when they lack of making good choices. And when they are sober again, well, I won't hold anything against them because really how does that help anyone. But, I definetly won't condone what they did either. Hence it seems I play both sides. However, I suppose leading by example is something, and believe it or not? You gotta let people live their own lives. We are responsible to someone but not for them. Ahhh every line is so narrow and every path seems uphill.

2005-06-06T23:35:00.000-04:00

Group meetings

They are annoying, and incredibly time consuming and trying to coordinate having them is a pain. Yet, you're forced to do them and do them I shall. Now would you picture me as the type that sits back and coasts? Or do you picture me as the one who tries to lead? Or perhaps I'm that annoying person who just disagrees with whatever you guys want to do? Or maybe I'm the one who never shows up? Everyone has a role in a group? What kind of role do you guys play? I wonder if I'd work well with you.

Reading lots of fun blogs about CCSA softball. Hmmm it's odd, I don't really miss the game itself, I just miss the fun times with friends while we play the game. Yet, God puts us in situations for reasons and I can wait to see what mine is.

Prayer Request:
I wish I had someone here to teach me guitar.

2005-06-02T12:21:00.000-04:00

Bet you guys are bored

Somehow when I picture the audience for my blog, I can see most of them being
lazy people at work. With nothing to do, where they just chat on e-mail, try to figure out a way to use Msn or whatever other IM program they can without IT catching them. They surf the web for things that they never would have if they weren't at work and check blogs. So here you are... reading this blog bored out of your mind. Hoping that something I say is remotely more interesting than the life your leading right now. Well no. I'm bored too. Bored yet busy. It's weird.

Why don't you guys at work start a webpage on something that interests you? I've done that at one of my jobs before, built the fellowship website full of testimonies, stories, graphics, cell group blurbs and etc. I've also read novels at work. Finished the entire HP series. I've came in 1st on the CCSA forums postings because of work. Lastly, I've read up on interesting topics such as sleep, dreams, health, tv show scripts (all the Gilmore girls episodes), news, and etc. So really even though at your work with no work, you still can do tons of stuff. GG

2005-05-28T16:03:00.000-04:00

Wedding

Well I'm in the break between the wedding and the banquet. All I can say is that the whole situation is real surreal. Having to dress up and see your sister go down the aisle sure is strange. Then afterwards they had an interesting Korean tea ceremony. Can't say that the wedding went without snags though....

From the mother in law accidently lighting all the candles including the unity candle, me losing my place when reciting my passage and accidently starting to say Love delights in evil.... , to one of the people singing a duet falling off the stage... , to the wedding music not coming on for the couple to walk down the aisle at the end. And yet, with all that, I don't think anyone really noticed because it's a wedding. And what matters isn't the ceremony but the fact that two people who love each other just got married. So cheers and congrats to my sis. GG.

2005-05-24T11:47:00.000-04:00

Campus Challenge

Every year my expectations are quite low. As in I don't really have any. I just know that if you spend time with God you're bound to learn something. However,there were tons of things from this CC that occured that have definetly changed my perspective in things overall. I'm pretty stuck in my ways in terms of how I think. But definetly some challenging aspects of things to think about have come up. It was truly amazing to see an auditorium full of people break out into prayer, and groups, and different groups, and pray for each other, and about anything. I truly believe that the best sharing is sometimes through prayer. I wish we had more time with our small groups, and it's odd that I doubt a single person who went would think the highlight was the bible studies. But overall plenty of stuff to think about. What is the role of culture? What is the role of community?

I've also noticed, I find hugging incredibly awkward. Sure sometimes in the spure of an emotion you may initiate only to figure out you have no idea how to end the hug or what ur supposed to really do during it. It's also hard when you see someone hug everyone goodbye or what not and you prefer a handshake. Like I mean it seems to be less personal. But really it's a lot less forced. That's just me though. But... there is one situation where it's a must. And in that situation I would definetly not avoid.

2005-05-18T14:19:00.000-04:00

Sleep

When we want to, we can't.
When we need it, we won't.
When we feel it, we fight it.
Sometimes I think to myself in a boring lecture if I can tape the prof talking and play it back when I can't sleep. For some reason when I'm in class I'm so sleepy I can start to nod off. I fight it like the plague to stay awake. And yet when I can actually sleep when class is over I'm not sleepy anymore. It's a vicious cycle. I read somewhere that a person doesn't physically need the sleep. Like muscles don't need the rest. I's something psycological. Like we'll go crazy. They tried to keep some rats from sleeping. And the rats ended up losing all their fur and got very fidgety. So what exactly is the purpose of sleep? Some people can go with so much less than others?

2005-05-12T16:45:00.000-04:00

Summer Term

What's up with this summer. It doesn't seem easy at all. In fact everything seems like winter except harder. And everything is all warped and out of whack. For instance usually I play CCSA softball where you play softball and witness, but the MLSB at Laurier for coop is about drinking. They have keggers like every night. More than games, and the website keeps track of how many kegs in the league have been drunk. It's kinda funny. Usually get to watch Family Feud, but now I have to watch Jeapordy. No one to watch TAR with. I have midterms almost every week in June, sometimes multiple exams on Saturdays. They split up everyone I know and I'm in a core with people a year younger than me. So I don't know anyone. Had to resort to standing up in class today and yelling if anyone needed someone in their group. Alas, you long for the days you went to summer camp. Or had summers off. I guess, on the up side, the weathers nice and I'm off by August 10th.

2005-05-07T01:03:00.000-04:00

Reading blogs

Hmm it's odd because usually, especially during work term I was real diligent at reading other people's blogs. However, over the last month I just stopped reading any of them. I don't want to say that I stopped caring about what was going on with other people. I just needed a break to concentrate on some other things. At any rate, it's good to read about what's been going on with people. People are such interesting, and quite full of wisdom if only you had enough time to get to know everyone better, but you don't. So, you got to concentrate on the relationships that you can I guess and just try to steal the wisdom from the rest through reading blogs.

2005-04-05T01:18:00.000-04:00

Countdown

Eyes are burning, Peops are leaving,
work is finishing, weather is clearing,
stress is building, sleep is lacking,
goodbyes are mounting, things are packing.

And yet it's strange, coming into exams, I feel glad. Finally something we can all do together. No matter what we're studying we have to study. And that we can do together and that's all we have to do. So much easier, so much funner, so much better than miderms.

Learning to appreciate things that are beyond the superficial because our problems are never as big as we think they are.

2005-03-29T00:15:00.000-05:00

Grads?

Winter term is interesting that it comes so quickly and you realize that people are graduating. I've been so relieved that this year for LCCF we only have 2 grads which means pretty much everyone is staying. Well, then I went to UWCCF and realized almost all of my friends are graduating over there. How did that happen? grrr. Very annoying, because you sorta take for granted that they will be there as long as you are. I guess it's a preamble to how I will be leaving soon. At any rate, life goes on. I've come to realize and accept the fact that God puts and takes away people in your lives when you need them or don't need them. You can't complain because we need different things at different times, and if you hang onto the old you'll never experience the new.

Well, cheers to you grads. I hope that you guys keep moving and don't forget what you've learned.

Sigh. Softball decisions to make? 4 options. One which is not to play at all. 2 NT senior teams and an ET out of towners team which actually makes sense. But I miss playing with the NTers, but I can't really commit because of school. So many things to consider. Life is great because of decisions and yet miserable as well.

2005-03-22T09:48:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a long week

There are two weeks that suck in the school year. One is the midterm week where they expect you to take exams like in finals except you still gotta go to class and hand in assignments. The second sucky week is the one before finals. All those projects are due and everyone is super stressed. Well, I'm feeling really stressed, and yesterday was definetly a stressful day. Just to give you an idea my chair broke (one of the wheels) fell off so I can't lean to my right or I kill myself. Lots of lab hours now, project doesn't look like it wants to work.

