fun template

this isn't it

This is not the template I've been working on. I found it on the web and thought it looked pretty nice, so I through it in. I like the color changing thing. Kinda cool.

vertical music

This is a site that I found purely by accident after buying the Jason Morant cd. They have some good stuff, you guys should check it out sometime.

I found a band called the Desperation Band, they have some good songs. The band is lead by 3 associate pastors: Jared Anderson, Jon Egan and Glenn Packiam. Jared Anderson's stuff is a mix between a toned down Paul Baloche. Jon Egan is just like Vineyard or toned down Hillsong.

Then there's Glenn Packiam who is more fitted to what I like, more full band rock-style. Songs like "Satisfy", "From You", "Willingly", "Everyone (Praises)", "We Lift You Up" and "For Your Name". This guy rocks..

almost called

I almost called you up yesterday but then I realized a certain television show was on and didn't want to disturb you. Let me know when's a good time to call!

yahoo's 10th

Subject: ice cream

Today was Yahoo's 10th birthday. They had this giveaway of ice cream at Baskin Robbins. We all printed out coupons at work and I was really excited about the prospect of free ice cream. I even emailed out to some friends. But then later on, I realized that in the fine print it said for US only. What a bummer.

I had this crazy build-up in craving for mint chocolate chip though. All day I was thinking about it. Mmm... mint chocolate chip..

Then later on, one of my friends at work discovered it DOES work in Canada. So that got me super excited again about the prospect of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Oh boy I thought..

But to my disappointment, there weren't any Baskin Robbins near my work.

So anyway, when I got home I went to Loblaws and went searching for mint chocolate chip. All they had was "mint chocolate swirl". Bleh.. but I bought it anyway. After dinner (I forgot to save some room for it) I had a massive bowl of it, I am so full from it. I swear if I have another bite I'll throw up.

bracketology
subject: sports

Lots of predictions and projections coming up for the NCAA basketball tourney. My pick this year is the North Carolina Tarheels. I think this year they have what it takes to win the whole thing. I've accurately predicted who would win it all for the last 2 years (pretty much since I started watching it).

more prediction
subject: sports

I also said about 10 months ago that Ben Gordon would be rookie of the year in the NBA. Emeka Okafor has pretty much run away with this award. He is averaging a double-double, and though he's already hit the rookie wall, he continues to put up solid numbers. Ben Gordon has only started (about a month ago) to play like I thought he would. I don't know if he can still win the ROY anymore, but at least he's played close to my expectations.

Maybe if the writers see the impact he's made with the Bulls, and maybe if Gordon makes some more game-saving plays and become a key cog in the Bulls' return to the playoffs, he might force Okafor to share the award?

Raptors 108, Lakers 102

Thanks to Uncle Kenric, we finally found 2 people to take the extra two tickets I had for the Raptors-Lakers game. We ended up taking Chris and Stan.

The game itself was good. We were up for most of the game until near the end when Kobe took over the game (what else is new?) and the Lakers came from behind and almost stole the game from us. I drew a little bit of ire from Chris because I kept cheering whenever Kobe scored. Kobe is amazing. I like his sheer determination and his ability to rise to the occasion when needed. And he makes some near impossible shots look easy. It's always a pleasure to someone like that play — 19,799 people also agreed with me; it was the 5th sell-out game of the year. Luckily for us Kobe was the only Laker playing well for us his drive wasn't enough and we still won the game.

What made it more fun, was the added bonus that we were babysitting two kids. One of them (Stan) was quiet, but the other one (Chris) had a very inquisitive mind. He was asking so many questions, and pointing things out to me throughout the game all matter-of-factly. I love kids. He was noticing every single pattern he could, whether it was the colors on a billboard ad, numbers on the rafters or jerseys, the score, etc.

Also I found that kids don't like to hold things. Or rather, "mom" holds everything, and they're used to it. One line I heard over and over all afternoon was "can you hold this?". Haha.. a jacket, a hat, candy, ticket, etc etc. Kids like to have their hands available so they can freely grab onto things and touch things. And boys like to compete on how high they can jump, how fast they can run, etc. I really reminded me of my childhood and times when me and my brother were little and did the exact same stuff.

:)

—-

oscar notes

I felt that Chris Rock held back on his jokes, forcing himself to be conservative so as to not offend the viewers. I think it's unfair to limit a comedian from doing what he does best and then expect him to perform well. I doubt he'll be back next year.

Beyonce can sing. I think she outsang Josh Groban. I mean sure she's also thicker than he is, but still..

I saw The Aviator just after watching the Raptors game so I pretty much knew where each award would go. The only surprise of the night was Clint Eastwood winning Best Director (more on this later).

I think it is a shame and a waste that an important film like Hotel Rwanda didn't get any recognition last night.

Oscar Rant

I've got nothing against Clint Eastwood. I think he's a cool guy who garners a lot of respect because he has been in the business for so long and because he is one of the few remaining Hollywood stars left from the older generation. But something bothers me about him winning it.

Everyone actor who has worked with Clint always talks about how he gives his actors free reign on how and what they should do, giving them their creative space, letting them do what they want and think they should do. To me, that sounds like he doesn't do a whole lot of directing. When they gave the lifetime achievement award to Sidney Lumet in directing, all everyone said was how he was very precise, how he would tell each person how to act, where to stand, how their character should behave. Seems to me that *that's* what DIRECTION means.

But Clint Eastwood has made some pretty good movies, so you wonder, how does a guy direct good movies when he doesn't "direct" at all? Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Bridges of Madison County, Unforgiven. What do these movies all have in common? How about: Morgan Freeman, Hillary Swank, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Meryl Streep, Gene Hackman. Aside from Hillary Swank (who now has 2 oscars out of two nominations) all these people are some of the best in the business.

Phil Jackson is considered to be a great NBA coach. All he does is win. But the biggest knock on him is that he coaches teams that *should* win. Is that really coaching? Many people wonder.

To me, Clint takes a group of actors who *should* win, and wins. Take a look at some of his not-so-good movies: Blood Work, True Crime, A Perfect World, The Rookie. James Woods, Dennis Leary, Kevin Costner, Charlie Sheen, Jeff Daniels.

This is why Phil Jackson shouldn't and won't take over for the Knicks next season.

thirty

Tonight a talented friend celebrated his 30th birthday by performing in a concert and invited all of his friends. The performance was, needless to say, amazing. I always knew he was good just by listening to him sing when he led worship or special music during Sunday service. Or the fact that he's asked to play for just about everyone I know's wedding. But tonight he exceeded all my expectations. He showed off his range and his creativity.. he switched from moods and (I thought) took hold of the audience and helped us to *feel* the songs. It was truly a night to remember. Most of all he had fun out there and brought a smile to my face through the entire night. After all of it you kind of just exhale and say "wow".

So afterwards I run into some old faces and someone asks me, "So Brian, when's your concert?". Pfft.. right. Concert of what... farting? Besides, it's a long ways away (since I still get carded at some places, I'm going to say it's 10 years away and you'll just have to believe me). As I drove home tonight, I thought about where I'd be when I was 30. I suppose that if you asked me this question 7 years ago, I would've told you that by 30 I'd be married and my second child would be on his way.

