Viva Las Vegas

So I've been in Las Vegas for the past 5 days and finally had a chance to sit down at a computer. Which is weird for me... but nevertheless.

Been having a blast here with the family. Not really doing a whole lot productive but then again when is vacation ever productive.

As usual, one of the largest highlights of coming to Vegas is attending my parents' church, South Hills Church Community. It's always a pleasure. Last night we took part again in the candlelight Christmas Eve service, and then this morning we went there again for Christmas service. Good times..

I think I've gained some weight, I've eaten a lot, and it's quite noticeable on my stomach, which is bulging out like a watermelon.

We've continued in our crazy pace of watching movies like total madness. I've seen "Hide and Seek", "Amityville Horror", "Constantine" (yea, we saw all these on Christmas Day. Not the greatest theme -- horror movies on Christ's birthday.. but oh well.

Before today I saw 3 other movies -- "Kissing and Screaming", "Bewitched" (yes, Will Ferrell really can't act -- Bewitched may have been one of the worst movies I've seen in awhile, and "Spanglish".

Spanglish was really good... very very good. It was like.. I-Want-To-Buy-It-Good. 10/10 good.

Anyway.. we're going to Los Angeles tomorrow.. Road trip yay!

I'm still totally jetlagged. It's 11pm here, 2am in "real life". And I'm exhausted. I wake up every morning at 7am here because 10am is apparently as late as I can possibly sleep in.

And.. that's all I have to say about that.

The hills are alive...

I watched The Sound of Music on the weekend, and I must say it has to be one of the top movies I've ever seen. Obviously I've seen it many times before.

Anyway, something dawned on me while I was watching it. Or rather, something somewhat amusing and curious -- could a person like Maria actually exist in real life, and if so, that person would be my ideal girlfriend/wife.

loves God wholeheartedly

will put aside her own goals to follow God and do His work

beautiful

amazing singer

plays guitar

innocent

loves children

independent

speaks her mind

knows what's right and wrong

good fashion sense

joyful and happy

awkward and silly at the appropriate times

forgiving

funny

I mean if that's not the perfect woman, then I don't know what is.

Progress

I think I'm making progress because I retook the test in the mindset of myself back in university, and scored a 99%. I can't believe I actually had one of those "police line do not cross" yellow tape on my door back in the day. What a geek!

"Ah!"

That's the first line of a song called "Happy Is A Yuppie Word" by Switchfoot. The title is taken from a quote from Bob Dylan in 1991. Rolling Stone asked him, on his 50th birthday, whether or not he was happy. He fell silent for a few moments and stared at his hands. "You know," he said, "these are yuppie words, happiness and unhappiness. It's not happiness or unhappiness, it's either blessed or unblessed."

I think that's pretty much the gist of everything going on in my life.

(btw, this CD (Nothing Is Sound) totally rocks. Totally, totally rocks. Near the top in terms of best birthday presents ever for sure!)

I've been incredibly, incredibly blessed. My family, my friendships, my career and possessions. I am so thankful for the many relationships I've built over this past year.

And I can tell you without a sliver of doubt in my mind that I am completely, and utterly "blessed". There isn't a single thing I would change (okay, maybe..) and I am satisfied with each and every one of my blessings. I think God gives us blessings, that come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, they're devastating from our point of view because God is this great big force and we really have no way of knowing that something so devastating is actually something amazing and wonderful.

And even if we try to look at the "bigger picture", that picture is tiny compared to what He is seeing. So while we sit there and cry, and say "Why God, WHY??", He's sits there smugly and says "You'll see". And then some where along the road, it hits you like a ton of bricks, BLAM. And there it is. God smacks you in the face and you sit there completely awestruck, wondering how in the world you didn't see it coming. And then you realize, it's because He's GOD.

Off the top of my head, a few blessings from this past year:

I went on my first missions trip, which opened my eyes to the amazing works God is doing. And the incredible need for people to know Him. And I made new 12 friends -- 12 amazing, beautiful, God-loving people. We shared something that many may never get the chance to experience. And the First Nations people -- God bless them.

This is the first year where I can say that I've built genuine relationships with a couple of my co-workers. And hey, I got a full-time job!

I co-leaded (or is it co-lead or co-led?) a small group. It was a great learning experience for me. I learned about the challenge of satisfying the thirsts of different people who were on very different spiritual walks. I learned about myself a lot too, my strengths and weaknesses (a lot more of the latter than the former).

My brother moved back to Toronto. This is an amazing gift from God. Having lived up here alone for the past 2 years and having a family member (my closest family) up here with me. It was such a great blessing to have him here with me, and watching him grow into a man.