On the bright side I just got 3 free bags of dill pickle doritos. Grad time is coming up? What are you planning on doing for the grads? They won't be here forever... or next year even...

2005-03-15T14:22:00.000-05:00

Nom Com

Good job fellow nom commers . After a lot of time... and fun we got our committee set up for next year. Hopefully, it'll pass the vote. It's an honour to get to hear the people share their visions and focuses. I can see God doing amazing things with these people and hopefully they'll stress really well.

Snideness

I've been quite snide in class lately. Here are some examples.

Prof: "So class why do you think someone like me would go to the movies?"
Me : "Because you wanna try to have a life."

Prof: "I would like to be idealistic, but I know from experience it's money that makes the world work"
Me: "It only takes one greedy person to ruin communism."

Prof: "Is your last name Lo? "
Me: "It's Lee"
Prof: "Yeah Lee or Lo close enough they both start with L, I'm only a little off"
Me: "Right, because one chinese person is the same as another."

Just keep in mind that I'm a sarcastic kind of guy. And all of them laughed their heads off. I'm also getting 100% in participation in the classes. So meh!

2005-03-08T10:56:00.000-05:00

Sarcasm

Who made this up anyways? Like I mean, what is the danger in not meaning what you are actually saying? I must admit I'm incredibly sarcastic. After all, you get to make funny slurs and accents when saying stuff to cause the sarcasm dripping. However, sometimes you can't pull it off and it sounds errr unsarcastic when it should be? Hence just plain mean. Sarcasm is such a bad idea, and yet I can't stop. Let's all jump on the bandwagon and blame television. Afterall television is the source of all sarcasm.

Spring is around the corner

When the snow melts and you gotta walk through lakes to get to school.
When cars driving by splash you until your soaked.
When you notice Willison Fields drainage problems.
When the weather out the window looks 20 degrees warmer than when you step outside.
When construction workers actually do something.
When your bogged down with term end assignments and projects.
When you hear the talk of a sport called softball.
When you walk home after dinner and there's actually sunlight.
When the months don't end is ember or ary.

Spring is around the corner.

2005-03-01T14:16:00.000-05:00

Profs

Profs sure are quirky people. Sometimes you gotta wonder how a professor became a professor. I've decided to categorize them.

1. Those from industry. These ones love bombarding with interesting stories, and anecdotes, trying to make the class more interesting and applicable. Unfortunetly since they aren't full time, they get replaced almost every term.

2. Old profs, these ones basically have taught the course for so long that, it's lost all real meaning in terms of the actual teaching. They just give practice questions for you to survive the tests and previous midterms and stuff. Then rant for hours in class about stories which don't lead anywhere. Sometimes telling the same story multiple times.

3. New Profs, very energetic, but fundamentally don't really know what they are doing. So you feel bad for them because they try, and yet they give you way too much work. Much harder to do well, and the average of the class ends up being so much less than others.

4. Foreign Profs, can't talk but atleast they write a lot on the board and use powerpoint slides. It's odd that if you go one on one with them, they seem so easy to learn from, but in lectures you have no idea what they are saying.

5. Don't want to be there profs, they just read the text book. Put the class to sleep, and you definetly notice a drop off in attendance as the term goes on. Of course they get angry and screw over the class with a harsh final.

6. Best Profs Ever, sometimes you can't believe on how much work they put into the class. Coming up with interesting exams, projects that require them to do more work than you, and don't care about the marks, but more about the people learning. A rarity, but more memorable than all the other profs combined.

2005-02-21T16:36:00.000-05:00

Sick

Interestingly enough I got sick right before retreat. Which is probably the worst possible time ever! Symptoms being chest pains, shortness of breath, coughing, and lack of a runny nose. Which I later found out to be acute bronchitis. (I must admit I feel the love when I type on MSN I have bronchitis and the only message I get from someone is, you spelled bronchitis wrong). At any rate, I really didn't want to get sick. However, other than being real real tired the first day of retreat I had an amazing amount of energy for the rest of it. And other than minimum loss of voice, miraculously not as much as a person with bronchitis should. I made it through and had a great time. So I consider that a miracle. Of course now that I'm back... I sorta lost my voice today, and feel pretty sore and tired. Hmmm miraculous indeed. Boy it really hurts when I cough now. But I dont' need my health today anyways. Ahh prayer definetly is powerful. Lots of answered prayers lately.

Congrats Trace on getting into music therapy.

2005-02-14T00:25:00.000-05:00

Jerks

So what is a jerk? Would you consider a jerk someone who does mean things? ie. Hide hard objects in your bed? Or maybe a jerk is someone who just does the most annoying things? Sneaking on ur computer and posting on ur blog? Or maybe a jerk is someone who, even if you try lenting the word jerk, you still can't help calling them one? Perhaps that's the definition of a jerk?

At any rate, hahah jerks are fun people to be around. As long as they let you be a jerk too.

On the more serious note, I'm going to definetly try to be more encouraging from now on. It's really not my fault that when I say something I don't sound sincere though. I can't figure out what makes a comment sound more sincere? Maybe you gotta look angry?

2005-02-10T21:27:00.000-05:00

just a guest-blog from your friendly neighborhood blogger-man!

2005-01-27T17:04:00.000-05:00

Slowing down

How does a person's memory work?
Sometimes I can remember things so clearly and everything makes sense. Other times, I can't remember what I was thinking a few seconds earlier. Why are some names so easy to remember and some so hard? Why can I remember exact phrases people said 10 years ago, and yet forget a conversation I've had 10 minutes ago? It can't possibly be because I'm older. I think I can sum it up as I'm getting stupider. Believe it or not I bet it's true. More knowledge than before but less acuteness and ability to think straight. I blame computer games and television. Sometimes it's frustrating that I can't seem to focus. I'm so serious I think I have ADD.

I'm constantly thankful that there was no ritalin when I was small. I'm constantly thankful that I have the memories I do have. I'm constantly thankful that I can still live by the moment. Lastly, I'm constantly thankful, that I do still remember the things that are important.

2005-01-22T14:39:00.000-05:00

Talent

So yesterday I went to see Sharon perform at her concerto competiton. Very good job Sharon! Congrats on making it to the finals. We'll be cheering you on in that as well.

It's very odd hanging out with people and then watching them perform or something and realize how crazy a talent they have. Like mind blowing insane! How people who seem normal can do something that you can't possibly imagine. Doesn't talent seem like such an unfair thing?

And yet, I can sit back and appreciate them. How lucky it is that we have people who have talents. Can you imagine if everyone was as uncoordinated as me? Ahhh I'm excited to see what hidden talents the rest of you have. I know you all do.

2005-01-17T11:33:00.000-05:00

Prayer

What do you consider a prayer? Is it something you throw out there in hopes of wishful thinking? I'm sure when the average person thinks of prayer they think of the new car, the dying relative, or the daily food requirement.

I think of prayer like something that you need for your health. Think of it as taking a shower. It does seem like a hassle, you have to get your stuff, you gotta take time, you're hair might get wet, blah blah blah. However, once you start taking a shower I just wanna stay there forever under the nice warm water. So I think sometimes it's hard to start praying, finding the time, or the opportunity. However, once you start talking to God, you can do it for so long. It's like talking to someone who you know cares, is listening, and is very trustworthy. Plus, has the power to maybe do something? Either way, just like showers, you feel a lot better afterwards.

Just like you can't take too many showers, you can't pray too much.

2005-01-10T14:24:00.000-05:00

Words

What's a word? Is it something located in the dictionary?

Are words just slangs people use enough that it eventually becomes a word? ie. Blog, wassup, blah.

Are words simply things that other people understand the meaning off? Goodly, fantastical?

How do you explain a sheep to someone who never saw sheep. Or the colour blue to someone who is blind with merely words?

What is a word? And what can it do? Does it have power or is it as powerful as the person listening to it?

