I miss my mom

It was my mom's birthday a few days ago, and I sent her a great big happy birthday email..

I know -- I could have done better. I could have easily taken a few minutes out of my busy schedule to give her a call, even despite our time difference, it would have been worth it for her.

As I sit here behind my computer and keyboard, in my pajamas, eating a microwaved meal for the 3rd time this week, 3rd only because I skipped dinner twice, I am in total awe of what an amazing woman my mom is and how much I miss having her around.. or being around her.

In the past I would have said that my dad is the ultimate father/husband. He does it all, he's the total package. I've had friends telling me that my dad was "Super Dad", and they barely know him or barely scratched the surface. But I'm here to talk about my mom today.

Yesterday for Small Group, we studied Proverbs 31:10-31, which is the Prologue of Proverbs, and talks about "a Wife of Noble Character". Our SG leader took translations of each passage and asked us whether the statement was true for the person we were thinking about. (I've quoted The Message so that it can apply more to modern terms):

A good woman is hard to find,
and worth far more than diamonds.

This is definitely true, my mom is worth more than diamonds -- in fact all the wealth in the world doesn't measure up to how much I value my mom.

Her husband trusts her without reserve,
and never has reason to regret it.

No doubt about that. Dad trusts her with many things, except maybe to not scratch the car (haha).

Never spiteful, she treats him generously
all her life long.

That's certainly true as well. Sure they have occasional spats, every couple does.. But in the end they love eachother immensely and their love overflows into our family dynamics and even far beyond that.

She shops around for the best yarns and cottons,
and enjoys knitting and sewing.

That's definitely true, Mom has patched many, many of my pants, ripped jackets and shirts. She once made a laundry bag for each students graduating from highschool. She helped me sew together my grade 6 tear-away pants that to this day, I believe I deserved an A on, not to mention some kind of patent, I could've been rich, no thanks to you Ms. Paul! Mom taught me how to sew too and I'm pretty good at it now.. Mom help me fix all the mistakes I made after I tried to sew a stuffed doggy for a girl I had a crush on. I wonder if she still has it.. And mom even made macromay flower hangers for a few of our potted plants. So yea, mom can definitely sew/knit.

She's like a trading ship that sails to faraway places
and brings back exotic surprises.

Whenever Mom goes on a trip somewhere, she buys us something. She got me a shot glass from The Orleans hotel in Las Vegas, a Niagara-On-The-Lake sweater for when she went there on a business trip.

She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast
for her family and organizing her day.

I don't think there are too many mom's out there who hasn't gotten up early to prepare a meal for her family. This one's too easy.

She looks over a field and buys it,
then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden.

Mom definitely has done her share of lawn care and gardening. Our front lawn had been decimated by cinch bugs once, and mom went out, pulled out all the weeds and grass, and literally re-seeded the entire patch of dead grass on her own. It was pretty amazing, if you go and take a look at the house now, that's the most healthy patch of grass on the entire lawn, if not in the entire neighbourhood. Every year I remember we'd always be the first house on the street with beautiful crocuses (which of course always bloomed pre-maturely and died from frostbite because of a 'fake' spring). We always had tulips too, and all kinds of other plants. Mom took me out to the back to meet Mr. French, our old neighbours in Unionville, and let me spend time with Mr. French to learn about wildflowers. How else would a 6-year old be able to tell the difference between Lady Slippers and Lady-in-the-Pulpit?

First thing in the morning, she dresses for work,
rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.

Mom is always the first person awake. Even now, when we go visit, she's always the first awake, to go feed the dog, or prepare our breakfast. I'm an early riser and she even beats me to it. Maybe I get it from her? Come to think of it I don't think Mom ever 'sleeps in'. She's alawys the first (except for Christmas mornings when I'd get up pretty much when everyone went to bed).

She senses the worth of her work,
is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.

Mom spent many late nights (as most accountants tend to do), fixing other peoples' mistakes. I remember how relieved I was when mom finished her CMA so that she wouldn't be coming home late anymore. Mom definitely put in her time to provide for our family.

She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth,
diligent in homemaking.

There's a centerpiece and a couple of fake potted plants in my condo that Mom made. She's very skilled.. if you ever came to our home in Vegas, you'd see all the paintings and drawings she's made. People come over and see them and think we bought them. That's definitely Mom's handiwork right there, making our home a warmer place, full of artwork. Since my parents moved to Vegas, Mom's been a full-time housewife.

She's quick to assist anyone in need,
reaches out to help the poor.

Mom has always been one of the most compassionate persons I've known. She's always the first to start crying when she sees something sad or sees someone suffering. And she's always the first to go help someone when they're in need. She really goes out of her way to help others.

She doesn't worry about her family when it snows;
their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.

This kind of goes back to the sewing thing, but Mom always had us ready for winter. All the winter clothes would be out and ready, she would always make sure we were bundled up warmly. I remember we could never lose our mitts or gloves because Mom tied a string through the back and sleeves so that they'd just hang off and never get lost. In retrospect I should have done that with my gloves.. I just lost a pair last winter.

She makes her own clothing,
and dresses in colorful linens and silks.

This was probably the only one I couldn't say was true. Mom's always dressed very humbly, never too fancy or flashy. I think some of the clothes she wears could be older than I am. But I think this might be the one point in King Lemuel's writings that is out of place. Mom conserves her own personal spending for the benefit of everyone else. Less new clothes for her means new clothes for the rest of us, and it's that generosity that really shines through.

Her husband is greatly respected
when he deliberates with the city fathers.

Even this is true. Dad works for the government so that covers the "city fathers" part. And he's sent me newspaper articles about him and the work he's been doing there. No doubt you have to be well respected to get your picture in the news!

She designs gowns and sells them,
brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops.

I'm not sure if Mom has ever sold any of the clothes she made.. though we could've made a killing on those tearaways! (Yes, I'll never let that one go). Mom made me and my brother's Hallowe'en costumes. Darryl was the cutest pumpkin on the block, and wow we got so much candy when we took him out in that costume!

Her clothes are well-made and elegant,
and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.

Mom does worry about us a lot sometimes, maybe a bit too much. Mom is rarely worried about anything to do with herself. It's always us, or my dad, or my grandparents that she really gets worried about. The whole clothing thing -- again I don't see that as a big positive anyway.

When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say,
and she always says it kindly.

Mom is pretty soft-spoken, although I know that she has opened up a lot in Vegas with her women's bible study group, all those ladies seem to know so much about me and Darryl. Anyone who's known my mom knows she's a very kind woman. Even when mom's nagging me, there is always quite a bit of truth in what she's saying, even if I'll deny it. (I will *always* deny this!)

She keeps an eye on everyone in her household,
and keeps them all busy and productive.

Darryl and I used to say that Mom was against us having fun. Whenever we were having fun, Mom would come and burst our bubbles, and get us to do some work around the house. Vacuuming, washing dishes, mopping, these things always came up whenever we weren't being productive. So this one's definitely bang on!

Her children respect and bless her;
her husband joins in with words of praise:

I think this one goes without saying.. we definitely love and have the utmost respect for Mom and what she has accomplished in her life.

"Many women have done wonderful things,
but you've outclassed them all!"

I don't mean to make comparisons, and let's not go down the "my mom's better than your mom!" road, but out of anyone I know personally, Mom surpasses them all.

Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades.
The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.

Mom is always stressing us (me and Darryl, and even to Dad to some extent) to read His word, giving us books of wisdom to read, and urging us to be more active in our faith, to be Christ-like, to be ambassadors of God. She is always telling us to behave, and be nice to old people, to be generous and humble, honest and trustworthy, patient and faithful.

Give her everything she deserves!
Festoon her life with praises!

I had to look that one up. A festoon is like a garland. After reading this scripture, and going through this lesson of noble characteristics, I can say without hesitation that my Mom is a noble character!

Happy Birthday Mom! I miss you!!

The Prestige

I'm not going to pretend -- I have not seen as movies this year as I would have liked. There's at least a half dozen movies out there that I thought to myself "Ooh.. that looks good" but never got around to seeing them. After last year's batch of politically themed films (and hence, movies that were boring as hell), I have been a lot more gun shy when it comes to spending my hard-earned dough on big-screen entertainment.

So I haven't seen very many movies, but I should say that I'm glad I went to see The Prestige. This was one I did want to see, it being a Christian Bale movie, and also a Christopher Nolan movie. And Scarlett Johansson, did I mention Scarlett Johansson?

I'm a big fan of Christian Bale, I like his intensity and the way he manifests himself into characters that he plays. The guy lost over 80 pounds just to play his role in The Machinist, and then following that, gained all that mass back as muscle so that he could play Batman. If that's not dedication to your craft, then I don't know what is.

Hugh Jackman I'm not as big a fan of, but he was decent in this movie. I think with Jackman, I always find that he's tries too hard to keep his pretty-boy image intact, I always feel as if he's going to say his line and then wink to the camera and give his "Hey ladies.. I'm being a badass because I know you think I'm hot" look. He's also got this famous 'scowl', the "Whoa.. how did he do that amazing magic trick?" look, or the "Hundreds of mutants and yet I'm always the one that has to save the day?" look, or the "How many more of these things to have to kill?" look (from Van Helsing). He's yet to show me he can actually act.

Michael Caine was playing his 'loyal friend that doesn't really get mixed up with the conflict of the story' role much like he did opposite Bale in Batman Begins as Alfred the butler. And to Scarlett Johansson -- if you are reading this -- we know you can play a promiscuous woman. Show us something else! Or don't take acting seriously and just be the "eye candy" of every film you make.. that's also fine with me.

But really aside from the average acting, it really was a great movie. Complete with several twists and a shocking (actually, disturbing) end. I can't say any more about the plot without giving it away.