But.. life is what it is. Anyway, these are some of the ideas that popped into my head, at age 30, what I'd be doing:

Sitting at my desk blogging about where I wish I could be instead

Living in a tiny hut in the wilderness; maybe even on the moon

Might be dead by then, and the rate I'm going with fast food

Dying (see above)

George Costanza: Single, bald, living with my parents

Married: Mail-order bride, anyone? [It's a form of evangelism!]

Back in school?

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

Ups and Downs

Sometimes I feel like I'm helplessly stuck in a hole and am being prevented from being myself. I'm in this reclused shell of my former self. I don't know if it's self-imposed or not, but I feel like I've gone down the deep end of anti-socialness. It feels like a part of me is missing.

Then the next day, I'm totally upbeat and happy.

And it keeps going like this, a few days good, a few days bad. A few days sad, a few days glad. Boy I'm moody these days..


Last call for Lakers tickets.. 2 available, tomorrow afternoon 1pm, row 9. Come sit with us! $15 for a free slice of pizza and an afternoon of fun fun fun!

oops..

I am totally, totally out of the loop. I miss you MSN.. I miss you so much.

I forgot to turn on my cell for the past few days, so with that I've been pretty much unreachable lately. It's almost as if I really am on the moon, (which I am, of course). The weather here is very nice :)

This week has felt so long for me. Days usually fly by but this week they've slowed down to a halt. I'm so bored at work. Also after having slept almost all of Tuesday, I am so energetic now that I get restless really easily, and my metabolism is going nuts, I'm hungry almost all the time. Crazy.

feeling out of place

There's been times in the last couple of weeks that I've considered leaving this job because I feel like it's not going anywhere and that I'd rather be doing something else. But until I figure out what that "else" is, it'd be silly to just leave. I went onto the United Nations (got this idea after watching Hotel Rwanda) site yesterday looking for jobs. There were a few IT postings for Damascus. But that's Syria.. a political and terrorist hotbed. Can't be very safe there.. heh.

It was around this time last year, during MissionFest that I developed my first real "inkling" to go on a missions trip to India. Why India? I don't really konw what drew me to India as opposed to other countries. I think it was because at the time I was still hanging out with my classmates, and half of them were Indian/Pakistani, (the rest are chinese). It's pretty much a split at work too, either brown or yellow.

searching

For that reason I guess, and the fact that MissionFest is back on its way again, I have been looking to the Good Book for answers. I started about 2 years ago, planned to read it from cover to cover. I stopped. About 1.5 years ago. Heh. Well I've started again, reading the bible while on the subway. Since I am so energetic these it has been easy, reading without falling asleep. Actually it's so much that I'm hyper but that I just can't sleep. Sometimes I'm tired and I just can't sleep. Stuff on my mind I guess.

Even though the stuff I've been reading (1 Samuel right now) is mostly storybook stuff, I feel comfort reading His word. The words kind of leap off the pages and before I know I feel like I'm right there on the battle field, the shield guy for Jonathan, following him around and slaying the Philistines. It's like a fantastic adventure!

And I hear "Ding, ding, ding..." *Dangnabbit*, it's my stop, time for work. :|

oops..

I am totally, totally out of the loop. I miss you MSN.. I miss you so much.

I forgot to turn on my cell for the past few days, so with that I've been pretty much unreachable lately. It's almost as if I really am on the moon, (which I am, of course). The weather here is very nice :)

This week has felt so long for me. Days usually fly by but this week they've slowed down to a halt. I'm so bored at work. Also after having slept almost all of Tuesday, I am so energetic now that I get restless really easily, and my metabolism is going nuts, I'm hungry almost all the time. Crazy.

feeling out of place

There's been times in the last couple of weeks that I've considered leaving this job because I feel like it's not going anywhere and that I'd rather be doing something else. But until I figure out what that "else" is, it'd be silly to just leave. I went onto the United Nations (got this idea after watching Hotel Rwanda) site yesterday looking for jobs. There were a few IT postings for Damascus. But that's Syria.. a political and terrorist hotbed. Can't be very safe there.. heh.

It was around this time last year, during MissionFest that I developed my first real "inkling" to go on a missions trip to India. Why India? I don't really konw what drew me to India as opposed to other countries. I think it was because at the time I was still hanging out with my classmates, and half of them were Indian/Pakistani, (the rest are chinese). It's pretty much a split at work too, either brown or yellow.

searching

For that reason I guess, and the fact that MissionFest is back on its way again, I have been looking to the Good Book for answers. I started about 2 years ago, planned to read it from cover to cover. I stopped. About 1.5 years ago. Heh. Well I've started again, reading the bible while on the subway. Since I am so energetic these it has been easy, reading without falling asleep. Actually it's so much that I'm hyper but that I just can't sleep. Sometimes I'm tired and I just can't sleep. Stuff on my mind I guess.

Even though the stuff I've been reading (1 Samuel right now) is mostly storybook stuff, I feel comfort reading His word. The words kind of leap off the pages and before I know I feel like I'm right there on the battle field, the shield guy for Jonathan, following him around and slaying the Philistines. It's like a fantastic adventure!

And I hear "Ding, ding, ding..." *Dangnabbit*, it's my stop, time for work. :|

best actor

The best actor in my books if you were to ask me today would have to be Don Cheadle from Hotel Rwanda. That was hands down the best performance that I've seen so far. Yes, Jamie Foxx was excellent in his impersonation of the late Ray Charles -- but Don Cheadle moved me. He moved me. All I need now is to watch Leo in Aviator to complete the set.

Hotel Rwanda is an important film in acknowledging the unspeakable atrocities that occurred in Rwanda a decade ago. It was truly an eye-opener. I felt really depressed after watching it. It's kind of odd, how Rwanda was ignored and how the Tsunami victims get so much attention. It's such a contrast, one caused by nature, the other caused by hatred and evil. Both are tragedies, but which is sadder, a big wave wiping out half a country, or hatred/violence that leads to a massacre of half a country?

big mistake

Well, from the fantasy perspective this is a huge blow for my keeper league team. Although it does make my life a whole lot easier when it comes down to keeper decision time, it's a disaster too because I went from having the best fantasy receiver in the league down to just an average #3-5 guy. He's no longer a keeper in my opinion, at least compared to the guys I have. (My top 3 keepers will probably be Shaun Alexander, Willis McGahee, Julius Jones).

In RL though, I think this is a big mistake for the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings are a high powered offense with one the most sorry excuses of a defense in the NFL. They now go from a high powered offense to an average offense, and barring a major draft coup, they will still come away with a below average defense. In otherwords, it's back to the drawing board for the Minnesota Vikings.

You can at least make the playoffs if you have no defense and a strong offense. But now with neither one, the Vikings are toast. I can't understand this trade at all. It's going to be a very long season for the Vikings.

roflcopter

Feel like wasting time? Check this out!

sure? ...unsure!

I feel tired. Not like sleepy tired. Just tired of this. Not blogging.. just *this*.

I really wanted to jam because I felt like I need some sort of a release.. to let go of things and let the Spirit transcend over me and bring me peace. Sometimes you just *need* to jam. This was one of those nights.

