american toilet bowl

tonight i saw the movie american wedding. at first i didn't really want to see it, but seeing it at fairview justified enough for me to go see it. (fairview charges 675 cents, even on a regular day). kev, char, anita, larry, mattmark, 'maxima' were there too.

i hafta say it wasn't your typical 'fellowship' type movie, like one of those movies you don't bring your kids to see, or your parents.

but it was a riot! there were parts in it that people were almost falling out of their chairs from laughing so hard! it's also not often people laugh so hard they are clapping, or almost standing.. it was really funny -- gross at times -- but funny.

in the beginning of the movie i kept thinking how immature it was and didn't find too many things funny, but after awhile the humour grows on you and you can't help but laugh at it. actually this movie was way better than american pie 2, and slightly funnier (but also dirtier) than the first one.

beefs..?
something that makes me wonder is what happened to that other guy, the football guy 'Oz'. Wasn't he a friend of jim's -- wouldn't he be invited to the wedding? and what about tara reid, is her acting career going so well that she didn't need to make an appearance? and this guy kevin.. his character serves absolutely no purpose. if you take him out of the movie, it's still the same exact movie. and... who names their kid 'january' ??

score!

yesterday the guy finally came to pick up the fish tank. he brought with him 6 other guys, some of them were from his baseball team. (did i mention this guy's name was carlos delgado?). anyway, all the guys were pretty cool, they were pretty polite, even though i could smell they'd all come in from a bar.

they did a good job moving it, without scratching any of the walls. also, the guy gave me 150 bucks for the lawnmower. that was sweet. my dad said i could keep the money, so.. score! the guys invited me to go drinking with them, but i decided it's better that i didn't. even though they seemed like nice guys, they were big and figured when i had my 1 beer and couldn't take anymore, they'd probably make fun of me or something. plus i had to work today anyway.

i guess i'll use the money to buy mario kart: double dash, when it comes out in a couple months. and buy the evanescence cd once and for all.

going under

I was just reading an article about how the group Evanescence essentially decided to make their group completely secular, breaking all ties to their Christian roots. I really have a problem with this. Many groups switch between 'genres' in order to change their image (and ultimately try to make more money).

I remember once hearing Tarzan Dan saying he felt sorry for DC Talk for being labelled a christian group, back when they released that song to the secular world (i can't remember the name). U2 claims to be christian and in fact I've read Bono is a very strong christian, but they don't play christian music. Sixpence is another group that switches back and forth. Deliriou5 has released secular songs in the past.

For those reasons it doesn't bother me. I'm more concerned about whether they've truly denounced God, or if they're just doing it for their image/money. Whether they've decided to stop singing for the Christian genre or not doesn't affect whether I listen to them or not. It's really between them and God.

It brings us back to that 'you can't be saved twice, type of deal'. If they've been saved, and are now denouncing it, it's over for them. So for their sake, I hope it's just for ratings.

Regardless, Going Under is a pretty good song, though I had to listen to it 2-3 times before I started to like it.

Seabiscuit

I ended up at the movie after all. Kev called me from the base of my building at about 9:15, and I decided to just forget about waiting for this fish tank guy to call. The way I figure, he already paid for it, so he's gonna call me again to get his purchase.... eventually.

The movie was really good. I had seen "the making of.." of the movie on ESPN, and it looked pretty impressive. They said it was first time they ever had footage so up close and personal to a horse race. I think it would've been better at a better theatre, but the story itself was very inspiring. Set in times of the great depression, a bunch of hard-luck guys get together by chance and put together one of the improbable horse racing success stories ever.

But.. I dunno if it was the theatre, or the direction, but I didn't quite feel the attachment that I think the director was hoping for. It felt great (umm.. no spoilers) when great things happened in the movie, but.. it wasn't.. I don't think the director did a good enough job to draw me into the characters.

Well, let me put it this way.. the great parts of the story didn't bring a tear to my eye.

Maybe I expected too much out of this one, since people were already saying this movie would get nominated, but I still give it an 8/10 but I don't think they should get best direction or best film. Maybe.. Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor?

movies :(

Today, a guy called me to come pick up our 180-gallon fish tank. He came last week but with 4 guys, they didn't have enough strength to carry it out (we used 6 guys to move it in). Anyway, I was supposed to go see Seabiscuit to day with Char and Kev. This guy called me and said he'd call me around 8pm and pick it up shortly after.

Well, it's 9pm now and nothing. That really sucks. I accomodated my time for him and he didn't even call me. Now I'm going to miss the movie which starts in 50 minutes. It's going to take an hour to move the thing. That is just wrong..

life lesson

Even though my dad 'lectures' me everytime i see him, and most of it goes in one ear and out the other, one of the things he said to me last time i saw him rings pretty true and i've been giving it a lot of though.

He was saying how we spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping, and 1/3 of our lives working/studying. Those two are intangibles of everyday life, Christian or not. But it's the other 1/3rd that God is going to ask us about. What did we do during the 'other' 1/3 of our lives. So far for me, that 1/3 has been spent majorly on playing video games.

It makes me realize think about all the time I have wasted, and how much time I have left in my life that I need to make better use of.

today

Anyway, onto today's events. Olivia drove me to church. Today was my first time at T3C without family. It was a weird feeling, singing and praying without them there. Yesterday night, they didn't call me, so I was a bit worried since I had asked them to call me every night. I kept praying that they were safe and there was a good explanation behind why they hadn't called. Actually it turned out there just wasn't any reception for my dad's cell phone. Apparently they spent the night somewhere in Nebraska (or in layman terms -- in the middle of nowhere). Today they were already in Utah, which means they should arrive in Nevada sometime tonight, even though they had planned to arrive their tomorrow night. I guess my dad drove REALLY fast..

After service I went with Kev and Char to go grocery shopping at the big No Frills up near PacMall. That place was packed! Kev and I talked about his Altima and how nice it was. It was really spacious, especially in the back. I was pretty impressed with it. We saw a 2003 2.5s too, and that looked even better.. Well, it's bulkier anyway.

I bought a couple of steaks, salad dressing, lettuce, breakfast bars, and a block of cheddar.

introducing: my grandmother

Later on the in the afternoon after I got home, I told my gramma that I would be cooking for myself for dinner. I think she understood (my chinese is pretty poor). But for some reason at 6 she told me it was time to eat, and she had taken out the food and had put rice into my bowl. Again, I stated my case, that I was going to eat later and that I was cooking for myself. She said she already cooked before, and that she had already taken the rice, and that I should eat with them. (For those of you wondering, she's a very stubborn woman).

Again, I told her, I am cooking for myself tonight.. and continued watching TV. At 6:30, again she told me to come eat (they hadn't eaten yet, for some reason they were waiting for me, even though they normally eat at 5:30. So again, I told her I was cooking on my own and that I would start cooking soon, and to just start eating. Finally, they started eating. It's weird that the whole time my grandfather seemed to understand what was going on, but didn't say anything!

At 7, I went to cook my steak and again she told me to come eat. At 7:10 after I'd finished cooking, she again told me to come eat. My bowl was still full of rice. I took my plate and brought it over to the table and started to eat my steak and salad. She motioned to me to eat the other food as well. Again I explained that I was cooking on my own, and that I had told her this 3-4 times and also before she had prepared the food. She was not a happy camper..

They finished eating and did their dishes, and left the food on the table for me to eat, even though I was clearly eating my own food (btw the steak was awesome).

After I finished, I did the dishes, and then did their dishes again (my gramma doesn't believe in soap). Then I went back to watch TV. Then, gramma comes back over to talk to me, as if to lecture me or something, I don't know what. She seemed flustered and asked me if I didn't like her cooking. Well of course I like her cooking I said. I explained to her that I need to cook on my own once in awhile (and I plan to do so in the future as well). I told her it had nothing to do with her cooking, but that I felt I needed the experience of cooking on my own. I'm 25, after all. She wouldn't listen. She insisted that I just didn't like her cooking.

At this point, I started getting angry. I explained to her again, that I had told her that I would be cooking, and then I had to tell her 4 more times, and why didn't she listen to me. Man, I was pretty frustrated, partly because of her, and partly because my chinese was too poor to get my point across. She winded up sulking, putting the food away and mumbling to herself.

I wish that either that she could speak english or that I could speak chinese more fluently. Even though she is a stubborn person, I still think this could have been avoided if we could see eye-to-eye.

I think I'm gonna be blogging a lot more, now that I don't have my brother around to hang out with on the weekends.. either that or I'll have to find some friends..

Even now I still feel sick from yesterdays eggscapade. My throat still feels shrunken.

Anyway for lunch I didn't eat until 2pm, and I had some instant noodles. For dinner I ate with my grandparents. They like to eat cooked salmon straight out of the fridge! I think that's a little weird.. it's really cold. I heated it up. We had cherries for dessert afterwards.

After dinner I was feeling a little bloated so I *finally* tried some winsor pilates. I did the ab workout, but I got about halfway and my abs were aching so I just followed along lazily after that. I definitely do feel better though. I think if I do this every day, I should be fit in a couple months. I'm also going to try jogging every morning.. err.. did I mention this already? Maybe I should start.. err.. next week.. heh.

I insisted that my family calls me at each stopover, so last night they called me to let me know they were safe! Praise God for that!

Yesterday's fellowship was pretty good. We had to describe with words, starting from A..Z to describe God. We got quite a large list! After fellowship, we went to have desserts. I had a think called a Flaming Alaska. It was ice cream inside a cake, with whipped cream around it. Then they poured alcohol on top of it and lit it on fire.

It was an interesting dish, and tasted so good. But after I was finished, I had an inkling that there was some serious amounts of egg in it, because my stomach started to ache. Turns out there was a lot of egg in it, because last night was one night I would like to forget. My chest started to hurt really badly, I couldn't swallow and tons and tons of phlegm was building up. I must have spat out about 500 ml of it.. I couldn't sleep because of the build up. Finally I just induced vomitting, which wasn't very good either because the egg had to come back up through my throat, and so my throat swelled up. (I guess because the egg was in its purest form by then).