I recommend this movie to anyone and give it a stellar 8.7/10.

In-N-Out

The topic of burgers came up today at work, and immediately I brought up my favorite burger place, In-N-Out burgers. Actually the conversation started when one guy had interest in buying Tim Horton's stock, and then we got talking about various franchising which finally led to the discussion of burgers.

One guy told me about Fatburger, which is a place I guess I will have to try out when I go this Christmas.

But the thing about In-N-Out burgers is that they're made fresh -- never frozen, and you can pretty much order it any way you like. They have a secret menu where you can order certain things and they'll bring out a burger according to the code name.

One popular burger is the # x #. So say you order a 3x4. That's 3 patties and 4 slices of cheese. 4x4 is 4 patties and 4 slices of cheese. Check out this guy, who had a 100x100 (if you just ate, don't click.. it's kinda gross in a very funny way).

Another one is the "flying dutchman", which is one I will likely try this winter. It's two patties, two slices of cheese. No lettuce, no tomatoes, no buns, no anything. Just meat and cheese.

The one I already knew about is "Animal style" which basically means they give you sauteed onions instead of fresh uncooked onions. What I didn't know is that you can also get animal style fries, they top your fries off with secret sauce, cheese and sauteed onions.

Secret sauce is just Thousand Island dressing, btw.

One other one I wanted to try is the "Protein Burger", this is just a regular burger but they wrap it in lettuce instead of buns. So no bread at all, just patties and cheese wrapped in a lettuce, kinda like that Peking Duck thing.

Here's a PDFof all their secret stuff, and a site. Check them out.. they have pictures.

"Earth" uses iPod

Just for fun, a few months ago I ran an experiment (it was really more something for me to do on the subway besides sleep), where I would count the number of people listening to portable devices, and out of those, count the number of them using an iPod.

I took about 30-35 different samples, and ended up with an average of 7 out of 9. 7 out of every 9 "mp3 listeners" were using iPods. That's pretty incredible.

The picture above is a satellite image take in Alberta, near Medicine Hat. Pretty freaky isn't it? The URL is HERE.

21 Days to go!

2006-2007 NBA Predictions

Champions: Dallas Mavericks
NBA Finals: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Dallas Mavericks
Most Valuable Player: Lebron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
Runner Up: Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowtizki, Tim Duncan
Playoffs MVP: Dirk Nowitzki
Runner Up: Lebron James, Josh Howard
Rookie of the Year: Brandon Roy, Portland Trailblazers
Runner Up: Renaldo Balkman, Rajon Rondo, Andrea Bargnani
Sixth Man Award: Fred Jones, Toronto Raptors
Runner Up: (no idea)
Most Improved Player: Gerald Green, Boston Celtics
Runner Up: Kris Humphries, Francisco Elson, Darko Milicic
Coach of the Year: Scott Skiles, Chicago Bulls
Runner Up: Pat Riley, Jeff Van Gundy, Greg Popovich
Scoring Champ: Lebron James

Playoff Seeds
Eastern Conference:
1. Miami Heat
2. Chicago Bulls
3. Cleveland Cavaliers
4. Detroit Pistons
5. Indiana Pacers
6. New Jersey Nets
7. Washington Wizards
8. Toronto Raptors, 42-40

Western Conference:
1. San Antonio Spurs
2. Dallas Mavericks
3. Houston Rockets
4. Phoenix Suns
5. Sacramento Kings
6. LA Clippers
7. LA Lakers
8. Denver Nuggets

Other predictions:

1. Sam Mitchell will not be fired.
2. Renaldo Balkman will be good, but Isiah Thomas will be fired.
3. Steve Nash will not be the best point guard in the league.

Best Show

As some of you know, I watch a lot of television. But those who don't.. well many of you think I play video games all day long. I stopped playing. I now devote 40% of that video gaming time to television (the other 60% goes towards my Perspectives homework).

So, back to the issue of television. I've caught just about every new show this season and have been able to decide within an episode or two (or three or four) whether or not the show is worth watching, or rather, whether or not it deserves my undying week-in-and-week-out loyalty.

Some shows have already been cancelled, and in all cases, I whole-heartedly agreed with the networks' decision. Mind you there are still a few survivors (shows like Justice, Vanished, Studio 60, 30 Rock, The Nine, Brothers and Sisters, Men in Trees, Rumors), but it's only a matter of time. 30 Rock surprised me the most in its suckitude. Tina Fey is a wonderful writer, but she sucks as an actor. Her character is the most boring out of the entire show. Very disappointing. The latter 3 I have never seen before. I hate Calista Flockhart and Anne Heche so those were no-brainers (not that I really want to waste my time watching prime-time soap opera's anyway).

Out of the shows I do like:
- Prison Break (not new)
- Heroes
- House (not new)
- CSI (not new)
- Jericho
- LOST (not new)
- Standoff

Which of these would I classify as the best show? Well first of all, I only watch Prison Break, Heroes, Jericho and LOST. Standoff is a cop show, no continuation therefore no reason to tune in every night. Same for CSI and even though House is not a cop show, it is still different week-to-week and unless you really care about the recovery of his leg, there is no real edge to watching every single episode.

You may notice that Smallville is not on this list. The reason is that I've decided to put this show on hiatus and watch it with my brother in the winter/summer, whenever we're both free. Thursdays are a no-no for me since I have class, and well, I just hope Malice is able to hold off, if anything, to save himself time to study.

This leaves 4 shows, all of which are continuous.

LOST is on the brink of annoyance. With the writers not knowing where they are headed, I feel like I'm being cheated out of an hour each week because nothing has really happened. They ended last season in a cliffhanger that, 3 week later still has not been resolved. Keeping viewers in the dark is one thing, but I have the distinct feeling that the reasons they weren't resolved was because the writers are hoping we forgot about the details because they couldn't think of a good way to resolve them. Still, the mystery keeps me coming back, even though I know that the writers are just messing with us. LOST's ratings have taken a significant hit this season, they are well below their averages from last year. Hopefully that will encourage the producers and writers that they should have an episode where SOMETHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS.

JERICHO is a show about a small town that apparently may contain a handful of the few remaining americans alive after what appears to have been a nuclear attack on the US. What keeps me watching? I want to find out who did this to them. And in kind of a 'survivor' kind of theme, I want to see how they can make it, when they run out of fuel, electricity.. resources. There is heart to this show, and compassion, and also desperation and fear. I guess this show basically has a soul and it's very interesting and compelling to watch.

PRISON BREAK. The twists, the turns, the escape. Here is another show that keeps me coming back just because of the whodunit? aspect of the storyline. You want to see the government plot exposed, and you want to see the characters escape from the grasps of these bad guys (the FBI). Yea I kind of just spoiled it for you but what did you expect.

Which leaves finally the best show on television today -- HEROES.

HEROES is in my opinion, without a doubt, the best show on television. It has everything that I could ask for. First there's the superhero aspect of it. People trying to save the world but they are not from another planet. They're real people like you and me. Then there's the mutant/special abilities aspect to it. People discovering new things that couldn't do before, and testing them out. There's an evil villain.. you don't know what he wants or is trying to accomplish but boy he looks pretty mean and nasty. The show is well written and acted, and things ACTUALLY HAPPEN. There's a guy who can fly. Yes. Fly.

You know I've got nothing against the other shows, surely I would like Prison Break a lot if Michael Schofield could fly, but if he could, there wouldn't be much of an escape there. He'd be in Panama now and the story would be over.

Big Meat

If only Google would fix their uploading of pictures for Beta Blogger, I would be able to show you the roast lamb I made for Thanksgiving.

I've discovered that I like to cook big meats. First I did the chicken last Thanksgiving, and then I've done several beef briskets, and then a roast lamb and now..

I bought a rack of ribs today and will try to make "fall off the bone" ribs, likely tomorrow, but more likely sometime during the week, which really means next Saturday if I'm lucky.

I really like cooking meat. I think it's because I really like meat.

The Nintendo Wii

I am, by all means, a Nintendo fanboy. I lined up on Monday morning at 7:15am (just as the sun speak out above the horizon) in front of my local EB Games store in the hopes of getting a pre-order for the new console by Nintendo, the Wii. 7:15am is nothing as the people in the front of the line had been there at 9pm the night before, and I'd count myself lucky because only 2 more people behind me got a Wii pre-order that day, everyone else went home empty handed.

Here is a great article about the Wii that surely should inspire your imagination.

Think!

I've been racking my brains for the last couple of days. You see, our church finally decided to have us (Longlac team) share as part of a sunday school session. Each of us have around 5 minutes to say something. If you'll recall, I went to Longlac 3 months ago. Three months.

It's been tough for me to try to remember events of that trip that were particularly meaningful to me. Because it's just been so long. I've been asking around what people would be most interested in hearing. One guy told me, that most people just share about the funny stories. But, that doesn't really do much, the point of sharing is to let people know what God has been doing, and how to motivate people to go on missions. One other guy told me to tell the funny stories. So..

I kind of want to share about my spiritual walk, and where the Spirit's been leading me after the trip. About me taking Perspectives, planned trip to Urbana, me wanting to go to China, things like that -- but that doesn't really talk about the trip, it's just about me. And were there any significant events during the trip that made me want to take missions more seriously? I don't know.. I think it was a more gradual thing. I almost didn't take Perspectives because I wanted more time for myself, but in the end enrolled and now I have no time for myself, but am loving the course..

So what should I share about?

For What It's Worth

There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound, everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn, nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds, getting so much resistance from behind

What a field-day for the heat, a thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs, mostly say, hooray for our side

Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

Before, we fought wars to defend something, there was innocence and people didn't know why we were fighting. People were afraid. You can see it right here in the lyrics by Buffalo Springfield. Hence all the "give peace a chance" and hippy culture. Great songs were written to inspire our people, to encourage awareness and for us to stand up and fight for what was right.

