how fitting, is the title of this blog, for this moment.

this moment makes me think of those times in my life when i lost someone so important to me. someone that i perhaps took for granted, someone i truly loved but never expressed it to.

when i try to think of things to say to console others, no words come out. all i can do is point to Him and give "textbook" answers. i don't have any answers but what i do know is that He knows.

i guess it's times like these, moments when we realize how brief our time on this world can be, understanding that in the blink of an eye, we could lose it all. but what do we really lose? nothing truly meaningful. maybe we lose a chance to further God's kingdom.

anyway, i leave you with this song.

sad and pathetic

They might as well admit it is time for a name change. The Toronto WorstTeamInTheLeague's. The first team with an apostrophe as a part of its name. We are making history, folks! Let's go WorstTeamInTheLeagues!!

Ah, those poor Raptor fans. As a diehard Seattle Supersonics fan living in Toronto, I can only pity the countless fans here who are cheering for one of the leagues most pathetic franchises. The team is in shambles, with a GM lacking the savviness of realizing his team is literally going down the drain each day he waits to make a trade that ultimately may not look so good on paper but will change the entire outlook of the team.

Does anyone remember the 5 games after they traded the other thorn of the Raptors, Mr. Antonio Davis? He left, Jalen and Donyell came, and they won 5 games in a row. Of course after that the numbskull Kevin O'Neill instilled his "no offense is a good offense" policy and they went back to their losing ways. But still, the point is made that when you clean the dirt, sweat, gunk and Vince from your hands, you have cleaner hands.

Also, is it me or is Chris Bosh the most overrated player on the Toronto Craptors? I mean you look at the newspapers and people are saying to trade Vince and Jalen, so they can build around Bosh. Building around Bosh? Say that again. Build around Bosh? Why don't the Leafs build around Cory Cross? Because he sucks! Bosh can't do squat.. he has actually regressed from last year despite everyone thinking last year's performance was just the tip of the iceberg. Turns out it was his career year.

in all seriousness

I need to get back with my devotions. I have been ever so inconsistent with them that I often feel like my own spirit is ebbing away to nothingness, as if it's no longer there. I need a boost.

On Sunday before service I began to read some Ezekiel, completely at random. It was just one of those "flip a few pages and just read" things, and I read it. Just the first few versus was enough to uplift me and wonders of the awesomeness of God and how utterly fantastic and amazing His creations are.

Smee again!

I have been playing World of Warcraft for the past 1.5 weeks. It's really fun. It's a lot like City of Heroes. WoW is based more in a medieval setting which is actually what I prefer. Both are cartoonish looking.

The graphics for WoW are far better. But the gameplay is about the same. I actually like CoH teamplay a lot more, there is more dynamics to a battle than for WoW.

Anyway, I made a character named Smee, a dwarf rogue. A rogue is basically an assassin. And for those of you who played Diablo2, it functions much like an assassin in battle -- it has charge up points and finishing moves. It's basically a melee killing machine. It's the best melee damage dealer in the game. Soloing for a rogue is the most ideal form of combat because it allows us to make use of our sneak attacks and stun moves. In team, I just swing away because it's hard to sneak around while the enemy is receiving large bolts of ice and fire.

One thing you notice immediately between the two games is the popularity. WoW is way more popular, having sold 240,000 copies in it's first day. I doubt CoH has that many total users. The servers become laggy during peak hours. Etc.

I have found that the best time to play this game is in the mornings before work. There is no one around so you get all the monsters to yourself. There is no lag because everyone is waking up or at work. Pretty sweet..

My goal right now is to gain at least 1 level per day. So far it is working out, having spent about 11 days on the game I am level 20. Yesterday I gained two levels. I suspect tonight will be another late one, and I might be able to gain two more.

gifts

I thought about specific gifts for specific people last year. What I mean is, specific people I would keep an eye out for and take mental notes on what I should get them for Christmas. There's one obvious flaw to this plan I had, which is I can't remember what I had planned for each person.

For instance, over the year I would observe that a person likes to eat something, not something common but a rare thing. Then I would make a mental note to buy that thing for that person. Or, maybe it was something they enjoyed watching, or doing. Anyway. It's all gone now.

The other idea I had was writing down quotes of certain things people had said over the year that made an impact towards me, and then writing them a card to thank them for it. But alas, as of now, my mind is a total blank. =

changes

There's gotta be some changes around here.. I'm kinda sick of the way the site looks. Even though I have zero stylish creativity, I feel that I must spend some time working on this.

Also, for some reason I have this crazy idea in my head that no one is reading. But I do see that people are coming here searching for chords or Chris Tomlin. I can't post chords here for obvious reasons, but I can point the way to them. I'll look to add the useful links on the sidebar to help people with that.

Perhaps my blog site can become a hub for useful Christian chords sites. I dunno..

i can only imagine

When I saw the church bulletin with I Can Only Imagine as one of the songs were going to sing, and saw who the worship leader was, I actually shuddered. As you know I cannot stand it when a song is sung improperly. But it was actually really good. Although I don't consider it an appropriate worship song for Sunday service, still it was nice to sing it.

real friends

A friend of mine posed an interesting question about friends, I'm not sure if I can word it properly but here goes. Basically, the question is to what length would a person go out of there way just to speak to you or visit you. And if a person wouldn't go to any lengths, then how close of a friend are they?

At first I thought they were talking about me, like one of those trap questions where they make you think about it and then you realize you have done something horrible.

But then I thought about how many people I would go out of my way to see, and to what lengths would I go. I had a friend visit from Vancouver once, I tried to go see him but I didn't a get a chance to and he left. Some friend I am to him, huh?

Cripes.. I just realized the magnitude of that. It's like that common line: "If you're ever in town, give me a call..."

I guess it struck me because at that point I realized that I don't have many very close friends at this stage in my life. It's kinda sad. :(

It's been awhile since I actually blogged what I did. So.. here goes..

Sunday

Sunday morning I woke up rather abruptly from my alarm. Yeah that's right.. no more waking up automatically at 7:30 anymore. I was able to defeat this habit by sleeping really really late every night..

Picked up Elsa and went to church. Some people asked me about whether I was still a morning greeter. I asked to be part of this ministry about a year ago and never really committed to it. They're starting something new -- greeters rotate as ushers too. I think it's a great idea, you get to know the people and begin to recognize faces. Anyway, yes I know -- but I still have to think about it.

After service I bumped into Mel. I hadn't really spoken to her in close to a year so we kinda caught up and I invited her to small group.

[aside] the small group has gone well so far. but it's getting really big. bless the Lord for granting us the numbers and consistent attendance, but Lord -- help us now with ways to handle this large group. we have nearly 35 people split between 2 groups and i have a feeling there are more people who need to be reached..[/aside]

Raptors vs. Spurs

After service, Kenric, Kevin, Eric and I headed over to the Air Canada Centre to watch the Raptors game. I drove Kenric and Jacqueline back to my place so we could take the subway down.

[aside]J is starting to remind me more and more of her mom, not personality but just "the look". i dunno what is, but when i saw her from behind i thought it was her mom. weird. i guess as we age we all start looking more and more like our parents..[/aside]

The subway was packed on the way down because of the Santa Claus Parade. We joked about how funny it would be if one of us announced to the hundreds of children that Santa wasn't real.. would've been pretty ugly I bet

The game was pretty bad for the first 3 quarters. We were getting mashed by the Spurs, they were killing us.. on the boards, the backcourt, on defense. They were out-hustling us. They were even out-fast-breaking us, and that my friends, is sad considering they are a very methodical, slow team.

In the 4th quarter, something changed. Some people had left the stadium because we were losing so badly. We were down about 19 when Matt Bonner had a key offensive rebound and we scored. Then we had a couple of 3s in a row, and all of a sudden, we were only down 12 points. It's crazy but for some reason the fans started to believe we could pull this thing off. MoPete waved his arms to get us all going, and Bosh pointed to the crowd.

Being down 12 points is NOT a sign of a team who is making a comeback, but you could just feel like something had changed, the momentum had shifted somehow and everyone in ACC could feel something was about to happen.

Every contested shot, every rebound, we got louder and louder. The place erupted after every made shot, and every defensive rebound. It was just so crazy..

When the shot was made where we took the lead, I jumped up with my arms raised, pumped my fists, and found that I was so happy that I had started to cry! Tears of joy and satisfaction, like redemption (earlier in the game the Spurs were getting some pretty questionable calls).

Anyway, suffice to say it was probably the most exciting game I have ever been to!

Vince Carter [this is not necessarily a post about sports]

Vince Carter looks like a different man on the court from what we saw earlier in his career. Heck even last year, he was a different man than what we see today.

I hate to see the fans boo him. He has poured his heart and soul into this team and because a few bad games and untimely comments he has made, the entire city has turned on him. This is an American, from Orlando, who has constantly encouraged fellow Americans to sign with our team. A guy who does a lot for the community and until this past summer, was the superstar in the history of the NBA who actually wanted to play for us.

He is also a guy who after getting married, despite rumors he already wanted to be traded, looked into how his wife could get work in Canada. Think about this guys. He could easily have been drafted by Toronto, and just played, picked up his pay cheques, and then move on to another team. He stuck his neck out when he didn't have to.

