Good Night, and Good Luck

I knew nothing about this movie going in. This movie was nominated for the following categories:

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Best Achievement in Directing

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

This was a really short movie. Just 1.5 hours. And thank goodness for that because it was in black & white and they didn't really have much story to tell anyway. If it dragged on I probably would have hated it.

The story is about a CBS news team that sets out to expose the madness of Senator James McCarthy and his hell-bent scheme to erradicate all communists from the US, including any who were related to an communist. Mainly, it surrounds the story of a man serving in the US Marines who's father was a communist, and how he was released by the army without any cause. He wasn't personally affiliated with Commies. The CBS lead guy is Edward R. Murrow, played by David Strathairn. He is a relative newcomer (despite being 57 years old).

The acting in this movie was excellent. Strathairn was very good. He was extremely believable as a news guy, he was very hard-nosed, a stern man set out to do what was right, even if it would destroy his career. He was well respected and you could sense that without anyone being particularly respectful to him. His newsboys were good too, they that sense of determination of getting the truth out.

I honestly don't know too much about the background of this story. What I did get though, was a sense that back in those days, TV wasn't there for pure entertainment as it is today. The CBS people worked hard to get the news out, to inform the people and help the public understand what was happening around the world. Television was taken very seriously. Newscasters were reviewed, and they cared what other people thought of them. And most of all, they were trying to make a difference in the world. They weren't just reading a teleprompter but actually telling people what was really happening. The real, gist of the stories going on. And they were proud of their work and their achievements.

For me the most curious part of the movie was the point of the characters played Robert Downey (Gothika, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Wonderboys) and Patricia Clarkson (The Green Mile). I saw no purpose of these two characters. They were pretending to be friends while really being married, and eventually got fire from CBS.

The directing I thought was also good aside from that useless couple. It was very well done, as if it were a movie made back in those days. The thing for me is that it was believable. And the truth is it had to be because Strathairn used the exact words and phrases that Murrow used in real life. The movie appeared to be very authentic.

Personally, I've found most of these political movies to be very boring. I'm not going to rate movies by how often I've fallen asleep though because I'm not into politics and world issues in the first place. It's not my cup of tea, is all.

Overall rating: 83%

Hot stuff

Raptors forward Antonio Davis' wife (Kendra Davis), whose quarrel with a fan last month brought her husband running into the stands, was charged yesterday with tossing a cup of hot coffee at a woman near Chicago, police said.

What a wacko.

Toasted Sesame Seeds

I could not, for the life of me, find these. I looked all over. Maybe not ALL over, but two stores without any success. In fact, two stores yielded just one brand of sesame seeds, and only at one store. So.. my bulgogi is going to be missing a little seasoning.

Currently, the meat is soaking it up in a bowl of the mixture. I have no idea how it'll turn out. The butcher at Bruno's wasn't as good as I had hoped. I asked him for thin slices and the best he could was about 1/2 an inch.

The other thing I think I need to buy is a casserole dish, or something of that size. I have nothing like that right now. I had to cut the meat into half because they were too long to fit in my largest dish. How sad is that..

Mayer

I have been listening to a lot of John Mayer lately. There's a major dry-spell in the Christian music scene. I haven't listened to a new cd in a really, really long time. No new songs or lyrics to share.

I've gone back to John's first big album, Room for Squares. I really enjoy it. I don't know perhaps I didn't notice before or what, but the lyrics are so "real" to me in this album. My favorite song right now is "My Stupid Mouth".

My stupid mouth
Has got me in trouble
I said too much again
To a date over dinner yesterday
And I could see
She was offended
She said "well anyway..."
Just dying for a subject change

Oh, it's another social casualty
Score one more for me
How could I forget?
Mama said "think before speaking"
No filter in my head
Oh, what's a boy to do
I guess he better find one soon

Haha.. I always think that same exact thing when I offend someone and realize it the second it's happened "score one more for me, idiot". Haha.. John's a funny guy.

Gaming

Today, I logged into World of Warcraft, breaking my 3 week retirement. I played for an hour and was totally bored.

There's another game that I've been playing a lot of lately. Bubbels. Be very careful on this. It is highly addictive. And you will get extremely frustrated by it. So like I said, be very very careful.

Super Bowl

As you may have guessed, tomorrow is Super Bowl. I have not cleaned my place as well as I have liked. The reason was that I am just far too lazy. It's a bunch of guys, so it's not like I have to clean it up to impress. And by the time any girls do arrive, it'll be late enough that I can blame the mess on the guys.

I'm pretty smart when it comes to making excuses and covering up for my foolishness. Thank God for that..

Superbowl Champs

The Pittsburgh Steelers deserved this win. They played hard and beat the top teams in the league to get to the big game. They were sentimental favorites as well, with old-timer Jerome Bettis finally getting the win after a long and prolific NFL career.

The Seattle Seahawks deserved this win. They played hard all season long, nailing down home-field rights throughout the playoffs. They played valiantly despite the fact that 95% of the fans were cheering for the other team. They also had the help of the NFL's Most Valuable player in Shaun Alexander.

Reading these two paragraphs, it seems that Pittsburgh is the team who most would cheer for. Myself included, fans would love to see Jerome Bettis close out his career as a champion. Nicknamed "The Bus", Bettis is a mammoth runningback who has rumbled his way through a 13-year career that includes over 13,000 yards and 94 total touchdowns.

So it seems like a perfect fitting, for Superbow XL (40) to be played in Jerome's birthplace of Detroit, Michigan, where is all began.

There is no doubt in my mind that Pittsburgh will win this game. Seattle has great defense, great offense, great coaching. The same can be said for Pittsburgh. On paper, these two teams are very evenly matched. But it's the intangibles that seperate these two teams. First, you have the Jerome Bettis factor. Second, the Troy Polamalu factor. And third, you have 80,000 fans in Detroit cheering for the Steelers.

I think it'll be a good game though.

It's difficult for me to write this, as I'm actually a Seahawks fan. But sometimes you have to be realistic..

Ottawa

I'm visiting Ottawa, for the first time since.. 2001?

It's been a really long time since I've gone back to visit. And I'm going at the worst possible time -- winter, which is like the last place you want to be in wintertime. But I'm excited to go there. Because it's just been way too long. It's been so long that half the people I'd be visiting now live in Toronto.

The plan is to come weekend of 18-19th, and take either the Friday before or the Monday after off, just mainly for travelling purposes. Monday is probably better, in that case. And I'm still debating on whether to drive there or take the train. I've never driven 4 hours before.

Next: Bulgogi

The next thing I want to learn to make is the marinade sauce used for Korean BBQ ribs. So this time, my cooking expedition will involve something I want to eat, whereas the last one was just a challenge.

Gosh, if I can replicate that taste (and yes, I know you can buy the sauce too), I doubt I'd ever eat a tv dinner again!

Recipe #1

On Saturday, I tried my first recipe. Well, I wouldn't say it was my first recipe but rather, my first REAL recipe. I've made other things before but this was the first time I used spices that I never knew existed, with wine, and other "neat" ingredients. I made a beef brisket, and it took me about 6 hours of cooking, including the preparation time.

My entire condo smells like garlic. I used 6 cloves and had my brother mince them while I cut thinly sliced 6 onions. I was quite worried about the onions, figuring that after I got through 2 of them I would bawling and unable to continue. So we went on the web to look for tricks on how to avoid the tears. Some of the ideas were absolutely hilarious:

Use a sharp knife. A dull knife will crush the onion cells more than clearnly slicing sharp blade, and the curshed cells will release more of th edeadly spray into the atmosphere.

