disgust

Today I thought something that I never thought I would think of at service. When I looked down at the bulletin and saw the next two songs come up were "Shout To The North" and "Days of Elijah" I gave serious consideration of getting up and leaving. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike these songs, but the combination of these two songs with today's leader is just a bad combination.

This leader sings these two songs every time he/she leads, and not just that, it's just an ugly display of showmanship -- engineered worship. It's sickening and if not for my (albeit poor) patience and willingness to wait it out, I would have left right there and then.

bu nai fan

I'm not sure what it is but lately I have just been feeling like I won't put up with things that I don't approve of. Like maybe a culmination of failures and frustrations have brought me to the brink of an explosion of negativity. It's just that I put up with a lot of crap without going nuts, moreso than the average person I guess. I guess I have a thick skin in that sense or a really long fuse.

Pray for me..

switchfoot

I've been listening to Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown a lot for the past few days. Actually pretty much non-stop since I bought it. It's a good CD, nothing like I expected, which isn't necessarily a good thing either. I expected heavy alternative having heard Meant To Live on the radio. But it's actually quite mellow. So on the one hand I was looking for that grungy music to let out frustration (ie, blasting it while driving), but instead it turned out to not be like that at all.

So I end up just blasting it anyway, even though it's not really 'blasting' type of music. I should have just bought a 12 Stones cd..

wisdom

This Sunday, I finally found like God was telling me something, during the sermon. Yes, a sermon at my church actually inspired me. Hard to believe isn't it. Daniel spoke about the value of wisdom that is passed down to us in the book of Proverbs.

It's funny because on Friday after work I walked with my co-worker to the subway station, and he was giving me advice on how to invest my money, and he actually brought up the parable of the talents, and told me I should be investing my money because I've been blessed with it and I should do something with it rather than just let it sit there. Why's this funny, it's funny because this guy is a non-christian, quoting from the bible to give me advice on my financials.

It's it funny though, how God will guide us through life through different means, not just through His direct word but through other means. It's truly amazing.

These posts are getting longer and longer.. i dunno how you people make short posts..

off the hook

Yesterday we didn't have small group per se, instead I invited people over to jam. It was a fun night, but it could have been a lot better. Perhaps next time I'll try to organize it more rather than have it ad-hoc like the way we had it.

It became more of a gathering and not really even fellowship, more like hanging out. I really felt as if we lost God during the singing. The only time we had real fellowship was at prayer time, and instead of having a good sharing time it turned into jokes and digression. I'm not sure how we let that happen, but.. whatever.

Anyway, regarding my title. Yesterday I also learned that Anita is interested in leading a small group. Which means there will be 3 groups, which gets me off the hook for this whole thing of a men's group.

Friday afternoon I chatted with my cousin Grayson, about opportunities of serving in church, and he pointed out that if I was scared to do something, but there was a need for such a service, then I should do it. He went through the same thing in his church, for leading worship. In his case, he was also scared to do it, but there became a need for a new leader. God provided this open door and opportunity for him.

For me, I was scared to do it, but the door closed. God's way of pointing me in another direction, I guess.

texas hold 'em

I know that I've joked about this before, but I've given this serious thought lately. I talked to Daniel about this once because he told me he was really into it, and knew a lot of guys who were also into it. I like watching it on TV. Then yesterday my cousin Clark told me that a lot of people at his church are into it. And I know that Alf has considered buying a set of chips, for similar purpose as one I am about to suggest. I know that Lon has had at least one meeting of something similar.

Let's push my men's group idea off to the side and suggest the following: A poker ministry.

Okay, so some of you are cringing. Poker? What?! Gambling? How can gambling be a ministry? You have church in one hand, and poker in the other? Vegas? Sin City?

Poker... or CARDS for that matter, is a great male bonding tool. Take 4 total strangers (men), lock them in a room for 2 hours. What do you get? I shudder to think the results of such an experiment.

But take the same 4 guys, but this time give them a deck of cards -- and I guarantee you when you open the door there will be 4 guys having fun, laughing it up, bonding --- friends. That's the magic of cards and men.

Poker has always been a guy thing. It's the time when men gather together, play a game of cards and talk about things. What things.. anything. Life, kids, wife, work. And God. Sure, why wouldn't we talk about God, about spiritual issues?

Poker ministry. This is certainly a viable ministry but it would be a challenge, as with any ministry. Take any competitve sport ministry for instance. Sometimes, teams become too competitive. In my opinion, the whole point of sport ministry is to show God's grace, and to fellowship with one another. It's really got nothing do with the sport itself.. sure you play the sport, but it's what you do while your playing that really matters. If the focus is not on God during the game, then you're just playing the sport.

Aside: This reminds me of a time in highschool when my friend Sabin thought that the Chinese Chess club was just chinese people playing regular chess. If you're in a sports ministry and you're just playing the sport, then it's not longer a ministry, you're just a bunch of Christians playing the sport.

So the trick with a poker ministry is to prevent people from making it about poker. How do you do this. I'll get back to this later.. it's 1:30 in the morning and service is in 8 hours.

street painting

This iz da shiznit yo!

http://www.kurtwenner.com/gallery.htm

I saw a message posted on asbntr (alt.sports.basketball.nba.tor-raptors) with that funny street language. Absolutely cracked me up.. Kids these days are so funny!

Translation: Gee golly willickers! Check this stuff out, it's amazing!

Thanks to the akt for tracking down the site. Some really amazing stuff on that site..

Since Andrew said that the U2 compilation cd by various Christian artists is available at Mitchell's I will have to head over there, tonight. I just can't help myself. I also plan to buy the Switchfoot cd.. maybe. But definitely the Bethany Dillon cd, which I've listened to a 100 times already.

There's a few other interesting bands. I've mentioned "12 Stones" before. They're heavy alternative, not for the faint of hearts. Also while listening on Launch Yahoo, I came across a group called "Building 429", a band based around Ephesians 4:29, which is:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

They sound a whole lot like Creed.. the difference being that they are blatantly Christian.

Edit: I bought Dillon and Switchfoot. I sampled the "In The Name Of Love" cd and was horrified that they got The Grits to do "With Or Without You". Needless to say they butchered it terribly. Couldn't bring myself to buy the cd, out of respect for U2. Chris Tomlin's rendition of "Streets" was pretty good though.

health

Reading about Gladys' mission to get healthy reminded me that I promised myself years ago that when I turned 26 I would start watching my health. Not so much that I'd become a workout-holic, but moreso just that I would *start* taking care of myself.

That is, watching what I eat, being careful of my health and well-being. Whereas before I may have scoffed at people who said things like "Brian, spraying whipped cream into your mouth directly from the can is not good for you", or "Brian, the butter is for the bread, not the other way around.", I am supposed to listen to these advices and realize I am hurting myself.

Incidentally during my dad and brother's visitation, I gained 7 pounds.

Also to ammend my original goal, I plan to work out 52 times this year. That's about 4 times more than I have worked out my entire life, but I think it is a good goal. Once a week, until my next birthday, or, worst-case scenario, every day from June 23, 2005 til August 13, 2005. Haha..

studying

I have not studied like this since University. But, this year I am committed to doing my utmost best in my fantasy football leagues, and to do this I need to study.

I have 2 drafts coming up, next Wednesday is for Rockville Evangelical Missions Fantasy Football League, and the following Saturday for Cabin John Fantasy Football League. REMFFL and CJFFL are both based in the US.. they are churches actually. But the members (aside from me) are people from those churches, churches that my cousins attend. Actually no one goes to Cabin John anymore but since the league started many years ago, the name just stuck.

CJFFL is a keeper league so it means a whole lot more to me. There's more strategy involved in a keeper league because you need to decide who to keep for the following year, while also taking into account where you are drafting and the possibility of drafting someone who isn't kept who might end up being better than the player you potentially keep. I draft 5th overall in this league.

REMFFL is a throwback, less important, but there's still bragging rights involved that make me want to win that one too. I draft 2nd overall, guaranteeing me either Priest Holmes or LaDainian Tomlinson.

Then there is also Andrew's league. I'm not sure when they plan on holding the draft and frankly I hope it is not until September.

someone to talk to

Blogger is like a pal of mine, who listens when there's no one else to listen. This explains why I blog a whole lot more when not much is going on, and then only intermittently when there's lots going on. I never thought about blogging at all until late at night when my brother and dad had gone to bed, whereas when I'm alone, I'd think about blogging on the subway, at work, pretty much all the time.

I'd be in the subway, or at work, or walking down the street, and see something funny and think "ooohh.. gotta blog about this!".

title

Seems blogger keeps changing. I cannot see my title on my blog..

my axe

I overlooked something very important when I bought my electric guitar. I can't play. For some reason I thought I learned acoustic all by myself, but this isn't true at all. It was from jamming, at Tim or Sandra's house, OCAC and of course the weekly jams at 2880 Carling (our place, Lon and I). And I had people to learn from, like Lon, Tim, Alf, Sandra, Nate, Jon, Frank, Miranda. Without those sessions and "mentors" I could never have learned to play.

So.. how am I gonna learn electric?

Right now I feel pretty depressed because I just dropped off my dad and brother off at the airport. I feel alone again, instant loneliness the second I drove away from the airport. But instead of blogging about my sadness, let's talk about last night's mercyme concert, which easily tops any concert I have ever been to.