I think words are not given enough emphasis when they should, and more when they shouldn't. When it comes to words it's not the word that holds the power it's the meaning. Now that's the real question, what do people really mean?

2005-01-04T23:13:00.000-05:00

Clout

Clout is the ability of influence of convincing people to do something.

Rules of clout:

1. You can gain any clout over the person who you have influence over. If because you can get person A to go person B and C come along as well. Therefore you get credit for A, B, and C even though you leeching off clout A.

2. Just because you know a lot of people does not increase clout. You might know tons of people who you can't convince to go out.

3. Negative clout is when you go to a party, people who were going decide not to go.

4. Don't worry about clout. As long as you have your core people then who cares who else will come out. If they don't want to hang out with you that's their loss.

5. I'm hungry.

2004-12-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

Christmas

Everyone is blogging about this season.

It's definetly the best holiday out of all of them. You have excuses to get gifts, excuses to take gifts and excuses to hang out all the time.

Something to remember:

Although the birth of Jesus was the finale of the holiday, it's the beginning,

His birth lead to His death, which lead to his ressurection which lead to your life. So there is no finale to the holiday, it's a choose your own adventure. What are you going to do now?
The story is still going.

2004-12-22T09:54:00.000-05:00

Bitterness

At first bitterness sounds like such a bad word, and full of negativity. Now lately, at work I�ve been feeling a bit bitter. The reason for this is that I seem to get the short end of the straw around here. Small things, that I never really have noticed before. Ie. Apparently all the other coops got treated to a starting and ending lunch� which I didn�t. They didn�t even change my name on the call display so it still says J Black. The other coops on my floor got trips, conferences, and USB 1 Gb Flash drives while I have some lego I can play with but I don�t keep. Etc.

Now, I think it�s my right to be bitter. Here�s my explanation!

The bitter brings out the sweet. It�s like dipping pineapples in salt water. (bittersweet)
I call it righteous annoyance towards injustice. If two criminals one rich and one poor are charged with the same crime. Where the poor one is sent to jail and the rich one is treated differently and let go. Is it not the right of the poor man to be a bit bitter at the system? The poor man knows he deserves what he got, but still is allowed to be annoyed towards the injustice!
I think the key word is envy. Although it would be nice to get yadda yadda stuff, I can�t say it was on my list of things I�d want so I don�t really care about the actual stuff. I think once envy comes in play the bitter becomes sour. Also the bitterness isn�t really towards people, since if I was in their position I�d do the same thing. It�s more of just a crappy situation.

In conclusion:
It�s everyone�s right to be bitter, as long as it doesn�t become sour. It�s like being annoyed that birds poop on your car. You can�t really be angry at the birds, you�re just annoyed at the situation. And rightly so! (that poop is acidic you know?). Oh and since someone likes the word so much, yes I know the post seems very RANDOM.

2004-12-20T10:07:00.000-05:00

EOT

End of another term,
What have I gained what have I learned.

Getting to know certain people better,
What a gift they are in my lives.

Picking up skills hopefully,
Some still have things to be desired.

Having the opportunity to serve,
For the Son of Man came to serve not to be served.

I�ve actually fulfilled a lot of my goals this term,
That is a first and I am thankful for the miracle.

Christmas

So I�ve been trying to show my deeper err hmm side the last few posts. So here�s something lighter.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. After I realized that Jesus wasn�t even remotely born on Dec 25th and not anywhere near that day it kind of made things weird. Like I mean, if you found out you celebrated your birthday months after when you were actually born doesn�t that make your birthday kinda odd? (Of course we should give Jesus His b-day props.)

Another thing about Christmas, why do we decorate evergreen trees? Don�t those only grow in Canada and like upper US? Canada has a monopoly on Christmas trees, and I must admit when I picture a white Christmas I picture Canada� isn�t that odd?

Welcome back everyone! I hope you studied as hard for those exams as I did.

2004-12-16T14:49:00.000-05:00

Across the River

If man gave you a billion dollars how would you act?
Would you still eat rice and take the bus?
Would you talk to your friends or make new ones?
Would you give more generously?
Would you be happier now?
Would you treat people differently?
Would you try to make even more?

If man took away all your money how would you react?
Would it be great to have rice or take the bus?
Would your friends still be there or would you have to make new ones?
Would you take from the generous?
Would or could you still be happy?
Would people treat you differently?
Would you give away 5 dollars?
On one side of the river you may live, but on the other side you could live as well.
The key word is not side, or river, but live.

2004-12-15T16:27:00.000-05:00

Money

A friend showed me a quote. "Men are like bank accounts, without any money they don�t accumulate any interest." Also looking at how far people go for the hopes of great amounts of money, (apprentice, survivor, amazing race, and lotteries) I definitely get the appeal that money might have.

Does having a lot of money make guys/girls more appealing and attractive? Is there some connection with luxury, and money that generates this interest? Perhaps if you have more money you can be more generous? Yet if everyone was rich� no one would be rich. Hence, we all want to be richer than everyone else. We want to be better off, have things other people don�t have, and be able to go places no one else can go. That�s what we get entranced in and that�s where there is a flaw.

You can�t be better, if what makes you better can�t be bought.
The value of money is not in what you can buy. The value of money is what you make it. The value of choice is not in what the choice brings, but in that we made the choice at all.

2004-12-13T10:05:00.000-05:00

Imagination

As children our imagination take us to places we could never be. We can go to times not scientifically possible to visit. We can talk in languages we�d never be able to understand. We can meet characters that don�t really exist, and we can sit in a room with a box and a rock and play for hours.

Imagination takes a brick and makes it interesting. While growing up takes something interesting and makes it into a brick. Ie (certain profs). However, does the imagination detach you from the reality so much that as an adult you won�t be able to live in this world without giving it up? Is maturity accepting the what is, and only going to ponder as far as what could be? Would not a child ponder what could not be? Is that the difference between an adult and a child? Sometimes you look at a child and think he�s cute when he can imagine so readily, and yet to see an adult do it, it becomes delusional.

Is the cost of imagination, a cost of growing? You can�t be realistic and imaginative at the same time because they are from two different worlds. Perhaps the question is, if we were meant to lose imagination.. why were we given the ability to do it in the first place? Hmm, the only explanation I can come up with is so we can see the things we think could not be, so they can be.

2004-12-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

I�ve been feeling frustrated lately and so I rant. I apologize if it sounds a lot like a chant.

Sigh.

Waking up I want to remain asleep,
To continue the dreams which I thought I could keep,
I do the work, and run the errands which need running,
All day trying to maintain integrity yet cunning,
I find learning about others a great joy in life,
To understand their stresses and their strife,
Yet something is constantly at me gnawing,
Slowly but surely mind boggling clawing,
I can�t be unsatisfied for I�ve been very blessed,
With friends, family, and God�s grace all passing the test,
Yet, the small things in life are constantly bugging,
Little by little my patience they are tugging,
And when I think about it all I seem to crack,
All of a sudden self control I start to lack,
The worries and concerns of myself and others,
Appears to build way beyond just bothers,

Yet at that point I take a deep BREATH.
I know these worries and stresses only bring death.
How can I regret the choices I made?
I know, such negative feelings will only fade.
For what matters is not the trials which I face.
Only in the opportunities that have been waste.
I go to bed late, looking forward to the next sun,
For even though I stumble I�m still dared to run.

2004-12-06T11:01:00.000-05:00

Backward Choices

A very good Christmas that I watched yesterday was Family Man.
This was the man who long ago made the choice of his career over the girl,
He became very successful, and thought he had everything.
However, he got a glimpse of the what if? Of the choice he could have made.
Of the family he didn�t have, of the wife that would have loved him. Yadda yadda yah!
So this was a great movie. However, are not the what ifs in life dangerous? Are not the regrets
a ruin of the what is? Although it�s fun to dream and wonder, if only I made this choice instead of that choice, on some level you have to believe that God doesn�t want you to regret, he wants you to keep moving.