Anyway, I am fine now, my throat is still a little bit tightened up because I still can't swallow much, but at least there's no more phlegm build up!

This morning it was hugs all around before I had to leave for work. Saying goodbye to my mom and dad was nice, they've left me in good hands I think. Despite all the responsibility, it should be alright.

But when it came to saying goodbye to my brother, the tears started to flow. I wept. And as he saw me crying, he wept too. My mom, upon seeing we were both crying, also started to cry and we all hugged eachother. I tried my best to give some life advice to my bro in between the sobbing, but it was too difficult..

Then, I said goodbye again and headed off to work. In the elevator I almost broke down again, but in fear of people seeing me, I cleaned myself up. In the subway it almost happened again but I was okay by then.. I guess the moment had passed.

But, I'm fine now, thanks for asking.. [sniff]

Oooh.. I had a short chat with a friend of Mikey Bustos, of Canadian Idol yesterday. To check out updates, take a look at http://www.mikeybustos.ca. All of us here at ebrian.blogspot.com are definitely cheering and praying for Mikey. I also got a chance to listen to a song that Mikey and his friend Lawrence Lam made. It's a great song, just the two of them, one singing one playing instruments. It's a pretty good job, considering the home-maded-ness of it.

Okay, aside from the fact that the US went into Iraq and took over the regime all based on lies (wrong data), I saw the released pics of Uday and Qusay just now. All I can say is... EWW!

Well, miraculously my parents are still here. There was a bit more to move and clean up than they expected, and so the Wednesday date was moved back to Thursday, and now to Friday. For sure they are going tomorrow though. They've already packed the car, so there is no turning back. For the few that are reading, please pray that they have a safe trip.

I've already said my goodbyes to that blasted dog that caused me many headaches and sleepless mornings. I will definitely miss him. He is too cute not to miss... :)

My fears of subsided a little bit. I have to just keep remembering God is there and that I have friends out there willing to help and support me if I need it.

Hey you know what's funny, my boss posted his own position up the other day. He suggested that I apply for his position! Wouldn't it be weird to be my own boss, but not really? That would be so cool. Praise God for giving me this opportunity, even if it leads nowhere. I still can't believe my own boss would push me to apply for his position while he goes and gets his MPA. That's certainly encouraging...

Good night all!

This past weekend was busy times for my family as they prepared to move. It makes me worried as that day gets nearer. I will have so many responsibilities once they are gone, and I don't trust myself to be able to remember all the things that need taken care of.

o The house still hasn't been sold yet
o My grandparents are staying with me, so I will have to take care of them, despite our huge difference in culture and language barrier. I can understand what they are saying to me only 50% of the time.
o The tenants in my condo are leaving, so I will have to find new ones. This involves posting it on a rental magazine, interviewing the candidates, drafting a new contract agreement, etc.. tons of legal mumbo-jumbo
o I will have no form of transportation other than TTC when they are gone, as they are taking the car with them.
o I will have to pay property taxes, hydro bills, insurance
o I still don't have a full-time job

Gawd, I know there's a lot more and already I can't even remember everything. It's a frustrating feeling.

Praise God!

With much disbelief and disappointment, I'm here to announce that one of my favorite shows from last season, John Doe, has been cancelled.

John Doe talked about a man who woke up naked on an island. He found his way back to the city and discovered that despite not knowing anything about himself, he knew the answer to any other question you could think of.

He befriended a few people, including a police investigator (he would help the police to crack the tough cases), a bartender at the bar where he worked as a pianist, and an ex-waitress who became his personal assistant and later died because of him. There were these crazy sign-language-using fanatics who were trying to keep him from discovering his true identity (that's how the girl died, they killed her).

Anyway, last season's finale ended in the cliffhanger when Doe discovered that the leader of the fanatics was none other than his good friend, the bartender! My brother and I, and another friend were all looking forward to the conclusion of that episode. But alas, the show is over.

It's hard to believe that some of the absolute garbage they show on television could get through but not John Doe. This is totally disappointing..

The people voting for Canadian Idol are on crack. One of the issues for me for this show is finding someone who is marketable enough that they can break through and actually make it big enough to be recognized outside Canada. Because really, who cares if you're the Canadian Idol? What I'd like to see is an American Idol -- born in Canada.

Anyway yesterday I watched Finding Nemo with my bro and mom. It was really good. I thought it was fun and entertaining. We watched with a lot of children in the audience, and that made it more fun because they would giggle at certain parts. The little girl behind me had no idea what was going on though. Something I thought was really interesting was in the very beginning when all the eggs and Marlin's wife was killed (eaten). It was a really sad moment, and the kid behind me goes: "mommy, why is he sad?". The kid had absolutely no concept of death. Imagine, Disney teaching your kids about death before you get a chance to explain it better to them. Again, near the end of the movie when Marlin thought Nemo was dead, the kid asked again "mommy, why is he sad?". Also, I felt that Dory spoke way too fast for young kids to understand. The movie was good overall, but probably not suitable for really young kids.

It's not often that I laugh out loud at the movies..

Canadian Idol was exceptionally bad last night. This group of 10 were people who shouldn't have made it this far into the competition. They were awful. Any one of the last 10 would easily have beaten out this whole group. It's a shame that Canadians will be forced to vote for 3 of them. Best case scenario -- no one calls, all 10 get eliminated.

There were no bright spots. It was like watching Pop Stars all over again. I actually switched to baseball (yes! BASEBALL!) at times because the singing was so bad.

What made the bbq the most fun was the people there. It was at the BA's (business analyst) place. Everyone on the team was there, plus my boss and his boss (and his wife). And the BA's husband. Their backyard is sweet. They have a pool, and a huge deck that surrounds the pool. Then further back they have their own little 15-tree forest, and -- a fire pit.

My boss' boss' wife is an unbelievable baker. She made chocolate chip cookies that I COULD NOT stop eating. They were unbelievable. I'm truly convinced that you cannot get cookies that good anywhere on this planet. On top of that, she made a 3-tiered chocolate cake which she didn't bring, because she unfortunately dropped it on her living room floor as they were getting ready to leave. That sucks. I probably would have still eaten it, lint and all.

These people -- my boss' boss and his wife, are as Canadian as Canadians get. The baker lady said it best: "Canadians are immigrants with seniority". That is so true. Anyway, they were telling us about how they encountered a bear while camping, on their honeymoon. How good does it get, to go camping on your honeymoon. That would be a dream come true -- basically free, totally romantic -- did I mention basically free?

It was funny the way they've encounter various bears and other wildlife. What was funnier was when one guy John, a China (mainlander) brought lichees and mangoes, and no one knew what they were. The baker thought the mango's tasted like pine trees, and my boss picked up the mango, peeled off the skin like you would do with a pear, and ate it like a banana. He literally had the mango clenched in his fist. I've never seen someone eat a mango so messily..!

On Friday night my brother and I went to see T3. I liked it a lot, it was pretty good -- the action scenes were great and the comedy was good. The people we were sitting with were awesome, they made the movie better (enthusiastic bunch). This one lady beside me couldn't stop laughing at times with the jokes Arnold made.

I liked the ending, even though if it was a little bit anti-climatic. Considering that the Terminator was programmed to keep casualties at a mininum, it was kind of cool that it was able to calculate the odds and in the end, outweigh the lives of those two over the possibilities of saving the whole world. And being able to hide the fact from them. That's pretty cool.

The idea that a machine could process incoming information and calculate the final result -- the result being a preservation of life for the two of them. You wouldn't expect a machine to be able to make that type of calculation. It's a nice ending to a really great movie trilogy -- a fresh idea that the heroes don't need to "save the world" in order to have a happy ending.

On Saturday, I spent the whole morning hacking a D2 character and trying it out on Act4 Hell, to see if I could anything. It was still nearly impossible, even with the best runewords equipped. In the afternoon I went with family to buy me a new mattress.

At 4pm, I went to a work-BBQ, at the BA's house. It was a good BBQ. I'll talk more about it later.

Saturday night.. err.. Sunday morning at 1:30am, the fire alarm went off in the building, and I took the stairs down. 32 flights down.. my legs still hurt even now! It was a false alarm though.. I lost about 3 hours of sleep from that.

I'm finding even after 2 weeks, I'm still a little bit sick. The cough still comes back occasionally.

My 5-week-long animatrix download finally finished last night. I watched the whole thing. What a waste of time. I should've been watching CSI instead. Sure, it was interesting, but after all the anime I've been watching, there was nothing impressive about it at all, and of the animators' takes on the matrix were a little weird, like the one of them trying to convert a machine to team up with them, that was so stupid. The only one I liked was the very first CGI one, the fight simulation between the oriental girl and the black dude. The girl was pretty decent looking .

Yesterday one of the guys at work took us out drinking because he'd gotten his contract renewed for another 6 months. I had a pint of Honey Brown. It was good.. Beer is definitely an acquired taste, and I think I've finally acquired a taste for it. However, due of my lack of regulated alcohol intake, after only half the pint I had hit phase 1 of drunkeness and felt like throwing up. So I had a lot of wings and nacho's, to get past Phase 1, finished off the glass and hit phase 2.

I am a calm person while buzzed, so that's good, and I got some dirt from other people as they tend to talk more while drinking. I got some great career advice from a lot of people :) I wonder what is better though, getting all red or not, while drunk. I don't get red, but everyone else seemed to. Is that good or not? Maybe it's a good gauge as to whether to stop drinking or not, on the other hand you look pretty stupid when you get all red, because people KNOW you are drunk.

I think it works out better for me. I know when to stop, and not looking drunk bodes well when you're sitting on the subway with a crowd of people.


Lakers got Payton earlier this week, and now Malone. I wonder if we can go unbeaten this season. Can we win 98 games straight? I think it's do-able...