Hold a wooden matchstick between your teeth -- match head out The theory is that the match head attracks and absorbs all the bad chemicals

Hold a piece of bread between your teeth

Hold a piece of bread in your mouth and chew occasionally

Breathe only through your mouth. This may be combined with the bread in mouth too.

Don't chop the onion root -- or do it last

Keep the outer skin on the onion as long as possible

Wear contact lenses to shield eye surface from airborne spray

Chop the onion under water or under running water, or pre-soak in water

Wear swim goggles or a diving mask

Use a fan to blow away or suck up the fumes

Place onions in the freezer for 20 minutes before cutting

Put white vinigar on the chopping block to neutralize chemicals

Burn a candle near the work area

Place the cutting board next to a gas range and turn on a burner or two

Using a knife, cut a cone out of the bottom of the onion (where the roots come out). The diameter of this cone should be about a third of the diameter of the onion, and about 1/3 deep. This piece contains the part/gland that makes baby Jesus and everyone else in the room cry when you’re chopping it up.

It's funny how people have so many ideas. Cutting under water makes no sense -- how do you control it? It would take too long. Vinegar makes it smell worse. The frozen idea makes it difficult to cut the onion. Anyway, the one that seemed to make the most sense was the one you do it next to a fire. Candles most certainly do work, but I didn't have any. I left one burner on (I have an electric stove), while placing a match between my lips. It was hard to breathe through my mouth with that thing sticking out. I turned on the oventop fan. And I cut, 6 onions, slicing thin slices of 1/2 cm each, WITH the grain, WITH a very sharp knife and, without shedding a single tear.

As for the rest of the recipe, instead of a dry wine, I decided to go with a very sweet wine (I like sweeter meat). Instead of sprigs of thyme (I mean honestly.. sprigs?!), I used regular thyme.

And.. it turned out AMAZING. It was delicious.

I cut a few slices to bring to Eric/Nicole's place for hot pot on Saturday, and then my brother and I had it again on Sunday night for Chinese New Year dinner. I bought some crown broccoli, and we boiled it in salt, and then melted Edam cheese on it. We each had a large dinner roll and then several slices of the brisket. It was a pretty good meal :)

Cooking

On a side note, I don't understand what cooking means. If you follow a recipe, is that cooking? If I look at cooking as a means to getting food and nutrients into my mouth, then it is really easy. It doesn't take a well-trained person to follow a recipe. All you need is time and the ability to read. Money helps. Did I really cook that brisket? Or did I instead, follow the instructions on a piece of paper. Does this mean that when someone says "That guy is a great cook", what it really means is "That guy is great at following instructions." And who really knows this? What if I told you that I didn't have a recipe and that I made that thing on my own, using my own instincts, chose the ingredients out of the blue and made the thing all on my own, no help of any form of instruction. Does that make me a better cook? What if I read every recipe book out there and memorize them all? Am I then a good cook, or a great instruction carry-out-er?

Friend: Brian, can you cook?
Brian: Yes, I can follow directions.
Friend: ...
Brian: It's the same thing isn't it?
Friend: ...well...

Me, Part 3

"I'll do it later."

I procrastinate. A lot.

I have dishes in the sink that have piled up for nearly 2 weeks. I really have nothing left to use. The other day, I cracked open a bag of plastic forks, just so I wouldn't have to do the dishes.

Sometimes I make excuses for putting things off, like I'll say to myself that it'll be better off if I do it later. Like calling someone for a birthday, or to say hi. I don't like calling people during dinner, because personally I hate that so I avoid it myself. And after 10, no calling after 10. Well, then there's the possibility that they're watching a tv show, so I don't want to call them during the show, because personally I find that annoying.

I try to rationalize my procrastination, deeming that some things need to be left for the "ultimate" timing, rather than just acting on it.

"Things need to be perfect first."

I say that a lot. For a lot of things. I like to do things in one fell swoop. Like say I need more toilet paper. Instead of going down to buy toilet paper, I'll wait until I'm out of soap, or out of kleenex. It seems like a waste of time going down just to buy toilet paper -- I need to have more things to buy to merit a need to go down and buy it, all at once for optimization of time. (For those of you wondering, I'd hold it til I got to work.)

I also leave things unfinished. I'm not a good finisher. I start good, but I can't finish. I get all excited about something, but by the end of it, I'm sick of it. I get discouraged easily. No wait.. the word I'm looking for is sidetracked. I get sidetracked, distracted easily. Or maybe I do get discouraged, but rather than admitting it, I move onto something else quickly.

Love Monkey

I've been watching this new show, which is on Tuesday nights on CBS.

The show is about this guy named Tom Farrell (played by Tom Cavanagh from Ed), who is a music/artist label/record guy. He's 30-some years old who just got fired from a larger record label company and has joined an independent label. He also just got dumped by his girlfriend.

The stories surround him and his love life, along with the struggles of dealing with star-artists and new up-and-coming artists, signing them to deals and concerts, etc.

You can read all about it here.

Anyway, one of my favorite parts of the show is how they are constantly bringing in new artists. Because it's an independent label, they tend to get all the small-timer artists and you get to hear them play/sing, and it's totally awesome. Aside from that, there are many guest appearances by bigger names as well. And they all know Tom, since he's worked with him before at some point.

Tom's got this awesome habit where whenever he hears or sees something related to the music industry, whether it be a famous quote, lyric from a song, interviews, album covers etc, he'll point it out. That reminds me of me, I constantly do that too, although not out loud. Maybe I should be more vocal so people will laugh at me and think I'm weird.

Maybe what makes this show good for me is that I can relate to the guy.

I've seen 2 episodes and I'm hooked.

Vote 2006

I voted today. I didn't think I would vote but I did, not sure why. I know I said that I wouldn't talk about politics but this'll be the last I swear. I'm going to go over why I voted for what I did and why.

I voted to not vote.

Why did I choose to vote to not vote? Because it won't make a difference. When I switch to a local Canadian channel tonight after 24, I'm going to see the polls and see that the guy I wanted to vote for lost by several hundred thousand votes. OR, I'll see he won by several hundred thousand votes. The bottom line is, my vote makes no difference.

And the thing is, several hundred thousand people will look at the TV and say the exact same thing, meaning that we all could have made a difference. But who's wants to be that one sucker who tries to go out and make a difference but ends up not? Not me.

You all know by now that I would have voted for Blue. Because I couldn't care less about all the other promises and platforms these guys have except for one thing. ONE THING ONLY, something that affects me personally and that is gay marriage. As a Christian, I am against gay marriage. That's the only thing that will affect me out of all the other baloney promises that each guy makes. At the end of the day, I'm willing to sacrifice everything else EXCEPT for my moral beliefs. If I have to pay more taxes, more on travelling to and from work, if I have to start shelling out for medicine, all that is a moot point if God's commands are not followed.

Okay, so back to my point about not making a difference, and seeing no value in voting. What's the point of voting, then, if there's nothing in it for the voter? Here is how I believe we can get the people to vote, myself included.

I can guarantee, based on my voting plan, that nearly 100% of the people with the ability to vote, will do so under my plan.

The Plan: How To Motivate People To Vote

Now I just sort of thought of another idea, which involves execution by guillotine --- but I think that's a little too extreme.

My idea is simple. Turn the vote into a lottery. A free lottery. So you vote (by color of course), who you want to win and you hand in your lottery ticket. And here's the kicker, the reason people will vote -- because they know they will make a difference.

Because what happens next, is that they take all these ballots, all of the ballots in CANADA. Put them in this gigantic tub, spin it around, and pull out one at a time, til they have 100. Count those ballots up, and whoever has the most votes is the new Prime Minister.