Think of the man walking in the snow, if he keeps stopping and looking backwards he�ll freeze. But the man who keeps moving forward will get to the destination faster, and we all know the more you move the warmer you are.

Yet�. there are choices you can�t help wondering� what if?

2004-12-02T09:55:00.000-05:00

Care Bears

I thought I would take this time to address a question I get asked ever so often "Why Carebears?" and all the other questions that come with it. So let us address the most common questions first.

1. Aren�t Care bears a girly thing?

This is a common misconception among the general population. The word care may appear to sound girly, since feelings seem to derive from female origins other than those of negative connotation. One must keep in mind that a majority of the care bears are in fact male! Hence, Jem, my little pony, and barbie are girly because they depict girls. While GIJOE, Care Bears, and Smurfs are guyish because they depict guys.

2. Care bears are gay!

Although this is not formed in a question format, this is how the question is stated a majority of the time. If the care bears were gay, there were would be no baby care bears. Since we know there are ie. Hugz, and Tugz, we must assume they are not gay since they are able to procreate. If you are referring to gay as in happy then I must agree Care Bears are happy.

3. Aren�t you a bit old for something like Care Bears?

Although Care Bears is projected at a younger audience, the underlying meaning of it is quite applicable to the adult audience. These are creatures that live in the heavens above the clouds and watch down. They care about us, and when we are in trouble they come down and shoot beams of holy light to cleanse us of evil demons. Do you not remember the countless evil shadows they cast away from those possessed children? How they fight the evil Beast (Beastly) of the evil one (No Heart)?

4. So why Care Bears?

There�s nothing like the picture of cocky gamers getting beaten by someone named Care Bears.

2004-11-29T11:27:00.000-05:00

How old?

How old should you be before you stop crying?
How old should you be before you know where babies come from?
How old should you be before you know where Grandma actually went?

How old should you be before you understand why people cry?
How old should you be before you understand why you were born?
How old should you be before you understand why there is death?
How old are you?

I believe, growing up has nothing to do with age at all, but merely the move from the how and where to the why? However, once you start believing you have the answers, and stop asking the questions, you�ve grown up, but grown up to be a fool. In that sense we should never be grown up, but always growing.

2004-11-25T10:53:00.000-05:00

Gossip

This is a personal peeve of mine. Alright, so when is it gossip, and when is it just sharing experiences about the other person? When is it gossip, and when is it sharing concerns of another person? When is it gossip and when is it just banter?

1. I guess the fundamental problem with gossip for me is that. If this person gossips about other people who knows what they�d say about me to other people.

2. What would this person think if they knew this stuff about them was being said?

3. What is the purpose of this knowledge who does it benefit?

Now isn�t gossip just a proud showing of how you know so much stuff about another person? Or maybe how your much better than they are? How popular you are perhaps? Or how nosy you are? Or how errr concerned you are? Well my philosophy has and people can attest to this, I won�t say anything behind your back I wouldn�t say to your face� of course I say a lot of inappropriate things to people�s faces so I�m working on that. Now I know Rick Warren had a good definition of it. But seeing how I never read that Purple book, I don�t remember.

In conclusion:
If someone tells you something personal about themselves, don�t you feel good that they trust you enough? What do you feel when someone else tells you about that person? I think gossiping cheapens the real thing. It�s like watching a movie in a crappy bootleg copy with a shaky camera, and then watching the real movie in the theatre. You�ve ruined and cheapened the value of watching the real movie in the theatre, you know the plot. In fact maybe a few lines were muffled and you mistook some of the lines, or someone got up and blotted out whole sections of the movie view. If you had refrained, you would have been able to enjoy the real colours, stereophonic sound, the surprise of the plots, and the real feel of the movie and gotten a real experience. Remember if someone knows you watch a lot of bootlegs they�ll stop inviting you to go out and watch in the theatres.

2004-11-22T10:17:00.000-05:00

Visiting
I visited Kingston this weekend. It�s not nearly as strange and awkward as I had anticipated. There were definetly too many people for me to remember them all. However, my rule of thumb is to leave remembering atleast 2 people. So let�s hope that holds up. I had some decent quality time, and some decent quantity time with other as well. All in all thanks for all the people who put me up and were valiant enough to hang out with me. Even though the trip was meant for fun, there�s always things to learn when seeing quality people.

Cliques
I�ve had many conversations about this topic with someone else. It�s a very odd concept. The definition of a clique is determined by the ability for it to accept a new person, or outsider. And yet, a clique is a natural occurrence between close friends. How can you have close friends in your group if it is too large? And yet if you accepted everyone then wouldn�t your group be getting infinitely larger and then just split into multiple smaller cliques? Heh, I guess, on some level I don�t have a beef about Cliques. As long as it�s a good clique. As in the people in the clique aren�t combining all their evil to become some super evil. I say this only because I think cliques in our age don�t purposely exclude people. It�s just that when you have history with people, it�s hard to have someone new in the fold. However, it�s important that cliques aren�t oblivious to their surroundings, it�s the calling of each individual to notice when another individual needs someone to care. So if people in a clique are able to break off from that clique and spend time to help someone who�s not in the clique because they see the need with the support from the clique. Then that clique is okay in my books. Otherwise�. for shame.

Thought
I believed that Life should be a balance. How you have parts of your life. Ie. Green piece is God, blue piece is friends, white piece is family, Red piece is work, Yellow piece is yourself and so on. All these pieces need to balance out. Or the whole circle would crumble. All these pieces are pieces of a pie to complete the circle of your life. Does not this make sense? You need balance? But, the problem is that life isn�t segmented. Things in your life can not balance because they aren�t mutually exclusive. I see it as you have all these pie pieces. Now I take a stirring stick and mix all these colours together. What colour would your life be? If you wanted a lighter colour of your life you�d have put more time in the lighter colours. If you wanted your life to more reflect this other tint you�d have emphasize the other colours. All colours work differently together, some compliment some produce muck. Life is a mixture of everything as each thing affects the other. Shouldn�t there be some green in everything? It�s not a balancing act but a constant effort figuring out what type of colour do you want to create of your life?

2004-11-18T10:15:00.000-05:00

Moments

Did you ever have that period of time either in a busy, rushing, or quiet and peaceful experience where time stops. Where you look around and everything freezes and the sounds, smells, sights and feelings all come together. That one snap shot, encompasses an entire experience. This is what a moment is called. This is what lingers in ones memories beyond fleeting flings, thoughts, and insignificant problems. These are the moments we live for. These are the moments, which keep us going. These are the moments, which bring people together. Yet to have these moments, you can�t just make them, you have to take that time to look around and capture them. We are constantly trying to make moments, and neglect to take the time to keep them.

Birthdays

I dunno, perhaps us August babies just get along with November babies. I realize now that a lot of my friends are born in November� which is kinda odd. Does saying happy birthday get hollow after awhile? I guess that�s why people give gifts and cards. Ah well, Happy Birthday everyone born in November. There I fulfilled my obligation!

Quote

"You don�t catch whales with worms, but with big fish"

2004-11-15T11:41:00.000-05:00

The word "cute"
How dangerous is the word cute now days�.
Girls apparently can use this word so much more freely than guys can. Afterall, the connotations of the word cute have been applied to good looking, very attractive sort of way. Ie. Cute guy.

If guys use the term on girls. It implies a sort of small, perky sort of things. Apparently cute does not necessarily mean good looking in the guys vocab but simply that she is girly.

When people use it on children, it means that these small kids look so cute like little dolls you can play with that move around. However, the cute only extends as far as other people�s children and not your own.

When talking about objects. Cute usually refers to plush toys or objects not defined within the bounds of manly, or girly, however since that zone does not exist for men (as anything not manly is girly). Cute objects are not for guys. But girls. Ie. Tiny boxes that you can�t fit anything into, pillows in the shape of heads. Generally objects that don�t serve any real purpose.