What bothers me most is that when you see him out there he looks a bit lost, as though he feels like he doesn't belong there anymore. He's lost a ton of confidence. He refuses to dunk any more. Dunking takes guts, it's not just jumping up and slamming it down. It's just about ability, it takes a lot of courage to go out there and stuff it in, because afterwards teams are out to get you, to prevent you from doing it again. Take a page out of Yao Ming's book, and how he believes dunking is disrespectful.

He looks like he's even second guessing himself. You look at players who have slumped, usually they come back, but some don't. And it's a lot of pressure. Carlos Delgado went through a pretty bad hitting slump and he didn't catch 0.001% of the flack that Vince has gotten.

It's tough. I'm not saying don't trade him, but think for a second, at least, what it is like to be in his shoes. Don't give me "but he's making millions of dollars" -- no amount of money would convince any of us to stay at a job where you are constantly second-guessed, verbally abused, insulted and ridiculed.

Give the guy a break.

Jamming

After the game we all went home, and in the evening we jammed. We had a new face -- bigjon made his debut @ PB&J. Drew, Duncan, Nancy and Eric came. Elsa came by a little later on.

I find that I'm very critical when it comes to music. If something doesn't sound right I'm totally thrown off by it. I know there are people just like me out there. We're freaks. I have trouble worshipping when it doesn't sound right. I've been doing a lot of praying on this to get me to focus on what's the point of worship is rather than the quality of its sound.

But music itself I find can be very uplifting. I can have a huge mood swing from one song to another.

I really, really, really enjoy Chris Tomlin's cd Arriving.

ideal lineup

I've been saying "trade Vince" for nearly two years and finally people are agreeing with me. It all started when my housemate foolishly suggested that Vince was better than Kobe Bryant. Imagine that -- at some point people actually thought Vince was even in the same league as Kobe Bryant!

Then I suggested Steve Francis was better than Vince, still no one believed me.

Then I thought Ray Allen was better than Vince, once again, no one believed me.

A man once said "Vince Carter: Half man, half amazing". Then another man changed that to "Vince Carter: Half man, half season". Today I say "Vince Carter: Half-ass".

Look at how far Vince has fallen, down to the point where he is equated to the lowly Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Shareef will produce as well as Vince, in fact a lot better numbers, but Shareef is a life-time choker. He is the last player you want shooting the ball when you need to score.

But the beauty of these trade talks and the reason I hope they come true, it because Shareef's contract ends this season, along with the fact that we rid ourselves of Jalen Rose's massive overpaid contract. It means we clear cap space and in the offseason we start building around the real star of our team, Rafael Araujo.

Okay so I'm kidding, of course I mean Mr. Chris Bosh.

This is how I would like to see the Raptors spend their money for next year:

C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas
PF: Chris Bosh
SF: Morris Peterson
SG: Michael Redd
PG: Rafer Alston

Signing Ilgauskas will be the biggest key to next season. Toronto has a huge serbian population that will get Ilgauskas enough reason to want to come here. I would venture to say that Toronto's Serb community is the largest outside of the Serbian countries, similar to our Chinese community. A starting frontcourt of Ilgauskas and Bosh will promise ourselves a playoff team for the next decade.

Michael Redd is an underrated player. He is basically a poor man's Ray Allen, only younger. He, like Ray Allen, does it all but doesn't have back problems. In fact, he was the reason Milwaukee was willing to trade Allen away to Seattle in the first place.

There are many possibilities at the shooting guard that we can take. All we need is a player who is capable of scoring 25 points, only need him to give us 15. The potential for 25 is all we need, in case Ilgauskas or Bosh have a bad game here and there.

Yes kids, this is a dream lineup for us, but I think we can do it with the right incentive and motivation.

promise keepers

So I thought going to the men's conference that it would a men's revival thing. After all, it's called "Uprising". But turns out it was just a big fathers/husbands conference, teaching men how to be good to their wives, be good fathers, and how to have good relationships with their fellow man.

The latter was useful information but nothing really new. Suffice to say I was little disappointed by the conference.

The worship time was good, lead by Robin Mark -- he's like Irish or something, had a really cool accent.

thoughts

Sometimes I wonder whether people think about me the way I think about them. I have this serious problem focusing on things and my mind tends to wander about aimlessly, going from topic to topic, person to person. I just wonder if other people are like that too or am I just weird.

Does this mean that I'm a thoughtful and considerate person, or does it mean I have ADD?

Like sometimes I'll be thinking something, and it'll go from one thing to another, and the next thing I know I'm chuckling to myself at something that person did or said, for no reason. Seriously, I have gotten some weird looks on the subway when I realized I was staring right at them with this goofy smirk on my face.

been awhile

I haven't been in the blogging mood at all lately. Not much to say. I have starting playing the World of Warcraft open beta (now closed). It was a 2.4 gb download and a 45 minute install. But finally, when I got it up and running..

The graphics are stunning. How they are able to produce graphics like those for people who crappy video cards is just amazing. The gameplay is fun, very cartoon-like. Right now I have a level 6 dwarf hunter. He uses a rifle.

However, the game crashes often. I have not gone more than an hour without it crashing. In some ways it's good, because it give me a few seconds to relax my eyes and eat or go to the bathroom. But if it keeps up like this in retail, there is just no way I would play it. It hasn't affected my gameplay because I am playing alone and just hunting. But say I was in a quest and that happened; I'd have to start over again. That would truly suck.

far cry

No, this is not about the game. Yesterday I went to Small Group Leadership training at G&M's house. We learned about the strength and weaknesses of good leaders and about the proper framework of a good small group. It was good and all but I think knowing what a good leader is and what he/she is supposed to do is a far cry from becoming that person.

After I take this course I will KNOW what I need to do, but doing it is a whole other step for me. The whole idea of being a leader is still daunting leap for me. One of the don'ts was for leaders not to feel inadequate, I kinda gulped on that one. That's exactly how I feel sometimes.. inadequate.

Anyway, I found the training to be a very humbling experience.

track 10

I can't remember the name of the song but on the drive home from training yesterday, I heard the words of the song and felt very motivated, very filled with the Spirit and thought of a good bunch of ideas we could do for small group this week. I felt very uplifted from it, like the feeling of God lifting me up, which in turn lifted me up,

The song is called "King of Glory" (I'll post the lyrics some other time, when I post the song), and was inspired straight from Psalm 24:

1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.

3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD
and vindication from God his Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

7 Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty-
he is the King of glory.

half a life

It's not as if my life completely revolves around video games, but certainly there have been at least a couple of games that have "peaked" my interest. To say that Half-Life 2, the follow-up of one of the greatest games ever made (Half-Life), is probably the most anticipated video game in the history of mankind, is probably the biggest understatement in the history of understatements.

This is a game that people have awaited since the day Valve announced they would be making a sequel to 1998 Game of the Year, which was pretty much the day after its original release. Not only was it a great game to play, but even from a developer's standpoint, the game, the engine, the graphics -- it was a true masterpiece. In 1999 in was named 'Best PC Game Ever', and some would argue that to this day, no game has surpassed it.

HL spawned an international multiplayer bonanza called "Counter-strike", which many gamers still play to this day despite it being a 5 years old with mediocre graphics (compared to today's standards).

So having said all that, HL2 comes out in 12 days -- November 16, 2004.

universe of blizzard

What can I say about Blizzard, other than that Blizzard Entertainment makes addictive games. When you think of Blizzard, you think of Warcraft 1, 2 & 3, Starcraft, Diablo 1 & 2. I don't think there is a single gamer out there who has logged less than at least 100 hours playing a Blizzard game.

I would admit to approximately 4000 hours spent on Blizzard games. Wow. And WoW indeed. WoW (World of Warcraft) is coming out on November 23, 2004. This game gives me the shivers.. why? Because I fear that this game will push me over the 10,000 hour mark for time spent on a Blizzard game. It certainly has that potential.

WoW is not as highly anticipated as HL2, because it is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, and the MMORPG community does not include all gamers. MMORPG's require more time -- and money, whereas HL2 is just a shooter with fantastic graphics and a mesmerizing story to boot. But it's gotta be the most highly anticipated mmorpg ever.

Umm.. I grow tired of talking about this stuff.

the others

But there's one last game to cover before I go, and that is Halo 2. From my point-of-view, Halo is/was a good game, but not a great game. But from a console gamer's standpoint, it is probably one of the greatest first person shooters of all time, right up there with Bond from Nintendo's N64.

Halo 2 arrives on November 9, 2004.

sports prediction

Charlotte Bobcats make the playoffs this year, or come real close. You heard it here first.

burning bush

My brother's msn name was "Once again, God speaks through a bush". Fittingly, after George W. Bush was re-elected as the president of the United States.

Once again, this was just another one of those "who cares" things for me. I know -- the US presidency will affect the way we live here in Canada. They control the world's economy and pretty much everything else. Yes, the world looks upon the US as a model of a God-fearing nation.

But once again I must say, I didn't really care *that* much. Bush won, I'm happy. But I can't quite even tell you why I'm happy except that I am. Let's leave it at that. Me and one other guy in the entire office was cheering for Bush, as we got the last laugh. HA.

raptors

The Raptors seemed to pretty much dominate the Houston Rockets last night. I think in all honesty the only reason the game was so close was because the refs made a series of brutal calls during the last 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter. If not for those (did I mention awful?) calls, we would have won by 10+.

cut-capo

My cut-capo arrived in the mail at last. But I was kinda hoping that there'd be some sort of a songbook included in the package. Now I have to order a songbook and that will take another 2 weeks. Anyway, I tried it out just playing in E and it sounded pretty good. It simplifies a lot of the fingers if the song has a normal chord progression. Perhaps what I need is to create a master chord chart for it, or find someone who has already done this..