4 of us were at the concert; Gladys, Anita, Darryl (my bro) and I. Anita, Darryl and I went to wonderland in the afternoon to ride the rollercoasters, and we met up with Gladys (who had a softball game that afternoon) later on. When we got there we lined up at Drop Zone for about 45 minutes before a torrential downpour came. We were in the front of the line when this happened, literally seconds before we were to go out and do the ride, it poured. They shut down the ride (actually the entire park) and waited it out. Unfortunately due to its design, Drop Zone is the last ride to start up again, so we left and rode the Minebuster and then the Skyrider, before we went to the concert. Anyway, back to the concert.

I read somewhere that mercyme was even better live than they are on cd. Even better? They are WAAAAAAAY better live than on cd (which if you think about it is kinda scary). mercyme ranks as my favorite Christian band, and now they are heads and shoulders above the rest, they were unbelievable last night. All 3 performers were awesome. David Crowder Band, mercyme, Michael W. Smith. They all played, on top of their own songs, praise songs so it was just one big worshipfest.

David Crowder Band opened, starting with "No One Like You". I don't think I remember the exact order, but here are the songs they played from Illuminate:

O Praise Him
Skies (Interlude)
Open Skies
Coming Toward (Track 13)

David Crowder is a wacko, I mean if you look at him, he is freakish. Tall, lanky and his hair is just nuts.. like a 'fro, but then a long funny looking una-bomber-like beard. If I'm not mistaken DCB has been around as long if not longer than MercyMe, but haven't enjoyed the same kind of success. They were obviously not as well known as MM or MWS by the crowd reaction, but Canada rocks as they say, and people were pretty hyped by his stuff.

Next they set up the stage for MM, but they put a piano in the middle. MWS came out and for a minute I thought maybe MM was coming out last, as if they were bigger than Michael W. Smith? But he came out, started singing a praise song and then the MM band came out, and it was awesome, Bart and Michael singing along.. I was totally blown away by this, and so was Darryl.

MM opened with "Here With Me" and then "The Change Inside of Me". Overall they sang from albums..

Almost There
Here Am I
I Can Only Imagine

Spoken For
The Change Inside of Me
Spoken For
Word of God Speak

Undone
Here With Me
In The Blink Of An Eye
Homesick
Undone

These were inter-twined with praise songs. I can remember singing "Breathe", "Because He Lives (I can face tomorrow)", and there were others. Too many to count. Whereas DCB sang for 30 minutes, MM sang for an hour. Bart was struggling to hit some of the higher notes, he was coughing at times, probably worn out from this long tour.

Before he sang Homesick, Bart talked about losing his brother-in-law in January, about how his b-i-l had been struggling with his walk, and they had straightened him out, and on his way home he died in a single car crash. Bart wrote the song and sang it at the funeral. I think I've blogged about this before. Anyway, it was a touching moment.

All the MM band members list U2 as one of their favorite bands. So fittingly they sang "Where the Streets Have No Name" last, before MWS. In fact, Smith sang with them, it was awesome.. my favorite U2 song, sung and played by MercyMe and Michael W. Smith. I couldn't believe it, I was totally blown away by it, almost close to tears from pure joy by the end of the song. It was beautiful!

Then, Smith comes out and sings a couple of praise songs, then he sang Secret Ambition and Rocketown, major oldies yes, but both songs me and Darryl knew so we were loving it.

He also sang two songs from his new album coming out in October. I know one of them was called "Healing Rain". It was a good one.

Near the end, he started to sing "Above All". It was all dark around him just the spotlight on him on the piano, and then, the lights come on and MercyMe is there and they all sang together! Above All (written by MWS) is a HUGE song in the States.. anyone following the latest NASA crash will remember footage of people gathering in churches singing Above All (and I Can Only Imagine, which I'll get to in a sec). So after Above All, they sang some more praise songs together, and then..

I Can Only Imagine came up, still MercyMe singing it, but Michael W. Smith singing the odd verses. CRAZY! It was so awesome!!

The Spirit was moving, God was moving, people were standing up or bowed to the ground, with their arms raised.. I was crying.. even Darryl (usually Mr. Un-animated) had his arms up to the heavens.

At the end, David Crowder Band came out and joined MM and MWS, and they sang a few more praise songs, ending it all off with "Open The Eyes (of my heart Lord)". Each sang a verse, and the last time they sang the chorus, we moshed it.

I've never moshed before; it's tiring and hard.. Maybe I'm getting too old but I had some trouble jumping and pumping my fist and singing all at the same time. :) But it was fun! DCB, MM, MWS all singing and rocking.. good times!

And then MWS and DC ran around the back of the stage and climbed up to the top above the speakers in the middle, and hugged. It was so funny! And then DC jumped down, it must've been like an 8-foot drop!

Finally the concert ended with the audience sing "(Our God is an) Awesome God".

Dates

If it weren't for the blackout last year, this blog, and ICQ, no one would remember my birthday except my immediate family, and maybe.. people who were silly enough to write it down somewhere.

I have a quite a few birthdays memorized, aside from immediate family. I wrote up the "birthdays booklet" for our highschool fellowship many years ago, so I remember at least a half a dozen of those birthdays, like Steve, Laura, Roger, Aileen, Denise, Jacqueline, Yung, Keith, Robert. University core group of friends, only one I remember is Adam's, only because he has the same birthday as Jacqueline. From Ottawa I have Yvonne, Lon and Mildred's birthdays etched in memory, but mainly because I have fun memories associated with those birthdays. Then there are my crushes - the girls who "peaked" my interests in the past, I won't forget those birthdays either. Right.. as if I'm gonna post those!

For the life of me I cannot remember important dates like doctor or dentist appointments, the day I graduated, my first day of school. In highschool I forgot about an exam and came in with an hour left (still finished it though, with time to spare, and actually aced it.. haha).

Off the top of my head (minus the above birthdays), here are dates I remember:
December 17, 1997 - my baptism
August 15, 2004 - mercyme, david crowder band, michael w smith concert

That's all I can remember, which means I have a super long memory, and an ultra short memory, and everything in between is gone. Of course there are the statutory holidays, but who doesn't remember those?

Funny story -- in our thesis project team, our leader emailed us to arrange a meeting off-campus, during the winter break. I'm not sure what he was thinking, as if we'd actually meet during the break, but these are our "core" group of Mac friends, so it might have been possible. Anyway, he told us to meet on Dec. 25! Haha.. silly Muslim..

So why am I awake at 5:30 in morning typing this?

I had a weird dream about MercyMe, just before I woke up. I showed up late to the concert, but it was okay because for some reason Justis Kao was performing as the opening act (yes, very weird). Gladys couldn't make it, not sure why. My brother wasn't there. Anita was there, even though in my dream I called her and her brother picked up the phone and said she'd be late. And for some reason Duncan and Nancy were there. We sat in the 2nd row instead of the 4th row, and we were in a park, like a picnic park, and they were performing between two big trees. They sounded awful..

No, I'm not on drugs.

Then I woke up, totally excited about MM. Turned my computer on, and started listening to MM cds. I read through the MercyMe forums about peoples' experiences at their concerts (same tour). This is the only stop in Canada so I suspect it'll be packed. I don't expect a lot of canucks to love MercyMe, but I bet there are tons of fans of all 3 bands. MWS fans alone should fill most of the place up. When I went to see SCC back in 2000, Kingswood theatre was only half full.

Anyway, in the forums they say MM are far better than they expected, every post says basically the same thing, that they are even better live than on CD.

Honestly that doesn't surprise me because Bart Millard has an unbelievable voice. This isn't their first tour, and for a fairly new band they have travelled a lot.

Million Miles Away

You're my inspiration
You're always by my side
You are there as sure as I am breathing

Without hesitation
I am giving You my life
Cause I know You're never gonna leave me

It doesn't matter where I go
Cause this I know

I believe that You're always here with me
You're everywhere but still within my reach
Cause how could You save the day
If You're a million miles away

Who's to say what you can't see can't be found
There's evidence of Your presence all around
Cause how could You save the day
If You're a million miles away

What it all comes down to
Is being with You

At this time last year, August 14, I was probably around Lawrence/Yonge, walking home because of the blackout. I still count that as my best birthday ever.

This year, no power failures. I got up at around 6:30, played City of Heroes until my dad and brother woke up at around 10:00. At around 10:45 we got a call from the dentist asking us why we hadn't shown up at our appointment.. hehe.. oops!

After that we went out for lunch at Wei Shung Tsuen, or "Asian Legend" across the street, had my favorite Hong Sao Nou Ro Mien, two bowls, and a lobster.

Then we came home, watched a few more vcd's (my dad and bro are watching them now, trying to finish them off before they leave on Monday). Then we all went downtown to Steve's Music store.

I bought a Godin guitar, it's black. And I bought a Rolland amp. The guy was cool about it, at first I was going to buy a Fender Stratocaster, but with that and the amp it would've been over my budget, so we went with the canadian made Godin guitar instead. It came with a bag so that was a bonus for me. We got a tiny discount because I bought the showroom one.

After we bought it and paid for it, the guy asked me if this was a birthday present, since we were getting everything as a package. I told him I was 26 today, and he was like "what?! you look 14!". HAha.. 14? Ouch..

I can't blame him for that, I was wearing a really old tee, and my 'clown shoes', and I didn't have my hair gel'd or even combed. Still 14? That's younger than my brother.. I wonder how old he thought Darryl was..

Today we're going to eat the fish that I caught yesterday at fishing. We went to Rice lake, caught around 15-20 fish total but threw back all of them but the one big one I caught. Really, it wasn't that big but in comparison to the others it was a prize fish.