Unfortunately it didn't happen due to the inclimate weather. Instead I spent most of the night on the phone and watching the all-star game (which was pretty entertaining btw). I discovered something today. When my cellphone battery is down to 3/4 bars of battery, it has approximately 1hr:15mins left of life. Also, it gets REALLY hot if I used it for more than 30 minutes.

I can't remember the last time I spent that long on the phone having a real conversation with someone. This whole Lent thing is driving me nuts, but it was really great to talk to a human being instead of staring at a bunch of text on a screen.

no regrets

Basically what happened, is I did something that I pretty much set my mind on not doing. I did the opposite of what I would normally do and just went for it. I seized my divine moment!

It's kind of daunting, after seeing the amazing performance by today's worship team, the thought of me standing up there is both intimidating and scary. I'm not sure what came over me on Friday when Yee Lee called asking me about whether I was moving or not, and I just blurted out to her that I'd help her with worship, even though I had already told her that I wouldn't.

It's like.. something just took hold of me, wiped away my inhibitions and took over my body. And I said: "No, I am NOT moving, and by the way, I'm going to sing for you on Sunday." Who said that?! And even though I still had doubts seconds after I hung up the phone, I felt this reassurance (more like ridicule) coming from God, who was saying "What are you worried about?".

[At the end of the day] it's not about me.

If There's One Thing - Tim Hughes

You call us first to love Your name, to worship You
To please Your heart, Our one desire Oh Lord

[CHORUS:]
If there’s one thing we are called to do
It's to love You, to adore You
We will bring our all and worship You
Bow before You, as we love You

Your honor Lord, Your name's renowned
We long to see
So let the glory of Your name be praised

[Bridge]
I will celebrate this love
Jesus You are everything to me
Furthermore Lord what can I do?
I will give this heart, this life to You

good one

My brother came up with this one:

Q: If this object is worn and falling apart, it's usually owned by someone who is not. What is this object?

Very clever.

Since I'm not MSN these days: Darryl.. I wish you were here!

*not*

First off, I wrote that comical piece to describe how I was feeling that day. I hope it's clear to everyone that I am *not* moving. Yeesh. I know now that if I ever DO move, I need only post it here and news of it will spread rampantly to every single person I know. Once again: Yeesh!

tired

I'm tired. I sort of know how Kenric feels now except that I didn't have to work all day. My flight back from Vegas was delayed and so he woke up early to pick me up for nothing (thanks again). I did the exact same thing today because my mom's flight was also late. I guess the only real comparison is that normally Saturdays is the only day I can sleep in. Whereas Kenric was probably going to wake up fairly early since it was a work day anyway. Regardless, I'm grateful and exhausted.

char

char is ill from apparent food poisoning and missed small group last night. Please pray for her. Char: I have the cd back if you want to borrow it (I Can Only Imagine).

tim hughes

I bought two cd's. One is "Here I Am To Worship" and the other is "When Silence Falls". So far I'm liking the first one more. Seems more playable and more upbeat. I like the song "If There's One Thing", I swear I've heard it before (pretty much all the songs on this album are like that.. very familiar).

Both cd's will need more play before I can give a review but I'm pretty happy with my purchases.

grandma

Funny thing happened today on the way to lunch. We were taking the elevator down (me, mom, grandma). Grandpa couldn't make it because his legs hurt when he walks. So anyway, we were heading down, and when it got to ground, me and my mom stepped out. Now if any of you have been to my building, you know that the elevator doors are a bit nutty. So anyway, we turn around and before grandma gets a chance to get out of the elevator, the door starts closing all you see is her face in this frown and she makes a hilarious whimpering sound.

So now the elevator door closes, and me and my mom are bolting over to press the up/down buttons to call the elevator back. Well, that didn't work. We both watched helplessly as the elevator ascended, up to the 6th floor. It stopped, and then it came back down. *Phew*

Doh! The door opens and 3 strangers step out, we look inside and there's no one inside! So we both take it up to the 6th and sure enough grandma is standing there in the hallway with this funny frightful look! Hahaha..

los angeles lakers

I have a pair of extra tickets to the Lakers vs. Raptors game on February 27, 2005 @ 1:00 pm. They are Section 318, Row 9, Seats 4 & 5. $15 a pop. The only downside to these tix are that you'll have to sit with me.

rtfm

Goodness gracious.. people need to learn to RTFM. The "F" in this case, is FULL.

etiquette lesson #2

Today I saw a girl in the underground PATH that I knew, but I didn't say "hi" because I couldn't remember her name. But I remember now.. "Jessica". I guess it's too late now. Same thing yesterday, I saw another girl Cindy, I remembered her name that time, I said hi but I kept walking.

(Hmm.. what are the odds I run into two people from S&YL's wedding party within 24 hours?)

What is the proper ettiquette when you meet someone on the street? Is it enough to smile/nod and go on with my day, or am I expected to stop talk with them? If it is the latter, then I suppose everyone who has ever run into me has thought that I was a total jerk.

The way I see it there are 3 possible exchanges between two people in passing.

First with two guys:

A: [raises eyebrow]
B: [raises eyebrow while nodding]
A: [nods]

Guy sees girl:

A: [eye contact]
B: [eye contact, smile]
A: [smile]

OR

A: "Hi there"
B: "Hi!"
A: "How are you?"
B: "I'm fine thanks, how are you?"
A: "Great"
B: "That's good!"
[conversation follows if he knows her well]

OR if you're a jerk like me:

A: [eye contact, smile]
B: [smile] "Hi!"
A: [half-smile] "Hi"
[jerk walks away]

Girl sees guy:

A: [poke] "hey"
B: "Oh, hello!"
A: "How are you?"
B: "Fine thanks, and you?"
...and so on.

You need to look at it both ways though. Maybe that person is busy and
doesn't have time to talk. Maybe they're in a rush to get somewhere, or
are late for a meeting. Who am I to stand there and force them to waste
their time on me? And it's not like I gave them a dirty look. I *did*
smile. I made eye contact. That should be enough.

A week ago I ran into Baun, an old highschool buddy of mine. We stopped, chatted for few minutes to see what was up with eachother. He had finished his bio degree and was taking film now. Pretty cool. We almost took down phone numbers but figured we'd just bump into eachother again (because we take the same paths home every day) so we went on our way.

I think that was a pretty good exchange.

when things work out

Isn't it great when things just work out? Today, things are going to finally work out for me. My mom's been bugging me about picking up a passport application form. I went down to the Staples downstairs to get it from the post office they have inside, but they'd run out. I have nothing left in the fridge for dinner. Yesterday the Raptors lost but scored enough that I can get a free slice of pizza from Pizza Pizza. But, there aren't any Pizza Pizza's near my home.

Yesterday I got a notice in the mail for me to go to the post office to pick up a package. I think it's the two Tim Hughes cd's I ordered, though I could be wrong. Maybe it's a bomb or anthrax or something. [ebrian shrugs]

So this is how it all fits together. It's the only post office near my place aside from the one in the Staples. With my mom flying in on Friday, I had to get the application ASAP. I have to go there anyway now because of the package. And to top it off, the nearest Pizza Pizza is right across the street from ... you guessed it —- the Post Office!