You Do All Things Well by Chris Tomlin

Verse 1:
Mountain maker, ocean tamer,
Glimpses of You burn in my eyes
The worship of heave fills up the skies

CHORUS
You made it all
Said "Let there be"
And there was all that we see
The sound of Your voice
The works of Your hands
You do all things well
You do all things well
You do all things well

Verse 2:
Star creator, wind breather
The strokes of Your beauty brushed through the clouds
Light from the heavens touching the ground

Bridge:
Imagination runs wild, and breathes the breath of life
Across the fields, across the miles


I encourage all of you to get the new Chris Tomlin disc, "Arriving". It's a very good cd -- of 11 songs that you can fully enjoy in praising God while driving, and at least 8-9 songs that could be implemented into worship time. I am telling you right now that you will be hooked the instant you throw the cd into your cd player. And this is coming from a guy who gets sick of cd's after one month -- I have been listening to this cd every day while in the car, at home, at work. Non-stop.

The words are very powerful and challenging, and the tunes are fantastic. This is truly a great cd.

I also ordered the sheet music, chords and overhead book for the cd and I am very happy with my purchase. Next up... cut capo!

blogger

Is it me or has blogger become progressively worse since google took over? It's so slow now, and I almost always 'notepad' my blogs before posting because I just know it's going to crash when I try to post, and then when i hit 'back' my post will be gone.

It's been awhile since I blogged and the reason for that was the above reason -- typing out a really long post only to have it completely disappear into thin air. Google/Pyra labs -- if you are reading this, please fix the problem. Why is it that whenever really great companies become rich, they start to suck arse? Even GMail is incredibly slow and crashes quite often.

the old days

So the akt and I were reminiscing the old days, like really old days. Primary school days. It's kinda funny that we both read a lot of the same novels, as I'm sure many of you can testify.. like all the Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books, and the Gordon Korman books. "This Can't be Happening at Macdonald Hall" (Bruno & Boots!!), Ramona Quimby, and Encyclopedia Brown.

Am I the only one here who thinks Encyclopedia Brown was a chinese kid?

And there were other books.. Superfudge. Beware of the Fish. Otherwise Known As Sheila The Great. Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing. All those "Brain" books, "The Incredible Brain", "The Great Brain". That kid rocked..

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I swear I think I must've read over 20 Hardy Boys books.. at least, all the ones our library had. There was even a couple when Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys worked together on a case or two. Sweet Valley High, Babysitter's Club <--- these are akt books, I didn't read these.

Statement: ebrian did not read "Sweet Valley High" or "Babysitter's Club" books.

And teachers who picked on us.. I had this grade 5 teacher, man he hated me so much..

And kids who picked on us. Kids we picked on. I punched a girl once, in grade 3 [blushes]. I'm not ashamed though, she was a big girl! But in general, I didn't get in fights. I was pushed around a lot, as a scrawny little chinese kid. Or I should just say "The Chinese Kid". Yeah, that was me from grades 1-5 or so.. the chinese kid.

Play Day's, those were always fun.

Also I remember when we were about grade 3 or 4, that's when Sandylion came out with furry stickers, and that was just crazy, because every day at recess we would have this MASSIVE "marketplace" where kids would be trading furry stickers. Of course me being chinese and my parents being practical adults who didn't spend money on anything fun, I had ZERO stickers to trade. I didn't even have a sticker book, I remember carrying around a sheet of paper hoping someone would hand out freebies. So I ended up with all the crappy stickers.. the happy faces, hearts, squares, circles. How terribly sad..

Mental note: When you have kids, remember how you felt at the furry sticker marketplace, when your kid asks you if you will buy him/her a "[insert trendy kid's toy here]".

What about stuffed animals, did you any of you have a "special someone"? I had this little lion guy, named "Zoobeedoo". He's kickin' around here somewhere. I'm sure if I clean my room I'll find him. He was my pal for sure.. he brought me through some of the tough times. I'm sure I must've had some good talks with him. I think I really missed out on that boat too though.. I mean Zoobee was cool and all, but I really couldn't hug him. He was too small to hug.. Pinkie, the big pink dog was really the one I used for hugging. Err.. I think I've said too much.

Oh yeah -- Sports. Yes, a very 'manly' topic. I was as bad at sports then as I am now, except back then I could run like the wind. All my base-hits in T-Ball were because I could run fast.. yes, the ball slowly trickled towards the second baseman, I was already on my way to third base. That was me.. the speedster who couldn't hit if his life depended on it, even though the ball just sits there on top of the T.

I already had my asthma even back then, but I could still run pretty fast. I liked being "IT" in tag for instance, because I could catch anyone, rather easily in fact (no touch-backs!). Long distance was my worst enemy though..

Well that was fun, I feel old now.

can't type

I have had trouble typing with my left had the last few days, and I blame Chris Tomlin. Yes, it's Chris' fault that I can't type, because I can't stop playing songs from Arriving. Indescribable, Holy Is The Lord, How Great Is Our God and Unfailing Love. Well, those are all the chords I've been able to find. The Way I Was Made also just came out, but I'm still learning that one.

I also blame Jon for sending me the link to the New Song Cafe, which has caused all this fuss over learning how to play just like Chris, which has really enlightened me in mixing things up a little bit with the chords and fingering while strumming. I must've played through Indescribable about 40 times in the past 3 days as a result.

strumming vs. picking

I've also come to the realization that I may never ever learn now to pick, because I love strumming so much more. That sound that it makes.. the strumming, i LoVE it.. Maybe someday I may be inspired to pick. Maybe.

Although I supposed the chicks dig the picking songs..

word of the day: anthemic

There's no real definition for the word "anthemic", and yet it surely has a meaning. The suffix "-ic" means of, relating to, or characterized by. So if a song is anthemic, it is of anthem, related to an anthem, characterized by an anthem.

An anthem is "a hymn of praise or loyalty", "a choral composition having a sacred or moralizing text in English", or "a modern ballad accompanied by rock music instrumentation".

I suppose it's fitting, then, that Chris Tomlin describes the song Indescribable as anthemic.

Indescribable
by Laura Story

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea,
Creations revealing Your majesty.
From the colors of Fall to the fragrance of Spring
Ev'ry creature unique in the song that it sings.

All exclaiming:

Indescribable, uncontainable
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing, God.
All powerful, untamable
Awestruck, we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing, God.

Who has told ev'ry lightning bolt where it should go?
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow?
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light?
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night?

None can fathom:

Indescribable, uncontainable;
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing, God.
All powerful, untamable
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing, God.

You are amazing, God.

(song will be posted later)

ben affleck

It seems that I haven't been all that fair to Ben. I did a bit of research today, to see just how many bad movies Ben Affleck has starred in, and how many good movies. Mind you, because of my prejudice against Ben I haven't seen a whole lot of his movies -- because quite frankly, I try my best to avoid them.

I think ultimately the reason for my prejudice is the sheer disgust I have of the bad movies he's been in. I mean, when they're bad, they're REALLY BAD. Following up this post I will name a few others whose movies I tend to avoid out of sheer prejudice.

Bad Movies with Ben Affleck
Daredevil (2003) ... Mat Murdock/Daredevil
Changing Lanes (2002) ... Gavin Banek
*Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) ... Holden McNeil/Himself
Bounce (2000) ... Buddy Amaral
Reindeer Games (2000) ... Rudy Duncan
Forces of Nature (1999) ... Ben Holmes

*denotes a bad movie where it wasn't Ben's fault

Decent Movies with Ben Affleck
Pearl Harbour (2001) ... Capt. Rafe McCawley
^Boiler Room (2000) ... Jim Young
Dogma (1999) ... Bartleby
Armageddon (1998) ... A.J. Frost
^Shakespeare in Love (1998) ... Ned Alleyn
^Good Will Hunting (1997) ... Chuckie Sullivan
Chasing Amy (1997) ... Holden McNeil
Mallrats (1995) ... Shannon Hamilton

^denotes a good movie that really had nothing to do with Ben Affleck

So, from the above lists, you can see first off, that Ben is due to make a cameo appearance in a good movie, and, he has had a bad movie every year for 5 straight years. I haven't seen Jersey Girl (2004) or Gigli (2003) yet but I have a feeling that when I do I can just add it to the Bad Movies list.

Also, word of caution is that when I say "Decent Movie", I don't mean 'memorable movies'. I really mean "okay" movies, as in ones I wouldn't gouge my eyes out if someone forced me to watch them.

Look, I'm not targeting Ben Affleck. In fact I like Ben. I admire that he's cool, plays poker, and is a die-hard Sox fan. The real trouble with Ben is he keeps picking these really bad scripts. Maybe he needs to fire his agent, or maybe he needs to spend some more time with is buddy Matt Damon (who has a pretty nice resume). The last time Ben has produced a solid effort was in 1997 in Chasing Amy. He's due..!

carpal tunnel

Well folks, it's back. After playing nearly 15 hours worth of Knights of the Old Republic over the weekend, I cannot squeeze my right hand into a fist without considerable pain. I can't hoist myself out of a chair with my right hand.. I can't push anything with it.