Then for those 100 ballots/people -- they each get a $500,000 cash prize.

$50,000,000 is not a lot of money when you consider that every capable Canadian came out to voice their opinion.

So to summarize:

You vote in order to give your guy/gal the best chance of winning. The more votes that Blue gets, the higher the odds are for him to win. Yes, in this scenario, the Green guy could win if by some luck of the draw, 50 of those 100 raffle tickets has his name on it. But it's highly unlikely. So not only are the people getting this huge opportunity to be THE ONE to make a difference, there's also a chance to win money. And who wouldn't play a free lottery?

$500,000 -- that's worth voting for.

:P

New pot

Haha.. that's a deceiving statement isn't it. No, I have not resorted to drugs.

I got a new pot today. It's a dutch oven, which is basically a short stockpot but that is normally used for slow cooking in the oven. I was hoping for an 8 quart one but had to settle for a 6.

I read a bunch of reviews and reports and it seems like I got a pretty good mid-ranged pot. The best seems to be the All-Clad brand, but those things cost and arm and a leg and I can't justify it yet. Perhaps I might get an All-Clad frying pan, since it's something that I personally would use more. I got a Cuisinart.

The next step probably to a herb rack. I need something like that or something that I can put in the cupboard that turns, like a lazy susan herb rack. My plan tomorrow is to take an inventory of the herbs I have. Mom left me a ton of stuff but I don't know what's in there. All I've ever used is the ketchup, salt, sugar, soy sauce and steak stuff.

It seems strange but I need to clean the kitchen, like all of it -- clean out all the cupboards and drawers, and reorganize everything. And throw out a LOT of stuff. And the other thing, well actually it's something I dread the most about cooking -- is the part afterwards when you have to do the dishes.

Filling in the spaces

Two days into my gaming hiatus, and I'm bored as hell.

I really am. I woke this morning with nothing to do. Normally I would've logged in and off we'd go, then at 2pm I'd be finished, eat lunch, then likely go out somewhere with friends. Then, dinner, back to the game, bedtime.

So what do I now that I've gained approximately 9 hours of time?

I'm going for a drive..

Today I went to the Sunday School conference at church. I'd signed up for it last year, and the truth is didn't know what time it would be starting. I got there at around 10am and found out it had started at 9, but fortunately they were running late.

I find that whenever Harding speaks, he's always trying to prove a point about himself, like he's trying to show someone something. Umm.. that's not coming out right. What I mean is that.. I think what it is, is that you get this impression that he's trying to say "i'm right and you're wrong". As if, it's like you're a teenager again, and remember how your parents would be lecturing you about something you already knew, but they would just go on and on about it, and you would start tuning them out? That's what I mean -- that's what I feel whenever Harding speaks.

So in essence what I'm saying is that 75% of the time he is dead on, because parents are *usually* right.

Anyway, the purpose for going to this conference for me, was not to hear Harding (who went over his time slot by about 10 BILLION YEARS) but to attempt to better equip myself for my next Longlac trip (and beyond). I want to be able to connect better with the kids and possibly with the older ones that, in truth, I was kind of afraid of last year.

The workshops I attended were great, starting with Pastor Ian talking about how to relate to teens, then a talk about storytelling and how to make things interesting for younger kids. Finally wrapped things up with a seminar on overseas (40/10) missions for kids, how to get kids involved in missions, and a focus on the 40/10 window and its needs.

It surprises me to hear that just 1 out of 8 missionaries end up in the 40/10. What are full-time missionaries doing in North America, South America or Europe? Most of these countries are already considerably "reached" compared to the 40/10 countries. SA is predominantly catholic is it not? North America provides the freedom of speech and the right to express one's own opinion. It is so reached that they're resisting it and find it annoying. You mention Jesus at work and people avoid you or turn the other way. "Stop preaching to me" is what they'd say.

Meanwhile in the 40/10, you mention Jesus they *want* to hear more but are afraid to because they might get shot. Yet, 7 out of 8 aren't going there? And who really wants to risk their life to spread the Message of Life. Right? Apparently one's own life and well being is worth more than 2/3 of the world's population. I don't get that, but then again here I am staying within Ontario so what do I know.

Lord of War

Why does Jared Leto always play a messed up drug addict?

I just watched this movie. It confirmed my earlier suspicion, that I just cannot stand Nicolas Cage as an actor. He annoys me, his voice, the way he smiles and walks.

Speaking of War -- today I formally quit the World of Warcraft. I still have a few loose ends to tie up, like giving away all my stuff -- but it's over. I'm done with it.

In the end it was lack of interest in the game and just the sheer amount of time I spent on it. I still don't see it as a waste of time but rather I just prefer to spend my time doing something else. So the buttom line is I got tired of the game.

I'm sad to leave the friends. The friendships I made, the fun we had, we spent so much time together. I met some truly amazing people, some people who are great leaders, while others were complete asses. But they were people that I met, fought alongside, co-operated with. It was a special.

But it's over now.

That frees up about 25 hours for me per week. It's like I gain an entire day. There's 8 days in a week right?

Explosion

I had the most explosive diarrhea ever. Think Hiroshima meets Niagara Falls.

That is all.

overconfidence

Broncos 27, Patriots 13

This game was a lot closer than the score dictates. I enjoyed every second of it (the first half was a little boring) but that's only because I've always disliked the Pats.

As I watched this game I kept thinking that the Patriots would eventually win the game, with some kind of fairy-tale comeback win coming from the usually clutch Tom Brady. New England had many chances to come back here, making a few huge plays here and there but they never amounted to anything in the end.

My feeling is that overconfidence was key in this loss for the defending champions. This team has had 100% dependability in every aspect of their game over the past 2-3 years. A precision quarterback. Staunch defence. Fantastical coaching. A kicker who couldn't miss. What was the main difference though, between this year and last year? I would say overconfidence.

The Patriots became cocky on their side of it.

First, how could Vinatieri miss a field goal? This guy has been perfect all year, I think last year too. I can only think it had to be overconfidence. Something his head snapped and instead of focusing on kicking, something must have said to him that "I'm not going to miss because I never miss", so he missed. That was a key play.

Second, how could you blitz on a punt when the game is still within reach? I could see you doing that if you're in trouble, so you become desperate. I think in this case, Belichick became overconfident and went for the big play thinking that if they messed up they could still make up for it. But they didn't -- Troy Brown had to run back to get it and they fumbled it. Another key play.

Third, going for it on 4th down in the first quarter. Seriously, who does that besides Bill Belichick? It never amounted to much, or any mistake but I think it just shows the cockiness and balls that this team had become too full of. Not that having balls is a bad thing, but sometimes it gets into players heads that they're unstoppable. There's nothing worse than players thinking they can't be beaten.

Fourth, throwing into the endzone at one of the best cornerbacks in the league. One thing I truly admire about the Patriots is that 90% of their plays work perfectly and that their target receiver is always open somehow. But in this case he wasn't. Champ Bailey was all over him and Brady threw it right at him. This was a Favre-like mistake (post-Holmgren). It's too big a risk in the 3rd quarter. Again, this game was still within reach. Brady became overconfident in his receiver's ability and made a big mistake.

I guess my biggest disappointment last night was that the Pats lost because I was really hoping to see them play next week against the Colts if they can pull it out over the Steelers tonight. It would have been the best way to conclude the AFC, the defending champs against the team who couldn't beat them so many times in previous years; but a team who had made huge improvements to their defence.

Seahawks 20, Redskins 10

I didn't watch most of this game because I had been at the theatre watching "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". Seahawks MVP RB Shaun Alexander to a concussion but they still pulled out the win. Maurice Morris filled in well enough for them to establish some kind of running threat and I guess Matt Hasselbeck was able to capitalize on Redskin mistakes.