Most of the fish we caught were panfish (sunfish and perch), small ones. My dad caught a rockbass wish is also considered a panfish. I was the only one who caught "real" fish. A pair of large-mouth bass, one of whom is sitting in my fridge right now. :)

I'll post some pics up later, of the fish we caught. At first, we took pics of all of them, but after awhile it became redundant. They were so small, we tried tricking the camera by holding them up really close to the camera.. Haha..

What I really thought of The Village

This was a great movie. The reason I posted bad comments on it was a joke, hoping people wouldn't feel overhyped about it. But upon further investigation, just about every review ripped it apart.

I hope for your sake, if you haven't seen the movie -- you haven't read any of the reviews out there.

Ultimately choosing to see a movie must be of your own choice, regardless of critics, and, to prevent your very own opinions from being skewed, you try to avoid other influences.

Anyway, back to the movie for which I expected to be scary, was indeed scary. I've never cried out during a movie and I did, just from something actually quite quick and innocent, but startled me enough to cry out "AH!".

Joaquin Phoenix was okay, but the real performance came from a newcomer, Bryce Dallas Howard. She plays a blind girl who ends up being one of the more major characters in the plot. For me, that was a big part of the satisfaction I had in the movie, in her performance. Anyway, from this point on if you haven't seen the movie, stop reading.

My fascination with M Night Shyamalan movies are that they always have surprises and twists, things that pretty much blow your mind away at the end, like Bruce Willis being dead in Sixth Sense, or Samuel Jackson blowing up the train just to test Bruce Willis in Unbreakable, or an asthma attack that ultimately saves a young boy from being killed by aliens in Signs. But the trouble is people watch his movies expecting a big twist, so they become suspicious of everything.

And of course the other thing with Shyamalan is his use of sound and lighting. Some really innocent scenes he can intensify so well with sound effects and music, and he makes things so eery from the lighting if needs to. He uses good contrast in colors, to signify different things. There are awful movies out there that are too dark, or too bland, but he mixes it up really well.

There, I made this review sort of not give anything away, in case you kept reading.

I can't rate this one with I, Robot, Bourne Supremacy, King Arthur or Spiderman 2, because those were all action movies. This was a suspense/thriller/romance, and so I can't compare. The romance aspect of it was really nice. Very thrilling, suspenseful, and also funny at times.

10/10.

My brother and I traded a Playstation, two controllers, a multi-tap, Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil, Gran Turismo 2 (these were all PSX titles), then also Freedom Fighters (GC), Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (GC). This we traded to EB on Sunday night, and in return got $40. This is a sad trade indeed, especially considering I bought Rising Sun 2 days before for $30 alone. Haha.. anyway, we traded it all for 007: Everything or Nothing (GC). Tough, tough game.

I buy games only if they are multiplayer and I prefer the co-operative ones.

It's so great to have my brother here. Not just for my entertainment but just having someone besides God to talk to -- and I don't mean I don't talk to anyone else, but I mean really *talk* to someone, I miss that human aspect of conversation.

I saw The Village today. What a disappointing film. No twists, no point really. Total waste of time.

mariah

Mariah Carey has gotten me through some tough times. She and I go way back of course, since highschool. But she really helped me out in times of trouble, back in 2000, and of course recently, like last month. I guess in some ways that's bad because then I end up associating those rough times whenever I hear Mariah songs.

On the other hand, there are some songs that just don't get old, don't get painful, they just go on forever.. like the Music Box album.. best album ever.

It's unfortunate that such a talented singer could make 5/6 amazing albums and then simply vanish from the industry completely..

I've been inspired to blog by the akt because when it's the late (or early) you can tend to ramble on. And since I couldn't think of anything to blog about earlier, this is a good time to do one.

My brother is in town, I picked him up yesterday morning. We went downtown to Steve's Music Store to check out electric guitars. There are so many types.. goodness gracious! I saw a nice Stratocaster that I really liked, but they don't come in the color I wanted. I want sort of a metallic non-shiny blue guitar. But that's not available. In fact, I didn't see a single guitar in the entire store with that color. Perchance it doesn't exist? Perchance indeed.

We also went for sushi at Fune. It's around the John/King area. Yummy.. he and I eat sushi the exact same way.. First of all we don't mix wasabi with soy sauce. Secondly we eat in the same order, leaving the salmon til the end.

Last night we stayed at home, watched television, watched Clockwork Orange (this was definitely not appropriate for his age.. oops). Heck, I don't think the movie was appropriate for anyone's age, period. It was just a purely inappropriate movie, period.

We played cards, played computer, that stuff. Just like old times.. I hadn't seen him since January before this, so it has been awhile. I love having him around..

Today we did more of the same, except went to Fairview to take care of some business, then shopped for shoes.. (yes, guys do that too) although I didn't buy any. Bought Medal of Honor for GC, only because it has co-op mode so I could play with my bro. And we watched Bourne Supremacy, a very very good movie. On a scale of 1 to 10, Supremacy is a 10, I, Robot is a 9, and Clockwork is a 4, but really a minus 100, for its inappropriateness. I wonder if Focus on the Family movie reviews did one for Clockwork.. lol

I'd put Dr. Strangelove at 8.

Hmm.. what else. Small group was over tonight, but I really out of it. About 15 minutes into our bible study it occurred to me I shouldn't have invited them and should have just spent the evening with my brother.

It's interesting the perspective people take on certain passages. When I read Acts 3, I got nothing nearly compared to what they discussed in the Bible study. I started to think about OAC english class and how reading some books I just found them to be interesting stories, whereas we'd end up discussing topics for 3-4 months about these concepts and ideas that I totally didn't catch when I read the books.

Maybe it's the wee hours of the morning that is making me blog about this, but I've given some thought into leading a men's small group. At first it was just what I considered an ill-conceived notion. But last week I spent some time putting together some ideas and structure and concepts of it, and actually got kind of excited about it. I've never lead a group before though, I'm not sure how I'd do it, but the things I'd like to cover would be prudent I think, to everyone involved.. I mean, it would be a good group. It'd be a very good group, stuff from legend I mean. People would talk about us, or write a book on us. That's how good it would be.

But no.. I don't know if I'd actually do it, it's more like a vision I suppose. Even at 3 in the morning I still feel apprenhensive about it, and normally I would say yes to anything at this time of night (day).

I have been praying about this for the last couple of weeks.

What else..

Sports? Vince Carter asking to be traded? Who cares.. he's staying put. Score your 20/4/4 for the next 2 years. We'll develop young talent around you during these two years, and when we are ready to let Bosh take over the team a la Kevin Garnett, we will trade you for veteran leadership and reach the NBA Finals the following year. Good riddance to you, Mr. Wince Carter. "Half man, half season."

And.. whoa I'm really tired now. I dunno where I'm going this Sunday. I want to see a pentecostal church, but I don't know of any. I want a guarantee that I'll see someone speak in tongues. I've never witnessed such a thing.

Batman

Why is it that Batman is so popular?

First off, let's clear out the comparison of human superheroes and alien superheroes. Of course, the aliens win hands down, because they are here on earth, trying to save the earth, even though earth is not their true home. They are gifted with abilities that are supernatural (or natural), but the fact is they use them for good, to save earthlings.

So this eliminates, among others, Superman.

This leaves the humans then -- Batman, Spiderman, Green Lantern, etc. Here are the categories of superheroes:

1. Born with their abilities.
(a) Born on earth, and thus are mutants.
(b) Born on another planet, and thus are aliens.
(c) Machine.

2. Born normal, received abilities via: gift, scientific experiment, accident.
(a) Born on earth, and thus are humans.

Let's leave out mutants for now. We could have a separate debate about favorite mutant that would take years to decide.

Of all superheroes, Batman doesn't fit in any of the above. He has no special abilities, no powers. He's not a freak, he can't fly, lift heavy objects, jump really high.

Batman is just a rich guy. What does money get you? A plane shaped like a bat. A black cape and utility belt. Neat gadgets. Some would argue Batman is really knowledgeable and intelligent. When you're rich, you have all that extra time to read about things. Poor people don't have time for that because they need to work hard to get to where they are.

Also, where did Batman's money come from? From his parents. So really, he's not a rich guy with gadgets, he's just a lucky guy. He inherited his riches. But let's not call him lucky since he lost his parents. I'd call him... a great financier. He did well with the money his parents left him. He built an empire from it, Wayne Enterprises.

Batman: Just a guy with money.

doom 3

Well, Doom 3 came earlier than I expected. I got the message when I got home from EB, and immediately went over to pick it up. I played approx. 3 hours of it today. At first I played about an hour of it, and became terrified of it, it was hard and scary as hell, so I exited the game and had dinner.

Later I went back to it. I'm still scared out of my wits but at least I'm no longer dying at every turn. Stuff just comes out of nowhere sometimes, it really gave me the heebie jeebies at first and I wasn't sure if I'd play again..

The game requirements are steep. My computer can only run it barely on medium settings, but for ideal game play (ie 40 frames per second), I turned it down to 640x480 and medium settings. It still lags occasionally when there are too many enemies on the screen (like 3 would do it).

I'm sure that if I buy a new video card I would make short work of this lag but is it really worth it? I'll just play the game again one day when I happen to have a better video card. In the meantime, this will have to do.

this week

Just one more day and then back to weekend for me. This week was 2 days long, and then I'm back to another 4 day weekend. I can't believe it's Friday again. Haha..

injuries

Some of my friends got injured playing Ultimate Frisbee yesterday. The AKT and monchken both injured their ankles yesterday. Pray that they get well soon.