It has been worse, remember 4 years ago when I was unable to turn a doorknob or even get dressed with that hand.

I guess the sad thing is how early I have this. I'm sure many of you have had the same sort of problems, it's not just isolated to gamers. I remember Sylvia had a cast on her wrist, and she's not a gamer. And I'd say that compared to others I take care of my positioning and 'computer' posture better than most, due to my lengthy exposure to computers.

In the end, the solution of this is to get a wearable computer some day, when it is affordable.

basketball tickets

I bought a slew of Raptors tickets this year, some with Kenric, some on my own. I think we got a little carried away and just spent way too much so we have a few games available for purchase. The seats are baseline upper bowl, front row. Ticket value is $36 but I'm willing to part with them for $25 each.

Chicago Bulls - February 16, 2004
Boston Celtics - April 17, 2004 (sold)
New York Knicks - November 24, 2004
Milwaukee Bucks - January 7, 2004

Leave me an email or comment if you're interested. Thanks.

Star Wars Galaxies

For those of you who don't know, SWG is an online game similar to the game I've been playing called City of Heroes. Anyway, someone made this video from it, a music video:

http://vnfiles.ign.com/starwars/movies/ws_helios_men.wmv

It's absolutely hilarious.. although, not really for the faint hearted. It's wrong on so many levels.. but funny. Don't watch if you don't have sound turned up. Keep in mind that to do this they would've had to choreograph 3 different people (3 computers).

pretenders?

This is a sports blog entry.

Last night, in "dramatic" fashion, the New England Patriots became the first team in the history of the NFL to win 19 straight games. They defeated yet another awesome team in the Miami Dolphins, 27-10.

Who are we kidding? The Dolphins are a hapless team, led by a QBBC who be lucky to make the CFL. Their backfield was decimated when Ricky Williams shockingly retired 2 months ago.

In fact if we look into the last 19 games by the New England Pretenders, you have to wonder whether or not the NFL schedule maker has an allegience with the works for the Patriots. From the time of September 11, this team has been set up to win. I'm not taking away the fact that Brady is a great QB, or that their defense is stellar. But let's delve into this so-called record.

Game 1: Pats 38, Titans 30. Okay, I'll give them this one. Titans were headed for a 12-4 season and this was a great game to watch. Ty Law had a great game, clinching it at the end with the interception.

Game 2: Pats 17, Giants 6. Wow.. what a test. Pats D came through again in this game, intercepting Collins 4 times. Giants finished 4-12 last year.

Game 3: Pats 19, Dolphins 13. A pretty close game, I give this one to the defense again, who came up with big plays to stop Ricky Williams from amounting to anything. Dolphins finished 10-6.

Game 4: Patriots 9, Browns 3. Golly, another huge test for the Pats. Browns finished 5-11.

Game 5: Pats 30, Broncos 26. This was the second test out of 5 games for the Pats and they came through, on MNF no less. This game was all Brady.. an impressive win against a playoff-bound team. Broncos finished 10-6.

Game 6: Pats 12, Cowboys 0. Third test of the year. Defense intercepted Quincy Carter 3 times.. 'Boys finished 10-6.

Game 7: Pats 23, Texans 20. This was a pathetic showing for the Pats, who eked it out in OT against a very, very bad team. Houston finished 5-11.

Game 8: Pats 38, Colts 34. These games are where champions are made. Brady came up huge in this one. Defense isn't rarely much of a factor when you're facing Peyton Manning. Colts finished 12-4.

Game 9: Pats 12, Dolphins 0. Another big game for the defense. To be completely honest, I don't know how the Dolphins came so close to making the playoffs. Jay Fiedler is awful and so was Ricky last season. No wonder he retired. Dolphins 10-6.

Game 10: Pats 27, Jags 13. Easy game. Jags 5-11.

Game 11: Pats 21, Jets 16. Another easy game. Jets 6-10.

Game 12: Pats 31, Bills 10. *Yawn*. Bills 6-10.

Game 13: Pats 17, Titans 14. Naturally you can't fix the schedule of the playoffs. Pats beat the Titans in this one, Brady defeating the MVP Steve McNair.

Game 14: Pats 24, Colts 14. Another huge game for Brady, defending the other MVP Peyton Manning.

Game 15: Pats 32, Panthers 29. Anyone watching the superbowl last year knew that the Panthers had no chance, but the analysts made it out to be a great battle. These two teams match up well because they have great defenses and QBs with a minimalistic approach to the sport. So what happens is when they play eachother, both QBs have to step up to show the other one up.

Delhomme received a lot of credit during Panthers' playoff run, similar to the way Brady did earlier on in his career when he simply didn't deserve any. Whether or not Delhomme will one day turn out as good as Brady remains to be seen. The Panthers are 1-3 this season.

Game 16: Pats 27, Colts 24. A new season, a new schedule. Brady was huge in this game and it actually changed my mind about him. He definitely deserves some credit. I still hate the fact that he is a "do just enough" QB. It probably explains the teams' overall success though, because he is always well-rested. Pats are 4-1 this year. 12-4 last year.

Game 17: Pats 23, Cards 12. Eh. Cards were 4-12 last year, and 1-4 this year. It's hard to fathom why the defending champs are being scheduled to play teams like this.

Game 18: Pats 31, Bills 17. Once again, the schedule makers defy all logic and give us another stinker. Bills were 6-10 last year and 0-4 this year.

Game 19: Pats 24, Dolphins 10. As I mentioned before you can't blame the schedule because it was made before Ricky retired.


The Patriots have gone 19-0 in the past 19 games. The first 12 games they won against teams with a combined record of 95-97. The Pats finished 9-7 the previous year, a winning pct of 0.562. Their schedule was against teams that were 0.515 (2002). Close. Then followed that up with 3 excellent playoff games against Titans, Colts, Panthers.

The next 4 games though, have been disappointing. Yes, they played the Colts first, but the next 2 games made very little sense. Why are the defending champions playing the Arizona Cardinals, a team that has a 5-16 record in their last 21 games? If they're going to play a team in the NFC West, why the Cards and not the Seahawks or Rams?

19 games is impressive but I cannot sit here and tell you that the Pats deserve this kind of credit. Why have the defending champs, a team that finished 14-2 last season, playing teams at a combined record of 32-32?

Next game will be good though, Seattle against the Patriots, a prelude to what's to come at the next Superbowl.

Thanksgiving

Last night I was invited to Kenric's for Thanksgiving dinner. I haven't eaten to that degree of fullness for a long, long time. Thanks for the invite and thanks auntie Shelby for the awesome food.

Thanksgiving is great time for spending time with loved ones. Just hanging out and being with my friends was really great. Of course I'd trade it all in to spend the night with my family but that isn't going to happen, so I have to go with the next best thing. I've very grateful for Kenric's friendship this past year and was really happy to spend Thanksgiving with him.

spiderman revisited

Just for the record, in the comics, Spiderman has faced Wolverine, and the only reason Spiderman didn't defeat Wolverine was because he came to the conclusion that they only way to beat him was to KILL him, and so he gave up because as we all know, Spiderman is against killing.

So here's my statement for Parker vs. Logan: Parker CAN beat Logan if it is a fight to the death, but if it is just a fight, the fight would last until one of them got tired. Spiderman would pummel Wolverine because he's quicker (his spider-sense) and stronger (can lift approx. 12 tons compared to Wolverine's 1 ton), but Wolverine has the healing ability.

I've been reading a lot about Spiderman and Superman and it seems Superman would beat Spiderman afterall, because it's just way too hard to find kryptonite in the first place. Apparently it's tough to get your hands on that stuff.. BUT, since Batman can beat Superman, and Spiderman can beat Batman, by that logic, Spiderman could beat Superman, by getting to Batman first.


But to deal with the issue of "hotness". In my opinion it's too difficult to tell because they all originate from comics, so it really just depends on the artist. Unless you go by movies actors, which I cannot allow to play a big factor. But here's another way of looking at 'hotness', which is looking at their girls.

Spiderman has Mary Jane Watson, who is of course hot, because she's an actress, a beautiful redhead. And she calls him "Tiger". That's got to count for something. Kirsten Dunst is a cutie and has had one nomination for a Golden Globe.

Superman has Lois Lane. Yeah she's alright, she's a journalist though not even a TV anchor. Obviously she's not good looking enough to even be on TV. Margot Kidder, Teri Hatcher.. not good looking, and no significant nominations to date.

Wolverine has NO ONE. Jean Grey chose the loser Cyclops over Wolverine.. how sad is that. Wolverine had some pretty "intimate" encounters with Sabertooth..

Looking at each superhero and who they're with gives significant information on their hotness. Therefore Spiderman wins, even in hotness.

manchurian candidate

I remember when I was little, watching movies with my dad, he'd be able to figure out exactly what was going to happen next. I could never understand that. There'd be this huge plot twist -- or it'd be a movie that I'd seen already and my dad would point in out in the beginning of the movie. He'd always tell me that he's seen too many movies and that eventually they all end up being the same.

I think Manchurian Candidate was a great movie. It was well acted and well written, the footage and direction was great. It's just a shame that I've seen too many movies so the great plot twists and shockers were obvious to me. I remember even thinking that during the movie, like "man, this would've been such a great movie if I hadn't already seen this movie, that movie, etc."