Why isn't there stuff like this anymore? Are we not hunting down Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan? Trying to uphold peace in Iraq?

The world has changed. Today we fight, but no longer is it between right and wrong. It's for politics, for money, revenge. There's no longer a driving force for the war, it's completely politically driven, leaving the general people powerless to make a stand. There's nothing we can do but sit back and wait for it to pass. Gone are the days of rally's, protests, burning effigies. The young people of today have no passion, they're aware but disconnected from the rest of the world.

Look at what John Mayer says about it:

Me and all my friends we're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and there's no way we ever could
Now we see everything that's going wrong with the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means to rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change

It's hard to beat the system when we're standing at a distance

Now if we had the power to bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas no more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television what you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh they can bend it all they want

It's not that we don't care, we just know that the fight ain't fair
One day our generation is gonna rule the population

One day..

Rock and Roll

When I was young, like really young because in truth I am pretty young right now. Anyway, as I was saying, when I was young, as in back in the day, I had friends that were really into rock and rock, and being the naive, good boy christian, I scoffed at that stuff.

That stuff was beneath me. I mean, you have to remember I was a good kid, a model son, the kind that all the parents at church would sigh when they looked at me, wishing their kid had turned out like me. I think for that reason a lot of kids must have resented me, probably often getting the ol' "Why can't you be like Brian" speech. In retrospect, that might explain why I was excluded whenever all the kids were off doing some mischievious deed and I was left alone to do my own thing.

I guess that also explains why when I watch the people on Rockstar do covers on these songs, they all sound new to me, even though they are, in fact, classics.

Now when I look back on those days, I realize that I missed out on a whole lot of good rock and roll. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Metallica, Guns N Roses, Cream, (okay, maybe that was before my time, but) the point is -- I missed out on all this great music while I was busy being a good boy and making my parents proud. And now, going back on that, it is really pure gold that I missed out on, musically these songs sound fantastic, and lyrically, they are meaningful and poetic. At least, unlike the crap you hear these days.

Finally

So here is what happened. In the blogger settings you can choose to publish via ftp to an external non-blogspot website. This is exactly what I did, switching to http://www.brianyao.com/blog. I did this to experiment.

What happened next will explain why you haven't seen any posts here for the past few weeks. I went to blogger and tried to switch it back to ebrian.blogspot.com. Only when I did this, it told me that "ebrian" was not available.

At first I thought someone had stolen it, but as you know this site has remained here the entire time. I then went through the Google help groups and finally found out that this is a bug that they were working on. Any time you switch your subdomain out to ftp, when you go back it is locked and unreachable. The purpose for this was to prevent spammers from snatching up existing subdomains and posting spam everywhere.

So finally I'm back here again.

New blog

I've moved to brianyao.com.

The funny thing of course is that you can only read this message if you go to brianyao.com, which of course is impossible since, well, you're probably sitting in front of the computer staring at ebrian.blogspot.com and wondering why he hasn't updated in ages.

Hah. Well, not much I can do.

Continuum

Continuum is the latest album belonging to John Mayer. This is a fantastic CD, just completely and totally awesome. It's just great, it really is.

You'd have to be pretty crazy not to buy this CD. It's really just that good. If you buy this CD, you will be tremendously satisfied with your purchase. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is "REFUND" and 10 is "It's so good, I'm gonna buy THREE so I can listen to it at home and in the car and at work!", I give this album a 42.

The Verdict is in..

There's a number of new shows out there that I've checked out over the past couple weeks. Here's a brief overview/review of the shows.. they are in no particular order.

1. Justice

Justice is about a law firm that takes on high profile cases. The kink in the show is that they deal with the media and at the end they show what really happened (whether or not the person was indeed guilty or not). This show is all flash and no substance. It's pure crap. Ron Rifkin should have perhaps waited for a better role before jumping on this straight after Alias. He's too brash and arrogant (I know, he's supposed to be -- but it's just not believable) and frankly, I find him a little annoying, as in Wanda Sykes annoying. Yes, I went there. This show may last because stupid Americans really like their lawyer/cop shows. But in my opinion, it should be cancelled.. I'd give it a 2 out of 10. It shows at 9pm, which I believe will end up competing with LOST when that returns in October? Yea, this show is gonna die if that's the case.. but I think it would have died anyway, because it blows.

2. Standoff

Standoff is a show about hostage situations, and a pair negotiators who are really good at their job and happen to be having a romantic relationship with eachother. The guy is played by the Office Space guy, and he's actually okay, and the girl, I don't know where I've seen her from but she and him get together well and they have a pretty good chemistry going. I suppose you can credit the writing. Whatever the case may be, I find this show interesting and on a scale of 1 to 10, I give it solid 7. I'm not sure if this show is flashy or compelling enough that it will keep going. Standoff is on at 9pm Tuesdays, which gives it a decent chance because everyone watches House at 8pm.

3. Jericho

Jericho is a show about a town that survives a nuclear attack on US soil. I've only seen one episode of this show but I was pretty riveted throughout the hour. One of the mains, Jake, is played by someone I've seen before but I have no idea where. I think one of those old teenage angst actors. Anyway, so far Atlanta and Denver have been completely wiped out. It's an interesting show and at first glance I would give it a 9 out of 10, however if you think about it -- how far can they go with this show. Once the town uses their ham radio or whatever the heck they use to communicate with other nearby towns, then what? Either they go Adam & Eve cuz they're the last ones left, or there are other towns.. I just don't see where they could go with this. If it was terrorists, how can a tiny town defend themselves? This show is on at 8pm on Wednesdays.

4. Kidnapped

Kidnapped is a show about a high-profile man's son who is kidnapped. They've got that Delindo Roy or something, the black dude from Gone in 60 Seconds. And also, Bubba from Forrest Gump is in this too. Looks like the bad guy is that runt from The Green Mile, the bad guard named Percy? He plays a great villain. This show was also good, I'm pleasantly surprised by what TV has to offer on Wednesday's. I'm assuming LOST returns to Wednesdays which puts up somewhat of a bidding war for ebrian's attention. Plus Grey's Anatomy is also on Wednesdays (I don't watch Anatomy, but I'm very aware of it's popularity.) I would also give Kidnapped a 9 of 10. I just hope it ends like 24 does, a conclusion at the end of the season and not some stupid conspiracy show that drags on for several years.

5. Vanished

This is another high-profile kidnapping, this time the wife of a senator. I think this show will bomb, because it's crap. There's just nothing there for me to want to continue watching, even though I've seen 2 episodes and have learned about the characters and their feelings. There's too many conspiracies going on and too many characters to keep track of. I would give it a 5/10. This show is gonna go heads up against NBC's new show "Heroes" which is apparently about people who have superpowers. Vanished got a head start (3-4 episodes before Heroes premiere's next week), but I think it's gonna shrivel up and die.

6. Smith

Smith is about regular family people who get together occasionally to commit heists and other illegal activities. It has some extreme star power with Virginia Madsen, Ray Liotta and Amy Smart. I dunno about you guys but I find this show kind of disappointing. I don't like Ray Liotta as Bobby Smith. He's just not believable as a family man, nor a criminal. It's like he should have never signed on the show. Another thing is Virginia.. there's something about her, ever since Sideways I've had sort of had a crush on her. It's not like she's particular attractive, but when I think about her monologue about wine, there's just that bit of passion about her that I think is really cool. Anyway, as for the show it's just not that good. I have no idea what the show's purpose is. My assumption is that they're never actually going to get caught and the entire show is about each person's relationship with their "day job" acquaintances. 6.5/10.

7. Shark

In case you're wondering, I have no intention of watching this because I can't stand the sight of his face nor the sound of his voice. Of course I'm talking about James Woods. Plus I've had it up to here with lawyer shows. What's the point of lawyer shows? If you really think about it, it's quite possibly the most boring premise that any show could have. Okay, they're real people just like you and me -- we get it. Cases. Law. Judge. Jury. Guilty. Not guilty. Enough!

8. Studio 60 on Sunset Strip

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring. I think it's about a show similar to SNL that rehires ex-writers because they really suck and decide to go in a new direction. Amanda Peete and Matthew Perry are in it, and also one of dudes from Kings of Comedy. Judd Hirsch was on too but I think it was just a cameo. I like Matt though, for once he's not Chandler. I'm getting tired as it's 1am, but because I had coffee for the first time in a year, I'm totally wired. 6/10. This one could go the distance as they've got some writers from West Wing doing this, meaning it's actually quite well written. It's very different. I wonder if they'll show sketches from the pseudo-SNL, or will it just be about relationships between actors who are playing actors who are playing actors. That's new.

Reality shows!

1. Survivor

Survivor is about.. if I have to explain to you what Survivor is, you shouldn't be reading this post. This year they've pitted races against eachother. 4 teams of 5: the whites, the blacks, the asians and the hispanics. The Asians curiously have no chinese people -- a vietnamese, two koreans and two filipino's. If you're wondering why there are no chinese people, it's simple. Chinese people are too good to be on the show. If they had a chinese person on the show, they may as well just give them the $1M and the show would end. :)

Seriously though.. last week when they announced that there was going to be puzzles in the immunity challenge, how many people honestly thought the Asians *wouldn't* win? C'mon now. Give me a puzzle or math problem, I will solve it. Give me something heavy to lift, that's another story.

2. Amazing Race

No thanks. It's on Sundays. Football is on Sundays.

One day if they remove all the equalizer rounds from Amazing Race, I might tune in again. What I mean is, a team has a huge lead, like 12 hour lead. So, the next place that they arrive, conveniently they need to take a ferry that doesn't leave for another 16 hours. Hmm.. do you think everyone is gonna catch up? What they need is a non-stop race, none of these "let's let everyone catch up even though they screwed up badly and honestly should have been eliminated 8 weeks ago" rounds.