Serving on a worship team has allowed me to use the talents God has given me to serve Him in capacity that I truly enjoy. I'm thankful for friends who urged me to volunteer and those who encouraged me to go for it. I've finally reached the point where I'm not longer completely petrified about going up on stage and singing in front of hundreds of people. At least my knees aren't buckling anymore :P

I'm particularly thankful for my "core" group of friends. We've had an amazing year together. Jammings, movies, dinners, lunches, shoppings, marriages and funerals, prayer meetings, games. We've been through a TON this year. I doubt we'll have as much fun ever again as we did this year.

Making a plan for myself and feeling as if I have some sort of a purpose or goal to work towards.

Very single

I had this funny conversation with the new guy at work on Friday. We were talking about The Apprentice, about the one contestant named Adam, a 26 year old Jewish businessman. He was incredulated by the fact that Adam was a virgin. He was chuckling to himself and shaking his head, the idea that there could be a 26 year old guy who had never had sex before.

I found it hilarious because when he said "virgin", he whispered it as if it was some kind of bad word. I told him I that I was a virgin, and, being older than Adam, that it wasn't a big deal. I'm a Christian and I believe in "no sex before marriage".

Bewildered, he looked at me and said "you need to get a girl."

Um.. yeah.

Presents and chickening out

I bought gifts for many people but never gave them out. It's like I had them, and then I thought about it whether or not they'd appreciate it. And I guess I just thought too hard about them and never gave them out. They're just sitting there, in my living room. And it doesn't stop there. I have other gifts too, I have a cute stuffed animal that I bought for someone and never had the nerve to give it that person, and then I have this cute little doggy thing which I also never gave out. Boxes of chocolates, books, little trinkets and what not. I even have birthday cards where I wrote a really meaningful message to the recipients, and then for one reason or another, never gave the card out. They sit in a drawer, gathering dust. I think I've got one from like 1993.

I'm a compulsive-buyer-of-gifts-and-afraid-to-them-give-away-er. I'm weird. I'm weird and it doesn't make sense. Why do I do these things? I'm Sick. What am I supposed to do with them all now? Today was supposed to be the day I'd give them out. I won't see anyone until next year, AFTER Christmas, AFTER New Years. What a fool.

Howard

It's funny. About a year and a half ago, everyone in the basketball world were debating Howard vs. Okafor. Do you take the young highschooler, brimming with potential but might take a few years to develop, or you take the sure thing in Okafor, a guy with 3 years of college experience and a proven track record of winning ways?

At the time, even I had my doubts about Dwight Howard. He was very young, and although he put up huge numbers in highschool -- it's still highschool. He very talented though, and very cocky. I was worried about that myself because he's a very outspoken Christian and I could easily picture people cheering against him for those reasons.

However at the end of the day I knew Howard would be better than Okafor eventually.

Who would have thought it would only take 1 full season for him to be better though? Dwight Howard has taken huge strides this year, he's averaging a double double (same as last year) but this year he is dominating rebounding machine. He is an absolute force on the glass. It's scary. He's averaging 13 rebounds per game. Think about that. That's about 1/3 of the rebounds that the Raptors average per game.

At the age of 20, he's averaging 15 PPG and 13 RPG. To give you a better perspective, Kevin Garnett averaged 17 and 6 at the same age. Garnett didn't start averaging 13 rebounds until he was 26.

That's pretty amazing in my opinion. Okafor won rookie of the year, but if there's a sophomore of the year award, that's gonna have to go to Howard. He's a beast.

Smelly

Last night, there was some kind of a Christmas Party going on in my building. Anyway, people were smoking. Because of the 'positive pressure' they add into the hallways (this is to prevent smelly cooking smells -- or smells period from escaping from condo units) wind blows from the hallways INTO the condo units.

So last night, I was just minding my own business, getting ready for bed when I get this stench, this putrid nasty smell of cigar smoke, right in my bedroom. It had travelled through my front door, around the corner and into my room. Grooooooosssss!

Success

This morning I tried on some pants I bought 2 years ago. They didn't fit! I couldn't even squeeze them on if I held my breath. Haha.. I've successfully increased my waist size.

*takes a bow* Thank you, thank you.

Tartinables

I just got my co-workers hooked on Toppables. Mmmm..

Here's a great site to play on. I ended up sleeping at 1am (planned for 11pm) because of this awesome site:

http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/

Why Me?

I don't know.

And yes, it's a really cheap way of telling people about me, by hiding behind this monitor and keyboard and saying things about myself that I would normally never say aloud. It's safe. Well, safer anyway.

What I mean to say is that I have absolutely no motives for doing this.