Oohh.. on yahoo launch they played a song that i've been wondering about for a year now. "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John -- the song from my favorite movie, Almost Famous, from the scene when they're all on the bus after Russell had just gotten back from his crazy acid-almost-jumped-from-the-roof-into-the-swimming-pool performance. I love that scene, they're all sitting there reflecting what had just happened, and one guy just starts belting out this song that was either playing on the radio, or just not at all. But the point is they all start singing together, including Penny Lane, and the kid William Miller. Good times..

Something funny happened last week. My brother and I went to McDonald's for lunch on Canada Day. The McDeal is $3.99, which comes out to $4.27, but the guy charged us $4.82. We asked why, and he said there was a price change.

Anyway, on Thursday I happened to mention this at work, and one of my co-workers Ken, he was upset by this. After all, it is still advertised at $3.99, so how could they charge us more? By charging us $4.19, they were able to add the PST, making us pay way more because of that tax. Well, he was outraged by this!

So when we got back to the office, he called up McDonald's HQ, and complained, posing as me. I thought it was so funny, going through all that for just over 55 cents! Anyway he complained and we left my work number with them so that the manager could call us back for compensation. Then on Friday they called, so I had Ken pick up (this was all his idea, not mine!) and he demanded a free meal. The lady actually wrote down my name and said I could come in any time and claim my meal!

Anyway.. I never did go.. I was just thinking, as soon as I said I was "Brian Yao", they'd probably do something to the food.

Well now, it's been a while hasn't it.

It's Saturday. Today I treated my family for lunch because no one wanted to move. I was starving, and to get everyone to start moving I volunteered to pay and all of a sudden everyone was running for the car! We had pho. Yesterday my dad, bro and me watched American Werewolf in Paris, a pretty cheese movie, on television. It was fun though, first time we'd done that in about half a year.

I just tried about 45 minutes of the Diablo2 1.10 patch (beta). It was really boring, but it was single player. I really can't see myself getting hooked on the game again.

I feel like I'm just blogging for the sake of blogging right now, with nothing much to say, so I'm just gonna stop now.

The dinner went well. I was fairly sick that night but I was able to 'entertain' with my usual antics and great personality.. :O It was the first time anyone had been over to my place and I think it went relatively well. They didn't run into too many issues with the parking, so that is at least encouraging. Mom made awesome food.. I'm going to miss that! Then we watched CI, then For Love or Money. It was the first FLoM I'd seen -- I didn't really enjoy it that much. CI was pretty good.. it was nice to see the Mikey Bustos made it to the final 30.

Me, my brother, Raec and Hanki are definitely rooting for Mikey. And we're trying to find some relation to him.. I mean, I should be able to find connections with basically any chinese person in Toronto within 4-5 degrees of separation, so for now we're going to go along with "yes, I know Mikey through a friend", and leave it at that.

Yesterday I spent "canada day" in bed and on the computer playing Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (expansion pack). Yea yea, i'll buy it later. Right now it's impossible to buy it because it's sold out everywhere you look. Since I promised myself I would eventually buy it, it shouldn't matter to the makers whether I pay for it now or later right?

Anyway, it was really good. It took me a total of around 20 hours to finish all of the single player campaigns. The bonus campaign was REALLY good. I enjoyed all of the quests and optional hidden quests. The xpac brought a lot more to the game than I had expected. I won't spoil anyone's fun though so enough of that.

Last night was most depressing as I went to bed coughing, wheezing and sneezing. In the background I could hear booms coming from all over the city from the fireworks. Just below me there was a huge crowd at Mel Lastman Sq. I spent my my last 3 Canada day's in Ottawa, and now I'm lying in bed trying to block out the sound of the booms so i can sleep. What a contrast!

Tonight Hankishin and his bro are coming over for dinner, as sort of a last farewell sort of deal. The two of them have been good friends to me and my family. My mom was pretty close to them and also their mom who passed away a couple years ago from cancer. I've heard that Hankishin's bro has grown away from the church in recent months. That's sad indeed. Actually a lot of the people I know who lost one of their parents at a young age grew away from the church. I guess it's hard to fathom why God would allow such a thing to happen to them. You lose all faith when that happens and I can't really blame them. When you're younger you know you are worshipping a higher power, and yet when trouble comes, the "Big Guy" doesn't pull through.

It's gotta be tough to continue to believe in God after that, after you worship Him, pray to Him and read his Words, and He doesn't come through in your hour of need.

What's the difference between if you believed in Him and didn't, and your mother died. If you did, then people would tell you it was part of God's plan that He took your mother away from you. And if you didn't, then people would tell you they're sorry for this sad event in your life. In both cases people would urge you to move on. On one hand, because you had no control over it because it was God's will, and on the other hand, it was an incurable disease and you should just make your mom be proud by moving on.

Both ways, it's the same, but in the believer's point of view, you would blame God, whereas the non-believer, you would blame the disease.

Anyway, I am glad that Hankishin has remained faithful to the Lord. He has definitely grown up both mentally and spiritually since that time.

On Saturday I went to Mitchell's and picked up the Not To Us Chris Tomlin cd. It was $25+tax, way more than the $20 I could have gotten it for at MissionFest. I also picked up Hillsong's United cd. My brother got Delirious' new cd.

On Sunday morning I felt so thirsty, so I kept swallowing saliva to make up for it. I think I swallowed too many times, because after awhile it started to hurt, and then at the church picnic, everything I ate or drank hurt my throat. Then at Amy's bbq, it rained and all that, I was all wet on the way back to the car (we had to park far cuz of the queer parade). Anyway, I am sick now, at work.

Being sick sucks, I haven't been sick in a long time now, I've always been really careful of not getting sick. The picnic was lots of fun, I spent most of the time with monchichi watching the kids jumping on the inflatable bouncing castle. It's amazing how a little bit of jumping can make kids so happy. Syl almost got sick just watching them bounce! It was fun though, there were a lot of really cute kids there and I got to play with them a little bit. At the BBQ later I was able to catch up with BenC and #1. Both are doing fine. BenC had a new hairstyle.

The place we were at was a friend of Amy's named Dan. It was really nice, at the corner of Wellesley and Yonge Street. His condo was really sweet.. he definitely knows how to decorate better than I do. He booked the roof so we went up and did the bbqing up there. It was really windy up their though, plus the rain, so that's probably why I got sick.

I never thought I'd become one of those people who never goes to fellowship. But I have.. I haven't been to fellowship for 2 weeks in a row now, and I doubt I'll go tonight. Today it's at Dandaman's place, which is just across the street from mine, but I am so tired right now all I can think about is going home to sleep. I have not slept-in past 7am for over a month.

For the picnic on Sunday, I've been told to bring 4 canteloupe/honeydews. I wish I could have been asked first if I wanted to be involved with the bringing of fruit. They want all of us to meet at 9:15am on Sunday to gather the fruit. I know for a fact that there is no way I will get to church that early. My mom is late for everything.. she insists its our fault, but even last week when my brother and i went separately, she was still late, 15 minutes late for service, despite travelling down on her own.

There is no way I'll make that 9:15am time.

Today at work, we went out for some Pho. We walked down to Spadina and wandered around til we found a pho place. Shahid really liked the hot sauce in the red squeeze bottles.. and, he ATE the mini green pepper that comes with beansprouts. I kept looking at him waiting for the fire to come out of his ears, but it never did. He claimed the hot sauce was much hotter. (He put a lot though).

I think the guy sitting beside me got canned. He's a goner for sure, though I'm not sure when. My boss told me he was a going to get rid of him, over lunch yesterday. Btw, yesterday I had Manchu Wok. That's too bad though, I know that he's very intelligent and always glad to help out when needed. I think the trouble was he was given work that he normally doesn't do, and because of his quiet and shy persona, he never asks questions, and I'm betting got stuck a few times and just let it linger, thus --- he never really produced anything. Boss asked me if I knew what he was doing, but I didn't. I hope that didn't make him think he wasn't doing anything.

Anyway, that's pretty rough.

Raps got Chris Bosh as everyone suspected, but in the second round, they passed on Canadian Carl English, and picked up some dude named Remon Van de Hare. I was pretty disappointed in that move. And I was even more disappointed when I read some reviews on Remon. Apparently, he is a terrible basketball player. During his workout in front of some NBA scouts, he missed every single shot he tried. The only thing he has going for him is his 7'2" frame. He is basically a tall man who can't play basketball.

I think the combination of the heat and the morning light is causing the dog to wake up early every morning now. I've been fervently praying that we sell the house so that the dog can move back there. Well.. at least the mexicans have stopped honking.

My bro saw The Hulk yesterday and thought it sucked. It's amazing how sometimes we can totally be on the same page about something and then so different on another.

There's an internal job posting. When I read over the thing I felt that I might be qualified for it in 4-5 years. Yet, more than a few people urged me to apply for it. It's a management position.. how could I, having worked less than a year be qualified for that type of position? I read the qualifications, and about the only one I think I met was that I have a degree. So, I'll redo my resume on the weekend and give it whirl. The deadline is Monday.

Even with a fan blowing into it, and the A/C on, my computer still overheats. I've had it up to here with my amd. It runs far too hot, and I probably screwed up when putting on the thermal paste. Maybe I should take it apart and try it again. But I remember it being a HUGE struggle trying to seat it properly. I don't really want to spend another $500 on a new mobo and cpu.. I'm pretty sure a tube of thermalpaste is a lot cheaper. Even a nitrogen cooling system would be cheaper.. well maybe not, but a water-based one would be.

3 years ago I had the desire to supe up my computer, but I didn't have the money. Now I have the money, but no desire.

Tonight is Amazing Race and CSI, and the NBA Draft!

For some reason those mexicans were still celebrating something last night, because from 10:30pm and on, it was non-stop honking horns. So I grabbed my blankie and pillow and slept on my grandmother's bed in the other room (not facing Yonge).