It makes me want to see the original, which starred the ol' Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra as Capt./Maj. Bennett Marco, in place of Denzel Washington. I could imagine if I'd seen a movie like this in the 60s, I would've thought it was unbelievable!

gaming

I have been spending a lot of time gaming this past week, because I purchased Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (KOTOR). KOTOR started out really crappy but as my friend pointed out, once you get to control jedi's, the whole thing changes. He was right.. I love this game now.

KOTOR is a 3rd-person view Role Playing Game. It's great because I've never played anything quite like it because it's a Star Wars based game. All the other RPGs were medieval setting, other than Fallout which was, well, unlike any other game I can think of.

sushi

We made sushi rolls over at Duncan's today. And then we played Gamecube, mine which I brought over. We played a bit of Smash Brothers Melee and then moved onto Bomberman. I love bomberman, that's so much fun!

friday

Friday night we were at Stan's place jamming. That was also fun, I had some fun with everyone by singing in falsetto with the girls. It's amazing how badly effected I was from my last bad cold, it completely wiped out my voice and kept me from hitting those high notes for 3-4 months!

and now, back to the posts you've all come to know and love

batman vs. spiderman

I've said many times that Batman is just a rich guy with gadgets. But you look at him and you realize he's a lot more than that. He's driven by sadness and regret, preying on evil-doers because it's what's right. He's smart and very resourceful. He's beaten the entire Justice League -- Superman, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern, Martian, Flash, etc.

But on the other hand Spiderman has superpowers. He has super-strength, speed and agility, and his spider-sense allows him to react 40 times faster than a regular human being. And he's beaten several X-Men.

But when it comes down to a matchup between the two, I think it's pretty even but Spiderman wins out. Batman was able to defeat the Justice League because he used each of their weaknesses against them, but Spiderman doesn't have weaknesses.

Spiderman could beat anyone. That's my opinion. He is the best superhero by far.

if the world revolved around me..

then everyone would have nice things to say about me, and i would always be treated with kindness and generosity. people would pray for me, and care about me, and go out of their way to make my life easier and happier. spend time with me, make me laugh and cry.

but -- the world doesn't revolve around me. and so I'm ever so thankful for all the people around me who have been such a vital part of my life.

this past year and a half, being in gladys' small group has been a blessing. i keep thinking it's like "the end of an era", but now I see it's just the beginning. today i received a packet of some notes left by some of the people: words of wisdom, encouragement and thanks. well since i foolishly skipped out on friday, i will post my notes here.

gladys - thanks for teaching me the importance of balance. i am very grateful for this lesson and constant reminder. thank you for your selflessness and personal sacrifice of time and effort in leading the group. what i admire most about you is your constant pursuit of knowledge and of God.

anita - thanks for your constant words of encouragement. for the late night chats and for humbling (dissing) me all the time. thanks for driving me around when i didn't feel like driving! you always have really insightful things to say during the meetings and it always sparks a good discussion. what i admire most about you is your genuine concern of others peoples' spiritual/well-being. and being able to put up with a ridiculing family -- i don't know how you do it..

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

kevin - your freakish memory is astounding! you have been like an older brother to me. thanks for being a great friend and for being a positive and challenging influence on me.

and the rest.. you have been great friends to me. aside from small group we've hung out together and played sports, sung together, jammed, played video games. these are memories that i will cherish forever. thanks for being there.

friday morning

Yesterday I was in no mood for anything. The day started with me sleeping and taking my grandparents to see an eye doctor. Grampa had complained of soreness in his eyes months ago and we booked this guy (a specialist) for an appointment. First of all, he was so far away. College and Bathurst! So first it took a long time to get there. Then they didn't have parking so I had to circle around the block until I found one. Had to park close so GPs wouldn't have to walk far.

Then we go in and it's another 30 minute wait, even though we were right in time for our appointment.

Finally when we saw the doctor he just said his eyes were dry and to buy some drops. Great.

friday afternoon

After that I took my grandparents out for dim sum. We ate at Furama, which is just west of Yonge/Steeles. I didn't get to have much food, but it was enjoyable. The time I was rushing though because I still had to go back to work!

Work was crazy.. I got there at 2 and it was non-stop til around 5:30. Since we're rolling out the application to the different groups in parallel, and doing training all week at the same time I hadn't been able to do my own work so I had to catch up. And then of course the users.. as system admin it's crazy the number of complaints and confused calls I get. Endless..

I was really looking forward to small group so I could unwind. I was really looking for a time of relaxation and singing.. but it turns out it was a prayer/sharing night. Which is fine, but I really would prefer singing..

Then I heard from Kenric that kyrios was doing just that, so I thought hey, I can go to that instead.

what really happened

What really happened was I had dinner with Kenric and Duncan at T&T's food court (which by the way is great food and low low prices). Then afterwards I went and filled up the gas for my car, and then went to Kyrios.

But at Kyrios I was kicked out, because apparently they have a policy of "no adults". At first I thought Yvonne was just kidding, but she was serious.. Dejected, I sulked back to my car. It was either that or show up at small group late with a program where I didn't really want to be, or go home. I also needed to be home by 10 so I could call my brother for his birthday. So I drove home.

Luckily Jason Morant really lifted my spirits on the way back. When I got home, I went to the DVD rental place and got Daredevil and Matchstick Men. I played some guitar and computer, and watched Daredevil, stopped to watch Justice League Unlimited, and then back to Daredevil.

daredevil review

I must say I heard some really bad things about this movie. And also going by my hunch that all Ben Affleck movies suck, and also that all Colin Farrell movies suck -- I figured this was going to be a double-whammy of suckiness. I mean all that's missing is Pauly Shore right?

Well, it was the best movie I've ever seen. The acting was excellent and the plot made total sense. The action and fighting scenes were superb and the computer graphics were really cool. The dialogue/script was top-notch.

Okay, now look back at that paragraph and replace:
'best' with 'worst', 'excellent' with 'atrocious', 'total' with 'no', 'superb' with 'awful', 'cool' with 'crappy' and 'top-notch' with 'just what you'd expect from a movie starring Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell. Pure garbage. These two guys are officially blacklisted. I still plan on watching Alexander but I will cover my ears whenever Farrell speaks. I guess this was God's way of punishing me for skipping small group.'

I give this movie 10/10 stars, because that's how many stars I see after banging my head against the wall repeatedly to punish myself for picking such a horrible movie.

you're fired!

Much to my chagrin, when I got home today I found out I'd been fired from being jasy's best friend, probably cuz I didn't answer her messages, but that's only cuz ...

Lucia di Lammermoor

I went to see an opera tonight with Alfred. It's my first "opera", not counting the "musicals" I've seen like Phantom, Les Mis, Lion King and Producers. Yes, I am taking a crack at being 'cultured' or 'artsy fartsy'. I've always pictured a big fat lady wearing a viking costume, but it wasn't like that all.

With zero expectations, and not having an idea what the opera was about, I came out somewhat satisfied. It was a lot like a rendition of Shakespeare's R&J. The story was interesting, but some of the solo's went too long and I fell asleep. What I most enjoyed about it was the choruses, when large groups sung together it sounded really good!

The whole thing was in italian, and they and surtitles (translated lyrics projected on the top curtain). But they didn't always put up the surtitles, and those were the points that I'd get bored and fall asleep.

Actually the main vocalist was a heavy-set woman.. she played Lucia. But it was well over after she sang.. so it's not totally true about that whole "fat lady sings" thing.

akt

Nice try, btw. :D

fashion by Jason Morant

You're love is all I have, it brings me to the floor
I can't ignore the way You make me feel
You're eyes are fixed on me, Your words will light my way
From day to day I will never need a thing

You're faithful to the end, You've let me know
Through every circumstance You will never leave my side
You're closer than my breath, You're always on my mind
And still there's room for more of You in my life

CHORUS:
Invade my very heart
Change me until I am who You are
Come and fashion me until every part is how You desire

Those stains that covered me, they all have disappeared
Since you came near, You've made me like a child
Now I see through your eyes the way it ought to be
You're calling me to never compromised

BRIDGE:
Come and fashion me
Come and fashion me

Is how You desire, is how You desire

blogger

Wow, I waited about 30 minutes for this page to load up..

camping

Camping was really fun, this past weekend I went with a bunch of my friends and it was just very relaxing and kind of a relief. This past week has been just crazy at work, and just flying by so it was fantastic to sit back and just chill.

I spent the majority of my time parked in front of the campfire. I just love fire. I just love staring into the coals, I seem to get mesmerized by it, and just say nothing. Fire is just so cool (ha-ha). The way it starts and how it consumes anything that it touches. And how it tries to preserve itself, leaves its mark wherever it goes. It's just cool.

I loved waking up in the mornings, that cold wet feeling when you unzip the sleeping bag and step outside. Of course no one was up when I got out and it was so awesome and peaceful sitting outside all alone. Chipmunks make funny sounds btw..

more trouble at the airport

I don't feel like telling a story again, so to make it short, I woke up at 6:30am today, went to get my grandparents at the airport. They came out of customs at about 8am, the person with them tells me they lost their baggage. Knowing our luck, you must have guessed by now that all of my grandfather's medication was in the bag.

So anyway I had to get new bottles of pills, which thankfully the pharmacy was very willing when I told them the situation.