Cute animals. (Cute animals are the ones that bite, carry rabies, and reproduce like crazy without providing any actual uses). It�s the uncute animals that actually are good for the environment. Ie. Rabbits vs worms.

In conclusion cute is word that describes something that is deceptive, useless, superficial and condescending.

Words

To follow up the previous incredibly random and useless post. If you take a negative word like fool. Can you make it a positive thing by adding for God to it? Fool for God.
Very interesting. So can I take any word and add for God to it?
Sacrifice � Sacrifice for God.
Drunk � Drunk on God/ Drunk on the Holy Spirit?
Kill � Kill for God? (Like in the OT?)
How far will semantics take you? What words can you offer to God that He can�t make sound good? Heh, Be cute for God.

2004-11-11T09:52:00.000-05:00

Names

I don�t know if it was the insane amount of television, my lack of being able to focus, or ADD, but my short-term memory has dwindled into oblivion. Don�t you feel frustrated when you were pouring a glass of milk for yourself and then the next thing you know you can�t remember where you put that glass down? Hence loss of short term memory. At any rate, the worst is names. You all know what I�m talking about. How you meet someone and some names stick and you remember, and some names never do. You either forget them completely or warp them into something similar. Like Derek and Eric, or Sharon and Shannon. Stuff like that. At any rate usually the first few times even if I think I remember the name I�ll avoid using it because I�m so unsure if I even got it right. (Usually the one�s that stick are the David�s, and Alex�s, they are staple names and even if I didn�t know your name you always start with the Dave�s and Alex�s it�s just probability.)

The worst thing is if they remember your name, which people tend to do because their memory is so much better. And you can�t remember theirs, or by the time you get the nerve to ask them their name, it�s already too late and you�ve lost the opportunity. I�ve met people 4 or 5 times without ever remembering their name and I can�t very well ask them now! Trust me it�s not personal!

So I was talking to someone about this, and what words we use to substitute the whole name business. For me it comes across because I have bad memory, but what about those people that just know too many names. Well, the advice I got was that this person substituted using names all together and subbing in words like dawg, buddy, dude, bro, hon, babe, and mui. (and other words I won�t repeat here) Well I�m not really comfortable using those words since if I felt close enough to them to call them hon and buddy, you�d think I�d remember their names. I don�t understand the need to make people think they are closer than they are. Like how people use the word friend so loosely now a days. It sorta takes the power of the word away. I generally say I know someone. And only if I consider them a real friend, will I refer to them as one. I�m just not comfortable with the pretense of giving the illusion of things that are not true. So if I can say I only have 5 friends. I�m happy with that. I�d rather have 5 friends that I consider FRIENDS as opposed to 100 friends which really are classified under acquaintances. (I really consider that exaggerating, and spinning the reality. It�s not that they are considered friends just that you refer to them to other people you just throw out the word friends) What do you think? Who do you call friend? Just because you know each others name doesn�t make them your friend, it just means you have good memories.

2004-11-08T09:52:00.000-05:00

Thoughtfulness

Firstly, this weekend was great. Thanks to everyone who was so hospitable up in Kingston. It was great fun, and I was so thankful that God provided a scheme where I got to meet so many interesting and cool people. You guys definetly have a great community going on up there.

Secondly, why do you check blogs? I have realized that there are different types of blogs and different types of things you expect from blogs. For instance, I go check let�s say Rani�s blog and find educational wisdom. Or I check Alex�s blog and get random rants and other errr Alex type randomness. Some people use blogs to vent, others to tell about their daily stresses, some do it out of habit, others do it out of sharing wisdom, and still others use it as a tool for witnessing. Why do you check this blog? Is it to see what controversial, and stupid things Dan will actually post? Hmm. In reality, the type of blog one has reflects the type of person he/she is. So I guess the statement I get to, is that I learn more from a person not on what he/she "blogs" about, but what type of "blog" it is.

It is not on the actions on which we are judged, but on the motives. For true sight is not from the eyes, but from the heart.

What type of "blog" do you want to write? What type of person do you wanna be? Even I wish I could write more thoughtful posts, and have people think, wow this person is very thoughtful. (Which is not the same as someone who has a lot of thoughts, quality over quantity!) I think fundamentally it might all come down to.. who?

2004-11-03T14:22:00.000-05:00

Election Results

Well Bush won. Which although a bit disturbing, is encouraging at the same time. For one thing Bush heavily was against same sex marriage, and the morality of Christian beliefs. And because of the huge population in US of born again Christians, I believe that�s what won it for him. I think a fatal democrat mistake was not incorporating this more into their platform.

Although I severely have doubts in Bush�s ability to think long term and am sometimes scared by his disregard of other countries, I think now that he�s been chosen by the American people, they should stand together and support their leader. To support the president even if you didn�t� vote for him, and to criticize the president even if you did vote for him. That�s the true responsibility of a proud American.

Alright, so the American elections are way too slow. For the Canadians the election process is done after you hit Ontario, but the ones for US can last weeks depending on recounts and stuff. How absurd.

Birthdays

Alright, so here is something I�ve heard. Guys don�t give gifts to other guys unless it�s a group gift (usually the gift is not all guys). Reason: It�s gay, and guys know other guys don�t like shopping so why force them to shop? (There are exceptions to the gift rule, if that guy can�t afford it and you all chip in to get it for him I guess). Of course girls can give gifts because well they love shopping (So it�s a bit of a gift for them too). And you have to buy gifts for girls because� well I�m not going to say, because I don�t understand it myself. Guys like to do stuff, girls like getting stuff. That�s just how it works. I don�t make the system I just try to follow it. So where do you stand on gifts? If all your friends give you a gift except one friend do you think less of that friend? Or are you not big into gifts at all? Isn�t it better just to be able to get quality time from that person? How old are you before it�s too old to have a party? All good valid questions. I say gifts are nice, but I�d give up a gift for a good quality hour of conversation with someone in a heartbeat. I recall someone telling me, don�t� force yourself to get someone something just for special occasions. If you see something that you have to get someone just get it for them, if you don�t, don�t give the guy more junk just because you think he/she expects to get something.

2004-11-01T10:24:00.001-05:00

Politics

With the elections in the US hanging ever so closely, the balance of the next 4 years also hangs. I never realized how much this choice affects us Canadians. After all, look at how much has changed in the last 4 years. I�ve watched all 3 debates, and I have read about the candidates and their platforms. It is important to note that platforms are pretty much held with a grain of salt ,and really you can only take out of the basic principles. Here�s where I stand. Surprisingly I relate a lot more to the republican platform as most Christians in the US do. Afterall Bush has put in a lot of Christian leaders in prominent roles. He's against same-sex marriage, and definetly holds up morality to the best of his ability although sometimes not in the correct way. Morally, his standard is a lot less compromising than the Democratic liberal way. However, economically Bush is a disaster. US international status is in the dump, the country GDP growth has become pretty bad, he's the first president to lose jobs in his term, their dollar is falling, they are in debt up their bazoo, and they are in war which means constant bleeding of resources. I also mention that looking at Bush, I just don�t trust him. Sometimes I wonder if he believes in what he�s doing or just hiding behind good intentions. I was upset that he walked away from the Kyoto agreement, but I don�t know how you let him get away with attacking Iraq saying there are weapons that no one found, going against the UN, saying he�s stopping terrorism but ignoring bin laden, and flying in a plane telling everyone he won the war like a hero when it didn�t even really start yet. At any rate, I hope blue wins. If it was a clean slate I�d probably vote Bush. But he had his chance and his country is messed up so he obviously sucks.

On the other hand, I�m always cheering for the Canadian dollar, and Bush is doing wonders for that competition! Of course, I�m not so happy about those oil prices. Why were oil prices low when I couldn�t drive and skyrocket when I start driving a lot? In conclusion, I�m bitter about the US, because they are proud, and I don�t like pride. Which is why the US is going downhill. Of course whenever they get scared or threatened they respond with guns. So we�ll see a lot more action before things settle out.