Today in the Metro, there was a coupon for a buy one get one free Frappe. (accent et goo on the last e). I am drinking it now. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT BUY THIS DRINK. It tastes disgusting. It makes me wonder how much they pay those people on the infomercials for juicers... I taste bananas, carrots, celery, strawberries, cucumber, soy milk. It looks like someone ate too much brocoli and threw up into my cup. The only reason I'm finishing it cuz the thing costs almost $5.

6:15am... woohoo!

This Sunday my church is having their annual picnic. It'll be a Milnes Dam Park (?) and it will be from 12:30-3:30pm. The most exciting thing about it is that they announced they would getting Popeye's chicken instead of KFC. Mmmm... Popeye's...

After the picnic I'll be going over to some dudes house for a 'farewell' bbq for lil'amy. I heard that #1 will be there too, which is nice since I haven't seen him since last year.

I need a haircut. My hair when pulled straight down reaches the below my eyes now. I have to constantly pull my 'burns back behind my ears because otherwise i look like a hippie. I wonder when would be a good time get a haircut. I can't just have it shaved off this year otherwise I will look silly at the wedding, so I am thinking to go with a longer 'do' this year, and then getting a quick trimming just before the ceremony.

My project manager at work is leaving us. He's takinga year off to get his MBA and so the project will likely hit a dead-end by the end of this year, rendering my position useless. That's a rather unfortunate turn of events for me.

My computer at home is all messed up now. Originally I had a dual boot of 98 and 2000. I removed 98, but at bootup it was still asking me if I wanted to boot to 2000 or 98. Then I tried upgrading 2000 to XP, but for some reason it installed XP instead of upgrading, and it did this on the d: drive instead of c: drive. And, to make matters worse when I boot up it asks me if I want XP, 2000 or 98! 98 isn't even there, if I pick it I end up getting a 'file not found'. And now, even if I formatted my c: drive, xp would still be there, but on the d: drive, which makes no sense at all. So now I'll have to reformat the c: drive and then find someway of removing xp from the d: drive.

What a headache..

The dog is back to his 5-6 schedule. Perhaps it is getting too bright in the mornings, but today 5:15 he was up.

What's worse is that last night I couldn't get to sleep until 11:30pm, even though there was no Soprano's, there was some kind of mexican gathering at Mel Lastman Square, and at around 10 til 11:30, they were honking their horns as they drove by that area, which is just in front of where I live.. unfortunately.

Last week my friend/housemate/classmate Ç£MM£Ç's mom passed away. I was shocked by the news, because he never really told us she was even sick. Ç£MM£Ç is a great, warm and loving person. I'm sure at least some of these qualities came from his mom. I met her once, as Ç£MM£Ç and I posed for pictures at commencement. Sigh.. my prayers go out to you man..

I regret not picking up a Chris Tomlin CD, when he came to perform at Toronto's Mission Fest. Although I'm unsure of which one they were selling, the Not For Us album is really good.. I've been listening er.. sampling it for the last 24 hours, and it's really good, even for only 10 tracks. I'll have to go buy it now.. soon.. I suppose.

Anyway, what'd I do? Friday, I learned that a friend of mine broke the ranks of unemployment after over a year, scored himself a job with the provincial government. I was gonna hang with him friday night, but silly me I didn't hang up the phone properly, and didn't find out til it was way too late to do anything (9pm.. yes.. stupid dog indeed).

Today we made up for it, we went out to see The Hulk. A really cool movie. I thought the cgi would make it look cheezy like it did with Spiderman, but it was really good actually. The movie was really good, from beginning to just before the end. I didn't like the ending, but since I don't know much about the Hulk, and I assume the majority of the audience didn't either, in that regards it was an okay ending. The action was so cool, the graphics were amazing. I though Hulk was kinda goofy looking.. Ang Lee did a good job of it, direction was really quite good. The effects of making panes with different angles gave a really neat effect. We got there a bit late though so we had to sit real close. That was somewhat of a downfall because it was hard to keep track of all the panes when sitting so close. It's weird but somehow Jennifer Connelly seems to get better and better looking every year, she's also looking younger and younger. I suppose it's just the makeup, but she is better looking now than back in the Babysitter's Club days.. There were some really crazy parts in it, one part that made me jump, literally a foot off my chair.

I give it a slight edge over Matrix: Reloaded as best movie of the year.

After the movie we went for all-you-can-eat sushi, and Umi Sushi over by Kenny's and Starwalk. It was good stuff.. but the service was a little messed up, we'd order 3-4 dishes and we'd get only 2 of them, 20 minutes apart. It really messed up our appetites. I'm sure we could've eaten a lot more.. But in retrospect I'm glad we didn't, cuz I'm absolutely stuffed right now.

4:58am. Stupid dog..

Today when the subway got up to St.Clair, it stopped. The driver told us all to get off because the train was broken. About half the people got off, then the driver comes running out and yells "it's fixed!" and the doors closed. It was really funny looking at the expression of the people who had just left the train.. Then we got to the next stop and the driver told us to get off again. This time it was for real. When the next train came, of course it was packed and none of us could get on. Those bastards got the last laugh.. argh!

This morning at 10am a bunch of us went to the nearest "greasy spoon" to have breakfast. Mmm.. the food was yummy -- there's nothing like a bucket of starch and grease to begin your day. There was a fat old man sitting behind us who was hacking so hard I swear I though his lungs would pop out of his mouth. It sounded like the man was dying, but he wasn't... probably just too many meals at this greasy spoon.. lol

Okay, found a pretty good Christian internet Radio station, here's the link:

http://www.p7.no/metafiles/p7_i.asx

It's quite good, based in Oslo, Norway -- a city recently surveyed as the 3rd most expensive city to live, in the world. I can attest to this.. the souvenirs were the most expensive out of all the scandinavian cities, although, they also had the best stores. As I recall all their shopping places were always packed..

This station has a cool feature in that it tells you what song it's playing, and artist. (Makes it convenient for me to know which songs I need to download..)

6:05am. I think the dog is finally learning.. it took a whole month, but he is finally waking up after 6am!

Yesterday after dinner my brother and I went down to Mitchell's Field to play some tennis. There aren't any courts there, just a big wall we hit the ball against. The wall that we play on is brick, but the upper half of it is aluminum siding, and there are grooves in it going vertically that just fit a tennis ball. We brought along a copper plumbing pipe (about 15 feet long), and use it to pry our balls out when they get stuck (the aluminum part starts about 12 feet from the ground). Anyway, today when we went there, we found 8 balls there, I guess from other kids playing. The funny thing is, 4 of the balls had the same initials "A.I." on them. Well.. Mr. A I, if you're out there, thanks for the free tennis balls!

Both of us were pretty out of shape and were exhausted after just 30 minutes. I lost two balls by roofing them. But we found 8, so we still netted 6 of them. Pretty sweet deal.

The most entertaining part of the evening was when we discovered a huge gathering of ants, and we tried throwing stuff on them, and spitting on them. Haha.. good times.. They reacted pretty funny when I shaped my gum as a flat round disc and covered about 50 of them with it! When my brother and I are together, we stoop down about 10 years, in terms of maturity.. haha

Listening to this Danish radio station makes me want to go back to Denmark. All those countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden -- are beautiful places. Last summer when we were there for the cruise it was so unbelievable. People there seem genuinely happy. I certainly was. For the Copenhagen excursion, we got to go kayaking along the canals of Copenhagen. It was an incredible experience! I have this enormous urge to go back now. Some guy and girl are chatting on the radio now, in their foreign language, and for some reason I feel totally soothed from it. What a cool language..

I can sleep fine when there is constant noise, whereas if there are sharp sudden noises, that wakes me up. So, I wasn't surprised this morning when I woke up on my own at 6:15am. Last night it was so hot that I left my window open (the window faces Yonge Street below). All night all I heard was cars driving by, their engines roaring by, and echoed loudly against my building at the Trimark building. I didn't hear the dog crying all morning, which was great. I finally managed to sleep through it! Although I what really woke me up was the fact that I was FREEZING my butt off!

Last night I went to Fairview Mall to see Italian Job with a bunch of church folks. Mark Wahlberg, Seth Green, Ed Norton and Charlize Theron (yum!) -- what more could I ask for? Although the movie was totally predictable from the very beginning to the very end, it was still pretty entertaining. It was basically a cross between The Score (also starring Ed Norton), The Heist and Ocean's Eleven. Oddly enough, all three of those movies came out in 2001. The predictable twists and turns in The Job were exactly the same as those in Score and Heist, while all the humor and wit was from Ocean's Eleven. The Job and Eleven both had a black dude who specialized in explosives. They both featured armored trucks and both left the audience thinking that main characters were good guys, even though they're THIEVES! All in all though the jokes were pretty hilarious and the movie made us all wish we had Mini's!

Interesting thing we noted that Seth Green seems to always play this techie/spying-type role, like in Enemy of the State, American Sweethearts. I wonder if Seth will ever get to be in a movie with starring role rather than always playing the "runt".

5:45am.

Canadian Idol was much better this week. There appears to be more talent in Montreal than all of BC, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. That Mulroney guy did a lot less of the things that annoyed me last week. And there was at least some talent this week. I found it interesting that all the kids who tried doing Norah Jones songs made it through.

That reminds me last night I dreamed of going to see the Norah Jones concert, but I didn't have tickets and ended up outside pleading with the bouncers. Finally, Norah came out and I pleaded my case and she gave me front row seats! What a great dream, although I never did see her sing, since my dog woke me up... blast that dog!

Ooh, I keep hearing a rap song by Nas on internet radio... I don't know what it's called, but it samples some music from Beethoven's Fur Elise, and it teaches kids that they can be what they want to be if they work hard at it. Why can't there be more rap songs like this and less rap songs encouraging kids to sell drugs and become pimps? .. the radio station I've been listening to is called Boogie SKUM, it's based in Copenhagen. It's funny because when the Danish DJs come on, I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about, but I can sooo picture them with ski-gear.

Today at lunch time we went to Fune again for sushi. I'd missed sushi.. it was sooo good! I had so much wasabi that i was tearing up!