Perfection..! At last.

moving

This is probably too short notice for everyone, but... I'm moving away.

I've thought long and hard about this and I've decided that I'm going to move away from this place. The condo, the cushy job, fast-paced city life. I've even alluded it to some close friends but no one really took much notice. Toronto, it's been great living here for the last 25 years. But it's time to move on. My bags are packed (it's not like I had a whole to begin with) and the moving company has been booked. I will be gone in less than 2 days.

To the people who will miss me or who's lives will be adversely affected by my absence: I do apologize but this has been a long time coming.

Why the short notice. (Notice how I put this post as a sub-post to another) I dunno, in all honesty I wanted to give zero notice. I wanted to disappear like Matt Damon did in Good Will Hunting. You know what I mean -- when Ben Affleck comes over to pick him up as they do every day, and he finds that Matt has moved out without so much as a goodbye, and Ben just smiles to himself and while he's sad his friend is gone, he's happy that his pal has finally moved on with his life.

That's how I'd like to think of it.

Destination? I've given this the most thought. Moving away is one thing, but where to, that's the tricky part. The easiest thing would have been to move down to the US to live with my family, or out to the West Coast at least so I would be closer to them. But that would be too easy. I wanted to move somewhere that I'd have to learn a new language in order to communicate with the locals. Sometimes it's nice to be where "everybody knows your name", but I think I enjoy the solitude of being in a place where no one knows me. It'll be great. That's why I've decide to live on the moon.

As Frank Sinatra once said: Fly me to the moon, and let me sing among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.

Farewell!

Oscars, cont'd

I've seen a bunch of movies. Originally I thought I would put down a review for each of them and critique the acting and my analysis of everything. But it's too much. I've seen countless movies and I can't go back and do individual analysis' of each of them like I did with Collateral.

Our goal (mine and Kenric's) was to watch all the movies or actors/actresses nominated for an Oscar. This includes best pictures, best directors, actors and actresses and best supporting actor/actresses. Here's my rankings so far, and "x" denotes movies/performances I haven't seen yet.

Best Picture
1. Million Dollar Baby
2. Finding Neverland
3. Ray
x. Sideways
x. The Aviator

Best Director
1. Million Dollar Baby
2. Ray
x. The Aviator
x. Sideways
x. Vera Drake

Best Actor in a Leading Role
1. Jamie Foxx (Ray)
2. Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland)
3. Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby)
x. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator)
x. Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
1. Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby)
2. Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
x. Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake)
x. Catalina Sandino Morena (Maria Full Of Grace)
x. Annett Bening (Being Julia)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1. Clive Owen (Closer)
2. Jamie Foxx (Collateral)
3. Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby)
4. Thomas Haden Church (Sideways)
5. Alan Alda (The Aviator)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1. Natalie Portman (Closer)
x. Cate Blanchett (The Aviator)
x. Laura Linney (Kinsey)
x. Virginia Madsen (Sideways)
x. Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda)

Admittedly, we will probably never see movies like Vera Drake, Maria Full of Grace, Being Julia or Kinsey. If I was a betting man I'd say it won't matter.. Hilary Swank is most likely a lock to win best actress. The Aviator was the highest nominated movie of all (11 total nominations) and we still haven't seen it yet. That one will clear up 5 of my ranks. I still need to see Hotel Rwanda too.

I like movies with a point, and preferably movies that teach you something good or something profound. For movie sites I like to read Focus On The Family's reviews. It's not what you expect though. It's not just the pro's and con's of a movie from a Christian perspective. It also has some in-depth character analysis , which I find useful in determining whether or not the film is worth watching. They have a similar perspective towards movies that I have.

doodie: don't read this if you're eating

If you're still reading, then I'll reward you with a comical story. Yesterday I was in several meetings spread over the day. I literally had no time to spare in between. I grabbed lunch in between and scarfed it down in about 10 minutes, then went to another meeting. Anyway, after lunch I had to go. My kids wanted to go to the pool but I didn't have time to drop them off. There were like 500 items we had to go over for the meeting so about halfway I took charge and started rushing through them. "NEXT!" "NEXT!" "OKAY! #341. NEXT!" I was rushing through it because I had to go so badly.

Finally, it was over and I rushed back to my desk to complete the work I had to get finished before everyone went home for the day, so I did that. Finally, after 4 hours of holding off I ran over to the bathroom and... as luck would have it, both stalls were occupied. It's funny that for some reason I had this feeling that they'd be full, because the last time I ever needed to go this badly, the exact same thing happened.

Anyway I ran to the elevator and took it one floor down. Got to 26th and.. *damn* I didn't have access to this floor. Paced around between elevators (by now one of the kids had stuck his head out the window. 'Not yet son.. get back inside."). Finally got on and took it down to the 20th, stumbled my way over to the bathroom and aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh....

meaning

I kind of understand what anita was talking about now, when she asked me about the 'negatives' of listening to too much Christian music. I've listened to it so much that I've somewhat become lost in the tunes and have been missing out the powerful words of many songs. It's something I've struggled with before as well, just getting caught up in the music and losing the meaning of the songs themselves.

STILL -- although I've become slightly desensitized from the true meaning of some songs, I still feel like I'm better off than having secular songs stuck in my head.

Let's focus a minute on what it means to lose the point of a praise song, thus turning it into just another song. Is that blasphemy? I guess it would be if I was missing the ENTIRE point of the song. So it's really more like a semi-blasphemy.

I'm not knocking all secular music. I realize that some of it is okay, but whereas the object of secular music is:

1. Me
2. Love (between people)
3. Some girl/guy
4. Money/fame/power
5. Authority (rebellious)
6. MDK;

Christian music is always first and foremost about God. Even semi-blasphemy has to be better than any of the above. Perhaps I'm just overanalyzing all this stuff.. I thought that listening to strictly christian music would influence me positively, but instead I've become ... what's the word ... "immune" to it?

Mmm.. my chest hurts. I guess it's bedtime.

day 4

I sat in front of my computer this morning and out of habit turned on my MSN. *Ack* Luckily I had switched off the "autoconnect" thing and closed it as soon as I realized what I'd done.

Human beings need contact with other human beings.. the alternative is pets, but that's not the same.. and besides I don't have any pets. I think I used MSN as a substitute for human contact. Even if you can't see the person at least you can sort of sense their company. And knowing that people care, that is also a comfort.

And video games.. is just a distraction from the fact. Yesterday I basically finished the game. Smee is level 60. Game over. I started a new character named Wahya, a night elf druid. Wahya is native american for "Wolf". I also have a gnome warlock named Goan. Goan has a pet.. I'm so jealous!

In 5 short days I will lose my independence but regain my sanity. My mom and grandparents are returning from the Sin City, to do some citizen stuff, and hopefully help me do my taxes. This means we'll need to re-locate the jamming. Dunc is always busy now, someone else will have to open up their home for us..

I finally got a haircut on Saturday, and washed my car too. My car was sooo dirty. This was the first time I'd washed since about June. It's all shiny now.. whee!

Yesterday we had a surprise-not-surprise-anymore-yet-still-a-surprise birthday party for Drew. All week we tried to plan this thing but we were uncertain of whether he could even make it there. In the end someone had to tell him the -partial- truth to convince him to come out! But it was a fun night. We had it at Baton Rouge.