Also, it's getting a bit too repetitive.

"I think it's left."
"No, you're stupid, turn right."
"No, you're a fat cow, turn left!"
"I hate you. [turns left]"
[several hours later]
"I think you were right.."
"I'm always right. I want a divorce."
"[starts crying] Why do you have to be so mean? You're not a very supportive person. When I met you in the online dating system, you seemed so nice!"
"Just shutup and go back."
"I hate you."
"Finally, we agree on something."
[show ends, couple is eliminated]

"I'm so glad we went on this trip. We learned so much about eachother and we're stronger now than we ever were. Thank you LavaLife, thank you Amazing Race!"

New category.. comedies!

1. 'Til Death

This one stars Brad Garrett from Everybody Love's Raymond. He and his wife have been married many years and a newlywed moves in next door and Brad teaches the new guy the ins and outs of marriage. It's a pretty entertaining show. Thursdays are really, for me, a dead zone since I have my Perspectives class on Thursdays.. but I think this show will do well. I give it an 8.5/10. It's gonna make it.

That's all for now!

Amazing guitar

This is Stanley Jordan playing Eleanor Rigby. I know, I don't know what Eleanor Rigby is either, but check it out anyway because this guy uses a style called touch playing, it involves the use of both hands playing different notes on a guitar, which is something I did not know was possible.

This guy's solo.. if he were using one hand I'd already be impressed, but for him to be using both hands and different notes for each hand as if it's like two guitars or a piano, that's just totally, totally amazing.

If this doesn't completely blow your mind like it did for me, then by all means, please show me something that does.

Nick Saban

Nick Saban is an idiot. I am completely flabbergasted by his inability to grasp the importance of a simple decision of challenging a game-changing, cross that, GAME-BREAKING play. Nevermind the absolutely atrocious play-calling by the officials who evidentally like the Steelers A LOT (you already know how I felt about the officiating from last year's Superbowl).

He threw that flag like it was a porcelain doll that he was afraid might break from the impact of the field. What the heck was he thinking? And why wait so long to do it? That's the game right there. Pittsburgh had fumbled the last time they were at the goalline, there was no reason to think they had a TD in the bag. Miami could have stopped them and given up just a field goal. Anything would have been better than the actual end result, the pathetic tossing of the flag.

That was just wrong. Miami had that game in the bag and their coach blew it.

Ben

Word out on the street is that "Hollywoodland", might pull Ben Affleck out of the "worst actors of all time" category. People are saying that you may have to start treating Ben Affleck as a serious actor. This to me is like saying papercuts are fun.

To those who believe that Ben is ready to become a major player in Hollywood acting, I scoff at you. Ben Affleck is the flagship for bad movies and I stand by this, he is the president of the "Worst Movies of All Time" fanclub.

"Hollywoodland" (Adrian Brody, Diane Lane) is just another "Good Will Hunting" (Robin Williams, Matt Damon) -- a movie with stellar acting and Ben riding on their coattails. I tell you now, regardless of how Ben appears to be quote-unquote acting in this upcoming film, he is just a coat-tail rider.. in fact you might say he is the superhero of coat-tail riding, with his pals Alonzo Mourning and Orlando Bloom* as his side-kicks.

*More on Whorelando later.

One movie I'm really looking forward to is one starring the aforementioned Matt Damon, one of my more favorite actors. "The Departed" is a star-studded collaboration of quality actors, including Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Leonardo DiCaprio. Heck, even Marky Mark is in this one. You just know that when guys like Nicholson and DiCaprio come out from the woodworks, you are in for a very good movie. What I like about these two guys, and DiCaprio in particular, is that you get the sense that they take their craft very seriously.

What I like most about DiCaprio is that he doesn't 'ride the wave', as many other actors tend to do. He'll do a movie and then go back into hiding, do another movie, go back to hiding, and etc. Other actors (at least those who tend to be thrown into Leo's category of actors) tend to put out a good movie and then lay out a series of bombs that seemingly make some good movie while riding the actors' popularity from that first movie. But with Leo, even after Titanic he didn't make anything until a year later. I think that's a good sign that the actor is taking his job seriously and isn't just there for the fame and wealth.

Anyway, that's a movie I'm looking forward to, and also there is a movie called "Fearless", starring Jet Li. Apparently this is his last epic kung fu movie.

*Elizabethtown. Somehow I got sucked into watching this movie. I think it was because I was watching Kirsten Dunst reprise her role from Crazy/Beautiful, only with a little extra "hyper"-ness. What a terrible movie starring Mr. Bloom. Orlando Bloom is the boy-wonder of overrated actors.

Dear Frankie

Here's one of the pictures that Blogger lost..

Anyway, I wanted to write about this movie I saw yesterday called "Dear Frankie". I think I remember seeing the trailer for it when watching Millions at the theatre. At the time, I really wanted to watch it but when it did finally come out I think I was too busy. It was on TMN yesterday and it being Labor Day and having the day off, I curled up on the couch and watched it with my brother.

It was a good movie, better than I expected. This was just a great story about a mother's love for her son, the fears of mis-parenting, not being able to please, and the struggles of being a single parent. What was great about it is that it avoided many cop-outs that I could have seen a LA studio conforming to. It ended in a happy, bittersweet kind of way without the glitzy glamor of American movies. I really, really like these european flicks, especially the Irish/British/UK stuff. They strip away the Hollywood-ness of films and really get to the heart of it.

I wouldn't say the movie was as good as Millions, but it was still good. I give it a 10/10.

Stephen Robert Irwin, 1962-2006

When my cousin popped online and told me Steve Irwin had died, I couldn't believe it. I totally love this guy. I've got countless memories of him doing some of the craziest things I've ever seen. The way he handled God's creatures with love and care, and his passion for educating others about each and every animal. You could truly feel his empathy for animals.

I remember him battling with a rattle snake, and he almost got bit right in the nuts, but he finally managed to pick him up -- just so that he could transplant the thing to a safer area -- further into the outback and away from the road. Risking his life for the good of an animal, one that tried to kill him.

Every time I watched this guy, and I'm sure you'll all agree, his passion and his determination was truly amazing to see. He'd have some deadly reptile pinned down, and while carefully moving it to show the camera, he'd be, at the same time, careful not to allow it to KILL him, and then spend a good 4-5 minutes explaining all the intricacies of this creature, where it came from, what it's thinking, lifespan, its unique features.

You might think of him as an entertainer, a dare-devil, maybe a crazy man. A But I think what separates him from others is that the others are more thrill-seekers, whereas Steve Irwin was a guy who was just trying to teach us the amazing things about each animal. He knew things that we couldn't just read from a book because he'd experienced them hands-on. He loved animals and wanted the world to see how amazing they were.

Well, it breaks my heart but blogger died, as it usually does when you hit that "Publish Post" button. I had a few more great pictures of him but you can thank Google's blogger for screwed it all up.

Rest in peace, Steve.

Jeff George

I thought I was dreaming last night when, while watching Monday Night Football, they announced that the Raiders had signed Jeff George.

Jeff George? JEFF GEORGE?!

Even now as I type his name, Jeff George, it makes me snicker at the thought that this guy could be starting in a couple weeks for the lowly Raiders. Hahah.. Jeff George.

Still later as Berman and the gang discussed George's career, I still could not believe it. Jeff George?! Back in the league?! I haven't heard that name in 5 years. That's how long it's been since he was in the league.

5 years ago he played for the Washington Redskins, played 2 games and had a grand total of 168 yards passing, 3 INTs and a superb pass rating of 34. He was dropped thereafter, spent 2 years on the Seattle Seahawks, didn't see a single snap, then 2 more years with the Chicago Bears, again no snaps.

Now he's back with the Oakland Raiders. Maybe he's hoping the team will bring him back the success he had 9 years ago, when he had the best season of his career. Yes, 9 years ago it was 1997 and I was still in highschool. If you'll recall he had a great year with the Raiders in 1997, then the following year he sucked, got hurt, and Rich Gannon took over -- leading the Raiders to the Superbowl and an eventual thrashing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

You know what the funniest thing about Jeff George is, it's been 16 years since he was drafted first overall by the Indianapolis Colts, yet he has 9 years of NFL experience. Makes you kinda wonder what he was doing for 7 years out of those 16 years..

I like George though, he has a really strong arm. Even the analysts on MNF were laughing it up when they spoke about him. George had the most beautiful spiral of any QB they had ever seen. He's got a rocket arm for sure.. usually he's just the kind of guy who wears out his welcome. Maybe he's grown up a bit now that he is 39. He's even older than Brett Favre!

Put it this way, Doug Pederson has seen more action in the past 5 years than Jeff George. Doug Pederson. And Pederson's been retired for 2 years now.

Good luck to you, Mr. George.

Pluto

I've put off my Longlac sharing email for way too long. I am terribly, terribly sorry. I haven't even been working on it. I'll try to get it done this week.

I have my G driving test this Thursday. I've been putting that off for too long too. I think I'm gonna fail because of all the bad habits I picked up during the past 3 years. Fortunately the wait time is not too bad, only 3-4 weeks. I can take the test at least another 6-7 times before my license expires..

Apparently Pluto is not a planet anymore. Do scientists really have so much time on their hands that they had to get together to decide what is a planet and what isn't? I mean who cares? It's round, and it floats around in space. Is it a planet? Is it not a planet? In the grand scheme of things, why does this matter to anyone?

Dear scientists: Let's spend more time trying to cure AIDS, cancer, and other diseases instead of figuring out how to classify a floating ball in space.

made to worship

I just learned how to play a song by Chris Tomlin from his album, "Live From Austin Music Hall". The tutorial for the song is up on worshiptogether.com. It's called Made to Worship.