I did see the missed field goal though.. and that was a huge.

Injuries

"On a scale of 1 to 3, it was a 4," he said. "It was off the chart. It was pretty badly damaged -- shredded is the better term."

This is what the doctor said about Cincinatti QB Carson Palmer's injury he suffered last week in his first ever playoff game.

Carson Palmer's knee injury was "devastating and potentially career-ending," involving numerous ligament tears, a shredded ligament, damaged cartilage and a dislocated kneecap, his surgeon said.

Ouch.

I've never really been injured. I haven't been to the hospital due to any kind of injury either. I guess it helps that I don't play any sports.

When I was about 8 or 9, I had an irregular heartbeat and was treated for it. I remember they were putting suction cups on my body and it felt funny, the machine they used to *suck* it on. And then they had wires running out of them into this black box.

Basically there was a drug they were giving kids, called "Alupent". It was for asthma treatment. I was taking it. But whenever I took it, my heart would go absolutely nuts and I'd have these mini heart-attacks in the middle of the night. At first we thought it was just bad dreams, but as it became more and more frequent, we had it checked out.

They had me take the box home and take the drug more, just to make sure. Shortly after, I believe they took the drug off the market.

I guess I'm pretty thankful that it was nothing more than a defective drug, and not a personal condition that I have.

Anyway, that's about the gist of my own experience in hospitals. Hopefully I'll never have to go there again. I broke my nose once while skiing, back in 2000 in Ottawa. I landed on my face and slid for a few miles. For a week I was able to shift my nose from side to side. The cartilage had broken. But it healed on its own without the need for a bracer of any kind.

That's the reason I've never gone skiing since then, in case anyone's wondering why I never go when people go. No offense or anything, I just happen to like my nose the way it is.

I have a chronic knee injury I think, that is from moving large objects that I should never have been moving, at a young age. My dad and I finished the basement of our old house, and then did a lot of moving ourselves to our new house. That was when I was 12-13 years old. And I was a scrawny boy. Haha.. who am I kidding, I'm *am* a scrawny boy. Anyway we moved lots of things, a whole lot of drywall, lumber, gigantic tools with really big blades. Blocks of concrete, bricks, tiles, etc.

Come to think of it, if I can somehow reach back into my memory at all the things my dad and I worked on, and somehow remember how to do all those things, I could probably build an entire house. We did it all.. from bottom to top. Everything from pouring concrete for a floor, plumbing for bathrooms and kitchens, to nailing shingles on the roof.

[Yes, Habitat for Humanity is one of the places I plan on checking out]

Well.. I went off topic again.

I guess I'm just glad I've never been severely injured. I've spent far more time in hospitals visiting other people. Which.. well I don't know if that's a good thing or not. :S

Red, Orange and Blue

When I was little, red was my favorite color. I liked it because of its intensity. Plus it was the color of things you need, like blood, love (for some reason I thought red = love). But anyway, as I got older I started to notice that boys like blue and GIRLS like red. And I didn't want people to think that I thought like a girl, so blue it was.

And blue it stayed. I liked blue. Blue skies.. and water. You need water to live. And pens were all in blue, that helped a lot. Also when you cry, you are feeling "blue". So there's another one. And the Leafs, they're blue. Not to mention the BLUE Jays.

Orange is color that I like when it comes to food. Sweet and sour BBQ pork is orange. Mango's are orange. And just about any candy that is orange-flavored usually rocks supreme over any of other flavors. Take orange Skittles for instance, they are by far the best Skittle. Then there's Fuzzy Peaches, they're orange too and are great. Orange popsicles.. Mmmm... Oh and what about Cheesies and Cheetos? Awesome snack.

But although Orange is a key color in my diet, I still like Blue. And I don't worry, I haven't forgotten about blueberries. Mmm...

Can you tell that I skipped breakfast today and that I'm starving?

The sea is blue, and I like to swim -- at least, when I'm not drowning.. because drowning sucks. But swimming is fun, as long as you're not drowning. Also it makes me think of soup.. Lamb stew perhaps.. oh but that's orange and red.

Also meats are all red, at least, to begin with. And it's the stop light. I like to stop. And greens if for Go. But green isn't the topic of this post. Plus mold is green, and boogers -- Ewwww. Not to mention envy.

Red hair is nice, although I don't know anyone with it. At least not naturally. Hot sauce is red. And ketchup, you can't forget about ketchup. Some people call it Catsup. And some forms of curry is red.

Did I mention that I'm starving right now?

But red is also the color for the communists.. and the confederate flags were red, although also blue. And people say they're red hot from anger. Anger is bad.

The United Nations flag is blue. And the Leafs, Blue Jays, Argo's, Indianapolis Colts, University of Connecticut, University of North Carolina. Blue is a great color. The lines on lined paper are blue. My mousepad is blue. Plus blue is for boys, although not just for boys.

Blue is the best.

Anyway, that is about as much politics as you'll ever see on this blog.

Blue. Vote for blue.

NFL Playoffs

I have been enjoying the NFL Playoffs this year especially because of the big screen and the high definition. So much so that I've watched every game possible (aside from the one I missed because of the Illuminate meeting). I even watched the boring Patriots beat the terrible Jaguars. It wasn't exactly the most exciting game, but something about the quality of the show, mixed in with the wonderful sounds just made it that much better.

What's more, because I am watching digital, I get to watch the American commercials, which is just a totally added bonus.

This year, I don't have a particularly favorite team but I am hoping for a more exciting finish, that is, not a blowout per se or a insanely defensive game -- but at least a well balanced game. Although in years past I've cheered against the Patriots, this year Tom Brady is actually earning his previous MVP votes and actually doing something like throwing the ball more than 10 yards at a time. So overall the Pats aren't really that boring a team to watch.

A couple of the teams I'm really dreading to see in the Superbowl are the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins. Those two teams are terribly offensively challenged.

This past weekend watching the wildcard teams play really helped explain why they were wild-card teams in the first place. Offenses were stalled, defenses were making all kinds of mistakes. It was ugly at times. Although still very nice looking :)

Stumbling block

I've got a co-worker hooked on World of Warcraft. He asked me if he should get Civilization 4 or WoW. I suggested he not get WoW because it was too addictive and it would ruin his life.

The next monday, he comes to work with red eyes like he hasn't slept in a few days. He tells me the WoW is the best game he's every played in his entire life. It's not just a game.. it's like an entirely different world. It's not just fighting.. it's a life.

Each day since then, whenever "the boss" isn't around, he's asking me about builds, specs, strategies. He's completely obsessed with the game. He comes in every day looking exhausted and the bags under his eyes are getting bigger and bigger.

Remind you of anyone?

Yesterday I spent 2.5 hours in Molten Core with my guild. We've come a long way from where we started, when it used to take us 5 hours to get through it. This is far more manageable. 2.5 hours. That's fast.

Anyway, for 2.5 hours I further confirmed my former inklings that I had very little desire to continue playing. Heck, the only reason I played was because they asked for my help. I wouldn't have otherwise gone. Or is it supposed to be "Otherwise I wouldn't have gone"? Or "I otherwise wouldn't have gone"? Anyway, I am at around 5% desire to play, which is about a 495% decrease from a year ago.

We had a meeting amongst Illuminate (our post-university early-career fellowship) to discuss the merits of even having a fellowship at all. With the small group movement upon us, everything is small groups, and as such even our fellowship is comprised of small groups.