I forgot, one other thing. Major rip-off for me and my brother. Yesterday I dl'ed Ninja Resurrection, Parts 1 and 2. What a disappointment, we thought it was the sequel to Ninja Scroll, but it turns out it wasn't at all. And to make matters worse, Part 2 ended as a cliffhanger, and THEY NEVER MADE A PART 3!! Argh!!

Also, on Friday we saw Akira. It sucked.. After the movie was over, my brother looked at me blankly and said "so, when are they going to explain what was going on?". That says it all.

The funny thing is, I'm just gonna keep dl'ing anime, even though 75% of the ones I've seen so far have sucked!

Btw, i haven't reviewed any music in awhile now. Any suggestions on who I might be worth reviewing? I've had it up to *here* with wc3. I think I'm finally sick of it. Somebody suggest something I could review, and I'll do it.

Today the dog woke up at 5:30, but I just kept my eyes closed and rested for another half hour. I fed him early today because I wanted to get to work early to get some work finished up. When I got to work, i couldn't go up because my security card had expired. They gave me an extra day to provide the letter of proof that my contract was extended. That's funny since I don't believe that letter even exists..

I can play mp3s on my iPaq. I downloaded a free copy of WinamPAQ, and a lower quality version of Bring Me To Life to my iPaq and have been listening to it whenever I walk the dog.

What else.. church was okay. Next week is "Concert of Prayer" for fellowship. Our small group is leading it. Why is that that I can say the exact same prayer as someone else, but they take an extra 15 minutes doing it? And it's not like I'm in a rush to get it done. Maybe I'm just not as eloquent. In prayer I find that people like to take the time to acknowledge that He is God, and throw in words like Sovereign, Majestic, Counsellor, etc. They'll devote a good 5 minutes of acknowledgement, like "Lord, we know that you are _____, and that you ____. We thank you that you are so _____ and ______. C'mon, I think He must know that. It's like saying Brian, you are Brian, and we thank you for being Brian. Brian, you are so Brian and so we pray to you, Brian.

It's repetitive and God is sitting up there going "ok, ok.. get on with it already..".

I think the things that bother me is that, yes, we should try to spend more time talking to God, but I think it we should focus more on quality time rather than quantity time. I think when I take the time spent to pray for individual people, then I'd say that was quality time spent (as opposed to just saying "God, please bless everyone I know"), or if I take the time pray for the different things going on in my life.

Why waste God's time? When you go and talk to your boss, or your father/mother, do you start out by saying how great he/she is, point out that they are your boss and how much power they have over you? I think the trick is not beating around the bush.

Anyway.. enough with that, back to work.

Today, I woke up on my own before my dog. And no, it wasn't because he didn't bark, I just woke up at 5:30. I went online to check to see if my DiabloII accounts were still there. They were.

I was excited this morning because I wanted to sync my iPaq to my PC and install some stuff from the web, particularly the Transcriber. Yesterday my bro wanted to watch Fist of Legend so I didn't get a chance to use my pc. Anyway, this Transcriber is pretty cool it allows me to write handwritten stuff and it converts to text. It's a pretty cool utility provided by Microsoft. I can write a full sentence and it'll show up after a bit of time conversion, like 5 seconds. Pretty rad.

I got an offer for my handspring from my old boss. He's diabetic, and he was telling me tha the Visor has a blood testing cartridge add-on, so it would be really useful for him. Now I'm contemplating the price. I guess $50-75 would be fair?

The iPaq inside its case looks pretty awesome. The case is aluminum with that chrome-finish look, and the ipaq itself is the same greyish color. I still can't get over how cool it looks!

5:21am. I didn't work out today, even though I planned on it. I was too tired.. I ended up lying in bed for an hour mocking my dog's whimpering and barking. I wonder if my neighbours can here me.. haha

Apparently 112,000 Diablo II accounts were deleted by Blizzard yesterday, because of the use of hacking software. I cannot believe there are even that many people still playing it.. Come on people, we are talking about a game that is over 3 years old! The Warcraft III expansion comes out in just 3 weeks! I read an article I got from fu's site, called "Plight of the Aging Gamer". It was a pretty good read, for me anyway.. I could SOO relate with the author! Here's the link.

Ah, I forgot to mention, the Devils won the Stanley Cup. I'm just glad the better team won. I hate it when teams come out of nowhere and win championships, as if the whole regular season was totally meaningless?

Yesterday I think I saw what was the final episode of Reboot, the CG cartoon. It was quite good. I'd been watching it the last 3 days. That's kind of neat, that show lasted so long..!

I finally finished downloading Akira last night. All 670 megs of it. Tonight I'll watch it with my brother. I've seen a bunch of anime movies lately, including Ninja Scroll (awesome), Spirited Away (pretty good), Princess Mononoke (saw it a year ago, it was really good), Perfect Blue (very very weird movie, i still don't know what really happened).

5:30am.

I watched Canadian Idol yesterday, and I hafta say that Canadian talent (at least in the west) does not exist. The show was terrible. The people they gave passes to Toronto (top 100 I think) were crap. These kids would never have made it past the first round on American Idol. I guess that just goes to show you why there are so few Canadian stars. But I it makes sense. They have 300 million, we have 30 million, so it's only natural we should only have 10% of the talent they have.

Then again, not a single person impressed me on Canadian Idol. Not even one. It was downright as depressing as it was pathetic. What's worse, that Mulroney guy is so annoying. He was always talking at the wrong time. Maybe it was the editing, but it seemed like whenever I wanted to hear an audition, that idiot would be talking. His commentary always interfered with what the viewers were trying to watch, or he'd talk too long. What a moron.

I was reading an article about CI yesterday and they were saying how Canadians don't want to be the next Canadian Idol, they want to be the next American Idol. Who really cares about being Canada's Idol? Let's look at the charts for a moment. Kelly Clarkson, last years' American Idol is 19th with her single 'Miss Independent' (by the way, this song blows). Let's say the Canadian Idol comes out with a song next year that comes in 19th place on Canadian charts. I can't even name 19 Canadian artists! And can anyone honestly tell me that name of this year's Popstars: The One winner?

Perhaps I was too excited about this show because of all the hype surrounding the American version. Or maybe the East coast and Toronto will be slightly more impressive. I hope so..

We received an offer on the weekend for our house. It was a low-baller though, so I don't know what to think of it. They offered us more than 10% lower than we have it listed for. That's a LOT of money. I don't know much about the bidding process for a house, but what I do know is, when you offer way too low the other party gets upset or insulted and will never talk to you again. Anyway, my mom counter-offered and now we're waiting for a final answer.

Hopefully the house sells soon. I woke up this morning at 5:45am. I was really tired though, cuz I was up late (11pm) watching Sopranos. At the same time though, I don't want to see us get ripped off either..

On Saturday my fellowship hosted a free car wash. It was a lot of fun and we must've washed at least 30 cars. And about only half were church people so I would say we reached out to the community pretty successfully. Hopefully next time we'll be more prepared though, because we could only do 2 cars at a time and for awhile there was a pretty long line-up!

The weather was amazing, easily the best weather we have had all year, but the downfall with that was the crazy sunburns I got. The back of my neck is still hurting now, it feels like a really bad scraping or like somebody lit my neck on fire. Whee! My feet got bad sandal-tanlines, and they're red on those tanned spots, and very itchy. And my forearms are burning as well!

It reminds me of the time on the Simpsons when all the kids got stranded on an island, and Ralph Wiggum eats a "purple berry"and says "It tastes like... burning!"

Hey neat! I fixed it.. now I can see all my posts since 2001! Bless you Blogger! Blogger r0x0rs!

5:57am <-- wow! What a treat, 30 minutes of extra sleep!

Good golly jebus crikey! what the flap happened to all my posts? Are they all gone? sonuva.. Damn you Blogger! Everybody's out to get me, it's not fair!!

Eh.. i just wasted 10 minutes' worth of taxpayer dollars, doing this test:



I'm Homer, who are you? by Lexi

I could've told you I was just like Homer 10 minutes ago. Hah.

5:34am.

Got up, played some more warcraft3 (yes.. i'm cursed!) then fed the dog, walked him, watched sports highlights, and now i'm on my blog. Just realized CC wasn't who I thought it was, but her sister (i think..). Anyway, lately I've been hearing a lot less ads on Launch. Bring Me To Life still sounds a lot better on headphones than my speakers.. Maybe cuz my woofer is at my feet?

I paid for my iPaq, but when I check the order report site, it just says "awaiting shipping", even though it plainly states they've received my payment. I'm confused, does this mean they are awaiting shipment before they can send it to me, or does it mean that I'm awaiting shipment?

Why would they need to tell me that I was waiting for it? I'd like to see "##% from destination". That would be tons more informative..

Blogger is different today.. I almost thought I'd logged into the wrong site. It says Blogger Basic on the upper left, and the gui is all different. I'm used to seeing my posts underneath the typing area, but now it's my whole blog page, though it keeps going back to the Posts tab, which shows Quick-Start Instructions. I wish it would just stay at the View Blog tab.

Does anyone know how i can change the format/color of winamp3's visualization, (bars that go up and down, I don't know what they're called). They used to be configurable, but now they aren't anymore. I liked the old "J" (jump) feature better than the F3 search on winamp3 too. Sigh, why can't upgrades = improvements?

5:27am today.

Headed back down to the gym, focused on arms and chest today. Also did shoulders and legs, but to a lesser degree. My building's gym is barely a 10th of what Mitel had, but it's free so who am I to complain?

Today I was checking out my counter stats again, and found some dude had been looking for groomsmen advice and ended up on my site. I checked out his query and, according to frugalbride.com, my giving a speech will be optional, and they even jokingly said my main duty was to try my best to "act sober". Haha.. luckily yvz doesn't read my blog..