And to think, on Sunday I actually gave it some thought to joining them to play since I had nothing better to do on Monday. If that is not a clearer cut message from up Above not to join in, then I don't know what is.

revisiting bethany dillon

Having had my fill of my favorite two cd's (Mercyme - Undone, David Crowder Band - Illuminate), and my 3rd favorite (Hillsong United - More Than Life) was all the way downstairs in my car, I decided to check out the top Christian hits off the Billboard site.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Bethany had hit the top 20 again, this time with "All I Need", so I went back to her site. She has all her stuff for free right off the site, just for listening enjoyment. For those of you who have surfed on over to her site -- she is 15 and writes her own stuff. Check out "Beautiful".. i can definitely relate.


Actually what's interesting is that recently I was talking to a friend from Shanghai, and he was telling me how there's almost no artists from China that are successfully writing and singing. All the big stars there are like Britney -- all they do is sing, and none of the famous song writers actually sing their own stuff, either because they can't sing, or they're just not good-looking enough.

I think that's a reflection of the culture, how, parents are just not allowing their kids to explore their own experiences. Why is it that every CBC I know is either in accounting (finance), engineering (tech), or teaching (education)? How many times were you thwarted by your parents when you told them you wanted to be something different, like an artist? It's almost unheard of.

Think about it -- over a billion people over there, and they managed to produce a *single* good basketball player.


So anyone, this is the next CD I'll be buying.

tennis

Roger Federer reminds me of Martina Hingis, with a little bit more "oomph". Great control of the ball, not particularly powerful in any of his strokes or serving. Just great placement. That was enough to beat Roddick to win the trophy. Hingis held up her end of the bargain for many years despite extremely powerful competition (Williams' sisters, Davenport, Seles, Mauresmo, etc.) by just playing the same way Federer is playing. Eventually, power will win out, but right now it's Federer's day to shine.

amish

Yes.. I cannot defend my actions but I watched "Amish in the City", the latest in the string of what appears to be the neverending I-don't-think-people-will-ever-get-sick-of-these reality television shows.

So anyway I watched it, and I don't regret it. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. I mean they actually try to deal with some of the issues of prejudice and stereotyping. Okay, so the premise is 5 amish people get into a house with 5 city folk, and 1 vegan (also a city folk). I'm not sure what the idea is, I mean I don't think they have a voting system or anything.

Anyway, this one part they made all the city folk dress up in amish clothing and go into town. And a few of them came to the realization of what it is like for an amish to go into town and just look at them funny because of they way they are dressed. I thought that was kinda neat. Also, one of the amish girls had never been to the beach, so they went and she was overwhelmed by the sight of it, it was a pretty touching moment.

movie rental

A "Videobee" Video rental store opened up in the mall below me. Apparently they are cheaper than Blockbuster. The Sporkchek down there closed and is turning into a Futureshop. At this rate, I may never have to go outdoors again. If only they built a church down there..

Not a whole lot of substance in my blogging lately, just lots of things I've been doing..

Today, I woke up at 8:30am, a testament to how tired I have been lately. Woke up, walked over to the living room and then remembered I had already finished the chinese kung-fu show. Watched YTV until noon. You know how it is.. X-Men: Evolution, Justice League, etc. Also saw some Populer Mechanics for Kids. I love that show..

Then I played City of Heroes for about an hour, but I nearly dozed off from it. So then I took strawberries leftover from last night's small group and made a milkshake with them.

Then I went to pick up Kevin to go to L'Amoreaux Park, to play tennis with Gladys, Anita, Nancy and Albert. I have not played tennis since the age of 13 or so.. It was fun though. Me and my bro used to hit tennis balls against the big wall at Mitchell Field Community Centre near our house. That's the extent of my tennis skills.. handball with a racket. Haha..

After tennis, everyone went home to shower, and then came over to my place for dinner and a movie. We had pasta, dumplings and ice cream. I think my tummy has shrunken.. I had a plate that was maybe 1/2 of what I used to be able to eat. Anyway, it was good eatin'.

Then we watched The Bourne Identity. I like that movie, my second time through was still almost as good as the first.

dr. strangelove

I have wanted to see this movie for the last 3 years, ever since I spotted it in the top 20 on IMDB.com's top 250 movies list. Even moreso, I once read a Tom Cruise interview and he said that "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" was his favorite movie.

So anyway, I bought the movie because I spotted it, of all places, in an Electronic Boutique.

I watched it after work today, right before small group. Probably not the best 'prep' for small group, but anyhow.

Stanley Kubrick's movie is a dark humor film, in black and white. It's set after the WWII and is completely and totally fictional. It's the Nuclear arms race essentially, pitting the US against Communist Russia. The main actor was Peter Sellers, I have no idea who he is, but apparently he's well known. He played 3 different characters in the movie. A very young James Earl Jones is in the movie too.

But I appreciated two other characters the most, neither of whom were played by Sellers. Gen. 'Buck' Turgidson was hilarious, and so was Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper. Dr. Strangelove is just plained strange. He made me laugh on a few occasions though.

The storyline is basically this General (Ripper) who goes bezerk and orders a nuclear assault a Russia, and due to some pretty coincidental and just plained silly reasons, they have a seriously difficult time stopping the attack.

I can't rate this movie because it's just so different from anything I've seen before. But it was a good movie.. I can see how it could be someone's favorite movie..

tennis

I went to see the ATP Masters Series, tennis @ York U.  It was pretty good, we got to see Gustavo Kuerten, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick.  Hewitt lost, unfortunately.  Hewitt is my favorite player on the tour.  I'm gonna edit the post with pics later.  I went with Gladys, Anita, Jacqueline, Kenric, Kevin.

guitar

I've decided to get an electric, after pondering about several different purchases.  I went to MEC to check out the jacket I liked, it's $112, which is just way too much for a spring jacket, even if it's super comfortable, water resistant and folds into a tiny pouch small enough to fit in my bag.  There's also a really nice one, better than that one, that doesn't fold into a pouch, but is $99.  Still too much, in my opinion, considering that my current jacket was no more than 40 bucks.

Electric it is.. Kev says it'll cost me approx. $600 to get a decent guitar and amp.  I think it'll be worth it.

happy

I can't remember being happier than I am right now in a long time.  Not this happy since.. last year?  ... and it'll get better in 6 days, when my brother comes to visit.  6 more days!!

I, Brian

I have read a few Asimov books.  They're good books, I have enjoyed every one of his books that I have read.  I've read I, Robot.  This movie was loosely based on I, Robot, which wasn't a novel but a collection of short stories dealing with complications with the 3 Laws. 

Going into the theatre I expected a Bad Boys with robots -- very low expectations.  I, Robot had basically everything I could have expected from an Asimov movie, plus Will Smith's antics and an annoying female "eye candy" character.  Aside from those two characters though, I loved the movie. 

There was comedy, action, and it was a thinker.  And, if you've never read Asimov, it would've kept you guessing til the end.  The graphics were awesome, very well integrated into the film, and the effects were really cool too, Matrix-esque, with some scenes that I would just exhale "cool".  And yeah, I guess Will Smith was funny as usual which added another dimension to it..

... there was one line in it that I'm still chuckling to myself about. 

Just one thing keeps it from being the movie of the year.  Well, two really -- the girl was pointless, and the movie started out a bit slow.

I give it a 9/10, putting it in 2nd place behind Spiderman 2 for best movie of the year.

cutting edge

Cleaned maybe 5% of my room today, discovered I own this cd.  Boy, it sure brings back old memories.  I originally bought the CD, just for The Happy Song [btw, this song is exhausting to play].  I heard them play it at The Met, and I had to get it.  Haha.. I bought a double cd just for 1 song.  But now looking back, every song on this album is really good. 

cleaning
 
The compose for blogs is annoying.  I want notepad, but they're giving me Word.  Please stop guys, it was better before.

So I did some cleaning.  My ulterior motive for cleaing my room is to find my harmonica.  Although at the same I am hoping I don't find it until the end, because I have a feeling I will stop cleaning when I find it, even though there's still a lot to clean.

weekend

Ray and Sandra's wedding was wonderful.  Thanks to those who provided pictures of it.  I know I've expressed some bitterness towards this whole thing, but I am truly, truly happy for Sandra.  She looks so very happy in those pictures and I am really happy for her.  Actually I'm glad in some ways because I shed a tear while looking through the pictures.  That could have been pretty embarrassing in person.  Haha..

On Saturday Miranda came over and we just sat and chatted, while waiting for Andrew to call me.  Mir's from Ottawa, one of the many dear friends I made there during my internship.  I called up Euhan and he came over, and we made strawberry milkshakes with the leftover strawberries from small group a week ago.  They were sorta rotten (?), but we were able to salvage about 60% of them :)

Then we got the call and went over to Ichiban and Finch/Leslie to meet up with Andrew and Lisa.  To my surprise Andy was there with Euming.  I first got to know Andy at the Genesis Winter Camp up at Blue Mountain, although in truth I met him way before that but he at least remembered me from that time.  Haha.. We sushi.. yum yum!

For some reason sushi no longer tastes all that great to me.  It might be because I've had so much that I can tell what is good and what isn't good sushi, or it might just be that I've had too much and have gotten sick of it?  But sick of sushi, I find that hard to believe.

Anyway, this whole lunch thing was at like 2:45pm, less than an hour before the wedding, so we had to eat really fast.  Then we parted ways, but Andrew/Lisa and I agreed to meet the next morning for Cornerstone. 