We had to determine why we have a fellowship -- why should we meet, as a large group and what could we accomplish as a large group that we normally would not be able to as a small group. Did we really need a large group? Everyone agreed that we should have a vision statement for what we should be striving towards, as a large group fellowship. So we brainstormed ideas/statements that encompassed our large group vision.

Some suggestions of 'things we can't do effectively as a small group but can with a large group' include: coffee house, evangelical meets, outreach programs, winter/summer retreats.

One of the things we wanted to get away from was making the large group meets into social events, because if past attendance was any indication, it was always the same people showing up to them. The same people that we hang out with socially. We wrapped our heads around the idea that LGM's should have a purpose, and that each SG should hold some sort of "ownership" for the LGM, in order to encourage attendance, not to mention ease the workload for SG leaders.

But also not to have LGM's too often because it would disrupt the pace of SG's themselves. So we had to set dates for those.

And we had to figure out who would be responsible, the need or lack of a need for a coordinator or chair person.

Although I did get the gist of the entire meeting, I didn't take much part in it. I offered no suggestions or clarifications. I basically took a completely passive approach to this meeting, and I will explain why.

The reason is because I was completely distracted by other things. Mainly, my own situation and where I fit into all of this. The entire time I was thinking about my mission statement, my vision for this year.

I kept thinking to myself -- What is Community? Is THIS community? What has kept me from joining a small group? Is it laziness? Pride? Is it what I want? Or is it because it feels like a cop-out from something that I should be doing myself, which is leading my own group? Why are people making fun of me for dressing nicely? Should I join a group or not? And, if I don't join a group, what is the drawback? The drawback is having zero accountability in my spiritual walk. So why I don't I join a group then? Because I'm afraid? Or because there's something more that I want and I feel like if I join a group, I won't be able to do what I want or worse, it will hold me back or occupy my time from doing what I truly want? Or maybe I feel like if I do join one, then my heart will relax and the burden I'm feeling will be relieved just enough that I'll completely give up on my yearning desire to serve the community?

And that's when it hit me. What I'd been searching for, is to serve the community. To serve others. Not just once in awhile but all the time. And regularly.

A group of people who get together every week to serve other people who need serving. And then, through that time of serving others, we grow spiritually. And on days we aren't serving others, we are better equipping ourselves to serve others better. And on days we aren't doing either of those two things, we are praying for eachother, looking out for one another, loving eachother.

And that's just the thought that hit me around the time they were still talking about large groups and the various vision statements. And so for the remainder of the meeting I sort of sat there daydreaming until it was over.

Chuck Norris

Lately, Chuck Norris has found his way on the internet, in the form of hilarious exaggerations about him that make him like this super bad-ass. They're an absolute riot. I've come across at least 40+ of these things, and I have shed many tears from laughter. Some of them are just so ridiculous!

Here's a few of my favorites:

"The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain."

"Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He waits."

"Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs."

"There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard. There is only another fist."

"When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down."

"If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds till." After you ask, "Two seconds to what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face."

"When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket."

"Chuck Norris has two speeds: walk and kill."

"Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night."

"Chuck Norris can divide by zero."

"Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants."

Hahaha.. Chuck Norris rocks!

Huff n Puff

For those who haven't heard -- I put on 12 pounds during my vacation. All of mom's cooking and eating out while on the road in Los Angeles did me in. I probably got more exercise than usual, but the food.. mmmm.. the food.

One thing I've found since coming back from vacation, and having put on all that weight, is that I'm always hot. Not by appearance mind you -- but taking a few steps here and there, running up some stairs, and I'm completely soaked in sweat. Flustered, flushed, and red, just from a few stairs.

So it's like before, I was just tired from it because I was out of shape. But now I'm a little overweight so the result is that I am tired, but also sweating. I've also found that I need less layers of clothes. Now whether that is because the weather has warmed a little, or because I'm fatter, that remains to be seen.

New sights

When we started our drive out to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, it was extremely windy and as we drove up the freeway, I saw tumbleweed. The stuff you see in those western movies! It was such a joy, they were rolling around all over the place. We even ran over one of them, it was at least 2 feet tall!

I even saw one that was nearly 3 feet tall. Cars were afraid to hit it (even though it's just a dried up plant and basicall harmless) and were swerving all over the road to avoid it.

Waterfalls

We saw a waterfall inside an underground parking lot, off the infamous Rodeo Drive. We were looking for parking and we turned in when we saw the big "P" sign. Turns out it was a $20 lot with valet service. There was also a hair salon down there.

Fortunately one of the valet boys kindly pointed us in the right direction (out of there) and towards a free parking lot.

Channandeliers

Rodeo Drive had chandeliers for lamp posts, instead of.. well, regular lamp posts. Also, I saw at one of those insanely expensive jewellry stores, a diamond-encrusted iPod bag. I have a picture of it which I'll post when I get home (if you happen to read this during the day).

Loose ends

And of course there's that wig, I'll never forget the look on that guy who ran to pick up the wig, and then the look on the woman's face when he plopped it back on her head. Still has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Sahara

Interesting movie, highly entertaining. I have always liked Matthew McConaughey. He's so good looking and really, who can resist that southern accent?

National Treasure

Despite me hating Nicolas Cage, I really enjoyed this movie. It was like a cheap american rip-off of the Da Vinci Code.. but it was good. Very entertaining and very interesting too. And funny. I love sidekicks, they're always so funny.

Tae Guk Gi

Great film. Best Korean film ever made, apparently. Probably the most expensive too. You have to see it.. if you can find it. Should be rated R though.. very graphic. If you thought Black Hawk Down or Saving Private Ryan were gross, think again.

Kong

Awesome movie. 3 hours short with amazing cinematic pictures, the computer graphic imagining was crisp and fit very well in the film. The humanization of Kong was great. You could feel was he was feeling, you could sense his unhappiness, his uneasiness, his desires. Naomi Watts -- breakthrough performance. Jack Black can act. Nice to see Hanks' kid in a big blockbuster movie such as this, for more exposure. I thought the worm scene was unnecessary. I had to look away... too gross.

Spanglish

Loved it. Paz Vega was very different from the previous Latin women we've seen. She was good looking, but not "hot" like some of the others (Cruz, Hayek). She was outspoken yet reserved, gorgeous but not in a gratuitous way. They didn't make a point out of her beauty -- they just let her act like they would with a normal American actress. And it was good. And Adam Sandler proved again that he can be a normal guy and not stereotypical crazy, angry person we've seen so many times. Tea Leoni played the role of the stuck up, oblivious woman. I've met people like her and yes, they are really annoying.

Love Actually

After hearing Ina rave on and on about this movie I finally had a chance to watch it. It's a story about love in just about every way you can imagine it. I sat there by myself watching this movie on my brother's laptop (because of the jetlag I was always up 2-3 hours before everyone else) and nodded to myself to situations in the movie, cried when sad things inevitably happened, and laughed when things worked out. I think the great thing about the movie is that it's true. You sit there in agreement because you know that it's all true, that you've been through the same experiences that many of the characters have been through.

Could anything be worse than the total agony of being in love?

Raptors

After just about no sports whatsoever since Vegas doesn't have any teams, I come home to this, a team that was 7-7 in December and now 1-0. And I love it. Just 29 more wins and I'll be satisfied.

Fever Pitch

That reminds me, I saw Fever Pitch too. This was a fun love story about a guy who was completely and utterly obsessed with the Boston Red Sox and had trouble finding women who would be able to put up with his obsession while being in a committed relationship. Much like my video gaming, he watched it non-stop spending the 3-4 hours required to watch a game every day for the entire season. He also wore Red Sox clothes, pajamas, had blankets, bedsheets, pillows, soap dishes, shower curtains, etc. All BoSox. In the end he gets the girl without having to give up his video gam--errr.. I mean baseball. ;)

I have returned

I'm baaaaaack.