What else about my stats.. apparently on Yahoo and Google, if you type in "SARS in Torronto" (yes, with 2 r's) my blog comes up 4th! I get 2nd place on vroosh.com, and 5th on dogpile.com and mamma.com. AND, #1 on excite.com! Score!!! Typo's rock!

Yesterday I signed up for paypal and paid for my iPaq 1910. I charged it on my credit card, and literally seconds after I hit submit, Visa called me to confirm the purchase. I was so surprised -- I guess they're really trying to crackdown on credit card/internet fraud!

Not much else to say. Oh, I played some guitar last night, first time in nearly 3 months. I lost all my skill.. I can't play guitar at all anymore, which sucks big time, it'll take me weeks to get back to where I was before. I blame warcraft3. Damn you, blizzard....

I forgot to mention, yesterday was 5:47. Today was 5:14am.

Tomorrow I'm gonna go back to the gym, even though my chest and arms are pretty sore. Downstairs there's one of those nutrition stores, I think I'll pick up some steroids to help with my workout (haha). Also yesterday I downloaded Winsor Pilates' exercise tapes. I don't have a mat to workout on, but I will probably get myself one soon. Then I'll have to dub the avi's to video tape. I finally get to use the Video Out for my gf4.

I lost the auction I was bidding on. But today I won one. No extra features, just the unit in it's original box. My co-worker got the aluminum case for his -- it looks wicked..

Bring Me To Life doesn't sound as good on my computer as it does on headphones. That's weird.. I find that anything that requires bass sounds bad on my computer now..

I was surprised to see that I was averaging 8 hits per day on this site. I thought it would be more like 2-3. My peak was when I got 389 hits in the month of March 2003. To be honest I can't remember what was happening in my life during that month that was so interesting for the rest of you to read.

Somebody keeps outbidding me on the auction. I think they/I am already overpaying, but yet it is still cheaper than buying retail. The 1910 iPaq is 500+tax in stores, while on eBay it can go for as little as 350-400. The auction is now up over 500, but it includes not only the unit, but also a cradle (not included in regular packaging), a leather case, a metal case, a car charger, and a keyboard. I did some calculations, would cost about $750 including taxes, if I were to buy all that in a store. So essentially it is still a good deal, but how badly do I need the keyboard, or car charger? The keyboard is for pure fun and novelty. Let's say I took off the keyboard, I would still be spending around $680 retail, which is still more than the eBay price.

Man, it is tough trying to justify useless spending...

My iPaq ebay auction ends in a few hours.. I hope no one outbids me!

My arms are pretty tired this morning. I broke out of my bible reading this morning and worked out for 45 mins. It was good, and much needed I might add. I'm getting fat around the waist -- err.. i AM fat around the waist. It has bothered me for awhile now, the most annoying thing being that I can't fit into a third of my pant wardrobe.

Friday we went over to dL's place for "guys' night out". This consisted of about 6 of us hanging out, drinking (yes, alcohol), and watching a movie. We saw Adaptation. I thought it was a pretty weird movie. It was directed by Spike Jonze, the same guy who did Being John Malkovich. There were a few very sick scenes (and by sick i mean really cool). The first half of the movie was so boring though, it was hard to get a gauge of just what the heck was going on. Anyway, I won't foil it for the rest of the readers.

There's something about drinking that I've also given some thought. Social drinking -- without the intent of drunkeness, is that sinful? Jesus created wine from water, so this means social drinking is acceptable. WWJD right? So where do you draw the line then, when is drunkeness a sin? Or is does it just depend on your alcohol threshhold. If I drank a beer, then it's fine, but if I drank until I was drunk, then that would be sinning? What about when you feel the buzz, is that just a tiny sin, or a big sin?

Or in the Bible when they talk about drunkeness, is that just a metaphor for something else? Like talking without thinking and acting foolish, maybe that's what He meant by drunkeness?

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the Matrix Reloaded. *Spoiler alert* It's hard to believe you haven't seen it already, but if you haven't, skip this paragraph. The more I think about, the cooler the movie gets, and the cooler the first movie gets. How did Neo defeat the sentinels at the end? Where they still in the Matrix? What about the Oracle, if she is part of the programming of the matrix, then is Morpheus also part of it? Then, is Neo even "awakened"? Maybe everyone that Neo knows is all part of the Matrix. Even Trinity? Maybe, all of Zion is part of the Matrix, like they're inside a recursive Matrix. I believe Zion is still in the Matrix because of the old guy in the counsel, how he was in the engineering section downstairs talking to Neo about how they need the machines just as much as machines need them. You unplug your body from the "real world", but in fact that is still part of the Matrix? And what about Smith, since he's no longer part of the program (he was altered because of what Neo did to him in the first movie). Is he a virus, or a "unknown or rogue" program? Then he in fact is the only anomoly in the Matrix, is he the REAL chosen one?

Ah, Saturday I bought Super Smash Brothers Melee. First time ever yesterday afternoon I had to wait for my gamecube to load a scene. Load times.. (5 seconds) but still, one of the selling points of the GC is no load times, unlike the infamous long waits of Xbox or PS2. The game itself is quite fun though, I still set it at the easiest possible settings because I suck. I hope to get better, then buy 2 more controllers and invite people over so i can kick their asses.. hehe

5:20 today. 5:47 yesterday. There is just no consistency..

Yesterday I met up with Chic after work and just chattered for a bit about work. He asked me what my plans were after my contract ends. I told him blankly "i don't know". I really don't know though, he's been applying for jobs, at least 2 per week. I haven't applied for a job since October. The way I see it is, I applied for about 100 jobs and got nothing. I have friends who have applied for 1000 jobs and is still unemployed. Now my friend has applied for 2 every week since he got a job in January, and didn't get anything, and I've applied to zero and got nothing. So the moral of the story is, TRUST IN GOD that opportunities will arise, because nothing else seems to work.

New song.. well maybe not new, but new for me. Bring Me To Life by Evanescence. I like it, it's got everything, starts out like a lullaby, and goes right into hard rock. The beat is nice, and the vocals' timing's are pretty good, it works well. I dunno if these guys are one-hit-wonders or not, but this song is really good. The lyrics also rhyme.. in fact, (although i'm sure the artists didn't mean it this way) it sounds like someone who needs God in their life; someone yearning for God's love. :)

I guess you could say I am into this type of music these days, aside from christian stuff. I was looking at the charts today and it made me glad I gave up on radio. It's all rap and rnb now, I've heard some of the new ones. In Da Club by Half-Dollar has a nice beat, but the lyrics are a little dumb. I hope young kids don't actually believe the stuff that he talks about! Top 30 is comprised of 80% hip-hop music. Well, hopefully this phase in music will swing back to some better quality stuff. My brother likes m&m, but isn't really into half-dollar, although apparently the two are chums..

That old site I pointed out (http://launch.yahoo.com) sucks now, it plays an ad at every 3-4 songs. It's worse than radio now -- at least radio has those 1 hour with no commercials! things. I don't get it.. as if Yahoo doesn't have enough money already, they had to ruin a perfectly good music service.

After two days of abnormal activity, Dusty was back to his ol' tricks again, waking me up at 5:17am this morning. He's smarter now though, he didn't even bother starting up with the whimpering, he went straight to barking mode. My mom suggested a few days ago to ignore him when he does this, so instead of leaving my room to go downstairs, I stayed in my room to see what he would do if I didn't "respond" to his barking.

30 minutes later he finally stopped for about 3 minutes before continuing on. Needless to say I was a little bit peeved.

Yesterday my couch was delivered to us, I was pretty happy. It's not very soft, nor does it look very nice either, but hey, it's a couch. I can finally lie in front of my TV. It's actually a bit bigger than I had expected, maybe because of the layout of my living room, it makes the room look a lot smaller. I still don't have enough lighting around the room but I think I can finally have people over now.

The last few days I've been looking on eBay for a handheld. Lon pointed out a cool deal where you can buy one of the new Palm devices and trade in your old one for a rebate. That's a sweet deal, except that the Tungsten T is still $600. On eBay I've been watching the HP iPaq 1910, and they've been regularly selling for under $400cdn. Since it's almost June I figure it's time to treat myself again :)

Well, I'm at work. Boss says "just keep working 'til you're told otherwise!"

Dusty gave me a surprise today. I don't think he knew that I was home because I stayed at my old house all weekend. He didn't start whimpering until I got up to use the bathroom, and that wasn't until 6! At 5, I woke up expecting him to start, but he didn't and so I went back to sleep.

My dad was back for the weekend. He and I, with the occasional help from my brother and mom put together a spiral staircase for our attic, and painted it. It's pretty sweet -- it looks really nice, and after 3-4 tries we finally got it to work. Sometimes looking at it I wish we weren't moving because it looks so nice now..

With no confirmation of whether my contract has officially been extended, today is my last day at my job. Compared to other days, this has been a relatively slow day. My boss isn't here, and the project lead isn't here either. The dba hasn't been around, I have no idea where he wondered off too. The new system architect start 2 days ago and is slowly getting up to speed with the project. The system integrator is quietly code behind me. I have to do a major rehaul of the html prototype, but I figure why bother until I know more of whether I'll be here next week?

Dusty woke up right at 4:55 this morning. He started to whimper and I immediately got dressed, grabbed my bible and headed down to the "cards and games" room down on the second floor. Yesterday, I got through 20 chapters of Judges, and today I finished off Judges, Ruth and now am 7 chapters into 1 Samuel.

It's amazing how God spoon-fed His people all those years. How they would betray Him, somehow get screwed over and ask for His help again. In a way it is much like ourselves in how we take Him for granted, but in their cases whenever they call on Him it is usually in fear for their lives, whereas for us it is exams, or broken-heartedness, or sickness.

I read about the Samson, Ruth and now Samuel. I've just gotten to the part when the ark has been returned to the Israelites after the Philistines took it away from them after a huge battle. I was totally thinking about Indiana Jones each time they moved the ark from different cities of Philistine and how the God brought great sorrows and "tumors" against the people of each city that held the ark.