That afternoon I went over to Mel and Kevin's new house, for a housewarming party.  It was a good time.  We watched Starsky & Hutch.  Almost all of Mel's family was there.  I met her parents and sister and brother, and cousins from england too.  Well actually the cousins were at the Shakespeare thing too. 

I go where the food is, and yes, there was lots of food.  I actually gained 3 pounds over the entire weekend.  Hehe..

life without God != a good life

Following up on Ricky Williams' retirement, I was reminded more of his situation at the sermon today at Cornerstone.  They talked about the Simple Life, simplifying your life of excessive possessions, about greed and need, etc. 

"The world has enough for everyone's needs but not everyone's greed."

"If I had known what it was like to have it all, I would have settled for less."

As I said before, I hope Ricky finds happiness.

the grass is always greener..

Cornerstone has a lot of really friendly people.  It excites me whenever I go to a church like that, because it is so friendly, you feel so welcome there.  It reminded me of Ottawa, the people there, are just more friendly, more welcoming.  When I first starting going to T3C, I swear it took me about an entire year before I felt truly welcome there.  No complaints though, it's a big church. 

However, OCAC has about 200 people, and I was feeling right at home by the end of the month, and Cornerstone, I could see myself integrating within 2-3 weeks. 

So in essence, it has nothing to do with the size of the church, but the people there.  And I'm responsible because I'm part of the greeters' ministry.  Sigh.

Ricky Williams

I think in general people think that celebrities and professional athletes have got it made.  They are doing *definitely* what they love doing, and they getting paid mind-boggling dollars to do it. 

Ricky Williams is a fine athlete.  Although he struggled early on his career the last couple of years he has been a total workhorse.  I read somewhere that he's had over 775 carries in the past 2 seasons.  Most RBs averaged around 650.  It's no surprise considering Miami's lack of even a middle tier QB.  Jay Fiedler and Chris Weinke (sp?), and this year they were gonna go with A J Feeley.  These guys are all CFL-calibre QBs.

Anyway, his retirement will come as a shock to the sporting world, and especially to the Dolphins.  They have to be kicking themselves and wish RW had announced this earlier so they could have gone out and signed Eddie George.  Now it's too late, who could they get?  There's no one left.  Barry Sanders?  Haha..

This goes to show you that only Jesus can bring true peace and happiness.  You can be doing what you absolutely love doing, and get paid millions of dollars.  You'd think you'd be the happiest guy in the world.  But it'll never be enough until you fill that empty void in your heart, that void that was there since you were born, you were created with that void, so that one day you could accept your Maker back into your heart.  I hope one day Ricky Williams finds *true* happiness.

Fantasy-wise, this downgrades all the Miami players.  With no running game, their lack in QB talent is going to become crystal clear to them.  They upgraded their receivers in getting David Boston, but without a running game to keep defenses honest, they are basically screwed.  They seriously need a *real* QB now..

sound

I am looking at the Klipsch 4.1 Promedia speakers.  They're the best 4.1 speakers on the market from my research, and they pro-sumer quality.  I just don't have the proper desk space to pull off the 5.1 setup.  Unless I place the 5th on top of my monitor..  But what if i get an lcd one day?

Yesterday I hooked up my 2 extra back speakers to make my 4.1 system again.  It's a much different sound but because you're so immersed in the sounds, it makes me kind of drowsy because there are more sounds to process.  Or maybe I'm just tired.. hehe

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Yesterday I went to see Romeo & Juliet with Sylvia, brought to us by Shakespeare Works!, out at the new Home Depot theatre at Ashbridges Bay. 

It's an outdoor theatre, which is kinda neat.  The stage extends out so that you can pretty much see it from any side other than behind it.  The entire backdrop is essentially open, so you just see trees in the back.  The actors come in from all side, there are 4 entrances so they just come running from all directions.  And then there are two more exits behind the stage. 

I'm not "huge fan" of Shakespeare, but I can appreciate it.  I read R&J in grade 9, heard it on tape, and seen the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes about 3-4 times.  Actually it was on TV recently so the story was pretty clear in my mind.  Although I fell asleep on a few occasions, all in all it was pretty good.  They did great job, it was very good flow from scene to scene.

jacket search

Went to MEC today, saw a really great jacket that I wanted badly if not for the price of it.  It met only 1 of my 4 criteria though.  I am looking for:

1. Waterproof, or at least water resistant.
2. Inexpensive.
3. Folds into a small bag.
4. Has a hood that can either be removed or tucked away.

The one I saw satisfied #1.  Another jacket I found at the store across the street from MEC was a North Face(?) jacket, it satisfied all but #4.  My thinking is that #4 might not be as important if I have an umbrella, but I lost my nice umbrella that fit perfectly in my bag, so now I need a jacket with a hood.

The MEC jacket was so nice though, soooooo nice.

one more thing

..Is I might need a new soundcard and, possibly a new speakers set for my PC.  I want to make the most of Doom 3, which supports 6 channels.  (I assume that means 6.1, and I only have 4.1).  Although, I'm not sure where I'd place the aux. channels.  I'll have to build stands for them.. or hang them from the ceiling?  Hmm.. maybe I should re-think this.

material things

One of my friends at work got a new camera, Canon, G5 I think.  It's pretty sweet.  I could see myself buying it, maybe in the distant future.  Looking at it and comparing it to the d70 or Rebel, it's just more bang for your buck.  Plus I'd never be able to justify such a large purchase -- what do I use camera's for anyway, other than capture special moments in my life, or interesting things I see?  I don't print any of it, it's all web-posted.  I don't need a camera so good, and for a small fortune, the money could be better used elsewhere. 

The G5 is probably something I might get in December sometime.

The thing I've wanted for over a year now is an electric guitar.  Now that I'm back to regular guitar practising again, I really feel like I could progress further with an electric.  Some of the solo's just don't sound right with a guitar (not that I can actually do them properly). 

And finally, a jacket.  The jacket I use right now is the same jacket I wore in winter.  I need a spring jacket, something that is water-resistant, and I'd prefer something that can fold up into a pouch small enough to fit into my man-bag. 

deeper

Ha ha!  Wo3 si4 tai4 gao1 xing4 le5!  I've found the proper chords to one of my all-time favorite songs "Deeper" by Delirious.  My fingers hurt so bad!  Praise God!

no games

I haven't played games since Friday night (Saturday morning).  This is the longest I've gone without games since Lent.  But I'm not trying to "better myself" by playing less games, etc.  I've just lost the urge to level up my character.  Doom 3 will be out on August 3rd, and I will definitely *definitely* be playing that one.

But no games means great guitar practice, which yes, I've started again, mostly in part to the DCB cd.  The other thing which I also noticed during Lent, was that I'm constantly tired without games.  I'm tired now, I could go to bed right now, at 10 pm, and fall asleep easily.

I figured out the neato alternate bass part for "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever".  I'm sure it's for an .  I started to think about this song after being reminded that we're getting close to the blackout (my best birthday ever), and the time when I was walking up Yonge street singing this song even though my feet were killing me and I was actually feeling really sorry for myself.

Also if you haven't noticed, I've been blogging a lot more.

freedom

I haven't felt the ill-effects of being here alone again, yet.  I figured that sooner or later I'd start feeling lonely here, but I haven't at all, I've been loving every moment of it.  There's nothing quite like a hard days' work and coming home to an empty, dead silent apartment.  I mean total silence.  It's awesome..

work

I haven't heard anything about my job post yet, still waiting for it.  But today I had a talk with my supervisor, and he basically told me I had nothing to worry about for at least one year. 

Today I took some initiative (initiative?  what's that?) and asked if I could be more involved with the analysis/requirements stuff.  And then somehow I volunteered myself to do more training.  Hundreds upon hundreds of people need training and I volunteered.  Mr. "barely says anything, even at small group" has volunteered to teach 4 hundred of people.  Umm.. yeah, reeeeal smart, Bri.

dream

Last night I had a dream.  I dreamed that a whole bunch of us -- and by us i can't say i remember who else was there -- were singing together.  We were all standing in a circle.  There were many.. like maybe a hundred or a thousand.  It wasn't one circle, I mean it was a large crowd and just the middle was hollowed out.  I was in front so I couldn't tell how many people there were behind us.

We started singing a song, Rain Down by DCB, and I fell to the ground as if either struck down by the Spirit, or just felt ashamed before the Lord.  I started to weep, and I couldn't get back up, and people around me were just watching it happen.  No one tried to help me up again.

That's all I can remember from the dream.

Holy Holy is the Lord
Holy Holy is the Lord

bourne free
 
I just watched The Bourne Identity, borrowed from a friend at work.  It was awesome..  I can't believe I didn't see it til now.  Once again my theory is proven, Matt Damon is by far the better of two 'buds' (him and Affleck).  He just picks the right movies to star in, whereas Affleck just can't seem to get it right.
 
Anyway, very good movie, and the sequel comes out this weekend!
 
all i can say
 
This is the second album I purchased by David Crowder Band.  It's an older of his cd's and it is mostly acoustic stuff compared to his very pop-sounding/electronic/rock cd "Illuminate".  I can actually play along with most of the songs from it.  Aside from good sounding music and creativity, I think what draws people to this band is his voice, it's very unique. 
 
Also it's kinda rock but also many of the songs can be used for P&W. 
 