Oh, speaking of jamming. Last night we had 3 guitarist and one vocalist. Elsa, bigjon, Kev and me. It was really fun.. Jon is talented enough to figure things out with looking at the music, and he'll play a different key to change things up. Kevin was messing around on my electric and I was just playing straight. I think mixing it up spices up the worship time. There's just a lot more combo's we can play with when there are more people. Later Jon used his guitar case as a set of drums, Kev played straight and played with a cut-capo. Good times..

initial reaction

I miss instant messaging already. I'm one of those borderline ADD people. Things pop into my mind and I need to tell people these things otherwise I will go nuts, but I couldn't do that today. As a result I am completely wide awake with all kinds of ideas that I need to try to remember so I can tell people later when I see them!

There are things that I kind of took for granted too. When I could see that someone was online, then I would know if I'd be able to call them without getting their voice mail. Now it's just a pure guessing game. And I don't know anymore whether or not if I call someone they are "busy" or not.

Sometimes you just want to leave someone a message. What if I call someone and they pick up? I wanna leave a message damnit, not TALK to em!

Also messaging allows the "hiya" and not expect any purpose behind it. It's perfectly acceptable to message someone with "hi" and not expect them to even reply. And if even if they do, you don't have to have any kind of purpose behind saying "hi". I guarantee you that if I called someone and said "hi" and they said "hi", and I said nothing else, they would think I was insane.

And what about emoticons? How do you do a :'( on the phone?

wrong again!

Thanks to Ina for pointing out to me that Lent actually began yesterday. I was on MSN today.. for shame..

And so it begins..

lent

Last year I went 40 days without video games. Yes.. 40 days. It's hard to imagine if you know me, but I pulled it off and then at the end of the 40 days, I went nuts on games and got sick from it from lack of sleep and food.

I thought about doing 40 days of no games again, but have decided against it.

Over the past few days I've been thinking about what else I could do, what the meaning of Lent is, and what would be something worth that which I rely heavily upon that I could offer up to God. See, gaming isn't heavily relied upon. If I didn't game, I would be watching TV, or renting DVDs, watching movies. It's just a form of entertainment.

In the last 3 days I realized that I heavily rely upon instant messaging. When MSN was down for a few hours I didn't know what to do. I felt as though I had been locked away from the rest of the world. I forgot about all the other lines of communication and sat there dumbfounded that I had no one to talk to.

I guess where I'm going with this is that I've decided to give up all forms of instant messaging. This includes Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, AIM. I'm still kinda iffy on the email part. I use email for work, so I can't exactly give that up. My parents communicate with me via email as well.

I feel that this decision will force me to open the lines of communication with others in different forms, and rather than spend time chatting online, I could spend more time with God in that way. Ie: when I feel lonely, I will turn to God instead of trying to find someone who is willing to chat with me.

Easter is March 27th, which means on February 18th I will stop using instant messaging.

[edit]It occurred to me just now that February only has 28 days. Thus I need to begin my Lent February 16th, not 18th.[/edit]

happy new year?

Gong Xi Fa Chai -- It's chinese new year. Happy New Year to those of you who celebrate this. I checked under my pillow this morning to see if the red pouch fairy had come, but she hadn't.

dreamt

I was wrong about the dreams.

In the last week or so I have been having similar types of dreams. I've dreamt about each of my friends pairing off with eachother. Most of them have been obvious pairings, like as in Ross & Rachel obvious. There have been a few surprises with some of the matchings my brain as come up with. Disturbingly, some of the dreams have been "graphic", I don't know what to think about that.. as if my mind thought "hey, let's see how he'll react if we show him THIS.."

Perhaps with all the weddings going on in the past year and following year, it has given me a bit of a sense of "pressure". I totally blame my parents, who constantly hint at wanting grandchildren before they're too old to care for them, and suggesting random people from my childhood that they "always thought were nice".

I just wanted to get these thoughts down before I forgot about them.

almost

I predicted the Craptors would score 88 points last night which put me within 3 points of the actual score. Unfortunately someone else on asbntr chose 93, which is closer. So I missed out a copy of Back To The Future 2 on DVD by one point.

rafer

Eh, just wanted to say I told ya so.

homesick

I feel like I'm stuck in a rut.

Work has become really boring lately. Not as in I'm not busy, but just boring as in repetitive and unchallenging. I'm finding more often than not that I'll be sitting in a meeting, or talking to my boss, and in the back of my mind I'm thinking "What's the point of this? What am I doing here?".

I wake up, I shower, play guitar, get dressed, go downstairs. Sleep for 40-60 minutes in the subway. Walk through the underground path. Sit down at my desk. Work. Eat lunch. Food coma. Work. Walk back to subway, sleep another 40-50 minutes. Buy food. Either watch tv or play WoW while eating. Sleep. It's the same damn thing every day.

I feel like I'm stuck in a rut.

Nothing seems to be going right for me. I never reached any goals, but then again, I never set any. I have no dreams or aspirations. And that's just the metaphorical aspect of it. I don't think I've dream dreamed in a long time either. I feel like nothing I do makes a difference. I feel like I'm disconnected. When I try to reach out to someone, they either turn away from me or ignore me.

—

Have you ever been on a vacation, where you went for too long? It's like the time I went to Vegas for 2-1/2 weeks, after about 10 days, I wanted to go home. There was nothing left to do there. Instead of vacation, "something new", it had become something old. I wanted to get out, I wanted to go back home.

Right now I feel like I want to go home.

baby got book
(my attempt on the lyrics)

Oh my goodness
Becky, look at her bible
It is so huge
She looks like one of those preacher guys' girlfriends
But who understands those preacher guys anyway?
They only talk to her because she looks like mother Theresa, Okay?
I mean look at it, it's just huge
It's Gross

She just looks so.. Righteous!

I like big bibles and I cannot lie.
You christian brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with a KJV
And a bookmark in Proverbs
You get stoked

Got a name in grace
So you know this girl is saved
It looks like one of those large ones
With plenty of space in the margins

Oh baby
I wanna read witcha
Cuz you bible's got pictures
My minister tried to console me
But that book you got makes "me so holy"

Ooh, mamma mia
You say you want Koinonia?
Well bless me, bless me
And teach me about John Wesley

I saw her praying
While I was DJing
She got grace, pretty face
She ain't goin down to a bad place

I'm tired of heathen guys
Sayin they like pocket size
I say the average Christian take a look
She gotta pack much book

So fellas (YEAH)
Fellas (YEAH)

Have your girlfriends got the book?
Oh YEAH!