Grampa's health has deteriorated a lot. After his last stroke, he mouth looks like Chretien's. And he mumbles. If you thought I had to guess what they were saying to me before, in the mixture of Shanghainese and Mandarin, now it's a mix of those two plus gibberish.

abandon

So I got my Jason Morant CD from Ina on Friday. More to follow.

amazing race

So it's finally over. I love this show, but yesterday's finale was pitiful. The whole thing hinged on the fact that the eventual winners were the last to arrive at the airport to catch the flight to the final destination. Whichever team took the longest to do the luge/bike thing would have won the game. To me that's a really sad way to end a really good season.

What I really liked about this season was the competitiveness. Sure we had the usual nastiness between dishonest and feisty teams, but the reality is that the teams were pretty skilled in finding the best routes and such. The deceitfulness aspect of the show is really starting to come to a point, turning the show into an "extreme" Survivor.

But what makes the show great is that it's really more about the resourcefulness of these people and their ability to get along with eachother. And performing under pressure.

I was most impressed by Colin and Christie because they dominated the game. Yes, they got a bit sloppy towards the end, but they dominated. 6 straight cruises after the show, imagine that. That's like 6 weeks of vacationing. All inclusive, that's about $50,000 worth of vacationing. Pretty cool..

father of the pride

I watched this show again, during the commercial breaks of Amazing Race. I think it's John Goodman doing the voice of the father. For those of you who don't know it's computer graphic 3D animation, like the stuff out of Shrek. In this episode, their son was being picked on at school because he wears one of those cones you see on dogs. I'm not sure what it protects against but it looks funny.

So anyway it's career week, but the kid doesn't want his dad there because he has an odd profession (missed it because of AR). Then there's a scene at school, the first kid brings in (keeping in mind they're all animals) "The MGM Lion". And this big brown dude comes in, pulls out that MGM "wreath", and does the MGM ROAR, and all the kids cheer. It was hilarious!!

So then I switched out, but later on I saw the father, talking to "Donkey" from Shrek! He was trying to get Donkey to show up for the career day thing, but Donkey, being a huge movie star, wouldn't do it. Haha.. btw, Donkey mentioned that Shrek 3 will be out in 2006.

Also they always have the adventures of Siegfried and Roy too, because the show takes place in Vegas. They make fun of their gayness, and it is such a riot..!!

stirring the pot

Last night at fellowship, we discussed the vision and direction of our new group. Throughout the entire exhausting discussion, I was in and out of sleeping. I had a brutal 5 hour meeting followed by sitting at a teaching facility waiting for an IT guy to show up to set things up for me. By the time I had lunch, it was 4pm.

So anyway like I said the discussion. It was incredibly boring, the same old discussion that every fellowship/small/ministry has at birth. On and on this bore went, until finally, (bless his heart) Kevin spoke up and pointed this out to everyone.

Everyone seemed interested in "changing lives", but no one seemed to want to do it. Which really reminds me of myself, of wanting to have a men's group but not wanting to do it myself. I guess at that point when Kevin started talking I realized that it was God speaking through him to me, and so I started to chuckle to myself. I think whenever God teaches me a lesson or points something out to me, I laugh because it's like "doh.." or "ok ok already".

Yeah so I started smiling to myself. And despite this, yes, I'm still hesitant to do it. But God, point taken -- No more hypocrisy on my part.

Stir it up in our hearts Lord,
Stir it up in our hearts Lord,
Stir it up in our hearts Lord,
A passion for Your Name.

the bridge from "consuming fire" by hillsong united

cd's on the way!

Thanks to Ina, my Jason Morant cd will be arriving here in about a week.. Jason performed at my brother's church in Las Vegas, NV a few weeks ago and he hasn't stopped raving about it since. So I ordered the cd (not available in Canada) and had it shipped to Ina's because it'd be cheaper than shipping it here.

Anyway, I'll put up a review of the cd as soon as I've listened to it.

Can You Hear Us?

For some reason I never thought of buying this cd, but having listened to samples of its music I see no reason not to. This of course is DCB's first release. It sounds awesome.

O Praise Him - DCB

Speaking of DCB, I'm just about ready to play this song for the next Peanut Butter and Jam session. I found the piano music for it and sent it to Yammers (although I don't have a keyboard so I'm not sure what the point is), and I can probably teach the electric guitar section to someone, which so far I've been playing on my acoustic (cuz it's more fun!).

bridges

Let's see..

(a) Bridges prevent people from falling of the edge
(b) Bridges hold two masses of land together

Bridges rock.

I can't think of any bridges that I've come across that I didn't like. Long ones, short ones. Bridges that come out from nowhere and hit you like a ton of bricks. Bridges that repeat over and over. They can be so profound, so meaningful.

Without bridges, life would be so.. normal, so repetitive. So... straight forward.

Check out these bridges:

I just wanna dive into your grace
I wanna feel your presence, seek your face
I just wanna be where you are

And It’s just you and me here now
Only you and me here now
You should see the view
When it’s only You

I didn't notice You were standing here
I didn't know that
That was You holding me
I didn't notice You were cry'n too
I didn't know that
That was You washing my feet

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news
Proclaiming peace and your salvation

How infinite and sweet
This love so rescuing
Oh how infinitely sweet
This great love that has redeemed
As one, we sing...

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

Beautiful words.. taken from Mercy Me, David Crowder Band, Switchfoot songs.

father of the pride

Never intended to watch this but flipped to it purely by accident during a commercial break of Dead Man Walking. It was pretty funny.. I missed the first 10 minutes so I probably missed the whole story but they had some pretty hilarious scenes of Siegfried and Roy in the 7 Eleven.

dead man walking

I saw maybe 1/3 of this movie.

amazing race

I only stayed to watch TV because I was waiting for Amazing Race to come on. I think Chip and Kim made a fatal mistake screwing over Colin and Christy by using the yield on them, on a non-elimination round. Sure they couldn't have known, but still..

I kinda felt like they were trying to make Colin and Christy lose this one (I mean the producers), because the tasks were just too easy today. I've always felt that they do a lot of equalizing on this show, to keep things even and for once, they didn't do it.

moisturizer

I started using moisturizer or cream on my hands, for three reasons. One is my bad habit of chewing on my nails and biting my fingers which end up getting all bloodied up and scabbed. Using moisturizer keeps the skin from being dried up enough to protrude and invite me to bite it, and plus the oilyness keeps me from putting my hands anywhere near my mouth.

Second reason is to keep my callouses from falling off. When I play guitar I find that the callous that I build up eventually falls off and then I have to build a new one. But this way it stays on and slow builds up. It takes longer because my fingertips are moist, but at least they are still there.

Thirdly is just that they feel nice. When I look at my dad's hands, he started late and his fingers are already really dry and rough, like a carpenter's hands. I think it's a good idea to preserve my hands in good shape since I use them for work, games, guitar, etc.

o praise him

I find it quite challenging learning this song by David Crowder Band. The strumming patterns are really tough. Although there is barely any acoustic on the CD, to simulate the "sound" you have to do some crazy strumming. Plus I don't know how to make my electric sound like the cd's electric guitars. I spent parts of the evening trying to tab out the solo electric parts of the song. I ended up just guessing. Tabbing is so cumbersome, drawing out the strings and figuring out the timings..

seven samurai

Finally arrived in the mail today. I'm gonna watch it tomorrow.

the benefactor

It's crap guys, don't even bother. I thought maybe, just maybe Mark Cuban would create a nice little show that could compare to Trump's Apprentice, but honestly it isn't even close. The premise isn't even the same. Cuban is giving away $1M, which is garbage money considering what he has to offer.

And he's offering it to normal people.. who wants to see that?

In his final cut (he made 3 cuts on the first show), it came down to a game of Jenga -- I mean how cheese is that? Mark, stick with managing the Mavs.. you're good at that. TV is just not for you!

7th Heaven

I'm actually glad that The Benefactor sucked, because otherwise I would have missed the season premiere of 7th Heaven. They don't even advertise this stuff, there was no way I'd have known it was on today if Cuban show didn't suck so badly.

The kids are all growing up and it kinda got me choked up when they did those mini-flashbacks of the kids when they were, well, kids.

I dunno about you guys, but Lucy still looks 13 to me. In fact, Ruthie is starting to look older than Lucy!

mnf

I couldn't stand watching the whole game. Turned it off at halftime. They've got to pick better matchups for MNF if they want the ratings.. Carolina's stifling defense is just boring football, even if they are awesome to begin with.

world cup of hockey

Could anyone possibly care less about this tournament than me? Seriously.. who cares?!

arrested development

I watched about half the episode yesterday. I've seen this show 3.5 times now and never laughed once. The only reason I keep watching it is because several people have told me it's really good, including my brother who loves it..

Btw, who's the narrator *supposed* to be? Is this some sort of a rip-off of the Wonder Years? The Wonder Years was funnier than this..

Whenever I'm watching it I imagine some poor fellow doing stand-up in an empty room. He says a joke, and --- silence. You can hear the crickets chirping. And then he carries on for an entire 30 minutes of it. You start to feel sorry for the guy and change the channel. Later on your flip back to find he's still going, joke after joke. *Chirp-chirp*

Anyway, I'm going to give it one last chance next week, because my bro and I have close to the same sense of humor.. but man, so far this show sucks long time!

anna, cont'd

I thought of another athlete who catches almost as much ire from fans as Kournikova -- David Beckham. Fans love to hate him, blame him for their teams' woes, etc.

hewitt

Hewitt took a beating losing in 3 sets and being shut out in two of them against Federer. Federer seems pretty unstoppable. He's like the Hingis of men's tennis right now, except that there doesn't appear to be any Venus/Serena/Lindsay/Amélie's in the horizon for men's tennis.. which means Federer is going to win A LOT of tournaments!

pleasant surprises

Worship: The kids are singing a lot of Hillsong United stuff. I like it because it brings that rock element to Sunday worship, brings the young people (and me) closer to really enjoying themselves while they worship God. It becomes more of a joyous thing than just a thing they do on Sunday mornings. For us older people, the entire experience is important but I truly believe that for the young'uns the worship/singing time plays a larger part in the experience.