I flew in this morning pondering what I should do this year, like, what will define me this year. Last year I was defined by World of Warcraft, a video game that I became addicted to and to this day, have not stopped playing. But over the holidays and my 13 day vacation in Las Vegas, I've given that a lot of thought -- about how I could become so involved with a game, so tuned out to the rest of the world, my friends and family. How could a video game take over my life like that. I can't allow it control me anymore.

Also, small group has been on my mind.

Isn't it funny, how sometimes you have this vision, this strong outpouring motivation to do something, and then you just lose all steam, or something clicks in your mind that convinces you that you're not good enough to do it? Or maybe you feel like you just don't have the time for it. I guess that's my position on my small group leadership stint.

People keep asking me -- "Hey Brian, have you joined a small group yet?" Well, the thing is I was waiting until the groups filled up some more before I decided where to go. But now it sounds like groups have filled up.

And that's okay I guess. I'm glad that there's been a large pouring of interest in joining groups. It's been really great that this ministry has blossomed.

And people need it. I need it. I need those people keeping me accountable, the people who provide that togetherness God's family. Once you've tasted that loving community, and then you step away from it, you see how badly you needed it. But until you've experienced it, it just seems like a silly thing or just a group of friends meeting regularly for some bible study. But it's so much more than that.

If I can't find a group then I guess I'll have to find another source for it, maybe at another church or something. I can't picture going on without it.

I kinda digressed on my original point, of what could define me this year. I attended Soulstice this past Sunday and was touched by Pastor Alex's talk about TOGETHERness, about community, discipleship and outreach. It gave me a profoundly new perspective on that subject of community, life together in the Family.

I guess what I'm saying is that I want "community" to define me this year. Whether that's by small group, or by community work, or missions -- it's something that I'd like to strive towards for 2006.

Clothes

I bought tons of clothes in Las Vegas. Lots of clothes from various outlet malls, in Prim and in Las Vegas. I bought my first Banana Republic clothes. My first Clark's shoes, my first Skechers shoes (yes, I nearly doubled my shoe collect in one fell swoop). I bought my first Ralph Lauren clothes. It's crazy, looking inside my suitcase and seeing all the brand name stuff that I got for so cheap.

I discovered that you can pull off a lot of different looks with a shaved head. I cut my hair again after we got back from Los Angeles and all my clothes looked that much better on me.

On the flight home I thought about why I've never had brand name clothing before, or why I never try to be one of those "well-dressed" people. I think it stems from the fact that I feel uncomfortable around such people -- that somehow, from a person's appearance, I feel like I'm a lower class, or less distinguished. So in turn, I don't dress well either because I don't want others feeling the way I do.

I like wearing scrubs. It makes everyone around you feel better, and it hella more comfortable. And yet, there I was buying all these neat clothes, and feeling really good about it. Looking in the mirror and thinking, "Damn, I look good..."

Silly boy.

Tae Guk Gi

Today is New Year's Day. But instead of writing about New Years Day, I'm here to tell you about the first Korean movie I have ever seen. It was called "Tae Guk Gi", and it was a great film.

The movie is based the war between North Korea and South Korea, about 2 brothers who are forced to join the battle (on the south side), and about an older brother protecting his younger brother.

The movie had everything, the same kind of battle scenes as Saving Private Ryan, same kind of drama and action as those types of war movies but the story itself was really about the struggle between the two siblings. The older brother Jin-tei does everything in his power to try to get his brother discharged so he can go home and take care of their mom. He becomes obsessed and enraged and goes on killing rampages.

I give this movie a 9/10 (some parts were really, really gross).

One of the Funniest Things I Have Ever Seen

Yesterday we went to what my brother described as "the best pho in Las Vegas". Sad to say, but if I were to rate this restaurant "Pho Kim Long" (no kidding, that's what it's actually called) on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is Pho88, then Pho Kim Long is a 3.

Anyway, in the parking lot is where we saw one of the funniest things ever. It was really windy that day and we this this family walk out of one of the stores in the plaza. Anyway, a huge gust of wind hit them and we saw this black thing fly up and land on the ground. I looked over, and IT WAS A WIG!!!! HAHAHAHA!!! One of the men quickly ran over to it and picked it up -- it belonged to one of the old ladies! HAHAHA.. he grabbed it and put it back on her head!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Viva Las Vegas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The hills are alive...

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

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

loves God wholeheartedly

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

beautiful

amazing singer

plays guitar

innocent

loves children

independent

speaks her mind

knows what's right and wrong

good fashion sense

joyful and happy

awkward and silly at the appropriate times

forgiving

funny

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

Progress

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

"Ah!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Very single

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

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

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

Um.. yeah.

Presents and chickening out

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

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

Howard

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

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

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

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

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

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

Smelly

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

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

Success

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

*takes a bow* Thank you, thank you.

Tartinables

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

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

http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/

Why Me?

I don't know.

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

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

CJFFL

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

Harry Potter

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

I give it a 6/10.

Me, Part 2

I'm insecure.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Me, Part 1

I'm an insensitive person.

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

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

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

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

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

Reggie Bush

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

My 4th choice for the Final Four is Oklahoma.

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

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

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

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

Moving

Moving On Faith
by Jadon Lavik

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

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

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

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

Rent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clean

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

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

Heated

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

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

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

Gaming

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

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

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

No gifts please

Please do not give me any Christmas gifts. I have been thinking about this lately and I think that, unless you have a real legitimate reason for giving me something then I would prefer you didn't. If you really want to give me something, send the money to charity and don't tell me about it.

What would constitute a legitimate reason:

if i saved your life -- it was probably an accident, but i will take an xbox

if you owe me money -- i'll take cash..w/ interest

if you are secretly in love with me -- i like flowers

saw something that reminded you of me -- best gifts ever

Please do not give me a gift if:

you feel like being nice

you gave everyone else something and didn't want to leave me out

i did something nice to you and you wanted to repay it

you hate me and want me to die. no pipe bombs please!

i gave you something and you feel the need to return the favor

you forgot my birthday and thought it was time to make up for it

feel sorry for me

I am not joking -- no exceptions.

Rent

I want to see the movie called "Rent", based on a broadway show from New York. I have heard many good (and bad) things about this film. What I do know is that more than half a dozen of my guildies have said it's an absolutely amazing movie.

However I also know that it glorifies homosexuality.

Losing heat

My living room is at least 4-5 degrees lower than my bedroom, because it has huge windows and it is my belief that I am losing heat because of this.

The thermostat is in living room so that messes up my heating/cooling. I set it at 24 at first, but then my bedroom became like a furnace (I think my computer can single-handedly heat my entire bedroom). So then I set it at 22, making my bedroom warm enough that I can walk around in shorts and t-shirt. The problem is that when I set it at 22, the furnace rarely turns off because the living room can barely reach 22.

So the short story of it is that when I watch tv in the living room, I'm curled up on my couch bundled up under a comforter. When I'm in my room, I'm lying in bed with a t-shirt and shorts. It's summer in my bedroom and winter in my living room.

Weather stripping and caulking is probably the answer. I'm going to look into this perhaps tomorrow at Lansing and see what I can do about this. If I can even cut down on half the heat loss it'll probably save me a few hundred dollars on heating.

Plan

Immediately after my interview, even before I got the job I had lunch with a co-worker and he asked me how long I could see myself working at my position. I told him 5 years max.