Well READ IT! (READ IT!)
READ IT... (READ IT!)
Read that holy book

Baby got book (NIV with the ribbon bookmark)
Baby got book

I like them leather
And bound
It's 50 pounds
I just can't understand how it is some weanie
Wants bible on CD

She wanna get you saved
AMEN double up A-MEN!
I ain't talkin about a paraphase
Cuz Paul wouldn't use those anyways

I like em real thick and red lettered
You can't find nothing better
Southpaw's in love
Bibles that big are unheard of

So I'm sitting here thinking "what if"
I find me a girl shows midrift
You can have those bimbo's
I keep those chicks that do devos

A word to the Christian aistas
I can't resist ya
I'll do God's time witcha
But I gotta be straight when I say I wanna
Pray till the break of day

Baby got it goin' on
Like the wife in Proverbs 31
We just might get engaged
When we finish reading this page

Cuz it's worn, and it's torn
And I know that girl's reborn

So ladies (YEAH)
Ladies, (YEAH)
Do you wanna save people from Hades? (YEAH)
Then read it
'Til the pages fall out
Even white preachers got to shout

Baby got Book (Thompson Chain with the big red letters)

Yeah baby
When it comes to a good book
Stephen King's resume just can't compare
39 plus 27
Equals 66 books
And if you're catholic... there's even more

So your girlfriend quotes Bill Hybels
But does she got a big bible?
Cuz that little thing she's got
Won't start a revival

My bible study don't want none unless you got book, hun!

You can read Clancy or Grisham
But please don't lose this book
Some brothers want to play that hard role
And tell you that book's too old

So they toss it
And they burn it
But I pull up quick to just learn it

So your girl like paperback
Well I ain't down with that
Cuz my girlfriends hot and her bible's rockin
And she's got good doctrine

To the atheist chicks who try to diss
You ain't it Miss Priss
Give me a Christian I'm insistin'
And I'll greet her with some holy kissin'

Some pervert tried to chase
But he didn't make it past first base
She's quick to resist temptation
And she loves the new translation

So ladies who are lost and found
If you want the triple six thrown down
Dial 1-800-READS-ALOT
And teach me about those Psalms

Baby got book

By now some of you have noticed the change in layout. This is not what I had in mind. In fact, I don't even know how it happened. If someone has hacked my account and figured out my blatantly obvious password * then I congratulate you * thank you for not changing my posts..

introject

Last week at Sunday school, I went to Kinson's class because there was a potential of it ending earlier than the other classes. Yes.. guilty as charged! But it actually turned out really good. It kind of confirmed some of the things that eBrian often ponders about.

I've always thought about ways to say things, to either completely insult someone, or ways to charm someone without making it like I was trying to do so. Or ways to convince someone to do something for me without saying so. Anyway, in class we learned about introject - to incorporate ionto one's own psyche unconsciously.

Such as, say you say to someone: "I like your shirt!"

That person could take it objectively, and say "thanks" and deep down, think: "mental note: this is a nice shirt".
Or that person could take it subjectively, and say "thanks" and deep down, think: "omg, i'm gonna burn this shirt"

Or if you said "Wow, you look fantastic today." One person may focus on the word "fantastic", but another person might focus on the word "today".

It's easy to laugh about things like this. As a child I would have been the second person. If someone said I had a nice shirt, and I would never wear that shirt again. Nowadays, I couldn't care less. Some might say that clothing and appearance is TOO far down my list of priorities. I've received complaints from friends that I didn't dress appropriately for various occasions.

I was just thinking to myself, how can I go and compliment someone without the fear that I completely insult them? How can I say something to someone without offending them, or internalizing what I said to them and hating me forever for saying it? Perhaps I can completely throw out the idea of making negative comments or observations. Yes, some people can take criticism, but some might bury it inside and end up jumping off a bridge 10 years down the road.

I'm not kidding.. this is serious stuff.

One idea I had was to constantly compliment people. If I did that, then I would be known for it and people would always know that I was being genuine and not malicious. But then I realized that if I did that to *everyone* and then missed out on some people, then THOSE people would be offended.

How about being brutally honest to everyone? I can just imagine standing in the middle of subway and getting everyone's attention:

"Hello everyone, I have an important announcement to make. You, you, you and you. You all have bad breath. You 3 over there should be wearing a lot more clothes. Cover yourselves up.. especially you! What are you, like 14?! Sir! Yes * you, the guy who is in dire need of a haircut * ever heard of deodorant? And Miss, you have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.. and your boyfriend over there, has not stopped ogling those half-naked teenagers over there since he got on the train. He's a pig, miss. A pig. I think you should leave him for me."

I can just imagine the bruises and cuts that would result in that sort of behavior. And the years and years of counselling and therapy I'd have to endure.

lost

So yea, I wrote the above at work inbetween stuff I had to do, kind of my downtime thoughts. But about halfway through the day I forgot all about it, and now I've completely lost my train of thought.

The idea that you can alter a word or two in a statement to another person and you can affect their deep psyche. It's just that sort of thing that makes me realize how important it is to think carefully before I say anything.

See, I can't even think of what to say next. Completely lost..

I watched Finding Neverland. I'll post up a review of it tomorrow.

Jamie Foxx (Collateral), Nominated for Best Supporting Actor

Last night I watched the movie Collateral, directed by Michael Mann. Mann is known for movies like Ali, The Insider and Heat. So yeah, you could say I was expecting a pretty damn good movie.

The movie also starred Tom Cruise and Jada Pinkett-Smith. I was rather suprised to see Jada in the movie. I had not heard she was a part of it.

Jamie Foxx was really good. He really got into character, as this timid man who had set his dreams beyond where he could ever reach. Kind of a man who is stuck in a rut but doesn't know it. In denial of where he is in his life, where he ought to be or where he wished he could be. And regardless of his shortcomings, has a good feel for life. And values life. Puts himself before others.

So yea I thought he deserved the nomination.

The movie. I liked it. Everything was good from the beginning, the soundtrack set the tone and the camera work was really good. I've yet to see a Tom Cruise movie that I didn't like. He's a been around long enough so he knows, and has built his career around making the right choices. I suppose here I can make another point about Ben Affleck. As we know he's a big gambler. This might explain his penchant of picking up the worst scripts in the world and just doing them. Maybe he just needs the money?

There was kind of a lot to kinda think about. Tom's character - Vincent - had an interesting way of looking at life. As a hit-man, he justified his killings by pointing out that thousands of people are dying in Rwanda, and most people don't even know about. So why would anyone care about the people he kills? His life is so empty that you feel sorry for the guy. He has no reason to live, no one to live for. He feels absolutely no remorse for his killings. He just shrugs it off.

But then he also keeps Max (Foxx) alive.

I can't quite understand why he keeps saving Max's life, other than maybe he doesn't know the city well enough and needs someone to drive him around. Or maybe it's just his "style". One of the policemen alludes to a previous job, about a cab driver going around killing people and then shooting himself at the end. Could this be one of Vincent's previous jobs? Possibly. So maybe it's just the way he goes about things so he feels it's important to finish his work with Max, and then maybe shoot him afterwards and make it look like a suicide.

Whatever. The perfectly good movie was ruined at the end. Um.. Spoiler Alert. At then end in the subway there is a shootout between Max and Vincent, face to face they start shooting at eachother, and by some miracle, the cab driver outshoots the contract killer. A man trained to drive a car from destination to destination, OUTGUNS a gunman. A man trained to kill people, is killed, by a man trained to drive a car. A driver kills the killer.

If you didn't understand that, it's like training to be a boxer your entire life, fighting professionally for 6 years, and then getting knocked out by a ballerina. Now how realistic is that?