I really like the title song.  It's kind of depressing and yet not, but it's got nice lyrics:

Lord I'm tired, so tired from walking
And Lord I'm so alone
And Lord the dark, is creaping in creeping up
To swallow me
I think I'll stop, rest here awhile

And didn't You see me cry'n
And didn't You hear me, call Your name
Wasn't it You I gave my heart to
I wish You'd remember where You sat it down

This is all I can say right now
And this is all that I can give
Yea, that's my everything

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

This is all I can say right now (I know it's not much)
And this is all that I can give
Yea, that's my everything

uninvited
 
It's a silly feeling.  I know, who am I to complain.  Why would I complain?  Who cares right?
 
I went to "Parti-Gras", a street festival held at the Distillery downtown, last night.  After Habitat.  Yeah, I was exhausted.  They had some pretty nice bands there, I really enjoyed the latino stuff, guys with guitars that won't quit.  There was one band called Borg & Vella, they great, both me and Alf agreed they were the best show there. 
 
Anyway, during our conversations, he asked me if I was offended by not being invited to (____ and _____'s) wedding.   I told him I was.  I dunno, I feel somewhat disappointed at not being invited, even though I know I shouldn't. 
 
But still, something inside me gives me this real sense of disappointment, as if, I had absolutely no impact whatsoever to this person.  As if my friendship with her was so insignificant, meant so very little, that I was overlooked, passed on, when it came to inviting me to one of the single most important days of her life.
  
Who am I to complain?  I have been invited to weddings in which when I got the invitation I thought "wow, I barely ever talked to them.. I can't believe they invited me.."  Or even had to do a double-take, like "do I even know these people?".  But still.. it definitely smarts a little when you expect it.
 
Anyways..

back in business
 
Well, the good news is, after discovering my weight had dropped to 130 lbs, I am still 130 lbs.  I can't hardly explain what it was that happened to me, maybe it was anxieties, or maybe it was the games.  But, this massive/sudden loss in weight, but I'm glad for it.  I've lost all the weight I gained in University. 
 
130 lbs is an ideal weight.  People used to look at me (when I was wearing baggy clothing) and guess I was 130.  For a person who doesn't exercise a lot, lounges around and eats tons of junk food, it's a modern day miracle that I'm not fat.  Another great thing, is that my once round belly, or "one-pack" as I used to called it, is gone.  The tire, the rim that would show when i was sitting down, is gone.  It's more like a.. old flattened pillow.  I'm lean.  I'm mean.  I'm a.. err.. lazy bum.
 
I started doing ab workouts, just light ones, which I learned from my old pirated Winsor Pilates videos.  No, they're gone now, but I still remember the exercises :P
 
I like doing them.  When you work your abs, the build up to pain is excruciating, but when you stop, there is this moment in which you feel like you're in heaven, it's such a huge relief.  And every time I'm done, I fall asleep almost immediately after.  It's great.
 
My goal is to get a 6-pack?  Naw.. 2-pack would be good enough for me, or just a flatness there even when I am sitting.

habitat for humanity
 
Today I went with Anita to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.  Even though I've done tons of projects with my dad over the past years I must admit I felt pretty overwhelmed with what they were doing.  I've never built a house from bottom up.  The stuff I've done is renovations, not creations.  I definitely never dealt with floor joists.  I've done flooring, but that was basement so there was just cement underneath.
 
Anyway, I should stop making excuses because the average volunteer had no experience either.
 
It was really hot, and I am hopelessly out of shape.  Gosh, I love the font in this Compose mode.. So anyway, I think I got sunburnt on the back of my neck.  I spent a lot of time standing in the sun, not doing much.  No, I don't believe in sunscreen lotion.
 
Lots of times I felt pretty useless out there, it seemed like there was more people than they needed.  There was this one funny moment though, that I imagined my honeymoon would be like this, where me and my wife would travel to a third-world country, and build homes/huts voluntarily.  That would be our honeymoon.  That would be so great.. No, seriously!

I started watching this chinese show.  This guy at work lended me 45 cd's worth of some story.  I've watched two so far.  I really don't quite understand what's going on.  First, there was this guy and his wife, their caravan was attacked and somehow she died and he lived..  she was carrying a baby.  Anyway, he kills himself but the kid is left with the hoodlums.
 
Then they show 30 years later and this kid is grown up and is a kung-fu fighting bad guy.
 
Then they show these 3 guys doing some kind of business, their kung-fu is great too, they were able to blow up a ship!
 
Then this guy who can't fight at all goes on this adventure to save some little girl from some bad guys, meets a kung-fu fighting girl who happens to be the little girl's sister?  Anyway something about how she covers her face, and the first man to see her has to marry her?  And this non-fighting guy has to marry her now? 
 
Yea.. so that's what I did tonight, aside from cleaning more.
 
Oh yeah, and in the opening credits, one of the peoples or producers or whatever, has the same last name as me.  I know that in our family there is a movie star, but as far as I know, she's already old and retired, so it's not her.  Could be another one, or just someone totally unrelated like Yao Ming? 
 
Oh well.  Bedtime.

church

I had a discussion with Kev last night about the merits of attending a church that really challenges you as opposed to going to a church that gives you the chance to challenge others. Actually it wasn't much of a discussion, it lasted maybe 10 minutes tops.

The trade-off between getting the most out of church, or church getting the most out of you. It's the very reason that I originally had no intention of calling this nomadic church going a "church-hopping" thing but more of a "visitation". However, the contrast being so drastic as it were, got me thinking about perhaps the possibility of moving on.

Honestly I haven't given it that much thought at all. Part of me fears moving on. The fact that my family isn't here, and my only friends are at my church, outside of work friends. Not that work friends aren't as important, in fact they really are, I'm quite close to a good number of them. I guess the attachment is there, and leaving that would be scary. Part of me also feels like I have more to offer and moving on is like a cop-out.

On the other hand if try to think back of the last time I felt really challenged by a sermon or sunday school discussion, I would have to think back pretty far. I haven't gotten anything out of sunday school since two summers ago when Daniel taught us about spiritual warfare. And as far as sermons go, outside of the quarterly "fire and brimstone" Harding messages, sermons have been fairly routine for the past year.

Kev made a point that some people go on a never ending search to be challenged, and never get the fact that it's time to start giving back. The grass is always greener on the other side, is what he pointed out. In fact there are people who don't even realize it, they just go on and on, in an endless search for the ultimate church.

I dunno, it's something to think about, to pray about. This week I'll be going to Oasis, where Kev is going.

Next week possibly my old church. I also want to hear someone speak in tongue. And attend a black church.

Today marks the end of training users, at least for a couple of weeks. Training has been somewhat of a blessing and also just very tiresome. On the one hand it gives me a lot of practice in speaking in front of an audience. One thing I've learned about myself is that I do far better going 1-on-1 with users to explain things than I do to a larger crowd of people. Monday and Tuesday were spent taking turns with my co-worker and a summer student, teaching various parts of the system.

As each day passed I was given more responsibility, and then today she handed over the reins to me and I taught the entire day. I sort of did enjoy it, even though history would show that I hate teaching. The thing is though, when you really know your stuff, you can be completely fearless out there. When someone asks you a mind-boggling question, that's when it's time to panic.

It's Wednesday but honestly it feels like a Friday, I'm that tired. My voice is a little craggly from all the speaking, explanations, answering. I'm currently in the midst of cleaning up the place so that it can be at least somewhat presentable for small group on Friday.

I've been missing small group on and off, firstly from my own inner struggles and depression, and then from the busyness of keeping my grandparents happy, and then just having better things to do. (I don't mean to say that small group isn't important, but sometimes opportunities arise for me to visit or spent time with friends that I haven't spent time with in a long time). I suppose that's a poor excuse, but I'm going with it :)

king arthur

Even if this movie was made before The Patriot, before LOTR, before Braveheart -- I'd still think it was pretty bad. It's tough for movies nowadays to follow up epics like those, because they've been done so well and you can't really improve upon those battle scenes.

This movie had its moments. The ice battle was fantastic, I mean after that battle, I was thinking 'hey, maybe the critics were wrong'. But then it just dragged on and on.

The acting was the worst, they may as well have had David Duchovny doing it. This Clive Owens guy just cannot act. If you're gonna have a main guy with tons of charisma, get a guy who can act, I mean what the heck? Mulder meets Braveheart? Cripes!

Story-wise, it was satisfactory, a very different look at what I'm used to seeing for King Arthur stories. For that I give them thumbs up for originality. I never ever imagine Merlin to be a decreptid skinny dude with tatoos. Isn't he supposed to be a wizard of some sort?

Anyway, overall I'd say the movie is 5.5/10.

ETCBC

Today I went to East Toronto Chinese Baptist Church. What I liked about this church is that there seemed like a genuine interest in coming to worship God, and not just something to do on a Sunday. What I mean is it didn't feel like people were just going through this weekly routine. Of course, it's hard to gauge this when you don't know the people.

For singing, they sang 3 songs and they didn't milk the choruses over and over annoyingly like some people do at my church. For sermon notes check with my other site.

After sermon people rushed off to Sunday School. I've always felt like (at least for me), during sunday school I'd keep watching the clock and just hope it would end soon. I dunno if that's just my sinful nature or total disinterest in the topics they are discussing, or my impatience or hunger. At any rate I was starving but felt like the class ended too quickly. We watched a video of Harvey Kerry, a black preacher speaking at Willowcreek. He was very good, very powerful and challenging. Funny too. He spoke about the Word, and how we should all get back to reading the Bible.