Here are the lyrics:

Made To Worship by Chris Tomlin

Verse 1:
Before the day
Before the light
Before the world revolved around the sun
God on high
Stepped down into time
And wrote the story of His love for everyone

Pre-Chorus:
He has filled our hearts with wonder
So that we always remember

CHORUS:
You and are made to worship
You and I are called to love
You and I are forgiven and free
When you and I embrace surrender
When you and I choose to believe
Then you and I will see who we were meant to be

Verse 2:
All we are
And all we have
Is all a gift from God that we receiver
Brought to life
We open up our eyes
To see the majesty and glory of the King

Bridge:
Even the rocks cry out
Even the heavens shout
At the sound of His Holy Name
So let every voice sing out
Let every knee bow down
He is worthy of all our praise

Lucky Louie

I can't believe that I'm making a post about this show. When I first started watching it, I thought it was awful. The writing was boring, the storylines were at times, absolutely crude and disgusting. And I'm not even gonna make a comment about male frontal nudity.. that is just so wrong.

But for some reason I kept watching, and at this point I'd go as to say that Lucky Louie might be one of the best shows on television. I think what the writers have gone for is a show about the truth, about what life is really like for the average poor household. It paints a pretty desperate situation, but I think it's a reality.

If "The Office" portrays a realistic office-setting, then "Lucky Louie" portrays a realistic home-setting, well, not my family per se, but probably closer to the average poor american. The issues they deal with are pertinent though, the themes are real and I can often relate to them, even if they are taken a bit too extreme at times.

If you ever have a chance to check it out, I say go for it. But not with kids around, there's a lot of swearing in it.

twentyeight

So I'm 28 today. Feeling the full effects of being older today. Yesterday I attended the AIDS Benefit Concert. The thing went so late, we stayed til the end because in truth, we really only went there to see the Bare Naked Ladies, and they were the final act. They finally appeared on stage at 12:30am. That's totally insane. We were there since 7pm.

We had 200 level seats but since the concert didn't sell very well, we were upgraded to 100-level. That probably really sucked for people who paid $100 for 100-level seats in the first place, (we paid $60), but then when you think about the people who paid $30 for the 500-level seats, then all of a sudden we didn't get such a great deal as we thought.

A lot of people spoke, including Bill Gates and Melinda Gates. She's a pretty good speaker.. not just some trophy wife :)

When Steven Harper's rep came out, the crowd gave him an earful. Boos rang down. I usually like Harper, but in this case, he really dropped the ball on this thing. How could he not show up on such an world-stage event. We're talking about a world-wide conference, being hosted by Canada, something that comes once every 2 years, with a momentus cause like fighting the AIDS virus.. how could the prime minister not show up?

As I mentioned, we were really there to see BNL, as was pretty much 90% of the people there. We had to sit through so many acts, some quite frankly, were crap. Our Lady Peace.. wow, these guys suck rocks. They pumped up the volume like crazy, probably just to hide the fact that the guitarists weren't really playing anything, and the lead singer -- yikes. Canadian Idol finalists are like Barbara Streisand and Mariah Carey compared to the OLP singer.

The OLP singer also sang with his wife Chantal Kreviazuk. He wasn't very good but she was..

Chantal Kreviazuk was amazing, just singing with a piano. It was really, really good. It was good enough that the thought of buying her CD crept into my mind (not that I'd actually buy it, but the idea of it is proof that she was pretty good).

There was also some guy named Barry Ivan White. Not Barry White, as we all know he's dead. But that guy rocked the house.

Also there was Amanda Marshall, who sang 3 songs from her 1st album, the one I bought when I was a huge Amanda Marshall fan. She's a bit wacko.. I wonder if her agent ever suggested that she taking dancing lessons. Her act on stage while singing was hilarious. Mad convulsions..

Blue Man Group came out and did something. That was interesting. I've seen these guys perform live twice now and still haven't been to their show. I dunno if I could sit through 2 hours worth of their stuff though.

Alicia Keys came out and spoke, but did not sing. I bet the show would have had a better chance to selling out if she was going to be one of the performers..

Anyway, the night ended with BNL. Everyone was still around past midnight just to see these guys. They didn't disappoint. And between a couple songs, they announced that there was going to be a special guest singer -- Steven Harper. They started to page him, getting us to clap for him to show up. Course the idiot wasn't around, and then they started getting sarcastic, saying things like "surely, on a world stage such as this, with Canada hosting, surely the prime minister would have the decency to show up?", and then they gave their take on this, about being ashamed of Steven Harper.

I think that summed up the night pretty well from a political stand point.

I ended up in bed a 2am, which is why I'm sitting here this morning in kind of a daze.

Anxiety.. or something

It's butterflies or something.. are flying around in my stomach for no reason. I'm not stressed for anything, I'm not worried about anything.. well, except for my stomach.

I've had this nervous, anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach over the past 24 hours and I have no idea what the problem is. I've eaten normally, had plenty of liquids, I haven't done anything different in the past couple weeks.

I can't figure out what the problem is.. is my body trying to tell me something? Did I forget to do something?

Life stages

When you get to around the age that I have just about reached or have already reached, and you're still single, you start getting not only pressure from parents, but concerned friends who are married. Generally I've found that people who are married are very intrigued by people who aren't married, they feel as though we (the single) are behind or missing out on something.

Not that I don't disagree that we're missing out on something -- obviously we're missing out on married life. But this idea that we're in some kind of dilemna that needs fixing is totally absurd. "Poor Johnny, he's in a real bind. Look at him, he's single. We need to save him.."

Generally I think all married couples who do this are coming in with good intentions. Although they may not really see the big picture, they have experienced something amazing and want to see us experience the same thing.

'The setup'

The setup is when those elite married couples decide that one of us just cannot go any further being single, and feel the need to alleviate us from this horrible fate that we find ourselves in. They prod and poke to try and figure out what the heck is wrong with us, why haven't we moved in for the kill, what are we waiting for. They give us a list of names, or ask us for certain criteria we're looking for and then provide us with a list of names.

On an interesting side note, this has never actually happened to me. I've seen it hundreds of times to my friends but never to me. I'm kind of in the belief that I personally am not ready for a serious relationship because I am bereft of any kind of mature adult thought. And as a big kid, no woman of my age could possibly take me seriously enough to invest time into a serious relationship with me. I think people see the same thing which is why they never bother to try to set me up. Or perhaps in their eyes I'm not good enough for any of their friends. Or maybe I'm being paranoid and they just see others as more 'desperate cases' than myself. :D

'I'm still finding myself'

I like this answer and I think it works as a great excuse for why I'm still on the 'dark side'. When I was 20 years old, everyone was talking about trying to find God's Will in their life. At that age, we're all looking for answers as to where our lives should be headed. You're in school, you kind of know what you'll be doing because you're finally getting a grasp of what you're learning in school and where it could lead. At 28 (in a couple weeks) I stand here proudly and say that I still have not found myself. I don't really know who I am.

Personally speaking, I can totally see myself getting married, starting a family, growing old with someone. It's the stage in between where I am and that, that to me is kind of a grey area for me. I can't picture myself dating. I can't get my head around the part when you have to ask someone out, then dress up real nice, try to carry out a conversation, poking and prodding. It just doesn't seem natural to me.

I think the coolest thing would be to meet someone while serving. Chances are if you're serving alongside a person, you already have very similar goals and interests. God wouldn't place you in a situation where you weren't using your gifts to the best of your capability. Thus you can kind of skip the whole awkward dating process and go straight into the whatever the next part is. I like that.

'I'm going to bed'

Since I can't think of a good conclusion to this post, I'm just gonna go to sleep.

I don't dance

I went to check out the Jazz Festival on Friday with my small group. Personally I'm not a huge fan of jazz, but this year's festival wasn't really jazz anyway so I enjoyed it. And actually, the few groups that were playing jazz, I really enjoyed. So maybe I'm impartial when it comes to jazz. The other thing is, I felt like dancing a bit when I listened to it.

You fast forward to Mike and Nadine's wedding (pictures to come later), they played some hip-hop stuff and I had absolutely no inkling to dance at all. *shrug*

One of the acts we saw was a kid named Rob Christian and his band, he plays the sax.. and he was amazing.

Here's his website. I wish I had bought his CDs because you need to pay shipping if you order from them.

Relevant

Kim from our Longlac team had a Relevant magazine with her on our trip. She told me about the website and podcasts. I've never actually gotten into podcasts, as I know it's this whole new world and I get the feeling that if I get into it, I may never see the outside world again.

Anyway. The website's pretty cool. http://www.relevantmagazine.com.

I've been considering getting out of the Christian music scene for a little while. Just cuz like, as many others who've been down this road have noticed, the music becomes less significant when you hear it all the time.

coming..

Sorry! I haven't forgotten about you. Just sorting out my thoughts..

Vacation

Since I never got around to a trip to Africa, and seeing all of Ina's photos to Hawaii, it really got me thinking about what I could do (likely next year). Since I'm not going this year, I'll likely have 15 carry-over days giving me a grand total of 30 days next year. Now assuming I'll be heading back to Longlac again next year, that leaves 25 days of vacationing!

I was trying to think of a good, purposeful or even meaningful vacation spot. A couple weeks ago during a bible study I was looking through the neat maps in the back of my bible and I stumbled upon the idea of backpacking through the middle east and Europe, touching on the cities and locations that Paul visited during his missionary journeys. I think it would be really cool to try to retrace Paul's steps, although I don't even know if those cities still exist. The picture I've uploaded is the third leg of Paul's journeys.