2004-10-28T11:04:00.000-04:00

Wisdom

What makes a person wise? Is it the ability to see outside the obvious and think outside the box? Is it the ability to transcend logic and see the deeper meaning? Solomon was known as wise because of how he answered problems. Cut the baby in half! However, I hear people say things all the time that seem wise or profound, but is it just wise to me because it sounds deep and I'm slow? Is wise something that no one else would have thought of? Is wise simply the ability to discern between good an evil?

Sometimes I wonder if there is such a thing as a wise person. After all, the wise person knows he�s but a fool. So tell me this, if you get advice from someone who is not wise, wouldn�t that be bad advice? And if you get advice from someone who is really wise is that not just advice from a foolish person? I think we all pursue to be wise.. but isn�t it sometimes too confusing figuring out what exactly we�re trying to do? (Do wise people even have fun?)

2004-10-25T09:57:00.000-04:00

Dreams

Did you ever wonder what the purpose of these were? I�m not talking about dreams as in I have a dream where little white boys hold hands with little black girls. I�m talking about I�m sleeping and dream with REM. What is the purpose of dreams? I used to think that they were merely an entertainment mechanism set up to keep you asleep. Sorta like a virtual reality world where you visit when you sleep so time passes by faster while your body rests. However, are dreams also a subconscience manifestation of our worries and desires? I understand how people analyze things� like do you dream in colour, can you see faces when you dream, do you ever see yourself in the dream and what not. Does realizing your dreaming alter your dream and do you even realize your dreaming? Do dreams show you feelings and thoughts that you didn�t know about? Do you think your dreams ever have a bearing on the reality?

I don�t know the answer to any of this. I do believe that dreams usually are projections how we honestly feel, afterall our guards are down, and our imagination runs rampant. So if you can remember a dream, think about what you were thinking while it was happening. Were you alone? Were you with friends? Were you happy or scared? Were you with people that you haven�t see in a long time? Maybe it meant you miss them, or hate them? Honestly the best dreams are the ones that seem so real, where your worries become reality, and your hopes become reality, it helps bring to light what your hopes and worries really are. Maybe a dream isn�t just a dream, but a guidepost to yourself. Maybe.. or maybe not� Perhaps I�ll do more investigating by sleeping more.

2004-10-21T11:41:00.000-04:00

Survivor

I�m not talking about the reality television series. I�ve given up on that show after the 2nd season let alone the 9th. I�m talking about you! If you were stranded on an island and had the option of having 3 items with you! What would you bring? I�ll even let you bring people as an item. Like if you want your best friend, parents, whatever� of course you just wasted an item. Items do not include planes, or a survival kit full of like 100 other items. One item is like a lighter, a knife, a flare gun, a bible, or perhaps a volleyball. You can assume that you already have the clothes on your back and glasses if you wear them so you don�t have to include them. What essentials would you go for? What are your essentials?

I would bring a shovel, a blanket, and a gun I think. Guns include a full load of bullets! But it�s a pistol not an assault rifle. You can�t bring assault rifles� At any rate those would be my objects. Simply because a shovel could dig holes and dual as an axe, and a knife.. the blanket is useful as shelter, and to keep you warm, and carry objects like lots of fruit. You can use the gunpowder from some bullets to help start fires. Use the gun to hunt boars. Lastly, if I find one of you on the island I can shoot you and take your 3 items.

2004-10-19T09:33:00.000-04:00

Children

Alright, so I correspond kids to ages between 6-12. If they are younger they are toddlers and if they are older than they are teenagers. Firstly, I do believe children are the future. Secondly, I think our future is going to be really messed up. Does anyone else realize the growing amount of ADD, obesity and obsceness in kids? I think most kids (exceptions withstanding of course) are spoiled. The parents have one or two kids and just put everything into them thinking that by giving them more they are making them better. I see kids with tons of trading cards, gameboys, and other paraphernalia to keep them "interested" . In my day, a bucket of lego could keep me entertained for infinites amount of time. Now you buy them a computer game and they get bored of it quicker than a Brittany Spears marriage. Kids think they deserve all the stuff they get. The biggest punishment is the lack of the television for a week. That�s not very killer if you ask me. No� I think to teach kids the value of appreciating what they have! They should be sent to China for 3 months. Once they see how hard the children there work.. that should put them straight, who knows maybe put them on an assembly line for a day. I remember doing that when I was young, it shows you a hard days work! This is my beef with children. I am aware that they are cute.. but I also know they are aware of it as well, and that�s a deadly combination!

In conclusion, you guys should have kids, but think of your kid, than think of what a kid in China would say and set things up appropriately. The best lesson to teach your kids, is that less is more and more is greedy.

2004-10-13T10:34:00.000-04:00

Popularity

Alright, so I�ve always given thought to this topic. What is popularity exactly? I usually joke with certain people that I think they are quite popular. After all, they seem to know quite a few people� (pretty much everyone.) However, does that really make you popular?

Does popular mean you�re well known? Or does it mean that you hang out with a lot of different people? Or does it mean that you�ve met a lot of people? I guess, popularity can be a bad thing. It�s popular belief that you�re a jerk is an example. However, popularity usually stems from just being a real friendly person. I�m all about quality over quantity, but I can see the advantages of quantity. Afterall, who wouldn�t want the picture of them walking in a room with like 20 people following behind them. (It�s funnier if none of them are smiling but just trotting in) It�s kinda cool to know those quantity people though, that way when you meet someone new you can instantly talk about the popular person as a topic to bridge the uncomfortable gap. (Good stuff of course or that would be gossip. It�s mutual common ground.)

In conclusion, I don�t think I want to be a popular person. But I do like to know popular people. If you think I�m talking about you, then you�re probably right. Just remember, I don�t like you because your popular but despite of it. (As long as you don�t drop in quality.)

2004-10-11T10:29:00.000-04:00

Random Thoughts

After years of cramming stuff into my brain. Once in a while random things pop out and I don't always remember where they come from. So here are some random thoughts I've been thinking about.

"A brother tells his father he will mow the lawn, but goes out and does not do it. The second brother tells his father he will not mow the lawn, however after a while feels bad and mows the lawn. Both brothers have lied. But one has done a righteous act. What was the difference?"

"There is a difference between having to say something, and having something to say."

I've also had this song stuck in my head. So here are the lyrics I remember.

Dare you to Run.

Welcome to the Rainbow,
Welcome to the Son,
Dare you to run
Dare you to run
Like life never happened,
Like life never happened,
Dare you to run
Dare you to run,

Walking through the forest,
Standing in the meadow,
What happens next?
What happens next?
Dare you to run.
Dare you to run.
Like life never happened.
Like life never happened.
Dare you to run!

(You gotta remember God's covenent (rainbow) which he sent His Son to fufill. We have to run towards Christ like our old life doesn't matter. Sometimes you'll get caught walking, because of all the obstacles and fear, like when your in a forest, or perhaps you're caught complacently standing because you think ur in a nice meadow, but you gotta keep running! Dare you to run!)

2004-10-06T13:34:00.000-04:00

Ambitions

Alright when you read ambitions you might think of future jobs, future changing the world ideas! Well, my ambitions don�t extend that far. After all, all that stuff is so far away that things could change at the drop of the hat. Hence my ambitions are smaller and more controllable! I�ve given up on learning another language, I�m sure many of you are surprised that I had even tried? I chalk that up to a dream that never started. Nehow, I�m going to try to learn guitar! I�ve been talking to a few guitarists I know and they have assured me that it�s possible!

Personally, I�ve tried to learn a few years ago. But after a few broken strings, and my inability to play longer than 5 minutes without it really really hurting. (despite changing some of my strings to nylon strings). I quit. It�s just demoralizing when you can�t play a song with 3 different chords to see, your favourite songs contain chords with double sharps and a chord change every 3 words and what not. I must also mention that barring where you hold down all your strings while playing the normal strings with one hand seems pretty unreasonable!