Seems like God has been calling me out lately to read the bible more. Lon made a great point about how a lot of us read so many books and then go and tell people about what we read, rather than going straight to the source and sharing His word. What ends up happening is we end up delivering a very dilluted message.

It's like if you're trying to learn about a war, you could read thousands of books and watch movies about it, but if you spent an hour with a veteran, you would get so much more out of it. Similarly, reading books about Jesus pales in comparison to reading about Jesus from the source, the Bible.

Anyway I just thought that was great and I re-committed myself to being a regular scripture reader. No more excuses, now that my grandparents are gone I can no longer complain of not having any quiet time to myself.


Something I noticed about ETCBC, is that the Sunday school teachers seem rather pleased with themselves when class ends later than they should have. I think that's great.

5:30 am

I woke up. I was actually up by 5, you can thank my internal clock for that one. In retrospect, I should have just gotten up then. Keep in mind, it's an 8:30 am flight.

5:57 am

Grandparents woke up, started having breakfast. I went over to make sure they had everything ready. Green light!

6:20 am

Told the grandparents it was time to go. I figured it would take 15 minutes to drive there at most, thus we'd get there 2 hours early. They were all ready to go, just zipping up the bags.

6:30 am

Still not out the door yet. Grampa gets really nervous or anxious when he travels, so at this point he thought he had forgotten something, and was sitting trying to remember what it was. I went up and down the checklist. Do you have your medicine? Passport? Money? Clothes? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, let's go. Okay, keep thinking.

7:00 am

We finally left the place. I went for the Yonge Street 401 West exist. Closed. Drove back and hit the Bayview exit. Closed. Leslie? Closed. Okay, this is bad, it's 7:30. So I took 401 East to the 404, and slipped back around and back on to the 401 West, and away we go. Speed limits? Screw them.. Got to the airport at 7:45 am.

7:50 am

Dropped off the grandparents with one bag and told them to just go indoors. Drove around, found a parking spot, grabbed the bigger luggage and 2 chinese paintings and headed back to the terminal. When I got inside, I couldn't find them, I ran around for about 5 minutes then realized they were still outside. Finally got them to the Special Assistance area, sat them down and lined up.

8:00 am

"Sorry sir, boarding closes 40 minutes before the take-off."

8:30 am

Successfully booked a new flight at the cost of $100/person, 12:10pm. There's no way to be late for this one I figure, we've got 3+ hours to work with, and we're already at the airport. Right?

9:30 am

Air Canada finally lets us check-in. I book 2 wheelchairs so GPs won't have to run from gate to gate. 2 AC flight assistants push them while I take the bags to customs.

9:45 am

U.S. Customs tells me we need to declare with Canadian Customs first. That's downstairs. No problem, lots of time left. One assistant leaves, leaving the one guy pushing two wheelchairs while I push the bags. We head downstairs to meet with Canadian Customs. He starts filling out a form. He acts as though he's never done it before, and consults with another officer. The two of them look at the form, it's #8665 I think. The US Customs guy told me I needed a different form. Oh well.

10:05 am

We're about to wrap up the form. At one point the guy thought he'd have to take out the money and count it all to make sure, including what denominations they were. Yikes, but the other officer gives him this funny look and he says to forget it. Meanwhile, while they're doing all this, I turn to Grampa to point out for like the 90th time, this is what happens when you bring so much money. He looks at me and goes "I don't get it.. it's nothing."

10:20 am

We finally finish this form, which btw he doesn't even give to me. How is U.S. Customs going to know I've been through Canadian Customs if I have nothing to show them? Oh well. By now the AC assistant has left to tend other people, and says he'll be back later. I give the form for my Grampa to fill out.

At this point I hear sobbing and some woman in the back saying "..but sir, I didn't do anything wrong! Please..!" -- Yikes! What's going on back there?!

10:30 am

Finished signing the form, the work is done, need to get back to U.S. Customs now, even though I have no proof that I've been through Canadian Customs. We're now waiting for the AC assistant to come back to help push the wheelchairs.

10:50 am

He finally arrives, along with the other person who was helping from the start. We push our way back upstairs and then to the US Customs. That's odd, where's my Customs Card? I think the U.S. Customs inspector guy had it. They run off to look for it. Nope, can't find it. Oh well.

Finally made my way to the back inspector again, and yes, he had it.

11:00 am

Cutting it close again? No, it's finally time. Hugs all around. Exhausted, dehydrated, and STARVING, I head back to the car and drive home. On the way home, I got lost. As most of you know, I'm terrible with my directions. I ended up basically circling around North York twice before I got home at noon. LOL..

Praise God for bringing me home safe and sound, and thank you Lord for this awesomely frustrating adventure!

I find that my appetite comes and goes. Today, it came, but I couldn't eat due to some Imodium problems. When I came home I had toast, just plain ol' bread. 4 slices, and some jam. I don't think plain bread has ever tasted so good to me..

My desk is too high. My desk chair has arms, and i've lower them as much as possible so that I can hike up the chair as high as possible (arms block it from going any higher). Due to the height of my desk, often times I find that my elbows start to hurt because they're being raised too high while I do things on the computer.

Packed weekend coming up. Tonight, small group. Plus I need to take the GPs out for dinner. This is their last night here, at least until they come back in September. I often joke about how I'd be so glad they're leaving. I guess what I really mean is I'd be glad when there is no one else living here but me. It's nothing personal against them, I just prefer it this way. I really do love them.

As a child we never really got close, so my relationship with them is pretty casual, in total I have lived with them a long time, but I honestly don't know them that well. They are closed people, very private. Until this year I don't think I'd ever had a conversation with either of them. Recently I tried to inquire about where my grandfather went to school and what he studied, he couldn't remember. I asked them about how they met, where they met etc. Couldn't remember. They couldn't remember anything. Oh well.

Oh, so Saturday is their flight, 8:30am, so I need to be up pretty early. They're slow movers so we'd have to leave no later than 6:30, which means I'll have to wake up at like 5:30. Which means I can't stay late for whatever they do after small group on Friday. Then after the flight, I suppose I'll come home and start cleaning the place up. My room looks like someone tar and feathered my room with my clothes. It is ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Saturday afternoon and evening will be at my co-worker's place. She has a pool and a deck, and she drinks. I bet if she drank a Guinness she'd complain it went down too smooth. Yes, she can hold her alcohol :) I'm really looking forward to this thing. Lots of 'gourmet' drinks, lots of food, bbq!. We're expecting about 20 people!

Then Sunday off to ETCBC. 10:15 service, but I'll try to make the 9:15 prayer meeting. I think next week I'll go to either Cornerstone or Oasis or Milliken. If Andrew's Harbs are playing my old church then I'll probably go to my old church Milliken, have some lunch with them and then go watch get their arses handed back to them. Should be fun.. just like the good ol' days :)

In between I think there's choir practice at T3C.

weight

my weight has been fluctuating like mad. in the last 3 days I have regained weight at a rate of almost 1 pound per day. maybe there's something wrong with my scale?

football

to my surprise while reading rsff again (yes, i just can't stay away!), i found greg kellogg was posting there still. he doesn't do it as often as before, but he's still there. I was quite surprised..

also loaded up AIM and chatted with a ffl friend (whom i've never met.. it's funny he came to Toronto last year at the worst possible time, the blackout.. haha), invited him to gmail along with his friend and his girlfriend. but anyway, it was nice chatting with him. i hadn't talked with him since basically last season. if only there were people here as knowledgeable about ff as there are in the US.

one thing i can't stand are people who talk about fantasy football like they actually know what they're talking about, but every word that comes out of their mouth is just regurgitated information they read somewhere. that's kind of annoying.

actually, i just find that annoying period, regardless of the subject.

hillsong united

i finally watched the dvd that came with my 'more to life' cd. it was great.. found myself jumping up and down (moshing) all by myself in the my living room. how silly is that..

happy birthday kenric!

Okay.. so the post is technically late, but.. close enough right?

I stayed late after work today.. an entire half hour! Unbelievable. I had some work I needed finished. After work I headed home and then went over to Eric's to play some more XBOX. We had pizza for dinner. Kevin was there too. Good times.. The more I play the more I start to want an XBOX..

Afterwards we headed down to the Milestones to meet up with Ben and Kenric to have some drinks. Jimmy and Tracy came too, and Gaston too.

Then I came home and watched The Amazing Race! It's 1am.. better go to sleep!

Look at these melons.. haha.. not a lot of meat! 

... and the season begins!

I've gone what feels like 3-4 years without following football. Actually, it's only been the entire offseason. Every year I have prepared carefully following each and every transaction, catching the opinions of each move for the player, coaches, and media. It's important to get everyone's side of the story to understand the impact a player will have on a new team, and on the old team.

Anyway, I get these email updates and I'd been saving them for 'later'. Today I read everything that happened between May 1st and June 19th. Vinny in Dallas, reuniting with Parcells? Dillon in New England I did hear about before.. that's also crazy though. New England becomes an all-round good team. Dillon is so lucky..

So yeah, talk about a crash course in football. I've still got another 18 emails left to catch up to date. I also went back to take a look at rsff (rec.sport.fantasy.football). A few old timers left, like pnishthm, Beal, bizmach. Oh yeah and the magnificent bastard, but to be honest, mostly just a bunch of rowdy kids, and spam. Gone are the days when that newsgroup was a useful source of ff information. Oh well..

Football, baby!

clear

It all became clear to me tonight, what had happened, the truth of the matter. I'm glad, slightly disappointed but overall relieved. I can finally close the door on this. It's over... it's over.