CJFFL

I won my playoff game. My team started 6-1 and then proceeded to lose 6 games in a row and fall to 6-7, just barely clinching the 8th seed in the playoffs. So then I had to play the best team in the league. And I won! My first win in nearly 2 months, and it was good because I needed the win. The funny thing is all the top seeds lost!

Harry Potter

I watched Harry Potter. I have seen the previous 3 movies. I was lost though, I didn't know what was happening most of the time, and I couldn't understand all of the dialogue. It was very confusing. There were some really neat graphics though. Harry's getting older. His buddy Ron looks like a total dork. Would it hurt to cut his hair a little? And the girl is getting pretty pretty.

I give it a 6/10.

Me, Part 2

I'm insecure.

I am not sure of myself at all. I doubt myself and what I'm capable of, even things that I've proven to be able to do, or things I've done a billion times -- I doubt those things too. Sure I've done it before -- but it was probably a fluke. I'm not *that* good at it.

I try to project an image of care-free-ness. An easy-going, fun-loving person. Deep down though, I'm petrified. Scared of what's next, my future, scared of the unknown. Some people really need God, while others can get by on their own. I'm one of those who needs Him, desperately.

I like to tell jokes and make people laugh, just so that we won't have to talk about anything serious. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy making people laugh, but often I will use it for other reasons. Yes -- I'm like Chandler Bing -- I use humor as a defense mechanism.

I have issues with talking about myself. I'm afraid to be exposed for the mundane, ignorant and oblivious person that I really am.

I don't care about what people think of me. I know that contradicts with what I just said. But I guess that's just it -- I'm afraid to be exposed, yet since I'm able to hide myself, I don't care what people think because it's most likely they're thinking the wrong things anyway. I'm a good hider.

I do worry if someone doesn't like me though -- I try to reason with myself, try to think of reasons why someone wouldn't like me. I mean, I'm a nice guy right? How could you not like me? It doesn't seem possible -- and yet it happens.

Me, Part 1

I'm an insensitive person.

I have difficulty in relating to people's plights, if I cannot see their side of the story. And I'm pretty much blind in that regard. For a really sensitive person, I am completely ignorant when it comes to issues that need to be look at from a different perspective. I overlook the fact that people have different opinions than mine, or have different experiences that may affect their judgement.

For am emotional guy, I tend to look at other people's things from a very practical sense. I forget that everyone has their opinions -- or rather, I ignore them and take a higher road. When I'm examining something for myself, I am selfish and tend to look at it from all angles, but when dealing with other people's lamentations, all I see is black and white.

I think for this reason there are times I rub people the wrong way and they think I'm a smart-ass or a dick.

I'm a hypocrite. I point out other people's faults, and then when I do the same, that's okay with me because I'm not out to correct myself, I'm out to "help" others.

I'm a lost cause, so why bother trying to fix me? We'd be better off fixing you. At least you have something going for you. But me, there's no point. I'm hopeless. That's what I always think.

Reggie Bush

Reggie Bush is going to be the greatest running back in the history of the NFL. The best ever.

My 4th choice for the Final Four is Oklahoma.

But let's get back to Reggie Bush. I mean this guy is the real deal. He is going to go to some NFL team (likely the Texans), and he is going break every NFL rushing record. When he's finished with that, he'll re-break them, and then again, and again. And again. Bush is an absolute beast, he is like Shaun Alexander, Priest Holmes and Barry Sanders all wrapped up into one amazing specimem of raw talent and athleticism rolled into one.

I remember all the hype surrounding Ricky Williams when he came into the league, how he'd bowl over his defenders with this unbelievable strength that he had. Granted he was damn good in the NFL, but Reggie Bush is different. Where Ricky was dominating and powerful, Reggie will be dazzling and awesome. You will see him make plays that you thought were only possible to do in a video game.

I was reading this one article about a sports writer who said that in all his years of covering college sports, he had uttered the words "Oh my God" once. But in watching Reggie Bush games, he had seen 4 games and uttered those 3 words in each game.

Can you imagine if a player like this comes to the NFL, and completely dominates, much like the way Barry Sanders once did? A human-highlight-reel in the NFL, dodge, straight-arming and making defenders look foolish?

Moving

Moving On Faith
by Jadon Lavik

I've been here before waiting in the mystery
I've knocked on this door enough times to know
That You're there for me
My knees on the floor hoping for some clarity
Knowing one thing's for sure His grace
Has covered me

CHORUS:
Lord open the doors
'Cause I'm movin' on faith
Show me there's more
What this world is livin' for

With what I can give it's the least that I can do
An unshakeable hope a life that's pleasing
To You
Knowing my prayers are heard by the author of change
Just the best of intentions if He cares
If He cares to rearrange

Bridge:
In these times when I feel alone
I know my heart was made for another home

Rent

I finally saw the movie "Rent". It was by no means a good movie. The music was fantastic though, almost good enough to offset the blatant homosexuality.