Yesterday for small group we had praise and prayer. It was basically something that I've been hoping and praying for, a chance to quiet down, lift up my burdens up to Him and just spend some time with him. Things have been so hectic lately, all the work that is piling up on my desk at work, all of which I basically have to get done before the end of next week. Then worrying about being prepared mentally and spiritually for the Longlac trip in EIGHT DAYS. Gosh.. But last night gave me the opportunity, finally, a quiet night where I could just commune with God.

Blogging

So it occurs to me today that I need new blogging friends. Michelle is long gone, and my real life friends are all updating on a *quarterly* basis.

I had this amazing thought, a great post to make. It's still in draft mode but it's a really good one. Y'all should just keep checking here til I finish it. It's just *that* good. The whole sermon, if you could call it that.. I mean it's more like an encouragement or spirital rant. But anyway, like I was saying, the whole thing is wrapped around lyrics from a John Mayer song.

For those wondering about my cooking adventures, I have some pictures but I'll post them (probably never). I'm currently in week 3 of a long pasta phase. Ever since I discovered fresh pasta at the supermarket, I've gone nuts with it. I'm made spaghettini, linguine and ravioli. Creativity with ravioli leaves much to be desired. But with the others, I've had the most fun with linguine. I made a seafood linguine, had everything but calimari in it. It was pretty tasty.

But my favorite one right now is the broccoli and grilled chicken breast one, with alfredo sauce. I just love this one, I've had it for dinner about 8 times in the past 3 weeks. Pasta totally rocks, and I can totally see the whole "pasta makes you fat" thing, it's so true.

Been working out lately, mostly arms and shoulders. My purpose for working out has changed. Lon told me this, about working out, not for myself but for the glory of God. His idea is that, the longer you live, the longer you can spend in your life glorifying God. I can totally understand that and I'm going with it. If I die early because of my own sloth, I've basically thrown out this responsibility I have of living my life fully to glorify Him. Cuz I'm dead.

Another great reason for working out, especially for my arms and shoulders, is so that I'll have less trouble lifting kids up over my head when I go to Longlac. I remember having a lot of trouble with that last year. Piggyback rides are one thing but when they ask to go on your shoulders.. that can get painful.

Blah

You are listening to "Just Like You" by Jadon Lavik. Yup, thank goodness for Jadon Lavik, no wasted $17 here!

Today is Kenric's birthday. He's 28. Kenric is my friend and I like him a lot. I hope he's having a nice day.

I feel so *blah* today. I had soooo much work to do this morning, it just came as one big blur because I had to get it all done before my meeting at 2. Work is gonna be crazy for me the next couple weeks. I have to get everything on my plate finished before I go on my trip.

I almost missed my Longlac meeting late because I thought today was Wednesday and the meeting was on Thursday, so I sat at home eating dinner and then suddenly I get this call from Pastor Daniel:

Hey Brian, are you coming to the meeting?
me: There's a meeting?
Um.. haha, yes.. did you forget?
me: I thought it was tomorrow.. but today's.. oh crap! I totally forgot.
Well, just come now, we have a lot to cover.
me:[no shit, damn] okay, sorry, I'll come right now *sigh*
Okay, I won't tell them that you forgot. [click]

I've discovered that I use the word "annoying" a lot. I'll tell someone that I find another person annoying, or that the sound that machine makes is annoying. I think that I use the word too much, to the point that there's no way to measure how annoying something is, because my overuse of this word.

I was thinking about developing a scale of annoyance levels. For instance, "Ben Mulroney annoying" versus "Wanda Sykes annoying". On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the most annoying, Ben Mulroney would be a 2, while Wanda Sykes would be a 10, just above "Nails on a chalkboard"'s 9.

I think Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell and Orlando Bloom should start a club, a club called the "We Are Bad Actors So Don't Bother Watching Movies We're Starring In" club.

It just occurred to me that these 3 guys have collectively come up with some of the worst movies of all time in the past 10 years. I wonder if there were similar guys from back in the day that had this amazing gift, like an Anti-Midas touch of turning films to feces.

I watched Superman Returns last weekend. It was an awesome movie. I'm really biased when it comes to this, as a fan of Superman. But personally, I thought it was an amazing movie. Man, I wish I could fly. I mean take away the super strength, super speed, rugged good looks (which I already have anyway), x-ray vision, laser eyes, super cold breath. I'll just take the flying please, it's good enough for me.

I really like Superman. He's the savior of the earth, just like Jesus, only Superman is a fictional character whereas Jesus is the real mccoy.

I'll be leaving for Longlac in 9 days. It doesn't feel like it yet. I mean to say that my head's not into it yet, and neither is my heart. Please pray that I get there as soon as possible. I think this missions trip is going to be totally amazing... I just hope I don't miss it..

What is the world coming to?

In 2006, the 3 biggest issues facing kids in school, according to teachers:

1. Violence
2. Drugs
3. Sex

In 1956:

1. Talking in class
2. Chewing gum in class
3. Running in the halls..

--

In other news, it has been approximately 11 months since I had any kind of 'girl fever'. This is a great thing. I like me better when I'm not 'sick'.. I'm more relaxed, happier, etc. There's always that big fear that something bad will happen that I'll never live down or that wretched, heartbreaking feeling afterwards. Avoiding that is probably the best thing.

Although physically I've been sick more this year than I can ever remember. I was thinking of trying just one week of eating healthily, just to see what it's like for those poor suckers who actually do this.

The funniest thing about me being sick all the time, is that I was perfectly healthy when I used to sit to come home from work and play WoW til 2am, eat some Chunky soup, and go to sleep, wake up 5 hours later to play another hour and then go to work. In fact, as hard as it is to believe, I was the healthiest during that year of irresponsibly skipping meals and playing computer 10 hours per day. I was rarely sick, didn't have love handles like I do now, I was 135-140 lbs compared to 155 lbs now, and I wasn't tired all the time like I am now. Strange isn't it.

Now I'm getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night, haven't skipped a meal in months, I workout every day, eat great meals -- pasta, steaks, korean stuff, balanced meals of veggies and meat, grains and proteins. I get a healthy amount of fresh air every day, go out with friends, etc. And here I am getting sick almost once every 9 or 10 days. Go figure.

But anyway, as I was saying earlier, I'm happier than ever, joyous even.

Lesson

Sigh. I drank way too much water today.. been to the bathroom about 6 times in the past hour. Have to go again now. Sigh.

Yesterday I went to Charles' home to iron out the final details for the VBS that we'll be teaching on the final day at Longlac. We're leading the story of the Prodigal Son, which will end our lessons for the week. Our theme this year is "Relationship with God", so we're doing the final, unconditional and irrational love, followed by a story about salvation and the making of salvation bracelets. Pastor Daniel wants each of the pairs (teaching VBS) to present our plans to the rest of the group this Thursday.

It's been a challenging time for us because neither of us have any experience teaching young children (I didn't lead a bible lesson last year). However, Charles is a teacher so we were able to delve into some of the ideas he had from his education/training. And I bring the experience of helping out last year, and knowing their mannerisms and tendencies.

After that, I headed for Mitchell's bookstore, hoping to pick up the Red CD "End of Silence". Fortunately I arrived at the store 30 minutes before closing time. I found the album under the New Releases section. And then, I did something that I knew I would totally regret.

I noticed an album by the group Pocket Full Of Rocks, which is a band that I had heard of from reading the top billboard Christian listings. I had never listened to their music, had no idea even what genre they were. But you gotta figure that if everyone likes them, they must be good, right? RIGHT?

Wrong. I'm sure you know what I'm leading up to. Take it from me, don't buy CDs impulsively. 17 bucks down the drain -- Lesson learned.

New musics

Hillsongs London
Hillsongs is becoming contagious, which is great for the ministry but bad for my wallet. London (England) has their own Hillsongs now, their very own band. I at first that London's Hillsongs was comparable to Hillsong Australia (Darlene et al) but when I sampled the CD, I found it's a little bit closer to Hillsong United's style of music, which is to be expected, the generational gap and all.

(Turns out H:L was already around 2 years ago, but this was the first I've heard of them.)

It reminds me very much of United's earlier stuff. Rock-style praise & worship, but not as edgey as it is today. Today's United is borderline hard rock, very loud, metallic. But the old stuff was just young people singing P&W with a rock twist.

If I'm not mistaken, Matt Redman is on this CD, as well as one of the guys from Delirious.

DecembeRadio

This is a brand spankin' new band. Their name is derived from December, a month that is of the high importance and joy for us as Christians, the month when we celebrate Christ's birth.

DecembeRadio is a classic rock band, unlike the newer rock we hear today that 10 years ago was called alternative -- DecembeRadio is more of what we called rock 10-15 years ago. I got a chance to sample their debut self-titled album.. I really liked the song called "Drifter".

The new album comes out June 27, 2006.

Red

Another new band. Their debut album is called "Breaking The Silence". They sound a lot like Linkin Park, without the rapping, or least that I heard from the free samples.

Red's sound is rock, very loud, not for the feint-hearted. It's loud guitar and lots of yelling and loud tenor. To summarize: Mom and Dad may think that you're rebelling or have joined a cult. And apparently, when these guys perform it's completely over-the-top, they can swing their guitars around their body and one time it got so crazy that one of the band members' guitars hit another guy in the head and he had to get stitches -- um yea, "yikes" is the word I was thinking of too.

But in general the music is full of passion, very emotional. And I like the sound -- it sounds like they're a pretty talented bunch of guys. I might actually buy this one, just cuz it sounds so great. It'd be cool to blast this one in the car.

This album is already out, though unsure if it's available here.

David Crowder Band

David Crowder has a new album coming out called "B Collision", a follow-up of their disappointing album "A Collision*". It's more of the same stuff, an acoustic remix of a few of the songs from the first disaster.