Anyway, it seems like almost a blessing now that this dog has thrown a loop into my daily activities.

--------
The Raptors got only the 4th pick in the draft, meaning we miss the top 3, the 3 players who are considered major impact players. It was sad for me, but I did not cry. I'm betting that Mr. Grunwald cried though..

Another day, another wakeup call at 5am. But the jokes' on you Dusty, cuz I slept at 9pm and still got enough sleep.

You must think wow, you have no life, but at least I can say I got a good night's sleep. I'm planning on writing a letter of apology to my boss today, to apologize for the last 2 weeks of unattentiveness, lowered productivity and all round laziness. Now that I have figured out a system of getting enough sleep, I hope to improve on my work and show that I am indeed a good worker and valuable to the team, because quite frankly, the last two weeks have not been so good in terms of my performance.

Blast this dog, I quite honestly hate him now. At exactly 4:55am this morning, I heard his little footsteps (he's got long nails) and I knew he was awake. Anyway second I knew that he would start whimpering. Alas, at exactly 4:57 he started, and he has not stopped since. It is now 5:08am. And he won't stop, until 7am when I feed him. What a ridiculous turn of events for me, living in this really nice place, every who comes over here tells me how lucky I am for having such a nice place, that i'm now "living the good life".

I would rather live in a cardboard box as long as there was some piece and quiet.

Elaine on Seinfeld once had a problem with a barking dog that kept her from sleeping. The only difference here is that it is OUR dog.

That said, I still do believe and realize that somehow this fits into God's plan. It certainly does test my patience, because at times I feel like I just want to run out to the where he is and beat him to death (I'm not joking), but so far I've been able to hold in this insane rage that builds up inside me every morning when he cries NON-STOP. It really pisses me off, but I hold it inside. So that is certainly a good 'training' activity. Second, it teaches me some discipline. I could well just go and feed him now, but I know that if I did that, then tomorrow he would wake up at 4am, and soon I would have to sleep as soon as I got home from work to get a good night's rest. So there, I am learning discipline, and also to fight temptation, and also patience.

Finally, my dad suggested that I now have a lot of time for devotions, and the truth is I haven't been doing them. Maybe this is God's way of punishing me for not doing devotions. I'm going to take my bible now, and go down to the lobby and read.

Good morning, all.

Oh, finally one last thing. Wow, this blogging thing really catches on eh, you do one, and you get your juices flowing again, and all these ideas come popping out.

I do have one prayer request aside from praying that my dog will finally wake up at a normal time.

The Toronto Raptors. Pray that we get a top 3 pick overall. This team.. no, this city.. no this country needs a new leader for our basketball team. Pray that the balls fall in our favor. Pray that the Raptors get first, second or third. We need one of these players (Lebron James, Darko Milicec, Carmelo Anthony). Any of these 3 players will turn the fortunes of the Raptors completely around.

Getting Lebron James, in fact, would probably boost the City's economy. Jobs will be created to follow him around, for the papparazi, the fan fare, the stores selling solely his clothing. Tourism will get a huge boost after that silly SARS thing. Pray for Lebron James people.. Pray hard.

Meanwhile, if we don't get a top 3 pick, don't be surprised to see my eyes soaked in tears the next few weeks.

Oh, one other thing.

I finally saw Matrix 2 last night. I give Reloaded more credit than others might. It had just as much action as the last movie if not more, and way cooler graphics. They had many a scene that rivaled even the hotel lobby scene from the first Matrix. I thought the most exhilarating part was the highway scenes and I also liked the when Neo had to fight all those Smiths' in the street park. That scene when he used the tetherball pole was really neat, a lot like the time when I watched my pal Ed practice his Wushu at the Mezz @ Mac. In fact I think it was probably the same routine, as they were taken from the stuff that Jet Li does.

Many people gave this movie a good review but felt disappointed with it. Some people probably thought it was a little boring, because Reloaded circled around a love story between Neo and Trinity. There was a LOT more character development this time around, and there was sex. There was no sex in the first movie -- well, it was more subtle the first time.

Another thing that made the action slightly less exciting was that we all knew Neo was "the one", and thus the audience was never as captivated by his fight scenes, because we all knew he was going to win. I doubt that anyone in the audience felt like he was going to even get hurt, unlike his fight scene with Smith in the subway station in the first movie, where we were all holding our breath hoping he wouldn't get killed.

Finally because this movie was a sequel with third on its way, it was a lot like the Two Towers of LOTR. LOTR2 was also an awesome movie. But, it left a lot of loose ends untied, just like Reloaded. Reloaded even ended with a light cliffhanger, making it even more frustrating. Also, LOTR2 was less disappointing because I already know what's going to happen, having already read the book.

I wonder if the movie would have made sense if you hadn't seen the first. Probably not.

It's been a while since I last blogged.

This past weekend I bought a new couch and a gamecube. The couch was quite cheap, we went to Bad Boy Furniture (Nooooooooooobody!). They weren't kidding in the commercials, they had by far the cheapest stuff, and we checked just about every place else (Sears, Idomo, Ikea, Leons, The Brick). I got an L-shaped section sofa, for under $800. Anywhere else, sectionals cost at least $1200, so there! I also picked up a GC, along with Metroid Prime and Super Monkey Ball 2. I haven't mentioned much about the GC but i've actually done quite a bit of research in the last week or so.

The dog: I've finally figured out a way to beat the dog (no, not physically, though I do think about it sometimes!). Firstly, on the weekend I sleep on a couch back home so I can get a full nights rest. This past long weekend featured me getting 28 hours of sleep in 3 days. That, compared to the 21 hours I got all of last week because of the dog..

Tonight I went to bed a 9:30pm, and the dog woke me up at 5am! Ah-ha! 7.5 hours! Eat that, stupid dog! Also, I've given him less water so that I don't wake up and have to clean up a puddle of his urine every morning. Did I forget to mention he did that every morning last week? I'm sorry but I am not going to wake up at 4 in the morning, get dressed and take him downstairs for a walk! Stupid dog!

Ah, on Monday I tried to install Windows XP, but something stranged happened. I picked the Upgrade option, and yet the thing installed XP onto my D drive, and now I have a triple boot system. I already deleted Win98, but the PC still thinks I have it. Sigh.. i'm going to have to reformat real soon..

Dogs have no concept of time. This week Dusty has woken me up 1 half hour earlier every day. At first I thought it was because it gets brighter outside so he wakes up because of the daylight. Today, at 4:30 (yes, it's still dark outside), the frigging dog woke me up. 4:30! What is wrong with this animal? Yesterday, for the first time I actually started wishing the dog would just die. I wish that one day I woke up, and he was dead. That would be the perfect gift to me. For me to get a good night's sleep I would I have to sleep at 8pm. It's ridiculous, and I don't know how much more I can take of this. Pretty soon I'll be waking up at 3am in the morning, and going to bed at 7pm.

Damn damn damn damn damn dog.

I found a pretty neat site. Here it is. And here, though completely unrelated, is another really cool site. Actually this one is cooler than that other one. Very very cool.

I am looking for a new bag. I want a one-strapped bag for the shoulder but I want it in backpack form, like a sling-pack. I checked out MEC's selection a few days ago but couldn't find the right size. They're either too big or too small. I want something big enough where I can fit a bible and notebook, plus an umbrella, but not a fat bag. A mesh pocket for a water bottle would be nice. I'd also like it to have a neat little pocket on the strap for my cell, though that's not a major requirement. I find that the trouble with MEC bags are that they have way too many straps hanging down that we never use.

Material wise I like the MEC bags because they are waterproof and are of pretty good quality that you kinda know it'll last 15-20 years.

mother's day
What kind of society do we live in that we need a day called Mother's Day? In our household, we strive to have Mother's Day every day. So suffice to say I see no point in this so-called Mother's Day 'special day'. Just the same, what the heck is Father's Day for? Isn't it sad that we live in a world where we need a special day to remind us of how much we love and appreciate our own parents?

The other day I never understood was St. Valentine's Day. Here is a day that you remember your significant other or spouse and treat him/her (i believe this is a bigger deal for guys*) with something special, err.. romantic. If this is the big day for romance, then the relationship must be pretty depressing. To think that one day could make up for the whole year.

*And yeah, while this is only a guess, I do think this ends up being bigger for the guy than the girl. You always see the poor guy running down the street in a panic looking for flowers or some candy. But for whatever reason, possibly the way God made us, the woman isn't scrambling around for something because either:

a) they don't need to do anything because it's the guy who really needs to come up big because they've been a lazy bum all year
b) they're more sensitive and have been planning this for months ahead

Anyway, the point is that if both people in the relationship are pulling their weight, there doesn't need to be a Valentine's Day. And that obviously applies for Mother's Day or Father's Day as well.

I suppose that God has a reason for giving us this kind of weather and that we should just be grateful that it we aren't have giant balls of fire falling from the sky. Maybe it is geologically or meteorologically impossible for the whole world to have nice weather so it is our turn to have the crappy weather that we have been having. Nevertheless, I am suffering greatly from it. My dog doesn't cry all night long, but as soon as day breaks he begins to whimper. Today at 5am he started and went out and yelled at him. At 6am he started again, and again, I yelled at him. 6:30 again, so i woke up then, fed him and took him out for a walk. It's cold outside, and you know what it's like when you go outside the wind and rain just after you woke up.. it's that feeling you normally only get when you're out camping. Well, I've had that feeling now 5-6 days in a row, and it sucks!

I just watched Phone Booth.. what a dumb movie.. if anyone hasn't seen it, don't waste your time!

I was really looking forward to seeing this movie as well, having seen the trailers for it. It was disappointing. Colin Farrell has had quite a few releases, this year being a breakout year for him. I hope that for his careers' sake the other movies are better!

Today I went up to my boss and asked him straight up, "Pete, what's the deal with my contract?", and he said "Well, I signed it, and Pete signed and it's down at financing now." (Pete is also his boss' name). So that's that I guess, he said that they signed me up for another 6 months under the same job title (no pay raise). And he said if finance were to reject it, they would have called him. So I'm gonna still go to work on May 24th, and see what happens..