The story is about these guys who all live in this place where they can barely afford rent. They are basically about to get kicked out of their loft, and everyone living there is in this self-righteous mode of thinking that they shouldn't have to pay rent. None of them work of course, which begs the question -- how do you expect to rent in New York when you don't have a job?

Instead, there's this guy who walks around filming random stuff going on. There's a former rock star, who had a one-hit wonder and is now sitting at home moping about. He has AIDS, got it from shooting up. These two guys live together and every Christmas their gay friend comes to visit, who also has AIDS. Eventually he starts going out with this drag queen guy, who also has AIDS. Meanwhile this girl downstairs starts hitting on the rocker, but he tries to avoid her because he has AIDS. In the end he finds out she also has AIDS, and there's a nice little love story there. The film guy's girlfriend dumps him for a girl. Neither of them have AIDS though. The drag queen guy dies.

There, I spoiled the whole thing for you, so you won't have to see it.

The 525,600 minutes song was really good, and I liked most of the others. I liked the "I Should Tell You" song too. Those two seemed to recur over and over in various situations.

One of the things that I was told about this movie was that it had a sad ending, where the she-male dies. It was pretty sad, but I couldn't relate with it. The lover relationship between man and man, I simply could not relate to it. You know when you watch a movie, and say a father loses his daughter, or a woman loses her husband -- those things I can relate to, even if I'm not in this situation, I can at least picture it. But this relationship I simply could not relate to, and thus I couldn't feel sad for this gay black guy who lost his cross-dressing he-she dragqueen. Because it's not natural, and because sodomy is a sin.

To me, it was sad because we know that hundreds of people in Africa are dying of AIDS every second of every day. That's what makes it sad. That the gay guy has lost his lover -- well, it just means that soon he'll be join him/her at the gates of hell. It's not a big loss. I'm sorry, I know it's still a human being, but I just cannot relate to it.

The play embraces homosexuality, and ultimately, hopelessness. It says: Hey! I'm gay and proud of it! Why get a job? I have AIDS and I'm going to die! Woohoo!

I can't rate the movie because it's based on a play, and I haven't seen the play. But from what I've been told, it's pretty close to the play. And after all is said and done, it's just meant for entertainment.

This movie was very much like The Producers, except with much better music and no annoying screeching voices like that guy in The Producers. I give it a 5/5 for the music and -1/5 for the story, so a total of 4/10.

Buy the soundtrack! (Mind you some of the songs have lyrics that well, let's just say if Jesus is listening, you better mute it)

Clean

I hired a housekeeper/maid to clean my place up. I pay her eleven dollars per hour. On Saturday, she came in and after five and a half hours, she had successfully cleaned my entire place -- except for my own bedroom. That will have to wait, as there's too much personal stuff that I need to sort through before I can allow her to clean it.

Anyway, the place is spic and span. It's so nice to come home to a clean place. Hopefully my brother and I don't mess it all up again, the next time he comes over..

Heated

I got into a heated argument with my co-worker on Friday night. It got me all riled up and noticeably flushed and angered. What else were we arguing about than the Toronto Raptors. He said that Babcock didn't know what he was doing and that anyone could do what he's done so far with the team, even him (my co-worker). Then he made accusations that Rafael Araujo didn't belong in the league and we could get a football player to do what he does.

In my opinion, comments like that only come from people who have no clue as to what they are talking about. He's one of those guys who when he argues, he doesn't allow people to make their point, he just goes on and on. So I was never able to get a word in which really frustrated me. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to say anything as this weekend, the Raptors proved every point I attempted to make to my co-worker.

He didn't say anything to me all day today. Hahaha.. such is the life of a bandwagon jumper.

Gaming

I have come to a point in my WoW life where I have reached the crossroads. Yesterday I drafted I began to draft a letter to my guildmates, stating the reasons I was going to quit this game that I have spent on average, 4 hours per day, over the past 365 days. Also in the letter I would have screenshots of our past runs together, dating back to last March, all the great memories and friendships I have accumulated over this time.

At the end of the day, aside from the sheer entertainment of it, I have been playing WoW all this time to make my character, Smee, the best that it can be based on items in the game. I have amassed a collection armor and weapons that 95% of players playing this game may never see in their lifetime. I'm not the best there is but I am damn well close to it.

My thoughts right now are to slowly wean myself from the game and then quit, keeping open the possiblity of returning when the expansion pack comes out, sometime in spring of next year. But I figure that when that time rolls around, I will (hope to) have moved on to bigger and better things.