Might I also mention I have problems clapping and singing at the same time. This means that changing chords, strumming, singing/talking is going to be pretty insane. However I�m up for the challenge. I�ll give it the good month test and see where I�m at.. the way I see it� all the cool people can play guitar!

2004-10-04T13:33:00.000-04:00

Mentors

I�ve given some thought about this topic. It seems to be quite a recurring theme, with the workshops they�ve given on it. (Campus Challenge and Beyond the Kings Gate). Firstly in terms of people that have been mentors. Hmmm, I guess it depends on what you consider a mentor now. Is a mentor someone who who you can rely on for advice talk to all the time to help you grow spiritually or in a mature fashion? Or is a mentor simply someone that you want to model yourself to be more like? If that�s the case can you have many mentors each with different aspects. Like that person is the mentor for my generosity, and that person is a mentor for creativity, and that person is a mentor for knowledge and so on. I guess that all culminates to if I have had a mentor or not? Where have I picked up any knowledge or at all from? Where do I get certain personality tweaks from? I think in terms of mentors for someone I talk to for advice, I don�t have one. Advice comes from the culmination of opinions given from just people I trust. But in terms of mentors that I look up to I have many. I�m assuming that Jesus is not a mentor because He�s not physically around to specifically interact with me.

Alright, so what is the next logical step? When are you ready to mentor others? When do you have something to offer? And, who would want you as a mentor come to mind? I�m sure when you picture a mentor a picture similar to yourself does not appear. Has anyone else ever thought this and how did you resolve it? I�m curious.

2004-10-01T11:43:00.000-04:00

Observations

I think the reason people visit certain people�s blogs is to access the wonderful links located on the side. I call this blog hopping. It�s pretty good, I�ve found some people�s blogs that I didn�t know existed that way. However, once in awhile you hit a deadend blog. Ie. A blogger who only likes people to go to their site and not share by linking other people�s sites to other people. I call these "the hidden" (perhaps hiding from people who they know), Such people include (C.Fu, G. Hui, J.Sham and etc.) Of course then you get the mother load people. The ones that have so many people listed that you wonder how can one person even keep up with so many blogs. I call these the "Phonebook" types, Such people include (A. Chow, J. Lau, E. Huang). (I think these types only check like 5 blogs tops, but don�t want to hurt anyone�s feelings so they put your link there). Then you get the people who know a lot of people but don�t want to add anyone, except their "elite", I call these the "lazy type" such examples are (J. Lau, and E. Law). And of course you get the "typical" people who just add who they want to check. (you guys are normal congrats)

Ps. I didn�t use any quotes, or tell you anything about my day! Amazing!
Pss. I hold you all to high standards!

2004-09-28T09:46:00.000-04:00

Howdy

Well I was to do one of those updates on how work is. To avoid the individual questions on How�s Work going? Work is boring� busier than I�m used to though. But really, the only way testing software would be fun was if they were computer games. And trust me these programs are far from it. At any rate, I do feel like I�m learning stuff I guess, but I can�t say I jump out of bed in the morning to go to work.

Well, it seems TO is a fester of germs and viruses lately, several people� and I mean pretty much everyone around me has gotten sick� and it was just a matter of time. Well, I lost my battle and now I feel as crummy as I can be. It�s one of those paradoxes, like how you need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience. Just like you need sleep to get better, but because your sick you can�t sleep. I couldn�t sleep a wink with my runny nose, I had to stay awake or I�d seriously drown in my own mucous. I�m not exaggerating. Now I can�t even talk� can you imagine? Nehow, I�m so hopped up on drugs right now to make it through work it�s not funny� At any rate hope you all having fun with your respected jobs/school activities. Just don�t take for granted that you can sleep well at night, or let alone breath well! Because it�s only a matter of time!

2004-09-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

So I was thinking...

What is everyone thinking? Literally. I know you aren't supposed to care what other people think about you. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about what goes on in the mind of other people. Don't you have a friend, or a enemy I guess, andyou just wonder what goes on in that head of theirs. When they smile at you, or do something, what are they really thinking. Sometimes don't you wonder if you really know someone? Like I mean, maybe they've been fooling you the whole time. Maybe they aren't who you think they are? Maybe nothing goes on in people's heads. Do people say what they think? Do people think before they say? Isn't it all a question mark? I'm wondering how you guys think right now. I can guess how you guys might think, but really, maybe you have me fooled, maybe you have us all fooled?
Sometimes I wonder if people are putting up a fascade, they say one thing, but you notice small things that make you wonder what they are really thinking. I call them tests. Hehe you throw up tests once in awhile to see how they respond. But not in what they say, but how they say it. Won't tell you what the tests are though, or it'll throw the results off. Nehow, I'm on to some you! Are you on to me?

2004-09-21T01:11:00.000-04:00

Cartoons

Well, this weekend I had the opportunity to hang out with some very cool people this weekend when I went up to Waterloo! I realize that I really need to find out people's numbers in loo so I can actually get in contact with them when I get up. At any rate while were up, we were talking about Captain Planet!

I'm sure you all remember the elemental planet dude that taught us all about taking care of the earth a little bit better. Anyways, someone looked up the theme song on the internet which brought us to a retro site with all these intros for 80's cartoon shows. Now there are some memories there. COPS, Pro Stars, Saved by the Bell, Gummy Bears, Snorks, GI JOE, Duck Tales, Teddy Ruxbin, and so on and so forth.

Oh it seemed like yesterday from when we watched those. Anyways I realize now how odd cartoons have become. No longer do we have quality cartoon shows, but only either really friendly shows like bubbly cartoon shows, or really adult ones like family guy? Sigh, I guess that's why we import all our cartoons now from Japan. At any rate, the 80's were great. Doesn't everyone love the Thunder cats and Brave Star? But who wants to watch Pepper Ann and Doug? At any rate, probably why no one watches Saturday morning cartoons anymore.

2004-09-13T09:20:00.000-04:00

Finally!

Well, I've played 8 years in the CCSA. 7 years on the NTCBC Soldiers 1 or 2 and one year on the ETCBC Lions. Although, playing on these teams was fun, memorable, and by no means regretable, I still lacked one thing. I have never made the playoffs let alone won! In fact my best record on a team was this year on the Lions where we pulled .500 (5-5).

However, this weekend I got to play in the Benefits softball tournament. If you don't know I work at the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and every year we have a team. The tourament consists of other teams like the municipal workers pension plan, and the labourers workers pension plan and so on. Lots of seniors. Nehow to make long story short we won the tournament! It started at 9 am on Saturday and ended at 7 pm. 6 games! (4 round robin, semi and final) So tired and sore right now though. Nehow there was around 13 people playing and I got to field almost every inning so it wasn't like we won with me on the benches. It was cool being able to meet complete strangers in the morning and then by the last game everyone knowing everyone to cheer them on!

I even got a nice little trophy! Our team was pretty solid. We had a female shortstop! She was amazing! Girls make the difference in games! I now have higher expectations for all girls to play!

2004-09-03T13:11:00.000-04:00

Starcraft Ministry

Alright, if you don't know starcraft is a computer game. It is a simple Real time strategy game in which you control armies of aliens to work together with other people to kill other teams. You collect mineralize, strategize, and attack or die. In this game you have the opportunity to play on battle-net which is an online network set up to enable people from all over the world to play together.

So what is Starcraft Ministry? Well, nothing builds friendships better than saving each other, dying together, working together, and playing together. The games are fast or long, but require massive teamwork and you really have fun together from the comfort of your own home. And from these fellowships you can feel more comfortable to talk about things like Christianity! (I made some of my closest friends through warcraft 2). For example, someone from my church wanted to bring friends to church. So he got them to play starcraft with a whole bunch of our church people so we'd have something to talk about if they came. And it's easier to get them to come. It's also good for straight strangers. I've talked about it with people within chat rooms before, where we all laid out our beliefs and why. It also is great for inter-fellowship relations. We've had countless games with the university kids against the career peops. Of course we always win!