Choir: Today in choir, we received music for Amazing Grace. The surprise is that it's a 4-part quartet for 4 men, which means we'll have sort of a barbershop quartet thing going. I'm really excited about this. We learned about half the song and it sounds pretty cool!

Quentin Griffin: 100+ yards and 3 TDs after the first 3 quarters. Too bad I don't have TSN..

Brian Westbrook: Watched the Philly-Giants game. Wow -- I heard this guy was fast but he really runs, with power too. Really makes me wish I had TSN so I could watch Griffin..!

Mr. Luk: The food came really slow, but their [hua juan] was delicious. I remember eating them when I was little, it was one of my favorite things to eat.. Today's were awesome! Also, despite the slowness of the food, 5 people - $28. Good price!

Saturday

Thanks to Andrew for organizing the tennis activities. If I had only known it was really hot outside I would've worn shorts, but because I didn't I couldn't play as long as I wanted to. I was just way too hot -- I was roasting..

But it was fun. I worked hard on trying to improve my backhand -- that is, I think I can hit it over the net nearly 25% of the time now.. There were 5 of us. Andrew, Anita, Gladys, Duncan and yours truly. I can honestly say without being ashamed that I am the worst tennis player among anyone that I know. It's always a comfort knowing you're the best at something! I'm the best at *sucking*.... woohoohoo!

I swear these weekends I spent with people really fills me up. It is really uplifting to be spending time with others. I love it. It sure beats sitting at home playing video games by myself. Even if I have to suck at something, I guess the company makes it worthwhile.

After tennis we went back to my place 'sans the yammer', dropped of our stuff and the 5 of us (Nancy joined us) went down to Ichiban sushi on Spring Garden. Drew and I shared a (40?) piece sushi/sashimi platter. Mmmmm... I LOVE sushi..!

Then after the sushi, we went back to my place to play GameCube. I got two more controllers so now I have the 4 I've always wanted to have. The only reason I bought the GC was for party games. I guess the next step is to get Mario Party 5. But it's really expensive right now. And plus those games take ours to finish..

After GCing, we went out to Earl Haig field where Dunc, Drew and Anita practiced ultimate frisbee, while Nancy and I moped around and just chatted.

Then after that we went to Loblaws and grabbed dinner.

Once again to elaborate what I mean by being filled up. I had dinner for a change. Yes me, dinner! I swear every weekend I gain about 5 pounds and then lose it all during the week. If I didn't have these weekends with other people, I would probably disappear in a month. But seriously I really love these times.. it'll all be over when winter comes, but it is great right now.

Finally after dinner I broke out the Smash Brother's Melee, a game I have always sucked at, but dominated my friends. There's not a lot of things I'm good at, so yes I had a fun time!

Football tomorrow... mmm

the life aquatic with steve zissou

starring billy murray, owen wilson, cate blanchett, angelica huston, jeff goldblum, willem dafoe.

looks hilarious -- watch for it!

problem

I think have a problem.

I share stuff.. on this blog, and on instant messaging systems. But when it comes time to share amongst my brothers and sisters, for some reason I don't do it. I don't know what it is, but when someone looks at me and asks how I'm doing or if I have anything to pray about, I hesitate.

It's not that I don't trust people, I feel like I don't want to burden other people with my problems, whereas if I post something on my blog, I don't know if anyone is reading so I feel more at ease in that I'm not necessarily burdening anyone.

Maybe part of me wants to uphold the perception that I've got it all together and don't have problems of my own. Like I'm this carefree guy who's got no problems at all, so I never have anything to be prayed for.

Then also I start thinking, if someone else also has nothing to be prayed for, are they struggling like me or are they really well off? It's impossible to know. Maybe that person is doing great, or maybe just *maybe*, they're struggling just like me, either too shy or too ashamed of their problems.

joey

Joey was a surprise. It was funny, to say the least. I can't remember the last time I laughed like that from a TV show. That's not saying the show will last, but I'm now declaring that it should last more than the 4-5 that I originally predicted. I'm thinking 10 now.

apprentice 2

Not impressed with this episode. The task they had was a joke, a brainstorming session? That's it? And I didn't like the way Trump handled the boardroom. His comments on Andy didn't make sense. He stated that he felt Andy didn't have enough experience, and that could have been grounds for a dismissal. If that's grounds for dismissal, then why was he selected as a candidate for this show?

Anyway, like last Apprentice I will initially cheer for the young guy cuz well, I'm young too. He's obviously an underdog and I admire the fact that he's standing up to these people. On that subject, the candidates on this show are very impressive. Credentials, experience, background and education -- all very impressive. On paper, this group blows away the last group.

Yes, I'm hooked.

Btw, what's the deal with Stacy, the black woman? She no Omarosa, but goodness, talk about a meltdown!

medical investigation

I've determined that I cannot watch this show. It's highly addictive, the moment that dude rolled into the hospital all blue, I was hooked. And it's like ER meets CSI, so you're riveted from the get-go and you can't stop watching. I missed most of the football game because of this show.

And there are some queazy scenes that kinda freaked me out. But yeah overall it looks like the ultimate time-waster. You sit down and can't move til it's over.. I can't commit to another 1-hour drama, although I will say that it's good.

If you don't believe me, they're showing another all-new episode tonight at 10pm on CTV.

del doca...bel boca... del boca vista!

Why would anyone live in Florida? All I've heard for the past 2 months is about hurricanes ripping through. So you've got earthquakes in California, hurricanes in Florida. Vacation anyone?

grandfather

Probably should have mentioned this weeks ago, but my grandfather had another stroke about a month ago. He's got a brain hemorrhage. Prayer would be great.

football

Starts tonight.

tv is back

I can't think of a worse torture than watching Blue Jays baseball on TV. Maybe going to the games would be worse.. but, I'm glad to say that TV is back. It all starts tonight, with Joey (a show that I think will last 4-5 episodes) and then Apprentice 2!

back

I've got back problems, lower back specifically. I can't figure it out, all day today my back has been hurting, and yesterday while playing 007 I had more problems. But I was perfectly fine on my computer chair.

Also what's become a problem for me has been just soreness, all over, from the tennis on Monday. But that's just soreness from sudden prolonged exercise. My back.. that could be chronic thing.

I've always had knee problems and back problems from my childhood days working hard labor for my dad.

anna

There's something funny going on with the world of tennis, when it comes to the discussion of Anna Kournikova. Everyone makes a big deal out of the fact that Anna has never won anything despite her massive following. Believe it or not, 95% of professional tennis players have never won anything. The fact is, is that individual professional sports is not as lucrative as you might think. Your income depends on your own actions.

Kournikova is just an average tennis player, much like 95% of the other players who go from tournament to tournament hoping for an easy draw or an upset that'll net them some extra money. Most of these players keep going -- because they have nothing to fall back on. My brother had a childhood friend who was one of the top ranked Canadians in tennis in his age group (under 13). His parents invested all of their money and time in his training -- it was basically "tennis or bust". His schooling suffered, and he gave up swimming (another accolade of his). Then he broke his knee.

There are people who praise a player like Maria Sharapova by saying things like "she's good looking, AND she's actually good, unlike (Kournikova)". So what if she's good looking? This has nothing to do with tennis.

So what's my point? Why do people criticize and make fun of Kournikova? Obviously it has nothing to do with tennis. Maybe it's because she's so successful that people are jealous. Looking at someone who completely failed in her profession but still manages to be successful must be pretty discouraging for some people. It's sad really.

radiance

I bought a new monitor, Samsung 712N, on sale at Futureshop. Plugged it in, and it worked instantly, no drivers required. And the conflicts I had been having with my monitor before (which I thought was due to my video card) stopped, so I guess it was the monitor after all.

Man, if I knew what I'd been missing, going from crt to lcd, I would have switched a lot earlier. Part of the problem may have been my monitor being old, but I just find the new one so much brighter -- the colors are more radiant. At first I thought it was just the settings, so I turned the contrast and brightness down -- but it was still really bright. The first thing I did was playing COH on it, to make sure the response time could keep up with games. It looked great.. also, while fiddling around with the cables behind my computer, I accidentally disconnected my internet. Then when I put it back in and played COH, I stopped having the connectivity issues I was having before (I'd get logged off every so often).

VERY satisfied with this purchase. It helps me forget about my broken camera.. hehe. Lesson of the day: If something breaks, buy something else! Spend, spend, spend! Haha..

tv is back

TV is back. Premiere's are coming, television is back in business. No more re-runs, no more shows that should never have been on television. Less infomercials.

But what it really comes down to is -- commitments. What shows will I plan to watch these next couple weeks will dictate the amount of television I watch for the next 8 months. Last year I was able to limit myself to 3-4 shows per week, although I watched them religiously, it was good because it amounted to about 2-3 hours per week (not counting Leaf/NFL games).