Okay, so the ratings. I'll give 81/100 on Foxx's performance and 71/100 for the movie.

peeve

The first time I ever heard "pet peeve" was at an ACEM Conference at McMaster. I remember I was paired up with a girl named Grace, and she asked me what my pet peeves were. Of course I didn't know what it meant so I said "dogs". Which shocked her because then she said "Really?? I LOVE dogs". At which point I realized my error but rather than admit my stupidity I just played along and made up some excuse about why I hated dogs, which is a blatant lie.

One thing that really peeves me is when I see someone stand in front of a door, press the wheelchair assistance button and wait for the door to open. And 95% of the time it's an asian woman who does it. It really pisses me off. What's worse is they do it when there's about 40 people behind them trying to get home or get to work, and they just stand there almost impatiently, as if the door is opening too slowly. And everyone else is standing behind em waiting for the door to open, like a bottleneck of pedestrian traffic.

It just bugs me that people abuse this button that was placed there to help disabled people. If they were used properly, you would never see a person in a wheelchair push the button and find that it was broken. Even worse I've found people use their feet to push the button. That's pretty disgusting. First of all some physically challenged people *need* to use the button. And let's not forget the children who love to press buttons.

You know how when you're wearing earphone/headphones, you can't really hear anything, and sometimes end up yelling just so you can hear your own voice? Anyway, about 2 weeks ago this happened again, an asian woman pressed the button just outside the subway station and waited. It was windy so the door was moving really slow. She kinda just stood there staring at it. I was late though, so I just budded in front of her, muttered "lazy" and opened the door and walked through. As it turns out I said it bit louder than I thought I did, because later on this same woman was giving me the "evil eye", glaring angrily at me on the subway platform.

rafer

Rafer Alston is the Raptor's new whipping boy. This guy is a complete unprofessional. If you guys thought V**** was a headache, be prepared for the next 4 years of Rafer. You'd think that a 28 year old could grow up a little, but that is not the case.

Apparently after a disagreement with a teammate in college, Rafer dropped a weight on some guy's groin while he was asleep. Yes that's right, a weight. He was kicked off the team shortly after. Rafer also once grabbed his ex-girlfriend by the throat and threw her to the ground. Classy.

He has threatened to retire because his coach benched him, sobbing on television that he wasn't used to this kind of treatment and that it was so much better at his old team. Boo V****-ing hoo.

Then in the last game we played, as the game was winding down he asked to be taken out of the game because he was being embarassed so badly by Kid Canada. Our floor general pulled out his little white flag and surrendered. Rafer also thinks that he's the reason fans come out to see the Raptors!

Oh the humanity!

The other thing that bothers me is that I keep mis-typing his name as Rafter.

fat

I think if I keep up the way I have been eating these past two weeks, I'll get fat again.

uber math skillz

Yeah, my math skillz are 1337! Yesterday at Wendy's, the bill came out to $6.89. All I had was a 10 and a bunch of change, but not 89 cents. So I paid $12.14. I did it quick too, no using calculators or nothin'!

subway

Today's ride home was ... interesting. First of all, work was insane today from after lunch til 5pm. I was really tired. When I got to the subway station the train had just pulled in so we ran in. Unfortunately I didn't get a seat. So anyway, at Union more people piled in and we were really really really close. I tried my best to just lean against the wall and sleep.

As luck would have it, when I awoke (to adjust my footing because I almost fell), I found that a really attractive girl was standing right in front of me, face to face almost. She had brown hair, was reading a book and smelled like flowers. I almost blurted "wow" but tactfully changed my words to "wow-oh.. so many people..". She smiled in agreement.

I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

Then when I woke up, I was standing in front of a really smelly fat guy. So I repositioned myself at the next stop to the middle of car (I was by the door before). When I awoke again later, there was another really attractive girl in front of me. Blonde this time, but she was with her boyfriend, or a close friend. He was tickling her so that affected me because we were so cramped up, there was just no way to sleep with her shaking and giggling. Actually I found it a little annoying.

At around Eglinton, the train pretty much emptied out and I finally got a seat. When I woke up again, it was my stop.

Pretty fun ride :)

Hopefully if I get some time this weekend I'll work on my new blog layout.

I love the sensation you get right when you get back in from the cold outdoors, when the blood rushes back in and it feels hot. I have that right now in my hands, they're burning up. This reminds me that I need to buy some gloves. Just for driving really.. I have trouble grasping the wheel when I'm driving because it's so cold.

I finally hit the 5 digit mark on Wednesday, when I drove to Ken's place to practice for small group worship. Yes, I've had my car for 17 months, and I just hit the 10,000 km mark :)

Tonight's small group was good too, last week was great, this week was great. God has been answering prayer and I think we are getting where I wanted to be with our group. I mean we're not there yet, but it's coming along. Ken and I had this goal, a vision of where we wanted to go, and I think by God's grace we will get there. We're way ahead of schedule.

Last week we couldn't even finish half of the chapter, so we assigned only 5 additional pages, and we didn't even get that far. Personally I'm glad, I love the fact that we are talking about things that gets people to think about themselves, to reflect, etc.

--

I finally cracked open my "Left Behind Worship" cd, it came with my How-To Songbooks from WorshipTogether. Originally I had intended on giving it to someone for Christmas, but decided against it because I had gotten it as a "gift" from WT, and didn't like the idea of re-gifting. So anyway I ended up listening to it by default because I had lent out my "Almost There - MercyMe" and "Arriving - Chris Tomlin" CDs.

The CD is pretty good. It's a compilation of songs, not recent songs but good ones. One that's got me going right now is King of Glory by Third Day. It's one of those 'sing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs' worship songs. I confess that the words aren't particular awe-inspiring, but they are the Truth. And the song sounds great. Anyway, I'll put it up along with the new site when I get a chance to.

together

In Chapter 3 of Seizing Your Divine Moment, McManus talks about a funeral he went to. He marvelled at how even people in the back were deeply touched by that person's life, how the funeral was more of a celebration than a sad time of mourning.

It kinda made me think about how I've lived my life. How I've chosen my friends, who I associated myself with, whether or not I made the right decisions in the past.

This past week I met up with some old classmates and it was a good time. We asked about eachother, how things were, marital status, work experience, etc. Some of those guys were among my closest friends at McMaster.

Yesterday I went to Jacqueline's farewell dinner, and ran into a few people from my past and present -- some friends, some not.

I guess it just made me think about the choices I've made, the paths I could have taken and didn't, or paths I did take but shouldn't have. I think about all the "groups" of friends I have. They seem so segregated. Although now all my friends are closer, in terms that they all know eachother, I just wonder what it would be like to have them all together in one big room, like at a funeral, or a banquet.

Would it be weird? In some sense I have been a different person in each of those groups, as in they were in different stages of my life and my behavior around them was different. Having everyone together from all walks of my life.

I've always said that when this path God has placed me on ends -- when I hit the dead end, that I would go and do something just for Him. Not as if He finally deserves it, when has He ever not deserved it. But I guess it's just something I wanted to do. In SYDM, McManus talks about how God's blessing can end up holding us down. I guess in retrospect, me committing to something only after my job was over, was silly. I could have done it at any time.