* Note: Remember these are all just my opinion. A friend of mine has this album and actually likes it. _shrug_

After listening to "A" for some time, I had the inkling that he was in it for the money. The reason being I figured he couldn't care less that the album totally sucked because he knew that after Illuminate, people would buy "A" out of sheer excitement and curiousity. But upon hearing "B", there's just no way anyone will buy this crap so obviously he's not in it for the money. I now believe David Crowder has gone coo-coo.

In Illuminate he sings about being drunk with God's love -- Inhibriated. I don't think he's drunk. High maybe, but not drunk.

Canon

Longlac 2006

For those of you who haven't been keeping up with my missions blog (my guess is that it's all of you), I am indeed going back to Longlac this year. This is pretty much a decision I made last year on the last day, as we were departing from Longlac #58.

Nothing's changed, I am still going and I've been fortunate enough that I haven't been inconvenienced with anything else so that I'll be able to go without any hitches. This year we will be going for longer, two weekends, from July 15-23.

As I said in my other blog, the difference this year is that I'm not just a visitor anymore, I'm going there as a missionary. Not just a guy who wants to see what it's all about or to test it out, see if it's my calling or out of curiosity. I think, that because I want to return there and continue to grow relationships and to, you know, finish or continue what we started, that I'm going in a different mindset that the last time. And that's not to diminish the great work that one-timer missionaries have done in the past. I just think that going back is just that much more important and meaningful.

It's kind of like, telling your friend or co-worker all about God and salvation, and then saying goodbye and never speaking to them ever again. But not really. No follow-up. Again I'm not knocking the one-timers here but that's how I see from my perspective.

At the same time I have tons of worries and feelings of inadequacy, much like last year. Who knows if this even counts as a follow-up because maybe we didn't even leave a tiny dent last year, maybe it was all for naught. I mean certainly it was for more than naught but did we really make a lasting difference? Who knows.

But maybe it's just silly to worry because here we are doing God's work, and really, is it possible to be fully qualified to do God's work. I mean, to be fully qualified? That's probably never possible. It's not like could ever live up to God's expectations, or if anything He'd have to lower His expectations so low and even then we'd still disappoint Him.

But anyway I'm very excited about this because of all the above reasons.

We have a different team too, different dynamics and junk like that. I'm way past my bedtime.

Waistland

I went shopping for clothes on Saturday with my brother and came across what I suppose is a common quandry for out-of-shape people, like myself. You get to the clothing hangers, in this case, the pants area and you start looking for pant/waist sizes.

So I'm looking at the pants near my *current* waist size, and thinking if I should buy these pants that will be very comfortable for me, but slightly larger. OR, should I go for the ones that are slightly smaller, force myself to suck it in but if I workout a bit, they'll fit perfectly.

Because the thing is if I do buy the smaller ones, and do workout, then I'm better off. But if I buy the comfortable ones, it'll allow me to fill them out even more, and then the next thing you know I'm at the store buying even bigger ones because I've managed to fill out those fat pants.

In the end I winded up getting all my size or larger.

Ralph

I remember a skit on the show "You Can't Do That On Television". A family is sitting at the dinner table getting ready for dinner. The daughter asks what's for dinner and the mom says, "Stew, like your uncle Stu."

So then they start to eat, and the son takes a bite and has this look of disgust on his face and says, "This should've been named after Uncle Ralph."

Hahahaha..

Deprivation

I have been in a rotten mood over the past week at work. I don't know what it is, I deal with 'silly' people almost every day but lately it's been getting to me. I don't usually allow myself to get riled up over things but I have dealt with a couple of very frustrating users that I support. People have been calling in with some of the stupidest questions, things that would only make sense if they were blind or deaf. The thing is it's probably always been like this but whether it is sleep deprivation or God knows what, I've become a lot less patient when it comes to dealing with these people.

It also doesn't help that we are closing in on another release in 2 weeks and I have a sh*tload of documentation that needs to be updated, and during this time where I have all this work, these morons call me up.

You all know that I've had problems sleeping past 6:30. Over the past 3-4 days, I have been regularly waking up at 5:30. It drives me nuts and every time I wake up and see the clock I curse at myself.

[Brian wakes up, abruptly like an alarm has gone off in his head.]
[Brian rolls over, looks at his clock.]
Brian: "5:30? FIVE THIRTY?! What the HELL!!"
[Goes back to sleep.]
[Tick, tock, tick, tock..]
[Time passes. Very little, as it turns out.]
[Brian wakes up, checks his clock.]
Brian: "HOLY CRAP.. 5:37? SEVEN MINUTES HAVE PASSED?? NOOOOOO.."

It's even worse when you consider I slept at 1:30am..

It feels kind of like ... I'm in school again.

Edit: Woke up at 4:30am on Thursday.

Edit: Woke up at 4:21am on Friday.

Dance Revolution

Look at this 5 year-old move! So cute!

X-Men: The Last Stand

I watched X-Men: The Last Stand on Saturday at 3:45pm at Empress Walk theatres with Darryl. Movies at Empire Theatres really sucks because it just costs way too much money. But considering that I didn't have to leave my building.. that was an okay trade-off.

I came into the movie with very low expectations. I knew that the original director of the first two films, Bryan Singer, was off this project because he had chosen instead to do Superman Returns (which I expect to be very good, even if I don't like the casting choices). Brett Ratner, maker of the Rush Hour directed this 3rd instalment of X-Men. So I was not expecting very much substance, just a good ride, good action.

What can I say about this movie without giving away most of the plot. Jean Grey supposedly died in the previous movie, but as they panned out on the dam where the huge explosion was that killed her, you saw the sillouette of a bird under the water. That bird is Phoenix. Phoenix, according to the X-Men cartoons I used to watch, was an alter-ego (or was it an alien being to took over her?) of Jean Grey, who was extremely, extremely powerful. So powerful that she became the most powerful mutant ever, more powerful than Xavier or Magneto. The synopsis of the movie is that the government develops a "cure" for mutants, a drug of some sort. The mutants are outraged because they don't think they need to be cured. Magneto gets a bunch of mutants to attack the drug production area. The X-Men come to save the day. That's gist of it. Oh, and Phoenix is helping the bad mutants.

I thought Halle Berry played a good role. I recently heard that Halle does not plan on reprising her role of Storm in future X-Men movies. I think that is a huge mistake. I mean come on, it's not as if her career is going anywhere. She had a good cry scene that won her an Oscar. Big deal.

Hugh Jackman can't really act, but he doesn't need to. He just slashes and jumps around and heals real quick as Wolverine. I was surprised to find out that Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") was playing Beast. I don't recall him doing an action movie before. Beast is pretty much a strong intellectual type stuck inside a blue furry animal. Kelsey can't act either.

Make sure you stay til the end of the movie, after the credits. There's a redeeming scene at the end that makes you feel less empty.

If you go into this movie with less expectations than the first 2 movies, you can come out thinking it was a pretty cool movie. It's just another of those blockbuster summer hits. I enjoyed it, but I think it could have been better.

7.5/10.

New record

"Attention, attention."
"Attention, attention."
"This is the security speaking."
"This is the security speaking."
"The fire alarm has been activated."
"The fire alarm has been activated."
"The fire department is working on the situation."
"The fire department is working on the situation."
"Unforunately, it is a false alarm."
"Unforunately, it is a false alarm."

I don't know what's funnier, that he feels the need to repeat every sentence, or the fact that he thinks that a false alarm is "unfortunate". I would think a real fire would be far more unfortunate, but I guess since he's not 30 floors away from the fire exit, he's not as scared as I would be.

So this alarm goes off at 12am, which isn't too late unless you consider I had to wake up at 6:30 to go to work the next morning, because I had to make up time at work because I missed a whole day because of the TTC strike.

And to make matters worse, my internal clock woke me up at 5:30am. (That's a new record).

But aside from the lack of sleep I am doing fine. I haven't had a whole lot to blog about. I've noticed that whenever I have guests/family, I don't blog as much and since my brother is here for the summer, I've blogged very little.

Andrew & Lisa from Ottawa stayed over for the weekend, in Toronto for a wedding. I always enjoy spending time with them. I think I've mentioned them before. I stayed with them one night when I was in Ottawa in March. They always find time for me whenever they visit Toronto, and I always enjoy talking to them, especially with Lisa who is just a very loving person, great person to talk to. They're a very God-centered couple who I find often rubs off on me and makes me realize sometimes how not-God-centered I can become.

I think they are one of the few people from Ottawa that I actually still talk to and not just purely reminisce with. I think that's the main reason I stopped meeting with my university friends, because all we would ever talk about was the old days, and after awhile it wasn't cool to hang out because we always talked about the same old thing. You need a buffer, a span of a few years to hang out with people like that, that way reminiscing doesn't feel idiotic.

On the weekend we also had a big lunch reunion, where I saw Tim C for the first time since 2000. He has gained a lot of weight since then. He's also gained a fiance in Angela. Very nice girl.. looked a bit like a chinese Rachel McAdams. Also saw Andrew and Bernice, I believe that Andrew spent a co-op term in Ottawa. It's none of my business but I'm surprised they aren't engaged yet. Lon and Yvonne were also in attendance, along with Roger, Miranda and her sister Ange. We ate at Skyland de Shanghai, a restaurant close to Midland & Steeles. Everytime I eat there, I come out with a huge belly.. the food there is sooo good.

Goals

It occurred to me on the subway ride home, that maybe working upwards might not be such a bad thing. I've always worked horizontally, trying to meet people and talk to them, expanding my social and "political" network but never really had much invested in trying to move up. Of course I'm talking about work, and working on getting promoted, moving up the ranks.