New shows are headed our way: The Apprentice 2, Joey, CSI: New York, Survivor: Vanatu, Amazing Race 6, The Benefactor, Medical Investigation.

Old shows return: That 70s Show, Everybody Loves Raymond, Alias, Smallville, CSI, Will & Grace, The Sopranos, Malcolm in the Middle, Simpsons, Family Guy.

Kind of crazy how there are so many new shows and all reality. I'm looking for quality this year. Alias, Smallville -- those I have to keep watching. I expect Apprentice 2 to be good, not sure about Survivor (can it still be good after 8 seasons?), Amazing Race -- always good. I'm not sure if The Benefactor will be any good.. the genius behind Apprentice is Mark Burnett, not Trump, so it's not guaranteed that the Benefactor (Mark Cuban) will be a hit. Medical Investigation looks awesome. CSI:NY could be awesome too.. Gary Sinise!!

And of course there's Joey, the funniest character from Friends, who's show premiere's this Thursday just before The Apprentice 2.. Personally I think Joey will bomb. Guess where I'll be Thursday night? Haha..

Today we played tennis in the morning. It was Anita, Andrew, Eric and I. Nicole came along to watch. Afterwards went to a place called Sierra something. It was okay, big portions, etc. I ordered chocolate belgium waffles and a mushroom-onion burger. On the one hand I'm disappointed I couldn't finish it, and on the other hand, I'm proud of myself for not finishing it. More meals like that and I'll be back to my University weight..!

Lunch people were Anita, Andrew, Kevin, Eric, Nicole, Nancy.

After lunch, Eric came over and we attempted to Bond game that my brother and I couldn't beat. After a few tries we still couldn't beat it, so that was it. We tried some X-Box games, and played til about 6:30pm. Then Eric left, but he also left the console here, so I played all the way until about 9:30pm. The most fun I had was playing Rock n Roll racing. What a classic..

Then dinner. Note to self: Brian, when reheating a burger, remove the veggies. I heated up the burger, but the lettuce and tomato came out cooked, so the whole thing was soggy! Next time I'll know.. hehehe

So... here's my weekend in a nutshell.. or rather, in a few very long paragraphs.

Friday.. had people over and we rented a movie -- "Stuck On You". Very funny movie.. very very funny. My favorite line in the entire movie was "I taste.. icecream". It was so funny that I watched it again on Sunday morning before church and was actually late for church because of it. Anyway people were over, everyone but Duncan and the Yammer.

Saturday.. woke up early, and brought Eric to Kevin's place to help him move furniture to his new place. Then in the afternoon we met up with everyone else and moved more stuff. Moving all Kev's stuff reminded me of all the stuff I also acumulated over the years in school. It's hard to believe how much we collect and keep through the years.. Up until I moved here from the house, I had kept all my highschool notes, thinking one day I might need them! Anyway, after all the moving, everyone came over to my place and we had takeout Popeye's chicken and Mamma's pizza, and then played Eric's X-Box for the rest of the night.

Funny moment: I won't mention names, but let's just say a certain "dork" played an entire race staring at the wrong screen and wondering why he/she couldn't control his/her car properly. Hahahaha...

Today.. not much. Went to church, went to lunch, came home. I rented and watched "Bladerunner". Bladerunner was voted as the best all-time sci-fi movie ever made. To me, it was 2 hours that I'll never get back. I feel asleep twice during the movie. I was disappointed that they never gave any explanation as to why the androids had gone around killing so many people. Although I liked the simile to their lives being extinguished just like a tear in the rain -- going unnoticed. But still, no reason to go around killing people and being so violent. I give it a 3/10.

Movies like that should destroy a man's career but somehow Harrison Ford has had an amazing career since that movie.. Maybe there's still hope yet for Pauly Shore! (btw, "Pauly Shore is dead!" -- looks like a really bad movie)

Oh tonight I played some word racer with Anita. I spent all the games trying to make words with 4+ letters, it was very challenging. Near the end she was actually gaining on me, because it was harder to find those words. And we also played some Literati. My brother rocks on Literati, one time he sat behind me and we combined against some really high ranking guy, and we *spanked* him. It was pretty funny..

The Apprentice

Anita emailed me this morning to tell me that a few of The Apprentice 1 hopefuls were downstairs in the courtyard filming something, so looked down and sure enough, they were doing something down there.

Turns out they are/were filming for a show called "The Surreal Gourmet", a cooking show. Also turns out that my boss (the one that just got back), knows the person who does all the cooking on that show. I'll be down there checking out the set (and hopefully the Apprentice people (Nick, Kwame, Amy)) in a few moments.

Anyway, I had this idea, this funny vision of what The Judgement might be like. Like a tv show just like The Apprentice. With Jesus and his angels sitting around the boardroom table, and me on the other side. They'd review all the terrible things I did in my life, and of course I'd try to argue (yeah right, argue with God?) my case.

Then Jesus would say "Okay, you've done these things, terrible things, in your life. But do you love me?"

"Yes. I love you Jesus."

And then, with the same hand motion gesture as Trump, He'd wave His hand and say:

"You're SAVED!"


Haha..

flawed

The league I'm drafting for tonight is a league comprised of Andrew's friends. It's different because it includes individual defensive players, which is totally new to me. This morning I learned for the first time where these guys stand on the field.. hehe.

Anyway, I just find it frustrating, as a person who likes to be prepared for a draft, that they've decided to pick the draft order 30 minutes prior to the draft. That gives me exactly 30 minutes to prepare for the draft. That's crazy.. The only way to avoid this is if I were to mock draft the entire 18 rounds for every draft position. That'd be insane though, it would take literally a week (assuming I took a week off work) to prepare for.

The other thing I find flawed in the league design is the number of rounds they are drafting. 18 rounds, which means 18 total players. First of all if you don't know, every NFL team has a bye week -- a week in which they don't play -- which means you need a backup for that one week. But the starting lineup is 13 players. This means you have a bench size of 5 players -- so you can't even get a backup for every position. I believe the reasoning for having individual defensive players is to get a complete overall feel of owning an NFL team. That said, every NFL team has depth charts going back 3 spots. Most teams carry a 3rd QB, if not 4. This league will allow 1 backup QB at most. Then perhaps a backup for RB, WR -- and then what?

2 bench positions for TE, PK, DB, DL. Two more round would cover each position with 1 backup. I've read that a lot of IDP leagues have 30 rounds, so 20 shouldn't be too much!

DO it.

You do it in the car. In the washroom. You do it at concerts. You do it at church. You do it while cleaning the house or washing the dishes. You do it when no one's around to hear it, or you do it when on a noisy street so it gets drowned out. No, I'm not talking about farting.

Today on the subway, I thought to myself, "I wish that I could just sing out loud right now without people thinking I'm crazy."

see-thru aluminum

This is so cool. http://physicsweb.org/article/news/8/8/9

old boss

My old boss who left for sabbatical to do his MPA is back. He was at the opening ceremonies for the Olympics! He said they were $350(EU) for the cheapest seats.

twenty four

Here is a song from the album "Beautiful Letdown" by Switchfoot.

twenty four

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I'm not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I'm not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now

And You're raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I want to be one today
Centered and true

I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now
And You're raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You're raising the dead in me
Twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
I'm not copping out
Not copping out
Not copping out

how's work?

I've always wondering, outside of common "work", what these people talk about. People always ask me, "how was your weekend?" or "how's work?". This idea swirled about my head today while having lunch. Here are some sample responses:

Professional baseball player:
"My job is pretty demanding. I had to work all weekend, and then last night, I had to work late. 2 extra innings, and I don't even get paid overtime! I must have put in at least 20 hours of work this week alone!! Also, I got booed because I bobbled a ball, and then I struck out on a called third strike. Man, that ball was no where near the strike zone! All this for a measely $15M a year? My life sucks."

Professional boxer:
"Work was brutal, I got punched in the face 45 times yesterday!"

Lingerie model:
"You won't believe this but.. I wore my underwear at work today!"

Professional football player:
"Work's been pretty good. I only work on weekends, so I've got a lot of time on my hands. Last week, I was sacked 3 times, and I still had my job! Next week's gonna be rough, we face the Patriots defense. They're tough.."

Professional pop-star:
"Work is tough. I have to wait 3-4 months for people to write songs for me to sing. Then I have to wait for my band to learn the song, and I have to go to a studio and sing them! I know it sounds easy but it's not. They take my songs, and edit them until they sound like someone who can actually sing. Oh but it gets worse, there are kids out there -- they download MY songs for FREE, after all that work I put into them! Life is so unfair!"

Professional racecar driver:
"I was stuck in traffic all day.."


Okay, I'm out of ideas and my lunch hour is over. Take care everyone!

happy birthday

A VERY HAPPY birthday to Ms. HMW #2, the CFO of the drama club. YAY!!

268

A couple people asked me what the 268 from 268Generation meant. Well, being an ultra bible verse memory whiz kinda guy (not!), I looked it up:

Isaiah 26:8

Yes, LORD,
walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

magic schoolbus

I watched this show after work today, one kid a really clever line. They were tiny again, this time inside a jar of pickles, looking at the fungus that preserves pickles. The (chinese) kid says "Oh no! The fungus are among-us!". Get it? Fungus? Among-us? It rhymes!! Hahahahaha..