It's easy to say things like that but to actually do them, that's another story. My contract with the City of Toronto expires in 13 days. From a career standpoint it might actually be good, I no longer feel challenged at my job anymore. From an income standpoint, I've saved so much in the past year, and plus I still have rent income. That's not really an issue for me. Having nothing to do during the day.. that would be really bad. Although it might give me a chance to pull my life back together.


But I'm not really focusing on that. Unemployment, all that.. is scary. But this entire time leading up to the end date hasn't been scary to me. I've always felt secure that God would open another opportunity for me, and I still feel this way. It sounds like a cocky faith, but I'm seriously not worried. God is good, all the time. Even when times are tough, God is good.

People always talk about how they have a heart for some people specifically, and then go to that place and serve.

I guess for me I have always been fascinated about Arab countries and India. Somewhere, where Christianity is forbidden and punishable by death. Somewhere, that I would be risking my life to make a difference in someone's life. Maybe it's the drama (king) in me but I think I need to go to sort of an extreme situation before I felt like was I doing something signficantly helpful for someone.

Maybe that's why God has never placed someone special in my life.. maybe I was never meant to live very long, and thus such things would be a waste of my time. Maybe my purpose in life isn't what I hoped it would be. Some people are able to imagine themselves when they are old. I can't even imagine myself a year from now.

From a career perspective I've done all I can at that job. A highly motivated career oriented person would have left there by now. I stopped learning things months ago, I've cemented (cornered) myself into a corner. I enjoy the work, but sometimes I feel like there has to be more. Yes, lowly motivated me, actually feels like there might be more to work than this.

Look, I'm not giving up. It's just me musing on my ponderings of thoughts and things. Plus I'm really tired.. I was supposed to sleep nearly two hours ago but here I am typing away.

Mostly gibberish..

I just watched Meet The Fockers. It was pretty funny.

i got emotional during the wedding scene. dunno why, it was just happy i guess. on the drive home i started thinking about whether it was in His plan that i'd get married some day. it just seems like something that's a long ways off.

i liked dustin hoffman in the movie, he was funny.. the part when he pauses for moment after his feelings had been hurt, that was good. that dude can really act.

and owen wilson playing the pan flute at the wedding.. that was a priceless moment. every time i see owen wilson i just laugh. he's so funny.. his voice, his style of speech.. it's hilarious!

i have to fill an application form for T3C Small Group Leader(ship). It asks me to give a brief testimony. For some reason I can never fully express my testimoney, at least not in the way I want to. I always write about how I grew up in a Christan home, and how I learned about Jesus as a child and accepted him as a child.

But then as I got older became closer to Him, in understanding the meaningfulness of what He did for us, the sacrific He made.

And there's a question "When did you become a Christian?". I don't get that question, or rather, I don't know how to answer it. I could write down the time I accepted Jesus into my heart, it was during Sunday school in grade 2. But what does it mean to be a Christian? Christ-ian, that' Christ Follower. When did I start to devote my life to follow Christ? Probably not until highschool. But how bout this: When did I truly follow my words and go and start living for God? Probably not in highschool. Back then it was all about me, me, me. It wasn't until university when I truly started to FOLLOW God.

So how do I answer this question then: When I started to BELIEVE, or when I started to REACT?

The Last Word

Many of you doubted the Raptors' management, when they traded franchise player Vince Carter for a couple of draft picks. There were times immediately after the trade that some people saw Vince scoring and dunking and began to regret this much needed move for the Raptors.

Cutting ties with a former superstar can be difficult. But it had to be done. Think of it as bumping into a former ex-girlfriend or boyfriend. Sure she looks great now, but at the time, it just had to be done. None of your friends liked her and her mom was annoying. She was lazy. She would cry for hours after breaking a nail. No regrets.

What bothers me about Vince is he can't keep his mouth shut. He went on national television and freely admitted what most of us already knew. It's not so much that he didn't play hard, but that he would admit it. As if to get in the last word. And hence this blog entry, my response to this sorry excuse for a professional athlete.

"I'm going to make a lot of people eat their words when it's time," the former Toronto Raptor said after his first practice with the Nets. "Don't be my friend later. If you hate me now, hate me later. I don't mind."

Vince, we all hate you now. Not just the fans but your former teammates, your former employers, and probably most of the players in the league who DO put in 100% every night. Congratulations, you not only made a mistake making the statements you made, you have embararassed half the league, and left feeling of doubt with your new teammates and fans.

The only people who are going to eat their words are the silly Americans who voted you into the All-Star game over the past 2 (and soon to be 3) seasons.

I'm finished with this topic. This is the last Vince Carter post you will see on this site.

passion

So the worship leader, Matt, at South Hills Church led the first Sunday but the following Sunday he had gone to the Passion '05 Conference. Man, I'm *so* jealous. But anyway, since Matt was away, this other guy, Alex led worship instead.

And boy was he ever good! Alex is one of their new pastors who is going to be leaving soon to plant another church in Vegas. My parents will be going to that church because it'll be closer to them. My brother says Alex is a big David Crowder guy, sings a lot of his songs. (Whereas Matt is a big-time Chris Tomlin guy.)

We sang Not To Us by Chris Tomlin, You Alone by David Crowder, and a few others which I can no longer recall. It was fantastic! On his band there was an electric guy who was simply amazing. I felt like I was at a concert, he was just playing like a professional, just like you hear the songs on the CD.

Anyway, that got to me so I've been playing guitar feverishly. The latest New Song Cafe on worshiptogether.com shows Chris Tomlin playing with Steven Curtis Chapman, the song We Fall Down. I just love the way Chris plays his guitar, mixing chords and throwing in all sorts of tricks. It's just so cool..

las vegas

The highlight of Las Vegas for me was visiting and spending time with family. And South Hills Church. Aside from that, I can't think of much else. Family is definitely the overall highlight. I see my family once a year now, not counting the individual visits each of them have made to come and visit me. But as a family all together, 2.5 weeks a year is all I have. I truly cherish these moments -- even if we don't do a whole lot special, just the company and us functioning as a unit, that's good enough for me.

As for the church, each time I attended a service, I wished that various people from TO had been able to experience with me. When I look at that church, I see something that all churches that I know must be striving towards. I just hope that one day we can have the similar type of warm community, strong discipleship, prayer, and just a pure enthusiasm of Jesus Christ.

Granted I only get a glimpse of it, and who knows, maybe they're super-charged because of the Christmas season, but it must be (and was for me) a huge blessing to see such a spirit-filled gathering of worshippers week after week.

Happy New Year!

I hadn't logged into Blogger so long that I had to guess my password :P

I have been in Las Vegas for the past 2 weeks. I'm here for another 3 days, and then back to Toronto. Back home.

I started missing home after around the first week. I really enjoyed the first week, while my uncle and cousin were here. It was awesome. My younger cousin came but his older brother didn't. But he's a fun guy. He eats so much that you'd expect him to be this big fat kid but he isn't at all.

We've been to tons of buffets. TONS.

And I've been sick. Still sick now but getting better. I got sick because my brother got sick, and I was staying in his room. :(

the real reason I'm blogging

Let's take a moment to remember the hundreds of thousands who have lost their lives to the massive tsunami in East Asia.

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..