I've never considered it as something that I had any interest in doing. Sure, it comes with benefits. Better salary, more respect from peers, more impressive to others, etc. I guess I could see other benefits now, such as opening my mission field to a different group of individuals, those who are more "advanced".

There's a song called "So Long Self" in the new Mercy Me album "Coming Up To Breathe". The lyrics are interesting because they speak about breaking up and the common phrases you hear in a relationship that is about to end. Only the difference is that Bart sings it to himself. He's saying goodbye to himself because it's all about God now.

Well if I come across a little bit distant
It's just because I am
Things just seem to feel a little bit different
You understand
Believe it or not but life is not apparently
About me anyways
But I have met the One who really is worthy

I think it's cool to say goodbye to yourself, to your own ambitions, aspirations. Your salary expectations, your goals as to how big your house should be, a shiny car, a beautiful wife (or husband), that big promotion you're looking forward to. None of that matters.

Opportunities

It's been over a week since my last post. That's not for the lack of excitement in my life, but just an insane span of days where I've been totally either pre-occupied or exhausted. Work has been really busy, and the time between work and bedtime have been jam packed as well.

It occurred to me last night that I have not been making the right choices when it comes to dinner preparation and going out to eat with my brother. My salary dictates that I can't afford to live this way. It's a good thing my brother is only here for the summer! I've been thinking about what we can eat for dinner, and I've concluded that the honeymoon is over and that I'll need to cook large meals on the weekends and hope the leftovers last for at least a few days.

I've had some wonderful conversations with people at work lately. Somehow important conversations pop out of no where. Sometimes they catch me off guard and I'm unable to capitalize on them, but other times meaningful stuff result in them. It's all part of the "my work place is my mission field" thing that I've been praying about, and also hearing about. I think as Christians we often wonder about the Great Commission and how we can do our part if we feel as if we weren't called for the traditional "missionary" work.

And I kinda think that these opportunities have always been there but that I just wasn't listening for them. Or maybe, God has opened them after all the prayers. Or, perhaps God opens these doors when He feels you're prepared for them. Whatever the case may be, I find myself having all sorts of opportunities to talk about evolution and creation, life purposes and goals, religion, music, culture, beliefs.

This brings to a close my poll, which was whether or not you think you've been called for missions. Of course, the answer is yes. We as believers have been called for missions. There's no if, ands, or buts about it. For it is written:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 18:19-20)

I don't know if it could be any clearer than this..

Siblings

My brother said something to me that made me tremendously happy. We were walking together towards the elevator, on our way downstairs to buy us some vegetables (we've been having way too much meat lately). He put his arm around me and told me that I was a good brother. That he had seen other people's brothers and that there was no comparison, that I'm a really good brother, the best he's ever seen. He said "Where would I be without you? You take care of me, you're a great brother. I love you, Brian."

I was totally taken aback, I asked him what he had done, if he had scratched my car, burnt something. But it was a random thing that he decided to share with me. It was totally AWESOME.

Thinking back, of the various milestones we've been through, it's be a growing relationship that started from me earnestly praying for a baby brother when I was 9, to the times I would pick him up from school, and then our sad separation when my family moved to the US. And then to have him come back to Toronto for University. To him it might seem like a curious roundabout way where God gave him a huge opportunity to study in the US only to end up back in Toronto again. Maybe it might seem like a curse to him, but to me it has been every little bit of a blessing.

Having the responsibility to look after another person may appear to be burden for some, but for me I've found that it has been challenging but extremely gratifying and fun. It has made me do things that I normally wouldn't bother with on my own, but because it's for someone else it becomes worthwhile.

I used to think that being independant was the ultimate way to learn how to deal with responsibilities, to learn to take care of yourself. But now I've learned that having a dependant you end up learning so much more because there's someone there to keep you accountable for your actions. It's kind of like the approach I take for driving -- I drive differently if I'm alone or if I'm giving someone a ride. I'm far more reckless driving on my own because the way I figure, if I screw up it's only me who suffers. There's more on the line when people you're responsible for are involved.

Apart from the responsibilities, having a friend, someone whom I love very much to be living with me. It's absolutely great. Having someone to come home to, to talk to, to eat with, to cook for/with, to enjoy games and tv shows with. It makes me so excited about the future, about what God has in store for me.

Coming Up To Breathe

I just realized that I have almost a dozen posts saved as drafts that I either never finishing writing or were afraid to.

Anyway, I made a big mistake saying that "Coming Up To Breathe" was a bad album. In fact it may be one of Mercy Me's best offerings. The difficulty in judging it at first was me being in a "hard rock" mode having listened to a lot of Building 429, and then the transition to a more southern, country rock.. well it just wasn't working for me.

But looking back I can definitely agree that I made a mistake in judgement. It's a great cd. I wasn't well today and didn't go to work, my mind is jumbled because I basically just woke up. I won't say much but post a song and lyrics.

Here is "Bring The Rain" by Mercy Me, from the "Coming Up To Breathe" album:

I can count a million times
People asking me why
I can praise You
With all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You?

Maybe since my life has changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on You Oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead
Draw closer through this time

So I pray
Bring me joy
Bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise you
Jesus bring the rain

I am Yours regardless of
The clouds that may loom above
Because You much are greater than the pain

You who made a way for me
Suffering Your destiny
So tell me
What's a little rain

So I pray
Bring me joy bring me peace
bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus bring the rain

Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Is the Lord God Almighty

Now forever sing
Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Is the Lord God Almighty

Everybody sing
Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Is the Lord God Almighty

Blasphemy - Suns

On Tuesday during our weekly team meeting, my supervisor talked about how we are trying to get other groups on board to use our application, which is a web based project tracking tool. It's called PTP.

Anyway, at some point he said we were trying to spread the "PTP Gospel". Then later, another guy who was travelling from district to district, called himself a missionary. I just find that absolutely blasphemous.

In the second half of this post I'd like to post my rant about the Phoenix Suns. This is a team that, I had always liked up until recently. They are a team of underdogs who lost their best player and banded together to put together a pretty remarkable season, making it into the playoffs with a high seeding. A team of cast-offs who are all have career years and seemingly a hard working, humble and classy group of individuals.

This all changed last Saturday when they played against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7. They shot nearly twice as good as the Lakers did, who were shooting a mere 35% for the game. Leading by 30 or more, they continued firing on all cylinders, going all out even late in the game when the end result was no question going to be a win. This is like kicking someone when they're down, and to me doing something like that in sports is about as worse as it can possibly get. With 5 minutes left in the game, leading by 30 points, with their MVP player tweaking his ankle, their coach chose to keep him in the game and continue to run up the score. It just doesn't make sense to me why you would do that unless you were purposely trying to embarass the other team. This kind of behavior made Steve Spurrier one of the most hated coaches in college football because he would do the same, run up the score even when his team was already up by a good margin.

This kind of bush league behavior is what I would have expected from a bunch of idiot players, possibly drunk, having absolutely zero respect for their teammates and their sport, to pull off something like this. It's basically turned my whole outlook of this team into seeing just how stupid these players are. At the end of the day, it proves one thing: The Phoenix Suns don't deserve to win the championship. You look at any other team who has a big lead in the playoffs, they do not fire 3 pointers and try to run up the score. Look at the Detroit Pistons after they had scored 11 3pointers in the first half, cruising by nearly a 25 point lead. They had a chance to break the NBA record for most 3 pointers in a playoff game. But did they go for it? Of course not, because they are a championship calibre/deserving team. They only scored 4 more 4 pointers for the rest of the game.

The Clippers, leading the Suns by 20 at the half, did the same thing. Did they try to rub it in? Of course not. Because they aren't a bunch of idiots and they respect their game and their opponents.

Lack of posts

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been pretty busy lazy and haven't had the chance to stop and think. My brother Darryl has moved back in for the summer. He finished his exams on Friday. I drove down to get him on Saturday.

I lended out my Building 429 "Rise" CD and have been listening to MercyMe's "Coming Up To Breathe". Initially I didn't really like it because it leans more towards the country side which is completely different from "Rise". But I have to say now that it's pretty darn good. While listening to it this morning on the subway, I had the same feeling I had listening to the previous album "Undone". It was a feeling of clarity that came over me. Feelings of joy and sensing God's hand upon me, opening my eyes.

Rise

I was asked if I disliked the band "Starfield". My personal opinion is that people like them a lot because they're Canadian and outside of that, they're just an average band. A friend of mine (who I trust in terms of musical taste) bought the CD after much hype was made about them, and told me the CD was "Okay, nothing special." If I were to spend $15-20 on every CD by all the average bands out there, I'd run out of money in a hurry.

That brings us to my review of Building 429's latest offering: "Rise".

When I bought their first CD "Space Between Us", I had almost no expectations. I had heard "Glory Defined" on the radio a billion times and outside of that I didn't think they would be much better than that. However, that CD surprised me because it was really good. I guess you could say I had mixed expectations of the second CD "Rise". On the one hand you expect good stuff because of the first, but on the other, I am always weary of sophomore CDs.

I think the first thing I noticed about Rise was that the musicians have matured a lot. They sound more like a hard rock band whereas in the first album, half the album was rock, and the other was a bit of alternative/pop. It impresses me that they would go and work harder on their craft after just picking up the "New Artist of the Year" Dove Award. Often I've found that bands release a sub-par CD following great success in the previous and just ride their past fame — or they're just one-hit wonders. For example, David Crowder's "Collision", MercyMe's "Coming Up To Breathe" (I'll get to this disappointment in a couple weeks), Coldplay's "X&Y", Alanis Morissette's "Everything after Jagged Little Pill". But in this case Building 429's second offering is even better than the first.

I haven't listened to anything other than "Rise" over the past few days in my iPod. The songs are brighter and fuller, and the lyrics are challenging and bold. I highly recommend this CD if you're into Christian rock.

10/10.