Ever since I got my full-time job I have been devising a plan for myself, for my future. In my mind I have never really pictured myself as a "lifer" at the City of Toronto. It's not the work, or the pay, or even the position I'm in -- but rather the sense that I can do something more useful in serving my Lord. That somehow, somewhere, God has made available for me, a place place that needs me more than where I am today.

I think, that when you think about that for yourself and for where you are RIGHT NOW, that you may need help convincing yourself that where you are is where God wants you to be. Because sometimes it just seems a little too easy, or too convenient.

Like you got this big promotion, and you think -- well there's no way I could have got this without God's hand in it, and therefore it MUST be where God wants me to be. Or maybe things in your life both professionally and personally seem to be falling into place exactly how you thought they'd be, and you've decided that this you've been praying for something in your personal life to happen, and finally it has and you decide that it must be God's will.

What I've learned over the years is that there is absolutely nothing convenient about being a Christian.

Or I could be wrong, maybe you are fully convinced that where you are right now is exactly where you were ought to be, that you have fulfilled your complete potential that God has given you and that God expects nothing more from you. Personally for me, I'm not convinced.

I remember when I was a teen, and I was sitting around at home doing absolutely nothing, my mom would out of the blue ask me: What is your plan today? I used to hate it when she would ask me that because I never plan anything until the last minute.

Slowly but surely I have been putting together my "plans". Some of them are wild ideas while others are "safer". But the gist of the whole thing is that I'll quit my job in 5 years -- 5 years from the time I got it, which is about October 2010. From that I plan to sell everything that I own and move to the East.

I will share more as I figure it out.

Emotions

I've found that lately, I have been really emotional. That is, "open the flood gates" emotional. And the strange thing is that it has been during happy and joyful times.

For instance, it started on Sunday when the Raptors won. I was so happy that my eyes welled up with tears. It was a great day, we broke our 9 game winning streak and really pulled through. It was like a great weight had been lifted and it really made me so happy.

Next time I had some tears was at the concert on Tuesday night. It was when Chris Tomlin was singing How Great Is Our God, it made me tear up just a bit. He was playing his guitar all by himself. It was just him singing and playing with the rest of us. Like a jamming session starring Chris Tomlin. That was really great.

Finally last night the flood gates of joy came pouring through when in LOST couples were reunited after some thought they were gone for good. When Bernard was reunited with his wife Rose and Jin and Sun were reunited, I bawled my eyes out.

I think the reason it hit me was because I truly do miss my parents more than I thought I did. Living up here in the wintery north pretty much all by myself, with occasional visits from my brother. Over the past 3 years I've gotten used to living on my own but I guess it didn't really hit me how much I missed my family until I saw these fictional characters reuniting after the thought that they had been lost for good.

Passion Toronto

Andrew, Elaine and I were able to go and volunteer at the Passion Toronto concert. We skipped the thousands of people lining up at the main doors, and proceeded into a side entrance. It was a cold night -- I really pity all the students who waited out there in the cold -- however I'm sure it was worth the wait and the cold.

The entire night was geared towards campus ministry and outreach. They called it a concert for students and it really was. Louie Giglio spoke intermittently between each of the worship leaders (Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder) who took turns praising God with a few of their hits. Between sessions we would pray in triplets for the campus movement, for students to open their hearts, and for the Spirit to do His wonderous works.

Andrew and I both agreed that Tomlin got the best reception. He was sandwiched between Hall and Crowder.

Giglio used pictures from the Hubble Telescope to illustrate how small and insignificant we were, and how amazing and wonderful our Lord is. He bombarded us with images of various galaxies literally billions of miles away. They were breathtaking, each image glorifying the awesome power of God. Here is my favorite one, known has the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51):



After all the pictures he brought things into perspective by showing a picture of Christ on the cross, taken from the movie Passion of the Christ. It was a stark image that quieted down the entire arena of 5000+. There he hung battered and slashed up, the Christ who died for us, the almighty creator of this vast universe that he had just shown us.



Then he brought up this image that basically blew me away, it took everything he had shown us to a single point. It's probably just a coincidence but after the image of Christ hanging on the cross, and then bringing out this picture we all kind of gasped in wonder. Here is an image of the very centre, the nucleus of the Whirlpool Galaxy:

Indescribable
Uncontainable
You placed the stars in the sky
And You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful
Untameable
Awestruck we fall to our knees
As we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Breakthrough

New best line ever:

Supernice: [da ge ni shi ji du tu ma]?
Translation: Big bro, are you a Christian?

(yes)

S: [wo ye shi]

(awesome, that makes me so happy)

S: [shi a wo de ming zi jio jiao ma dou]

(not sure what that means, maybe his name is biblical)

S: [ye su de men tu zhi yi]

(Jesus' something something..)

S: [wo hen gan dao qing xing a]

(I am very... argh I wish I knew what this meant!)

S: [wo de jia ren quan dou shi ji du tu]

(My whole family are all Christians)

Well, that's just a summary of our conversation today. I am totally happy about this.. it's just amazing how and where God is working. It almost makes me want to quit my job so I can chat with this kid all day long. Anyway, I'm going to work.

S: wo ren shi da ge zhen de hen gao xing. zhe jiu shi shang zhu an pai de a

Farmers

In the World of Warcraft, there are members of the community that are called "Chinese Farmers". It's a totally racist term that even I have been guilty of using. Basically (not all of them) there are a bunch of people, from China, who spend all day long fight a particular enemy over and over for their loot, and then they sell it on the Auction House for gold. They get paid for how much gold they make in the game, and then at the end of the day, they send that money to their employer for real money.

So these Farmers are notorious for setting (and sometimes inflating) the market prices of items in the game. And thus hated by everyone because of it.

I've tried to communicate with some of the farmer with my limited chinese vocab and have had some pretty interesting conversations. They always ask where I live, of course I tell them [jia na da]. They ask me how I'm able to speak chinese, always impressed by what I can say -- even though in my opinion, I'm rather ashamed of my inability to speak fluently in my native tongue.

It's always interesting the one question every single one has asked me -- have gone back to visit? [ni you mei you huei guo le ma?] I always tell them about my China trip. And when I tell them all the places I've been, they're always surprised. I guess people in China don't have often have the luxury of travelling. They're limited to where they are.

Another thing I find interesting is that they're all playing for profit, not for entertainment. Even when "having fun", the sole purpose is to make a living, not to entertain themselves. Perhaps the money they make allows them to entertain themselves, but I really don't know.

I think they work by shifts, at least some of them do. I met this one guy "Badday", talked to him for about 15 minutes and then he logged off. Immediately after, another guy whispered me, Badday's friend, "Supernice", and I chatted with him for nearly an hour. They probably take turns playing or something.

Best line ever:

[wo ke yi jiao ni da ge ma?]

Final Three Prediction

I should have posted this 3 months ago, but I believe the final four teams will be (in no particular order):

UConn
Texas
Duke
????

I'm not exactly sure if this is even possible for bracketology, but these 4 teams represent the most number of future NBA players that the entire NCAA have to offer.

UConn will be the eventual winner. It's unbelievable to me, that a team like them who lost Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor just two years ago, and Charlie Villanueva last year, is still so talented.

They have Rudy Gay, arguably the best player in college and with Josh Boone, this 1-2 combination of big men (who will both be lottery picks) will destroy anyone in their path. Then there's also potential 2nd rounders Denham Brown, Hilton Armstrong, Marcus Williams. In my opinion, because UConn boasts the most future talent, they are by default the team to beat this year.

The next will be a battle between Texas and Duke.

Texas has two players who could go in the top 5 in Daniel Gibson and LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge could have been a top 10 pick if he'd come straight out of highschool two years ago.