Last night's Survivor was a little disappointing, Rob, the player I felt played the game the best, didn't make the top 2, and the eventual winner was one of those do nothing not all through the whole show but win anyway contestants. So it was disappointing to say the least. A 21 year old spoiled swimsuit model wins 1 million dollars. I felt a little cheated, but it's just a show.. and I was pretty entertained by this season's Survivor. The next one will be in Panama, apparently.

There's a funny smell in my kitchen. I didn't know what it was until the morning when I actually stopped and sniffed around for it. You see, we have a pine shelf from IKEA, which my dad had me stain with polyurethane (or was it polyethylene?). Anyway, the combination of the lovely smell of pine mixed with the stain produces a wonderful wet dog / urine smell. I just wonder how long this smell will last..

I started to download movies again. Yesterday I watched Anger Management, which was really really funny. The Matrix Reloaded is already on the internet, but I don't want to see it just yet.. Today I watched Spirited Away, the japanese version with english subtitles. It always gets me, the way the japanese draw their different characters. It's certainly unique from the way North Americans make theirs. The movie was alright, I could see why there was so much hype around it, it was quite good. I think I liked Princess Mononoke better though. The witch in the movie freaked me out a little, her head was pretty huge!

I forgot to mention that I saw X-Men 2 the same evening I passed my road test. The deal was that if I failed, my bro had to pay for himself, and if I passed, I'd treat him.

"X2" as everyone seems to be calling it, was a lot better than the first, um, ..X1? The mutants teamed up to defeat a human villain, the apparent 'father' of Wolverine. I kind of wish we could have seen a fight between Mystique and Lady Deathstrike. Mystique would've gotten her ass kicked though, and then she wouldn't have been able to break into the compound for the rest of em. Still, during that office scene I was really hoping for them to fight. That would've forced me to raise this movie by at least 10 points.

From what I've heard (I never read the comics myself), Deathstrike and Wolverine had been lovers. I'm sure they could have easily integrated that into the story. Supposedly Wolverine forgot everything, so I think they could've added their relationship into his flashbacks. That would've given the movie a double-lover's quarrel. Better yet would have been nice to see Wolverine spare her, so that she could make a return in the next movie.

I suppose Pyro will have more screentime next movie too. And let's not forget about Gambit, who was given honorable mention but never appeared in X2. Who could they get to play Gambit, I can't think of anyone right now. X3 will be even better I think. Since it'll probably take place in space, I think we'll get to see some crazy mutant battles, maybe to a grander scale like the Jedi battle in Star Wars 2!

I'm a little embarassed to admit this, but I watch The Bachelor. I've been watching this season's edition every week and cheering for a couple of girls the whole way through. Last night, both my picks made it to the final 2. Eventually I'd like to think that the bachelor, Andrew will open his eyes and realize if he's any bit serious about the show he'll pick Jenn.

Originally when I first started watching the show, and realizing that these the relationships in these reality shows never amount to anything lasting, I felt Andrew should just make his picks solely on good looks. How often does a guy get to choose from 2 dozen beautiful women. So naturally I was hoping Andrew would make those types of decisions, at least if anything to boost my interest in the show, not to mention the rest of the men watching this show. So far, Andrew has not disappointed, by picking hot-stuff! Kirsten as one of the final 2. The scary thing is I think Andrew had sex with all 3 of them, they even recorded the sounds from his night with Tina, before he promptly booted her off the show the next day..

Not that I condone this behaviour, but it's all good in the nature of reality television. TV at its best.. lol

blasted dog

Dusty behaved relatively well last night. He didn't start whimpering until 2am, so I got a good 2 hours sleep before he woke me up again. I had purchased some earplugs that evening but they were not good enough as I could still hear the yelps. Finally at 2:41am I realized if I didn't get more sleep I could be in danger of risking my health. So I put on my jacket, and left the condo. I walked back to my house, crept in quietly and parked myself on the couch upstairs. I finally had a decent night's rest. Final count is 5.5 hours of sleep in the last 2 days, which is still not my worst ever. But I think the difference is, in school you feel the affects a lot worse, because we'd get these 5.5 hours in 2-day span, but those would be sandwiched between two weeks of 4 hours per night. Plus we'd be studying or working.

Thinking about the last two nights has reminded me how glad that I finished school, and grateful that I don't have to write an exam today.

My dog Dusty moved to the condo yesterday, and he did not like it. He probably thought we were going on a trip somewhere, and were just going to leave him there by himself. Last night, he cried all night, I didn't sleep more than 20 minutes. My first all-nighter since my thesis in 4th year..

Anyone who knows me well knows I cannot stand driving. I would prefer to take the bus than to drive. I would prefer to walk, even. Driving is boring, and it forces me to stay awake while in a car. I like to sleep in a car, not drive. Driving is not fun.

Well, this morning I could not sleep at all. I woke up at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And in between those hours I woke up 3-4 times each. I just could not sleep. I dreamt of passing my driver's test about a million times. Then, finally the time came and I went back to the house so that my mom could drive me all the way to Oshawa for my test. I took a day off from work, a day of unpaid leave.

From the get-go things already did not look good. Mom took 401 West by accident, the opposite direction of where Oshawa is from Toronto. Then, as we reached Oshawa, she almost missed the exit. Yes, "the" exit -- Oshawa is not very big. We ended up being almost an hour early and I waited in the car for 40 minutes biting my thumb til the point of bleeding like I always do before a test, exam, whatever. I suppose I will chew my thumb clean off my hand the day I decide to propose to my future wife. I will need a medical team standing beside me when I stand at the front of the church waiting for my bride to walk down the isle. Hah. Mom complained to me that all I need to do was pray. And I did, again, for like the 1243978125th time.

The test went relatively well. I drove extra cautious, almost too cautiously at times. But I did everything right, just like last time. With a Windstar, once again the tester took pity on me and didn't make me parallel or reverse park. Which does sorta suck because i can do it quite well. Towards the end of the test, I was still nervous. The tester told me to just part anywhere. We stopped, she turned to me and told me I had passed. Having never heard those words before in the last 3 tries, I didn't know what to say, I just muttered "thank you" and she left.

I stepped out of the car and went back to the building a lined up. I was shaking. It's funny that the last 3 times when I failed, I felt a lot more relaxed than that moment after I had passed.

On the way home, Mom let me drive, for the first time on a 400-series street. I drove 125 km/h, easily the fastest I have ever driven. It was fun.

I haven't been watching Alias as religiously as I have John Doe, but last night's finale was awesome! So many twists and turns and a crazy crazy ending!!

Yesterday we had our final segment of dealing with conflicts and personal relationships. We filled in another survey. I focused on my work relationships, I guess because I've been engulfed by work lately -- which is kinda sad, I never thought I'd be that kind of person..

Anyway after the survey I learned that I was an "avoiding" type of person, who withdraws from all conflicts. My second trait was "accomodating", which is someone who gives in to keep everyone happy. And my third was "collaborating", a person who looks for the best solution. The other two traits which I scored very low on were "compromising" and "forcing". All 5 were represented by animals, though I'm not really sure the connection or reasoning behind having animals at all. Perhaps to illustrate a compability with other people? Anyway, Forcing was a Shark, Collaborating was an Owl, Compromising was a Fox, Avoiding was a Turtle, and Accomodating was a Teddy Bear.

Our small group, though there wasn't much sharing going on was pretty well balanced out throughout, as I was able to sneak some glances at everyone's sheets.. (hehehe). Both our small group leaders were turtle/teddy bears like me. Dandaman referred to himself as a pushover, and for some reason that pretty much spread through the whole group, because no one volunteered any answers for the rest of the way. I guess everyone scored marginally high in those two categories too, so everyone started feeling a little self-conscious.

The Bible study was good though, we learned about how conflict is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a matter of being able to deal with those conflicts in a timely and correct manner. Jesus said in Matthew 18:15-20, about how if you had a conflict with a brother, you confront them, and if they don't listen you bring a few witnesses, then bring them to the church, then finally stop being their friends.. This only applies to certains types of conflict though. I mean, I believe it depends on who is the "church" in your argument. Say you're in disagreement with someone about who is better, Vince Carter or Kobe Bryant. Well, you wouldn't go to church to settle your arguments, you'd end up going to the stat books to compare the two for the final word. And plus, such a disgreement isn't really like your brother sinned against you, it's just an opinionated conflict, which is the case for most personal conflicts nowadays.

Anyway afterwards we went to Kenny's Noodles, I had some bubble tea.

I've been to bubble tea 3 days in a row now. I went to the Ten Ren downstairs on Thursday and Wednesday with different friends!

I find that I have a little bit of time to post something today. I've been neglecting the blog lately, but I also noticed that many of my friends have also stopped blogging. Maybe it's the beautiful weather we've been having, or maybe it's because of exams, or people finishing school and moving home. Anyway, life has been pretty good.

At work, things have been going alright. I have been working hard and finding that working for the government might be detrimental towards my working habits. The thing is things are so relaxed here. You get your work done sure, and there's a little bit of urgency to meet deadlines, but the feeling around here is that if a deadline is missed, it's no big deal. When we started on this project, they were saying it would be done by June. We're still waiting for the software we ordered 2 months ago. The j2ee programmers are being hired just this week and next. It's looking like it won't be done til August.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing for me. It heightens the chance that my contract is extended, the longer this thing drags out! :) My boss filed for a 6 month extension, and said after this it'll buy them some time to create a full-time position for me.

I got my tax return a few days ago, it's not a lot of money, but it's enough for me to get a new pda or maybe an xbox, or ps2, or an electric guitar. Or maybe I should get a couch so I have somewhere to sit. I bought a Sanyo 27" tv this past weekend, it's really enhanced my living experience since I still don't have internet yet.

[EDIT] I'm getting internet tonight! [/EDIT]