In other words Starcraft ministry! At first it sounds pretty silly. Aren't you just playing computer games, but ministry can be in anything, so take ur strengths and ur likes and gifts and use them. You'll be surprised what doors it opens!

2004-08-30T22:24:00.000-04:00

The Past

I was over at James' place last night. And we were flipping through old yearbooks from the NTCS days. About oh let's say 12 years ago. And looking through pictures. Laughing at why guys look different when they age but girls look exactly the same. Also trying to pool together where people are. James can pinpoint all the asians locations at this time.

I think it occured to me I stopped keeping in contact with these people. Like some of them were pretty close and we did lots of stuff with lots of memories. Then slowly I dunno poof. So really?
Isn't it odd? Like James alone. The connection where I started seeing him again was totally unrelated to NTCS completely.

I wonder which people I'll cross again in the future...

2004-08-17T10:43:00.000-04:00

Tired

You know how they tell you to stretch before a game so you don't get injured. And how you should stretch after the game so you don't get sore? I don't find this works. I'm always sore! I stretch like mad and am always sore the next day. What's up with that?

It seems doubtful that we'll make the playoffs. I didn't realize how many hard teams we were playing until we played them. I'm telling you 6 or more of the teams we played are probably going to make the playoffs this season. I wish we played easy teams. One's where they actually miss a ball once in a while. Then again I guess that means we have to pick up our game.

I realized that I've picked up some vocab of words that I don't normally use. I think it's due to certain people saying it to much. (GG, Jerk, Dude, Meh) I dunno, but I think if someone says something enough i start picking it up like after the 3rd time I hear it. Anyone else like that?

2004-08-10T21:38:00.000-04:00

Freedom

And with the last stroke of the pen, I finished my exam. Can't say I did well... but can't say I'm not glad it's over. I can't really say freedom since this term hasn't really captivated me anyways. I guess the only difference is that now when I slack I'm not procrastinating.

So onward into the future. Now I can make softball practices. I just have to tie up some loose ends in Loo and I'm off until the 7th of September when work starts.

So, I think it's time to start some planning. Now, someone tell me why people don't like planning? I realize that when I try to get other people to plan to do something, they never get around to it. Perhaps they just don't really want to do anything... but I"ll pretend that isn't the case and go with the fact that people are just lazy. So all you lazy people out there get planning so we can do some stuff! YOU KNOW YOU ARE!

Awesome!

2004-08-04T11:48:00.000-04:00

B-day?

Well I tried to downplay my b-day this year. You know, because it feels awkward having people treat you nicer just because it's supposed to be a significant day. Although it's nice that you get priority hanging out priveledges. Nehow what did I end up doing? Well, did some spontaneous stuff with G,V, and A on Saturday. That was fun. Korean BBQ, I sweat and drink like 10 cups of water with that stuff. Sunday was cool. Someone tampered with the PP slids in service and wrote my name as THE Daniel Lee under birthdays that week in bold. (still trying to figure out who did that) This is service people, not fellowship, I hope the other people who didn't get a bold didn't feel like their b-day was any less significant. Of course, felt nice considering it was my sister's birthday last week and they spelt her name wrong. Had dinner with S and that was good catching up. Got another hate, nice one from Berlin. Sigh. And yesterday, I got some calls, and we watched Signs after some taco bell, and DQ with A, D, and E. I'm telling you, I get more attention on my b-day when I try to downplay then when I used to throw parties. Sheesh, what's up with that? Well, life is back to studying now. Yay...

2004-07-27T14:52:00.000-04:00

Exams
Well school is officially over. Now all I have to do is write 3 exams and I'm home free for a while month! I look outside and see the kids playing, the birds, chirping, and the smell of fresh grass blowing in the wind. And I wonder, is summer more fun now then it was when I was a kid?

When I was a kid summer = birthday parties, camps galore , no school, play, play, and more play.

Now summer = longer, have to find a job, have to go to school, it's hot.

Hmmm. So the question is if you had a choice would you want to be a kid and play? Or be an adult and work?

2004-07-20T19:38:00.000-04:00

School

So how's it like driving back and forth from school and TO every weekend? Well, the drive sucks. However, it's more like 2 different worlds. Here I try to work hard... (try) and in TO all I do is play, doesn't even feel like I'm in school. At any rate the world here in loo is almost over. Next Tuesday is the last week of school and my last exam is August 10th. After that I get a whole month off of just pure chilling. Or as I call it chillaxing.

Here's a question... what do you do in TO? I notice that when I want to do something with peops, it's always so what do you want to do? and they reply... What do you want to do? And so on and so forth. It seems you always end up watching a movie (which you don't even interact with the people, why not just watch on your own) and eating... (which encourages us to spend money and become fat people). so... What do you do in TO? (Usually you don't get together to sit down and "talk", you need an activity) (Guys don't like shopping like girls do). ?

2004-07-13T18:37:00.000-04:00

Summer is going....
And so the summer is still flying by! I suppose I'm making the most out of it. The Lions are a fun team to play on, I'm meeting a lot of people I wouldn't meet if I played on the Ambassadors. (Which is one of the reasons I wanted to play for the Lions) Devos seem to be going well, the problem is that you always want to outdo ur last devo.. which sucks.

Nehow I read a funny e-mail which I thought I'd post.

We always hear "the rules" from the female side. Now here are the rules from the male side.

These are our rules!

>>Please note... these are all numbered "1"
>>ON PURPOSE!

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up,
put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us
complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the
tides. Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of
it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints
do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every
question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it.
That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In
fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't
expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the
ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want
it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it
yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during
commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did not need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say nothing," we will act like
nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an
answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is
fine...Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared
to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation, or monster trucks.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round is a shape.

Alright! Jerk point + 1 for me.

2004-07-05T09:41:00.000-04:00

Holidays

Holidays are nice. Summer Conference was pretty good. A lot of people didn't go this year, but it was still jam packed with things to think about. There are a lot of summer conferences happening... mostly at Brock. Our theme was unity and making the church our spiritual home.

I suppose the thing to notice is that the Chinese church is massively changing. Worship, types of sermons, attitudes, and people. People you grow up with leave, and you meet new people. The real question is, is it for the better. Conservative seems to be so negative. And yet Secular is taking over and being pushed hard. I guess I'm wary over the secular because it tries to make something sacred into something more worldy. On the other hand, the youth like it and it's part of their culture. So many pros and so many cons..

2004-06-29T01:06:00.000-04:00

Schedules

How busy are you? I notice that some people seem to have extremely packed schedule. All be it they might be popular so they have a lot of people to spend time with as opposed to me heh. But other than that they have tons and tons of stuff to do. You know like agenda's full of events to book into the life. Some people, it's impossible to get a hold of and hence need cell phones so that you can locate them when they aren't at home (which is always).

Hmmm I dunno, I think I got tons of time to just chill and relax? How busy do you guys feel you are? Is busy good? I don't think I could handle the busy life... it's just too tiring.

2004-06-23T12:30:00.000-04:00

Boy I'm getting lazy

I dunno about everyone else, but I'm feeling more and more lazy. The days are longer and the light outside just makes me not feel like working. I study for midterms a day or two before for like 2 or 3 hours and imagine playing more softball. The thing is that when I'm not playing softball I really want to play softball. However, when I'm actually playing I realize about 80% of the time I'm just standing there doing nothing. I guess it's just the ability to hang out with people that makes it so fun, plus the adrenaline rush once in a while. I'm sure if all you people working weren't trapped indoors with few windows and are too busy to notice the weather you may be able to escape the laziness. For me however, Yawn.