Duke had a good team last year and will be even better this year since no one left. Okay, they lost Daniel Ewing but Reddick is still here. Duke also boasts their own set of twin towers in Sheldon Williams and Josh McRoberts.

Those 3 are obvious. As for the 4th, I give me about a week :)

"Wow..It's pretty big"

This thought has passed my mind about 200 times over the past 2 days as I gaze up at my new TV. After about 3-4 weeks worth of scouring the internet for reviews, comments and comparisons, I finally decided on which television to buy. It was only a matter of time before there was a sale and then I'd get it.

I didn't wait for the sale though, instead opting to haggle with the salesman, who then "convinced" me to buy a whole bunch of other useless items. In the end I managed to get $150 off the price of the television at the cost of buying $500 worth of additional goodies, all of which I plan to return. This is something I figured out to be fool-proof, providing that the store has a good return policy, which Future Shop does have.

So anyway, the TV. You'd have to see it to believe it but this thing is just massive to me. I had a 27" Sanyo television for the past 3 years. About 6 months ago, it started making this really high-pitched sound. Banging the top right side of it would stop this sound for 15 minutes, but eventually there was nothing I could do to stop that annoying screech.

This, coupled with my recent "promotion", convinced me to reward myself by burning a large hole in my bank account. And so, I bought a 46" DLP. And a speaker system. And a receiver.

This was not an impulse buy, but because of the cost of it, it felt like it.

So as my brother and I sat there, watching Mr. Incredible and his family kick the crap out of a bunch of baddies in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, and who were big enough to be a real people standing in my living room, I thought to myself -- was it all worth it?

And the answer, of course, is a resounding *YES*.

k-love in Canada

Well, the finally responded to my email in requesting the signal in Canada. Pretty much the answer I expected. But check it out at the bottom, a Director was CC'd. I only CC stuff to my director when it's something very important!

Anyway, here it is below.

-----
Dear Brian,

Thank you for your e-mail to K-LOVE Radio. I am glad you took the time
to write.

Because we have received a high volume of e-mail recently, we have
fallen behind. We are working hard to catch up as quickly as possible. I
hope you will forgive me for not answering you sooner.

I really appreciate your enthusiasm for K-LOVE's ministry and your
desire to hear our programming in Toronto. Currently, we do not have any
specific plans to expand into Canada.

K-LOVE has not yet pursued broadcasting outside of the United States.
The requirements for radio licenses from country to country have
presented a significant hindrance to expansion. Our Signal Expansion
Department continues to look at a variety of options for international
expansion. Your prayers would be most appreciated.

Canada's governing body for radio stations, the Canadian
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), requires that
all radio stations must ensure that 35% of their popular musical
selections are Canadian each week. This restriction precludes us from
airing our current format in Canada.

I hope you find that this information has been helpful and that you are
able to stay connected to the K-LOVE family by listening on-line at
www.klove.com. May God bless you.

In His Service,

Ken Turner
Correspondence Assistant to Signal Expansion

cc: Sam Wallington, Director of Engineering

Wedding song

Okay, this is the song that I think I'd use (barring approval) for my wedding slideshow. Or maybe a song for while we're signing the papers. I only know a handful of guys besides myself who can sing like this though. And I don't intend on performing at my own wedding. Therefore, slideshow is probably the way to go. :Þ

This Day by Jadon Lavik

Lyrics to be posted later.

XBOX 360

To buy or not to buy, that is the question.

On the one hand, it's a really cool thing. I mean it's *really* cool. It is the only system out there that is HD-Compatible. It's backwards compatible with all the old games so you don't have to buy only 360 games, but original XBOX games too. ie: You don't *have* to spend $100 per game.

But the system is nearly $700 after taxes. That seems like a whole lot of money. I mean it's only entertainment. And a 20 gig HD but even then it doesn't seem like a lot. I have an 80gig drive on my computer and it's almost completely full already.

There's internet play, and the ability to connect your phone to the TV with headset, so that you can basically play games and watch tv while talking on the phone. 2 wireless controllers. And did I mention that it's HD compatible?

Things like that make me think about buying it but then, $700 makes me turn away.

Another thing that makes me think against getting it is World of Warcraft. I'm already paying $15/month for it, so it doesn't make sense to buy a console system when most of my gaming time is devoted to WoW. And of course there's also that matter of growing up, but really, that is so overrated.

Toys!

So I logged into friendster today for the first time in about a year. They've got all kinds of new features but none of them are worth crazy amount of ads and pop-ups. Needless to say I won't be going back there ever again.

Ben, Sam and I went over to the Miko Toys warehouse up in Richmond Hill to buy toys. The purpose for this trek is to buy toys to fill up shoeboxes for kids, for the Operation Christmas Child by Samaritan's Purse. I urged my small group this year not to buy toys from the dollar store and try to picture the children as our own. "Would you buy your child's Christmas present from the dollar store?" is what I asked/challenged them.

Anyway, we went to this warehouse place and the toys were so cheap. Stuff that you normally see for $20 were selling for $3. So the 3 of us loaded up on toys.

There was one toy I wanted to get for myself, a griller. It had a picture of food actually being cooked on the thing, just for 20 bucks! Also there was a remote contol jet that could fly 400 MPH (scaled). That's insane!!

After the toy store we went to Rex Saigon over at East Beaver Creek and Highway 7. The Thai food was decent, but not the best I've had. I had Pad Thai for the first time in my life -- they were willing to make it without egg. Wow.. that stuff tastes soooo good, no wonder everyone gets it. Apparently in Thailand, Pad Thai is like street food, it's equivalent to getting a hotdog from a street vendor in North America.

That gave me this picture of the people in Thailand who go to these expensive "western" restaurants to eat hotdogs and sausages. Hahahahaha..

Washington 99, Toronto 96

It's funny, after I found that funeral song on Lavik's CD, I also found a song that would be nice for a wedding.

Anyway, last night I went to the Raptor's season opener. The Raptors are an exciting team to watch this year, and we led for most of the night until near the end when a few questionable calls deflated the team's push and we turned into lame ducks by the end of it. Well, that and some players choking really badly.

I went to the game with Adam, a university friend of mine who I hadn't seen in about a year. I was hoping to catch up on things with him, see how he was doing, that sort of thing. But the game was so exciting from beginning to end that we didn't really get a chance to talk until the subway ride home.

At the game, he and I were hollering at every call, every bad play, every great play. It was tons of fun! The fan sitting to the right of me somehow knew every single play as if he'd seen the game before. Or maybe he was a coach or something, he knew every play for both teams and would predict exactly what was going to happen right before it actually happened. The biggest difference between the Wizards and the Raptors was that the Wizards were properly executing the plays, and the Raptors, he'd predict misses and miscues, and our team would follow suit.

At half time we went over to the bar and ordered a couple of beers. I got carded. C'MON.. Do I really look under 19? You gotta be kidding me.. Anyway the bartender looked over my ID and said "Oh.. wow.", and then gave some flabbergasted excuse about my short hair. I wasn't sure if she was just shocked or impressed, or neither. At any rate it threw her off and she had to ask us for our orders again. The funny thing is she's been the bartender there for as long as I can remember -- that's 3-4 years now, and there has been times when she didn't card me.

One thing I noticed about the game was that the fans were loud through most of the game. Whether we were down by 6 points or up by 8, it was always loud. Also, we had some celebrities in our midst. Besides yours truly, Roy Halladay made it to the game and brought his buddy AJ Burnitz. The announcer made it a special point that AJ is one of the top free agent pitchers so we cheered our loudest to show our appreciation in hopes that he'd sign with us sometime in the offseason. Also in attendance, the lovely Lara Flynn Boyle (I bet she doesn't get carded!).