Woohoo!

you know you're getting old when... part 2

...you wake up sore after a day of playing frisbee the day before.

weight

I have lost 15 lbs in the last month. I couldn't eat for several days after the summer conference, but that was only a few days, and I didn't lose weight as a result of that. In fact, the last couple of weeks I've actually eaten more, a lot more. I haven't even been watching my diet, practically gorging in foods. And yet the net result is returning to my highschool weight, before my frosh 15.

It's crazy, being at this weight and looking down and seeing the belly that I have. Where did it all go?!

etcbc

This week will be ETCBC week. The last time I was at East Toronto Chinese Baptist Church was as a groomsman for Lon's wedding. The last time I went there for service was about 3 years ago. No one came to talk to me, it was weird, very reminiscent of my first few months at T3C. The only difference is I knew people at ET.

The great thing is I'll get to sleep in.

sleep

Speaking of sleep, I slept so well last night. I haven't slept like that in months.

wimbledon

Hands down my favorite tennis tournament. And looks like there's hope again for womens' tennis. 17-year-old Maria Sharapova beats Mr Serena Williams. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new era for womens' tennis, I'm tired of watching that *man* winning all those womens' tournaments.

I also like the fact that these are russian girls winning these things. Myskina winning at Roland Garros, and now this. It's great for womens' tennis in general, because whenever Americans lose, it means more talent is on the way, and it's also great for the smaller venues because the higher ranking players will show more interest in them, in the hopes of getting enough points to maintain their ranking on the tour.

and i thought i had long posts..

I started reading Mark Cuban's blog. For those of you who don't know, he is the flambuoyant (and extremely wealthy) owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He's an interesting guy, I enjoy his blogging. The guy bleeds basketball, I mean he is completely consumed with it, and his team. And he loves his team. You look at the way the Raptors or Leafs are run, it's by an organization, not particularly one person but a group. MLSE. They'll spend enough to get the Leafs into the playoffs, but not enough to get us a championship. Mark Cuban will spend until he gets the championship, but he doesn't just buy his players, he selects them intelligently, and he does care about loyalty and chemistry.

I think that's great.

wiped out

I'm wiped out today. After two fun filled days I am toast. Beat, broken-down, burned out, consumed, dog-tired, done in, drained, fatigued, finished, overtaxed, petered out, pooped, sleepy, spent.

Thursday's Halo-fest from 1:30pm-2:30am, and then yesterday's Dumpling-fest at Andrew's, followed by Spiderman 2. I'm too tuckered out to review the movie. I still say Dunst makes a horrible MJ. Nothing against Dunst tho. I liked the movie though.. Dumplingfest was great.

I crashed at about 4pm today, I was playing COH, and just about fell onto my keyboard so I took a nap. I woke up about 15 minutes ago, still feeling very tired. I'm in that dream state you often fall into when you're really tired. I was supposed to take the GPs out for dinner today but just way way too tired.

Argued for about 5 minutes with my grandmother because whenever she travels anywhere she likes to take everything with her. Like *everything*, as if she's moving. She'll literally take a massive suitcase, even though she wears the same clothing EVERY SINGLE DAY. She won't even open that suitcase up for the entire trip! And then she'll just bring it back again! That bag ways a ton, it won't even get past customs, and then I'll have to carry it back home again.

She tried to do the same thing when she came here from Vegas this spring, somehow my mom bribed her into not bringing it. Basically it was like, one day she asked if they could go out to eat somewhere, and she told her, only if you don't bring that massive bag with you (yeah, she's got one over there too), and she relented.

Grandma really *irks* me sometimes.. who am I kidding, _all_ the time.

you know you're getting old when: part 1

You start using the expression: "I'm trying to cut down on..."

happy canada day!

In Toronto, generally speaking, Canada Day means a day off. No one really celebrates Canada Day in Toronto. Today, I went to bed at 4am, and slept in all the way til 9:30am. That was as late as I possibly could sleep in, since my grandfather barged into my room right then and woke me up, to remind me was I late for work.

I spent the next 3 hours in Paragon City, levelled up my Lion-0h up to level 20. Then I chatted briefly with hankishin, took a shower and met up with him for lunch. PHO. 101. The place at Yonge/Steeles, called (the direct translation is "head of the train"). Their mango milkshake was *excellent*. There's no question in my mind that that was the best mango milkshake I've ever had.

Then we mulled over the possibility of going to the Science Center. I'm not nearly the geek that hanki is so I thought it might be fun to go to his place and play xbox. We played Halo from pretty much 2:30pm til 2:30am. We finished the entire game from beginning to end, playing co-operatively. It was fun!

For those of you wondering, Halo for xbox is exactly the same as Halo for PC.

Hanki's aunt made fried rice without eggs. It was the first time I've had fried rice since that day when I lay sprawling in pain on the canal from having some at Royal Treasures in Ottawa. It was delicious.. I miss fried rice! We also had "Fudgisicle Fury" Chocolate Breyers Ice Cream. Yummy..

rejoice

The best time to thank God and rejoice is when you're down and out. I'm trying to think of places in my life that I can still find some sort of joy.

First, has been Paragon City. Yeah, it's a video game. Yeah, it's a waste of time. In Paragon City I can walk around and beat people up (kills frustration), meet tons of very interesting people (beats loneliness), and build a lot of (albeit virtual) friendships. You meet some pretty different people online, all from various walks of life. Kids, teenagers, moms, dads, grampa, programmers, vp's, etc.. By the way, Americans hate Michael Moore, that is the general consensus I got from about 30 or so americans that I asked last night.

Second, has been at work. I know, it's weird people want to go home to get away from the stress of work, but I go to work to get away from the stress at home. Work has been going great, I had a long chat with my boss today and my future opportunities. God's really been paving the way for me there. Sure it could turn out to be a major disappointment once again, or as us Christian's like to say "life lessons" or "God's will". But at least there's progress. Also great about work is the friendship's I've made there. I feel like I can be pretty open to them because are the same with me.

Third, has been small group. This goes without saying really. Brothers and sisters in Christ who keep me accountable and me them. I am constantly learning from them and it is just awesome, learning from their mistakes, their joys and pains, and observing God's works in their lives. Prayer time is great, sharing, the honesty and great feeling that they really care about me. It's a great feeling to feel wanted and loved.

Fourth, I would say random people that just keep me company. Some of you, you know who you are, have been a real blessing. Just being there and chatting it up with me without having a purpose for it. Maybe you're bored, or you feel the need to chat with someone too. You're not there to ask me for something, or need me to do something, or wondering about something, or talking to me just to be nice. It's great to just sit down and chat with someone for even 15 minutes to catch up, and talk about nothing, or something. Doesn't matter. Thanks.

So those things I definitely have to be greatful for. This has been a great exercise.

I read Luke 1 this morning, and then had it dictated to me using the Bible Gateway's "Listen to this" feature. I didn't really get anything out of the reading.

Lately I have been feeling depressed; unhappy, restless, sad, tired, frustrated. I find that whenever I'm down, I use comedy to try to bring myself back up. Like telling jokes, making people laugh. Hoping that the laughter is contagious and spreads back to me. And if you really listen closely you can tell -- it's a lot of cynical, sarcastic humor. And I've been critical of things I seriously couldn't care less about, trying to provoke frustration from others, being disagreeable.

So on one hand I tried to bounce laughter off others, while on the other hand I tried to spread my downness onto others. If I can't be happy, then make everyone else unhappy. It's selfish.

Life's full of up and downs, and this is just one of the downs. I think all I can do is ride this one out, aside from the usual stuff of praying, reading His word, and going out as much as possible so that I don't sit at home and think too much. Karen's mom told me the other day that I shouldn't let my grandparents stay home too much because it will make them think, which will make them go crazy. I think I'm going crazy..

I have no place I can go to, that will make it all go away..


Edit: Btw, I've decided to go church hopping for the months of July and August. T3C is going through the Purpose Driven Life (btw, if you're interested feel free to attend) and since I've already done it, I find this is the perfect opportunity for me to go off and try something else. And there are a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time and this would be a great opportunity to see them again.

Ha-fay-el Ar-RU-joe

Check out this video. I'm starting to like this kid more and more :)

illuminate

Who is David Crowder? Take a look. He's the one on the right. Funny interview..

I bought David Crowder Band's "Illuminate" cd under the direction of Kevin, who said he was very "impressed" by it. I also go "Touch" by Delirious, it was cheap, just $8.99. Not bad for a double cd. But any, this is my first DCB cd.

After my first time through the cd, I've only got one word to describe it -- wow. This is a great CD. I haven't been through a cd from beginning to end and liked every single song for a very long time. Even MercyMe's Undone, I didn't like that "Caught Up In The Middle" song. But this cd, wow.

What I'm most impressed with it is that they put a lot into each song. The band is very talented with different styles of playing their respective instruments. The songs all sound different but all good. This cd has TONS of bass. They mix tons of stuff into it. There's the usual instruments, but then there's other funky stuff, a lot of play with the electric and altering its tone and distorting it. They have strings too, and even an xylophone! The cd came with a trial of a project they use to mix songs. I haven't tried it yet.

Okay, the only beef I have with the CD is just the order of the compilation. They go from very uplifting songs to very soft, acoustic guitar stuff, but they never go back. I like CDs that are compiled well, and this one just fades out at the end. I guess in some sense depending on your mood this might be more convenient, less skipping around to the type of song you want?